Yun Qingluo didn't speak, but turned to look at the silent gang leader.
The gang leader looked up at the sky and said in a trembling voice, "You should leave. We promised him we wouldn't hurt you. A promise is a promise."
“His leg is healed.” Yun Qingluo suddenly dropped a bombshell.
"What? I saw him before... he was clearly still in a wheelchair." Someone suddenly shouted.
"Didn't Mo Rufeng tell you that the prince's leg has healed?" Yun Qingluo asked in surprise.
After she finished speaking, she understood. Mo Rufeng probably didn't know the origins of the Black Wind Stronghold people. He didn't tell them that Mo Beichen's leg had healed because he was afraid they would be too scared to take action.
After all, Mo Beichen, who once struck fear into the hearts of enemy nations, could, at his peak, silently infiltrate enemy camps, behead enemy generals, and escape unscathed.
"So what if it's all over? Back then, when we were about to win a great victory, he received a letter and abandoned us to save you, which led to us being ambushed and almost annihilated by the enemy."
Later, when we finally couldn't escape, and saw that he had crippled both legs trying to save you, we hated you, but we hated him even more.
I hate him for disregarding the bigger picture, for acting on his own initiative, for abandoning them, for... not cherishing himself.
Yun Qingluo was shocked upon hearing this.
All she knew was that Mo Beichen had an army of Mo family soldiers, invincible and omnipotent. Later, for some unknown reason, they disappeared. Some said they were killed by the enemy, others said they deserted.
But......
Yun Qingluo hurriedly defended herself, "At that time, the imperial court had not received any news of the defeat, nor had it reported that he had abandoned his post and caused the death of the entire army."
One of them gritted his teeth and said with red eyes, "That's because our gang leader led us to break through the encirclement at the last moment and fought his way out, preserving the last glory for Mo Beichen. He is still the God of War in the eyes of the people of Tianmo Kingdom, but he is no longer worthy to be our general."
"I watched helplessly as so many brothers fell before my eyes, and I was powerless to stop them. There were endless enemies to kill, and countless heads to take."
“It’s all because of him. He killed his brothers because of his own selfishness and personal feelings. He doesn’t deserve it. He deserves to be disabled.” A man knelt down and wept bitterly.
"Why wasn't it him who died?" someone suddenly screamed frantically.
Upon seeing this, Yun Qingluo's legs went weak, and she slumped into her chair. She really didn't know that Mo Beichen had come to save her at such great risk.
Because Mo Beili later took his place as her savior, Yun Qinglu slapped herself, covered her face with her hands, and sobbed, "I really, really... really didn't know."
Seeing that she showed no mercy to him, the gang leader's eyes darkened, and he said coldly, "Of course you don't know, he saved you and then came back, but when he returned, only we were left dead."
“We don’t want to follow him anymore. He let us go and erased our traces. Ha, we won’t be grateful to him.”
Yun Qinglu cried for a while. A cold wind blew by, and she calmed herself down and asked, "Since you are soldiers, why did you become mountain bandits?"
The gang leader glanced at Yun Qingluo, seemingly understanding what she was thinking. "When we first came to the Southwest, we scared the people because of our ugly appearance, so we came to these mountains, built houses, farmed, and became self-reliant."
Hei Lao Er continued, "We have never harmed the people, but that dog of a city lord, for the sake of fame and fortune, has smeared us and made us into notorious bandits."
“We despise him, we despise the royal family. We only take the tributes offered to the royal family, and we have never taken a single needle or thread from the common people.”
Yun Qingluo suddenly said, "Last year, when the government sent troops to transport grain to the people in the southwest, you were secretly exchanging supplies along the way, weren't you?"
He remembered that in his previous life, Han Shaoqing and Mo Beichen had mentioned that the grain had been transported to the southwest smoothly, which made Mo Beichen happy for several days.
"So what? When we got to Mo City, they all ended up in the city lord's warehouse. The common people didn't see a single grain of rice. We... we brothers were furious and went to the city lord's mansion, but the damned city lord had already laid a trap. Only a few dozen of us brothers managed to escape."
"But the rumors say there are tens of thousands of bandits in the mountains?" Yun Qingluo raised an eyebrow.
"Bullshit! That was all that dog of a city lord's way of creating a stir. He's done all sorts of evil deeds, but he's pinning all the blame on us. The kidnapping of women, the theft of grain from the people, the harming of the people—those were all done by his personal guards. We have never harmed the people," a man said, taking a deep breath and enunciating each word clearly.
As Yun Qingluo listened to Yi Yi recount her life over the years, she felt an unprecedented sense of guilt.
It turns out that, unseen by others, she indirectly caused the deaths of so many soldiers who were protecting their country. The weight of human lives she carried was immense.
"I'm sorry, I apologize on his behalf." Yun Qingluo took a deep breath, stood up, kicked the chair away, and knelt down on the snow with a thud.
Seeing this, the crowd was at a loss, but they immediately made way and moved to the sides.
The second brother glared at Yun Qingluo and said, "You don't need to apologize for him. We won't forgive him. You should leave now. We won't kill him. We'll let him go tomorrow."
Yun Qingluo slowly lowered her head and kowtowed. "I, Yun Qingluo, apologize to the brothers who died in battle on behalf of my husband, Mo Beichen. From now on, I will accompany him to protect your homeland. This will not happen again."
After saying that, Yun Qingluo stood up, looked up at the gang leader, and asked, "You also think he killed you?"
The gang leader didn't speak, but the men next to him were displeased. "What kind of tone is that? If he hadn't left, we wouldn't have been ambushed, and the brothers wouldn't have died."
Yun Qingluo waited until they finished complaining before slowly speaking, "Did the Prince say anything to you when he left?"
Her Ah Chen is not such a reckless person; he will surely make thorough preparations.
"He said that if we found something was wrong, we should retreat immediately," someone said in a low voice, then immediately raised his voice, "No, if he were here, we could have won. It was his departure that caused our morale to waver and that's what led to the deaths of our brothers."
“You are the first Mo family army under his command. He trusts you unconditionally and entrusts his back to you. But military orders are paramount. Since he said to retreat if the situation is not right, why did you insist on pursuing us?”
"We, we just want him to regret it, to regret not sharing the thrill of victory with us."
"I want him to know that we can still do well without him."
Yun Qingluo's voice turned cold, "So, you've resented him for so many years, and because he's not good at explaining himself, you've been deceiving yourselves, hating him, and blaming him for all the mistakes. Does that make you feel better?"
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