Chapter 36 is not just about death...
Su Muying put Xiao Nian'an down and told him to stand with Tao Tao. Xiao Nian'an seemed to sense something, and he hugged her tightly, crying and saying that he wanted to be with her.
"Waaah, Mother, I want to stay with you, Mother, don't leave me..."
"An'an, be good. Mommy won't leave you. Mommy is right here." Su Muying smiled and coaxed Xiao Nian'an. After carrying him to Tao Tao, she squatted down and wiped away his tears.
Xiao Nian'an was still crying, clinging tightly to his mother's hand: "But it's very dangerous! I want to stay with you, Mommy, I want to protect you!"
Su Muying's nose tingled and her eyes reddened. She hugged Xiao Nian'an and said, "Mother must protect An'an too... Mother can't let anything happen to An'an."
"Mother promised An'an that Mother will be alright."
"Mother is going to make locust flower cakes for An'an."
Xiao Nian'an stopped crying. Although he was sometimes naughty, he wasn't one to cause trouble. He knew it was dangerous now, with many bad people surrounding them. He couldn't cry like a child and cause trouble for his mother.
So, Xiao Nian'an pouted and tried his best to hold back his tears, and let go of his mother.
But as Su Muying turned around, he grabbed Tao Tao's hand and started crying again.
This made Tao Tao cry too, and the two little bundles of joy hugged each other and cried.
The villagers, surrounded by soldiers with knives, were terrified and were crying while holding their children.
Most of them were unarmed, honest and law-abiding people. Huaihua Village was a remote place, much like a paradise. How could these villagers compare to soldiers who wielded long knives and fought on the battlefield?
The village chief, an old man with white hair and beard, saw this and, leaning shakily on his cane, tried to go forward to negotiate with Wu Zizhuo, but was stopped by soldiers who drew their long swords.
Su Muying felt very guilty. If it weren't for her, how would Wu Zizhuo have found his way here...?
Su Muying walked up to the village chief, helped him to the crowd, and comforted him: "Don't worry, village chief, I won't let anything happen to Huaihua Village."
Su Muying lowered her long eyelashes, pondering the current situation.
Since Wu Zizhuo sent troops to surround this place and demanded that she hand over Xie Linyuan, he must know that Xie Linyuan is here.
Since he wants Xie Linyuan, then she will just give Xie Linyuan to him.
Other matters can be considered later.
Right now, she has to save Huaihua Village.
She absolutely could not anger Wu Zizhuo at this time.
He was already at his wit's end, and she had no doubt that Wu Zizhuo would really kill the entire Huaihua Village.
The horrific images of my parents before their deaths resurfaced in my mind.
Su Muying made her choice in an instant.
She did not choose Xie Linyuan.
After making up her mind, Su Muying walked up to Wu Zizhuo.
She was slender and delicate, appearing somewhat frail, but she showed no fear in the face of the group of soldiers wielding swords, her face remaining calm and serene.
Su Muying walked step by step to Wu Zizhuo. She bowed to him and looked up at him: "I can hand over Xie Linyuan, and you can release them."
“But he’s not here right now, and I don’t know if he’ll ever come back. Lord Wu, why don’t you release them first and use me to lure Xie Linyuan out?”
"I'm here." The moment Su Muying finished speaking, a voice suddenly rang out, accompanied by uneven breathing, as if the person had just run over.
Upon hearing the word "urgent," Su Muying paused for a moment, then looked up sharply and saw Xie Linyuan walking out from the middle of the path parted by the crowd.
He was still holding two rabbits he had hunted.
He walked up to Su Muying, his face showing no resentment or disappointment at her betraying him or even handing him over.
He handed the rabbit to Su Muying, leaned down, and whispered in her ear:
"Don't be afraid after I leave. I have already sent word that Qingshan will bring troops to take you to Anzhou City. It is no longer safe here. Wu Zizhuo may break his promise and massacre Huaihua Village."
Su Muying was stunned. Xie Linyuan's voice flowed through her ears like a clear spring, but it burned the skin behind her ears.
She suddenly wondered if he knew what it meant to be taken away by Wu Zizhuo.
It's not just a simple matter of dying.
He will be tortured, all kinds of torture.
He will be unable to live or die.
Did he not know?
Just as Su Muying was stunned and lost in thought, Xie Linyuan straightened up after speaking, stood in front of Su Muying, and shielded her completely behind him.
"Lord Wu, didn't you claim to be a benevolent and righteous leader who wanted to kill me, a traitor? How could you do such an unrighteous thing?" Xie Linyuan curled his lips and smiled sarcastically, but his eyes were cold and icy, without any smile. "If you want to arrest me, I will go with you. Why involve the innocent?"
"innocent?"
Wu Zizhuo turned around, glanced at the huddled people, and as if he had heard something extremely funny, he threw his head back and burst into laughter.
"General Xie has become much more compassionate over the years; I've almost forgotten what he used to be like."
"What a pity..." Wu Zizhuo stopped laughing, raised his hand to signal, and a row of soldiers walked over with their swords raised.
The soldiers naturally knew who Xie Linyuan was, how many battles he had won, how bloodthirsty and ruthless he was, and how he now occupied half of the Liang Dynasty.
At first, the hands of these men holding knives trembled, and they dared not step forward. But after Wu Zizhuo shouted and killed two men, the soldiers took up their knives and stepped forward to restrain Xie Linyuan.
Xie Linyuan was taken away just like that.
After all, there were still troops stationed in Anzhou nearby. Wu Zizhuo had already achieved his goal for this trip, so he did not linger and quickly retreated.
As long as Xie Linyuan is in his hands, he will always find a way to use various tortures to pry open his mouth and make him hand over the defense maps of the ten cities he occupies.
Once he obtains the defense maps of these ten cities, conquers Anzhou, and reclaims the territory of those ten cities, his appointment as Grand General will be just around the corner!
After Wu Zizhuo left, the villagers were all stunned and collapsed on the ground. Some were crying, while others were discussing what had just happened.
"How could General Xie be in our remote mountain village? Is that really General Xie?"
"This Miss Su moved to our village later. Didn't someone say that General Xie fell seriously ill a few years ago, as if possessed by a demon? It seems it was because of his wife..."
"Could it be..." At this point, someone raised their chin and nodded at Su Muying, and then no one continued.
"Alas, General Xie has been captured by the enemy. I wonder what will happen to him. If we lose our commander, what will become of Anzhou?"
"There was nothing we could do. Miss Su did it for us, and General Xie did it for us too..."
"Miss Su and General Xie are both kind-hearted people. Look at all these years, General Xie has been guarding Anzhou, and Anzhou has never been so prosperous..."
"But how long can this prosperity last?"
...
Others say that Xie Linyuan is kind-hearted and loves the people, praising him.
Hearing these words, Su Muying stood there blankly, still holding the rabbit Xie Linyuan had hunted in her hand. It seemed as if the breath of Xie Linyuan still lingered on her earlobe. Her skin was burning red, and the burning sensation remained on it.
Little Nian'an snuggled into his mother's arms, looking both innocent and puzzled, and asked, "Isn't he a bad person too?"
"Why...did you save us?"
Xiao Nian'an always thought of him as a bad guy. With his mind at less than four years old, he couldn't understand what that bad guy had just done.
It seems he saved them.
Whether it was good or bad, Su Muying did not answer the child's question.
Not long after Wu Zizhuo retreated, just as Xie Linyuan had predicted, several men returned with swords in hand. At that very moment, a troop of heavily armored soldiers rode in on horseback, the sound of their hooves growing louder as the earth seemed to tremble.
Another group of men came over, heavily armored soldiers. Su Muying recognized the leader as Qingshan.
Qingshan arrived with heavily armored soldiers. Before the people could panic, the soldiers sent by Wu Zizhuo to clean up the mess were killed.
Qingshan had indeed received a message from his master, instructing him to bring his troops here. Upon receiving the message, Qingshan immediately rushed here.
Unexpectedly... he saw Miss Su here.
When Qingshan saw Su Muying, he was both surprised and delighted. He finally understood why his master had disappeared for so many days and hadn't allowed anyone to search for him.
But when he saw enemy troops in the area and looked around but couldn't see his master, Aoyama suddenly realized something.
"Greetings, Miss Su." Qingshan quickly dismounted, bowed to Su Muying, and immediately asked, "Where is the general?"
Su Muying replied in a trembling voice, "Wu Zizhuo took her away."
Upon hearing this, Qingshan's vision blurred, and he nearly collapsed to the ground.
——
Wu Zizhuo had already returned to the military camp with Xie Linyuan, and Qingshan and his men could no longer find any trace of them.
Wu Zizhuo went to such great lengths, there must be some plan behind it. Qingshan knew that he could not act rashly, so he obeyed his master's orders and brought Su Muying and the people of Huaihua Village back to Anzhou City and settled them down.
He could only sigh at the matter.
Knowing that Miss Su was not dead, Qingshan was naturally happy for his master. After all, since hearing the news of Miss Su's death a few years ago, he knew that his master was destined to die sooner or later, given how much he had tormented himself over the years. Now that Miss Su was alive, his master could live.
In particular, Miss Su was with a child, who was clearly the child of her master.
They look so much like their master and Miss Su.
But this time, because of this Miss Su, his master was taken away by Wu Zizhuo.
If it falls into the hands of the enemy general, especially when the two armies are still facing each other, who knows what the other side will do and what methods they will use.
This is something more terrifying than death.
When Qingshan brought Su Muying and Xiao Nian'an back to the General's Mansion, everyone in the mansion was astonished to see Miss Su and the child, especially Xie's mother.
She was stunned for a moment, completely bewildered. Her son had left a letter and disappeared for so long, and Qingshan had gone to meet him after receiving the letter today, yet he hadn't brought him back. Instead, he had brought back Su Muying, and this…
Seeing Xiao Nian'an being led by the hand next to Su Muying, and looking at the child's features, Xie's mother immediately beamed with joy and knew for a moment that this was her grandson!
He looks exactly like his second son when he was a child, but he looks much more lovable than he did when he was a child.
"Oh! This is..."
Mother Xie was so happy that she didn't even notice that Xie Linyuan hadn't returned. She was so happy that she didn't even notice the fine lines around her eyes. She was helped over by someone.
Little Nian'an held his mother's hand tightly, not daring to move. He half-hid behind his mother, only peeking out his head, looking extremely cute.
Su Muying squatted down and gently patted Xiao Nian'an's head, telling him to greet her: "Good boy, An'an, say 'Madam Xie'."
When Xiao Nian'an wasn't being naughty, he was extremely well-behaved. He listened to his mother very much, and even though he didn't recognize the person in front of him, he still obediently called out "Madam Xie".
"Oh, what a good boy, he's so handsome." Mother Xie grew to like the child more and more. When she remembered Xie Linyuan and wanted to ask her son what was going on, she realized that Xie Linyuan had not come back with her.
When Qingshan reported that Xie Linyuan had been taken away by the enemy, she almost fainted on the spot.
This was a bolt from the blue for everyone, even for Anzhou and the ten cities from Anzhou to the border.
Therefore, Xie Linyuan's generals quickly gathered together to discuss countermeasures.
"The best course of action now is to rescue our master from that traitor's camp!" Chen Ling was so anxious that he couldn't sit still and kept pacing back and forth. "That traitor has been slow to capture Anzhou because he wants the defense map of these ten cities!"
"Everyone knows about this, the question is, how do we save them?" Qingshan said with a solemn expression.
Chen Ling, being simple-minded and unable to think of a solution, gritted his teeth and said bluntly, "If you ask me, either give the defense map to that scoundrel and get the general back, or just attack directly! I don't want to defend the city anymore anyway; we should have just attacked the capital in the first place!"
"Do you know what the defense map of these ten cities means?" Qingshan immediately denied it: "If you dare to do that, the general will definitely cut off your head when he returns."
"Then do you even know what it means to be the commander-in-chief?" With a bang, Chen Ling slammed his fist heavily on the table, his eyes already bloodshot, staring straight at Qingshan. "The reason we were able to repel the barbarian tribes time and time again while guarding the border, and the reason we were able to advance all the way from the border to here and conquer half of Daliang, is all because the men in this army are brothers who have fought and died with the general!"
"The general is our banner, the heart of our army! If the general dies, or is even beheaded by that scoundrel in front of the army, then there is no need to fight these battles."
"Because...we are destined to lose."
"What use will this defense map be then?"
Chen Ling's words were passionate and resonated with most of the people present, prompting many to echo and agree.
Qingshan was, after all, Xie Linyuan's personal guard. Over the years, he knew that because of that Miss Su, the general's temperament had changed drastically. If the defense map were given out, and the ten cities fell and the people suffered, they... would all lose their heads.
But Chen Ling's words also make sense. If their general were to die at the hands of the enemy, the morale of the army would indeed collapse, and they would be powerless to fight again.
It's just that outsiders might not know this.
Outsiders would never have imagined that a general could have such a great influence. Since Wu Zizhuo had bound their general instead of killing him, he must have wanted to extract information about the defense map from his general.
It was already dark outside. Two hours had passed since their general was captured by Wu Zizhuo, but they still hadn't come up with a solution.
Some suggested exchanging the defense map for it, while others suggested attacking directly, abandoning the defense of Anzhou, and marching straight to the capital to wipe out the enemy.
Aoyama opposed this, because he knew that these were not the solutions his master would agree to.
So the discussion remained deadlocked. At first, the argument was so heated it was like sparks were flying, but later everyone fell silent.
Because no one can come up with a perfect solution.
Their general's life was in the hands of the enemy, while this was the city and its people that their general had ordered them to defend.
Just then, as they stood in a stalemate and remained silent, Su Muying, who was sitting behind the screen, spoke.
"I'll go to negotiate."
A clear, melodious female voice rang out, startling everyone. As they exchanged bewildered glances, Su Muying emerged from behind the screen.
Upon seeing that it was Su Muying, everyone bowed. They knew what their general had gone through a few years ago, and naturally knew the weight this woman held in their general's heart. Therefore, no one dared to be negligent or utter a word of blame, nor did they dare to blame her for handing over their general so easily for the sake of those villagers.
After all, their general was doing it willingly.
“When I go to Wu Zizhuo’s camp, he will not be on guard against me since I am alone. I will pretend to negotiate and use the defense map as bait, and then find an opportunity to find your general.”
"At that time, I can set a fire and take advantage of the chaos to lead your general out of the camp, where you can meet him outside."
"We don't need to hand over the defense maps of the ten cities, nor do we need to abandon the people of Anzhou."
“I will definitely bring out your general,” Su Muying said.
She looked delicate and frail, yet her words struck like gold and jade striking each other, exceptionally powerful and convincing.
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