Chapter 717: Like a Savior Arrives
"Report..."
A sentry with cheekbones protruding from his face stumbled into the tent and said weakly, "A carriage is coming through the pass!"
Lieutenant General Li Zhongwu was scraping the grass roots stuck on the soles of his boots with his sword. Hearing this, he looked up suddenly and the tip of the sword left a long scratch on the leather.
His eye sockets were sunken, and long-term hunger had made this eight-foot-tall man so thin that he was just a skeleton.
"Did you see it clearly? But it's a grain cart?"
The sentry licked his cracked lips and shook his head dejectedly: "There is only one green-covered carriage, it doesn't look like it's transporting grain."
Several generals in the tent exchanged glances. Military advisor Zhao Xian coughed and propped himself up. He had just eaten poisonous weeds the day before, and his face was now blue.
"I'm afraid it's a trick, but if it's food..."
"Bullshit!" Li Zhongwu's arms felt weak, but he still slammed his sword on the table, raising a layer of dust.
"Qi Jing wants us all to die here, how could he be so kind as to send us food and fodder..."
As he was about to rush out, he stumbled over his own weak steps.
Outside the door, the carriage slowly stopped. When the curtain was lifted, the first thing that came out was a pair of soft satin embroidered shoes with lotus flowers embroidered on them.
When Li Zhongwu came over with a dozen staggering soldiers, he saw a woman in an apricot-colored shirt stepping on a footstool and landing on the ground.
The woman's belly was bulging, and she was actually pregnant.
The dust raised by the carriage had not yet dissipated when Ran Qingxuan heard the sound of armor colliding.
She looked up and saw a emaciated general walking towards her with a spear in his hand. His armor hung loosely on his body like a rag hung on a bamboo pole.
"How long are you going to humiliate us?"
Deputy General Li Chongwu's voice was as hoarse as sandpaper: "They actually sent a pregnant woman..."
"Qi Jing, you will not die well!" General Zhao Tiezhu's eyes were bloodshot and his hands were shaking when he drew his sword.
The soldiers behind him growled like wild beasts, and one young soldier even spat out blood...
They were so hungry that they ate tree bark for three days, but the court sent a pregnant woman to humiliate them?
Just as these people were about to draw their swords, Ran Qingxuan bowed to avoid misunderstanding and said, "I am from the Ran family of Gu's clan, the sixth in my husband's family, and I don't like to talk about dust."
Her clear voice quickly revealed her identity, like a pool of spring water in the spring breeze.
"Chang Yue'e of the Chang family is my second sister-in-law. So, I should call General Chang Hu my brother."
The tip of the knife stopped abruptly not far from Ran Qingxuan's throat, and Zhao Tiezhu's bloodshot eyes widened.
"Gu...General Gu's wife?" He suddenly remembered something and took a half step back.
"Impossible! The Gu family was confiscated. How could a woman like you..."
"I was kidnapped." Ran Qingxuan shrugged helplessly.
"Qi Jing kidnapped me here to use my life and the life of my child to force Gu Yanchen to accept the Holy Order."
Ran Qingxuan's voice suddenly turned cold: "You are a nameless person who leads the troops with a guilty conscience, without even a tiger talisman to mobilize troops, and..."
"Son of a bitch, how can he be considered a member of the Northern Qi royal family? Who the hell is he..." A young soldier suddenly jumped up, with a fierce light flashing in his hungry green eyes.
"I said, why is it like this, like this..." The little soldier started talking nonsense in anger.
Li Zhongwu shouted, but his eyes turned red when he turned to Ran Qingxuan: "Mrs. Gu, please follow me into the camp. I will arrange a quiet tent for you."
Ran Qingxuan held her belly and slightly moved away from Luzhi's hand, then walked towards Lieutenant General Li.
"What is this general's name?"
Li Zhongwu raised his shaking hands and said, "My last name is Li Zhongwu, and I am the deputy commander of Huluguan Pass. This is my subordinate Zhao Tiezhu..."
"I was too impulsive just now and almost hurt my wife..."
Ran Qingxuan would not care about this matter and shook his head at the two of them: "No problem, but I want to see General Chang first..."
"General Chang...left all the food for the little ones, and drank water from tree roots and weeds for more than 20 days. He has been lying in bed for six days without getting up..."
Ran Qingxuan's eyes were hot, and he didn't dare to delay for a moment: "Take me to see the person first!"
She glanced at the tattered clothes of the people. Some even had blood-oozing straw ropes wrapped around their calves.
On the way through the camp, Ran Qingxuan saw someone using the tip of a gun to pick open the bark and scrape off the tender flesh inside.
Farther away, several soldiers surrounded a dead horse that was so thin that only skin was left. Ran Qingxuan stopped and saw those soldiers who could not stand steadily digging a pit, preparing to bury the warhorse.
Ran Qingxuan saw Li Zhongwu’s sad face and sighed deeply.
Those war horses were their former comrades, they couldn't be so hungry as to eat their former comrades...
"General Li, set up twenty... no, thirty big pots, and make sure they are filled with hot water."
Li Zhongwu realized her intention and couldn't help but smile bitterly: "The last half bag of bran in the granary was gone the day before yesterday. Now even the mice..."
"Deputy General Li." Ran Qingxuan interrupted him and pointed to the small carriage they had just got off.
"There are thirty bags of rice in that carriage. Just ask someone to boil water and cook the porridge..."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sound of swallowing all around, and some people even gathered around uncontrollably.
"Madam brought in rice from outside? But Qi Jing is not..."
Ran Qingxuan bit his lower lip and decided to temporarily hide the fact that he could provide food.
"He doesn't know, I brought this in secretly..."
Lvzhi, who had been serving them, looked at the carriage behind them calmly. The Black Feather Guards who were driving the carriage had already abandoned them and left. How could she...
Luzhi turned around and suddenly met Ran Qingxuan's cold eyes.
The expression that had not yet been suppressed quickly turned into panic, and he quickly lowered his head.
"Is that General Chang's tent, right?" Ran Qingxuan pointed to the tent with a red flag hanging high up and strode towards it without waiting for an answer.
Her back was as straight as a pine tree, and you couldn't tell at all that she was a woman who was seven months pregnant.
The tent was filled with the stench of rotten flesh and blood. Chang Hu lay on his back on a simple wooden couch. His right arm, which once could draw a three-stone bow, was now just skin and bones.
The festering wound had turned half of the arm black because not enough medicine was used.
Hearing the footsteps, his cloudy eyes moved, and when he saw who it was, he suddenly coughed violently: "Are you...my sister-in-law?"
"Brother Chang, don't move." Ran Qingxuan pressed his shoulders, feeling the jagged bones.
"Brother Chang, I will give you acupuncture and medicine right now." Ran Qingxuan suddenly turned around and said to Luzhi who had been following her.
"Go get some water."
"But Madam, I am not familiar with this tent... and I am here to serve you..."
"I'm sitting now, what do you want to serve? These people can't even stand steadily, do you want them to spill the water?"
Luzhi was still somewhat reluctant, but with so many people staring at her, she had no way of refutation.
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