Chapter 1356: The Demise of Qi Kingdom (Part 1) [Requesting Monthly Tickets]
"ah--"
Even late at night, the wounded soldiers' camp was still brightly lit.
The military medic moved from tent to tent, checking wounds against medical records every now and then, while the medics caring for the wounded tried to make as little noise as possible. Apart from the occasional crackling of the campfires outside the tents, the only other sounds were the footsteps of the night patrolling soldiers: "Is Medical Team Chen here?"
A medic was peeking into the tent from outside.
The medic, whose name had been called, briefly explained the precautions before following the other medic. She lowered her voice and asked, "What is it?"
His gaze fell on the bandage on the medic's arm, and he immediately recognized which camp the medic belonged to: "Has the queen awakened?"
The "female ruler" she spoke of was the woman the lord had personally ordered to be cared for. She had lost her right leg, was bleeding internally, and had multiple fractures throughout her body. These injuries were too much even for some strong soldiers, let alone ordinary commoners. The lord had placed her in the medical ward under her jurisdiction for treatment, so she naturally couldn't afford to be careless.
He then instructed the medics to take extra care of him and to report any problems immediately.
"It felt like a nightmare; my body was constantly struggling."
Other wounds had reopened but weren't fatal, and the amputation site hadn't fully healed yet. The medic had someone tie her to a makeshift bed made from a door panel and hurried over to find the medical team. When the medical team arrived, the woman had already woken up, her pale face filled with terror, her mind tense, and her entire being exuding resistance to her surroundings.
His expression changed slightly when he saw the medical team arrive.
The medical team bent down and asked, "Is there anything wrong?"
Why are you tying me up?
"You had a nightmare. We're worried that if you struggle too much, your wounds will reopen." The medical team moved the candle closer, the light dispelling the darkness and making her already kind face appear even more gentle and harmless. The medical team could clearly feel that the woman's breathing had relaxed a little.
The woman paused, trying to process the information.
Upon hearing the medical team mention the word "nightmare," she uncontrollably recalled that chaotic, terrifying, and bizarre nightmare.
She dreamt she was still among the refugees, with countless dark hands pushing, dragging, and manipulating her from behind… An endless pressure squeezed her body from all sides, and her internal organs beneath her skin were being kneaded by these dark hands… She couldn't escape; her limbs were immobilized, and like a puppet, she was trapped in the crowd, passively drifting forward. Ahead of her—
Countless figures had ashen, lifeless faces.
Upon closer inspection, she broke out in a cold sweat.
Those were clearly corpses crushed together!
The intense stimulation made her open her eyes.
The excruciating physical pain paled in comparison to the terror of being in an unfamiliar environment—she didn't know whether to be grateful to be alive or to despair that she was still alive. The fear that had reached its peak subsided slightly when she saw the strange woman.
My racing heart finally stopped hurting so much.
She wanted to ask who these people were, but then swallowed her words in fear.
Seeing that she was relatively calm, the medical team gave her a thorough examination. Finding nothing seriously wrong, they relayed the lord's parting words: "The lord said she cut off your leg to save your life, but don't worry, the disability is only temporary. Once your energy and blood have recovered, your leg will grow back..."
"Princess?"
The medical team explained, "It's our lord."
The woman pursed her chapped lips. Fear and trepidation had momentarily overwhelmed the pain of her wound, and she now realized she truly couldn't feel her right leg. Recalling the confusion before she lost consciousness, she exclaimed joyfully, "Does the soldier mean the bandits have been repelled?"
"My lord" likely refers to the general.
This news brought her a great sense of relief.
They subconsciously ignored the possibility of being rescued.
Upon closer examination, her chances of being rescued were extremely slim. To put it nicely, she was a courtesan kept by the army, whose main task was to perform dances and music for the soldiers at victory banquets; to put it bluntly, she was a prostitute. However, she was luckier than other women.
Because her mother gave her a fairly outstanding appearance, she could even be called a "stunning beauty" in a poor, remote village. This meant that she didn't have to deal with a dozen or so soldiers every day like others. She only needed to serve a few generals, and perhaps one of them would be willing to take her home or give her to someone as a concubine. Then her difficult days would be over.
However, the most likely outcome is that she will one day fall ill and die, or one day grow old and lose her beauty and be rejected, and the status of the men who serve her will gradually decline, eventually relegating her to a small room where she serves the menial soldiers...
She was no longer a novelty; the strongest evidence of this was that the general hadn't contacted her for over half a year. Fortunately, the general still needed her and remembered her, entrusting her with the task of entertaining the royal envoy.
Then, her face suddenly turned deathly pale.
I remembered that I had lost my right leg.
Will the general remember the good he's done for her over the years and set her free? Or will he despise her disability and abandon her to those lowly soldiers?
The thought of such a future terrified her, making her tremble all over.
Lost in fear, she didn't notice the slightly stiff and strange expressions on the faces of the two medical team members. The medical team smiled and said, "Ah, yes, they've been repelled. Lady, just rest and recover. If you feel unwell, just let us know."
The woman nodded obediently.
Unlike other disabled patients who wake up and make a fuss.
Her quiet cooperation was almost pathetic; she didn't complain about being hungry or thirsty, and even held it in until she fainted, alerting the medical team. The medics, used to such situations, quickly cleaned her up and changed her bedding. A day passed, and her condition not only didn't improve but worsened.
The medical team remained kind during the day: "Your Majesty is not able to walk properly. If you need to use the restroom, you can ask the medical soldiers for help. There is no need to worry."
The woman asked her softly, "...Are you still dreaming?"
The medical team replied, "This is not a dream."
The initial panic of waking up subsided, and the woman regained some composure, realizing that something was amiss. The biggest problem wasn't that precious medicine was being used on a disabled person like herself, nor was it the strangers lying in the hospital bed beside her; it was the way the medical team addressed her.
She actually called herself a female ruler?
Discovering this flaw reveals even more flaws.
The wounded in the tents included men and women, young and old, mostly disabled, and looked more like commoners than soldiers. Even among soldiers, this level of injury would have been dealt with long ago. The cost of saving a disabled person far outweighs the cost of killing one.
She had been in the military for two or three years.
He was well aware of the cruelty involved.
Why were so many disabled civilians lying inside the camp?
She knew that the garrison soldiers wouldn't do such a thing. She didn't dare to ask, so she could only keep her doubts to herself.
unless--
"Were the thieves really repelled?"
The medical team said tactfully, "The victor is king, the loser is a bandit. If the loser is a bandit... the bandits were indeed driven back."
woman:"……"
She suddenly opened her eyes wide.
Because the envoy employed a vicious delaying tactic, first deliberately inciting the expulsion of refugees, which triggered a large-scale stampede, and then ordering catapults to destroy buildings within the city, all of this caused great trouble for Shen Tang. After a day of reckoning, the casualties among the common people far exceeded expectations.
"Has that damned eunuch been caught yet?"
Even public execution by slow slicing wouldn't be enough to quell her anger.
Unfortunately, the man was fast, and the scouts sent out found nothing.
"Who was the fastest to kill?"
Just as Shen Tang was gritting his teeth, news came from outside that the envoy's body had been found. Using innocent civilians as shields was utterly disgusting. Shen Tang had fought in many years, but he had never felt such hatred for anyone; his hatred even surpassed that for Huang Lie back then.
"Well, judging from the residual martial energy, it was the lord who killed him."
"...I killed him?"
Shen Tang's anger came to an abrupt halt.
He then asked, "When did I kill him?"
Shen Tang ripped off the white sheet covering the corpse, revealing a body covered in lividity, its head in a gruesome state, emitting a pungent stench of decay mixed with a burnt smell. After a few seconds of careful thought, she vaguely remembered killing someone who blocked her path on the way.
She asked uncertainly, "Is it really him?"
"We had someone identify him, and the eunuch was indeed wearing that outfit that day. To verify his identity, we even checked his genitals. It was him."
Shen Tang, with his hands tucked into his sleeves, frowned and glanced at the corpse.
"How did you find the person?"
The scouts dug three feet into the ground on the battlefield but couldn't find anyone.
Gu Dedao: "When the cremation of corpses is unified."
War will result in a large number of corpses.
Improper handling of corpses can easily lead to epidemics.
Other warlords, more civilized ones, would find a place to bury the bodies in a pit; more barbaric ones would simply throw the corpses into the river to feed the fish, letting the river creatures help dispose of the bodies; and even more barbaric ones would wash the bodies clean in the water, disembowel them, and make them into human flesh to eat as military rations. His lord, however, was the most cruel and ruthless, directly burning the corpses in a concentrated manner—this was also the most criticized aspect, deterring many insightful people from coming to join him. Gu De also wanted to advise against it, but was told that Kangguo had been doing this for more than ten years.
Well, what's the point of trying to persuade them?
Kang Guo's team hadn't been able to persuade him for over a decade, so what use was he?
On second thought, this might be related to the barbaric customs of the North.
Any enemy must be utterly destroyed!
In an era when even a poor peasant's tattered clothes could be pawned for a few copper coins, even the most worn-out garments had value. The frugal warlords, naturally, wouldn't allow corpses to be disposed of, buried, or sent to the crematorium while still clothed. The soldiers responsible for handling these corpses stripped them of their clothes, and in the process, they discovered one particularly unusual body.
There are ugly scars from the cutting below.
Why is he a eunuch?
Someone leaned closer for a curious look: "A eunuch? So what if he's a eunuch? His stuff doesn't make much oil when burned."
[His body looks quite healthy.]
Look at those strong, powerful arms and legs! I can feel the muscles on my stomach more clearly than this eunuch! I'm so jealous!
Their conversation was overheard by someone.
They frantically pulled the body out of the fire.
After verifying his identity, they immediately delivered it to Shen Tang.
"...No wonder, it still smells like burning flesh..." Shen Tang stared at the corpse, wishing the body could be alive again and then be subjected to slow slicing. "This corpse...don't burn it, it's a waste of my firewood. Pack it up and send it to the Qi royal family by express delivery."
After saying that, Shen Tang added another sentence.
"And by the way, send out another manifesto."
Fighting a war involves not only fists, but also trash talk.
Shen Tang is determined to let the world know how shameless Qi Kingdom is!
"...Although there are countless rulers in chaotic times who regard the common people as worthless, few dare to say it openly." In a sense, this envoy from Qi Kingdom can be considered to have set a precedent.
Everyone knew that Xiahou Li needed time to repair and tidy up after conquering a place. The Qi Kingdom's envoy seized on this and ordered the destruction of buildings and instigated riots when the situation was hopeless. The more serious the destruction, the longer Xiahou Li was hindered.
The longer this gives the Qi royal family a chance to breathe, the better.
What will the common people in other parts of Qi Kingdom think if we do this?
Once the proclamation is issued, Qi Guo will likely lose all popular support.
The envoy's plan backfired; Shen Tang did not linger this time.
The next day, he ordered the camp to be dismantled and the stockade to be established.
The three armed forces went first, with the logistics battalions following slowly.
The wounded soldiers' battalion was no exception.
The civilians with minor injuries have already left the camp and returned home, while those with more serious injuries are being carried along with the wounded soldiers' battalion on the march. It's not that they can't stay, but the local medical conditions are too poor; staying would mean certain death. Although traveling with the army is bumpy, at least they won't die.
This arrangement brought the woman's anxious heart back to its place.
She was familiar with the army, but being left behind meant facing a life-or-death situation.
"Medical Team Leader Chen..."
She nervously licked her dry, chapped lips.
The wounded soldiers' battalion, making do with the needs of the injured, marched during the day and rested in place at sunset. During the rest period, the wounded could rest, but the medical team could not close their eyes. The woman's injuries were recovering relatively well, and she was finally able to report back to her superiors: "Is there anything I can do for you, Madam?"
The woman blushed, unsure of where to begin.
She wanted to stay in the army, but didn't want to serve those lowly soldiers, so she hoped someone she knew could help her get in touch. The medical team seemed quite imposing; they must be important figures? Perhaps they knew some people of high status?
"...I have nowhere to go, I want to find a way to make a living..."
The medical team immediately understood: "What is the Queen's specialty?"
The woman was further embarrassed by the medical team's blunt question. She looked down at her only remaining leg, opened her mouth, and almost covered her face with sobs: "...I used to be able to, but I can't now...but I still have some beauty..."
The medical team also looked at her legs: "The camp is full."
The woman bit her lower lip, her fingers gripping the hem of her dress tightly.
The medical team said, "The lady's voice is as beautiful as a nightingale's, and her speech is clear. I imagine she mostly sings elegant tunes favored by high-ranking officials and nobles, quite different from the dance music preferred by the soldiers... We, on the other hand, prefer the spontaneous singing of country folk..."
The dance also features bold, sweeping steps.
This female ruler probably won't be able to adapt.
"The music camp is full, but if the Queen isn't afraid of hardship and is skilled in needlework, the clothing camp would be a good option. Soldiers are short of clothes in winter, and with reinforcements arriving, the clothing camp has been overwhelmed for a while now, and is currently facing a severe manpower shortage." The medical team member, being kind-hearted, offered a way out when he saw the Queen's predicament. Soldiers in the clothing camp mostly work sitting down, with few opportunities to move around.
You can go there before the Queen's right leg recovers.
"The Clothing Production Camp?"
Is there such a place in the military?
"Is it really possible to make clothes instead of taking them off?"
The woman inadvertently blurted out her innermost thoughts.
Medical team: "..."
The kind smile on her face gradually faded, and the look in her eyes instilled a sense of fear in the woman. Just then, the medical team member gently stroked the woman's hair and said earnestly, "Here, no one will make you take off your clothes. No one."
"What if?"
"Whoever brings it up, will be killed."
The woman's teeth chattered from the murderous intent in the medical team's words. She stammered, "I...I...how could I kill them?"
"If you don't kill him, you'll be executed by military law."
|ω`)
Oh no, oh no, oh no, I've developed a bad habit after getting into the habit of updating late at night.
Slamming the ground!!!
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