At the command, more than 20 members of the Second Army jumped off their horses and picked up their bows and arrows swiftly. Before General Cui could blink, the sharp arrows shot out, aiming at the feet but not the head. In an instant, a wailing sound was heard and the refugees were terrified and screaming.
“Come on!” The young man’s voice sounded like the growl of a leopard.
The soldiers shot down a large number of people, intimidating the people in the distance. They threw away their bows and arrows, rushed forward with their swords, and attacked ruthlessly. Although they fought with scabbards, every move drew blood. The heavy cold iron scabbards hit their heads hard, and soon, more than a dozen people fell to the ground.
"Get out of the way!"
The soldiers and refugees were fighting in a melee. When the Yanbei Army in the city wall saw this, they hurriedly blew their horns and a large number of troops rushed out of the city, but they were trapped by the chaotic crowd at the gate and could not get out.
At this moment, a burst of rapid horse hoof sounds suddenly rang out in the vast snowfield far away, as if a large number of horses and men were approaching. The war horses were coming very fast, and a small black-clad warrior at the head jumped off the horse. His voice was a little feminine, but he shouted loudly with amazing momentum: "Who is making trouble?"
More than a hundred soldiers jumped down, and the short general in the lead rushed forward, took a few sharp glances, drew the knife from his waist, and said coldly: "Go! Beat those soldiers!"
This group of new forces are extremely skilled, their movements are neat and swift, and they are all powerful masters. They rushed into the crowd like tigers and wolves, surrounding the Second Army soldiers who were wielding knives to attack the civilians. Three or five of them surrounded one and subdued them in a few moves. When the people saw someone standing up for them, they shouted in unison and the situation was immediately under control.
There were thirty or forty injured civilians lying on the ground, some of them were motionless and no one knew whether they were alive or dead. The short general frowned, wrapped in a large iron-gray fur coat. He turned around and said in a low voice, "Call the military doctor out immediately to treat the injured."
"Who are you? How dare you..." Xue Zhiyuan was furious and strode forward. However, the short general didn't wait for him to finish his words and slapped the man on the face with a crisp slap. Before Xue Zhiyuan could react, the man slapped him again!
"You are a warrior of Yanbei! Your sword should be pointed at Daxia, not at the people of Yanbei!" The crisp voice was like breaking metal and stone, and the short general shouted.
Xue Zhiyuan was furious, his eyes seemed to be spitting fire, he roared, and rushed forward with his fists raised. Unexpectedly, the short general jumped up suddenly like a swift leopard, and the scabbard flashed neatly, and hit Xue Zhiyuan's shoulder with a bang. He kicked sideways and knocked him to the ground.
"Tie him up! Hand him over to His Highness for punishment!" A cheer suddenly broke out among the refugees.
The short general turned around and shouted to the people, "People, Beishuo is about to go to war. It's too dangerous for you to stay here. Our highness has built temporary shelters for everyone at the foot of Sunset Mountain in the west. There are food and cotton clothes inside. Please follow my subordinates immediately."
The crowd moved, and several soldiers who came with the short general walked into the crowd and restored order. After a while, several military doctors rushed out of the city. The short general walked forward and took a closer look. He found that thirteen civilians had died in the turmoil just now. He frowned slightly and looked very unhappy.
About half an hour later, the people finally went westward under the leadership of the soldiers. The short general walked into the city and the gate slowly closed. All the noise outside was blocked, and even the wind and snow seemed no longer so fierce.
The short man said a few words to the frightened General Cui, then walked towards the carriage where Xue Zhiyuan and others were imprisoned.
"General Xue, I'm sorry for offending you just now." The short general took off his hood, revealing a thin face with delicate eyebrows and bright eyes. She turned out to be a very beautiful young girl.
"Who are you?" Xue Zhiyuan's cheeks were still a little swollen, and the place where she kicked him was still painful. He didn't want to talk to her at first, but when he saw her appearance, he was shocked.
"This is Lord Chu from the General Staff Office." General Cui introduced him quickly, "Sir, this is General Xue Zhiyuan, the captain of the Second Army's vanguard team coming to support Beishuo."
Chu Qiao's cheeks were red from the cold, and her lips were a little chapped. She nodded and said kindly, "General Xue, you have traveled a long way in such bad weather. You must have worked hard."
Xue Zhiyuan frowned, not knowing where this Lord Chu had come from. He stared at Chu Qiao fiercely, and suddenly snorted coldly, saying in a deep voice: "Today's matter will not be let go just like that."
"Of course, more than a dozen people died before the city gate, and more than 40 were injured. Such a thing will naturally not be easily resolved." Chu Qiao smiled slightly, but there was no smile in her eyes. She said lightly, "But General Xue was eager to protect the city just now, and the war is imminent. I will not report it to the Military and Political Affairs Council and hold you accountable for the time being."
"you……"
"General Xue, you must have something important to tell me, so you have to rush here. If you are free, I will leave first."
Xue Zhiyuan took a deep breath, then looked at Chu Qiao fiercely, snorted coldly, and left angrily with his men.
General Cui wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and said to Chu Qiao, "Sir, are you okay?"
Chu Qiao frowned slowly, sighed helplessly, and said, "If I had known that he was from the Second Army, I wouldn't have slapped him twice. Now we are in trouble."
"Ah?" General Cui was stunned.
"What?" Chu Qiao turned around and said angrily, "If it weren't for the Second Army, the city gate would have been lost. Do you know what the consequences would be if we let the spies into the city at this time? Millions of soldiers from all over Yanbei would have died without a burial place! Beishuo is the gateway to Yanbei, but you are so careless. Although Xue Zhiyuan's random massacre of civilians just now was wrong, you are playing a joke on the fate of all Yanbei!"
General Cui was so frightened that his face turned pale, his legs went weak, his eyes flickered, and he looked around like a thief who had been caught. Suddenly, he knelt on the ground with a thud and shouted, "Sir, I deserve to die. Please spare my life."
Chu Qiao frowned slowly. Such a person was unexpectedly made the sergeant guarding the city. She didn't know who to hold responsible. At this moment, she just felt powerless.
“Go report to the Military and Political Academy yourself!” Chu Qiao said this calmly and turned to leave. The snow was falling heavily, but there was still no sign of it stopping. When she opened the door, a wave of hot air hit her in the face. Chu Qiao took off her fur coat and looked around, but she didn't see Yan Xun. She turned and went to the study. On the way, she met Ah Jing who had hurried back. Before she could say anything, she heard Ah Jing panting and saying, "Miss, His Highness wants you to go."
Chu Qiao raised her eyebrows, "Where is he? What happened?"
"The representatives of the Second Army are here, and His Highness is waiting for you to attend the meeting."
Before entering the house, I heard a voice like a drake shouting: "We have millions of troops, why should we be afraid of Daxia? We can just fight them on the plains!"
Upon hearing this, Chu Qiao's brows immediately furrowed tightly. During this period of time, frowning was probably the expression she used most often.
"Yes! We in Yanbei are the army of justice. We are not afraid of Xia Gou!"
"Report!" the soldier outside the door shouted, "Master Chu from the General Staff Office is here."
"Come in."
Chu Qiao walked into the room and bowed to greet everyone present. She saw that the number of people attending the meeting today was much larger than last time. In addition to those people from last time, there were military representatives from the First and Second Armies, the deputy general of the Third Army, the hall masters and elders of the Datong Guild, and representatives from other border troops, militias, and self-defense forces, as well as representatives of the clan leaders of small tribes on the Yanbei Plateau. The room was filled with people, almost filling up the conference hall.
Chu Qiao knew that almost all of Yanbei’s armed forces had arrived today. She walked in with her head held high, walked straight to Yan Xun and sat down, smiling and saying to everyone, “Sorry, I’m late.”
"What happened?" Yan Xun's face was not very good. It was obvious that he was very angry with this group of people. He looked at Chu Qiao and asked in a deep voice.
"Everything is going well. The houses have been built and are enough to get through this period."
"I object!" A sharp voice suddenly sounded. Lieutenant General Liu Ou, the quartermaster of Beishuo, stood up and said with an unpleasant face, "Why do you want to take our military materials to build houses for those refugees? These things can obviously raise the city wall by ten feet, which is very useful for resisting Daxia. Also, why do you want to distribute our food and grass to the refugees? Lord Chu, do you know what situation we are in now? The Daxia army is approaching, and the war is about to begin. It is hard to say whether the army can supply food, but you are using food and grass to help the refugees!"
"Liu Ou, if I remember correctly, when I was building the city wall ten days ago, you didn't support me at all. The entire Beishuo Army didn't send a single soldier, but the nearby people actively helped. Otherwise, your city wall wouldn't be raised by 20 feet. In addition, I want to remind you that there are regulations on the height of the city wall. Our current city wall is already high enough. If it is higher, the soldiers' arrows will not be accurate, and our defensive advantage will be greatly reduced. Therefore, I ask people who don't understand military affairs to speak carefully on military issues."
Chu Qiao's face was cold, no longer the good temper she had a few days ago. She looked at the quartermaster coldly and said, "Also, I want to say one more thing. We liberated Yanbei and fought for the freedom of the people of Yanbei. If all the people died, then the war would be meaningless."
Liu Ou's face turned pale, and he argued: "We have always been like this before. There were heavy snowstorms every year, and Daxia never used military rations to support the people. For thousands of years, we have never seen people starve to death."
"You're right, so Daxia was driven out of Yanbei." The girl spread her hands and shrugged, "The soldiers stationed in Yanbei by Daxia were all transferred from the mainland, and they all received military pay. May I ask Deputy General Liu Ou, when did you pay your subordinates? Why did your subordinates follow you for free? Are you trying to make your subordinates follow you and risk their lives, and then let their parents, wives and children starve or freeze to death at home?"
The conference room suddenly fell into an awkward silence. No one spoke. All that could be heard was the wind outside blowing violently like a wild beast.
Yan Xun spoke in a cold voice, and slowly said: "Let's get back to the point. Who was speaking just now?"
"It's me." Lu Jie, commander of the Third Legion, said in a deep voice.
He was young, about thirty years old, with a thick beard, a typical plateau appearance, and a red face. He said in a muffled voice, "I don't understand why we have to hide here and there? Why do we have to shrink like turtles in Beishuo City? We have an army of 500,000, and the Daxia vanguard only has 100,000. How can we lose if we fight five against one?"