"Elders, please do not underestimate yourselves! Every member of the Li Family Army has made tremendous contributions to the Night Dynasty. They have not only endured more than a decade of hardship on the border, but some have even lost their lives, all for the sake of winning this war, for the Night Dynasty, and for the people."
The hardships you endured are self-evident! Your great spirit will be remembered by the world! Therefore, each and every one of you deserves it! Each and every one of you is a hero! Heroes are never judged by their status or achievements! I deeply admire you!
Back then, the Ye Dynasty had an army of 300,000, plus the Li family army, totaling about 400,000. But after twelve years of fighting, the Li family army had shrunk from 100,000 to about 50,000.
The Night Dynasty army was reduced from 300,000 to 100,000. Although they won the battle, they suffered heavy losses, and only 150,000 returned in triumph.
The Li family army, which was a carefully trained elite force by Li Qian and Chu Qiaoling, was severely weakened. Chu Qiaoling provided a lot of resources, and Li Qian spent fifteen years training 100,000 elite soldiers, but lost more than half of them in this battle.
But what the world will always remember is the name "Li Family Army", not who is who in the Li Family Army. This is why, although the Li Family Army were heroes who won glory for the country, they did not receive any reward.
Later, Chu Qiaoling passed away, Chu Yanxi ascended the throne, and Li Qian disappeared without a trace, which was rumored to be her death. As a result, the Li family army was left without anyone to take charge and eventually disappeared without a trace, which looked very tragic.
Although she had only just learned that they had never stopped doing good deeds and held a high position in the hearts of the people.
But that didn't stop her from feeling deeply saddened by the situation.
Throughout history, what people remember is merely an identity or a title, which is why there are so many unsung heroes.
The Li family army differs from the Night Dynasty army in terms of age, gender, and background, as it does not have age or gender restrictions, giving it the feel of a hastily assembled army.
But in reality, each of them was highly skilled in martial arts. Through time of training and rigorous selection, this very special army was created.
According to the book, Li Qian was born into a martial arts family. Her parents died early, and her ideal and ambition was to protect the Ye Dynasty. Therefore, she gave up her martial arts identity and traveled thousands of miles to the capital to show her skills.
Yechao was just starting out, and its management in all aspects was not yet perfect. She felt that her talents were not recognized, so she had to start from the bottom.
But later she met a benefactor, and with Chu Qiaoling's help, she was no longer a lowly soldier, but a general who could train her own elite troops.
She found other martial arts families she knew before and worked together with those who shared the same ambition to cultivate the 'Li Family Army' in various places.
They initially "picked up" people on the streets, selecting those suitable for martial arts training and sending those unsuitable to orphanages to prevent them from ending up on the streets.
Later, as the night market gradually developed, people could no longer be found on the streets, so they had to go to the orphanage to select children.
Therefore, the Li Family Army is composed of children with difficult backgrounds and homelessness.
Their unexpected method of selecting personnel led to a notable characteristic of the Li family army—they were fearless on the battlefield.
With no worries about anything, coupled with their gratitude towards Li Qian and the others, and their desire to protect the country, they fought extremely hard.
While the Night Dynasty army still had deserters, the Li family army charged forward headlong, but their martial arts skills were quite good, so very few of them died in battle.
Five years later, a sudden joint attack by the three kingdoms caused heavy losses to the Night Dynasty, with the Night Dynasty army suffering more than 100,000 casualties and the Li family army suffering 20,000 casualties.
This precise enemy attack, coupled with the fact that many soldiers were suffering from stomach problems and unable to fight, made everyone on the battlefield sense that something was wrong. They all felt that there was a traitor among their ranks, and the morale of the army wavered for a time.
Li Qian vaguely discovered the identity of the mole, and Chu Qiaoling, who was far away in the capital, also learned about the mole. After the mole was dealt with, everyone cheered up.
When Chen Xiao thought of this, she asked these seniors if they knew the hidden story from back then, because she only knew from the book that the mole was dealt with and did not know the specifics.
Upon hearing this, the veterans' thoughts were drawn back to those years. In fact, everyone in the army knew about this incident at the time, because Li Qian felt extremely guilty after learning about it and even wanted to atone for her sins with her death.
Later, after comforting the families of the deceased, Chu Qiaoling personally came to the border, apologized to everyone, explained the reasons to them, and gave a proper burial to all the fallen soldiers.
Some were understanding, some were angry, and there was a small commotion. It was only after Li Qian took the army into the army that things temporarily calmed down.
Seeing that his seniors were deep in thought, Chen Xiao knew something about the situation and patiently waited for their answers.
However, the seniors looked at each other, glancing at Yuan Yin and then at Chen Xiao, and none of them were willing to speak.
Chen Xiao looked at Yuan Yin, who was equally bewildered, and the two asked the same question at the same time.
The old men looked troubled. "It's not that we don't want to talk about it, but this matter has never been discussed outside our military. Moreover, it involves a wide range of people and concerns the royal family... We can't say anything about it."
So that relates to Li Qian and Chu Qiaoling?
Only after Chen Xiao and Yuan Yin repeatedly requested that the elders reveal this secret that had been buried for decades.
It turns out that the mole was Li Qian's husband.
Li Qian and her husband were arranged by their elders and had no love for each other. They had always agreed to be friends. Li Yuan was an unexpected match.
After Li Qian got together with Chu Qiaoling, she took the initiative to tell her husband about it. Her husband accepted it calmly, and Li Qian didn't think much of it. After all, the two had been married for ten years and rarely spent time together.
Unexpectedly, her husband was actually unwilling to accept this and harbored murderous intentions towards both Li Qian and Chu Qiaoling. He secretly prepared for fifteen years, colluding with the royal families of other countries, which led to the outbreak of war.
Because the previous dynasty, namely the Rong dynasty, customarily sent princesses to other countries for marriage alliances, and there were more than one princess sent for such an alliance, as the last emperor of the Rong dynasty had twenty princesses.
Only those whose mothers held high positions or were favored were exempted from marriage alliances; all others were sent to different countries for marriage alliances. This was the survival strategy of the Rong Dynasty emperors.
This is why Li Qian's husband was able to collude with royal families in other countries.
At that time, Yechao had trade relations with other countries, and foreign envoys often came to visit Yechao.
In the tenth year of the Xinye era, Li Qian's husband met the envoy from the Chi Kingdom who had come to visit. Unexpectedly, the envoy was actually the son of a princess from the previous dynasty who had been sent to marry a foreign ruler, and was the third prince of the Chi Kingdom.
The emperor of Chi Kingdom was old, but he only had three sons. The third prince was the most favored because the emperor loved his concubine, Princess Rongchao the Fifteenth.
However, the Crown Prince was the eldest prince, which made him feel insecure. So he joined forces with the Second Prince to rebel, which undoubtedly failed. However, he accidentally killed the Sixth Princess, the most beloved princess of the Emperor, the Third Prince's younger sister, and the daughter of the Imperial Concubine.
Therefore, the Crown Prince and the Second Prince were sentenced to death, but before their deaths, they both claimed that the Emperor of the Night Dynasty had instigated them to rebel, and produced the Night Dynasty's royal token, which led Emperor Chi and the Consort to believe them without a doubt.
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