Chapter 17 Farewell
The snow behind them made a crunching sound as it was stepped on. They both turned around at the same time and saw Shen Zhongan walking towards them, with one step deep and one step shallow.
"What are you two doing here?"
"We're sharing the steamed buns." Chen Yu said.
Shen Zhongan smiled knowingly, took out a steamed bun from his chest and handed it to her.
Food was in short supply and a general only had a bowl of porridge and a steamed bun. Her father and brother wanted to save the good ones for her.
Chen Yu finally couldn't hold it in any longer, and said with red eyes: "I just ate and can't eat anymore."
The army has run out of food. It’s good enough to fill our stomachs, but there’s no way we can get enough to eat.
Shen Zhongan kicked Shen Zhao, who moved aside a little. He sat down between the two of them, stuffed the steamed bun into Shen Yu's hand and said, "Eat. We'll slaughter the horses tomorrow and let all the soldiers have a full meal so they can cheer up and fight again."
Slaughtering the horse is the final decision with no way out.
That was Wanwan'erlang's last meal before execution.
No one spoke, letting the cold wind howl over the hills and blow further away.
Shen Zhongan held the two children in his arms, looked into the distance and said, "Beyond the Black Sparrow Mountain, we reach the land inside the Great Wall. The Great Zhou has stood here for hundreds of years. I wonder how many heroes have been buried on this land beneath our feet."
"I have thought before, what would your mother do if one day I died in a foreign land? Later, she passed away so early, and she asked me to bury her on the flattest land in Black Sparrow Mountain. She said that if that day came, I would be able to reunite with her by going down the river."
Shen Yu's eyes were sore.
In her previous life, she had never come to the border, nor had she heard her father say such words of farewell. She rushed thousands of miles from Shengjing, buried the broken bodies of her father and brother in the Shen family's ancestral tomb.
She is not afraid of death, she just hates it.
A hero should die honorably on the battlefield, rather than being attacked from both sides and trapped to die miserably.
Shen Zhongan looked calm. He patted them both on the shoulders, stood up and walked back.
Chen Yu: "Dad..."
Shen Zhongan knew what she was going to say, so he raised his hand and waved it, and his heavy voice came through the wind.
"A civil servant dies for his remonstrance, a soldier dies for his battle. This should...should be the fate of a soldier."
The winter outside the Great Wall is so cold.
Shen Zhongan looked up at the sky. He couldn't leave...
As soon as they left, the Western Jue people would be able to take Yanliang Pass directly. There were hundreds of thousands of people inside the pass, and they would need a city wall built with their corpses to hold them off.
So we can lose this battle, but we cannot retreat.
But his daughter is not a soldier, and she still has a long way to go. He cannot let her young body be destroyed here and trampled into pulp by the Xijue war horses.
The two watched Shen Zhongan leave, and Shen Zhao took off the pouch from his waist and handed it to her.
Shen Yu took it, smelled it, and smiled, "It's Shaodaozi."
"Drink a little to warm your body, don't drink too much." Shen Zhao warned.
Shen Yu took a sip, the strong liquor burned her throat, and her whole body felt warmer.
She handed it back to him. Shen Zhao shook his head, looked in the direction of the camp and said, "Send a message to her for me."
"Who?" Shen Yu tilted her head.
Chen Zhao looked towards Shengjing with a gentle gaze, "Tell her not to wait for me."
Shen Yu understood who she was referring to, and her eyes instantly turned red, "I can't pass this message on, you go back and tell her yourself."
Chen Zhao smiled, "Forget it, don't tell her anything, it's best to leave it like this, she'll forget it after a while."
Chen Yu shook her head. How could she forget? How could she easily forget someone who was once engraved in her bones? Miss Yu never married until her death.
She turned her head to look at Shen Zhao's face, and her eyes gradually became difficult to focus.
She shook her head, her vision becoming more blurred, "You...you were in the wine..."
Chen Zhao didn't wait for her to finish her words, he pushed her head onto his shoulder, "Ah Yu, don't seek revenge, just move forward and live your life, your brother and parents are watching you."
He looked down at her and saw that the girl had fallen asleep on his shoulder.
He carried her on his back and walked silently towards the south of the camp, just as he had walked with her on his back before.
Snap, snap...
Ayu, you will have to walk the future alone.
Three miles south of the camp, a small group of soldiers lined up here.
Shen Zhongan took the lead, and when Shen Zhao approached, he dismounted and took the unconscious Shen Yu over.
The heavy snow had stopped long ago, and the snow reflected the moonlight, emitting a bright white light.
They said goodbye silently, no one spoke a word, and the only sounds were the sound of footsteps, the friction of armor, and the horses' breathing.
After settling Chen Yu down, the two men mounted their horses.
Shen Zhao raised his horse whip, pointed in a direction and said to Kong Qing: "Keep going in this direction and you will reach the fiefdom of King Beilin."
Kong Qing knelt on the ground, "General——"
"I leave her to you." Chen Zhao said seriously, "Protect her well. This is my last military order for you."
Kong Qing's face was stern, his eyes were bloodshot, "Yes! I will obey your command!"
"Let's go." Shen Zhongan urged.
He turned his horse around and walked slowly, hearing the sound of horse hooves from the team behind him fading away.
He wanted to take another look at his daughter, but he couldn't bear to look back.
Forget it, whether you watch it or not, the ending is the same, there will always be a time for reunion and separation, and there will also be a time for the next meeting.
…
The sound of horse hooves rang in my ears, and my body gradually woke up from the bumpy ride.
Shen Yu slowly opened her eyes, and everything in front of her was pitch black, her body still in a semi-paralyzed state.
She tried to move her arms, and the person in front of her seemed to realize that she had woken up and lifted the cloak covering her head.
"girl."
She listens
It was Kong Qing's voice. The dazzling light made her close her eyes instantly. "Where am I?"
Kong Qing looked ahead, "It's a hundred miles north, and we can cross the river in half a day, and then go around..."
"Let me go!" Chen Yu said.
She could see everything around her clearly at this moment. There were two teams of about ten people accompanying her. She and Kong Qing were riding on the same horse. Perhaps because he was afraid that she would fall down while unconscious, Kong Qing tied her to his back.
The horses were still moving towards the north, and Kong Qing did not turn their heads.
Chen Yu tried to struggle, but found that all her muscles were restrained.
Sensing her intention, Kong Qing said, "Miss, I am escorting you back to Shengjing on the orders of the general."
Chen Yu said sternly: "I won't go back to Beijing. My father and brother are still outside Yanliang Pass. You want me to abandon them and escape by myself?"
Kong Qing said nothing.
"Kong Qing, are you going to be a deserter?"
"We are not deserters!"
"Since you are not a deserter, then follow me and kill them back."
Kong Qing suddenly reined in his horse, dismounted and stood aside, "Girl, you can't go back. Liang Jianfang has sealed off the city. The food inside the pass can't be transported out, and the soldiers outside the pass can't go back. This is a dead end."
"So what if it's a dead end?" Chen Yu said sternly, "Would you rather live in shame and live in guilt for the rest of your life, or kill a few Xijue people and die gloriously?"
Kong Qing was speechless, but the unwillingness on his face betrayed his thoughts.
Chen Yu continued, "If I only know how to die for my country on the battlefield, why should I return home wrapped in horsehide? This is the first line of poetry my father taught me. I will not retreat. Even if I am buried there, I will watch the people who come after me defeat the Western Jue people."
Kong Qing's eyes were red with anger, he raised his head and said: "We will not retreat."
"Then you can help me untie the Xue Dao."
Kong Qing stared at her face, struggling with his expression. After a while, he shook his head and said, "As long as I am a soldier of the general, I will accept his orders. After sending the girl back to the capital, I will come to reunite with them."
Chen Yu was furious, "Okay, you don't understand, right?"
Kong Qing looked at her in confusion. After a moment, he suddenly understood what she wanted to do. "Girl, don't do that!"
As soon as the words fell, blood oozed from the corners of Shen Yu's lips.
"Can you figure it out?" she threatened.
Mobilizing internal energy to forcibly break through the acupoints is an extremely harmful act. In severe cases, one may even lose all martial arts skills.
Kong Qing felt as if an invisible knife was held at her neck, and he had no choice but to untie her acupoints swiftly.
The next moment, Chen Yu grabbed the reins and turned the horse around, "I have to go back. This is a road of no return. You can choose to leave on your own, or you can choose to fight me back."
The soldier gripped the reins tightly, "We and the girl are in this together."
"Me too!"
"At least kill a few Xijue people first!"
Kong Qing took a deep breath, grabbed the reins and climbed onto the back of another horse.
① "Out of the Frontier" by Xu Xilin
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