The sound of horse hooves behind him startled Zhao Zhi and helped him dodge the enemy's swords.
"It's reinforcements!" someone on the city wall shouted excitedly, "General! Reinforcements are here!"
At this moment, the Northwest Army, which was originally only a few left, seemed to be injected with chicken blood. They picked up bloody knives and were ready to fight to the death with the Qiang soldiers who rushed in.
Even if they die, they cannot let those bandits break into the city!
At this moment, a strong force suddenly pushed them apart. The first wave of Qiang soldiers who rushed into the city to prepare for a massacre seemed to be pushed out of the city gate by the same force, piling up into a human mountain outside the city wall, forming a natural obstacle for the Qiang soldiers who were about to attack from behind.
The city gate that had been broken was closed again by an invisible force.
Immediately afterwards, Zhao Zhi saw a woman in red armor, waving a golden whip and riding a horse towards him.
In front of him, he stepped on the horse's back, flew into the air, and climbed over the several-meter-high city wall.
There were tens of thousands of enemy troops outside the city. Zhao Zhi, who reacted quickly, panicked. Where did that woman come from? She broke into the enemy army alone. She must be looking for death!
No matter who she was, Zhao Zhi couldn't just let her die in vain. He immediately ordered all the soldiers to carry bows and arrows and go up to the city wall. Even if they could kill one more enemy soldier, it would be a good thing!
One man, one whip, and a horse snatched from the enemy.
Song Wan controlled the black horse and injected his mental power into the golden whip, swinging it away all the people piled up at the city gate.
The enemy's attack was completely broken up by the enemy's corpses she whipped over.
Zhao Zhi on the city wall saw this scene and his eyes widened. Is this the so-called "sweeping across millions of troops"?
At this time, the city gate opened from the inside and a group of people rushed out. Zhao Zhi looked over and saw that they were not the Northwest Army. He asked, "Are they reinforcements?"
The deputy general beside him wiped away his tears and shouted, "General! Reinforcements are coming! Reinforcements are coming!"
A thousand cavalrymen, one against a hundred, killed a large number of enemy soldiers.
The leading woman was even more like a god, using a golden whip to beat down pile after pile of "human mountains". Zhao Zhi's mouth twitched when he saw the piles of enemy soldiers' corpses.
"General! General! Reinforcements have arrived! General Gu is leading 20,000 troops from Guizhou, along with tens of thousands of pounds of food. The general also said that the imperial court's follow-up troops, food, and fodder will arrive within half a month!"
After parting with those women, Song Wan and Gu Yan quickly split up into two groups. The former went to support the battlefield, while the latter went to meet Jiang Zhen who was escorting potatoes from Guizhou.
At first, Gu Yan was anxious to go to the battlefield himself and let Song Wan take people to get food and supplies.
In the end, Song Wan was unwilling, and he couldn't beat her, so even though he was worried, he could only let her go.
Zhao Zhi saw the figure not far away, and his eyes warmed up. He quickly asked his deputy to go with him to greet him, "General Gu!"
Gu Yan raised her hand hastily, telling him not to say anything more. "These 20,000 are strong soldiers who can at least fight 30 at a time. I will lead 8,000 men out of the city to pursue the Qiang enemy army. General Zhao will lead the rest of the troops to continue defending the city!"
Zhao Zhi didn't have time to be surprised, and quickly accepted the order, "I obey your command!"
The 20,000 people brought by Jiang Zhen were just part of the people left behind by the late emperor. They had been hiding in the other mountains. After a short period of intensive training, although they could not be compared with the 5,000 people in the mountains behind Dadong Village, they were still much better than ordinary soldiers.
Gu Yan hurriedly led 8,000 people out of the city. At this time, Song Wan was about to kill the Qiang leader who was surrounded by layers of enemies.
Nearly half of the 200,000 Northwest Army soldiers were killed by the Qiang people using red poison powder. Some of them had festering wounds and could not wear helmets, while others had severe pain in their eyes and could not see clearly.
The Qiang leader sat on a much higher throne, surrounded by soldiers protecting him. He squinted his eyes and looked at the situation ahead. "Who is that person?"
The subordinate beside him took a quick look and said, "I will lead the men to pursue them right away!"
The battle that was almost won was completely disrupted by this woman. The Qiang leader was furious and shouted to his men who were about to mount their horses and leave, "Use the poison powder directly!"
The subordinate understood and accepted the order, "Yes!"
A bunch of ignorant people, if you don't want to live, just die.
The subordinate quickly gathered a group of soldiers, smeared the antidote to the red poison powder on their faces, and then took advantage of the right wind direction to sprinkle the red poison powder into the sky, and then used their homemade blower to blow the red poison powder towards the Dai Viet soldiers!
Zhao Zhi saw a familiar scene and, without caring about anything else, shouted at the top of his lungs in the direction of Gu Yanji, "General Gu! Run! The enemy is spreading red poison powder! That's poison!"
"Hahahaha! Since you are so ungrateful! Then try this leader's red poison powder! Hahahaha!" The Qiang leader laughed loudly towards the sky.
Song Wan was less than three hundred meters away from the Qiang leader at this time. When she saw the "red poison powder" blowing towards her and smelled the familiar smell again, she finally remembered what it was.
The smell this time was much stronger than the one she had smelled in Beijing before. This was the red pepper she had been craving for for more than two years!
After hearing Zhao Zhi's voice, Gu Yanji turned around and looked for Song Wan. He knocked down several enemy soldiers with one spear, jumped on his horse, and galloped towards the enemy's hinterland.
Although he had received definite assurances that the so-called red poison powder was not toxic, Gu Yanji did not want Song Wan to suffer all this personally.
After Song Wan was surprised, she asked everyone who followed her to step aside. She swung the whip and immediately rolled up a row of enemy soldiers, blocking the chili powder one meter away.
Then, taking advantage of the enemy's shock, she rushed in forcefully and whipped the windmill into pieces of scrap wood with two whips. She also pinned the three or five bags of chili powder attached to the back of the windmill behind her.
"Quick! Quick! Stop her!"
By the time the Qiang soldiers reacted, Song Wan was already running towards Gu Yanji carrying several bags of chili powder.
She shouted happily, "Gu Yan, hurry up! They actually used chili peppers!"
Gu Yanji was really scared to death by her, but when she saw that she was safe, she finally let go of her worry.
He looked at what was on her horse's back and frowned as he asked, "Is this the red poison powder used by the Qiang people?"
Song Wan shook her head. "That's not some poison powder! It's chili pepper! It's like the dogwood you use for seasoning here, but it's several times spicier!"
"Seasoning?" Gu Yan was anxious and surprised, not knowing what to say. The poison powder that made it impossible for the Northwest Army to fight back was actually just a seasoning.
Song Wan thought he didn't believe her, so she opened a bag, dipped a little with her index finger, put it in her mouth, and tasted it for him to see.
Her action frightened Gu Yan so much that he almost jumped out of his horse. "Ah Wan! If anyone wants to taste it, I'll have to! You——"
The chili powder was very spicy. Song Wan exhaled deeply, her face flushed red as she fanned herself frantically with her hands. "It's just too spicy to eat alone!"
Gu Yanji didn't know what to say. Fortunately, he remembered that he had hidden two pieces of candied fruits in his arms a long time ago.
After taking it out and checking, he found it was still clean, so he immediately handed it to Song Wan's mouth, "Eat some candied fruit to relieve the spiciness."
Song Wan was very hungry, so she picked up two candied fruits and stuffed them into her mouth. The sour and sweet taste quickly dispelled the spiciness in her mouth.
"They must have grown a lot of chili peppers! Let's fight back! Move all those chili peppers back home!" Song Wan looked towards the enemy with eager eyes, and excitedly said to Gu Yan, "With chili peppers, we can make so many delicious dishes! The boiled fish we had on the boat last time would be even more delicious with chili peppers!"
Through her series of real reactions, Gu Yanji was finally willing to believe that this so-called red poison powder was not only non-toxic, but could also be used in cooking.
But he still had a question, "Ah Wan, do you know how to cure those soldiers who have been poisoned by this red poison—no, chili powder?"
Song Wan killed the enemy who wanted to surprise attack him and quickly replied, "It's very simple. If the chili pepper touches the wound, it will make it worse. Have the doctor in the barracks clean the chili powder off the surface of everyone and be careful not to dirty the wounds. Move the wounded to a clean, dust-free room and apply medicine to the wounds. They will slowly heal."
Those wounded soldiers whose injuries never recovered must have been infected because their wounds were not treated in time.
Gu Yan tried hard to keep up with her speed, and the two of them worked together to kill thousands of enemy soldiers.
When the Dai Viet soldiers saw that the enemy's red poison powder had been taken away by our generals, their morale immediately rose. They raised their swords and rushed towards the enemy without any scruples.
"Waste! Waste! A bunch of waste!" The Qiang leader kicked away the soldiers operating the windmill and spreading the poison powder, cursing at them. "Who the hell is that woman? How dare she barge in alone? And are you all dead? Don't you know how to stab and kill with a knife?"
"Chief! General! We don't know either! When she came running over, our brothers felt like they were hit by a needle. By the time we recovered, she had already escaped!"
At this time, another Qiang soldier came to report, and his voice was heard panicking, "Chief Zabu! The Dai-Da Viet army is coming to kill!"
"How is that possible!" The man named Zabu got down from his chair, his face filled with disbelief. "Didn't we cripple a hundred thousand of their soldiers with red poison powder? I even shot the guy named Mu through with a single arrow! How could they possibly have anyone capable of leading the troops?"
The soldier kneeling on the ground trembled and replied, "More than one! The two of them are not leading the Northwest Army! They are several times more powerful than the Northwest Army!"
"General Zabu! Let's retreat first! That's Gu Yanji from Dai Viet!" The deputy leader, who understood the situation, immediately advised, "Gu Yanji, who once faced the Daye army on the southwestern border and won nine out of ten battles!"
"Nine wins out of ten?! Then let this general see whose sword is sharper!"
"General Zab--" the deputy leader wanted to persuade him again.
Zabu waved his hand to interrupt him and said forcefully, "No need to say more! We must take Northwest City today!"
Zabu was an arrogant person. This was his first time leading an army into battle. He had a good start, but the city that was about to be within his grasp was suddenly broken by an unknown force that came out of nowhere. How could he be willing to accept this!
Song Wan was halfway through the chase when she suddenly slowed down. She turned to Gu Yan and asked anxiously, "Do you want to compete?"
Gu Yan raised her eyebrows anxiously, "What competition?"
Facing the cold wind, Song Wan stared at the Qiang leader not far away, eager to try, "Let's see who can capture the enemy officer with the highest rank! Bet one hundred taels of gold!"
Gu Yan laughed hastily. Meeting her burning gaze, he couldn't bear to refuse and agreed, "Okay, I'll bet with you!"
Just as he finished speaking, Song Wan disappeared in a flash, this time rushing out with both horse and person.
When Gu Yan came to his senses, the man was already several feet away from him.
"Brothers! Follow this general!" Zabu ignored the deputy leader's advice and insisted on getting on his horse and swinging his sword to kill the enemy.
The deputy leader had no choice but to rush forward with a knife in hand!
When Song Wan saw the lamb running into the circle she had set up, her eyes lit up. It was just a good opportunity to run less distance, so she stopped the horse and waited for the lamb to come over.
Zabu saw the man opposite him, who was like a fool. He didn't even try to dodge when he saw him rushing towards him. He immediately smiled contemptuously and felt that what the deputy leader said before was pure groundless worry.
He thought that the story of nine wins in ten battles was probably a story made up by storytellers in Dai Viet!
Zabu held the reins in his left hand and the knife in his right hand, rushing towards Song Wan.
At this moment, Song Wan suddenly sped up her horse. When the two men's whips and swords were about to collide, she rolled sideways onto the horse's back, using the force to fly directly over the other man's head.
At the same time, he flexibly wrapped the whip in his hand around the enemy leader's neck and pulled it back. With a snap, he broke the neck due to excessive force.
Song Wan tied the man to the horse and dragged him, continuing to chase the deputy leader.
When the deputy leader saw such a horrifying scene, he quickly retreated and mounted his horse to run away. However, when he turned around, he bumped into Gu Yan who was rushing towards him with a gun in his hand.
When Song Wan saw that Gu Yanji had already caught up with the deputy leader of the Qiang tribe, she immediately became anxious. She simply abandoned her horse and stepped on the heads of the enemy soldiers along the way to catch the deputy leader who was being held down by Gu Yanji with a stick.
The young generals who led the troops were stunned when they saw this scene, and were almost cut on the face by the enemy soldiers' knives.
What kind of Kung Fu is this? Their generals’ Kung Fu is not even this good!
Song Wan held a head by the scruff of the neck with one hand and said anxiously to Gu Yan, who had nothing in her hands, "Two heads, two hundred taels of gold!"
Zhao Zhi, who had rushed over to warn them of the enemy's red poison powder, almost fell off his horse when he heard this. Fortunately, the deputy general who followed him supported him in time.
The enemy leader and deputy leader were captured by Song Wan. The remaining tens of thousands of Qiang enemy soldiers were quickly defeated by the 20,000 troops brought by Jiang Zhen and the 1,000 cavalry who followed Song Wan and Gu Yan from the capital to the northwest. They were unable to fight back and fled in all directions.
There was no need for Gu Yan to give urgent orders. They spontaneously chased the Qiang deserters. Within two hours, all the surviving Qiang deserters were captured five miles away and escorted back.
The Qiang army was destroyed, and the leader and deputy leader were in Song Wan's hands. When the Dai Viet soldiers saw this scene, they could not believe it.
A moment later, the warmest cheers in two months erupted inside and outside the entire city wall.
The Qiang leader was accidentally killed by Song Wan, so after capturing the deputy leader, she did not twist his neck as usual based on her previous experience, but broke his limbs and threw him on the horse's back to hang him.
Gu Yan rode his horse hurriedly to Song Wan's side. Seeing that her face was still rosy and she was full of energy, and after confirming that she had not consumed too much mental energy, he reached out and took the horse she was using to carry the Qiang leader and deputy leader.
Song Wan looked at his victory, then at Gu Yanji's empty horseback, and suddenly felt extremely proud. "Gu Yanji, you lost! We agreed on two hundred taels of gold!"
The deputy leader who was still breathing: ...
So he is worth one hundred taels of gold!
Zhao Zhi finally arrived on horseback, having lost too much blood. He looked around but couldn't see any trace of the red poison powder. Confused and worried, he asked, "Could it be that the Qiang soldiers didn't have time to spread the red poison powder?"
Song Wan patted the sacks behind him and asked, "Are you talking about them?"
Zhao Zhi stared at the sacks and could see a lot of red poison powder sticking out. He suddenly became nervous, "Princess, be careful with the red poison powder! If it touches a wound, it will cause a burning pain!"
"It's not some red poison powder! It's not poisonous!" Song Wan patted the spoils behind him and said, "It's called chili powder, which is made from grinding chili peppers into powder!"
Zhao Zhi's eyes widened in disbelief, "What! You said it's not poisonous?!"
After a simple tidying up, Song Wan took off her armor and changed into a red outfit. Her long hair was tied up and fluttered in the slight blush.
Gu Yan hurriedly lived next to her and changed into clean clothes.
Zhao Zhi found a military doctor to bandage his wound and waited for them outside the door.
Hearing the sound of the door opening, he quickly turned and walked over, "General Gu, what should we do with the more than 20,000 Qiang soldiers we captured?"
"They're still alive." Song Wan patted her clothes and walked closer. "Kill them all."
Zhao Zhi's tongue was almost tied. "Kill them all? Without torture?"
The Qiang people are different from countries like Dai Viet. They are composed of several tribes, and each tribe has a leader. The man whose neck Song Wan just broke is said to be Zabu, the second most powerful tribal leader of the Qiang people.
Song Wan frowned. "What else are you trying to force out? They're a bunch of people who aren't even fit to be soldiers. Think about the innocent villages that were massacred. You still want to spend time torturing them, wasting manpower, material resources, and scarce food?"
In her eyes, these bandit soldiers who were worse than animals did not deserve to live in this world.
Zhao Zhi was shocked. The princess was right. These bandits were worse than beasts. If they were allowed to return alive, they would harm their own people.
"Then kill them all? It would save our brothers from wasting their energy on guarding them!" After Zhao Zhi made the decision, he remembered that he had originally wanted to find Gu Yan to make an urgent decision.
He hesitated for a moment and decided to ask again, "General Gu, what do you think?"
Gu Yan looked at Song Wan anxiously and patted her head, "Just listen to the princess."
Zhao Zhi looked away, pretending not to see Gu Yan's anxious movements.
But in his heart he was complaining, after all he was a general, how could he touch a woman so casually.
Song Wan rushed into the enemy's encirclement. Although the mental energy he consumed was not as much as the thousands of Qiang soldiers who massacred the village before, it was still a lot.
She didn't know if it was because she had consumed too much energy in one day or because Gu Yanji had taken the initiative to give it to her to replenish it, but within a moment, her mental power was full and she felt like she was about to reach level ten.
"By the way, General Gu, should we pursue the victory now, or should we rest and recuperate first?" Zhao Zhi asked again.
Gu Yanji then noticed something was wrong and immediately asked, "Why can't I see General Mu?"
Hearing the other party mention General Mu, Zhao Zhi's face was filled with pain, and he answered with difficulty, "General Mu was shot in the heart and lungs by three arrows from the Qiang leader at noon. The military doctor said that he can only hold on for three days at most!"
Since Zhao Zhi joined the army, he has been under the command of General Mu. Over the past ten years, their relationship has become more than just that of a superior and a subordinate. General Mu has long been as important to him as a father or brother.
"Heart and lungs?" Gu Yan frowned when he heard it. He subconsciously looked at Song Wan for an answer.
Song Wan looked at him and touched her stomach. "I can save you, but can you please let me eat a few bites of meat first? I'm so hungry."
Those two pieces of candied fruit are of no use at all!
"Princess, you said you can save him?!" Zhao Zhi was extremely excited. Even the best military doctor said that he could not be saved. He thought that he could only go to the general's tombstone and drink with him in the future.
Gu Yanji really hoped that General Mu could survive, but he was also worried about Song Wan's ability to endure it. "How about tomorrow?"
Song Wan shook her head and said no, "Just wait until I finish my meal!"
After saying this, she leaned over to his ear and whispered, "I'm very energetic now, but I'm very hungry."
The slight heat in his ears made Gu Yan's heart tremble anxiously. He quietly moved away half a finger's distance and asked her, "What do you want to eat, Ah Wan?"
"Potatoes!" Song Wan thought to herself, "Didn't Jiang Zhen bring a lot of potatoes? Let's have potato stew! Oh, and add some chili powder this time!"
This great victory swept away the depressed atmosphere of the Northwest Army, which had been in a slump for many days. When they heard that the seriously injured General Mu might be cured, their morale was greatly boosted.
However, Song Wan got into an argument with several cooks in the military camp kitchen.
"If I say it's okay to add it, then add it!" Song Wan pushed one of the cooks to the pot and pointed at the bowl of chili powder. "If you're afraid, add two spoonfuls to my portion!"
The cook had already learned from the deputy guard beside Zhao Zhi that the woman in front of him with extraordinary strength was Princess Xiaoyao who had been personally conferred by the new emperor not long ago. He was just a small cook and did not dare to offend her.
But he couldn't put the red poison powder from the Qiang people into the meat and feed it to the generals and soldiers, as it involved tens of thousands of lives.
"My Lady Princess, please don't make things difficult for me. I'm just a cook. I really can't do something like poisoning!" The cook said directly.
Song Wan let go, then frowned, "Who said it was poison? I said it was chili powder, not poisonous! I've tasted it myself, it's not poisonous! It's just for flavor, and it tastes similar to the dogwood in your bowl!"
The cook saw that she did not seem to be lying, and that she was a princess after all, and had just made military achievements, so it did not seem that she would do such a thing as poisoning at this time, and so openly.
"Is this really edible?" the cook asked tentatively.
"Of course!" Song Wan found it tiring to talk to these people. If she had known earlier, she would have brought Aunt Hehua and Chunhua to the northwest.
Afraid that they would continue to ask questions, Song Wan dipped her hand in some chili powder again and ate it in front of them, but this time she was careful not to use too much.
"Do you believe it now?" Song Wan said after eating the chili powder and drinking two large bowls of water.
The cooks were skeptical, but ultimately decided to add only two spoonfuls of so-called chili powder to the small pot prepared for Song Wan.
The potatoes that Jiang Zhen brought were half cooked tonight. Zhao Zhi then ordered the slaughter of a few pigs and asked the cooks to make several large pots of potato stew according to the recipe Song Wan had given.
The soldiers lined up for food, each person getting three or five potatoes and a piece of fat and lean meat, a typical situation of too many people and too little meat.
However, for the soldiers who could only eat one or two pieces of meat all year round, tonight's food was comparable to the New Year's Day.
Song Wan and Gu Yanji also set up a table outside to eat, and Zhao Zhi sat at the same table with them.
The difference is that Song Wan, Gu Yanji and Jiang Zhen ate the pot with chili peppers, while Zhao Zhi ate the same big pot of stewed meat as the other soldiers, but without chili peppers.
Zhao Zhi had been fighting all day and was already starving. He ignored the wound on his arm, picked up the chopsticks and started to eat the porridge in big mouthfuls.
"Is this the potato you said could produce 1,000 kilograms per mu?" Zhao Zhi said as he reached into the bowl, picked up a piece, and swallowed it whole.
Not tasting anything, he picked up another piece and chewed it slowly this time. His eyes immediately widened.
He looked at Song Wan and the other two, "Why does this still smell like meat?"
Song Wan opened her own pot and rolled her eyes at him, "Of course it tastes like meat when it's stewed with meat!"
That’s not what Zhao Zhi meant. The problem is that usually when you stew cabbage with meat, the cabbage doesn’t taste like meat. This potato is too unusual, just like Song Wan who discovered it.
After he finished his portion in no time, he suddenly smelled a familiar but slightly different fragrance coming into his nose.
Zhao Zhi followed the smell and his eyes fell on the small boiler in front of Song Wan. He swallowed involuntarily, "Is this the potato stew with red poison, er, chili powder?"
After finally eating the authentic spicy dish, Song Wan squinted her eyes happily, "Yes!"
Zhao Zhi looked at the potato stew in the small boiler, then at the three people eating calmly. After waiting for a while, he couldn't help but touch Jiang Zhen beside him, "Hey? Aren't you afraid it's really poisonous?"
Jiang Zhen looked at him quietly and said, "I thought the same thing as you when I discovered potatoes last time."
"Then what?" Zhao Zhi asked subconsciously.
Jiang Zhen picked up another piece of potato and rice, stuffed it into his mouth, and after swallowing it, he finally answered his question, "And then I almost didn't eat it."
Zhao Zhi: ...
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