Ever since Daye sent troops, the southwestern border has been in chaos.
After learning the lesson from the Qiang people in the northwest who acted like bandits, Gu Yanji asked General Qin to order the blocking of all exits that might allow the Daye team to pass through as soon as he arrived in the southwest.
We must not allow Daye to send a small group of people to harass the lives of the people in the southwestern border.
This time, Daye seems to be determined to break through the southwest. In addition to the 100,000 vanguard troops led by their Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself, there are also 300,000 troops to support the follow-up.
Two hundred thousand versus four hundred thousand, this battle in the southwest is not easy to fight.
However, there is still a way out. Daye sent 400,000 troops to this battle, so military supplies and food will definitely be a big problem later.
If someone were willing to lead a team to bypass the enemy's rear and take advantage of the chaos at this time, the morale of the 400,000-strong army would definitely be unstable.
It was Gu Yanji who took on this task. He left behind almost all of the 10,000 troops he brought with him, and only took Jiang Zhen and 20 elite soldiers with him. They marched from the mountains in the southwest, south, and north, bypassing the mountains and dense forests, fighting against tigers and wolves. After nearly half a month, they finally arrived near a border town in Daye.
It has been almost two months since Gu Yanji left, and the war in the southwest is still tense, but fortunately, there are nearly 10,000 elite soldiers and generals left behind by Gu Yanji, who can at least fight one against fifty.
General Qin ordered the Southwestern Army to pretend to be in a state of continuous retreat, luring the enemy into our trap, and then sent in the 10,000 elite soldiers who had been lying in ambush nearby to ambush the enemy.
Time and again, not only did our army's casualties decrease significantly, but the enemy's morale was also severely dampened.
After this battle, as long as Gu Yanji returns safely, the southwest will be safe.
It would take at least half a month to travel from Xiaoyao City to the southwest.
Song Wan, Song Qi and Gu Wu rode fast all the way and never slowed down.
It took less than five days to cover half the distance. Apart from three meals a day and two or three hours of sleep, Song Qi almost felt like he was turning into a horse. Even his dreams were of riding a horse.
"Princess, General Gu is in the southwest, so you can rest assured." Seeing that they were halfway there, Song Qi couldn't help but suggest, "How about we stop and find a farmhouse to make some hot soup?"
"No." Song Wan had no intention of stopping. The closer she got to the southwest, the stronger the strange feeling in her heart became. "Gu Yanji will definitely not be able to do it without me."
When Gu Wu heard her slandering his general, he immediately retorted, "Princess, my general was in charge of the Southwest Army for several years and has always governed the southwest well."
"Are you alright?" Song Wan turned around, a look of genuine confusion on her face. "Then how could you have been seriously injured by a spy in the army before?"
Gu Wu: "...That's the enemy's conspiracy!"
Song Wan nodded seriously, "Yes, so if your general was capable, why would he fall into the enemy's trap?"
Gu Wu's face flushed red, and he replied after a long while, "General, I'm not like what the princess said. That was an accident. The enemy was too cunning. In short, it's not your fault."
Song Wan suddenly stopped talking and began to observe Gu Wu.
"What are you looking at, Princess?" Song Qi rode over and looked left and right. Could it be that Gu Wu's silly face was more attractive than his handsome face?
"Looking at a brainless fan." Song Wan stared at Gu Wu's face and said seriously.
Although Gu Wu didn't know what "brain-dead fans" meant, he understood the word "brain-dead". His brows furrowed, "Princess, are you scolding me?"
Song Wan shook her head, "I'm praising you."
Gu Wu: "Princess, I'm not a fool."
"I don't think you're a fool." Song Wan gave him a strange look. "The key to the 'brainless fan' is the word 'fan'. It means that you admire Gu Yanji very much."
I admire you to the point of mindless trust, so I'm brain-dead.
"Is that so?" Gu Wu was still skeptical after hearing the explanation.
"Of course!" Song Wan put on a stern face, trying hard to look like 'I didn't lie to you'.
"What the princess said must be right!" Song Qi interrupted and urged, "Since you don't plan to stop to rest, then let's hurry up and rest as much as we can once we reach the southwest."
"Let's go." Song Wan continued to speed up and stopped teasing Gu Wu.
Song Wan was not joking about Gu Yan being anxious about her. She really had a bad feeling.
Three days later, in the southwest military camp, in a certain military tent.
General Qin paced back and forth.
"What do you mean missing?" He shouted angrily at the soldiers kneeling on the ground, "Didn't you look for them everywhere?"
Kneeling on the ground were several elite soldiers led by Niu Tiedan. He was also anxious. "We had already followed the general to successfully infiltrate Dai Viet, and after going through many hardships, we finally found the enemy's food supply. The general said that he and Lieutenant General Jiang would attract the enemy's attention and asked us to burn the enemy's food supply. However, after we successfully completed the mission, the general and Lieutenant General Jiang disappeared!"
They waited at the agreed location for three days and searched all the nearby villages and forests. Seeing that the border town was under martial law and there was still no news of the two, they had no choice but to return as planned and report the situation.
General Qin's face darkened. He asked again, "Is the border town of Daye under martial law intended to hunt you down?"
Niu Tiedan nodded, "We burned most of their food supplies, and their people reacted very quickly, posting notices right away!"
Twenty of them went, eleven were sacrificed, and three were exposed in front of the Daye soldiers. The portraits on the notice were of the three people whose faces were exposed.
"That means, either they have already captured General Gu and Lieutenant General Jiang, and there is no need to use portraits to look for them, or they have escaped capture without revealing their identities, but were unable to reunite with you for some reason." General Qin said after deep thought, with his hands behind his back.
After a long moment, he spoke again, "Well, I'll let Qin Che go with you, along with fifty elite soldiers, to Daye to look for the person."
"Yes!" Niu Tiedan responded with his head down.
Qin Che is the grandson of General Qin and a capable general beside General Qin.
General Qin ordered him, "Qin Che, you must bring them back alive or dead!"
Qin Che was dressed like a farmer on this trip. He nodded deeply, "General, I understand!"
"General Gu?" A female voice suddenly interrupted the two of them.
"You said Gu Yanji disappeared?" Song Wan rode his horse into the southwest camp and no one could stop him.
"General! There's an assassin!" The soldier who came running behind pointed at the woman who suddenly broke in and shouted breathlessly.
"Tell me, where is Gu Yan urgently looking for?" Song Wan quickly dismounted and walked up to them.
At this time, Song Qi and Gu Wu, who had been chasing Song Wan for half a day, finally arrived.
The southwestern soldiers guarding the entrance and exit of the military camp did not expect that the assassins would be so bold now. They did not make any cover in broad daylight and broke in openly.
They were unable to stop a woman, and as a result, the two men behind them were exhausted from chasing her. They shot hundreds of arrows, but none of them hit her.
"Princess!" Niu Tiedan pushed away the soldiers blocking his way and ran forward, shouting in surprise.
The soldiers chasing Song Qi and Gu Wu paused. "Princess?" There weren't even any women in the barracks, so where did the princess come from?
Oh, that’s not right. A woman just came. Could she be the princess?
"Niu Tiedan." Song Wan took a glance and obviously still remembered his name.
Because it was she who went to find Niu Tiedan before leaving and asked him to take the thousand cavalry to chase Gu Yanji.
The Northwest was safe by then.
The most important thing is that Song Wan has no use for them.
"Princess, General Gu is missing! It's us who are useless!" Niu Tiedan immediately told her the news. In his eyes, as long as the princess is there, there is no one who cannot be found.
Song Wan frowned, her premonition was indeed correct.
Sure enough, something happened.
"Let's go to Daye." Gu Yan was anxious because the person was hers and she had to rescue him personally.
"Princess, I'll go with you!" It was Gu Wu who spoke.
"Okay!" In Song Wan's eyes, although Gu Wu's martial arts skills were not as good as hers, he was the best except for Gu Yanji.
"Princess, I'll go with you!" Song Qi was unwilling to be outdone, and his martial arts skills were not bad either.
"You and I are already in the same group." Song Wan was not joking when she said she was used to using their words. "But Niu Tiedan, you guys don't have to go."
Niu Tiedan didn't want to stay in the barracks. He also wanted to go find General Gu. "Why?"
Song Wan said honestly, "Taking you along will not only make us a bigger target, but it will also waste time."
Niu Tiedan's expression fell. As expected, in the eyes of the princess, they still had a lot of room for improvement.
"Excuse me, young lady, are you the Princess Xiaoyao appointed by His Majesty himself?" General Qin looked at her silently for a long time before finally asking.
"Of course!" Song Wan admitted straightforwardly, "My name is Song Wan, the Princess Xiaoyao you mentioned."
It’s true that when this title that Gu Yanji helped her to choose is called out, it is indeed much more impressive than the titles of Princess Xiaosha and Princess Fugui.
When Emperor Conghe passed away and Emperor Jianming ascended the throne, the Qin family had been trying to stay away from the center of power in order to protect themselves. General Qin was over seventy years old, but under the covert pressure and overt instruction of Emperor Jianming, he had no choice but to put on his armor and go into battle again.
In the two years before the ceasefire at the southwestern border, he had been helping Emperor Jianming to eliminate the spies planted in the southwestern army by the former King Yu, and he also uncovered several spies from Daye.
As a result, Emperor Jianming was driven off the throne after only two years in power based on a will and two handwritten letters from Emperor Conghe.
The person who did this was the Princess Xiaoyao in front of him.
It was heard that Princess Xiaoyao and General Gu brought the new emperor all the way back to the capital from Guizhou with only 5,000 troops, but they took control of the entire palace.
To be honest, General Qin didn't believe it when he first heard about this.
No matter how weak the imperial guards in the capital are, there are still 100,000 of them. Even if they brought back 5,000 elite soldiers, it would be impossible for them to easily control the palace in a short period of time.
It was not until Gu Yanji arrived from the northwest with 10,000 troops that General Qin saw with his own eyes that one cavalryman could defeat a hundred, and even that one of the 10,000 elite soldiers could defeat fifty.
You know, it is almost impossible to train such soldiers in just two years.
General Qin still remembered that not long after Gu Yan arrived in the southwest, when he asked about the military training, he mentioned the proud and gentle expression on the face of the Princess Xiaoyao.
Thinking of this, General Qin's tone softened a bit, "My name is Qin Renkai. I wonder if the princess still remembers me?"
"Qin Renkai?" Song Wan was unfamiliar with the name, but judging from his age, he seemed to be older than her grandfather.
So Song Wan immediately asked, "Do you know my grandfather?"
"Your grandfather and I once served in the same barracks." General Qin recalled the past with a sense of melancholy. "Back then, your grandfather was still a young boy."
"Then should I call you Grandpa Qin?" Song Wan tilted her head.
"Did the princess come from the northwest?" asked General Qin.
"No, I'm from Xiaoyao City." Song Wan raised her chin slightly, "It was originally called Qiang City."
"Come to think of it, I have already subjugated the Qiang people, so why haven't you conquered that Daye Kingdom yet?"
"You, you said you took in the Qiang people?" General Qin was shocked. "The entire Qiang tribe?"
"What else? Is there any other place in the world where this tribe exists?"
General Qin: "Princess, niece? Are you really not lying to me?"
"Why would I lie to you?" Song Wan snorted, "If you don't believe me, ask them."
She pointed at Song Qi and Gu Wu.
"The princess has indeed subdued the Qiang people," Song Qi said. "The heads of all the Qiang tribes are still hanging on the northwest city wall."
They rode at top speed all the way here, saving a lot of time. Song Qi estimated, "If General Qin doesn't believe it, just wait patiently for two more days. The Northwest Army report will definitely arrive."
General Qin was not unwilling to believe it, but he couldn't believe it. "Could it be that you have solved the red poison powder of the Qiang people?"
"In fact, it is not a poison powder at all, but a spicy substance similar to dogwood. If you add some of it when cooking, it will not only add fragrance, but also make the dishes more delicious, especially with rice." Song Qi tasted dishes with chili peppers in Xiaoyao City. He used to eat four steamed buns at most for a meal, but that meal he ate six and still felt it was not enough.
"But those Northwestern Army soldiers would feel unbearable pain just by touching this thing. Isn't it said that if this thing gets into the eyes, it can cause blindness in serious cases?"
Song Wan jumped out and replied, "Grandpa Qin, think about it, is there anything in this world that can get into your eyes and not hurt them at all?"
General Qin: ...
This seems to make sense.
Song Wan was in a hurry to find Gu Yanji and had no time to chat with this grandfather.
She directly asked the young man next to her, "Do you have any dry food in the barracks kitchen? We ate all the food we brought with us on the way."
Qin Che was stunned for a moment, then nodded hurriedly, "Yes!"
"That's fine as long as there is one." Song Wan didn't ask any further questions. Instead, she sniffed it and then ran quickly in a certain direction.
In less than half a minute, she came back, carrying two large bags in her hands.
"Niece, what are you doing?" General Qin didn't expect that Brother Song's granddaughter was so good at light work. She could come and go without a trace right under their noses.
"These are the dry food I took from your kitchen." Song Wan threw the two bundles to Song Qi and Gu Wu respectively.
The sudden weight made them stagger half a step.
How much dry food did the princess pack?
"We're leaving first!" Song Wan jumped on his horse. "Wait until I find Gu Yanji, then I'll bring the old Emperor of Daye back for you to play with!"
Everyone: ...
Can the emperor of another country be captured easily?
Song Qi and Gu Wu followed and mounted their horses. The three of them came and left in a hurry.
Now the soldiers guarding the gate did not try to stop him. After all, just hearing Song Wan say that he had conquered the entire Qiang tribe was enough to keep them stunned for a long time.
"Grandpa." Qin Che even forgot to call the general, "Then should I still go?"
General Qin watched the three people leave and finally sighed, "Forget it, you will only cause trouble for the princess if you go."
Qin Che: “…”
Song Wan did not disguise himself as a farmer or a businessman like Qin Che did. Instead, he took Song Qi and Gu Wu on the right path. This would save a lot of time than walking through the deep mountains and dense forests.
Anyway, she has mental power, so it is easy for her to enter the border town of Daye.
This is also one of the reasons why Song Wan only brought Song Qi and Gu Wu. They have seen many strange things happen to her, so they would not think it strange if one or two more happened, saving her the trouble of making up excuses.
After five days of galloping, the three of them easily entered the border town of Daye.
The border town of Daye is not much different from Dayue. The only difference is that there are patrolling soldiers everywhere, and Song Wan also saw portraits posted on the wall.
She took a closer look and immediately muttered, "This painting doesn't look like it at all."
Song Qi and Gu Wu had been on high alert since they successfully passed the border town soldiers' inspection. Suddenly, they heard the princess' words and immediately reminded her nervously, "Miss, keep your voice down."
After entering the city, in order to avoid suspicion, they both changed back to their previous names.
Song Wan: "Why are you so nervous? I'm here and I won't let you lose a single hair."
Song Qi, Gu Wu: ...
"By the way, are there any important people in this city? Why are there more soldiers than people on the streets?" Song Wan asked.
"Durian and I also find it strange." Song Xiangcai Qi glanced at the Daye soldiers on the street.
Now, the habit of changing one's name whenever one needs to conceal one's identity has been deeply engraved in Song Qi's mind.
"Could it be that the Crown Prince of Daye is here?" Gu Wu had long suspected that perhaps the one sitting in the Daye military camp wasn't the real Crown Prince. "The Daye royal family has had difficulty conceiving an heir. The old emperor was dissolute and immoral, ruining his own health. He reigned for over thirty years, and besides the Crown Prince, only the Second Prince, who was born a year ago, remained."
"A year ago?" Song Wan was curious. "How old is the old emperor this year?"
"More than sixty." Song Qi replied.
"Tsk tsk, she can actually have a child at this age." Song Wan asked with serious suspicion, "Are you sure that the second prince is the old emperor's child?"
Gu Wu: "...After all, he is of royal blood. The old emperor wouldn't be so confused, right?"
Song Wan felt that this possibility was extremely high. "Either that concubine cheated on the old emperor, or the old emperor deliberately arranged this. Isn't it said that men care most about their own performance? Besides, he is the emperor of a country."
"Also, he has difficulty in having children, so why did he send his only prince here?" Song Wan couldn't help but suspect that in addition to being infertile, the old emperor might also have some problems with his brain.
"Because, because..." Gu Wu suddenly didn't want to say anything anymore.
But seeing the princess's expression, he knew she would not give up, so he could only stammer, "Because the prince also has difficulty in having children."
The Crown Prince of Daye was nearly forty years old and still had no son. Many people in the Daye court were worried and wanted their old emperor to adopt a son who could have children.
I think it is because the people in the court are unsettled, and other princes of the royal family are ready to make a move, and they all want their sons to be the old emperor's stepson.
That's why the old emperor of Daye made up his mind and let the prince lead troops to attack Dai Viet, so that he could establish prestige in the court.
Song Wan was stunned for a moment, then immediately realized, "It seems that this prince is indeed the old emperor's biological son. He is also unable to have children."
The author has something to say:
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
