Chapter 11 Half-Armor, Xiao Jinghong!
"Waaaaah!!"
At this moment, in the Xuanjia Army Town, a thousand miles away from Shuzhou City, the melodious sound of bugles rang out.
Twenty thousand soldiers, clad in crimson scale armor and wielding sabers, were practicing their formation in perfect unison, with each soldier in a 500-man square.
"call!"
"ha!"
These soldiers had solemn faces and strong physiques. They wielded six-foot-long sabers with great force, their imposing presence causing the ground to tremble.
On the high platform in front of them, three crimson flags were raised high, each flag embroidered with a ferocious tiger's head in gold thread.
Below, a person stood beneath the flag, dressed in silver-white scale armor. She was thinner and shorter than the other soldiers, but her eyes, hidden beneath a half-mask, were calm as still water.
—It is none other than Xiao Jinghong, the second direct granddaughter of Xiao Yuan, the current Marquis of Dingyuan!
She gazed at the ranks of soldiers before her, contemplating the current situation, and thought to herself, "They are far from enough."
As the southernmost part of the Great Wei Dynasty, Shu Prefecture was surrounded by enemies on three sides.
To the south, it borders the Ten Thousand Mountains where the barbarians live. There are high mountains and dense forests there, and countless barbarian tribes live there. Since the great war twenty years ago, the barbarians have been coming north to attack the pass from time to time.
In the southwest lies the Kingdom of Vaishya, a tentacles of the Buddhist kingdoms of the western lands extending eastward. Dressed in fine silks and satins, they are human; but with a change of clothes, they become bandits who wreak havoc on the Tea Horse Road.
The southeast is an inland sea, where pirates occasionally appear, attacking passing merchant ships. Some of the bolder ones even go ashore to attack wealthy families or businesses.
Therefore, since the founding of the Great Wei, three military towns were set up in Shu Prefecture, named "Iron Wall, Azure Wolf, and Black Armor", and military households were transferred to cultivate land and build cities for defense.
At the same time, the Shu Prefecture Protectorate, the Military Supervisory Office, and the hereditary Marquis of Wu were established to jointly guard the area.
Among them, the Marquis Wu, who was in charge of governing the three towns of Shu Prefecture, was from the Xiao family of Dingyuan Marquis, to which Xiao Jinghong belonged.
After one stick of incense.
After the Xuanjia soldiers finished their drills, they stood silently with their swords drawn, their eyes fixed intently on the high platform, awaiting instructions from the generals.
A middle-aged general stepped forward from the edge of the platform, cupped his hands, and asked, "General Jinghong, are you satisfied?"
Xiao Jinghong's eyes remained fixed on the armored soldiers, and he calmly uttered two words: "Acceptable."
The middle-aged general hesitated and said, "General Jinghong, please feel free to speak your opinion. We will report to the commander later."
Xiao Jinghong tilted his head slightly, pondered for a moment, and said, "His momentum is acceptable, but his cultivation is a bit low. He can hold off two of the bandits from Vaishsa, but he is still not as strong as the barbarian warriors."
"this……"
The officers exchanged glances, all seeing the helplessness on each other's faces.
Barbarian warriors can rival martial artists of the upper level of the ninth rank with their brute strength alone. If they were to don heavy armor and wield sharp blades, even ordinary martial arts experts of the eighth rank might not be able to defeat them in a one-on-one fight.
These Xuanjia soldiers were only 20,000 martial artists with cultivation levels at the middle stage of the ninth rank, selected from among the best by the deputy commander of the military town. It is already extremely difficult for them to have such power.
Before the officers could speak, Xiao Jinghong spoke again: "The formation drills end here. Continuing will be of little use. Let's capture some pirates and bandits for them to practice on."
The middle-aged general thought for a moment, then gritted his teeth and agreed: "This subordinate will follow General Jinghong's orders. After informing the commander, I will order my men to sweep the area."
Upon hearing this, Xiao Jinghong nodded slightly and turned to walk out of the training ground.
"All troops, listen to my command! Your performance is still insufficient. Today, you will practice the horse-slaying saber technique..."
"yes!"
A moment later.
Xiao Jinghong returned to the tent and paused when he saw a figure fast asleep on the table inside.
Two female soldiers wearing soft armor removed her heavy scale armor, took the helmet from her hands, tidied it up a bit, and then stood guard outside.
Another woman, dressed in a long skirt and wearing a half-mask like Xiao Jinghong, presented two booklets.
Xiao Jinghong took it, flipping through it while pointing to the person on the table, "When did she arrive?"
"You just arrived at the drill ground not long ago."
As if hearing a sound, the figure lying on the table whimpered, raised her head, revealing a round, pink face, and the silver bells hanging around her neck jingled with her movements.
She opened her eyes and looked around blankly. When she saw Xiao Jinghong, her eyes widened and she jumped up, excitedly saying:
"Sister Jinghong, you're finally back! I was so waiting I fell asleep."
Xiao Jinghong glanced at her and said indifferently, "Pei Guanli, this is a military town, not a place for you."
“I know, but Grandma insisted that I come to you.”
Pei Guanli looked young and was shorter than Xiao Jinghong, but her figure was accentuated by her brightly colored dress, especially her bare feet, which were white and translucent.
"Speak, what do you want with me?"
“The clan’s Torch Festival is coming up soon, and Grandma would like to invite you to come.” Seeing that she didn’t look up, Pei Guanli leaned over and looked at the contents of the booklet with her.
"Grandma said that thanks to your care over the years, the clan's life is better than ever before. She asked you to come over firstly to participate in the Torch Festival, and secondly to discuss the trade with you."
"Trade?" Xiao Jinghong paused. "Thirteen tribes or your tribe?"
“Of course, it’s all thirteen tribes together,” Pei Guanli said with a grin. “Sister Jinghong, are you satisfied?”
"I'll have someone go and discuss the specific time with the clan elders."
"Huh? You're not going?"
“I’m not going,” Xiao Jinghong closed the booklet and sat down at the table. “Grandfather’s sixtieth birthday is coming up soon, and I need to go back.”
"A big birthday celebration? A birthday banquet?" Pei Guanli's eyes darted around, revealing a small canine tooth at the corner of her mouth, and she hurriedly asked, "Can I go?"
"cannot."
"Why? You didn't let me go to your wedding, but I want to go to Grandpa Xiao's birthday celebration this time, is that alright?"
"no."
"Sister Jinghong, if I hadn't stopped you from getting married, my brother would have led people to kidnap you. Please consider this your way of repaying me, okay?"
"He will die in the Xiao family." Xiao Jinghong's tone remained unchanged.
“But, but…” Pei Guanli stared at her with her big, watery eyes, and said in a wronged tone, “Please let me go, Sister Jinghong.”
"Break their legs!"
"..."
Pei Guanli pouted, then turned and walked out, "If you don't want to, then don't. Who cares?"
As they approached the tent entrance, no sound came from behind them.
Pei Guanli stomped her foot in anger, leaving a clear footprint on the ground, and left the tent.
Not long after.
Xiao Jinghong then heard Pei Guanli's voice from afar: "Xiao Jinghong, you won't let me go, but I'm going anyway! I'm going to teach that runaway groom a lesson..."
Hearing the voice, the female official nearby asked, "General, should we send someone to stop her?"
Xiao Jinghong shook his head slightly: "Never mind, let her be."
"But what about the son-in-law..."
“Pei Guanli knows her limits and won’t do anything to him.” Xiao Jinghong asked, “Have there been any letters from home?”
"Second Master sent a letter."
"What did you say?"
The female official hesitated and said, "He said that the young master started practicing martial arts a few days ago, but he has poor talent, and he is not diligent. He is lazy and not good enough for anything."
A slight smile appeared on Xiao Jinghong's lips beneath his half-armor: "That's fine. Being a carefree live-in son-in-law is better than harboring ambitions like before."
She didn't expect Chen Yi to be ambitious. As long as he didn't embarrass the Xiao family by running away from the marriage like before, she wouldn't say anything even if he was lazy and useless.
"General, are you...aren't you angry that he ran away from the wedding?" the female official asked cautiously.
"Why are you angry? Before the marriage, I knew why my grandfather sought a son-in-law from the Chen family." Xiao Jinghong's smile faded as she said:
"Next year, Wu Ge will be setting off for Jinling as a hostage, and the Xiao family needs me."
After speaking, Xiao Jinghong glanced around and calmly gave the order:
"Pack your things, we'll set off back tomorrow, and stop by the Protectorate and the Military Supervisory Office along the way. Judging by the time, the reply from the capital prefecture should arrive soon."
(End of this chapter)
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