Duchess Cheng.
Sun Sanjie's leg trembled, disbelievingly staring at this woman.
She is Duchess Cheng? The wife of Duke of Chengguo Zhu Shan? The first-rank imperial edict-receiving lady of the dynasty?
Madam Yu nodded slightly.
"I came here to take a look," she answered.
Indeed, it was Duchess Cheng. Sun Sanjie felt somewhat dazed, but already a thudding of people kneeling en masse could be heard inside the City God Temple.
"Duchess Cheng."
The masses knelt down and exclaimed in an excited tone.
Everyone in the northern lands knew of Duke Chengguo, and naturally, they knew of Duchess Cheng as well.
However, Duchess Cheng was even more elusive than Duke Chengguo, and in their wildest dreams, they did not expect that the woman who had been living and eating with them the past few days was in fact Duchess Cheng.
Duchess Cheng had personally come to distribute porridge and aid them.
Cries rose within the City God Temple and quickly spread; soon, the outside also saw a rush of people kneeling down.
.........….
Having seen Duchess Cheng, Judge Tian and the others no longer doubted that the Changfeng Army had been deceived, but their worries grew even greater.
Although the Changfeng Army had not been misled by Jurchen spies, they had still ventured into dangerous territory.
"It's extremely dangerous for barely a thousand soldiers to head towards Bazhou territory," Judge Tian said, "several days have passed now, and they have not yet returned."
It is feared that the outcome is more likely to be bad than good.
He did not say this out loud, and another thing he should have mentioned was also left unsaid.
That statement, naturally, was let's send troops to search for them.
These days, times have changed, and actions can't be taken on impulse.
There was a spell of silence in the City God Temple.
Several generals turned their heads with flushed faces, but Madam Yu remained calm and showed no dissatisfaction.
"Don't worry, they will come back," she simply stated.
How can she be so sure? Just as Lord Tian was about to say something, a commotion was heard from outside.
"Lord Li has returned!"
He really came back? Lord Tian looked surprised, while a hint of a smile appeared on Madam Yu's face.
After his initial surprise, Lord Tian sighed again.
How heavy might the casualties be.
Hearing his mutter, the soldier who had come to report had a somewhat strange expression.
"A lot," he said.
Heavy casualties as expected? Just as feared, escaping death, saving one out of ten would be fortunate, and now Hejian doesn't have many soldiers to spare, and Lord Tian was deeply pained.
"No, many people have come," the soldier continued, pointing outside the city, "they've brought back two thousand refugees."
Two thousand!
All the people flocked to the city gate, and the soldiers on the city wall squeezed together to look outside.
"Are you sure it's Lord Li?"
They debated, pointing and gesturing with disbelief, especially when they saw the densely packed civilians being guarded in the middle by government soldiers.
A quick sweep estimated no fewer than two thousand people, men and women, young and old, ragged and carrying burdens.
Judge Tian and the others, regardless of their status, also came to the top of the city wall.
Besides the surprise at the number of civilians, there was also astonishment at the number of soldiers.
"How many of you went?" he couldn't help but ask again.
"Over nine hundred," Sun Sanjie said again.
Over nine hundred?
This looks... Lord Tian and the others puckered their lips, it seemed as though it was still over nine hundred?
The procession drew closer, and the faces of the government soldiers could be seen. Familiar companions couldn't help but cheer loudly from the city wall.
The advancing column, however, was not disturbed by this cheering. They continued to move in orderly ranks, guarding the civilians as they slowly proceeded.
Only one person on horseback was not in formation, either riding around the civilians and soldiers, speeding ahead like the wind, or reining in to stop, acting wild and free as an uncontrollable pony.
As she rode, her headscarf slipped, revealing a head of black hair.
A woman!
On the city wall, Judge Tian and the others widened their eyes.
"Is this Miss Jun?" they asked.
Sun Sanjie shook his head, watching the masked girl ride towards them, noting her fully equipped bows and long knives, looking just like one of the soldiers.
And this girl could truly kill.
"This one isn't. Miss Jun does not wield weapons," Sun Sanjie hurriedly explained, "Miss Jun is just a delicate lady."
A delicate young lady, unlikely to kill.
Madam Yu heard this and laughed softly.
The delicate young lady might not act herself, but the number of people she killed was not small either.
Quite interesting. Clearly, women were among the group, Judge Tian and the others also saw the approaching column with several carts on which women sat.
"Is this the Qingshan Army?" Judge Tian asked.
Sun Sanjie nodded, pointing down to the city gate.
Zhao Hanqing had already galloped to the gate ahead of the others, carrying a banner on her horse. The bright red flag flapped loudly, and the bold letters "Qingshan Army" were unmistakable.
"Open the gate," she shouted loudly.
The city gate slowly opened, and Zhao Hanqing dashed in, leading the way.
"Madam, madam, is everything ready over at the porridge factory?" she called out loudly, "We have quite a number of arrivals."
Madam Yu, who had already come down from the city wall to greet them, nodded with a smile.
"Everything is ready," she said, while turning to beckon others over.
A few men and women came out; they were refugees who had arrived earlier and were selected to be in charge of managing refugee affairs.
Seeing the over two thousand refugees with anxious expressions and gaunt figures, the men and women felt a mixture of emotion and relief, hurrying to lead the crowd to the City God Temple.
Only the government soldiers remained in front of the city gate.
"Are these all people from Bazhou?" Lord Tian asked eagerly, his gaze turning to Li Guorui.
Li Guorui didn't seem to be in good spirits, appearing somewhat distracted.
"Yes," he replied.
Confirmation of the answer made other generals unable to help but ask one after another.
"There's so many."
"How many places have you been to?"
Li Guorui seemed to be unable to react in time to answer, looking at the generals.
"Alright, alright." Lord Tian voluntarily intervened, "Lord Li has also had a hard time."
"Indeed, even though we didn't encounter any Jin thieves, this journey was exhausting enough," everyone said one after another, with both sympathy and comfort.
Li Guorui's gaze finally sharpened.
"Who says we didn't encounter Jin thieves?" he said, pointing his hand towards the rear where the carts and horses were, "The captives are on the cart, a total of two hundred and twenty-three heads, one hundred and twenty-three sets of armor, and eighteen horses."
He paused here, as if pondering for a moment.
"I can't quite remember clearly, approximately that many," he added.
After speaking, when there was no response, he looked towards Lord Tian and the others, observing their expressions of shock and disbelief.
"What do you mean?" Lord Tian asked with a trembling voice, "You, you encountered Jin thieves?"
Li Guorui uttered an acknowledgment and nodded.
"We ran into three groups. The first one had more people; the following two were less in number, and they ran fast so we didn't fight much," he said.
Sun Sanjie couldn't help but swallow.
"How many is 'more'?" he asked.
"About fifteen hundred or more," Li Guorui said nonchalantly.
A low intake of breath could be heard in front of the city gate.
Sun Sanjie swallowed again.
"You're saying your nine hundred or so encountered over fifteen hundred Jin thieves?" he asked.
Meanwhile, Lord Tian and other generals had already hastened toward the carts with soldiers stepping aside from the horses, revealing an array of captives and a stack of heads and armor that still reeked of blood.
Lord Tian looked at Li Guorui.
"Your casualties, how many?" he asked.
All of this is real, isn't it a dream?
It's strange, why does he feel that the number of soldiers before him has not decreased?
"Thirteen wounded," Li Guorui said, "No fatalities."
Once more, silence fell upon the scene, not even the sound of breathing could be heard.
But how is this possible?
Nine hundred people, including women, encountering over fifteen hundred Jin thieves in the open, and winning the battle? Killing more than two hundred Jin thieves while only suffering a few wounded?
If this isn't a dream, what is? How could this be possible?
"How did you fight?" Lord Tian asked, looking at Li Guorui.
Yes, how did they fight?
All eyes turned to Li Guorui, who in turn looked to the side where a group of soldiers had already dismounted. They varied in age, were frail and stolid, but still stood motionless as if they were long spears struck into the ground, emanating a chilling aura.
How did they fight?
Remembering the scene, Li Guorui's breathing became rapid.
Too terrifying.
This battle was too frightening.
Forget about the opposing Jurchen people, even they were about to faint from fear.
Under the onslaught of stone bullets and arrows, the Jurchen ranks broke down, leaving no formation or offensive capability, their spirits scattered and hearts shattered, they frantically fled backward onto the open field.
"Attack!"
It was not until this moment that the woman's voice from the center of the formation spoke.
At this command of "attack," the flags waved, the formation shifted, supply carts pulled back, long spears advanced, and the troops surged forward like rolling boulders chasing after the fleeing Jurchen warriors.
It was truly a slaughter.
Though there were over nine hundred people, it was this group of less than forty who truly decided the outcome of the battle.
Li Guorui pointed in their direction.
"It was Miss Jun and her group who fought," he said.
Miss Jun?
The generals present all followed his pointing gaze, and there a young woman was slowly approaching on horseback.
Zhao Hanqing rode circles around the woman, with a red flag tied to his horseback complementing Miss Jun's red cloak, and the three characters "Qingshan Army" on the flag fluttered in the eyes of the onlookers.
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Thank you to Ice from the South for the gift of the He's Bi, much appreciated.
Thank you everyone, please see the single chapter.