Chapter 106: It’s Gu Changxiao
Cheng Yu did not panic. If he chased after those twenty-odd people at this moment, the brothers on the scene would only be slaughtered by the remaining Tartars.
The Prince had already fled far away, and there were brothers at the West City Gate to meet her. These Tartars couldn’t harm the Prince.
He had to finish killing the remaining Tartars as soon as possible so he could go rescue the Prince and Yunniang.
Jinsui, who had fled from the South City Gate, quickly calmed down. Seeing that no Tartars were pursuing him, he immediately headed towards the West City Gate he was originally guarding.
The team protecting her anxiously said, “Your Highness, Cheng Assistant Secretary said you need to go to a safe place and not to get any closer to the border city.”
Jinsui said urgently, “There is still a team defending the West City Gate. We must notify them to help. Every extra person means one less death!”
The team fell silent, because the brief bloody battle just now had shown them the ferocity of the Tartars, and our army had suffered heavy casualties.
The fire in the border city reddened half the sky, the air was swallowed by flames, and every breath felt like a burning pain in the lungs.
Jinsui bitterly regretted not having learned martial arts, unable to lead troops to fight enemies like Cheng Yu, and also regretted not having focused her energy on developing weapons during this time.
The fish oil firearms had great flames and loud explosions, but their lethality was not strong.
The anesthetic needle couldn’t be used from a distance, and it was difficult to aim.
She should have researched things like hand crossbows and fire crossbows. At the very least, she should have weapons capable of killing enemies, instead of being protected like this.
She had also been too confident, thinking that the fish oil in the city would be enough to burn all the Tartars within the city.
She hadn’t expected the warhorses to go mad and break through a gap, allowing a group of Tartars to escape.
She hadn’t assessed the Yan Prefecture Army and had rashly believed they could handle the situation alone, not expecting them to be so useless and harm their own people.
Jinsui was filled with regret and self-blame. Lost in thought, she had already run back to the West Gate, but looking out, she saw only burning city walls and endless military fields.
Where were the soldiers who stayed behind?
She quickly raised her telescope to look at the mountain peak and saw a cluster of torches flashing urgently. Jinsui’s heart leaped. She and Captain Huang didn’t have such a signal!
She suddenly reacted, turned, and shouted to the dozens of people behind her, “Enemy attack! Run!”
She took the lead, charging towards the river embankment above the military fields. Not far from the embankment was the river beach, which had been dug this year. Crossing the gently flowing river beach and entering the forest would make it easy to shake off the Tartars.
She guessed that the remaining squad either went to support Han Xing outside the North City, which was closer, or took another route to the outside of the South City Gate in advance, which was why the two parties hadn’t met on the road.
The enemies around her would only be those who rushed out from the South City Gate. It seemed Cheng Yu letting her leave first hadn’t disrupted the Tartars’ true intention, which was to capture her!
She wasn’t arrogant enough to think she could defeat this group of Tartars with the dozens of people behind her.
She had seen the ferocity of the Tartars during their fight outside the South City Gate; they were true murderers.
Confronting the Tartars head-on at this moment would be a futile death for the soldiers. They had to lure them into the forest, which was more advantageous for their army’s combat, and then take them down one by one with anesthetic guns.
She had to minimize the casualties of their army as much as possible. After the battle outside the South City Gate, every soldier who fell felt like a knife cutting through her heart.
When the whistling of arrows reached her ears, she felt as if she had dreamt of hiding from enemy pursuit in the forest with Gu Changxiao.
As she galloped on her warhorse, she looked back and saw that there weren’t many Tartars, about twenty-odd.
One of them was particularly tall and used a chain hammer as his weapon.
He straightened up on his warhorse, released the reins with both hands, and threw the hammer from a great distance, yet still hitting his target.
Jinsui watched with her own eyes as his first hammer strike hit a giant rock, sending fragments scattering like an explosion.
His second hammer strike hit the hind leg of the warhorse of the soldier running at the very back. The warhorse immediately tumbled to the ground, and the soldier on its back also fell.
Jinsui felt her own riding speed was already very fast, but she didn’t expect the Tartars to be faster, and they moved on horseback as if on flat ground.
The bodyguard beside her said urgently, “Your Highness, don’t look back, run forward! I will hold them off!”
Jinsui said urgently, “No! Run together, don’t try to fight!”
In the time it took to say that, another warhorse was hit by the chain hammer.
Jinsui’s eyes instantly filled with blood. Damn Tartars! If this continues, our people will be caught and killed one by one.
If she alone escaped, how could she face the soldiers of the border city with any honor?
The dignified Li King was being chased by Tartars like a sheep running wild!
Her eyes narrowed as she looked at the border city engulfed in flames on one side and the rushing Yan River on the other.
An idea struck her. She took out a fish oil firearm and threw it forcefully into the river section behind her.
With a ‘boom,’ a monstrous wave of water exploded, hitting the Tartars, and then the river surface was engulfed in flames.
This didn’t cause much damage to the Tartars, only startling them and causing their warhorses to whinny and falter.
This bought Jinsui a brief moment to aim. She pulled back on the reins, stopped, and aimed the anesthetic needle at the chain hammer man, firing two shots in quick succession. One hit his arm, and the other was knocked away by him.
But the needle that hit him also took effect quickly, and he fell powerlessly from his warhorse.
This reaction alerted the Tartars, and all the needles Jinsui fired subsequently were shot down one by one.
However, this action completely enraged the Tartars. They directly stabbed a scimitar into the whinnying horse’s hindquarters. As the distance between the two sides closed, they leaped from their warhorses.
Jinsui tried her best to avoid a fierce battle, but now it was unavoidable, so she had to draw her sword to meet the enemy.
The Tartars’ target was clear: they wanted to capture her alive.
The Tartar with wolf eyes ignored the attacks of the bodyguards. One bodyguard’s spear even pierced his shoulder, but he directly grabbed the spearhead, lifted the bodyguard off his warhorse, and slammed him heavily onto the ground.
Blood gushed from his body. The wolf eyes remained fixed on Jinsui’s face. As they got closer and closer, the remaining few bodyguards shouted hoarsely, “Your Highness, run quickly!”
But the wolf-eyed Tartar had already swung his scimitar at Jinsui’s warhorse’s leg. Jinsui jumped off the warhorse a step ahead and rolled twice on the ground.
Glancing at the river beside her, she drew the short knife at her waist and looked at the wolf-eyed Tartar with equal coldness.
Come on! We’ll die together if we have to!
She was determined that as soon as she found an opportunity, she would drag this person into the river with her.
Tartars were afraid of water, so he would surely die.
At the critical moment, horse neighs suddenly came from below the river beach, followed by a loud shout, “Your Highness, don’t panic! I’m here!”
The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but she couldn’t recall who it was for a moment. Jinsui didn’t look back, because if she did, this Tartar would surely kill her with a single blow.
However, the wolf-eyed Tartar, realizing there were reinforcements, also became anxious. With a roar, he thrust his scimitar directly at Jinsui’s heart.
The tip of the blade gleamed silver. In the fiery red that reddened half the sky, on this extraordinary dark night, it appeared incredibly dazzling.
Jinsui watched the silver point approach. Just as it reached her chest, her shoulder was gripped firmly by a large hand, and she was spun around, ending up behind this person.
Then came another silver gleam, which met the first one. With a ‘crack,’ the Tartar’s scimitar was cut in two.
Half of the blade stuck into the ground at Jinsui’s feet. She looked up along the reflection of the blade and saw a tall figure with broad shoulders, a narrow waist, and long legs.
She couldn’t see his face, but from his back, she recognized him.
It was Gu Changxiao.
