Chapter 1: Young
Brothers!
Charge with me!
Pei Qinghe shouted sharply, her right hand gripping the long saber tightly, kicking the horse’s belly hard. The beloved horse that had fought with her for over a decade spread its four hooves and galloped forward.
The eagle flag embroidered with the red Pei character fluttered loudly in the wind.
Ahead were the Imperial Court’s routed troops fleeing in disarray.
Behind her were the matchless Pei Family iron cavalry.
If they won this battle, she wouldn’t need to keep running east and west; her Pei Family Army could truly establish a foothold and carve out a territory. From then on, she could let everyone around her live peaceful good days…
A dark arrow like a venomous snake mixed in the muffled thunder-like horse hoof sounds, silently piercing into her back.
She first heard the roars of her personal soldiers, then felt the heart-wrenching agony.
Who shot the cold arrow from behind?
Who betrayed her?
Filled with grief and unwillingness, she turned her head with all her strength, imprinting that ferocious triumphant face into her pupils. Then, she closed her eyes and fell heavily from the horse.
The world fell into darkness.
The world after death was also not peaceful.
Wretched crying voices kept echoing endlessly by her ear.
Not a moment of peace.
She impatiently furrowed her brows.
“Qinghe,” the crying voice came close then far, endlessly calling her given name: “Qinghe, wake up quickly.”
Her fingertip moved slightly.
A pair of soft hands tightly grasped her hand, scalding tears dropping onto the back of her hand.
She forced her eyes open.
What met her eyes was a pair of eyes swollen red from crying, and a beautiful face that was haggard, desolate, and despairing.
This was her mother Madam Feng, well-read in poetry and books, skilled in poetry and painting, a beauty renowned in the capital city during her boudoir days. At fifteen, she married military general Pei Zhongde as his second wife; countless people sighed behind her back that a clever woman was matched with a clumsy husband, a fresh flower stuck into unromantic cow dung.
In her ignorant youth, she had also felt sorry for her mother. Such a beautiful and delicate woman married to a rude military general ten or so years older, seeing her husband only a few times a year, long-term guarding an empty boudoir.
The current Crown Prince was the legitimate son of the late Empress Zhang, enfeoffed as heir at twenty-four, filial and benevolent, with excellent reputation in court and among the people, many officials in the Imperial Court supporting the Crown Prince.
Great Uncle Pei Boren served as a seventh-rank palace secretary in the Crown Prince’s residence, greatly trusted and favored by the Crown Prince. Father Pei Zhongde was one of the Twelve Imperial Guard Generals, commanding three thousand elite cavalry under him.
The Pei Clan brothers aligned with and pledged loyalty to the Crown Prince. The Pei Clan’s extermination disaster thus came about.
After Empress Zhang’s death, Emperor Xiaowen established his favored consort as Empress. Empress Liu, from palace maid origins, was the most favored in the Imperial Harem; the prince she bore was the most favored by Emperor Xiaowen. Emperor Xiaowen enfeoffed his young son as Prince Wei, whose fief was only a few hundred li from the capital city.
After Prince Wei came of age, he married the daughter of Central Army General Situ Xi. With Empress Liu supporting him in the Imperial Harem, his father-in-law commanding the Imperial Guard, and Emperor Xiaowen’s favoritism, Prince Wei’s influence rapidly grew in recent years, rivaling the Crown Prince.
The Crown Prince and Prince Wei barely maintained peace on the surface, but their private conflicts were constant.
Prince Wei struck ruthlessly, targeting officials loyal to the Crown Prince with dirty tricks; demotion or dismissal were the light punishments. Pei Zhongde, commanding three thousand elite cavalry, became a thorn in Prince Wei’s side.
When Prince Wei struck, he put the Pei Clan to death.
Pei Zhongde was framed, sentenced to execution and family confiscation for rebellion; all Pei Clan men were beheaded, only the cousins under eight surviving by luck, exiled to Youzhou together with the Pei Family womenfolk and children.
The elderly grandmother could not endure the hardship of exile and died midway, without even a coffin, wrapped in a straw mat and buried by the official road.
The delicate mother Madam Feng unexpectedly showed great resilience, persisting to the exile destination.
The exile road was over a thousand li, taking more than half a year. The Pei Clan members dwindled from over three hundred at the start to two hundred upon reaching Youzhou, nearly half dead.
Youzhou’s weather was cold, with many mountains and forests and even more ferocious beasts. Clan members accustomed to the warm south fell ill one after another. They needed doctors, medicinal materials, grain, and most of all, someone for protection.
That year, she was only thirteen, in her young and stubborn phase; disregarding her mother’s obstruction, she led her cousin sisters up the mountain to seek medicinal materials, only to encounter a half-grown tiger. The eldest cousin sister was devoured by the tiger, the two younger cousin sisters were injured, she desperately killed the tiger, but her cheek was clawed by it, leaving terrifying scars.
Madam Feng wept bitterly, then wiped her tears and went out at midnight, not returning until the afternoon of the third day.
She brought back a doctor, and also a cart of grain.
No one asked where Madam Feng had gone.
After that, the younger and prettier among the Pei Family womenfolk would often go out for a few days, then return with grain. Such days lasted several years, until she and her cousins grew up.
At sixteen, she became the fiercest hunter in the mountain forest.
In her eighteenth year, she led her cousins to storm a bandit stronghold, slaughtering the fierce bandits, looting the granary, and using the robbed gold and silver to recruit soldiers, buy horses, and buy weapons.
Mother Madam Feng no longer had to endure humiliation, trading her beauty and body for grain.
At her twentieth year, Madam Feng swallowed gold and died, leaving a suicide note before death.
Qinghe, your father is dead, Mother’s heart died with him. For you, Mother clung to life for seven years. Now that you are grown, Mother can finally rest in peace. Mother goes underground to reunite with your father.
She wiped her tears with the back of her hand and personally buried Madam Feng. In the following years, she incessantly killed bandits, robbed the grain from greedy magnates, and eliminated bandits and soldiers plaguing the countryside.
In the late years of the Jing Dynasty, natural disasters were constant, corvee labor heavy, people couldn’t live. The Imperial Court faced frequent peasant rebellions everywhere, northern Xiongnu and Xianbei repeatedly invaded. The Jing Dynasty reached its end; rebel army leaders everywhere declared themselves kings. She established the Pei Family Army, and the world called her General Pei.
Among dozens of rebel armies, the Pei Family Army was not the largest in number, but had the strictest military discipline and strongest combat power. She led the Pei Family Army to rout the Imperial Court army, victory imminent, but unexpectedly suffered a dark arrow from behind…
Being able to reunite with family after death was also a blessing.
Pei Qinghe blinked hard, exhaled a stifled breath, her lips moved: “Mother.”
Huh?
Why did the voice sound so tender and childish?
Pei Qinghe astonishedly widened her eyes, her dead-still heart pounding wildly, subconsciously reaching out to touch Madam Feng’s face.
Madam Feng’s tears fell like rain, pressing her face against her daughter’s trembling little hand: “You’ve finally woken up. The day before yesterday after returning from the execution ground, you had a high fever; Mother was truly afraid you’d gone to join your father and brother just like that.”
The skin under her palm was warm, the tears wet.
Pei Qinghe shuddered as if struck by lightning, her muddled mind rapidly clearing.
She quickly lowered her head, glancing at her much smaller self. Then she raised her head, her gaze sweeping around, finding a palm-sized bronze mirror.
She reached out to fumble, grabbing the bronze mirror; the blurry mirror surface revealed a familiar yet strange face.
The right cheek had no ferocious terrifying scar, like a peeled egg, fair and smooth.
Her eyes bright as stars, thick black brows showing heroism and stubbornness.
This was thirteen-year-old Pei Qinghe.
After death, she hadn’t reincarnated, but returned to fifteen years ago.
