She charged forward alone, hacking and slashing, blood splattering everywhere, people falling around her, and screams of agony occasionally escaping as her horse's hooves trampled on them.
For a moment, the world was noisy, and it seemed that only the sounds of fighting and killing remained in her ears. The more she killed, the more skillful and exhilarated she became. Her vision became increasingly blank, and her body felt as if hot blood was boiling inside her. She only stopped when the sounds of people were faint and the iron cavalry shouted to retreat. Her weapon had already been broken in two, one in her left hand and the other in her right hand, both covered in blood.
Until Xie Shangguang cried out in fear, "Marshal, the Huns have retreated!"
Xie Lanzhi then came to her senses, calmed down, and the heat in her body quickly subsided.
She watched as the remaining two hundred iron cavalrymen abandoned their posts and fled down the mountain, scattering in all directions. Xie Bing was still in pursuit on horseback.
She immediately shouted, "Don't pursue a desperate enemy! Immediately hurry on our way to the southern rear road of Huayin."
The rear route is close to the county town south of Huayin, allowing the army to recuperate and continue the protracted war. The Xiongnu forces are powerful and cannot be defeated in a day; only a protracted war can ensure victory.
Xie Lanzhi immediately ordered a headcount and took away the bodies of the fallen soldiers.
A total of 500 men were killed, leaving 400 men.
They hurriedly moved back without cleaning up the battlefield. Meanwhile, Xie Ying lured away the reinforcements and led her men into Zhongjiu County to ask Li Li for help.
Li Li did not send anyone. Instead, he kept Xie Ying behind and advised her, "We are about to go to the shore. The young general will come with us. As long as we sail away from the shore, we can go north or south directly to Weidu, which is your territory."
"The Marshal needs reinforcements now, please send troops immediately, Your Highness." Xie Ying didn't hear a word she said, only repeating this sentence. She planned to repeat it one more time before leaving with her men.
Li Li couldn't persuade her otherwise, so he had to tell her, "The Hu and Xiongnu will not give up easily. The only way is to delay for seven days until our troops enter the south of Huayin, and then..."
"Huayin South is within the sphere of influence of the new Tianjing."
Huayin Kingdom is about to split into north and south. At that time, the north will still belong to the Hu and Xiongnu, and Zhongjiu County is in the central area. Even if they intercept the grain, they won't be able to occupy it for long and will have to leave. It would be better to use Xie Lanzhi's power to prevent the Hu and Xiongnu from openly moving south, so that they can maintain a balance of power and stay in Zhongjiu County.
This was Yelü Lili's plan.
Xie Ying fell silent. So this person wasn't simple after all. He certainly knew how to take advantage of someone's misfortune.
“Then I will go with the Crown Prince. However, the whereabouts of the King of Anyi are currently unknown, and the Iron Cavalry reinforcements are pursuing us. They will be arriving at Zhongjiu County soon. Can your men handle them?”
Upon hearing this, Li Li and the strategist both smiled but did not reply.
In Zhongjiu County, the two hundred pursuing cavalrymen had just entered the county entrance when they were struck by a massive boulder, leaving them battered and bruised. Another group of soldiers charged on horseback towards the Xiongnu cavalry, and the two sides fought fiercely, neither gaining the upper hand.
Soon Xie Bing arrived from the outside, and together they captured all two hundred iron cavalry.
Furthermore, their casualties were roughly equal. It took a combined effort from Xie Bing and others to barely manage to wipe out these two hundred iron cavalry.
When the headcount was taken afterward, Li Li saw that one person was carrying a firearm, and there were more than a dozen corpses that had been killed by firearms.
His face turned deathly pale instantly; he had single-handedly killed over a dozen of them in the chaos. This fighting prowess was unmatched by those using cold weapons.
Three people on Xie Ying's side also had their heads spun. She had heard of firearms and flintlock muskets in the Ministry of Works, but thought that these weapons were rare and expensive and could not be deployed in large quantities on the battlefield. Now she saw that the Hun had the strength to deploy a small number of firearms on the battlefield.
The strategist then searched the gunner's body and found a booklet filled with the number of heads—a total of 171 people, both soldiers and civilians.
He was horrified: "Your Highness, this man has already killed over a hundred people."
"Let me see." Yelü Lili took the book and saw that each page recorded the number of people killed in which village and which position.
He immediately gripped the book tightly and remained silent.
Xie Ying glanced at it and finally couldn't help but say, "The Marshal said that the Hu and Xiongnu would definitely invade the south within three years. Now it seems that they can mass-produce firearms."
Given the disparity between firearms and swords, the Xiongnu would inevitably launch an invasion and conquer the last remaining part of the Central Plains within a year.
Meanwhile, An Yi was hiding in a small village. She didn't know where she was, only that she was following people to the market. As she walked, she was kidnapped and taken to a mountain stronghold, which she heard was somewhere south of Huayin. She immediately raised her token and asked the stronghold chief to help her go down the mountain to find the government office, promising to reward her for her service later.
Unexpectedly, the mountain stronghold had no scholars, and the stronghold was occupied by a woman. She took a liking to him at first sight, not only throwing away his token but also wanting to consummate their marriage that very night.
That night, the chieftain failed to have sex with her and discovered she was a woman. How could he have sex with her? Fearing his men would laugh at him, he angrily threw Anyi out of the mountains that very night. She was found by a local slave trader and then sent to a brothel in Huayin North. The madam thought Anyi was too ugly to serve the customers and that she would frighten them, so she bought her at a low price to fetch water and empty chamber pots at night, specifically to wash the chamber pots for the Hun lords in Huayin North.
Xie Lanzhi retreated into the back passage. She had just arrived at the county government office, covered in sweat and blood, when Si Xitong rushed over and tried to pounce on her.
Xie Lanzhi quickly backed away: "Stop! I want to take a bath!"
Si Xitong restrained herself, forcing back her heartache as she looked her up and down. Seeing that she was alright, she breathed a sigh of relief and asked, "Where is An Yi?"
Xie Lanzhi reassured her earnestly, "Don't worry, I believe she will be safe, because she has the people of Huayin protecting her."
"Nothing will happen."
Chapter 130 Si Xitong's Newly Appointed Army
Of the three thousand cavalry, one group was reduced to four hundred men, and the other to eight hundred. As they entered the main road but before reaching the canyon, three cannonballs blasted rocks that blocked the canyon path. The weight of the boulders, weighing tons, was simply too heavy for human hands to move, so the cavalry had no choice but to retreat.
Xie Lanzhi led a thousand men, but only four hundred survived to enter the county government office, while Anyi remained missing.
In Anshan, Beifu, I heard that of the three thousand men I sent out, eighteen thousand were lost. Most importantly, all twenty of my firearmsmen, who were known as "one man, one army," were killed in a sneak attack by Lord Xie.
He was both shocked and furious. He was shocked that Master Xie knew so much about how to use a firearm.
The Xiongnu cavalry could not be so fragile; in terms of military strength, they would certainly not be inferior to the soldiers under Xie Zhu.
When Xie Lanzhi, the Iron Cavalry Guard General, sneaked into the firing range alone, he received intelligence reports from someone who possessed innate brute strength and a strange internal force.
It wasn't that Xie Bing was particularly strong, but rather that Xie Lanzhi's initial ambush had severely damaged their morale. The Iron Cavalry's top guards were unhorsed by her in just three rounds. She then flanked Xie Bing from the rear to aid him, who was being suppressed by the Iron Cavalry. Her timing was impeccable; after the Iron Cavalry finished off the front, she would attack from behind, single-handedly taking on five enemies with her superior martial arts. She herself killed at least a hundred. And the more corpses she left behind within the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, the more frenzied she became.
“You, you didn’t see that Xie Zhu. She was unstoppable when she started killing. She almost killed her own men.” The Iron Cavalry Guards said in fear, “I’ve seen people who are bloodthirsty, but I’ve never seen anyone like her.”
"Neither the speed nor the strength seems like something a human could use!"
Anshan assumed that this was an excuse for his carelessness and defeat, and immediately ordered his men to drag the Iron Cavalry Guards away and deal with them according to military law.
Seeing that the prince did not believe him, the Iron Cavalry Guard, before being dragged out of the Northern Palace, still loyally shouted to him: "Prince, please contact the King as soon as possible, and do not confront Lord Xie directly."
"She's not human, she's a monster! None of our soldiers can defeat her!"
"Shut up!" Anshan raised his teacup and threw it at him. The Iron Cavalry Guard was hit on the head and bled, but he was still shouting. Finally, someone covered his mouth and dragged him away.
Anshan couldn't swallow this insult. Regardless of whether Shangwei's words were true or not, he couldn't ask his brother's men to oversee things, because that would only make him look incompetent. He would be the one looked down upon!
And incompetence will lead to the death of the entire army.
Anshan understood this principle well, and he immediately dispatched the remaining firearmsmen to strike at Yelü Lili, who was taking advantage of the chaos.
At this time, Li Li had already led Xie Ying to begin the withdrawal from Zhongjiu County. More than two thousand people boarded the Gallery Treasure Ship and the Hu Xiong Treasure Ship respectively, and headed back one after another.
A hundred gunners arrived from behind, leaving only a hundred men to provide cover. A burst of gunfire rang out, and the lives of those hundred men were as fragile as paper, vanishing in an instant.
The hundred arquebusiers rushed to the shore, only to find that the two treasure ships had already sailed far away. They could no longer find such large ships. If they chased after them in small boats, they would surely be sunk in no time.
Nowadays, under orders from Anshan, firearms operators prioritize their own lives, each possessing the strength of an entire unit.
Xie Ying and Yelü Lili, who were on the ship, saw the firearmsmen chasing after them and couldn't help but lament, "My hundred warriors are gone."
Xie Ying said, "Your Highness, human life is truly worthless under the threat of firearms."
"This weapon in the hands of the Xiongnu will only cause greater carnage," the strategist said. "This is just the beginning, and it has already caused us heavy losses."
All three received intelligence from Xie Lanzhi, who personally killed twenty firearmsmen before barely managing to win by a narrow margin.
How terrifying that sounds.
If the other main route hadn't been planned to be destroyed long ago, it might have already been breached.
Xie Lanzhi had been having trouble sleeping these past few days. Her eyelids kept twitching. At first, she thought she had some kind of post-war syndrome, but later she realized that her eyelids were twitching because she hadn't been sleeping well.
Three days had passed, and Xie Lanzhi hadn't slept for three days in order to ambush the pursuing cavalry. Just as she was about to catch up on some sleep, news came from her wife that Ma Hong, who was supposed to arrive in Huayin South in seven days, had arrived in three.
Speed is of the essence in war. Someone with the protection of their wife is truly lucky.
However, she was curious why, given that three days was the fastest she could manage to leave the territory of New Tianjing, take two days to pass through its subordinate areas, and then another two days to reach Huayin South, she could arrive four days ahead of schedule.
Xie Lanzhi handed over the guard duty to Xie Shangguang.
Xie Shangguang hadn't slept for three days but was still full of energy. Looking at her, it was just like when she was nineteen and could play games all night for three days and three nights without any problem. Xie Lanzhi couldn't help but envy her.
Back at the county government office, she finally saw the legendary lucky man, Ma Hong.
Ma Hong bowed respectfully to her: "This humble general Ma Hong greets the Marshal!"
"Get up." Xie Lanzhi gestured for him to stand up. After Ma Hong stood up, he subconsciously glanced at Si Xitong sitting in the high hall.
Si Xitong gave a slight nod, and he immediately said, "Marshal, I was able to reach Huayin South in three days thanks to the heavy rain in Tianjing, which filled the abandoned canal you repaired with water."
"The river flows southwards, circling around and leading directly to the abandoned canal south of Huayin. This abandoned canal had been dry for ten years, but unexpectedly the water flowed into it. So we took a boat down the river and arrived in exactly three days."
Then they rushed to the county government office without stopping.
Xie Lanzhi was beyond words to describe her incredible luck, as if she had received divine assistance. She looked at Si Xitong, who also looked surprised, but she wasn't astonished.
This made Xie Lanzhi fall into deep thought. She thought that since the Little Phoenix's storyline had already gotten on track ahead of schedule, it meant that she was now the protagonist. Being strong was one thing, but luck was also indispensable.
"If it works, maybe we can give it a try."
"What is Lanzhi muttering about?" Si Xitong noticed her dark circles. She got up and walked down the steps, grabbing Lanzhi's hands with both of hers: "Today, let General Ma take over. You don't need to go on stage yourself anymore."
"The situation is now inescapable without your intervention; everyone needs you, so you absolutely cannot fall."
"Things haven't gotten that serious yet." Xie Lanzhi rubbed her little hand to comfort her for a while, then shared her thoughts.
She told Si Xitong all her thoughts.
“Fu Feng, for example, let me give you an example. The person who controls the situation in Huayin Kingdom is not me, but you.”
What will you do then?
Si Xitong looked at her with surprise. Why would she ask such a question? But when she heard that she was just saying "if" and it was just a simulation, she said her own thoughts: "Naturally, it would be best to occupy Huayin Kingdom and take back sovereignty over Anyi."
"What would you do if you couldn't do it right now?"
Si Xitong said, "Then let's divide Huayin Kingdom in two, and we will control the southern part of Huayin."
Upon hearing this, Xie Lanzhi suddenly breathed a sigh of relief. Perhaps the plot of Little Phoenix was going to follow this pattern?
She didn't ask any more questions, but instead reminded Si Xitong: "Any messages coming from the Northern Prefecture these days will be handled by you."
"Whether it's good or bad, I will use the army to suppress it."
Si Xitong never expected that Lanzhi would entrust the matter to her so readily. She quickly shook her head and said, "No, Lanzhi, absolutely not."
Xie Lanzhi was also very surprised. In the past, when she wanted to be independent, she was worried, but now that she was being given the reins, Xie Lanzhi refused.
"Do you perhaps have other ideas?"
Si Xitong was at a loss for words. In the end, she asked Ma Hong to go and set up the guard post first, and County Magistrate Li Fuyi took Ma Hong out.
Only two people remained in the county government office, along with a group of guards, all of whom were newly recruited soldiers, none of whom were Xie Bing. Xie Lanzhi, noticing the situation, did not raise any questions.