Bai Qingping and Shen Yancong had already made arrangements. Those who would protect Bai Qingyan included not only the Western Liang assassins who had been putting all their effort into training the new soldiers these past few days, but also Shen Yancong and experts from the Prefect’s mansion, ensuring that Bai Qingyan’s safety was placed as the top priority.

Last night, when Shen Yan received news that Bai Qingyan would lead troops up the mountain to suppress bandits early this morning, he made a special trip home. His father instructed Shen Yancong that if he could protect Princess Zhenguo’s safety this time, he would earn her respect. Therefore, he even gave Shen Yancong the ten most skilled guards from the Shen mansion.

Bai Qingping could see that Shen Yancong was eager to try his skills, hoping to display his abilities before Bai Qingyan and earn her regard. Not wanting to compete for attention, he chose to remain in camp today.

The assassins from Western Liang had also discussed last night their escape route after killing Bai Qingyan on the mountain today. They were rubbing their hands together, waiting for Bai Qingyan to arrive.

Soon, someone galloped into the training ground, reined in his horse, and shouted: “Princess Zhenguo commands that Shen Yancong lead troops to rendezvous with Princess Zhenguo at the North Gate to go up the mountain and suppress bandits!”

Shen Yancong gripped the sword at his waist tightly, leaped down from the command platform, cupped his fists, and shouted: “Shen Yancong accepts the order!”

Having spoken, Shen Yancong cupped his hands toward Bai Qingping: “Brother Qingping, I leave the training ground to you!”

Bai Qingping hurriedly returned the courtesy: “Brother Yancong, rest assured! You must be extra careful and protect Princess Zhenguo well!”

Shen Yancong nodded, mounted his horse with a leap, his gaze sweeping over the new soldiers in the training ground who had steeled themselves and tensed their entire bodies. He shouted loudly: “Depart!”

No new soldier facing their first battle wasn’t afraid. Some were already trembling before departure, even harboring thoughts of retreat. But thinking they could earn ten gold pieces for each bandit head they severed, they gritted their teeth and forced themselves to follow the troops toward the North Gate.

Bai Qingyan, Bai Jinzhi, and the Bai family guards had been waiting north of the city early on. Seeing the new soldiers carrying torches approaching from afar, the fine horse beneath Bai Jinzhi snorted heavily, its hooves stamping.

By rights, when new soldiers first went to battle, their commanding officer should inspire morale from the command platform.

However, that applied to regular armies like the Bai family army and the Jin army.

For regular armies, words should be thunderous and stirring to boost morale!

But facing these militia who had gathered for money and trained for only a few months, fighting mountain bandits… speaking of great national righteousness would not inspire morale.

Therefore, Bai Qingyan chose to meet them outside the city, giving them time to digest their fearful emotions themselves.

Seeing Bai Qingyan and Bai Jinzhi mounted on fine horses, Shen Yancong turned to speak to someone beside him, then spurred his horse forward toward Bai Qingyan, dismounted with a leap and bowed: “Princess Zhenguo, Princess Gaoyi!”

Bai Qingyan nodded: “Were there any who retreated midway?”

Shen Yancong smiled: “Some hesitated, but in the end all followed…”

Bai Qingyan nodded, looking at the new soldiers gathering at the North Gate holding torches high. Bai Qingyan gently spurred her horse forward, her gaze sweeping over the fearful or nervous expressions of the new soldiers, asking: “Are you all afraid?”

The new soldiers, almost without thinking, shouted three times…

“Not afraid!”

“Not afraid!”

“Not afraid!”

A very faint smile tinged Bai Qingyan’s features as she spoke: “I remember when I first went to battle, I had a female guard unit protecting me, but I was still afraid!”

In these new soldiers’ eyes, though Bai Qingyan was a woman, she was Princess Zhenguo, who had been invincible in both the Southern Border and Northern Border campaigns, full of dignity. They had thought Bai Qingyan was the type of general who feared neither life nor death, yet she said she too had been afraid her first time in battle.

“Being afraid is nothing shameful!” Bai Qingyan held the reins of her fine horse, standing before the new army holding swaying torches. “Which border elite doesn’t trade life for life on the battlefield? Which survivor didn’t crawl out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Could it be they don’t fear death? No… all people fear death! I fear it too!”

“But we cannot let fear cause us to ignore those mountain bandits. Today they kidnap other families’ children – if we continue to indulge them, tomorrow they’ll kidnap our own families’ children!” Bai Qingyan’s expression gradually became solemn. “We’re not facing well-trained elite enemy troops from another nation, but vicious thugs who prey on our people. We’ve trained for months… and you are all outstanding individuals selected from among the best with extremely strong combat abilities. Could we possibly be inferior to mountain bandits who’ve never received training and come from wild backgrounds?!”

In the flickering firelight, the gazes of those new soldiers about to face real combat gradually became firm.

Yes, they had all been selected, and in daily combat training, they were all victors!

“Therefore, those who should be afraid this time… are those mountain bandits! Those mountain bandits know we’re training troops intending to suppress them, yet they still dare to descend the mountain and brazenly kidnap children in provocation! Then let us show them that our months of training weren’t mere show, and the blades at our waists aren’t for playing house – when blades are drawn, they must drink blood!”

The new soldiers were now rubbing their hands together eagerly, wanting to contest skills with those mountain bandits.

Bai Qingyan turned her horse around and said to Shen Yancong: “Depart!”

Shen Yancong withdrew his gaze from the quiver on Bai Jinzhi’s back, puzzled that he hadn’t seen Princess Zhenguo and Princess Gaoyi bring bows, so why carry a quiver of arrows?

Yesterday, hadn’t Princess Zhenguo specifically instructed that the mountain had tall, dense forests where arrows would be useless, and they needed only bring blades?

He mounted his horse and rode forward, shouting: “Depart!”

The Western Liang assassins, seeing that Bai Qingyan hadn’t brought her Sun-Shooting Bow, felt relieved. They had long known that Bai Qingyan’s arrows never missed their mark – if she had brought bow and arrows, their chances of survival would be smaller.

The horizon was just showing the first hint of light when the new soldiers had already surrounded the base of the mountain.

Shen Yancong ordered each team leader to extinguish their torches and quietly advance up the mountain from different directions, striving to take down the mountain bandits with the fastest speed and least losses.

Before departing, Shen Yancong once again encouraged the new soldiers. Following Bai Qingyan’s approach, he described these mountain bandits as green amateurs from wild backgrounds, saying whoever reached the camp first and seized a bandit’s head would earn ten gold pieces.

Seeing Bai Qingyan and Bai Jinzhi dismount and instruct the Bai family guards to remain at the foot of the mountain while the two of them would accompany the new army, Shen Yancong smiled and shouted to the new soldiers: “Though Princess Zhenguo and Princess Gaoyi are leaving their guard troops at the foot of the mountain, they are highly skilled in martial arts! We must not let the Princess and Princess outpace us and lose our ten gold pieces!”

Seeing that Princess Zhenguo didn’t even bring her guard troops and clearly didn’t take those mountain bandits seriously, the new soldiers immediately steeled themselves and charged up the mountain like it was a competition.

Shen Yancong selected six Western Liang assassins to stay close to Bai Qingyan. Gripping their long blades and seeing the new soldiers had all eagerly rushed up the mountain to catch bandits, they exchanged glances, suddenly drew their blades and turned to attack in Bai Qingyan’s direction.