The nearly hundred Cheng household soldiers split into two halves—one half completely surrounded the carriages carrying Shaoshang, Yun Shi, and the others, while the other half raised their blades and moved forward, preparing to engage. In just moments, both sides clashed in close combat. Seeing the fierce faces and bloodthirsty expressions of this gang, Shaoshang couldn’t help but feel fear in her heart. Especially when the bandits saw the abundant supplies on this side and that many of the maidservants were young and beautiful, they revealed even more evil and greedy looks. Yun Shi covered Cheng Wei’s eyes and retreated back into the carriage. Most of the maidservants were filled with terror, and the more timid ones had already curled up into balls, crying quietly.

After the initial shock and revulsion at this gang of bandits’ vile appearance passed, Shaoshang finally trembled as she drove her horse out from behind the carriage, drew the short sword Cheng Song had given her, and held it across her chest. Silently calculating the numbers on both sides, she felt her modest display of bravery should probably just remain at the level of making a show.

Who knew this gang of bandits would be so fierce—seeing the vastly disparate numbers, they still charged forward with blades raised, clearly convinced that household-raised soldiers had no real combat ability. Unfortunately, what they now faced were not ordinary household troops. Before departure, Old Master Cheng had specifically selected half of the guard unit that had followed him for many years to join the convoy. The spirit and courage forged in mountains of blades and seas of blood—fighting equal numbers, exterminating these bandits was like swatting moths.

After fierce combat between both sides, the Cheng household soldiers had already killed all twenty or thirty of these men, but the bandits rolling on the ground still shouted in their dying breaths things like “Just you wait, more are coming to slaughter and annihilate you all.”

“They’re just the bandits’ scouts—light cavalry sent out to search everywhere for targets to rob, plunder, and kill. There’s a large force behind them.” Looking at the corpses covering the ground, Elder Li couldn’t help sweating down his back despite the cold weather. After so many years of military chaos and disorder, he had considerable experience with bandit gang operating styles.

After this incident, everyone stopped delaying and hurried toward Elder Li’s village. Who knew misfortunes never come singly—because they were driving too urgently, along the way Yun Shi’s carriage hit a stone pit hidden in an earthen mound. The left wheel axle broke and the supply carriage toppled sideways, trapping all the women inside.

When they pulled people out from the damaged carriage, they discovered Yun Shi’s left leg was seriously injured. Though not fractured, a large gash had been torn in the flesh. Shaoshang nearly ground her teeth to powder. She quickly had people push all the large luggage trunks out of a comfortable carriage, let Yun Shi and the other women get in, then abandoned dozens of relatively unimportant luggage carts and continued the journey with lighter loads.

Seeing her make such decisive decisions at such a young age, Elder Li couldn’t help silently praising her.

Who knew that after not traveling far, sounds of killing and shouting came from behind again, and the momentum was much stronger than the previous wave. Everyone’s expressions changed. Shaoshang saw that this place was still quite far from Elder Li’s village territory—clearly they couldn’t reach it in moments. She looked again toward the western road they’d come from, thinking privately that actually she wasn’t without means of escape.

One person on a single horse could pass through the forest. The bandits would be busy plundering the convoy and surely couldn’t attend to her. She had memorized the route—as long as she escaped to Chenliu Commandery she’d be safe. At that time she could falsely claim the convoy had been scattered and she had been driven there.

But—before Shaoshang’s eyes floated the image of Yun Shi pale from blood loss, and also Wewei and the twins. She shook her head.

Looking again at the mountain forests on both sides of the road, they seemed somewhat familiar. She quickly grabbed Elder Li riding alongside and asked, “I remember when we came this way, you mentioned there are many vacant hunting lodges here. May I ask, Elder, is there any hunting lodge here that backs onto mountain ridges with flowing water from upstream nearby?”

She hadn’t studied military theory, but at least she knew the idiom “attacked from both front and rear.” If the approaching enemy had more people than their own guards, and the convoy had many women and children, if they continued like just now, encircling territory to resist enemies on the open plains, sooner or later they’d be broken through—that would mean certain death. Better to rely on terrain to delay them. They’d brought sufficient food and medicine, and with a water source, holding out for several days wouldn’t be a problem. Perhaps they could outlast this gang of bandits who had randomly come out to commit crimes.

Moreover, quickly in two or three days, slowly in five or six days, whether from Hua County or Chenliu there would certainly be reinforcements. But what if there was no such hunting lodge? Then they could only fight with their backs to the water and leave it to fate.

Elder Li knew his home territory intimately. He led the convoy toward the depths of the mountain forest, turning left and right, winding around and around, and indeed found an excellent shelter—this hunting lodge was built against the mountain, backing onto a concave cliff face overgrown with moss. On the rock wall beside the lodge, a stream of water flowed down from the high mountains. The lodge’s owner had fled conscription many years ago. Elder Li had found this place uniquely dangerous and had renovated five or six large rooms for future hunting use.

Several retainers surveyed the terrain and all said this place was excellent. They immediately skillfully cut down many trees as thick as rice bowls from the forest, tied them into barrier stakes like a fence, and completely surrounded the flat ground before the lodge. After busying themselves for nearly an hour, the large bandit force finally found their way through the dense forest.

This wave of bandits numbered three to four hundred. Their shouting created heaven-shaking momentum, and their fighting was fierce and brutal, making people lose courage at the sound. But they seemed to be temporarily assembled together—their coordination was neither seamless nor their commands unified, and their military provisions were also insufficient. After the first wave of densely packed arrow rain, there were only sporadic cold arrows.

Added to this, the flat ground before the lodge was narrow. The bandits couldn’t swarm forward all at once to win by numbers, but could only add fuel to the lamp wave by wave. After the lead bandit shouted according to custom “Brothers, charge! Women and goods are yours for the taking,” both sides had been clanging away until now. Night turned to day, yet they’d neither broken through the barrier stakes nor driven off the bandits.

At the most leisurely times, both sides were exhausted and hungry from fighting, glaring fiercely at each other while eating, calculating in their hearts how to break through or resist the other side.

At the most dangerous moment, dozens of fierce bandits relying on tall horses had taken advantage of night to leap over the barrier stakes and charge to the front of the hunting lodge, wanting to break through the defense line in one strike. Fortunately, experienced guards had previously arranged several trip-horse ropes in front of the lodge. They immediately dragged down the horses, then swarmed forward to kill the dismounted bandits. Even so, there were still about ten bandits with excellent horsemanship who jumped clear of the trip-horse ropes and, while rapidly escaping, reached down to grab seven or eight maidservants who were fleeing scattered, pressing them horizontally behind their horses and carrying them away.

Shaoshang had originally thought that next the other side would use these maidservants as hostages to force them to surrender and lay down their weapons. Who knew that after she agonized over this for a long time, those bandits never did so. She immediately understood: in this era, which master household would surrender for the sake of “merely” seven or eight slaves? Even the bandits understood this “universal value,” so they didn’t make such a “foolish” demand at all.

Standing behind the human wall formed by the guards, Shaoshang felt bitter in her heart, not knowing whether she should be glad for her reincarnation skills.

Among the captured maidservants was a girl with a dimple on her left cheek, not yet fifteen years old, clever and pleasing. She was ordinarily deeply favored by Yun Shi and often loved to come listen to her play the flute.

At that time a bandit had also charged toward her, reaching out to grab her, but the two martial maidservants who served as her personal bodyguards were both skilled. They immediately stepped forward. One slashed several times with her sword, severing the bandit’s outstretched palm at the root. The other rolled on the ground, using dual continuous blades to slash the horse’s legs. The horse in pain threw the bandit from its back, who was then chopped into mincemeat by the guards.

“The bandits will just abuse them a bit—they won’t actually kill them, right?” Shaoshang struggled to stand straight. At this time, concepts of chastity weren’t particularly strong—as long as the girls survived, that would be enough.

The two martial maidservants exchanged glances. One of them said, “Young Lady, don’t think about it. Only by surviving can we take revenge.”

Shaoshang’s heart turned cold, and the hand gripping her sword hilt began trembling violently.

These two formidable martial maidservants had been assigned to her side by Madam Xiao—so, had Director Xiao also encountered such dangerous and bloody situations? Had she also struggled desperately to escape like this? Had she also watched helplessly as people around her went to die?

“Niaoniao, come back quickly! What are you doing standing so far forward? Be careful of stray arrows injuring you!” Yun Shi, supported by A’Zhu, stood with difficulty at the entrance of the main lodge, shouting anxiously.

Shaoshang jogged over but discovered that Yun Shi’s left lower leg was bleeding again. She frowned and said, “Aunt, you should go inside and lie down.” As she spoke, she and A’Zhu, one on each side, forcibly helped Yun Shi inside.

In the center of the room burned a fire. Elder Li sat by the fire having a maidservant tend to the blade wound on his arm. Cheng Wei and the twins had already been taken elsewhere to settle. Shaoshang helped Yun Shi onto a simply constructed bed nearby to lie flat, had a maidservant rewrap the wound, and A’Zhu poured a bowl of sweet jujube soup from the copper kettle hanging over the fire, feeding it slowly to Yun Shi.

Shaoshang turned her head and bowed respectfully, saying, “We’ve implicated you, Elder. You were peacefully at home playing with your grandchildren, but now you’re suffering here because of us.”

Elder Li still smiled like a Maitreya Buddha: “Years ago when soldiers and bandits colluded and ran rampant through the countryside—that was truly human tragedy! Young Lady need not worry. Yesterday I already had servants take the mountain path back to the village to request reinforcements. They’ll definitely arrive faster than those from Hua County or Chenliu. When they arrive and attack from both sides, we’ll protect the Madam and Young Lady and leave first.”

Shaoshang was no longer as ignorant of worldly affairs as when she’d first transmigrated. Elder Li’s village could at most produce about a hundred village militia, and their combat ability was questionable.

Elder Li seemed to guess the girl’s thoughts and smiled again: “Young Lady, don’t think this old man is just speaking words of comfort. These past seven or eight years, the roads have been clear and orderly—no one picks up things dropped on the road. This old man doesn’t know what’s actually happened this time, but above there’s the Provincial Governor, below there’s the Commandery Governor—they were originally all capable warriors and generals who will certainly not sit by and watch these bandits run rampant in their territory. We just need to hold out for a few days.”

Shaoshang smiled without speaking—but what if the problem was precisely with the Provincial Governor and Commandery Governor? For example, the original owners of the Wan family estate, the Bu clan, had surrendered then rebelled again, hadn’t they?

Thinking of this, Shaoshang asked, “Elder, were the Yanzhou Provincial Governor and Dong Commandery Governor originally with His Majesty from the beginning, or did they join later?”

Elder Li was startled and began stroking his beard: “This… as for the Provincial Governor, this old man isn’t very clear, but I’ve met the Commandery Governor several times. He often loves to talk at banquets about how difficult it was following the dragon in those early days and how mighty His Majesty was. I imagine he was with him from the beginning.”

Shaoshang breathed slightly easier. On the other side, Yun Shi heard this, set down her soup bowl, and smiled: “Those who joined by surrendering were originally heroes from all quarters. His Majesty never slights them—most are granted official positions in the court.”

These words had deep implications. Shaoshang nodded. But knowing the Dong Commandery Governor was reliable was enough.

Yun Shi didn’t know what she thought of and said mournfully, “We’re in such a state here—who knows how your uncle is faring? If we’d known it would be like this, we should have hurried faster and would already be in Hua County by now.” As a loving couple of over ten years, thinking her husband might come to harm was like having a piece of flesh gouged from her heart.

“I think Uncle should be fine—rather, Hua County is probably not so good.” Shaoshang said quietly.

Yun Shi didn’t know whether to be shocked or happy: “How do you know?”

Shaoshang sighed and said, “When we left Chenliu three days ago, there was still no trouble, and Elder Li’s village was also completely peaceful. But Qing County looked wrong, from which we can see that if there were any incidents, they must have originated in the east.” She picked up a tree branch and began drawing on the ground. From a bird’s eye view of the map, the Capital Region, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou were arranged in order from west to east.

“His Majesty announced his decree for an eastern tour of several provinces. Counting from the day of departure, even going slowly he should have entered Qingzhou by now. But we’ve already reached Yanzhou, yet the imperial procession is still lingering in Dong Commandery of Yanzhou. What does this indicate? Qing County is strange, yet there’s no news within Chenliu Commandery—what does this indicate?”

Elder Li was drawn over and unconsciously asked aloud, “What does this indicate?”

Shaoshang said, “This indicates that someone is plotting rebellion. First they delayed the imperial procession’s journey, then suddenly struck, causing the surrounding area to have no awareness in that instant. Elder said His Majesty only passed through Qing County a few days ago. I suspect the incident happened in these past few days, which is why no one west of Qing County knows the circumstances. Moreover…”

She pointed the tree branch at the area east of Qing County and drew a small circle. “I suspect the incident occurred either in Hua County or adjacent to Hua County! That’s why Magistrate Gongsun rushed to the rescue with his men after hearing the news, leaving the county seat without many defenders. When we first encountered the bandit scouts, I remember they were traveling north from the southeast direction. If they hadn’t seen us first, they probably would have gone to plunder Qing County.”

Yun Shi was inexpressibly joyful, saying in a trembling voice, “According to what you’re saying, your uncle is actually safe now?”

“Might as well let them go attack Qing County! That county’s walls are so solid.” Shaoshang muttered grumpily. “Aunt, worry about ourselves first. Right now outside there’s still a group of gleeful fierce bandits waiting to make a feast of us!”

She couldn’t help cursing inwardly that Third Uncle was truly a massive pit!

In Chenliu he stubbornly insisted on hurrying—would staying two more days to let her meet some marriage prospects have killed him? At Qing County he put on that air of great righteousness, insisting on leaving his wife and children to enter the city alone—was the head on his shoulders just for decoration? Couldn’t he plan before acting? Otherwise they could have followed him into the county seat, which would be better than being hunted in this desolate cold mountain forest. Still worrying about Cheng Zhi, that big pig trotter? Worry about nothing! If Yun Shi didn’t become a widow but Cheng Zhi became a widower instead, without this soybean Yun Shi there’d still be papayas all over the world—see if he’d brew a new pot of soup!

Elder Li stroked his beard nearby and laughed heartily: “Truly a tiger daughter from a general’s family, with deep family learning. What excellent insights, Young Lady!”

Shaoshang smiled helplessly. At this moment she intensely missed Old Master Cheng and Director Xiao. If it were that pair of in-laws—one with great wisdom appearing foolish, one full of clever schemes—how could she have fallen to such a state!

Yun Shi was about to speak when suddenly from outside the guards shouted loudly, “—Reinforcements are here! Reinforcements have arrived!” The voices were full of joy.

Everyone in the room was both shocked and delighted. Shaoshang and Elder Li both stood up. Yun Shi also wanted to rise, but because of her leg injury and blood loss she was already extremely weak. With a slight exertion she fainted.

Shaoshang instructed A’Zhu to take good care of Yun Shi, then followed Elder Li out of the room.

Calculating the round-trip time, this wave of reinforcements must be from Elder Li’s village. Shaoshang had originally been doubtful about the village militia’s combat ability, but who knew that just as she stepped outside, she discovered the sounds of combat outside were already like heaven-shaking thunder.

This mountain forest had originally been like deep water—no matter how much noise, it was like throwing stones into a deep pool, causing no ripples. But now the surging killing intent shook the entire forest until it almost trembled.

Shaoshang looked up and saw a tide of black-armored, white-plumed soldiers surging forward, hoofbeats like tigers roaring and wolves rushing, arriving before them in moments. They didn’t bother with arranging formations—they charged forward on horseback and fought, first to arrive fought first, those arriving after finished off opponents.

That group of bandits could no longer attend to the Cheng household’s side. They hastily turned their blades and horses to resist, but the black-armored army was extremely elite. Whether individual combat skills or group coordination, they far surpassed this mob of rabble, not to mention there were still endless streams of black-armored cavalry arriving behind.

Shaoshang was stunned and said dazedly, “Elder, these, these are from your village…? They’re remarkably valiant.” The local peasant militia were this fierce these days?

Elder Li was also dumbfounded, speaking without thinking: “Where… where…”

Shaoshang looked at the old man speechlessly. So you’re admitting it?

Suddenly, Elder Li saw among the later arriving black-armored troops a group of rural able-bodied men mixed in. He immediately shouted loudly toward the leading young man in a long robe among them: “Wulang! My son! Father is here! I’m here…”

Black robes and black armor came in a burst of over a thousand, rapidly filling this mountain forest’s plain colors. Except for the several hundred at the front who were slaying bandits, the remaining several hundred soldiers reined in their horses to guard the perimeter. Under a high-flying black battle flag edged with gold, they all clustered around a general wearing a helmet and riding a jet-black steed. The several hundred men just stood there quietly, like forest ghosts.

At this time, the several hundred black-armored troops at the front had already torn and gnawed most of the bloody mutton clean like hungry wolves devouring sheep. Who knew among the bandits there was a leader who was extremely fierce—seeing his companions reduced to less than one in ten, with the remainder already crying as they surrendered, he rallied the last dozen or so bandit followers who were devoted to him unto death, fought desperately to hack their way out of the black-armored army’s encirclement, then howled as they charged toward that general, seemingly planning to make a final desperate stand.

That bandit chief fought desperately, wielding a giant two-handed cavalry saber on horseback, toppling several guards blocking his path in succession like an instrument of human destruction. The general waved his left hand, stopping the guard unit that planned to continue blocking, and with his right hand took down a golden elongated weapon hanging from his horse, then spurred his horse forward to meet the charge. That bandit chief with bloodshot eyes swung his blade forward. The general moved the weapon in his hand, as if plucking a string on a golden crow, instantly spreading out a sheet of golden radiance.

Shaoshang thought privately that this general must have astonishing physical strength. She saw him raise high the golden crow in his hand, like a brilliant golden phoenix spreading its wings, then heavily striking down directly from the front. The bandit chief’s giant blade and arm both broke off at the sound.

“Excellent—!” Elder Li shouted praise at the top of his lungs, exactly like a teahouse storytelling master overly invested in the emotions, “What a magnificent Crimson Phoenix Holding Heaven Gilded Gold Halberd! Truly unparalleled in all the world!”

His beard shook wildly with excitement. He turned to Shaoshang and smiled: “This old man has two cousins in the Feathered Forest Guards who have long said this weapon is extraordinarily handsome—today I finally get to see it!” Then he looked with disdain at the bandit corpses covering the ground. “What a pity the bandits were too incompetent—no chance to witness the divine power of the Beast Pattern Cloud-Breaking Twin Axes!”

Shaoshang looked at the distant scene, then looked at Elder Li: So this old man was regretting the bandits weren’t formidable enough?

She suddenly thought of something and asked the martial maidservant beside her, “What weapon does my father use?”

One of them said, “The General uses a nine-ring thick-spined long blade weighing over eighty catties.”

Shaoshang didn’t want to speak anymore. With such a terrible name, it wouldn’t matter even if it weighed 250 catties!

At this time, the formal combat ahead had ended. The Cheng household guards successively moved aside the fence barrier stakes, and the black-robed army also slowly tightened their formation. Though the sky was now bright, sunlight could barely enter the dense forest, only leaking through a few strands of pale golden light.

That general put away the crimson-gold gilded halberd and, surrounded by guards in the middle, slowly urged his horse closer. At this moment he suddenly raised his head and looked this way. The pale golden light was like silk threads, weaving into his pitch-black armor, jumping onto his fair complexion—refined, handsome, beyond description.

Shaoshang saw this face and immediately half her body went rigid—could they please exchange for different reinforcements? She felt their side could still hold out a bit longer.