After hearing Qin Shangzhi’s words, Bai Qingyan nodded and cupped her fists to the Crown Prince: “Then please have Your Highness send someone to retrieve the remains of my Tiger Eagle Battalion elite soldiers and see how Western Liang explains this!”

“Absolutely not!” Old Fang’s hand stroking his beard paused, and he hurriedly looked toward the Crown Prince. “No matter what, Qiushan Pass still belongs to Western Liang right now. Jin’s sending people to investigate was already inappropriate. We Jin should be covering up this matter—how can we go demand the remains? Wouldn’t that be admitting to Western Liang that we sent people to investigate Qiushan Pass? Your Highness must think thrice!”

When Qin Shangzhi heard Old Fang speak in opposition to him, his brows furrowed tightly, and he immediately became unwilling to speak further. Anyway, as long as Old Fang opened his mouth, the Crown Prince would follow Old Fang’s advice. It was useless for him to say more.

Bai Qingyan glanced sideways at that Old Fang who was pretending to be composed, then lowered her eyes and responded: “Old Fang’s concerns are also valid. Originally Your Highness also instructed us to return quietly. It’s because we are incompetent… we have failed Your Highness!”

Seeing Bai Qingyan very remorsefully kneeling on one knee, the Crown Prince gestured for Quan Yu to help Bai Qingyan up and said slowly: “General Bai need not blame yourself! Originally, it was because Li Zhijie made excuses and delays in the peace negotiation tent, not hesitating to falsely accuse me of arranging a maidservant, insisting on postponing the negotiations. Our Jin is going to investigate his Qiushan Pass was also acting with due caution. Moreover, if we hadn’t investigated, how would we know… that Qiushan Pass harbored a group of skilled fighters dressed in Jin clothing who could join forces with Western Liang’s city guards!”

After being helped up by Quan Yu, Bai Qingyan looked toward Old Fang with a very respectful attitude: “I wonder what good strategy Old Fang has?”

Seeing Bai Qingyan’s respectful and deferential manner, Old Fang felt quite pleased with himself and put on even more airs. He pretended to be profound while stroking his beard, turning his head to look at the Crown Prince: “In this old fool’s humble opinion, it would be better to respond to movement with stillness! We should strengthen our defenses to protect Your Highness’s safety well, and see what Western Liang’s Flame King Li Zhijie plans to do!”

The Crown Prince thought for a moment and nodded: “What do you all think?”

“Since we’re unclear about Western Liang’s intentions, this approach is also good! However… we can’t just let our Jin Tiger Eagle Battalion elite soldiers’ remains be unable to return to their homeland, can we?”

Zhang Duanrui was a military man. No matter what, the Tiger Eagle Battalion brothers were all comrades who had fought and bled together with them on the battlefield. How could they abandon their remains and not care? This would chill the hearts of Jin’s officers and soldiers!

Old Fang raised his eyebrows with a condescending attitude as he looked at Zhang Duanrui and loudly questioned: “Could it be that a few corpses are more important than our Jin nation’s reputation?”

Old Fang’s way of questioning made all the generals in the tent look at him sideways with dissatisfied and indifferent expressions.

“What do you literary scholars understand?!” Zhen Zeping stood up excitedly and said through gritted teeth, “National heroes who sacrificed their lives for the Kingdom! Could it be their lives are as cheap as grass and weeds?! Could it be their remains are worth nothing?! Are they not born of mothers and raised by fathers…”

“That’s right, everyone is born of fathers and raised by mothers! But for Great Jin’s reputation, even if this old bag of bones were ground to dust and scattered to the winds, I would gladly accept it. As military men… could your awareness be less than this old man’s? Born as Jin people… we should serve Jin! What does a mere skeleton matter?!” Old Fang stood on the moral high ground, full of righteous vigor.

Zhen Zeping’s eyes widened: “What bullshit!”

“You! A scholar can be killed but not humiliated! You crude fellow insulting this old man like this… Your Highness, the Crown Prince, are you just going to watch this?!” Old Fang was so angry he nearly fainted, his face flushed red.

“Enough, enough! Let me think about this matter some more!” The Crown Prince had originally been called up from sleep, and his mind was already muddled. With Zhen Zeping’s loud shouting, the Crown Prince inevitably got a headache. “General Bai is injured! Go back first to bandage your wounds and rest a bit!”

“Yes!” Bai Qingyan respectfully saluted before withdrawing from the Crown Prince’s main tent.

In the wounded soldiers’ camp, Bai Qingyan checked that all the Tiger Eagle Battalion elite soldiers who had been injured while following her to rescue people were well, then stood for a long time beside the bed of Xiao Ruojiang, who had already taken medicine and fallen asleep. Her fists at her sides tightened slightly. She turned to the military physician and said: “Take good care of him.”

The military physician looked at the wounds on Bai Qingyan’s body and armor and said: “General, your wounds probably also need treatment! This is a female medical officer who volunteered to come. Her medical skills are indeed excellent. Let her examine you!”

The veiled female medical officer stepped forward to salute Bai Qingyan, lifting her eyes to look at her: “General!”

“Thank you for your trouble!” Bai Qingyan nodded to the female medical officer.

Drawing the curtain, the female medical officer carefully helped Bai Qingyan remove her battle armor and clothing. Her pupils trembled slightly…

She had never seen any woman with as many wounds on her body as Bai Qingyan. Everywhere her gaze fell, wounds crisscrossed… they were everywhere! There were old ones, fresh ones that hadn’t healed, and ones from a few days ago that had scabbed over and torn open again.

The female medical officer looked up at Bai Qingyan, who sat on the stool with a calm expression and unblinking eyes. Thinking of the Bai family army’s swift and brave General Bai Qingming, who died protecting the people of Feng County, her eyes couldn’t help but redden.

She was a broken flower, a wilted leaf who had been defiled and disfigured by Western Liang soldiers. She had been about to raise a knife to kill herself when Swift and Brave General Bai Qingming leaped down from his horse, wrapped her broken body in his cloak, and looked at her with eyes burning like fire, saying: “The Bai family army soldiers are fighting bloody battles at the front lines! Could it be so that the people we protect with our lives would raise knives to kill themselves after being saved?! Live! Living is more important than anything! Only by living will you not betray the virtue of the tens of thousands of Bai family army soldiers who sacrificed their lives!”

So she had gritted her teeth and lived on in degradation.

The female medical officer gently cleaned the edges of the wounds with fine cotton cloth dipped in hot water, and couldn’t help but speak in a low voice: “General, my father is a physician at Cao’an Hall in Feng County. The people of Feng County were fortunate to be protected by the Bai family’s young General Bai Qingming, who sacrificed his life so they could live! This humble girl thanks the Bai family’s young general on behalf of Feng County’s people! Thanks to the Bai family army!”

This was why she had risked coming to Youhua Road!

The Bai family generals had died protecting these common people, whose lives were like grass and weeds. When she heard that the Bai family’s eldest legitimate daughter, who had been severely injured years ago and lost all her martial arts—the Bai family army’s Little Commander Bai—had rushed from the capital to lead troops in battle after the Bai family generals died in battle, protecting territory and people, her blood boiled with passion.

She thought that since Little Commander Bai was a woman, after she was injured the military physicians would mostly be unable to examine and treat her carefully. She was a woman with medical skills, so she could help Little Commander Bai. Therefore, she left a letter for her father and secretly came to Youhua Road.

Looking at the young girl before her with reddened eyes and tears on her lowered lashes, Bai Qingyan suddenly thought of her aunt, her aunt Bai Suyi… who had studied under Physician Hong. Physician Hong had once said that her aunt surpassed her teacher, that her medical skills had long exceeded his own, and she had more patriotic fervor than he.

She couldn’t help but feel favorable toward the young girl before her, asking in a low voice: “How old are you? What’s your name?”

“Sixteen, surname Ji, given name Langhua.” Ji Langhua’s movements were both gentle and efficient. She tried hard to keep her eyes wide open to prevent her tears from falling. “My life… was given by the Bai family army and General Bai Qingming.”