Chapter 84
Chapter 84
Xing Shuwei left the residence and descended the steps. Turning back, she looked at the plaque above the gate. The two enormous characters proclaiming “Xu Residence” dispelled a little more of the unease lingering in her heart.
She had just turned away when she heard passersby nearby talking in low voices.
“Have you heard? The enemy somehow gained another ten thousand cavalrymen overnight. The General of Distant Pacification left the city to meet them before dawn, and the battle is raging as we speak.”
“Huh? Wasn’t the commander bringing reinforcements from Panzhou supposed to be someone newly arrived from the capital?
“Why didn’t he leave the city to fight alongside the General of Distant Pacification? Why did he go out through a different gate instead?”
“Ha! When has the imperial court ever cared about Qizhou? Or Panzhou, for that matter?
“General Zhang should be able to hold the city again this time, shouldn’t he? But where do the enemy keep finding all these soldiers? How did so many appear out of nowhere in a single night?”
Hearing this, Xing Shuwei could no longer restrain herself. Gathering up her coarse robe, she ran toward Xujiakou Alley.
She was worried about Zhang Mingan.
There were two wounds on his arm so deep the bone could be seen. Could he even lift a sword or saber now?
Over the past two months, she and Zhang Mingan had become comrades fighting side by side.
He risked his life resisting the enemy at the front, while she exhausted her fortune at the army camp and personally treated the wounded.
It was only human for her to worry about his safety.
Could the new commander from the capital be Pei Xianjing?
Xing Shuwei kept glancing ahead and behind, left and right. She could not rid herself of the feeling that a pair of eyes was watching her from the shadows.
She ran faster and faster, her head lowered. Though she knew Pei Xianjing would never appear here at such a critical moment, she was still afraid.
The mere mention of the name Pei Xianjing frightened her.
Distracted, she kept running. Even after reaching the ancient well at the mouth of the alley, she continued blindly forward with her head down.
“Miss!” Qiutong suddenly called from behind her.
Xing Shuwei jumped. Only after turning and recognizing Qiutong’s face did her panic subside a little.
“If you run any farther, Miss, you will be outside the city. The battle beyond the walls has already gone on for more than two hours.
“No matter how worried you are about the noble heir, you cannot be this reckless.
“Before he left the city, the noble heir repeatedly instructed me to take good care of you.
“He also said not to let the neighbors gather at the city gates with their farm tools…”
Qiutong left the rest unspoken.
Lord Zhang had also said that if the city fell, everyone was to flee for their lives as quickly as possible.
He had deliberately left three swift horses behind and used a military order to keep the young master inside the city.
Qiutong tugged Xing Shuwei by the sleeve and pulled her over to the ancient well.
Pointing beside it, she indicated an osmanthus tree lying on the ground, its roots still clumped with soil.
“The noble heir asked you to plant this tree, Miss. He said that by the time you finish planting it, he will be back.”
Qiutong spoke without the slightest confidence.
Xing Shuwei glanced at the clump of soil around the osmanthus tree’s roots. The earth was not even dry yet.
Instead of getting a proper night’s rest, had he gone looking for this osmanthus tree?
What utter nonsense.
Xing Shuwei’s hand clenched her robe in a death grip. With his life hanging in the balance, how could he still act as childishly as a boy?
She grew inexplicably agitated.
Standing in place, she looked all around one moment and paced back and forth the next.
Qiutong urged her several times, but she still made no move to plant the tree.
Finally, she snapped, “Qiutong, stop rushing me. I will wait until he returns, and we will plant this tree together.”
“By the way, did you see the commander from the capital who is leading the Panzhou army? Was it someone you recognized?”
Qiutong shook her head. “No. I only saw him from a distance. He was a burly man with a thick, unkempt beard. He looked at least in his late thirties.”
“Then aren’t they fighting alongside the Qizhou army? Why did they leave the city again?” Xing Shuwei asked.
Qiutong scratched her head. “I don’t know, Miss. Perhaps they have some sort of plan.
“Didn’t the noble heir always say that war is fought through strategy? Please do not be so anxious, Miss.”
“Sit down and rest for a while,” Qiutong added.
Qizhou seemed to have plunged into the fiercest heat of summer overnight.
It was only eight in the morning, yet the sun already hung high in the sky.
Heat waves seemed to rise from beneath the earth, making everyone unbearably restless.
Xing Shuwei raised a hand to her chest-
How strange. Why had that same dull, aching sensation she felt when fleeing the capital returned?
“Make way! Hurry, make way!”
A thunder of urgent hoofbeats approached amid the dust billowing through the street.
Xing Shuwei saw a man galloping toward the city gate, shouting as he rode, with a person slung crosswise over his horse’s back.
“I am Wang Yanqing, magistrate of Huaishu County. On the orders of Lord Pei, who heads the Ministry of War, I have come to aid the General of Distant Pacification.
“Open the gate at once! I must go to the front and see the General of Distant Pacification in person.”
But there were no soldiers guarding the city gate.
Days of unbroken fighting had cost Qizhou half its troops.
Now that battle had begun again, the entire Qizhou army had followed Zhang Mingan out of the city to meet the enemy.
Seeing that the horse showed no sign of stopping, Xing Shuwei turned and ran toward the gate to open it.
“Miss!” Worried, Qiutong ran after her.
Together, the two women removed the heavy wooden bar.
Wang Yanqing’s warhorse reached the gate at the same moment.
“Whoa!” He had no choice but to rein in, for the two women were not strong enough to open the gate quickly.
“My lord, it is dangerous outside. You seem to be going alone. Would it not be better to wait inside the city?”
As Xing Shuwei strained to pull the gate open, she tilted her head up to ask him.
Wang Yanqing’s expression was grave. “Thank you for your kind intentions, miss, but there can be no delay.
“Minister Pei said Yelü Han’s corpse must be delivered to the General of Distant Pacification on the battlefield.”
As he spoke, he patted the corpse on the horse’s back. “Minister Pei killed this bastard.
“Otherwise, it would not be me coming to Qizhou City now, but those spies with their formidable martial arts…”
Wang Yanqing was about to continue praising Pei Xianjing when Xing Shuwei cut him off urgently. “Then where is Minister Pei?”
Wang Yanqing paused before answering, “He circled around to attack from the enemy’s rear.
“Minister Pei intends to annihilate the enemy in one stroke.
“He laid all these painstaking plans precisely to deceive Yelü Bao and his father into committing every man they had.”
When he finished, Wang Yanqing shouted, “Hyah!” and galloped through the city gate.
“Qiutong, hurry and close the gate.” Xing Shuwei suppressed the tumult in her heart. Without even sparing a moment to look up at the scene beyond the walls, she and Qiutong shut the gate and barred it tightly once more.
With her back against the gate, she could not tell whether she was imagining it, but the sounds of slaughter outside seemed to shake the heavens, leaving her head buzzing.
“Miss, the Eldest Young Master has circled around to the enemy’s rear…” Qiutong trailed off halfway, staring blankly at Xing Shuwei.
Although they had never witnessed a battlefield’s cruelty with their own eyes, the wounds of the injured soldiers and the maimed corpses carried back one after another had shown them the enemy’s cold-blooded savagery.
How many men had the Eldest Young Master taken to attack the enemy’s main forces from the rear? Could he succeed?
Xing Shuwei’s heart felt like plaster peeling from a wall, ready to flake away at any moment.
She stared at Qiutong in confusion, her voice weak and listless. “I don’t know.”
She did not know what she feared.
Was she afraid Pei Xianjing would return victorious and seize her?
Or that he and Zhang Mingan would disagree on the battlefield, fail to coordinate, and suffer defeat together?
Or perhaps… she was afraid he would die beneath the enemy’s trampling hooves?