Chapter 244: Escape
Editor: Atlas Studios
Mu Yangling’s eyes darkened. “Do it.” She took out the arrow from the quiver on her back, lit it, and rushed towards the Jin Kingdom’s guardhouse.
Mu Yangling moved too quickly and Datong couldn’t stop her in time. He could only shout in a low voice, “Miss Mu, we have to rush to Little General’s rescue.”
“So we’ll only shoot a few arrows.” Mu Yangling glared at them. “Hurry up and light the fire. I’ll shoot.” As she spoke, Mu Yangling’s second fire arrow had already flown out and was aimed at the flag on the guardhouse. The guardhouse fell into chaos.
The three of them gritted their teeth and took out their arrows to help Mu Yangling light the fire. After shooting five arrows, Mu Yangling saw that the people from the guardhouse were already chasing after them, so she said, “Run.”
Datong and the other two hurriedly followed closely behind Mu Yangling.
Mu Yangling seemed to have night vision and could come and go freely in the forest. The three of them stumbled as they ran behind Mu Yangling.
After running for a while, Mu Yangling turned around and saw that the torches of the Jin soldiers were already far away from them. After thinking for a moment, she said, “Who else has torches?”
Little Quan stumbled over and panted. “I do.”
“Light it up. I’ll hold it while you guys follow me.”
“Miss Mu, if we light the fire now, we’ll become targets,” Datong said.
“Shut up. Their arrows can’t reach us yet. Hurry up. In your current situation, if you can’t see the path under your feet, you’ll either be killed or captured.”
Little Quan immediately turned on the lighter and lit the torch. She ran ahead with the torch. With the light of the torch, the three of them moved much faster. However, it also pointed the chasing Jin soldiers in their direction. They followed Mu Yangling all the way.
After chasing for a while, the angry soldiers of the Jin Kingdom came back to their senses. The leader shouted, “Stop chasing. Be careful it might be a conspiracy. Go back and guard the place.”
However, when they heard the soaring battle cries in front of them, the Jin soldiers who chased after them were shocked and uncertain. Just as they were hesitating, a soldier with sharp ears heard a sentence in the Jin language…
At this moment, Mu Yangling was pushing Qi Haoran away to dodge the arrows. She hid behind a tree and shot at the West Xia soldiers who were chasing after her, then shouted, “Quickly find me a soldier who can speak the Jin language and shout.”
Qi Haoran was at a loss for a moment. Then, he grabbed the clothes of one of the soldiers and said, “Hurry up and shout!”
That person said with a long face, “Little General, I don’t know what to shout.”
“Just shout out ‘Darned you!’ or something. In short, shout out whatever the Jin soldiers scolded at the city gate in the past.”
He knew how to do this. The soldier thought for a moment, gathered his energy in his dantian, and cursed loudly in the Jin language.
Qi Haoran looked at Mu Yangling and waved at the soldiers behind him. “Archers, shoot. The rest of you, charge with me.”
With Mu Yangling holding down the fort, Qi Haoran rushed toward the West Xia soldiers in a moment. He was like a god of death in close combat. The West Xia soldiers quickly realized that he was the leader. Although he was only wearing the costume of an ordinary Great Zhou soldier, the West Xia soldiers quickly surrounded Qi Haoran.
When the company commander of the scout camp saw that Little General was surrounded, he was about to call for people to break out of the encirclement and save him when he recalled Mu Yangling’s death order that they were not to speak Chinese.
His face instantly turned red. At the same time, Mu Yangling, who was standing high up, quickly realized that Qi Haoran was in danger. She pulled out three arrows and fired them at the same time, opening up a gap for Qi Haoran. Qi Haoran glanced in Mu Yangling’s direction and leaped out of the encirclement…
At the same time, the Jin soldiers who had been chasing after Mu Yangling also arrived. When Mu Yangling saw them, she whistled. This was a secret signal to retreat.
In the end, Qi Haoran picked two people consecutively and waved his hand to signal for everyone to retreat. The people from the scout camp wordlessly dragged the corpses and injured people on the ground to the forest on the left. Mu Yangling brought the archers to take care of things at the back. When the West Xia soldiers, who were already in a frenzy from killing, saw a group of Jin soldiers coming out of the forest on the right, they thought that the enemy’s reinforcements had arrived and rushed forward to kill them without thinking.
Before the Jin soldiers who had come chasing could see the situation clearly, they were killed by the West Xia soldiers. Instantly, without thinking, they picked up their sabers to attack…
Meanwhile, Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran had already left with their troops under the cover of the night and trees.
After running for half an hour, Mu Yangling stopped and reached out to make them stop. She said to Qi Haoran, “Count the number of people.”
After Qi Haoran gave the order, the company commander of the scout camp reported, “Little General, nine died, 38 were injured, and five were seriously injured. We’ve brought them all back.”
“Stop their bleeding first. Leave five people behind to clean up the traces. Everyone else, quicken your pace.”
Mu Yangling and Qi Haoran helped carry the injured. After running for about two hours, they finally returned to the camp.
The military doctor was already waiting in the tent. The five seriously injured people were sent in first.
Mu Yangling knew how to deal with simple wounds and wanted to stay in the tent to help. However, Qi Haoran pulled her out and said, “There are enough military doctors.” After pulling her back to the tent, he said angrily, “You’re a girl. How can you bandage a man’s wound? Be more self-aware in the future.”
Mu Yangling glared at him and said, “Why are you categorizing men and women on the battlefield? They’re all your soldiers.”
“I know, so I’m in charge of their lives. You’re not allowed to go to the military doctor’s tent again. You’re a girl. You shouldn’t see anything you shouldn’t see.”
At the thought that most of the men in the military doctor’s tent were naked, Qi Haoran’s face darkened at the thought of this. Glaring at Mu Yangling, he said, “I’ll get someone to get you hot water to bathe. Never mind, forget about bathing tonight. We’ll wait till we return to the city tomorrow.”
Qi Haoran felt that the tent was not very safe now. It seemed that the shadows would cast on the tent through the light, so he decided to bathe after returning.
“There’s no hurry. I want to ask you what happened. Why was the operation so early?”
They had calculated how and when to act. However, the West Xia soldiers arrived an hour earlier than they had planned, and the people chasing them were more than twice as many as they had expected. If they had not succeeded in luring the group of real Jin soldiers over to share the burden of the troops and killed enough West Xia soldiers previously, they might not have been able to make it back tonight.
Qi Haoran sat on the chair and said solemnly, “Someone seemed to have come to West Xia’s guardhouse. They discovered the horses as soon as we chased the horses out. I thought that all the troops had been attracted to the front, but who knew that half of them were still guarding a large tent. The situation was too urgent at that time, so I didn’t have time to think too much about it.”
“What about the group of men in charge of attracting the troops’ attention?” Mu Yangling asked anxiously.
“They’ve already retreated. Don’t worry, they’re familiar with that shortcut, so there aren’t many casualties. On the other hand, the number of troops chasing us is more than twice what I imagined. Didn’t we just steal 100-odd of their horses? Is there a need for them to fight so hard?”
As soon as he finished speaking, someone outside wanted to report the situation. Qi Haoran did not hold back just because Mu Yangling was around and asked that person to come in.
“General, all the horses have been brought to the guardhouse at Mount Elephant. Do you want to take a look?”
Qi Haoran’s eyes lit up as he asked, “How many are there in total?”
“178. General, there are eight adult horses among them,” the person who came to report also said with shining eyes.