He Lianying turned his horse around and prepared to leave, giving up on the captured Tartars. Ning Shu laughed coldly. Did you think that you were free to come and go as you please on the soil of Great Yong?
She grabbed her bow and arrow, and with a pull, drew the bow into the shape of a full moon. The tip of the arrow gleamed with cold light as it pointed towards He Lianying’s back.
She released the bowstring, and the arrow flew straight towards He Lianying. However, he immediately dropped down flat on top of his horse and the arrow flew past above him to pierce into the tree trunk ahead.
He Lianying looked at the arrow on the tree trunk, then couldn’t stop himself from turning back to glance at Ning Shu. She was sitting up tall on her horse and her cold gaze was filled with murderous intent.
Ning Shu was a little disappointed to have failed to kill He Lianying. As they say, scourges live past a thousand.
>There’s a Chinese saying that basically says good people die young, bad people live past one thousand.<
It really would have been unrealistic for He Lianying to die so easily. The original host and He Lianying were probably destined to be involved with each other since in their last lifetime, they had even gotten married. How could the ties of destiny possibly be broken that easily?
Ning Shu stopped thinking about it and turned around to say coldly, “Clean up the battlefield and record the names of all the soldiers that died in battle. Evaluate their merit and reward them accordingly. Give their families three times the compensation.”
Ning Shu looked towards the corpses on the ground. Some had been trampled beyond recognition by the horses, and some bodies had even been split in two, exposing the entrails which were still warm.
The dusty soil was dyed by blood and turned into clumps of black as the blood dried. The stench of blood hovering over this battlefield was so heavy it caused people to feel dizzy.
War was cruel. The corners of Ning Shu’s eyes felt a bit hot. She smiled coldly as she looked towards the general who had arrived so late. When he noticed Ning Shu’s gaze, he stiffened and immediately shifted his gaze away. Following that, he cupped his fist towards Ning Shu in salute and asked, “Princess, what about these Tartars?”
“The heads of Tartars can be exchanged for military merits.” That general’s gaze was glowing as he looked at the Tartars.
He had come late and he still wanted to snatch credit? Ning Shu was currently very annoyed with the generals of Great Yong. It was no wonder the Tartars were able to do as they please on the nation’s soil. If they had so much energy to scheme, why didn’t they use it to fight the Tartars?
Ning Shu looked at him coldly and said, “This princess will cripple whomever that dares to touch these Tartars. So, you want merit?”
“This general doesn’t dare.” That general hastily lowered his head. Ning Shu was not just a princess, she was also the left vanguard so her status was higher than his even in military rank. Discontent and unhappiness born of having to lower his head to a woman emerged in his heart.
However, Ning Shu didn’t care what these people thought and shouted, “Return to camp.”
The woman Ning Shu had rescued, Cai Sang, followed after Ning Shu on horseback, her eyes shining brightly.
When they got back to camp, Ning Shu had the soldiers bring the twenty Tartars to the stage in the middle of the campgrounds.
The Tartars had probably gotten too used to doing as they pleased at the borders of Great Yong since even though they were scared to face the soldiers below, they were still confident that the people of Great Yong wouldn’t dare to kill them. Thus, they even looked towards the soldiers with provocative expressions.
Ning Shu headed inside the main tent and knelt down on one knee to salute Shen Feng. Following that, she reported the situation, including the fact that the military officer was slow in coming, showing that he didn’t care about the lives of his comrades.
That officer’s expression immediately darkened and he glared at Ning Shu angrily. Ning Shu just gave a cold laugh and rubbed the whip at her waist in response.
How were they supposed to fight with such complete lack of unity? Power must be pulled together and unified, but it was inevitable for there to be some mice sh*t mixed in. Ning Shu felt that she had to establish her prestige in order to stop these people that thought themselves to be men from looking down on her just because she was a woman.
She’d kill the chicken to warn the monkey, with the chicken being those Tartars.
Ning Shu ignored that officer’s blame-filled glare and walked onto the stage, declaring coldly, “The Tartars have harmed our siblings, kill! The Tartars have trampled our land, kill…”
All the soldiers below lifted their spears as they chanted, scaring the Tartars on the stage pale. When they saw Ning Shu walk over with whip in hand, they were immediately scared out of their wits and started talking rapidly in their native language.