Chapter 101: Winning Hearts, Major General Lian Cheng

An anxious shout rang out, and a middle-aged man in military dress, slightly stout in build, spurred his horse forward from the rear of the procession.

Close behind him came Yun Yi, a handsome young man in white, who could not resist following once he sensed there was excitement to be seen.

Shen Qianmo frowned lightly at the sight.

What business did Yao Wentao have joining this scene?

Yao Wentao was the nephew of Yao Chong, the Minister of Revenue, and the officer in command of the fifty thousand troops the court had assigned to Prince Xuan’s household. He held the official rank of fifth-grade General Dingyuan. Backed by Yao Chong’s protection and the support of the emperor’s eldest son, Meng Tianluo, he usually strutted about with arrogance, behaving without restraint. Rumor had it he was a lecherous wastrel who had never applied himself to serious study.

Once Shen Qianmo learned who he was, she finally understood why Meng Yuanheng had said back then that the court’s fifty thousand soldiers were utterly useless.

On the surface, they were troops sent to Prince Xuan by the court. In truth, however, they had been dispatched by the old emperor, or more precisely, by Meng Tianluo, to keep Meng Yuanheng in check.

Yao Wentao was dressed in military garb, but because he had always lived in comfort and privilege and had never truly seen battle, his face was much fairer than that of an ordinary soldier. He lacked Wenren Yuan’s sharp, hard lines and looked instead more like a pale scholar.

He dismounted in haste. At the sound of his voice, the fat man kneeling between the three of them jerked his head up, as though clutching at a lifeline, and cried out, "Brother-in-law, save me! Brother-in-law!"

Brother-in-law? Shen Qianmo raised a delicate brow. So the two of them were related by marriage after all.

Yao Wentao shot him a fierce glare, then turned to Shen Qianmo and said, "Princess Consort of Prince Xuan, this man is my wife’s younger brother. His name is Ma Shizu. I beg Your Highness to spare his life for my sake."

Though his words were polite enough, he clearly leaned on the backing of Yao Chong and the eldest prince; his tone held little real respect and was faintly haughty.

Just a frail little woman. So what if she carried the title of Princess Consort of Prince Xuan? After all, she was only a woman. How much could she really do?

But her appearance was indeed breathtaking. Even dressed in the simplest of plain blue robes, she could not hide the blossom-like beauty of her face. More striking still was the serene grace about her, a quiet poise that made even Yao Wentao, who had seen every kind of woman and every kind of charm, feel his heart stir.

Shen Qianmo noticed the lustful look Yao Wentao cast toward her, and her frown deepened. Her voice also cooled. "By General Yao’s meaning, are you saying your face carries more weight than military law?"

Beside her, Yun Yi gave a soft snort and said teasingly, "Military law is decreed by His Majesty. Does General Yao mean that his face is greater even than the emperor’s?"

Those words left Yao Wentao speechless. Embarrassed and enraged, his fair complexion gradually flushed the color of pig liver.

At that moment, Wenren Yuan suddenly barked at Ma Shizu, "Ma Shizu, are you not the deputy general at Jinyang Pass? How dare you abandon your post and sneak all the way here? What is the current situation at Jinyang Pass?"

A deputy general was second only to the commanding general. In battle, such a man was one of the pillars of the army, the very soul that led the troops forward. If even the deputy general had fled, what confidence could the defenders of Jinyang Pass still have in fighting?

At Wenren Yuan’s question, Ma Shizu’s fat face went red and white in turn before he burst into tears, snot and tears streaming down together as he began his account.

The Northern Di army was already fierce and warlike, and their commander, He Liancheng, understood military formations with uncanny mastery. He wielded his forces like a god of war, bringing out the full strength of the Northern Di in battle. In a single night, he had taken Licheng with ease and captured every remaining defender there. Using Licheng as his base, he pressed the attack without pause and in one stroke reached Jinyang Pass. Beneath the pass’s tower, he slaughtered every captured soldier from Licheng, leaving none alive.

That day, the setting sun was red as blood and sand whirled through the air, while beneath Jinyang Pass the ground ran with blood and was strewn with corpses. Even now, whenever Ma Shizu recalled that horrific scene, he could still go pale and tremble all over.

The sight had inevitably shaken the defenders of Jinyang Pass to the core, filling every man with dread. After several days of fighting, the garrison had suffered countless losses and its strength was nearly exhausted. Even their commanding general, Cao Xun, had been struck by one of He Liancheng’s arrows and seriously wounded.

Seeing Jinyang Pass on the verge of collapse, and terrified by He Liancheng’s brutal treatment of prisoners, Ma Shizu had fled only to save his own life. Taking two attendants with him, he disguised himself as an ordinary foot soldier and slipped away in secret.

"The Northern Di are savage and cruel, cutting down anyone they see. He Liancheng is incredibly skilled in martial arts, and his killing is as casual as breathing. It is truly terrifying. Jinyang Pass is doomed, I tell you..." He went on and on, determined to magnify the ferocity and strength of the Northern Di army, as though doing so might wash away the stain of his own desertion.

But Shen Qianmo would not give him the chance to puff up the enemy and belittle their own side. She ignored his repeated pleas and dismissed all of Yao Wentao’s attempts to stop her. At once, she ordered Wenren Yuan to bind the three of them and send them back with the army to Jinyang Pass, where they would be dealt with according to military law.

It seemed He Liancheng was not merely brutal; he also knew how to attack the heart. Deliberately slaughtering the Licheng garrison beneath the city tower had an obvious purpose: to break the morale of the defenders at Jinyang Pass. Once the enemy’s fighting spirit was shaken, he could claim victory without battle.

He Liancheng was no ordinary man.

Shen Qianmo found herself wanting very much to meet him.

With mounted speed and relentless haste, the eighty thousand troops finally arrived at Jinyang Pass just before nightfall, riding on the last glow of the sunset.

The borderlands were bitterly cold and desolate, with few signs of life and sand filling the sky. A cutting wind, laden with yellow dust, struck their faces without mercy. Shen Qianmo wrapped herself completely in the broad, warm hooded cloak, leaving only a pair of bright, keen eyes exposed.

Before them stood a tall watchtower, rising between heaven and earth like a lone sentinel guarding the people within the pass. Above the gate, the three characters for Jinyang Pass stood bold and forceful, lending the place an air of ancient heaviness and dignity.

The garrison commander had learned that reinforcements were arriving and had come early to welcome them at the gate.

General Cao Xun stood at the very front, broad-shouldered and powerful, with a face covered in black beard, giving him the look of a formidable hero from the old tales. The harsh winds of the frontier had etched lines of weather and hardship across his rugged features. His tiger eyes fixed on the approaching army, and some of the tension in his heart eased. Thick bandages were wrapped around his right arm, surely the wound Ma Shizu had spoken of, the injury he had received in battle with the Northern Di and He Liancheng.

What Cao Xun saw first was Wenren Yuan at the front of the formation. Knowing him, he was just about to greet him when a woman in a cloak stepped out from behind him. A gray-clad youth followed closely behind her. Yet the young man, with his delicate and pretty features, was clearly a woman dressed as a man.

As for the cloaked woman, she was wrapped from head to toe in a long satin cloak trimmed with fur, making her features impossible to discern. Cao Xun could only tell from the peony embroidery on the cloak that she was a woman.

He looked puzzled. He had only heard that the court had sent Prince Xuan to lead the reinforcements to Jinyang Pass, and had even worried how someone so frail and disabled could endure a long march and take command of troops in the field. Yet Prince Xuan had not appeared at all. Instead, it was this weak and slender woman who had come. Looking at her thin, fragile frame, it seemed as though a single gust of wind could blow her away from Jinyang Pass.

Wenren Yuan met Cao Xun’s astonished and questioning gaze. Sensing what the man was thinking, his stern, imposing square face softened slightly, and the corners of his tightly set mouth lifted a little as he said, "General Cao, this is the Princess Consort of Prince Xuan."