The sky was bright blue, birds were chirping, and the biting cold wind was mixed with a warm feeling. It was a little like when they first lived in the dilapidated temple, and the only cotton quilt was given to the eldest brother with the broken leg while the rest could only lie on heaps of straw, feeling cold on their bellies but warm on their backs.
Zheng Ruqian wiped away some tears. He felt that he must have died, since people tend to frantically recall the past right before death.
When his fingers touched an icy coldness, he was shocked and immediately sat up from the ground.
The two people who were talking by the campfire looked back - one was an expressionless, skinny, black soldier; the other had a white cloth wrapped around his neck and looked vulgar.
"Master, Master, you're awake!" the vulgar man rushed over, bawling. "Master, you scared me to death! The knife didn't kill me but you nearly scared me to death!"
So it was Wang Xiaosong. Having no neck sure looked odd.
Zheng Ruqian struggled free of him. His gaze fell upon the skinny, black soldier. He earnestly said, "Many thanks to this brother for lending a hand and saving us. If not for you, the two of us definitely wouldn't have escaped today."
Wang Xiaosong's wailing halted and he nearly fainted. "Master, you don't recognize her?"
"Him?" Zheng Ruqian was puzzled. "How would I recognize him? Do you know him?"
"It's her..." Wang Xiaosong anxiously explained but accidentally pulled at the wound behind his neck. The pain made him suck in a breath.
Seeing that the master and servant were talking at cross purposes, the black skinny soldier finally couldn't stand it anymore. She stepped forward two paces and greeted coldly, "Greetings, Second Young Master."
She called him Second Young Master.
She was Fang Heng's servant.
In public, Zheng Ruqian had always maintained a serious demeanor but now he couldn't help his nose turning sour. There was a fleeting wetness in his large eyes under the thick brows. "Are you Jiang Yi? Or Jiang Er? Or Jiang Ba?"
The skinny black soldier pursed her lips. "I am Jiang Wu."
Back then, Fang Heng had hired eight servants in total. Six were willing to follow him and serve in the army while two stayed behind to protect the siblings.
Jiang Wu was the only girl. She also had the toughest personality and was the first who voluntarily joined up.
At the time, Zheng Ruqian had wondered - how could a girl go serve in the army? How could she march and fight battles and live among groups of men?
Now he understood. Jiang Wu had deliberately lowered her voice. Apart from being overly short and skinny, she didn't have one bit of a girlish air about her.
"Second Young Master has just woken up and should eat something to regain some strength," Jiang Wu said, pulling a charred little bird from the campfire.
No wonder he had heard bird cries earlier. It turned out to be the struggles before death.
Zheng Ruqian shakily accepted it and painfully tore off some feathers to eat. "Why is it just you? Where is Er San [Third Brother]? And the others?"
"I was patrolling the vicinity and saw the two of you being chased by the Northern Nomads," Jiang Wu replied coldly, devoid of emotion. "He is already dead now. We have to hurry to the village up ahead to rescue people."
They had just escaped from the tiger's mouth only to have to rush right back in.
Recalling that group of Northern Nomads who could kill without batting an eye, Zheng Ruqian and Wang Xiaosong both felt weak with fear, their faces deathly pale.
"Second Young Master, don't be afraid. I'm here," Jiang Wu said, drawing out a bloodstained long knife from behind her back. "Let's go. We can't delay."
The longer the delay, the more people would die.
The master and servant resigned themselves to their fate and sat in the carriage, galloping wildly toward the village.
On the way there, the muddle-headed Zheng Ruqian suddenly remembered, "Since I didn't die, what happened to me earlier?"
"Master, how can you still ask that shamelessly?" Wang Xiaosong looked at him in contempt. "Earlier you had fainted from fright!"
Zheng Ruqian: "......"
He shouldn't have asked.
The three raced to the village entrance. The woman who had been dragged by her hair was no longer there. Going further in, there were also no Northern Nomads on horses brandishing blades. Instead, there was only a scene of bloodshed everywhere, heads separated from bodies, and pairs of unwilling eyes.
Old people, children, men, women.
Some had been eating dinner, some were happily chattering, some were sewing new cotton padded jackets, some were exhorting their children not to catch a cold.
In an instant, corpses filled the plains with blood reddening the skies.
Zheng Ruqian and Wang Xiaosong supported each other as they followed behind Jiang Wu.
The girl who was cold inside and out now had red-rimmed eyes. When she saw someone with eyes wide open in death, she would reach out to close their eyelids. When she saw unclothed women, she would cover them with clothes.
When she saw the corpse of an infant in swaddling clothes her tears finally froze into clumps. She forcefully stabbed her long knife into the ground before pushing aside her clothes to kneel on one knee on the earth, choking back sobs as she swore, "I will not rest until the Northern Nomads are eliminated."
Some hatred was not cultivated over a day or two. Some vengeance could not be resolved by killing one or two people either.
The Great Yu and the Northern Nomads had friction with each other for a few decades already. They had won glorious battles before, but had also suffered terrible defeats. They belonged in a situation of mutually vigilance without being able to swallow up the other side.
"If the borders are so dangerous, why do people still insist on living here? Why can't they move inward?" Wang Xiaosong asked, puzzled.
Jiang Wu wiped her tears and stood up, picking up her knife again. "Because the enemy's greed knows no bounds. Wherever you retreat to, they will invade right up to that point."
Even if they retreated to Anshui Prefecture, it would only turn Anshui Prefecture into the new borderlands.
It was also thanks to the sacrifice of these border troops and people that the interior lands could enjoy peace and tranquility, that Fengjing could have singing and dancing.
Zheng Ruqian suddenly felt that the corpses covering the ground did not seem as frightening anymore.
They were also other people's family. They were born on this land and raised on this land. Because they couldn't bear to leave this land, in the end they died on this land.
The Northern Nomads were detestable but these people were respectable.
"Do these corpses need... to be buried?" Zheng Ruqian steadied his dizzy steps and asked.
He had originally wanted to offer his help with digging pits but Jiang Wu shook her head.
"The army will come to handle the remains. Whether soldiers of our Great Yu Dynasty or common people, their corpses are never left exposed in the wilds." Jiang Wu sighed as she turned around. "Let's retreat. There are no more survivors here."
As the few people left the village again and reached the entrance, a disheveled woman suddenly rushed out and knelt on the ground, weeping. "Benefactors! Kind benefactors!"
When Zheng Ruqian took a closer look, he realized it was that young lady who had been dragged by her hair. Because of the master and servant's sudden appearance, the Northern Nomads had casually released her. She had then crawled to hide in a pile of kindling and straw and narrowly escaped with her life.
"If not for these two benefactors, I would have died! Thank you benefactors, thank you!" the young lady bawled loudly.
Zheng Ruqian and Wang Xiaosong exchanged a glance, complex emotions welling up in their hearts.
The two of them had recklessly charged in and had nearly lost their lives. At first they had felt regretful and fearful afterwards but seeing that their thoughtless actions had still managed to save a life, their hearts now swelled with pride and no regrets.
In just that split second, Zheng Ruqian felt like he could understand his Third Brother's decision.
He was already so proud to have protected just one life. In the two years his Third Brother Fang Heng had been stationed at the border, how many lives must he have saved?
Speak of Cao Cao and Cao Cao arrives.
Jiang Wu had just helped the young lady to her feet when she suddenly looked northward in pleasant surprise, exclaiming, "Young Master... Captain has arrived!"
The north was cold. With no sunlight, everywhere was covered in heavy snow. Running did not kick up clouds of dust.
But the snow falling from trembling branches and the shaking of the earth below clearly evidenced that her most outstanding and exceptional Third Brother was leading his men galloping quickly toward them on horseback.
