Chapter 83: A Woman? I Must Be Wrong

“Ya, Ya!”

Like a wind blowing by, thousands of cavalrymen gallop down the road, trailing a pair of ruts made by carriages.

They all wear armors, carrying blades and bows and arrows.

Every time they hasten their horses, galloping hooves stir up cloud of dust around the cavalry which, in only a breath of time, has already gone far.

Maybe it is because there are two people in the carriage, the ruts are deep in the soft soil, dragging far behind the convoy.

A dozen guards with nervous looks stay by the side of the carriage.

At the perimeter, hundreds of soldiers in black armors surround the two carriages. Their steps are in unison, with each ringing the sound of armor pieces rubbing against each other, dull and solemn.

The young general in white robe rides beside Lü Buwei who nervously wipes off the sweat on his forehead.

The two has gone all the way without saying a word.

“Well.” Lü Buwei laughs drily: “May I know general’s name?”

The young white robed general turns her head and looks at him.

Lü Buwei is a famous historical figure who leaves behind a bad reputation.

In history, as the prime minister of Qin, he had unimaginable power, and even committed adultery with Ying Yi’ren’s wife, Zhao. (Surnamed Zhao)

He took the rare opportunity to sponsor Ying Yi’ren, and won a lifetime of wealth and glory for himself, thus becoming a model of businessmen and a representative of miscellaneous learnings.

It must be admitted that his talent and vision are both excellent, since he lobbied both Qin and Zhao to earn Ying Yi’ren a position as a crown prince.

To regard a crown prince as a merchandise like he did requires not only means and vision, but also extraordinary courage that ordinary people cannot possibly possess.

“Gu Nan.” Gu Nan lightly responds, nodding her head to show him respect.

Although the escort is heavily armored infantry, those soldiers in black armors do not delay the speed of the convoy at all. On the contrary, due to their quick movements, the convoy proceeds faster than before.

Gu Nan, Lü Buwei ponders over the name for a while. This is a name he has never heard of previously.

The voice is so strange that it sounds like a young woman’s voice.

I must have overthought it. Shaking his head, Lü Buwei looks at the general wearing a bronze mask.

But her soldiers are absolute elites.

The glare he received earlier still makes him palpitate out of fear.

“General Gu, how are you subordinates in the kingdom of Qin.” Lü Buwei asks tentatively in attempt to have a comprehensive understanding of Qin’s strength.

Not hiding anything from him, Gu Nan answers truthfully: “They are a newly established army.”

A new army!

In astonishment, Lü Buwei asks in disbelief: “Such an elite force is a new army?”

“You have flattered me. They are indeed recently recruited and organized.”

The tight and whistling wind in the open field bristles and flutters the black flag.

Lü Buwei purses his dry mouth: “We should better hurry. If Zhao sends pursuers after us, it will be bad.”

“You are right, mister.” Gu Nan raises her hand and gestures forward.

Seeing her gesture, the black armored soldiers speed up their paces.

In the night, the convoy crosses the open field alone.

After the time of half an incense, Gu Nan looks at the dim light from the horizon, as dawn is approaching.

“Almost there. It will take one more hour at most.”

“Good.” Lü Buwei’s tense expression finally has a trance of relaxation.

However, the relaxing atmosphere does not last long, as the sounds of galloping horse hooves come across the plain field.

The sound is intense and growing.

Looking back, it can already be seen that a cloud of dust is sprinting toward the convoy.

Gu Nan clenches her fist holding her spear tight and pulls her horse to a halt.

She has already seen the Zhao army clouded in the dust.

Everyone else has also caught the noise. Lü Buwei’s face instantly pales. In contrast, the three hundred soldiers remain indifferent as usual.

Based on their formation, the Zhao army are no more than two thousand in number.

The guards standing by the carriages panics, as their hands holding the blades tremble.

“Yi ge’er.” The woman in the carriage grabs Ying Yi’ren’s hand, apparently nervous to the extreme.

Ying Yi’ren gently pats her back and takes a deep breath: “It is not a big deal…not a big deal…”

“Charge! Capture Ying Yi’ren alive! No arrows!”

The Zhao army’s cavalry commandant yells, and places the spear at the horse side. They have accelerated to the maximum speed, as the cavalry dashes toward the convoy like a flying arrow penetrating the cloud of dust.

A convoy guarded by a few hundred soldiers looks so feeble against such a daunting cavalry.

Gu Nan raises one hand: “Whole army line up! Crossbow formation!”

Driven by her internal energy, Gu Nan’s voice reaches everyone’s ears.

In response, the black armored soldiers act swiftly and, in a blink of an eye, the hundreds of men surrounding the convoy changes formation as if they have practiced it millions of times.

They line up into three rows separating the cavalry and the convoy.

“Ready your crossbows!”

The three hundred soldiers react in unison, and simultaneously withdraw arrows from their backs and nock them on their crossbows.

Lü Buwei is startled by their reaction. Ready crossbows…

Are you kidding me? Those crossbows can shoot no further than two hundred yards, and yet a cavalry can cover two hundred yards in a breath of time! During this period of time, crossbowmen can only launch one round of arrows and then they will be overwhelmed by the cavalry.

Is this her first time on battlefield? Even an outsider like him knows that they should ready shields and raise spears.

Is this my demise decided by the heaven? Lü Buwei helplessly grabs the rein. He can already imagine the slaughter once the cavalry breaks through.

We were so close to getting away! We were so close!

However, he can hardly believe what he sees next.

“Release!” That young general named Gu Nan lowers her hand.

Arrows are fired, not in one round but in multiple one after another.

Soldiers are split into three rows with one hundred in each. When the order to release is given, the first row launches and then retreats to reload. Then, the second row steps forward and shoots, retreats, and reloads. Then comes the third row. After the rotation, the first row of soldiers are ready to shoot again.

In repetition, the arrows are fired continuously, whistling and flying across the field to the other side.

It is a rare sight in this world. The soldiers do not shoot people but shoot horses, as horses neigh following each rounds arrows.

The horses on the first line of the cavalry fall to the ground one after another. Making it worse, the cavalrymen following up are tripped and falls off their horses only to be stampeded to death by those after him.

The commandant of the Zhao army is better than ordinary people, since he received some inheritance from his family, learned some martial arts and cultivated internal energies, not outstanding but enough to allow him to acquire the position as a commandant.

After wielding his spear to block some arrows, he realizes that things are not going in his way. There are only a few hundred soldiers on the opposite side, and yet they are firing arrows in a momentum that can best a thousand-men army. Looking around, he finds out that his army is already in chaos.

Damn it!

Seeing his subordinates suffer casualties of nearly one hundred in only a moment, he gnashes his teeth, driving his chi at full, and roars: “Fall back! Fall back two hundred yards!”

Countless cavalrymen swiftly turn their horses around, their excellent horsemanship at display, sort out their disorderly formation, and withdraw from the range of the crossbows.

Due to the chaos at the front, the formation at the back remained rather intact and are pulled out quickly.

Soon, they stop far behind the convoy, leaving on the field remnant soldiers and stray horses without riders