The Princess Is On Top (GL) - Chapter 6

Traveling with stops and starts, more than half a month had already passed. As Xiao Le spent time with Du Fei and Liu Yu, she discovered that the two of them were not bad at heart. They simply had some of the common faults of spoiled young masters.

Over these days, Xiao Le had also gained a general understanding of the state of the world. A bold idea had been lingering in her mind all this time, but she had yet to find a way to carry it out.

From her modern perspective, the Wu Dynasty’s tyrannical rule was doomed to fall. It was only a matter of time. Among the righteous armies rising in various places, only the Su clan had the greatest momentum and the strongest support among the people, making them Emperor Wu’s primary target for extermination as well. She could not risk her life for a dynasty that was about to perish. If she had to join the army, the best place to go would be the Su family army. But in the current situation, if she ran away halfway, she would implicate the Wu grandfather and granddaughter. Seeing that they were getting closer and closer to Youzhou’s main camp, Xiao Le grew increasingly restless. Perhaps it was because of the weather. Who knew?

“Stop!” The leading escorting soldier waved his hand, and the group halted in confusion.

“Brother Wang, what is it?” a foot soldier stepped forward and asked.

“Look. There are so many horse hoofprints on this road, and from the look of it, they passed not long ago. I’ve walked this road for so many years and have never seen this kind of situation. Ordinary riders would never take a road like this.” In order to make up time, they had taken a remote shortcut. Ahead, once they passed through a dense forest and walked for another day, they would return to the official road.

The foot soldier had thought the soldier was going to say something serious. “Could they be soldiers from the rear heading to Youzhou…”

“If soldiers from the rear were heading to Youzhou, they would only take the official road. Why would they take a small path like this? Besides, very few people know this route. This matter is suspicious. All of you, stay alert as we move ahead. Keep your movements quiet. Let’s go.”

After hearing what the leading soldier said, Liu Yu kept feeling strangely uneasy, but he did not dare speak loudly. He could only ask in a low voice, “Xiao Le, do you think what he means is…”

Xiao Le glanced at him and nodded gravely. “I’m afraid that’s exactly it. There are many hoofprints, but they aren’t chaotic. They definitely aren’t from ordinary horses. That soldier brother is probably right.”

“Hiss…! You’re saying the Su family army wants to attack Youzhou’s main camp from the rear?”

“No. Judging from the traces on the ground, there are no more than a hundred people at most. A squad of fewer than a hundred, no matter how elite, wouldn’t be able to stir up even a ripple if they were thrown into Youzhou’s main camp,” Du Fei analyzed.

Now it was Xiao Le’s turn to be surprised. Du Fei could actually infer the number of people from the traces on the ground?

Du Fei felt a little embarrassed. “Don’t look at me like that. I don’t have any other hobbies. I just like studying horses.”

Liu Yu said, “That’s right. He’s no good at anything else, but as long as it has to do with horses, you definitely won’t go wrong listening to him!”

“All right. Then according to that, once they pass through the forest ahead, they’ll reach the official road…” Once they reached the official road, they would definitely be exposed. Then what had they come here to do… “Another half day’s journey and they can reach Youzhou’s main camp… the official road… the official road… I know!”

Xiao Le suddenly felt as if enlightenment had struck her. Before the three armies move, grain and fodder go first. The Youzhou army was in a standoff with the Su family army, and with the entire Wu Dynasty as its backing, it naturally did not fear a prolonged war. But the other side did not have such deep reserves. If they could circle around behind Youzhou and burn the grain and supplies being transported from the rear, then the next batch of grain and supplies would take at least another month to arrive. Supplies for an army of one hundred thousand were not something that could simply be transported whenever they pleased. Transporting grain would naturally require using the official road, so the forest ahead was being used to ambush the grain convoy!

Xiao Le told the two of them her thoughts. “This move has to be called a brilliant play. Think about it. Once they leave the forest, they’re only half a day from Youzhou’s main camp. If they ride horses, it’s even faster. Who would imagine that the other side would dare plot against their grain and supplies right under the eyes of one hundred thousand troops?”

“Oh my mother, we’ve stumbled into a heaven-shaking secret.” Liu Yu was dumbfounded. Then he thought of an even more serious problem. “If we keep going, we’ll be entering the forest. I don’t think that leader looks afraid either. If they retreat and run into the other side’s men, can we beat them?”

“It’ll be a massacre,” Du Fei said out of nowhere.

“Exactly. If we run into them, it’ll be a one-sided slaughter. This plan concerns the overall situation. Those chosen to carry out the mission must all be fierce warriors capable of fighting ten men each. People like us really aren’t enough for them to even look at.” The moment Xiao Le finished speaking, Liu Yu’s face turned deathly pale, and he muttered, “I was worried I’d die on the battlefield. Could it be I’m going to die on the road instead…?”

Seeing him like that, Xiao Le found it a little funny. But then again, strictly speaking, this body of hers and the two of them were only sixteen years old. In modern times, they would have just started high school. Yet here, they were already old enough to go to the battlefield and kill people… She patted Liu Yu on the shoulder and comforted him.

“Don’t panic. I have a way. I’ll tell you later. It’s not convenient right now. Let’s follow along first.”

Seeing Xiao Le’s relaxed expression, Du Fei guessed she had already made calculations in her heart.

“I wonder if what you’re thinking is the same as what I’m thinking?”

“You’ll know later.”

The two exchanged a knowing look and continued following the group forward.

By evening, the group stopped outside the dense forest. The soldier felt that it was unsafe for so many people to enter the forest at night. If they truly ran into enemy troops, it would be a bloody battle. Although he wanted to earn merit, he also knew clearly just how much ability he had. If even one of these people went missing, he would lose his head. There was no need to gamble with his life. But he also did not want to give up a reward that was practically within reach. After weighing it over, he decided to take one person with him to go in and search for traces of the other side. Once they found anything, they would immediately report in the direction of Youzhou. That way, their movements would be small and not easy to discover. The rest would stay behind and continue escorting the group, so the matter would not be delayed either.

Xiao Le watched the soldier leave.

When it was time to rest, the three of them deliberately found a spot farther from the crowd.

“You can say it now, right? What exactly is the plan?” Liu Yu could not wait to ask.

“Defect to the enemy.” Xiao Le and Du Fei exchanged a glance, each seeing appreciation in the other’s eyes.

“What?! Defe—” Liu Yu cried out in shock, but Du Fei quickly covered his mouth. Some people heard the movement on their side and looked over.

“Are you a pig? Shout a little louder, why don’t you, and let everyone know!” Du Fei cursed viciously under his breath.

Liu Yu knew he was in the wrong and did not dare argue back. He asked quietly, “But defecting to the enemy… that’s a capital crime. It means exterminating nine generations. My parents and family are still in Han County.”

“Then… what if we’re all dead?” Xiao Le revealed a smile full of confidence.

…

In the middle of the night, the three of them quietly slipped away from the camp and entered the dense forest.

“Du Fei, pay careful attention to the hoofprints on the ground. We have to find them as quickly as possible.”

Du Fei answered and used the torch to carefully inspect the ground.

Xiao Le’s plan was for the three of them to secretly leave the group and find the other side’s men before the soldiers did. Then they would inform them that their plan might be exposed. For the sake of caution, the other side would definitely not let go of the hundred-man group following behind them. After all, once the mission succeeded, their retreat would inevitably run into the group in the rear. Even if that group was nothing to fear, they could not leave the slightest hidden danger behind during their retreat. They had to deal with them first. That way, even if Youzhou later sent people to investigate, they would only think that Xiao Le’s group had been unlucky and assume the three of them had died amid the chaos of battle. No one would think in the direction of defection.

However, the greatest hidden danger in this plan was how to convince the other side to trust them, and how to prove that what they said was not a trap. If the other side’s plan had been exposed, they would definitely become suspicious. If Xiao Le and the others were taken for people with ulterior motives, they might become ghosts beneath the blade. Xiao Le and Du Fei hid these questions from Liu Yu and did not mention a word of them. In the current situation, defecting still held a sliver of hope. But if they sat and waited for death, then when this squad burned the grain supplies and retreated, they would still die once they ran into them.

They all wanted to gamble.

The summer insect cries echoed through the forest. Borrowing the faint moonlight, Du Fei carefully investigated the traces on the ground and found the rough direction in which the other side’s men and horses had advanced. Then Du Fei led the way in front, and the three traveled forward without a word, doing their best to reduce the sounds they made.

They walked through the forest for roughly four hours. The sky was already beginning to faintly brighten.

“Du Fei, are you sure you didn’t lead us the wrong way?” Xiao Le was starting to doubt her companion’s professionalism.

“Shh…” Du Fei made a gesture for silence, then signaled that someone ahead was coming this way. Xiao Le pulled Liu Yu aside to hide. It turned out to be the two soldiers who had entered the forest ahead of them yesterday.

“Brother, I didn’t expect the Su clan to be this bold. They actually did circle around to the rear of Youzhou…”

It seemed these two had already found traces of the hundred-man squad, and they had not been discovered either. The situation was a little bad.

“Hmph. Now that we’ve seen it with our own eyes, reporting it to the main camp will definitely count as a great merit…”

“Will we make it in time?”

“I know a route. We’ll have to cross the river, but it can save quite a lot of time…”

“Achoo!” Xiao Le covered her forehead. At this moment, she really felt like killing someone. Liu Yu had chosen this exact time to sneeze, letting everyone hear it.

“Someone’s there. Who is it?” The soldiers drew their swords and warily walked toward Xiao Le’s side.

Liu Yu covered his mouth and used his eyes to ask Xiao Le what to do. Xiao Le rolled her eyes. What use was covering his mouth now? This was simply shutting the stable door after the horse had bolted. Seeing that they were about to be discovered, Xiao Le kicked Liu Yu out.

The two soldiers were startled by the person who suddenly tumbled out of the underbrush and were about to slash at him with their blades. Liu Yu, who had no idea why he had been kicked out, fell to the ground and was just about to curse someone’s mother when he looked up and saw a shining blade coming down at him. He was so frightened that he dodged while shouting for help.

On this side, Xiao Le and Du Fei saw that Liu Yu had already drawn the attention of the two soldiers, and they seized the chance to leap out.

The five of them tangled together in a brawl. Liu Yu and Du Fei had no method at all when they fought. It was nothing more than the way street thugs fought.

Fortunately, Xiao Le possessed a full set of combat skills. Although this body was no good, after more than a year of training, it had at least built some foundation.

“Take them down!” Just as the two soldiers were about to be unable to hold on, a great number of black-armored soldiers suddenly appeared from who knew where. In the blink of an eye, Xiao Le and the others were pinned to the ground and could not move.

“It’s over… It’s all over…” The restrained soldier’s face was deathly pale, and his legs kept trembling.

In an instant, Xiao Le understood who these people were. They were the very people they had been searching for all along.

“Deputy General, these two have Wu Dynasty soldier identity tokens on them.” One soldier took out the tokens found on the two soldiers and handed them to the young general in the lead.

When the general heard this, he frowned and said with disgust,

“Behead them all.”

…

“Spare us!”

“General, wait!” Xiao Le was being pressed down hard and could barely breathe, but when she heard the order, she no longer cared and shouted, “General, I have an important matter to report. It concerns the success or failure of your mission!”

The young general was startled by Xiao Le’s shout and drew back the step he had been about to take away. “You know the purpose of our mission?”

“Isn’t it to destroy the grain supplies… Ouch…” Seeing that Xiao Le’s words had made the other party turn back, Liu Yu hurried to answer first, only to be kicked hard by the soldier behind him.

“Deputy General, could our plan have been exposed?” The soldier who had kicked him looked panicked.

“No… It hasn’t been exposed. These two discovered the general and the others’ traces and wanted to go to Youzhou’s main camp to inform on you. The three of us came to stop them!” Xiao Le wished she could seal Liu Yu’s mouth shut. To shout out such a confidential matter like that—was he not afraid the other side would simply silence them? However, judging by the other party’s attitude, it seemed their earlier suspicion had been right.

“I recognize you. You’re a soldier our county was escorting to Youzhou. You dare defect to the enemy!”