The Princess Is On Top (GL) - Chapter 9

This night raid on Youzhou had been a plan decided long ago. Orders were passed down layer by layer. For small soldiers like them, all they had to do was obey commands; there was no way they would learn the plan in advance. The battle was raging fiercely. Just as the siege reached a stalemate, the city gates suddenly opened wide, and countless soldiers surged out from inside. Immediately after, someone shouted that the two flanks of the army had come under attack. Red and black mingled beneath the firelight, and more and more people around her began to fall. Screams, the sound of weapons striking flesh and blood—all of it poured into Xiao Le’s ears, making her mind buzz.

“Xiao Le! What the fuck are you doing!” Du Fei had not expected Xiao Le to freeze on the battlefield. His eyes were bloodshot, and the spear in his hand was stained with blood. He looked like an asura that had just crawled out of hell. “Wake the fuck up! Do you want to die here!?”

Xiao Le was jolted back to herself by his roar. She began raising her weapon to repel the enemy.

But she only drove them back and did not take their lives. Yet the people she repelled rushed back again, over and over in an endless cycle.

“Fuck, do you think this place is a Buddhist hall? You’re showing mercy on a battlefield. If you keep this up, every damn one of us is going to die here!” Du Fei already had no small number of wounds all over him, big and small, and his attacks were growing more and more ruthless. Seeing Xiao Le’s behavior, he could not help being consumed by rage.

Seeing that fewer and fewer allied soldiers remained around them, and that her companions beside her were injured as well, Xiao Le knew that things could not continue like this. She was a citizen from a modern society governed by law. Before entering military academy, she too had once imagined that one day she would kill enemies and earn merit. Though she had long prepared herself for the possibility of getting blood on her hands, she had never, ever imagined that the first time she killed someone would be with a cold weapon, ending a life at such close range. Thinking and doing were, in the end, separated by a distance of a hundred and eight thousand li.

One person after another fell before her eyes. Blood splattered all over her body, and she did not even realize it. She merely repeated the act of killing like a machine, numb yet clear-headed. Everything she had learned in her life about how to make a person lose the ability to move as quickly as possible had finally found its use.

From the rear of the army came the hurried sound of gongs signaling retreat. When the enemy heard the retreat signal from their rear, they fought with even greater ferocity, surging forward like a tide without fear of death. As the two looked out for each other while retreating, they saw Xiao Kai and the others being surrounded and attacked. Ziyan had already lost the ability to fight and lay unconscious, supported by a companion. From the look of it, the situation was not optimistic.

“What are you standing there for? Run! If you don’t run now, you won’t be able to!” Liu Yu appeared from who knew where. He too was in a sorry state from head to toe. His spear had disappeared somewhere, and in his hand was a bronze sword he had picked up from who knew where. Seeing that the two of them still had not moved, Liu Yu immediately realized the reason and roared, “You still want to look after them? They never treated us as their own people at all. Right now, staying alive matters most!” As he spoke, he grabbed Xiao Le’s arm. “Go!”

Xiao Le did not listen to Liu Yu at all. Instead, she flung his hand away and charged toward the direction where Xiao Kai and the others were trapped.

Although Du Fei was also badly injured, when he saw Xiao Le’s actions, he gritted his teeth and followed her in.

Liu Yu cursed someone’s mother. Though he truly could not understand it, in the end, he still could not abandon the two of them and run for his life alone, so he had no choice but to follow unwillingly.

In the end, they still carved out a bloody path. Seeing that someone had come to support them, Xiao Kai hoisted Ziyan onto his back and began retreating. The others also did all they could to cover their teammates.

By the time they safely returned to the main camp, everyone immediately sent Ziyan to the military physician.

“Thank you.” After watching Ziyan being carried into the tent, Xiao Kai suddenly said this to Xiao Le and the others. After he spoke, the others also gathered around with complicated expressions. Having just gone through a major battle, everyone was exhausted in both body and mind.

Xue Li sighed. “On their behalf, I’ll say sorry to you. We treated you like that these past few days. I hope you can forgive us.”

With Xue Li’s explanation, all the confusion gradually became clear.

It turned out that Xiao Le and the others had been assigned under Xue Li because their wu had just lost three brothers in the previous battle, so their formation was incomplete. One wu had ten men. Everyone’s relationship had been extremely close, as intimate as brothers. They had fought through battles large and small together, only to suddenly receive such devastating news.

Everyone had still been immersed in grief and had not yet walked out of it, but the higher-ups had forcefully filled the missing spots with three new people. Because of that, in their eyes, Xiao Le and the other two seemed as if they had taken their brothers’ places and occupied their brothers’ bunks. But they were also clear-headed enough to know that all of this was only the most ordinary procedure, which was why they had acted so cold and conflicted.

After listening to Xue Li’s account, Xiao Le and the others remained silent for a long time. Even Liu Yu, who was usually the noisiest, had reddened eyes. Who did not have good brothers of their own? If they put themselves in the others’ shoes, everyone had it hard.

No one spoke first again until the tent flap was lifted and a messenger told them that Ziyan had only lost too much blood. He simply needed to recuperate quietly for a few days, and there would naturally be people here to take care of the wounded.

They were told to go treat their own wounds first and not keep watch there. Otherwise, with the weather so hot, it would be bad if infection set in.

Only then did everyone let out a breath of relief and scatter.

Xiao Le accompanied Liu Yu and Du Fei to the physician to have their wounds bandaged. Only then did the three slowly walk back toward their own tent.

“Hey, that sword of yours. Where did it come from?” Having survived by the skin of their teeth and then listened to such a sorrowful story, none of them really felt like talking. But Xiao Le did not want the atmosphere to remain so heavy. She was starting to miss Liu Yu’s endless nonsense a little.

“Hm?… This thing? I picked it up from some unlucky bastard. Judging by his appearance, he was at least at the commandant level, if not higher.”

“And here I thought you killed a commandant,” Xiao Le teased, deliberately sounding relaxed.

Du Fei suddenly stopped walking and turned his head to look straight at her. “Xiao Le.”

Xiao Le froze for a moment at his action, but she quickly reacted, her expression turning sorrowful. “I know what you’re going to say.”

She had lost focus on the battlefield today, and several times, it had been Du Fei who blocked the spear of death for her. But because of that, Du Fei had suffered quite a few injuries. She felt guilty and blamed herself, but she had no way to explain to them why she had frozen.

“You say you know, but I still have to remind you. Being merciful to the enemy is being cruel to yourself. Every time you spare an enemy, one more person on our side may lose their life. Everyone has relatives and friends. No one deserves to lose their life because of your ‘mercy,’ Xiao Le.” After Du Fei finished speaking, he walked off by himself, clearly angered. Liu Yu looked at Xiao Le, then at Du Fei leaving in a huff. After thinking for a moment, he still chased after Du Fei. After all, Du Fei was wounded.

Du Fei’s words lingered in Xiao Le’s mind and would not leave. She wandered outside alone for a very long time, simply unwilling to return to the tent.

“Xiao… Le?”

That voice was highly distinctive. When Xiao Le raised her head, sure enough, Su Luoyang was walking toward her from not far away.

“Greetings, Commandery Princess.” Xiao Le saluted in slight panic. She had not expected to run into Su Luoyang while wandering around outside.

“It really is you. I thought I had seen wrong.” Xiao Le immediately felt heat rise to her face. She had not returned to the tent all this time, and her entire body was still just as it had been when she came down from the battlefield. Her face was covered in blood and grime, which was why Su Luoyang had said that. The moment she thought of herself being filthy from head to toe, she unconsciously took half a step back, pulling some distance between them.

Su Luoyang saw this action. In her heart, she thought the other party was somewhat afraid of her status, so she did not take it to heart.

“Was the wound medicine I had Ah Zheng give you useful?” After that operation, Su Luoyang had been very interested in Xiao Le’s ability to see through her plan, so she had developed an appreciation for her talent. That was why Ah Zheng had delivered the medicine. If this person truly had the makings of a great general in the future, then Su Luoyang could at least be counted as having given her the kindness of medicine.

Xiao Le, however, did not think that deeply. Hearing Su Luoyang ask, she immediately remembered the wound medicine she had kept by her bedside. The Commandery Princess really was considerate… “It was useful. Thanks to the Commandery Princess’s medicine, I healed so quickly.”

“You’re injured? I just went to visit the wounded, and there really are many people there. Are you afraid of causing trouble…” Seeing Xiao Le covered in blood from head to toe, her face included, Su Luoyang assumed she was unwilling to go to the military physician because there were too many people and she feared it would be troublesome.

Once Xiao Le realized Su Luoyang had misunderstood, she quickly waved her hands. “No, no, no, I’m not injured. Many thanks for the Commandery Princess’s concern. The blood on me belongs to other people.”

“It seems you really are suited to the battlefield,” Su Luoyang said meaningfully.

At the mention of this matter, Xiao Le grew somewhat dejected and smiled bitterly. “I wasn’t injured, but my comrades nearly lost their lives protecting me…”

“I trust my eye for people.” Su Luoyang smiled. “I hope the next time I see you, you will be somewhat different again.”

…

Even after Su Luoyang had walked far away, Xiao Le remained dazed.

The smile the Commandery Princess gave just now…

Xiao Le shook her head, forcing herself to sober up and not think about such meaningless things.

She began wandering aimlessly outside again, while also seriously considering her plans for the future.

Only when the night was deep and all was quiet did she return to the tent, take a clean set of clothes, and head to the bathhouse.

After washing herself clean, she lay on her bedding, closed her eyes, and yet Su Luoyang’s face flashed through her mind of its own accord.

She seemed to be beginning to understand Li Yannian’s poem a little.

In the north there is a beauty,

Peerless and standing alone.

One glance could overthrow a city,

Another glance could overthrow a kingdom.

Would one not know of cities and kingdoms overthrown?

A beauty like this is hard to find again.

From that day on, Xiao Le never saw Su Luoyang again. She only often heard of the Commandery Princess of Luoyang’s deeds from her companions’ mouths.

But also from that day on, the barriers between everyone were completely removed.

Xiao Le and the other two thoroughly blended into the group and became close with Xiao Kai and the others.

That incident made Xiao Le completely understand the importance of her own ability, so she began frantically adding extra training for herself. She did not want to harm others and harm herself. She had a full body of skills; she only needed to use this body to bring them out.

The last disastrous defeat also made He Yan understand that there were spies inside the military camp, which was what had led to military intelligence being leaked. As a result, during the siege, hidden Wu troops had attacked from both sides, causing them heavy losses.