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Chapter 117: Became a Dead Zone

Duan Xinghui was also aware that there were some soldiers among them with impure motives. However, he felt that was only natural for this bunch of men to start getting l.u.s.ty with a woman among them.

He had come over here because he had been worried about her, yet she had rudely accused him of expecting something to happen to her.

Duan Xinghui was stifled with anger. He was just worrying about her, why was she looking at him with such a wary gaze?

Princess Jiahui's att.i.tude towards him had changed so fast. It made the time when she liked him seem almost like a dream.

Having been embarra.s.sed in this exchange, Duan Xinghui turned his horse around and headed back to Grand Marshal Shen Feng's side.

The army continued advancing. Once the period got long, Ning Shu found it a little trying to keep going. It was near ten days into the march and during this time her thighs had already been rubbed raw from the friction. When she finally couldn't endure it anymore, she sewed some soft cus.h.i.+ons for herself and tied them onto her legs to relieve the pain.

Meanwhile, some of the soldiers seemed to be getting increasingly daring as they probed for Ning Shu's bottom line. Some people had an even more preposterous idea, which was to treat Princess Jiahui as a comfort woman.

When Ning Shu found out, she just gave a cold laugh. Then she proceeded to thrash the faces of everyone who approached her tent regardless of who it was.

Seeming to finally realize how violent Ning Shu was, most of the soldiers no longer dared to stroll around in front of her tent. There was a chance of getting thrashed even if they were just pa.s.sing by.

Hence, the area around Ning Shu's tent practically became a dead zone. Ning Shu expressed that she was very happy with this. These people were all sc.u.m! They only knew fear if you beat it into them.

As the march continued, the scenery around them became increasing desolate. There were large expanses of fields but no farmers to cultivate them. Even fields that had crops had been trampled beyond recognition.

The Huns and Tartars treated the citizens living on the border of Great Yong as fat sheep. They came to harvest them whenever their fur got nice and long. Even in winter when there were no grains, they still came to plunder.

Ning Shu was enraged. The Huns and Tartars were tall and strong, yet all they knew was to rob rather than use their natural endowments to work hard.

Shen Feng's expression was also pained as he stroked his slightly white beard and looked around. Sighing, he said, "Life truly isn't easy for the citizens that live at the border."

Shen Feng had yet to see how terrible life truly was for the citizens that had been captured by the Tartars. He had yet to see how malnourished and sickly those poor citizens quickly became as they toiled in the Tartars' place. Meanwhile, those Tartars would just drink alcohol and whip those slaves as a pasttime.

Rage surged in Ning Shu's heart and she felt the urge to charge right over to the Huns and fight them.

The closer they got to the border, the heavier the soldiers' hearts became. The villages here were all so desolate, with barely anyone around. In addition, the closer they got to the border, the more severe the desertification became.

Shen Feng found a remote village to set up camp in. There were only old and sickly people along with some poverty-stricken children in this village. They barely had a few sc.r.a.ps of cotton as clothing which simply wasn't enough to keep them warm at all. Hence, their lips were slightly purple from cold.

When the villagers saw the troops, fear and despair emerged on their faces. Even though these troops didn't wear the attire of the Huns, the villagers were still scared.

Soldiers tended to seize 'provisions' as they pa.s.sed through villages, so it was no wonder these citizens would be so distressed.

Ning Shu felt bad for them and said to Shen Feng, "Marshal, I think it's best if we don't enter the village. We shouldn't disturb the citizens."

Shen Feng took in the way these people were trembling with fear, then gave the order to set up camp at a location near the village. In addition, he gave an order prohibiting the soldiers from disturbing the citizens.

#comment: Tartar, or at least the Chinese equivalent of it, was an insulting term used for Manchus in the 1900s.

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Chapter 118: You Guys Aren't The Border Guards

Ning Shu sat down in her tent and took off the cus.h.i.+ons that were tied around her legs. After marching for such a long time, the saddle had already rubbed her thighs raw. It was thanks to having these cus.h.i.+ons that the condition of her thighs hadn't gotten worse.

She sprinkled some medicinal powder over the red areas. Suddenly, she seemed to hear the sound of a girl screaming for help.

She hastily exited the tent. Outside, the sun was setting. She could faintly hear the sound of horse hooves.

Ning Shu climbed onto a tree to look around and saw that there were about twenty Huns on horseback chasing after a running woman for sport.

All of the men had heartless smiles on their faces as they played this cruel game of cat and mouse.

Ning Shu was furious. She jumped off the tree and headed straight towards the largest tent. Entering the tent, she said, "Marshal, I discovered traces of Tartars ahead. I hope Marshal can a.s.sign this general a squadron of soldiers."

When Shen Feng heard this, he asked the high-ranking officers in the tent, "Who is willing to go with the left vanguard?"

Princess Jiahui's status was only below Shen Feng's, but none of these men were willing to be under the command of a woman.

When Ning Shu saw their att.i.tudes, she swung her whip and said, "Come with this princess, or this princess will whip you to death!"

Duan Xinghui was the first to step out, then Shen Feng a.s.signed about a hundred people to Ning Shu and they started heading towards that direction.

When they reached the Huns, the Huns had already caught the woman and ripped apart her clothing.

The Huns encircled this woman with obscene smiles and their laughter mixed with the sound of the woman's angry and panicked shouts.

Ning Shu was so angry steam was practically rising from her head. She drove her horse over and whipped the man that was on top of the woman.

That man was in the process of lifting his spear when the whip struck his back. He felt a burst of pain, then numbness all over.

Ning Shu's lash had injured the man's vertebra and for a moment he was immobilized.

Everyone was shocked by this sudden development and stared dumbstruck at the person who had swung the whip.

Ning Shu took advantage of this moment to lean down, grab the woman's elbow, and pull her up onto the horse.

The woman looked at Ning Shu blankly and seemed to feel herself sink into Ning Shu's clear, cold eyes.

When the Tartars saw that their spoils of war had been s.n.a.t.c.hed away, they immediately started shouting furiously. The Huns had always been successful in all their endeavors here at the border and had never encountered an event like this before.

Ning Shu took off her red cloak and draped it over the woman. The woman seemed lost in shock up until the moment the cloak was draped over her. Upon feeling that sensation, she s.h.i.+vered, then lowered her head.

The troops caught up with Ning Shu in just a few moments. When Duan Xinghui saw the Huns, he looked as angry as if he was facing a personal sworn enemy. Last time he had fallen into these Huns' scheme and even lost his position as general due to it.

At first the Huns were angrily shouting some things that Ning Shu couldn't understand but when they saw that so many people had appeared, one of the Huns stammered in the language of Great Yong, "Y-you… you guys aren't the border guards."

All the soldiers stationed at the border had already been traumatized by them and would avoid them as much as possible. This was the main reason they were able to act so recklessly on Great Yong's land.