Chapter 163: The Casualties of war 3

The Southern borders 

Zhongshan Ling stayed back for a few minutes before giving an excuse and leaving the Chu family's cottage. The journey back to the watchtower unlike the much earlier trip to the Nanny's cottage was more Quietly. His men didn't know what Zhongshan Ling had talked about with his mother's Nanny but base on his current mood the result didn't look good.

His conversation with Nanny Chu replayed in his mind non-stop as they rode out of the small village.

"Young Mistress was poisoned by the Empress, she had been poisoned for years."

"she begged her to adopt you, your mother was willing to relinquish her rights over you just to keep you safe.

"She knew that the empress had complications after giving birth and couldn't survive another pregnancy. Out of the other Imperial concubines, she was the best option because she needed a son and unlike the rest, she had a strong family and could offer you protection the Tong family can't.

"Young Mistress also thought that since the Empress had no son, you could be made the Crown Prince. According to the traditions of northern Wei, only the son of an Empress or an imperial Noble consort can be made the Crown Prince. It was beneficial to everyone dividing the Lu family, a few days after Empress Lu accepted to adopt you. She sent over a bottle of fast-acting poison and instructed your mother to take it."

He would have never expected to hear that the Empress did something like this. He had always assumed that she was better than the other consorts who had zero regard for human lives and would kill anyone for power. 

They rode out of the town unbeknownst to them that they were being followed by a team of Droko tribe's best shadow warriors. They didn't notice anything wrong until they were surrounded by the forest. The sound of a branch breaking at his left drew Zhongshan Ling away from his thoughts. He raised his right hand featuring for his hen to stop moving. 

His men stopped moving and he looked to the thick bushes on his left. His eyes scrutinised every single part of those bushes, searching for something or someone out of place. A small rabbit running quickly out of the bush to the bush to the bush on the other side made him relax. He smiled and pulled his horse reins, to his men behind him.

He said, "false alarm, it is just a furry animal but be on guard".

"Yes", his guards chorused.

Zhongshan Ling nodded and rode forward, this time his speed considerably increased. Their vigilance gradually reduced, after an hour when there was no attack for close to an hour. However, everything quickly changed when multiple arrows were shot at them from different directions. It was so sudden, one of his marked guards were hit through the neck by the arrow and died instantly. 

Zhongshan Ling leaned forward on his horse as an arrow missed him by the ear, instead the arrow brushed his cheeks. There was a very quick sharp pain on his cheeks, a long line of blood dripped from the cur and stained the line of white fur on his horse. The horse was well trained and didn't ride away when spooked. Like most well-trained warhorses, it stayed, only going forward after being shaped gently by Zhongshan Ling. 

The horse ran a few kilometres before it was hit on the jugular by an accurately shot arrow from Prince Du himself. The horse fell with the force pushing Zhongshan Ling forward. Zhongshan Ling stretched out his hands to waste his fall, but it wasn't a good idea because as he hit the ground a loud "ckek" sound was heard of bone cracking. He hissed silently, he felt a sharp pain as he tried to move his right hand. 

He rolled to his side while clutching his hands admits the throbbing pain as he tried to avoid the arrows aimed at him. He was cornered with most of his men either dead or occupied, he created a tree and using his good hand, he pulled himself behind the tree. He leaned on the tree trunk and tried to regulate his breathing, catching his breath was wishful thinking at most.

He placed his injured arm on his chest and held his cloth, or at least tried to hold on as best he could amidst the pain and tried to pull out his danger for protection. He stayed still and tried to control his breathing as he heard footsteps get closer to him, he held tightly to the Dagger. Raising it quietly to a convenient position as the footsteps got closer. 

Things were not looking so good for him because of his injuries but he was determined to go down fighting or die trying. He folded his legs silently preparing to strike out on his attacker when the sound of running followed by sword clashing was heard. He peeked out of the small line between the two giant threes he hide behind and saw Hanriu, Xie Feng and a new set of masked guards, he couldn't identify fighting his attackers.

He hadn't gotten a clear look at his attackers until now but now that he did. Although they were dressed in black uniforms, they looked like Droko tribe soldiers. He couldn't recognize the masked guards who fought alongside Xie Feng but based on their marksmanship they were skilled warriors trained by someone. 

He checked for any tags or marks that would point to whoever sent them but there were no notable tags on them. He couldn't identify who owned such skilled soldiers but since they were all dressed in black, with their faces completely covered. Their numbers were not as much as that of the Droko tribe fighters but they gradually took down their enemies.

Zhongshan Ling surveyed the entire fight scene, his eyes finally fell on a hairy giant-sized man in half armour. 'Isn't that... the War Maniac Prince Du of Droko tribe'. What is he doing here?' He watched as prince Du swung his heavy sword at one of his agile two opponents.

Prince Du Swore loudly as he missed his opponent once more when compared to the two shorter masked men he was fighting. He was like a drunk giant falling around. Zhongshan Ling could take his eyes off such a legendary warrior like Prince Du. Most people prayed not to meet this man in battle but here he was meeting him in a thick forest in the south.

If Lu Yaozhu was called the Young God of war of Northern Wei, Prince Du was Droko tribes equivalent. He was popular for riding into the battlefield in full armour wielding a heavy mace in one hand and an axe in his other hand. He could single-handedly take down ten men alone, he was the best at sneak attacks and few of his opponents came back in one piece. 

Rumour was that he liked to take body parts as Souvenir of each battle, which earned him the name the War Maniac because he enjoyed irrational killing. He liked to take a body part of the commanding generals of the armies he vanquished. There were rumours that after over a decade of leading various campaigns, he had an extensive collection of body parts. 

He preserves the body parts and carried them with him to every battle. A lot of rumours concerning this killing machine was rampant, among them were the rumours that he performed weird rituals with the body parts the night before any battle. All these rumours coupled with his massive height made him the one person Zhongshan Ling never wanted to run into unprotected.

He glanced back at the scene behind him and two masked men kept Prince Du occupied. Which gave the rest of his men an opportunity to take down the Droko tribe soldiers. Hanriu ran a man through with his sword when he saw a light flash at his side. He stepped aside quickly, as an enemy's sword missed his shoulders, he rose his sword to cut the enemies Sword off and with his free hand pushed the enemy back.

The enemy momentarily lost his footing due to the force, thus allowing him to make a fatal blow at his jugular and cut him down. He jumped over the fallen enemy and stood back to back with Xie Feng who had gotten bloodier. Hanriu searched for the Crown Prince with his eyes but found no sign of it. His eyes fell on Prince Du and the two marked guard and pursed his lips.

He said to Xie Feng, "Where is his highness?" They both hit the sword of the enemies in front of them aside. Separating for a few seconds until they ran their opponents through with a sword. They came closer and this time leaned back to back, panting heavily Xie Feng quickly surveyed his surroundings, there wasn't any sign of the Crown Prince. 

"His highness must be hiding behind a tree" Xie Feng said finally.

"Hold them off, while I bring his highness to safety," Hanriu said.

"Okay," Xie Feng rushed forward and drew most of the soldiers towards him.

Hanriu looked around before running forward, as he ran into the bushes, he called out in loud whispers, "Your highness! Your Highness!"