Chapter 344: Someone Notified Him
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Another person added, “On the march, the most difficult and indispensable thing is food. However, if we start a fire on the way, it will easily attract Xiongnu’s attention. That will be too time-consuming and laborious.”
Someone nodded repeatedly. “That’s true. Moreover, these compressed biscuits are easy to carry. They’re fast and filling. After eating them in a few bites, we can seize the time to sleep more. If we don’t have time to cook when we fight, we don’t have to force ourselves to cook either. Who thought of such good stuff?”
“I heard that the person who came up with this good thing is related to General Xiao…”
“The General has been injured for many years. Although she can’t fight alongside us again, she has never forgotten us.”
“By the way, do you know that our commander was personally taught by General Xiao!”
***
Leaving these words behind, Xiaoxiao walked towards the soldiers’ resting area. Before she arrived, she had already thrown a slow projection of space over.
Now, the range she could project was 23×23. Under the multiplier time, the soldiers sleeping in this range could rest fully. When they woke up, Xiaoxiao did not take away the projection function and waited for the second batch of soldiers to continue sleeping.
The space projection function could only be used once a day, but as long as Xiaoxiao did not take it back, there was no limit to how long it could be used.
Now that it was dark and quiet in the middle of the night, no one could notice that there was something wrong with everyone’s actions. After midnight, Xiaoxiao changed to another tent and did the same thing. However, this time, she left an NPC behind and went to look for Rong Yan herself.
Recently, she had developed a magical use of NPCs—long-range surveillance. All NPCs released from the space could become her eyes and ears, so she could leave the soldiers’ tent under the space projection without worrying about being exposed.
Although NPCs did not have the ability to think and move on their own, it was not difficult to complete some simple instructions according to Xiaoxiao’s instructions. For example, they could bring in the food sent in from outside the door every day and leave a secret signal to let everyone know that she was fine.
As the commander-in-chief, Rong Yan had to advance and retreat with the soldiers. However, when the others were resting in shifts, he had to continue deducing on the sand table—where the Xiongnu people would set up an ambush, where the terrain was beneficial to them, what military tactics were applicable, and what strategies were reasonable. Unknowingly, more than half of the night had passed.
After completing what he had to do tonight, he could rest assured and take a nap. Looking at the dawn of the sky, Rong Yan covered his mouth and yawned. He lay down, fully clothed.
“Yun Er, wake me up in an hour.”
Outside, Yun Er’s heart ached and he agreed helplessly. He couldn’t help but say to Yun San, “At least the two of us can take a nap. How can Master’s body hold on like this?”
Yun San placed his index finger on his lips. Master was stubborn. No one could change his decision. Instead of wasting time persuading him, it was better to let him rest quietly for a while.
Yun Er also knew this logic. He only mouthed, “I’ll definitely let Miss talk about him properly when we get back!”
In the tent, Rong Yan had just closed his eyes when he felt his body tremble slightly. He opened his eyes to take a look and only fell asleep when he saw that everything was normal.
At this moment, Xiaoxiao, who had already changed the world in this tent, sighed helplessly and adjusted the time flow to the slowest.
After he fell asleep, Xiaoxiao flashed out of the space and whispered with her hands on her hips, “I have to talk to you properly.” Rong Yan frowned, and Xiaoxiao covered his mouth. Forgetit, Lil teach him a lesson another day. Let him rest well first.
At dawn, Xiaoxiao secretly added many compressed biscuits to the place where the military rations were stored to make up for yesterday’s consumption. The soldiers ate and slept well and did not feel any change in weight at all.
Time was precious during an urgent march. Xiaoxiao knew how useful her space could be, so she had to think of a way to follow them.
The next morning, the soldiers inexplicably felt that they should not feel so refreshed and set off on the journey again. Xiaoxiao followed silently all the way. When night fell, she would slow down to replenish everyone’s sleep. Time passed quietly.
When they discovered the Xiongnu’s traces, the Great Xia soldiers realized that this chase that they thought would exhaust them seemed to be easy now. They had rushed thousands of miles just for today’s battle. In the space, Xiaoxiao only heard Rong Yan’s order, and the Great Xia cavalry rushed out with fighting spirit.
A battle was about to break out at any moment. In order to take down the border cities of Great Xia, the Xiongnu had almost gone out in full strength. Rong Yan had brought many people with him in order to take them down in one go. Hence, since the two sides had met, it was impossible to keep a low profile. The soldiers of Great Xia did not expect to be able to sneak an attack, but wasn’t the other party’s reaction too fast?
Putting aside the battle stance and the long-prepared formation, what was going on with the ambush?
If the Great Xia was careless, they would suffer heavy casualties the moment they met.
“Commander, something’s wrong with the Xiongnu.”
Rong Yan’s face darkened. “Either someone among them predicted it well, or we weren’t careful enough to expose our whereabouts, or someone tipped them off!”
When he said the last sentence, his tone became much colder. It was obvious that he was thinking of the unhappy past again.
Rong Yan’s guards all knew that their Master hated betrayal the most. He could not tolerate spies in the army.
Taking a deep breath and suppressing his unhappy past, Rong Yan calmly analyzed the current situation. “Deputy General Xiong, take 20,000 people and go around from the side. The target is those archers hiding high up. The rest of you, follow me and hold back the Xiongnu!”
Deputy General Xiong was a little hesitant, but he accepted Rong Yan’s order respectfully. “Yes! I will definitely complete the mission!”
The Xiongnu’s territory was mostly a desert. It was obvious that it was premeditated to be able to find such a suitable place for an ambush. However, the military spy had long been killed. Why did this happen?
Could it be that there was a new one…
At the border city, the Crown Prince was pacing back and forth in his courtyard. When Shao Lin stepped in, he couldn’t wait to ask, “How is it? Wait, stop. Let’s talk over there.”
Shao Lin stopped in a hurry. He wiped his sweat and reported, “Your Highness, half of the patients are gone. I saw a piece of scorched earth in the inner courtyard. It seems that something was burned not long ago. The doctor and the medicine page will go around it when they pass by. I saw it from afar. There are still some rags in the grass nearby that haven’t been burned clean.”
He swallowed his saliva. “I thought that the illness would be passed on. It would be very disrespectful to you if I encountered something I shouldn’t have touched. Hence, I stood on the spot and looked. It should be the clothes of those infected soldiers.”
The Crown Prince narrowed his eyes. “So, it’s true that most of them died from an illness. My third brother was so exasperated that he led his troops to hunt down the Xiongnu people?”
Shao Lin thought about it and felt that it was true.
The Crown Prince snorted. “Third Brother is still too inexperienced. He did such a foolish thing in a moment of anger..”