Chapter 72

The moment Yan Yiming fell from her horse, Little A's sharp, metallic voice screamed, nearly shattering her eardrums,
“Your favorability hasn't reached one hundred percent yet! You can't just die like this, ahhhhhhhhh!”
Yan Yiming struggled to curl her lips, wanting to retort, but before she could form a coherent thought in her mind, she fell into a deep unconsciousness once more.
Forty thousand cavalry against over a hundred thousand Mongol troops, even with the advantage of striking first, the sheer numerical disparity made victory nearly impossible.
The Mongol army suffered heavy casualties, but the Xia forces were not faring much better. The forty thousand cavalry held on desperately until the infantry reinforcements arrived, finally giving them a glimmer of hope for survival.
The Mongol Khan fought with increasing ferocity, even entertaining the idea of a fight to the death. After days of bitter combat, the forty thousand cavalry had dwindled to less than ten thousand, and the infantry had also suffered devastating losses. It was at this critical moment that Shao Jingyu finally arrived.
Leading sixty thousand elite soldiers, Shao Jingyu had cut across the grasslands and unexpectedly encountered the forces of the Mongol Left Wise King's royal court. The Left Wise King likely had no intention of engaging in a direct confrontation but found himself unexpectedly face-to-face with Shao Jingyu, forcing him to retreat hastily in disarray.
Shao Jingyu inflicted seventy thousand casualties on the enemy while suffering fewer than ten thousand losses himself, successfully capturing the Left Wise King and achieving a decisive victory. Without a moment’s delay, he led his remaining troops to reinforce the Xia Army.
Before this, Shao Jingyu had known that Yan Yiming’s confrontation with the main Mongol forces would be a brutal battle, with a high likelihood of total annihilation. The disparity in numbers was too great, and they were facing the most elite troops of the Mongol army.
Yun Xiao could sense Shao Jingyu’s anxiety. As they galloped toward the Western Route Army, there was no trace of joy on Shao Jingyu’s face over their recent victory. Yun Xiao noticed this but could offer no comfort. He thought of the increasingly close, frail young man and felt equally worried and anxious.
Fortunately, they encountered a small unit Yan Yiming had specifically dispatched to find Shao Jingyu, so they wasted no time searching and headed straight for the battlefield.
When they arrived at the battlefield at full speed, the scene before them was even more gruesome than they had imagined.
This battle was even more brutal than the time Yun Xiao had been trapped at Yin Mountain. The ground was littered with corpses, and only abandoned warhorses wandered aimlessly. The fighting was nearing its end, with both sides paying a horrific price to bring the conflict to a close. Shao Jingyu swiftly concluded the fierce battle, securing a victory that had been deadlocked for days in favor of the Xia army.
Although the Mongol Khan had not been captured, the remaining Mongol forces were no longer a significant threat.
The vast battlefield was strewn with bodies, Mongol soldiers, Xia soldiers, their clothes dyed red with blood, making it impossible to distinguish friend from foe. The carnage was too cruel to bear witness to.
Amid the blood-soaked battlefield, there was still no sign of the Right General or Yan Yiming.
Shao Jingyu’s fear grew increasingly intense. He stood silently, surveying the scene, and suddenly let out a roar, his voice trembling uncontrollably without him even realizing it.
“Search! Find them!”
He refused to believe in death. Even if, even if it were true, they had to find the bodies…
Search, quickly search, it was almost a frantic, irrational command.
Everyone began to search.
He, too, will search.
Tens of thousands of soldiers combed through the battlefield, retrieving those who still had a breath of life and searching for the Right General and Yan Yiming. After what felt like an eternity, someone finally discovered the Right General. The stern old general still had several arrows embedded in his body, two of them piercing straight through his heart.
His eyes remained wide open, but he had long since stopped breathing.
Shao Jingyu’s hands trembled slightly as he gazed at General Chen’s unseeing eyes. Unable to bear the sight, he lifted his head, but tears still streamed down his face.
He suddenly remembered what General Chen Lai had told him before the battle, that his eldest daughter-in-law was pregnant, and by the time they returned to Jinling after the war, he would be able to see his grandson.
But now, he would never make it back.
Even in death, his eyes remained wide open, yet he could never return to Jinling.
Men do not shed tears easily, but only when their hearts are truly broken.
After the battle, everything had changed. Shao Jingyu let out a grief-stricken roar to the heavens, and everyone present bowed their heads, some silently mourning, others weeping quietly.
They had once been comrades fighting side by side, sharing stories under the moonlight about their elderly mothers at home or their infants still in swaddling clothes. But now, they were forever separated by life and death.
Never before had Shao Jingyu hated himself so intensely.
If he hadn't made that initial misjudgment, giving the Mongol army an opening, perhaps General Chen and these tens of thousands of soldiers would not have died. If he had arrived with reinforcements earlier, perhaps such a devastating scene could have been avoided.
Even though he knew pursuing the Left Wise King had been the correct decision at the time, the consequences of that choice were still despairing and unbearable.
The surviving soldiers were carried away one by one, but there was still no sign of Yan Yiming. Shao Jingyu's expression grew increasingly grim, and Yun Xiao didn't dare say a word to him until someone in the distance suddenly shouted excitedly, “We've found Commandant Yan!”
Shao Jingyu's tense nerves finally reacted. Without a second thought, he sprinted toward the voice.
They had discovered Yan Yiming amidst a pile of corpses. Like the fallen soldiers around her, she was drenched in blood. If not for the young soldier who recognized her, no one would have been able to identify her.
Carefully extracting her from the heap of bodies, they saw her wounds and felt their hearts clench in anguish.
An arrow was embedded in Yan Yiming's body, a clear bloody hole gaped at her waist, still oozing blood. The most severe injury was on her back, her armor had been completely torn open, leaving a gruesome, bloody gash that seemed to split her spine in two, making it unbearable to look at.
Shao Jingyu had witnessed countless scenes of bloodshed and death, and he had always endured them. But at this moment, he felt unsteady on his feet. If Yun Xiao hadn't swiftly supported him, Shao Jingyu would have collapsed to his knees.
How could she be injured to this extent?
Yun Xiao couldn't bear to look and turned away.
Injured like this, she was no different from dead, or perhaps, she was already gone.
Her wounds were so severe that no one dared to move her, unsure whether she was still alive or not. Shao Jingyu knelt beside her, at a loss, not knowing where to touch her, his eyes reddening with helpless grief.
No one dared to tell Shao Jingyu that Commandant Yan was likely already dead. Seeing that they were about to miss the critical window for treatment, Little A had no choice but to forcibly manipulate Yan Yiming's fingers, making them twitch.
Shao Jingyu’s heart leaped back to life the moment he saw Yan Yiming’s fingers twitch slightly. He called out to her urgently, and when she showed another faint sign of response, he shouted, “Medic!”
Her injuries were too severe to risk moving her, so they carefully lifted her onto a stretcher. Inside the makeshift tent set up on the spot, Shao Jingyu stood by, holding his breath nervously. The medic, who had been relatively calm, now found his hands trembling uncontrollably as he prepared to extract the arrow, unsettled by Shao Jingyu’s anxiety. Swallowing hard, he dared to address Shao Jingyu:
“The arrow is lodged too deep. General, could you help hold Commandant Yan down?”
Extracting an arrow was excruciatingly painful. Many soldiers, unable to endure the agony, would struggle, causing the arrow to break inside the flesh, the worst possible outcome.
Shao Jingyu understood immediately. Without a word, he strode forward, his gaze falling on the gruesome wound on her back, his heart aching with pain. Gritting his teeth, he pressed Yan Yiming down firmly.
A muffled groan was heard, and the medic let out a long sigh of relief, the arrow was finally out.
The arrowhead was barbed, making the extraction even more agonizing than the initial penetration. Yan Yiming, who had been unconscious, let out a low groan from the intense pain and briefly regained consciousness. In her daze, she murmured, “I finally waited for you, General,” before passing out again.
The medic hurriedly stanched the bleeding before tending to the numerous wounds covering her body, the gash on her back being the most severe.
Not daring to delay any further, Shao Jingyu carefully cut away her clothing with a knife to avoid causing her more pain, finally revealing her entire body, covered in wounds.
Suddenly, his pupils contracted sharply.
Yun Xiao, who had been waiting outside, heard a loud crash from inside and cried out, “What happened?” Rushing in without a second thought, he saw the medic trembling on his knees. In the instant Yun Xiao entered, Shao Jingyu shielded Yan Yiming completely and snapped coldly, “Get out!”
Yun Xiao wanted to ask more, but meeting Shao Jingyu’s icy glare sent a chill down his spine. Muttering in acknowledgment, he lifted the tent flap and hastily retreated.
Only after Yun Xiao had left did Shao Jingyu turn his fierce gaze to the medic kneeling on the ground.
His mind was in turmoil, overwhelmed by shock, but there was no time to dwell on it. Shao Jingyu lowered his voice and said to the medic, “Only you and I know of this. If a third person finds out…“
Before he could finish, the medic kowtowed frantically and vowed, “This subordinate will take it to the grave!”
Shao Jingyu trusted that the medic wouldn’t dare speak of it, but now that he knew the truth, he felt a deep reluctance to let the medic continue treating Yan Yiming. Yet, there was no other choice. Clenching his teeth, he growled, “Hurry up!”
“Yes, yes, yes,” the medic stammered, stepping forward even more nervously than before.
Shao Jingyu stood by anxiously, finally allowing himself to process the staggering revelation.
Yan Yiming, the fierce warrior who had fought countless battles on the battlefield, was actually a woman!