Great General Min was seated at the same level as Yuan Zhong. There were only about thirty thousand men in the northwestern army. With the Hunan troops added in to this temporary army, they only numbered fifty thousand. Although the Min army only had about thirty thousand men, their weapons and equipment were of much better quality than those of the northwestern army. If they were to face off in a battle, the northwestern army would not be a match for the Min army.
Furthermore, there were twenty thousand Hunan troops mixed in with the northwestern army right now. If it really came down to a fight, the Hunan troops might take advantage of the confusion for their own benefit. Yuan Zhong hadn’t climbed up to this position by being stupid. He could only lament that He Changdi had been too thorough and careful in his actions. He and Xiao Bojian had been too careless.
Now that the Min army had arrived, they had lost their best chance to strike. Those snowboat blueprints were now out of their grasp.
With the Min army supporting He Changdi, the northwestern army handed over the grains they had stored in Su City the very next day.
Great General Min personally escorted He Changdi’s group out to Lake Qianshan.
Although the Min army had rushed over to Su City in just two short days, they hadn’t been given actual military orders so they couldn’t stay in Su City for too long, despite being under Prince Jin’s orders.
Thus, on the third day after He Changdi’s grain supply group had left, the Min army also made their way back to the Min River area.
Xiao Bojian stayed in his tent with an overcast expression. Yuan Zhong’s trust in him had lessened since his plan had failed. These few days, Yuan Zhong seemed to be avoiding him on purpose, leaving him furious.
One silently stood behind Xiao Bojian and pretended not to exist.
It was only when Xiao Bojian called out to him that he made a sound of acknowledgement and walked over to his master’s side, “Your orders, Master?”
After a slight pause, Xiao Bojian’s face contorted into an extremely fierce expression, “Send the information I wrote yesterday to Liangzhou, as soon as possible!”
Without a shred of hesitation, One answered affirmatively and dashed out to execute his orders!
Xiao Bojian toyed with the jade amulet attached to his waist. Once he thought of the fact that He Changdi’s efforts to bring provisions to Liangzhou might simply become fuel for someone else’s achievements, he wondered how He Changdi would feel, and whether he would fall apart.
Although the skies over Su City had cleared up for two days, Liangzhou was still experiencing heavy winds and snow. As of now, the snow was already knee deep and it was difficult even for horses to pass through.
Chu Lian stayed in the female camp with her maidservants and passed her days in relaxation.
Ten days had passed since He Changdi left, and she couldn’t help but start to worry about him.
Going by normal speeds, even if he went to Su City to borrow provisions, he should have been back in ten days. Even if he got delayed along the way, it would take another two days at the most.
However, other than the endless wind and snow blowing over the plains, there was no other news from the border army camp.
Chu Lian could guess that the state of the army’s supplies was close to critical.
Over the next two days, there were cases of soldiers from both the Left Wing and Right Wing armies fainting while on guard duty due to hunger.
However, even so, the army cooks still didn’t give the hungry soldiers even a single bowl more of bean porridge.
At this stage, even the female camp was down to eating bean porridge, and the bean porridge was also getting even more dilute.
Chu Lian glanced at the steaming hot bowl of rice porridge in front of her. Due to her worry for He Changdi, her appetite had been very poor over the past few days, so she had only eaten a few mouthfuls of it.
Chu Lian waved her hand, “Take this away, and give it to the guards outside.”
At this point of time, the most popular job in the female camp was guarding Chu Lian’s tent. Those who guarded her tent would often receive rewards from the Honoured Lady such as a piping hot bowl of congee, or a few delicious pieces of pastry, or several slices of jerky.
Chu Lian had already moved out of Sima Hui’s tent and was now staying in a tent right opposite Sima Hui’s.
She had heard from Captain Guo that this was something that He Changdi had specially arranged for…
There was a limit to the supplies Chu Lian had brought, so she couldn’t possibly donate them all to the border army. Besides, there wasn’t even enough to give each soldier a single grain of rice. The most she could do was to provide a little aid to a female soldier or two.
Chu Lian’s popularity in the female camp was outstanding, and she was only second to Sima Hui at this point.
Today, after having lunch with Wenqing and Wenlan, she laid on her bed and flipped through a book of folk stories.
The guards outside announced that their general had come.
Once they finished speaking, the tent flap was lifted and Sima Hui strode in, dressed in full armour.
Upon seeing Sima Hui’s grave expression, Chu Lian quickly sat upright.
“Where are you going, Sister Hui?”
Sima Hui was dressed in full battle armour and was even wearing a silver helmet on her head. Her red-tasseled spear hung on her back while she kept one hand on the sword hung at her waist. She walked up to Chu Lian’s side and fixed her gaze on the young lady. Her tone was dead serious as she spoke, “The Tuhuns have suddenly gathered up their men and seem to be on the verge of mounting a large scale attack. Lian’er, I’ve been ordered to lead my troops out to the frontlines immediately.”
Chu Lian was completely stunned by her words. She didn’t understand why the Tuhuns would be trying to mount an attack at this time. It was the middle of the coldest period of the whole year in Liangzhou, when the winds and snow were still blowing strongly. It was far from the right time to attack for the Tuhuns. Had something gone wrong along the way?
After a brief period of dazed silence, Chu Lian finally reacted, “Sister Hui, the battle at the frontlines is more important, please don’t worry about me!”
Sima Hui gripped the hilt of the sword in her hands and nodded, “Lian’er, I’ll leave some soldiers behind to protect you. Stay safe here!”
TL Note: The Min (闽) River is an actual river in China, in the Fujian province. The Min army isn’t actually named after the river, but after Great General Min’s family name (闵). This usually means that the Min family controls or funds the army, which may be why they have better equipment as compared to the northwestern army, which is funded by a government trying to cut military spending.
The author specifically uses the term fubing to refer to the soldiers in the Min army, which can translate to ‘citizen militia’. This might imply that the soldiers in the Min army are actually farmers conscripted into service as reserve soldiers, but we have to wait and see if the author mentions more of this system later in the story (I can’t remember, oops).
On a side note, the He (贺) Estate in the capital and the He (和) Estate in Liangzhou City actually use different characters in Chinese too. :3
