Chapter 89: Heavenly Sand (IV)
The black-armored Hu soldiers approached like dense clouds, and the cavalrymen thrust their sharp spears at Xu Hexue. Shen Tongchuan, who was on the tower, saw this and immediately shouted, "Shoot!"
The soldiers on the city wall operated the crossbows to shoot out countless iron-feathered sharp arrows, which scraped through the cold wind and made short sounds. Qin Jixun took this opportunity to tear a hole in Shi Monu's personal soldiers. The moment he raised his sword forward, he met Xu Hexue who leaned back and turned over, stepped on the spear pressed down by the Hu people, and jumped up.
Shi Manu was hit by a sword in the side of his waist. He covered the bloody wound with one hand. Although he was not killed, he could no longer fight. A personal soldier quickly mounted Shi Manu's horse, pulled the reins and shouted: "Protect the general! Retreat!"
The Hu soldiers protected Shi Manu and quickly retreated. Not far away, there was a loud trembling sound of horses' hooves stepping on the ground. In the flying dust, Shen Tongchuan looked down and recognized the flags with the surnames "Qi" and "Qin Wei". He immediately raised his hand, "Stop! Commander Wei is back!"
The rain of arrows suddenly stopped.
Behind Wei Dechang was Nelingu who was leading his troops in pursuit. In the chaos, Nelingu saw that Shi Monu was injured and panicked. He did not care about Wei Dechang and his Wei army in front of him, and hurried to support Shi Monu.
Wei Dechang watched the Hu soldiers retreating in panic, "Brother! The Hu people are losing ground! Let's work together and pursue them!"
“No.”
Qin Jixun was covered in armor and blood. He turned his horse around before Wei Dechang and Yang Tianzhe came close. Before he could respond, he heard Xu Hexue say.
The edge of Xu Hexue's clothes was stained with blood, and a few strands of hair were blown by the wind. Qin Jixun suddenly saw his knees bend, the sword embedded in the ground, and he stumbled. He immediately stepped forward to help him: "Master Ni!"
"General Qin, let them come back."
Xu Hexue tried hard to stand up straight, and the hand holding the sword trembled slightly between his sleeves.
"Duan Rong, wave the flag!"
As soon as Qin Jixun gave the order, Duan Rong immediately ordered the soldiers to wave the flags. Wei Dechang saw the flag of stop fighting waving, and he felt like a bucket of cold water was poured over his head. He had to lead the soldiers to turn back with Yang Tianzhe.
"Brother! What a great opportunity! Shi Monu's food supplies have been burned by Commander Yang, and he is injured. His morale is greatly reduced right now. If we chase him now, we may be able to catch him in one fell swoop!" Wei Dechang ran to the city gate, got off his horse and said hurriedly.
Yang Tianzhe followed closely behind, "Yes, General Qin, we must not let Shi Manu go at this time!"
"Have you forgotten what our top priority is now? It is to defend the city!" Qin Jixun said solemnly, "No one is allowed to act rashly before the reinforcements arrive!"
The drums of war had stopped, the cold wind was blowing, and the sky had become much darker. Ni Su lit the glass lamp and leaned against the city wall. She saw Shen Tongchuan hurriedly coming down from the tower, holding up his clothes. She looked behind him, but she didn't see that person. Her heart skipped a beat, and she couldn't help but move forward , "Shen Zhizhou, where is Master Ni?"
"Master Ni is outside! He seems to be injured!" Shen Tongchuan replied hurriedly, and immediately ordered the soldiers guarding the inner city gate to open the door.
The city gate slowly opened. Before Shen Tongchuan could look inside the city wall, he saw Ni Su running past him quickly. Inside the city wall, apart from the standing war horses, there were dead bodies all over the ground. Under the light, blood was flowing, and the piled up corpses almost blocked her steps.
The gate of the outer city was opened. The sky was gloomy and the city, which had not yet been lit with torches, was gray. The whistling wind sounded like the howling of evil spirits and the sound of blood dripping.
Countless soldiers rushed in and cleaned up the dead bodies on the ground. The bodies of the Hu people were thrown aside, almost piling up into a small hill, and the body of each Qi soldier was solemnly carried into the city for burial.
"Mr. Ni, are you injured? Hurry, call the doctor in our camp !" Although Wei Dechang was dissatisfied with Xu Hexue's advice to Qin Jixun not to pursue Shi Manu, he also showed nervousness when he saw that he was injured.
“No need.”
Xu Hexue held the sword in one hand and refused Qin Jixun's support. He walked slowly into the city gate, only to find that the darkness in front of him was dispelled by a warm light.
The light and shadow spread on the blood-stained ground. His eyelashes slowly lifted. Opposite him was a woman. She was wearing a lavender dress and had three buns on her head. She had only an ivory-white jade hairpin as an ornament. A long white scarf half covered her hair and half of her face.
She held a glass lamp in her hand, and the candle flame in the lamp was dancing. It was the only light source that illuminated his eyes.
"I have a medical worker."
Xu Hexue suddenly said.
His whole body was numb with pain, and he took extremely difficult steps, stepping on the light and shadow from the glass lamp, and walked towards her step by step.
The closer he got, the clearer his eyes became.
He saw her red eyes and the sparkling tears, and suddenly, he stopped.
There was still some distance between the two of them. The moment their eyes met, Ni Su's tears fell out like a cluster. She suddenly ran towards him, spread her arms and hugged his waist.
Xu Hexue's back was stiff for a long time. He lowered his eyes and saw the long scarf slip off, revealing her bun. He stretched out his hand, paused in mid-air for a moment, and still very lightly touched her hair.
Shen Tongchuan saw this scene at the inner gate and wanted to go closer, but he felt that it was not appropriate. He touched his nose and did not move.
"Let's go."
Ni Su sniffed, let go of him, held his arm, and walked towards the inner door. When passing by Shen Tongchuan, Xu Hexue handed the sword back to Shen Tongchuan.
Shen Tongchuan looked at the backs of the two of them as they walked forward together. He had never felt his sword so heavy. He lowered his head and watched a drop of blood dripping down the edge of the sword.
"Dechang, I know what you are thinking," Qin Jixun stood in the city wall and retracted his gaze from Xu Hexue's back, "You think I listen to him too much."
"Brother..."
"But I'm not a fool!"
Qin Jixun suddenly interrupted him in a harsh voice, "If he has no ability, and if what he does is unreasonable, why should I, as the commander of the Yongzhou Army, listen to him!"
"Why do you think he suddenly took the risk to fight Shi Manu when Shi Manu was about to withdraw his troops?"
Qin Jixun looked back and forth between Wei Dechang and Yang Tianzhe, "You haven't returned yet, and Shi Manu is withdrawing his troops. If he encounters you head-on, wouldn't that be a good opportunity for Shi Manu and Nierlingu to attack you from both sides?"
Xu Hexue's intention was not to kill Shi Monu, but to buy time for Wei Dechang and Yang Tianzhe. Shi Monu's injury also made Nie Lingu confused. He had no intention of fighting and only cared about retreating. In this way, a bloody battle was avoided.
Wei Dechang and Yang Tianzhe were both speechless.
Qin Jixun looked at the pine-patterned sword that Yang Tianzhe handed back, and he reached out to take it. "I don't know what you think, but the more I know about this person, the more I feel sorry for him."
"He has a strategy in his heart, and his sword is as sharp as a thousand blades." Shen Tongchuan approached them holding the sword that Xu Hexue had used. "Such a person should have a bright future, whether he is on the battlefield or in the government."
Unfortunately, that was a person who would not live long.
A sudden silence enveloped the four of them. Today was supposed to be their biggest victory against Shi Manu in recent times, but the four of them all had heavy expressions on their faces.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Ni."
Wei Dechang's face was filled with shame.
"As General Qin said, I really shouldn't offend someone like Mr. Ni." Yang Tianzhe also lowered his head.
Due to the darkness of the sky, thanks to the fact that the torches on the city wall had not been lit yet, only the glass lamp in Ni Su's hand illuminated Xu Hexue. For the time being, no one noticed that Xu Hexue's figure was a little thinner than that of ordinary people.
Ni Su lifted the felt curtain and helped him in. Seeing this, Qingqiong, who was originally lying on the felt carpet, struggled to sit up. He was a ghost, so he could naturally keenly sense the difference in Xu Hexue. He immediately got up and dragged his slow and stiff body out to find incense and candles.
There was still some tea left from the reed dew, and Ni Su wanted to take it to the stove to warm it up, but he said, "No, give it to me."
Ni Su said nothing and handed him the tea bowl.
She looked at his hand holding the teacup, noticed his trembling, and vaguely saw bloody wounds under his sleeves, one after another.
"Miss Ni."
From outside the felt curtain, Madam Zhong's voice could be heard, "Chief Wei heard that you have the family-inherited skill of acupuncture with golden needles, so he sent someone to ask you to heal his leg."
Over the past month or two, Ni Su used her medical skills to cure sick women and children among the refugees, and also followed the medical workers in the military camp to treat the external injuries of injured soldiers. Almost no one here doubted her medical skills anymore, and women in the city who had difficult childbirth or had hidden diseases began to come to her for treatment.
Madam Zhong was chatting with someone and told others that Ni Su was from Que County in the south of the Yangtze River and that she was from a family of acupuncturists. She had a family tradition of acupuncture with golden needles, which was also spread from Madam Zhong. The old eunuch of the Wei Mansion continued Madam Zhong's words outside the felt tent, "Madam Ni, my master starts to have pain in his knees when the autumn comes. I heard that you know acupuncture. Why don't you come to our mansion and give it a try? If your method is useful, our master will definitely reward you."
Arrogant masters raise arrogant servants. These words sounded condescending. Ni Su's eyes were filled with the cracked wound on the arm of the man in front of her. She was filled with anger. She turned her head to look at the figure reflected on the felt curtain. The wind blew the curtain and the shadow was distorted. "I won't go!"
The old eunuch outside obviously didn't expect this woman to be so ungrateful. His face changed and his tone became even worse, "Miss Ni, if it weren't for the war, do you think our master would ask a young lady like you to show him his legs?"
"You can find any doctor you like in the city. I am not good at acupuncture with golden needles, so I won't use your old clan leader to try it. I am afraid he can't afford it!"
Ni Su's piercing words made the old man's face turn red and white. He snorted coldly, "What a sharp-tongued woman! You don't know what's good for you!"
The figure outside the felt curtain disappeared. Ni Su turned around and met Xu Hexue's gaze. She took the empty tea bowl from his hand and said, "Don't look at me like that."
"What’s wrong with you?"
Xu Hexue was so weak that his words were barely more than a breath, with one hand resting on the corner of the desk.
"If I don't treat his leg, he won't die," Ni Su could hardly suppress the sourness in her nose. Tears welled up in her eyes again as she looked at his pale face. "But what about you?"
You are dead.
All the medicines and stones in this world cannot cure your pain.
"he,"
Tears slid down her cheeks, and Ni Su trembled, "He was one of the people who cut you apart. Why can he live to have many children and grandchildren, but you can't?"
Xu Hexue stared at her in a daze. The light from the glass lamp silently and slowly repaired his broken soul fire with its weak power and condensed the bright dust that was constantly emitting from him.
He raised his hand, but before he could touch the tears on her cheek, Ni Su suddenly hugged him again.
She didn't hug him tightly at all, but was very careful in every way. She didn't know where the scratches were under his clothes. She actually wanted to see them, but she knew he wouldn't agree.
"If I go to treat his leg disease, what will I become?"
She said with a sob.
Xu Hexue felt that her words were like a key that she handed to him personally. As long as he obeyed her, he would be able to open the shackles that bound his desires.
The dust is flying and the solitary lamp is shaking.
Xu Hexue suddenly hugged her back with such force that he didn't care about the chapped wounds under her clothes. He tightened his arms and held her in his arms.
Ni Su felt as if she was wrapped in snow, and her heart in her chest was beating rapidly.
She actually wanted his hug.
Even though it's so cold.
"Xu Ziling, this will hurt you." She placed her hands lightly on his shoulders.
He asked, "Do you feel cold?"
She couldn't say that he was cold. Xu Hexue knew she didn't want to say it, just as he didn't want to confess his pain to her.
His cold eyes did not reveal the slightest emotion.
But he lowered his head and rested it on the crook of her neck.
"Just a moment."
For just a moment, he submitted to her.
Follow your selfish desires at the moment.
