The Flower Of War

Chapter 42: The Southern War

Three days passed with full busyness, not busy preparing for marriage as planned but busy preparation of war between the two countries in the southern border region.

The help from the Qiu Wang Kingdom would likely come in another three to five days at the border.

Yiu and Prince Liu Yu plus the two brothers Prince Liu Yu who were in control of the military camp were already preparing to head for the border along with eight thousand troops carrying some heavy equipment.

The troops immediately set off towards the border of the country traveling through a mountain path that has heavy terrain accompanied by towering cliffs on his left right.

During the journey that took a day and night if without rest, Liu Yu preached Yiu to be careful on the battlefield like 'Don't advance before the right-wing forces act' or 'Don't fight a strong man', 'Don't get close to any man', 'Don't push yourself' and more.

Hearing Liu Yu's duck babble lecturing him like a careless little boy made Yiu run out of patience.

He brought his horse closer towards Liu Yu's horse then his hand moved to remove the cloth that bound his arm then immediately smothered Liu Yu's mouth and tied it with a dead knot.

"This is more comfortable. Don't let go if you still love your life!"

Liu Yu shouted but her muffled voice wrapped around her mouth made her only make a restrained sound while glaring sharply at Yiu.

Yang got a sharp look just being indifferent as if nothing had happened, making Liu Yu finally succumb and choose silence during the trip.

Beside the two were the horses that Liu Yu's two older brothers, Prince Liu Yao and Prince Liu Song had ridden. The two were rumored to have always conspired with Liu Yu and were laughing mockingly at Liu Yu.

The relationship between Prince Liu Yu and the two is indeed less friendly, rumors are the two brothers are working together to overthrow Liu Yu from the title of Crown Prince.

The two who had been silently observing Yiu and Liu Yu's interaction finally made a sound.

"ErGe, has the woman in your residence ever acted outrageously towards you?" The first Prince Song opened his voice.

"Get up, but worst of all just because he wasn't so good at serving tea and it pissed me off and drove him out."

"Did your woman never get angry or beat you up, Ge?"

"As a real man should be able to discipline a woman, where a man's self-esteem if his wife just dared to yell at him and he didn't fight back at all huh how could that man be worthy of being a leader? He's more deserving of being a lackey or a haha coachman."

The two laughed quite loudly, Yiu could not help but glance towards Liu Yu who looked unconcerned at all.

Yiu wanted to join in arguing with Liu Yu's two brothers but was immediately intercepted by Liu Yu's left hand while his right hand opened the cloth covering his mouth with a little effort then shook slowly.

Along the way filled with the two Liu Yu brothers who kept joking while occasionally insinuating Liu Yu but who insinuated himself was not at all disturbed and was engrossed in chatting also with Yiu about the war even this time Yiu was still a little quiet.

It was dark, and the BaiQing troops were resting in a vast bamboo forest. They deftly build tents and fireplaces.

Yiu as usual wandered away from the camp tent to be alone and enjoy the cool atmosphere of the night in the forest.

Is my decision to go to war right? I feel like I shouldn't be involved but I feel like I should help too. Why is my heart so agitated? Before, when I faced war, I never told this story.

"It's true you're here. I've been looking for you since, A-Ying." Liu Yu's rumbling voice broke the silence around Yiu.

Why does this guy always show up when I want to be alone?! Sucks.

"Go, I want to be alone first."

Instead of walking away, Liu Yu walked over and stood right beside Yiu and kinj both were only a few cents away.

"Why do you like being alone? If there's a problem just tell me .... I'll definitely help you."

"no need. I'm fine."

"You're worried about the war this time? ... Haha I guess. Eyes can never lie, A-Ying. Calm down if you want you to be able to return to the Palace, I'm also worried that something will happen to my soulmate. I'd rather lose my life than lose you, A-Ying."

The two of them were now staring at each other, Liu Yu smiled widely before continuing to speak, "Don't force yourself, for me your safety is more important than anything I have even my own life .... You know A-Ying? When I first saw you I felt something inside me vibrate violently, I felt like there were thousands of butterflies flying in my stomach. I want to be with him and grow old with him. To be the only one who loves her .. forever."

Yiu immediately turned his face to look ahead at the darkness of the night. Yiu's face involuntarily flushed red under the moonlight, for some reason he felt happy at this moment, his entire worry collapsing instantly. Yiu finally dared to turn his head slowly towards Liu Yu.

"Thank you A-Ying, thank you for accepting me in your life, thank you for being my sun and always by my side. I don't know how I'm gonna get through this without you. I will prove to the brothers who hate me that I am better than them for loving and protecting only one woman in her life. A-Ying, will you reach the top of the world with me?"

Yiu felt millions of butterflies begin to fly full of madness in her stomach, Liu Yu still displayed her sweet smile making her dimples look clearer under the moonlight.

For a moment Yiu was still silent and did not understand what to do, his brain was too empty at this moment.

It's not easy to gain my trust, I know you're very kind and patient with my personality, and also my two sisters being nice to you are even willing to help you.

Yiu nodded slowly.

"So how'd you answer, A-Ying?"

Yiu subconsciously nodded again.

Prince Liu Yu's face grew even more radiant, without much consideration he immediately pulled Yiu into his arms.

Yiu was still in a daze, but soon regained his senses after finding himself in Liu Yu's arms. His heart slowly warmed.

Please take care of my trust, Liu Yu.

♣♦♣

The next day after day passed, the battle between the two countries had already run for about two days in the Qin mountain valley on the border of the two countries.

The relief force from Qiu Wang had also long since arrived, numbering 5000 troops. But Prince Huang himself did not join the army instead Qiu Wang sent General Guang as the leader of his army.

The battle took place in two different places so BaiQing's forces also had to split into two, the Western Army and the Eastern Army.

The Western BaiQing forces were under the command of Liu Yu and Yiu while the Eastern BaiQing Army was under the command of Prince Liu Yao and Prince Liu Song.

Fighting between the two countries was fierce, the first seven days of the Eastern and Western BaiQing Forces experienced a fairly easy victory due to Yiu-made grenades that contributed to the war.

But the next day the Eastern BaiQing Army suffered a defeat, and nearly half the army was killed. Known to be the result of the enemy knowing the powerful weapons of BaiQing, they sadistically smeared their own troops on the front lines with oil so that when the grenade was thrown there was a double big explosion.

Then after the fire in the first explosion began to subside, the second wave of enemy troops began to be deployed making BaiQing troops inevitably have to launch their soldiers through the fire that was still burning.

And again they acted sadistically, LingJian's archery troops started firing fire arrows from their bows. Once again explosion after explosion continued to occur until it made the ground slightly shake.

A crushing defeat occurred on the side of the Eastern BaiQing Army, making both leaders, and, Prince Liu Yao and Prince Liu Song died because they did not have time to save themselves and the rest of the troops who managed to flee immediately to the camp of the Western BaiQing Forces to report.

Emperor Liu Xun was furious at the news of the deaths of his two sons, with Emperor Liu Xun immediately sending 6th and 7th battalions directly under the command of Prince Liu JieLu.

The battle was too fierce, this time the Western BaiQing Army was experiencing difficulties due to a wrong strategy. As a result, Yiu was injured in the left arm and the wound was deep enough to fight.

Luckily the rest of the Eastern BaiQing Army provided assistance at the last moment, repelling the LingJian Army to retreat to the nearest town.

"It's my fault, if I had come early you wouldn't have suffered like this."

"It's not your fault, I was too careless at the time. It's no big deal, after all the injured is left hand so it won't affect my sword play. We better make a strategy for tomorrow's fight."

After sunset, Yiu was with Prince Liu Yu, Prince Liu JieLu and the five core Generals gathered in a tent in which there was already a large table with topographic maps of the Qin valley area and there were already several flagged pawns with two separate colors in the above it.

Yiu opened the first discussion. "LingJian's forces have already retreated to GuangDong City. I argue because they did something stupid before by burning their own troops so they lacked troops and retreated to a nearby town. "Although they can get to the eastern battle area but their food supply is dwindling after we managed to burn their food warehouse. They have no other choice, they choose to take their own citizens hostage so that we can not indiscriminately attack."

Then Prince Liu JieLu responded by hoisting the red-flagged pawn into the topography of GuangDong city. "If we move forward besieging the city at night and camping out at the outer gate and ambushing them in the morning it can be quite an effective way."

Yiu responded with his eyes still focused towards the map with a serious face, ignoring the wound on his left hand. "No, it's pretty dangerous. Their troops must be on guard over the gate and if they know we're making a move they won't stay idle and do anything stupid anymore. They're in a corner right now so we don't have to be too hasty."

Prince Liu Yu now took a turn to speak, "It is precisely because they are being cornered that we can finish this war. We can shoot fire arrows into the city and create a commotion there, how is A-Ying?"

"No, we can hurt innocent civilians. However, this has already crossed the battlefield and they are using their own citizens as shields to prevent us from taking more advantage. Too risky."

Prince Liu JieLu looked frustrated, he hit the table making some pre-arranged pawns fall scattered.

Brukka ...

"Then how should we?! They're not BaiQing citizens then why should we think about their lives!"

"However the civilians are innocent, Prince. So we shouldn't have taken their lives, it's against the war treaty. If there's only grown men in the city we can barge in, but there's women, parents, and kids in the city, too." General Shan was trying to temper Prince Liu JieLu's anger.

Yiu did not waste any time and spoke up again, "Situations like this we cannot rely on explosive grenades, so we have to think of other ways! ... Let me think for a second."

A moment of silence enveloped the tent filled with yellow light from the candles around the tent.

"I understand now. Listen to me carefully."

TB