Be Modest,My Master of Imperial Guards

Chapter 64 Encountered Bandits in The Mountain

In the Fengyuan County.

There was a deadly hush below the gate.

On the gate tower, Prefect Guo flatted on the ground, looking at the ferocious-looked head. He showed the white of his eyes, panting as if he could not get any air.

As the colonel of the garrison was decapitated, archers and soldiers put down their weapons and got down on one knee to show full obedience to the Eastern Depot.

Shouts and cries burst out from the crowd below again, and this time their shouting was more heated and uniform,

"Well done! Well done! That goddamned officer deserves it!"

Leng Qingtang walked to the wall. He gestured them to be quiet and listen carefully.

Just moments ago, the victims saw this man in light blue killed that hateful colonel for them. He was standing on the wall, clothes fluttering in the wind. He was handsome and elegant, straight and tall, just like a celestial coming to save the world. So the victims felt safe and trusted, and they calmed down.

With both hands behind, Leng Qingtang stood stately on the wall.

"I'm the Commander-in-chief of the Eastern Depot. At the government's command, I come here to inspect the disaster situation and reassure people. Who is the leader of your riot group? I need to speak to him."

Not long after his words finished, a tall young man walked his way off the crowd with two other young men.

The young man lifted his head and spoke up to the above,

"I am the leader of them. My name is Wei Wu, and these are my two brothers. Have you anything to say to us?"

"I have just killed the colonel of the garrison because of his malpractice. Now I'm going to ask the prefect to open the gate, letting you enter the city. However, the grain stored in Fengyuan is not enough for so many victims, and the relief grain will arrive within five days."

"You must promise me to stop the riot. There shall be no killing, pillage, or burning when you enter the city. All the victims shall receive relief rations in good order. If you don't obey the rules, I will suppress you with the army as well."

Looking down, Leng Qingtang spoke loudly, and the victims could tell his firm attitude.

Confronting the severe disaster, even a coward would turn to a beast for existence. He must reach a consensus with these desperate outside victims before letting them in. Otherwise, if bloodshed and violence had occurred again, the consequences would have been unbearable.

Wei Wu, somehow, had some swordsmen's spirit. He nodded with his hands on the waist and answered in a clear voice,

"Fine! Since you officials understand the sorrow of us, we will obey the rules in return. After entering the city, we let the old, women and children take their rations first, and the young and strong men behind."

"Open the gate."

Leng Qingtang waved his arm to command.

The planks on the gate were soon removed, and the gated opened wide. Without any push and squeeze, the victims were quiet and orderly. They entered Fengyuan slowly in two long lines.

Leng Qingtang stood on the wall and fixed his eyes on the victims below. He saw Wei Wu and his brothers standing at the corner of the entrance.

When they met Leng Qingtang's eyes, they saluted him in a reverent and grateful manner.

...

When Gu Yunxi's convoy arrived in Lizhen Town, the snow just stopped. The ground was covered with snow except for a winding mule path.

It was a small town. Not a soul was on the road after sudden snow.

Xiao Xiaoshen found an inn. After all arrangements, they rested early.

Xiao Xiaoshen told Gu Yunxi that he received a letter sent by a snow eagle. The letter said that the Master was in Fengyuan County right now, so they had to speed up to catch up with the aid convoy of the government. Otherwise, the Master would have already left before they reached Fengyuan.

In the inn, Gu Yunxi and Qinger shared one bed in a room.

Qinger couldn't fall asleep between the sheets. She asked Gu Yunxi,

"Lady, what if the Master is still angry when we meet him?"

Gu Yunxi was thinking about this problem at the same time. She didn't know the answer as well. With her bright almond-shaped eyes open, she gazed at the rough beam, reflecting, and then said,

"If he is still angry, his worst reaction is to ignore me. Then I'll keep following him to wherever he goes."

"Master is good in all aspects. He treats you well, too... If only he weren't a eunuch..."

Qinger hemmed and hawed, but finally spoke her mind.

She felt sympathy for her Lady. In her best ages, no girl would choose a handicapped man to be her life-long mate.

She would have refused him if she were Gu Yunxi.

Gu Yunxi rolled to prop herself on one side to face Qinger. She smiled with relief,

"Use your brain. At the Master's age, if he were a sound man, he would have had many women. As handsome as he is, there must be a lot of girls going after him, and he may not glance at me."

"Don't belittle yourself, Lady. You are beautiful and gentle as well. You are no worse than those ladies of upper-class families!"

Gu Yunxi shook her head on the pillow. She looked disappointed,

"I'm an orphan and don't even know who my parents are. Were it not for the Master, I would have died of cold and starved to death in the snow as the victims of this snow disaster."

"I'm fond of the Master. Even if I don't like him, I'll also do my best to repay him. I know what he had done for me, so I don't care who he is and whether we can live together like ordinary couples or not. I just want to be with him!"

Qinger pouted. She was confused,

"Then why did you refuse him when the Master proposed to you?"

"That's... That's because... He proposed so suddenly that I..."

Gu Yunxi slightly blushed in shyness and awkwardness,

"I didn't want the girls at the Garden to misunderstand that I accept his proposal for status and wealth, but it doesn't matter now. Their thoughts have nothing to do with me. Xiaoshen brought me to myself that I should grasp my happiness!"

She seemed to sink in happiness again, and her eyes were bright with shyness. Qinger reminded her in time,

"Lady, you're... Others thought you despise him as a eunuch. The eunuchs are all equipped with delicate egos because of the physical disabilities in their bodies. Most of them are given to capricious moods. So it's hard to see a eunuch as mild as the Master."

Gu Yunxi didn't speak. Her bright eyes dimmed.

She realized that she hurt the Master quite deeply this time.

They drifted off to sleep. A night later, the tenth squad of the Eastern Depot went on their way at dawn.

In the next four days, except for six hours at the courier station, their journey was almost non-stop. On the fifth day, they caught up with the aid convoy and went along.

The leader of the aid convoy was Lieutenant Zhao. After talking with him, Xiao Xiaoshen and others got to know that it had been snowing several days ago. Heavy snow blocked the road and made it hard to start off. That was why the aid convoy delayed.

Two days later, the convoy marched into the Qianqi Mountain. Over this mountain was the territory of Fengyuan County in Jiangan Province.

Gu Yunxi sat in the carriage with a complicated mood.

Qinger comforted her,

"Don't worry, lady. The Master cares about you. If he knows you have come all the way through the snow to see him, no matter how angry he was, he will be mollified."

Gu Yunxi gave her a forced smile.

She hoped things would become that easy as Qinger said.

As she was sinking in her thought, a cold wind skittered into the carriage with vague crying.

Then Lieutenant Zhao shouted,

"Stop! There's an ambush ahead!"

Deafening roars and shouts surged from all the directions like rising tides.

"How dare you! These are the relief supplies for Jiangan from the capital city! How dare you touch it."

Lieutenant Zhao's hoarse shouts were followed by fierce clashes of swords, screams, and cries.

Xiao Xiaoshen guarded in front of Gu Yunxi's carriage. He pulled out his broadsword with a serious look.

"Someone is robbing provisions! You get off the carriage and hide somewhere!"

Gu Yunxi turned pale with fright. She lifted the curtain to look outside.

The carriage nearby had been surrounded by a group of masked people in black. Soldiers were struggling in their encirclement.

Those people were numerous and well prepared. They had already laid an ambush in the snow. They dug deep pits, in which they erected bamboo spears. Unsuspecting people who stepped into the snow and fell into a deep pit would be pierced by bamboo spears and die. From time to time, soldiers fell into traps. Several wagons turned over on the side of a large pit, on which sacks of rice were punctured by the swords, spilling white rice all over the ground.

Another group of men in black went close from behind. They targeted people from the Eastern Depot and started attacking as they met the squad.

This group was obviously better at fighting than the supply raider in the front. Their movements were as swift and fierce as the guards from the Eastern Depot. For a time, Xiao Xiaoshen and Yuan Qian were locked in the fight with them.

Qinger had never encountered this situation, although she knew martial arts. Clenching the half-sword with her hand, she felt a bit of panic.

"Qinger, get off the carriage!"

Gu Yunxi was clear in mind. She knew it was dangerous to stay in the carriage, so she held Qinger up to let her off.

After a shrill cry, the carter was killed. Two men in black jumped onto the carriage one after another.

Qinger let out a shout. She pulled out the half-word to meet one of them, and they fell off the carriage together.

"This is bad." Gu Yunxi thought. She stared at the masked man left on the carriage with a hand on the handle of her half-sword.

At that moment, a strange and familiar feeling hit Gu Yunxi.

The whole feature of the masked man's face was mostly covered, but she seemed to have seen his exposed eyes.

The floor under her feet jolted, and she fell into the carriage. The man in black shook the reins to make the carriage galloping to the depth of the woods.

"Lady..."

Qinger let out a hoarse shout behind.

Watching her Lady being abducted and rushing into the woods with the carriage, Qinger felled her opponent in anger. She went after the carriage, trudging through the snow.

Xiao Xiaoshen caught up on a horse before she trudged far. He let out a shout, brought Qinger up onto the back of the horse, and then chased down the carriage trace.

Gu Yunxi was jolted left and right by the galloping carriage.

She had to stop this. The cart-horse would probably be frightened in the running and lead the carriage out of control. If so, to stay in a madly running carriage was very dangerous.

She looked at her left side and the right side. The windows were too small to jump out.

It seemed that she had to fight with that man.

Gu Yunxi ground her teeth. She slashed at the masked man and started attacking him on the carriage.

The masked man controlled the reins with one hand and withstood Gu Yunxi's attack with another bare hand. Before long, he clenched his fist to hit Gu Yunxi's wrist to unarm her, and then he splayed fists to slam her lower abdomen with his palm to push her into the carriage again.