Chapter 41: Monstrous Hatred

"Commander, danger!" When the thirty armor-piercing arrows flew toward Chen Ying, Luo Shixin was the first to react. Although he shouted a warning just in time, Luo Shixin was stationed on Chen Ying's right flank; even if he grew wings, it would be too late to rescue him.

Luo Shixin's eyes widened to the point of tearing, the whites bloodshot completely without warning, and the veins on his neck bulging as if they were about to burst!

When Chen Ying saw the armor-piercing arrows hurtling toward him through the air, his brain was momentarily too slow to process. These ten Tujue Eagle-Shooting Generals had fired simultaneously, and their might was naturally extraordinary. Although the thirty armor-piercing arrows targeted Chen Ying, they had anticipated and sealed off every possible direction he could evade. In other words, no matter where Chen Ying dodged at this moment, the outcome would be the same.

The Tang soldiers uniformly let out a mournful cry resembling wounded beasts: "Protect the Commander!"

Too fast to describe, just as Chen Ying was about to be struck by the thirty armor-piercing arrows, a frail figure suddenly broke away from a horse's back, leaped forward abruptly, and threw herself in front of Chen Ying.

"Thud... thud!"

The frail figure's body shook violently as over a dozen thick armor-piercing arrows pierced straight through her without obstruction. As the soldier slowly slumped over Chen Ying, Chen Ying felt a piercing pain in his chest and lower abdomen. The armor-piercing arrows had already pierced through the guard's body and embedded themselves into Chen Ying's chest and lower abdomen. Taking a closer look, Chen Ying finally realized what had happened.

"It's actually you?" Chen Ying stared in shock at the guard. This guard was none other than Tang Liuniang. Outside Lizhou City, Tang Liuniang's entire family had been slaughtered by Pang Qidi's rebel forces, and she had finally moved Chen Ying with her stubborn persistence. Chen Ying had taken her in as a personal guard. However, when Chen Ying led his army back to Chang'an, he had intended to dismiss Tang Liuniang.

Never in his wildest dreams had Chen Ying expected that Tang Liuniang would sneak into the army and continue serving as his personal guard. In fact, without even guessing, Chen Ying knew Liang Zan must have been behind it; only through collusion with Liang Zan could Tang Liuniang have hidden within the army without Chen Ying's knowledge.

Tang Liuniang's body was riddled with armor-piercing arrows, and blood was slowly welling up along the shafts. The massive armor-piercing arrows had devastated her vital functions. Tang Liuniang opened her mouth, but no sound came out; with every movement of her lips, mouthfuls of blood gushed forth.

"Remember me. In the next life, I will be your woman, pure and untarnished." Chen Ying knew a little lip-reading. Looking at Tang Liuniang's mouth movements, he vaguely guessed what she wanted to express.

Chen Ying felt as though a lump was stuck in his throat, making it difficult to breathe. He nodded and said, "I remember you!"

A faint smile appeared on Tang Liuniang's face, but this smile instantly froze there forever.

...

Watching Chen Ying fall from his horse, Ashina Shhibi had no time to ascertain whether Chen Ying was dead or alive. After a brief engagement of barely a quarter of an hour, nearly a third of his nearly ten thousand men had suffered casualties. Even with promises of fine horses as rewards, his men were already showing signs of fear and hesitation in battle.

Ashina Shhibi whirled his horse around, leaving behind even the dependents and treasures of his tribe at Wild Boar Ridge, and galloped straight along the mountain valley trail toward Huaiyuan in the northeast.

Chen Ying cradled the gradually chilling corpse, tears welling up and filling his eyes. He had little contact with Tang Liuniang, let alone any romantic involvement, yet like countless maidens yearning for love, Tang Liuniang had her own pursuits and aspirations. In front of Chen Ying, she felt deeply inferior.

Ever since returning from Shizhou, she had never even dared to appear openly before Chen Ying. Perhaps in some corner unnoticed by Chen Ying, a infatuated young woman had simply been silently watching over him.

Tang Liuniang was dead, and she had asked for little. She only wanted Chen Ying to remember her, pinning all her hopes on the next life...

"In the next life, I will be your woman, pure and untarnished!"

It was precisely these words that deeply pierced Chen Ying's heart. He felt as though his heart was being torn apart by knives, his fists clenched so tightly that even his nails digging deep into his flesh went unnoticed. Blood trickled down between his fingers, forming a pool of blood upon the snow.

For a long time, Chen Ying's handsome face distorted into something exceptionally ferocious and terrifying.

Having fought on the battlefield, Chen Ying had long since prepared himself to return wrapped in a horse hide.

Yet, how innocent was Tang Liuniang?

Fate seemed to toy with her wantonly, destroying her family, driving her into destitution and displacement, and now leading her to a tragic death in a foreign land.

A towering hatred surged within Chen Ying's heart: "All Tujue are damned!"

"Raise the Blood Banner!"

These three words were roared out almost from the depths of Chen Ying's throat, every single syllable brimming with intense hatred and fury.

The Blood Banner was a standard Chen Ying had raised while reinforcing Shizhou, upon witnessing Pang Qidi's rebel forces acting with unbridled brutality and committing all sorts of evils, leaving barren land in their wake. At that time, Chen Ying had uttered the grand declaration: "I offer my blood to the Emperor Xuananyuan; blood debts must be paid in blood!" After arriving at Lingzhou, Chen Ying had not hoisted the scarlet battle banner again, but this time, his fury was genuinely ignited.

Accompanied by a stirring, deep horn blast, a banner dyed a dark, purplish red slowly rose into the air.

While the soldiers of the other garrisons under the Right Guard Headquarters did not yet understand the significance of this scarlet banner, the veterans of the Second Medal Garrison all understood its profound meaning.

It seemed as though a madness hung heavy in the air.

Chen Ying was simply such a person. Gentle and refined as he appeared, seemingly frail enough to be blown over by the wind, he carried an inexplicable magnetism that could instantly rouse everyone around him.

"Damn those bastards!"

"Fuck their mothers!"

"Hack them to pieces!"

A torrent of foul profanities burst forth. Driven by the veterans of the Second Medal Garrison, the Tang soldiers instantly transformed like werewolves on a full moon night. The killing intent emanating from the thousands of Tang soldiers was almost tangible, heavy enough to choke the breath out of anyone.

Gao Yunquan, the Left Deputy Commander of the Right Guard, felt his lips go dry as he looked in bewilderment at the Tang soldiers, who had turned terrifying in a split second. "What is going on here?"

"Heh... Deputy Commander Gao needn't worry about it!" Wei Wuzhong said with a bitter smile, "Commander Chen's intent to kill has been fully aroused now. The Tujue had better start praying!"

Deputy Commander He Yuejing said, "Commander Wei, isn't that being a bit too alarmist?"

"See for yourselves!" Wei Wuzhong pointed a hand as a squad leader of the Second Medal Garrison shouted to the soldiers around him, "Hurry up and tie me to my horse!"

The soldiers froze for a moment, and the squad leader flew into a rage, bellowing, "Quick, quick, quick! If you motherfuckers hesitate any longer, I'll feed you to the blades!"

The surrounding soldiers immediately scrambled in a panic to tie the squad leader securely onto his steed. In a short span of time, there was only one way to make soldiers who didn't know how to ride stay firmly on a horse without falling off. This method had been invented by Ran Min, Emperor of Wei during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, when he led three thousand Han infantrymen of the Wei state in a desperate, bound-to-the-saddle charge that utterly defeated the Xiongnu and beheaded over thirty thousand enemies in a single battle.

Later on, whenever a desperate battle was at hand, Han soldiers would adopt this method. Those who could ride would scramble for a horse and leap onto the saddle without a second thought, while those who could not ride would use ropes to bind themselves securely to their horses' backs.

Within a mere quarter of an hour, the cavalry under Chen Ying's command nearly doubled, swelling to six or seven thousand horsemen.

Chen Ying looked across the mountains and plains at the fleeing, panic-stricken Tujue and roared coldly, "Starting with Ashina Shhibi, leave no survivors!"

The scarlet battle banner snapped fiercely in the wind, and guided by it, a dense wave of killing intent soared into the sky.

"I offer my blood to the Emperor Xuananyuan; blood debts must be paid in blood!"

Six or seven thousand Tang soldiers roared in unison, their voices echoing straight up to the clouds.

The overwhelming, surging killing intent almost caused Ashina Shhibi to fall from his horse. At this moment, Ashina Shhibi had completely lost control of his troops; the Tujue cavalrymen wished their mothers had given them two extra legs so they could run as far away as possible!

Those Tujue who recognized the situation quickly knelt down in the snow, raising their hands in surrender. As for how the Tang soldiers would deal with them, they no longer had the capacity to care; staying alive was more important than anything else.

However, they were mistaken. Ordinarily, the Tang army would accept prisoners, but at this moment, the Tang cavalry rolling forward like a tidal wave had no intention of stopping. Whether it was human or horse before them, they simply trampled straight across.

Ten thousand pairs of iron hooves surged wildly forward, leaving not a blade of grass in their wake. Pools of blood and wisps of grieving souls told the tale: Do not speak to me of honors and titles, for the success of a single general is built upon ten thousand whitening bones.