My wife has a secret

Chapter 214 War begins

"It's time to go, Master Xu."

At Yang Qin's urging, Xu Qing climbed onto the horse's back and put his arm around the other's waist.

Perhaps because of his status as military supervisor or brother-in-law, Yang Qin did not gallop on his horse, which gave the two of them an opportunity to chat.

"You are so hesitant. You don't act like a man at all."

Yang Qin, who was born on the frontier, has never been as worried as she is today. The war on the front line is about to break out, but she has to suppress her disgust and watch her nominal brother-in-law being intimate with his family.

Most of the men in Huangling Pass have inherited the bold and generous character of northern men, so a man like Xu Qing is an absolute gigolo in the eyes of the second lady of the Yang family.

"You are just a little kid, what do you know?"

Xu Qing was still recalling the shy expression on Shen Shuangxu's face. It was not easy for a woman who was usually calm and indifferent to show such an expression, which meant that she already had a place in the other's heart.

However, he remembered that when he first came to this world, his relationship with Shen Shuangxu was still unfamiliar, and the other party's relationship with the original owner was also extremely cold. When did it start... that the two of them became familiar with each other?

"My child?"

Yang Qin wanted to retort, but remembering the important matters at hand, she ignored Xu Qing and snorted coldly.

At the same time, as the two rushed to the border, several fireworks rose along the way, rising to the sky and exploding brilliantly. Horns sounded after the fireworks, and noisy movements were heard from the military camp not far away.

"what is this?"

"The way the army is assembled, there won't be too many people deployed at the border on weekdays, and those on duty are the Yang family's personal soldiers. Only when the war comes... will they warn the people at Huangling Pass in this way."

The population of Huangling Pass was already scarce, and half of the 40,000 troops were local men who were only summoned from the fields during wartime.

Xu Qing immediately realized that in most of the ancient times, resources were not abundant. Most dynasties adopted a conscription system of farming in peacetime, training in the slack season, and going to war in times of war.

Obviously, the situation at Huangling Pass is similar.

……

At the foot of Huangling Pass, the bloated and dense team had filled the entire official road. A ragged young man walked out. He was hunched over, with dishevelled hair and a dirty face. A strange smell emanated from his dirty body.

The people crowded around him were not much different from him, with pairs of timid and turbid eyes that were listless, and faces covered with wrinkles and dirt that showed vicissitudes and hopelessness.

These hungry and cold refugees were driven here because the Liao army that recruited them was extremely cruel and said they would provide them with meals for these days.

But after a period of time, they didn't even know what to do and were completely led by the Liao army.

The young man's nickname was Little Beggar, a name given to him by the Liao soldiers who were guarding them when they had nothing to do.

Seeing that the person who was supervising today was a Liao soldier with whom he had a good relationship, he boldly stood up and asked the other party: "General, when can we go back?"

"go back?"

The Liao soldier who was questioned smiled, pointed to the hazy and illusory border building in the distance, and said: "Once you enter there, you can go back."

There were a large number of refugees, and some of them recognized the appearance of Huangling Pass, which immediately caused unrest among the crowd.

"That's Huangling Pass! Huangling Pass at the border!"

"What? We were taken to the border?" "..."

Huangling Pass of Qi State was a household name in Liao State. Compared with the fact that several generals of the Yang family died in battle, many Liao people knew better that Prince Xiao paid a heavy price for his failure in attacking Huangling Pass.

Going back three generations, everyone’s relatives have died in Huangling Pass.

The Liao army frowned when they saw that the refugees' reaction was getting louder and louder and that they were about to lose control.

However, this worry was soon drowned out by the sound of horns from the rear. Behind the refugees, on a series of simple wooden towers, several archers were seen nodding their bows and arrows, facing the refugee group.

Another personal soldier from the central army came forward on horseback to give orders, using his profound internal strength to make his voice heard far away.

"All vanguard troops, listen up. The refugees entrusted to you are of great use right now. The prince has issued a war order, ordering them to march towards Huangling Pass! Anyone who disobeys the order will be killed without mercy!"

When the Liao Kingdom conveyed military orders, they usually used Khitan language. At this moment, the military orders were spoken in Chinese, obviously to be read to the refugees below.

The refugees were terrified and at a loss. They thought they were being forced by the Liao army to do labor or mine. Who could have imagined that the Liao army was so cruel as to send them to the battlefield unarmed.

They don't even have armor or weapons, how can they capture the high wall with their flesh and blood?
"Master, we..."

Just as someone was about to raise an objection, he was hit by an arrow in the head with a "whoosh" and fell straight backwards.

When the other refugees saw this, they realized that the Liao army was not joking and ran forward frantically. However, the archers in the rear did not care about the specific orders at all and just shot the refugees indiscriminately from the arrow tower.

Only by running out of the range of the arrow tower can they survive.

……

The Yang family army assembled very quickly. About an hour after the fireworks exploded, several rows of soldiers had lined up at the pass, awaiting Yang Qin's command.

Yang Qin also seemed familiar with the route. After heavily deploying troops on the city walls and pass, he left most of the military forces in nearby garrisons.

Xu Qing saw something and asked, "Is it because defending the city consumes a lot of physical strength, so they arranged for the soldiers to recuperate so that they can take turns to replace the guards on the city wall?"

Yang Qin turned around and looked Xu Qing up and down, and her opinion of this man changed a little.

"Yes, you have some good eyesight... But the main purpose of stationing troops is to prevent the enemy from attacking at night. The visibility on a sunny day is very different from that at night. If the main force of the Liao army hides during the day and moves at night, it is very likely that something unexpected will happen."

The words that Yang Qin casually said were all examples of battles in which the ancestors of the Yang family paid a heavy price. Prince Xiao, who commanded the Liao army, was extremely cunning, but he was also a man who was good at using military tactics and knew how to attack cleverly.

"Second Miss! The Liao army is coming!"

The guards on the city wall suddenly spoke, which made Yang Qin and Xu Qing feel nervous.

The moment the guard finished speaking, the sounds of war drums and war music around the city walls also rose at the same time, making the whole scene look tragic and desolate.

Xu Qing followed Yang Qin and quickly climbed up the city wall. When they looked into the distance along the parapet, they suddenly saw a large crowd of people rushing towards Huangling Pass, like a flood that had breached a dam.

"Fire arrows!"

According to the usual practice of the two armies fighting each other, the female deputy general who was defending one side of the city wall called out loudly, asking the archers of the Yang family army to replace the archers in the front row and shoot into the distance.

Waves of arrows rained down like an overwhelming force, knocking down row after row of Liao troops.

(End of this chapter)