She Came to Heal, Stayed to Conquer

Hearing the familiar voice of Ashina Khan, a Turkic soldier raised his head, a glimmer of grievance flashed in his eyes.

He braced his fatigued body to stand up, leading over a warhorse that was grazing beside him, slowly approaching Ashina Khan and the tribal leaders, with a headless corpse strapped on the horse’s back.

As he walked, the soldier muttered in Turkic, ”Can’t win, simply can’t win...”

Ashina staggered, nearly falling over.

The soldier hadn’t even had a chance to report before Ashina Khan recognized just from the iron armor on the headless corpse that it was Alpi.

”Alpi!”

Ashina Khan exclaimed, a flicker of grief flashing in his eyes. He strode over to the corpse, looking at the headless body.

Alpi’s armor was covered in sword marks, clearly having undergone a fierce battle.

”What on earth happened?” Ashina Khan’s voice was low and furious, like a lion about to erupt. He turned to look at the soldier, his gaze sharp as a blade, ”Why did Alpi die in battle? Why is his head missing?”

The soldier knelt to the ground, his voice trembling as he said, ”Khan, we... we fell into an enemy ambush.”

”Enemy troops?” Ashina Khan frowned deeply, ”Where did these enemies come from? Why didn’t we receive any warning beforehand?”

The soldier lowered his head, his voice trembling even more.

”It was... it was Da Jing. They suddenly appeared at our camp, catching us completely off-guard.”

”The Da Jing Dynasty.”

Ashina Khan’s chest heaved violently, his face growing darker as he roared in fury, ”Useless! A bunch of useless people! Alpi was the bravest of my Turkic generals, what were your scouts doing? Why didn’t they detect the enemy’s movements in advance?”

All the tribal leaders glanced at each other, no one dared to speak.

Ashina Khan’s rage swept through everyone around him like a storm over the grasslands.

He reached out to touch Alpi’s bare and blood-caked neck, his voice cold.

”The Da Jing Dynasty has a saying: victory and defeat are common in warfare; I can accept defeat, but to lose the head of the commander, this is a humiliation of the highest order for all of Turkic!”

At this moment, an elder tribal leader stepped forward respectfully saying, ”Khan, there is probably something suspicious about this. General Alpi was experienced and would not have easily fallen into a trap.”

Seeing Ashina Khan so furious, that Turkic soldier pointed to a wound on Alpi’s back.

”Khan, it wasn’t General Alpi’s fault, it was the enemy’s weapons that were too formidable.”

Ashina Khan followed where he was pointing; in the gaps between the scales of Alpi’s armor, there was a small round hole, hard to notice without careful inspection.

The edges of the hole were neat, there were no signs of tearing, this kind of wound was clearly not caused by arrows or swords.

Ashina’s brow furrowed even more deeply, he reached out to touch the edge of the wound, feeling a cold chill at his fingertips.

”Tell me, what exactly did the army encounter? How many were on the other side?”

Ashina suddenly turned to look at the soldier, his gaze sharp as knives. His voice was low and powerful, as if suppressing an impending outburst, frightening the soldier to shrink back.

In the distance, dozens of cavalrymen resting in the grassland gradually stood up and walked over, injured Bujia limping at the front.

Before he even got close, he hastily explained.

”Khan, it was Zhao Zun who led men to burn our supplies, and when they attacked General Alpi’s camp, we had them surrounded. The general was fighting Zhao Zun when suddenly peanut grains appeared. Those peanut grains were so fast we couldn’t even see clearly, our warriors fell one after another without even a chance to resist...”

Bujia’s voice lowered further, his eyes filled with fear, as if the scene from that night still lingered vividly before him.

”You said peanut grains?”

Upon hearing this, Ashina Khan’s expression gradually turned from anger to disbelief.

He nodded thoughtfully, ”If peanut grains rescued the besieged Zhao Zun, Alpi’s tragic death would indeed make sense.”

At this moment, Ashina seemed to suddenly think of something, quickly raising his head.

”Wasn’t it said that Zhao Zun withdrew from the military camp and lost his vigor after resigning his command? How could he appear on the battlefield? Could it be that the change of generals at Beiguan over three months was all Zhao Zun’s strategy?”

If this were true, Zhao Zun would indeed be too formidable. Now, with peanut grains assisting, how could they plunder Da Jing?

Bujia, unbeknownst to Ashina Khan’s concern, just hurriedly nodded, his voice highly assured.

”It is true, Khan! I saw it with my own eyes. The one who came to save Zhao Zun was covered in dirt, exactly the same as before. I would never mistake him! Only this time, that person charged towards us riding a monstrous beast.”

”Yes, there was a monstrous beast.”

”Khan, we all saw it.”

”That beast even breathed fire, it was terrifying.”

The Turkic soldiers who came over kept nodding, their eyes filled with undisguised fear.

”Right, Khan.” Bujia feared he would not believe and quickly pointed to the corpses scattered on the grassland, ”This time, I made sure to have them bring back the brave men who were killed by peanut grains using warhorses, the rest of the army is still behind.”

Ashina Khan’s eyebrows furrowed even more tightly, he finally refrained from getting angry, instead exerting force to lift Alpi’s corpse, laying it on the grassland.

”Bujia, use a knife to cut open their wounds; I want to see what exactly peanut grains are.”

Ashina commanded coldly.