The Prime Minister's Darling
Chapter 1700: 828 Storming the City! ( 1)

Chapter 1700: 828 Storming the City! (Chapter 1)

The cavalry resisted internally, yet their steeds all wished to follow Hei Feng King.

Horses are exceedingly sensitive creatures; otherwise, they wouldn’t maintain vigilance to sleep standing up. Changes in environment greatly affect horses.

Fortuitously, they are not ordinary horses but the most robust and fierce Hei Fengqi in the six nations.

They have undergone the harshest obstacle training in the Military Camp, making this width not a challenge for them; with a good running start, they can mostly leap across.

However, some three-year-old colts who haven’t trained enough still cannot adapt well to such complex environments.

A few colts transporting supplies at the end of the line hesitated to move forward. After repeated instructions from the horse trainers, one colt finally leaped.

Yet, lacking confidence and decisive force, only its forehooves landed across, while its hindhooves stumbled.

It panicked in shock!

Hei Feng King turned back, leaped into the canal, and nudged the colt to safety with its head.

The Hei Fengqi following behind seemed to find support, and with renewed courage, they leapt over, with Hei Feng King stationed in the canal, sending them one by one.

Only after all the Hei Fengqi colts crossed over did Hei Feng King climb out from the mud and thistles in the canal.

Its legs were scratched in several places, and Gu Jiao treated its wounds before continuing the journey.

The marching order for the three camps was Vanguard, Assault, and Reserves, with Wei Renchong at the rear, riding his horse at the back of the formation.

He walked while recording the terrain and routes in the forest with a charcoal pen.

“Hey, give me some water.”

Zhao Dengfeng rode his horse to him and reached out his hand.

“None,” Wei Renchong replied without lifting his head.

“You guy!” Zhao Dengfeng glared at him and then turned to look at another cavalry, “Li Shen…”

Li Shen directly ignored him and rode to the front.

Zhao Dengfeng clenched his teeth, “You guys, each and every one of you, aren’t you all just small soldiers? And now you’re ignoring people?”

When Gu Jiao initially decided to promote the three, they were either absent from the Military Camp or not returning. Now, they came back, starting as small soldiers.

Gu Jiao led the way at the front.

Hu Master and Mu Qingchen followed behind her under the scorching sun.

Gu Jiao suddenly stopped and looked around.

Mu Qingchen asked, “What are you looking for?”

“A stream,” Gu Jiao said, “There should be a stream nearby. Follow it upstream, and we can cross the mountain range.”

She paused, then said, “Go catch a deer alive, don’t hurt it.”

Catching a deer isn’t difficult, but doing so without harming it is quite challenging.

Mu Qingchen eventually returned with a tied-up fawn, looking rather disheveled.

Gu Jiao let the fawn lick some salt before releasing it.

Gu Jiao patted Hei Feng King’s neck, “Boss, follow it.”

This required sneaking, avoiding frightening the fawn; Hei Feng King lightened its steps and tracked the fawn’s scent from a distance, soon arriving at a stream.

The fawn was drinking water with its head down.

Gu Jiao brought the troops over, following the stream upstream, occasionally picking wild fruits or pulling up herbs.

The entire army awaited the moment when this young commander would lose her way and begin to cry.

In their imaginations, she was saying: “Ah! What to do! What to do! I can’t find the way! It’s over! It’s dark! Wolves are coming! I’m so scared! Snakes! There’s a venomous snake on the tree!”

In reality, the image of the commander they saw—

Knocking a tiger unconscious with one punch, using venomous snakes as ropes, riding Hei Feng King and driving away wolf packs with torches.

Guiding them safely through the swamp, successfully circumventing the poisonous forest.

Even the most seasoned soldiers lacked her jungle survival skills.

Gu Jiao found a suitable clearing near the stream, “Alright, camp here tonight. Cheng Fugui and Zhao Lei, you will lead people and take turns on guard duty tonight.”

Cheng Fugui and Zhao Lei were respectively the left and right commanders of the Vanguard Camp.

Both cupped their hands in agreement, “Yes.”

Gu Jiao further instructed, “Also, pass the word, no fires.”

The two responded again, “Yes!”

With no fires, the only option was to nibble on cold cookies. In the west of Dayan, the temperature varies greatly between morning and night, as hot as summer during the day. To prevent food spoilage, the cook baked cookies dry and hard, chewing them making jaws ache, swallowing felt like raw scraping through the throat.

Everyone washed down the coarse cookies with chilly stream water, not a single complaint, nor any waste.

Gu Jiao sat at the streamside, eating the same food as the Military Officers.

Yet, the officers huddled together, keeping their distance from her, making her seem somewhat alone.

Looking at her slender and youthful figure, somehow, their hearts suddenly felt uneasy.

…

After trekking for two days, Hei Fengqi finally reached the upstream.

There is a wide river surface here, and at the end of it is a waterfall standing a hundred feet tall.

The closer you get to the waterfall, the narrower the river gets, the shallower the water becomes, and the easier it is to cross.

However, today’s river is somewhat turbulent, and if you’re not careful, you might get swept away by the current.

“Boss,” Gu Jiao tugged at the reins, “Can we cross?”

Hei Fengwang stepped back a few paces, muscles taut, and jumped into the water with a splash.

The water wasn’t deep at this time, just reaching its knees, and it walked across steadily and calmly.

The rest of the Hei Fengqi jumped into the river one after another, like dumplings being dropped, and under the cavalry’s reassurance, they crossed the turbulent river without any danger.

But no one anticipated that as the last few Hei Fengqi were crossing, the current suddenly became even more violent. A big wave came, sweeping away a small Hei Fengqi, which was carrying supplies.

Hei Fengwang dashed out, biting onto its reins!

Hei Fengwang struggled against the rushing river, using all its strength to pull the small Hei Fengqi up bit by bit.

Both horses made it to the shore, and everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The small Hei Fengqi’s life was saved, but its supplies fell off, making it hang its head dejectedly.

Hei Fengwang gently rubbed its wet head against it, like a silent reassurance.

The army continued to march forward.

This little episode didn’t cause much impact on the army except for the small Hei Fengqi.

Deprived of supplies, it listlessly followed at the end of the troop until Gu Jiao placed her collected herbs on its back along the way, revitalizing it once again!

It took two days to climb the mountain, but descending was much faster.

They successfully reached the mountain foot in just one day.

Mu Qingchen exclaimed in awe, “It really only took three days.”

The journey was a great drain on the physical strength; all the officers and warhorses were exhausted, but they had only one day to rest. After tomorrow, they had to prepare for the siege.

In the middle of the night.

The Hei Fengqi scouts sent out by Gu Jiao returned, and at that moment Gu Jiao was sitting under a large tree, discussing the siege plan with the six commanders, including Mu Qingchen.

“Speak,” Gu Jiao looked at the scout and said.

The scout cupped his hands and said, “Returning to the commander, there is good news and bad news.”

Gu Jiao held a branch used to draw maps, glanced at him, and said, “Start with the bad news.”

The scout said, “The bad news is that we’ve lost three more cities, two of which voluntarily sided with the Han Family and Nangong Family, and the other city was taken by the Jin Country army.”

Gu Jiao’s branch slid across Yanmen Pass: “The Jin Country army has entered the territory, meaning Tianshan Pass has completely fallen.”

The scout replied in agony, “Yes.”

“What’s the good news?” Gu Jiao asked.

The scout said, “The good news is that Quyang City is short on supplies. Two counties are sending supplies to Quyang City, expected to arrive at the north and east gates of Quyang City by tomorrow night.”

They were fretting over how to attack Quyang City, given its strong walls made it easy to defend but hard to attack. Plus, since they were cavalry that had advanced without infantry’s siege wagons and logistics, breaking through the city gate was moving from a general difficulty to a hell-level difficulty.

The information brought back by the scout was indeed a timely opportunity.

Cheng Fugui said, “We can intercept their supplies. Without supplies, they’ll be trapped inside the city hungry, and they’ll definitely come out to retrieve the supplies, which would be our opportunity.”

Gu Jiao nodded, “Yes, that’s the logic.”

But if the supplies were to arrive tomorrow night, it meant their attack plan must be moved up.

An hour later, the scout went to track the supplies again and brought back news that they were moving the supplies overnight.

This signaled two points.

First, Quyang City is critically low on supplies and can’t hold out for another day.

Second, they could reach Quyang City by tomorrow noon at the latest.

The attack plan had to be moved up by half a day!

This was a tremendous challenge for the Hei Fengqi, who had been on the move continuously for more than ten days, especially having crossed mountains for three days.

“How many troops does the opponent have?” Gu Jiao asked.

The scout said, “Five thousand each.”

Gu Jiao thought aloud, “It seems they know the imperial army is coming and are guarding against someone intercepting supplies.”

She had fifty thousand Hei Fengqi at her disposal, including logistics and warhorses. The actual combat cavalry was twenty thousand.

Though the opponent had ten thousand troops, it didn’t seem like a large problem.

The key thing was, snatching the supplies was only the first step; the main event would be the Nangong army charging out of the city to reclaim their supplies.

That’s an army of eighty thousand!

They would have to battle repeatedly without recovering their strength, using twenty thousand troops against nearly a hundred thousand, practically like hitting a rock with an egg!

The scout asked worriedly, “Sir, should we… fight?”

Gu Jiao clenched her fists, her gaze sharp, “We fight! Pass my order: Rest well tonight, no need to rise early tomorrow, and in the afternoon—siege the city with me!”