Ask the mountains and rivers

Chapter 468 Destiny (Part Six)

"General, the military camp is just ahead. Should we go back to the camp first?"

General Ma, riding his warhorse, was panting heavily and tried his best to keep his voice down.

General Situ, whose mind had been numb and confused, was now unusually calm, the cold wind having cleared his head: "We can't stop, and we absolutely cannot enter the camp. If we're surrounded by pursuers, it's certain death. Keep running!"

General Ma and his personal guards responded in unison, surrounding General Situ as they continued their galloping sprint.

At this time, there were still about two thousand men with horses to ride, and more than a thousand elite soldiers, who had long been left behind by their horses. They were able to intercept the pursuing troops and cover the rear for General Situ.

General Situ was indeed extremely experienced in escaping. After riding for another five or six miles, he reached the fork in the road and ordered General Ma to divide his troops.

General Ma was startled: "General, we only have this many troops at the moment. We cannot disperse our forces any further."

General Situ said, "If the Pei family army catches up, no matter how many people there are, they won't be able to escape. I'll give you a hundred men; you lead them over there."

"Suppose we divide the troops, but in reality, it's just sending him out to draw the pursuers away." General Ma thought to himself, but dared not show it on his face, and solemnly accepted the order.

General Ma led a hundred men and headed southwest.

General Situ then fled madly in the southeast direction.

At the next intersection, the same thing happened again. The commander of the personal guards led a hundred men and ran off in different directions.

They ran another ten miles or so before splitting up again.

Evening quickly approached, and darkness fell. Having estimated they had galloped fifty or sixty li (approximately 25-30 kilometers) on horseback, General Situ still dared not relax. He only allowed his personal guards to stop and rest for a short while. The group had fled in haste, possessing only a small amount of dry rations and cold water, which they shared.

"General, where do we go next?" a guard asked in a low voice.

General Situ took a deep breath: "We can't stop, we have to keep running. But we can't keep running along the main road, it's too easy for us to be caught up. We'll go this way."

They actually left the main road and took a side road.

Many areas in the north are sparsely populated. General Situ was lucky; he traveled for over ten miles without encountering any signs of human habitation. It wasn't until it was completely dark that he came across a village.

This village has a small population, with about a hundred households and a total population of only four or five hundred people.

General Situ arrived with two thousand cavalrymen, and as soon as he brandished his weapons, he killed several villagers who tried to resist, and the whole village became quiet.

All the women were forced to open their own grain sacks and cook porridge and steamed buns. After everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, they killed all the men in the village, leaving no children or elderly people alive, only the women to indulge in their own amusement, venting all their anger and resentment at being forced to flee the battlefield on these poor village women.

After they had their fill of pleasure, they slaughtered all the village women. General Situ stopped them from setting the village on fire, saying, "We mustn't burn the village, lest we attract pursuers."

Everyone in the village was killed. Given the village's remote and desolate location, it would take at least several days for him to be discovered. By then, he would have long since fled the north.

At dawn, just as the sky was beginning to lighten, General Situ, who had only slept for a little over an hour, led his personal guards in another escape on horseback.

The sound of horses' hooves gradually faded away.

Behind a thatched hut, the door of a cellar was moved a few times, and then a boy of about thirteen or fourteen years old crawled out of the cellar.

Everywhere you look, there are corpses in various states of death, and blood everywhere.

The boy knelt on the ground in despair, his head pressed against the ground, tears streaming silently down his face.

He dared not cry out loud, and after a moment, he wiped away his tears with trembling hands. Then he got up and ran out of the village. He ran from the side path to the main road, then determined his direction and continued running north. He was lucky; after running for more than half an hour, he encountered a group of cavalry.

The cavalrymen in gray uniforms were naturally the Pei family army's pursuers. They followed the hoofprints all the way here, where they encountered the desperate boy whose village had been wiped out.

The boy trembled and cried incessantly, saying in broken sentences, "...Those people killed everyone in the village. I hid in the cellar and that's how I escaped with my life."

The woman riding on the steed had a solemn expression, her eyes burning with anger: "Where is the village? Lead the way!"

This woman was none other than Pei Qinghe, whom they had been chasing all night.

Situ Xi was indeed cunning, constantly diverting his troops and creating illusions along the way. Gu Lian and Sun Cheng each led their men in pursuit. Those currently accompanying Pei Qinghe included Pei Feng, Song Dalang, Fei Lin, and others. The cavalry numbered approximately three thousand.

The boy led the way, and when Pei Qinghe entered the village, she saw the tragic scene of the village being wiped out, and her heart was filled with rage.

On the battlefield, victory, defeat, life, and death are commonplace. But how innocent are these ordinary people? Situ Xi, on his escape route, still committed such atrocities, showing no regard for the common people as human beings.

"I will personally kill Situ Xi!" Pei Qinghe said coldly, "to use his head as a sacrifice for the villagers!"

Only then did the young man realize that the woman before him was Emperor Zhaoyuan, who had unified the northern lands. He immediately knelt down and kowtowed.

Pei Qinghe left a few men behind to collect and bury the villagers' bodies, then led his cavalry to continue the pursuit.

After chasing for two hours, past noon, they encountered another attacked village, where the entire village had been massacred. This time, not even a single person survived to deliver a message.

Pei Qinghe's face was as cold as ice and snow.

Those familiar with her temperament know that when she gets truly angry, she's genuinely furious.

Pei Feng carefully examined the bloodstains and whispered, "The bloodstains haven't dried yet; they haven't been gone long."

Pei Qinghe coldly said, "Keep chasing!"

In their hasty escape, the chaotic hoofprints were impossible to conceal. Pei Qinghe and his group followed the hoofprints, only to find that the tracks suddenly split in two, one leading to the official road and the other towards the mountains and forests.

"Situ Xi must have fled to the mountains."

"That's not necessarily true. If I were Situ Xi, I would do the opposite and go to the official road."

Song Dalang and Fei Lin each held their own version of events, and neither could reach an agreement.

Pei Qinghe quickly made a decision: "Song Dalang, you and Fei Lin will lead five hundred men to the mountains and forests, and the rest of you will follow me to the official road."

The total number of the fleeing imperial guards was only three or four thousand. With the troops constantly being divided, how many could actually remain by Situ Xi's side? If even the fleeing prey dares to divide its forces, what fear is there of the pursuing hunter?
The steed galloped onto the official road, relentlessly pursuing the enemy. Along the way, they captured several straggling imperial guards. After beheading three of them, the fourth was terrified and revealed the truth: "The general has changed his clothes and is mixed in with the personal guards. He's just ahead."

Pei Qinghe sneered and continued to urge his horse on.

As evening approached, after a day and a night of pursuit, they finally caught up with the resting imperial guards by the official river.

When the two armies met, they skipped even the part about exchanging harsh words or trying to persuade the other side to surrender, and immediately engaged in a chaotic battle.

Where is Situ Xiren?
Pei Qinghe's eyes were sharp, and he quickly locked onto the figure of a man in his fifties, raising his hand and shooting an arrow.

(End of this chapter)