The Empress’s Gigolo

Great Xia had just launched an attack and just arrived at the bottom of the city wall when they were welcomed by “muskmelons” which showered down on them. After dozens of grenades were thrown down, half of the soldiers collapsed. There were all kinds of blood-curdling screeches, and even though some of them weren’t dead, their bodies became similar to sieves and weren’t able to live any longer.

Those that were in slightly better conditions, had minor injuries all over their bodies.

“Believe in the big lucky charm and it will keep your entire family safe for life!” One of the Great Xia soldier fell to the ground while holding an amulet near his chest. His eyes were filled with ecstasy.

His injuries weren’t serious, but they also weren’t minor. Furthermore, his injuries riddled his entire body, but he wasn’t injured in any vital areas. He definitely wouldn’t be able to fight on the battlefield anymore, so there wouldn’t be any serious consequences to his body. All he needed to do was rest for ten days to half a month in order to regain his strong and courageous self.

Inside the biggest tent in the Great Xia barracks, Wu Shenghou smashed the table in front of him with just one slap. His face then turned ghastly pale.

Yesterday, he said that the other party had already exhausted their limited abilities. Just a moment ago, he even said that they had nothing up their sleeves anymore. However, the other party actually took out a new type of weapon in no time.

Although the method of killing was similar, from the description given by the soldiers, the weapon used this time was different from the previous ones. It was much smaller and less powerful, but more people were getting injured on the battlefield and less were dying.

This time, there were several hundred more wounded soldiers than before. At present, there were more than 3,000 wounded soldiers in the barracks. All of the soldiers had been pierced by the shrapnel from their enemy’s weapons, and many of their wounds had become infected.

Now, Wu Shenghou hoped that they would be able to transport these wounded soldiers away from the frontline after the rations were delivered because the injured were lowering everyone else’s morale.

“Continue to attack. I want to see how many weapons they actually have.” Wu Shenghou clenched his teeth.

He didn’t believe that the other party would have many more of these fine weapons.

“In addition, get the scouts to take note of the south. If the rations arrive, notify me immediately.”

Soon enough, the sounds of both parties fighting as well as the collision of clashing weapons could be heard.

However, whenever the Great Xia soldiers achieved a certain level of success, a few of the winged cavalry would toss a grenade down and disrupt the rest of the attack. The soldiers on top of the city wall would then settle the rest of the enemies who couldn’t break through and also couldn’t retreat.

This caused the Great Xia soldiers to nearly vomit blood after experiencing a few rounds of this tactic. How was this attacking a city? This was practically courting death.

Of course, the usage rate wasn’t light and not a single grenade out of the original 300 remained.

…

The Yun Nation, Qingfeng City.

“Ziheng, I have incompatible standpoints with Great Xia,” a sturdy and strong man entered an inn with Gu Ziheng and began to sullenly curse.

Ren Baqian was very familiar with these two. They were both imperial trade caravan managers who had learned about marketing from him.

“It’s already pretty good that you can come back alive after dealing with these people. You guys can be considered lucky,” answered Gu Ziheng, who was also a robust man.

“We lost everything. I only brought back 2,000 taels of gold ingots. If I didn’t run fast enough, I’m afraid that I would have came back empty handed.”

The person who just spoke was called Tang Feng, and he was one of the two managers of the imperial trade caravans. He hadn’t received any news when the aboriginals started fighting against the Great Xia soldiers. However, he soon felt that something was amiss. One night, he found someone tailing him and immediately apprehended this person. After realizing that it was someone from the Great Xia barracks, he immediately felt that the situation was far from good. After that, he and his subordinates escaped with a portion of their gold.

At that time, he was still a little lucky. From the way he behaved, he still had somewhat of an intention of wanting to sound out the situation. If everything was okay, he would go back to the city.

However, even before they could escape from the city, the Great Xia soldiers had caught up with them.

After battling with the Great Xia soldiers, Tang Feng was left with 20 plus subordinates out of his original 50. After a great effort, they went over to the Yun Nation through the border between Great Xia and the Yun Nation. Then, he found Gu Ziheng over here.

In fact, he also had some lingering fears. If it weren’t for the fact that he had become more vigilant after traveling extensively, perhaps he wouldn’t even have escaped from Great Xia this time.

Unfortunately, at least 200,000 taels of silver had been left behind.

The 2,000 taels of gold ingots that he had brought back was equivalent to 20,000 taels of silver. This meant that he only brought back one-tenth of the 200,000 taels of silver.

At that time, however, he was only able to bring along these 2,000 taels of gold ingots. The amount of silver was too great, and if he wanted to bring everything along, they wouldn’t have been able to escape in time.

“Wait for Her Majesty to retaliate. When that time comes, you can naturally take back everything that was yours and with interest,” Gu Ziheng took a sip of his tea and said.

“What’s happening in the Yun Nation right now?” Tang Feng asked.

“I’m more familiar with this place than you. In my opinion, I believe that they will have to fight for quite some time.” Gu Ziheng grinned.

The Yun Nation, Great Xia, and Dayao were all somewhat different. The Yun Nation was similar to an ensemble of all its cities.

The imperial court’s dominance was also relatively low in the Yun Nation.

As for the cities in the Yun Nation, they were controlled by warlords. Every warlord had the power to control life and death within the boundary of a certain city. Even if the imperial court wanted to disseminate an order to kill someone, it still required the warlord’s approval.

As a result, whenever something happened, the Yun Nation’s reaction was always the slowest.

“Let’s rest for a day before we set out on our journey. You be careful as well,” Tang Feng reminded.

“Understood! After you leave, I’ll move to another place. The warlord in this city is currently irascible, so who knows, he might resort to anything. If this wasn’t a bustling city, I wouldn’t have stayed here either. Now that the situation is chaotic, I’ll have to make some preparations as well. Take a rest first. I’m going to exchange for some gold ingots because it will be easier to travel with them if something happens.”

Gu Ziheng placed his teacup on the table, pushed open the door, and took his leave after he finished speaking.

Gu Ziheng sent off Tang Feng one day later. Just after returning to the inn, he found that the inn was surrounded. In no time, the soldiers swarmed over.

“Ladies and Gentleman, what’s the matter?” Gu Ziheng had a few tall and strong subordinates with him. Most importantly, he was an expert at the Earth Wheel level, while his subordinates were experts at the Man Wheel level. This made the soldiers approach with more caution.

“You people are the trade merchants from Dayao, right? The warlord has heard that you all have brought along some rare treasures and wants to see them,” one of the soldier said.

“Is there a need for so many soldiers to be present if he just wants to see our treasures?” Gu Ziheng looked at the hundreds of soldiers who surrounded the inn. In the vicinity, there were also a few Earth Wheel experts standing around.

His expression turned gloomy. Upon seeing such a situation, he naturally understood what was going on. If he didn’t, he would have been a fool.

He was afraid that things would also begin to stir in the Yun Nation after Her Majesty started a war against Great Xia. The warlord in this city felt that they were pushovers and wanted to seize their treasures from them. Moreover, he would be able to reap easy profits.

The other party had probably planned this out some time ago. Furthermore, they might have sensed Gu Ziheng’s intentions when he exchanged for gold ingots yesterday. As such, they decided to take action.

“Recently, there has been an increase in thieves in the city. The warlord is afraid that you all will run into them and specially ordered us to escort all of you,” the soldier explained.

“Escort your head!” Gu Ziheng cursed, clutched that soldier by the chest, and tossed him to the side with all his might, throwing him through the walls.

He let out a long whistle to notify the rest of the soldiers.

As soon as he saw Gu Ziheng’s movements, a swordsman wearing a green shirt in the vicinity said coldly, “Courting death!”

The swordsman then pulled out a sword from his back, and in a flash, he appeared above Gu Ziheng’s head before stabbing at him.

“Go to hell!” Gu Ziheng continued to swear. He dodged the sword, punched that man, and caused him to retreat. After that, he fished out a handful of silver fragments and threw then outward.

Throwing these silver fragments didn’t require any aim because they became one cluster after being thrown outward.

With Gu Ziheng’s strength, one would definitely be severely injured after getting smashed by these fragments.

Plus, the subordinates behind him were fighting against the city defense soldiers.

“Leader, catch this weapon.” Several burly men jumped out from the inn and joined in the fight. One of them threw over a mace that was as tall as a person.

“Fight my foot! Pack up everything, bring the gold ingots, and let’s force our way out,” Gu Ziheng scolded loudly as he received the mace. The mace rotated once around and forced three of the enemy Earth Wheel experts to retreat. As for those city defense soldiers, they were plastered on the wall and drenched in blood.

…

A few days later, Ren Baqian heard news from the Protectorate of the Northeast over the radio station that made his eyes open wide. He was in utter disbelief and exclaimed, “My money was actually stolen?”