Chapter 28

“You… you want to kill me?” Yu Shang looked pale and looked at Wu Mei in horror.

Wu Mei smiled charmingly, reached out and touched his cheek, and said softly, “Please don’t worry about it, Your Highness. Even if we’ll kill you, I’ll make you die easily.”
“Ah–” Yu Shang reacted as if he was bitten by a snake. He began to scream, his hands and feet swung frantically, and struggled fiercely. His elbow accidentally hit Tang Yin on his wound. Tang Yin frowned and didn’t say anything. He just gave him a heavy slap in the face.

With a crisp sound, Yu Shang immediately quiet down. His head was squeaking and he saw stars. He looked lost and bowed his head weakly.

The location of Tongmen was uniquely endowed by nature. The geography of it was a valley between two mountains, while Tongmen was located in the middle of the valley. Tongmen was there to block the entire entrance, and anyone who wished to get past would have to go through Tongmen.

At this time, the whole area outside Tongmen was filled with Ning State army.

Looking from afar, they was a long chain of army camps and tents arranged tightly together. The flags that were raised high were scattered, densely like forests. The huge camps in a semi-circle were crowded outside Tongmen. It extended out for dozens of miles and they couldn’t even see the end of it.
When they walked to a high ground and surveyed Tongmen, they saw such a scene.

After seeing it, Wu Mei and Wu Ying were dumbfounded, Feng soldiers were dumbfounded, and Tang Yin was equally dumbfounded.

In fact, Wu Mei had already got the news that the Ning State army had reached the gate of Tongmen, but she never thought that Ning State would have gathered so many people. Looking at the scene, it was as though they were here to battle until one side died, and that they would never give up until they conquered Tongmen.

Qiu Zhen, who was standing behind Tang Yin, looked around and couldn’t help but gasped for air. He muttered dumbly, “This… there must be at least four sets of regiment troops, more than four hundred thousand people?”
Wu Yi who arrived after them smiled bitterly and said, “Even if there are less, it should be around that number!”

“So many enemies, how can we get past?” Qiu Zhen finished his words, and he gazed naturally at Yu Shang, who was lying on Tang Yin’s horseback.

They originally thought that they had Yu Shang as the hostage to guarantee them in returning to Tongmen. However, looking at the huge army of Ning State now, Qiu Zhen could no longer be sure anymore.

“Whether or not we can get past the enemy successfully, it’ll depend on how important the prince is for them.” Tang Yin said with deep gaze.
Wu Mei had a complicated expression and she contemplated in silence. She and Qiu Zhen had the same idea. Although they had Yu Shang as a hostage, they were facing hundreds of thousands of enemy troops. It would be a lie if she said she wasn’t worried about it.

Seeing her standing still and not talking, Tang Yin frowned and whispered, “General Wu, should we go now?”

“Go?” Wu Mei didn’t respond for a moment, looked at him blankly and asked, “Where should we go?”

Tang Yin rolled his eyes and said, “To Tongmen of course.”

A chill went down Wu Mei’s spine. She waved her hand and said, “No need to worry, let me think about it.”
A woman would always be a woman. No matter which family she was from, she would always be indecisive. Tang Yin pouted and said in a deep voice, “Staying here will only be more unfavorable to us.” He turned back and pointed to the back, and said again, “Yuan Kui and his army are catching up with us soon. If I’m not mistaken, the enemies in front should have seen us already. If we keep hesitating and staying here, we’ll only allow the enemies to find out that we are lacking in confidence and give them the opportunity to take advantage of it. Instead of waiting for the enemies here passively, it’s better for us to take the initiative. So at least we are not psychologically disadvantaged. General Wu, what do you say?”

These words made Wu Mei shocked, and made others realized that they had to reevaluate Tang Yin. Especially for Qiu Zhen, he was nodding beside, secretly praising Tang Yin for his courage and wisdom.

After thinking for a while, Wu Ying said in response, “General Tang has the point. If the other party doesn’t care about Yu Shang and insists on putting us to death, it will be a dead end for us even if we stay here. It’s better to take the initiative to rush forward, perhaps we can get a hold of the situation and win ourselves a chance.”

Listening to Wu Ying’s opinion, Wu Mei quit hesitating. She took a deep breath and slowly raised her hand. She paused in the air for a moment, waved forward and shouted, “Put up the Great Feng’s flags, march forward!”

With her order, several hundred soldiers under her command began to unfold and hang up the already folded Feng State flags and streamers. Soon, there was a sea of black flags flying proudly above the army.

When they were about two hundred meters away from the Ning camp, the camp gate opened wide. Then, a cavalry array rushed out from inside, and there were more than five thousand of them. The soldiers on the horses were all suited in silver helmets and armor, holding silver spears and even the horses were protected with silver chain armor. As they looked at it, the whole team was shining in silver and it was blinding .

What a dazzling team of cavalry! Tang Yin strangled the reins of his horse, slightly squinting his eyes and quietly watching the cavalry.
The distance of two hundred meters was just a matter of blinking an eye for the cavalry.

Soon, the five thousand Ning State cavalry had arrived in front of Tang Yin and others.

Without any order, the Ning State cavalry halted and formed a neat squared formation. Then, the front row cavalry tacitly spread out to the left and right, giving up a three-meter-wide passage in the middle. A row of knights walked out from the formation.

Their leader was a young man who wore a robe. He looked younger than thirty years old, had thick eyebrows and big eyes and he looked handsome. The guardians beside him were burly men with strong build, all of them were high-spirited and had sharp eyes. One could tell that these knights were spiritual art masters with deeply cultivated Reiki even without using <Insight> in observing them.

The young man did not go straight out of the squared formation. He remained in the formation, halted the horse, and scrutinized the enemies in front with his sharp gaze. After looking for a while, he sharpened his eyes and said with a determined tone, “Who is the leader here?”

His voice was not high, but it sounded strong and deep. The tone naturally put a great weight to his words.
Wu Mei and Wu Ying looked at each other and urged the horses forward together. After a few steps, Wu Mei said, “Who are you?”

“Yu Jia!” The young man saw Wu Mei, his eyes grew brighter and his gaze was like two knives, stabbing in Wu Mei’s face.

Oh! It turns out that this is the second prince of Ning State, Yu Jia!

Wu Mei was secretly surprised and couldn’t help but look at Yu Shang lying on the back of Tang Yin’s horse. These two were brothers. The looks, the build and the outfit they wore were very similar, but they had completely different feels.

Yu Shang was timid and lascivious, everyone could tell that he was a hedonistic nobleman who lived a good life at first glance. Yu Jia was completely different from him. His eyes were clear and sharp, he looked high-spirited and he made people wanted to bow to him subconsciously. Of course he was not born with all these, but it were slowly honed throughout the time he spent as a commander.
This man is different from Yu Shang and cannot be underestimated. Wu Mei was alert. She put on a mesmerizing smile and spoke with a soft and seducing tone, “So you’re the second prince, I have been looking forward to seeing you. We’re just passing by, we apologize to make Your Royal Highness to come out and greet us, it’s really…”

Yu Jia was not in the mood to play a riddle with Wu Mei. He was worried about the safety of his brother wholeheartedly. He interrupted Wu Mei coldly and said, “Quit acting like that. I just want to know where my brother is.”

He and Yu Shang shared the same biological parents. Among the many sons of Emperor Ning, his relationship with Yu Shang was the deepest. Although Yu Shang did not live up to expectations and he couldn’t bear it sometimes.

Yu Shang, who was lying dizzily on horseback, suddenly heard the voice of his brother. He immediately cheered up and struggled to raise his head with an inexplicable strength. The moment he saw Yu Jia in the Ning cavalry formation, his eyes turned red and tears started rolling down his cheek. He screamed with a trembling voice, “Brother, save me!”
Yu Jia was shocked and was eagerly looking for him. He managed to look Yu Shang in his pitiful eyes who cried for help.

Almost instinctively, his legs tightened and wanted to urge the horse to rush forward, but he quickly calmed down and pulled the reins to stop the horse.

He looked at Yu Shang for a while and then slowly looked up to see Tang Yin who was riding on the horse. He scolded in a sullen tone, “Let him go!”

His eyes were cold and he could almost freeze an elephant. But Tang Yin was not afraid. Sitting on the saddle, he didn’t say a single word. He didn’t even look at Yu Jia, as if he wasn’t talking to him.

Upon seeing this, Yu Jia was furious. As the second prince of Ning State, he was also the most capable son of Emperor Ning. He was usually treated respectfully and carefully by other people around him, and had never been disregarded like this. He clenched his teeth and his face was red.
Looking at his expression, Wu Mei sneered secretly. Tang Yin had a rebellious character and never took anyone too seriously, including himself. Looks like Yu Jia is not a fan of such an attitude too.

She giggled and said, “Prince Yu Jia, please don’t be angry! If you wish for us to let go of your brother, we can certainly do that. But the premise is that you have to let us go, and when we enter Tongmen safely, we will definitely return Prince Yu Shang to you.”

“Brother, don’t listen to her! This… This woman just said that when they return to Tongmen, they will kill me. They want to bring my head to see Emperor Feng…” Seeing Yu Jia, Yu Shang was no longer as frightened. It was an instinctive reaction for him. For a long time, Yu Jia was always the one who helped him up and covered for him each time when he did something wrong. As long as Yu Jia was there for him, he could have the courage back and not be afraid of anything.

“Shut up!”

Tang Yin scolded angrily, and gave him a slap in the backhand.

Yu Shang was screaming and wailing as he got hit, until the point that he had a running nose and tears were flowing.
Yu Jia suddenly widened his eyes, glaring at Tang Yin as though he could shoot fire with his eyes.

After doing a few deep breaths in a row, he was able to calm himself down again. Although he wanted badly to tear Tang Yin’s body apart, his brother was still held hostage by him and he didn’t dare to act on impulse.

He looked at Yu Shang and said with a helpless tone, “Keep your mouth shut, will you?” After that, he looked at Wu Mei again and said, “You’ll have to let him go first before I can let your through. That’s the only term I’ll accept!”