Reborn as the Blissful Wife in the countryside

"My husband has returned? Is he safe? Is he hurt?!" Mrs. Han stood up in agitation, asking one question after another.

Daqing said, "Company Commander Zhang is fine, but quite a few of the accompanying soldiers were wounded."

Most likely they ran into the retreating Rong people.

"Father led troops into the city? Then he must look very mighty. I want to go see Father!" Brother Yi was very excited, remembering how Uncle Qin entered the city with many troops and horses behind him, looking very imposing. Father entering the city must be just as impressive as Uncle Qin, and he wanted to see it.

Mrs. Han very much wanted to go meet Company Commander Zhang. She looked at Daqing and asked, "Have my husband and the others reached the government office yet? If we hurry over now, will we still make it?"

Sister Yu also looked at Daqing with eager eyes.

Gu Jinli asked, "Daqing, will we make it? If we can, it’d be good to let Brother Yi go take a look at how impressive Company Commander Zhang is when leading troops into the city. Boys all like to see their own fathers looking magnificent and full of prestige."

Daqing understood what she meant: if Company Commander Zhang and his men had been beaten too badly, then he should say they wouldn’t make it.

Daqing said to Mrs. Han, "When this slave hurried back to report, Company Commander Zhang and the others had already entered the city. If we rush over now, I’m afraid it’ll be too late."

Gu Jinli: "..."

Looks like Company Commander Zhang and his men had been beaten rather miserably.

Brother Yi was very disappointed and kicked at the ground. "Brother Yi even prepared a gift, planning to give it to Father when he entered the city..."

Mrs. Han was a clever person and had already noticed something was off. She stroked Brother Yi’s head and said, "Brother Yi, don’t be sad. When your father returns to the separate yard, you can give him the gift then."

She added, "Your father works very hard fighting outside. Now that he’s come back safe, shall we go to the kitchen and make some meat dishes for him?"

Brother Yi was sensible. After being coaxed a couple of sentences, he obediently nodded. "Mm, let’s go to the kitchen and make tasty food for Father."

Sister Yu said, "The insect attractant, we also have to prepare insect attractant for Father. He should drive out the insects first, then eat meat."

Mrs. Han smiled, stroking Sister Yu’s head. "Our Sister Yu is the truly sensible one, knowing you have to let your father use medicine to drive out insects first."

However, Company Commander Zhang and his men had already cleared out the poisonous insects.

The rules in the city had changed. Before anyone or any living or dead thing entered the city, they all had to first go to the post station outside the city to clear insects, clean out any poisonous insects they might carry in their bodies, and only then could they enter the city.

At this moment Zhang Yan and Vice General Ma had already finished clearing insects. Following Qin San Lang, who had come to meet them, they went to the government office and met General Cheng, General Zhou, Magistrate Hao, and the others.

"Vice General Ma, how is your wound? Did you run into the retreating Rong bandits?" General Zhou and Vice General Ma were both men under General Xu. Seeing that Vice General Ma had suffered a blade wound, he hurriedly ordered the personal soldier beside him, "Go invite Senior Doctor Xu to come treat Vice General Ma’s injury."

"Yes." The personal soldier immediately went to invite Senior Doctor Xu.

"We indeed ran into the retreating Rong bandits. I hadn’t expected those Rong bandits to be so fierce, like madmen. We lost several hundred soldiers, and Troop Commander Wu also fell in this battle."

This disaster, actually, started because of Troop Commander Wu.

The wolf Qin San Lang sent out had already found Zhang Yan. Zhang Yan took the bamboo tube holding the message from the wolf and told Vice General Ma about the great victory in Xing’an Prefecture, the Rong bandits’ retreat, and that they should take a small path to avoid the retreating Rong bandits.

Vice General Ma was overjoyed when he heard. But the Rong bandits had massacred three of their cities and also released poisonous insects into Great Chu, so Vice General Ma held a grudge in his heart and wanted to lay an ambush and deal a secret blow to the retreating Rong bandits.

Zhang Yan tried his best to dissuade him, also saying that the strange illness some of their soldiers had caught might be the poisonous insect disease, and they should send the soldiers to Xing’an Prefecture as soon as possible to save them with the insect attractant.

After hesitating, Vice General Ma agreed and ordered the army to take a small path and hurry to Xing’an Prefecture.

But Troop Commander Wu refused. His family had all been slaughtered by the Rong bandits. Once he learned that the Rong bandits had been beaten into fleeing, he refused to let this routed Rong Army go no matter what. Halfway along, he actually took his subordinates and left the column to ambush the Rong people.

When Vice General Ma got the news, he was furious and hurriedly led his soldiers in pursuit.

But when they arrived, Troop Commander Wu and the soldiers under his command were already fighting the Rong bandits.

Tuogude, having been defeated and routed, was enraged, and then ran into an ambush. He went completely mad, leading the Witch Army in a counterattack, and forcibly dealt heavy blows to the several thousand reinforcements under Vice General Ma.

Fortunately, the men sent by Qin San Lang arrived. After leading them through mountains and forests and using Poison to injure a batch of Rong people, they finally escaped disaster.

But such a humiliating matter was not something Vice General Ma spoke much about. He only said, "Seeing how those defeated Rong bandits won’t let things go, I guess they’ll go attack Long’an Prefecture. We must quickly count up all usable troops and rush to Long’an Prefecture to provide reinforcements."

Magistrate Hao shivered as he listened and said, "Vice General Ma wants to take the troops from Xing’an Prefecture to Long’an Prefecture? That’s not good, is it? Our Xing’an Prefecture is still in danger. The smashed city walls haven’t been repaired yet. If the soldiers leave and Rong bandits or fierce bandits come to attack Xing’an Prefecture, what are we to do?"

When Vice General Ma heard this, his expression abruptly turned cold. He stared at Magistrate Hao and said, "General Xu has said that the Rong soldiers led by Leimuqin are not the main force of the Rong Army, so the Rong people’s primary target this time is not Xing’an Prefecture; it should be Long’an Prefecture. He wants us, once we have relieved Xing’an Prefecture, to immediately return to Long’an Prefecture to provide reinforcements."

This?

Magistrate Hao felt stifled, but he was only a magistrate and did not dare disobey General Xu’s orders.

Even so, Magistrate Hao still said, "Xing’an Prefecture is not yet stable, and we also have poisonous insects to clear out. Vice General Ma must leave us a batch of troops to guard the city."

He added, "Relying solely on General Liang’s troops is not enough to hold Xing’an Prefecture."

"Fine." Vice General Ma agreed. After all, they had only just managed to hold Xing’an Prefecture, and he didn’t want it to fall again. He then asked, "What’s the situation with this poisonous insect disease?"

Magistrate Hao explained the matter of the poisonous insect disease.

"This is bad!" Upon hearing that the Rong people had actually used birds to release poison into Xing’an Prefecture, Vice General Ma’s face changed at once. "The Rong bandits are vicious. They will certainly also use birds to release poison into Long’an Prefecture."

And birds could fly; even if Long’an Prefecture was as solid as an iron barrel, it still couldn’t keep out these flying things.

"No, we cannot wait any longer. We must immediately send someone to deliver a message to General Xu, informing him that the Rong people will use birds to release poison. And we must send the insect attractant to General Xu to ensure the safety of our superiors!" After Vice General Ma finished speaking, he immediately asked Magistrate Hao for insect attractant. "Magistrate Hao, your government office must still have insect attractant. After leaving one-tenth, load all the rest onto carts and send them to Long’an Prefecture."

Magistrate Hao wanted to curse. You really aren’t shy, are you? You open your mouth and ask for ninety percent of our insect attractant. Why don’t you just move the entire government office to Long’an Prefecture?

Seeing that Magistrate Hao was so angry his face had gone green, Vice General Ma said, "Magistrate Hao, if you send the insect attractant over, General Xu will certainly dispatch the medicinal supplies from Long’an Prefecture to you. You won’t lose out."

Xing’an Prefecture had been besieged, so their medicinal supplies were surely close to running out, while Long’an Prefecture stored all kinds of resources and had many medicinal supplies.

Duke Xing had died in battle. Now, General Xu was the one in command of all the Northwest Armies. Magistrate Hao also didn’t dare offend General Xu and could only compromise. "Fine, this magistrate will have people prepare the insect attractant at once."

Vice General Ma was pleased and finally remembered Qin San Lang. Pointing at him, who had been standing silently in the corner the whole time, he asked, "You’re Company Commander Qin, the one who beheaded Leimuqin?"