Chapter 197: Xiao Baozhu Was Alive

…The watchman hesitated. He remembered the general’s appearance well. After all, the general looked just like Xiao Baoshan who was that tall and cold. No one would forget such a special man. But the watchman didn’t want to be ridiculed as a boaster, so he decided to echo what Squire Liu had said. “I must have mistaken him for someone else. How could I know such a great general?”

The Xiao family didn’t take his words to mind.

Just then, the guards called their numbers and let them into the county. Squire Liu gave the guards more beef jerky in return for their care and help these past few days.

…Xiao Baoshan had led the troops to Hexin county. The forces of Hongyan country were so week that they were annihilated within three days. The locals left alive poured out of their houses to express their gratitude and praise him as the god of war. As a result, Xiao Baoshan and the sixth prince rose to fame overnight.

At that moment, the reinforcements from the imperial court had just arrived at Zhengwu county. The leader of the reinforcements was Qian Qi, a fourth-ranked general in the imperial court. After he reached Zhengwu county, he received a letter saying that Xiao Baoshan had defeated the enemy with the sixth prince’s forces. Although he had known it was Xiao Baoshan who led the troops, he still thumped the table angrily after learning the news.

Xiao Baoshan…

Qian Qi had sent his people to find Xiao Baoshan, but he failed. The wanted man was missing; only his old mother and his newly-married wife were in the house. But these two women didn’t reveal any information about him. Qian Qi regretted not kidnapping them before Xiao Baoshan went to the sixth prince for shelter and even became a commander. Anyway, he would try every possible way to get Xiao Baoshan to show up.

Now that the enemy had been driven back, he decided to encamp his regiments in Zhengwu county. Then, he wrote a letter to the imperial court, waiting for the next order.

Xiao Baoshan owed him a debt that couldn’t be written off. He had lost his brother, Qian Dong, in that war two years ago. He had believed all the people had died at that time, but then Xiao Baoshan proved to be the only one alive. Besides, it was said that this man had colluded with the enemy. Therefore, he must find Xiao Baoshan.

Xiao Baoshan must give everyone an explanation!

…The capital.

The news of Xiao Baoshan’s triumph had reached the imperial court. At that moment, the ministers were discussing what to do with him.

The state preceptor and the prime minister represented two different camps. The state preceptor held that Xiao Baoshan had exceeded his authority. He, as well as the sixth prince, should be punished for dispatching troops without permission.

The prime minister insisted that Xiao Baoshan was not necessarily a traitor. They should investigate the case again and ask Xiao Baoshan for an explanation after he came back. They couldn’t put a good man in the wrong.

He put forward the question that if Xiao Baoshan was a traitor, why did he beat back the enemy?

All the ministers were then engaged in a heated argument. But the old emperor had become drowsy. In the end, the state preceptor’s party won the debate. They decided to let Qian Qi arrest Xiao Baoshan and bring him back to the court.

…After recapturing Hexin county, Xiao Baoshan let a deputy general and some soldiers guard the place. Since the county wasn’t the sixth prince’s fief, the forces couldn’t station there for long. When a new governor took over control, all the soldiers had to retreat. Otherwise, some base people in the imperial court would try every way to defame the sixth prince.

Xiao Baoshan asked the deputy general to handle the overall situation and the soldiers to help the locals rebuild their homes. Then, he led the troops back to Qinghe county. This time, he would inquire about his family’s whereabouts from door to door.

Qinghe county was in ruins, corpses filling the suburbs. People were wailing and weeping everywhere. Widows and orphans were struggling for the future of their lives. Xiao Baoshan brought these people together and provided them with part of the army provisions. Then, he headed for his home.

The locals who hadn’t escaped far were all back. The streets were not empty anymore. On his way home, Xiao Baoshan could see smoke rising continuously from two or three kitchen chimneys. He visited his neighbors one after another. They were all surprised to see he had returned. Of course, they didn’t know he was the general who had beaten back the enemy.

He said, “Yes, I’m back. Do you know where my family is?”

The first two families shook their heads. But the old lady in the third family told him, “They must have escaped. I saw your whole family leaving at that time.”

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“My whole family?” he asked. “Including my relatives from the village?”

“Yes. They were here one evening. There were four adults, several kids and an old man who was always cursing. The next morning, they drove two carriages and pulled two carts away from here.”

So all my relatives did leave.

He knew it must be Ye Xiaoxian’s idea. Although she didn’t care about these relatives normally, she was the most reliable person in such critical times.

Xiao Baoshan then went to the Wong family to see whether Xiao Baozhu had come back. The residence was dilapidated, and had lost its one-time glory. The door was broken, the lanterns were gone and there was only one stone lion left.

As he walked in, he found the garden in a mess. The ornamental trees were crooked and twisted, the rockery collapsed and the rare flowers had all withered. No servants could be seen.

There was a dead silence.

Just when he was thinking that no one lived here anymore, he found a lady drawing water from a well in the backyard. As he walked over, the lady also turned around.

“Baozhu!” he cried out in surprise.

As soon as she looked up, the bucket of water suddenly fell to the ground from her hand.

“Brother Baoshan!” After experiencing so much pain and suffering, she threw herself into his arms and began crying.

Xiao Baoshan remained silent until his sister stopped weeping. “I heard that Squire Wong and Qin Qingqing have died. Is it true? Is it only you and Scholar Wong in this house?”

Xiao Baozhu sniffed as she nodded. “Yes. Just him and me. Brother, I…”

Tears ran down her face again. Xiao Baoshan’s intuition was telling him that something bad had happened to his sister. She may have confronted the enemy.

“Baozhu, there’s no hurry. Just take your time. As long as I’m here, I won’t let anyone hurt you,” he said as he helped her to the flowerbed and let her sit on the edge.

After a moment of sobbing, she finally told him what she had gone through. She that said she could have escaped with the Xiao family, but she chose to stay because the Wong family needed her help. After the enemy troops broke into the county, Squire Wong was killed, Qin Qingqing died in childbirth and Scholar Wong immersed himself in endless sorrow. She loved Scholar Wong so dearly that she decided to accompany him from then on. However, he wasn’t grateful to her at all.

After the enemy had occupied the residence, she took him to hide in a shabby house. While he was in a state of shock, she risked her life to fetch rice or noodles every day. She begrudged the precious food and gave most of it to him. But one day, she was found by two enemy soldiers who pounced on her and began ripping off her clothes. She was so frightened that she yelled out loud, begging Scholar Wong to save her.

He indeed came out of his room, but he left immediately after an indifferent glance. Her heart had frozen at that moment. She had watched him turn around in disbelief. How could he be so indifferent? Even a stranger would try to do something to save her.

The moment of despair gave the enemy a chance to assault her. Just then, she came to reason and smashed a man’s head with a brick she picked up from the ground. Fortunately or pitifully, she was saved by herself.

“What happened then?” Xiao Baoshan asked.

She replied with quivering lips, “I was afraid they would come again, so I took Scholar Wong to another hiding place. By then, I didn’t know where to go and I didn’t have the heart to leave him in danger, even though he was so cold-hearted himself. When the county regained its peace, I brought him back here.”

Xiao Baoshan asked, “Do you still want to take care of him?”

To be honest, he didn’t entertain any hope that she would go with him. She was such a stubborn girl who might stay with Scholar Wong for her whole life. But to his surprise, she gave him a negative answer.

“No, I don’t want to stay here anymore. It wasn’t me who caused the Wong family’s tragedy or his. I’ve done everything possible to help him and I won’t hold onto any illusions about him anymore. Love can’t be forced. However much I’ve tried, he still doesn’t like me. Sister Ye and Qianqian used to say I was deceiving myself, but I didn’t listen to them. Only that day did I realize I’d been living in a delusion. Now I understand that only you, my mom, Sister Ye, and Baofeng are sincere to me. Brother Baoshan, I miss them so much! I want to see them again!”