Chapter 30
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Chapter 30: A Good Omen from the Sky
"Wait, this…"
A dazed Zhuang Mian returned to the house, helping the old widow pack her things while asking about the white soldiers. The old woman explained in a disjointed manner for a long time until Zhuang Mian finally gained a more detailed understanding of the divisions in this world.
On this vast land, there were two countries that had endured for hundreds of years. The northern country was called "Huai An," while the southern country was named "Tan Luo." Both sought to conquer each other and unify the world.
Every ten to twenty years, great wars and frequent smaller battles left the Huai An people, who lived in the border region, constantly weary. Yet there was only so much land to live on, and everyone had nowhere to go.
Her son and daughter had died in the invasion of Tan Luo twenty years ago.
The soldiers from Tan Luo were known for their barbaric behavior and formidable military strength. Most of them preferred to wear white armor, which led the sensitive and alert locals to call them "white soldiers."
When the broken drums and gongs at the village entrance sounded off, it meant someone had discovered traces of the Tan Luo invasion.
Zhuang Mian, who was relatively fit, carried two bundles in one hand while holding the old widow’s hand with the other, beginning to flee north with the villagers.
As they passed through fields of wheat that had turned a golden yellow, Zhuang Mian suddenly paused, turning to the old widow and asking,
"What will happen to the crops if we leave?"
Tears streamed down the old woman’s cheeks.
"What can we do? We cannot take them, and we can’t bear to burn them. They were only days away from harvest, and now… we can only hope that our Huai An army can march south quickly to drive those Tan Luo dogs back, otherwise…"
The old woman did not finish her sentence, but Zhuang Mian quickly understood her meaning:
What else could they do? That grain would surely become the food for the white soldiers!
Zhuang Mian felt momentarily stunned. Although it was a pity to burn the crops, wouldn’t leaving them be simply aiding the enemy?
As the saying goes, "If neighbors stockpile food, I stockpile weapons. Their storehouse is my food supplies." If the white soldiers tasted benefit once, they would undoubtedly want to raid every year.
Clearly, Zhuang Mian was not the only one thinking this way. While she pondered, several young men from the village had already thrown burning torches into the golden fields.
It hadn’t rained near the village for a month, and the fire quickly spread across the fields that held the villagers’ hopes for the year. Those daring youths who set the fire met with scolding and beatings from their families, yet each wore expressions of resolute defiance.
"Where are we going?"
The old widow shook her head.
"No one knows. We’ll head north until we find someone who can help us survive the winter."
The sound of drums clearly stirred something within the old widow. Zhuang Mian could feel that since she had asked about the woman’s children, the widow seemed to have lost some of her strength to flee, as if she wanted to wait here and face destruction alongside the village under the wrath of the white soldiers.
Three days later, Zhuang Mian and the villagers arrived at the nearest county city to the north—Nanke County. There, tall earth walls rising five to six meters and a moat several meters wide provided some sense of security, even if they didn’t seem particularly grand.
Refugees from nearby villages flooded into the county, with ragged people needing to make do overnight on whatever belongings they had carried while fleeing.
Thankfully, the officials inside the city were decent, and the next day, they began to set up large pots at some of the wider intersections to cook porridge.
But this good fortune didn’t last long. Three days later, the white soldiers arrived.
The defending soldiers in the county rushed to the walls, as the sounds of shouts and battles rang out continuously from outside.
The attack by the Tan Luo white soldiers was extremely fierce; even though they were a detachment, their desires for plunder and slaughter grew ever stronger.
Meanwhile, the main force of the white soldiers bypassed Nanke and headed deeper into Huai An.
Zhuang Mian watched as the soldiers in white armor climbed the city walls, but they were pushed back by the soldiers led by the county officials.
On the third day of fighting, the surviving soldiers began to draft strong men from among the refugees entering the city.
Zhuang Mian watched in astonishment as soldiers, whose combat experience was even less than hers, were given a spear, leather armor, and padded gear, then confusedly made their way to the walls, most of them never to return.
On the seventh day of fighting, Zhuang Mian was drafted into service.
Although the food in Hope City had surely declined in quality over the New Era, it still outperformed this backward world in terms of basic nutrition and child-rearing.
Thus, Zhuang Mian actually seemed rather out of place among the refugees; her height was comparable to many adult male soldiers.
At a time when many robust young men and soldiers were falling in battle, women like Zhuang Mian were also needed on the city walls.
She felt no fear about this; it was not only because she had always viewed this world as a resting place after death, but also due to a heartfelt anger at the white soldiers whom she had never met—
In her own world, humanity had managed to achieve basic unity, yet here they would even violently fight among themselves over territorial disputes…
After receiving her spear and padded armor, Zhuang Mian quickly joined the battle. In the following days of combat, she charged back and forth on the walls, consistently managing to push the emerging white soldiers off the ramparts.
Zhuang Mian belonged to the Public Security Team of the Hope City Army, which was responsible for maintaining order and investigating cases in both the inner and outer city.
However, Public Security members like her were among the first reserve forces summoned by the defense team during times of crisis, so her previous training gave her a sense of familiarity with the defensive battles on the walls.
Her fierce performance drew the attention of many; people marveled at a woman performing so brilliantly, and her presence greatly boosted the morale of the soldiers in the city.
Standing atop the walls, Zhuang Mian gazed at the white soldiers encamped just a few bowshots away. They were indeed as rumored, every soldier donned in white armor, with dark red dried bloodstains glaringly apparent, making it easy to identify who among them were seasoned veterans from the bloody clashes on the city.
The spirits of the white soldiers were exceptionally high; they sometimes launched night raids and fierce assaults, and were even attempting to build siege engines and dig tunnels…
The comrades beside Zhuang Mian changed one batch after another, yet that pink, crystal-like butterfly remained by her side, as if it were an eye observing her every move.
After holding out for half a month, the detachment besieging the county city seemed to receive orders from the main force, dismantling their camp and leaving the city walls overnight. This disaster declared an end.
By this point, Zhuang Mian had fought on the city for nearly twenty days. Besides her eyes being slightly sunken like those of the overworked soldiers, she exuded a strong aura of killing intent.
