History of Women in the Wei Dynasty

Chapter 375 Killing Liu Beixi

This barbarian strategist imitated the attire of the Confucian scholars of the Liang Dynasty, except his face was bruised and swollen, clearly indicating he was frequently beaten, and he lacked any of the refined manners of a scholar. He racked his brains trying to figure out the reason, and then he realized!

"Reporting to the chief, it must be a new tribe that came from the surrounding mountains, and the wolf packs there were driven here."

Liu Beixi roared, "Ah—it must be Lu Beiyan who's behind this!"

Liu Beixi and Lu Beiyan were the two largest forces in this defection from Wei to Liang. Fighting against the valiant Wei army, the two barbarian tribes had no choice but to join forces. Just a few days ago, Liu Beixi's barbarian soldiers suffered heavy casualties while attacking Huyang County, so he temporarily retreated north to recuperate there, while Lu Beiyan kept a close watch on the Wei camp in Huyang County.

The wolf pack continued its rampage. Liu Beixi, who had a fiery temper, went in and out of the tent several times in a short while. Finally, he couldn't take it anymore and roared, "You're all useless! It's taking you so long to kill the wolves. I'll go and cut off the alpha wolf's head myself."

"No, this is not right," the strategist advised, "The wolf pack tonight is unusual; it could very well be the legendary beast tide. Please listen to your subordinates and take refuge over there for now."

There was almost no howling of wolves in the place he pointed to.

"Damn it, are you looking down on me? You dare to trick me into hiding from a bunch of beasts!"

The strategist, having anticipated this, quickly pointed to a few lines of text in the military book and read them aloud as if proclaiming a precious treasure: "The military book says... when troops attack a camp and the camp is surrounded, one must avoid their sharp edge. This is called preserving strength, not cowardice."

The other barbarian generals urged, "Chief, listen to the strategist this time."

"Yes, the wolves here in Nanyang are different from those in Luyang County. We need to save our strength to fight the Wei soldiers; we can't afford to be exhausted."

Liu Beixi reluctantly said, "Since that's what the military manual says, let's retreat first."

The leading barbarian general and his trusted barbarian soldiers numbered over a hundred. The clever barbarian bandits noticed that their leader was leading his men toward the south gate of the camp, so they each had their own ideas. Some wanted to keep their distance and follow the barbarian general, while others wanted to hide in the cellar or in places where there were fewer wolf howls.

Soon, all the tents were completely empty!
However, Liu Beixi and his group had not gone far when, at the edge of the yurt area, a barbarian general with extremely keen hearing stepped in front of Liu Beixi and shouted "Stop!" He whispered a warning: "There's movement ahead."

"Stop what?!" Liu Beixi roared, brandishing his sword and signaling the barbarian soldiers behind him to become the vanguard.

Soon, the barbarian soldiers shouted from a spot near the trees: "It's not a wolf, there's a Wei soldier here, and she's a woman!"

"She killed so many of us!"

Liu Bei was furious and ordered, "Capture him alive."

All his trusted generals and soldiers in his main tent were armed with iron ring-pommel swords. In the darkness, the iron swords and hooks clashed rapidly, and sparks flew as the fighting positions changed.

"Quickly, surround and attack! This is tough!"

"Not good..." A barbarian general ran back to report the news, but suddenly his head jolted, his legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground, motionless.

The sharp-eyed bandits were horrified, seeing blood flowing from the back of the barbarian general's head to the ground, clearly indicating that he had been killed by some hidden weapon.

Liu Beixi let out a very dissatisfied "hmm," abandoned the idea of ​​capturing the Wei soldier alive, and stretched out his hand to order: "Bring the bow."

An archer immediately handed him his weapon.

Then, Liu Beixi used the sound to pinpoint the location, entered the range he was sure he could shoot the enemy, used a tree as a shield, nocked the arrow, put his neck against his shoulder, his ribs against the string, and the arrow against his face.

He stared at Zhao Zhi in the darkness, waiting for the arrow to be released, unaware that Zhao Zhi was even more excited than he was! Originally, she planned to use the wolf pack to lure away most of the barbarian troops, find the place where the rebels hid their grain and burn it, and then take advantage of the chaos to search for the missing scouts in the barbarian camp.

Unexpectedly, many of these suddenly arriving barbarian bandits wielded ring-pommel swords, indicating their unusual status within the barbarian camp.

Then let's kill them!
As the crisis arose, she struck the barbarian in the abdomen with her iron hook, then pushed the corpse forward two steps. After moving to a new position, she hooked the corpse and swung it around, scattering the five barbarian bandits who rushed up to surround her.

These five barbarian bandits attacked again!

Zhao Zhi swung her iron hook diagonally from left to right, quickly turned around, and faced the location where she had just sensed the archers. In a flash, she only managed to determine the general direction of the archers and didn't see Liu Beixi. However, in those two breaths, she killed another barbarian bandit.

One was killed, and two more came to replace them.

Behind the tree, Liu Bei was overjoyed! The more subordinates fought with Zhao Zhi, the less accurate his aim became. If he had fired the arrow just now, it would probably have been one of his men who got hit.

"Clang clang clang!" The sound of weapons clashing never lingered for more than two breaths in the same place.

After killing another barbarian soldier, Zhao Zhi seized the knife and threw it towards Liu Beixi's location!

Kill one more person, then throw the knife at the strategist's position!

"Go! All of you go! Surround her!" The strategist was outwardly furious, but in reality, he was giving hand signals to the leader from the command post.

Liu Beixi understood the strategist's meaning. Taking advantage of Zhao Zhi's brief moment of turning her back, he moved forward to hide under a tree and nocked an arrow again.

"Focus on defense and minimize offense, exhaust her energy."

After giving instructions to the barbarian soldiers in the midst of battle, the strategist called out to Zhao Zhi in both Xianbei and Han languages: "I am the leader of this tribe. I admire your martial prowess, woman. If you surrender, I will surely appoint you as a barbarian general. What do you say?"

"Hey, woman, can you understand what I'm saying?"

"Phew—" Zhao Zhi let out a long breath, loosened her right hand, and the iron hook fell to the ground. She said in a voice so low that only she could hear herself, "I've recovered my strength, I won't waste any more time with you."

Even the strength of a warrior is not limitless. Even Zhao Zhi, who possesses divine power, needs to rest after fighting for a period of time, otherwise her tendons and internal organs will be damaged.

Otherwise, how could the barbarian generals and soldiers who were just engaged in a brief struggle be qualified to exchange moves with her, and how could they have died so slowly!
The strategist feigned elation: "You know what's good for you, very good, haha!"

Liu Beiyan has finally set his sights on Zhao Zhi!
Shoot the arrow!

As she swept away the wind and lightning, Zhao Zhi did a backflip, and the arrow whizzed past her leg. When she landed, Liu Beixi didn't even have time to nock a second arrow.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh...

She had already scattered pebbles on the ground. As she landed and squatted down, she threw two pebbles towards Liu Beixi with her left hand and four pebbles towards the strategist with her right hand!

"flutter!"

Liu Beixi was struck by two stones and died.

"flutter!"

The strategist was killed by a stone.

The remaining three stones also hit their targets, killing all the barbarian generals!
The barbarian thieves were completely dumbfounded.

"what--"

"Ah! Ah! Ah—the leader is dead!"

Zhao Zhi couldn't understand the barbarian language, but she could tell from their expressions that the person she was eliminating must be a notorious barbarian bandit. She first let out a wolf howl, then grabbed two handfuls of pebbles as hidden weapons. At this point, no barbarian soldier was foolish enough to fight her to the death, and they all fled in panic.

Zhao Zhi cut off the heads of Liu Beixi and the strategist, tied their hair to her waist as a rope, and, since books were precious, she also took the military books that the strategist had dropped as spoils of war, and began searching tent by tent.

The missing scout has been found!

Their bodies were thrown into a tattered, drafty felt tent, missing their arms and legs. One of the scouts died with his eyes wide open, seemingly worried that he had discovered such a large barbarian tribe entrenched there, yet could no longer send back any messages.