Rebirth: The Journey of an Heiress

Sima Ping straightened up, patted the dust off himself, couldn't help but roll his eyes at Lu Yuanpeng, then followed the main force forward: "You're quite proud, huh."

Lu Yuanpeng chuckled, caught up with Sima Ping, but his eyes were still stinging: "Do you have a handkerchief? Lend it to me, my eyes are really stinging! But I didn't bring a handkerchief when I went out!"

Sima Ping originally wanted to ask if Lu Yuanpeng was a girl, needing to carry a handkerchief when going out, but suddenly remembered that when they first entered Pingyang City, a little girl of about five or six years old realized they were troops from the Bai family and specially wrapped some snacks in a handkerchief for them to share. He had been carrying that handkerchief with him, intending to return it to that girl.

After fumbling for a while, he found the handkerchief from his sleeve and handed it over to Lu Yuanpeng: "I'm going ahead!"

Lu Yuanpeng wrapped a bit of snow from the roadside in the handkerchief and wiped his very swollen eyes, sighing in relief: "Ah... that's much better!"

Wang Dong rode in quickly, initially intending to urge the team behind to speed up, when he suddenly saw Lu Yuanpeng wiping tears with the handkerchief. He didn't recognize Lu Yuanpeng and shouted loudly: "What's a grown man doing, crying like that!"

Lu Yuanpeng moved the handkerchief away from his eyes, looked up with a nasal tone, and shouted: "I wasn't crying! It was the stinging in my eyes!"

Sima Ping, who had already walked ahead, suppressed his laughter.

Seeing it was Lu Yuanpeng, Wang Dong was momentarily surprised but then assumed that even with a nasal tone, Lu Yuanpeng was convincing and nodded: "General Bai has ordered that there's no need to clean up the battlefield yet; we should speed up to guard against the retreat of the Tianfeng Kingdom's Elephant Army."

After delivering the orders, Wang Dong turned his horse around and galloped towards the front, inwardly calculating that once this battle concluded, he must inform his master to not let Commandant Lu's grandson go to the front line, but rather act as a leader of the Huotou Army! Being on three battlefields scared the kid so much... making him cry like that.

·

Sal Khan, riding on the giant elephant that was galloping all the way, coughed for a while when he noticed that the pungent and choking smell in the air had dissipated. Gasping heavily on the back of the giant elephant as its speed gradually slowed down.

Some elephants had already fallen after not moving far forward, breathing heavily, and no matter how they blew the bone whistle, the elephants wouldn't stand up again.

But Sal Khan and his people dared not stop, afraid that if they stopped, the pursuing army would catch up.

The disciple of the Great Shaman, tears streaming down his face due to the smoke, wiped his face with his sleeve, firstly recounting their losses: "We've lost more than half! Most of our war elephants… perished in the previous ambush, the Yan and Zhou people are really disgraceful! They don't dare to confront directly and can only use such underhanded tricks."

"There are no underhanded or aboveboard tricks on the battlefield, victory is the real trick!" Sal Khan's eyes burned with fierce fire, "Cross the Danshui River, order Aksai to bring the Elephant Army to join us!"

No advantageous weather, terrain, or unity was held by their Tianfeng Kingdom; it was his overconfidence, thinking that confronting this cold weather would just require putting furs on the elephants, and the giant elephants could still roam freely on this land. But he had never seen snow before… nor did he realize how slippery the snow-covered ground could be.

The large elephants, clad in armor, found it quite difficult to stand up again on the slippery ground after tumbling over.

Moreover, the Zhou and Yan people were treacherous, strategically taking the high ground to attack with fire, and using such poisonous smoke, making the Elephant Army not only useless but also a burden.

At this moment, Sal Khan somewhat regretted that the Tianfeng Kingdom shouldn't have killed so many slaves; had they not killed so many slaves, they would not only have the Elephant Army now but also an army capable of engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the Zhou and Yan people.

And by this time, Sal Khan finally understood that wanting to bow down and negotiate with the Zhou and Yan was certainly impossible, as the Yan Kingdom and Zhou Kingdom were determined to destroy their Elephant Army...

He had underestimated the Monarchs of the Zhou and Yan Kingdoms, also because for years the Tianfeng Kingdom, relying on the Elephant Army, had never met a match.

But none of this mattered; how many Elephant Armies were sacrificed did not matter. What mattered was finding the jade cicada... as long as the time could reverse, his Elephant Army could return.

As long as time could reverse, he wouldn't be so impatient, he would first let the Great Shaman come to this land to find the owner decreed by God, kill the owner of this land, then have the people of Xiliang properly farm for their Tianfeng Kingdom, wait for the winter to pass, and when the land warmed up in spring, lead the Elephant Army to wipe out the Zhou and Yan in one breath, turning this land into the grain storage for their Tianfeng Kingdom.

No moment was more desperate than now for Sal Khan to find the jade cicada lost in the Zhou.

Shen Kunyang, ambushed on the two sides of the Hanwen Mountain valley, had already felt the tremor under his feet, caused by the running elephants.

It wasn't just Shen Kunyang; all the Zhou soldiers ambushed on the two sides could feel the vibration of the mountain.

Over ten thousand people ambushed on both sides of this valley, while the exit of the valley was already blocked with chevaux-de-frise coated in pine oil and large rocks, all just waiting for the elephants to arrive before they act.

Pine oil, kerosene, every flammable oil you can think of, including the ones from Pingyang City and surrounding counties, were brought over, all for dealing with the giant elephants.

Shen Kunyang's eyes were steady, just waiting for the Elephant Army to fully enter their attacking range before giving the order.

"Hurry up! We're almost out!" Sal Khan shouted loudly, "Quickly cross the Danshui River! Quickly!"

Whether it was because of the ambush left at the entrance of the Hanwen Mountain valley that left a lingering sense of danger or not, it seemed as if the wind carried the smell of pine oil and kerosene, the disciple of the Great Shaman held tightly onto the seat on the elephant, turned, and looked at Sal Khan with a serious expression: "In front of us..."

"Stop!" Sal Khan reacted quicker than the disciple of the Great Shaman, loudly ordering a halt before he could speak, and the soldiers around Sal Khan quickly blew the bone whistles.

The rushing Elephant Army gradually came to a stop, and Sal Khan raised his moist and red eyes, glancing up and down the valley. Zhou had already ambushed in front, wouldn't they… ambush here again?"

Shen Kunyang held his composure, observing the slowly halting Elephant Army and not rushing to act, as now half of the Tianfeng Kingdom's elephants were within their attack range while the other half were still outside. If they acted now, the rear ones might turn back. If by any chance Fifth Master was currently cleaning up the battlefield and those elephants returned, it would inevitably result in a loss of men and resources.

Shen Kunyang intended to eliminate these Elephant Armies here all at once.

"Perhaps..." The disciple of the Great Shaman could only hear the wind and the breathing and footsteps of the elephants and their own men, thinking he was probably overthinking, he looked at Sal Khan and said, "Perhaps it was just the scent we smelled earlier that was carried over by the wind!"

"Your Highness! There's a pursuer behind us!" The general acting as the rear guard rode up on an elephant and shouted from the back to Sal Khan.