Chapter 9
"You detestable barbarian dog, how dare you insult our lord! Take this arrow!" Ember frowned, picked up a bow and arrow from the side, and shot it towards Tuoba Xiu.
Facing Ember's arrow, Tuoba Xiu didn't move. When the arrow shaft was getting closer to him, he tilted his head, dodged the long arrow, and firmly grabbed the arrow shaft with his right hand, mocking, "It seems the people on your side aren't much. You're good at sneak attacks, but I wonder if you dare to come down and fight me?"
"It seems the people on your side aren't much. You're good at sneak attacks, but I wonder if you dare to come down and fight me?"
"This guy's martial prowess is quite good," Lia said, a little surprised.
One must know that Ember was considered a second-rate master in the martial world, and for his arrow to be caught with one hand meant the opponent had likely reached the realm of a first-rate master.
However, for this guy, as a chief general, to be so foolish as to challenge someone from their side to a one-on-one fight, Lia would feel she was letting down his arrogant personality if she didn't go down and capture him.
"I'll take you on!" Lia immediately called out, fearing the man would run away.
Hearing Lia wanted to fight him, Tuoba Xiu's face immediately lit up with joy. This little girl was young and impetuous; he would capture her alive in a moment.
By then... hehehe, thinking of those exciting and wonderful things, Tuoba Xiu's face immediately showed a lecherous expression.
The city gate opened, and Lia, riding a black horse, charged towards Tuoba Xiu.
Seeing Lia charging towards him on horseback, Tuoba Xiu's smile grew even wider. He decided to capture the young girl in front of him with a single move. Watching her panicked expression would surely be wonderful, right?
In Lia's eyes, this guy was just a one-star character in those games that like to be difficult. The kind not even fit to be fodder for a five-star character!
So, to capture this guy alive, Lia quickly rushed towards him.
Watching Lia's aggressive approach, Tuoba Xiu wasn't flustered. She was just a woman; how strong could she be?
He had grown up in the army since childhood, and his training had only brought him to the realm of a first-rate master. Among the younger generation, he rarely met an opponent, so he looked down on Lia from the bottom of his heart.
But how could he know that Lia was not an ordinary person at all, but a human-shaped Tyrannosaurus Rex? Although she had a human appearance, inside she was a true dragon!
The two were not on the same level at all; one could say, 'you practice martial arts, I cultivate immortality!'
Seeing the opponent brandish a large saber, even sweeping it towards her with the blunt side, she knew how much he truly looked down on Lia.
Lia directly leaned back, dodging the opponent's sweep.
Under the opponent's astonished gaze, she quickly straightened up, thrust a spear into his shoulder, and then knocked him directly off his horse.
At this moment, it was too late for Tuoba Xiu to regret.
As Tuoba Xiu fell to the ground, rolling a few times, intense pain shot through his shoulder, and then a sword was placed at his neck.
Only then did Tuoba Xiu react, that he had actually lost? Even with Lia's sword at his neck, Tuoba Xiu still felt it was unreal.
"Let me go!" After realizing what happened, Tuoba Xiu immediately shouted.
Damn it, he was careless, he didn't dodge!
"With only this much strength, you still dare to challenge me, how ridiculous." Seeing Tuoba Xiu try to resist, Lia immediately pressed the longsword down, the cold blade already touching his neck.
At this moment, Tuoba Xiu finally calmed down, knowing his life was in Lia's hands.
"What do you want to do?" Tuoba Xiu took a deep breath.
"Tell your subordinates to drop their weapons and surrender," Lia said indifferently.
"Impossible! Even if you kill me, it's impossible! You only defeated me because I wasn't paying attention!" Hearing Lia's demand, Tuoba Xiu immediately refused sternly.
"Is that so?" Looking at the defiant expression on his face, Lia didn't hesitate and slashed her sword across Tuoba Xiu's thigh.
As a flash of sword light passed, blood from Tuoba Xiu's thigh gushed out like water, bubbling forth.
He wouldn't think that she would be provoked by his words, let him go, and then have another match with him, would he?
"Stop, stop, stop! I surrender! I'll tell them to surrender immediately!" Tuoba Xiu hadn't expected Lia to be so ruthless. Seeing that she remained silent and looked like she was about to strike again, he quickly spoke.
"Tsk, I was hoping you'd be more stubborn," Lia pouted, seeing his reaction.
"This general has lost, all of you drop your weapons!" Tuoba Xiu, held captive by Lia, could only shout to his soldiers.
"General!" Seeing Tuoba Xiu tell them to surrender, a deputy general among the soldiers was unwilling to be captured so easily.
"Li Lin, are you the chief general or am I? If I die, will you really return alive?" Tuoba Xiu immediately cursed furiously.
Hearing this, the young Deputy General named Li Lin sighed and dropped his weapon. As Li Lin dropped his weapon, the other soldiers also had no choice but to drop theirs.
"Alright, they've all put down their weapons. Can you let me go now?" Tuoba Xiu then turned to Lia, showing a fawning smile.
"Not yet. They can still pick up their weapons and fight at any time. Wait until my soldiers have tied them all up," Lia shook her head.
At Lia's command, the soldiers from the city rushed out, temporarily tied up the surrendered soldiers, and escorted them back into the city.
Seeing their side capture 5,000 enemy soldiers without losing a single man, both the soldiers and the city's common people cheered.
Seeing the common people so happy, Li Lin was a little surprised. He had been a soldier for so many years, but he had never seen common people cheer for an army.
It was already good if the common people weren't afraid of the army; he had never seen a scene like this before. What method did this young girl use to make these common people love her so much?
"Can you let me go now?" Tuoba Xiu limped, clutching his injured thigh.
"Wait a little longer. You still have some use to me. I'll let you go after it's over," Lia said indifferently, looking at him.
Chapter 20: My Name Is Hua Mulan
"Really?" Tuoba Xiu cried with a long face, feeling that he was being used by Lia. Beautiful women's words were not to be trusted at all!
"Of course, what good would killing you do me?" Lia showed a slight smile, like a cunning little fox.
"Alright then," Tuoba Xiu could only sigh.
After entering the city, Lia found one of the surrendered soldiers. Seeing his uneasy look, Lia directly said, "Tell me all your movements from leaving Liang Province to Wuan Commandery. There must be no concealment, or you know the consequences."
Facing Lia's gaze, the soldier concealed nothing, recounting everything from their departure from Liang Province, staying a night in Wuxing Commandery, and then arriving at Wuan Commandery.
"How is that Li Lin as a person?" Lia thought for a moment and asked again.
She had seen that general today and thought he seemed decent, but she didn't know if it was an act.
"General Li Lin is very good to us. He never mistreats us, and sometimes when we have conflicts with other soldiers, he tries his best to help us."
Speaking of Li Lin, the soldier rarely showed a hint of admiration.
Hearing the soldier say this, Lia felt that Li Lin was good. It seemed he still needed to genuinely surrender to her.
Lia planned to let this soldier leave and find the next one to ask the same question, to see if their answers were identical.
Unexpectedly, the soldier did not leave; instead, his face showed some hesitation.
"What's wrong? Do you have anything else to say?" Lia asked, somewhat puzzled by his appearance.
"That general, you are a woman, right?" the soldier asked, taking a deep breath.
"Isn't that obvious at a glance?"
Lia looked at the soldier curiously, finding him a bit strange. At this moment, she unexpectedly discovered that beneath the soldier's dusty face, he was surprisingly delicate.
"Why do you ask that?"
Under Lia's gaze, the soldier awkwardly took a step back, seemingly unaccustomed to being watched by Lia like that.
"That... I... can I... serve under General... your command in the future...?" Under Lia's gaze, the soldier stammered out these words, then lowered his head.
Hearing the soldier's words, Lia was even more surprised.
If a soldier had feelings of admiration for her and abruptly said such words, wouldn't that be seeking death?
"Why? Tell me your reasons," Lia didn't immediately refuse, but wanted to see what was going on with this soldier.
The soldier raised his head, his face flushed crimson: "That general, actually, I... I am also... a woman..."
"A woman!?" Lia was very surprised to hear this.
She pressed one hand on the soldier, and with the other, reached towards the soldier's collar, probing towards the chest.
The soldier dared not move, only blushing and lowering her head.
After Lia fumbled around the soldier's chest for a while, she indeed felt a pair of soft, smooth things, and on them was a layer of what looked like gauze.
"Take off your clothes and let me see if it's true." Although she had already confirmed it in her heart, Lia still said directly.
"Yes, yes."
Although her face was crimson, under Lia's command, the soldier still unbuttoned her clothes, revealing a pair of large white breasts tightly bound by white gauze.
Lia told her to put her clothes back on, then asked, "What is your name? Why did you impersonate a man to join the army as a woman?"
"Reporting to the General, my name is Hua Mulan. It's just that last year our country and the Song State went to war, and my father was about to be conscripted. But he had a leg injury from previous wars, so I took his place," Hua Mulan explained her situation.
"Hua Mulan!?" Lia looked at the soldier in front of her with some surprise.
It is known that although Hua Mulan was a figure from the Northern Wei period, there are very few authentic records about her, which has led many to doubt her historical existence.
After all, serving in the army for 12 years without her female identity being discovered seemed too incredible to many.
However, since a female soldier disguised as a man appeared before her, claiming to be Hua Mulan, it indicated that she did indeed exist, as there was no need for her to deceive Lia.
"Good, you will follow me from now on. You don't need to disguise yourself as a man anymore; just resume your female identity," Lia said with a smile, patting Hua Mulan's shoulder.
The appearance of Hua Mulan made her feel that she was not alone in her path. Perhaps in the future, more female generals would appear by her side.
After all, she was currently in the Northern Wei, a country ruled by ethnic minorities, and these minorities had not yet been completely corrupted by Confucian culture. There were still many women who enjoyed riding and fighting.
If she unified the North, there would certainly be no shortage of female generals from ethnic minorities.
Although Lia's heart was set on the banner of restoring the Han Chinese rivers and mountains, this restoration was not about restoring pure-blooded Han Chinese, but rather the orthodox Han culture.
Would she not acknowledge the five barbarians? Of course not. Even if they were five barbarians, as long as they studied Han Chinese books and intermarried with Han Chinese descendants, then they were also Han Chinese.
Otherwise, her current identity alone would not pass this test. If the five barbarians were not acknowledged, then no one in New China would have pure blood.
China has never been a single-ethnic nation.
From an ethnic origin perspective, the Huaxia people were not of a single origin during their formation.
The Yanhuang tribes, Miaoman tribes, and Dongyi tribes, after a long historical period, finally merged to form the Huaxia people.
Through continuous intermarriage, China has long been a multi-ethnic country.
Whether Mongolians, Manchus, Uyghurs, Huis, Zhuang people... everyone is Chinese.
The foreign races she hated were those who were high and mighty, belittling others as the lowest. Ordinary five barbarians common people were actually no different from Han Chinese common people; they were all objects of exploitation.
"Thank you, General!" Hua Mulan said excitedly upon hearing Lia's words.
After thinking for a moment, Lia ordered Li Lin to be brought in.
Li Lin, who was brought in, glanced at Lia, his brows slightly furrowed. Especially a soldier by Lia's side, he found him somewhat familiar. Upon closer inspection, wasn't he one of his own subordinates?
What did this mean? To let his subordinate witness his humiliation?
"Hmph!" Thinking of this, Li Lin immediately snorted.
Chapter 21: Lia's Formal Counterattack
Lia didn't know that the other party had thought so much in an instant. She just looked at him and said, "I want to recruit General Li to surrender. I wonder if General Li is willing to surrender to me."
"Rebellious officials and treacherous subjects, everyone has the right to punish them. Moreover, you are a woman. It is absolutely impossible for me to surrender!" Li Lin immediately raised his chin, looking ready to face death.
"General Li Lin, those words are a bit much. As a Han Chinese citizen, when did I become a rebellious official or treacherous subject? It is clearly this Wei State that occupied our Han Chinese rivers and mountains, causing countless compatriots to be displaced and unable to afford food. I am merely following the Last Will of our ancestors to reclaim the Han Chinese rivers and mountains. I remember General Li Lin is Han Chinese, aren't you? Could it be that you have knelt to the Xianbei tribe for so long that you can no longer stand up?"
Lia smiled slightly; her words were indeed venomous.
"You..." Li Lin opened his mouth but couldn't find any words to refute for a moment.
To eat the lord's salary and be loyal to the lord's affairs is, of course, no problem, but his loyalty was to a foreign tribe that massacred his own compatriots, which was very problematic.
In modern terms, this would be called a Han traitor!
"You also said I am a woman. Since you men are so capable, why has no one voluntarily stood up? Why must the matter of rebellion fall upon us women? Is it because I want this? Is it not because you men lack backbone, forcing us women to stand up ourselves?"
These words had a feminist feel!
Lia then said, "I wonder if the General has heard the saying, 'Women are inherently weak, but become strong as mothers?'"
Of course, Li Lin certainly hadn't heard the last sentence, as it was a quote from Liang Qichao's 'Xinmin Shuo' in modern times. However, Lia only wanted him to understand the meaning, so whether he had heard it or not was irrelevant.
Li Lin opened his mouth, but couldn't utter a single word. Lia's words were truly piercing, stinging his heart, yet they were also incredibly reasonable, leaving him unable to offer any rebuttal.
"Even so, I don't think you can achieve much. There have been instances of women in politics throughout history, but what were the results?" Li Lin retorted, though his tone was less forceful this time.
"Is that so? Why doesn't the General go into the city now and ask any common person how they feel about my governance?" Lia smiled slightly.
If Li Lin truly was a good general who loved his people, he would know how advanced her current policies were and how beneficial they were to the common people.