“Clop, Clop, Clop.”
Following a series of rapid footsteps, a horse guard in black armor enters the palace, a document in his hand.
The king of Qin is reviewing government affairs, unsurprised at the horse guard’s arrival.
His sight remains on the paper work, hand busy writing.
“Your highness.” The horse guard hurries forward and half kneels before the king.
The king raises his eyebrows. “How is the thing that I asked you to pay attention to?”
Offering the slips with both of his hands, the guard lowers his head and speaks: “Miss Gu has summoned three hundred convicts on death row.”
“She has read their cases; all three hundred of them are guilty of murder.”
“Three hundred murderers?” The king smirks after a moment of hesitation. “What is Nan’er thinking? Can she handle those dangerous men?”
“Whatever. Clear the yard to the east of the palace for a three-hundred men camp. This is interesting.” The king waves toward the guard who dips his head and retreats.
I asked for three hundred convicts, and you give me three hundred murderers.
The decisiveness is somewhat similar to your master’s. How about your military capacity?
The king shakes his head smiling and pulls out another document to work on.
“Sough, Sough.” One after another, prisoners in uniforms under escort enter the drill ground, their hands tied up closely against their body by thick hemp rope.
The barrack is almost insignificant compared with other thousand-men camps.
The prisoners stack at the center of the drill ground.
By the order from their superior, the soldiers free the prisoners’ hands and back off from them.
Frightened at the assembly of hundreds of death convicts. the soldiers quickly flee from the scene, leaving those three hundred men with blood in their hands alone.
On the rubble layered drill ground, the three hundred death convicts stare at each other speechless.
What is it for that the three hundred men are left here with no one around to keep an eye on them?
“Given that we are neither tied up nor guarded at the time, maybe it is not a bad idea for us to just run away.”
The man who speaks look young. He looks around as if trying to find a company to escape.
“You do it yourself.” On the other end, a middle-aged man furrows his brow. “It seems that the place is unguarded. However, we were on death row, so there are definitely more guards outside. Those who attempt to escape and then get captured will only face punishments more brutal than beheading.”
Others around him shivers at the thought. Beheading is a quick death and is thus expected to those who commit homicide.
However, there are other ways of execution: quartering or the five punishments.
*Five punishments: Tattooing, amputation of nose and both legs, waist chop, and lastly mince into meat pulp, all done in a sequence.
Whichever one scares people.
“Then, can you tell us what to do?” Another one asks.
“Wait.” With but one word, the middle-aged man shuts his eye.
The crowd falls silent as no one mentions escape anymore.
None of the three-hundred men understand why they were brought out of death row, yet they all remain silent knowing the situation they are in and sit cross legged.
In the worst case, they are all summoned here for execution. Then, it makes no difference that they die earlier or later, given that they are sentenced to death already. In fact, to them, being executed right away feels better that waiting for it endlessly.
Two hours later, a figure unhurriedly enters the camp.
He is dressed up as a general in a white robe, white cape fluttering behind him after each step he takes. His face is cladded by a bronze mask, in his hand a trooper spear of astonishing length.
White robe?
Most convicts on the ground curl up their lips. A general in white robe can only be some teenage boy trying to look cool or fancy, mostly inexperienced at battle or killing at all.
It is only common sense that a white robe on battlefield does nothing but marking its wearer as an obvious target that stands out against the background.
Some who were mounted brigands sneer at the long trooper spear. Such long spear is almost inoperable on horseback.
The only thing out of their expectation is that the white robe is grayish instead of shining silver, which carries an unpleasant mourning sentiment.
The young general approaches slowly pulling a horse with him, and stops at the front of the crowd.
Gu Nan glances over them, and notices the severe temperament hovering over everyone.
In Qin, the crime of murder is separated into intentional and unintentional. Unintentional murder would not result in death sentence.
Therefore, apparently those who end up here are no regular convicts.
She puts it simple: “Looks like everyone is here.”
Unsurprising to the men, the general sounds young and even female to some extent.
The convicts who were on death row burst into laughter.
A kid trying to toughen up in front of a crowd of convicts who are waiting for their execution is not scary at all, and hence no one bothers to pay respect to the general.
“Hahaha, little general, why do you sound like girl?” One taunts with little concern slapping his thigh.
“Aren’t you a baby?” Someone else smirks at Gu Nan. “Why do you sound so little? Well, you actually look like a girl behind that mask of yours.”
“Hey little general, everyone here has taken a live or two, so you should probably call your parents here for your own good.”
…
Silent in her place, Gu Nan waits until the crowd gradually quiets down.
Looking around, she dips her head and then pushes the mask upward, revealing her face.
On it, an indifferent look.
“I am a woman.”
……
Staring at the beautiful but also handsome woman in front of them, the convicts turn speechless.
They were only joking when calling the general a woman, and heck, dude is a woman!
None of them has ever seen a woman be a general.
Moreover, as the woman in front of them slowly releases her killing intent, a chilling and frightening feeling creeps up on every body’s mind, almost choking them.
The convicts swallow hard.
The indifferent expression and killing intent remind them that this is not some noble son looking for excitement.
This is the real deal.
“Clop, Clop, Clop.”
Following a series of rapid footsteps, a horse guard in black armor enters the palace, a document in his hand.
The king of Qin is reviewing government affairs, unsurprised at the horse guard’s arrival.
His sight remains on the paper work, hand busy writing.
“Your highness.” The horse guard hurries forward and half kneels before the king.
The king raises his eyebrows. “How is the thing that I asked you to pay attention to?”
Offering the slips with both of his hands, the guard lowers his head and speaks: “Miss Gu has summoned three hundred convicts on death row.”
“She has read their cases; all three hundred of them are guilty of murder.”
“Three hundred murderers?” The king smirks after a moment of hesitation. “What is Nan’er thinking? Can she handle those dangerous men?”
“Whatever. Clear the yard to the east of the palace for a three-hundred men camp. This is interesting.” The king waves toward the guard who dips his head and retreats.
I asked for three hundred convicts, and you give me three hundred murderers.
The decisiveness is somewhat similar to your master’s. How about your military capacity?
The king shakes his head smiling and pulls out another document to work on.
“Sough, Sough.” One after another, prisoners in uniforms under escort enter the drill ground, their hands tied up closely against their body by thick hemp rope.
The barrack is almost insignificant compared with other thousand-men camps.
The prisoners stack at the center of the drill ground.
By the order from their superior, the soldiers free the prisoners’ hands and back off from them.
Frightened at the assembly of hundreds of death convicts. the soldiers quickly flee from the scene, leaving those three hundred men with blood in their hands alone.
On the rubble layered drill ground, the three hundred death convicts stare at each other speechless.
What is it for that the three hundred men are left here with no one around to keep an eye on them?
“Given that we are neither tied up nor guarded at the time, maybe it is not a bad idea for us to just run away.”
The man who speaks look young. He looks around as if trying to find a company to escape.
“You do it yourself.” On the other end, a middle-aged man furrows his brow. “It seems that the place is unguarded. However, we were on death row, so there are definitely more guards outside. Those who attempt to escape and then get captured will only face punishments more brutal than beheading.”
Others around him shivers at the thought. Beheading is a quick death and is thus expected to those who commit homicide.
However, there are other ways of execution: quartering or the five punishments.
*Five punishments: Tattooing, amputation of nose and both legs, waist chop, and lastly mince into meat pulp, all done in a sequence.
Whichever one scares people.
“Then, can you tell us what to do?” Another one asks.
“Wait.” With but one word, the middle-aged man shuts his eye.
The crowd falls silent as no one mentions escape anymore.
None of the three-hundred men understand why they were brought out of death row, yet they all remain silent knowing the situation they are in and sit cross legged.
In the worst case, they are all summoned here for execution. Then, it makes no difference that they die earlier or later, given that they are sentenced to death already. In fact, to them, being executed right away feels better that waiting for it endlessly.
Two hours later, a figure unhurriedly enters the camp.
He is dressed up as a general in a white robe, white cape fluttering behind him after each step he takes. His face is cladded by a bronze mask, in his hand a trooper spear of astonishing length.
White robe?
Most convicts on the ground curl up their lips. A general in white robe can only be some teenage boy trying to look cool or fancy, mostly inexperienced at battle or killing at all.
It is only common sense that a white robe on battlefield does nothing but marking its wearer as an obvious target that stands out against the background.
Some who were mounted brigands sneer at the long trooper spear. Such long spear is almost inoperable on horseback.
The only thing out of their expectation is that the white robe is grayish instead of shining silver, which carries an unpleasant mourning sentiment.
The young general approaches slowly pulling a horse with him, and stops at the front of the crowd.
Gu Nan glances over them, and notices the severe temperament hovering over everyone.
In Qin, the crime of murder is separated into intentional and unintentional. Unintentional murder would not result in death sentence.
Therefore, apparently those who end up here are no regular convicts.
She puts it simple: “Looks like everyone is here.”
Unsurprising to the men, the general sounds young and even female to some extent.
The convicts who were on death row burst into laughter.
A kid trying to toughen up in front of a crowd of convicts who are waiting for their execution is not scary at all, and hence no one bothers to pay respect to the general.
“Hahaha, little general, why do you sound like girl?” One taunts with little concern slapping his thigh.
“Aren’t you a baby?” Someone else smirks at Gu Nan. “Why do you sound so little? Well, you actually look like a girl behind that mask of yours.”
“Hey little general, everyone here has taken a live or two, so you should probably call your parents here for your own good.”
…
Silent in her place, Gu Nan waits until the crowd gradually quiets down.
Looking around, she dips her head and then pushes the mask upward, revealing her face.
On it, an indifferent look.
“I am a woman.”
……
Staring at the beautiful but also handsome woman in front of them, the convicts turn speechless.
They were only joking when calling the general a woman, and heck, dude is a woman!
None of them has ever seen a woman be a general.
Moreover, as the woman in front of them slowly releases her killing intent, a chilling and frightening feeling creeps up on every body’s mind, almost choking them.
The convicts swallow hard.
The indifferent expression and killing intent remind them that this is not some noble son looking for excitement.
This is the real deal.
