General Jiang had been shot by three arrows. Seeing that none of his men are surviving further, he desperately continued the fight until he felt someone stabbing him behind. Vomiting a mouthful of blood, he fell on his knees slowly looking at the masked man who stabbed him. That man came in-front of his eyes with his rest subordinates. He removed his mask and that is when General Jiang couldn't believe his own eyes.
"You…" General Jiang managed to ask.
"yes…it's me."
It was General Huang who had stabbed him and now was standing in-front of General Jiang.
"why?” General Jiang wanted to know.
"You colluded with enemy to harm our great Qing empire. As a general of Qing army, as a subject of Qing empire you have committed treason. All the members of Jiang family are to be slayed by beheading as per imperial order" General Huang announced.
He looked at the fatally wounded General Jiang Lin scornfully…or was it the satisfaction in his eyes after seeing how his lifelong rival is going to die,
Anyone could not differentiate how Huang Song was feeling right now.
Blood was oozing out of General Jiang Lin’s mouth and wounds and that made Jiang Lin very weak. With his blood shot eyes, the vision was blurring.
He was totally confused.
“What nonsense this Huang Song was talking? Clearly this was abnormal. This was not the way to execute an imperiall decree even for a betrayer of country. Even a traitor would be given a trial before execution.” Amidst all the unbearable pains and difficulties, he still tried to figure out the situation. Finally, he understood that something was terribly wrong.
Looking at the changing expressions on General Jiang's face, General Huang put on a cynical smile in his face and lowered himself until he reaches General Jiang's face level who was on his knees.
"Let me guess your thoughts this time as your friend "
Huang song said sarcastically.
"You think Something is definitely wrong. right? something amiss is going on here which you can't figure out, right?" He continued with his sarcastical tone.
"You are absolutely right. I was supposed to take you into custody and bring you to the capital for punishment. But now I'm going to report that you rebelled against the imperial order and we had no other option but to carry on the imperial edict right on the spot" he explained.
Reaching another few steps near General Jiang, he lowered his voice.
"You should not have showed off your skills all the time. You shouldn't have defeated me all the time making me feel inferior to you..."General Huang's voice was impulsive.
"It was always like taking charity from you. You never let me own any victory for myself. You were always there offering help." he was raging.
"I always felt discouraged, being second to you throughout my life. You shouldn't have done that" his lowered voice was raising now.
"It was all your fault. You were too good. So I couldn't find any fault with you to take you down. Otherwise I wouldn't have to drag your family into this." he continued.
"For the sake of our old friendship, I'll try to make your family members' lives spared. When you go to hell or heaven, don't resent me" General Huang said to General Jiang.
Giving the final fatal blow to the General Jiang, he finally heaved a sigh of relief.
"At last..."he shouted. "At last..,I got rid of him" He started laughing like a lunatic.
After few moments, he left leaving all the traces of that tragedy at that desolate forest.
Wang Wei saw and heard everything. He was so sorry and disappointed that he couldn't do anything for his master at the moment. When enemies disappeared from the sight, he again started crawling towards the master. When Wang Wei reached him, Wang Wei knelt in-front of his master.
"Master. Master "he called the General anxiously.
General Jiang was lying there, his eyes shut. There were traces of blood, flowed out on his face. There was a deep cut on his chest which must be the last fatal blow.
Taking his master in his arms, leaning master's body over his body, he called master again in a shaky voice.
General Jiang's hand moved a bit, shut eyes opened slightly, slight groan of pain emerged from his mouth. He could see a blurred silhouette in-front of him. He felt that it was familiar but couldn't identify the person in-front of him. He tried to speak but couldn't utter even a word.
Seeing his master, opened his eyes, Wang Wei felt happy.
"Master, master, it's Wang Wei here, "he said eagerly.
"I failed you. Master, I deserve to die "
General Jiang tried lifting his head up, ended up coughing mouthful of blood, his handsome face was weary and pale like a white paper sheet.
Wang Wei helped him lift his head. General Jiang looked at him with his blood shot eyes. Gathering all his strengths,he managed to murmur some words.
"Wang Wei...."
"protect..." gasping for breath, he murmured the last word.
"...my family"
Issuing his final order to his loyal subordinate, General Jiang breathed his last and left the life he managed to hang on until now. General Jiang's head and the hands which were on Wang Wei's hands fell on to a side indicating the departure of a valiant hero.
Wang Wei lost all the reasons he had. His mind was clouded with so much sorrow. He felt so much pain as if a dagger was piercing through his heart. Overwhelmed by anger and desire to revenge, his wail reverberated throughout the woods.
* * * * * *
It was drizzling. Wang Wei buried his master's and other fellow soldiers 'corpses. Among those corpses, he managed to find another two soldiers who had been unconscious but survived and regained the consciousness. Though they were severely wounded, they were still alive.
With them, Wang Wei offered his last respect to his master and fellow subordinates and left for capital as soon as possible because now he had a new mission to complete.
It was drizzling throughout their journey to capital. When they reached the capital, it was already dusk. After dropping his severely wounded fellow subordinates at a doctor's place, Wang Wei left for his master's residence even without having treatments for his own wounds.
The drizzle had turned into a heavy rain. When he reached the master's residence, even before entering the gate he got an ominous feeling. After entering the gate, he saw on the path from the entrance to the courtyard, corpses of the guards of the Jiang household were scattered everywhere confirming his ominous feeling. He rushed towards the inner courtyard wishing that what he is thinking right now might not have happened. But as soon as he reached the courtyard, all his wishes came to an end seeing the pile of corpses scattered everywhere.
All the servants had been killed and their corpses were scattered in a side. Beside those, there was a delicate little figure of a girl lying, drenching in rain. And near that little corpse, there was another slender figure lying in a pool of blood.
He was too late. A sudden unbearable pain surged through his mind. He had failed his master again.He had failed to protect the young miss who was the living heiress of family. He had failed to protect the Lady Jiang who was carrying the unborn heir of the family.
He was frustrated, he was angry, he was disappointed terribly. He knelt in-front of the corpses of Lady Jiang and young miss apologizing, without even minding about the pouring rain.
After sometime, when he finally thought of getting up, he saw among the corpses of servants, someone was moving. He hurriedly got up and rushed towards that moving body. That was a female servant who was serving the lady of the house. She was trying to lift herself up. Wang Wei helped her to get up by taking her head to his lap and talked with her. Although she just gained consciousness, she seemed to identify him or it seemed she wanted to relay a message.
She started muttering some words very hardly. There was a cut near her throat. She muttered some words few times repeatedly in a very faint voice.
"Young...miss...Young....miss....,young .....miss...."
before completing what she said, she again become unconscious .After figuring out the words she was saying, Wang Wei put her there for a bit and went near the corpse of young miss.
After close inspection, he could identify that although these clothes were young miss’s this was not her but her maid Xin er. A tinge of hope surged to his mind.
Wang Wei started searching all the corpes one by one like crazy. He could identify his fellow soldiers’ bodies who were guarding the mansion of General, female guards who were there to assist & protect the lady.And beside them, he could identify their ladyship’s corpse lying, a blood stained dagger was in her folded fingers.It seemed even in this sudden,unexpected massacre,she had not given up without a fight. She indeed deserved to be the "lady of the black drgon". Wang Wei sighed deeply with regret after seeing these. But there was still another important thing he should do. Therefore,leaving all the corrpses behind, he went inside the house and started searching.The house was a mess because during the killing process,the assassins had searched the house too, scattering and breaking the things which got into their hands.He searched every nook and corner very carefully until he noticed a pile of hay in the stable near the Servants' quarters.Although that was a nor
"Yue Er..,are you practicing the embroidery ?" Lady Jiang called her daughter. Yue Er was indeed practicing the basic embroidery techniques her mother taught her, when she heard her mother's voice. She lifted her head from the embroidery she was doing and looked at her mother. "yes mother, I'm practicing. Soon I will be able to do embroidery as good as mother" she replied her mother enthusiastically. After seeing her daughter's enthusiasm, lady Jiang Lin smiled at her happily. "Then, let me see your work" she asked her daughter, coming into her room. It seemed her daughter has practiced really hard because her embroidery had turned into a beautiful Peony flower. "Yue Er…you have done a good job. It is so beautiful. Mother is so proud of you" she praised her daughter. Yin Yue was so happy. "Mother…when I'm able to do embroidery like you, I'm going to embroider a dress for my l
"Mother....!"When Yin Yue woke up screaming ,it was already dawn.The sun has risen.The beams of golden sunlight were coming through the entrance of the cave, brightening the inner surrounding of the dark cave. The smell of roasted meat was spreading everywhere around the cave.Yin Yue sat up and looked around.Wang Wei was sitting infront of the fire, preparing breakfast.Because she screamed ,Wang Wei was looking at her at the moment . "Young miss,you are awake,"Wang Wei casually asked. "Please come here and have something for breakfast. There's no much but I prepared something for breakfast ."Wang Wei said to Yin Yue. He had brought water from a nearby stream and gathered some fresh fruits.He had prepared the rest dried meat too. No more assistance for getting ready in the morning.No more cheerful greetings from Xin Xin,who was her maid and closest friend. Sighing to he
"We can hire a good team of assassins to assassinate General Huang and eliminate his family totally" Wang Wei said with a lowered voice,lowering his head. Ying Yue's eyes turned towards Wang Wei,shooting a sharp glance at him. "Do you think I would allow to do something like that?"although her voice was not high,Wang Wei felt as if those words are booming in his ears. "I dare not.This ignorant servant asks for young miss's forgiveness"he immediately knelt infront of her. Yin Yue calmed down. "I am the daughter of General Jiang Lin.Merely taking their lives is not enough for me.I want them to suffer ,I want them to have the taste of betrayal,I want to disclose their conspiracy to the world and I want to restore my father's and my family's honor"she said with determination. Wang Wei was really surprised for a moment .Yesterday,she was a little girl,frozen with fear and shock but today she is issuing orders as if she is a general in army. "No wonder,it is our master's blood runnin
"Miss,please can you explain what you said before in details?Wang Wei couldn't comprehend what miss said before"He asked very politely. "As I said before ,I want to avenge for my family myself.Of course I need your support.I would be depending on you.But avenging my family would be my responserbility.That is why you would not be the one joining the army but me."Yin Yue explained the first part. "of course,females are not allowed in our Qing empire's army.That is why the one joining the army wouldn't be a female" she explained the second part looking at Wang Wei.From his looks she understood the question he didn't ask. "That is because I'm going to disguise myself as s male" she explained the last part clearing all the confusions.Wang Wei was astonished to the core. He could not imagine how did this little girl's line of thoughts ended up like this.It was an unexpected decision and hard choice from such a little girl.He opened his mouth to protest, explaining the difficulties,but h
That was Wang Wei who was running along the horse.With his amazing running speed,he could catch up with the speed of the horse. Anyone who was watching could not guess even in their dreams that this man who was running fast like a horse might have been severely injured a few days ago. So, while running,suddenly he jumped up very high and leapt on to the horse.The horse seemed to panic once again and speeded up more.But Wang Wei kept hanging on the horse.With the experience of being a horse rider since he was a child,little by little he managed to calm the horse down.Finally ,he led the calmed down horse back to where people were gathered and were talking,exclaiming about the incident took place.As soon as the carriage was stopped,the driver and the servant girl came running.Both of them heaved sigh of relief seeing the carriage back and they thanked him profusely . The girl leapt up the carriage to check the condition of her lady.She was fainted inside the carriage.She came to her
The next day morning, Wang Wei came to escort his young miss out. When he knocked the door, he was asked to come in. When he entered, again he was astonished for a moment. There was no longer his young miss in front of him. Instead of the pretty young girl he knew, there was a cute looking young boy standing there. Wang Wei beheld the boy head to toe. Her hair style had changed, and something was different about her long bright eyes. Except for that, although there was no other visible differences, her appearance had changed considerably. He kept staring at her for another moment. "Uncle Wei, is my appearance weird?" Ying Yue asked awkwardly. "No miss. not at all" Wang Wei replied immediately. "Then why are you staring at me like this?" she asked again. "Instead of a young miss, when a young master appeared in front of me suddenly, I was a bit startled." Wang Wei replied. "Uncle, remember to call by my name from now on. otherwise it would be weird if you call me young miss by chan
The stable of city magistrate was not just one stable with some horses. It could be considered as a stables complex. There were different kind of horses in different places, a horse breeding center, treatment center for treating the ailments of horses and horse training center was there too. Different kind of horses were imported and strong wild horses were caught and detained in there. In the horse breeding center, more capable highbred horses were produced. In the horse training center, horses were tamed and trained as war horses, riding horses, race horses...etc. Wang Wei was the newly appointed in charge of horse training center. First of all, he took a tour around the stable complex to get an idea about each section's activity. As a soldier and the closest bodyguard of late General Jiang Lin, Wang Wei was very familiar with all kind of horses, specially war horses and riding horses. So, it was not hard for him to adjust to his new working environment. As for Yin Yue, that wa