Saving System: Calm Down, My Fleeing Host!

Chapter 389 - 381: Bearing the Burden Forward

After Cheng Xiaoxiao dealt with the last enemy who couldn’t escape, she quickly joined the rescue efforts.

The soldiers who came to the rescue silently gathered the bodies of their comrades.

They didn’t expect the battle outside the city to be even more tragic and brutal than inside.

If the reinforcements hadn’t arrived, the General and his men would surely have been completely wiped out.

Luckily, Miss Cheng suddenly appeared, or else they would have been in dire straits as well.

The brothers who died in battle were all heroes, brave men, who sacrificed their lives heroically to protect the homeland and the people.

They stood their ground to the last moment of their lives, fighting to protect their home.

They are worthy of admiration and reverence.

The soldiers choked up as they closed their eyes for them and gathered their broken bodies.

May they rest in peace in heaven.

While Cheng Xiaoxiao and the Grassland Warriors were slaughtering, Cheng Duhu also dispatched many cavalry, and the remaining cavalry were almost entirely wiped out.

His body had long been overworked, and after dealing with the surrounding cavalry, he collapsed straight down, fortunately, Vice General Lin was not far away and saved him in time.

When carts full of corpses were pulled into the city gates, many recognized their loved ones and rushed forward to weep bitterly.

The scene was once out of control.

The solemn atmosphere was so overwhelming that it brought tears to people’s eyes.

Cheng Xiaoxiao’s nose twitched, and her eyes reddened too, tears inadvertently falling.

In this world, there is no such thing as peace; it is just that someone is carrying the burden for you.

Hmm! Those standing behind are so fortunate to have a group of people ahead who are brave and unafraid of death, shielding them from wind and rain.

This mission has deeply affected her, letting her experience a sense of family and national pride, a towering heroism, all brought to her by these most ordinary soldiers.

They have no profound knowledge, perhaps they can’t even read, and they don’t show rich emotions, nor can they express them, but they dare to expose their chests to spill their hot blood, exhausting the last bit of their body’s value, dragging the enemy to perish together, earning limitless respect and admiration—they are martyrs, heroes worthy of everyone’s pride and praises.

Dragging her heavy footsteps, she led her team back to the General Mansion.

Cheng Duhu and Vice General Luo, having lost too much blood, were severely injured. After Cheng Xiaoxiao’s efforts to save them, they were out of life-threatening danger, but couldn’t wake up for a while.

The memorial service for the soldiers was presided over by Vice General Lin and Cheng Xiaoxiao.

Today, the small town suffered incredibly heavy losses, with more than a thousand soldiers dead, and around fifteen hundred civilians perished in the city.

This reduced the town’s population by a quarter, with two-thirds of the defending soldiers perishing.

Shocking statistics.

For a small frontier town, how many years of recuperation and development would it take to barely resemble a livable place. Now, it’s back to how it was before liberation overnight.

Among the soldiers and civilians who sacrificed, some were able to reunite with their families below, while the surviving broken families mourned their lost loved ones with tears like broken pearls.

At this moment, children who lost their parents had no support, facing the journey of life alone without anyone to shield them from the wind and rain. The elderly who lost their children had no one to mourn them with the rites of passage, aging ten years in an instant, becoming wooden, losing hope in life.

At this moment, wives who lost their husbands had no solid reliance, not knowing where to go, with the future appearing bleak and dark.

The grand funeral procession finally transported the soldiers’ bodies to a temporary burial ground.

Junior family members and relatives followed, dressed in mourning, crying loudly, wailing in lament, bidding their final farewells to their loved ones, placing the few burial items into the grave, finally raising the soil to form a tomb, erecting a monument for memorial.

Placing the mourning pans, incense, candle paper money, burning them in prayer.

In the vast burial ground, the relatives cried helplessly, majestic yet desolate.

The sound of crying and mourning affected everyone present.

The grief wasn’t only among women and children, even the blood-spirited men were in tears.

It was hard to get over the sadness, yet they had no extra time to grieve.

The hardships for those still living have just begun.

After the simple mourning ceremony, there were still many follow-up matters to deal with.

At night, Qiao Town appeared more desolate and dilapidated, with snowflakes swirling and cold winds howling.

The General Mansion was a chaotic scene, as the houses of the civilians were all burnt down.

On such a cold night, they could only crowd into the General Mansion, avoiding the cold wind but not the falling snow. The old, mottled tarpaulin filled the entire yard below the mansion’s walls.

Everywhere in the side rooms, firewood rooms, corridors, and even the stables and martial arts training grounds were crammed with people.

The injured soldiers stayed in side rooms or annexes where wind and rain could be avoided, while the firewood rooms sheltered the elderly and children; the rest stayed in makeshift tents.

Only part of Vice General Lin’s courtyard was burned, so it accommodated some people, and there were the temporary shelters for the gatekeepers, which weren’t burnt down, guarded by uninjured or lightly injured soldiers.

The civilians spontaneously brought all the things they salvaged from the fire to the General Mansion. Some items from their cellars were preserved well and not destroyed by the fire or discovered by the cavalry, and what was preserved became their life-sustaining rations.

Before nightfall, Vice General Lin sent people to search around, but there was no trace of Vice General You, and his house was vacated, with all belongings moved away.

Obviously, he absconded in fear of punishment.

Cheng Xiaoxiao wanted to make a deal with Cheng Duhu, exchanging some of the grassland war horses to temporarily shelter in space.

Once the cold wave was over, her Underground City would be mostly constructed.

The construction of the city above could not wait, requiring rapid development and strong military power to prevent ill-intentioned people from taking advantage of its weakness.

Therefore, war horses were essential, and they just happened to lack food, making it a mutually satisfactory deal.

The grassland war horses were tall and sturdy, with solid muscles, long limbs, clearly having better endurance than Central Plains horses, something she knew well; she had completed several high-difficulty maneuvers before while riding the grassland war horses.

Though her involvement saved the small town, protected their General’s life, and preserved the lives of the remaining soldiers, her contributions were undeniable. But taking without asking is considered theft, and she couldn’t act so ignobly.

Yet the General hadn’t awakened, and Vice General Lin merely deferred, saying he couldn’t make decisions, so she had to patiently stay at the General Mansion for a night.

To quickly achieve her goal and rush to the next mission point, she even used the excellent healing medicine given by Zhou Yanlan and additionally applied her Nine Stopping Powder alongside magical anti-inflammatory drugs, confident the General would awaken tomorrow.

Furthermore, she was full of sincerity, already donating some daily necessities and fine grains to the injured soldiers, the elderly, and the children at no cost.

All those near-death soldiers were saved by her.

With all these accomplishments combined, requesting all the war horses was feasible; still, one should not be too greedy, always leaving others some room, thus she didn’t demand exorbitantly, asking for just fifty horses.

The system rolled its eyes furiously, thinking how big her face could be, given they only captured about 100 horses in total, yet she asked for half.