The man, his face twitching with anger, was about to lash out at Lu Qingwan and the Xuanjia Army soldiers behind her.
Lu Qingwan's steel whip pressed firmly against the Northern Wei youth's saber-holding hand. "They say Northern Wei values honor and integrity above all. Even in a life-or-death battle, it's blade against blade, spear against spear. You never take advantage of someone's vulnerability. I, to show my sincerity, had my soldiers lay down their arms. And yet, you draw your blades against them at this very moment. Is this the spirit of a Northern Wei warrior?"
The man's expression faltered. It was at this precise moment that Lu Qingwan, with lightning speed, surged into the crowd. To everyone's astonishment, she dragged out a burly man who had been stirring up trouble and instigating chaos. With a swift swing, she tossed him to the ground like a sack.
Ignoring the panicked shouts of the Northern Wei civilians, she placed a foot on the man's chest and loudly inquired, "Does anyone recognize him?"
The crowd exchanged bewildered glances, then shook their heads repeatedly. "Who is this? We've never seen him before."
"Indeed. He's not from our banner. What is he doing here at a time like this?"
Amidst the murmurs of suspicion, a little girl, her eyes wide with dawning realization, exclaimed, "Ah, I remember! His name is Bao Rige. He was the one who told us the Xuanjia Army was going to massacre the city and urged us to run!"
The girl's voice was like an angel's to Lu Qingwan's ears. And this angelic voice proved to have even more power. After she identified the man named Bao Rige, many local civilians also began to speak up.
"That's right. It seems he was the one shouting about the Xuanjia Army massacring the city when Qi Qige and the others were attacked. If not for him, we wouldn't have known the difference between Great Qian soldiers and the Xuanjia Army!"
"Indeed, where did he come from?"
The Northern Wei civilians, though terrified by the fall of their nation, were not foolish. How could they not see through this deception now?
Seeing the villagers' growing suspicion towards Bao Rige, Lu Qingwan suddenly reached up to touch his chin. The man felt something and struggled violently. However, with Lu Qingwan's foot on his chest, even with all his might, he thrashed like a salted fish pinned to the ground, only his limbs and head flailing.
"Stay put!"
Lu Qingwan landed a punch on his jaw with such force that before the man could even utter a cry, he transformed from a flailing fish into a lifeless, flat one. The Xuanjia Army soldiers and Northern Wei civilians nearby flinched and took a step back in fear.
Lu Qingwan, oblivious, meticulously searched the man's hairline. With a fierce tug, the face that had the distinct appearance of a Northern Wei man of the steppes was ripped away. What was revealed to everyone's gaze was a sun-tanned face resembling that of a Great Qian person. Apart from a slightly broad face, there was not a trace of Northern Wei features.
Lu Qingwan held up the mask, which was sickening to behold, and swung it. "See? From killing and arson in the city, spreading rumors of a massacre, to deliberately disguising himself and infiltrating your ranks to cause chaos – all of this was orchestrated. If you believed them even a little, you fell into their trap."
With the facts laid bare, the Northern Wei civilians could no longer deny the truth. But soon, a new problem arose.
"Even if the Xuanjia Army didn't kill our loved ones, these people disguised as Xuanjia Army soldiers killing people clearly shows they were targeting you. We were merely caught in the crossfire. Now, our loved ones are dead, our homes are destroyed, and our possessions have been looted. What are we to do?"
This question was both a genuine inquiry and a veiled threat. The implication was that the Xuanjia Army's attack on Guihua City had led to the current situation. Even if these individuals weren't killed by the Xuanjia Army, and their homes weren't burned by them, and their property wasn't looted by them, Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu's Xuanjia Army still had to be held responsible for their losses.
Lu Qingwan looked at this group of seemingly innocent, yet cunningly calculating foreign civilians and found it amusing. They said Northern Wei people were barbaric and ignorant. But look at these people, weren't they quite intelligent?
She watched as the Xuanjia Army soldiers and the Northern Wei civilians stood in a standoff, on the verge of a fight. Without mincing words, she asked directly, "You want us to protect your lives and property, help you rebuild your homes, and reclaim your wealth?"
The word "help" was a dagger to the Northern Wei people's pride. Hearing Lu Qingwan speak fluent Northern Wei dialect and seeing her apprehend the troublemaker, the Northern Wei people might have naively thought she was easy to deal with. Upon hearing her words, their expressions changed dramatically. "What do you mean, 'we want you to protect our lives and property, help us rebuild our homes, and reclaim our wealth'? Wasn't it the danger brought about by your attack on Guihua City that threatened our lives, destroyed our homes, and damaged our wealth? Isn't all this something you should be doing? The Qin King's Consort keeps saying 'we hope' and 'help us'... are you trying to make the people of Wei be grateful to you and Si Fengwu?"
The speaker was a Northern Wei man, appearing to be around forty. Although Northern Wei people aged prematurely, Lu Qingwan couldn't be sure of his exact age, but that wasn't important. She raised her whip and struck. The man fell to his knees on the spot, clutching his mouth, which had been grazed by the whip's tip. He glared at Lu Qingwan with his brown eyes and roared, "You dare strike me? I am a subject of the Sky Wolf God. You are so cruel, the Sky Wolf God will punish you..."
"Punish?"
Lu Qingwan took a saber from a nearby soldier. Without drawing the blade, she used the scabbard to lift the man's chin. "Did your Sky Wolf God ever tell you not to invade other nations lightly?" Her earlier easy-going demeanor vanished, replaced by a chilling coldness. "When others attacked you, you cried out in pain and injustice, trying to gain sympathy from me. And now, the fact that my Xuanjia Army protects you, helps you rebuild your homes, and reclaim your wealth has become something you expect. But did any of you ever consider that for the past several decades, every time the Northern Wei cavalry rode into Great Qian, the border villages of Great Qian were left devastated, families torn apart? For three hundred years, intermittently, did the Wei people ever say they would protect the lives of Great Qian people, return their property, or rebuild their homes?"
The Northern Wei's reputation for universal conscription was well-known. Of those present, especially the young and middle-aged men, nine out of ten had likely participated in invading Great Qian. The reason they dared to challenge Lu Qingwan was simply because they saw her as someone easy to bully. The people of Northern Wei, Xiliang, and Yunqiang had always disdained the Great Qian people as weak, yet they coveted Great Qian's vast fertile lands, silks, and teas. Even now, they hadn't grasped the situation and still believed that Lu Qingwan and Si Fengwu, like the officials of Great Qian before them, would be hesitant and dare not truly fight back, even if they occasionally won a battle, out of fear of the fierce Northern Wei warriors.