Traveling back in time to Liu Feng, starting with rescuing soldier Guan Yu.

"Last night," Guan Yinping said, raising her head, "I sneaked in while you were loading the ship."

"I left the maid in the room to impersonate me, then put on this costume and scaled the wall through the back gate of the stable!"

Guan Yinping blinked her phoenix eyes, which shone like morning stars against the backdrop of the blue waves of the Han River.

Liu Feng shook his head and turned to ask Kou Wei, "How far has the boat traveled?"

Kou Wei's voice came from the cabin door: "Reporting to the Deputy General, we have traveled sixty li from Xiangyang. The next ferry crossing is Yunxian, about half a day's water journey from here."

Liu Feng looked at Guan Yinping again.

The boat had already traveled sixty li. To send her back, another boat would have to turn around and go against the current, a round trip that would take at least a day.

The fleet's westward journey was meticulously planned, with each day's progress carefully calculated—food consumption, resupply along the way, and the time to reach Shangyong all affected by the slightest disruption. If one person was delayed by a day, the journey of the entire 3,000 people would be delayed by a day.

"Tanzhi," Liu Feng said, "let her go."

Guan Ping turned his head, his brows furrowed: "Brother!"

"I said let her go."

Guan Ping gritted his teeth and released his grip.

Guan Yinping rubbed her wrist, a hint of smugness flashing in her phoenix eyes. Before she could speak, Liu Feng spoke up.

"Guan Yinping, listen to my command."

Guan Yinping paused for a moment, then subconsciously straightened up.

"From this moment forward, you will be a member of my personal guard. Obtain your armor and weapons from Lieutenant Kou, and your warhorse will be provided upon arrival in Shangyong. You will live and work alongside the army and are not permitted to leave your general's side without permission. Those who disobey orders will be punished according to military law."

Guan Ping suddenly stepped forward: "Brother! She's my sister! This journey through the Wuling Mountains is treacherous; the barbarian tribes haven't submitted, and we could be at war with the enemy at any moment. You're letting her, a woman..."

"Precisely because she is your sister, the daughter of Lord Guan."

Liu Feng's voice wasn't loud, but it silenced Guan Ping's remaining words.

"Tanzhi, when you dragged her out of the cabin, every soldier on board saw her face. If she goes back now, within three days, the whole of Xiangyang will be laughing all the way about the story: 'The daughter of Lord Guan disguised herself as a man and infiltrated the army, only to be escorted back by her brother before even engaging in battle.' You want our spies to talk about the Lord's dignity and the Guan family's reputation?"

Guan Ping opened his mouth, but no sound came out.

"Let her stay."

Liu Feng's gaze shifted to Guan Yinping's face.

"But remember this. You stayed not because you are Guan Yu's daughter, but because you said you could ride a horse, shoot an arrow, and wield a sword, and were no less skilled than any soldier. I'll trust you this once. If you disappoint me, at the next ferry crossing, without your brother escorting you, I will personally escort you back to Xiangyang."

Guan Yinping straightened her chest, her phoenix eyes shining brightly, clasped her hands above her head, and said in a clear and resonant voice, "Yes, sir!"

Guan Ping looked at his sister's flushed face and swallowed back all the words he was about to say.

He walked up to Guan Yinping and whispered four words: "Don't run around."

Guan Yinping nodded heavily, then swept past Guan Ping like a gust of wind and ran up the cabin stairs to find Kou Wei to collect armor and weapons.

Guan Ping watched her disappearing figure at the hatch, his shoulders slowly relaxing. He turned around and exchanged a glance with Liu Feng.

That glance held a helpless anger, a brother's worry, and something deeply hidden, something he himself was unwilling to admit. In all these years, this was the first time he had seen Yinping's eyes shine like that.

Liu Feng walked up to Guan Ping and said softly, "Don't worry, Tanzhi. With Yinping by my side, nothing will go wrong. I am your elder brother, and naturally, I am also Yinping's elder brother!"

Guan Ping nodded emphatically.

The fleet arrived at the Yunxian ferry crossing in the afternoon.

As the sun began to set, it shimmered the surface of the Han River with a golden glow. The boatmen set up the gangplank, and Kou Wei was the first to disembark and set up the defenses. Soldiers from the Wancheng camp disembarked one by one and lined up outside the ferry to wait.

Liu Feng walked in the middle of the group, while Guan Yinping had changed into a well-fitting light armor—it was probably a spare set of armor belonging to some young guard that Kou Wei had found somewhere, and it fit her perfectly.

With a short sword hanging at his waist and his long hair tied up in a leather helmet, he appeared from a distance to be a handsome young guard.

She followed three steps behind Liu Feng, her phoenix eyes scanning the scenery around the ferry crossing. She wanted to take a closer look at everything, but she remembered the military orders and dared not leave without permission.

Just as Liu Feng was about to order the entire army to change horses in order after landing and advance westward, a commotion suddenly broke out on the official road ahead.

It wasn't the sound of soldiers marching in unison, but the cries of the people.

Liu Feng raised his head, his gaze passing over the soldiers in formation and landing on the end of the official road north of the ferry.

There is a cluster of low-rise houses in the village next to the ferry crossing in Yunxian County. The villagers make a living by ferrying people across the river and fishing.

At that moment, several plumes of black smoke were rising from the village; they weren't cooking smoke, but rather the smoke from houses that had been set on fire.

The cries drifted on the wind, clearly audible. It was the old woman's wailing, the child's scream, and the man's muffled groan as he was struck down by the back of a knife.

Liu Feng frowned, then mounted his horse. "Everyone, rest and await further orders! Tanzhi, you are responsible for guarding the surrounding area and protecting Mr. Ji Chang's safety."

After Liu Feng finished speaking, he spurred his horse and charged forward. More than ten personal guards followed closely behind.

"Brother Deputy Commander, I'll go with you too!"

Guan Yinping leaped onto a chestnut horse with swift and decisive movements, displaying the bearing of a daughter of a military family. Guan Ping was about to speak to stop her when Guan Yinping said, "Brother, don't forget, I am your personal guard under the deputy commander. Are you disobeying military orders?"

Guan Ping was speechless for a moment.

Guan Yinping squeezed the horse's flanks with her legs, and the horse's hooves broke through the mud at the ferry, and she quickly followed after it.

The scene in the village struck Liu Feng like a heavy blow. Three houses were set on fire, their thatched roofs warping and collapsing in the flames, sparks flying everywhere and landing on neighboring houses.

An elderly woman with white hair lay face down in the middle of the village road, a gash on her forehead from which blood flowed down her wrinkles and into the soil. Her son—a young fisherman dressed in coarse linen clothes—was trampled on the ground by two men wielding knives, his face pressed against the mud, his mouth stuffed with dirt, unable to make a sound.

Another young woman was dragged out of the burning house, clutching an infant tightly in her arms. She desperately curled up to protect the baby to her chest, while two men pried her arms apart, laughing as they did so.

Guan Yinping's horse was the first to rush into the village entrance.

As she leaped down from her horse, her dagger was already drawn, tip pointing forward, and she shouted sharply, "Stop!"

Her voice was clear but trembled slightly with anger. The men stopped what they were doing, turned around, and then laughed.

It wasn't a laugh born of fear, but a laugh born of finding it funny and being completely indifferent.

The leading man stood up from the low wall by the village road. He was extremely tall, more than half a head taller than the average soldier, with broad shoulders and a thick waist. A full beard ran from his cheekbone to his chin, and beneath his thick eyebrows were a pair of triangular eyes that looked like they were filled with alcohol.

A ring-pommel sword hung at his waist, and a red cloth strip, which he had gotten from who-knows-where, was wrapped around the scabbard.

The armor was neither the standard uniform of Cao Cao's army nor the standard uniform of the Shu Han regular army—it looked more like homemade leather armor, crude yet sturdy, covered with knife marks of varying ages.

"Yo."

The bearded man's gaze first fell on Guan Yinping's face, scrutinizing her from head to toe. A greasy smile appeared in his triangular eyes.

"Where did this handsome young man come from? This is Yunxian territory, what right do you have to draw your sword?"

Guan Yinping's knuckles turned white from gripping the knife so tightly. Just as she was about to step forward, a hand pressed down on her shoulder from behind.

Liu Feng dismounted and pulled her behind him, his gaze sweeping across the village road—three burning houses, an old woman with blood streaming from her forehead, a fisherman trampled in the mud, and a woman being dragged out of the fire while protecting her baby.

Then his gaze fell on the bearded man.

"Whose subordinates are you?"

"Liu Feng asked. His voice wasn't loud, but it drowned out the crackling of the flames and the woman's cries."

The bearded man crossed his arms, tilted his head to look at Liu Feng, and suddenly spat on the ground.

"What do you care whose subordinate I am? I'm handling things in Yunxian County, I don't need to introduce myself to you."

Liu Feng did not ask a second time.

His sword was drawn without any warning, without a shout, without any gathering of strength, and there was not even a sign that the muscles in his shoulders and back were tense.

The knife appeared in his hand, and the back of the blade slammed heavily onto the outside of the bearded man's knee. This strike wasn't with the blade, but with the back—he didn't sheath the knife, but the bearded man's right leg felt as if it had been hit by a hammer; his knee buckled, and he fell to his knees to the side.

At the same time, Liu Feng's left hand reached out, his five fingers gripping the back of the bearded man's neck, pressing his entire face into the mud of the village road.

The bridge of the bearded man's nose struck the gravel with a dull cracking sound, and blood seeped into the mud.

He didn't even have time to draw his sword, or even to shout out a sound.

Liu Feng pressed down on his back with one knee, flipped his long sword, and pressed the tip against the back of his neck.

The whole process took only one breath.

"I'll ask again."

Liu Feng's voice remained low, his tone unchanged, "Whose subordinates are you?"

The bearded man's face was pressed into the mud, and a muffled, shrill growl escaped his throat. His men—five or six knife-wielding men on the village road—recovered from their shock and raised their weapons to attack.

More than twenty guards had taken crossbows from their horses, and twelve crossbows were drawn simultaneously, their cold arrows aimed at the faces of the men.

They stopped in their tracks.

The bearded man struggled in the mud for a few moments, but couldn't break free. Liu Feng's hands gripped the back of his neck like iron hoops, and with each struggle, Liu Feng's knee pressed deeper into his spine. Finally, he stopped struggling, letting out heavy breaths, and then spoke.

"You...you let go!"

His voice, muffled by the earth, carried the indistinctness of a broken nose, yet still possessed a certain strength that seemed to come from nowhere.

"Do you even know who I work for? I work for Deputy Commander Liu! Under General Kou! This is our territory, and you dare to act so arrogantly on our turf? You're asking for trouble!"