After saving the Empress, I became the top scholar in the imperial examination.

Whoosh, the cold wind howled across the plain.

A withered clover was trampled into the ground by a horse's hoof.

As the wind blew, it stubbornly straightened up slowly again.

The smells of burnt tents, horse manure, and blood wafted into Tiger Crouching Mountain on the cold wind.

Hearing the sound and smelling the burning, the wild animals in the mountains twitched their noses, raised their heads, and involuntarily trodden out a path of fallen leaves and dry branches, fleeing in panic into the deep mountains.

In the night before dawn, the bright moon hung in the sky, but the sky was still dark.

The young general, wearing a phoenix-winged helmet, lifted the still furiously glaring head with one hand, looked at it, and clicked his tongue twice.

Then, with a flick of his wrist, he handed it to the servant attending him, saying:

"Pickle it thoroughly with lime."

Zhang Shuijing, his face covered in blood and having reaped two heads tonight, hurriedly accepted the heads with both hands and nodded, saying:

"Yes, young master."

The simple young man, participating in the battle for the first time, spoke excitedly, his face still flushed with excitement.

He turned his back, stepped over the corpses on the ground, and ran towards the horses. His black armor was patchy in the moonlight.

The darker parts are naturally stained with blood.

It was also his first time, but it was the first time that Prince Consort Ning had commanded a hundred men in battle. Staring at the headless corpse on the ground, which was eight feet tall but now a foot shorter, he couldn't help but take a silent breath.

The Tartar soldiers were indeed difficult to kill.

The Green Standard Army soldiers were not useless either.

The gunpowder and flintlock muskets of the Northern Dynasties also had their unique features.

In this battle, our side had a numerical advantage, had eliminated the enemy cavalry in advance, and had the help of the Crescent Moon Bow and the newly made flintlock musket.

The casualties were also considerable.

Qian Sijin led twenty Imperial Guards who charged forward. He had been watching from behind and saw at least five of them get hit by enemy spears, fall off their horses, and their fates were unknown.

The campsite was noisy.

All the battalions sprang into action as he instructed.

The remaining cavalry of Jiangpu Army were responsible for defending the surrounding area.

The remaining cavalry of the Brave Guard, carrying torches, were responsible for recovering the horses, eliminating any enemies who might escape, and preparing for the return of the mission.

For example, several horse-drawn carts were harnessed to transport wounded soldiers.

Chen San led the Heavenly Principle Sect members to clean up the battlefield. They stripped the enemies of their clothes, armor, and money.

Following Ning Nan's instructions, the people responsible for piling up the corpses, carrying the corpses, and digging up the corpses were all separated.

Those who exhume corpses must not keep any personal belongings on their persons; all spoils shall be confiscated and turned over to the public.

A portion of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was responsible for recording the names of their deceased comrades and sealing their belongings, including those of the Heavenly Principle Sect.

Qian Sijin, who had taken at least seven lives tonight, was leading another group of Imperial Guards to record the merits, with each head rewarded with twenty taels of silver.

If it's unclear who killed him, remember the people around at the time and divide the twenty taels equally.

One hundred taels of silver was given as a pension for the deceased, and his family members received pensions every year thereafter.

Du Gui, accompanied by a servant, set up a table and was collecting the Crescent Moon Bow and recording its usage and damage.

The cavalrymen then came one by one to hand over the Crescent Moon Bow.

Several servants and men from the Heavenly Principle Sect were boiling water to treat the wounded...

At the foot of Tiger Crouching Mountain, the entire campsite has been brought into order.

As for Erlai and Sanzhuang, they were blocking the entrance of a cave, waiting for him to come and deal with the people inside.

According to his plan, their actions had to be swift, and they had to evacuate no more than half an hour after sunrise.

Otherwise, if they were discovered by the Northern Dynasty scouts, they would be at risk of being surrounded.

The cold wind blew against my face.

The boiling blood slowly cooled down.

In the camp, there were bursts of "heave-ho!" as corpses were being carried, curses escaping from the pain of injuries, and grumbling and protests as merits were being awarded.

And the questions from the remaining members of the Heavenly Principle Sect… “We also get a silver reward?”, “Brother, are you sure you’re not mistaken…?”, “Altar Master Chen!”, “Incense Master Liu…”

After standing in the wind for a while, his senses slowly returned, and he realized that his back was covered in sweat, sticky and clinging to his clothes.

Wearing armor made movement somewhat uncomfortable.

"The Grand Prince Consort..."

A cautious call came from beside her, interrupting Ning Nan's thoughts.

He looked up and saw Zheng Xiao, the commander of the Jiangpu Army.

Zheng Xiao was in his early thirties, with a square face and a broken left eyebrow. The fact that he could be appointed as a commander at such a young age was enough to show that he was very capable and had made great military achievements.

"Your Highness, I have already set up sentry posts on all four sides, spread out for three or four miles, in groups of three. If any Tartar scouts arrive, they will surely give a warning."

Ning Nan nodded, shod his feet in soap shoes on the withered yellow soil, rubbing away the bloodstains beneath his feet.

"Commander Zheng, what is the situation regarding casualties in Jiangpu?"

"To the Prince Consort!"

Zheng Xiao cupped his hands in greeting, raised his eyebrows, and said with a slightly excited voice,

"Three soldiers were killed and five wounded in the Jiangpu battle! This humble servant congratulates the Prince Consort! To have led our army to such a great victory so early in your career!"

Zheng Qianzong, who had been secretly worried and apprehensive the whole way, was now breathing rapidly and his eyes were filled with inexplicable excitement.

"We won! We actually won!"

His heart pounded like a drum, and he felt that if Jiangpu Jun were to write the battle report, this battle could be described as follows:

"They routed over a thousand enemy soldiers, killing over two hundred in battle!"

Ning Nan took a few steps toward him, trampling down the grass on the plain, and laughed:

"Commander Zheng, I'm recommending you for commendation. You can expect to be promoted to garrison commander or captain."

Zheng Xiao was taken aback, but his face immediately lit up with surprise.

He cried out, "This humble servant kowtows in gratitude to the Great Prince Consort!"

He made a move to kneel down and express his gratitude.

Ning Nan pulled on the fully armored cavalry commander, supporting him with a sigh, and said helplessly:

"No need for thanks. Go to Commander Qian and report all the achievements of your cavalry. For the brothers who died in battle, add a few more heads. As long as the total doesn't exceed two hundred, Commander Qian will take care of it. I'll reward you all, with money and official titles."

Well, he'll pay for it himself, but he'll ask his wife for the official position.

Zheng Xiao paused, his eyes stinging, and quickly clasped his hands in a low voice, saying:

"On behalf of Zheng Xiao, my comrades who died in battle... I thank you, Your Highness..."

Ning Nan waved his hand: "Go ahead."

The camp was bustling with activity.

He held the sword at his waist, with only Wang Xiao following behind him.

He strode to the right side of the camp and went to check on Du Gui's situation.

Du Gui was not very literate, and only knew the common characters.

Fortunately, the newly arrived servant Jiang Kui was literate. So, when Du Gui asked a question, Jiang Kui wrote it down with lightning speed.

"Forty-two crescent bows have been recovered. Among them, two cavalrymen said that the string would break as soon as it was pulled, so they quickly replaced it with an old bow."

"Seven strings came loose after only five pulls. Three strings broke after about ten pulls, but they couldn't remember exactly how many pulls they took."

"There's another one where the bow body is broken, but I don't know if it broke during transport..."

As Ning Nan looked through these records, Du Gui reported them to him fluently.

"Without a factory to support it, relying solely on experienced craftsmen will inevitably result in such inconsistent quality." He listened for a while and then nodded silently.

He instructed Du Gui to organize these carefully and then send them to the capital through the Embroidered Uniform Guard to the Bureau of New Weapons.

He turned and went to the makeshift open-air camp for wounded soldiers.

The temporary medics were using an iron pot left behind by the Tartar and Green Standard Army soldiers to boil water and tear off some gauze to bandage everyone.

Five members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard were killed in action, three were slightly wounded, and one was seriously wounded.

All the injuries are here.

He glanced around and recognized many familiar faces. Besides the Imperial Guards, there was also a seriously injured servant who had followed the two rascals in their surprise attack.

The two cavalry units suffered a total of eight dead and eleven wounded.

The injured person was fully armored and not seriously injured.

The Heavenly Principle Sect suffered the most.