Gu Yan Chen had little experience with post-disaster reconstruction and was not good at comforting the populace. All he could do was help Salt City set up guard posts. This way, if the Japanese pirates attacked again, they wouldn't be caught off guard and easily defeated.
The problem was that Salt City already had few soldiers, and more than half of them were lost this time. Most of the survivors had hidden when the situation turned unfavorable.
He had personally experienced the brutality of the Japanese pirates. It was normal for these soldiers, accustomed to a life of ease, to retreat.
But such men were not worthy of the title "soldier." In his opinion, deserting the battlefield and abandoning the common people should have earned them a firing squad. But that was impossible; with so few soldiers left, who would defend the city if he executed these men?
Helpless, he could only leave two hundred of his newly trained soldiers behind and set up recruitment posts.
Xiao Shan Guard had also suffered significant losses this time. Giving away another two hundred soldiers now, his heart felt numb with pain. Even though Governor Feng praised him repeatedly, and most of the credit in the report went to him, he couldn't feel happy.
After completing what he considered his duty, he decisively chose to go home.
He hadn't been home for a full eight days. Although he had sent word back with Xiao Wuzi and learned that everything was fine at home, he still yearned to return. With a flick of his whip, his horse, like an arrow loosed from a bow, galloped forward. The troop behind him was left far behind, eventually forcing Meng Chang Dong to lead them back to the guard post.
The horse neighed.
The gatekeeper was overjoyed and, shouting "The son-in-law has returned home!", ran towards Ji Yue Xuan.
Before long, Lu Nian Fu hurried out. As soon as she stepped out of the hanging flower gate, she saw a man walking quickly towards her. He was darker and thinner, his beard unkempt, clearly having had no time to groom himself, but he was still the man she knew.
Even from five paces away, she could smell his unique scent.
Their eyes met, and Gu Yan Chen was the first to offer a reassuring smile. "You must have been worried these past few days, right?"
Lu Nian Fu hummed in agreement. "I heard there was a war. Are you injured?"
"Don't worry, your husband is highly skilled in martial arts. I was the one who killed the pirate leader, a fellow named Tuo Bian Shu Ren. I had his corpse hung outside Salt City's walls as a warning. It's probably dried by now."
Lu Nian Fu shivered.
Gu Yan Chen regretted it slightly. His delicate little wife was not like the gruff soldiers in the camp. How could she handle such talk? He reached out and pulled her closer. "Are you scared?"
"No. I heard those Japanese pirates burned, killed, and looted, committing all sorts of atrocities. They deserved to die."
"That's right." Gu Yan Chen's teeth chattered as he thought of Salt City's tragic state. Those people were not human; they were beasts. Whether it was the northern frontiers or the southern barbarians, they had committed their share of burning and looting when they broke through cities, but these Japanese pirates didn't just kill; they tortured.
Many of the corpses were so mangled that even their closest relatives dared not identify them.
In just three days, they had caused such immense harm. If it had been a few more days, no one might have survived in Salt City.
When lips are cold, teeth are chilled. Gu Yan Chen looked at his wife in his arms and suddenly said, "Perhaps I should send you to the capital first?"
Lu Nian Fu blinked, looked up at him, and didn't understand why he brought this up.
Gu Yan Chen held her hand and led her inside before explaining, "You know I'm from the capital. My family has a modest fortune. Although I'm a concubine's son, I have my own courtyard. It's small, but it's much safer than Yangzhou. At least the Japanese pirates couldn't breach the city."
"I don't want to go to the capital."
"I understand. You grew up here, and your friends and family are all here. Suddenly having to live in an unfamiliar place would indeed be frightening." Gu Yan Chen actually regretted speaking as soon as the words left his mouth.
His legal mother considered him a thorn in her side and had always tried to hinder his progress. Now that he had quietly become a fifth-rank official, surpassing her two sons, she must be incredibly angry. If he didn't return to the capital but sent his wife back, he would be handing her over to be her punching bag.
He rubbed his forehead. "Let me think about this further."
Lu Nian Fu chuckled. "What's there to think about? You should go wash up first. Look at you. If you weren't wearing a military uniform, you'd be indistinguishable from a beggar on the street. Qing Ya, have someone prepare two large buckets of hot water for your master to soak in."
She actually wanted to get some pomelo leaves to ward off bad luck for him.
But how could she bring bad luck to a man who had won a battle? It was more fitting to set off firecrackers to celebrate.
The kitchen worked quickly, and two large buckets of hot water were soon brought into the room. Lu Nian Fu thoughtfully asked, "How about letting Xiao Wuzi stay and help you scrub your back?"
Gu Yan Chen glanced at her. "Tsk tsk, do you have any sense of being a wife? How can you ask Xiao Wuzi to do this?"
Lu Nian Fu's pretty face flushed red. She cursed him for being improper and hurried out.
Helping him scrub was impossible, at least not now.
Gu Yan Chen looked at her flustered retreating figure and gritted his teeth, thinking, "Once you're out of the mourning period, I'll settle these scores one by one."