Yang Xian's Residence was quite large. Considering that he had been bestowed with noble's title by Ji Sheng, Wei Liuying didn't find it to be strange. However, the lack of human's presence baffled her.

In this large residence, there was only her and Yang Xian?

"I don't like servants," Yang Xian said bluntly. He used to be commoners, so he disliked the thought of having servants serving him all the time. "The house where I reside is not that big. I used the rest of the place for forest and garden."

Looking at the not so big house, Wei Liuying felt that Yang Xian truly didn't know how to use the space properly. The house was barely using one tenth of the entire area's size. Even then, it was a house with several rooms and also spacious hall in the middle area.

This was small?

Yang Xian seemed to notice Wei Liuying's inquiry. He yawned. "There's no need to put on that look. I originally ask for a smaller place, but Sheng didn't allow me. There's no other choice but to use this place."

"I see…"

"There's only one bathroom. You can use it first and change to a more comfortable clothing. I'll cook some food."

"Ok."

Both of them could cook, but since Yang Xian volunteered, Wei Liuying would not bother. She did feel a bit sticky after a long ride without taking a bath, so she took her spare clothes that Yang Xian had prepared and headed to the bathroom. The bathroom was consisted of a tube and screen along with several other utensils.

Wei Liuying was glad that she had gotten used to take a bath by herself for some time. That way, she didn't need to worry about the lack of servants in this place in the slightest bit.

'The only one I can trust is myself, huh?'

Somehow, that was the feeling that she got when she looked at how sparse the servants in this place were. Now that they were talking about servants, she hadn't asked Shi Yan about Xiao Qing. Back when they were in Dong Shan City, she hadn't seen Xiao Qing too. She could only hope that there was nothing bad happened to her.

Wei Liuying finished taking her bath and walked back to the other room. She could see Yang Xian had finished making simple soup with radish and carrots.

"I only have these ingredients, so help yourself."

"Do you pick them from the back garden?"

"Yep. There are a lot of vegetables and many others growing there."

Wei Liuying was speechless. Looking at the radishes he put on the table, she truly wondered how did it manage to grow in the first place with no one tending the plants? However, she chose not to think too much and began to eat. The soup was not that bad.

"There are several rooms here. You can pick the one you want to use. I usually use the one at the center."

"Ok."

Since Yang Xian picked the center, Wei Liuying chose the one by his left. The room was left untouched for a long time, so dust have been piling up. Not that she minded as she cleaned up the room for a moment then slept on the bed. She's tired.

…

The next day, Wei Liuying was the one who cooked before the two of them went out. She had to make sure that she woke up before the sun rise and rushed to the city's North gate. There were already a lot of soldiers there, ready to depart.

"Liu Ying," Commander Zhao called out. "We'll depart now."

"Yes, Commander."

Wei Liuying joined with the soldiers and rode on a horse. Some soldiers were looking at her with curiosity, but they didn't question Commander Zhao's decision.

"ONWARDS!"

Following the commander, the soldiers began to move out of the city. The gate was opened as there was no war currently. When there was a war, they would put large stone to block the gate aside from closing the door to make sure that the enemies wouldn't be able to break it so easily.

Chilly wind slapped Wei Liuying's cheek. She had worn thick robe for this trip, but she didn't expect that the North was colder than her expectation. As the sun rise, she could finally see the terrain better.

The area was both like dry lands and plains.

The ground was dry and the wind were chilling. There were barely any plants around as water was sparse. During summer, many water source had dried up because of the scorching heat.

"Is this your first time coming to the North?"

"Yes," Wei Liuying replied truthfully.

Commander Zhao nodded. He could see that Wei Liuying was analyzing everything around her calmly. There was no trace of hesitation in her action at all. It was as if she was already in the battle mode from the time she appeared.

"We'll be circling the West part from Prince Ji Sheng's City."

"Prince Ji Sheng's City?"

"The city is made by His Highness after he expanded the territory this far," Commander Zhao explained. "It took around two years to build it this big and also migrating some people to fill the space in order to develop it to be a proper city."

"I see."

The expansion of one's territory was done by making cities. Wei Liuying had heard about this from the books, but she didn't expect that the time they needed to build the cities were this short.

"There are several other cities that were under construction not far from Dong Shan City. We should be able to see the result by the end of this year," Commander Zhao added.

Wei Liuying nodded. Adding more cities were also another way to strengthen one's territory. If their enemies wanted to completely eliminate Han Shi Kingdom, they would have to eliminate the cities and captured them. If they didn't do so, they would be placing themselves in danger in case there were soldiers placed in the city.

Even a group of soldiers can give great damage if they were to give sudden attack.

Enemies caught unprepared was more vulnerable than attacking enemies when they were prepared.

"Are you surveying, Apprentice Strategist Liu?"

"Yes. I need to make sure I'm familiar with the area and memorized everything on our way," Wei Liuying replied. If she didn't know the terrain, she wouldn't be able to make proper strategy to make sure that they would not lose in the battle.

Commander Zhao nodded. He had seen Yang Xian when the boy was still young. He was also doing something similar to Wei Liuying when he was first brought to the battlefield a few years ago. At that time, he was even younger than the current Wei Liuying, yet he insisted to participate in the battle.

The wind blew.

Wei Liuying raised her head and frowned. The atmosphere changed suddenly or was it because she was so tense because of her careful nature she had developed back in the Capital City?

"There's an attack nearby," Commander Zhao said suddenly. "Men! Let's move."

"Yes, Commander!"

At this time, Wei Liuying chose to stay silent and followed the commander. She only felt the air changed a bit, but Commander Zhao could determine that there was a battle nearby. It seemed that her knowledge was still very lacking when she compared herself to Commander Zhao.

She still needed to learn a lot.

Clang! Clang! Kyaaa!

The sound of battle soon entered Wei Liuying's ear. From a distance away, she could see a city was under attack. Numerous soldiers were waving their weapons and tried to break into the city.

"Men! We're going to make force breakthrough."

"Wait! If you just charge inside, you'll destroy the lands."

"Is this really the time to worry about that?" Commander Zhao looked at Wei Liuying with annoyance.

Wei Liuying didn't fall back. "From our direction, the closest angle will bring us straight to the people's field. Rather than attacking directly, and letting the attackers run from the other side, why not we split into two with the archers attacked first from this side and Commander Zhao entered from the main entrance?"

"Wha…."

Commander Zhao made the simulation in his head. When he came out, he only brought one third of his men, but there were still around 300 archers that he brought along. The rest were all cavalries who rode horse. Positioning archers would take time and he would have to circle a bit to trap the men.

"Do you think they can hold on that long?"

"Yes." There was no hesitation in Wei Liuying's eyes when she replied. She could see that the soldiers placed in that city was still defending and the gate was not breached. They had to make sure that they could capture the most of their enemies.

'Interesting.'

Commander Zhao heard from Ji Sheng that this was Wei Liuying's first time going to head into battle, but the clear gaze in her eyes reminded him of two people. The two of them could make people tremble in fear just from hearing their names.

Their two leaders.