Chapter 721: The Daughter of the Xun Clan, Despair Amidst Hope!【1】

One day later, Yingyin.

At this time, the four gates of Yingyin County were open.

The once-prosperous streets were in a state of utter disarray.

The front doors of shops on both sides of the long street had been violently smashed, and items of no value inside had been tossed out onto the street.

The vast majority of the front doors of the commoners' homes were standing open.

The courtyards were empty.

Wherever the Huang Jin passed, most of the commoners in the cities they breached who had not yet fled were coerced into joining their ranks.

At this moment, in the wealthy district located in the east of the city.

Countless high-walled mansions had their gates tightly shut.

The courtyard walls of these fortified manors built within the city were almost as tall as the city walls themselves.

The gates were thick and heavy, and soldiers and guards armed with bows and arrows stood upon the walls; the massive residential complexes were surrounded by towering watchtowers, resembling small castles.

A large number of Huang Jin soldiers were currently gathered around a fortified manor whose porch plaque had fallen to the ground.

There were no fewer than a thousand of them.

On the plaque that had fallen from the porch, the two characters for 'Xun Clan' could still be faintly discerned.

On the walls surrounding the manor, over a thousand retainers, servants, and private soldiers stood with various weapons in hand.

Outside the manor, Huang Jin soldiers were clamoring for them to open the gates immediately.

The retainers and private soldiers on the walls looked extremely tense.

Inside the main hall of the Xun Clan manor.

Almost all the members of the Xun clan were gathered in the hall.

The nearly sixty-year-old Xun Shuang sat upright in the main seat.

To his left and right sat the younger generation of the Xun clan in order of seniority.

Dressed in a grey robe, Xun Shuang frowned, one hand resting on his chair, as he turned his head to look at Xun Yu, who was standing not far away.

"Wenruo, is there still no news of Cai'er?" Xun Shuang asked.

Xun Yu shook his head and said, "Uncle, the people we sent out several times before have not returned; they must have been intercepted by the Huang Jin bandits outside."

Hearing this, Xun Shuang shook his head and sighed, "Forget it, do not send anyone else out. Life and death are fated... let us consider it her fortune."

The hall fell into silence.

Xun Yu took a deep breath, stepped forward half a pace, and said, "Uncle, the troops of the Left General of the Household and the Right General of the Household should arrive in Yingyin very soon. As long as my cousin is not in the city, she may not necessarily be in danger."

"Uncle, please set your mind at ease."

Xun Shuang let out a long sigh and then nodded.

"We cannot pin all our hopes on others; we must still take precautions."

"The safety of the entire Xun clan is tied to this manor."

"Do not be careless and give the Huang Jin bandits an opportunity."

"If not for carelessness, how could the bandits have entered Yingyin so easily?"

"Wenruo, Gongda, you two divide the work of patrolling the manor's defenses, and take out more money and grain from the treasury to reward the men."

Xun Yu, Xun You, and the other clansmen standing below Xun Shuang all nodded in agreement.

At a Xunshui Pavilion more than ten li outside Yingyin City.

At this moment, the area between the scattered houses was a scene of total devastation.

The dozens of households originally in Xunshui Pavilion were all empty.

Although it was near noon, Xunshui Pavilion was silent and soundless.

There were only some residual bloodstains and corpses on the ground.

Every house had its doors wide open, and both the courtyards and the interiors had been ransacked and left in a mess.

Anything of value that could be taken had basically been taken.

Only useless items and empty houses remained.

To the east of Xunshui Pavilion.

A group of several people cautiously walked toward the pavilion.

Among them was a young, beautiful woman dressed in a gorgeous long dress.

There were also two attendants in grey robes holding wooden clubs, and one maidservant.

The young woman was about twenty years old and was holding a little girl of two or three in her arms.

The five of them were cautiously approaching Xunshui Pavilion.

The young woman held her daughter tightly, her eyes scanning the surroundings vigilantly, her pretty face filled with lingering fear.

Only the two or three-year-old girl in her mother's arms was looking around with a pair of curious, wide eyes.

"Miss, it seems there is no one in this pavilion; it looks like the bandits came through and coerced all the commoners here away," said the attendant walking in front after observing the area.

The young woman nodded slightly.

"Miss, why don't we rest here and hide for a while?" the attendant continued. "Since those bandits have already been here, they shouldn't come back."

"If we hide here, we can avoid being discovered by the bandits."

After thinking for a moment, the young woman nodded. "Very well, let us stay here. You go and see if there is any food left; Nian'er is hungry."

The attendants and the maid nodded and cautiously walked into Xunshui Pavilion.

Before long, they found a courtyard that was relatively clean and free of bloodstains or corpses.

One of the attendants went out to look for water and food.

The other attendant closed the courtyard gate and rested behind it, holding a wooden club.

The maid took the little girl from the young woman's arms.

"Miss, should we go back to the city to see if the bandits have retreated, or find a way to let the manor know we are here?" the maid asked in a low voice.

Xun Cai, sitting on a small stool, shook her head gently and said, "No need. The bandits surely haven't retreated yet."

"If the bandits had retreated, my father would certainly have sent people to search for us."

"Let us wait here for now; once the imperial army arrives in a couple of days, we will be fine..."

"Miss!"

"Miss!"

"Run! There are bandits! Bandits are coming this way!"

Just as Xun Cai finished speaking, a loud shout came from outside the courtyard.

The attendant who had just gone out to find water was sprinting wildly, still clutching a clay pot filled with water.

As he ran, he kept looking back over his shoulder.

Behind him.

A squad of more than a dozen Huang Jin bandits armed with swords and blades was in hot pursuit.

And further behind them were even more Huang Jin bandits.

It looked like there were as many as a thousand of them.

A thousand Huang Jin bandits were escorting hundreds of carts and horses, heading straight in the direction of Xunshui Pavilion.

The long procession formed a dragon-like line outside Xunshui Pavilion. ===== CHAPTER 723 =====

A long line formed into a dragon outside the Xunshui Pavilion.