A group of people clashed for a while, and before Gu Lan could exchange blows with the Black-clothed Commander, she heard him shout:
"It's pointless, retreat!"
The black-clad, masked men immediately regrouped and disappeared into the dense forest.
It was as if a band of bandits had passed through, leaving nothing but corpses and wounded soldiers unable to move.
Gasping for breath, Gu Lan turned back to see that of the more than thirty imperial guards who had escorted her from the capital, only about ten remained on horseback; the rest were on the ground, injured, half-alive.
In contrast, the thirty-odd guards of the Empress Dowager, though initially frightened out of their wits, only suffered some light wounds.
It seemed these black-clad men's target was herself, but they hadn't expected that she and Rong Heng would be so formidable, forcing them to flee mid-battle.
This play is not entertaining.
