Beichen Yuan had never experienced such speed before. He had ridden the fastest warhorses, yet none of them could compare to this.

Once they got onto the official road, Gu Qingwan pushed the speed up to a hundred.

But since the road wasn’t entirely smooth, she let Beichen Yuan feel the thrill for a moment before lowering it back down to sixty.

Today, following Gu Qingwan truly opened Beichen Yuan’s eyes.

The more he learned about her, the more distant she seemed from him. He almost wished she were still the way she used to be.

After sending Beichen Yuan into the city, Gu Qingwan helped him tend to his wounds.
It was still dark, and the military doctors were probably still asleep.

Beichen Yuan didn’t want to trouble them, so he asked Gu Qingwan to do a quick bandage.

She didn’t refuse. After all, she had a medical kit in her space. After the battle, Beichen Yuan’s back wound had started seeping blood again.

Besides that frightening gash, his body was covered in numerous scars, some deep, some shallow, crisscrossed over his skin.

Gu Qingwan frowned as she looked at those scars.

She disinfected the wound with iodine and then applied modern medicinal powder that stopped the bleeding quickly.

She wrapped gauze around his back a few times and tied it off. Because his back was to her, Beichen Yuan couldn’t see her expression.

When she moved on to the wound on his arm, Gu Qingwan stood in front of him.
Beichen Yuan sat at the edge of the bed while she bent over slightly to clean his wound.

“Don’t get the wound wet for the next few days,” she reminded him.

But Beichen Yuan just stared at her intensely.

The words “Would you marry me?” were on the tip of his tongue, but he couldn’t say them.

With enemy troops at Yanzhou City’s doorstep and his own life uncertain, it felt irresponsible to say something like that right now.

After tending to his wounds, Gu Qingwan dumped the corpses back at Beichen Yuan’s camp and finally left Yanzhou City.

Beichen Yuan had the bodies burned and the salvaged weapons kept—they could still be used.

Just after leaving the city, Gu Qingwan realized she was being followed.
Luckily, it was only two people, and she quickly dealt with them.

Time was tight, and the mission was urgent. Now that Beichen Yuan also wanted the batch of weapons, she had to speed up.

Though the repeating crossbows weren’t as powerful as modern firearms,
they were still the most advanced weapons in this era.

It made sense Beichen Yuan would want them after seeing them.

What surprised her, though, was that after witnessing the power of a Gatling gun, Beichen Yuan didn’t even ask to borrow one.

That weapon was a true killing machine. But Beichen Yuan was thoughtful, knew boundaries,
and—most importantly—had a handsome face, wealth, and power.

He really could be an ideal partner. But those things alone weren’t enough to make her heart stir.

When Gu Qingwan returned to Dahe Village, the place was already buzzing with action.
She thought everyone would’ve stopped work without iron, but to her surprise, they were still working around the clock—resting briefly when exhausted, then continuing.

What shocked her more was—where did they get the iron?

“Uncle, these iron pieces…” she asked.

The village head wiped the sweat from his brow and chuckled awkwardly.
“We saw you hadn’t come back yet, so we couldn’t just sit and wait. We had everyone donate their large iron pots to melt down. Even some iron tools. Iron is iron—melt it down, it’s all usable. Everyone chipped in, and we actually got quite a lot.

The nearby villages heard we were making weapons for the militia and that we were short on iron,
so they brought their big iron pots too.

We’ve already made fifty or sixty repeating crossbow carts. The crossbows are being produced quickly now. More and more people are coming to help, so the arrows are also being made fast. They’re rough, but Hunter Zhang just tested them—they work.”

The village head seemed even more invested in the weapons than Gu Qingwan. To everyone now, weapon-making and militia recruitment weren’t just Gu Qingwan’s business,
but Suzhou City’s business.

Not only Dahe Village, but all surrounding villages were united. If Yanzhou fell and the Zhenbei army retreated to Suzhou, the villages outside the city would be the first to suffer.

With no hope of help from the court, they had only themselves to rely on.

Hearing the village head’s words, Gu Qingwan felt nothing but comfort and gratitude.
She had underestimated the cohesion of the people, and was deeply moved by their trust and support.

“Brother Lu, we gathered some more iron pots. This is all our village can spare,”

The village chief from Li Village came with a dozen young men, each carrying a large pot. The village head quickly went to receive them.

“Brother Li, this is a huge help,” he said warmly.

Village Chief Li waved his hand.
“No need for thanks. Our two villages are close—your village has helped us a lot over the years.
Besides, this is for the militia. It’s for protecting ourselves. You’re the ones working the hardest—especially Immortal Shen… Oh right, now I should call you Princess Su’an.”

Hearing that, the village head led Chief Li to Gu Qingwan.

When Gu Qingwan saw them approaching, she quickly stepped forward to greet them.

Chief Li didn’t expect to meet the princess and was about to kneel, but she quickly helped him up.

With Li Village joining in, more hands were available. Gu Qingwan moved the iron to a manor outside the city, and had people haul it from there as needed.

With enough iron, they no longer had to worry about materials.

Gu Qingwan stayed in the village to oversee the weapon production. Soon, they had made a thousand repeating crossbows and a hundred carts.

She sent some to Beichen Yuan, worrying that if Beirong launched a surprise attack, he’d be caught off guard. The more time Beichen Yuan could buy, the better their preparations would be.

Zhao Zhuo had recruited over ten thousand militia members in two days.
Among them, less than a thousand were women; the rest were men.

Gu Qingwan planned to personally lead the female soldiers, while choosing team leaders from among the male soldiers.

Since there were over fifty thousand people, selecting leaders required a basic screening.

First, those who couldn’t read were out— that alone eliminated over two-thirds of the candidates.
That left a little over three thousand.

Gu Qingwan used the most straightforward method to pick the people she wanted—
a battle royale.

Over three thousand people stood inside a large circle. Anyone thrown out of the circle was eliminated.

Only the final hundred remained. Brutal, yes—but it was the simplest and most effective.

To survive that, one either needed brains or skills. And those were exactly the kind of team leaders Gu Qingwan wanted.