Chapter eleven.

Mulan and her comrades were marching toward the battle, they were walking through a trial beside a vast field where there were some cattle grazing.

But what happened at the Tung Shao Pass before they arrived there? Well, to find out, we need to go to the Tung Shao Pass at the moment between the scene Mulan says "How about a girl who's got a brain? Who always speaks her mind?" and the moment that they arrive at a place that there's snow in the music "a girl worth fighting for".

At the Tung Shao Pass, troops of high-ranking soldiers and the Generals who were in charge were around the village waiting for the Huns.

General Li was mounted on his stallion; he looked at the horizon, to ascertain if there was any threat approaching, but he saw nothing. He sighed and rode to where Yin was, the young lieutenant was mounted on his stallion as well and he was looking at the horizon.

When General Li arrived to where Yin was, he got off his horse "Yin! Did you see any threat? Shadows or shapes on the horizon? Horse paws' sounds?" General Li asked with his deep and imposing voice, but being friendly to Yin; after all, his son's friend was also his friend.

Yin got off his horse and stood face to face to General Li "No sir, I saw just a falcon flying in the sky but nothing that really matters." Yin answered his commanding officer.

General Li sighed and took his stallion reins, Yin did the same and both started walking through the village, there were a lot of sergeants, lieutenants, captains, colonels and some generals around that village, just waiting any sight of the Huns.

"Sir, why is Shang taking so much to come here with his troops? According to your own words sir, we should have received a report in three weeks, but it's been almost two months." Yin said to General Li as they stopped walking.

"It's true that they are taking much longer than expected, but I know that Shang is doing a great job training the recruits." General Li commented.

Yin looked at the middle-aged General who was a few inches shorter than him. "I also think it sir! Shang is the best soldier I've ever met and by the way he is strict, I'm pretty sure that he turned the recruits into competent soldiers for battle very quickly, but I thought he would do it in the expected timeframe." Yin replied.

"The issue is not my son's competence or his soldiers' competence," General Li begun "it's the exaggerated requirement of who is supervising him." The honorable man added.

Yin sniffed and rolled his eyes, he gave General Li an annoyed look "To say requirement is to say little," The young lieutenant begun, he place his hands on his waist with his fists clenched "General Li Feng, how can you always be so calm and patient when Chi Fu is in your presence? He's so overbearing that I think that even The Emperor dislikes him." Yin added.

"I know that his presence is not one of the most pleasant, but he's a wise man; that's why he's The Emperor's council." General Li answered serenely.

Yin just nodded and turned his head to the right, looking at some of the officers who were around the village "The villagers must be very sad for having to move away from where they lived sir," Yin begun, then, he turned his head to the left and looked at General Li "but it's better they never return, anyone who lived here would be at the mercy of attacks from the northern peoples." He added.

"That's exactly why I and the other generals took this decision; none of us wanted to take this drastic decision but was necessary." General Li said.

Yin took a deep breath and mounted his horse "I'll take a look of the horizon from the highest hill sir." Yin said looking down at his commanding officer.

"All right, stay tuned for any sign of the Huns and warn me if you see or hear something suspect." General Li said.

Yin nodded "Ya!" He shouted to his horse and rode to the top of the highest hill of the surrounds of that abandoned village, his bright-red cape swayed in the cold wind of that mountainous place.

He looked at the horizon and saw no sign of the Huns, but suddenly, he heard a bird's sound and looked up; he saw a peregrine falcon flying over that place.

Then, the falcon landed on a rock a few meters near from Yin; the young lieutenant got surprised and confused, he looked at the yellow-eyed hawk, the animal looked to the left, to the right and then, looked straight at Yin's eyes.

The hawk remained looking straight at Yin then, he flied away.

Yin's eyes followed the falcon flying on the sky; the falcon disappeared into the horizon behind a hill, which was about two kilometers away from where Yin was.

Suddenly, the sky that was cloudy and blue twilight started becoming red like the sunset, but was still the morning.

Then, some shadows and shapes started appearing on the top of that hill in the horizon; they moved, seemed to be living beings but there was a dense mist that didn't let Yin see clearly; he put his hand on his forehead and narrowed his eyes to get a better look at what was behind that mist.

The mist begun to slowly dissipate Yin saw a man mounted on a horse, he was dressed in a thick coat with a hood that covered his head and was possible to see part of his sword behind his back. The falcon that Yin just saw was perched on the man's shoulder.

Yin's eyes widened and his heart almost stopped beating, the expression on his face changed from attentive to horrified, he saw only one man but he knew very well that he was a Hun and behind that mist, probably a huge army was marching toward them.

He covered his mouth for a moment, then, he had to react, "Ya!" Yin shouted to his horse and he quickly rode toward General Li, as soon as he stood beside General Li he had to restrain himself to not freak out and be able to tell the problem.

"What's wrong?" General Li, who was mounted in his stallion, asked worried, seeing how panicked Yin was.

"The Huns are approaching!" Yin screamed very loud and everyone in that place turned toward him, they immediately got alarmed.

"What?! Where are they coming from?!" General Li asked in an angry tone of voice but he was actually very worried with that situation.

Yin pointed to the hill that was separated from the village only by a valley, the mist didn't have dissipated yet but now was possible to see many Huns mounted in horses, marching toward them.

All the military officers got serious and very worried; the battle was going to begin.

"Prepare to fight! If we die, we die with honor!" General Li ordered to the troops and all the military officers positioned themselves at the other side of the valley; Generals in the front line, in descending order of ranks, each military was lined up one behind the other.

Many of the military men in that place were mounted in horses; some of them were holding flags. But most of the military men in that place were standing over their own feet; many of them were holding cannons in their hands.

Shan Yu and his troops got down that hill, now China's Imperial army and the Hun army were face to face; there was only a valley between the two armies.

The falcon that was perched on Shan Yu's shoulder took flight and started flying toward the Imperial army, almost as if the bird wanted to observe the battle from above.

Shan Yu smirked a bit "Are you the heroes who will save China?" Shan Yu asked arrogantly with his deep, yet sarcastic voice; no one dared do answer, but all the Chinese warriors present there were looking at the Huns with stern eyes because were confident that they could beat the Huns, even though the Huns' army were more numerous than China's army.

The Huns leader raised his head a bit, making his yellow eyes more visible to his enemies "The villagers who lived here would love to thank you, but there was a small setback…" Shan Yu begun and touched his chin with his hand covered by a black glove "…What was it?" He asked himself ironically and his soldiers and specially his family grinned wickedly.

All the men of China's army present in that place got shocked and angry, they knew very well that those northern invaders found the innocents villagers who were trying to go away from that mountainous place to be safe but unfortunately got exterminated.

General Li frowned in anger "wretches…" He muttered.

"Oh yeah, it's a shame… they dared to cross our path, so they had to bear the consequences." Shan Yu completed and smiled wickedly.

General Li got even angrier; then, drew his sword, the other generals and the soldiers did the same; General Li raised his sword up.

The smile in Shan Yu's face faded, showing that now the battle was going to begin "HAAAA!" Shan Yu shouted, so did his men; and they started to swiftly ride toward China's army.

"HAAAA!" General Li and the other Generals screamed, the Imperial military officers did the same, and just like the Huns, they started to ride and run swiftly. The battle was beginning, both armies would fight fiercely and that fight would be bloody.

Both armies were fighting fiercely, the imperial army was at a disadvantage, since the Hun army was not only more numerous, but all its soldiers were mounted on horseback; as for the imperial army, in addition to the fact that this army is less numerous, only high-ranking officers were mounted on horseback.

"Fire!" General Li and some other Generals cried out to some men who were lined up behind the army, the men lit the cannons and the explosions of those cannons hit some Huns, who died in the same hour, the horses of these warriors also died.

Many of the Huns got down of their horses to fight face to face with the Imperial army; this would turn the battle more… challenging for them.

Everyone was fighting fiercely; the battle was taking hours but the Huns had already killed much more soldiers than the imperial army had and there were bodies scattered around the snow.

The fight between those two armies had sounds of swords hitting against other swords, people and horses running, cannons exploding, warriors screaming furiously and horses neighing as a soundtrack and the battle between those armies had already destroyed and set on fire the whole village.

Shan Yu's wife, his sons and daughters were fighting fiercely, at first sight wasn't easy to notice Lady Sheeva's and her daughters' womanhood hid under those thick hooded clothes.

Lady Sheeva got surrounded by three imperial soldiers, who tried to attack, but she was faster than a lightning and not just fought them, in a few seconds she killed them by sword.

The eight sons of the Huns' leader were fighting with eight high ranking-officers with swords, the eight brothers easily won. The Huns were winning the battle, not that the imperial army was poorly trained, on the contrary, the imperial army was very well trained, perhaps it was just a misfortune of the fate.

Yin was mounted on his stallion and was fighting against a Hun who was also mounted on a horse. Yin managed to knock the man off the horse; Yin got down of his horse and killed the man in a single swift-sword-blow.

Yin was serious, he was fighting fiercely, didn't look like himself; he was acting exactly like Shang, he mounted on his horse, his bright-red cape swayed in the wind.

"Men! Those comrades of yours are fighting six Huns!" Yin said to three lower-ranking officers while looking at them but pointing toward six Huns warriors who were fighting six Chinese warriors "Go! Go help them!" Yin ordered.

The young lieutenant was about to say "Ya!" to his horse when an arrow almost hit his face and he got very surprised, he pulled his horse's reins and turned around to see from where the arrow came from.

It was one of Shan Yu's daughters (the twin with long hair) who fired the arrow, she was with another arrow already positioned on her bow, Yin's eyes and her eyes met for a moment; they both narrowed their eyes, angrily, determinedly.

Yin rode toward the young woman who fired another arrow toward him but he dodged it. Yin swiftly passed beside the woman and punched her in her collarbone with his right hand, knocking the woman off her horse.

Yin's horse stopped running as Yin jumped from the horse and when he was still in the air, he drew his sword; he obviously wanted to cut the woman in half in one single blow, her eyes widened but she reacted in time; she rolled to the left and Yin's sword got stuck in the snow.

Yin and the woman immediately started fighting with swords; they had a furious expression on their faces, the blades of their swords were rubbing fiercely against each other.

When Yin finally used enough might to make the swords' blades stop rubbing against each other, he almost beheaded the girl, but she dodged the blow and slid across the ground covered with snow.

They got up and looked each other in the eyes; they were two meters away from each other, Yin's cape was waving in the cold wind and the Hun woman's long-raven hair was waving as well.

"Being a woman, you fight very well." Yin commented.

"Aw! Such a handsome face…" The woman begun as she raised her sword "…It's a shame that it will become mincemeat!" She cried out as she ran toward Yin and drew a very swift blow with her sword and almost beheaded Yin, who swiftly bent down and kicked the girl in the stomach; the girl slid a bit backwards and held her stomach with her left hand while holding her twisted-blade-sword with her right hand.

Yin grinned a bit, proud of himself, but suddenly; the twin with short hair grabbed him from behind, hugging his neck firmly with her right arm and holding her twisted-blade-sword very close to Yin's neck with the left hand.

General Li was mounted on his stallion; he was astonished with that chaotic situation, he looked at the right and saw that Yin was going to be killed by those two Hun women.

General Li frowned, "Ya!" He cried out to his stallion and swiftly rode toward Yin, but he just drew his sword when he had to pull his horse's reins to make the stallion stop running.

Shan Yu was in front of General Li, mounted in his horse and he drew his sword, he obviously wanted his daughters to kill the young soldier.

Both leaders of enemy armies got off their horses and started fighting fiercely with their swords; maybe there was a huge discrepancy between the two in terms of size but not in strength, General Li maybe was a short man but he was very strong (well, Shang had to inherit such strength from someone).

General Li managed to kick Shan Yu's hand and his sword fell a meter away in the snow covered ground stained with blood.

At this same moment, General Li grabbed Shan Yu's neck with his hand and threw himself over the Huns' leader; General Li fiercely punched Shan Yu in his face and tried to cut his neck with his sword but Shan Yu was holding his arms, trying to prevent his death; both were with a furious expression on their faces.

Yin situation was also very difficult, although he was being gripped for behind for a female merciless killer, he managed to punch the girl in the face and grabbed her arms that were around his neck and threw her forward.

The woman fell on her back in the snow, her twin; the long haired woman ran toward Yin with her sword, grabbed him by the collar and stuck her sword in the young lieutenant's side, his armor and the Hun woman's sword got stained with blood instantly.

As soon as the Hun woman took off the sword from Yin's body, the young lieutenant held his wound and fell on the ground lying on his left side "Ah-" Yin stifled a cry of agony, but he wasn't even able to cry out.

General Li looked to the right, Yin was lying on the snow with an expression of pain in his face but he was already death. "Yin!" General Li exclaimed in shock, his son's best friend was dead and he didn't manage to save him.

Because of that shocking and sad sight, without noticing, General Li reduced the force he was using while trying to kill Shan Yu. The Huns' leader took advantage of the chance and punched General Li in his jaw, stunning him for a moment.

Then, Shan Yu pushed General Li backwards with all his might and the General fell on his back around three meters away from Shan Yu.

The Huns' leader got up and grabbed his sword that was on the ground, then, he ran toward General Li with a facial expression that mixed bloodlust with anger, but the General got up and swiftly intercepted the sword blow with his own sword; both were struggling fiercely, but this time General Li's face was angry and Shan Yu had a psychotic smile and his eyebrows frowned, almost as if he could already feel the victory.

Then, somehow Shan Yu managed to kick General Li in the stomach, although the armor didn't let him feel pain he got pushed backwards; Shan Yu ran advanced on him and drew a very swift blow with his sword.

"HAAA!" Shan Yu shouted as he delivered a very fast blow with his sword and the tip of his sword's blade cut General Li's neck. Shan Yu grinned psychotically; he walked toward his horse, mounted the animal and left that place, returning to fight while General Li losing a considerable blood amount.

General Li's eyes widened, and he fell on his knees on the ground, his right hand on the ground and his left hand holding his injured neck; his eyes were still widened, he knew he was going to die, there was nothing that could be done in that moment and in that place to stanch the bleeding and he was feeling his hand getting soaked with blood.

But before death took him to eternity, he knew that he had to leave a signal to his son and his son's troops that they were the only hope left for China, that they would have to defeat the Huns; since almost all the warriors of the best troop of the Imperial army was already defeated.

General Li Feng slowly took off his helmet and looked at it for a moment grinning slightly, proud of the honor he achieved and for having achieved the highest rank in the army.

Suddenly, the pain in his neck increased, his forces were fading; he turned around and threw his helmet as far as he could and the helmet fell several meters away, at the base of the hill where the destroyed village was.

Then, his vision blurred and he fell on his stomach on the snow, his eyes slowly closed and he let out his last breath.

The Huns knew that the war wasn't over yet, but those almost four thousand people smirked wickedly, feeling that they were very close to the victory, since they had just defeated the best troop of the Imperial army (they knew that that troop was the best troop in the army because the best troop was always the first line of defense against enemies, anywhere in the history of the world).

The Huns mounted in their horses and left that place impassively, as if nothing had happened, they passed through that destroyed village that was still burning but it had already almost completely turned into pieces of burned wood and broken brick walls.

It was possible to hear some crackles that were coming from the wood that was finishing burning. Shan Yu smiled a bit and without anyone noticing, he threw away the little doll on the snow.

The Huns left that place and marched through the Tung Shao Pass, toward the Imperial city leaving a trail stained with blood of warriors who were brutally murdered or who at that moment were agonizing to death, which died honorably for their country.

Later in that same day, Mulan and her comrades arrived at the place where that battle happened; where only death and blood was left of the honored warriors.

Everyone got shocked while walking through that destroyed place, it was also sad, that was a mark the Huns had left; a mark of death.

Shang was slowly riding through the village, he passed under a burned roof that broke and fell very close to him, making his horse scream in fright.

The young Captain gently caressed the horse's neck to calm the animal down. Mulan walked toward a broke wall and Shang noticed it, so he followed her.

Mulan picked up a doll from the snow and hung her head down with her eyes closed for a moment, feeling bad for those who died in that place.

Shang got down of his horse and walked toward Mulan, he saw that his youngest soldier was holding a small doll in "his" hands and seemed sad for what happened, he thought that "Ping" had never seen something like that; little did he know that Mulan had already experienced brutal death in her life.

"I don't understand," Shang begun "My father should have been here." He added a bit serious and Mulan looked at him but didn't say anything.

"Captain!" Chi Fu called Shang out and the young Captain walked toward the Emperor's council, who was with a very disturbed expression on his face while pointing to a valley.

When Shang looked down at the valley, he got horrified and gaped with what he saw: There were wreckages of cannons and carts and torn flags scattered across the valley. And the worse of all, the bodies of several dead warriors scattered across the valley, their blood had stained the snow.

Shang remained there for a few moments, looking at that morbid scene, he was thinking about his best friend and his father, there was no sign of them, and inside his head he was praying "Father, Yin, please, don't be dead." But he did not let show his concern mixed with sadness.

Chien Po saw something golden shining at the base of the hill, so he went down the hill, took the object and went back to the top of the hill.

It was General Li's helmet and Chien Po knew that, he walked toward Shang, "The General…" Chien Po said sadly as he handed it to his commanding officer.

Shang got incredulous for a moment and then, his face turned into a very sad expression and he had to hold back tears because he didn't want to show any weakness; his father was dead, he turned to the right and moved a few meters away from his soldiers, he needed to be alone for a moment.

Mulan and her friends stared in shock to the valley with hundreds of dead bodies scattered across the valley covered with snow stained with blood.

After a few seconds, Mulan looked to where Shang was; he was standing while the cold wind waved his red cape. He drew his sword and stuck it on the snow; then, he knelt down, put his father's helmet over his sword and prayed for a moment.

Mulan walked toward Shang and stood right behind him "I'm sorry…" Mulan said, she didn't know why she said that, maybe she just tried to comfort Shang, even though it didn't work.

Shang stood up and put his hand over Mulan's shoulder, as if he was trying to say "Thank you" but the words didn't came out from his mouth.

He walked to his stallion while the men looked at him feeling sorry for him, Shang put his hands over his horse's back and squeezed his eyes shut, and holding back tears; now he was not just sad, rage was filling his inside as well.

Shang mounted his horse and turned around "The Huns are moving quickly," Shang begun "We will make better time to the Imperial City through the Tung Shao Pass. We're the only hope left for The Emperor now." He explained "Move out!" Shang ordered to his soldiers as he rode toward the Tung Shao Pass and the troops followed him.

Before leaving that place, Mulan put the little doll under that improvised monument in memory of General Li and the army that died in that place. She prayed for a moment and then, got up and followed her comrades and her commanding officer.

There was a very uncomfortable silence while those troops marched through the Tung Shao Pass; everyone was very shocked with what they saw and also a bit sad.

Shang was a hundred times sadder than all his soldiers put together, he had lost his father and his best friend at once. He thought about Yin, he knew he would miss his friend a lot but he would miss his father much more; his father was his hero, his inspiration, his only family since he was eleven years old, the one who teached him lessons he would follow for the rest of his life.

He remembered when his father gave him a dagger on the day he turned twelve years old; since that day, he took the dagger almost wherever he went in case he needed to defend himself, and when he became a military officer, he carried the dagger in his armor, hidden in his belt.

Suddenly, a cannon flied from the cart into the sky and blew up in the air. Shang startled for a second but when he looked up and saw that was one of their cannons that made that loud noise, he frowned and gritted his teeth in anger.

"Damn Ping!" Shang muttered in anger, he turned around and swiftly rode toward Mulan.

"What happened?" Shang asked.

"Uhhhh," Mulan begun, while trying to explain without saying: "My guardian dragon accidentally lit the cannon."

Shang pointed to the sky "You just gave away our position! Now we're," Shang didn't manage to finish his phrase because an arrow hit his shoulder and he fell on the snow.

Mulan looked up at the mountain; there were some Hun archers on the mountain and they began to fire a shower of flaming arrows toward the soldiers.

Shang yanked the arrow from his shoulder "Get out of range!" He cried out to his soldiers who started to run away, Shang mounted on his horse and rode away from the range of the arrows, but he turned around when he heard Mulan's horse neighing desperately.

"Save the cannons!" Shang ordered and the soldiers quickly took all the cannons they managed to and ran away from the range of the arrows.

Mulan cut the rope that tied Khan to the cart with her sword, mounted the black stallion and quickly rode to get out of the range of the arrows.

The cannons left in the cart exploded and Mulan, Khan, Mushu and Cri-kee got hurled into the air several meters away and fell into the snow that cushioned their fall. Mulan quickly got up, grabbed Mushu and her sword and she and Khan ran to where the soldiers were preparing to light the cannons.

"Fire!" Shang yelled and the soldiers lit the cannons, which flied toward the Hun archers and blew them up, killing some of the Hun archers in instantly by the torrid explosion.

The soldiers prepared to light the cannons and dodged of the arrows fired by the remained Hun archers "Fire!" Shang yelled again and Mulan, Iao, Ling and Chien Po lit the cannons and covered their ears to protect themselves from the explosion noise.

"Hold the last cannon," Shang said as he held his hand out to Iao, who was already aiming the cannon on the mountain.

Everyone looked closely at the peak of the mountain, while the black smoke from the cannon's explosions slowly dissipated. They waited for any sign of the Huns, for a moment they seemed to have defeated the Huns, but it was too easy to be true and there was a tense atmosphere in that place; Mulan could feel that some threat was coming over.

When the smoke dissipated, they saw the reaper on earth: Shan Yu, who was mounted on his horse and with his yellow-eyed hawk perched on his shoulder. Then, some other men, who were also mounted in horses, appeared behind the Huns leader.

Then, the Huns shouted very loud and started to appear on the peak of the snow-capped high mountain, they were thousands, a huge crowd of merciless killers.

Shang turned toward his soldiers "Prepare to fight, if we die, we die with honor." Shang ordered and the soldiers drew their swords, but all of them were afraid of the Huns.

The Huns shouted even louder and started riding down the mountain, riding very quickly toward China's Imperial army. The fierce cry of those enemy warriors could be heard from great distances; a death announcement, pronounced by demons on earth.

"Iao," Shang said while looking at the Huns' leader "aim the cannon at Shan Yu." Shang wanted that Hun dead; it was the moment to avenge his father.

"Hey!" Complained Iao when all of sudden, Mulan snatched the cannon from his hands, shoved him aside and quickly ran toward the Huns.

"Ping! Come back! Ping!" Shang shouted to "Ping", who did not obey her commanding officer; but he did not order, he almost begged to his soldier to come back.

Shang and the other soldiers got dumbfounded and very worried as they watched Mulan run toward the Huns. "Ping is so brave!" Ling exclaimed amazed, but Shang knew that his youngest soldier was feeling too confident to the point of risking "himself" in such a way. Then, the young Captain frowned and narrowed his eyes.

"He is a complete idiot!" Shang exclaimed to the three soldiers and then, he took a boost with his hand, jumped over the rock and ran after Mulan.

"Stop!" Shang shouted to Mulan but she didn't obey; while Shang continued to run even faster toward her, Mulan tried to light the cannon with Mushu screaming in her ear to light the cannon quickly. Then, Hayabusa, Shan Yu's falcon tried to attack Mulan, making her lose her flint stones.

Shang got even more worried as he saw that Shan Yu was going to reach his friend in seconds, but Mulan managed to light the cannon with Mushu's dragon-fire and the cannon exploded when Shan Yu was only "three feet" in front of Mulan.

At that moment Shang's eyes widened in anger and fear "He missed!" Shang thought. But he got very surprised and stopped running when he saw the snow on the mountain falling off the mountain and falling over the Huns.

The first Huns who got instantly buried by the freezing and heavy snow were Shan Yu's wife, sons and daughters; they didn't even have time to react or scream, they just were swallowed up by the avalanche while the Hun army tried desperately to escape from the avalanche.

This filled Shan Yu with utter anger and he looked at Mulan with a furious look in his eyes "Yrrrraaaah!" Shan Yu roared furiously and this made Shang look at Shan Yu and Mulan.

Shang's eyes widened as he saw Shan Yu raise his sword in the air and he almost lost his breath when Shan Yu took a sword-swipe that hit Mulan.

"No!" Shang said to himself as he saw his soldier fall face down on the snow, but when "Ping" got up and started to run away from Shan Yu he knew that his soldier would be all right; so he looked at the avalanche burring the Huns, the way they were being annihilated by the avalanche was simply incredible.

Then, Mulan ran so fast that in seconds she reached Shang and all of sudden, grabbed him by his arm and both ran swiftly to avoid the avalanche.

Iao, Ling and Chien Po ran toward their friends to help them but when they saw the huge avalanche that was annihilating the Huns they screamed terrified and ran in the opposite direction.

While the soldiers hid behind a rock to protect them, Khan bravely ran toward his owner and Mulan mounted the brave black stallion. Mulan reached out to Shang and he accepted her help, both grabbed each other's arms, but the avalanche reached them, brutally separated their hands and they got wiped out by the snow.

Mulan saved Shang because he was unconscious, Mushu and Cri-kee mounted in Khan but they screamed in panic that they were going to die as they saw that they were going to fall from a cliff, but Mulan shoot an arrow to their friends all they pulled them up, saving them from certain death.

The soldiers pulled them up; Shang regained his senses and control over his body, both breathed slowly while catching their breath.

"Ping," Shang begun "you are the craziest man I have ever met" his facial expression turned friendlier when he saw that his youngest soldier hung "his" head, waiting to be scolded "and for that I own you my life. From now on, you have my trust." Shang added as he placed his hand over Mulan's shoulder, their eyes met and both smiled a bit.

"Let's hear it for Ping! The bravest of us all!" Ling proclaimed happily and the soldiers shouted, proud of their comrade.

"You're the King of the mountains!" Iao shouted.

"Yes! Yes! Yes!" Chien Po celebrated while doing a little dance and he bumped in a man that was beside him.

Shang helped Mulan to get up, both grinning slightly; then, Mulan bent over her stomach, clenched her ribs and groaned in pain as she fell on her knees.

Shang got alarmed "Ping, what's wrong?" Shang asked as he bent down.

Mulan did not answered, she just looked at Shang for a moment and then, she removed her left hand from her ribs and looked at the blood on her armor and her own hand.

Shang's eyes widened and he gasped when he saw the blood on his friend's armor and hand "He's wounded! Get help!" Shang yelled to his soldiers, some of them rushed to bring a doctor or at least a medicine and bandages to help their friend.

Then, Mulan begun to fell dizzy and her vision was slowly getting blurry; she sat on the snow and begun to lean back as she lost consciousness. Shang, Iao, Ling and Chien Po huddled around their friend.

"Ping," said Shang as he leaned over Mulan, he was knelt down in the snow "Hold on, hold on…" These words were everything Mulan heard before she fainted.

End of Chapter

I always wanted to see somewhere an explanation of what happened with the village at the Tung Shao Pass before Mulan and her friends arrived there, so, since I didn't find any fanfic or any Disney's official information that tells what happened there, I decided to write it myself.

One thing that probably hasn't been made clear in the seventh chapter is the reason why the Huns had a preference for killing women: the women are who give birth to the sons the army need to fight in the wars and fewer women mean fewer sons will be born.

They also were cruel and barbarians, so the victims they liked to kill the most were people who could not defend themselves; they killed because by killing was the easiest way to get whatever they want.

Besides, because they are very numerous, they were sure they were unbeatable, since they knew that the Chinese army was much less numerous than the Hun army (though they got defeated by a troop of less than thirty soldiers that defeated them by the cunning and smartness).

Stay tuned! But don't get mad if I take a while to publish the next chapter, even though we're quarantined I've got high school duties (being a 16 schoolgirl is not easy).