Chapter 732: Wind Blows Through the Reclining Bow City

Outside Wogong City, the signal fires that once lit up the various beacons, signaling peace, were no longer seen.

The Northern Mang vanguard army had arrived at the city gates.

Strong winds, yellow sand, and barren land. The wind whipped the dry loess into the air, lashing against the fluttering banners. In front of the Northern Mang battle formation outside the city, elite cavalry riders constantly galloped back and forth, relaying orders. On the ramparts of Wogong City, large bed crossbows were primed and ready, and all the commanders on the walls instinctively tightened their grips on their sword hilts.

A loud, piercing horn blast suddenly echoed!

In previous Northern Mang incursions south, when encountering and attacking cities, they would typically send frontier civilians and surrendered soldiers to the front. This not only filled ditches but also consumed a large number of the defenders' arrows. At most, auxiliary troops would simultaneously push shield carts forward, while infantry and cavalry swarmed out. Upon reaching the city, thousands of arrows would be unleashed, creating an effect where "arrowheads poured down on the battlements like rain, and suspended shields bristled like porcupines." As long as the defenders' morale wavered, the fierce Northern Mang warriors could breach the walls and shatter their resistance. However, today's siege of Wogong City, led by Commander Yang Yuanzan on the Northern Mang eastern front, displayed a vastly different siege style from the border incursions of the past two hundred years. As 3,000 cavalry on each flank protected the central infantry column and began their charge, a powerful piece of military equipment, rarely seen in the northwestern frontiers in previous years, emerged in massive numbers: trebuchets!

Yang Yuanzan had erected no fewer than 600 trebuchets almost overnight. The largest ones required 200 exceptionally strong men to operate, launching boulders weighing a hundred jin! These 600 trebuchets not only carried a significant number of boulders when the troops moved south but also scoured all large stones north of Wogong City after entering Gourd Pass. At this moment, all Northern Mang soldiers who were not actively engaged instinctively looked up, quietly awaiting the spectacular sight: countless massive stones would be hurled into the sky simultaneously, then crash heavily onto Wogong City's ramparts, or land on the inner city's patrol paths and breach points.

The 600 trebuchets, while appearing to be lined up squarely facing Wogong City, would reveal a distinct arc when viewed from the city walls. The most powerful ones were positioned at the farthest point of the arc, with less powerful ones set to their left and right, and so on.

It was unclear who first shouted "Wind Rises, Great North," but the Northern Mang army near the trebuchets collectively roared these four words with all their might.

When the first hundred-jin firestone, specially wrapped in oilcloth and ignited, flew high and was hurled towards Wogong City...

That scene was as if a heavenly fire spirit had descended upon the human world.

Hundreds of boulders followed this firestone, crashing down upon the first city of Youzhou's Gourd Pass. All Northern Mang soldiers were astonished by this unfamiliar siege tactic.

The massive stones landed on the ramparts, fell inside the city, or were deflected by the walls and rolled into the moat.

Inside and outside the city, the air was filled with the sound of wind and thunder.

Everyone felt the earth tremble, and Wogong City seemed to let out a silent wail.

The 6,000 Northern Mang cavalry, who had advanced before the trebuchets but moved slower than the boulders' impact, were, of course, not directly attacking the city. Using cavalry for a direct city assault was an immensely costly tactic, one that even the wealthiest commanders would only resort to in the direst circumstances. The role of these cavalry units was merely to escort the infantry safely to within 200 paces of the city, helping to suppress the defenders' archers and crossbowmen on the walls. After unleashing a volley of arrows at the ramparts, the two cavalry wings, which had maintained a distance from the infantry, did not continue their forward charge. Instead, they swiftly galloped diagonally outwards, clearing space for the cavalry behind them. Thus, the two cavalry forces resembled a flood encountering a reef: they did not crash head-on but rather dispersed to the sides. A burly cavalry general leading the charge glanced back as he turned, looking at the city walls. As a chiliarch from Yang Yuanzan's direct personal army, he knew of the 600 trebuchets and had learned of their power earlier than most chiliarchs. Originally, he believed that the Wogong City defenders, under such intense bombardment from hundreds of boulders, wouldn't even need the two cavalry units' escort; they would be too terrified to lift their heads, allowing the infantry outside the city to advance unimpeded to the edge of the moat. However, during the charge, casualties constantly mounted around him. The bed crossbows on the ramparts fired powerful volleys, and in two separate instances, a huge crossbow bolt directly pierced through two cavalrymen! Their bodies hung from the bolts, pinned to the ground on the spot. While he had long heard of the sharp effectiveness of Beiliang's powerful crossbows, the fact that Wogong City's arrow rain remained orderly even as boulders shattered countless sections of the wall complicated this chiliarch's thoughts. He had personally witnessed two Youzhou soldiers being crushed by boulders, only for nearby archers on the ramparts to still fire arrows of above-average precision. The chiliarch sneered, "Are these Youzhou people truly not afraid of death? There are pools of mangled flesh right at their feet!"

After the boulders had struck the city and the Northern Mang's two cavalry wings had provided their successive cover, Wogong City's crossbow bolts and arrows increasingly concentrated on the Northern Mang central infantry's siege force. Infantrymen and their shield carts were repeatedly pierced by bed crossbows. Some unlucky infantrymen were even struck directly in the chest by a single crossbow bolt, and the immense force of the impact sent them sliding backward more than ten paces, knocking down the shield-bearers and shield-soldiers behind them. Many more were killed by archers on the city walls, struck by high-trajectory shots during their forward rush. Especially once the infantry's battle line became uneven, the most courageous and forward-charging soldiers and auxiliary troops began to be specifically targeted by the skilled archers on the ramparts.

The arrow rain was not weak, but falling into the dense swarm of "locusts" (infantry), it was like a drop in the ocean, still unable to eliminate them all.

The somewhat crowded infantry, resembling dark locusts, completely ignored the corpses and wounded at their feet, continuing their forward surge.

On the city wall, a burly, armored archer drew his bow to a full moon, just as he was about to unleash an arrow at a Northern Mang chieftain loudly directing the filling of the moat, when an arrow pierced his throat.

His body was hastily dragged aside, and an archer from behind quickly moved to fill his position.

Continuously drawing a bow, especially to full draw for killing enemies, was particularly damaging to the arms. In the Youzhou army, there were strict military orders regarding the draw length depending on the distance to the enemy, and the understanding of when to use a bow versus a crossbow was deeply ingrained. "Crossbow first, then bow, then crossbow again" was an unshakeable iron rule of Beiliang. "Crossbow first" primarily referred to bed crossbows, waist-drawn crossbows, and foot-powered crossbows. Although Wogong City, as one of the three cities of Youzhou's Gourd Pass, did not have as exaggerated a number of bed crossbows as Hutou City in Northern Liang, this wasn't because General Yan Wenluan couldn't acquire more; rather, Wogong City's scale limited the number of bed crossbows it could deploy. Nevertheless, in the previous exchanges, they had inflicted massive casualties on the Northern Mang central army. An estimated hundred enemy soldiers were directly killed or wounded by the bed crossbows, with their hard wooden shafts and iron fletchings. Furthermore, two Northern Mang central army generals, pressing their lines, were carelessly shot dead on the spot by large bed crossbows. This must have left the two chiliarchs, already far from the city walls, unable to rest in peace, as their Southern Dynasty ordnance officials always claimed their large crossbows were no less powerful than Beiliang's in terms of range or force. Yet, on the battlefield, they discovered this was simply not the case!

Before the two cavalry wings provided cover with their arrow rain, and even before the Northern Mang's own various bows and crossbows were fired, Wogong City's bed crossbows and waist-drawn crossbows had already unleashed their bolts from the city walls.

Had it not been for the several waves of boulders from the trebuchets, which somewhat suppressed the crossbow fire from the city walls, it's likely the central infantry would have found even dying near the moat a luxury. Dismounted urban combat was precisely what Northern Mang warriors were least skilled at. While they would fearlessly engage in desperate battles against Beiliang cavalry while mounted, even when at a disadvantage, fighting without their horses was truly frustrating and disheartening. Fortunately, the infantry responsible for this siege were all forces from various frontier towns of the Southern Dynasty, who had always been considered inferior within the Northern Mang army. Their lives were not of great concern to the elite cavalry on the flanks, for example.

A burly Northern Mang siege general with a full beard waved his hand, and the 600 trebuchets began to advance, preparing for a second round of stone throwing. Their purpose was not to destroy the city walls, but rather to disrupt and cut off any reinforcements to Wogong City's ramparts.

Commander Yang Yuanzan was determined to capture Wogong City, which had fewer than 6,000 defenders, and the old general demanded its capture within a single day! There was no shortage of dissenting voices within the commander's tent regarding this. Some argued that the terrain outside Wogong City was unfavorable for siege operations, and the infantry formation would be too narrow and elongated. Whether they sent 10,000 or 8,000 troops, the difference in effectiveness would be minimal. It would be better, they suggested, to send troops in successive waves, exerting continuous pressure on Wogong City. Even if it couldn't be taken in one day, it could be captured within two days at most, significantly reducing casualties.

It was Zhong Tan, the eldest son of the Zhong family, who was advancing with the trebuchets. Further ahead of them were various Southern Dynasty-made bed crossbows, scaling ladders, battering rams, and towering siege towers, not yet manned by archers.

Sitting high on his horse, Zhong Tan raised a hand to shade his forehead. Wogong City had finally been forced to begin using light crossbows.

Zhong Tan listened as messenger cavalry constantly arrived, his ears filled with cold, hard numbers: how many dead, how many wounded.

In just half an hour, over a hundred cavalry and more than a thousand infantry had died—and they hadn't even begun to scale the walls.

Indeed, they had died. All of them had fallen outside the moat, or at most, beneath the walls of Wogong City.

However, Zhong Tan, considered a top military scion in Northern Mang, found himself surprisingly unfazed. He experienced no significant emotional fluctuations; instead, his mind wandered to many interesting things. He recalled his father, General Zhong Shentong, speaking of the early Spring and Autumn Period wars. During the chaos of the Nine Kingdoms, it was said that Liyang dispatched 60,000 cavalry to attack a formidable city belonging to its southern neighbor, Dongyue. After three days of fierce fighting, they returned without success. Afterward, Dongyue celebrated nationwide, revering the general who had defended their national gate with only a little over 10,000 men as a divine being. The Dongyue Emperor's imperial decree, sent by express courier, enfeoffed him as Grand Tutor. Many years later, the world realized that in that thrilling battle, both a great defeat and a great victory involving a total of 70,000 troops, after three days of fighting, fewer than 600 combined casualties had occurred.

Zhong Tan sighed softly, gazing at the Youzhou city in the distance. It could be said that it was the old master of Wogong City who, step by step, stripped away the politeness and pretense from the eight Spring and Autumn kingdoms, transforming wars that once held a hint of restrained warmth into bloody tragedies from beginning to end. The number of dead and fallen soldiers steadily increased, from thousands per battle to over ten thousand casualties, then tens of thousands, until the Battle of West Leibi, where people died daily and new recruits poured in every day. If Xu Xiao taught the eight Spring and Autumn kingdoms the art of cavalry warfare during his lifetime, could it be said that after his death, he would still teach Northern Mang the art of Central Plains city defense?

Zhong Tan narrowed his eyes. His infantry had finally begun to scale the city walls.

Wogong City's walls seemed swarmed by moths, or covered by ants.

From the city walls, rolling stones, logs, and scalding oil poured down.

Scaling ladders were pushed down by long hooks.

Northern Mang infantrymen climbing the walls were shot down by the close-range arrow rain. After falling, those unfortunately not yet dead were trampled to death by the advancing siege army.

The Youzhou archers and light crossbowmen on the city walls, who were holding back the Northern Mang infantry from ascending, were also successively shot down by archers from the siege towers, which were nearly as tall as the ramparts, falling backward one after another.

In this concentrated slaughter, those with strong martial arts skills and those without were equally doomed. Several master archers on the city walls, still possessing powerful arm strength, were specifically targeted by archers within the siege towers, and one by one, they were shot into hedgehogs bristling with arrows.

The Northern Mang used every possible siege method. In the stalemated battle, they found every opportunity, aiming bed crossbows at blank sections of the city wall and firing "tread-peg arrows"—bolts indistinguishable from large javelins—which, after being driven into the wall in rows and columns, helped the Northern Mang infantry scale the city. These Northern Mang infantrymen, climbing the arrows like agile monkeys, were all desperate, fierce soldiers carefully selected by Zhong Tan. Zhong Tan listened to the front-line reports brought by messenger cavalry, calmly issuing orders to be relayed back to the front. Although it was a high-cost, relentless assault, the siege tactics were not rigid or inflexible. Similar to how the defenders rotated their troops, Zhong Tan would also withdraw any chiliarch whose casualties "crossed the line." As for this specific casualty threshold, Zhong Tan initially set it at 100 dead or wounded during the early stages of the siege. After the 20 chiliarchs leading 20,000 infantry had each undergone a wave of assault, the threshold would increase to 150. If the line wasn't crossed, regardless of whether the general's surname was Yelü or Murong, they had to continue their difficult charge. If the line was crossed, no matter how much they wished to fight to the death, they had to obediently withdraw.

Zhong Tan didn't care how the chiliarchs and centurions understood his orders, and in fact, he didn't need them to understand. He had already secured the authority from Commander Yang Yuanzan to execute generals on the battlefield. Anyone who dared to defy him could risk their head. Zhong Tan unconsciously reached out to stroke the soft mane on his warhorse's back. This method of commanding troops, which involved being "meticulous about every detail to ensure perfect control," was taught to the world by that white-robed general. However, most martial commanders who tried to emulate him only grasped the superficialities, not the essence. Firstly, they couldn't know the combat effectiveness and resilience of every captain and commander under them as intimately as that person did. Secondly, battlefields were constantly changing; striving for such perfect detail could lead to missing the bigger picture. Moreover, before the armies even decided the outcome, the commander himself would be exhausted like a dog, not to mention the standard-bearers and messenger cavalry, who would have their arms aching and legs worn out from constant activity.

Zhong Tan believed he had learned more than just the superficialities, but he hadn't yet grasped the true essence. Still, Zhong Tan wasn't in a hurry. Within Youzhou's Gourd Pass alone, there were still two more cities to conquer, Luanhe and Xiaguang, and these cities were larger and had more defenders.

Zhong Tan's posture remained as steady as a rock. Only occasionally would he ask Liu Daoxiang, his armored maidservant, for a flask of water to moisten his throat; otherwise, it would have long since felt like it was on fire.

All twenty central army chiliarchs had witnessed the "scenery" of the city walls up close. Two of them had almost successfully gained a foothold on the ramparts. One was stabbed by seven or eight iron spears, falling onto a pile of corpses, completely disoriented. After getting up, he saw seven or eight arrows sticking upright in nearby bodies; if he had fallen onto those, even if he wasn't impaled, he certainly wouldn't have been able to fight at Luanhe City.

The other had just reached the city wall, even managing to cut off several spearheads with his saber, on the verge of stepping fully onto the rampart. However, he was struck in the ribs by a cunning stray arrow. As he stumbled and fell, he was cruelly hooked by a flying grapple called an "iron owl." As the Youzhou soldiers ruthlessly pulled him upwards, the chiliarch, whose back was hitting the city wall, quickly raised his arm and wildly hacked, finally severing the chain. He landed awkwardly, rolling with the momentum, and immediately five or six arrows whizzed down behind him. Clearly, his conspicuous, bright armor had "provoked the wrath" of the defenders. This left him with lingering fear even as he regrouped his troops behind the central army. He had nearly become the first chiliarch to die in Youzhou! No wonder those irritating military strategists had warned them before the battle that they could add extra armor or wear heavy armor, but under no circumstances should they wear overly flashy or eye-catching armor.

Most of Wogong City's "cart-foot logs," which could be retrieved by winches, were now broken. The powerful and immensely destructive "wolf-tooth hammers" were completely destroyed. Northern Mang infantrymen killed by a direct hit from these were the most gruesome: their bodies had no good flesh left, as if a piece of pork had been finely shaved by a plane, their corpses too horrific to look at.

Around noon, a particularly powerful horn blast resonated across the battlefield.

The already relentless assault on the battlefield surged even further.

Commander Yang Yuanzan rode his horse to the vicinity of Vanguard General Zhong Tan, accompanied by a group of cavalry generals and five or six military secretaries in embroidered robes and jade belts. They noticed that Zhong Tan was surrounded by many young civil officials sitting at desks, writing furiously and continuously recording various details of the siege. Yang Yuanzan did not engage in polite pleasantries with Zhong Tan. Instead, he walked to a young official, whom the Grand Peace Administrator had named "Swift Scribe," bent down, and picked up a piece of still-wet paper. The handwriting was slightly messy: "Wogong City has various types of mud and brick logs after their wooden ones, slightly less effective." "Three of our battering rams were damaged by hard wooden, iron-tipped devices, over a foot long and shaped like wolf's teeth, hidden behind the high city gates, falling like thunder." "Reportedly, the arrows fired from Wogong City vary in age; the older ones have been forged for seven or eight years, made in the 14th year of Yonghui, yet their arrowheads remain sharp as new, far superior to ours."

Yang Yuanzan sneered, "'Arrowheads remain sharp as new,' indeed! If I ever get the chance, I will personally relay this message to those officials in the Western Capital's Ministry of War! Let them open their dog-eyes wide and take a good look!"

The swift scribe, caught in the crossfire, quickly stopped his work, his face filled with trepidation, fearing that this distinguished veteran, one of the thirteen great generals of Northern Mang, would vent his frustration on him, a minor official without even a formal rank.

The Great General gently placed the paper back, smiling, "It has nothing to do with you. You've done very well. After Wogong City is captured, I will personally ensure you Swift Scribes receive credit."

Even the Great General, who was among the top forty most powerful individuals in Northern Mang, had dismounted, so Zhong Tan didn't have the audacity to remain on his horse. Though both were Southern Dynasty generals, Yang Yuanzan was not as favored by Her Majesty the Empress as Liu Gui. However, compared to Zhong Tan's father, Zhong Shentong, Yang Yuanzan surpassed him significantly in terms of trust, let alone his skill in deploying troops. Furthermore, Zhong Tan was effectively living under the old man's watchful eye, so he quickly walked to the commander's side. Yang Yuanzan and Zhong Tan, whether intentionally or not, walked side by side. Zhong Tan said softly, "Earlier, in the Western Capital's imperial court, I heard a certain Imperial Envoy say something that made my blood boil at the time, but today, thinking about it, I'm a little uncertain."

Yang Yuanzan, who had just arrived from the casualty camp, looked displeased and asked with a frown, "What did he say?"

Zhong Tan smiled, "Beiliang claims to be Liyang's bravest. So, we'll shatter their courage, drain their spirit."

Yang Yuanzan asked, "What's wrong with that?"

Zhong Tan pointed vaguely at Wogong City with his horsewhip. "This city certainly won't become the Xiangfan City that held out for over a decade in the Central Plains. And even if Luanhe and Xiaguang don't become such bastions afterward, what about the rest of Youzhou? Are we Northern Mang truly not going to accept the surrender of a single soldier or civilian? Even if Youzhou doesn't produce another Xiangfan, what about Liangzhou, with its most solid defenses? Are we truly going to slaughter all two million households of Beiliang before we stop?"

Yang Yuanzan sneered, "Have you not noticed who the top two commanders of the fortresses north of Wogong City are? And what age are Wogong City's main and deputy generals?"

Zhong Tan pondered for a moment, then seemed to understand, and smiled. "They are all veterans who traveled to Hexi Prefecture deep within Northern Mang years ago. Zhu Mu and Gao Shiqing, Wogong City's main and deputy generals, are both nearing sixty. From this, it seems that from Gourd Pass up to Wogong City, although the troop numbers are small, the forces stationed here are all truly desperate fighters. No wonder the over a thousand brave refugees who migrated from Liuzhou to outside Wogong City late last year, despite their decent combat strength, were all brought back to the area south of Luanhe City."

Yang Yuanzan sighed, "Yan Wenluan's move is a retreat to advance. Those refugees from Liuzhou initially harbored skepticism and a wait-and-see attitude. If the Youzhou Gourd Pass defense made them the first to die, they wouldn't need us Northern Mang to offer surrender; they would mutiny on their own, a chain reaction that would affect all refugees who left Liuzhou, and even the entire situation in Liuzhou. But by letting Wogong and Luanhe cities fall first, and even allowing the refugees to retreat further and further, directly to Xiaguang City, put yourself in their shoes: If you were a refugee, what would you think? Would you dare to fight? The answer is obvious. So many Youzhou soldiers died before it was their turn to enter the battlefield. Since they've come all this way to Youzhou, why would they fear death? Zhong Tan, this is precisely where Yan Wenluan's military experience shines."

Zhong Tan hummed in acknowledgment.

Zhong Tan suddenly smiled. "The Qiang and Rong tribes are surprisingly fierce in their siege attacks."

Yang Yuanzan calmly stated, "The Grand Peace Administrator has declared that after pacifying Beiliang, Northern Mang's populace, originally divided into four classes, will gain a fifth class: the people of Liang. This means the Qiang and Rong tribes, currently at the bottom in the fourth class, will finally be 'a cut above.'"

Although Zhong Tan knew about this, his face still showed disbelief as he asked, "Does that really work? Can that make people fearless of death?"

Yang Yuanzan said softly, "The Central Plains has many strategists, brilliant and astonishing. Not fighting against the masters they wholeheartedly assist, they possess a charm we cannot imagine. Not to mention the Imperial Tutor surnamed Yuan in Liyang's capital, nor Nalan Youci far in the Southern Frontier. Let's just talk about Li Yishan of Tide-listening Tower, who is already dead. How did over a hundred thousand refugees appear and then wholeheartedly pledge allegiance to Beiliang? How did Fort Wu at Gourd Pass rise up? And how did it resist our army to the death? How did Beiliang manage to maneuver its pastures, provisions, and military pay to somehow support a single region fighting against an entire nation?"

Zhong Tan nodded, stating solemnly, "Fortunately, we also have the Grand Peace Administrator!"

Yang Yuanzan suddenly lowered his voice. "When it feels like the city can be breached, take enough elites and personally lead the charge to scale the walls."

Zhong Tan, who had never entertained such a thought, was about to refuse when Yang Yuanzan, in an irrefutable tone, declared, "Northern Mang needs heroes!"

From the moment that clear horn blast sounded at noon, the walls of Wogong City transformed into a gate to hell.

People were dying everywhere, all the time, and the rate of death was accelerating.

The Northern Mang siege infantry, reinforced to a full strength of 20,000, were rotated in groups of a thousand at an increasingly rapid pace. Even though General Zhong Tan had raised the casualty threshold to 200, it couldn't halt this astonishing rate of loss. The only good news was that after two or even three previous siege attempts, these attacking soldiers were increasingly clear on how to dodge mud and brick logs, and increasingly knew to be more vigilant, paying attention to arrows fired treacherously from corner towers. Many Northern Mang soldiers, whose legs had inevitably gone weak during their first assault, now selflessly carried shields and swarmed forward like ants, able to completely ignore the bodies beneath the city walls and the wails and groans of the dying.

Troops were constantly rushing to the front lines of Wogong City, from the initial rotation of 500 reinforcements, to 300 with still relatively bright armor, then to fewer than a hundred, many wounded, and finally to the point where 34 men had to scramble up the stairwell at a single command.

Before Zhu Mu, the main general of Wogong City, who had been commanding from the tall central tower, arrived at the ramparts, Deputy General Gao Shiqing had already been fighting on the front lines with 200 personal guards for over an hour. If not for the old general's formidable and unparalleled iron spear, despite his white hair, and if not for the many skilled martial artists among the deputy general's personal guards, who were from the jianghu, the city walls would now be swarming with Northern Mang savages. Beneath the inner city walls, the corpses of their comrades, too numerous to properly deal with, piled up haphazardly. Eventually, Wogong City's defenders could only tearfully throw their bodies down.

Piled up like mountains.

Zhu Mu personally led 300 elite soldiers, who had been held in reserve, to reinforce Gao Shiqing. They annihilated the over one hundred Northern Mang barbarians who had already breached the wall and were engaged in close-quarters combat. Zhu Mu wielded two sabers, his rolling saber technique fierce and unstoppable; he cut seven or eight Northern Mang barbarians in half with a single strike. However, even as the personal guard reinforcements pushed most of the scaling ladders, each carrying over a dozen enemies, back to the ground, they still couldn't stop the bloodthirsty Northern Mang barbarians from continuously scaling the walls. Zhu Mu watched Gao Shiqing, known as "Duke Beautiful Beard," whose beard was matted with blood like icicles. Gao Shiqing sliced off the head of a Northern Mang barbarian, who looked like a centurion, then kicked the headless corpse, sending a barbarian who had just ascended the wall, raising his saber, flying off the rampart. Zhu Mu loudly scoffed, "Old Gao, why so useless? Didn't I tell you I'd come help you retrieve your spear closer to dusk? There's still more than an hour until dark!"

Gao Shiqing, covered in blood, remained silent. He skewered one barbarian with his spear, then swept his iron spear sideways, knocking another barbarian who had leaped down from the city wall far away.

Half an hour later, the city's only remaining cavalry unit, the elite Youzhou First-Grade Cavalry, each man with two horses, began to ascend the walls. These 400 men had had no opportunity to sally forth from the city.

Before ascending, they killed their warhorses, companions for many years.

Those unwilling to personally kill their mounts had to exchange horses, then silently drew their sabers and spears.

In the twilight, the setting sun was like blood.

General Zhu Mu and Deputy General Gao Shiqing stood back to back. Zhu Mu, his armor shattered, breathed heavily, his chest gravely wounded by a saber. His vision blurring, he violently shook his head and asked with difficulty, "Old Gao, my good-for-nothing spendthrift sons all fled Youzhou to Jiangnan. For the past few months, I've been given so many dirty looks by a bunch of old men, they look at me almost like they look at Northern Mang barbarians. That's why I'm willing to die in Wogong City; it's a way to account for myself to the Great General and Yan Wenluan. But what are you fighting for? Didn't you curse me back then? Why did you even volunteer to switch positions with that rich Li's nephew? Are you truly tired of living?"

Gao Shiqing reached to his waist and pulled out an arrow that had pierced his armor but not his bone. He spat out a mouthful of blood. "My whole family, old and young, is still in Youzhou. And I'm not as greedy for money as your sons and grandsons. I live with a clear conscience. Even if I die, I'll die honorably. Gao Shiqing owes no one anything in this life. In the second year of Yonghui, in Northern Mang's Orange Prefecture, you saved my life. Coming to accompany you this time, let's consider us even! When we're underground, don't call me brother; if I see the Great General, I won't have the face for it!"

On Wogong City's ramparts, shouts of "Kill all the Beiliang scum!" filled the air.

When a force far more courageous than the previous Northern Mang siege infantry climbed the city walls, Zhu Mu first had his hands severed, then his head cut off.

Gao Shiqing leaned against the city wall, five or six iron spears piercing his body. The old general died clutching his spear.

In the darkness of night.

A personal guard of the vanguard general stood on the high city wall and blew the final horn blast of the battlefield.

Both friend and foe, nearly 20,000 dead within and outside Wogong City were destined never to hear that sound.

Zhong Tan, who had secured the first great merit for the Northern Mang's Youzhou front, slowly closed his eyes.

He seemed to hear the wind blowing through Wogong City.

Like weeping, like pleading.