Yu Chaozong had anticipated Luo Geng’s attitude and Liu Li’s treachery. And so he was fully aware that the moment he broke through Jizhou’s walls, both men would come at him like wolves.

Yet Yu Chaozong’s numbers were overwhelming, and that gave him a measure of confidence.

He knew the interior of Jizhou well — Li Chi and Zhuang Wudi had been sending him intelligence regularly. He had a clear picture of the Jizhou army’s strength.

So he had made a calculation: after he entered the city, Zeng Ling’s available forces to oppose him would not exceed twenty thousand.

He had worked through the numbers. Zeng Ling commanded roughly sixty to seventy thousand soldiers in total. After the losses of repeated engagements, the force could not possibly still be at fifty thousand. Accounting for Zeng Ling at full strength of fifty thousand — and the real figure was probably thirty to forty thousand — how could Zeng Ling use them?

Even with Liu Li’s Yuzhou army feigning an attack and putting on a show, Zeng Ling wouldn’t dare abandon the south and east walls — because if he did, the Yuzhou army could genuinely storm those gates.

With the requirement to maintain defense at the east, south, and west walls, Zeng Ling could deploy at most around twenty thousand against the Yanshan Camp. Yu Chaozong considered this the upper bound of Jizhou’s available force.

As for the Youzhou army — Luo Geng’s forces were indeed battle-hardened, but they numbered only fifty thousand. Add the roughly twenty to thirty thousand Qingzhou prisoner-soldiers he had absorbed, and Luo Geng’s combined force was around eighty thousand.

The Yuzhou army had suffered a defeat previously, and after absorbing some Qingzhou surrenderers, their total force was probably still around one hundred thousand.

Luo Geng and the Yuzhou army combined still numbered less than Yu Chaozong’s own force.

When Yu Chaozong had marched south, he had brought one hundred fifty thousand troops, then absorbed forty thousand from the Qingzhou army, bringing his strength to two hundred thousand.

He had run through the battle plan twice again before the final assault, and judged that it could work.

After breaking through the gate, he would personally lead fifty thousand into Jizhou to seize it. Five against two — his odds were good.

He would leave nearly one hundred fifty thousand outside the walls to hold Luo Geng and Liu Li’s combined force at bay. Both those forces also had to spare some troops to continue threatening the city walls, so subtract a few tens of thousands more. The forces matched against his were at most even with what he left behind.

One hundred fifty thousand holding one hundred fifty thousand — hold for half a day, he reasoned, and he could have all of Jizhou.

Furthermore, Yu Chaozong expected that Luo Geng and Liu Li, when they attacked, would first drive their Qingzhou prisoner-troops forward rather than commit their own men from the start.

The Qingzhou army had just been defeated, its morale shattered — their combat effectiveness would be drastically reduced.

After taking Jizhou, Yu Chaozong planned to swiftly secure the northern wall’s full length. With archers holding the high ground and shooting down, they could also relieve pressure on the force holding outside.

What Yu Chaozong had misjudged was that the Yuzhou and Youzhou armies had never intended to take the city at all. They had no intention of leaving troops to threaten Zeng Ling.

Luo Geng’s objective from the very beginning had not been Jizhou. It had been destroying the rebel army.

Yu Chaozong had thought he was the one disrupting the game. In reality, it was Luo Geng.

The greater miscalculation was this: Yu Chaozong knew the Youzhou army was formidable. He had simply never imagined how formidable.

Luo Geng never used those Qingzhou prisoner-soldiers at all. From the first moment, he deployed his greatest weapon.

Heavy cavalry. Trampling the formation.

The Yanshan Camp’s soldiers were well equipped but were mostly light infantry. Against this kind of steel flood arrayed in full armor, they had no answer. Their arrow volleys could not penetrate horses and riders encased in full plate. And when the heavy cavalry charged, they could not withstand war horses in full barding.

Where the line holding against the Yuzhou army could still endure, the Yanshan Camp soldiers facing Luo Geng’s Youzhou forces were living a nightmare.

In recent years the Yanshan Camp’s soldiers had truly grown proud.

They had endured much. Countless times they had defeated local garrison forces. They had fought a war of frontier defense and driven back the Black Wu.

All of this was worthy of pride. Yet they had forgotten: defeating local garrison forces meant very little. In truth, they had never once faced the full brunt of Dachu’s elite standing armies.

What sort of standing force was a Dachu prefectural army?

To put it in perspective — most of the local forces the Yanshan Camp had defeated were merely regional levies. In a one-on-one engagement of equal numbers, the Yanshan Camp would win without question. At six thousand versus ten thousand, they could hold their own, with some chance of winning.

At five thousand versus ten thousand, the Yanshan Camp’s chances were essentially nil — short of a miracle.

After Dachu fell into disorder, officials throughout the provinces had been building up their own private troops. But the combat effectiveness of these private forces bore no resemblance to a real army — the so-called local garrison forces were, if anything, more of a rabble than the Yanshan Camp itself.

The Yuzhou army was a genuine prefectural standing force. Liu Li was Prince Wu’s most capable subordinate commander.

To compare again, using the Jizhou army as a baseline: ten thousand Yanshan Camp soldiers against ten thousand local garrison troops — certain victory. Ten thousand Yanshan Camp soldiers against ten thousand Jizhou army soldiers — certain defeat.

The Jizhou army could not beat the Yuzhou army. The Yuzhou army could not beat the Youzhou army.

How formidable the true elite standing forces of Dachu really were — in truth, Yu Chaozong had known this once.

It was just that afterward the Yanshan Camp had seemed so tremendously powerful — the dominant force across the north, with more than a few local provincial officials directly seeking its protection.

The appearance of strength causes the mind to drift upward.

Yu Chaozong had simply never considered the possibility that his men could not even hold for half a day.

In fact, his defensive deployment on the western front did not hold for even a single hour before the Youzhou heavy cavalry broke the formation apart.

Heavy cavalry in full armor advancing in unbroken formation — they only needed to keep walking forward. That was enough. It was a crushing tide.

In one hour, the western front collapsed.

Yu Chaozong had no choice but to pull troops over to reinforce the west — and that sector became a slaughterhouse.

On the eastern front, his forces held for two hours — barely reaching his requirement — before the Yuzhou army’s relentless pressure drove them into a steady retreat.

He had no choice but to order the forces outside the city to fall back into Jizhou. They had already taken half the city — once all the troops retreated inside, they could continue holding behind the city’s defenses.

And yet how dangerous was a retreating army in motion?

Yu Chaozong himself, fighting inside the city, was also in desperate straits.

Zeng Ling had killed his way into a crimson fury. Every Jizhou soldier fought with their minds made up to die. The Yanshan Camp had never faced a battle like this before.

They plummeted from the heights with shocking speed. The euphoria of breaking through the gates had barely begun to fade before the Jizhou army’s death-defying counterattack hit them and hit them hard.

If not for their decisive numerical advantage, they would not merely have failed to expand their hold on the city — they might very well have been pushed back out entirely.

In this moment, if one imagined Jizhou as a vast square box, half the box was Jizhou’s army and the other half was the Yanshan Camp.

And outside the box, men were fighting with their heads to get in.

Li Chi and Tang Pidi had emerged from the underground chamber intending to find Yu Chaozong and Zhuang Wudi — but they could not get through.

When they came out, their position happened to be precisely on the line where Jizhou’s army and the Yanshan Camp were locked in a fight to the death — and they were on Jizhou’s side of it.

To fight through that kind of battle with tens of thousands of men locked together — or even slip through it unnoticed — was not remotely possible.

Li Chi and Tang Pidi lay flat on a rooftop, the street below thick with men killing and dying.

“You can’t get through.”

Tang Pidi kept his voice low. “You can’t reach Yu Chaozong — and even if you did, things have already come to this. Would Yu Chaozong still listen to you? What could you even do?”

Li Chi said, “Break out. That’s the only thing left to do right now — stop thinking about Jizhou, and break out. If I’m reading things right, the Yanshan Camp’s forces outside the walls are being surrounded by the Youzhou and Yuzhou armies right now.”

“If the chief can organize all the cavalry — maybe ten thousand or so — and make a sudden thrust at the Youzhou army right now, that’s the move. First, because the Youzhou army would never expect the Yanshan Camp to counterattack. Second, because heavy cavalry is too slow to pursue light cavalry.”

“As for the remaining infantry — it’s relatively better to punch hard toward the Yuzhou army. With any luck, half the force might cut through. I’d estimate Prince Wu’s army must be right behind Liu Li’s Yuzhou army — so if the Yanshan Camp’s infantry breaks out through there, Prince Wu’s forces won’t move to stop them in order not to expose themselves. Prince Wu’s forces are there to deal with Liu Li.”

Li Chi kept his voice very low. “All I want right now is to persuade him to break out as fast as possible. If they give it everything they have right now, the whole army doesn’t have to be wiped out — he can still fall back to the Yanshan Camp and regroup.”

His voice dropped further, heavy with weight. “If the chief is still thinking about taking the city as a way to save themselves — then I’m afraid it really will be a total annihilation. The worst possible choice right now is to believe the city can still be held.”

Tang Pidi exhaled quietly.

—

Nearby, at Yu Chaozong’s side.

Zheng Gongru had also begun to panic. His dream had barely begun and he was terrified of seeing it shattered.

“Chief.” Zheng Gongru said urgently, “The most critical thing right now is to concentrate our forces and take Jizhou as fast as possible. Right now only one gate of the northern wall is open. Outside that gate, we still have over a hundred thousand men holding the line.”

“Bring more forces in. In two or three hours, defeat Zeng Ling and take all of Jizhou — then use the city’s walls to hold the official armies outside.”

Zheng Gongru’s voice had gone hoarse with urgency. He glanced at Yu Chaozong and pressed on. “It will be dark in three hours. If we take Jizhou before nightfall, this battle is more than half won.”

“After nightfall, the enemy’s assault outside will ease. We can pull more of our people in then.”

Yu Chaozong’s expression shifted rapidly. He hesitated for a moment, then nodded. He called out loudly, “Pass the order to the Sixth Chief — tell him he must hold for three more hours.”

The Yanshan Camp’s Sixth Chief was known as Xili Zi. He had originally been stationed at the frontier to hold the pass, and at the start of the Yanshan Camp’s great southern march, Yu Chaozong had recalled him early.

Xili Zi held Yu Chaozong’s deep trust — because of the man’s origins and circumstances, which bore a strong resemblance to Yu Chaozong’s own.

Xili Zi’s family background was not poor. His father, Xili Chongming, had been a frontier garrison general.

Six years earlier, Xili Chongming was killed in battle against the Black Wu. For reasons that were never fully explained, the court not only offered no condolences — it sent the Bureau of Surveillance to investigate, accusing Xili Chongming of reckless overreach that had caused the deaths of thousands of soldiers under his command.

Xili Chongming’s household was stripped and seized. His son Xili Guang escaped and spent two years wandering before taking the name Xili Zi and coming to the Yanshan Camp to join their ranks.

Later, Yu Chaozong learned of his history, recognized his exceptional ability, and elevated him to Sixth Chief.

That had been after the deaths of all Bi Datong’s people, when Yu Chaozong was in urgent need of capable men.

At this point, the chiefs with Yu Chaozong were precious few.

Fourth Chief Chang Dingzhou had died in the assault on the city. Fifth Chief Chang Dingsui was at the front lines fighting the Jizhou army.

Eighth Chief Zheng Gongru had not left Yu Chaozong’s side.

Sixth Chief Xili Zi commanded the main force outside, holding the enemy at bay. Seventh Chief Huang Jinjia remained behind to garrison the Yanshan Camp’s mountain stronghold.

So the only person Yu Chaozong could rely on was now Xili Zi alone.

Yu Chaozong’s complexion had gone somewhat pale. He said to the messenger, “Tell the Sixth Chief: if he holds, we live. If he does not hold, we all die here in Jizhou. I only need three hours to take the city — and then he can fall back inside. Tell him… I am entrusting everything to him.”

The messenger answered and turned and ran.