Yu Chaozong faced many things he had not anticipated. So did Luo Geng.

Luo Geng had expected that at most — at the very most — the Yanshan Camp forces blocking his path could hold out for another hour.

His heavy armored cavalry had already demonstrated an overwhelming, unstoppable momentum. By his usual method of fighting, what came next was to pursue and cut down the routed soldiers, press the advantage in a single surge, and claim total victory — it had been within arm’s reach.

What he had not expected was that the Yanshan Camp would contain a talent of such caliber.

Among the Green-Browed Army’s ranks, Sixth Chief Xili wrinkled his brow as he looked toward the fierce fighting at the front lines. Luo Geng’s Youzhou heavy cavalry were truly formidable — not even a wall of lives thrown against them could hold.

“Pass the order—”

A flash of anguish crossed Xili’s eyes, and that anguish made him hesitate over whether the order should be given at all.

“Pass the order!”

A moment later, Xili shouted it again.

“Move the central army’s archers forward. Pin down the rear of the forward column. Do not allow them to fall back.”

When his command was issued, everyone around him froze.

The Yanshan Camp’s Green-Browed Army was, at its roots, a band of outlaws — different from the court’s official troops. They preferred to place loyalty and brotherhood above all else, not cold reason.

“Chief!”

A general went pale as he urged, “There are still at least ten thousand brothers in the forward column! We ought to be sending reinforcements, Chief!”

Xili drew a deep breath, and spoke as though grinding the words between his teeth.

“Did you not hear me? Pass my order — central army archers forward, pin down the rear of the forward column, and do not allow them to return!”

After he said it, he swept his gaze across those still tempted to argue and shouted once more: “Anyone who disobeys will be executed!”

The messengers did not dare defy him. They began sprinting to relay the command.

The central army’s archers advanced in orderly formation. Many had already begun to weep. Among those in the forward column were friends and brothers — and for some, family.

Every one of them understood: once they loosed their arrows, they would be the ones hurling those brothers, those family members, into hell with their own hands.

With a rush of wind, the volley flew anyway.

The forward column had been trying to pull back. They desperately hoped their comrades in the center and rear would come to their aid as quickly as possible.

But no reinforcements came. Arrows did.

At the rear of the forward column, a number of Yanshan Camp soldiers were struck down by arrows fired from their own side. As they fell, not one of them was willing to believe that the shafts had come from behind.

Some were bewildered. Some were furious. Some went mad.

“Now.”

Xili watched the retreating forward column being pinned in place. He called out in a loud voice: “Every man in the central army — dig holes in the ground beneath your feet. No matter how deep or how wide, everyone digs. Stop only when you hear the horn. On my signal, the central army withdraws!”

Messengers once again galloped out, shouting orders at the top of their lungs as they rode.

Though the Yanshan Camp soldiers did not understand why, they carried out the order swiftly. Every man began digging with whatever weapon he had in hand — with swords, with spears — and before long, the ground had been pitted and pocked in every direction.

Xili gauged the time while watching the situation at the front. The moment he saw the forward column could hold no longer, he immediately issued the order: “Central army withdraws. Pass word to the rear army — have them enter Jizhou City in good order and reinforce the Chief.”

The entire central force began to move back. As the army retreated, the holes and pits left behind in the earth became starkly visible — countless, large and small, scattered everywhere.

At least twenty thousand-odd Yanshan Camp soldiers in the forward column had been virtually annihilated. Youzhou’s heavy armored cavalry advanced, their hoofbeats thundering with a crushing weight.

When the heavy cavalry reached the position the Yanshan Camp’s central army had held, the commanding general immediately raised his hand and ordered the horn sounded.

The column slowed to a halt. Before them lay the uncountable pits and holes.

The general commanding the heavy cavalry dispatched riders to report to Luo Geng, and before long Luo Geng arrived at the site with his personal guard battalion. He vaulted from his horse, surveyed the churned-up ground, and suddenly broke into a laugh.

“I hadn’t expected it — to find a man of talent in a rebel force like this.”

His heavy cavalry charged in tight formation, relying on the uniform ranks and the momentum of armored warhorses — the crush of the charge, the trampling of hooves. All those pits and holes meant his heavy riders could not maintain formation; and this cavalry carried an enormous load. Both men and horses were clad in full heavy armor, with additional collision gear mounted — during a charge, not only did ranks need to be tight, they needed to be dense, horses pressed flank to flank. With these trap-pits everywhere, his heavy cavalry could not build up speed, and a stumble would not mean one or two horses — it would mean disaster.

“A delay, nothing more.”

Luo Geng remounted, and gave a sharp command: “Send the rear army — the Qingzhou surrendered troops — forward to keep pressing ahead. The heavy cavalry will move east. Let us go assist the Yuzhou forces.”

The order given, the heavy cavalry adjusted their direction and began pressing toward the rear of the Yanshan Camp units engaging the Yuzhou army to the east.

This great battle stretched from dawn to dusk.

As night was falling, a messenger drenched in blood charged through the city gate. He searched frantically through the crowd, and only after a long while did he find Yu Chaozong, who was still directing the assault.

“Chief!”

The messenger gasped breathlessly: “The unit holding our eastern flank has been routed… Only Sixth Chief himself is leading his men to block the city gate now, still fighting.”

Yu Chaozong’s eyes flew wide open: “How is it possible it fell so fast!”

As he spoke, his voice was trembling.

He did not know why, but all at once he thought of those three letters from Li Chi. A sharp pain stabbed through his chest, and he coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Xili had fought with everything he had for three full hours, yet Yu Chaozong had still failed to take Jizhou City.

Three hours of bloody battle had carpeted every street in the fighting zone with corpses, yet the Jizhou forces refused to retreat even at the cost of their lives.

Deep of night.

Yu Chaozong regained consciousness, his head pounding as though it might split open. He raised a hand and rubbed his temple, then suddenly remembered something and jerked himself bolt upright.

“What is the situation outside the city?”

He asked urgently.

Eighth Chief Zheng Gongru answered carefully: “Chief, Sixth Chief is still holding at the city gate outside. He has sent word three times now, requesting that you order a breakout.”

“A breakout?”

Yu Chaozong swallowed. His throat burned as though it were on fire.

“Yes!”

He struggled to rise: “Order the breakout!”

Another hour later, outside the city gate, Yu Chaozong glanced at the torchlight in the distance — like a full sky of stars — and his face went white with dread.

It seemed the breakout had already failed. They had surged out several times and been driven back each time.

The Youzhou army and Yuzhou army had formed a complete encirclement. Xili led his men in a bitter fight, with devastating casualties.

Yanshan Camp soldiers who had never experienced a battle on this scale were breaking down in great numbers — especially those on the eastern side, who had been caught in a pincer. Countless men chose to kneel and surrender.

In the grip of boundless terror, the numbers surrendering only grew. Xili had once commanded a central army of sixty or seventy thousand, yet from the moment darkness fell, he could not tell how many had fled — there was no controlling it.

“Brother.”

Xili turned to Yu Chaozong and said: “Muster all the light cavalry. Break through toward the Youzhou forces now — their heavy cavalry cannot catch us.”

Yu Chaozong looked back at his subordinates. Every face was as grim as it could be. In that moment, Yu Chaozong made another decision.

“I cannot live while the rest die.”

Yu Chaozong said: “If I break out with only the light cavalry — even if I make it through — I would be leaving tens of thousands of brothers behind. I cannot do it.”

He drew a long breath and said: “Order the entire army. Break out toward the Youzhou forces.”

“Chief!”

Zheng Gongru urged: “The Youzhou forces are seasoned fighters, and they have heavy cavalry — a breakout that way is too difficult. Better to break toward the Yuzhou forces. The terrain there is more open.”

Yu Chaozong hesitated, and Xili beside him grew anxious.

“Brother, we cannot break east. If the government forces have any ambush troops, they will be positioned to the east. The Youzhou forces are strong fighters, but precisely because they are strong, their ambush troops will be planted where the Yuzhou forces are weaker. Luo Geng is counting on us to break east.”

Zheng Gongru said: “Chief, don’t listen to his wild talk. If we go west, Luo Geng’s heavy cavalry will block the road — we’ll never get through. If we go east, once we’re out, Luo Geng’s heavy cavalry won’t be able to catch us.”

Yu Chaozong deliberated a moment, then said: “I say we go west — follow Xili’s judgment. Heavy cavalry cannot fight in continuous engagements; never mind the men, even the horses can’t sustain it.”

Zheng Gongru seethed inwardly, but there was nothing he could do to change it.

That night, Yu Chaozong ordered the entire army to break out westward and assault Luo Geng’s Youzhou forces. A sea of fire collided with another sea of fire, striking sparks like the Milky Way come crashing to earth.

Xili and Chang Dingsu led the light cavalry and had nearly carved all the way through the encirclement — but Yu Chaozong refused to leave. He saw the great mass of men left behind and, unable to bring himself to abandon them, decided to turn back and charge in once more, hoping to rescue more.

Xili obeyed orders and waited at the breach with two or three thousand cavalry. But when dawn broke, Yu Chaozong and Chang Dingsu had not been able to cut their way back out.

When light came and Xili could wait no longer — with the government forces closing in around him again — he had no choice but to lead those few thousand light cavalry westward and northward to escape.

Jizhou City.

Yu Chaozong had no choice but to fall back again.

When dawn came and a rough count was made, he found that fewer than eight thousand men had retreated with him. In the second half of the night’s fighting, from a force of nearly a hundred thousand, perhaps more than half had already surrendered. The rest had all died in battle.

On the main street, to the north were the battered and bedraggled Yanshan Camp forces; to the south, the shattered-armored Jizhou Army. Yu Chaozong, eyes red, and Zeng Ling, eyes equally red, stared at each other from opposite ends of the street.

“You lost!”

Zeng Ling shouted across at Yu Chaozong, and there was something contorted and feverish in that rough voice.

“And did you win?!”

Yu Chaozong shouted back.

After such a battle of blood, Yu Chaozong had barely seven thousand men left around him — and Zeng Ling’s side had only a few thousand remaining as well.

“We both lost.”

Yu Chaozong said it, and then let out a long, slow sigh. At the moment Jizhou City had fallen, he had truly believed victory was within his grasp.

“Do you hear it?”

Zeng Ling called out to Yu Chaozong: “The forces outside — they’re not pressing the attack anymore, are they?”

Yu Chaozong looked back. It did seem quiet. The government forces that had been hemming them in had finally stopped.

“They have no need to hurry now.”

Yu Chaozong’s strength seemed to drain away all at once. He sank to the ground.

“Hahahahaha—!”

Across the street, Zeng Ling suddenly burst into wild laughter, uncontrollable and hysterical.

“Yu Chaozong! Entering this trap — that was Li Chi’s doing, wasn’t it! I thought he was some kind of once-in-an-age genius, but it turns out he’s nothing more than that — this terrible move of his has ruined you and the entire Yanshan Camp! Hahahaha!”

Yu Chaozong started — and jerked his head to look at the people around him. At some point he could not identify, Zheng Gongru had vanished from his side.

At the same moment, outside the city.

Liu Li’s eyes looked as though they might shoot flames. At dawn, his scouts reported that a great army had appeared at their rear without warning and already sealed off the Yuzhou Army’s escape route. The army’s column stretched as far as the eye could see — it was impossible to judge how many troops it contained. Only the banner flying above the central army was visible: the flag of the Left Martial Guard.

Just as Liu Li’s rage reached its peak, a column of cavalry arrived before his lines. The white-bearded old man at their head swept a glance at Liu Li and said: “Liu Li — do you still recognize me?”

The moment Liu Li saw Prince Wu Yang Jiju, all his rage vanished in an instant, leaving only terror.

He stumbled forward several paces, then fell to his knees with a thud, crawling forward and scraping his knees against the ground as though he felt no pain at all.

“Your servant Liu Li pays reverence to the Grand General! Long live the Grand General, long live, long live!”

He spoke as he crawled, and when he reached a position not far from the Prince, he knelt there, kowtowing without cease.

Prince Wu spoke in a flat tone: “Rise. Bring every general of Fourth Rank and above under your command and come with me. I am taking you to see His Majesty.”

He let his gaze settle on Liu Li. “The Emperor is waiting for you.”

—