The Black Wu forces on the city wall had already seized a large expanse of ground. Relying on their physical strength and sheer numbers, they had been steadily pressing the Ning Army back.
Yet many Ning Army commanders had refused to be pushed back, still holding their ground and fighting to the death.
If the Black Wu forces were a river that had crested a levee, then the Ning Army commanders’ last stands formed whirlpool after whirlpool amid the flood.
In the sections of the wall the Black Wu forces had taken, Ning Army commanders held the ground beneath their feet amid the surging masses, each surrounded by no small number of Black Wu soldiers.
Dantai Yajing was there. Xiahou Zuo was there. Li Chi was there too.
Around each of them, the ground was blanketed with corpses.
Dantai Yajing had initially fought with his long lance, but as the enemy pressed in from all sides and the circle closed tighter, the lance could no longer be wielded. He hurled it outright, skewering several men at once.
He drew his saber and fought on. Those who came close died.
Through the dense mass of bodies, he could dimly make out Prince Ning’s silhouette. In such dire circumstances, Dantai Yajing feared Prince Ning would be wounded, and hacked his way toward him.
Had it not been for the battle armor Li Chi had discovered in the underground palace of Youshan Kingdom, every one of them might have already been gravely wounded.
In such an encirclement, a wound meant death.
He paid no heed to what was behind him, gritted his teeth, and drove forward. The blood slashed free by his blade flew out of one man’s body and onto another’s.
The iron armor he wore over his robes had been hacked to pieces, a harrowing sight.
The Black Wu forces evidently knew who the main commander was, and those converging on Li Chi had grown so numerous they pressed against one another.
Yet Li Chi remained exactly as he was — killing in silence.
His blade was sharp and heavy; one sweeping cut, and a man came apart in two.
He too saw Dantai Yajing fighting his way toward him, and moved to meet him. The two men charged toward each other through the crowd, carving a path of blood between them.
Dantai Yajing was knocked down by a Black Wu soldier crashing into him from behind. He twisted his body, swept his long saber horizontally, and severed four or five legs.
Before he could rise, two curved sabers came chopping down onto his chest. Without that jade armor, those two blows would have gutted him.
Li Chi moved to pull Dantai Yajing to safety, but the Black Wu soldiers had gone berserk, hurling themselves at him.
Just then, the red flags came up.
“Kill!”
Shen Shanhu’s battle cry exploded from behind the crowd.
That woman, like a fierce tiger, drove forward through the blood with her pack of tigers, scattering the encircling Black Wu forces.
“Kill the enemy — save our lord!”
Shen Shanhu led the charge, driving the Black Wu forces back step by step with the sudden appearance of Ning Army reinforcements. Inch by inch, the city wall’s Ning Army reclaimed what had been lost.
Inch by inch they took it back — every inch bought with lives.
The Black Wu battle flag just planted on the wall was cut down by Li Chi in a single stroke. He reached out his hand; Shen Shanhu turned and grabbed a great flag and passed it to him. Li Chi drove the great flag into the city wall.
A resounding crack.
In that moment, it seemed as though the entire city wall shuddered.
“Where the Ning flag stands, not one inch shall be yielded!”
Li Chi let out a thunderous roar.
The Black Wu forces were pushed back. Some had no choice but to leap from the wall themselves; others were cut down and thrown off.
The Ning Army reclaimed dominance of the city wall. Those blood-stained flags soared once more above the battlements.
The Black Wu forces began to retreat — not only because the Ning Army had retaken the wall, but because their allies had suffered heavy losses on another front as well.
The Nalan cavalry, long trained by General Tang Pidi, were far superior to the Tiehu cavalry in both equipment and tactics.
And Borjigit’s sudden arrival was thanks to Zhuang Wudi.
When the forces were split at Suzhou, Tang Pidi knew that Yuzhou was Li Chi’s great rear base. If the Black Wu forces were to breach Jizhou, as long as Yuzhou held, Li Chi’s foundation would remain intact.
So he assigned the bulk of his forces to Zhuang Wudi, sending him back to Yuzhou to garrison it.
But Zhuang Wudi understood that keeping so many troops idle in Yuzhou was a pure waste. If the northern frontier needed reinforcements and he sat still, it could prove a catastrophic error.
So Zhuang Wudi simultaneously recruited new soldiers and arranged for Borjigit to lead the Nalan cavalry north to reinforce the frontier.
This force of tens of thousands of cavalry rode from Yuzhou toward Jizhou, and halfway along the route, happened upon a militia force recruited by the Qingzhou Military Governor, Master Wu.
Master Wu said that if they went all the way to Beishan Pass, the cavalry would not be able to fight to their full strength.
He showed Borjigit a different route — through a small border pass somewhat closer, a place called Xifeng Kou.
Because of its exceptionally steep terrain and the difficulty of attacking it, the Black Wu forces had no desire to strike Xifeng Kou.
Mainly, Xifeng Kou’s position was too peculiar — to besiege it, the Black Wu forces would have had to climb a long, steep slope. High and precipitous, defenders could harvest attackers’ lives at will as they climbed.
So the Black Wu forces had always made Beishan Pass their primary target.
When Borjigit led the cavalry to Xifeng Kou, the garrison there was still the original Dachu border troops.
Hearing that this steppe cavalry force had come to relieve Beishan Pass, they immediately opened the gate.
After passing through the gate, Borjigit’s force headed southwest, and when they reached the foot of Unnamed Mountain, they ran straight into the Tiehu cavalry.
The Nalan tribe and the Tiehu people were blood enemies.
The vast steppe had originally all belonged to Dachu. The Tiehu people had only dared to rebel after General Xu Qulu’s death.
At that time, the one serving as military governor on the steppe was none other than Borjigit’s great-grandfather.
The Tiehu people had schemed to kill his great-grandfather, then stormed the steppe military governor’s compound and declared their break from Dachu.
The Nalan people suffered devastating losses on the outer steppe.
Because the Nalan people had always lived in friendship with the people of the Central Plains, and their chieftains had historically held high office in Dachu, the Nalan tribe was the very first target the Tiehu people had moved to subjugate.
The main strength of the Nalan tribe lay within the pass on the inner steppe, and in that catastrophe, the Nalan people outside the pass were nearly wiped out entirely.
With such hatred burning in his chest, the moment Borjigit saw the Tiehu banner, the fury within him blazed up.
This was destiny.
There was no avoiding it.
Tens of thousands of Nalan horsemen lowered their visors and charged at the Tiehu forces.
They were the iron army that had followed General Tang Pidi from being driven south to fighting their way back north. In combat experience, they far surpassed those Tiehu cavalry.
With Ning Army equipment, with the tactics drilled into them by General Tang Pidi, and with irreconcilable hatred burning in their hearts —
They were fearless, and invincible.
Shuyang Chuan, trapped in heavy encirclement, had already taken several wounds. The cavalry around him fell one by one, and the Tiehu circle drew tighter and tighter.
But just then, the wind came.
Thunder rode on the wind.
Surrounded by the dense press of bodies, he could not see into the distance, yet he felt within that thunder the vast, surging killing intent.
He kept swinging his saber, killing and killing — and then, suddenly, the Tiehu forces before him scattered.
Nalan cavalry in battle armor came screaming through!
Shuyang Chuan had never seen such a cavalry force. They wore matching leather armor and matching protective gear, their equipment so fine it could not but inspire envy.
The charging Nalan iron cavalry cut the Tiehu formation to pieces.
Outnumbered by the Tiehu forces three to one, they were the ones in pursuit, doing the killing — an aura that defied explanation.
The Tiehu formation broke. Their leader Wu’erwa would never have imagined that Nalan cavalry could appear at this moment.
He kept issuing orders, trying to rally his force, but the cut-apart units could not regroup. He watched helplessly as those isolated cavalry detachments were swallowed up piece by piece by the Nalan forces.
“Retreat!”
Wu’erwa knew the battle was lost. Fortunately, he still had many personal guards around him; shielded by them, he withdrew westward.
As long as he could fall back to the Black Wu camp, the Nalan forces would not dare pursue him further.
But Borjigit, the moment he spotted Wu’erwa’s command banner, had no intention of letting him go.
Two cavalry forces raced across the open plain, one ahead, one behind, each pushing their horses to the limit — a sight that shook the soul.
Yet the pursuers held the unmistakable advantage.
They shot arrows continuously from behind; Tiehu riders fell from their horses one by one.
The Tiehu riders at the rear, fearing the arrows, had no choice but to peel off to both sides — and so the Tiehu force grew thinner and thinner.
Borjigit’s horse was superior; he surged ahead and loosed an arrow that struck Wu’erwa’s horse in the leg. The horse let out a sharp cry and tumbled forward.
Wu’erwa was flung from the saddle. A lifetime on horseback served him well — he scrambled to his feet quickly and called for his men to come back and retrieve him.
Those personal guards reined in their horses and turned to save him, but a volley of javelins came flying in, and the Tiehu riders crashed to the ground.
Borjigit leapt from his horse and flew at Wu’erwa, tackling him to the ground. The two men grappled together.
Wu’erwa was not only Tiehu royalty but a warrior of great prestige in his tribe, and in the struggle with Borjigit he gradually began to gain the upper hand.
They rolled to the ground and sprang up again, grappling furiously. Wu’erwa was a master of wrestling, and seizing his moment, he flung Borjigit.
Before Borjigit could rise, Wu’erwa stepped forward and stamped toward his throat.
Borjigit rolled aside to dodge; Wu’erwa scooped up the curved saber that had fallen to the ground.
He stepped forward to press the attack, then saw Borjigit unsling his crossbow repeater.
The two stood roughly one zhang apart. Wu’erwa said between labored breaths: “That weapon you’re using is not a steppe warrior’s weapon. Do you dare set it down and let us settle this with the curved sabers of the steppe?”
Borjigit was also breathing hard: “Do you think you’re fast with a blade?”
Wu’erwa said: “I am a warrior of the Tiehu tribe. My curved saber has never met its match on the steppe. When a saber is in my hand, it moves like lightning across the sky. If you’re afraid, you may surrender.”
Borjigit loosed a bolt. With a thud, it struck Wu’erwa square in the chest.
The Ning Army’s crossbow repeater had tremendous force — Wu’erwa’s leather armor could not stop it.
Borjigit: “If your blade is so fast, why are you wasting words on me?”
Another bolt.
Then three more.
Wu’erwa fell backward, lying on the ground, his breathing growing fainter and fainter.
Borjigit walked over, looked down at him, then emptied the remaining bolts from the crossbow into him.
Aiming carefully — at this range, it would have been hard to miss even if he tried.
“You wanted to compare sabers with me, fine. But you had to boast that you were fast — talking yourself up like that, when I don’t even have a saber, and the saber you picked up was mine to begin with.”
Seeing the Black Wu forces adjusting their formation, Borjigit swung back onto his horse. With a wave of his hand, the force followed him back toward Unnamed Mountain.
Their force had no way into Beishan Pass from this side; they could only first go back and rescue those brave warriors of whatever tribe they were.
On the city wall, Li Chi leaned against the battlements and watched, seeing the Nalan cavalry defeat the Tiehu forces with a supremely dominant and ferocious assault. His hand came down hard on the battlements.
“Excellent!”
Li Chi let out a great shout.
The Black Wu forces ebbed away like a tide, and the sun had already shifted to the west.
In that golden light, every figure on the city wall stood tall and unbroken.
—