The bodyguard soldiers under Qiao Mo were without question elite fighters, but the sheer numbers of the enemy bearing down on them were overwhelming. In the darkness, there was no telling how many men were charging — a dark, crushing wave, like a pack of wolves descending on a flock of sheep.
Qiao Mo glanced back toward the stronghold, then exhaled forcefully. “Break southwest — mount up, move!”
His men heard the order and were briefly confused.
Their Mistress and the two young masters were still inside the stronghold. And now they were withdrawing southwest?
Then someone understood. The General’s intent was to lead the pursuing soldiers away from the stronghold — which would leave the Mistress in safety.
Qiao Mo mounted first, then lit a torch. “Light your torches, everyone — let the enemy come after us.”
More than a hundred riders sprang onto their horses and thundered southwest in a sweeping charge.
Up on the stronghold walls, Elder An watched the torchlight growing distant. Something stirred deeply in him.
“Every one of them a true man.”
Elder An turned and called out: “Those who prove themselves loyal and righteous may stand as brothers. Help them!”
The men on the walls gave a shout in answer, and a thick volley of arrows rained down — a dense layer of shafts sweeping the pursuing force, dropping a good number of them where they ran.
Elder An strode down from the wall. “Open the gate!”
In that moment, Xiao Qi — who had just come running back, hoping to beg Elder An to open the gate — froze in place.
Elder An looked at Xiao Qi and called out: “Where’s your blade?”
Xiao Qi answered: “In my hand.”
Elder An said: “Then come with me and cut our way out — and bring your brothers back inside the stronghold.”
For a moment, Xiao Qi hesitated. He hadn’t thought it all the way through when he’d been running over, but now it struck him. If the stronghold gate opened, the dangers would be enormous. Setting aside the sheer number of enemy soldiers — once they broke inside, it would be a bloodbath for the people of Mengyuan Fort. And even if they held the line and got their own people inside, Mengyuan Fort would face savage reprisals from both the Mountain Sea Army and the White Mountain Army traitors.
The stockade walls looked formidable, but they were built to hold off a few thousand. If the Mountain Sea Army decided to make an example of them and brought tens of thousands, how could Mengyuan Fort defend itself? When that day came, everyone here would die.
“Elder An!”
Xiao Qi shouted, his eyes red, and when Elder An turned, Xiao Qi said through clenched teeth: “We cannot open the gate.”
Elder An was taken aback. “You’d leave your brothers to fend for themselves?”
Xiao Qi shook his head, his voice trembling. “If we open the gate, Mengyuan Fort becomes an enemy of the Mountain Sea Army. What comes after that—”
Elder An’s expression shifted. “What comes after…”
He exhaled slowly. “If that day comes, I will die before any of our kinsmen…”
But even as he said it, he truly wavered. Mengyuan Fort held four or five thousand souls. If they were all to die because of this one night’s decision, what would it mean for him to die first?
“Elder An!”
One of the Mengyuan Fort men called out: “Open the gate! We’ll fight our way out together and settle accounts with those rats!”
“Elder An, stop hesitating — open the gate!”
The men surged forward, surrounding Elder An, urging him with one voice after another.
Xiao Qi dropped to his knees with a thud. “Elder An, we cannot. If my brothers all fall tonight, I will spend the rest of my life avenging them. But tonight, this gate cannot open. Four or five thousand kinsmen…”
Elder An reached down and pulled Xiao Qi to his feet. “Whether this gate opens or not is my call!”
He turned and called back to his people: “Any man willing to lend a hand — take your weapons, mount your horses, and go out through the other gate to bring those friends back. But those who ride out tonight may not come back alive. Once out, you cannot return to Mengyuan Fort for some time.”
He drew his blade. “Those willing — follow me.”
Then he walked quickly to his old horse, swung himself into the saddle, and patted the horse that had ridden beside him for so many years. “Old friend, I know I’m making another mistake. But I’m going to do it anyway.”
The old horse raised its head and let out two soft cries — as if telling its old companion: no matter what you choose, I ride with you.
More than a hundred men followed Elder An out through the secondary gate, and in the dark of night, they rode toward the distant, wavering torchlight.
Outside the stockade, the bald man raised a hand and scratched the top of his head, smiling to himself. “These people think they can fool me? They’re deliberately riding southwest with their torches blazing, moving at full speed — those three couldn’t possibly be in that formation.”
He turned his gaze toward Mengyuan Fort, pointed, and said: “That woman and the children are definitely in the stronghold.”
One of his subordinates cautioned him: “Boss, this is Mengyuan Fort. It won’t be easy to crack.”
The bald man looked at him. “Not easy to crack? It isn’t easy because the cost isn’t worth the gain — what you’d loot wouldn’t be worth the men you’d lose. That’s why no one’s tried. We’re here to kill, not to plunder…”
He pointed toward the stronghold. “Burn Mengyuan Fort to the ground.”
In the darkness, several Ning Army intelligence operatives lay flat in the dead grass, watching. One of them murmured: “We came too late. No chance to give a warning.”
Another asked: “What do we do?”
The operative who seemed to be their leader thought for a moment, then looked toward the enemy formation — many of them had dismounted and were moving on foot toward the stockade.
The lead operative pointed toward the horse herd. “Go over there. Scatter their horses. Help however much we can.”
The agents crept silently toward the horses. The animals still bore the enemy soldiers’ bedroll packs. The agents exchanged a glance, then split up and went to work. A tightly rolled bedding pack was the easiest thing in the world to ignite. One by one, they produced their fire-starters and lit them — and before long, more than a few warhorses, maddened by the burning pain, went wild.
Within moments, the horse herd was in a panic.
Horses scattered in every direction, their screams immediately drawing the attention of the bald man.
He was one of the senior commanders of the Mountain Sea Army — a man known as Xu Heihu. He served as one of Lü Wuman’s most capable lieutenants.
In his youth, Xu Heihu had made a name for himself in the martial world as a solitary bandit with a vicious reputation. Later, with too many enemies to count, he had gone underground. Not long after, he had become one of the named assassins on the Cloud Mist Register — and because of his formidable martial ability and ruthless nature, he had quickly built a fearsome reputation in the world of hired killers. On the Cloud Mist Register’s Jizhou assassin rankings, only the top fifty were listed. He ranked ninth.
After following Lü Wuman to Yanzhou, he had quickly been entrusted with major responsibilities and elevated to one of the Mountain Sea Army’s senior commanders — also ranked ninth.
“Number Nine!”
Someone shouted: “The horses have spooked!”
Xu Heihu looked toward the horse herd, a flash of viciousness crossing his eyes.
“I’ve had a feeling this whole journey that someone was shadowing us in the dark. I’m starting to think it might not be that woman’s people…”
Xu Heihu said: “They can’t have gone far. Flush them out!”
On the other side, Qiao Mo had led his bodyguard soldiers charging out a good distance when he noticed that the pursuers who had been on their heels had suddenly turned back. He knew it was bad. The enemy was going after Mengyuan Fort.
“Turn back!”
Qiao Mo shouted, hauled his horse around, and the group thundered back the way they had come. They hadn’t gone far before a group of riders came straight at them from ahead. He thought it was the enemy, shouted a warning, and prepared to engage.
But then he heard a familiar voice calling out — and when he listened closely, it was Xiao Qi.
The two groups joined and immediately raced back toward the stronghold. By now many of the enemy soldiers had begun shooting flaming arrows up at the wooden walls, trying to set them alight. But in this weather, the walls had been frozen through solid, every surface glazed with a layer of ice — not so easily set on fire.
Elder An and the others hurried back to the stronghold. With the enemy not yet fully encircling it, they slipped back in through the secondary gate.
Through the night, the enemy launched assault after assault against the stockade walls — and every single time, they were beaten back. But they clearly had no intention of withdrawing. They fell back only a short distance and made camp outside the walls.
Their intent seemed fixed: they would not stop until every last one of Lin Huiyun’s group was hunted down and killed.
So they endured through the night. When dawn came and the sun rose, the enemy mustered again outside the stockade and formed a battle line.
The bald man rode out alone to a position about one arrow’s flight from the wall, swept his gaze upward, and his expression carried a note of satisfaction.
He called out to those on the walls: “The people of Mengyuan Fort have proven yourselves formidable — I take my hat off to you. But I had no intention of making enemies of Mengyuan Fort from the start. You need only hand over the ones we want, and not only will we not trouble Mengyuan Fort — we’ll send you a hundred cartloads of grain as a gift!”
Elder An had one hand resting on the wall. He looked at the bald man, and those around him watched him, waiting for his answer.
Then they saw Elder An smile. He pointed at the bald man and said: “This fellow — he’s ugly as sin.”
His voice wasn’t particularly loud, but Xu Heihu, standing outside the walls, heard it.
His eyes flickered for just a moment. But instead of anger, he smiled and continued: “Every person has a price. You’re not willing to hand them over, which must mean my offer isn’t high enough yet. Then let me sweeten it: two hundred cartloads of grain, two hundred pigs, and twenty thousand taels of silver. How does that sound?”
Elder An glanced at Qiao Mo, then at Xiao Qi.
He smiled and said: “Listening to this offer, you all aren’t worth very much, are you?”
Everyone burst out laughing.
Hearing the laughter from atop the walls, Xu Heihu let out a sigh. “Clearly a friendly negotiation won’t work. Then let me add one more piece to the bargain.”
He gestured behind him. “Bring them up!”
A group of Mountain Sea Army soldiers shoved forward three or four bound men — each one looking battered and bruised, clearly beaten quite badly.
Xu Heihu said: “These are your people too, aren’t they — the ones who snuck around in the night and burned our horse herd, costing us at least four or five hundred horses. But I’m not one to hold small grievances against small people.”
He paused, then pointed at the bound prisoners. “Hand over Lin Huiyun and her children. Qiao Mo — I won’t even demand you and your men. I’ll return these prisoners to you as well, and all the previous terms still stand. Is that weighty enough a bargain now?”
The people on the wall looked at one another. Qiao Mo was bewildered. “Who are they? Are they our brothers?”
His men all shook their heads. “Never seen them before.”
Xiao Qi’s face creased with distress. “Could they be the ones who’ve been sending us word in secret? If they hadn’t warned us along the way, we would have walked into an ambush more than once.”
Qiao Mo immediately shouted down at the men outside: “Brothers — you’re the ones who’ve been helping us from the shadows this whole journey, aren’t you!”
The captured agents glanced at their leader. The middle-aged man gave a nod toward the wall.
Qiao Mo called out at once: “Xu Heihu! Release them and I’ll come down to take their place. If you’re man enough, agree to it!”
“No need!”
The middle-aged man shouted back at full voice: “It wouldn’t matter. We would die — and they would never let the rest of you go regardless. We were ordered to help you escape from the shadows. I never thought we would be the ones who couldn’t escape first. We have brought shame to the Ning Army — but if you reach Jizhou, please report to Prince Ning how we died and at whose hands. We thank you.”
Then he turned to face Xu Heihu. “We are Prince Ning’s people. Our Prince’s iron cavalry will one day grind your skulls into dust.”
Xu Heihu faltered for a moment — he clearly had not expected these men to be soldiers of the Ning Army.
He seemed momentarily uncertain of what to do. Then abruptly, he drew his long blade and cut the man down in a single stroke.
“You nearly had me fooled.”
He made a contemptuous sound. “Even if you truly are Prince Ning Li Chi’s people — everyone in Mengyuan Fort is going to die. Who’s going to carry your message?”
Another of the bound agents showed not a trace of fear. He actually smiled. “You are to be pitied. Because you still don’t know what fear truly is.”
—