“Prince Ning Li Chi’s people.”

Qiao Mo murmured the words to himself, then straightened, and in the White Mountain Army’s manner, performed the most solemn military salute he knew in the direction of the place where those men had fallen outside the walls.

“We honor the fallen!”

Qiao Mo’s voice rang out. The hundred-some bodyguard soldiers all stood at attention and saluted.

After a moment, Xiao Qi looked at Elder An, his face full of remorse. “Forgive us, Elder An. In the end, we brought this upon you.”

Elder An patted him on the shoulder. “Little brother, we are all the same kind of people — so what is there to speak of bringing trouble? Think on it: once, the men of Yanzhou were the same kind of people as us. Hospitable, righteous, principled… But then those animals took over, and people’s hearts changed overnight.”

He looked at Xiao Qi. “The good news is — Yanzhou still has people like us.”

Xiao Qi nodded with force. “Even in death, I will not become one of them.”

Elder An turned to face the people of Mengyuan Fort and spoke to them all: “This calamity of bandits today is a calamity that was always going to come, sooner or later. With a force like the Mountain Sea Army growing powerful in Yanzhou, even if they didn’t come for Mengyuan Fort today, they would come tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, the day after.”

He raised his voice: “People of Mengyuan Fort — man, woman, young and old alike — I ask only that there is not one among you willing to bow before these bandits. If this is the tribulation that has come for Mengyuan Fort, we fight it together. And in the world below, we will build Mengyuan Fort anew.”

The men roared back: “We fight!”

Because of Elder An, this was a village more united than any other — a people more united than any other.

Outside the walls, Xu Heihu saw that the people of Mengyuan Fort showed not even a flicker of fear. His fury deepened.

He leveled his blade at the walls. “Storming cities and slaughtering towns — have we done that so rarely? One more won’t matter. Kill them all. Every scrap of silver and every woman in Mengyuan Fort is yours!”

The Mountain Sea Army’s bandits burst into a cheer, then surged forward in a great wave.

But they had no siege equipment. They had come as a cavalry pursuit force, chasing Lin Huiyun and her group. Now attacking the fort walls, all they had was their own bodies.

Still, these men were agile — they gripped knives between their teeth and went up hand and foot.

The people of Mengyuan Fort had few bows, and even those they had were homemade hunting bows, with far less range than military-grade weapons. So from the beginning, Elder An had given the order: let the enemy come close before engaging.

As the raiders began to scale the walls, the villagers on top began loosing arrows downward. At this distance, even a hunting bow could punch through a human body.

The women didn’t merely crouch behind the walls waiting. They organized themselves, forming chains to haul logs and stones up to the top.

Fighting broke out between the villagers and the bandits — perhaps not the most sweeping or spectacular of battles, but it was a battle fought by the people of Yanzhou for their lives, and so they were without fear. When you fight for your survival, what is there left to fear from death?

“Elder An — have the kinsmen boil water!”

Qiao Mo called across to Elder An.

Elder An immediately caught on. He ordered men to scour the village for every iron pot they could find — as many as possible — and set them up along the top of the walls. Snow was everywhere; there was no shortage of water. Once the pots came to a boil, they tilted them one after another over the edge.

Scalding water poured down, steam billowing up in white clouds until the walls seemed to float in fog.

The bandits below screamed as the water hit them — men who had been climbing into the boiling stream fell back, clawing at their scalded faces once they hit the ground, trying to wipe away the pain, only to pull away fistfuls of hair. Some had their eyelids curled back from the burns, giving their eyes a grotesque, bulging look.

The assault broke and collapsed beneath that scalding torrent. The men left writhing on the ground were ignored as their companions fled in disarray. The wounded and burned struggled to rise; those who couldn’t began to crawl slowly back.

Not that returning would do them any good. Would they be tended to? Men who were spent and broken were simply abandoned in the snow outside Mengyuan Fort. Before long, they would freeze to death, and their hard-frozen bodies would eventually be gnawed by wolves or whatever else roamed these wastes.

Because of the stout walls and their well-positioned cover, Mengyuan Fort’s own losses were almost negligible.

Cavalry attacking a fortified position was absurd to begin with. The enemy had simply assumed that the people of Mengyuan Fort were ordinary villagers, easy to bully.

After taking such a beating, it was unlikely they would come again for a while.

But both Elder An and the others understood clearly: the bandits had merely pulled back — they had not retreated. If the walls held against the next assault as well, they would likely go back for reinforcements. What came next would not be cavalry with no siege capability, but a large force with proper siege equipment.

“Here’s a thought…”

Elder An looked at Xiao Qi. “The enemy thinks we mean to hold out indefinitely. Tonight, at dark, your people go out through the other gate and make straight for Jizhou. If the bandits don’t notice, you could cover seventy or eighty li by dawn — and by the time they realize it and try to give chase, it’ll be too late.”

Xiao Qi shook his head. “If we leave, the people of Mengyuan Fort will face reprisals. Guan Qi cannot do something like that. Neither can my brothers.”

Qiao Mo looked at Elder An. “Elder An, if we’re all going to fight to the end, then we fight it together. We are not leaving.”

Elder An let out a long sigh. These people — stubborn as he was.

“Then we send a runner.”

Xiao Qi had just thought of it — the agents killed outside the walls had said they were from the Ning Army of Jizhou.

“Send someone through the dark, heading for Jizhou to ask for help. Maybe… maybe there’s a chance.”

He looked at Qiao Mo. Qiao Mo didn’t answer right away.

After a long moment, Qiao Mo gave a slight shake of his head. “Those agents who died for us may be Prince Ning’s people, but they weren’t necessarily here because of us — they were here for the young lady.”

He looked at Xiao Qi. “Besides, Dragon Head Pass is nearly a thousand li from here. Even riding without rest, you’d need the better part of ten days to reach it. And once you arrived — the border army of Jizhou is not going to move into Yanzhou without orders, even for the Ning Army. And even if they threw caution aside and came, a great army covering a thousand li would take at least twenty days to arrive.”

Two trips together: that was over a month. But the bandits’ reinforcements would arrive in seven or eight days at most.

Even if the Ning Army came a thousand li to answer the call — deep into unfamiliar territory, against a Mountain Sea Army with overwhelming numbers and advantage — what could they even do? And Qiao Mo’s forces would very likely already be surrounded, with no way out.

If Qiao Mo were a border commander, he would never throw his full strength into such a mission. As a border commander, abandoning your post to venture far afield — who could actually do that?

And from what Qiao Mo knew of military forces, a border garrison unit would not be large. At the outside limit, perhaps not even ten thousand men could be raised. Ten thousand Ning soldiers, however skilled, fighting in unfamiliar terrain against a Mountain Sea Army that held every advantage — there would be nothing they could do.

“Still worth trying.”

Xiao Qi lowered his voice. “Even if the Ning Army only sends a small unit of elite light cavalry — enough to carry the Mistress and the young masters away — we could die here with nothing left to worry about.”

Qiao Mo felt those words move through him. He gave a slow nod. “That’s true. If the Mistress and the young masters could be safely carried out, we could all die without a regret.”

He looked at Xiao Qi. “You go.”

Xiao Qi shook his head. “I stay here to fight. Send someone else.”

He looked at Elder An. “Elder An, assign a few of your men, would you? Your people know this terrain — their chances of breaking through are better.”

Elder An exhaled heavily. “I’m afraid that even if we send someone to Dragon Head Pass — there may truly be no one willing to come.”

He pushed out a long breath. “This feels like something deeply unreasonable — yet as if there is no other choice. We are the people of Yanzhou, being killed and slaughtered by the bandits of Yanzhou, and we have to go a thousand li to Jizhou and beg help from a Ning Army that has absolutely no reason to come for us…”

When those words landed, a heaviness fell over everyone. It was unreasonable on both sides — they had no good reason to go, and the Ning Army had no good reason to come.

“Let’s try.”

Qiao Mo said. “On the chance that it might work.”

Elder An gave a nod. “Let’s try. I’ll pick a few sharp ones to go out tonight.”

On the Mountain Sea Army side, Xu Heihu had his men tally the casualties. He found that this single village had repelled them multiple times, and when the count came in — more than three hundred dead and wounded.

“This grudge is well and truly settled.”

Xu Heihu said. “Send a few men back to report to King Shanhu. His main forces are encamped two or three hundred li from here — if they ride hard day and night, they won’t take long. Ask King Shanhu to bring his army and raze Mengyuan Fort.”

“Yes!”

His subordinates immediately acknowledged the order and dispatched riders to call for reinforcements.

And at this very moment, Dantai Yajing and her two hundred eighty elite light cavalry were still at least eight hundred li from Mengyuan Fort.

And furthermore, they might not even be traveling this route. Yanzhou was a vast place, and there were many roads leading to the White Mountain Army’s camp. There was every chance this path would never intersect with these events.

Without anyone quite noticing when it had happened, the snowfall over Mengyuan Fort had stopped — but where Dantai Yajing and her force were, the snow was falling harder than ever.

The column had no way of telling direction in the storm. The snow fell so densely that you could barely see a few feet ahead. The wind drove it in swirling masses — like countless shredded butterflies spinning chaotically before your eyes — and where it struck the face it stung like a blade scraping skin.

With no other option, Dantai Yajing gave the order to halt and find shelter.

They pulled to a stop behind a high ridge, used their weapons as tools to dig out snow caves, and burrowed in — men and horses alike.

No one was sure how much time had passed. When the storm finally eased, the openings of the snow caves were more than half buried. Moments later, the people inside began to dig their way out. Out of one cave after another, Ning Army soldiers emerged and gasped for breath. Every one of them had been through difficult things before, but none of them had encountered weather like this. Killing enemies was nothing — but the weather was far more terrifying than any enemy.

“Count off!”

Dantai Yajing called out.

The soldiers began counting in sequence. By good fortune, there were no casualties.

“We need a guide.”

Dantai Yajing looked at Tingwei Army Qianban Zao Yunjian. “In the high wind and heavy snow, the river channels are frozen over and buried — completely unrecognizable. The maps that the General drew during his reconnaissance missions in and out of Yanzhou don’t cover this route. If we keep moving blindly, we’ll keep going wrong.”

Zao Yunjian acknowledged. “I’ll take men and find a guide.”

Dantai Yajing turned and called to everyone: “Rest in place. Find firewood and make a hot meal. We move out once we have a guide.”

The soldiers acknowledged and scattered to fell dry wood.

About two li away, two figures lay pressed flat against the snow at the top of a ridge. Both were draped in lengths of white cloth, invisible from a distance. They looked young — a young man and a young woman.

“Sis,” the young man murmured, keeping his voice low. “Let’s go back and tell Father — there’s a big pile of fat mutton.”

The young woman gave a soft sound of assent. “Let’s go.”

The two of them crept quietly back down the slope.

—