Shen Kunyang, following behind Bai Qingyan, halted his steps, gripping his sword at his waist tightly. He walked several steps toward the outer wall and asked with full confidence: “What… is Tianfeng Nation declaring war on our Great Zhou?!”

“So what if we are!” Li Tianfu sneered. War with the Great Zhou was exactly what she wanted.

Bai Qingyan stopped at the upper chamber directly opposite Li Tianfu, her cold gaze fixed on the elephant army below the city wall. In a frigid voice, she said: “Tianfeng Nation brings thirty elephants and thinks they can wage war with our Great Zhou—how laughably overconfident…”

The crossbow battalion, having received orders, pressed close to the city wall under Shen Qingzhu’s leadership, climbing onto the wall one by one while crouched low.

“Thirty elephant troops, plus ten thousand elite Xiliang soldiers—more than enough to break through your Pingyang City! Be sensible and hand over Li Zhijie!” Li Tianfu shouted at Bai Qingyan.

It was true that Tianfeng Nation had brought thirty elephant troops, but she had brought only six thousand Xiliang soldiers. Otherwise… how could Tianfeng Nation’s ruler have dispatched the elephant army to accompany her?

The Tianfeng general looked at Li Tianfu. This mad woman… wanted to use this as an excuse to start a war!

Li Tianfu paid no attention to the Tianfeng general’s warning glare, sneering coldly: “What… is Tianfeng Nation so afraid of Great Zhou?”

The Tianfeng general looked coldly at Li Tianfu. The people of Tianfeng Nation never knew what fear meant!

But their elephant army would indeed be limited in winter, and since their ruler had other arrangements regarding the Great Zhou, he was loyal to his sovereign. Therefore, no one could use Tianfeng Nation’s elephant army to sabotage His Majesty’s plans.

The Tianfeng general gripped the armrests of his chair with both hands, leaning toward Li Tianfu: “We of Tianfeng Nation are the strong—we never know what fear means! But… I absolutely will not allow you to ruin our Majesty’s schemes! Otherwise, don’t blame me for being impolite!”

“Your Majesty’s schemes—don’t they involve first buying a few cities, then waiting for winter when the elephants fear cold to pass, so that next summer when your Tianfeng elephant army can show its might, you’ll attack Great Zhou?”

Li Tianfu spoke without any attempt at concealment, clearly intending for the Great Zhou people on the city wall to hear. The Tianfeng general gripped his chair’s armrests even tightly, his gaze toward Li Tianfu cold and icy.

Li Tianfu’s beautiful, alluring eyes carried intense, seductive laughter as she said to the Tianfeng general: “Tell me… bringing your Tianfeng Nation’s giant elephants here today, isn’t Bai Qingyan afraid in her heart? If she’s not afraid… why does she stand on the city wall with a tense face, saying nothing? If you take Pingyang City today, that would be a great merit before your Majesty!”

“Great Zhou’s Empress is right here!” Li Tianfu gestured for the Xiliang elephant army general to look up at the city wall. “If you capture Bai Qingyan alive, do you still fear Great Zhou won’t surrender?”

“Once Great Zhou’s Empress is captured alive and used as leverage… The Great Zhou will have only defeat left. The Great Yan and Great Zhou have allied now precisely because they fear Tianfeng Nation’s elephant army. If Tianfeng Nation and Xiliang also show goodwill to Great Yan, there’s no guarantee Great Yan won’t be tempted to join us in dividing up Great Zhou!” Seeing hesitation in the Tianfeng general’s eyes, Li Tianfu’s smile grew even more intense. “Think carefully—miss this opportunity, and it will be much harder for your Tianfeng Nation to capture Great Zhou’s Empress alive…”

While Li Tianfu spoke, Great Zhou’s crossbow battalion had already arranged themselves in formation, each holding lit small oil fire buckets, ready to attack at any moment.

Li Tianfu stared fixedly at the Tianfeng general. Seeing that she had swayed him, though he was unwilling to admit it openly, she smiled and sat up straight, turning to order the Xiliang soldiers: “Bring up all those people we captured alive earlier!”

The people Li Tianfu referred to… were the Bai family guards.

The Bai family guards had fought desperately to protect Bai Jinzhi and Shen Qingzhu’s escape. Except for those who died, the survivors had been captured.

Those elephants were truly terrifying. Once their trunks coiled around you, no amount of strength could break free. Even the Bai family guards who had survived battles on the battlefield were helpless once caught by elephant trunks, vomiting blood from being squeezed, unable to resist.

The bound Bai family guards, severely wounded and covered in blood, were dragged out by Xiliang soldiers and thrown directly onto the ground!

Each Bai family guard was a tough man. Some had already fainted and lay in pools of blood, but those who could still draw breath and stand upright absolutely refused to kneel.

Cold, sharp blades were pressed against the Bai family guards’ necks, but no one begged for mercy.

Bai Qingyan stepped forward, seeing the guards covered in blood, eyes swollen shut, some with legs twisted into grotesque, unnatural shapes, not knowing if they were alive or dead. Her heart boiled like hot oil, her eyes filled with murderous intent.

She bit her teeth tightly, silently unwrapping the iron sand belt wound around her arms. The sandbag fell heavily to the ground as she looked into the distance, hoping Ayu, Cheng Yuanzhi, and Wang Qiulu could quickly bring their troops into position.

Shen Kunyang felt the ground’s stone bricks tremble when the sandbag hit, looking at Bai Qingyan’s coldly stern face with disbelief. He hadn’t expected that even with a child, Bai Qingyan still had iron sand belts wrapped around her arms.

This was the method Bai Qingyan had been forced to use to increase her arm strength when retrieving the Sun-Shooting Bow!

The Bai family guards saw Bai Qingyan standing on the city tower, her eyes flickering bright and dark in the wildly swaying lantern light blown by wind and snow, making her expression impossible to read clearly.

“Bai Qingyan, it all depends on what’s more important in your heart—our Xiliang traitor Li Zhijie, or these loyal Bai family guards of yours! Though… perhaps you’re keeping Li Zhijie to use against our Xiliang. After all… when dogs are gone, you can train new ones, but if an enemy nation’s traitor is gone, there’s no way to use them! Don’t you think so?”

Bai Qingyan lowered her eyes and flexed her wrist, taking a large bow from a soldier’s hands and pulling it lightly… too lightly, not like the Sun-Shooting Bow.

The lead Bai family guard spat out the blood in his mouth, looking up at Bai Qingyan. Suddenly, he remembered the incident of Deputy Commander Bai Qishan shooting and killing the fifth son of the Bai family with an arrow. Their Bai family army must never let itself become a burden to their comrades!

That Bai family guard shouted to Bai Qingyan: “Miss! Don’t worry about us! Even if we die… we absolutely won’t let ourselves become leverage for these bastards to threaten Miss! Miss, in our next life… this subordinate will still be Bai family army!”

As soon as the guard finished speaking, he roared and was about to ram his neck against the blade…

“Whoosh…”

An arrow cut through the air with a cold, deadly whistle, cleanly piercing the throat of the Xiliang soldier holding a blade to the Bai family guard’s neck. It drove straight into the snowy ground, its bloody fletching trembling.

The Bai family guard rushing toward the blade didn’t meet the cold, sharp metal, but instead was splattered with hot, salty blood.