Shen Qianyu licked his dry, cracked lips and leaned against the city wall, his gaze bewildered. For a moment, he didn’t know what meaning there was in stubbornly defending the Shu River.

He couldn’t help but think that perhaps Emperor Wenhui’s actions weren’t wrong after all. Though he was timid and cowardly, he had avoided casualties among the court’s generals.

And he himself, watching helplessly as those who fought alongside him died one by one at enemy hands, finally couldn’t help but doubt himself.

“If I hadn’t sent troops to the Shu River, perhaps…”

Jiang Xingjian said flatly, “If Your Highness hadn’t sent troops to the Shu River, all that would await Dongning is shattered mountains and rivers, and suffering people.”

“Your Highness, please leave. Go to Shaanxi—His Majesty must have made arrangements in Shaanxi.”

Strapping a huge bamboo basket tightly on his back, Jiang Xingjian murmured, “For now, the only plan is to abandon these two places and make plans later.”

“I’ll stay with all of you.”

Jiang Xingjian shook his head. “If the Crown Prince dies, Dongning will certainly fall into chaos. With internal troubles and external threats, how could we turn things around?”

“I’ll accompany the Marquis.”

“No need.”

Looking at Wan Xiao, Jiang Xingjian gently refused. “Director Wan must escort the Crown Prince back to the capital and tell the court officials about the Shu River situation.”

“Wait a little longer.”

Shen Qianyu spoke to stop them. “Wait two more days. I believe the court will certainly dispatch troops to reinforce the Shu River. I also believe in Wan’er. Though she’s a woman, she absolutely won’t allow the court’s generals to be easily lost here. They will find a way. Hold on for two more days.”

“I’ll wait two more days with you. If we don’t receive reinforcements after two days, I won’t stop whatever you do.”

At the mention of Song Wan, Jiang Xingjian’s eyes seemed to show a moment of reluctance, but he ultimately shook his head.

Within the inner quarters, Song Wan might have some tactics, but she was only an inner quarters woman. In court matters where even the officials were helpless, what methods could she have? Even if she had some womanly stratagems, they might not necessarily be of any use.

He smiled softly, his eyes showing some attachment and tenderness.

Reaching into his sleeve, Jiang Xingjian withdrew something slender that had been carefully treasured for a long time, carefully wrapped in a cloth.

Slowly unwrapping the cloth, a white jade hairpin gradually appeared, but there was a mended mark in the middle—at a glance, one could tell it had been broken into two pieces before.

Jiang Xingjian carefully caressed the white jade plum blossom hairpin, his eyes seeming both joyful and sad.

He and Wan’er had been betrothed in infancy and were childhood sweethearts—the most fateful couple in the world. Yet they had ended up separated like scattered swallows—truly lamentable.

He had regretted and resented, but now, aside from sighs, there was nothing else.

“I trouble Your Highness to take this item back and return it to Song Chenghui.”

Jiang Xingjian’s eyes reddened as he said in a low voice, “I also hope Your Highness can convey a message for this subordinate…”

“If possible, let her think that this subordinate never returned to the capital. I only hope she still thinks of this subordinate as the Jiang Yi from her childhood memories.”

Handing the plum blossom hairpin to Shen Qianyu, Jiang Xingjian carried the bamboo basket down the city wall.

What he carried on his back were firearms made using Lin Jiayue’s original formula.

After that firearm formula was handed to the court, though the Shenshu Battalion craftsmen improved it to make it more powerful, aside from His Majesty and the officials specifically managing this item, no one else could glimpse even a bit of it.

So in his hands, he only had the crude items that could be made from Lin Jiayue’s original formula when she deceived him.

But even crude firearms were useful for killing.

Seeing Jiang Xingjian resolutely walk down from the city gate, Shen Qianyu tried to rise but was stopped by several penetrating arrow wounds on his shoulder and left leg. He struggled to crawl up, wanting to stop those who were tragically going to their deaths.

“Your Highness, the Marquis of Chengyang is right. You cannot…”

Wan Xiao choked up, gritting his teeth as he carried Shen Qianyu on his back, then firmly bound him to his waist with cloth strips and strode down from the city wall.

Shen Qianyu’s eyes were blood-red, but no tears fell.

Very few remained in the city. They couldn’t stay here any longer. If Prince Ning arrived, they would certainly be completely annihilated.

But the Crown Prince of Dongning could not die and must not die.

To secure a way out for him, Jiang Xingjian led the last few men carrying firearms on their backs, planning to use themselves as vessels, bringing those crude devices to the enemy army’s feet to perish together with them.

Everything they did was only to seek a way out for him.

Jiang Xingjian walked to the base of the city gate. Following behind him were brothers who had lived and eaten together with him for six years. Though these men were originally bandits and refugees, far inferior to regular troops, the mettle in these men’s hearts was not necessarily half a point weaker than anyone else’s.

“Unable to fulfill the promise made that day, and even implicating you gentlemen to lose your lives—Jiang Yi’s death is not regrettable enough.”

A dark-complexioned man sneered once. “We fellows just don’t have the fortune to be enfeoffed as marquis or appointed as minister. We can’t blame the Marquis. These past years, without the Marquis’s support, we several would probably have long been captured and imprisoned by the authorities.”

“Death is inevitable either way. Being able to drag down a few Nanqing dogs as cushions before dying isn’t a loss.”

“Exactly. We’re all worthless lives. It’s the Marquis who’s a pity…”

Jiang Xingjian curved his lips slightly, blowing alight the fire striker in his hand and holding it between his fingers.

“There’s nothing to pity. Going on the road together with brothers, we can keep each other company. When we get down there, we brothers can drink and talk merrily again.”

Standing before the formation, Jiang Xingjian waved his hand. Behind him, dozens of men stepped forward and together pushed open the city gate.

He nimbly mounted his horse and led those carrying firearms charging out.

“A bunch of cowardly turtles—finally willing to show yourselves?”

Qin Rao stood before the formation. The originally bare-chested men and Huai Zheng and others had long since died beneath Dongning generals’ blades, but she, despite serious injuries, still stood ramrod straight.

It was only a pity that the wound on her face had never healed, festering from her cheek to her neck, then disappearing beneath her collar. Blood and pus mixed in the wound, with white bone even faintly visible in the depths.

Even so, she felt not half a point of pain and still stood before the formation shouting fiercely.

Her imperial brother was dead. Now unable to return to Nanqing, she might as well fight these Dongning scoundrels to the death.

Qin Rao raised her palm, signaling the generals behind her to charge into the city.

Though they had fewer than a thousand men left, trampling Qian Prefecture City flat was absolutely no difficult matter.

Jiang Xingjian gripped the reins with one hand and tossed the fire striker between his fingers into the bamboo basket behind him with the other. As the faint smell of smoke and fire came, he suddenly felt somewhat dazed as he charged into the Nanqing formation.

Since leaving the capital, he had never thought of Lin Jiayue, but now as his final moment approached, her appearance suddenly floated into his mind.

On the battlefield, thick smoke rose everywhere, and explosion sounds continued uninterrupted. Wan Xiao couldn’t help but stop his horse and look back, but only saw rolling thick smoke and dust filling the sky.

Shen Qianyu bit his teeth hard, blood and tears mixed in his eyes as he silently gazed into the distance.

“Let’s go.”

Wan Xiao choked out, and everyone held back tears, turned around, and spurred their horses toward Shaanxi.

Galloping all the way, as the moon set and sun rose, just as everyone was about to enter Sun City, they suddenly saw dust and smoke rolling in the distance, accompanied by the deafening sound of iron hooves.

Wan Xiao’s voice hoarse and dry, his nose sore, said, “Your Highness…”

“The Dongning army has arrived.”

“Your Highness, the Dongning army has arrived. The court’s reinforcements have arrived, Your Highness…”

Wan Xiao lay prone on the horse’s back weeping bitterly. Shen Qianyu’s body was rigid as he pressed hard on the wound on his leg.

The pain helped him regain three parts of his senses. After a long while, it wasn’t until Ming Chun dismounted and knelt to pay respects to the Crown Prince that he slowly turned his head to look at him.