The moon peeked out from the cloud layers. By moonlight, the mountain wilderness finally became barely visible.

On the high slope, Chen army commanding general Dou Jianliang watched the Pei army columns extending like a long dragon all the way outside Guanmen Gorge, his face revealing a pale tinge.

He murmured: “How can there be fifty thousand Pei troops? Weren’t there only ten thousand escorting the grain? At most twenty thousand could be deployed from Jinzhou. How could the intelligence be wrong?”

The confidant standing beside him listened to the desperate sounds of slaughter below and smelled the nearly nauseating bloody stench in the wind blowing toward them. His face also paled. He swallowed and asked cautiously: “Gen… General, could we have been deceived by that man surnamed Yu?”

A month ago, a strategist under Pei Song named Yu Wenjing had come to pledge allegiance to Dou Jianliang, claiming Pei Song’s fortunes were exhausted and he wanted to find a new enlightened master for himself. The token of loyalty he brought was the secret route and troop numbers for Pei army grain transport.

Dou Jianliang initially didn’t trust him, but sent scouts to investigate according to the route mentioned. Sure enough, they discovered a Pei army grain escort column.

The Pei troops escorting grain numbered exactly ten thousand, no more, no less. This number was slightly more than the soldiers usually escorting grain, but it dispelled some of Dou Jianliang’s doubts.

After all, with the war situation in the southern territories now critical, this batch of provisions related to whether Jinzhou could hold out next. Pei Song would naturally be more careful. Only he had already suffered several consecutive defeats on the northern battlefield, suppressed completely by Wei Qishan. The troops he could mobilize were truly limited, which was why he had this number of ten thousand grain escorts—not too many, not too few.

Dou Jianliang naturally coveted Pei Song’s provisions. Though Southern Chen and Great Liang had formed an alliance, Great Liang had always used grain provisions as chains around their necks to control them. Dou Jianliang had long been dissatisfied with this.

However, he still hadn’t completely set his mind at ease, both worried this was Pei Song’s treacherous scheme and lacking a suitable pretext to request troop deployment from Fan Yuan.

The Chen, Liang, and Wei forces formed allied armies in the southern territories, with Fan Yuan elected as commander. Though the three forces managed their troops independently, any troop movements had to be first reported to Fan Yuan.

To seize this batch of Pei Song’s provisions, he would need to lead at least fifteen thousand soldiers to ambush the road. The movements of fifteen thousand troops in the army absolutely could not be concealed.

Just as Dou Jianliang hesitated indecisively, it happened that Northern Wei’s provisions were completely exhausted, and they repeatedly requested to borrow grain from Fan Yuan.

Dou Jianliang naturally disagreed. The autumn harvest hadn’t yet come. What the Liang army was using came from the provisions their Chen army had advanced to Great Liang as betrothal gifts. Great Liang used military grain to choke their necks, yet used their military grain to do favors for Northern Wei—where in the world was there such a good deal, with all benefits going to Great Liang?

Due to the grain-borrowing matter, their tripartite alliance fell into deadlock.

Yu Wenjing saw he didn’t dare deploy troops independently and advised him to report the discovery of Pei Song’s grain transport column upward, letting Northern Wei raid it themselves.

This way, once Northern Wei successfully seized the military grain, it would both resolve their urgent grain crisis and give Southern Chen credit for reporting valuable intelligence.

More importantly, using the grain raid to weaken the Wei army meant that when they broke through Jinzhou and continued north, with the southern Wei army weakened, after joining with Wei Qishan’s main northern forces, the threat to their Southern Chen would be smaller. After all, Wei Qishan currently had quite an ascendant momentum in the north.

The speaker had no particular intent, but the listener took it to heart.

Thinking that Pei Song’s defeat was already determined and Northern Wei would soon be their Southern Chen’s greatest enemy, Dou Jianliang conceived the idea of having the southern Wei army completely annihilated in this grain raid.

Letting the Wei army raid grain alone, they might not necessarily be defeated. But if he additionally borrowed the Jinzhou Pei army’s momentum to let these two forces fight to mutual exhaustion, then he could lead the twenty thousand Chen troops—originally meant to coordinate with the Wei army in ambush—to clean up the remnants.

Even if Fan Yuan later held him accountable, he could excuse it by saying Yuan Fang was greedy for glory and acted rashly, fearing Southern Chen would steal the credit. Before the Pei army pursuers fully entered the gorge entrance, he launched a counterattack, causing the Pei army to realize the trap and turn back. Their pre-arranged ambush never came into play, while Northern Wei reaped what they sowed and was annihilated.

With the dead unable to testify, even if Fan Yuan didn’t believe this explanation, he couldn’t openly censure Southern Chen.

Moreover, having seized this batch of Pei Song’s military grain, they would no longer need to bow to Great Liang’s whims over provisions, and wouldn’t fear Fan Yuan creating difficulties.

Furthermore, with Wei Qishan losing twenty thousand troops in the southern territories, he would inevitably also resent the Liang camp. Whether Great Liang clung to this matter and put a warm face against Wei Qishan’s cold backside, or turned a blind eye and stood with Southern Chen against outsiders—even for the sake of their princess married into the royal court, they should know how to choose.

But now all these schemes had turned to bubbles.

The pursuing Pei army numbered not twenty-some thousand, but fifty thousand!

Even if they had fought together with the Wei army against the enemy from the start, they’d have to shed a layer of skin before possibly escaping. Now with the Wei army completely surrounded, they had no chance of victory whatsoever.

Dou Jianliang’s face showed complete defeat. However stupid he was, he now realized they’d likely fallen into a trap set by Pei Song and his strategist. His eyes nearly split with rage as he gnashed his teeth: “Thief Pei Song! Thief Yu Wenjing!”

The confidant could almost imagine the consequences of facing Fan Yuan upon return. Alarmed, he asked: “General, what do we do now?”

Dou Jianliang looked down the mountain through gritted teeth, saying ruthlessly: “As long as not one person from Northern Wei walks out of this gorge alive today, then it’s Northern Wei’s own destruction from greedy rashness! The Pei thief was cunning, deploying fifty thousand troops from who knows where to reclaim the grain. We couldn’t rescue the Wei army. To avoid adding meaningless casualties, naturally we can only withdraw!”

Hearing this, the confidant also looked down the mountain. The roaring and weapon-clashing sounds had gradually weakened, only the bloody stench in the night wind grew ever more intense.

After wavering for a moment, he clasped his fists obsequiously toward Dou Jianliang: “The General speaks truly. That Yuan Fang was greedy for glory, even causing the General to risk danger and lose countless Chen soldiers!”

Dou Jianliang said nothing, gazing below with an increasingly gloomy expression. He summoned a taciturn Chen general from not far behind, ordering in a low voice: “Take men down the mountain. See whether Yuan Fang is dead or captured alive. If he still lives, finish him yourself.”

With the dead unable to testify, he wouldn’t fear Fan Yuan questioning why he didn’t send troops to support.

That Chen general only nodded once, selected two nearby columns of Chen army soldiers, and silently infiltrated into the thick night, clearly death warriors following Dou Jianliang in the army.

But across at Wushao Ridge, firelight suddenly ignited like a long serpent. Recently the autumn tiger had raged, with dry weather. The mountain forests were full of dead branches and fallen leaves. Once these flames rose, they became a prairie fire. Accompanying the greatly surging firelight came earth-shaking battle cries.

In the night, vision was limited. One couldn’t clearly see what army charged down from the mountain forest—only masses of people visible in the firelight surging like rolling lice toward the valley below.

Dou Jianliang raged: “What’s happening? Who ordered the ambush forces across to move?”

To facilitate ambushing Pei troops entering the gorge, when Dou Jianliang’s Chen army set up their ambush, they naturally concealed forces on both mountain ridges, agreeing to move upon seeing signal flares.

Just as the junior officers below were equally confused, commotion also came from the mountain forest behind. Horses neighed and reared as they galloped downhill. Soldiers chasing the horses rushed forward, instead throwing the formation into greater chaos.

Dou Jianliang flew into a towering rage: “What’s happening now?”

The confidant beside him looked back to see firelight also slowly rising in the rear mountain forest. Greatly alarmed, he said: “Fire! Fire! General, there’s fire!”

This fire burned forward from behind the forest, aided by wind. It blazed straight ahead. The soldiers ambushed among the trees fled in panic while frightened warhorses stampeded uncontrollably in all directions.

Instantly the ambush forces on both mountains ran downward. Horse hooves and alarmed shouts upon discovering the fire merged together like thunder.

Dou Jianliang roared in exasperation: “Who set the fire?”

He absolutely didn’t want to engage the Pei army below.

Fifty thousand troops!

Even if the enemy had losses fighting Yuan Fang’s twenty thousand Wei troops, if he charged in now, he’d have to shed a thick layer of skin and add several jin of flesh before possibly escaping.

Dou Jianliang’s heart burned with anxiety as he shouted: “Don’t charge down the mountain! Catch the horses and withdraw via the mountain’s back route!”

But his roar was completely drowned out by the mountain fire’s burning sounds and the soldiers’ clamorous shouts. Under the terror of flames spreading everywhere, even though Dou Jianliang furiously cut down several soldiers rushing down in panic, he couldn’t intimidate the soldiers behind them.

—

Below the mountain, Yuan Fang, leaning on his spear with his remaining nearly ten personal guards standing back-to-back supporting each other, was surrounded by corpses piled like small mountains at their feet.

The group was utterly exhausted. Thick blood smeared their faces until even seeing was blurred. When they saw firelight ignite on both mountains and reinforcements rushing down like dumplings being dropped, they all froze for a moment, temporarily unable to tell if this was their own hallucination.

But as those densely packed Pei army soldiers besieging them suddenly changed formation, heading toward both mountain ridges to meet the enemy—clearly not an illusion—one confidant immediately wept with joy, shouting to Yuan Fang: “General! We’re saved!”

Yuan Fang still found it hard to believe. They’d been besieged so long yet Dou Jianliang never brought troops down to support them. Would he now risk everything to fight the Pei army to save his life?

Though his heart harbored doubt, seeing a way to survive, the group’s morale greatly revived. They roared and swung their weapons, continuing to kill the Pei army soldiers attacking them.

After barely holding on like this for a while, they truly saw a cavalry unit wearing Chen army uniforms charging toward them.

Yuan Fang’s personal guards were overjoyed beyond measure, shouting: “Reinforcements!”

Yuan Fang was equally very surprised. Earlier in the death struggle, knowing he probably couldn’t bring back the military grain seized from Pei Song today, he’d decisively ordered his men to burn the grain carts.

At this moment, quite a few remaining grain cart frames still burned around them. By that firelight, Yuan Fang recognized the leader as a junior officer he’d seen beside Dou Jianliang. Just as he wondered if he’d misjudged Dou Jianliang—perhaps something had happened preventing timely support—he saw that junior officer raise a longbow on horseback.

And that arrow tip pointed directly at him!

The nearby personal guards hastily moved to shield him, shouting: “General, be careful!”

But that arrow had already loosed from the bowstring. The guards’ movements were completely too late. Just as the arrow tip was about to reach Yuan Fang’s face, another arrow flew out from an angle, its head striking with matchless force against the arrow shot by Dou Jianliang’s confidant, directly shattering that arrow’s head.

Everyone was shocked. Dou Jianliang’s confidant also looked toward the person who shot that arrow, only to see the other party riding a tall steed, face smeared with blood so features were unclear, wearing Pei army attire—appearing to be an ordinary soldier.