“Liar!”
The iron cavalry rushed forward urgently like rolling thunder.
Yang Yue and the two Wolf Riders that Xiao Li had assigned to him galloped at the very front with the elite cavalry led by Fan Yuan. From afar, he saw Xiao Li and the bloodstains on this official road and urgently called out: “Benefactor!”
When he arrived nearby, because of the desperate rush all along the way and being too emotionally agitated at the moment, he tried to dismount while the warhorse was still galloping swiftly but didn’t step firmly on the stirrup and tumbled directly from the horse’s back.
The two Wolf Riders accompanying him hurriedly jumped down to help him up.
Fan Yuan also rode his horse to arrive nearby. With a long “whoa” he steadied his mount, then dismounted to look over the official road strewn with corpses. He swept his gaze over the headless corpse on the ground, his eyes falling on what Xiao Li held in his hand. For a moment he also seemed somewhat shocked by this tragic scene. After pausing for two breaths, he clasped his fists toward Xiao Li: “Thank you, Lord Xiao, for eliminating this scourge for the people of Great Liang.”
He continued: “On our way here, we encountered Young Master Yang who was being escorted to flee by Lord Xiao’s men. We already know that the traitor Pei Song brought the Western Ling barbarians into the pass through the secret passage at the border defense camp. I wonder how Tiger Gorge Pass fares now?”
Water droplets still hung from the tips of the roadside shrub leaves, dripping downward.
Xiao Li’s jaw was pale. His hair and the robes beneath his armor were also still dripping water. The blade dripped blood. In his other hand, he held Pei Song’s head.
His voice was somewhat hoarse after the prolonged fighting: “Tiger Gorge Pass held. General Yang, Madam Yang, and their children… have all sacrificed themselves…”
Fan Yuan’s expression froze.
The junior officer from Tiger Gorge Pass cavalry who had come with Xiao Li to pursue Pei Song clasped his fists toward Fan Yuan, then briefly explained the confession Yang Shuo left before taking his own life and everything that happened at Tiger Gorge Pass.
Learning that Yang Shuo had let Pei Song leave the pass in a moment of benevolence out of gratitude for Qin Yi’s past kindness, that Pei Song later returned with a vengeance and attempted to use a vicious scheme to force Yang Shuo to rebel, and that both Yang Shuo and his wife chose to end their own lives to break Pei Song’s vicious scheme, allowing Tiger Gorge Pass to hold until Xiao Li came to aid—everyone sighed with emotion.
Unable to accept all this, Yang Yue retreated a step and called out hoarsely: “Father…”
Then he wailed in anguish and rushed directly to Pei Song’s headless corpse, punching and kicking that corpse: “You dog thief! Return my parents’ lives! Return my parents’ lives!”
He cried bitterly, beating until all ten of his finger joints were scraped raw and bleeding.
Fan Yuan, unable to bear watching this, gestured to the personal guard beside him. Only then did the guard step forward to pull him away.
Yang Yue still cried in anguish. His entire body went limp as he knelt facing Tiger Gorge Pass, choking as he pounded the ground: “Father, Mother, little brother…”
…
Xiao Li looked at the young man’s frail and thin back without speaking.
Before such pain, any words of comfort would only seem pale. One could only bear it oneself, then stand up again from that ground of bloody mud.
Seeing Yang Yue like this, Fan Yuan’s heart also filled with emotion. He turned his gaze back and saw Xiao Li’s face showing an abnormal pallor. The armor on his body was also damaged, and the water droplets falling from his robe hem were still tinged with extremely faint rouge color. Knowing his injuries must be serious, he said:
“With this traitor dead and Tiger Gorge Pass held, it’s ultimately a great joy. The Liang camp owes Lord Xiao an enormous debt of gratitude. I observe that Lord Xiao has injuries. Why not enter the city to rest and recuperate first?”
Xiao Li wrapped Pei Song’s bloody head in his cloak and tied it to the front of his saddle, saying: “Xiao Li has already pledged allegiance to Hanyang as sovereign and is a subject of Liang.”
These two short sentences left Fan Yuan shocked speechless for quite a while.
But Xiao Li only looked at Fan Yuan and continued: “I trouble General Fan to allocate ten thousand elite cavalry to Li. The Western Ling army of tens of thousands is besieging Gele City. The battle situation on the Chen Kingdom side at present is likely not optimistic. Leaving from Tiger Gorge Pass to provide aid, we can catch Western Ling off guard from behind.”
Fan Yuan’s expression immediately became especially grave. Unable to focus on being shocked about Xiao Li’s sudden return to the Liang camp, he said: “Lord Xiao should remain within the pass to recover from your injuries in peace. The Princess has personally gone to Gele City with her life uncertain. Now that Tiger Gorge Pass is secure, Fan will naturally lead his subordinate officers and soldiers with full effort to rush to Gele City to provide aid!”
Xiao Li was about to mount his horse when, hearing these words, his movement suddenly stopped. He turned back and asked: “What did you say?”
The bloodstains on his face had already been washed extremely faint by the rainwater, yet his expression in this instant could still be called ferocious.
Fan Yuan was startled by his abnormal reaction. He silently pondered that in the letter Wen Yu had sent to Pingzhou, she had already mentioned that Xiao Li was leading the Wolf Riders to rush to Tiger Gorge Pass to block the Western Ling troops, only she hadn’t mentioned he had already pledged allegiance to the Liang camp. Presumably Wen Yu had other considerations.
But the other party’s act of blocking Western Ling was already no different from rushing to death. Wen Yu’s subsequent plans should also not need to be concealed from Xiao Li. He asked in confusion: “Lord Xiao doesn’t know? According to the urgent letter from Pingzhou, the Princess had someone send the Young Princess back to the pass, while she herself personally went to Gele City to supervise the battle, saying that if she should meet with any misfortune…”
Fan Yuan reached this point, his eye sockets suddenly reddening: “Then Chen Kingdom’s Prime Minister Qi and our Great Liang’s Grand Tutor Yu would assist the Young Princess in presiding over the overall situation…”
The hand with which Xiao Li gripped the saddle exerted so much force in this moment that his knuckles turned white. He laughed coldly, almost squeezing out two words from between clenched teeth in an extremely low voice: “Liar!”
Saying she wanted him to return alive to bring her back to Great Liang.
And what about her?
Fan Yuan didn’t hear clearly what he said. He only felt that Xiao Li’s reaction upon learning Wen Yu had gone to defend Gele City was truly somewhat strange. Just as he was about to ask more, he saw that Xiao Li had already braced himself against the saddle to mount his horse and directly ordered the Wolf Riders: “Follow me to rush to Gele City immediately!”
Having spoken, he viciously cracked his whip and actually galloped away! Though the Wolf Riders didn’t understand why, they also followed closely behind.
Fan Yuan was so alarmed he shouted from behind: “Lord Xiao! You still have injuries! Remain within the pass to properly recuperate. Leave the matter of aiding Gele City to this subordinate!”
–
Outside Gele City.
The sun slanted westward, the setting sun covering ten thousand acres.
Western Ling’s earth-yellow banners fluttered in the wind. The distant city wall of Gele City was already covered with pits and dents. The battlements had been smashed down in many places. Even the city gate had been repaired several times. Gunpowder smoke filled the air everywhere.
But even so, that city that seemed to be merely a pile of loose sand remained standing after Western Ling’s one hundred twenty thousand troops had attacked fiercely for several days.
The black and gold dragon-patterned great banner on the city tower still stood high, rustling loudly in the wind carrying yellow sand and the scent of blood.
The Western Ling troops who had been attacking for days using the wheel tactic receded like the tide beneath the city.
Heyi stood on the high slope of the encampment, her hand gripping the curved blade at her waist. Her arm was wrapped with several layers of bandages, as if she had been injured. At her side stood an old monk wearing ocher-colored dharma robes.
She looked at the battlefield below and said: “I did indeed underestimate Hanyang earlier. That day when she beat the drums on the tower until dawn, she was actually able to make the scattered sand of Gele City coalesce again into an iron weight.”
The old monk’s face, weathered by wind and frost, was covered with deep creases. He looked at the Western Ling troops below who had been attacking the city day and night without rest using the wheel tactic until now, showing signs of exhaustion as they withdrew. In his aged eyes there was faint sorrow and compassion as he said:
“That Great Liang princess used a jade-and-stone-perish-together attitude to rally the entire army. There’s an ancient saying in Central Plains military strategy: ‘The first drum rouses their energy, the second weakens it, the third exhausts it.’ Unable to conquer after prolonged attack, the warriors’ morale will inevitably suffer greatly.”
“Don’t these words apply equally to the garrison troops within Gele City?” Heyi coldly retorted.
Her eyes were full of unwillingness and suppressed rage, but also brimmed with the ambition for certain victory: “Seeing no hope at all, the garrison troops within Gele City have instead forgotten the taste of fear. Then I’ll give them hope!”
“Pass down the order—slaughter cattle and sheep to reward the three armies. Tomorrow, attack the city with full force!”
The trusted aide waiting not far away received Heyi’s instructions, hurriedly placing his hand on his chest and bowing before going down to relay the orders.
Heyi took one last look at Gele City in the setting sun, leaving behind a sentence with a clang: “Before the sun rises from the east tomorrow, I will definitely breach Gele City!”
She had survived as the fiercest eagle in the Great Desert and best understood fragile human nature.
One hundred twenty thousand troops crushing down—that Great Liang princess relied on personally ascending the tower to beat the war drums for a day and a night to rally morale within the city once. After the garrison troops within the city experienced this illusory victory and joy, when they were once again shrouded in despair, could she rally them a second time, a third time?
The old monk watched Heyi’s self-assured departing figure as she gripped the curved blade at her waist, then looked again toward the distant tower of Gele City, sighing softly in the wind.
He wanted to watch this child he had once picked up from the Great Desert walk toward further places, but Gele City blocking the way ahead was like a mass of fog—he could no longer glimpse that child’s heavenly mandate.
–
On Gele City’s tower, Wen Yu wore a black and red brocaded wide-sleeved magnificent robe, standing beneath the great dragon banner. Her gaze was calm as she watched the Western Ling troops withdrawing below.
The wind blew the disheveled strands of hair at her forehead, floating before her eyes. Her face was pale, and those eyes that had stayed awake for several nights were tinged with light red, yet not the slightest bit diminished in sharpness.
“We won! We won!”
The garrison troops within the city cheered hysterically, as if wanting to shake apart all the dark clouds that had shrouded the skies above Gele City for the past half month.
Four days ago, Western Ling’s one hundred twenty thousand troops came crushing down with momentum to directly steamroll Gele City and grind their way into Southern Chen’s heartland.
Wen Yu used the dragon banner and royal flag to stabilize the formation, then personally ascended the tower. That great battle continued until dawn, and she beat the drums until dawn.
To stabilize the troops’ morale, she lied that reinforcements on the road had not yet arrived, but no one cared anymore.
In that battle, the defending officers and soldiers only saw that their Princess truly intended to share life and death with them!
If Gele City fell, the history books of both Liang and Chen kingdoms would have to turn another page.
Thus everyone’s hearts no longer held any fear, only thinking to exhaust every bit of their flesh and blood to make the pile of corpses Western Ling had to step over to level Gele City even higher!
It was precisely this fighting spirit pervading the entire army that, when the city gate and walls that had been defended to death for so long and were already dilapidated were repeatedly bombarded and collapsed, allowed the officers and soldiers to brace themselves against their fallen comrades’ corpses and repeatedly fill the gaps in the gate and walls with bricks, stones, and round logs.
In just that single day and night when both sides killed with red eyes, the garrison troops within Gele City lost more than half.
Western Ling also didn’t get off lightly.
When dawn broke on the second day, the corpses piled beneath Gele City exceeded a zhang above the city wall’s base. Fresh blood seeped into the sand beneath, dyeing that entire battlefield a deep brown color.
It was also this battle that severely blunted Western Ling’s momentum.
Unable to take Gele City in a day and night, only gaining complete army exhaustion and severely fallen morale in exchange, though Heyi was furious, she could only divide the army again into several groups and have them continue attacking the city day and night without rest over the following days using the wheel tactic.
Originally thinking this would exhaust Gele City until it fell, who could have expected that with the achievement of withstanding Western Ling’s one hundred twenty thousand troops’ fierce assault on the first day, though the garrison troops within the city were divided by Wen Yu into two groups rotating to defend the city, they still fought more valiantly with each battle. Instead, Western Ling’s offensive became more lackluster with each passing day.
Today was already the fifth day of Western Ling’s fierce assault.
Zhao Bai stood at Wen Yu’s side and said: “Perhaps Heyi also saw that if they continued exhausting like this, Western Ling’s morale would hit bottom, so she decided to change tactics.”
Wen Yu’s hands folded before her—the bandages wrapped around her tiger’s mouth were stained with dried, brownish blood, caused by beating the drums until her tiger’s mouth split open that day.
She looked toward the distance. In her light red eyes there was neither joy nor sorrow, but hazily also a resolve to gamble with heaven: “Gele City has held for a full twenty days.”
Zhao Bai’s face showed slight unusual color.
But she heard Wen Yu continue asking: “How is Xi Yun’s injury?”
That day Gu Xiyun had led troops to kill their way out of the city to destroy Western Ling’s siege crossbows. She encountered Heyi, and the elite troops she brought were annihilated under Western Ling’s human wave tactic encirclement. She herself also suffered serious injuries.
Ultimately, relying on cover from over ten trebuchets on the tower throwing rolling stones, she was brought back at the risk of death by Mu Shaoting who killed his way over to rescue her.
Both had worn heavy armor yet nearly became pincushions.
The battle situation on the tower side was also not optimistic. Wen Yu beat the drums until dawn, her arms numb with pain to the point of nearly losing all sensation. After the imperial physician who rushed over gave her acupuncture to invigorate her blood in the duty room, the suddenly rising pain felt as if the bones and meridians of both arms were being crushed inch by inch.
The tremendous pain caused Wen Yu to change clothes several times, yet they were still completely soaked with cold sweat.
The imperial physician said her arms’ meridians were severely damaged. If she didn’t properly recuperate, in the future she might not even be able to wield a brush.
Everyone below knelt begging her to return to the inner city to recuperate. Wen Yu refused them all. The morale within the city was something she had inspired by vowing to share life and death with them.
If she left at this time, everything would be for naught.
So from that day on, Wen Yu never left the tower. Her daily rest was all in the duty room on the tower.
Regardless of day or night, as long as there was urgent military intelligence, she would be before the sand table, discussing methods to defend against the enemy to the death with Mu Youliang and the other ministers and generals.
Therefore, regarding Gu Xiyun and Mu Shaoting who had been sent back to the inner city for treatment, she truly knew very little.
Zhao Bai answered: “The imperial physicians have used all the medicine they could. News came at noon today that General Gu and Young General Mu are both out of mortal danger.”
She hesitated slightly, about to continue: “Princess, on the Western Ling royal city side…”
Wen Yu’s voice was clear and deep: “Tell General Mu, all plans proceed as scheduled.”
–
In the Great Desert night, all was silent except for the clamor of the wind.
In the pitch-black heaven and earth, on a high slope, firelight suddenly ignited.
Sentries on watch in the Western Ling military camp discovered the firelight and hurriedly went to report to Heyi.
Heyi, wearing her cloak, lifted the curtain and emerged from the tent. Staring at the firelight that had abruptly risen on the distant high slope, her right eyelid jumped rapidly. She furrowed her brows and ordered in a deep voice: “Quickly dispatch scouts to investigate what this firelight is about!”
Then she asked the personal guards: “Is there any unusual movement on Gele City’s side?”
The guard placed his fist on his chest: “The scouts have been watching continuously. No unusual movement discovered.”
Hearing this answer, Heyi’s brows remained furrowed, her gaze returning to the firelight on the distant high slope.
This fire that had abruptly ignited tonight made her feel somewhat uneasy in her heart.
Heyi asked again: “Has Nilu sent any more messages back?”
The guard shook his head: “Not yet.”
Seeing that Heyi was worried, the guard consoled: “Calculating the march progress, General Nilu should have just arrived at Tiger Gorge Pass not long ago. Even if he took Tiger Gorge Pass with the Prince Consort’s assistance, the battle report would still need several more days to arrive.”
This answer lowered that restless feeling in Heyi’s heart somewhat. She turned back into the military tent and ordered: “Continue watching Gele City closely. Report immediately if there’s any unusual movement.”
The commotion in the army caused by the firelight also alerted the old monk.
When he arrived at Heyi’s tent, Heyi had already changed into her usual armor and was sitting on a tiger-skin chair, meticulously wiping that curved blade that had followed her for many years.
The old monk bowed shallowly toward Heyi: “The Princess summons this old monk.”
The curved blade reflected a cold light beneath Heyi’s eyes in the candlelight. She stared at this blade she had seized from her own brother’s hands, legendary for having followed their ancestor Lati Rilang in battle and helping him achieve immortal military achievements, and said:
“Master, they all say you can glimpse heavenly mandate. Look for me—after tomorrow’s battle, will my Western Ling be able to sweep across the Central Plains?”
Heyi, who had been self-assured her entire life, had never asked the old monk such questions before battle.
Compassion filled the old monk’s eyes. Before he could speak, the scouts who had gone to investigate the firelight on the mountain had already rushed back, hurriedly entering the tent and kneeling to report: “Princess! The firelight on the mountain was caused by someone gathering withered branches and broken wood to burn. When we arrived, the other party’s traces could no longer be found.”
Heyi’s brow jumped even more violently. After pondering for a moment or two, she seemed to suddenly remember something. Her face changed dramatically as she shouted: “That’s a beacon fire from the Central Plains! Someone is sending a message to Gele City!”
Heyi immediately became furious. That ominous premonition made her fear further variables might arise. She immediately ordered: “Sound the gongs and beat the drums! Order the three armies—attack the city immediately!”
Just as her words fell, another junior officer hurriedly rushed over to report: “Princess! A messenger from the royal city has arrived!”
Amidst her fury, Heyi’s expression changed slightly.
In an instant, a messenger from Western Ling’s royal city was led to arrive at the central command tent.
Seeing Heyi, that messenger from the royal city looked as if seeing a savior, his face full of panic: “Princess Heyi! Quickly withdraw troops to return to aid the royal city!”
Hearing this, Heyi grabbed that messenger’s collar and demanded fiercely: “What happened to the royal city?”
The messenger wailed: “All sixteen Eastern Ling tribes in the Great Desert have rebelled! They’ve already advanced directly to the foot of the royal city!”
Heyi instantly felt a surge of vicious energy rush straight to her head. She roared angrily: “You’re lying! I have ‘eyes’ everywhere in the Great Desert. If the sixteen tribes dispatched troops to the royal city, how would I not know?”
The messenger, held in Heyi’s hand, wailed: “The sixteen tribes hid among the western-migrating refugees to evade inspection…”
Heyi’s face twitched, clearly even more enraged. She had been afraid of spies from Liang and Chen kingdoms infiltrating Western Ling, so when refugees from various tribes migrated west during the great drought, she had ordered her subordinates to carefully inspect. If they discovered even one Central Plains person, they would rather kill mistakenly than let them pass.
Never expecting to guard against Central Plains people yet fail to guard against those tribes in the Great Desert.
She ground her teeth: “Didn’t I say that even tribal refugees couldn’t be allowed to enter the border, only kept outside to serve as slaves transporting military supplies?”
The messenger cried while trembling: “The Queen Mother did act according to the Princess’s instructions, but they killed the guards at the garrison site during the night, took that batch of military equipment meant to be transported to the front lines, and killed their way all the way to the royal city…”
Heyi’s vision nearly went black for a moment. She even felt somewhat dizzy.
After all her calculations, she ultimately missed this one step!
Previously, those who helped transport military equipment were true slaves she had captured from various tribes. The whips in the cavalry’s hands were iron law—they dared not have any resistance besides diligent labor.
This time, mixed among the refugees she had forced to become slaves was actually an entire army!
When they rebelled mixed among the slaves, the stationed troops weren’t enough and couldn’t suppress them for a time. The slaves who didn’t understand what was happening probably thought someone was leading a rebellion. Glimpsing this hope, they simply rebelled together.
Those lowly people she usually didn’t even look at properly became a sharp knife directly piercing the royal city!
All the tribes in the Great Desert were a bunch of simple-minded, bellicose brutes—who exactly had given them this scheme?
And everything happened to occur at this critical juncture!
Heyi looked with hatred toward Gele City shrouded in darkness ahead. The answer in her heart was already clear. She ground out those two words from between clenched teeth: “Hanyang!”
Of the one hundred twenty thousand troops besieging Gele City at that time, excluding the wounded, only ninety thousand could now be deployed.
Heyi spoke coldly to that messenger: “I’ll allocate forty thousand troops to return with you to aid the royal city.”
The messenger, who had earlier been choked at the throat when Heyi grabbed his collar, was now coughing incessantly. Hearing this, he said in alarm: “Princess, you’re not returning?”
Heyi looked toward Gele City, the hatred in her eyes almost condensing into substance to pour out: “If this is Hanyang’s scheme, how can I let her have her way!”
She coldly ordered the personal guards: “Muster fifty thousand troops to attack the city with me! After taking Hanyang’s head, we’ll turn back to teach those tribes who don’t know death a lesson!”
The messenger called out to Heyi, wanting to persuade further, but Heyi had already mounted the warhorse the guard had brought over. She seemed to remember something and ordered again: “The entire army breaks camp! Make the momentum of dispatching troops to return to aid the royal city as grand as possible! Divide the fifty thousand troops attacking the city into three groups. Wrap all the warhorses’ hooves with cotton cloth!”
Those below understood that Heyi intended to create the false impression that the entire army was withdrawing to return to aid the royal city, causing Gele City to relax its vigilance for a surprise attack. They all acknowledged the orders.
–
When Heyi, wrapped in the full fury burning her lungs and bowels to the point of pain, appeared silently beneath Gele City with the surprise attack army under cover of darkness, she saw Gele City’s tower brightly lit with lanterns, garrison troops standing at the battlements—clearly a scene of tight security.
She nocked an arrow and shot down several guards at the city corner, then threw out eagle-claw hooks to grip tightly onto the battlements. Gripping the steel cables on the eagle-claw hooks, feet bracing against city bricks, she climbed straight toward the top of the tower.
At the same time, another army serving as cover also roared from the darkness to charge beneath the city, raising battering rams to violently strike the city gate.
Archers hidden in darkness released arrows in unison, shooting down the remaining guards standing at the battlements. Their eyes were fixed closely on Heyi’s safety, waiting to continue shooting and killing the moment archers within the city showed themselves.
But strangely, after they finished shooting those guards, the gaps at the battlements were never filled again. Though the Western Ling troops attacking below the city roared with earth-shaking cries, the garrison troops on the tower weren’t seen shooting arrows downward.
The entire Gele City was as quiet as a dead city—extremely eerie.
Heyi had already successfully climbed onto the tower. Drawing her blade to slash diagonally at a guard who hadn’t fallen despite being struck by several arrows, she jumped down from the battlement only to discover that those “guards” on the tower were all dead soldiers who had died in earlier battles!
They had merely been propped up from behind with wooden poles to stabilize their forms in the posture of standing watch. When viewed from below the city earlier, there had been no sign of abnormality whatsoever.
Another surge of rage at being toyed with rushed straight to her heart. Heyi roared and kicked over several dead soldiers ahead, coldly ordering: “Search!”
The elite troops who had climbed the tower with her immediately went to search the various duty rooms on the tower and below the city.
The city gate below, which had been repaired multiple times, unable to bear the burden, was also thoroughly broken through at this time.
The Western Ling troops roared as they poured in, yet didn’t discover a single Chen or Liang soldier within the city.
The junior officer leading troops who broke through the city gate, after having people search the entire inner city in a circle, rushed back to the tower looking for Heyi as if in mourning, his face deathly pale:
“Princess, we’ve fallen into a trap! The garrison troops in the city have long since withdrawn. The granaries have all been emptied. The trebuchets and siege crossbows that were inconvenient to take were all smashed to pieces. Gele City now is just an empty city!”
The fury in Heyi’s chest burned even fiercer. She felt she had never been so humiliated.
The earlier firelight was originally the signal for Hanyang to withdraw her troops!
The siege she had painstakingly organized had completely become a laughingstock!
Heyi raised her arm and fiercely punched the city wall bricks, directly smashing off a piece of the hard city brick. She said with hatred: “A bunch of Liang rats—cunning!”
The junior officer asked fearfully: “Princess, what should we do next?”
Before Heyi could speak, another personal guard outside the city galloped over on horseback, his face disheveled, urgently calling out to Heyi: “This is bad, Princess! A Liang army launched a surprise attack on the camp and burned our granaries!”