Yun Ye felt that life had already battered and bruised him all over. The Goguryeo people’s arrows were formidable, sometimes falling like rain. Pulling down his face guard, arrows clanged against shields. Sometimes soldiers holding shields would be carried away by the eight-ox crossbows, one or two at a time. Yun Ye, who previously worried constantly about getting injured, couldn’t spare such thoughts now. His mind was filled with using existing forces to capture Ansi City—perhaps it could give Li Chengqian a bit of respite, keep him from sinking too deep.

He obtained one thousand jin of gunpowder from Li’er. Now he only needed to dig these two trenches up to the city walls. Unlike the trenches Li’er and the others dug, Yun Ye covered his trenches while digging them. To put it plainly, he wanted to use these two covered trenches to approach Ansi City, then place the gunpowder and light it. After that, this section of Ansi City’s wall should cease to exist.

Rather than lying in his tent worrying, better to do some practical work. Useful or not, at least this could give him peace of mind. Breaching Ansi City was only a matter of time. The Goguryeo reinforcements had turned back halfway. No matter how many troops they had, they couldn’t withstand constantly throwing meat buns at dogs like this.

The arduous day ended. The two trenches had advanced over a hundred meters. Tomorrow’s battle conditions would be even more perilous, because the range of the Goguryeo people’s catapults fell precisely on tomorrow’s excavation route.

As usual, he went to Li’er’s great tent to report, informing him of today’s achievements and estimating tomorrow’s work. Li Ji squinted his eyes without speaking. Cheng Yaojin ground his teeth with grinding sounds. Niu Jinda’s fists kept clenching tighter. Zhang Shigui constantly raised his thumb praising Yun Ye’s ingenious ideas. Only Li’er watched Yun Ye, covered head to toe in mud, with a pondering look—whether sadness or anger, his expression was extremely complex.

After completing his report, Yun Ye returned to his tent and dove headfirst onto the bed. Without even removing his armor, he prepared to sleep. Drowsiness surged like a tide. Apart from wanting to sleep, his mind held no other chaotic thoughts. This feeling was truly good, Yun Ye muttered before falling asleep.

Cheng Yaojin and Niu Jinda, watching the exhausted Yun Ye, didn’t know what to say. After pondering for a long time, Niu Jinda said to Cheng Yaojin: “Let him do as his heart desires. After all, this is a good method. Even if His Majesty’s plan falls through, he can’t be blamed. Killing enemies for the country isn’t wrong!”

Liu Jinbao expended great effort removing the armor from the Marquis’s body. Throughout this process, Yun Ye remained in deep sleep.

The next day at dawn, Yun Ye woke. After eating a large piece of flatbread and drinking a bowl of thin porridge, he donned his armor and came to the base of Ansi City. Last night, Yang Wanchun had sent down some suicide soldiers from the city walls, wanting to destroy the trenches, but they were shot down one by one by the crossbowmen Yun Ye had stationed there. Since then, there had been no other activity.

The calmer things were, the more violent today’s attack would be. Yun Ye looked at the lumber Lai Chuanfeng had found for the roof covering and shook his head: “Too thin. It’ll be pierced by flying stones. Let’s dismantle the large carts we brought. Add another layer underneath—that’ll be safer. We’ll avoid casualties where we can.”

When the trench had extended over thirty meters, the anticipated flying stones finally came. However, their accuracy was poor—they still couldn’t accurately drop boulders onto the narrow trapezoidal trenches that were less than half a meter wide.

Though he knew he was relatively safe, the tremendous boom of boulders striking the ground was still heart-stopping. The stones the Goguryeo people hurled over were foundation stones used for building houses. Some stones looked quite smooth, while others bore exquisite patterns. They were running out of stones—they’d started dismantling buildings.

Some dressed stones would fall precisely on the trenches. Wood was ultimately somewhat fragile and couldn’t block these flying stone beams. Thus casualties became inevitable.

Yun Ye summoned the water dragon teams. Taking advantage of when the Goguryeo people atop the walls were suppressed by arrow rain, they sprayed fire oil onto the battlements. A fire arrow followed, and the wall tops became a sea of flames. Many Goguryeo people, their bodies ablaze, screamed and jumped from the walls, falling heavily into the mud. The catapults on the walls also burst into roaring flames.

The excavation speed was increasing. For some unknown reason, the Goguryeo people had actually built the city on a stretch of soft sandy ground. When Yun Ye dug the trench past the lateral trench the Goguryeo people had excavated, he finally knew the answer—beneath this damned city wall was actually an abundant water source, while the place where the walls were built was instead stony ground. Fortunately, it was now early spring during the dry season, so there wasn’t much groundwater. As long as Yun Ye’s trenches didn’t dig any deeper, they could barely accommodate people. To be safe, Yun Ye still dug a deeper drainage ditch between the two trenches.

Though Yun Ye desperately wanted to dig through the night, such work was simply impossible in the cold night. People soaked in mud and water would be frozen to death by the snow and rain overhead.

Xue Rengui lay quietly not far from the city wall, wrapped in a white cloth sheet soaked with muddy water. Yun Ye had told him long ago that to achieve extraordinary merit, one must do extraordinary things.

Although he wore leather clothing all over with an oilcloth wrapped outside preventing muddy water from entering, after remaining motionless for so long, he still felt he was about to freeze to death.

His hands were tucked in his bosom. No matter how cold the rest of his body got, he had to ensure his hands remained nimble. His hands couldn’t freeze stiff. A heavily modified crossbow was strapped to his back. Taking advantage of the dim light, Xue Rengui inched closer to the city wall. Assassinating Yang Wanchun was his only mission.

Many corpses lay beneath the city wall, all Goguryeo people. Two among them weren’t even dead yet, emitting final weak moans in the muddy water.

They blocked Xue Rengui’s necessary path. Goguryeo soldiers who had long wanted to die but couldn’t suddenly felt a warm hand on their necks. Before understanding what was happening, that warm hand twisted and broke their necks.

This position was excellent—open field of vision, suitable distance. Xue Rengui knew his own capabilities clearly. As long as Yang Wanchun appeared here, he had a ninety percent certainty of felling Yang Wanchun with an arrow.

Eight hours ago, Xue Rengui had eaten the most delicious meal of his life. Marquis Yun had cooked him a pot of noodles—a very large pot of noodles—plus half a roasted golden sheep.

The noodles were truly delicious. Marquis Yun had invited him to eat the dry kind, seasoned with chili peppers and meat cubes. Most enviable of all were actually several pieces of green vegetables. That’s right, absolutely fresh green vegetables, not those moldy-smelling dried vegetables.

With this meal as foundation, Xue Rengui felt that suffering a bit now was entirely appropriate. Had he suffered little hardship as a child? Had he endured cold infrequently? Now with complete equipment and sharp weapons, killing enemies was only proper. Moreover, as long as he killed Yang Wanchun, he would have a residence in the capital. This was what Marquis Yun had personally promised. Then he could bring Yingchun and their child to the capital to enjoy a few years of fortune.

From his bosom he quietly pulled out a length of flexible reed tube and took small sips. Fragrant wine flowed into his mouth. Xue Rengui almost wanted to moan with comfort. Marquis Yun’s fine wine truly lived up to its reputation.

After just two sips, Xue Rengui forcibly restrained his craving and stuffed the tube back. To get through this night, he had to economize. Unable to move his body, he could only rely on strong liquor to stimulate his body’s heat. This was what Marquis Yun had said. He said alcohol actually couldn’t ward off cold—it only deceived one’s senses, making you feel your body was generating heat. If you truly treated strong liquor as something to ward off cold, you’d only die faster. So unless absolutely necessary, it must be used sparingly.

What educated people said was never wrong. Besides, the Marquis wouldn’t deliberately fabricate lies to trick him out of fear he’d steal drinks. Since alcohol could only be used for alertness, he absolutely wouldn’t drink more.

Rustling sounds came from atop the walls. Needless to say, the Goguryeo people wanted to descend from the walls again to destroy the trenches. Xue Rengui curled his body into a muddy water pit, still not moving, only pressing himself even lower. The brothers defending opposite would soon loose their arrows.

Sure enough, a bright fireball was launched by a catapult. Those suicide soldiers who had just descended the walls had nowhere to hide. Dense crossbow bolts shot over. The Goguryeo suicide soldiers carrying earth bags and fire oil were shot down one by one beneath the city. They didn’t even reach the edge of the trenches.

A tragic voice came from atop the walls, speaking Goguryeo. Xue Rengui couldn’t yet understand Goguryeo, but he heard clearly one sentence from someone beside that person trying to dissuade him. The first two syllables of that sentence said precisely “City Lord”—who else but Yang Wanchun? Unfortunately, he was hiding behind the wall where Xue Rengui couldn’t see him. Though he could shoot an arrow based on the direction the voice came from, that kind of accuracy would be too poor. If he missed, the Marquis’s plan would fail.

There would definitely be better opportunities. Xue Rengui quietly told himself, lowering his slightly raised head again, wholeheartedly waiting for dawn to arrive. Yang Wanchun would certainly appear then, because Marquis Yun had said so.

This freezing rain at Ansi City seemed to have no end. At daybreak, a cold fog rose, rolling like ghosts riding clouds and mist as it swept across the ground—appearing both heavy and light. The iron-gray dense fog quickly dispersed under the rain’s erosion, becoming thin mist.

The low horn sounds rose again from the Great Tang encampment. The rhythmic clatter of warhorses trampling muddy ground came densely. Mighty knights wearing iron armor, cloaks, and face guards emerged one by one from the thin mist, arraying themselves at a distance on level ground.

Yun Ye led soldiers to begin excavating the final section of trench. This time Yun Ye’s preparations were even more thorough. Massive iron shields were stacked and fixed above the trenches. Even if boulders fell from the walls, they wouldn’t harm those in the trenches.

When a hoe struck sparks against a bluestone, cheers immediately erupted in the trench. They’d finally reached the city wall’s foundation! They only needed to dig inward a bit more before they could place the gunpowder. The soldiers of the Lingnan Navy’s marine corps never doubted what the Commander said. Those other people who failed to blast open the walls—that was their incompetence, not knowing how to use gunpowder. Gunpowder was invented by the Commander. Who under heaven could understand better than the Commander how gunpowder should be used?