Seeing this, Baili Zhe, unwilling to incur further casualties, ordered the attack to cease. He declared loudly, "Of the 300,000 Jingnan troops, only less than 3,000 remain. There is no point in your continued resistance. Surrender. Xiqi will not kill surrendered prisoners, nor will it harm innocent civilians."

Both countries stopped, and Nanzhao had to stop temporarily as well.

Sikong Ling, holding the bloody sword, walked step by step from the previous battlefield to the front. At this moment, she seemed to have turned back into the little princess galloping on the battlefield, fearless and moving forward!

She stood still, pointed her sword at the enemy, and said in a resounding voice, "Jingnan Army, we would rather die in battle than surrender!"

She had long known that the fall of Heqing City was only a matter of time, so she secretly sent a letter for help to the emperor without telling Tang Xun, exchanging the seal of the commander of the Jingnan Army for help, and begged the emperor to send troops to help.

She originally thought that after receiving her call for help, the emperor would definitely send reinforcements. After all, the royal family had been coveting the Jingnan Army for a long time.

However, until the day the city was broken, the rescue she was waiting for still did not come.

The emperor has completely given up on the Jingnan Army. Now, facing a powerful enemy, they are at the end of their rope.

Rather than living a life of cowardice, it is better to die bravely and put a perfect end to the Jingnan Army's great achievements in this life!

As a woman herself, Rong Yue looked at Sikong Ling, her eyes landing on her lower abdomen, and was deeply moved. "Princess, I cannot bear to see you die twice. Please surrender. For the sake of the old King Jingnan, I will definitely preserve the bloodline of the Sikong family."

Sikong Ling remained unmoved, "My Sikong family would rather die than surrender!"

Murong Qi originally came to avenge the capture of King Jingnan last time. Moreover, Nan Zhao originally wanted to provoke a war among the countries and would certainly not let things sit quietly. Since his aunt played the good cop, it was his turn to play the good cop.

"Since the little girl is so willing to sacrifice her life, I will grant your wish!" Murong Qi licked his lips, drew his bow and shot an arrow. The sharp arrow broke through the air and flew straight towards Sikong Ling's heart.

"Ling'er, be careful!" Tang Xun rushed towards Sikong Ling. He couldn't knock her down for fear of hurting her and the child. In the end, he chose to use his body to block the arrow for her.

puff!

The sharp arrow pierced Tang Xun's back.

Murong Qi was in no mood to watch the affectionate scenes between husband and wife, so he ordered impatiently, "Kill!"

The Nanzhao army attacked again and soon engaged in a melee with the Jingnan army.

Rongyue shook his head and sighed, and also selected a few teams to join the battle.

Baili Zhe did not order the Xiqi army to take action again, but instead ordered the masters accompanying him to capture Sikong Ling.

Now that we have captured Sikong Zhan’s sister, why worry that he won’t show up?

Tang Xun was already seriously injured. Even though he tried his best to protect Sikong Ling, he was eventually knocked to the ground and could only watch as the people from Xiqi grabbed Sikong Ling.

At the critical moment, the sound of horse hooves suddenly rang out, growing louder and louder. Sikong Ling desperately blocked the attack, and with the Jingnan Army rushing over to protect her, the Xiqi troops failed to capture Sikong Ling as they had hoped. Unaware of the incoming enemy, they could no longer act rashly, so they stopped at Baili Zhe's signal.

Soon, a loud shout came from the city gate:

"Whoever offends me in the east will die."

When everyone looked, they saw a military flag fluttering in the wind, with a big word "Qi" written on it.

The person who came was General Qi Guang.

Seeing this, Rong Yue smiled implicitly, and looked at the few remaining teams of people who were still fighting for her in the distance, and showed a relieved smile.

It was worth it that she deliberately let Qi Guang know about Jingnan’s predicament. This good show shouldn’t end so soon.

This war was originally about the Three Kingdoms' coalition forces besieging Heqing, but with Qi Guang joining in, the Three Kingdoms' coalition forces were being attacked from both sides.

Jingnan was in distress, but the emperor was slow to send reinforcements. General Qi Guang had long lost the emperor's trust and, knowing the principle of "the death of a rabbit brings grief to the fox", he secretly dispatched 20,000 troops to Jingnan's aid and finally rescued the new King of Jingnan in time.

However, 20,000 troops were just a drop in the bucket when facing the aggressive coalition forces of the Three Kingdoms.

The three forces fought fiercely for another two days, during which most of Qi Guang's troops were lost. They finally broke through the coalition forces of the three countries and successfully joined forces with the Jingnan Army.

By this time, the Jingnan Army had fewer than a hundred men left. The people of Heqing City had already evacuated, but were locked outside the gates of the neighboring city—Donglin—completely abandoned them! With nowhere else to go, they had no choice but to return to Heqing and join the Jingnan Army in resisting the Three Kingdoms coalition, ultimately suffering more than half their number in casualties.

At this point, there were less than 5,000 soldiers and civilians alive in Heqing City.

Qi Guang did not expect the battle situation here to be so tragic. He left some people behind to cover his retreat and quickly evacuated the survivors in Heqing City.

However, when they went to the neighboring city again, they were still faced with closed city gates and archers ready for battle.

"I am General Qi Guang. The war in Heqing is urgent. You must open the city gate quickly!" Qi Guang sat on his horse, holding a token, and spoke hurriedly.

The city gate was still tightly closed. On the city wall, the city lord walked out slowly, revealing an indifferent face.

"The Emperor has ordered that General Qi Guang has secretly led his troops out of the capital with the intention of rebellion. If seen, he will be killed without mercy!"

As the city lord waved his hand, arrows shot out from the city gate, intending to kill them all!

"Retreat quickly!" Qi Guang's eyes were bloodshot. While blocking the arrows, he also covered Sikong Ling and others as they retreated quickly.

However, they had already entered the range, so how could it be so easy to escape unscathed at this time?

By the time the group finally got out of the range of the city gate, there were only 3,000 soldiers left out of the original 5,000, and many of them were wounded by arrows.

"Where are we going now?" Someone asked the question that everyone wanted to ask the most.

In front of them was the Donglin who refused to accept them, and behind them was the coalition forces of the Three Kingdoms who wanted to kill them. It seemed that the group was at the end of the road.

Despair enveloped everyone present.

They didn't wait for a reply. With the sound of hurried horse hooves, the allied forces of the three countries had already rushed back.

The Allied Forces of the Three Kingdoms took a look at the miserable appearance of the Jingnan Army and their eyes fell on those who were shot to death by arrows.

Murong Qi finally washed away the humiliation he had suffered at the hands of King Jingnan and couldn't help laughing.

"Your country has abandoned you. If you are willing to abandon the dark and join the light, surrender to me, Nanzhao, and swear in the name of Heaven to be loyal to Nanzhao from now on, I will not only spare your lives, but also promise to use you in the future."

Almost all the remaining ones here are the elite of the Jingnan Army and the brave soldiers under Qi Guang. After being completely abandoned by Donglin, they will certainly no longer have any attachment to Donglin.

They were extremely disappointed with Donglin, but now they became popular. No wonder Murong Qi wanted to surrender them.

Baili Zhe also extended an olive branch, "Prince Jingnan, General Qi, if you are willing to swear to submit to Xiqi, this prince promises that your abilities will be fully utilized in Xiqi."

This is a blatant robbery! Murong Qi glared at Baili Zhe, "Sixth Prince, everything should be based on first come first served. I was the one who proposed surrender first, so your behavior is inappropriate."