"Jumping into the river might give us a chance of survival!"

"The commander of an army is going to jump into the river..."

"Mingzhou misled me!"

He had already given the order to march at full speed, but he didn't expect the barbarian army to catch up so quickly.

The request for reinforcements to Mingzhou fell on deaf ears.

Zhao Tiangang watched his personal guards fall one after another under the barbarians' scimitars, and finally gritted his teeth and nodded.

He suddenly drew the sword from his waist, cut off the heavy armor straps, and rushed to the river under the cover of his personal soldiers.

There were screams coming from behind. A young soldier was pierced through the chest by a spear and nailed to the ground.

Another old soldier knelt down and begged for mercy, but his head was crushed by the horse's hooves.

The blood soaked into the frozen soil and quickly condensed into dark red ice crystals in the cold wind.

“Plop!”

Zhao Tiangang jumped into the freezing river, and the icy water instantly poured into his mouth and nose.

He struggled desperately to the surface and saw that the massacre on the shore was still going on.

The barbarian cavalry were using their spears to stab the Qin army struggling in the water, and the river water gradually turned red.

He took a deep breath, dived underwater, and drifted downstream along the fast undercurrent.

I could still seem to hear the wild laughter of the barbarian soldiers on the shore and the wailing of my compatriots.

......

A Gugan inspected the battlefield, stepping on corpses all over the ground. His iron boots crushed the fingers of a Qin soldier who was still alive. The man didn't even have the strength to scream.

"Report - the Qin army's flag was found, but no body was found!"

The scout knelt on one knee to report.

Ah Gu Gan snorted coldly:

"Jumped into the river? He's lucky."

He kicked a head with wide-open eyes at his feet.

"Pile these heads up into a memorial to let the southerners know the consequences of resistance."

Deputy General Timur came forward, blood still stained on his face:

"Your Highness, our army has less than a hundred casualties. These Qin troops are simply vulnerable!"

A Gugan did not answer immediately, but looked towards the southeast - that was the location of Youzhou City.

The defeat in the canyon seven days ago seemed like a nightmare, but at this moment, he regained the pride that a Northern Barbarian warrior should have.

"It seems that the defeat in the canyon was just a fluke for Xia He."

Ah Gu Gan clenched his fists, his knuckles cracking.

"Send the order, divide 5,000 light cavalry to continue chasing and killing the remaining enemies, and the rest of you will follow me back to Youzhou!"

That night, the barbarian army camp was ablaze with bonfires and filled with the aroma of wine and meat.

A Gugan sat in the main tent with a sheepskin map spread out in front of him.

"Youzhou..." He stabbed the map with his dagger.

"From now on, you will be a nail that our Northern Barbarians use to drive into the heart of the Central Plains!"

Timur handed over the wine bag and asked, "How do you plan to deal with the people in the city?"

Ah Gugan drank all the liquor in his bag, and a gleam of light flashed in his eyes:

"Kill half and leave the other half. The dead can intimidate the living, and the living can grow food and make weapons."

He smiled grimly, "After three generations, the people of Youzhou will forget that they were once Qin people."

"Your Highness is indeed merciful!"

The generals in the tent laughed upon hearing this, as if they had already seen the scene of the city walls of Youzhou being filled with the flags of the northern barbarians.

......

Four days later, when A Gugan led his army back to Youzhou, light snow began to fall from the sky.

The scout came with a report:

"General, the city gate is open! Someone is holding up a fire as a signal!"

"All the Qin people are traitors and spineless!"

Ah Gu Gan sneered,

"The army will follow me into the city!"