You are here!
Three days.
The cold wind, carrying the stench of blood, gunpowder and burning corpses, swept over the top of Qinghe City day and night. The black Pearl flag had long been smoked and burned, but it still fluttered on the highest watchtower.
For three days, the Western Qiang people surged up in wave after wave like a tireless swarm of ants, rolling logs and rocks, bringing with them screams and the sound of breaking bones; arrows rained down, and lives on and off the city were fading at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Catapults smashed holes in the city wall in many places, which were then blocked by the defenders with whatever debris they could find. The bricks were repeatedly soaked in blood, solidifying into a dark red and black ice shell that was sticky and slippery to step on.
This battle was extremely bitter, painful and tragic. It hasn't even ended yet, but so many lives have been lost.
The defenders and civilians had long been numb, and many of them had red eyes. They were holding on only by instinct. Zhang Shuanzi's left arm was cut by a stray arrow, a gash deep enough to reveal the bone. After a hasty bandage, he still used his right hand, which could still move, to hold tightly against a huge tree that was crashing into the gap.
Zhang Wangshi was not far from him. Her hands were rubbed bloody by the rolling logs, but she still silently dragged baskets of heavy earth and rocks to the parapet. They didn't even have the energy to talk. They just leaned against the cold parapet to catch their breath in the brief intervals when the Qiang soldiers retreated, staring into the distance with empty eyes.
The casualties were too heavy.
Beneath the city wall, the corpses of the Western Qiang people were piled up like mountains.
Inside the city walls, there was almost no place to put the bodies of the defenders.
Despair spread among the extremely exhausted soldiers and civilians.
During the day, the deafening sounds of fighting could still suppress some of the noise, but when night fell and the fighting paused, those suppressed whispers, like poisonous insects underground, would breed in the corners of the ruined streets and alleys.
"I can't hold on any longer, I really can't hold on any longer..."
"I heard that the bodies at the South Gate are almost piled up to the battlements..."
"The Western Qiang people occupied the city before. Although they stole things and raped women, they didn't say they would kill everyone..."
"Yes, if Her Royal Highness the Princess hadn't brought troops and driven them away, why would they have massacred the city in revenge?"
"We could have lived..."
"Now, we all have to die here! For whom? For the empty title of a princess?"
"Keep your voice down! You're going to kill yourself!"
"Life? Do you still have life now? How about..."
These sounds were only sporadic at first, but as the casualties among the defenders increased sharply, as food and medicine became increasingly scarce, and as the seemingly endless sound of Qiang soldiers' horns outside the city began to spread, they began to spread to every corner of Qinghe City.
Panic and resentment are fermenting in invisible corners.
The lights in the government office were brightly lit. Ning Lingyi had just been discharged from the front lines. Her blood-stained light armor was still on, and her cold helmet was placed on the table. She sat there with her eyes closed, rubbing her temples with her fingers. She had hardly closed her eyes for three days and three nights. Her voice was already hoarse, and her lips were cracked and bleeding.
"Your Highness." Su Qingfan's voice sounded at the door. She walked in quickly with fatigue, and her body was also filled with a strong smell of gunpowder and was extremely dirty.
Ning Lingyi opened her eyes and looked at her with bloodshot eyes.
"Have you found out?" Her voice was as hoarse as sandpaper.
"Yes." Su Qingfan nodded.
"Undercurrents are surging within the city. Several families, led by the Qian Zhou family, are secretly colluding and hoarding weapons. They've already made contact with Western Qiang scouts outside the city. They plan to exploit the chaos during the next Qiang attack, opening the West or South Gates and surrendering the city to the enemy in exchange for their lives."
She paused, then pulled out a thin piece of paper from her sleeve. It was covered with densely written names. "This is a list of those who have participated in collusion or have shown signs of surrendering to the enemy. It involves no fewer than a hundred households, and we need to eliminate hundreds or even thousands of people."
Ning Lingyi's eyes fell on the list. The Qian family, the patriarch whose legs were broken and whose descendants were cut off, actually still had remnants?
There was no anger in her eyes, only a bottomless fatigue. She was too tired to speak and her thoughts were no longer clear.
Ning Lingyi's gaze shifted away from the list and looked out the window at the dark night. From the direction of the city wall, the faint sounds of fighting never stopped.
She knew what Su Qingfan was waiting for.
Kill, or not? Killing means hundreds of lives, including perhaps innocent people who were dragged into the conflict. Not killing? Once civil unrest breaks out, the city gates will be opened, and tens of thousands of Western Qiang cavalry will pour in, slaughtering the entire city!
Which is more important, the blood of these hundreds of people or the lives of tens of thousands of people in the city?
a long time.
"How many people do you need?" she asked, her voice calm and without a trace of emotion.
Su Qingfan understood the meaning: "We need three hundred soldiers and thunderous means to shock the whole city."
"For you." Ning Lingyi's voice remained flat.
"No one on the list will be spared, and all their property will be used as military funds."
"yes."
Su Qingfan did not hesitate at all. He bowed and accepted the order, then turned and left.
That night, Qinghe City fell into a scene even more terrifying than the fighting outside the city.
Three hundred Mingzhu Guards, led by Su Qingfan himself, rushed silently to various places in the city. There was no announcement, no trial, only the heavy sound of banging on doors, short screams, and the dull sound of sharp blades cutting into flesh and bones.
The smell of blood quickly spread in the cold night wind, so strong that it could not be dispelled.
That night, blood flowed like a river in the mansions of more than a dozen wealthy families. The names on the list, along with their minions, were all eliminated.
Dawn is about to break, the darkest hour.
Shocking piles of corpses were piled up at some of the busiest intersections in the city.
Hundreds of corpses lay scattered about, their blood snaking across the cold stone pavement, frozen into a dark red stream. Nailed to the side of the pile of corpses was a massive wooden sign, inscribed in blood: "This is the fate of those who betrayed their country and surrendered to the enemy! Anyone who dares to speak of surrender and collaborate with the enemy, thus disrupting the morale of the army, will be punished likewise!"
The first rays of light appear at dawn.
All whispers, all resentments, all hesitations were crushed before the pile of corpses. The once high and mighty mansions of the Qian and Zhou families were transformed into hell on earth overnight.
No one dared to say a word, and no one dared to question the princess who was maintaining the last glimmer of life in this isolated city with her iron-blooded fist.
The soldiers and civilians, exhausted to the extreme, silently picked up their broken weapons, lifted heavy stones, and walked to their respective positions. Their eyes were still numb and their movements were still stiff. They had to defend the city, even if it was just to delay their death a moment.
The sun rose and the moon set, and countless days passed.
The city was already in ruins, with many walls collapsed, and could only be filled with human lives. The arrows had long been exhausted, and there were few rolling logs and stones left. The number of defenders had dropped sharply, and on the top of the city, the bodies of soldiers who had died long ago but had no one to collect them could be seen everywhere leaning against the battlements.
Civilians were also killed and wounded in large numbers, and the black smoke from the burning corpses continued day and night.
Ning Lingyi stood on the crumbling East Gate Tower, leaning on her sword. Her black armor was torn in many places, and a deep wound on her shoulder that was so deep that the bone could be seen was only roughly tied with a cloth strip. The blood that had seeped out had long since coagulated and turned black, and her face was covered in blood. Only her eyes were still staring at the Western Qiang army outside the city that was surging like a tide.
Wang Mengzi, who was beside her, had one arm hanging limply, and a hideous scar across his face, which almost destroyed one of his eyes. Almost everyone who could still stand here was injured and exhausted.
Among the Qiang soldiers' formation under the city, the huge Western Qiang flag was particularly eye-catching. Helian Bo had obviously lost his patience and was about to launch a final fierce attack.
"Your Highness, we can't hold on any longer..."
Ning Lingyi did not answer.
She knew that the city was about to fall.
These ten days of hardship were like dancing on the edge of a knife. More than ten thousand soldiers and civilians in the city were killed or wounded. Qinghe River had been drained of blood, and tens of thousands of women, children, the elderly and the young behind were completely powerless to fight.
She gripped the hilt of the sword tightly. If God wanted her to die here, so be it.
Old lady, I'm sorry, I can't take your son back.
After thinking it over, Ning Lingyi picked up the sword again, determined to die.
The Mingzhu Guards looked at their commander and did not retreat a single step, but they couldn't help feeling sad. Has their ambition to recover the country only reached this point?
But Qinghe, the entire Qinghe, has no solution.
Zhang Shuanzi had long been dead, his body stiffened, and no one knew where he was buried. No one knew where his wife had gone; perhaps she had died somewhere. And where his children were? No one knew either.
Qinghe City is about to be broken.
The civilians still on the city wall broke down and cried, crying for themselves, crying for Qinghe, and crying for God, who did not give them any way to survive. But no one knew what to do. What could they do?
Who told them that the Southern Dynasty was so weak and unable to defeat the Western Qiang's cavalry?
Just accept your fate.
Some of the laborers stopped moving. They were too tired and wanted to relax a little before dying.
Just then.
"Bang!"
A crimson flame rose from the distant northern sky, drawing a trajectory in the dim twilight, rising to its highest point, and then exploded!
In an instant, a crimson light illuminated half the sky. All the living people on the city walls were stunned by this strange sight.
Ning Lingyi straightened her almost collapsed body, and a lively look appeared on her blood-stained face, Nong Zishi, you are here!
"Signal, it's a signal!" Wang Mengzi was the first to react, "Mr. Nong! It's Mr. Nong's signal! He did it! Beishuo, Beishuo is coming!"
"Beishuo is here!"
"Reinforcements! Our reinforcements are coming!"
This desperate cry stirred up the last ripple of despair!
The remaining Mingzhu Guards on the city wall seemed to have been injected with a shot of adrenaline, and even the numb civilians had a glimmer of light in their eyes again!
Ning Lingyi took a deep breath: "Wang Mengzi!"
"I will be here!"
"Gather all the brothers who can still mount their horses and follow me out of the north gate! If Helian Bo wants to break into the city, I will open the gate for him and lure his men out!"
"Your Highness, it's too dangerous!" Su Qingfan said in a lost voice.
"There's no other choice!" Ning Lingyi jumped onto her horse, which was also covered in wounds. The horse neighed, "Open the city gate as planned!"
The heavy north gate slowly opened.
"Mingzhu Guards! Follow me and kill!" Ning Lingyi took the lead and was the first to rush out of the doorway! Behind him, thousands of equally wounded Mingzhu Guards cavalrymen followed closely behind him, rushing towards the boundless Western Qiang army formation outside the city!
This sudden change surprised the Western Qiang people who were preparing to launch the final attack.
"General! The city gate is open! It's the Southern Dynasty princess! She's rushing out with her men!"
A general shouted excitedly.
Helian Bo, riding on his horse, saw the slender figure rushing out from afar. He was startled at first, then burst into a ferocious laugh: "Hahaha! Ning Lingyi, you came out to die! My men! Kill her, kill that bitch! A reward of a thousand taels, and a promotion of three ranks! Kill her!"
Stimulated by the huge reward, the Western Qiang people instantly went crazy! Countless cavalrymen brandished scimitars and spears, roared loudly, and rushed towards the pitifully small number of black torrents!
The two teams were approaching each other at high speed on the fields north of the city, like two raging tides. They were about to collide with each other and fall into the most brutal fight!
At this critical moment.
"Woo woo woo."
Another horn sounded with the breath of the vast grassland from the flank of the Western Qiang army. Immediately afterwards, countless cavalrymen carrying the Beishuo flag emerged from the night!
They were like sharp scimitars, with the force of thunder, and they went straight to the position where Helian Bo’s central army flag was located!
There is the command post of the Western Qiang army.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack from the flank!"
"Protect the general! Protect the flag!"
The rear of the Western Qiang army was instantly in chaos. The sudden change made Helian Bo's face change drastically! He never expected that just when he was about to capture and kill Ning Lingyi, an ambush would suddenly attack his base!
"Blow the horn! Back to the rescue! Quickly return to the central army!"
Helian Bo roared loudly, his voice tinged with panic.
The horn sounded immediately in the Western Qiang army! The vanguard troops that were frantically rushing towards Ning Lingyi froze at the sound, their offensive instantly thwarted. Many cavalrymen subconsciously reined in their horses and looked towards the chaotic central army in the rear with uncertainty.
At this moment when the Western Qiang Army was at a loss as to how to advance or retreat and its formation was shaken!
"kill!"
Another larger group of Beishuo cavalry actually rushed out from not far behind Ning Lingyi. Without any hesitation, they rammed into the flanks of the Western Qiang vanguard troops!
Three forces.
Ning Lingyi confronts head-on!
Beishuo's surprise attack directly hits Huanglong!
Beishuo's main force attacked fiercely in the waist!
The once-aggressive Western Qiang army gradually fell into disarray under the fierce attacks from these three directions! The vanguard and center were separated, the flanks were penetrated, and the returning reinforcements collided with the chaotic vanguard, trampling each other. The entire northern plains turned into a giant meat grinder!
The battle situation was completely disrupted!
Ning Lingyi swung her sword and knocked down a charging Qiang soldier. The blood splattered on her face. She looked up and looked towards the Beishuo flag in the north.
Tuoba Hong, you are really here.
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