Midnight, the Jibei Army indeed launched the third round of attacks on the city.
The sound of drums was thunderous, the killing cries shook the heavens.
A blaze illuminated the city building of Nanping City.
Zhou Gu stood on the mountaintop, speaking to Su Rong, "I’ll go with Ziye, leaving Fen Ling behind to protect you. Tonight’s Nanping City is the real danger, there’s no other way, we can only resist."
"There is, you take Fen Ling with you, he had brought a big bag of poison powder when he left the capital, deadly upon touch." Su Rong’s gaze was icy as she looked at the thick smoke and flames in Nanping City, "Who cares if they are soldiers of Daliang, if they fight against their own people with swords, they deserve to die."
She added, "Especially Zhang Cheng, Zhang Yun."
Zhou Gu turned his head to look at her, saying after a while, "Okay, then I’ll leave Ziye behind."
"There’s no need, just leave a few undercover guards."
Zhou Gu shook his head, "Don’t forget about the Nangong Family. If Nangong Yu has failed, we cannot rule out other dangers. I would feel safer if Ziye stayed to protect you."
"Alright then!" Su Rong agreed, "You both be careful."
"Okay."
The cold wind blew Zhou Gu’s cloak. After taking a few steps, he felt it was obstructing his movement and quickly removed it, and laid it on Su Rong.
Su Rong was already draped in a cloak. Even though the added weight felt unfamiliar, she obediently let Zhou Gu place his cloak over her, and then lifted her chin to give her a kiss in the corner of her mouth before turning and leaving.
As he left, Fen Ling looked at Ziye, "Take good care of my sister."
Ziye sighed. Once again, he was the one left behind. When had the roles reversed? He was assigned to protect her, and Fen Ling was allowed to go and fight alongside the Young Master. In essence, he was not as useful as Fen Ling, who had multiple skills. All he could do was to nod and assure her, "Don’t worry."
Feeling relieved, Fen Ling quickly followed Zhou Gu.
After the two left, their silhouettes quickly vanished into the darkness as two-thirds of the guards followed them.
Ziye looked into the pitch-black night, towards the Nanping City with flames reaching the sky, and spoke to Su Rong, "There are forty to fifty thousand soldiers. With Young Master and Fen Ling heading there, do you think they will be safe?"
"They will be. I told him, even if something happens to everyone in Nanping City, he must not be harmed. He needs to come back safe." Su Rong said, "The same for Fen Ling."
Ziye immediately felt a lot more relieved.
On the city building of Nanping City, Ning Chi, Jiang Zhu, and the soldiers continued to defend the city. In this round, another person joined, and that was Zhang Mao.
Zhang Mao’s iron chains were untied. He held a sword in his hand. The Jibei soldiers climbing up the ladder recognized Zhang Mao and were shocked. Some said out loud "The eldest son?" But they were immediately beaten back by Zhang Mao’s sword. Although he did not kill them, they were severely injured and fell back.
Ning Ze became reassured and thought that Zhang Mao was impressive and had more skills than him.
Zhang Cheng held a telescope and noticed a familiar figure on the city building. He couldn’t believe his eyes, "Is that Mao’er?"
Thinking he was seeing things, he stared for a while and still couldn’t believe it. He handed the telescope to the person next to him, "You take a look, isn’t that Mao’er?"
The person next to him took the telescope and after a moment of confirmation, nodded his head, "General, it is the eldest son."
Zhang Cheng’s face turned pale, "He is killing our Jibei Army."
"Yes."
Zhang Cheng questioned in disbelief, "How is that possible? Has he gone mad?"
The person next to him couldn’t answer this. He wasn’t Zhang Mao, so he didn’t know why he would turn his back on their own people at the city wall.
"It must be someone else pretending to be him." Zhang Cheng figured this was the only plausible explanation.
At this moment, Zhang Yun was being pushed in his wheelchair. He was still weak, his hands and feet limp. Unable to even hold a telescope, he asked someone to help him hold it in front of his eyes. After staring for a while, he said to Zhang Cheng, "Uncle, it’s eldest brother. It’s not someone else pretending, it’s him."
"This is absurd, it’s utterly absurd," Zhang Cheng raged.
Zhang Yun smiled faintly, "It seems eldest brother has pledged loyalty to the Imperial Court."
"He’s a member of the Zhang family," Zhang Cheng replied.
Zhang Yun squinted his eyes, "So what if he’s from the Zhang family? We were the ones who abandoned him first. If we are not benevolent, how can he be obliged to be upright?"
He just didn’t expect that the Count’s son of Nanping, Ning Chi, would trust him so much to release him. He was like a sword against the Jibei Army.
Zhang Mao was the eldest son of Zhang Ping. Having received rigorous training in literature and martial arts from a young age, the resources of the Zhang family would exhaust anyone but not Zhang Mao. Therefore, he was a man of real skills. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have dared to sneak into the Eighteen Forts with just a handful of men.
The reason he was captured was because he ran into Zhou Gu and Su Rong. Had it been anyone else, he might not have fallen into their hands.
Having him stand on the wall of Nanping City and confront the Jibei soldiers was indeed like wielding a sword.
Zhang Cheng was both shocked and furious. "He’s the carbon copy of his great father and my wonderful nephew. In vain, he is a member of the Zhang family."
"Perhaps, he’s long given up on being a member of the Zhang family," Zhang Yun weakly waved his hand, ordering, "Speed up the attack on the city."
The drums became more frequent, encouraging the Jibei soldiers. After the initial shock of seeing Zhang Mao, the following soldiers didn’t dare to freeze. They saw Zhang Mao as a target to kill, just like Ning Chi.
Soon, Zhang Mao was wounded and blood stained his body.
Ning Ze was almost beheaded but was saved by Zhang Mao. He sat down at the far back, holding his sword and panting heavily.
Looking at the attacking force in front of him, he felt that this was it. The majority of the Jibei army had been poisoned, but the few of them left were not enough to stop the remnants of Nanping City. Even with an extra Zhang Mao, nothing would change, they would just delay their deaths a little.
He felt a sense of desperation.
Just as he saw his brother get slashed again, Jiang Zhu was also stabbed. Zhang Mao barely avoided a fatal blow and was wounded instead. As Zhang Mao fell towards him, he swung his sword, protecting Zhang Mao, just when his desperation peaked, the drumming of the Jibei army suddenly stopped.
The Jibei soldiers were stunned.
Taking advantage of this, Ning Chi supported Jiang Zhu and brandished his sword, killing two Jibei soldiers in front of him, then looked down at the city.
He saw a group of black-clothed men seemingly breaking into the Jibei camp, heading straight for the commanding officers under the star flag.
Ning Chi’s eyes lit up, "Zhou Gu."
"It’s brother Zhou." Jiang Zhu also recognised him.
Looking from a high place down below was much clearer than looking up from below. Thus for those who knew Zhou Gu, his silhouette and especially his double-handed sword were easily recognizable.
There were few people in the world who used a double-handed sword, and fewer still who did it well.
In the past, people didn’t know how powerful the double-handed sword could be. Zhou Gu’s skill had been overshadowed by his reputation as a prodigal son, a beloved child of heaven. It was probably because he rarely had the opportunity to showcase his abilities in person.
But now, his double-handed sword was gradually becoming famous.
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