When it was daybreak, the roar in their ears woke up the soldiers who were dozing off on the fort, and they all hurried to get alert.

"It's already this late, and you still dare to be lazy." Commander Ding scolded angrily.

"Sir, we are not trying to be lazy, we just can't stand it any longer." A soldier said bravely.

"Yes, sir, when will the reinforcements arrive?" another soldier asked hurriedly.

Ding Dashan, the military leader of Biaoshanbao, looked dark-faced. It was obvious that he did not want to answer either of these two questions. He had used up all the excuses and prevarications he could find in the past half month.

Suddenly his eyes lit up.

"Look over there," he said.

What's that? The soldiers looked over and were startled.

A cloud of dust billowed up, and under the sunlight a group of men and horses appeared with their armor clearly visible, but they were obviously different from them.

Who else could it be if not the Jin army?

The soldiers were so frightened that they broke out in cold sweats, and the entire castle became tense.

After being on guard here for half a month, they have become familiar with this group of Jin soldiers.

These were the Jin soldiers who had occupied Qilitai. Relying on the support of the 3,000 Jin soldiers in Kaide Prefecture, they flaunted their power and plundered everywhere.

It's not that no one had ever fought with them before, but these Jin soldiers who had marched all the way from the north were extremely fierce and well-equipped. In the battle with them, they never gained any advantage, but instead provoked a counterattack from the Jin soldiers of Kaide Prefecture.

Due to the unclear situation and the withdrawal of the Amway Army, the remaining garrisons did not know what to do for a moment and were only ordered to wait for reinforcements.

No reinforcements came, and they dared not risk going into battle again. They could only watch helplessly as the Jin soldiers showed off their power, acted tyrannically, and bullied the people in front of them.

"Where are these bastards going to cause trouble again?" Several soldiers spat and cursed.

The Jin soldiers were getting closer and closer to the castle, but instead of provoking or cursing as they had done before, they just kept moving forward.

I wonder which village will be unlucky again.

The soldiers on the city wall looked angry, but their commander whispered to them not to cause trouble, so they could only suppress their anger and look at the Jin soldiers with vigilance and hatred.

But one soldier suddenly saw one of the Jin soldiers, his eyes turned red, and he clenched his bow and arrow tightly.

"You bastard!" He jumped up suddenly, "Give me back my parents' lives."

As the shouts came, the bows in the hands flew free, and one of the Jin soldiers in the marching team let out a howl and fell off his horse.

This sudden incident startled everyone inside and outside.

Ding Dashan even broke out in a cold sweat.

"Madu, what are you doing?" he shouted in a low voice.

The soldier who was called Madu was trembling all over. He seemed not to have expected that he could hit the target. His expression seemed to be mixed with joy and sadness.

"He killed my parents," he cried tremblingly.

Just a while ago, this group of Jin soldiers killed a group of people who were fleeing to the garrison, including the parents of the little soldier Ma Du.

This was an irreconcilable feud, and Ding Dashan couldn't say anything.

"Get ready for battle." He said calmly after a moment's silence.

The soldiers on the castle immediately took action and aimed their bows and crossbows at the Jin soldiers below the city.

The Jin soldiers were still in chaos, and they helped up the one who was shot and fell off his horse. The Jin soldier was not shot in a vital part, and he stood up from the ground, covering his wound and crying and cursing. The other Jin soldiers turned their horses around in shame and aimed their bows and crossbows at this castle.

But the leading Jin soldier general shouted something, and the Jin soldiers reluctantly put away their bows and crossbows, cursed the people on the castle, mounted their horses and left.

The smoke and dust rolled and quickly disappeared from sight. Zhou Bing on the castle was still a little dazed.

He actually left?

One person was shot and injured, but he just walked away without fighting back?

The horse that had shot the arrow sat paralyzed on the ground as if all its strength had been drained, buried its head in its knees and sobbed.

There was joy, sadness and self-blame in this cry.

He certainly knew that the arrow he had just shot could bring devastating disaster to the fort.

Although he didn't know why the Jin soldiers left like this, Ding Dashan still breathed a sigh of relief.

"Seeing that they are heading towards Kaide Prefecture, I guess they are calling for help." A soldier whispered.

This made everyone nervous again.

Madu's sobbing became even louder.

Ding Dashan kicked him with a dark face.

"Why are you crying? You are useless!" he shouted, "Get up! You didn't kill me with a single arrow. Don't embarrass me when we fight again."

Ma Du raised his head, looking a little dazed, as if he didn't understand what he meant.

Ding Dashan no longer looked at him and drew his sword.

"Pass the order, prepare for battle," he roared.

…

But until the next day, no more Jin soldiers came to attack. Instead, the group of Jin soldiers left and never returned.

What is going on?

Ding Dashan sent people out to investigate and soon got the news.

It turned out that these Jin soldiers did not go to seek reinforcements, but moved back to Kaide Prefecture and have not come out in the past few days.

What caused these arrogant Jin soldiers to suddenly become like this?

The news the scouts brought back was even more shocking.

"Twelve Jin soldiers from Qilitai were killed in one night?" Ding Dashan shouted in surprise.

These words made all the soldiers in the garrison come over, with expressions of surprise and admiration.

They had fought each other before and knew very well how powerful these Jin soldiers were. It usually took three of them to restrain one.

To be able to kill twelve Jin soldiers, there must be a lot of people coming.

"Which brothers did this?" they all asked. "I didn't hear any news of troop movements."

The scout shook his head.

"It wasn't done by our people," he said, "and it wasn't done by many people. An eyewitness said it was done by one person."

One person!

The originally noisy crowd instantly quieted down.

One man killed twelve people, and they had no idea how to evaluate him.

This is simply inhuman.

"Who is this?" Ding Dashan asked, his look full of desire.

Such good men must be recruited into the army.

"Witnesses said he claimed to be a woodcutter from the countryside," said the detective.

Everyone was quiet again.

A woodcutter in the countryside...

Could it be that he is a countryman whose family has been destroyed and who, as a lone hero, wants to kill the Jin soldiers for revenge?

Everyone automatically fills in the person's background and even sketches out his appearance in their minds.

He is skinny, honest and simple, just like the kind of person that everyone knows, who hardly speaks in daily life, but will suddenly explode into fearlessness when forced into a corner.

Such people are not uncommon, but it is unheard of for one person to explode to the point of killing twelve people.

Are the woodcutters in the countryside so skilled nowadays?

"What kind of firewood do you chop every day?" Ding Dashan murmured.

The scout didn't hear his mumbling, and suddenly thought of something and took out a scroll from his sleeve.

"And, sir, this is a wanted warrant," he said.

Ding Dashan frowned and took it.

"It's already this late. Why are you still bothering about wanted ones?" He said unhappily. He unfolded the page and looked at the portraits and words on it. His expression was startled, then complicated.

"Prince Chengguo..."

He looked at it silently for a moment, then handed the scroll to the person beside him.

"Pass the order down," he said.

…

The mountain, which was half burned by fire, was full of steep rocks, which looked even more rugged in the winter.

This was because some people hid in the mountains, so the Jin soldiers set a fire.

There were no civilians in the mountains at this time. After all, hiding here without food or water would mean death.

There were sounds of tiny footsteps in the desolate and gloomy environment.

This is a young man walking through the mountains.

He was wearing a somewhat shabby cloth robe, with a straw rope belt and an axe fastened to his waist. He lowered his head as if looking for something, and occasionally turned over the stones under his feet.

Because he was looking down, I couldn't see his expression clearly, I just saw that his steps were getting faster and faster.

Soon they reached the halfway point of the mountain. After turning a bend, he stopped, sniffed hard, raised his head and looked at the quiet forest with a smile on his face.

If someone who saw the wanted warrant was present at this time, he would recognize that this was Zhu Zan, the prince of Chengguo.

Zhu Zan did not seem to be anxious about being wanted and killed, and he looked relaxed and at ease.

He looked even lonelier standing in the mountains.

But a moment later, footsteps were heard from all directions, followed by a dozen men emerging like mushrooms after rain.

These people were dressed in ordinary clothes, with different appearances and ages, but the only thing they had in common was that they all had an axe on their waist.

They surrounded Zhu Zan without saying a word. Zhu Zan also stopped talking and walked towards them, standing in front of one of the men.

The man was holding a bundle in his hand, and he opened it when he saw Zhu Zan coming over.

Zhu Zan moved his back to the crowd and then turned around to become a big bearded man with gray hair. Except for his eyes which were still bright, he looked twenty years older.

Until this moment, the men gathered around took a step back in unison, and bowed with their hands clasped.

"Brother!" they shouted in unison.

Zhu Zan held the axe at his waist.

"Get to work." He said calmly.