Blood splattered everywhere as a Jin soldier's neck was pierced by a spear. He let out a howl and reached out to grab the spear, but the next moment he was kicked off the city wall by a Zhou soldier who had come back. But before the Zhou soldier could rejoice, a sickle next to him grabbed his neck and pulled him, causing him to fall down screaming and bleeding.

There was bloody fighting on the city walls and below them, and hand-to-hand combat was going on everywhere.

It was unknown how long it took, but the Jin soldiers, with more than half of them killed or wounded, finally stopped their attack, and the survivors dragged the dead and wounded Jin soldiers away following the sound of the horn.

The afterglow of the setting sun shone on the majestic city, but the city was no longer what it used to be. There were traces of blood everywhere, corpses and limbs, ladders leading to the city walls scattered on the ground, bricks of the city walls were covered with marks from swords, guns and arrows, and fireworks were burning everywhere.

The sounds of fighting faded away, and the sounds of groaning, crying and wailing filled the air.

The living are crying, the slightly injured are groaning, and the seriously injured are howling in pain.

The sounds of armor and swords colliding were mixed in. These were the soldiers clearing the city walls in preparation for redeployment to prepare for another attack from the enemy.

Qinghebo was covered in blood, his helmet was nowhere to be found, and his gray hair had almost turned snow-white, fluttering in the wind.

He stood on the city wall, looking at the devastated scene with a gloomy expression.

"How many casualties this time?" he asked.

"It has not been fully counted yet." A general officer lowered his head and said, "A rough estimate is that more than a thousand people died in the battle."

This number of casualties is normal for an offensive and defensive battle.

However, this is the nth time that casualties have occurred, and the number is staggering when you count them.

On the other hand, the reason why the number of casualties is normal is that after the casualties, there are still soldiers to replenish them, but now they have no soldiers to replenish them.

One less dead means one less; one injured means one less useless.

Qinghebo turned his head and looked back and to the left and right.

The original army formation had been withdrawn and retreated. Although the camp flags were still there, Qinghebo knew that the army had been defeated.

As for the Jin army, Qinghe Bo looked forward again. Compared with the camp that was invisible before, it was now densely packed and visible.

In this battle, victory is no longer a consideration. Defeat and death are inevitable. It is just a matter of time.

"Master." Suddenly, a general stepped forward and whispered, "I have observed that the Jin army is weak in the west. Why don't we protect Master and break through?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the expressions of the other generals were slightly shaken.

"Yes, Uncle, as long as the mountains remain green, there will be no shortage of firewood."

"Master, I am willing to stay and fight the enemy. Please fight your way out of the siege and avenge me in the future."

One after another, generals came forward to speak.

"Ridiculous!" Qinghebo interrupted them in a deep voice, "I, Zoujiang, have never escaped from the Jin people."

The generals had complicated expressions.

"Master, we are not saying that you are afraid of fighting and running away." A general said earnestly, "It's just that it's not worth dying like this..."

Qinghebaek interrupted him again.

"You are wrong. This is the most worthwhile way to die." He said in a heavy voice, "The most crucial thing in this defensive battle is our morale. If we break through, our morale will be lost, and our army will immediately disintegrate and everyone will flee."

He pointed forward.

"With tens of thousands of thieves watching closely, can't you imagine what the outcome will be?"

The generals looked forward with pale faces, as if they saw the scene of people fleeing for their lives and the Jin army's iron cavalry slaughtering and strangling people.

"We can't break out in that situation," Qinghebo said calmly, "not to mention that if we are defeated first, the reinforcements outside will surely be hurt."

Reinforcements...

Still thinking about reinforcements.

Several generals looked miserable. It had been so many days, but they hadn't seen any reinforcements. They didn't know whether they had fled because they were afraid of the battle or had been defeated by the Jin army.

No news came in, and the Jin people did not retreat in the slightest.

They were like a lone boat thrown into the ocean.

Uncle is actually still waiting for reinforcements. He must be deceiving himself.

"The gold bandits are powerful, but as long as we hold on to the camp, we have a better chance of survival than running across the wilderness." Qinghe Bo Su Rong said, "When the reinforcements arrive, we will attack them from both inside and outside and will surely be able to carve out a way to survive."

He spoke in a higher voice.

"From the day we became generals and soldiers, we have already sacrificed our lives for our country. We must be brave and kill the enemy. If anyone dares to retreat, we will be defeated."

As he spoke, he swung the long sword in his hand violently, and the helmet of a golden man that was rolling on the ground was cut off by the sword.

"Execute him on the spot."

All the generals knelt on the ground and responded in unison.

"Come, let's cook now." Qinghebo said, looking back, "The grain and grass are running low, share them accordingly."

All the generals responded in unison again, stood up and took the order.

Qinghebo stood there alone and looked back.

Reinforcements...

This northern land was no longer his world, and he was filled with resentment.

Night seems to be the clarion call for a truce in many places.

Standing in front of a small hill, watching the Jin soldiers retreating like a tide, a man pushed away the dead soldier lying on his body, rolled and crawled across the devastated battlefield, and climbed into a ditch.

The gullies were filled with soldiers, all of whom were covered in wounds and looked terrified.

"Master Qi, the Jin soldiers have retreated." The visitor said hoarsely, "Let's retreat under the cover of night."

Among the group of soldiers, a general with a wound on his shoulder looked over.

"We can't retreat." He said, "Master is still waiting for reinforcements."

"Sir." The visitor's voice was hoarse and tearful, "The Jin army has been besieging us for so many days and so many times. I'm afraid that my uncle is no longer with us."

He looked at the people around him again.

"We only have so few people left. Even if we break through, what can we do?"

Breakout? How could they possibly breakout? If they could break out, they would have already gone in. Why would they have to wait until now?

The general looked sad and angry.

“But we can’t retreat.”

"Sir." The visitor was about to cry, "You have been very brave. You have not let down the court and Master Bo. There were so many reinforcements, but everyone else retreated except you."

The general stood up and smashed the knife in his hand to the ground.

"It's not that we won't retreat, it's that we can't retreat now." He shouted hoarsely, pointing behind him, "You think the Jin people haven't surrounded us from behind, have they really forgotten? This is just a cat playing with a mouse, they are waiting for us to retreat, once we retreat, they will force us into the Jianshui River, it's freezing cold, we don't even have many soldiers and horses, how can we retreat? How can we run? By then we will freeze to death, starve to death, and die of exhaustion, and the Jin soldiers only need to stand on horseback and watch us from behind, without a single gun or arrow."

The people present looked gloomy after hearing this.

It turned out that they had been ambushed a long time ago.

They thought they were coming to help others attack the Jin people, but it turned out that the Jin people had already opened their pockets to welcome them in.

"Since the Jin people ambushed you, why didn't you prepare in advance to deal with the reinforcements that would follow?" The general sat down again and said calmly, "No wonder those guys refused to come when they heard about the help and ran away with their men. They are indeed old generals in the north and are familiar with the Jin people."

The people around thought of the troops that had run away before the march, and they couldn't tell whether they were angry or envious.

"Why didn't they tell us?" someone muttered.

"Tell us, will we listen?" someone whispered.

This statement caused silence to fall around.

"Okay, it's useless to say this now. We can't retreat now, so we have to continue attacking and defending." The general took a deep breath and raised his head with a determined look, "Wait for Master to break through the siege, or for reinforcements to arrive."

The first sentence made everyone breathe a sigh of relief, but the second sentence made them feel deflated.

"Master Bo must still be alive. The Jin people are still mobilizing troops to attack us," the general said. "We still have hope."

What else can we do?

If you retreat you will die, if you advance you will also die, so just wait for death.

There was dead silence in the ravine, but suddenly the ground shook, followed by the sound of horses' hooves, howling, and the light of torches.

"The Golden Man is coming again!"

The man in the ditch shouted with a pale face.

This time, he didn't even give them a break. It seemed that he had no patience to tease them anymore.

The general raised his sword.

"Form a formation and fight." He said hoarsely.

What kind of formation could these remnants of these soldiers armed with long spears have to resist the Jin cavalry? They would be finished in less than three attacks.

The soldiers grasped their spears tightly and jumped out of the ditch. When facing death, they suddenly became numb.

Before the cavalrymen got close, a buzzing sound was heard breaking through the air, and the soldiers who were about to form a battle formation had no choice but to jump back into the ditch in a disorderly manner.

Arrows fell to the ground with a "pu pu pu" sound. They were rockets that instantly ignited and illuminated the surroundings of the ravine brightly and clearly. The soldiers in the ravine looked like lambs to be slaughtered.

The Jin soldiers who were getting closer and closer laughed wildly.

A soldier suddenly grabbed a crossbow and shot the last arrow at the Jin soldier.

This soldier was an excellent archer and he flew accurately towards the leading Jin soldier.

With a clang, the Jin soldier raised his hand with the rattan armor to block the arrow, then raised his hand with a mocking tone, drew his bow and released the arrow.

In the light of the fire, the soldier groaned as he was pierced by an arrow and fell backwards.

The laughter got louder.

Not only the despair before death, but also the humiliation.

The general jumped out of the ditch, without saying a word, and rushed towards the intruder with his sword raised.

He wanted to fight the cavalry with his own flesh and blood.

They would die anyway, and if they rushed closer they might be able to chop a Jin soldier to death on the back. All the soldiers jumped out, whether they could run or not, whether they had intact arms or missing arms, they held their weapons, bit their lips tightly, and rushed forward silently.

A buzzing sound tore through the night sky.

The general stared with wide eyes, waiting for the moment when the arrows would hit him, but the next moment he saw the Jin soldiers holding bows and crossbows in front of him howling and falling off their horses.

What's going on?

The general was stunned for a moment, and then another buzzing sound was heard. The general raised his head subconsciously, and with the help of the firelight behind him, he saw countless sharp arrows flying over his head.

Coming from behind, he went towards the Jin soldiers.

Behind!

The general turned around in disbelief, but he could not see anything because of the darkness blocked by the fire, but he could hear everything.

I heard the Jin people's terrified and angry shouts, the sound of the Jin people falling to the ground with screams, and the ground shaking in the night as if thousands of troops were rushing towards me.

Reinforcements!

Reinforcements!