Chapter 212

Chapter 212

The northern winds swept across the Gobi, whipping sand and gravel against the black iron armor with a metallic clang.

Turkic Khan Jieli Nash tightened his reins, his wolf-like eyes burning with a cerulean fire as he stared at the ‘Martial’ banner fluttering atop the Yumen Gate tower.

"The cities of the Central Plains are like ripe walnuts," he declared, raising his gold-inlaid horsewhip. "Today, we shall let them hear the sound of shattering shells."

"Kill! Kill! Kill!" Tens of thousands of Turkic cavalry raised their weapons and roared, their cries thundering like a storm, making the soldiers on the city tower tremble.

Suddenly, a hand clapped on his shoulder, startling the young soldier so much he nearly dropped his weapon.

Li Mu whispered, "What are you afraid of? They're flesh and blood like us, with one head and two hands. A single slash to the neck will send them to meet Yama. Steel yourself—don’t let these barbarians scare you out of your wits!"

"Yes…"

"Louder!"

"Yes!" The soldier straightened his chest, his earlier fear now gone.

After making his rounds, Li Mu descended from the tower with a heavy expression. Strategist Lang Qianping hurried over and asked, "What’s the situation?"

"From the looks of it, they’ll likely begin the assault today."

"The reinforcements haven’t arrived yet. If they attack now, I’m afraid we won’t be able to hold the gate!"

"Whether we can hold or not, we must. If Yumen Gate falls, Dunhuang, Suzhou, Ganzhou, Liangzhou, and Shanzhou will be swept up in one go." The two hurried toward the military camp.

Lang Qianping said, "We’ve sent over a dozen urgent missives. Why is there still no word from above? Does the Emperor truly intend to abandon the northwest?"

"There’s no time to worry about that now. I’ve already dispatched a rider to Jizhou. Zheng Guang will arrive with reinforcements soon. We must hold out for a month and wait for them."

"Understood."

Most of the commonfolk in Yumen Gate had already evacuated. Those who remained were the old, frail, ill, or infirm. They barred their doors, too afraid to venture outside.

"Will it hold?" an elderly woman asked, leaning on her cane.

An old man nearby pushed a millstone against the door. "It should be fine. This millstone is so heavy not even two oxen could budge it."

The old woman sat down on a stool. "I heard Old Sun and his family left yesterday too."

The old man chuckled. "Well, he’s always been timid. Even at his age, he fears death."

"True. At our age, where can we run? We’d only be a burden on our children and grandchildren." The old woman glanced around. "Better to stay here and guard our home. If we die, we die at home."

"Enough of that. We can’t take the sheep out to graze these days, so pull some vegetables from the garden to feed them."

The two supported each other as they walked toward the backyard. There were thousands of elderly like them in the city—since they couldn’t be persuaded to leave, they could only entrust their lives to guarding their homes.

Around noon, war drums boomed outside the city—the signal for the impending attack.

The drumbeats were heavy, pounding like hammers on their hearts.

Li Mu strapped on his armor, tucked the protective charm Lin Sui had made him into his chest, gripped his spear, and prepared for battle.

The army inside the city was ready—sharpened blades and pointed arrows waited to take the lives of the Turkic soldiers.

In the early afternoon, as horns tore through the sky, the Turkic forces launched their assault!

Hundreds of thousands of Turkic cavalry charged simultaneously, their hoofbeats thundered across the earth, shaking the city walls until bricks and stones shook loose.

Li Mu stood firm on the wall, undaunted. As the Turkic soldiers drew closer, he raised his spear and shouted, "Archers! Fire!"

A rain of arrows sliced through the sky, thick as a locust swarm. Three rows of crossbows fired at once, their specially crafted armor-piercing arrows whistling through the air, piercing leather shields with a sickening thud.

The foremost Turkic cavalrymen and their horses tumbled to the ground, only to be trampled into paste by the following riders. Yet more enemies surged forward like a tidal wave, and siege ladders slammed against the city walls.

The clash of battle erupted. Chen Qianhu, standing nearby, drew his longsword, its blade gleaming coldly. A Turkic warrior who had just reached the battlement lost his head, his blood splattering a gruesome pattern across the yellow earthen wall.

The soldiers behind him formed a tortoise formation, their spears thrust in unison. Enemy after enemy screamed as they fell from the walls.

But the difference in numbers was too great. Though the Turkic army claimed 300,000 troops, their actual force was at most 150,000—still outnumbered several times over by the Border Guard Army. They were inexhaustible—impossible to kill them all!

Li Mu swung his spear until the tip had gone dull, yet still the Turkic soldiers kept coming. Gradually, the defenders on the wall grew fewer, replaced by Turks.

"General, we can’t hold any longer! Retreat into the city!" Several subordinates shielded Li Mu.

"No! If we retreat, what will happen to the civilians in the city?"

A sudden cold arrow shot from nearby struck Vice-General Lin in the neck right in front of Li Mu. Blood splashed across Li Mu’s face. With his dying breath, Vice-General Lin clutched his neck and urged, "General… think of the larger strategy…"

"Lin Qing!" Li Mu’s eyes reddened instantly. He charged at the Turkic archer and skewered him to the ground with his spear.

Yumen Gate could not be held…

Li Mu gritted his teeth, stamped his boot in rage, and shouted, "Retreat! Everyone fall back into the city!"

*

In July, word of Yumen Gate’s fall reached Jizhou. By then, over two months had passed since Wang Ying and the others had left Shanzhou.

The army in Jizhou had at last received orders to march northwest as reinforcements. Along with the Jizhou army, forces from Zhennan and the Youzhou cavalry—totaling 120,000 troops—were dispatched together.

However, it was the height of the rainy season, and the Yellow River’s currents were swift. The troops were stuck, unable to ford it, leaving them frantic and helpless.

As the Turkic forces took city after city, the officials at court who had initially advocated for peace finally went quiet.

They realized the Turkic invasion aimed to conquer the kingdom. Even if they sought a temporary truce, it would only lead to an even fiercer assault.

Noble families, seeking to escape the war, fled south with their wealth, throwing the court and the country into turmoil.

By mid-August, the Border Guard Army had retreated to Liangzhou, just three days’ journey from Shanzhou.

Reinforcements still had not arrived. Nearly half of the Border Guard Army had been dead or wounded, and those remaining lacked sufficient provisions and medicine. It seemed Liangzhou would not hold much longer.

The Turkic forces were utterly blood-crazed. Of their 160,000 to 170,000 troops, a third had been lost. Border Marquis was proving to be one tough bastard! They had initially thought it would take at most a month to defeat him, but after nearly three months, he was still holding out!

Liangzhou’s terrain, flanked by steep mountains with only a single pass, made it easy to defend and hard to attack. A direct assault would inevitably result in heavy losses.

However, spies reported that their supplies were running out, and reinforcements were at least half a month away. If they could hold out for another ten days, Liangzhou would fall without a fight.

Khan Jieli raised his hand and declared, "Set up camp here and rest. We’ll conserve our strength and march straight to the capital!"

"Yes!"

The Turkic army encamped outside the city, preparing for a siege. They had no shortage of supplies—they had looted and plundered their way here, and the livestock raised by the civilians had become their meals.

Inside the city, Li Mu saw through their plan. The provisions in the city would last the troops only three or four days at most. Nearly everyone who could flee had already done so, and the remaining civilians could not offer much food. Once supplies were exhausted, the Turkic forces would take the city without a fight.

"Damn it all!" Lang Qianping couldn’t hold back his curses. "The court is treating us as expendable! Forty thousand troops holding off 300,000—no reinforcements, no supplies! Are they using our lives to block the Turkic advance?!"

Li Mu sighed, "No point saying more. Go down and give the order to get the provisions in order. These next few days... we'll need to ration carefully. If it comes down to it, we can slaughter horses for meat. Liangzhou is the last line of defense. If it truly falls..."

He left the sentence unfinished, but Lang Qianping understood. Both saw the helplessness and despair on each other’s faces.

After the others left, Li Mu took out a wrinkled peace charm from inside his robe, held it to his nose and breathed in, as if he could still catch his husband's scent.

He'd had a hard life. Disliked by the main wife and with a father who showed him no kindness, his childhood was filled with hardship. Though his birth mother cared for him, she was just a concubine who had to please her masters, and the two of them lived worse than the servants in the household.

Later, he was sent to the army, where he worked hard to establish himself, only to endure the main wife's schemes behind his back...

There were few in this world who truly treated him well, and Lin Sui was the best one of them all.

At first, he only wanted to find a stepfather for Qing Er who would treat her kindly, but he never expected to end up falling in love himself. Sui Er was so gentle, healing wounds he'd carried for over twenty years and letting him taste the feeling of being loved for the first time.

"I don't know if I'll get another chance to see you again. If I’m gone someday, you must take good care of yourself..."

*

"Thirty-one, thirty-two, thirty-three..." Wagon after wagon of grain arrived in Jizhou.

All this grain had been purchased by Wang Ying and Lin Sui from nearby counties. Each wagon held roughly eight hundred jin of grain, totaling thirty-five wagons—approximately twenty-eight thousand jin. That should be enough for now.

That night, Wang Ying stored all the grain in the experimental field. Chen Qingyan was already waiting inside. "You bought so much."

"Sui Er and I were afraid it wouldn’t be enough. This is only part of it. Combined with the grain previously stored in the experimental field, four thousand dan should be enough to supply the army for a while."

"That’s plenty. I'll be in Liangzhou tomorrow. If anything is lacking then, I’ll let you know."

"Once you’re in Liangzhou, find an opportunity to bring Li Mu into the experimental field so he can see Lin Sui."

Since this ability would have to be revealed to Li Mu anyway, they might as well do him a favor. Though Lin Sui hadn’t said anything lately, he was surely worried out of his mind. Letting them meet would put his mind at ease.

"Alright. I’ll head out now to avoid being noticed." Chen Qingyan hadn’t come alone; he had specially arranged for a thirty-man squad from Shanzhou to escort him to Liangzhou.

Though the journey was only three days, he couldn’t afford to be careless. If anything happened to him, these provisions would never make it.

After traveling day and night for three days, they finally reached Liangzhou. The city gates were tightly shut, and it was unclear what was happening inside.

When the carriage arrived at the city gate, a soldier above called out in surprise, "Who goes there? Why have you come here!"

These past few days, they had only seen civilians fleeing the city. This was the first time anyone had arrived from outside.

"I am the Deputy Prefect of Shanzhou, here to see the General of Zhenbian!"

Upon hearing this, the soldier quickly opened the gate and led him into the city. The streets were eerily quiet—once bustling and crowded, now not a soul could be seen.

"Follow this road straight ahead, and you’ll reach the military camp. I must return to guard the gate, so I won’t accompany you further."

The carriage raced ahead and arrived at the camp entrance in the time it takes an incense stick to burn. Tens of thousands of soldiers had set up camp inside the city—some patrolling, some drilling, but most resting, as they hadn’t had a full meal in two days.

Chen Qingyan’s sudden visit surprised Li Mu, who quickly rose to greet him. "Cousin, why have you come? The situation in Liangzhou is critical—I fear we can’t hold out much longer. I’ll arrange for someone to escort you back at once!"

Chen Qingyan raised a hand to stop him. "I’ve come to deliver provisions."

"Where did these provisions come from?" All the tax grain from the northwest had already been allocated—there was no way to spare any more!