Chapter 83

The twilight was heavy, and a round of fierce fighting had just ceased. The surrounding air was permeated with a stench of blood so thick it almost felt tangible.

Qin Shaozong casually grabbed a piece of coarse cloth to wipe his blood-drenched blade. As the cloth passed over the metal, a sharp, chilling gleam of white instantly revealed itself.

"My Lord Marquis, we have slain five hundred men in total this time." Feng Feng had climbed up from the very bottom to the position of Garrison Commander of the Xuanxiao Cavalry step by step, and he was as meticulous as one could be. "From what I can tell, the ratio between the city guards and Third Young Master Xie's men is about eight to two."

Just as Third Young Master Xie knew exactly how many men they had brought to Xiagu, they had also figured out the enemy's true strength.

Xie Yuanxiu had four hundred soldiers, twice their own number. Coupled with the city guards under Gao You's command, the enemy forces reached a thousand men.

However, not all of these thousand men were thrown into the battle. At the very least, Xie Yuanxiu would definitely keep a portion of them by his side for protection.

"A quarter of Third Young Master Xie's soldiers are gone," Qin Shaozong said lightly.

After fighting from noon until nightfall, the man's face showed no signs of fatigue. The light of the torches reflected in his eyes, resembling the sharp glint at the very tip of a blade.

"What is the situation at the city gates?" Qin Shaozong continued to ask.

Feng Feng replied, "That thousand-man force mainly attacked the east gate. The east gate is being guarded by Lao Qiao, and the patrol guards on the wall have all been replaced by our own men. It is a good thing they are cavalry and did not bring any siege equipment. Unable to break through from the inside, they are now just shouting provocations from below."

The Xuanxiao Cavalry was renowned far and wide, but the enemy had never clashed with them before and clearly felt their reputation was exaggerated. Stubbornly refusing to believe the rumors, they thought they could force open the east gate, which was defended by over a hundred Xuanxiao Cavalrymen, with a mere five or six hundred men.

They did not even stop to consider that their city guards lacked basic daily training. Some of the higher-ranking officials had eaten themselves into fat, bloated messes who would lose their breath after running just a few steps. Even their blades were of poor quality.

If the Xuanxiao Cavalry could be defeated by such people, they truly deserved to die.

"Let them shout. Treat it as nothing more than dogs barking," Qin Shaozong said indifferently.

There was no such thing as fighting a war without being cursed at. It was commonplace for enemies to hurl ugly insults during a standoff, greeting one's ancestors and entire family. But the time to strike had not yet arrived; those scores would be settled later.

"Have Gao You and Third Young Master Xie been found yet?" Qin Shaozong asked.

Feng Feng lowered his head in shame. "Not yet."

The streets and alleys within the city were twisting and winding, offering far too many places to hide. They simply did not have enough manpower.

"The enemy's reinforcements are definitely not limited to a single batch of cavalry. In another two or three days, the rest of their reinforcement troops should arrive." Qin Shaozong's lips curled into a smirk. "Let them come!"

Bairi City was located to the east of Xiagu. The great river flowed eastward, and taking a small boat downstream would be much faster than their journey here.

After roughly pinpointing his wife's location, he had immediately dispatched someone to take a boat back to Bairi City. Calculating the time, it had been over eight days now.

And his own reinforcements would be arriving soon as well.

"Whoosh—"

A sudden rush of air swept down from the sky as a majestic gyrfalcon landed on a nearby wooden rack. Its black, agate-like eyes darted around sharply.

"Ah, Bai Ye is back!" Feng Feng exclaimed in surprise.

He turned his head to look around, but the street was veiled in the dreary, heavy twilight, and there was no sign of Mo Yanyun anywhere. "Lao Mo didn't come back?"

Bai Ye always carried a small bamboo tube on its leg for delivering messages. Qin Shaozong twisted off the wooden lid, only to find that inside...

"Is this mud?" Feng Feng looked at the substance Qin Shaozong had poured out.

Qin Shaozong casually kicked aside a corpse blocking his path and walked over to a nearby torch.

The bright light illuminated the handful of mud-like substance in his palm with absolute clarity. It was yellowish-brown and was indeed mud, but mixed within it were obvious traces of ash and some fine, shredded pieces of yellow paper.

"What is this?" Feng Feng could not make sense of it.

Qin Shaozong pinched a tiny scrap of the yellow paper between his fingers. "It looks a bit like yellow paper."

Yellow paper—this was an item used for sacrificial offerings.

"Are there any temples outside Xiagu City?" Qin Shaozong asked.

Feng Feng actually did know. "There is one in the southern outskirts of the city, but it has been abandoned for a long time. Lord Marquis, do you suspect that Lao Mo followed Madam Dai into that temple?"

"Nine times out of ten, yes." Qin Shaozong dusted the mud and ash from his hand.

Feng Feng said with regret, "It is a pity that we are short on manpower right now. We cannot spare anyone from their posts, nor is it a good idea to open the city gates. Otherwise, we could head straight there and invite Madam Dai back."

"Heading south... they want to go to Yuzhou. Let her roam free out there for a little while longer." Qin Shaozong instinctively reached to twist his jade thumb ring but found nothing there. He casually lowered his hand as if nothing had happened.

"Go back. Return in a few days."

The gyrfalcon was released into the air. With a powerful flap of its wings, it swiftly flew toward the south.

A small courtyard in the northern district.

"Where is Diting? Have you managed to contact Diting yet?" Xie Yuanxiu paced back and forth across the room.

The oil lamp on the table flickered gently in the draft. Xie Yuanxiu's shadow moved back and forth along with him, occasionally distorted by the wind into bizarre, eerie shapes, resembling a trapped beast brandishing its fangs and claws.

"We have already dispatched more men to search for him, but there is no news yet," his confidant replied.

Xie Yuanxiu could not help but feel a pang of regret.

Back when Diting had arranged for him to stay here, if only he had invited the man to stay with him, he wouldn't be in this situation of not being able to find him.

Gao You was also present. This once-glorious Prefect now did not even dare to return to his own manor. His lips trembled as he asked, "Third Young Master, when will the reinforcements outside the city be able to enter?"

It would have been better had he kept his mouth shut. The moment he brought this up, Xie Yuanxiu flew into a rage. "If it weren't for the fact that your city guards are completely useless, Prefect Gao, how could my cavalry outside the city fail to break in?"

The city guards, combined with his own men, numbered a full thousand.

Yes, he admitted that the city's terrain provided an advantage, with streets, alleys, and shops serving as cover. But there was absolutely no reason why a thousand men attacking together could not take down the Marquis of Wu'an's mere two hundred men.

It was utterly absurd!

Gao You was rendered speechless, a faint sprout of regret beginning to take root in his heart.

Xie Yuanxiu gritted his teeth and said, "My thousands of infantrymen will arrive soon. They are bringing battering rams and siege ladders. When they get here, the city gates will surely fall. So what if the Marquis of Wu'an's soldiers are battle-hardened elites? When my great army bears down on the city, we can grind them to death just by exhausting them with sheer numbers."

Gao You did not reply; instead, he looked out the window.

The night was pitch black and seemingly endless, as if concealing countless man-eating beasts.

He had constantly heard Third Young Master Xie mentioning "Diting." Just what kind of extraordinary figure was this, that Xie Yuanxiu was so desperate to see him even at such a critical juncture?

And to make matters worse, this "extraordinary figure" had gone missing.

The unease in Gao You's heart began to spread.

The morning light broke, and the horizon turned the pale white of a fish's belly. A new day arrived as promised.

Although they had spent the night in a ruined temple, perhaps because their path forward was gradually becoming clearer, or perhaps because all the other occupants of the temple had been chased out, Dai Li slept much more soundly than she had expected.

Upon waking up, Dai Li and Qin Yanzhou continued their journey without a moment's delay.

They no longer tried to drive Mo Yanyun away. Of course, even if they had tried, they would not have succeeded.

No one else had approached the temple throughout the entire night. Not only did Mo Yanyun refrain from harming their horses, but he had even helped dispatch a restless bandit who was itching to make a move.

It was difficult to shake him off now, mainly because he kept a very close eye on his own horse. Furthermore, there was only one official road, and traveling on horseback meant they had no choice but to follow it.

The mother and son could only tacitly allow him to trail behind them.

Walking one after another, they kept a fair distance between them. Even if Mo Yanyun stopped his horse, Dai Li and Qin Yanzhou would not look back to wait for him.

Therefore, neither mother nor son noticed that when Mo Yanyun stopped, a gyrfalcon landed silently.

After traveling for another day, they arrived at Qin Yanzhou's planned second stop: a small mountain village.

The small mountain village was situated halfway up the hills, surrounded by mountains on all sides, with a stream winding through it. There were not many people in the village, only twenty or thirty households. When Dai Li and her group arrived, it was already dusk. The horse hooves trod on the shattered golden sunset, startling the birds resting on the branches.

Strangers rarely visited the village, so when the sound of horse hooves approached, many villagers poked their heads out. However, upon seeing Mo Yanyun with a sword hanging at his waist, they quickly pulled their heads back and shut their windows with a loud bang.

Mo Yanyun was not surprised by this.

The world was becoming increasingly chaotic. These days, ordinary people avoided anyone carrying a sword like the plague. It seemed that Madam Dai and the young master would have to put in a lot of effort to find a place to stay tonight.

Just as he was thinking this, Mo Yanyun saw Qin Yanzhou rein in his horse in front of a house.

He dismounted and knocked on the door. After a short while, the door opened a palm's width, faintly revealing a woman inside. Her hair was coiled in a bun, and she wore hemp clothing—the most ordinary attire.

The distance was a bit far, so Mo Yanyun could not hear what Qin Yanzhou said. But he saw that in just a few words, the previously defensive peasant woman actually opened her door completely on her own initiative, her face full of smiles as she welcomed the two inside.

Mo Yanyun was dumbfounded.

Why was this? Could it be that they knew each other?

He subconsciously wanted to follow them, but just as he took two steps, he saw the young man shoot a sideways glance at him.

He said to the peasant woman, "That one is not with us."

Mo Yanyun: "..."

"Hey, hey, how am I not? We are traveling together!" With a house to sleep in, Mo Yanyun had no desire to sleep on the streets. Seeing that Qin Yanzhou was unmoved, he hurriedly looked at Dai Li. "Madam Dai, please have mercy, for the sake of the Lord..."

The words had reached his lips, but Mo Yanyun made a rare and clever pivot. "For the sake of Mister Nalan, please let me have a roof over my head tonight."

Dai Li pondered for a moment.

Qin Shaozong's man had been following her, which made her very uneasy.

But without making an enemy of the Northern Lands, the only way to shake him off was to wait until they reached the border of Yuzhou, enter the city, and use the crowd to slip away. Zhouzhou said that after leaving this small village, it would only take one more day to reach Yuzhou.

Just endure for one more day!

"Let him sleep indoors. Zhouzhou, you stay with him." Dai Li was worried that Mo Yanyun would do something to the horses.

If he crippled their horses and rode back alone to report the news, it would be troublesome.

Qin Yanzhou nodded.

Xiagu Commandery.

The beautiful and handsome gyrfalcon flew back once again, and Qin Shaozong took out the small bamboo tube tied to Bai Ye's leg.

Last time, it was gray mud and yellow paper scraps. This time, the small bamboo tube contained a small piece of broken tile.

"A broken tile?" Kuang Ye looked at the object in Qin Shaozong's hand. He looked gentle, but his words hit the nail on the head. "Has Madam Dai reached a populated area?"

A sheepskin map had long been spread out on the desk, clearly showing the terrain and landforms around Xiagu.

To the south of Xiagu was a ruined temple. Further south, until they reached Nanyang County at the border of Yuzhou, there would be no more small towns of any considerable size.

And from the ruined temple to Nanyang County, ordinary travel could not cover the distance in a single day.

They definitely had not reached Yuzhou yet, but Lao Mo had sent back a broken tile, which likely meant they had found a populated area along the way. It could be a village in the mountains, or it could be a hunter living alone in the mountains south of the city.

Qin Shaozong set the broken tile aside and ordered someone to bring two wild hares, feeding them to Bai Ye himself.

The sharp beak pecked off a large chunk of meat at a time, tearing and swallowing, sending bits of meat flying. Before long, the two plump rabbits ended up in Bai Ye's stomach.

"Go back."

After Qin Shaozong released Bai Ye, his gaze remained on the map, but whereas he was looking south before, he was now looking east.

During the day today, the Sizhou soldiers in the city, led by Xie Yuanxiu, gathered the military patrol and launched another battle to seize the city gates.

Xiagu was just an ordinary commandery. Its armed forces had been strengthened somewhat after the emergence of the warlord fragmentation, but the total number of soldiers combined was only a little over seven hundred. Yesterday, the military patrol took the lead and suffered four hundred casualties.

Xie Yuanxiu originally had over four hundred men. Yesterday, a hundred died in battle, leaving about three hundred now. Combined with the remnants of the military patrol, they formed an army of over six hundred men.

As if knowing that with each passing day, the level of danger increased by a fraction, the enemy's offensive was particularly fierce today. They did not divide their forces but focused their fire on the east gate, determined to tear an opening in this corner.

The entire day was a bloody battle.

Qin Shaozong led by example, the ring-pommel sword in his hand hacked until the edge was curled, and blood flowed like a river beneath his feet.

The combined army of six hundred worked together, but they still failed to break through the defense line of the Xuanxiao Cavalry. Towards the end of the battle, the most fragile local military patrol was the first to have deserters.

This desertion was disastrous; the military morale collapsed.

Outside, Ni Chiwen listened to the sounds of killing inside the city, his blood boiling. He was filled with energy and wished he could scale the walls and slaughter everyone inside.

Unfortunately, without scaling ladders and battering rams, their thousand cavalrymen could only stand helplessly outside the city, scratching their heads in frustration as they stared at the tightly shut gates.

"The sounds of killing seem to have stopped," Li Huairen said in a low voice.

It had indeed stopped, but there was no movement at the city gates, and the result was obvious.

Sizhou's second round of siege had returned in defeat.

Ni Chiwen frowned and asked Li Huairen, "How many soldiers did the Third Young Master lead into the city initially?"

"Four hundred," Li Huairen said hesitantly. "They fought a battle yesterday, and another one today. I'm afraid all the men have been wiped out."

Ni Chiwen irritably grabbed a handful of his hair. "That's terrible. We can only wait for the infantry to arrive from behind. But if we drag this out any longer, there's no guarantee that the Northern Lands' reinforcements won't arrive as well."

Li Huairen maintained an optimistic attitude about this. "It shouldn't be that bad. The Marquis of Wu'an has only been in Xiagu for less than four days. Even if he sent someone back to Bairi City on the day he arrived in Xiagu, traveling far by boat takes time. After returning to the army, assembling troops and horses also takes time, not to mention the journey here. Just relax, the next ten days are a safe period."

"In five days, we will send scouts to the eastern road to gather intelligence. We will definitely be able to find out the whereabouts of the enemy's reinforcements."

The night had grown to its darkest. A thick, heavy darkness dyed the entire sky, covering both the bright moon and the myriad stars.

If one looked down from high above, in this pitch-black night where one could not see their own fingers, a faintly discernible fire dragon appeared on the ground.

This long-galloping fire dragon came from the east, winding its way along the official road. It did not rest day or night, moving at an extremely fast speed, continuously rushing past several commanderies and counties.

After a long and arduous journey, this illustrious and renowned cavalry finally saw their target city in the distance.

"Extinguish the torches." With a single command, all the torches were put out.

The cavalry slipped into the darkness like ghosts. The majority stayed where they were, while only a small detachment continued forward, stealthily making their way to the foot of the city wall.

Bai Jianping, who was on guard duty at the east gate, suddenly heard a few bird calls. He was exceptionally sensitive to the cries of birds and beasts, even able to discern the emotions within them. Now, hearing this familiar bird whistle, he immediately shuddered.

His sleepiness dissipated, instantly replaced by a fierce surge of excitement.

He looked down from the city walls, straining his eyes until he finally managed to spot a few cavalrymen in the dark night. Bai Jianping replied with a bird whistle, signaling for the men to wait quietly. He then immediately turned back to report the good news of the reinforcements' arrival to Qin Shaozong.

"...My Lord, I request to join the vanguard!" Bai Jianping, Feng Feng, and several others rubbed their hands together, itching for a fight.

"Feng Feng, you will guard the city. Bai Jianping, you will come with me," Qin Shaozong ordered. With that, he led ten soldiers carrying heavy burlap sacks out of the city.

The eastern gate quietly opened a narrow crack. Qin Shaozong and his men filed out to rendezvous with the main army.

"Distribute the burlap. Pass down my orders: muffle the horses' hooves with the cloth and rest in place for two shichen. We depart at the Hour of Yin. Once we move out, absolute silence is required." The orders spread through the ranks like wildfire.

The ten heavy sacks from earlier were filled with strips of burlap, which were quickly handed out and wrapped securely around the horses' hooves.

The Xuanxiao Cavalry had traveled tirelessly under the stars and moon, and they were truly exhausted. Now given the order to rest, the soldiers fell asleep the moment they hit the ground. Soon, a chorus of snores rose from the surroundings.

Qin Shaozong's steed, Crimson Dragon, was also brought over. In the darkness, the majestic large red horse snorted and let out a soft whinny, delighted to be reunited with its master.

Qin Shaozong patted the horse's head.

While everyone else rested, Qin Shaozong sat beneath a tree with his arms crossed, his eyes closed to conserve his energy. He did not sleep; instead, he silently counted down the time remaining until the Hour of Yin.

The Hour of Yin, the final stretch before dawn, when the night was at its darkest and thickest. It was the absolute perfect time for a sneak attack.

The enemy would never expect his cavalry to reach Xia Valley tonight. Completely off guard, they would be no different from lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

Time slowly slipped by, and before long, the Hour of Yin arrived.

A bird whistle pierced the air, and the Xuanxiao Cavalry roused at the sound. After a brief rest, these elites, whose physical endurance far surpassed that of ordinary soldiers, were once again brimming with vigor.

Qin Shaozong vaulted onto his horse. Just before they set off, he cast a glance toward the south.

Let her enjoy her freedom for one more day.