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In the heavy snow, the carriage drove through the noisy streets. Search: \ (? Perfect? Book? God? Station) to read high-quality literature for free.

Running sounds, shouts, and cries were all coming from all directions. This street led to the northern city wall, and another team of volunteer city defenders was heading there under the leadership of a small group of soldiers. By the side of the snowy street, women and children were crying, their family members having died on the city wall a couple of days earlier. There weren't many such people yet, mixed in with the noisy sounds, evoking compassion, but besides comforting them, there was ultimately nothing else to say.

Because more residents were being mobilized to go to the city wall, the entire huge city of Bianliang was shrouded in such an atmosphere.

When Li Gang, Qin Siyuan, and others mobilized the people to help defend the city a few days earlier, there were many who were willing. However, when such a large-scale operation began, various problems naturally arose. People disappeared, claimed to be ill, or were unwilling to go, often causing those in charge to become hysterical and manic. When things truly came to a head, the wives and children of each household might not have genuinely wanted the men in their families to go to the city wall, leading to countless situations.

But fortunately, what they faced this time was truly the vested interests of the residents of Bianliang. Even if some people couldn't help, the number of residents who were truly mobilized was still quite large.

This time, the Jurchens launched a large-scale attack on the city, with a total force of over 50,000 soldiers. The soldiers and generals responsible for defending the city numbered around 80,000. The mobilized residents who were already helping under the city wall or waiting for orders in various places totaled 100,000, with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands more in a state of readiness for mobilization.

Such a huge organizational force put the entire city in a state of fervor and boiling. Imperceptibly, it also ignited the people's passion for defending the city. At least in the short few days, the patriotic sentiment that had swept through Bianliang City was unprecedented and unmatched. If judged solely from a political achievement perspective, any official who organized such a situation would be worthy of praise for the rest of his life.

The nameless carriage passed through the still-snowing city and entered the back gate of Tong Guan's residence. Here, some carriages and officials were already waiting in the courtyard. The young military general from the carriage got down, walked into the inner courtyard. Tong Guan was entertaining guests. The young military general announced himself, then went over to report on the situation at the city gate. In reality, the new battle situation was much the same: the battle was fierce, and the city gate was in danger: "...The Jurchens have twice climbed onto the city wall but were driven back, but there is major damage to the Yiliuduan section of the city wall, which may become the Jurchens' all-out breakthrough point..."

At this time, the five or six people in the room could all be considered high-ranking officials of the court, either military generals or civil officials in charge of military power. Tong Guan looked at the city wall drawings and deduced the situation, his brow furrowed. He also asked about the situation in the city. One of the officials asked: "...No one in the world is more proficient in military affairs than Your Excellency. What does Your Excellency think of this battle? Can we still defend Bianliang City?"

Another person said: "This time, the Jurchens seem to be determined to break through the city."

"Since they've sent troops to attack the city, when have they ever not wanted to break through the city!" Tong Guan looked at the city wall drawings and frowned. He was burly and had an imposing presence. "The defense of a city can change in an instant. The Jurchens are determined, so aren't we determined to defend the city! In this critical situation, we can only work together with one heart. Do not have any more foolish thoughts. You all go back and quickly send out your family generals. Do not delay any longer!"

The Jurchens were beginning to get serious. In order to defend the city, within just a few days, Li Gang had made several adjustments to the troop strength guarding the imperial city. The people below were mobilized to help, but there were naturally differences. Ordinary people could only help move bricks, boil water, and deliver supplies. Some镖局 (Biao Ju - Escort Agency) martial artists, guards from wealthy families, or heroic figures who could wield knives and spears could be organized to actually fight on the city wall. The many officials in the city were also mobilized, and they were required to send their family guards and protectors to the city wall. Some happily agreed to this, while others sought advice from their backers.

However, at least at this time, the high-ranking officials in the city, whether they were previously on good terms with the Left and Right Chancellors or not, did not dare to casually object to this matter. Tong Guan, Cai Jing, Gao Qiu, and others were even the first to send out their family generals and guards—although only a portion was sent out, in any case, it represented that they also hoped the city wall could be defended.

Of course, in addition to sending out family generals to help defend the city, there were many other things they were quietly working on in private to prevent the city wall from actually being breached.

After this group of officials was temporarily dismissed, Tong Guan frowned and looked at the drawings again. He pointed at a few spots with his hand and asked the family general next to him, "What do you think of the city defense situation?"

The confidant was silent for a moment, looked at Tong Guan: "The Jurchen are determined to fight, the city... may be broken at any time. But as Your Excellency said, the two Chancellors are equally determined, so..."

"The defense of a city, in terms of details, is often uncertain. It tests the speed at which the warring parties make mistakes and correct them." Tong Guan touched the map, saying each word carefully, "The current battle has been in a critical situation since three days ago. The Jurchens are trying to find our mistakes in the strong attack. Every time they climb the city, they have found a mistake. The afternoon of the twenty-second was the most critical, but Li Gang and Zhong Shidao were extremely determined and filled the mistakes with human lives before the Jurchens could amplify them. The subsequent several climbs to the city were all like this. If it weren't for our side's determination to fight, any one of them could have led to the city being breached and the people dying. The Jurchens captured Shangjing in half a day because of such a mistake. Often, only dozens of people climbed the city, the defender's will was a little weaker, the correction was a little slower, and that was the destruction of the entire city."

Tong Guan is currently the highest-ranking military figure in the Wu Dynasty, and in the eyes of many, he is also the most skilled in warfare. His teachings would cost an unknown amount of money on the outside, and the confidant listened carefully.

Tong Guan paused, "It's just that being frequently forced into such mistakes also shows that our city defense situation is already on the verge of collapse. Li and Zhong can fix it a hundred times, but if they are slow just once, Bianliang will no longer be fortunate. This situation cannot be predicted in detail. Therefore, just now, when they asked if the city could be defended, I couldn't answer."

He said here, sat on the chair, silent for a long time: "Right Chancellor is amazing... Qin Siyuan, if it weren't for the Black Water Alliance suppressing him for several years, our dynasty's war affairs today would probably not be so difficult. In these three days, he has been continuously mobilizing people to the city, so that the northern section of the city has sufficient supplies at all times. This is the real reason why these mistakes can be corrected in time. If it weren't for him at the helm behind the scenes, even if these people were mobilized, they wouldn't know where to go. People died and were seriously injured, and they couldn't be evacuated in time, but instead occupied positions on the city wall. If so, I'm afraid the city would have been broken long ago. Even if Li Gang and Zhong Shidao wanted to act, they would be clever wives without rice..."

"Right Chancellor..." the confidant said, "His reputation among the people is not as prominent as that of Chancellor Li and Commander Zhong..."

"He is a pragmatic person, with talent but difficult to have a good name." Tong Guan glanced at him, "What's more, after the Black Water Alliance, he was idle for several years, bearing a bad reputation. After his re-emergence, he encountered various things related to the Northern Expedition. He was burdened by this and had to take shortcuts sometimes in order to do practical things. Officials see him as a cruel official, and the people are all ignorant and complacent, so what do they know. Alas, if he had focused on managing his official career a few years earlier and hadn't touched the mess of the Black Water Alliance, he would now be able to rival Grand Tutor Cai in the court."

His hand waved on the drawing, somewhat regretfully: "If that were the case, my Northern Expedition would have been much smoother, and I wouldn't be in such a difficult situation now..."

Such regret naturally had a hindsight bias, and it was not something that the confidant could interject. After a moment, Tong Guan gave some instructions and sent him to the city gate again to keep an eye on the battle situation at any time.

How the battle on the city wall would go, as Tong Guan said, could not be judged in detail, but in general, the Jurchens' battle record was famous all over the world, and they might be able to defend for a while, but not forever. This was the understanding of most of the officials in the city who knew the inside story, and in the imperial city, Zhou Zhe, who was slightly slow to realize, was now also taking action.

His slowness to realize was not because he was dull, but purely because he was angry with Li Gang, Qin Siyuan, Tang Ke—and even Tong Guan and Cai Jing. Earlier, the empress ran out of the palace in advance. He chased after her, but was forced to stay by the civil and military officials of the court. After returning, he sulked and stopped managing affairs: If you want this mess, then take it. I'll see what you can do!

With this mentality, he shrank back in the palace, indulging himself. He turned over the signs of at least two concubines every day, and after finishing, he scolded them away. When the Jurchens launched a strong attack, he even had thoughts in his mind: "See if you can stop them!"

Of course, this was just sulking. He was an adult, and he still hoped to defeat the Jurchens in his heart. It was just that with this thought, he could ignore the annoying things of those vulgar people. However, when the battle had been going on for two or three days, he couldn't help but start paying attention, and then he finally knew the situation.

Zhou Zhe was not a military general and only had a superficial understanding of warfare. He couldn't, like Tong Guan, know from the news coming from the city gate that the battle had already been placed on a tightrope. But in any case, with Zhou Zhe's intelligence and some counselors around him, after three days, he also understood that the three old things had done their best, and if the city was broken, he would really have to consider a southern tour.

So he began to take action. He didn't care about the city wall anyway, and even if he wanted to, he couldn't do anything at this time—he had this self-awareness. He quietly extended his tentacles, focusing on the roads out of the city, and finally deployed troops and generals on a small scale, arranging commanders who could be used as easily as his own arms on the roads from the imperial city to the southern city gate. During this period, many forces in the capital were aware of the situation and helped. For example, Cai Jing, Tong Guan, Wang Fu, Liang Shicheng, Gao Qiu... and so on, and Li Gang, Qin Siyuan, including Qin Hui, Tang Ke, Geng Nanzhong, and other officials who could get involved also tried their best to give the green light, making these few escape routes good. Zhou Zhe then felt relieved.

However, thinking that he, as the emperor, had been reduced to such a state, with various treacherous officials running rampant around him, making him feel restricted as the emperor, and now reluctantly throwing out so much power and reluctantly considering escape routes, these people seemed well-behaved, but in reality, they were probably mocking him as the emperor in their hearts. Whenever he thought of this, he felt even more depressed, and so he smashed several priceless treasures at hand.

Leaving the scope of the imperial palace, in the sky filled with wind and snow, in order to promote the operation of more than 100,000 people, the amount of work of the Right Chancellor's office and its subordinate departments was astonishingly huge. From Qin Siyuan to the subordinate Ministry of Revenue, Ministry of Works, Ministry of Justice, and Ministry of War, the coordination, operation, and connection between each other, from high officials of the first rank to the lowest-level village heads and government officials, orders were issued layer by layer, and arrangements were made. At every moment, hundreds and thousands of officials were running back and forth in the city. The grassroots officials allocated personnel, the middle-level officials were responsible for screening, the Ministry of Works and Ministry of Revenue prepared a large number of logistical supplies, the Ministry of War fed back every piece of news about the battle on the city wall, and the think tank had to make calculations based on this information, and then transfer batches of people to suitable places, waiting for deployment.

The real battle was supported by the operation of such thousands of trivial things. When gaps appeared in the fierce battle on the city wall, and Li Gang, Zhong Shidao, and others quickly filled them with human lives, what truly determined the overall situation, in addition to the will to fight in the city, also included whether they had enough human lives at hand that were suitable to be taken up to fill the gaps.

Selecting those who could fight from the mixed masses, selecting those who could be craftsmen and transporters, and quickly arranging them in places where vacancies appeared. When a large number of casualties occurred in each unit on the city gate, they had to respond sensitively and invest usable fresh troops. Then, they had to carry out a lot of propaganda in the city to cheer everyone up and ensure everyone's food and drink. All of these were the problems of the logistics center.

Qin Siyuan, who was in charge of the central hub of the Ministry of War, had not closed his eyes for two days and two nights.

The entire hall—including the courtyard outside the hall, which had been covered with sheds and become one—was filled with countless sounds. Officials and scouts ran in and out. Some things could be judged on the spot by the officials below, while many things were quickly passed to Qin Siyuan. Then, the high-level staff members used a huge sand table to deduce and restore the situation on the battlefield not far away, and then make deployment decisions.

Under Qin Siyuan, all organizational and operational abilities had been brought to the extreme. Ning Yi also played a role in this—after spending so many years in the central hub of the Prime Minister's Office, his method and understanding of handling things with extreme efficiency had also been learned by others in the Prime Minister's Office's staff. They were the most outstanding people of this era, and imperceptibly, they could use it in many things. In many details of action, the operation of the Prime Minister's Office had Ning Yi's modern optimization.

Originally, such outstanding abilities were prepared for the Northern Expedition, but he never thought that at the most urgent time, it was to defend the capital. In the busyness of responding to messages, occasionally Yao Zunian and others would come to persuade him to rest, but he would wave his hand to refuse, as if burning his life. The old man at this time did not feel tired.

This was not an ominous sign. Although he had been dealing with a large number of things for a long time, Qin Siyuan also had extremely high attainments in health preservation and mind cultivation. In a sense, the strength of his knowledge and spirit promoted the harmony of his body. The biggest impact on him in recent years was probably the reversal of Zhang Jue's murder, but at this time, after being mentally prepared, he could still endure such overspending.

Moreover, every order was expressed extremely clearly.

In the current situation, both the attacking and defending sides seemed to be overspending their every strength, overspending each other's lives. However, the Jurchens were like a young man with unlimited potential, while the Wu Dynasty was already old and dying. Even though Qin Siyuan was doing his best to deal with every matter, what he felt was almost endless pressure. With one wrong step leading to irrecoverable disaster, the only choice was to keep going, and he couldn't see too much hope.

Among the constant stream of messages, there was finally one that was of a different nature, like cheering him up, and did not require him to worry about it. The message was extremely confidential and was brought over by Yao Zunian. It was a letter written entirely in ciphertext.

Only Qin Siyuan himself had the method and qualification to decipher this ciphertext, but Yao Zunian knew the source of the message: it was sent in by Ning Yi and others from outside the city.

Qin Siyuan quickly completed the interpretation. After a moment of silence, he informed Yao Zunian of the message.

"...More than 4,000 people... taking the initiative to attack?" Yao Zunian asked with his eyes. Several important pieces of information had already been passed up.

"Seal it." Qin Siyuan pointed at the secret letter and began to look at other messages.

Yao Zunian put away the letter. After a moment, he said in a low voice: "Even if war is dangerous and treacherous, this is like sending them to their deaths. Should we tell them not to act rashly, gather other troops, and then plan to attack?"

In the battles outside the city in the past two months, how powerful the Jurchens were had been fully revealed. At this time, their strong attack on Bianliang was indeed very critical, but more than 4,000 people taking action at this time, no matter what, seemed like a desperate move. And with the addition of Qin Shaoqian, it was even more like sacrificing oneself to uphold righteousness and die for the country.

In a sense, although more than 300,000 people outside the city had been scattered and fled in all directions, if they could all be gathered together, an attack on Zongwang's besieging army could still relieve the siege of Bianliang. However, it was simple to say, but it was really impossible to do.

The new information remained in Qin Siyuan's hands. The old man pursed his lips tightly, and then shook his head: "A desperate struggle... An army roused by desperation is bound to win... If they don't win, it's their own choice, and that's fate... All we can do now is desperately defend Bianliang and not think about other things."

His eyes were resolute, and then he focused his mind on the affairs within the city. It was difficult to know the old man's thoughts at this time from his gaze, but it was imaginable that at this moment, his eldest son was trapped in the isolated city of Taiyuan, his life and death unknown, and his second son was also somewhere outside the city, braving this wind and snow, embarking on the road to death...

Leaving the Ministry of War's hall, in the white city, knights transmitting and reporting news continued to extend towards the giant wall to the north. Countless crowds and soldiers were running towards that city wall, and above the city wall, the continuous battle and killing had almost stained every part of the city wall red with blood.

To the west of the section of the city wall near the newly war-torn Xinzaomen Gate, at the section marked Yiliuduan, a section of the parapet had been collapsed by flying boulders. Jurchen soldiers were rushing towards this gap. On the snowy plain below, the Jurchen cavalry's running and shooting arrows covered both ends of the gap. On both sides of the city wall, a large number of Wu Dynasty soldiers armed with knives, shields, and spears charged forward towards the gap in the face of the threat of arrow rain. The soldiers at the front pushed a knife cart, screaming hysterically as they advanced. Arrows occasionally shot people to the ground, and the crowd behind them followed up. Over there, the Jurchens had formed a forest of spears, and the warriors at the front were charging forward with two large iron shields.

Further back on the city wall, soldiers of the Divine Bow Camp were trying their best to shoot arrows at the Jurchen cavalry below, trying to suppress the Jurchens' running and shooting. However, even though warriors occasionally fell from their horses, the Jurchen cavalry still did not leave that place and still maintained a high-intensity arrow coverage on the city wall.

Behind the city wall, Tang Yao had been shooting at the city for a long time. He had identified and shot down three Jurchens in the cavalry. He was one of the best archers in the Divine Bow Camp. However, after he shouted and aimed at the city and shot another arrow, an arrow brushed and stuck in his shoulder.

He gritted his teeth and squatted back behind the city wall, his head full of sweat from weakness and pain. His hands were shaking madly, and almost none of this was because of the arrow stuck in his shoulder at this time—his hands, especially the five fingers, were covered with open wounds, all of them bloodied. Four of them were wrapped in cloth, but they were still soaked in blood. The uncovered middle finger was bleeding profusely, and bone could be seen in places.

"Ah..." He screamed, and then shouted "Ah—" again. He still couldn't help but grit his teeth. His fingers trembled non-stop.

For an archer, the bowstring is harmful to the fingers. Even though there are many kinds of protective methods, after he had experienced several days of running and shooting arrows on the city wall, every one of his fingers was already covered in shocking wounds. However, he couldn't put on thick gloves, because that way, he wouldn't be able to feel the bowstring.

As a soldier of the Divine Bow Camp, in this kind of shootout at the limit distance, he couldn't just shoot arrows. If that were the case, what would be the difference between his value and that of ordinary soldiers?

Next to him, more soldiers were rushing up from the stairs on the inside to support them. One of them was obviously an organized militiaman. He was a fat man, and he didn't know why he had mixed into this team. At this time, he was bowing his body, holding a spear, covered in sweat, and looking at him with an almost crying expression—looking at the arrow on his shoulder.

The two of them looked at each other like this. Tang Yao was extremely disheveled. Not only were his hands bloody, his shoulders were bloody, and his body was also stained with blood. His hair was disheveled, and his teeth were all red with blood plasma when he opened his mouth. On the edge of the surrounding city wall, what was even more shocking should be the corpses that had not yet been collected. After the fat man saw it, the crying look on his face was even worse. Tang Yao took two breaths, and suddenly shouted "Ah" again. He turned his hand back and forcefully pulled out the arrow on his shoulder, stood up, turned around, and "Hua" pulled open his longbow, and the arrow shot out.

He stared there, and after confirming that the arrow had hit someone, he turned back and squatted down, looked at the fat man, showed a terrifying smile, and shook his bloody fingers: "One." He said hoarsely.

The fat man still had a crying expression on his face, but then, holding the gun, he shouted "Ah—" and rushed to the gap in the city wall where everyone was running to support.

"Haha..."

The arrow had barbs on it. His forceful pull caused the blood vessels on his shoulder to rupture and bleed profusely. Tang Yao covered his shoulder and looked at the fat man's rushing figure, laughing in his mouth. Then he collapsed on the side of the parapet, looking at the fat man rushing farther and farther away, laughing strangely, unable to stop: "Hahahaha... Hahahahahahaha..." When the fat man's figure disappeared into the crowd in front of him, his tears were flowing in the laughter.

The wind and snow howled, and inside the city wall, countless figures surged towards the city wall like ants...

Outside the wall, in the Jurchen camp, Wanyan Zongwang was quite surprised that the cowardly Wu Dynasty people could still hold on under such a fierce siege. He had lost his temper several times. At this time, he stood on the high platform in the camp, looking at that small section of the gap on the city wall from a distance, watching the fierce battle, and constantly issuing orders, and then, constantly, constantly issuing more orders...

Crossing mountains and ridges. Both cavalry and infantry were walking in the snow. The wind and snow maintained its strength, not small, and had not been very strong, it was still not a problem to fight.

The goal of this force of just over 4,000 people was quite clear. Everyone was even prepared for battle, rapidly approaching the direction of Mutuo Hill. However, if the selected direction were extended again, it would be Bianliang City.

"Where's the troops from?" In the Mutuo Hill camp, the current garrison in charge was Wanyan Zhamu, who was in charge of logistics, and the general Shuliesu. They were quite surprised to hear that troops had suddenly appeared and taken the initiative to attack.

"It's not clear. They seem to be somewhat different from the previous Wu Dynasty troops. They look... somewhat scattered, but their momentum is not slow."

"4,000 people, half cavalry and half infantry?"

"Yes."

"It seems to be a righteous army pieced together by some wealthy families... Wishful thinking..."

In the past few months outside Bianliang City, in addition to the regular Wu Dynasty army, there were also several righteous armies fighting the Jurchens. Generally speaking, they were small in scale, but they were mostly hot-blooded youths—at this time when the Jurchens were attacking, righteous armies rose up all over the Wu Dynasty, saying that they would never coexist with the Jurchens. In terms of numbers, there were 600,000 to 700,000 people. If it were in later generations, it might give people the illusion of a court full of loyal martyrs, but in reality, there were not many who dared to fight without fear of death.

Moreover, if it was a regular Wu Dynasty army, 2,000 cavalry would either not be matched with infantry, or they would have to be matched with at least 20,000 people. The 4,000 people who were attacking at this time were not proper. They could only be said to be a part of these hot-blooded youths.

For Shuliesu, the logistics line from Mutuo Hill to Bianliang City had to be kept intact. He was not an arrogant and reckless person, but he would not take these 4,000 people too seriously.

"Order Huzongxiu to lead 2,000 cavalry to attack, and Pulu to lead 2,000 infantry to follow up in support. Expand the search for scouts. If it is determined that there are only 4,000 people and no reinforcements, then give me your best to scatter them and take back the horses. Also, strengthen the defense of the camp. Everyone patrolling around, be alert. Don't let the Wu Dynasty people take advantage of the situation!" Shuliesu instructed, and then said, "Also, after scattering them, leave no survivors. Stick their heads on the wood!"

At this time, there were a total of 12,000 people in the Mutuo Hill camp, including 2,500 cavalry, more than 6,000 infantry, and the rest were artisans in charge of logistics. Of course, there were also several thousand captured Han Chinese, all of whom were locked up for amusement, including women and men as slaves.

The other side had 4,000 people, and his side sent the same 4,000 people, which was already a lion fighting a rabbit. On the one hand, he wanted to scatter these people here with all his strength, severely deterring other Wu Dynasty troops with other ideas. On the other hand, Zongwang's army was out in full force, leaving him with only more than 2,000 cavalry who could be considered elite, and the rest of the combat power was much worse. If he could seize 2,000 horses, his side would be much more powerful.

The cavalry rushed out through the wind and snow, and soon after, they saw the enemy in front. The Jurchen general Huzongxiu was a fierce general. Leading the brothers behind him, he pounced fiercely towards the same cavalry formation in front.

The iron hooves thundered, and the wind and snow swept up! In the current era, the Jurchens' charge was something that even the mountains had to avoid. The reason why Huzongxiu did not use the拐子马 (Guaizi Ma - Armored cavalry on the flanks) cavalry tactics was because he was afraid that the other side would be defeated by the shooting and run away. In that case, the other side's infantry could certainly be completely wiped out, but if the cavalry pursued on the snow, he would probably not be able to capture the other side's warhorses.

He hoped that the other side was a hothead and would not be frightened by his side's charge.

The other side was not frightened and actually killed them.

This made Huzongxiu, who was charging, very unhappy.

Damn it, they dared to resist!

"Everyone, don't think about running away. Don't think about what will happen if we can't beat them. If we can't beat the Jurchens in front of us, then everything will be in vain. So this time, we either win, or we all die here!"

The cavalry under his command, led by Qin Shaoqian, and the infantry generals, chosen by Ning Yi against all odds, were led by the young general Yue Fei. There were not many impassioned declarations for the attack. After a simple shot in the wind and snow, they rushed out like this.

In the heavy snow, shooting accuracy was not high. Entering the distance of an arrow's reach, the charge arrived in an instant.

With a roaring sound, the charging cavalry crashed together like waves. The ones at the front, only a hundred or so riders, carried the greatest impact. Long weapons clashed together, and sparks flew in the wind and snow.

"Wah ah—" Huzongxiu took the lead, slashing his long knife at the knights in front of him, most of whom were wearing tattered cloth cloaks and were not running very fast.

The ferocious sword light brought a huge sound of "Pihua—". The force of the backlash struck, and although the knight had blocked, he was also struck by the sword. The cloak opened, and the eyes behind the iron helmet stared at him. The heavy Guan Dao (a type of Chinese pole weapon) was raised in the wind and snow and chopped out with an "Ah"—

In the first round of the battle, the ferocious slashing sounds rang out frantically. Warhorses fell, and figures fell. Under the huge impact, warhorses wearing iron armor also staggered and fell. Countless viscous, warm blood surged and flowed on the snow.

More people and horses crashed into them in the wind and snow...

**************

Bianliang, in the wounded soldiers' camp.

Shishi's head was a little dizzy.

Heartbreakingly, the wounded were being sent in batch after batch, and the corpses were being dragged out—because there was no more room to lie down.

She had endured the shocking bloody smell for a long time. The wounded soldiers' camp was not far from the city wall. She could occasionally see the tragic scene on the city wall. For her, that was an indescribable scene. She felt that she had somewhat adapted to the bloodiness, and even adapted to the wounds of those with broken hands and feet, but she still felt a little nauseous—but she couldn't throw up.

She hadn't eaten anything for a day. There was no time to stop, and even if she did stop, she couldn't eat. At one point, a young officer named Hou Jing ran over—one of his ears had been chopped off. Li Shishi didn't know how painful that was, but the other party came to her for bandaging, with a smile on his face, seemingly excited: finally injured.

But Shishi knew that the other party was also forcing a smile.

His brother-in-law—that is, He Leier's good friend—Xue Changgong had been promoted, and he had also been promoted along with him, which was not bad. However, shortly after being bandaged, Hou Jing went up to the city wall again. During this period, Su Wenfang from the Su family came to find her once. Su Wenfang was now running around the city for the Prime Minister's Office, mainly looking for those wealthy families who used to be familiar with Zhuji and begging them to send out their family guards to help defend the city. When he arrived at Fanlou, Mother Li dragged him to find her.

Shishi asked about Ning Yi.

She had guessed countless times before about what happened to Ning Yi. This time, Su Wenfang brought her good news: Ning Yi was fine, but Su Wenfang was unwilling to say what Ning Yi was doing at the moment, but he revealed some things to her at the end.

"Brother-in-law is killing the enemy outside the city. He was seriously injured some time ago, but he has recovered now. You don't have to worry about him... What Brother-in-law is doing on the battlefield outside the city is no smaller than what you and I are doing."

"I knew it..."

Shishi said this at the time, but when she saw the tragic scene on and off the city wall, she found it difficult to imagine: was he outside the city, joining such a tragic war?

The sound of the fierce battle inside and outside the city wall, which could almost tear people's hearts, had been continuing for the past few days, and the wounded soldiers' camp could always hear it. However, she didn't know when the sound seemed to have become a little smaller, but she didn't know if it was an illusion, because the number of people being carried into the wounded soldiers' camp was increasing. She was preparing wound medicine, and when she was carrying a bowl of soup to give it to someone, someone shouted to her: "Miss Li, Miss Li." She looked up and saw that it was Hou Jing. He ran over: "The Jurchens have temporarily retreated. The Jurchens have been driven back."

Shishi was still walking forward. At this time, listening to what the people around her were saying, it seemed to be the same content. She was about to smile, but her feet softened, and she suddenly fell. The medicine bowl was broken, and the scalding hot medicine fell on her hands and gradually reached a wounded man next to her. The other party avoided it: "Be careful!"

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Shishi said repeatedly, Hou Jing had already run over: "Miss Li, you..." He wanted to help, but he was a little afraid to do it. Shishi struggled for a moment before getting up, still apologizing in her mouth. Hou Jing said anxiously: "Miss Li, how long have you not slept? You haven't eaten anything, have you? I, I have steamed buns here, but they are cold. You take a rest, and I'll get you hot ones..."

"I'm not tired, I'm not tired." Shishi shook her head, "You just said, the Jurchens retreated? Really? I still have things to do..."

"The Jurchens have retreated, really, temporarily retreated. You should take a rest." Hou Jing watched Shishi turn around to leave and suddenly reached out to grab her sleeve, and then turned back and said loudly: "Everyone! Everyone! This one who is taking care of you is Shishi from Fanlou! Miss Li Shishi, she has been helping in the wounded soldiers' camp for the past few days, and she hasn't rested for a day or two, and she hasn't even eaten anything! Everyone, what do you say! Shouldn't we let her rest for a while!"

His voice was quite loud, and everyone was stunned by what he said. Then someone said: "Li, Miss Li Shishi? Is it Miss Shishi from Fanlou?"

"Yes, it is." Hou Jing said. Shishi next to him became a little flustered.

"I... I