Weather was gloomy and gray, with rain pattering down, weaving a curtain under the eaves.

Inside the compound of the Zizhou War Command, the meeting had been underway since shortly after the rain began, with essential information being dispatched continuously. By late morning, the urgent arrangements had been completed, and the next step was to wait for feedback from the front lines before making further adjustments.

Back in his office, a brief period of respite followed. Juan'er brought hot water and, with a razor, shaved the stubble from Ning Yi's chin. Ning Yi sat at his desk, tapping his fingers, his jaw raised, his gaze lost in the overcast sky outside the window.

"The Little New Year is only a few days away... it looks like we won't be celebrating this year."

"Hold still."

Juan'er concentrated, pressing her fingers against his neck, and Ning Yi fell silent. The room was quiet for a moment, but the sound of rain outside persisted. After a while, someone came to report that Ouli Li had taken advantage of the rain to launch an attack in the direction of the Rainwater Creek.

"The message arrived at this time, which means Ouli Li must have started mobilizing when it began raining this morning." Division Commander Han Jing entered from outside, having also received the information. "These Jurchen people seem addicted to fighting in the rain."

"Ouli Li is known in the Jurchen army for his decisiveness and bravery, so it's not surprising," Ning Yi said. "Huang Ming's side is probably fighting as well at this point."

"Like you said, Balisu is a lunatic."

"But we don't gain anything from this exchange, it's a kind of psychological warfare." Ning Yi exchanged a few words with him and picked up the raincoat from the room. "I'm going to take a trip to the city wall, are you coming?"

"Alright," Han Jing nodded.

Juan'er, standing nearby, picked up two umbrellas from the room, but Ning Yi waved his hand. "No need for umbrellas, Juan'er, you stay here. If there's any important information, have someone call me back from the city wall."

He put on the raincoat and walked out of the room, his breath becoming clearly visible. When he reached out into the rain, an icy feeling seeped in. Ning Yi looked at Han Jing beside him. "They say there's a method of acting called 'method acting,' where you immerse yourself in the environment, you can think of more details. The front lines are fighting in this kind of environment. After sitting in a meeting all night, I'm feeling dizzy, I'm going to clear my head."

Han Jing also put on a raincoat, and the group walked into the rain, crossed the courtyard, and stepped onto the street. The city wall of Zizhou stood not far away. The area was mostly filled with troop barracks, and sentries were stationed along the road in an orderly manner. Han Jing looked at the gray rain: "Qu Zhengyan and Chen Tian have started fighting again."

Ning Yi smiled. "How do you know? Did you see them?"

"The troops were mobilized urgently last night, and a group of people passed through Post Twelve, I guessed it was them."

"The plan was proposed half a month ago, and they are fully responsible for when to launch it, I don't know. But it's not surprising," Ning Yi said with a wry smile. "Those two rascals… Qu Zhengyan charged around with five hundred men, I just lectured him, I hope he didn't go this time."

"Probably not, but I bet he went to Rainwater Creek. Hit the vitals first, then bite the snake's head."

"He's got his eye on Ouli Li, he showed off in front of him last time."

In the gloomy rain, the two men joked in low voices.

Over the past month, the front-line battles had been at a standstill, tit-for-tat, and not just head-on clashes on the main roads. Huang Ming County seemed to be in a static exchange, but in secret, Balisu had dug several tunnels to try to bypass the county town or simply collapse the city walls. For the rugged mountain ridges near Huang Ming County, the Jurchen side had also sent out suicide squads to climb and try to enter the city by a detour.

The situation on the Rainwater Creek was even more variable. In the mountains extending behind the battlefield, the Huaxia Army's scouts and special operations forces had gathered several times, attempting to approach the rear passages of the Jurchens and launch strong attacks. Of course, the Jurchens also had several units that crossed the mountains and ridges, appearing behind the Huaxia Army's defensive lines. Such surprise attacks had their successes, but in general, the Huaxia Army reacted quickly, and the Jurchen defense was not weak. In the end, they both caused chaos and losses to the other side, but did not achieve decisive results.

At this moment, the commanding generals who could appear here were mostly the most outstanding talents in the world. Qu Zhengyan's use of troops was like magic, walking a tightrope everywhere but never falling. Chen Tian and others had amazing execution ability. Most of the soldiers in the Huaxia Army were already the elite of this world. To put it grandly, Ning Yi had even killed an emperor. But Zong Han, Xiyin, Balisu, Ouli Li, Yu Yu, and others on the opposite side had already conquered several countries. In the clash of top figures, no one was too much better than the other.

Before achieving decisive results, such back-and-forth clashes would continue to occur again and again. In order to ensure the rapid execution of orders, Ning Yi did not interfere with the command of any local battlefield. At this moment, the raiding team arranged by Qu Zhengyan may have already been crossing the rugged mountains under the dim sky, and the hunters under the command of the Jurchen general Yu Yu would not sit idly by and let the opportunity pass - in such rainy weather, not only would the artillery be suppressed, but the hot air balloons that could have flown into the sky to carry out observations would also be useless.

Scouts would encounter the other side's main force, and more intense and difficult battles would break out more frequently in this kind of weather.

Ning Yi and Han Jing walked towards the city wall, the ancient stone steps soaked in the overcast rain, and water trickled down the walls. The feeling inside the raincoat became damp and cold, and their breath was visible.

"Speaking of which, it hasn't snowed this year."

"If we were in Qingmu Village, the mountains would have been closed two months ago. Now that the weather is better, I'm a little unaccustomed to it."

"We're not celebrating the New Year this year, do you think there will be a New Year next year?"

"As long as we can make the Jurchens have a hard time, I'll have a good New Year wherever I am."

"...Hey, that's a good saying, I'll have the propaganda team write it on the wall..."

Stepping onto the city wall, Ning Yi reached out to catch the falling raindrops, and looked up. The gloomy clouds pressed down on the foothills, extending into the distance, the world was vast but low, like a sea churning with hurricanes, turned upside down before people's eyes.

Ning Yi imagined the biting cold of the front lines. Soldiers were fighting in such coldness.

Such fighting might still not produce a breakthrough result. After a month and a half of formal combat, the Huaxia Army had withstood the Jurchens' wave after wave of attacks, inflicting huge casualties on the other side. But overall, the Huaxia Army's combat losses were not optimistic. More than 8,000 casualties were gradually approaching the reduction of a division.

This was not a battle against chickens and dogs, and there was no cheap opportunity to be had. With both sides having enough psychological preparation, the early stage could only be a round after round of high-intensity, monotonous exchange, and in such a rhythm of attack and defense, each other would adopt various clever schemes, and perhaps one side would reveal a flaw at a certain moment. If that didn't work, it might even lead to the total collapse of one side.

Balisu's crazy attacks on Huang Ming County, on the one hand, were because the tricks were indeed being carried out, but had no effect. On the other hand, it was also subtly impacting the other side's psychological bottom line: "I'm a madman, I'll just keep exchanging with you to the end." He was an expressionless, excellent gambler, constantly optimizing his tactics for nearly two months, but his strategy had hardly changed, just exchanging the huge casualties for Pang Liuan's 4,000 men, and now he was still continuing to exchange.

Ning Yi was also continuing to exchange without showing any emotion.

It was like a showdown, whoever got anxious would be the first to show a flaw.

Han Jing walked to the edge of the city wall and slammed his hands on the blue stone parapet with a "bang," and the water splashed open in the gloom. Ning Yi felt the overcast rain, looked up at the sky, and said nothing.

However, by evening, unexpected information came from Eagle Beak Cliff.

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

Rainwater Creek, wave after wave of fighting was repelled on the slopes near Eagle Beak Cliff.

Eagle Beak Cliff was one of the narrow passages near Rainwater Creek, which could be considered easy to defend but difficult to attack, but over the past month, it had also experienced several rounds of raids and charges.

The cost-effectiveness of attacking this small position was not high - if it could be broken open, of course it would be high, but the main reason was that it was not the most ideal place to attack. The passage in front of it was not wide, and the process of entering it might be intercepted by one of the Huaxia Army's positions.

Only when the front-line offensive tended to be saturated would the Jurchens launch a quick and fierce raid on Eagle Beak Cliff. If they could not break through, they would usually have to retreat quickly.

But Eagle Beak Cliff also had its importance. In front of it was a funnel-shaped slope, and the Jurchens would come down from above and enter the narrow passage and valley of the funnel. The wide funnel mouth outside was not suitable for constructing defenses. After the enemy entered the narrow passage formed by Eagle Beak Cliff and the nearby rock walls, they would enter a gourd-shaped open space, and then face the Huaxia Army's position.

The mountain road behind this position did not intersect much with the complex terrain of the Rainwater Creek area, which meant that once Eagle Beak Cliff was broken through, it would be difficult for the reinforcements from Rainwater Creek to carry out rescue operations in a short period of time, and the Rainwater Creek position would be completely bypassed by the Jurchens who had broken through here.

If the Huaxia Army gathered heavy troops here, the Jurchens could completely ignore it. If the Jurchens launched a strong attack here, they might be surrounded and killed in this valley if it was unsuccessful. This seemingly important but chicken-rib-like place was actually a bit embarrassing for both sides.

On the morning of December 19th, the Jurchens launched a full-scale attack on Rainwater Creek. At Chenshi, Eagle Beak Cliff engaged in battle for the first time.

The attack, which could not be called crazy but was quite forceful, lasted for nearly two hours. When it was nearly noon, an astonishing attack suddenly appeared on the battlefront. It was a team of charging troops that seemed to have ordinary combat qualities but were extremely experienced. Before they even got close, Mao Yishan noticed something was wrong. He rushed up the hillside, raised his binoculars, and was already summoning the reserve team: "Second Company, move up, there's a problem on the left!"

The pressure on the left flank suddenly increased, and some Jurchen soldiers rushed up the slope that was about to be filled with corpses and sacks. Under their battle robes, they were all clad in scale armor, and a surging rain of guns came from behind.

"Hand grenades—"

Someone shouted, and the soldiers threw a wave of hand grenades first. Two of the ten or so grenades exploded, but the power was not too great. The Huaxia Army soldiers retreated slightly and formed a shield formation that slammed forward!

Mao Yishan was standing not far from the engagement point. Arrows and crossbow bolts seemed to be flying over in the rain, but they were weak and ineffective. He held up his binoculars without moving. Another observer not far away ran over: "Regiment, Regiment Commander, look over there, that…"

The two men looked in the same direction. Behind the dark mass of troops at the end of the valley, someone was also holding up binoculars and observing in this direction.

"Is that…" the observer said his guess.

Mao Yishan put down his binoculars, strode down the slope, and waved his hand: "Order! The entire regiment listens to the order—"

At the same moment, the entire Rainwater Creek battlefield outside was in a white-hot offensive and defensive state. When the news came that the No. 2 position outside Eagle Beak Cliff was almost broken through by a strong Jurchen attack, Qu Zhengyan, who was discussing the battle situation with Yu Zhongdao in the command post, frowned slightly. He thought of something. But in fact, he had made many plans for the entire battlefield. In the ever-changing battle, Qu Zhengyan could not get all the accurate information. At this moment, he had not been able to determine the direction of the entire situation.

Many pieces of information could only be fully presented to everyone during the later post-battle review.

……

The north wind howled over Eagle Beak Cliff, and the weather at noon was as gloomy as evening. Rain washed down the valley from every direction. Mao Yishan mobilized the entire regiment - which at this time had 813 soldiers - and also summoned four soldiers responsible for special operations.

"Ouli Li is here." He briefly explained the entire situation to the four soldiers.

"According to the planned plan, two go up first, two are on standby." Mao Yishan pointed to the towering Eagle Beak Cliff at the entrance of the valley, where the wind and rain were swirling at the top. "You may not be able to come back once you go up. I don't know if what your boss said is reliable in this kind of rainy weather. Are you going?"

"Battalion Commander Xu blew up the mountain for a year," one of them said.

"We prepared for today," another said.

"Then go." Mao Yishan waved his hand. Then, he walked into his brothers. "Everyone, prepare—"

Mao Yishan roared: "The main course is served!"

That day at noon, Ouli Li led his personal soldiers and resolutely and decisively joined the attack on Eagle Beak Cliff. In order not to alert the enemy, he did not even fly his flag. At this moment, the Huaxia Army's rain canopies and other coverings on the front positions had already been destroyed, the threat of artillery had been minimized, and the walls that were originally used as defensive works had also been destroyed and filled in. The only advantage that the Huaxia Army had was the advantage of the slopes.

The blood in Ouli Li's heart was boiling.

There was also a surge of passion in Mao Yishan's heart.

Two figures walked along the rugged mountain wall towards Eagle Beak Cliff. At a certain moment, Ouli Li discovered this scene.

Several Jurchen scouts who were good at climbing also rushed towards the mountain wall.

The structure of Eagle Beak Cliff had been studied many times by the explosives experts in the Huaxia Army. Theoretically, a series of waterproof explosives had already been placed in the cracks at the top of the rock wall, but at this moment, no one knew whether the plan could be realized as expected. Because when the plan was made and communicated, the technicians from the Fourth Division were somewhat conservative, and it did not sound reliable.

The fighting surged forward, Mao Yishan shook the steel knife in his hand, his eyes were calm, and he exhaled a long stream of white air in the rain. He calmly made simple arrangements.

But even if that clever plan could not be realized, there would not be the slightest hesitation in his heart. Crossing the long river of time, passing through round after round of battle tests, the soldiers who walked out of Xia Village in those days could now face any evil ravages.

The fierce Jurchen elites came like a tide, and he slightly bowed his body, making a posture as steady as a mountain.

Heavy rain flew, and the gale roared.

Steel and steel, collided together—

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