With the rise of my family, I can summon the Daoist Soldiers' Nest.

Just as the power structure in Qingyang Prefecture was undergoing a dramatic change, the battle situation in Beiyuan City, thousands of miles away, also reached its most critical juncture.

At this time, the Northern Xiongnu's 250,000-strong army had been besieging Beiyuan City for many days.

The Northern Xiongnu mobilized a total of 300,000 troops, but 50,000 were lost in the battles of Lulong and Shuofang. The remaining 250,000 elite troops were available for this battle.

Inside Beiyuan City, 230,000 Northern Han troops were stationed and defending the city.

Among them were 80,000 fresh troops who had been urgently dispatched from Shuofang City, including Liu Yun and the other four third-rate captains from the Lin family.

Logically speaking, this was a siege battle with roughly equal numbers on both sides and a fortified city to rely on, so the defenders should have had the upper hand.

However, this is a world where martial artists and Taoist soldiers coexist, and the rules of war have long since changed.

The flying soldiers of the Northern Xiongnu, carrying high-ranking shamanic warriors, roared down from the sky and landed on the city walls time and time again.

As soon as these warriors landed, they cleared a section of the city wall with lightning speed, and the Northern Xiongnu soldiers below swarmed up and climbed onto the city wall through the gap.

The Northern Han garrison also had warriors, and the number of high-ranking warriors was no less than that of the Northern Xiongnu.

However, the walls of Beiyuan City are too long, and the defense line stretches endlessly. Even if a warrior has three heads and six arms, he cannot take care of every section of the wall at the same time.

Often, the Northern Xiongnu warriors would have already created an opening somewhere before the Northern Han reinforcements arrived, belatedly.

Worse still, battles between high-level martial artists often take place on narrow battlements and plank roads.

The soldiers were unable to form a tight formation, nor did they dare to approach rashly, for fear of being affected by the combined force of both sides.

Thus, the martial artist could only fight bitterly in isolation and without any help.

The Northern Xiongnu warriors are extremely cunning; during battle, they consciously maneuver and dodge, drawing nearby soldiers into the fray.

Amidst the clash of swords, innocent soldiers fell in droves, suffering heavy casualties.

Over time, whenever shamanic warriors appeared on the city walls, the nearby Northern Han soldiers would instinctively retreat and flee.

They would rather abandon their positions than be caught in the crossfire during a martial arts battle.

This brief gap gave the Northern Xiongnu soldiers an opportunity to take advantage of the situation.

They seized the opportunity to scale the city walls and engage in a brutal hand-to-hand combat with the Northern Han defenders.

Meanwhile, there was another threat from the Northern Xiongnu: war soldiers shaped like giant rhinoceroses.

These enormous creatures, covered in thick scales, shook the ground with every step they took, repeatedly ramming the gates of Beiyuan City with their steel-like heads.

To prevent the city gates from being breached, the Northern Han had to send a group of warriors, riding flying Taoist soldiers, to swoop down from the air and hunt down these giant rhinoceros Taoist soldiers.

Every time a warrior undertakes such a mission, he is immediately surrounded by the Northern Xiongnu.

They were besieged by a constant stream of enemy troops, and people kept falling.

Fortunately, most of these warriors came from suicide squads and were originally criminals. Dying on the battlefield was a kind of relief for them.

Liu Yun and his cavalry did not receive such an order.

They had already dismounted, abandoning their mobility advantage, and came to the city wall to defend alongside the infantry.

The city's defenses are clearly divided, with second-rate or higher martial artists forming small teams to deal with surprise attacks from high-ranking shamanic martial artists at any time.

Third-rate martial artists like Liu Yun were dispersed among the ordinary soldiers to serve as a strike force, specifically to block the Northern Xiongnu soldiers climbing up the well towers and ladders.

Without their mounts, cavalry and infantry are roughly equal in strength, and a tug-of-war can still occur between them in offense and defense.

However, everyone must always pay attention to the movements of high-level martial artists, as their every move could instantly change the course of the battle.

On one occasion, not far from Liu Yun, a group of Northern Han soldiers were fighting fiercely with Northern Xiongnu soldiers who had climbed up a battlements.

Suddenly, four martial artists descended from the sky, two from the Northern Han and two from the Northern Xiongnu, and instantly engaged in battle.

In the blink of an eye, the team of nearly a hundred people suffered heavy casualties.

A palm strike swept across, sending some crashing down from the ten-zhang-high city wall; a sword's edge flashed past, and some were cleaved in two before they could even scream.

Liu Yun saw it clearly: a third-rate captain from the Northern Han was casually slapped by a Northern Xiongnu martial artist, and his whole body flew out like a kite with a broken string, crashing into the inner city wall and falling silent.

This is the terror of high-level martial artists.

Especially those top-tier experts, before their inner strength is exhausted, can take away a lot of lives with every wave of their hand and every palm strike.

Ordinary soldiers could not possibly besiege and deplete their internal energy. The city wall was too narrow; martial artists only needed to lightly touch the wall to use its force to jump down and easily escape.

For a first-rate martial artist, the ten-zhang-high city wall is nothing more than two uses of leverage to safely descend from the top of the wall.

They came and went as they pleased, while the defending troops could only passively endure the storm of death they brought.

The battle remained deadlocked, with both sides engaging in a back-and-forth struggle between the city walls and the city below.

During this period, the Northern Xiongnu dispatched four detachments of 10,000 cavalry, which bypassed Beiyuan City and sped off in other directions.

Judging from their posture, they were clearly going to attack other cities and carry out plunder and destruction.

On the other side, Beiyuan City could only watch helplessly. If they opened the gates to pursue, they would inevitably lose the city wall, their most important line of defense.

Once on the plains, facing the elite cavalry of the Northern Xiongnu, even if the Northern Han had more warriors and a more disciplined formation, it would be difficult for them to gain an advantage.

The cavalry's striking power and mobility were enough to compensate for their numerical disadvantage in open terrain.

Rather than taking risks, it's better to hold your ground.

Anyway, there are troops stationed in various cities in the rear. No matter how arrogant these 40,000 cavalry are, they can only conquer a limited number of cities. At most, they can only create some chaos and plunder some food and supplies.

The Northern Xiongnu were aware of this, but apart from sending out these four 10,000-cavalry units, they dared not disperse any more troops.

After all, if the number of troops besieging Beiyuan City is reduced, Beihan may seize the opportunity to launch a full-scale attack, joining forces with the troops outside the city to attack from both sides.

If the main force besieging the city is defeated, those cavalry units that were raiding outside will have no way to retreat and will be surrounded like dumplings.

Therefore, the Northern Xiongnu would rather let these 40,000 cavalrymen make some noise outside than dare to shake the main force besieging the city.

Above Beiyuan City, the roar of flying soldiers and the fighting of warriors continued, intertwining with the endless shouts of battle below the city walls, creating a tragic picture of war.

That day, Liu Yun led his soldiers in another fierce battle on the city wall until the change of guard time, when they finally retreated from the city wall to rest with the crowd.

With limited space on the city wall, General Zhenbei had long ago ordered that ordinary soldiers take turns fighting according to their families, in order to avoid exposing the same group of people to danger for a long time and to prevent the Northern Xiongnu from dragging them into a war of attrition.

Liu Yun looked back and saw that there were fewer than forty soldiers following behind him. Just two days ago, the group had a full fifty men.

In just two days, one-fifth of it was lost.

He returned to the tent, where there were already three people inside, the third-rate captain who had come with him from the Lin family.

According to military orders, third-rate warriors must each lead ordinary soldiers to fight on the city walls. They were assigned to different squads and no longer fought side by side.

This tent was specially reserved by Chen Hai for the five members of the Lin family.

Now, only four people remain; the other one was killed in the recent battle and was left forever on the city wall.

None of the four had the energy for idle chatter. They simply greeted each other, then sat down cross-legged to regulate their breathing and recover their inner strength.

In such siege battles, if a third-rate martial artist does not seize the time to recover, exhausting their internal energy will lead to certain death.

Liu Yun closed his eyes and began to circulate the Qingyuan Sword Sect's mental cultivation method, which Liu Zhenghua had specially bestowed upon him.

This mental cultivation method is gentle and sustained, yet extremely efficient. Internal energy flows slowly back through the meridians, dispelling the exhaustion brought on by battle.

Two hours later, his internal energy had basically recovered. When he opened his eyes, the other three were still sitting quietly, and the rallying drums outside had not sounded.

He pondered for a moment, then circulated his inner energy again. This time, he wasn't simply trying to recover, but rather attempting to break through to the second-rate realm.

Although he broke through to the third rank in just one year, for a genius like Liu Yun, the meridians of the third rank had already been completely opened, and only one hurdle remained.

At this moment, as the mental technique was activated, the internal energy accumulated in his body suddenly surged, rushing towards the obstruction like a flood, but this time it was different from before.

"Buzz!"

A subtle yet clear tremor came from deep within the meridians, and the blockage was suddenly cleared.

A surge of internal energy coursed through his body, and his sense of power suddenly increased.

Liu Yun suddenly opened her eyes, her aura already different.

At that very moment, the other three people in the tent also opened their eyes.

They looked at Liu Yun in surprise, as if they were seeing this companion for the first time, because the aura he had just exuded was no longer that of a third-rate martial artist.

Liu Yun has made a breakthrough.