A sickly fellow ridiculed by the entire army? I'll be the most beautiful woman in the barracks!

When Zhao Daxuan led his several-kilometer-long procession to the front of the Black Mountain Pass, it was already getting dark.

If we were any slower, we might not be able to see the road conditions at all.

Outside the Black Mountain Pass, tens of thousands of refugees who had come from Zhenbei City were chatting with each other after finishing their day's labor and eating.

The refugees followed Zhao Daxuan to the Black Mountain Pass. Although the journey was long, at least now they wouldn't go hungry as long as they worked enough hours each day.

They may not say they are full of hope now, but at least they no longer feel lost every day.

"Look, it's Commandant Zhao's troops returning!"

A sharp-eyed child spotted the faintly visible line ahead, his eyes lit up, and he shouted out.

Many refugees stood up, took a few steps forward, and looked at the scene closely.

"That's right, it's Lord Zhao's team returning!"

"Wow, what a long line! And they brought back quite a lot of stuff!"

As Zhao Daxuan's long procession drew closer, the refugees were astonished when they saw the situation of the procession.

"W-w-w-what...could they have gone to attack the Tartar tribe?!"

The refugees stared wide-eyed, and when they saw that among the thousands of Tartar prisoners in the procession were the elderly, the weak, women and children, they gasped in horror.

"My God! They really conquered a Tartar tribe!"

When the refugees saw Zhao Daxuan's troops return from their expedition, laden with spoils, every face beamed with genuine smiles.

"Heaven has eyes! The Tartars have bullied us for so many years, finally someone can help us vent our anger!"

Many elderly refugees stared blankly at Zhao Daxuan's group, muttering to themselves in a daze.

It took him a long time to come to his senses. He pulled his family members to kneel down and pressed their heads down to kowtow to Zhao Daxuan and his group.

"Quickly kowtow to Lord Zhao and the others! They've finally vented our anger!"

Then cheers erupted from the refugees, one after another.

"Your Excellency is mighty!!"

"Long live the Great Xia Dynasty!!"

Zhao Daxuan took the lead and arrived outside the Black Mountain Pass. Hearing the cheers of the refugees on both sides, he smiled slightly.

"Erlong, look how adorable our Great Xia people are! How can we let the Tartars bully them!"

Li Erlong grinned, a sense of unprecedented accomplishment welling up inside him.

"That's right, we must defend this Black Mountain Pass even if it means our lives, otherwise our Great Xia will never have peace."

The soldiers in the long line, listening to the cheers around them, were also filled with excitement and high morale.

Not long ago, many of them were just refugees, and even if they joined the army, it was only to survive.

But at this moment, they all clearly felt that they had an additional responsibility on their shoulders: to protect their homeland and safeguard these lovely people from being bullied by foreign enemies.

When Zhao Daxuan arrived at the pass, he was taken aback when he saw the city gate, which was still tightly closed despite its dilapidated state.

The gates of Heishan Pass have been kept open for the past few days to facilitate entry and exit.

Then, seeing the soldiers reinforcing their patrols at the pass and the faint smell of blood in the air, he couldn't help but frown.

After the soldiers on the Black Mountain Pass confirmed that it was Zhao Daxuan and his team returning, the city gate slowly opened from the inside.

Zhao Daxuan led part of the team into the pass, while the main force did not enter in its entirety, but split into two halves.

One group pushed along the wealth and supplies looted from the Tartar tribes into the pass, while the other group settled prisoners and livestock outside the pass.

Upon entering the pass, a strong stench of blood assaulted the senses, and uncongealed bloodstains remained in the cracks of the bluestone bricks on the ground.

Inside the pass, some repair tools and materials were scattered around, and a group of refugees were hurriedly tidying them up as the last rays of light appeared.

Originally there were 3,000 Tartar prisoners, but only 2,000 remained, all of them bound hand and foot and huddled in a corner.

On the open ground in the pass, fifty corpses of Wangbei Camp soldiers lay straight, while in a corner there was a small mountain of Tartar corpses.

The once enthusiastic group instantly fell silent, their smiles vanished, and they all looked at the situation inside the pass with serious expressions.

As soon as Zhao Daxuan entered the pass, Zhao Fubao immediately came to greet him with a complicated expression.

Before Zhao Daxuan could even ask a question, Zhao Fubao knelt down and spoke in a trembling voice, filled with self-reproach.

"Your subordinate is incompetent; please punish me, sir."

Zhao Daxuan frowned and scanned the area, taking in everything. He could roughly guess what had happened at the pass that day.

Taking a deep breath, Zhao Daxuan's voice was as cold as a knife as he asked in a deep voice.

"Get up, tell me in detail, what happened?"

Zhao Fubao pursed his lips. "Reporting to my lord, the soldiers monitoring the collapsed section of the official road to the north reported this afternoon that the Tartars have increased the number of personnel clearing the road. So I took some men to check it out."

"But as we were returning from our inspection, the Tartar prisoners inside the Black Mountain Pass rioted..."

Zhao Fubao recounted in detail what had happened that afternoon.

Li Erlong and the others all had grim faces, their expressions dark as they looked at the more than two thousand Tartar prisoners huddled in a corner of the pass, wishing they could all be strangled.

After hearing this, Zhao Daxuan did not roar in anger. Instead, he remained silent with a sullen face, his brows and eyes covered with frost. His eyes, which had been soaked in the blood of the battlefield, were now as cold as knives.

After a moment, he shook his head. "Although this matter is not your fault, you still bear responsibility for negligence. As punishment, you shall be fined three months' salary."

Zhao Daxuan then dismounted and walked heavily to the bodies of the fallen soldiers, scanning each of their faces—these were his brothers who had followed him in battle.

These people should not have died like this. They should have been enjoying the joy of the post-war harvest together, but they suffered this calamity because he led the main force into battle.

Finally, Zhao Daxuan turned his gaze back to the Tartar prisoners, emanating a chilling aura that seemed to freeze the air around him.

He was furious with these unruly Tartars. He had originally kept them as laborers, but they almost caused a disaster.

Although keeping these Tartar prisoners still has its uses, today's matter cannot be easily resolved.

"Order that all the captured Tartars, including those who are captains or higher, be brought out."

Upon hearing this, Li Erlong and the others' eyes lit up, and they gritted their teeth as they charged toward the Tartar prisoners.

They had already conducted a search in the previous days, marking all personnel above the rank of minor leader. Soon, more than two hundred Tartar prisoners were brought out.

Zhao Daxuan frowned, glanced at it, and said coldly, "Not enough!"

Li Erlong scratched his head. "Sir, all the leaders above the rank of junior officer are here. The rest died in the rebellion."

Zhao Daxuan shook his head. "I don't care about that. Once we've gathered five hundred heads, I'll make the Tartars pay tenfold with their lives!"

Li Erlong and the others immediately understood and were excited. They turned around and pulled out more than two hundred more people from the Tartar prisoners, making a total of five hundred Tartar prisoners.