Late Ming Dynasty: Summoning players from Liaodong to support the Ming Dynasty

Amin's roar tore through the evening's chilly wind, carrying a hysterical frenzy.

His personal guards dared not delay for a moment, hurriedly leading over warhorses, their heavy hooves leaving impatient marks on the open ground in front of the commander's tent.

Hu Yongqiang scrambled to the tent entrance, and seeing the menacing figure on horseback, he asked in a trembling voice, "Your Highness! You…"

Amin didn't turn around, but simply pointed the riding whip in her hand at the distant outline of the city, which looked increasingly sinister in the twilight.

"Send fifty bastards and come with me!"

The order was firm and left no room for argument.

The Bayara, the most elite guards of the Great Jin Dynasty, were all warriors who had fought their way through mountains of corpses and seas of blood. To mobilize them for a single inspection tour of the city walls carried an unusual significance.

Hu Yongqiang's heart skipped a beat; he knew he couldn't stop him. Once this Second Prince got carried away, even the Khan himself might not be able to rein him in.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth, mount his warhorse, and follow closely behind Amin. He would rather die with him than stay alone in the camp and await the prince's possible wrath upon his return.

Fifty heavily armored Bayara soldiers quickly assembled, silently mounting their warhorses, the iron plates clanging coldly in the twilight. This small force, without raising any banners, slipped silently out of the Later Jin camp like a silent dagger, heading straight for the walls of Guangning.

The horses' hooves pounded on the hard, frozen ground, making a dull, rhythmic "clattering" sound.

Amin's mood actually became more cheerful as the warhorse galloped along.

The restlessness tormented by the unknown and the silence was being replaced by the anticipation of the mystery being revealed. He even began to joke with his trusted confidant, the Niru Ejen.

"Do you think that by the time we get to the city, Chu Ze will have already hung his own head on the city wall?" Amin laughed loudly, her rough laughter startling a few wild sparrows foraging in the withered grass by the roadside.

The Niru Ejen immediately understood and obsequiously echoed, "Your Highness is right! Perhaps those Han dogs in the city have already chopped him up and are just waiting for us to take over the city so they can get some food!"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

A burst of laughter erupted from the guards, dispelling the silence of the wilderness and the last trace of unease that had arisen in their hearts because of the dead city.

Only Hu Yongqiang remained silent.

He huddled at the back of the line, hiding his body in the saddle, as if that would give him a sense of security.

The closer he got to Guangning City, the stronger his ominous premonition became, almost tangible, suffocating him. He looked up at the sky; the setting sun, like blood, burned the western horizon into an eerie dark red.

The sunlight today is a bit too bright.

The troops quickly bypassed the moat and makeshift fortifications they had dug themselves and officially entered the defensive perimeter of Guangning City.

Everything went exactly as they had imagined.

Desolate and silent.

The fields were long abandoned, and the village's ruins stood in the cold wind like skeletons that had been gnawed clean. There was no smell of smoke in the air, only a cold smell mixed with soil and humus.

There wasn't even a bird chirping or a dog barking.

Dead silence.

This land is utterly dead.

Amin's smile grew increasingly cruel; he could almost picture the carnage and cannibalism that littered the city.

Chu Ze.

The name flashed through his mind, leaving only contempt.

No matter how ingenious the scheme, it is nothing but a joke in the face of absolute strength and hunger.

"Faster!" Amin spurred his horse, which neighed and increased its speed even further. He couldn't wait to see that hell on earth, to confirm his victory with his own eyes.

The group rounded a sparse grove of trees, and the view ahead suddenly opened up.

The outline of Guangning City finally appeared completely and without obstruction before all of them.

"Whoa—"

Amin suddenly pulled on the reins, and his warhorse reared up, letting out a long, uneasy neigh.

The laughter of everyone in the group was abruptly cut off by an invisible knife.

The sound of hooves changed from a rapid gallop to a chaotic trotting, and finally, it gradually came to a stop.

Fifty battle-hardened Bayara warriors were frozen in place as if by a shaman's magic, their horses reined in, mouths agape, yet unable to utter a sound.

Niru Ejen, who had been joking with Amin, dropped his riding whip to the ground with a "thud," but he was completely unaware.

A young Bayara soldier subconsciously rubbed his eyes, then rubbed them harder, but the scene before him not only did not disappear, but became clearer and more ferocious under the blood-red setting sun.

He turned his head and asked his companion in a dreamlike tone.

"Um... Um, really... have we taken the wrong road? Is this Zhenyuan Pass?"

No one answered him.

Hu Yongqiang's body went limp, as if his bones had been removed, and he slid straight off the horse, landing with a thud on the ground. He didn't care about the dust covering his body or the twisted waist he had just twisted; he just tilted his head back, staring blankly ahead, his mouth opening and closing, but no sound came out.

In that instant, Amin's pupils shrank to the size of pinpoints.

The smile on his face froze and shattered, leaving only a blank look of horror.

What is that?

That wasn't a city at all.

It was a monster lying prone on the Liaodong land, its entire body appearing deathly gray...

The city wall was impossibly smooth, as if it had been slashed clean by a giant blade, gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen in the blood-red sunset. Instead of the familiar crenellations, the wall was riddled with dark, undefined openings, like the bottomless eye sockets of a giant beast's skull, silently promising death.

What chilled this veteran general to the bone was the shape of the city wall.

It is no longer a rigid straight line.

At the original corner, huge, menacing, and sharp pentagonal structures protrude from the wall like fangs, guarding each other.

Amin's military intuition made him break out in a cold sweat after just one glance.

Anyone who gets close to the wall will be exposed to crossfire from at least two directions.

There are no blind spots under the city walls!

This is not a city.

This is a massive, silent war fortress, existing solely for slaughter.

It stood there coldly, silently mocking the dumbfounded intruders below with an attitude that transcended all understanding of warfare in this era.

Amin felt as if a large, scorching hot iron had been stuffed into her throat, burning her, but she couldn't utter a single word.

His proud siege tactics, his "brilliant strategy" of "starving 100,000 soldiers and civilians in the city," became a huge joke in front of this gray-white monster.

"Your Highness... Your Highness..."

Hu Yongqiang finally regained his voice. He crawled on his hands and feet to Amin's horse, pointed at the city, and his voice trembled uncontrollably.

"Sorcery...this is sorcery!"

Amin ignored him and slowly turned his stiff neck to look at his personal guard.

Without exception, the faces of those most elite warriors of the Great Jin Dynasty all wore expressions as if they had seen a ghost.

Humiliation, confusion, and finally, an uncontrollable rage surged up like lava to Amin's head.

Was he tricked?

He blinked with all his might to make sure he wasn't dreaming.

The grayish-white monster still stands there silently.