From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

Seven days after Wang Xiaoyi left, the sky in the north changed.

First came the messenger.

Three times a day, the horses galloped until they were foaming at the mouth, holding military command tubes and racing wildly towards Zhenbei City.

Then came the refugees.

Families poured in from the northern villages, shouting that the Northern Barbarians had broken through the pass.

Lin Yan stood on the cliff top and looked north.

A dozen plumes of black smoke rose from the horizon, blown crooked by the wind, like black fingers stuck in the ground.

"How many barbarians?" Xiong Kuo asked.

"The scouts haven't returned yet." Lin Yan turned and walked down the cliff. "Have everyone move the grain into the hidden cave. Carpenter Chen, add two more layers of barricades."

Carpenter Chen wiped his sweat. "We don't have enough materials."

"Tear down that row of empty houses on the east side."

"That's where people live..."

"Fill it up after you've finished hitting it."

Lin Yan's voice wasn't loud, but everyone on the cliff stopped what they were doing.

He walked to the center of the platform and looked at the thirty or so people.

The elderly and disabled, some still using canes, and some even coughing.

"Gentlemen."

Lin Yan said, "The northern barbarians are here."

No one spoke.

Zhang Dabiao pulled out his waist knife, glanced at it, and then put it back in.

Wang Tiezhu clenched his one arm.

"We thirty men cannot hold the northern border."

Lin Yan said, "But we can defend Iron Coffin Cliff. Every hidden ditch and every pitfall on this cliff was built by you. You know this place better than the northern barbarians."

Old Man Lü poked his head out from behind the hidden hole. "How many people have come?"

"I don't know," Lin Yan said. "Kill as many as come."

The next day at noon, the first group of defeated soldiers reached the foot of the cliff.

They are not northern barbarians, but soldiers of the Great Yan.

A dozen or so defeated soldiers, their helmets gone, stumbled and ran from the mountain road to the north. The leader, with a fresh scar on his face, knelt down at the top of the slope.

"Open the door! Please, please open the door!"

Lin Yan stood atop the cliff and looked down. "Which battalion?"

"The Third Company of the Left Battalion of the Zhenbei Army!" Scarface shouted, looking up. "The Northern Barbarians are attacking from the north. Our company was scattered, and only these few remain..."

"How far away are the barbarians?"

"Less than ten li!"

Lin Yan nodded to Xiong Kuo.

Xiong Kuo led his men down to remove the barricades, and the routed soldiers scrambled up the cliff.

There were thirteen people in total.

Scarface's surname is Sun, his name is Sun Dayong, and he is the squad leader of the third team of the left battalion.

Their team was originally guarding a sentry post in the north called Qingshigou. The night before last, they were ambushed by the northern barbarian cavalry, and most of them were killed.

"How many barbarians are there?" Lin Yan asked.

Sun Dayong gulped down a bowl of water, his hands still trembling. "I can't count them all. I saw several thousand cavalry alone, followed by infantry and baggage train. The main force of the Zhenbei Army is tied down at Qipanling and can't retreat at all."

Xiong Kuo and Lin Yan exchanged a glance.

"You mean the main force of the Northern Barbarians?"

"Main force. I've fought for five years and I've never seen so many barbarians." Sun Dayong slammed his bowl on the ground. "How much food do you have left on this cliff? How long can it last?"

"It's enough for us to eat." Lin Yan stood up. "But you have to follow my orders."

Sun Dayong looked up at him. "Who are you?"

"Lin Yan".

Sun Dayong muttered the name twice, then suddenly his eyes widened. "Jimingling Forest Banquet?"

"You recognize me?"

"I recognize you!" Sun Dayong slapped his thigh. "I heard about you in Zhenbei City. You killed Zhao Yuanlang of Qingfengxiang, and you also killed a barbarian scout captain at Qipanling, didn't you?"

Lin Yan did not reply.

Sun Dayong stood up, wiped the blood and mud off his face, and said, "Fine, I'll listen to you. Anyway, I've already been given a second chance at life."

After the defeated soldiers came the refugees.

The first group of refugees arrived in the evening. Dozens of people from the northern villages carried bundles and held children, and their cries could be heard from afar.

Lin Yan instructed Xiong Kuo to remove the barricades, and the refugees surged onto the cliff top, forming a dense, dark mass.

Old Zhou led two veterans to count them one by one, and after they finished, they came to find Lin Yan.

"One hundred and twenty-three," Old Zhou said in a low voice. "There are still people on the way."

"Is there enough food?"

"If we eat sparingly, it can last for ten days," Wang Tiezhu interjected from the side. "Any more people and it won't be enough."

Lin Yan looked at the refugees squatting on the cliff top. An old woman was holding a baby who was crying, and the old woman put her finger into the baby's mouth to make him suck.

"Uncle Tiezhu," Lin Yan said, "we're setting up a soup kitchen."

"Porridge..."

"Set up soup kitchens. Prioritize children and the elderly."

It was already dark when the soup kitchen was set up. Several fires were lit on the cliff top, and the refugees gathered around them to drink soup. When there weren't enough bowls, they used broken tiles and leaves.

By the third day, there were already five or six hundred people on Iron Coffin Cliff.

Most of them were refugees, and a small portion were defeated soldiers.

Lin Yan organized all the capable fighters into a team.

Xiong Kuo led one team, Zhang Dabiao led another team, and Sun Dayong led his original thirteen defeated soldiers to form a team.

Lu Laoyan was in charge of the sentries and traps, Chen the carpenter was in charge of the city's defensive equipment, Wang Tiezhu was in charge of the grain and warehouses, and Lao Zhou led a few veterans who were still able to walk to act as messengers.

"Forest Head."

Sun Dayong walked over and said, "A group of people came down from the cliff. They said they came from Zhenbei City."

Lin Yan walked to the edge of the cliff and looked down.

About twenty soldiers in black armor stood at the entrance to the slope, the leader of whom rode a chestnut horse.

"The Iron Coffin Cliff Guards—"

The cavalryman looked up and shouted, "The Northern Military Government has ordered your unit to immediately evacuate Iron Coffin Cliff and retreat to Zhenbei City!"

Lin Yan stood motionless atop the cliff. "What about the military orders?"

The cavalryman pulled a scroll of silk from his robes and held it above his head. "The military documents are here!"

Lin Yan asked Xiong Kuo to go down and fetch it.

The silk scroll was stamped with the military government's seal and stated that the garrison at Iron Coffin Cliff was to withdraw to Zhenbei City without error.

He closed the silk scroll. "Go back and tell the military government that there are nearly six hundred civilians at Iron Coffin Cliff, and they cannot be evacuated."

The cavalryman was stunned. "What did you say?"

I said we couldn't withdraw.

Lin Yan threw the silk scroll back. "The barbarians are less than ten miles from here. They led six hundred people along the mountain road, but were overtaken by the barbarian cavalry halfway there. If we want to leave, we have to wait until the barbarians retreat."

"you--"

The cavalryman's face flushed red. "You're disobeying orders!"

"Then have the military government send someone over." Lin Yan turned and left. "Send someone to guard for us."

The cavalrymen stood at the top of the ramp for a while, then finally rode away.

Xiong Kuo came closer.

"Chieftain, aren't you afraid to speak to the military officials like that—"

"What are you afraid of?" Lin Yan interrupted him. "Is the military government still sending troops?"

Xiong Kuo opened his mouth.

With the main force of the Zhenbei Army tied down at Qipanling, the military government could probably not even mobilize enough troops to defend Zhenbei City.

The northern barbarians arrived at dusk.

The setting sun turned the western mountains a fiery red, and barbarian cavalry poured out of the mountain pass, first a few dozen scouts, then a large contingent of infantry.

Lin Yan stood atop the cliff, her gaze sweeping across the mountains.

Three thousand.

At least three thousand people.

There were about five hundred cavalry, more than two thousand infantry, and several dozen supply wagons.

"So many."

Xiong Kuo's voice sounded a little hoarse.

"It's good to have many talents," Lin Yan said.

"How much better?"

"Too many people, too much energy. They can't hold out for long." Lin Yan turned to look at the soldiers on the cliff. "Push all the barricades down to block the slope. Roll the boulders to the edge of the cliff, and wait for my command."