From bone collectors to the supreme ruler of humanity

The barbarians set up camp at the foot of the cliff. Campfires lit up the cliff face, illuminating the area below.

A barbarian general rode his horse to the top of the slope.

The man was burly, with a full beard, and carried a nine-ringed broadsword on his shoulder.

"Listen up, you people up there!"

The barbarian general spoke in broken Yan dialect, saying, "Hand over the grain and weapons from Iron Coffin Cliff, and I'll spare your lives!"

Lin Yan stood atop the cliff, looking down. "Who are you?"

"Commander of the Northern Barbarian Vanguard Camp..." The barbarian general swung his nine-ringed broadsword. "And who are you?"

"Lin Yan, the garrison commander of Iron Coffin Cliff."

The barbarian general burst into laughter, his voice booming like thunder. "The commander of Iron Coffin Cliff? You? A mere brat who hasn't even grown up yet?"

Lin Yan remained silent.

He took a bow from Lu Laonian, nocked an arrow, and drew it fully.

The barbarian general was still laughing, "How many soldiers do you have on this cliff? A hundred? Two hundred? Do you know how many I have under my command—"

The arrow pierced the sky and fell.

The barbarian dodged to the side, and the arrow grazed his ear, taking half of it away.

The laughter stopped abruptly.

The barbarian covered his ears, and blood gushed from between his fingers.

He looked up at the cliff top, his mockery turning into fury.

"Beat them!"

The first wave of barbarians that attacked numbered about three hundred.

They were all infantry, carrying round shields and ladders, charging up the slope.

"Don't rush to fight."

Lin Yan squatted at the edge of the cliff, watching the barbarians climb up step by step, "waiting until they squeeze to the narrowest part of the slope."

The narrowest part of the slope is about fifty steps from the top of the cliff, only wide enough for six people to walk side by side.

Three hundred barbarians were crammed together here, so crowded that they couldn't even turn around.

"beat!"

Carpenter Chen cut the rope with a single stroke.

The boulders piled up at the edge of the cliff crashed down with a thunderous roar.

The slope was packed with people; there was nowhere to hide.

As the rolling stones passed over them, screams of agony filled the air.

More than a dozen ladders were smashed, and splinters of wood mixed with blood and flesh flew everywhere.

The first wave of barbarians retreated before even reaching the edge of the cliff, leaving behind seventy or eighty corpses on the slope.

The young men on the cliff cheered.

Lin Yan didn't laugh, but calmly said, "Reassemble the rolling stones. They'll come back."

The second wave came even faster.

This time there were 500 infantrymen, divided into three groups.

One group attacked the slope head-on, while the other two groups climbed up from either side of the cliff.

Although the cliff face is not straight up and down, it is still very steep.

The barbarians used their short knives to cut into the crevices in the rocks, climbing up inch by inch with great difficulty.

"Oil," Lin Yan said.

Wang Tiezhu led a few people to carry several earthenware jars to the edge of the cliff.

The jar contains pine resin oil that was boiled down a few days ago.

"fall!"

At Lin Yan's command, the pine resin flowed down the cliff face, pouring onto the climbing barbarians.

Lu Laonian immediately picked up a torch and threw it down.

A burst of fire erupted from the cliff face.

Without exception, all of these northern barbarians, who had been doused with pine resin, were engulfed in flames.

One by one, they screamed and fell to the ground.

Even the barbarians who were attacking the slope were thrown back by the rolling stones.

When it was completely dark, the barbarians retreated.

Standing atop the cliff, Lin Yan gazed at the dense cluster of campfires below and murmured:

"Bring it up."

Xiong Kuo paused for a moment, then subconsciously asked, "Lift what?"

"The arrows and knives on the barbarian corpses. We're short of iron." Lin Yan finished speaking and turned to walk towards the cliff edge, saying, "We'll take turns keeping watch tonight; the barbarians won't let this go."

Day .

Half of the food supplies have been destroyed.

There were too many refugees, and the porridge at the soup kitchens was getting thinner and thinner. When Wang Tiezhu came to find Lin Yan, he looked unwell.

"We only have enough food for three days."

Wang Tiezhu opened the ledger. "The food we've stored up, plus the rations brought by Sun Dayong and the others, should last us at most three days. That's based on one bowl of thin porridge per person per day."

Lin Yan glanced through the account book. "Eat sparingly."

"If we cut back any further, we'll be drinking rice gruel." Wang Tiezhu closed the ledger. "Chief, we need to think of a solution."

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

Smoke curled from the barbarian camp as they roasted lamb.

"They have food," Lin Yan said.

Wang Tiezhu thought he had misheard. "You want to go and raid the barbarians' grain?"

"It's not about looting supplies." Lin Yan pointed to the east side of the barbarian camp. "Look over there, their supply wagons. If we can burn a batch of them, the barbarians will retreat."

"How do I cook it?"

Lin Yan called Xiong Kuo and Sun Dayong over, "Tonight, pick ten people and go raid them."

Xiong Kuo frowned. "The barbarians have surrounded us like an iron barrel. How are we supposed to get close?"

Lu Laonian crawled out from behind the hidden hole, "I have a way."

He spread out a crookedly drawn map. It was a map of the cliff bottom that he had drawn over the past few days.

"The main force of the barbarians is down the southern slope. But there is a hidden ditch at the foot of the eastern cliff, which was dug by the Mountain Battalion back then. The entrance to the ditch is blocked by boulders, so the barbarians probably didn't find it. Their supply camp is three miles away from the hidden ditch."

How did you know?

"I walked through here twenty years ago," said Lu Laonian. "This ditch was dug on the orders of Commander Gu, and at the time only the supply train crew knew about it."

Lin Yan stood up. "The operation will take place tonight. I'll lead the team."

At the third quarter of midnight, the moon was dark and the wind was high.

Lin Yan selected ten people.

Xiong Kuo, Sun Dayong, and eight other agile and daring young men.

Old Man Lü led them into a narrow crevice in the eastern cliff face, covered by vines. The crevice was so narrow that one could only squeeze through sideways. After squeezing through for about twenty steps, the space suddenly opened up ahead.

It was a ditch that was taller than a person, with shallow water at the bottom.

"Go three miles east, and you'll reach the supply depot." Old Man Lü handed the tinderbox to Lin Yan. "Be careful."

Eleven people walked in the dark through the ditch.

The water was ankle-deep, and stepping on it made a slight splashing sound.

Xiong Kuo walked at the front, holding a knife in one hand and probing the way with the other.

It took more than half an hour to walk three miles.

The mouth of the gully was blocked by boulders, and the firelight from the barbarian camp shone through the cracks. Lin Yan lay on the cracks in the rocks, looking out.

The supply depot was less than fifty paces from the mouth of the ditch.

Dozens of large carts were lined up in two rows, piled with grain and arrows. There were about thirty or forty guards, most of whom were dozing off. Only four or five were on patrol.

"Quick action."

Lin Yan lowered his voice, "Add fuel to the fire, don't linger."

Eleven people filed out of the ditch. Each of them had a bamboo tube of pine resin hanging from his waist.

Lin Yan was the first to sneak up to the supply wagons, pour pine resin oil on one of the grain wagons, and throw a tinderbox. Xiong Kuo and the others acted almost simultaneously, and more than a dozen grain wagons were on fire in the blink of an eye.

Once the fire started, chaos erupted in the barbarian camp.

"Fire!"

"The swallow-dog is in the baggage train—"

Lin Yan sliced ​​down the charging barbarian guard with a single stroke. "Retreat!"

Eleven people took off running into the ditch.

The shouts of the barbarian pursuers behind them were deafening, and the firelight illuminated half the sky.

As he reached the mouth of the ditch, a cold arrow shot from behind.

Lin Yan dodged to the side, and the arrow embedded itself in the stone wall next to him.

He turned around and slashed down the barbarian who was chasing him, then rolled over and disappeared into the ditch.

By the time the barbarians had moved the boulders at the mouth of the ditch, Lin Yan and Xiong Kuo had already made their way back to the top of the cliff through the hidden ditch.

The barbarians' supplies were reduced by a third, and their offensive slowed down significantly.