A family of loyal martyrs, starting with nine wives to continue the family line.

"Waaah—waaah—"

Three long blasts, two short blasts and one urgent blast.

Wei Zhao led Liu Jingshuang quickly to the city wall.

Outside the Great Wall, an army of 200,000 is poised to march.

Cavalry in front, infantry behind, siege engines, catapults, and ladders—all were brought along.

The city wall stretched for three miles, seemingly endless from left to right. The ground felt heavy from the hooves and boots of the horses, and the vibrations traveled up the base of the wall, making the soles of my feet itch.

Zhao Qing handed the binoculars to Wei Zhao.

The leather armor worn by the front-ranking cavalry was not uniform in color; some were dark brown, some were grayish-white, and a few were clearly wearing Wei-style armor.

Most of them were obtained through previous border raids; the horses were of varying quality, some tall, some short, some fat, and some thin.

The infantry in the back row were even more mixed.

Some people were carrying proper spears, while others were holding sharpened wooden sticks.

Some wore iron armor, some were only wrapped in a layer of animal skin, and some were even barefoot, walking on the gravel ground.

Wei Zhao put down the binoculars, completely unperturbed.

In his eyes, this so-called army of 200,000 was nothing more than a makeshift troupe cobbled together from scattered sand.

For decades, Xian Yuan was caught between the Great Wei and the Donghu. His greatest skill was not fighting, but choosing sides.

They're good at winning when things are going well, but when they run into a tough opponent, they run faster than anyone else.

Of these 200,000 people, at most 30,000 to 40,000 are truly combat-ready.

The rest were herdsmen forcibly conscripted from various tribes by the King of Xianyuan. Yesterday they were herding sheep on the pasture, and today they were shoved with spears and pushed onto the battlefield.

These people don't want to fight.

For them, having spent most of their lives wandering and struggling on the grasslands, being able to live peacefully with the Great Wei and exchange it for a stable life would be better than anything else.

Liu Jingshuang took two steps forward, getting half a body length closer to Wei Zhao.

"Xiao Guanyin should be down below."

Wei Zhao paused for a moment on the edge of the crenellation.

Liu Jingshuang's phoenix eyes swept over the Xianyuan King's banner below the city, and she lowered her voice.

"Should we be more careful?"

Wei Zhao did not answer immediately.

Xiao Guanyin and Tuoba Yue are different.

Tuoba Yue returned to Western Qiang through political maneuvering. The old Western Qiang king fell seriously ill and could not get out of bed, so Tuoba Ye fled.

There was already a large number of people within the royal court who did not want to fight, and Helian Cuo's group secretly cooperated with them. In addition, the victory of the Great Wei at Yumen Pass gave her enough confidence.

What about fresh ingredients?

King Xianyuan was in good health and could still ride a horse and draw a bow even in his sixties.

He genuinely pledged allegiance to the Donghu and truly wanted to take action against the Great Wei. He wasn't being led astray; he took the initiative to be at the forefront.

What can Xiao Guanyin do over there?

There's nothing we can do.

A princess who has married into a powerful enemy state, whose husband is a general who died in battle, can have ten people waiting for her to use against her with every word she says in the Xianyuan court.

She didn't even have the right to object.

When the old lady sent her back, she probably thought of this as well, but she still let her go.

Wei Zhao closed his eyes, and the words from the old lady's last letter flashed through his mind.

Every move the old lady made was at the cost of the Wei family's lives.

Tuoba Yue was sent to Xiqiang, Huo Qingluan was sent to Jianmen Pass, and Nie Yinniang almost ended up in the hands of the nine assassins from the Seven Kill Tower.

Xiao Guanyin—she probably never intended to come back alive from the day she stepped out of the Wei family mansion.

Wei Zhao thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Take care of them if you can."

He paused for a moment.

"But if you can't take care of it—don't force yourself."

Liu Jingshuang's jaw tightened for a moment, her fingers gripping the hilt of the knife before relaxing.

She didn't say anything; that was the answer.

There are no perfect options on the battlefield. It wasn't that Wei Zhao didn't want to save Xiao Guanyin, but when 200,000 Xianyuan troops pressed in, he had to prioritize.

If Hangu Pass falls, tens of millions of people in the six eastern provinces will lose their lives.

Below the city walls, the sound of bugles grew ever closer.

The vanguard of the Xianyuan army had advanced to within three miles of the pass, with the cavalry divided into three routes: left, center, and right, and the siege engines pushed to the front.

Wei Zhao took the binoculars and looked closely in the direction of the Xianyuan King's flag.

Beneath the royal banner, King Xianyuan rode a tall gray horse, wearing a white animal skin cloak with gold trim, a tall fur crown, and holding a curved sword in his hand.

The man, in his sixties, sat upright on his horse, his cheeks flushed red from the wind.

He looked very excited.

He was surrounded by a circle of nobles and generals, who swarmed around him like flies around a piece of meat.

Wei Zhao shifted his gaze half an inch back.

In the third row behind King Xianyuan, a woman in a gray-blue robe rode on a brown horse.

She wore no accessories, her hair was simply held in place with a plain hairpin, and her hands rested on the front edge of the saddle.

Xiao Guanyin.

Her gaze was fixed on the city wall of Hangu Pass, her eyes filled with worry.

I wonder how well Wei Zhao is preparing, and whether he has taken over the defense of Hangu Pass?

Zhao Qing held out for two months. How much fighting force did Guan Shang have left?

At that moment, a figure in a green robe rode up to her side.

Helian Cuo.

This man was in his early fifties, with a goatee and a perpetually enigmatic smile that made it difficult to discern whether he was good or evil.

The Right Chancellor of Xianyuan was the second most powerful figure in the court, and his mind was ten times clearer than that of the King of Xianyuan.

"Is the princess worried about the guards on the city walls?"

Helian Cuo's lips curled up slightly, with an indescribable mischievousness in them.

Xiao Guanyin turned her head, snorted coldly, and stared at him.

"Hmph, I'm worried about these young men from Xianyuan who are about to die."

Helian Cuo's smile froze for a second.

Xianyuan Wang glanced at Xiao Guanyin but didn't say anything more.

"All troops, listen to my command!"

Two hundred thousand fresh troops all looked up.

King Xianyuan rode on a gray horse, his white animal-hide cloak billowing in the wind, his old face filled with barely suppressed excitement.

He drew his scimitar and raised it high above his head.

"Charge into Hangu Pass, occupy Wei territory, and let the world know that Xianyuan is not a vassal, nor a fence-sitter!"

"Whoever scales the fort first—will be rewarded with a thousand pieces of gold and a fiefdom of ten thousand households!"

The Xianyuan cavalry began to move, the hooves of the front rank horses crushing the frozen ground and raising a cloud of dust.

The infantrymen in the rear surged forward, and the wooden wheels of the siege engine rolled over the gravel with a dull thud.

Xiao Guanyin rode on a brown horse, her lips tightly pressed together.

She glanced back at Helian Cuo.

Helian Cuo stood still, his goatee swaying in the wind, his hands tucked into his sleeves, and the ambiguous smile on his face finally disappeared.

Instead, a sense of desolation prevailed.

Xiao Guanyin turned her head and stared at the high wall of Hangu Pass.

There were figures moving on the city wall.

The flag of the Wei family army has been changed to a white background with black characters, and the character "Wei" is fluttering in the wind.

Her heart sank.

……

On the city wall of Hangu Pass.

Wei Zhao put down the binoculars.

"It moved."

Liu Jingshuang leaned closer and glanced down at the city walls.

The vanguard of the Xianyuan army had already crossed the two-mile line, and the cavalry had spread out in three routes, with the siege engines slowly approaching from the front.

"The formation is spread out, with cavalry on the flanks and infantry pressing the center."

Liu Jingshuang narrowed her eyes.