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

"attack!"

At the entrance to Eagle's Beak Gorge, Tuoba Ye, the eldest prince of the Western Qiang, reined in his warhorse and pointed his bone staff forward.

Eighty thousand elite troops surged out from both sides of the valley, carrying a cloud of sand and dust, and rushed towards Yumen Pass.

He rode a grey-maned warhorse and wore a dark brown animal skin cloak.

Half of his face was covered by sand and dust, but the one eye that was visible burned with an ambitious fire.

He wasn't as steady as his father.

He was even more ruthless than his father.

To the west of the pass, the war drums of the 200,000-strong tribal coalition had been beating for half an hour.

The deep drumbeats rolled across the Gobi Desert, causing rubble to fall from the walls of Yumen Pass.

The first wave of Western Qiang infantrymen charged forward with howls, carrying rough wooden shields and stone axes, their feet treading on the cracked riverbed, moving at an astonishing speed.

They didn't wear heavy armor, only a layer of hardened cowhide, and they were more agile than rabbits when running in the mountains and deserts.

Arrows rained down from the city walls.

However, 30% of the crossbow bolts that were fired were off-target—half of the crossbow string was broken, and the rest were loose beyond recognition.

This is Yumen Pass under Zhao Yuanlang's rule; even the guards' equipment is rotten.

Fortunately, those standing on the city wall were no longer all the Zhenxi Army soldiers who were so hungry they could barely hold their swords.

The 50,000 veterans that Liu Jingshuang brought from Yanmen Pass are now deployed in four directions along the city wall.

The shield bearers crouched behind the crenellations, while the spearmen poked their spear tips out from the gaps.

The crossbowmen used the standard powerful crossbows brought by the Wei family army. The crossbow strings were newly replaced, and the arrows were so sharp they could cut through iron.

"put!"

A captain shouted at the top of his lungs.

The first volley of crossbow bolts fired, densely packed into the front ranks of the Western Qiang infantry.

Screams rose and fell. But those behind stepped over the corpses in front and continued to surge upwards.

The ladders under the city wall have been erected.

The Wei family army taxi drivers remained silent as they pushed the logs and stones down.

The dull thud was mixed with the cracking sound of bones breaking, and the Qiang soldiers who had climbed halfway up the ladder were thrown down like ripped sacks.

Old Zhou squatted behind the battlements, clutching a chipped spear in his hand.

Beside him were two shield bearers from the Wei family army.

The two young men had cold, hard expressions and moved as decisively as machines—blocking, pushing, blocking again, and pushing again.

Old Zhou glanced at it and suddenly felt a lump in his throat.

They were different from their emaciated, starving brothers. These men had a light in their eyes.

It is the light of someone who has eaten their fill.

Central Military Council Room.

Wei Zhao sat behind the desk, holding a dry biscuit in his hand, slowly munching on it.

The shouts of battle outside the city came through the thick walls, muffled and indistinct, as if through a layer of cotton.

He didn't go out.

It's not that I don't care, it's that there's no need to.

His command stat of 1100 made his brain function like a high-speed simulation machine.

The 200,000 Western Qiang soldiers outside the city attacked the city in several routes, and the density of troops, the number and types of siege weapons in each route were all carefully considered.

The messages sent back by the scouts every fifteen minutes were automatically pieced together in his mind into a complete panoramic view of the battlefield.

There are two words written on the picture.

Feigned attack.

"This is so fake." Wei Zhao stuffed the last bite of the dry biscuit into his mouth and patted the crumbs off his hands.

What are the Western Qiang people best at? Mountain night raids.

These people have been working their way up in the mountains for generations, and they are more skilled at scaling walls and sneaking out in the dark than eating during the day.

And you're telling me they attacked the city head-on in broad daylight, under the blazing sun?

The ladders were made from hastily cut wood, so rough they looked like firewood racks.

Where's the battering ram? No. Where's the catapult? No.

How could a group of foot soldiers climb the city wall with stone axes?

"Tuoba Ye has fought so many battles, he can't be that stupid."

Wei Zhao turned his gaze away from the window and looked at Huo Qingluan sitting opposite him.

Huo Qingluan was drawing something on parchment with a charcoal pencil.

Wei Zhao glanced at it—it was a map of the defense layout of Yumen Pass, with every crenellation, every section of the city wall, and every weak point clearly marked.

"Three sides of the city wall collapsed, and the three places that were blocked with sandbags were the locations that were targeted during today's daytime offensive."

Huo Qingluan didn't even raise her head, her voice cold.

"He's testing the waters. This wave during the day was just cannon fodder to test our firepower distribution and troop deployment."

Wei Zhao nodded. It was the same as what he had thought.

The daytime siege was essentially a large-scale armed reconnaissance operation.

Tuoba Ye used the low-value tribal coalition as expendable resources to figure out the defensive deployment of the Wei family army.

The real killer move will be made tonight.

Night raid.

Wei Zhao stood up and walked to the map of the Western Regions.

His finger traced the three collapsed sections of the city wall in turn.

"They'll definitely sneak in through these three gaps tonight. A wall blocked with sandbags can be breached by one person."

He turned to look at Huo Qingluan.

"Qingluan, have you ever set up a formation for night battles?"

Huo Qingluan stopped using her charcoal pencil.

She raised her cool eyes, a rare glint of excitement flashing within them.

"I've never done this before. But I want to give it a try."

She stood up, walked to the topographic map, and drew three circles at the three gaps with charcoal.

"Divide the heavy armored troops into three groups of five thousand men each, and hide them inside the breach."

"When the Western Qiang people sneaked in, let a group of them come in first—once they came in, close the shield wall and shut the door to beat them."

Wei Zhao pondered for two seconds.

Close the door and beat the dogs. Let a batch in, then surround and kill them.

The advantage is that it can maximize the killing power, but the disadvantage is that if too many are let in, it will become a street battle if it cannot be contained.

Street fighting is advantageous to the Western Qiang. They are highly skilled in individual combat, and their close-quarters fighting ability is far superior to that of the new recruits of the Wei family army.

"Control the number of people allowed in; each gap should not exceed two hundred people."

Wei Zhao looked at Huo Qingluan's picture and added a comment.

"If it exceeds two hundred, shut it up immediately."

Huo Qingluan nodded, her charcoal pencil quickly marking the diagram.

At that moment, the curtain was lifted, and Liu Jingshuang walked in.

She still smelled of the dust from the city walls, and there were a few dark red bloodstains on the cuffs of her plain-colored outfit—not hers, but splattered on.

"The situation outside is under control."

Liu Jingshuang sat down at the table and casually poured herself a bowl of cold water and took a sip.

"The Western Qiang people retreated, and they died with a death toll of around three thousand. Our side suffered fewer than two hundred casualties."

"Less than I expected," Wei Zhao said.

"You don't care about the daytime."

Liu Jingshuang put down the water bowl and glanced at the topographical map on the table with her phoenix eyes.

"You're waiting for tonight."

It's not a question, it's a statement.

Wei Zhao did not deny it.

"Jing Shuang, you will be in charge of the city's defenses tonight. Qing Luan will be responsible for setting up the formations at the three breaches."

He paused for a moment.

"I'm leaving the city."

Liu Jingshuang stopped.

"Leave the city?"

"Tuoba Ye will definitely not be under the city walls tonight."

Wei Zhao's finger traced across the map, landing on the location of Eagle's Beak Gorge.

"He would be watching from the hilltop behind. If the night raid succeeded, he would oversee the pursuit. If the night raid failed, he would retreat through the mountain path."

"I'm going to find him."

Liu Jingshuang narrowed her phoenix eyes.

"You alone? Leaving the city? Going to the enemy camp?"

"It's not the enemy camp, it's his command post," Wei Zhao corrected.

"To catch the thief, first catch the king. Tonight, his attention is entirely on the city wall, leaving the rear defenses the weakest."

"What if he's heavily guarded?"

"My physique is 1905."

Wei Zhao couldn't say it out loud, so he put it another way:

"A thousand people can't stop me."

Liu Jingshuang stared at him for three breaths.

There was a moment of silence inside the tent.

"No." She shook her head.

"It's too risky. You're the commander-in-chief; you can't put yourself in danger."

Wei Zhao had expected her to say that.

"Then let's give it a try." He stood up, his tone casual.

"Let's have a match on the training ground. If I win, I'll go. If I lose, you can do as you say."

Liu Jingshuang was stunned for a moment.

She looked into Wei Zhao's eyes, trying to find any trace of bravado or resentment.

No. Those eyes were clear and calm, like a deep pool of frozen water.

He wasn't taking a risk. He genuinely believed he could do it.

"Okay." Liu Jingshuang stood up, her phoenix eyes revealing something new—not just worry, but also a hint of curiosity.

During the battle at Yanmen Pass, she witnessed the counterattack.

At that time, Wei Zhao was still unfamiliar with mounted combat and had not really fought against experts in foot combat.

As for Liu Jingshuang, she went to the battlefield at the age of fifteen and practiced marksmanship for thirteen years.

She wanted to know just how powerful her brother-in-law was.

On the drill ground, the light of dusk dyed the Gobi Desert a dark gold.

Wei Zhao and Liu Jingshuang stood facing each other, each holding a white wax spear.

The spearhead was not covered with cloth.

It's the real deal.

Huo Qingluan stood with her arms crossed at the edge of the training ground, her face as indifferent as ever, but her eyes remained fixed on the center of the field.

Su Qingyun moved a small stool to sit next to her, and at some point she put away the abacus in her hand and replaced it with a handful of melon seeds.