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

Night falls.

Despite the fierce defense of the soldiers guarding Yumen Pass, the Western Qiang army did not gain any advantage.

They only sounded the retreat when it got dark.

But the people inside the city became serious upon hearing the enemy sound the retreat.

Wei Zhao turned around and glanced at Liu Jingshuang and Huo Qingluan standing behind him.

"Begin setting up."

Two words, light and airy.

But everyone present knew the weight of those two words—tonight was the real life-or-death battle.

After a full day of fighting, the Western Qiang lost more than 3,000 corpses, while the Wei family army suffered fewer than 200 casualties.

This casualty ratio would be considered impressive in any siege battle, but Wei Zhao was not happy at all.

Because this battle was fought too easily.

It was so effortless, unlike anything Tuoba Ye had ever done.

"All three gaps were filled according to plan."

Huo Qingluan had already descended from the city tower, her command flag waving twice in the twilight.

Five thousand heavily armored soldiers silently divided into three groups, like three silent lumps of iron, embedded in the shadows inside the city wall.

Liu Jingshuang stood beside Wei Zhao, her phoenix eyes fixed on the dark Gobi Desert outside the city gate.

"Are you sure you want to leave the city?"

"Sure."

Liu Jingshuang didn't try to persuade her anymore. The shot fired on the training ground yesterday had already proven everything.

She couldn't stop him, and there was no need to.

"Then I'll wait for your signal." Liu Jingshuang turned and walked towards the cavalry camp, her steps crisp and decisive.

Wei Zhao stood alone on the city wall, watching the sky gradually darken.

The wind blew from the Gobi Desert, dry and carrying the lingering smell of blood from the day.

He is waiting.

Waiting for those shadows crawling in the darkness.

child time.

The number of torches at Yumen Pass was deliberately reduced by more than half, leaving only a few scattered lights.

It looked like the defenders were exhausted and had become lax in their defenses.

This was Huo Qingluan's idea—to give the Western Qiang people the illusion that their "defense force was lax."

Wei Zhao squatted behind the crenellations of the city wall, his white wax spear resting across his knees.

He wasn't wearing armor, but rather a black, close-fitting outfit, making him almost invisible in the night.

He could hear extremely faint sounds outside the city walls.

It wasn't the wind.

It was the sound of fingernails digging into a crack in the stone.

The sound of cloth boots stepping on dry, cracked mud.

Breathing sounds—breathing that is deliberately suppressed, almost touching the back of the throat.

Sure enough, just after midnight, the night was pitch black.

A Qiang soldier was the first to climb onto the city wall. Just as he was about to use the torch on the wall to survey his surroundings, he was suddenly pierced through the head by a spear!

The Western Qiang soldiers stood frozen in place, their hands still gripping the crenellations, their bodies like wooden stakes nailed to the city wall.

He silently laid the body down inside the crenellation.

Then stand up.

Immediately afterwards, horns suddenly sounded throughout the city!

Then, suddenly, a large number of fire arrows were launched from Yumen Pass, and a large number of torches were ignited instantly.

On the city wall, countless rockets soared into the sky, trailing orange-red flames.

Countless rockets streaked across the sky, drawing hundreds of arcs, like a suddenly unfurled net of fire, illuminating every inch of land below the city walls.

Wei Zhao stood behind the battlements and looked down.

The moment the firelight illuminated the scene, his heart skipped a beat—not out of fear, but out of excitement.

Below the city wall, there were countless figures.

At least five thousand people.

They clung to the city wall like ants; some had already climbed halfway up, some had just tied ropes, and some were still crouching at the base of the wall waiting to climb up.

The rocket illuminated their faces—faces smeared with black mud, terrified, their murderous intent instantly replaced by helplessness.

Then the arrows fell.

It wasn't a scattered scattering, but a barrage of arrows.

Huo Qingluan had arranged five hundred crossbowmen inside the city wall beforehand, and they pulled the triggers at the same moment the rockets were launched.

The sound of the crossbow strings snapping was continuous, like a downpour hitting sheet metal.

The Western Qiang soldiers below the city wall didn't even have time to utter a complete scream.

The person climbing in mid-air was pinned to the wall by arrows. When the rope loosened, the person and the rope fell down.

The person crouching at the base of the wall wanted to run, but there were people all around, crammed together. The crossbow bolt plunged into the crowd, piercing two people with one arrow.

The firelight turned the entire city wall crimson, and blood flowed down the cracks in the stones, resembling molten copper in the flames.

"Kill!" roared the Wei family soldiers on the city wall.

Old Zhou squatted behind the crenellation, gripping the chipped spear in his hand, and thrusting it downwards with all his might.

The spearhead pierced the shoulder of a Western Qiang soldier, who screamed as he fell off the city wall.

Old Zhou's hands were trembling, but his mouth was wide open, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth.

"You bastard! You can't beat me during the day, so you steal at night!"

The young soldier next to him was also throwing stones down, sweating profusely and cursing under his breath.

There are three gaps.

Just as Wei Zhao had predicted, the elite squad of the Western Qiang had already dug through the sandbags and sneaked inside the city wall.

Just as the seven or eight people in front of them crawled in, before they could even get their feet on the ground, a dull metallic clanging sound suddenly rang out in the darkness.

Five thousand heavily armored soldiers stepped out of the shadows.

The shield wall closed.

"Bang!"

The sound was amplified three times in the narrow gap in the passage.

The sound of iron shields clashing together was like a coffin lid being slammed shut.

The Western Qiang soldiers who had sneaked in were trapped in a space less than three zhang wide.

The shield wall was in front, but the gap behind it had been sealed off by the second rank of heavy armored soldiers.

The greatsword for slaying horses emerged from the gap in the shield.

No unnecessary movements. One slash, one kill.

The whole process was eerily quiet.

The heavily armored soldiers didn't shout or roar; only the muffled thud of blades piercing flesh and the crisp sound of bones breaking could be heard.

outside the city.

Tuoba Ye stood on a low hill at the entrance to Eagle's Beak Gorge.

He saw the firelight suddenly appear on the city wall.

My heart sank.

The night raid failed.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

Failure is failure; the loss is only five thousand vanguard soldiers, and he still has over two hundred thousand men under his command. It's not a serious blow.

As long as Yumen Pass remains, he has plenty of time to wear it down.

But the next moment, his pupils suddenly contracted.

The city gates opened.

The heavy iron gate of Yumen Pass slowly opened to both sides in the firelight.

A large white banner burst out from the doorway, embroidered with a huge "Wei" character.

Beneath the great banner, a white-clad cavalry general led the way, his white wax spear gleaming coldly in the firelight.

It was Wei Zhao. Closely following behind were ten thousand elite cavalry, their hooves thundering and kicking up clouds of dust.

Following behind, Liu Jingshuang led 40,000 cavalrymen out in single file, surging like an iron torrent towards the Gobi Desert in the night.

Tuoba Ye's first reaction was not panic, but bewilderment.

Then he laughed.

"Are you crazy?"

He genuinely believed that the opposing team's commander had lost his mind.

You saw through my night raid. Well, I'm impressed.

But wouldn't it be enough if you just guarded the city?

Fifty thousand cavalry charged out; how many people were left in the city?

The walls of Yumen Pass were already riddled with holes. Letting the cavalry out was like peeling off the thickest layer of iron.

But now that Yumen Pass has opened its gates, the enemy commander must have lost his mind to actually send his cavalry out to attack!