Border Soldiers: My granaries are full of grain and meat, and I guard this region.

Looking at the cavalry in the distance, Qi Feng held his broadsword horizontally in front of him and roared behind him:

"Pass on my order: all garrison soldiers, take up positions on the wall! Do not fire arrows without my command! Liu Si, lead the archers to press behind the front wall and shoot the back ranks first, ignore the front!"

Zhang Yuan opened his mouth as if to say something, but seeing Qi Feng's resolute eyes, he swallowed his words and turned back to relay the order.

In less than the time it takes to drink a cup of tea, five hundred cavalrymen had already formed their ranks three hundred paces outside the entrance to Qijia Village.

Standing behind the barricades, Qi Feng saw the other party's full appearance for the first time.

Three rows of evenly spaced riders, all wearing iron helmets, with the Great Rong's signature scimitars clipped to the side of their saddles and longbows slung behind their backs.

Unlike the garrison soldiers of Duma Village, they didn't make a ruckus or shout excitedly; everyone sat quietly on their horses, waiting for orders.

This force is clearly not comparable to the border troops of the Sui Dynasty. It's not like the previous test of twelve scouts; this is a real battle force, and this is the true strength that the Great Rong relies on.

This is why, even with its abundant national strength, the Sui Dynasty could not break through Zhenxi Pass. On the plains, these iron cavalry were the nightmare of the Sui infantry.

Liu Si leaned half his body down from the wall and said in a low voice, "Master Qi! I've counted. There are at least three hundred cavalrymen in the back row, and the front row is scouting. They probably want to run out of arrows."

Qi Feng nodded, his gaze sweeping over the cavalry array in front, then glancing towards the south wall of Qi Family Village.

The south wall of Qijia Village is at the corner at the end of the village and cannot be seen from the front, but he knew that the garrison soldiers there probably couldn't even hold their swords properly now.

Of the seven hundred garrison soldiers, less than 20% had actually been on the battlefield, and most of them had never even seen blood.

Outside the village, the lead cavalryman raised his arm, and the cavalrymen in front spurred their horses at the same time.

The sound of horses' hooves went from sporadic at first to a unified chorus, and finally, like thunder, pressed towards the village entrance.

Qi Feng squatted down, placing his hand on the wooden stake of the chevaux-de-frise. He could feel the ground vibrating even through the wood.

The twenty swordsmen behind him were all crouching behind the barricades, their swords lying horizontally on the ground. Each of them was tense, waiting for him to speak.

One hundred steps!

Fifty steps!

The cavalry were getting closer and closer to Qijia Village.

"Archers, fire!"

Upon hearing Qi Feng's order, Liu Si got up from the wall.

Thirty arrows were fired simultaneously, soaring over the heads of the front-line cavalry and precisely embedding themselves in the rear ranks that had not yet dispersed.

Three horses were hit by arrows and fell to the ground, causing a slight disruption in the formation of the rear ranks, but the cavalry in the front ranks had already rushed to the barricades.

The warhorse was blocked by the barricades and had to slow down and raise its head. At that moment, Qi Feng suddenly sprang up.

"kill!"

Twenty horse-slaying swords swept out simultaneously from the gaps in the barricades, their blades drawing an arc along the ground, and then the legs of more than a dozen horses were severed at the same time.

The sounds of horses neighing, men shouting, and blades piercing flesh mingled together. The front rank of cavalrymen fell in a row, rolling on the ground in heaps. The cavalrymen behind them were blocked at the crossroads, unable to rush in or retreat.

The swordsmen didn't try to get credit for themselves. After the first round of sweeping, everyone immediately retreated and crouched back behind the barricades, their movements as practiced as if they had rehearsed a hundred times.

The archers on the wall immediately fired a second volley of arrows, calling out the names of the riders who had fallen off their horses and hadn't had time to get up.

Fortunately, after these days of training, Qi Feng's soldiers, while not all of them are sharpshooters, can guarantee that at least six out of ten arrows will hit the target, and at such close range, they can hit the target every time.

In an instant, the fifty vanguard riders were scattered in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, with many dead or wounded.

The survivors retreated, leaving behind more than twenty warhorses lying on the ground waiting to die, and a dozen or so wounded soldiers who couldn't get up.

There was a moment of silence at the village entrance, followed by a roar that erupted from within Qijia Village.

The soldiers peered over the wall, some cheering, some cursing, the fear that had been weighing on them all day completely dissipating in that moment.

It turns out that these cavalrymen are not as difficult to deal with as I thought. With Qi Feng here, it seems that these cavalrymen will not be able to break through.

This was the thought in the minds of the seven hundred garrison soldiers.

However, Qi Feng did not shout. He squatted behind the barricade, wiped the blood from his knife onto his trouser leg, and stared intently at the cavalry regrouping in the distance.

Of the five hundred cavalry, only about twenty were lost, leaving four hundred and seventy riders outside. The enemy's formation remained intact, and their morale was not broken.

The lead rider merely glanced back at the corpses on the ground, waved his hand expressionlessly, and the remaining cavalrymen regrouped, splitting into three groups once more.

Qi Feng's heart sank upon seeing this.

The leader's mental fortitude was far superior to that of the previous cavalrymen; the enemy was clearly changing tactics.

"Liu Si, have the garrison concentrate all their archers at the front! Leave only swordsmen and shieldmen on the south wall, and move all the archers over here!"

Qi Feng shouted to Liu Si, and the next moment a dozen or so quivers were passed down from the top of the wall. Together with the ones they already had, the archers on the front line barely had enough arrows to hold thirty.

But Qi Feng knew perfectly well that these thirty arrows were no match for the three waves of cavalry charging in turn. His real trump card was the twenty horse-slaying swords behind the barricades.

But how many rounds could those twenty swords withstand against 470 cavalrymen?

Meanwhile, in the county government office of Fuxing County, Zhong Shao had been standing in front of the map for almost half an hour without moving.

Zhao Tongchuan came in from outside, holding a newly arrived military report in his hand, his face extremely grim.

Zhao Tongchuan placed the military report on the table, his voice hoarse:

"The scouts from Qing Shi Ao have reported back that this time the soldiers are from the Huli family, a direct vassal tribe of the Huli clan chief, not ordinary cavalry."

Zhong Shao didn't turn around, but simply asked, "How many people are there?"

"Five hundred, but we don't know if there will be reinforcements. The scouts ran back as soon as they saw Qing Shi Ao."

Zhong Shao pressed his finger on the location of Qijia Village on the map, pressing so hard that the map dented.

He took a deep breath, closed his eyes, and then opened them again.

"Qi Feng only has fifty capable fighters; he's holding off seven hundred garrison soldiers all by himself... and five hundred cavalry..."

Zhong Shao didn't finish his sentence, but Zhao Tongchuan could understand the meaning behind it.

Zhao Tongchuan was silent for a moment, then said in a low voice, "Should we have him withdraw first?"

Zhong Shao shook his head.

"We can't retreat. He's in Qijia Village now. The cavalry can advance there in half an hour. They might have arrived by now. If we retreat, we'll surely die. He's holding out for a while, so we can hold him off for a bit."

After Zhong Shao finished speaking, he paused and added, "But how long he can drag it out depends on himself."

Zhao Tongchuan didn't say anything more, he just stood there looking at the tiny, almost invisible dot on the map, which had three words marked on it.

Qijia Village.