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

Zhang Yuan moved, picked up a long spear from the ground, and without saying a word, turned around and walked towards the village entrance. He passed Qi Feng, stood at the base of the wall, facing west, with a resolute look on his face.

"Damn it, aren't they just a bunch of damned barbarians? It's not like I haven't killed them before! This time, let me show you how many of you I can kill!"

Qi Xiaoliu twisted his ankle and walked out from the wall, picked up a knife, and stood next to Zhang Yuan.

With the first two in place, people quickly got to work.

The third, the fourth, the fifth... People started to move from the fleeing troops one after another. Some picked up the bows they had thrown on the ground, and some climbed back onto the wall, but no one ran anymore.

No one spoke, but their faces all showed a resolute expression. Now it was either them or the Great Rong would die; there was no other choice.

In the distance, three hundred cavalrymen huddled together in the night, their iron helmets seemingly gleaming faintly in the moonlight. The sound of hooves approached from afar, growing heavier and faster.

This was their last attack of the night. Qi Feng could even see the lead rider raise his scimitar, the tip pointing directly at Qi Family Village.

Qi Feng gripped his broadsword tightly and shouted behind him, "Six men per row, form ranks!"

The remaining 12 sword-wielding warriors lined up in two rows behind him, six in each row. The front row squatted down with their swords lying horizontally on the ground, while the back row stood up straight with their sword tips pointing outwards at an angle.

These were moves that Qi Feng had taught them countless times in the training field, and they never imagined they would actually use them in this way.

Soon, the first horse charged to the old locust tree, and what greeted it first was a line of flashing swords.

Twelve horse-slaying swords swept out simultaneously close to the ground, severing the front legs of more than a dozen horses, which crashed into a wall of flesh.

The second rank of cavalry charged over the corpses of their comrades, their horses leaping over obstacles and rushing into the alleyway at the village entrance.

Even with archers providing cover on the wall, they couldn't stop the group's attack.

The twelve sword-wielding men didn't have time to form a battle formation. They could only stand in groups of three, back to back against the earthen wall, with their swords held horizontally in the middle of the narrow alley, waiting for the cavalry to charge.

Street fighting has begun.

Urban warfare is more brutal and dirtier than frontal assaults.

The dirt road in Qijia Village was only a little over ten feet wide, with earthen walls and wooden fences on both sides. Once the cavalry charged into the alley, the horses had very little room to turn and could only charge straight along the road.

However, the people in the alley could not retreat either, as the earthen walls on both sides blocked their lateral movement, and they could only endure the pressure.

If you can withstand it, you will survive; if you can't, you will be crushed.

A horse charged in from the alley entrance. Qi Feng sidestepped the horse's hooves by pressing himself against the wall, and as the horse passed, he swung his sword and slashed at the horse's hind leg.

The horse's leg was broken in half, and it lurched forward. The rider fell off the horse and crashed into the wall. Before he could get up, Qi Xiaoliu stabbed him from behind.

But then a second horse squeezed in, its rider carrying a bow.

Although it's impossible to turn around in the narrow alley, you can still draw your bow and shoot at close range.

The arrow flew towards Qi Shitou, landing squarely on his left shoulder.

Qi Shitou grunted, but without loosening his grip on the knife, he raised his right hand and slashed forward.

The rider was less than two steps away when the blade slashed down on the rider's shoulder and neck, causing him to slump and hang limply from the horse's neck.

The horse was startled and ran forward two steps before crashing into the earthen wall opposite, where it became stuck and unable to move.

"Block the alleyway entrance and don't let them in again!"

Qi Feng shouted as he took two steps back, kicked aside the horse carcass blocking his way, and pressed himself back to the alley entrance.

But he soon discovered that this place was impossible to defend. The Rong cavalry had learned their lesson. Instead of rushing in all at once, they bypassed the alleys from both sides and infiltrated from narrower alley entrances, gaps in the courtyard walls, and even behind houses that had been pierced by arrows.

The darkness provided the cavalry with excellent cover, and Qi Feng could only rely on sound to determine direction.

The horses' hooves landed in different places, some on the left, some on the right, and some even flew directly over their heads. That was the roof of the old mill in the village. The building was relatively low, so the cavalrymen could jump directly onto it.

"Master Qi, the shed on the east side is on fire!"

Liu Si roared.

Qi Feng turned his head and saw that a rocket, which had flown from somewhere, had landed on a hay shed in the east of the village.

The dry grass caught fire very quickly, and the flames shot up two or three meters high, illuminating half the village in a bright red glow.

In the firelight, Qi Feng saw the scene he least wanted to see.

At least twenty or thirty cavalrymen had entered the village simultaneously through several gaps in the south and east.

Instead of charging together, they scattered throughout the village, riding horses and hacking and slashing.

Without a commander, the garrison soldiers fought independently.

Some people were knocked down and trampled into a bloody pulp by the horses' hooves.

Some people were cleaved to the ground by the curved blades.

The village has been completely torn apart from the inside.

Qi Feng retreated to the base of the old mill wall and took a couple of breaths. The wound on his shoulder was still bleeding, and his right arm trembled when he raised it.

He knew he couldn't hold out any longer, but he had no other choice. If he didn't rally his scattered troops and band together now, they would be defeated one by one by the cavalry.

"Stone, Liu Si, Xiao Liu! Come with me!"

Qi Feng gathered the people standing at the alley entrance together; originally there were twenty or thirty, but now only ten remained.

"Stop guarding the entire line, shrink back! Everyone shrink back to that area in the middle of the village!"

That was the place where Qijia Village dried grain. Although the terrain was flat and open, the stone mill and haystacks used for drying grain prevented the cavalry from moving around inside.

However, this decision was tantamount to voluntarily abandoning the village's defenses and retreating their last forces to the heart of the village, which was their last resort.

However, Qi Feng had no choice. If they continued to be trapped in the alley and killed separately, they would be wiped out before dawn.

The ten men ran back for their lives, with the sound of horses' hooves chasing behind them.

Qi Xiaoliu had a foot injury and was the slowest runner. Qi Feng turned back, grabbed his arm, and dragged him a few steps. The two of them rolled together behind a haystack at the edge of the threshing ground.

The sound of horses' hooves echoed past where they had just stood, and the scimitars whizzed past, barely grazing their scalps.

However, there were already people waiting on the threshing ground. When they saw Qi Feng and his group arrive, Zhang Yuan and the twenty-odd soldiers who were still able to stand quickly provided cover with their bows and arrows, and Qi Feng and his group then rushed in.

The forty men used an overturned wooden cart and a few bundles of dry grass to build a makeshift shelter, huddled on this paper-thin defensive line, while cavalrymen kept closing in from the outside.

Forty men against more than two hundred cavalrymen—they simply couldn't hold a single point.

An atmosphere of despair gradually spread and began to envelop everyone.

The cavalrymen in the distance also knew that the battle was over, so they stopped their relentless pursuit and began to slow down, circling the threshing ground with their eyes fixed on them.