If I made you cannon fodder, how did you manage to achieve your goal of conquering the wolf's l

At this moment, the cold wind of Grizzly Ridge seemed to carry a rusty, metallic smell.

The battle had completely ceased. The bloody encirclement that had taken place in Luoergou left the canyon with only shattered armor and deathly silence. The clang of clashing weapons was gone, replaced by the restless pawing of warhorses in the snow and the suppressed breathing of prisoners bound together and kneeling in the snow.

Xu Qingshan slowly sheathed the blood-soaked steel longsword, the sound of its blade scraping against the scabbard echoing coldly in the empty valley, like a long sigh on a winter night. He glanced around, his gaze sweeping over the enemy corpses strewn across the ground and over the neatly stacked spoils: three hundred sets of standard lamellar armor, forged from fine iron, gleaming coldly in the dim moonlight—ironclad evidence earned by the soldiers of the Northern Wall with their lives; and the patrol soldiers, bound tightly—key witnesses to be sent to the execution ground in Yunzhou.

The victory was far more decisive and swift than Xu Qingshan had anticipated. Fifty cavalrymen of the Zhenbei Army, facing an enemy force ten times their size, managed to turn what should have been a fierce and brutal encounter into a one-sided hunt with almost zero casualties.

"Centurion, the battlefield is now cleared."

Zhou Laoqi, his face covered in blood, couldn't hide the wild joy in his eyes. He rushed forward, taking three steps at a time. He casually wiped his rough hands on the leather armor, his voice hoarse with extreme excitement: "These bastards, this time they've really ripped us out of everything! Look, there are three hundred sets of genuine Great Qian standard armor!"

He listed them off to Xu Qingshan as if showing off spoils of war.

"Not a single piece! All of it is high-quality lamellar armor found only in the North Granary! And those two thousand heavy crossbow bolts, quenched with steel, are still sealed with new seals! Not to mention those dozen or so chests of gold and silver—the Vulture Tribe's life savings have all become our military expenditure today!"

At this point, Zhou Laoqi paused, his gaze sweeping over the prisoners, a bloodthirsty glint in his eyes: "The most crucial thing is these people. These dozens of elite patrol battalions, along with several minor leaders of the Vulture Tribe, are all alive! Although Hu Xiao died under your whistling arrow, the information these survivors have provided is enough to nail that scum Chen Huaiyi to the list of traitors, ensuring he can never rise again!"

Xu Qingshan nodded slightly, his gaze steady. He walked to the rows of packed wooden crates and casually opened one of the lids. The chilling aura of the fine iron lamellar armor wafted out, each armor plate clearly engraved with a forging number—these were not merely weapons, but the lifeblood of the massive corrupt chain of the Yunzhou military supply depot, a lifeblood he had now severed with his own hands.

He turned his head and looked at Liu Ruyan, who was solemnly checking the documents.

"Miss Liu, can you guarantee that these things will be completely safe and sound?"

Liu Ruyan carefully placed the stack of account books, slightly damp with snow, into a specially made sealed oilcloth bag. She raised her head, and her usually calm eyes were now burning with the flames of revenge.

"Centurion, rest assured, I have carefully verified this evidence. The time, place, and seal of every transaction match the secret ledger of Black Wind Stronghold. In addition, with the testimonies of these living witnesses, unless Chen Huaishan can raise the dead from the ground, he will never be able to clear his name of this crime of treason."

"Very good." Xu Qingshan ordered in a deep voice, his gaze sweeping over the Zhenbei Army who were on high alert. "Zhou Laoqi, you take ten brothers and escort these things back to Duanhe Fort immediately, and hand them over to Shen Qinghe. Have her arrange for the most reliable clerk to compile this batch of evidence into a book overnight and submit it to Lord Tang Su. Remember, this matter is of utmost importance, and there can be no mistakes whatsoever. This is our first killing move against the Yunzhou General's Office in this game."

Old Zhou patted his chest and assured them, "Just you wait and see! Even if all ten of these people die on the road, we will not let these things lose a single hair!"

After Zhou Laoqi and his men left, Xu Qingshan looked at the remaining slightly tired team.

Although the battle was over, he didn't relax in the slightest. The fact that Yunzhou had already dispatched three hundred elite cavalry patrols meant that the Chen family valued this shipment far more than they had imagined. Chen Huaiyi was probably still in Yunzhou waiting for his "good news"; this night at Luoergou was destined to be unforgettable for him.

The wind and snow gradually stopped, and a sliver of dim dawn appeared on the horizon.

Xu Qingshan mounted his horse and waved to the rest of the men: "Back to the fortress."

……

On the way back to Broken River Fortress, the entire team remained in near-death silence.

This was not a triumphant celebration, but a somber atmosphere following a period of calm. For the first time, the new recruits found their place in real slaughter, and those deserters who had once drifted like duckweed in the Yunzhou camp found a true sense of belonging for the first time under the battle flag on the north wall.

As the familiar outline of Broken River Fortress appeared on the horizon, bright beacon fires were already lit at the city gate.

The garrison at Duanhe Fort had already heard the news, and when Xu Qingshan led his troops through the fort gates, the atmosphere inside reached its peak. Su Jinniang stood before the command platform, behind her were the four fort managers who had already assembled, as well as several veteran shopkeepers from the merchant guild who had just arrived from Bailang Market.

When the heavy wooden crates were opened, revealing three hundred sets of gleaming standard lamellar armor, a thunderous roar erupted from the Broken River Fortress training ground.

The people who had been kept in the dark were now filled with rage. They stared intently at the armored vehicles that represented military equipment, and then at the Yunzhou patrol soldiers being escorted away. Anger burned fiercely in the chests of every one of them.

"This is the armor those Yunzhou lords sold to the barbarians?" An elderly farmer with white hair pointed tremblingly at the lamellar armor, his whole body shaking with rage. "My son, who died under the barbarians' swords, was only wearing a tattered cotton-padded coat! This is our garrison general, this is the rule of the Chen family!"

Su Jinniang walked in front of the crowd and held up a list stamped with a bright red seal.

"Gentlemen, these are not merely spoils of war; they are the fruits of the Chen family's countless crimes committed at the Northern Wall!" Her voice trembled with anger. "The Chen family not only leeches off the lives of the soldiers and civilians at the Northern Wall, but also uses these armors, which should have been used to protect us, as bargaining chips to give to those barbarians who are killing and burning beyond the Great Wall!"

Seeing the excited crowd around him, Xu Qingshan slowly walked to the center of the platform.

Instead of inciting hatred at this moment, he slammed his bloodstained longsword heavily onto the stone table in the training ground.

"Chen Huaiyi thought he could destroy the evidence with three hundred elite cavalry, and he thought he could distort the truth with his power."

Xu Qingshan surveyed the angry faces, his gaze finally settling on the distant horizon, in the direction of Yunzhou.

"Before, there was no one at the north wall, so they could do whatever they wanted; before, there were no soldiers at the north wall, so they could exploit people at will."

"But from today onwards, I, Xu Qingshan, will draw this line!"

"The explanation you seek is neither in this wooden box nor on these pages." He pointed in the direction of Yunzhou, his tone as cold and hard as a crack in ice.

"It's in that general's mansion. That mansion that has sucked the blood from the north wall, sooner or later, I will take this evidence and tear it to shreds."

At this moment, all the soldiers in Duanhe Fortress, including the new recruits, finally understood from Xu Qingshan a kind of unprecedented majesty called "Lord of the North Wall".

This was no longer just a victory in an ambush; it was a man truly beginning to issue his challenge to the vast Yunzhou officialdom.

At the same time that Xu Qingshan entered the fortress, a thousand miles away in Yunzhou City, in the study of the Chen family mansion.

The trusted aide, having narrowly escaped death at Gray Bear Ridge, lay prostrate at Chen Huaiyi's feet, trembling like a leaf.

"Second Master... three hundred riders... all gone."

"Not only are the people gone, but three hundred sets of armor, two thousand crossbow bolts, and even your personal seal have all fallen into the hands of that madman Xu Qingshan."

Chen Huaiyi's usually kind face was now twisted to the extreme, a fear that ran deep in his bones.

He stared intently at the location of Broken River Fortress on the map, his mind blank. He never imagined that the border fortress garrison he had regarded as an ant would stage such an earth-shattering counterattack right under his nose!

He slumped into his chair, staring blankly at the gradually brightening sky outside the window, muttering to himself.

"It's over, it's all over."

Chen Huaiyi's heart clenched violently. He knew that once the news of the seizure of these supplies spread, even without Xu Qingshan's intervention, Chen Huaishan, who had always sat in the Yunzhou government office, would personally send his younger brother to death in order to protect the entire Chen family.

Just then, the study door was pushed open forcefully.

A chilling aura swept in, accompanied by heavy footsteps.

Chen Huaishan, dressed in a blue official robe, stood at the door. His face was as gloomy as the clouds before a storm, and the chilling aura of a battlefield commander made Chen Huaiyi feel suffocated.

Chen Huaishan glanced at the broken teacup on the ground, then at his trusted aide kneeling paralyzed on the ground, and his lips twitched slightly.

He slowly walked to the center of the study, his gaze fixed menacingly on Chen Huaiyi's terrified face.

Terrified, Chen Huaiyi knelt on the ground and crawled to Chen Huaishan's boots: "Brother... I... I just wanted to... to pay off the debts at Beicang..."

Chen Huaishan took a deep breath, but did not fly into a rage as Chen Huaiyi had expected.

He remained silent for a long time.

The study was so quiet that only the two of them could be heard breathing erratically.

Finally, Chen Huaishan slowly bent down and gently patted Chen Huaiyi's shoulder with his calloused hands.

The sensation sent shivers down Chen Huaiyi's spine.

"Fix the accounts?" Chen Huaishan's tone was strangely calm, as if he were talking about a trivial matter. "Huaiyi, you're really confused."

"Big brother..."

"Three hundred sets of standard armor and two thousand fine steel arrows." Chen Huaishan looked at the sunrise outside the window. "This debt, even if we sold the entire Beicang warehouse, we still couldn't make up for it."

He withdrew his hand, walked behind Chen Huaiyi, and spoke slowly.

"Over the years, I've gone to great lengths to get you into Beicang, thinking you could protect this land for me. But I never expected you to hand the Chen family over to Xu Qingshan."

Chen Huaishan closed his eyes, seemingly making some extremely painful decision.

"Once the evidence in this major case of treason is conclusive, not only you, but even I will be implicated."

Chen Huaiyi raised his head in despair, only to meet Chen Huaishan's eyes, which were devoid of any warmth.

That was the look you gave someone who was already dead.

Chen Huaishan clapped his hands, and two Chen family guards with cold and expressionless faces walked in.

"Huaiyi, you've always been playful since you were little, and your older brother has worried himself sick trying to protect you." Chen Huaishan's tone remained calm. "But some things, once done, must be taken responsibility for."

Chen Huaiyi suddenly realized something, his face contorted as he tried to scream, but two guards held him down and gagged him.

"Since your name is the only one on Xu Qingshan's ledger, then this matter can only have been done by you alone."

Chen Huaishan gently placed the confession on the ground, the sound of which was extremely jarring in the empty study.

"From today onwards, this matter has nothing to do with your Chen family."

"This is the last contribution you can make to the Chen family as the younger brother."

Chen Huaishan didn't look at him again, turned around and walked out of the study, leaving Chen Huaiyi curled up on the ground in despair, his pupils reflecting his brother's heartless departing figure, sinking into endless darkness.