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

Inside the cellar, the dim light from the resin torches cast flickering shadows on the stone walls.

Clang!

The short sword struck the heavy iron chain, sparks flying everywhere.

Hou San slashed several times, the steel blades rubbing violently against the iron chains, finally severing all the iron shackles binding Zhao Wu's wrists and ankles.

Losing his support, Zhao Wu's body went limp and he collapsed against the stone pillar. Aman stepped forward, reached out and steadily supported his back, then carried him on her shoulder.

"hiss--"

Zhao Wu gasped, his lips twitching violently from the intense pain. The spot where his skin and tattered clothes were stuck together was suddenly torn open, oozing thick, black blood.

"Stop whining, Commander Zhao." Hou San sheathed his sword swiftly. "There are still dozens of Chen family assassins in this manor. If you don't want to lose your lives here, grit your teeth."

Zhao Wu lay on A Man's broad back, cold sweat pouring down his forehead, but he remained silent, clenching his teeth tightly.

Without any delay, the twelve scouts of the Zhenbei Army quickly extinguished the torches in the cellar and retreated back to the hay warehouse on the ground along the slippery stone steps.

However, as soon as the wooden door of the warehouse was pushed open, an unusual noise came from the night wind.

"Woof! Woof woof!"

A few mournful barks from hunting dogs broke the deathly silence of Luoyan Valley.

The bodies of the guards patrolling the backyard had obviously been discovered by the relieved soldiers. Instantly, the gong on the watchtower deep within the manor rang out, the piercing sound accompanied by chaotic shouts, exploding in the snowy night sky.

"Someone's breaking into the prison! Seal off the front gate and the stables!"

"Release the dogs! Go release the dogs now!"

Dozens of torches were quickly lit throughout the manor, illuminating the entire estate. Footsteps and the sound of swords being drawn grew louder as they rapidly approached the hay storage area in the backyard.

"Go through the back wall!"

Hou San acted decisively, kicking open the side window.

Twelve figures, swept up in the wind and snow like white foxes in the snow, swiftly scaled the high rammed earth wall and raced toward the vast wilderness outside the village.

……

The night was deep, and the wind and snow grew even more violent.

Aman carried Zhao Wu on her back, moving swiftly through the thick snow. But three miles behind them, more than twenty Chen family assassins on horseback, carrying torches, were already chasing after them, following the footprints in the snow. The thunderous sound of hooves trampling the snow echoed through the empty valley, and the barking of hunting dogs grew ever closer.

"We can't keep running like this. With an injured soldier in our cavalry, they'll catch up sooner or later."

Aman suddenly stopped, her nostrils twitching slightly as she glanced at a narrow, knife-cut snow slope ahead.

"They're taking the flat path at the bottom of the valley, so they're moving fast. But we need to get around that stone beam." Ah Man pointed to the snow cliff extending overhead, her voice calm. "We're on the slope; we'll fight them."

Hou San looked in the direction A Man was pointing, a fierce glint flashing in his eyes.

"Great spot! The view is amazing, perfect for letting these lackeys try Bai Zhi's new cooking!"

Hou San waved his hand, and the ten scouts quickly dispersed, each lying down behind the bushes and rocks at the top of the snow slope. They covered themselves with snow-white cloaks, and all the small repeating crossbows in their hands were rested on the frozen snow ridges, the cold arrowheads gleaming with a bloodthirsty light in the night.

Zhao Wu was placed behind a large, sheltered rock. He leaned weakly against the rock wall, watching the twelve Zhenbei Army scouts perform their tactical maneuvers with methodical precision through his disheveled hair.

There was no panic, no shouting, and even the sound of breathing was deliberately suppressed to the extreme.

Zhao Wu, a former vanguard captain, immediately recognized that the discipline and ferocity displayed by this scout squad far surpassed those of the elite troops in the Yunzhou camp who were merely drawing salaries without working.

A moment later, the sound of horses' hooves suddenly approached from the bottom of the valley.

More than twenty of Chen's elite guards, carrying torches, galloped at full speed. The leader, a scarred-faced man leading two ferocious dogs, pointed at the footprints on the ground and shouted, "It's just ahead! Second Master ordered that, dead or alive, we absolutely cannot let them take the man back to the north wall!"

Before he finished speaking, a very faint clicking sound of a mechanism suddenly came from above the snow slope.

"put!"

Hou San gave the order.

"Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Ten twin crossbows fired simultaneously!

Twenty short, armor-piercing arrows, gleaming with a dark light, rained down upon the cavalry from above within a distance of thirty paces, transforming into an impenetrable storm of death.

"Puff puff puff puff—!"

The dull thuds of arrows piercing flesh echoed one after another.

The four warhorses and two vicious dogs at the forefront didn't even have time to whimper before their heads were pierced by steel arrowheads, and they collapsed to the ground with mournful cries. The riders on their backs were thrown off by the immense inertia and crashed heavily onto the rubble.

Immediately afterwards, the second volley of crossbow bolts was fired in quick succession!

The short arrows, coated in black lacquer, struck with deadly accuracy the panicked assassins who were drawing their swords. Screams rose and fell, blood splattering onto the pristine snow, sending wisps of steam rising.

The remaining seven or eight assassins were completely stunned by this terrifying ambush and hurriedly tried to turn their horses around and flee.

But Ah Man and Hou San had already drawn their short knives and slid down the snow slope!

The blade flashed like a bolt of lightning in the night. With astonishing strength, Aman pounced like a tiger, cleaving a soldier who was trying to fire an arrow several feet away with a single stroke; Hou San, on the other hand, moved like a ghost, his short sword slicing through the throats of two fallen cavalrymen.

In less than half an incense stick's time.

The valley floor fell silent once more. More than twenty corpses lay scattered in pools of blood, none of them having escaped.

Sitting on the snowy slope, Zhao Wu witnessed the entire battle firsthand. His chest heaved violently, and he was deeply shocked.

Twelve men, facing the pursuit of more than twenty fully armed cavalry, from setting up an ambush and firing volleys to close-quarters mopping up, the whole process was so swift and efficient that it was outrageous. Not a single soldier in the Zhenbei Army was injured.

"This...this is the army trained by Xu Qingshan?" Zhao Wu muttered to himself, a bitter and self-deprecating smile appearing on his lips. Back then, he had arrogantly thought that Black Stone Fortress was nothing more than a bunch of defeated soldiers, but now it seemed utterly ridiculous.

Hou San carried his blood-dripping dagger up the slope, wiped the blade in the snow, and grinned: "Commander Zhao, have you had enough of the show? If you can walk, lend a hand. We need to change horses before dawn."

Zhao Wu was carried on A Man's back again. In the wind and snow of their retreat, he couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Hou San... Xu Qingshan rescued me, but what exactly does he plan to do with me?"

"What are you doing?" Hou San led the way without turning his head, his tone tinged with mockery. "Don't worry, our garrison commander is fair in business and generally doesn't sell living people. As for whether you'll be a witness to expose the Chen family or thrown to the wolves as a dead man, it all depends on how honest you are with your mouth."

Zhao Wu: "..."

……

At dawn.

Fifteen miles outside Yunzhou City, in an extremely secluded smuggling warehouse cellar.

Inside the room, a charcoal brazier was burning, and two military medics whom Qin Yuenu had arranged to be there were quickly treating Zhao Wu's wounds.

A red-hot knife scraped away the festering, dead flesh, and strong liquor was poured onto the wound, eliciting a sizzling sound as the skin and flesh burned. Zhao Wu's muscles tensed with pain, and large beads of sweat rolled down his face, but he bit down hard on a wooden stick, refusing to utter a single groan.

"The wound is very deep and festering, but the bone isn't broken, though the internal organs have been shaken." The medic finished bandaging the wound, wiped the blood off his hands, and said, "After taking this medicine, his life is out of danger."

The wooden door to the cellar was pushed open.

Liu Ruyan, dressed in a heavy fox fur coat, slowly descended the wooden stairs.

She glanced at Zhao Wu, who was lying on the straw mat, his face pale but his eyes still clear, and pulled over a wooden stool to sit down by the bed.

"Commander Zhao, how are you feeling?" Liu Ruyan asked calmly.

Zhao Wu spat out the wooden stick from his mouth, panting heavily, and looked at the woman in front of him with a complicated expression. She was stunningly beautiful but extremely ruthless.

"Xu Qingshan... what does he want?" Zhao Wu asked in a hoarse voice, getting straight to the point. "I'm not going to beat around the bush with you. In the past, I was indeed a vicious dog in Chen Huaishan's hands, and I was ordered by him to suppress Black Stone Fortress many times, and even tried to bring Xu Qingshan down from his horse several times."

Zhao Wu took a deep breath, and a surge of overwhelming hatred welled up in his eyes.

"While I, Zhao Wu, am not a good person, I am by no means a traitor who sells out his country for personal gain! I knew nothing beforehand about Chen Huaiyi's arms dealing and collusion with the barbarians! On the day the Black Wind Stronghold's account books were being transported, Chen Huaiyi sent his assassins to ambush the escort team halfway, killing my personal guards and locking me in the fodder cellar to force me to sign a false confession, trying to make me take the blame for his treason!"

Liu Ruyan listened quietly, a slight smile playing on her lips.

"Commander Zhao, there's no need to get agitated. Your ignorance only proves the value of your testimony."

Liu Ruyan took out the transcribed copy of the North Granary Silver Account from her sleeve, turned to the last page, and handed it to Zhao Wu.

"The three hundred sets of standard lamellar armor and two thousand military arrows that Chen Huaiyi sold privately have been intercepted by us at Grey Bear Ridge, along with the goods and the man." Chen Huaiyi was caught red-handed, and in order to protect himself, Chen Huaishan has begun to shift all the blame onto Chen Huaiyi in official documents, playing the trick of "sacrificing a relative for the greater good."

Zhao Wu's pupils contracted sharply as he looked at the numbers in the ledger, and then he let out a cold laugh.

"Sacrificing family for the greater good? That old fox Chen Huaishan certainly managed to absolve himself of all responsibility!"

Zhao Wu straightened up, his eyes flashing with a cold light: "Chen Huaiyi is just a merchant. How could he possibly mobilize the heavy armor from Beicang without Chen Huaishan's tacit approval? Do you think only Chen Huaiyi is involved with Beicang? Wrong! Utterly wrong!"

Liu Ruyan's eyes narrowed slightly: "What else do you know?"

Zhao Wu took a deep breath and uttered a word that seemed to freeze the air in the entire room.

"In the North Granary of Yunzhou, there is a specially established independent institution called the 'Transportation Damage Room'."

Zhao Wu's eyes were filled with utter mockery.

"Every year, hundreds of thousands of bushels of military equipment and provisions are sent from the border to various fortresses. If a report is submitted during transport that a cart has been overturned by heavy snow, a mountain road has collapsed, or the goods have been robbed by bandits, these supplies will be 'legally cancelled' in the transport damage control room!"

"All the government grain that Black Wind Stronghold has robbed over the years, as well as the military equipment that Chen Huaiyi resold to the grasslands, have all been laundered into 'war-damaged materials' through this transport damage depot!"

"The inventory records from the damage control department are the real lifeline connecting Chen Huaishan to his heart!"

A sharp glint shone in Liu Ruyan's eyes. The old tents of Black Wind Village, the military equipment of Gray Bear Ridge, the silver tents of the Northern Warehouse, and now, with the addition of the "transportation loss room" mentioned by Zhao Wu, the entire massive corrupt smuggling chain spanning the Yunzhou high-ranking officials, local powerful families, and the barbarian tribes beyond the Great Wall was completely pieced together at this moment!

Liu Ruyan put away the account books, stood up, and looked down at Zhao Wu.

"Commander Zhao, do you dare repeat these words again in front of the imperial envoy?"

Zhao Wu raised his head, his bloodshot eyes burning with a fierce, resolute light.

"Dare! What wouldn't I dare?!"

Zhao Wu gritted his bloodied teeth and roared, enunciating each word clearly:

"I want to see Tang Su!"

"I will personally skin the Chen family alive!"