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

Forty riders from Zhenbei slowly descended the hillside.

The warhorses trampled over the loose gravel, their hooves muffled by the mountain walls on either side.

Xu Qingshan only raised his right hand when the team descended to the halfway point of the slope.

"Raise the crossbow."

One after another, short crossbows were taken off the side of the saddle.

The Vulture Cavalry in front were regrouping, while the rear guard turned their horses around, preparing to retreat along the northern valley entrance.

Hundreds of warhorses were crammed together, and the once orderly formation had become chaotic.

Xu Qingshan seized the opportunity and brought his palm down forward.

"Rush!"

The sound of horses' hooves immediately echoed across the hillside.

The forty riders crossed the last stretch of gravel road and charged straight towards the rear of the Vulture Tribe.

Hearing the noise, Chishu quickly turned around.

In the darkness, a banner bearing the banner of Zhenbei charged out of the mountains first, followed closely by cavalry that quickly spread out.

"Enemy attack!"

"There are also Great Qian cavalry in the west!"

The Vulture Cavalry in the rear turned around.

The troops ahead were still retreating north, the two sides were so tightly packed that even the warhorses could not accelerate fully.

Xu Qingshan had been waiting for this moment.

"put!"

The first volley of crossbow bolts struck the crowd.

Several barbarian soldiers had just drawn their scimitars when crossbow bolts pierced their chests.

Startled after being struck by an arrow, the warhorse dragged its rider into the adjacent ranks, quickly tearing a gap in the already chaotic rear.

The sound of the trigger mechanism of the repeating crossbows rang out one after another.

A second volley of crossbow bolts followed immediately.

One of Chishu's personal guards was shot in the neck and fell off his horse.

"Charge out!"

Chi Shu brandished his sword and shouted, "The number of Daqian people is small, follow me and fight your way out!"

His shouts had barely spread when the Black Wolf tribe's horns sounded again from the eastern hillside.

The mountains and forests to the west responded in response.

Dozens of torches moved rapidly along the ridge, as if a large cavalry force had already sealed off the valley entrance.

The barbarian soldiers beside Chishu glanced up at the mountain, and their fighting spirit, which had just been gathered, immediately dissipated by more than half.

"Leader, there are more people behind us!"

"Torches have appeared in the north too!"

"We're surrounded!"

Enraged, Chi Zhu slashed at the barbarian soldier who had spoken first.

The enemy hurriedly ducked to avoid them, but their warhorse had already retreated northward.

One man retreated, and the surrounding cavalrymen began to turn around as well.

At the same time, a heavy thud sounded inside Qingya Fortress as it was pushed open.

The wooden planks and stones blocking the fortress gate were moved to the sides, leaving only a narrow gap for people to pass through.

Feng Shouyi, carrying a knife, was the first to push his way out.

His old armor was stained with blood, and half an arrow shaft was still stuck in his left arm.

More than twenty Qingya Fort garrison soldiers followed behind him.

When the spear broke, they used a wood-chopping knife; when the wooden shield cracked, they lifted a door panel. One of the old soldiers even carried a wood-chopping axe.

Feng Shouyi watched the retreating Vulture Tribe cavalry.

"The reinforcements have blocked their path for us."

"Sixteen brothers died at Qingya Fortress; these barbarians must leave something behind!"

The old soldier behind him was panting heavily.

"Boss Feng, shut up."

"What, scared?"

"If we keep talking, they'll all be gone."

Feng Shouyi was stunned for a moment, then drew his knife and rushed out.

"kill!"

More than twenty defenders followed and charged toward the enemy's rear.

The Vulture Cavalry could have maintained their position by virtue of their numbers.

But the bugle call in the mountains never stopped, and the Qingya Fort garrison attacked from the rear again, while forty Zhenbei cavalrymen continued to advance along the flank.

They had no way of knowing how many people the Great Qian had sent.

Xu Qingshan put away his crossbow, drew his sword, and charged into the chaotic cavalry formation.

A barbarian soldier rode up to meet them, his scimitar sweeping across the battlefield with the help of the horse's momentum.

Xu Qingshan raised his sword to block, then pressed his body to the side along the blade, slashing his long sword across the opponent's arm.

Blood splattered onto the horse's mane.

The barbarian soldier screamed and lost his balance, quickly being knocked into the mud by the warhorses behind him.

Hou San followed closely behind with ten riders.

"Don't get entangled with them, break them off and keep moving forward!"

A cavalryman from the north, who was about to pursue and kill the fallen barbarian soldier, immediately pulled back his reins and rejoined the group after hearing the order.

Forty riders, like a knife, cut in from the side of the Vulture Tribe.

Whenever they encountered a group of enemies, they would fire a volley of crossbow bolts first, and then use the speed of their horses to pass through the gap.

Chishu had only a dozen or so personal guards left by his side.

As he saw the Zhenbei Banner getting closer and closer, panic finally appeared on his face.

"Retreat north!"

"Ignore the rear guard, everyone evacuate the valley!"

Once the order was given, the Vulture Tribe completely lost the will to resist.

The cavalrymen near the valley entrance scrambled to flee north, while those behind, who hadn't yet turned their horses, also began searching for their own escape routes.

Feng Shouyi led his men to block several backward barbarian soldiers.

A warhorse charged head-on, and the old soldier used a door panel to block it, his body sliding backward several steps from the impact.

Taking advantage of the opportunity, Feng Shouyi lunged at the side of the horse and slashed the rider's thigh with his sword.

The surrounding guards rushed forward and dragged the barbarian soldier off his horse.

The bugle sounded once again on the hillside.

Chishu dared not linger any longer and rushed out of the valley with his personal guards.

The remaining cavalry followed closely behind and quickly disappeared into the northern night.

Hou San urged his horse forward and chased after him for more than ten steps.

"Centurion, if we chase them a little further, we can still catch quite a few!"

"withdraw troops."

Xu Qingshan blocked his way with his sword.

"Once they stop, they'll find there are only ten people on the mountain."

Hou San looked back at several hillsides.

The torches were still moving, but the horns were already starting to lose their strength.

"They got off too easily."

"Saving a fortress with fifty riders is already a good outcome."

Xu Qingshan turned his horse around.

More than twenty barbarian soldiers' corpses and a dozen or so wounded and lost warhorses were left in the valley.

The Qingya Fort garrison captured four prisoners, two of whom were seriously injured.

Feng Shouyi walked over, carrying a blood-stained knife.

After recognizing Xu Qingshan under the Zhenbei Banner, he hesitated for a moment.

"Which general of Blackrock Fortress are you, sir?"

Hou San answered first.

"Our centurion is Xu Qingshan."

Feng Shouyi was stunned.

"A centurion?"

Hou San nodded.

"Not yet."

Xu Qingshan dismounted.

"Get the wounded into the fort first. The Vultures retreated in a hurry, and they may very well return after dawn."

Feng Shouyi clasped his hands in a fist salute.

"Feng Shouyi, the garrison commander of Qingya Fort, thanks Centurion Xu for saving his life."

"I'll save my thanks for later."

Xu Qingshan looked at the arrow shaft on his left arm.

"If you don't treat the wound soon, you might lose your arm."

Qin Yuenu had already arrived with five medical staff.

She glanced at Feng Shouyi's injuries.

"The arrow is stuck in the flesh, go in first."

Feng Shouyi waved his hand.

"I can still hold on."

Qin Yuenu took out scissors from the medicine box.

"The last person to say that to me is still lying in the Blackrock Fortress wounded soldiers' camp."

"Are you coming or not?"

Feng Shouyi looked at the scissors.

"Walk."

Hou San led his warhorse past.

"Feng Baozhang is quite pragmatic."

"You try it."

"I'm not that badly injured."

Qin Yuenu turned to look at him.

"The wound on your waist has reopened."

Hou San glanced down at his blood-soaked armor, then silently led his horse into the fortress.

The situation at Qingya Fort was even worse than what Xu Qingshan had seen from the outside.

Two sections of the north wall collapsed.

The larger gap was blocked with broken planks, stones, and the corpses of several barbarian soldiers, with oil-soaked hay piled up next to it.

As soon as the vultures charge in, the defenders will set fire to the breach, trapping themselves and the enemy inside.

Most of the houses inside the fort are damaged.

The soldiers were crammed into a few relatively intact rooms. The children's faces were pale, and the elderly didn't even have the strength to stand up and greet the reinforcements.

Upon entering the inner fortress, Xu Qingshan saw the remaining soldiers of Qingya Fortress.

Seven people lay on straw mats.

Two of them were unable to move their legs, while the others had arrow and knife wounds.

Including the twenty-eight men who had just left the city, there were indeed only thirty-five soldiers left in the entire Qingya Fort.

Xu Qingshan looked at Feng Shouyi.

How many people are on the Yunzhou roster?

Feng Shouyi had an old soldier bring out a document from inside the house.

"The military register sent last month lists 120 people registered at Qingya Fort."

The pages are turned.

One hundred and twenty names were neatly arranged on it, each name stamped with a mark indicating that military rations and pay had been received.

Xu Qingshan pointed to one of the names.

"Is Zhao Wu still in the fort?"

Feng Shouyi shook his head.

He died three years ago.

"Where is Sun Gui?"

"I was transferred to Yunzhou last year."

"This Li Erniu?"

"The hunters in the nearby villages have never served in the military."

Xu Qingshan continued flipping through the pages.

After asking more than a dozen names, only three people were found in Qingya Fortress.

The rest had long since died, disappeared, or been transferred, and a few names belonged to nearby military households and border residents.

Hou San stood by and watched for a long time.

"Can dead people receive food?"

Feng Shouyi gave a wry smile.

"The grain was indeed received, but it wasn't brought into Qingya Fort."

Each quarter's military supplies were sent from Yunzhou, but most of them would be intercepted when they passed through the Beiqiang Post Station.

The grain delivered to Qingya Fort was barely enough to keep a few dozen soldiers alive, and sometimes even that portion was delayed.

Feng Shouyi once sent someone to Yunzhou to inquire.

The quartermaster produced a document claiming that the rations for 120 men had been fully allocated, and that if the Qingya Fort granary was empty, it was because Feng Shouyi had embezzled the rations.

"They even made you take the blame?"

Hou San's eyes widened.

"They haven't even received any food, yet they've already taken on the blame?"

"So I didn't dare send anyone else after that."

Feng Shouyi pointed inside the room.

"Otherwise, the remaining thirty-five men of Qingya Fort might also be considered deserters."

Xu Qingshan closed the military register.

"Take me to the granary."

The granary of Qingyabao is located in the southeast corner of the inner fort.

As soon as the wooden door was opened, a musty smell wafted out.

There were only seven grain sacks piled up in the huge warehouse.

Three of the bags were damp, with green mold growing around the openings.

The remaining four bags also contained a lot of sand, gravel, and grain husks.

In the corner were several bamboo baskets filled with freshly dug grass roots and tree bark.

Feng Shouyi said, "The clean food was finished the day before yesterday."

"The soldiers have been surviving on these things for the past two days, while the soldiers are only given half a cake mixed with grass roots each day."

A thin little boy stood at the door, his eyes fixed on the bag of dry rations at Xu Qingshan's waist.

The woman behind him quickly pulled him back.

"Sir, the child is just being ignorant."

Xu Qingshan took off his bag of dry food and handed it to the boy.

The woman waved her hands repeatedly.

"You can't take it; this is what the soldiers eat during battle."

"We also brought food."

General Xu Qingshan placed the grain cakes into the child's hand.

"After breaking it open, give it to the wounded and the younger children first."

He turned to look at Hou San.

"Take out all the rations that came with the army, keep enough for one day's journey back, and cook the rest into thin porridge."

Hou San hesitated for a moment.

"After the food is distributed, we'll only be able to eat half full on our return trip tomorrow."

You won't die from missing a meal.

Xu Qingshan looked at the grass roots inside the warehouse.

"If they go hungry for another day, people might really die."

The Zhenbei cavalry quickly began transporting military rations.

The iron pot was placed in a sheltered spot, and the dried grain cakes were broken into pieces and put into the water, along with the remaining small amount of dried meat.

Steam gradually rose from the pot.

The soldiers standing guard around swallowed hard, but no one stepped forward to grab it.

Feng Shouyi stood to one side.

"Centurion Xu, you didn't bring much food either."

"Let people survive tonight first."

"We'll figure out a solution for tomorrow's problems tomorrow."