The God of War Who Protects the Nation: Starting with Saving a Mother and Daughter in Distress

The next day, after Qin An woke up, he turned his head to look out the window. The sky was already a pale, fish-belly white, and the faint sound of roosters crowing in the distance could be heard.

Feeling refreshed, he didn't even think about staying in bed. He simply sat up, picked up his scattered undergarment from the foot of the bed, and put it on.

His movement instantly woke Tong Rong.

The latter propped herself up, the thin blanket slipped from her shoulders and piled up at her waist, revealing a beautiful view.

She watched Qin An's retreating figure without saying a word to stop him, only softly asking, "General, are you leaving already?"

"Okay." Qin An fastened his belt, glanced back at her, and said, "You rest. If you get hungry, just ask someone to bring you food. It's safe here."

After saying that, he turned and walked towards the door, but stopped after taking two steps and turned his head to the side.

"Once I've settled things here, I'll send you to the capital!"

Tong Rong paused for a moment, then smiled and nodded gently at him through the morning light shining through half the room.

Qin An pushed open the door and stepped out into the courtyard. He took a deep breath without looking back at the door behind him.

He picked up the halberd leaning against the wall and strode toward the city defense construction site.

All four gates of Shaanxi City have collapsed, especially the area around the southeast corner tower, where the bombardment by catapults over the past few days has blasted several breaches in the city wall.

Hundreds of laborers are moving stones and soil to fill the gap.

When Qin An arrived, Cheng Zhiyuan was standing with his hands on his hips in front of a gap in the road, cursing.

They criticized the defending troops for cutting corners in the construction of the city, saying that too much sand was mixed into the rammed earth, causing stones to shatter easily when hit.

Qin An walked over, squatted down, and pinched a handful of loose clods of earth; they were indeed loose.

He stood up and glanced around at the busy crowd at the construction site. There were about two thousand laborers, working in low efficiency, divided into several teams taking turns to work, and they had even had a few arguments over the stones.

"Divide the people into three shifts, rotating continuously, with one person designated as the leader for each shift. The stones are quarried from the collapsed houses in the east of the city, which is faster than quarrying outside the city."

After Qin An finished speaking to Cheng Zhiyuan, he added, "Make sure no one is inside before you demolish it."

Although he was determined to fight the rebels in open battle, Qin An knew the importance of being prepared.

Moreover, he also understood that such a great battle was destined to be impossible to end in a short period of time.

Shaanxi City will likely remain their stronghold for a long time, so they still need to manage it well.

Cheng Zhiyuan accepted the order and left.

Qin An walked around the city wall, stopping at each collapsed point to observe for a while, silently estimating the time and manpower required to repair it.

When Qin An arrived at the North Gate, he encountered Luo Kai, who was leading a group of soldiers to count the captured grain and fodder. Upon seeing Qin An approach, Luo Kai waved the booklet in his hand.

"The Wang family has amassed quite a fortune; their grain alone is enough to feed us for two months." Luo Kai handed him the booklet. "However, most of it is stored in the warehouse in the east of the city. A corner of it was burned by a kerosene can, resulting in a 20% loss."

"Distribute what you can eat as soon as possible, before it spoils." Qin An flipped through the booklet and returned it, his gaze sweeping over the city walls.

The soldiers guarding the city have been replaced by government troops, but their numbers are small, and most of the troops are still resting and reorganizing.

He stood on the city tower at the North Gate, gazing into the distance.

The wilderness was vast and empty, and there was no one in sight, but he knew those people were on their way.

Upon learning that reinforcements had arrived for the rebels, he immediately dispatched scouts to investigate their situation.

The scouts had also reported their intelligence early in the morning.

Xu Mao and Cao Deren together had at least 40,000 men.

After Wang Chong escaped, he urgently recruited other rebels from the Wang family's territory.

It is estimated that the Wang family can gather at least 30,000 troops.

In other words, the total number of rebels is no less than 70,000.

Seventy thousand people spread out on the plains is no small number.

Qin An withdrew his gaze, turned around, and descended the city wall.

Yuwen Rong's personal guards were leading him on his steed, Treading Snow Black Steed, waiting inside the city gate, his armor and halberd hanging from the saddle.

The guard said that the general was already waiting for him at the drill ground.

The drill ground was located on an open area in the west of the city. It was originally where Wang Chong trained his troops, but it has now been requisitioned by the government army.

When Qin An arrived, Yuwen Rong was sitting on a stool wiping his gilded halberd. The blood on the halberd had been wiped clean, leaving only a faint metallic smell.

He didn't get up when he saw Qin An arrive; he just raised his chin slightly.

"Have you checked the city defenses?"

"I've seen it. There are three large gaps and four or five small cracks. If we work day and night, we can fix them in three days."

Qin An leaned his halberd aside, took a sip of water from the water pouch handed to him by his personal guard, and said, "But we can't wait three days."

"I think so too." Yuwen Rong stood up, hoisted the gilded halberd onto his shoulder, and cracked his neck a few times.

"Instead of staying in the city waiting for someone to come and beat us up, we should go out and see where they are."

Qin An nodded.

This was also his plan.

While defending the city is certainly a safe option, being besieged inside would mean losing the initiative, and if the rebels were to bypass the city and attack from the rear, it would be much more difficult.

It would be better to take the initiative, find out the other party's strengths and weaknesses before making any plans.

An hour later, ten thousand cavalrymen had lined up in formation on the west side of the city.

The entire force consisted of light cavalry, each man equipped with two warhorses for rotation, and they carried three days' worth of dry rations.

As Yuwen Rong mounted his jet-black warhorse, he glanced back at the city wall with a smile on his lips.

"Let's go."

Horse hooves shattered the morning mist as the horse galloped eastward along the official road after leaving the west gate.

Ten thousand cavalrymen formed a long line, their hooves thundering, startling flocks of birds in the roadside woods into flight.

Qin An rode alongside Yuwen Rong, his halberd resting on the triumphant hook in front of his saddle, and they rode in silence.

After running for thirty miles, a scout reported that the rebel camp was twenty miles ahead, set up along a hilly area, stretching for several miles.

Qin An reined in his horse to slow the group down, while he and Yuwen Rong led a dozen scouts to explore the area ahead.

As Qin An climbed to the top of the hill and looked down, his brow twitched slightly.

The campsite is indeed quite large.

The tents stretched from the foot of the hills all the way to the distant riverbank, roughly estimated to be a camp of at least 40,000 people.

There were many flags in the camp, but Qin An recognized two of them at a glance.

The red flag with the character "Xu" in black and the blue flag with the character "Cao" in white represent Xu Mao of Ligangzhai and Cao Deren of Changle Army.

In addition, there was a slightly smaller flag embroidered with the character "王" (Wang), planted on the east side of the camp, which was clearly a remnant of Wang Chong's forces.

The total cost for the three families combined is at least 70,000.

"It's quite lively." Yuwen Rong lay behind a rock, squinted at the scene for a while, and uttered this remark.

Qin An didn't respond, but scanned the flags around the camp several times, memorizing the general layout of the camp.

As he was watching, Yuwen Rong suddenly nudged him with his elbow.

"They've spotted us."

A commotion broke out in the camp.

Several flags were moving quickly, and people on horseback were shuttling between the tents to relay orders.

Qin An straightened up and patted the dirt off his knees: "Perfect timing, let's go and meet these traitors."

After saying this, he turned around, went down the mountain, and mounted his horse.

Ten thousand cavalrymen had already rearranged themselves into formation, spreading out in a goose-wing formation on the flat ground below the hills, swords drawn and bows strung, awaiting only the order.

Qin An rode his horse to the front of the formation, where Yuwen Rong was already waiting with a gilded halberd.

He glanced at Qin An, who nodded.

Yuwen Rong grinned, turned his horse and charged toward the rebel camp. He reined in his horse two hundred paces from the camp gate, pointed his halberd, and spoke in a booming voice.

"Listen up, you in the camp! I, Yuwen Rong, am here! Come out and have a go if you dare!"

This shout clearly threw the defending troops on the camp wall into disarray.

Several archers hurriedly drew their bows, only to be slapped back by an officer standing nearby.

Inside the camp gate, the sound of horses' hooves filled the air, clearly indicating that someone was rushing to deliver a message.

Yuwen Rong wasn't in a hurry. He rode his horse sideways in front of the camp gate twice, swayed his halberd, and added another sentence.

"What's this? Not a single one of the 70,000 dares to come out? Wang Chong ran fast, are you all trying to be like him, running like rabbits?"

The unrest in the camp grew even greater.

Clearly, Yuwen Rong's arrogant challenge was unbearable for many on the rebel side.

However, without orders, they dared not make the slightest move.

Meanwhile, a heated argument was raging inside the rebel coalition's makeshift central command tent.

Wang Chong sat in the main seat, his face gloomy.

On the left was Xu Mao, and on the right was Cao Deren. Behind each of the three stood their respective generals, filling the already small tent to the brim.

"I'll say it again," Xu Mao said in a low but clear voice, "It's not wise to fight Qin An in the open field. His cavalry is extremely strong. All three of us have fought against him and should know how powerful he is. He now has 10,000 cavalry. It's not suitable for us to confront them head-on."

He glanced at Wang Chong as he spoke, and the latter's expression darkened even further.

Xu Mao didn't stop, and continued, "I suggest we join forces and retreat to Luoyang. Luoyang has high walls and deep moats, and plenty of food and supplies. We can have 70,000 men defend the city, waiting for the government troops to tire themselves out before looking for an opportunity to attack. This is the safest way to fight."

As Qin An's old rival, he knew all too well how troublesome Qin An's cavalry was.

Even though Qin An only mobilized 10,000 troops this time, his side had a total of 70,000 soldiers.

However, as a renowned general of his time, Xu Mao knew that war was not just about looking at the data on paper.

He didn't even think about fighting for short-term gains or losses. His first thought was to plan slowly, just like in the battle of Xinyang City, and then strike a decisive blow to kill the enemy!

"Retreat?" Before Wang Chong could speak, Cao Deren sneered, "Brother Xu, our two families rushed here day and night to provide assistance, not to go to Luocheng and continue to linger."

"Chief Wang has lost Shancheng, and the morale of the government troops is high. What's the difference between telling everyone to retreat now and telling them to admit defeat?"

Clearly, although Cao Deren was a capable general, he was still inferior to Xu Mao in many aspects.

Even though they had suffered a loss at Qin An's hands, they hadn't learned much from it.

On the contrary, they were eager for battle, wanting to avenge their previous humiliation and settle old scores.

Xu Mao frowned: "Brother Cao, I meant stability."

"Stable?" Cao Deren slammed his hand on the table and stood up, causing the teacup on the table to jump. "My Chang Le Army has brought 20,000 men, Brother Xu, you have also brought 20,000, plus Brother Wang's 30,000. And the scouts report that Qin An and his men only sent 10,000 cavalry out of the city."

"We have 70,000 troops against the government army's 10,000, so the advantage is on our side! Besides, the government army just finished a siege and is exhausted. If we don't fight now, when will we?"