I was living in the Five Dynasties period, just after crossing the Zhongdu Bridge.

The next day, at 3:45 AM, a cold wind howled.

In this awful weather, let alone fighting in armor, even just sticking your hands out of your sleeves will freeze your skin off.

Li Congxi's troops, having been sent to help the city in distress, arrived at a gentle slope five miles outside the north gate of Daizhou, as ordered.

According to the principles of military strategy, a siege must leave a gap.

But this side of the saga is often also the most dangerous.

The North Gate faces the direction of Yanmen Pass, which is the only way out for the Daizhou garrison and the only way for Khitan reinforcements to arrive.

Shi Hongzhao placed this new army here with a clear purpose: both to train the troops and to serve as a stumbling block.

"dig."

Li Congxi rode on his horse, its hooves pawing restlessly at the frozen ground. He pointed his whip forward and said, "Right here, dig three trenches and set up two layers of barricades."

When the military order was issued, complaints and grievances arose.

The ground is too hard.

In February, the frozen soil layer in Hedong was as thick as half a foot.

Sparks flew as the shovel struck, leaving only a white mark.

Shen Lie did not join in the complaints.

He stood under the banner, a broadsword in his hand, watching his dozens of men toiling away like oxen, digging in the dirt.

Liu Qing, that silly boy, was strong. He could wield a shovel and lift up a chunk of frozen soil the size of a bowl in one go. Yang Ting, on the other hand, was cunning and cheated. He would only shovel three-tenths of an inch into the soil with each shovel while cursing under his breath.

Shen Lie watched coldly, but felt a little uneasy inside.

His body's instincts told him that there was something wrong with the formation.

It's too dense.

To keep warm and to bolster their courage, the soldiers instinctively huddled together.

This wasn't all bad in the era of cold weapons; dense formations could boost morale. But the trenches were dug crookedly and haphazardly.

If the enemy troops were to leave the city at this time...

Shen Lie subconsciously looked at Li Congxi.

The commander was in the central position, directing his personal guards to adjust the direction of the banner, seemingly unaware of the chaos on the ground.

"What are you looking at?"

Shen Lie suddenly felt that he was somewhat ridiculous.

How can someone who can't even recognize the flags and banners be worried about a proper professional military officer?

That's just something people do when they're full and have nothing better to do.

However, in Shanxi, what you fear most is exactly what comes to pass.

Just as the first trench had been dug, a shallow pit was formed.

At this moment, the soldiers were panting heavily from exhaustion, and some even threw their weapons on the ground to rub their hands to warm them up.

The north gate of Daizhou is open.

There was no announcement, no warning.

The iron-clad wooden door slowly opened, followed by the thunderous sound of horses' hooves.

It's not about running away.

It's a comeback.

The defending general, Wang Hui, is clearly a formidable character.

He saw that the army outside the North Gate was still establishing itself and was a newly formed army, so he wanted to take advantage of their weakness and kill them.

"Enemy attack!!"

"Form ranks! Form ranks!"

Li Congxi's roar came from the central army.

But what makes the new army a new army is its reaction at the last minute.

If it were an elite veteran, upon hearing this commotion, his first reaction would be to grab his weapon and seek refuge with his comrades.

But the soldiers who came to help the city were stunned at first, then turned around to look for their flags, and only then did they frantically pick up their swords and spears from the ground.

That moment of stunned silence was the difference between life and death.

That was a cavalry unit of about three hundred men.

The entire force consisted of light cavalry, with little heavy armor, wielding long spears, and using the momentum of the downhill slope leading out of the city, they instantly crashed into the forefront of the column.

"Bang!"

That was the dull thud of a warhorse ramming into a human body.

Shen Lie watched helplessly as several unlucky guys in the front row, still holding shovels, were knocked away and sprayed blood mist in the air.

The human body is as fragile as paper in the face of a warhorse galloping at high speed.

"Don't panic! Raise your guns! Raise your guns!"

Shen Lie roared instinctively.

But his voice was quickly drowned out by the cacophony of screams and the sound of horses' hooves.

Of his soldiers, apart from Liu Qing who foolishly stood in front of him with a long spear, the rest, including the slippery Yang Ting, instinctively shrank back.

These are the new recruits.

No matter how good the equipment or how well-fed the soldiers are, those who have never seen blood are nothing more than pigs and sheep waiting to be slaughtered in the first wave of attack.

An enemy rider charged towards them.

The knight, a ferocious grin on his face, used the speed of his horse to slash down with his scimitar.

If this strike lands squarely, it would be enough to cleave a person in two, armor and all.

Shen Lie did not back down.

Or rather, this body wouldn't allow him to retreat.

He turned sideways to let the horse's head pass, the movement completed in one smooth motion.

Instead of swinging the sword, he stabbed upwards at an extremely insidious angle.

The target is not a person, but a horse's belly.

"Pfft."

The feel of the blade cutting into flesh was somewhat stiff.

The warhorse let out a mournful neigh, its front hooves buckled, and the immense momentum sent the knight tumbling headlong down, his face hitting the ground.

Shen Lie didn't even glance at the knight. He stepped forward, crushed the knight's throat with a single stomp, and then flicked his blood-stained sword.

The movements were fluid and efficient.

But it's not very useful.

He killed one, but ten others fell around him.

The entire front line of the poverty alleviation campaign has been destroyed.

The cavalry broke through the first line of defense and began to slaughter indiscriminately among the crowd.

Once infantry loses its formation and is brought face-to-face by cavalry, it becomes a one-sided massacre.

"Hold on! Anyone who retreats will be executed!"

Li Congxi led his personal guards and rushed forward, killing two fleeing soldiers before barely managing to stop the tide of battle.

But fear is contagious.

Especially in this freezing cold, watching your comrades beheaded, their hot blood spraying onto your face, the visual impact is enough to shatter any psychological defense.

"We can't stop them!"

Yang Ting, his face covered in blood (it was unclear whether it was his or someone else's), approached and said, "These bastards are too ruthless! Let's get out of here!"

Shen Lie wiped the blood from his face.

He looked around.

There were clearly two thousand men helping the distressed, while the opposing side only had three hundred cavalry. Yet now, the two thousand men were being chased by the three hundred.

This is not scientific?

But this is very military.

This is what's known as a crash mechanism.

In ancient warfare, if the number of casualties exceeded 10%, or even 50%, the army would suffer a major defeat due to the collapse of its organization.

Right now, this new army, which is eating Liu Zhiyuan's best military rations and receiving the best equipment, is frantically flirting with collapse.

Shen Lie could kill one, or even ten, but he couldn't kill all three hundred people, much less save the two thousand terrified souls.

He didn't even know how to give instructions, and could only watch helplessly as that silly boy Liu Qing was swept up in the crowd, bumping around like a headless fly.

"Get out of here my ass!"

Shen Lie kicked Yang Ting in the butt. "Where do you think you're going? The supervisory team is behind you. Do you want to eat the Commander's knife, or do you want to eat these bastards' knives?"

Before he could finish speaking, another volley of arrows rained down.

This is not a projectile shot, it's a horizontal shot.

At this distance, the arrows, carrying enormous kinetic energy, slammed heavily against the shields and armor, making a series of thuds.

Shen Lie felt a tightness in his chest. Looking down, he saw a wolf-tooth arrow stuck in his breastplate. Although it hadn't pierced through the fine lamellar armor, the impact still made his ribs ache.

This is the real battlefield.

There wasn't much strategic planning involved, nor was there much of a protagonist's halo.

All that remained was chaos, overcrowding, slippery frozen ground, and stray arrows flying from who-knows-where.

"Shen Lie!"

Li Congxi's voice rang out from not far away, filled with exasperation, "Gather your men! Block the gap on the left! If you can't, I'll kill you first!"

Shen Lie took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He knew he had really bitten off more than he could chew this time.

Want to be a meritorious official who helped the emperor rise to power?

Let's focus on surviving for now.

"Liu Qing! Raise the flag!"

Shen Lie raised his horizontal sword with a hoarse voice.

"Anyone who doesn't want to die, come closer to me!"