The commoners staggered forward until they finally reached the riverbank. The water soaked their feet, and a chilling cold struck them.
Daring not to advance any further, they begged the Quzhao soldiers for mercy. "There's no road ahead, we can't go any further. Please, we beg you, let us go."
The enemy commander, entirely indifferent to their pleas, aimed his arrow at the crowd. "Get in."
Despair filled the commoners' eyes. Under the threats of the Quzhao soldiers, some finally began to wade slowly into the river.
As the water rose past their knees and over their abdomens, the chill was bone-piercing, even though it was only October.
"Ah, help, ah, woo, save..." Someone lost their footing and was instantly swept away by the current.
Because their hands were bound and they were tied together in groups of several people, one person being washed away meant the others were dragged into the rushing water alongside them.
Having eaten nothing for days, they were already incredibly weak and utterly powerless to resist the turbulent river. In the blink of an eye, they were swept several meters away.
The Quzhao cavalrymen stood on the shore, watching the Han commoners hovering on the brink of death, and couldn't help but burst into loud, mocking laughter.
Suddenly, the sound of galloping hooves echoed from behind them, accompanied by screams of agony.
The cavalrymen hastily turned around, their eyes widening in shock as they saw a squad of Han cavalry charging right at them.
Meanwhile, many of their infantrymen who had been resting by the roadside had already been shot by Han soldiers and collapsed to the ground.
The cavalry commander roared, "Enemy attack! Kill them!"
With that, he drew his bow and fired an arrow straight at the leading figure, Jiang Jin.
Jiang Jin leaned to the side, dodging the incoming projectile, and simultaneously loosed an arrow of her own.
Thwack.
The arrow embedded itself directly into the Quzhao commander's chest.
With a miserable shriek, the commander tumbled off his horse.
Jiang Jin's bow then aimed at another Quzhao cavalryman.
Over on the other side, Yao Ji had already sent a Quzhao soldier flying with his spear. Riding his horse straight into the Quzhao ranks, he was like a wolf among sheep. Slashing left and thrusting right, blood spread in his wake amidst shrill screams. He slaughtered with absolute exhilaration.
Even more ferocious than Yao Ji was Yun Chengxuan. He seemed born for the battlefield and for slaughter. Wielding his weapon, Buddha's Heart, his method of salvation was to leave his enemies bleeding profusely and decapitated.
Sharing a similar approach was Shuangjiang. Although she used a standard saber, it did not stop her from cutting down enemies one by one. Before long, her face and body were completely dyed red with blood.
Xia Chanyi was much gentler in comparison. She preferred disemboweling her foes. Generally, she wouldn't send severed limbs flying everywhere; at most, intestines would spill across the ground.
Her previous weapon was a sword, but after truly entering the battlefield, she realized that a sword wasn't as efficient as a blade for hacking people down. Thus, she switched to a long saber, which made slicing people open incredibly crisp and easy.
"Someone is here to save us! Everyone, hurry, climb up!"
Seeing the battle on the shore, the commoners in the river erupted with a desperate desire to survive, and they all struggled to swim toward the bank.
Jiang Jin shouted, "Send two squads into the river to save them!"
She wanted to rescue the commoners herself, but for the sake of speed, her current forces consisted entirely of cavalry—only two hundred men. Facing over five hundred Quzhao soldiers, she simply couldn't spare that much manpower at the moment.
"Understood!" Immediately, two squads of soldiers sprinted rapidly toward the riverbank.
The commoners struggled to wade toward the shore, but they were already incredibly weak from starvation. With mud and quicksand at the bottom of the river, and the currents rushing swiftly, their footing was unstable, and from time to time, people were still swept away.
Running at the front, Mu Ning quickly dismounted and yelled, "A few of you go chop down some trees! Those who can swim, head downstream to rescue people! The rest, follow me."
She had joined the army starting as a lowly private, but she had a foundation in martial arts, making her combat prowess and overall capabilities far superior to ordinary soldiers.
Most importantly, she was literate. Having earned significant military merit in several subsequent battles, she had already reached the rank of deputy company commander.
She ran to the bank, jumped into the river, and waded out a few steps. Grabbing a commoner's arm, she gave a forceful tug. Because they were tied together, several commoners were pulled up at once, practically floating as they were dragged to the shore.
"People in the river, don't panic! Just steady your bodies, we are coming to save you! Just hold steady..."
Under her comfort and direction, the commoners still struggling in the water finally calmed down a bit and tried their best to stabilize themselves.
Those who were swept up and floating could still pull themselves along somewhat, as their hands were bound in front of them and retained some mobility.
Other soldiers also jumped into the river, reaching out their hands. "Quick, grab my hand and come up..."
A few soldiers had already chopped down several arm-thick tree branches, extending them into the water. "Grab on, come up..."
Jiang Jin had already stowed her bow in its quiver and drawn her Tang sword. Bending her body until she was practically pressed against her horse's back, she dodged a fatal slash from a charging Quzhao cavalryman. Simultaneously, her Tang sword slashed toward his abdomen.
When fighting on horseback, one mostly wields a blade single-handedly, as the other hand is needed to control the reins. The heavy Mohe sword was still too heavy for her right now, so she was more accustomed to using the Tang sword most of the time.
But the Tang sword was by no means inferior. The sharp blade sliced open the enemy's waist and abdomen, leaving a trail of bloody water...
Clang.
Her blood-stained blade met the weapon of another Quzhao soldier. The enemy possessed immense strength, jarring the webbing between Jiang Jin's thumb and forefinger until it went numb. Yet, it was precisely because of this massive force that the enemy's blade snapped cleanly into two pieces.
The Quzhao cavalryman's pupils shrank. He never expected that his own sword would be broken by his own strike!
In that momentary daze, Jiang Jin's blade had already slit his throat...
Seeing that they were outmatched, some Quzhao soldiers immediately tried to flee. The cavalry, in particular, dashed left and right in an attempt to break through the encirclement.
However, the Jinyang Army were no pushovers; they immediately intercepted and slaughtered the retreating foes.
Although the Jinyang forces did not have the numerical advantage, Quzhao only had a little over a hundred cavalrymen, while the rest were infantry.
The first and second volleys of arrows had already killed many Quzhao soldiers. Coupled with the element of surprise, the Quzhao forces were caught completely off guard, and the battle ended with the total annihilation of the enemy.
Jiang Jin flicked the blood from her blade and surveyed the ground littered with corpses.
By now, the commoners in the river had all been rescued.
Some of them collapsed limply onto the ground, while others knelt and kowtowed to Jiang Jin and her soldiers in gratitude.
Jiang Jin dismounted and walked toward the commoners, asking, "Who are you, and where do you come from?"
A man around thirty years old, still panting heavily, replied, "We... we are commoners from Donghu Commandery. We were... we were captured by the Quzhao to be used as meat stock, boohoo..."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but shiver, seemingly recalling something utterly terrifying. His voice grew hoarse.
"There were... there were over eight hundred of us in total. After being eaten, we are the only ones left. The Quzhao people are animals. They eat... they eat people and even pick their favorite cuts of meat."
The others also began to sob softly.
Jiang Jin fell silent. Cannibalism driven by starvation was a desperate need for survival, but for the Quzhao, it was clearly not just a lack of food. They simply did not view the Han people as human beings of the same kind.
From the commoners' intermittent accounts, Jiang Jin learned of their situation.
These people were all villagers under the jurisdiction of Taian County in Donghu Commandery. They had been captured by the Quzhao and eaten one by one along the journey.
The Quzhao's destination was the garrison at Zhou County, which was no longer far from here. They no longer needed the human livestock, not to mention they had grown tired of eating them along the way.
However, the Quzhao had no intention of letting these Han commoners walk away alive, so they prepared to drown them.
"My Lord, the carriages are filled with weapons," Yao Ji came over and reported in a low voice.
Jiang Jin nodded. It seemed these men were not troop reinforcements for the Zhou County garrison, but rather a supply convoy delivering weapons and equipment.
Yao Ji looked at the shivering commoners, sighed, and asked, "How should we handle these people?"
