Li Qian slowly pried his hand away from the sword hilt, and several of them worked together to lift him onto a wooden plank, preparing to carry him down for treatment.
"No, I won't go down," Luo Lan said, his voice hoarse and weak.
Ji Xin was both angry and anxious: "Do you want to die?"
Luo Lan closed his eyes. "Just carry me into the city tower."
He knew very well that if he went down, he would never make it back up. He would rather die on the city wall he had sworn to defend.
Ji Xin wanted to argue further, but Li Qian stopped him: "Enough. Do as the general says. Go fetch a few braziers."
He understood why Luo Lan insisted, his heart filled with grief and anger but utterly helpless.
Before long, several braziers were lit, burning wood stripped from the windows of houses in the city. There was no firewood left inside the city.
The bitter wind howled, roaring through the arrow slits of the city tower, making the flames dance wildly, casting shadows like monstrous beasts.
Soldiers quickly left the tower and stripped clothes and even armor from the corpses on the city wall, using them to block the arrow slits.
After who knows how long, the tower finally had a hint of warmth.
When Ye Shang had arranged the night watch and entered the tower, Luo Lan's wounds had already been rudely treated.
There were no doctors in the city, but for men who had spent years on the battlefield, basic emergency wound care was still something they could manage.
Hearing his footsteps, Luo Lan opened his eyes. His gaze at Ye Shang was as deep as an abyss.
Ye Shang’s heart was troubled: "General, are you all right?"
Luo Lan gave a faint smile: "How many of us are left?"
"Less than three thousand," Ye Shang said wearily, leaning against the wall.
In less than a month, from fifty thousand troops, they had been reduced to less than three thousand—and they were the defenders!
The order Luo Lan had given resulted in the killing of more than two thousand of their own—men who disobeyed orders, who tried to flee, who wanted to retreat.
"Have our people secured all four gates?" Luo Lan propped himself up and leaned against the wall, panting heavily.
He had held Lin County for so long; it was impossible for him to have no trusted men.
Each one of them shared his hatred for the barbarians, a hatred born of shattered families.
Ye Shang gave a soft "hmm." "No need to guard them. They can't get out anyway. The city has been surrounded from the outside all along."
Luo Lan let out a scornful laugh: "But there are still fools unaware of their own stupidity, trying to sneak out of the city at night, even colluding with the enemy for a sliver of hope."
That was why he had killed so many—only brutal, bloody methods could steady the crumbling morale of the army.
Ye Shang said nothing, staring at the leaping flames.
Silence fell inside the city tower, broken only by the howling wind outside, like ghostly wails, like the moans of the dead.
"You're injured?" Ji Xin looked at Ye Shang's arm. The armor was stained pitch-black, so the blood and grime on it were almost invisible without close inspection.
The flickering firelight lit Ye Shang's face, making his expression hard to read. His voice came through: "After tonight, those who can still fight will probably number only two thousand."
Everyone’s breath caught as they understood his meaning.
On such a bitterly cold, snowy night, the wounded soldiers simply wouldn’t make it through, even if they stripped the bodies.
In truth, most had no strength left to strip the corpses. After a month of high-intensity fighting, all were exhausted, drained both physically and mentally.
And with the cold, the bodies were frozen stiff. Clothes and armor stuck to the skin, hard to peel off.
Besides, whether friend or foe from the Quzhao people, everyone wore layers of thin single garments that offered almost no warmth.
The occasional Quzhao officer in furs—their clothes had long since been stripped away.
Li Qian suppressed the grief in his heart and suggested, "Tomorrow, let the city folk fight too."
Ji Xin shook his head: "They're all starving. How can they fight? Isn't that just sending them to their deaths?"
Li Qian lowered his head: "If they don't fight, they'll die under Quzhao swords anyway. Might as well take their chances. At the start, we should have…"
His unfinished words were clear to everyone: At the beginning, they should have let these people go. Outside, there might have been a chance to live. But now, they had become burial objects for this city.
These people were, in truth, Luo Lan’s stored food for the winter. He had simply miscalculated the situation—for some reason, the Quzhao army had suddenly gone mad attacking Lin County.
They might not even survive tomorrow, and these "supplies" had become meaningless.
Ji Xin felt as if all strength had been drained from him, his shoulders slumping, his eyes staring blankly at the dim firelight.
After holding out for over a year, it was finally hopeless—though this result had long been expected.
Luo Lan turned his gaze to the silent Ye Shang: "Perhaps tonight, they should all have meat to eat. Then tomorrow they’ll have the strength to defend the city. What do you think, Secretary Ye?"
Ye Shang turned his head to look at Luo Lan, his face expressionless.
Meeting Luo Lan's gaze, he knew—he had known all along.
It made sense. A man who could hold Lin County for over a year under Quzhao’s siege couldn’t possibly be simple.
Ye Shang gave a faint smile: "Then why didn’t you get rid of me?"
Ji Xin and Li Qian were confused, raising their heads to look at Ye Shang. After a long moment, they grasped his meaning, their faces showing shock.
Then they understood. No wonder.
Wen Ping and the others tensed, watching Luo Lan with wary eyes.
Luo Lan looked away, not answering the question. Instead, he murmured softly, as if speaking to himself or to Ye Shang.
"You wouldn’t understand. I saw with my own eyes my son and daughter torn apart and devoured by the barbarians. Their little bodies—hardly any meat on them…"
"They disemboweled them in front of me. They were terrified, screaming, 'Father, father, save us! Father, it hurts! Father, I’m scared! Father…'"
"And then my parents and my wife… those things aren’t human at all—they’re damned beasts…"
"Every time I close my eyes, I hear their terrified screams. Every time I fall asleep, I see their frightened eyes. They all want me to avenge them…"
Ji Xin’s eyes reddened: "Brother, don’t say anymore!"
They knew well why they followed Luo Lan, even after all the extreme things he did since seizing Lin County.
They too had seen their families destroyed. They too felt the pain and the hatred.
Luo Lan’s dazed eyes gradually cleared, and a smile tugged at his lips.
Even after doing so many inhuman things, these brothers still recognized him as their elder. Life still held some hope, didn’t it?
But his hope was long gone. What lived on was only a walking corpse. He even wished he could take the whole world down with him into hell.
Luo Lan looked at Ye Shang again, pressing: "Let those commoners eat meat. What do you think?"
Ye Shang pressed his lips together: "I don’t think much of it. Once you do certain things, you fall into irredeemable ruin."
"Irredeemable ruin?" Luo Lan let out two laughs but seemed to pull at his wound, coughing violently. It took a long while before he stopped, gasping for air.
"What does irredeemable ruin matter?"
He lifted his head, meeting Ye Shang’s eyes: "Is there any other outcome besides irredeemable ruin?"
Ye Shang sighed inwardly, but his voice was firm: "Yes."
Hearing the answer he wanted, Luo Lan’s body relaxed, a rare hint of joy in his smile: "Good. In the future, I hope your master will treat my two brothers well."
He closed his eyes, his voice barely a whisper: "Tomorrow, I will give you back a clean Lin County."
