Whenever Ji Cang thought of Princess Jinyang, a wave of heat surged through him. She was the Lord of the Jinyang Army, after all. If he could capture her, then—ha!
The small courtyard soon could no longer hold so many people. Ji Cang’s soldiers began spilling into the alley outside, waiting for orders.
The tunnel exit was narrow. To get more men up faster, they had even dug through the stove, allowing several people to emerge at once. Even so, getting all twenty thousand soldiers up would take no small amount of time.
The few hundred—or perhaps thousand—men who had emerged so far were nowhere near enough to complete the mission on their own. They could only continue waiting.
After who knew how long, the courtyard and the nearby alleys were packed with men. There were probably three or four thousand of them by now.
Ji Cang had no choice but to give the order. “Proceed according to plan. Split up and move out. Make sure not to alert the patrols. Take up positions at the designated locations and lie low. Move only when you hear the signal.”
He would have preferred to wait until everyone had come up, but this narrow place could not accommodate so many people.
Besides, although this area was secluded, no one could guarantee that Jinyang patrols would not pass by at any moment.
The place was an alley with no other cover. If they were discovered, their tightly packed ranks would not only make it impossible to maneuver—they would also become nothing more than sitting ducks.
Since that was the case, they might as well follow the plan: disperse throughout the city, reach their assigned destinations, and lie in wait.
The Ji commanders hurriedly acknowledged the order. They were just about to move out when several hundred points of torchlight suddenly flared, illuminating the place where they stood.
In an instant, every one of them was exposed.
Almost at the same time, countless arrows flew through the air, and screams rang out.
Chu Qing held a bow in his hands. It was not that he did not want to use the Dragonfeather Crossbow; he simply was not familiar with it yet. For now, he was still more effective with the bow he was accustomed to using.
As the Northwest Army’s young general, he possessed exceptional martial skill, and his archery was no exception. Nearly every shot found its mark.
In fact, he hardly needed to aim. The alley was packed with Ji soldiers.
This was the first time he had realized that killing the enemy could actually be so easy.
The Jinyang Army had deployed only a single battalion, but the area was not far from the north gate. A battalion was stationed atop the north gate tower and along the city walls as well, and they kept firing arrows into the alley.
It was such an excellent killing ground that Jiang Jin had deliberately chosen it as the Ji army’s grave. She had people clear the area for more than an hour.
She had sealed off all but one of the several tunnel exits in the city.
That was right—the tunnels actually had several exits. Otherwise, the Jinyang Army’s thousands of soldiers would not have been able to emerge so quickly and disperse without delay.
The Jinyang scouts had been lying in wait there all afternoon. They watched the Ji army’s overly cautious attempts at reconnaissance as though they were watching a play.
At nightfall, Nan Wen and Chu Qing led their men to hide in courtyards nearby, waiting for the Ji army to “walk into the trap.”
Just as the Ji army was about to make its move, the Jinyang soldiers leapt onto the courtyard walls and began firing fiercely into the nearby alley.
The moment the torches flared, Ji Cang knew that something had gone terribly wrong. Both shocked and furious, he roared, “Retreat!”
He swiftly fell back into the courtyard, but a large number of men around him had already gone down.
When he looked outside again, he saw that the Jinyang Army had surrounded the alley from both sides and sealed off the area around it. Their only escape route was back into the courtyard.
No—that was no longer safe either. As the Jinyang soldiers steadily advanced, even the courtyard was becoming untenable. Their only option was to retreat into the tunnel.
“Archers, fire! Shield-bearers, protect them!” Ji Cang shouted.
Unfortunately, his roar was drowned out by the screams. Some Ji soldiers tried to nock arrows and fire, but their ranks were so tightly packed that they could barely move.
To make matters worse, the night was pitch-black. Aside from the firelight on their own side, they had no idea where the Jinyang soldiers were. They could only estimate the enemy’s position by following the direction from which the arrows came.
Yet the arrows seemed to be flying in from every direction. The Ji soldiers were being slaughtered without any chance to fight back.
Ji Cang turned to a junior commander and ordered, “We’ve been discovered. Quickly tell the men in the tunnel to withdraw! Hurry!”
Only a few men could come up at a time. Once the courtyard fell into the hands of the Jinyang Army, those soldiers would simply be offering themselves up to be killed.
Now that tonight’s plan had failed, there was no point in remaining.
The only thing they could do was reduce their losses and save as many soldiers as possible.
Once they made it into the tunnel, they would be safe. After all, the tunnel was narrow. Even if the Jinyang soldiers pursued them, they had nothing to fear. A few men could hold the passage and stop the enemy’s advance.
The junior commander hurriedly acknowledged the order, then led several men toward the house and shouted, “Men below, listen up! The plan has failed! Fall back! Don’t panic!”
The soldiers reacted quickly. Those who were only halfway up immediately turned around and retreated, shouting, “The plan has failed! Fall back! Don’t panic!”
The soldiers in the tunnel immediately turned and shouted the same message. “The plan has failed! Fall back! Don’t panic!”
The message was passed from one soldier to the next. Though they were somewhat flustered, they managed to remain relatively orderly and began running back.
But retreating was not as easy as it sounded. The tunnel was narrow, and while it was not completely full, it was already more than half occupied.
So long as no one panicked, they could withdraw in an orderly fashion.
But the moment chaos broke out, the passage would inevitably become blocked, and no one would be able to move.
Especially since the men at the back had yet to receive the news and were still streaming forward.
The tunnel stretched for more than ten miles. It was easy to imagine how long it would take for the message to reach the rear.
As a result, more and more soldiers poured into the tunnel, making the congestion worse.
Watching batch after batch of soldiers fall in the alley, Ji Cang was drenched in sweat with anxiety, yet there was nothing he could do.
The Jinyang Army held the high ground. A thousand men had no trouble dealing with several thousand Ji soldiers. Each man only needed to fire a few shots—and with repeating crossbows, all they had to do was pull the trigger.
In barely a dozen breaths, every Ji soldier in the alley had been wiped out.
Nan Wen and Chu Qing led several men forward from opposite sides, closing in on the courtyard. At the same time, they left some soldiers behind to finish off the fallen, in case any Ji soldiers were merely pretending to be dead.
As the Jinyang soldiers drew closer and closer, the deputy general could not help shouting, “General, you go first! We’ll hold them here!”
Ji Cang gritted his teeth, turned, and entered the house. Naturally, the deputy general had no intention of truly staying behind either and followed close on his heels.
Soon, only a few dozen soldiers remained in the courtyard, firing arrows desperately toward the outside.
Bang!
A tremendous crash rang out. The already flimsy wooden door was kicked open. Almost at the same instant, more than a dozen Jinyang crossbowmen suddenly appeared atop the courtyard wall.
The soldiers were horrified. Before they could draw their bows and aim at the Jinyang soldiers, repeating crossbow bolts shot out and killed them all.
Nan Wen strode into the courtyard, stepping over the corpses scattered across the ground as he headed toward the house.
This time, he was exceptionally gentle. He pushed the door open softly—after all, the door would have to be repaired, and he had recently learned to “take care of a household.”
A blade flashing with cold light came chopping down at him.
