Tome of Troubled Times

Chapter 287: A Heart Ablaze

The walls quickly turned into a meat grinder.

The corpses of yesterday had yet to be cleared away when new ones were added to the pile.

A breach in the wall did not necessarily mean that the walls could no longer be defended; it just meant that there were fewer tactical options that could be employed and a greater requirement for raw strength and courage from the defenders.

No matter how many enemies there were, only so many could squeeze through the gap in the walls at once.

The weather was getting colder and colder, and the snowfall grew heavier each day. If they could hold out until the snow fully set in, the barbarians would retreat. They were made of flesh and blood too; they had families and tribes and could not stay here indefinitely.

With this understanding came endless courage.

No matter how exhausted they were, no matter how depleted their supplies, they still held hope.

Huangfu Yongxian personally held the breach, thrusting his spear forward and skewering two barbarian warriors at once. With a mighty swing, he threw their bodies back, sending them crashing into the enemy ranks, toppling a decent number of them like dominoes.

Cui Yuanyong’s sword flashed coldly as he guarded Huangfu Yongxian’s side. When he saw the other party’s prowess, he could not help but feel a deep sense of admiration.

He wondered if he would still be so strong in his old age.

As a direct descendant of an aristocratic family, Cui Yuanyong had initially found it hard to empathize with the soldiers at the border or understand Huangfu Yongxian’s mindset. In his view, even if the barbarians broke through, they would still need to compromise with the Cui Clan in order to quickly stabilize the empire. At that time, they would simply change banners, and the Cui Clan of Qinghe would remain an influential power.

Dynasties might change, but aristocratic clans remained. He believed the Huangfu Clan to share the same beliefs, and was thus baffled as to why they fought so desperately.

An indifferent emperor? Great! It made it easier for them to become local overlords.

He had come to the northern frontier ostensibly to help defend but more so to gain experience in battle formations. He aspired to join the Ranking of Man and believed this was an excellent place to hone his skills.

However, after months of fighting, his perspective began to shift subtly.

The day before, he was laughing and drinking with friends who today lay as corpses on the battlefield. Subordinates who respectfully called him Young Master Cui or Commander Cui had changed over and over in these months, and their young faces were now flashing through his mind.

He was in a state of numbness, where life and death had become trivial.

But there was also a blazing fire burning in his heart.

He felt as if his blood, along with that of his friends and subordinates, had been poured into the defense of this city. Every brick and stone was not not brick or stone, but flesh and blood, soaked with the spirits and souls of friends, subordinates, and everyone who fought here.

That was something that could not be experienced by solely wandering the jianghu—the feeling of perishing with a city.

As long as he was there, the city would stand.

Cui Yuanyong finally understood Huangfu Yongxian. Asking such a person to give up was worse than killing him.

So, they would not give up.

His father had told him to retreat to Qinghe if things became untenable... but he felt that to be impossible now. He felt like he just could not bring himself to just abandon the city that so many had sacrificed their lives for.

Clang!

Not far away, blades and spears struck Situ Xiao, producing metallic clangs.

Situ Xiao grinned. His heavy sword swept through the air, sending heads flying along its path.

Cui Yuanyong could not help but feel envious of his comrade’s invulnerability. He found it to be incredibly convenient in battle. Others had to wear cumbersome armor, yet those suits of armor were not even as effective as the defense of Situ Xiao’s flesh. With such a sturdy body, Situ Xiao had much more room to maneuver the battlefield than he did.

However, it could indeed backfire. While tempering one’s body to have such impeccable defense was useful against ordinary soldiers, once faced with a skilled opponent, it could easily be broken.

“Brother Situ, watch out!” Cui Yuanyong darted forward, his sword piercing the throat of an assailant who was trying to ambush Situ Xiao.

Situ Xiao turned and smiled. “Thanks. I originally didn’t want to join the martial arts camp because I didn’t want to deal with the airs of noble scions, but you’re not half bad. At the very least, you’re better than Wang Zhaoling.”

Cui Yuanyong replied helplessly, “Is this the time to be talking about that?”

“What I mean by that is that if you decided or you decide now to retreat, I won’t laugh at you. As the heir of the Cui Clan of Qinghe, there’s no reason for you to die here.”

“Why can’t the heir of the Cui Clan of Qinghe die here?” Cui Yuanyong asked, puzzled. “Do you, the heir of the Divine Brilliance Sect, plan to retreat?”

Situ Xiao said, “We’re just martial artists of the jianghu. We live for the moment. There are plenty of people who can carry on the legacy of the Divine Brilliance Sect; it doesn’t have to be me.”

Cui Yuanyong thrust his sword into an enemy’s throat and smiled. “What a coincidence, I feel the same way.”

Situ Xiao looked up to the sky and laughed heartily. “Then let’s not speak of ill fate. Neither of us will die.”

Damn it, who was the one who brought up retreating first? Cui Yuanyong said angrily, “Why do you think we won’t die?”

Situ Xiao replied, “No specific reason, just trying to keep up the morale. Anyway, as long as we survive this, we’ll definitely make it onto the Ranking of Man. I don’t believe that someone like Xue Canghai has had this kind of experience.”

“Shit,” muttered Cui Yuanyong as he looked at the endless sea of enemies. He felt that death was a real possibility this time.

A thought suddenly crossed his mind. Zhao Changhe has been behind enemy lines for so long. He showed up on the Tome of Troubled Times briefly, but then there has not been any more word of him since then. Could he already be dead? No, if a hidden dragon fell, the Tome of Troubled Times would have appeared again. Since it hasn’t, that means he’s still alive. I wonder what he’s up to.

Heh, I wonder if my little sister would be more upset over my death or Zhao Changhe’s.

“General!” Someone not far away hurriedly reported to Huangfu Yongxian, “There’s smoke and dust in the northwest. It’s likely the Warring Lion Tribe!”

Huangfu Yongxian speared a barbarian, his expression shifting slightly. “They’ve finally come...”

Cui Yuanyong and others nearby, having heard the report, looked grim.

There had been hope of holding out until the snowfall. But with these fresh reinforcements arriving, it seemed unlikely they could withstand this siege.

*

At the camp of the Golden Horde.

Timur stood at the rear of the formation, overlooking the battle raging at the city walls.

The army of Xia was clearly running out of supplies. They used to pour boiling oil down the walls, but now they had none left. They relied solely on blood and steel to hold the line.

However, their forces could not break through. Veterans like Huangfu Yongxian had fortified the city’s defenses to the point where they were nearly impenetrable. The walls were harder to crack than a turtle shell. If this dragged on for a few more days, the morale among his own troops would start to wane.

Many of his subordinates and those of other tribes did not understand why he refused to personally take action and decapitate Huangfu Yongxian.

But Timur knew he could not do that.

It was not because of the hypothetical intervention of Xia Longyuan. Timur knew that Xia Longyuan was still in the capital and could not teleport here instantly.

It was just that some precedents could not be set... If today a warrior on the Ranking of Heaven charged into battle to kill a general, then tomorrow, Xia Longyuan would feel justified to rampage through the Grasslands, slaughtering at will and turning the entire Grasslands into a sea of blood.

Even someone like Yue Hongling wreaking havoc in the rear was a massive pain, what more if it were Xia Longyuan?

At their level, they had to adhere to certain unwritten agreements.

Timur genuinely admired the Maitreya Cult. They were causing internal strife, and Xia Longyuan was not bound by any kind of mutual agreements in their case. Thus, Timur was baffled as to what gave them such courage. Even the Wang Clan would not dare do what they were doing.

Yet, Xia Longyuan had not made a move, leaving Timur curious.

His gaze shifted to Cui Yuanyong, Situ Xiao, and the others defending the wall, a hint of pity in his eyes.

These hidden dragons of the Central Plains have yet to exhaust their potential. Although few of them are truly worthy of praise... there are some.

As long as they live, their morale will remain. But unfortunately, there’s too few of them. The breach in the city wall shows that they’re close to their limit.

After a long observation, Timur slightly raised his hand. “Have the Vulture Tribe advance.”

At this moment, someone came to report, “The Warring Lion Tribe is approaching from the northwest. They claim to come as reinforcements.”

Timur paused, frowning slightly. “The envoy I sent to the Warring Lion Tribe has not even returned, yet they’re already here? How many troops have they brought?”

The soldier replied, “Approximately seventy to eighty thousand.”

While there was a massive gap between the army of seventy to eighty thousand and the Golden Horde in terms of absolute strength, they were a crucial variable at this moment.

Let alone seventy to eighty thousand, even ten to twenty thousand could give those defending Yanmen Pass a headache. Additional forces of such great numbers could lead to a swift end to this war.

“Batu will have had to pass through Huangsha Market to get here. Why didn’t Ubalu send a message? How did Batu arrive so out of the blue?”

No one could answer the khagan’s question.

Someone cautiously suggested, “If Batu bypassed Huangsha Market, General Ubalu would have noticed and pursued them from the rear...”

“Have the Vulture Tribe shift to the flank and form a line at the northwest,” commanded Timur. He suddenly stood up. “Whether Batu has come to assist us or attack us from the flank, we must not be careless. Mister Bo...”

He turned to a shaman in the tent, his expression solemn. “In a conflict with those of the south, if internal strife arises, this can no longer be considered a mere tribal dispute. Will the temple intervene?”

The shaman rose and saluted. “Rest assured, khagan. Where would Batu find the courage to rebel? He’s most likely here to join the war. Let me go and meet Batu to confirm his intentions.”