Chapter 94: City Breached!

Mianzhou City.

Prefectural Yamen.

Inside the rear hall, song and dance filled the air.

Dancing girls from Xiahang moved with graceful, seductive steps.

Their bodies swayed lightly, their glances naturally flirtatious.

The atmosphere of the banquet had already been pushed to its peak.

There was a popular saying in the State of Qian about the four loves of scholars:

Xiahang rouge stains Shangjing’s brush;
Wuchuan wine makes Hengzhou ink rush.

“Xiahang rouge” referred to the beauties of Xiahang.

Across generation after generation of Qian emperors, women from Xiahang had never lacked a place in the imperial harem.

The present Emperor of Qian had gone even further taking all three sisters of the Yang Clan of Xiahang into the palace at once, a story that had been celebrated for a time.

The beautiful women dancing in the hall tonight had all come from Xiahang.

They were a gift to the Prefect from a wealthy southern merchant.

The Prefect of Mianzhou sat in the seat of honor.

To his left and right sat his fellow civil officials from Mianzhou City.

At the very lowest seat sat Li Yue, the city’s Assistant General.

Normally, in a frontier city, military officers ought to hold greater authority.

Civil officials governed local administration.

Military officers commanded troops.

And when major threats forced civil and military authority to overlap, the military commander’s voice often became even stronger.

Beifeng Commandery in the State of Yan implemented that principle thoroughly.

But this was not Yan.

This was Qian.

In the eyes of Qian civil officials, allowing a military officer to attend their banquet at all was already showing him enormous respect.

Assistant General Li Yue happened to have a good temper.

No one spoke to him.

So he did not speak to anyone else either.

He simply drank his own wine, ate his own food, and watched the dancing girls in front of him.

Without a good temper, could a man even survive as a military officer in Qian?

Li Yue could take things philosophically.

After all, he had a living example right beside him.

His former superior also his father-in-law had been the man who originally raised him up.

The old man’s ancestral Sun Clan Spear was used with truly extraordinary skill.

And what had happened to him?

He had clashed head-on with the civil officials.

After one round of struggle after another, the old man had somehow managed to get himself demoted into Li Yue’s subordinate.

Why suffer like that?

Why suffer?

Li Yue glanced sideways at the Prefect sitting in the seat of honor.

The old bastard was already over sixty.

Yet all the dancing girls delivered by the southern merchant convoy today would be sent into the Prefect’s chambers tonight.

Li Yue shook his head.

He remembered a joke circulating through Mianzhou City.

He had no idea who had leaked it.

They said the Prefect’s equipment below the waist had stopped functioning long ago.

But his tongue technique was so outstanding that all those wives and concubines in his household still kept rosy complexions.

At the thought, Li Yue suddenly felt his own tongue turning sour.

He instinctively raised his wine cup and drank to suppress the sensation.

The scholars above were composing poetry to the music and dance.

Some had even set up writing tables and begun playing with brush and ink.

Li Yue remained seated in his own place.

Nobody invited this crude military man to admire calligraphy or paintings.

He had no intention of forcing himself into the group either.

His elder brother-in-law, Sun Jianming, had once been capable of mixing with those scholars.

He knew a little music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Originally, he had possessed excellent prospects.

For a military officer, understanding letters and culture and entering the eyes of scholars was how the road ahead became broad.

Only after scholars regarded you as one of their own could you rise in rank and accumulate wealth.

Unfortunately, Sun Jianming had been dragged down by his own father.

If matters had developed normally, he could have smoothly inherited the old man’s position.

Perhaps the Sun Clan might even have earned a reputation as a family of scholarly generals.

But alas.

Alas.

The defining trait of the Sun Clan Spear was that it possessed two spearheads one at each end.

Either end could stab and kill.

Li Yue’s father-in-law had been exactly like that ancestral spear.

First, he submitted memorials accusing civil officials of conscripting garrison troops as private servants.

Then he exposed the severe problem of military officers padding troop rosters with phantom soldiers.

Wonderful.

Two broad roads lay ahead.

He refused to choose either.

And since he could not fly into Heaven, he naturally got slapped into the dirt.

Fortunately, Li Yue himself was not particularly ambitious.

Being an Assistant General in this lifetime already satisfied him.

He had never expected to climb much higher.

Once he had watched enough, Li Yue stood and bid farewell to the Prefect.

The Prefect and the scholars were preparing to take powder.

For Qian scholars, this was the main event after every banquet.

Everyone took out the finest Five Minerals Powder they had personally blended.

They compared mixtures.

Then swallowed them together.

At a moment like this, who wanted to bother with some coarse military officer?

The Prefect merely waved, signaling that he had heard.

Li Yue showed no anger.

He greeted the others one by one and left the hall himself.

He had not even walked outside when wild singing erupted behind him.

Li Yue turned to look.

The civil officials and refined scholars already had flushed skin.

Some were singing at the tops of their lungs.

Some were stripping off clothes and dancing.

Others had directly pulled the dancing girls beside them into their arms and begun forcing themselves...

“Heh.”

Li Yue snorted contemptuously and kept walking.

After eating and drinking his fill, his face felt hot.

Li Yue took his horse from a servant and mounted.

His body swayed.

He nearly fell straight back off.

That scare sobering him by more than half.

Taking a deep breath, he looked back at the two stone lions outside the yamen entrance.

“Hrk— ptoo!”

A thick glob of spit landed on one stone lion.

Of course, that was about as far as his courage went.

Then, he collapsed forward over his horse’s neck.

To the servant beside him, he said:

“Home...”

He had only just prepared to nap on horseback for a while when an incomparably chaotic noise erupted ahead.

“What’s happening?”

Li Yue raised his head.

Squinting forward, he saw large numbers of people running.

Running and shouting.

“What— what are they shouting?”

Li Yue asked his servant.

The servant’s face had already turned utterly incredulous.

He looked back at his drunken master, half collapsed across the saddle.

His voice carried a sob.

“They’re shouting... they’re shouting the Yan people are attacking!

“The Yan people are attacking!”

THUD!

Li Yue fell off his horse.

His head struck the ground.

He actually knocked himself unconscious on the spot!

...

“URAAAAAA!”

“URAAAAAA!”

The repeated “Mao-style” battle cry made Zheng Fan extraordinarily uncomfortable.

The mismatch felt ridiculous.

But now was obviously not the time to stop the charge and teach everyone a new slogan.

The cavalry had already accelerated.

Their momentum had risen.

Now there was only forward!

Hooves thundered like rolling storm clouds.

This was not like dealing with the scholars at the academy during the day.

Nor was it like sneaking into Chicken Fort earlier that night.

This time it was an open, head-on cavalry charge!

As the tents ahead drew closer as the people ahead drew closer as the city walls ahead drew closer—

Zheng Fan felt the blood inside his body heating continuously.

Almost burning.

In his excitement—

Zheng Fan himself shouted:

“URA!”

At first, the stewards from the merchant convoys near the gate merely froze.

They could not understand what was happening.

Even quite a few people from the shanties came outside specifically to watch the commotion.

The garrison soldiers carrying cargo continued stupidly holding bundles on their shoulders.

Their eyes looked dull as they watched the cavalry racing toward them.

Until that cavalry began swinging sabers.

Anyone standing in the path of the charge whoever they were was either smashed down and trampled by a warhorse or cut apart by a cavalry saber.

Screams erupted continuously around the northern gate.

At last, someone with enough sense finally realized what was happening.

He shrieked:

“The Yan people are attacking!”

...

“Father.

“Which command’s cavalry is that?

“They’re unbelievably arrogant!”

Sun Jianming pointed at the approaching cavalry.

Old Sun’s breathing abruptly stopped.

He sucked in a sharp breath.

Then stamped one foot heavily against the ground and cursed:

“That is not our cavalry!

“Not our cavalry!”

“Of course it isn’t Mianzhou City cavalry.

“Haven’t all our horses been taken away and used like pack animals?

“How could it possibly be our—”

Sun Jianming abruptly stopped speaking.

From the shock and fury on his father’s face, a possibility suddenly entered his mind.

At the same moment the approaching cavalry began cutting down people outside the city.

That confirmed the possibility for him.

“The Yan people?”

“Those really are Yan people?”

“YAN PEOPLE!!!!!”

Sun Jianming screamed the final words.

Old Sun kicked the long spear beside him.

The weapon sprang upward.

He caught it in one hand.

While tearing away the thick cloth wrapped around the spear, he roared at his son:

“Go down immediately!

“Order the gate soldiers to close the gates!

“The Yan people are trying to seize the entrance!”

“The Yan people... actually came...”

Seeing his son still standing there stunned, Old Sun kicked him.

BANG!

Sun Jianming tumbled to the ground.

Only then did he recover from his shock.

“Go down!

“Close the gates!

“If the Yan people seize this gate, Mianzhou is finished!”

“Yes!

“Yes!

“Yes!”

Sun Jianming scrambled toward the stairs.

Old Sun took two deep breaths.

Looking down at the situation below, his heart immediately sank.

Because several merchant convoys had collided with one another tonight, most of Mianzhou City’s garrison troops had been dragged over to serve as laborers and move cargo.

That meant at the exact moment the Yan cavalry suddenly appeared there were actually more than fifteen hundred Qian garrison troops beneath the city gate!

But those nearly two thousand soldiers had barely drilled in ordinary times.

They existed mostly as names on military registers, allowing them to receive monthly grain and pay pay already heavily skimmed despite the labor they were forced to provide.

In fact, many of them were more accustomed to hoes and carrying poles than to sabers.

And so when four hundred barbarian cavalry came charging in those nearly two thousand garrison troops failed to provide the slightest resistance.

They collapsed instantly!

They saw blood.

They saw men being killed.

They saw black armor.

They saw merciless eyes.

They saw barbarian faces.

And just like that they broke!

They threw away the cargo on their shoulders.

They ignored the stewards screaming orders at them.

Nearly by instinct, they turned and began running toward the city gate.

Human instinct told them inside the walls would be safer!

Watching the scene below, Old Sun felt despair begin spreading through his chest.

The Yan cavalry had not even truly reached them yet.

And Great Qian’s soldiers had already collapsed first!

Old Sun glanced at the long spear in his hand.

The qi and blood that had declined with age began surging once more.

BANG!

He slapped one palm against the battlement and vaulted straight off the gatehouse.

The spearhead caught against the city wall.

As Old Sun’s body descended, it scraped down the masonry in a shower of sparks.

BUZZ!

Using that method—

Old Sun dropped directly to the ground beneath the tower.

When he landed, his chest felt slightly tight.

But he could no longer care about that.

The spear swept behind him.

He began striding directly forward.

At the same time, he shouted:

“Stop running!

“Follow this general and block the Yan dogs!”

The garrison soldiers rushing around him did not pay him the slightest attention.

They continued fleeing toward the city gate.

Within a tide of more than a thousand men, Old Sun alone walked against the current.

He looked extraordinarily lonely.

And utterly helpless.

He had only recently been demoted to Mianzhou City.

His old subordinates were not here.

And he had not yet had time to reorganize the garrison soldiers of this city.

In the past even if the Yan dogs genuinely came he would still have had confidence he could gather a unit beneath him and fight them properly.

But here he could not command the troops at all.

Besides could these unarmed men even still be called soldiers?

At last, the foremost barbarian cavalryman charged into range.

He cut down two fleeing garrison soldiers with consecutive slashes and happened to meet Old Sun advancing against the tide.

Old Sun’s qi and blood surged again.

The long spear in his hands shot forward.

The barbarian soldier blocked with his saber.

But his arm shook violently.

The cavalry saber was actually knocked from his hand by the spearhead.

Old Sun stepped forward again.

The strength of an Eighth-Grade Martial Artist flowed through the long spear.

He thrust again.

SPLURT!

The spearhead pierced straight through the barbarian soldier’s armor.

The rider looked down in disbelief.

“Yan dog!

“Give me your life!”

Old Sun released a low roar.

He raised the spear lifting the barbarian cavalryman completely off the saddle then smashed him viciously onto the ground.

BANG!

The barbarian soldier’s body twitched several times.

After one final convulsion he stopped moving.

BUZZ!

Old Sun planted the spear butt against the ground.

Using the brief opening, he looked back.

To his shock the city gate still had not closed!

Clearly, men inside were trying to shut it.

But the collapsing garrison soldiers outside were desperately pushing their way inward.

On top of that, large amounts of cargo clogged the gateway.

Closing it had become even more difficult.

“Damn you bastards!”

Old Sun roared.

In his eyes, the cavalry before him was merely an advance force of Yan.

Their purpose was to seize the gate.

Behind them there must surely be a much larger Yan army!

If they delayed any longer then...

At that moment, more barbarian cavalry closed in.

Beneath Mianzhou City, a bizarre scene formed.

More than a thousand men jammed themselves against the city gate.

A cavalry force converged toward the same gateway.

And caught between the two stood one old man holding a spear.

The strange balance did not last long.

Because Zheng Fan’s objective was to seize the gate!

The barbarian cavalry charge did not stop!

Nearly ten riders spread into a fan and charged Old Sun.

“Yan dogs!”

The long spear in Old Sun’s hands began moving again.

Brown radiance spread across his body.

That radiance even flowed onto his spear.

BANG!

BANG!

BANG!

The long spear moved like a living dragon-serpent.

Three sweeping strikes and three barbarian cavalrymen were ripped directly from their saddles.

Then came a low horizontal sweep.

No one knew how many horse legs snapped.

Several more barbarian riders were thrown to the ground.

Finally, the spearhead began calling names.

Parry.

Lift.

Thrust.

Simple, unadorned movements.

Yet every sequence stabbed another barbarian cavalryman down.

In only moments all ten riders who had charged him had been swept from their horses.

Dead or wounded.

But before Old Sun could even breathe a second wave of barbarian cavalry charged again.

At the same time, more riders refused to be tied down by one old man.

They simply swept around him from both sides.

Their objective was obvious.

The city gate!

“Yan dogs!

“Stay here!”

Old Sun’s spear knocked another two barbarian riders from their horses.

His body retreated at speed.

He roared:

“CLOSE THE GATE!”

Behind the gateway, Sun Jianming led several dozen guards in a desperate attempt to shut the city doors.

But outside, more than a thousand men were surging toward them.

The gates would not close!

BANG!

Old Sun thrust again.

Another barbarian cavalryman fell.

For a moment this old Qian general gave Zheng Fan the same feeling

Shatuo Que Shi once had when he came knocking at the gates of the residence of the Marquis of Zhenbei.

But as a Ninth-Grade Martial Artist, Zheng Fan could already sense clearly the old man’s qi and blood were nearing exhaustion.

Perhaps before age weakened him, he truly had been a formidable expert.

But no one could resist the erosion of time forever.

Liang Cheng moved.

After Old Sun survived two successive waves of barbarian cavalry, Liang Cheng urged his horse forward and charged directly toward him.

Old Sun’s spear moved again.

It collided with Liang Cheng’s saber.

For an instant—

Old Sun felt both arms sink.

His body shook.

He actually failed to hold his ground.

At that moment, Liang Cheng launched himself from the saddle and lunged directly at Old Sun.

Old Sun’s eyes turned cold.

The long spear in his hands abruptly split apart.

It became two short spearheads.

One blocked Liang Cheng’s saber.

The other stabbed toward Liang Cheng’s abdomen.

Yet the opponent’s body felt like refined steel.

The spearhead failed to enter Liang Cheng’s flesh at all.

Instead a crisp crack sounded from Old Sun’s wrist.

The strength of a zombie body terrifying indeed!

More importantly, Liang Cheng was no longer merely the same Liang Cheng who had once reported to the civilian labor camp together with Zheng Fan.

After Zheng Fan entered the Ninth Grade, Liang Cheng’s own strength had recovered further.

More precisely, his bloodline had awakened another step.

Taking advantage of the opening, Liang Cheng’s saber was already cutting toward Old Sun’s neck.

But at that moment—

Old Sun suddenly roared.

Blood seeped from his eyes.

Brown radiance blazed across his body.

Even the spearhead pressed against Liang Cheng’s abdomen became coated in that light.

SPLURT!

The spearhead drove into Liang Cheng’s body.

Old Sun clenched his teeth.

His blood-red eyes stared at Liang Cheng.

“Yan dog!

“Give me your—”

Two barbarian cavalrymen arrived.

One from each side.

As their horses thundered past both men leaned low.

Sabers flashed.

SPLURT!

Locked against Liang Cheng, Old Sun could not move.

The next instant his head was cut from his shoulders.

It spun through the air.

And while turning he saw the city gate behind him.

Still open.

THUD!

The head finally struck the ground.

Old Sun’s vision slowly blurred.

Darkened.

He knew—

Mianzhou City was finished.

And at the same time he was tired.

“Your wound?”

Zheng Fan looked at Liang Cheng.

Liang Cheng shook his head.

“Thank you for Master’s concern.

“It is nothing serious.”

With that Liang Cheng mounted again.

At that moment, Zheng Fan noticed one of the barbarian soldiers who had earlier fallen wounded walk over to the old man’s head.

He bent down and lifted it carefully.

Zheng Fan narrowed his eyes.

In barbarian speech, he asked:

“What are you doing?”

“Master.

“He was a true warrior.

“We barbarians respect warriors— even when they are our enemies.”

Zheng Fan nodded.

Then said:

“I order you to take twenty men.

“Gather our wounded tribesmen and the bodies of those who died.

“Take them back to the earth slope where we rested outside the city earlier.

“Wait there until we return.”

“Understood, Master.”

Zheng Fan pointed toward the old man’s body.

“Take his whole corpse as well.

“Bury him first.

“He was a man of Qian.

“He should be buried here.”

“Yes, Master.”

Liang Cheng kept one hand pressed against his abdomen.

The other still held his saber.

He said:

“Master.

“With our troop strength, we cannot hold this place.

“The people inside the city probably believe we are merely the vanguard and that a larger army is coming behind us.

“That is why they are this frightened and confused.

“Once they recover and discover how few men we actually have, then perhaps...”

“I’m not naïve enough to think we can occupy this city.

“But at the very least—

I need to take a souvenir to prove I came here.

“Enter the city!”

At the order more than three hundred barbarian cavalrymen followed Zheng Fan directly through the gates.

They did not scatter to loot.

Nor did they attempt to seize the government treasuries or the warehouses of merchant houses.

After smashing apart several scattered mobs of disorganized soldiers in the streets the column stopped outside the Prefectural Yamen.

Zheng Fan raised his head and looked at the plaque over the yamen entrance.

Then he said to Liang Cheng:

“We’re here.

“The souvenir shop.”

Liang Cheng replied:

“Let’s just hope this isn’t another Chicken Fort.”

Zheng Fan immediately glared at him.

“Shut your crow’s mouth!”

(End of Chapter)