The mid-level commanders of the Jin army shared the same confusion. Though they had organized resistance and lit beacon fires, a full six hours had passed without a single reinforcement arriving from the nearest stronghold.
What in the world was going on?
"Those damn Han civilians—I knew they couldn't be trusted! They must have fled!" someone cursed.
"We should have killed them all back then! Killed them all! It was only the late emperor's benevolence that made him promote Han civilians! That Fang Zhiyi is a fool too!"
"Enough arguing! The barbarians are coming! Prepare to meet the enemy!"
A hundred li away, a massive force of border troops had made camp. They were utterly baffled, but facing orders from above, they had no choice but to obey.
The veterans of the former vanguard battalion were just as confused, yet they trusted that the Grand General must have his reasons.
Still, retreating without a fight took a heavy toll on morale.
The gloom persisted until a group of riders came charging in haste—a white horse in the lead, followed by dozens of black ones. Many turned to look, and a burly figure appeared before their eyes.
"Greetings, Grand General!" someone shouted, and the soldiers who had been standing dumbfounded joined in: "Greetings, Grand General!"
It was customary to kneel before a man of such rank, and the soldiers had long formed the habit.
But the burly general yanked hard on his reins: "All of you, get up! No kneeling!"
The soldiers exchanged bewildered glances.
Fang Zhiyi looked out over the vast number of troops before him and felt a hint of emotion. If this had been any other dynasty in the past, he would never have dared squander troops like this. But this time was different.
If all went according to plan, within ten days the so-called two hundred thousand border troops would likely be reduced to just over a hundred thousand.
But for him, a hundred thousand was more than enough.
Sometimes, winning a battle didn't depend on numbers.
"Whoever you are, whatever name you kneel to—I don't care. Now I, Fang Zhiyi, order you to stand! You are all my brothers, my own flesh and blood!" Fang Zhiyi began his speech.
"Look closely!" Fang Zhiyi pointed with his whip. "That is them buying us time with their lives! I want you to watch, to remember well!"
Wang Hui cursed inwardly. Damn, you really don't blink when you spin a lie!
Was that them willingly sacrificing their lives to hold off the enemy?
But Fang Zhiyi's words had the soldiers staring intently toward the distant beacon smoke as it gradually faded.
By afternoon, Yongchang fell.
Wang Hui had gone numb. He knew he'd long been exposed under Fang Zhiyi's watchful eye—and not just him; countless other informants had been rooted out and executed under various pretexts. Remnants of other factions were also being purged.
Wang Hui didn't know why Fang Zhiyi had spared his life, but he had finally figured it all out.
Fang Zhiyi used to be just a general in name only. But ever since he formed that vanguard battalion, everything changed—it became the sharpest blade in the Grand General's hand.
If the Grand General ordered these men to cut down the emperor himself, they wouldn't hesitate.
Then came the stirring of war: provoking the grassland tribes into an alliance, launching the invasion, all of it part of the Grand General's scheme. And in the chaos, he killed the officers who disobeyed him, installed his own people in their places, tightened the defensive line, and sold the Jin soldiers to the grassland barbarians.
Finally, he began the internal purge, executing the loyal followers of every dead officer.
At this point, there was only one voice left in the entire border army.
If Wang Hui couldn't guess what Fang Zhiyi was really after by now, he'd call himself an idiot.
But barring a miracle, even if they held off the united forces of the grassland tribes, reckoning would follow for Fang Zhiyi. The court officials had plenty of tricks up their sleeves.
And looking at it now, there seemed to be almost no chance of victory.
Wang Hui felt his life was over.
"Deputy General Wang, the General summons all officers to the main tent for a council."
A messenger ran up breathlessly. Wang Hui nodded, stood, and walked out. Stepping into the main tent, he saw few familiar faces—the men standing here now were all Fang Zhiyi's loyalists.
And the four commanders who had clearly already pledged themselves to Fang Zhiyi.
"General! Huang Pass has fallen! The barbarian allied forces have made camp on the spot. Scouts report that though they took Yongning and Wuwei, they've suffered heavy losses because they're unskilled in siege warfare."
Fang Zhiyi merely nodded.
Wang Hui's eyes lit up. He quickly spoke up: "General, shouldn't we attack now?" The fall of Huang Pass meant every Jin soldier Fang Zhiyi had planted up front was wiped out.
Next up: facing those tens of thousands of grassland cavalry head-on.
Fang Zhiyi smiled and looked at him. "No matter."
If this had been before, generals would have jumped up and cursed at him for saying "no matter." But now the tent was dead silent. Wang Hui couldn't understand it—had Fang Zhiyi fed every one of these men some kind of enchantment? If they kept fighting like this, everyone would be finished!
After some time, an uproar arose outside, and then a man stumbled into the tent.
Wang Hui squinted. That face looked familiar—right, wasn't it... Zeng Jiaye? He suddenly remembered something and glanced around. A few men were missing; the fat cook wasn't there, either.
Fang Zhiyi stepped forward to help Zeng Jiaye up. Zeng Jiaye gasped for air, nodded at Fang Zhiyi, his eyes full of resolve.
Fang Zhiyi drew a deep breath: "Pass the order! Full force, attack! Tell the brothers, the time to earn their merits is here!"
The grassland alliance also sensed the Jin border army arrayed for battle. When the Great Leader learned of it, he felt an inexplicable relief—looked like he'd been worrying over nothing.
But suddenly, hoofbeats erupted outside the tent, and a soldier drenched in blood collapsed through the entrance.
"Leader, Leader, something terrible has happened!"
"What is it?" The tribal leaders who had been drinking and laughing inside all turned their heads.
"On the grasslands... tens of thousands of Jin troops have appeared. They... they split into several columns and struck our rear!"
"What?!" The Great Leader was stunned.
He immediately ordered the news suppressed, but the word still leaked out. The grassland soldiers, who had been lost in their victory, panicked—their wives, children, and elders were all back on the steppe!
How the hell had those cursed Jin troops found their strongholds? How had they slipped past their defenses?
Only the Great Leader understood: the Jin army must have dispatched those forces through another route into the grasslands the moment they surrounded Wuwei! The Jin border commander was a lunatic—he'd abandoned his own defensive line just to trade blows, to strike at their homeland!
Some of the tribal leaders could no longer sit still. They called for their men on the spot and prepared to ride back. There was no point dwelling on how Jin troops had ended up behind them—every passing second put their families in greater danger.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
