“Sigh.”
A soft sigh broke the silence. Xu Yuan understood exactly what Li Qingyan meant.
From the moment the barbarian army detoured to the south of the city, the fall of Beifeng City had been sealed.
When it would fall did not depend on the defenders’ resolve or morale, but on the price the barbarians were willing to pay for it.
To alter this fate, to break the deadlock, one would have to achieve an epochal victory against overwhelming odds.
Li Qingyan had tried, but she had failed.
The Barbarian Heterodox King was no Sun Hundred-Thousand.
Although Li Qingyan had scored significant gains during her raid, against such an absolute disparity in troop numbers, even if the barbarians suffered twice their losses, the raid was fundamentally a failure so long as it did not shatter barbarian morale and trigger a cascading rout.
The post-battle casualty records showed that Beifeng City still had around sixty thousand battle-ready soldiers.
The problem was that the vast majority of these sixty thousand were second-line border troops of only the Eighth or Ninth Rank. The city’s two genuine elite forces had already been crippled in the decisive battle at the southern wall.
And the grim reality was far worse than just that.
At present, the city-protecting array was running critically low on Source Crystals, the formation runes on the south wall were completely destroyed, eight or nine out of ten flying demonic beasts were gone, and snow had begun to fall from the sky once more.
Amidst the silence, Xu Yuan suddenly understood Li Qingyan’s original plan.
“Your sortie outside the city... was it actually meant to feign weakness to the enemy?”
“Not entirely.”
Li Qingyan leaned back against the table behind her, raising her fair chin. Her phoenix eyes gazed toward the high rafters of the barracks, her tone leisurely.
“Prince Consort, marching and waging war always requires preparing two paths. If the sortie succeeded, the siege of Beifeng would be broken. If it failed, it would still inflict massive damage on the barbarian army, making them hesitate to force an assault at an even higher cost.”
Now that Beifeng City had lost the protection of its grand array, the barbarians only needed to bombard the interior from afar with those brute-force trebuchets to take this great bastion—which had blocked their southward march for centuries—without shedding a drop of blood.
If he could take this battered city over time without casualties, the Barbarian King naturally would not waste his military strength on a brute-force assault.
And that was precisely the outcome Li Qingyan had wanted.
If the barbarians truly waited that long, the high-ranking cultivators she had dispatched toward Mount Dali would have had ample time to summon Marquis Wucheng and Zong Qingsheng back with their armies.
By then, with the Cloud Qi Bomb dispersing the blizzard, the entire barbarian host would be trapped like turtles in a jar.
Silence spread through the barracks. Xu Yuan said softly, “In that case... my having someone detonate the Cloud Qi Bomb near Houting County truly disrupted your plans, Qingyan.”
His action had startled the snake in the grass, revealing that trump card to the barbarians ahead of time.
Once he learned that the blizzard around Houting County had been dispersed by Great Yan’s meteorological weapon and that the sect elites had begun marching south, the Barbarian King was left with only one desperate gamble:
To press the assault on this ruined city regardless of losses, seize Beifeng before the sect elites arrived, and thoroughly trap Great Yan’s seven hundred thousand elite troops within the northern snow plains.
Li Qingyan showed no intention of blaming him.
“Prince Consort, you simply did harm with good intentions. That Barbarian King was severely wounded and likely will not dare step onto the battlefield again. With proper deployment, holding out against those barbarians for two days with our current forces will not be overly difficult. It is just that, in all likelihood, we will no longer be able to eradicate them completely.”
Pausing, Li Qingyan looked at Xu Yuan and pursed her lips into a smile. “Come, accompany me for a walk along the city walls. They need my presence there to steady morale.”
The Feather Forest Guards camp was largely deserted. The soldiers who previously patrolled the compound were gone; only a handful of officers and armored couriers ran back and forth relaying orders.
Leaving the camp, Xu Yuan and Li Qingyan each mounted a steed and rode down the empty avenue toward the city wall.
The barbarian trebuchets continued their relentless bombardment of everything inside Beifeng City.
Pure white snowflakes drifted soundlessly from the sky like willow catkins, dancing in chaos yet untainted by dust as they settled gently upon the ruins.
Xu Yuan remained silent throughout the ride.
Hooves trod the snow, leaving a trail of prints along the street.
Some people wailed for help from within the rubble, yet no one paid them any mind.
Some martial apprentices who refused to fight on the walls were seized and bound by the sect border army.
Numb-faced youths sat beside the debris.
Border soldiers dashed through the wreckage to rescue civilians.
When the word *war* crashed down upon an individual, it weighed heavier than Mount Tai.
Turning down a street and arriving at the south wall, Xu Yuan could not help but frown.
The battlefield here had still not been cleared.
Corpses.
Corpses large and small, whole or mutilated.
The cleared spaces near the wall were filled with the bodies of Beifeng’s defenders. White mourning cloth had run out against such numbers; as far as the eye could see, endless stretches of multicolored fabric crudely covered the fallen soldiers’ remains so they were not left exposed to the open air.
Xu Yuan had thought he had grown numb to such sights, yet every time he saw them, waves of emotion inevitably surged within his chest.
A few hours ago, they had probably been laughing and cursing with their comrades, discussing which brothels offered better service and agreeing to make merry together once they survived and drew their pay.
A few hours later, they were cold, silent corpses that would never speak again.
War.
“Prince Consort...”
Li Qingyan’s voice suddenly came from beside him.
He looked back.
She was gazing at the remains of the fallen soldiers, yet her voice was completely calm.
“Remember what you said beneath Beifeng City.”
Xu Yuan lowered his eyes and gave a slight nod, uttering three words:
“I won’t forget.”
Erect a monument.
Erect a monument for those who died in battle.
No matter what the future held, at this very moment, they had died for Great Yan.
With those words spoken, neither said anything more.
Li Qingyan’s arrival swiftly caused a stir among the ranks.
Not only the Feather Forest Guards, but even many soldiers of the sect border army showed a flicker of excitement in their eyes.
The military was a complicated place, yet also remarkably simple, especially in an extraordinary feudal empire.
Soldiers naturally harbored a unique admiration for valiant commanders—to say nothing of Li Qingyan, an imperial princess of noble blood.
Moreover, in such a dark and disorienting hour, they needed a “god” to anchor their spirits.
As the one who had personally severed the barbarian general’s banner and cleaved off one of the Barbarian King’s arms, Li Qingyan naturally became the “god” their hearts required.
As the snow fell heavier and heavier, the soldiers’ field of view shrank further.
With each passing second, under the reality that the array could no longer be maintained, most of the high-ranking scions of the sects seized the chance to flee, taking a portion of Beifeng City’s high-level combatants with them.
However, Li Zhaoyuan carried out Li Qingyan’s instructions flawlessly.
Beifeng City, nearly paralyzed after the brutal fighting, was brought back to functioning order under his systematic coordination.
Not just martial apprentices, but even many ordinary folk were mobilized under the prince’s organization.
Allocating Source Crystals to recharge the array, wheeling carts of defense engines from warehouses to the walls, stripping armor from fallen soldiers to distribute among temporarily conscripted martial apprentices from mercenary bands and escort bureaus...
The defense preparations for the entire city proceeded with remarkable order under Li Zhaoyuan’s governance.
Unfortunately, time was still not on their side.
The time the barbarians granted Beifeng City was not enough for Li Zhaoyuan to fully mobilize all its troops and citizens.
Beneath an ink-black sky choked with blizzard winds, alarm bells abruptly chimed long and hard over Beifeng.
The barbarians had resumed their assault.
On the first night, the barbarian army launched a massive offensive against the unprotected south wall. Around seventy thousand martial apprentices from mercenary bands and escort agencies were thrown into the battle in waves, turning the south wall into an absolute meat grinder.
On the second day, having endured a night of bitter fighting, these conscripted apprentices were rotated off the walls due to devastating casualties.
Li Qingyan personally led a mixed force of the Feather Forest Guards and the Black Scale Army, repelling several barbarian assaults.
Yet due to the severe shortage of troops, even with Li Qingyan coordinating the military arrays, they were fundamentally unable to hold the vast defensive line along the southern ramparts.
At half past three in the afternoon, Li Zhaoyuan dispatched the final reserve unit to the southern front.
As night fell on the second day, Li Qingyan ordered the cremation of the soldiers’ remains to prevent them from becoming rations for the barbarians.
Half an hour later, the southern wall was completely overrun. The barbarians captured the battlements and began expanding in all directions.
From that moment on, the battle for Beifeng City degenerated into street-by-street combat.
Large mercenary bands and escort agencies used the rune-inscribed heavy crossbows issued to them, falling back on the arrays of various military camps to stubbornly contest the barbarians’ advance through the blizzard.
Yet such resistance proved utterly futile against the sheer disparity in military might.
Before midnight arrived, the entire southern half of the city had fallen completely. Countless towering barbarian soldiers surged into every corner of the city along the beast lanes like a tidal wave.
Four hours later, the barbarian vanguard reached the heart of Beifeng City: the Beifeng Commandery Office.
At dawn on the third day, the Beifeng Commandery Office fell.
The surviving defenders were forced to abandon all remaining quarters and retreat to their final stronghold at the north wall, relying on the defensive arrays of the Black Scale Guards and Lingshui Palace military compounds to hold the line.
Stymied by the stubborn defense and unable to break through quickly, the barbarian forces attempted to push directly along the eastern and western walls onto the northern wall to encircle the remaining defenders.
It was only then that Li Qingyan ordered the city-protecting array, dormant for two days, to activate, thwarting the barbarians’ attempt to trap them.
With that, the battle reached a temporary stalemate.
Wind and snow swirled wildly.
Standing atop the northern wall, Li Qingyan looked down coldly over the great city of Beifeng.
Over the course of three days, the orderly rows of buildings had been reduced to sprawling ruins. The smoke of battle rising across the city made it look as though the end of days had arrived.
After gazing for a long time, the look in her eyes turned complex, but all of that complexity ultimately condensed into a plume of warm breath that dispersed into the cold air.
The distant battle cries and rumblings only emphasized the stillness atop the gate tower.
Xu Yuan stood to the side, quietly watching the dejection on her face.
Over these past three days, he had not stayed by her side, remaining instead within the northern wall.
Yet the Black Scale Guards had reported all of her actions over those three days to him in detail.
From the south wall to the southern district, then to the Commandery Office, and finally falling back to this northern wall.
Slaying enemies, barking orders, reluctantly retreating step by step until... there was nowhere left to retreat.
“Qingyan...” His voice was very soft, almost drowned out by the distant clamor of battle. “You grew up here in Beifeng, didn't you?”
Li Qingyan did not turn around. Looking out over the chaos of Beifeng, her voice was quiet.
“Of course. Imperial Father sent me here when I was young. It counts as half a homeland.”
“A homeland, is it?”
Xu Yuan sighed softly and persuaded her, “Qingyan... holding Beifeng any longer is meaningless.”
As he spoke, he glanced sideways into the blizzard outside the northern city.
There, a massive sect border army was entrenched, yet they showed not the slightest intention of reinforcing them.
When dawn broke on the third day, the sect elites from around Houting County had already arrived outside Beifeng City. Yet they made no move to help, choosing instead to pitch camp outside the walls.
Li Qingyan’s brows knitted slightly. After several moments of silence, she chuckled softly and shook her head.
“The bottom line of these sect people remains as low as ever.”
“Never hold even a shred of hope for the sects; they will always show you what a true surprise is.”
Xu Yuan smiled in agreement, then paused and asked softly, “By the way, Qingyan, why do you think they refuse to come to our aid?”
Li Qingyan looked up at the sky blanketed by heavy snow clouds.
“They are waiting. Waiting for Uncle Mu and Mr. Zong to march south and link up. They don't want to face the full brunt of the barbarian main force alone; their losses would be too heavy. Besides, with the Cloud Qi Bomb, we cannot truly lose.”
“Heh.”
Xu Yuan let out a soft laugh, his eyes turning cold as he looked in the direction of those camps. “My guess is about the same as yours, though it seems you’ve forgotten one detail.”
Li Qingyan turned to meet his smiling gaze, her beautiful eyes flickering. “You mean they are also waiting to see what choice the Barbarian King makes?”
“Indeed.”
Xu Yuan snapped his fingers with a smile. “Didn't you mention it before? If the Barbarian King chooses to withdraw, these sects will in all likelihood stand by and let them pass north.”
Li Qingyan narrowed her eyes.
“If they let the barbarians pass north, right behind them lies the defense line near Houting County.”
The line around Houting County consisted of several small and medium-sized border towns. They had been destroyed previously, but months of repairs had made them reasonably sturdy.
Xu Yuan understood her point and sighed.
“By letting the barbarians pass, these sects not only reclaim the captured Beifeng City, but also leave the repaired Houting defense line to the barbarians.”
Pausing, Xu Yuan placed his hand gently upon the freezing battlement.
“That way, the only forces trapped in the northern snow plains will be the Marquis and Mr. Zong. Why wouldn’t they jump at such a bargain?”
“……”
The wind and snow whipped the red-robed woman’s long hair. Her voice was devoid of emotion. “Sooner or later... I will exterminate the nine clans of these sect dogs.”
Seeing her anger, Xu Yuan prompted her again, “So, do we pull out?”
Li Qingyan pondered for a moment, then turned to look at him, answering with a question of her own:
“Prince Consort, where did Yuan Hao go?”
Hearing this, a perfectly measured look of bewilderment appeared in Xu Yuan’s eyes.
“Yuan Hao? He’s missing?”
Li Qingyan’s voice was deliberate and slow.
“Over these three days, I haven’t seen him once, nor have I received any reports about him from the other officers. With his abilities, he shouldn’t have remained so utterly inconspicuous.”
Xu Yuan frowned.
“I wouldn’t know. I suppose he either fled or died in battle.”
With that, Xu Yuan casually pulled out a crystal and crushed it in his hand.
It was time to call his backup to take him away.
Mister Jiu, who had escorted Li Junqing to Houting County, had already returned to Beifeng City before the barbarians attacked.
Yet a few breaths later, Mister Jiu did not arrive; instead, Xu Yuan caught the faint scent of venomous roses.
Lou Ji had returned.
Upon appearing, Lou Ji gave Li Qingyan a nod, then looked at Xu Yuan with a beaming smile and murmured softly, “Our Changtian is finally willing to leave?”
“My business is done, so naturally it’s time to go,” Xu Yuan replied matter-of-factly, speaking far more directly with Lou Ji at his side. “Besides, if we don’t leave now, it might be a bit too late.”
Hearing this, Li Qingyan’s phoenix eyes narrowed slightly.
“Business is done... What business?”
Xu Yuan turned back with a broad grin, pointing at the northern wall beneath their feet.
“Thanks to you, Your Highness, I was able to enter and leave every single corner of this north wall freely.”
Li Qingyan’s crimson pupils contracted slightly, as if realizing something.
“What do you mean?”
Xu Yuan shook his head, offering only a parting remark:
“Qingyan, in all things, one must give up something to gain something. I’ll wait for you near Houting County.”
Lou Ji waved cheerfully at Li Qingyan.
“Little sister, big sister is taking Changtian away now~”
As the words fell, the wind and snow continued to swirl, but the two figures had already vanished from the battlements.
Chapter 253