Chapter 266: A Heart’s Intent
“Your Highness!” Yu Qianshan’s voice was hoarse like a broken gong, filled with suppressed rage. “Where are the imperial reinforcements? Where is the grain and fodder? If this continues, we’ll be worn down to death by the wind, snow, hunger, and cold in this godforsaken place, long before Ashina’s saber falls.”
He pounded his chest violently, his eyes bloodshot.
“I sent out three waves of messengers at the risk of their lives, and all have vanished without a trace! Could it be that those scourges in the Capital City wish for us all to perish, so they can save on military pay and grain, and perhaps use this opportunity to plot for… the position of Crown Prince.”
“Nonsense!” Li Zhao looked up, his voice deep and steady.
“Complaining now and shaking the morale of the army, how does that benefit the war situation?”
Yu Qianshan knew he had spoken out of turn. He panted heavily, turned his face away, his voice choked with emotion.
“Your Highness, forgive this subordinate. I simply cannot bear to see my brothers gnawing on tree bark and swallowing snowballs… I cannot bear to see the brothers who followed me through life and death lose their hands and feet, dying in agony, rotting to death…”
He wiped his eyes after speaking, then turned back abruptly, cupping his fists forcefully towards Li Zhao.
“Your Highness! This subordinate is not afraid of death! To be wrapped in horsehide and die is the fate of a soldier! But to die so miserably from freezing, starving, or sickness, this subordinate will die with regrets! My brothers will also die with regrets!”
His chest heaved violently, tears welling in his fierce eyes.
The wounded soldiers huddled in snowdrifts, their groans mingling with the wind and snow, piercing Li Zhao’s heart like countless needles.
As the commander, watching his men suffer so was a hundred times more painful than being struck by swords.
He was silent for a moment, then raised his hand to wipe the blood from his face…
“Hold for three more days.”
Li Zhao’s voice was decisive, carrying a desperate resolve.
“After three days, if there is no turn for the better, have the brothers gather all the hard wood and round logs we have stored, then chop vines and twist ropes…”
Yu Qianshan was stunned. “Your Highness means…”
“To make rolling logs and catapults, to break through the blockade.”
Li Zhao stood up abruptly, his arm wound throbbing, causing him to black out momentarily.
“To be driven to a desperate situation and then find a way to live! If we do not succeed, we will die for a just cause!”
Li Zhao did not elaborate, but the cold glint in his eyes made even the seasoned general Yu Qianshan’s heart tremble.
They both understood what that meant – mutual destruction, or a desperate gamble to carve out a path of survival, even if only one in ten survived.
After holding out for so long, the imperial court had still sent no reinforcements, and there was no news.
The army led by Lu You’an was being held back by Ashina’s light cavalry on the snowfield a hundred miles away.
The gorge in between and the passable roads had all collapsed and been blocked by this unprecedented blizzard.
Some things were truly laughable.
All the schemes and calculations could not overcome the heavens’ capricious changes.
Even heaven seemed to be helping the enemy, creating obstacles everywhere.
If not for the sudden natural disaster, the Daliang army would have already flanked them and could have surrounded the enemy, capturing Ashina alive…
Now, they were trapped in a deep gorge, completely unaware of each other’s fate…
These past few days, besides fighting, they had been collecting the remaining trees in the gorge.
Branches were sharpened into crude arrows and defensive barriers, bark and roots were used for sustenance and warmth, tree trunks were carved into sharp stakes to defend against enemy attacks, and only the hardest round logs were kept, propped up between jagged rock crevices…
Everyone thought they were for resisting the wind and snow; no one had imagined they could be used as vehicles for a charge.
Yu Qianshan cupped his fists heavily, his armor plates clanking.
“This subordinate… obeys! Three days! We will hold on for the last breath!”
He turned, carrying the frost and determination of the battlefield, and strode back to the wind-swept camp.
He raised his arms and shouted, boosting morale.
“Better to die fighting than be a surrendered soldier!”
“Better to die fighting than be a surrendered soldier!”
A low, hoarse response, like the roar of a dying beast, echoed from all corners.
The soldiers repeated it with their last ounce of strength, even as their chapped lips bled…
—
The next day, the wind and snow seemed to have lessened slightly, but despair remained, with no sign of reinforcements.
“Your Highness, no one has come…”
“In this weather, no one can get through.”
Li Zhao remained silent,
and began to direct the soldiers in making vine ropes and reinforcing the rolling logs.
On the third night, a pale, cold moon struggled to pierce the thick clouds, grudgingly casting a faint light. Before midnight, heavy snow began to fall again like goose feathers.
At the beginning of the 2 AM hour, it was the darkest and coldest moment before dawn.
The wounded soldiers were carefully wrapped in animal skin padding and bound to wooden rolling sleds.
The procession bumped and slid down the snow slopes and gullies…
As they reached the bottom of the gorge, a strange sound came from the distant snow slope.
A very faint “rustling” sound, different from the wind’s howl, came from near and far, from the steep ice cliffs on both sides of the gorge, which were considered impassable –
The scouts on reconnaissance thought their frozen ears were playing tricks on them and strained their eyes.
“Your Highness, there’s movement!”
Li Zhao gripped his knife hilt. Several ghostly figures, moving with an almost ground-hugging, eerie grace, slid rapidly on the steep, smooth ice. A device they had never seen before, with a slightly upturned front and a boat-like shape, gleamed coldly in the moonlight.
“Enemy attack!” the scout cried out in terror, just as he issued the warning.
“Don’t make a sound! They’re our people!”
The man at the front lifted his felt hat, slid closer, and abruptly pulled off the thick fur hat and scarf covering his face, revealing a weathered face with sharp, steady eyes.
“Crown Prince, imperial reinforcements have arrived!”
A group of people, wearing ice sleds and dressed as mountain hunters.
“We were ordered by the imperial court to form a vanguard team and have come specifically to deliver supplies…”
The leader spoke quickly, while signaling the men behind him to unload the large bundles they were carrying.
When the bundles were opened, they did not contain the expected heavy grain, but bundles of medicinal materials wrapped in layers of oilcloth, emitting a strong medicinal aroma, as well as neatly tied winter leather jackets, some non-perishable dried meat, and most importantly – several large jars of sealed powder for treating cold epidemics.
Li Zhao’s pupils contracted.
He did not recognize the man, but based on his demeanor and actions, he was certain these people were not Daliang soldiers.
“Your Highness, this is unusual. I fear it’s a trap!”
Guan Ya gripped his broken saber and stepped forward to question them.
“Under which general do you serve, and by whose orders have you come?”
“We were dispatched by Prince Duan and are death warriors who braved the snow to break through the pass.”
The other party’s expression was solemn, their breathing heavy.
“Sent by Prince Duan?” Guan Ya frowned, lowered his eyes, and stared. “You don’t look like it to me?”
“We are not only imperial death warriors; we were also ordered to recruit some righteous men from the Western Frontier, as well as hunters from the border regions…”
Guan Ya was about to press further when Li Zhao suddenly spoke.
“Stop asking.” He looked at the medicinal materials and cooked meat piled on the ice sleds, and a salty, sweet bitterness rose in his throat.
“To survive is the answer!”
Guan Ya bowed and accepted the order. “Yes.”
Immediately after, more such “ice sled” teams, like ghosts, emerged from various unexpected ice crevices and steep slopes, silently converging…
They brought life-saving medicinal materials, food, winter clothing, and detailed maps with markings, clearly indicating subsequent transport routes and rendezvous methods.
The people in despair, like withered trees in spring, instantly became animated.
This batch of food and clothing arrived like timely rain, rekindling the dying embers of hope. Especially the wound medicine, it was like an immortal pill, no different from snatching lives from King Yama…
The groans of the wounded soldiers weakened, replaced by an unbelievable excitement tinged with faint hope.
Guan Ya watched the soldiers devour dried meat and wheat cakes, their eyes rekindling with light. The iron-willed man’s eyes turned red with tears.
“Your Highness! We are saved!”
“We are truly saved!”
“Even if Ashina sends tens of thousands more men, we brothers can still fight for a few more rounds…”
Lai Fu also tremblingly offered a piece of dried meat.
“Your Highness, please have some to fill your stomach and replenish your strength.”
Li Zhao took it, the warmth transferring to his cold palm.
He lowered his head and looked for a moment, his vision blurring.
Prince Duan? Li Huan?
He would actually risk sending people to aid them, and in such an unbelievable way?
Li Zhao’s heart was filled with mixed emotions, and an indescribable complexity.
At this moment, the death warriors efficiently transferred the wounded soldiers onto the reinforced ice sleds, applied trauma ointment, bandaged their wounds, and wrapped them in cotton quilts. Their movements had a unique rhythm, clearly indicating they were well-trained individuals, yet not conforming to the standard regulations of the Daliang army.
Li Zhao also noticed that they moved lightly and did not speak unnecessarily…
He had a vague guess in his heart, but it was not convenient to say more…
The atmosphere around them was filled with the exhilaration of surviving a disaster.
The soldiers were drinking strong liquor, eating still-warm wheat cakes and smoked meat, their tired faces unable to hide their excitement.
The ice sleds slid on the snow, making a “chiching” friction sound, broken intermittently by the cold wind…
Suddenly, several plumes of snow mist rose from the distant snow slope—
The scouting scout stumbled back, shouting loudly.
“Bad news, Ashina’s cavalry has caught up.”
Li Zhao: It’s the end of the month, won’t you send some votes to save me?
Xue Sui: You have no ambition!!!
