After Exile, I Married the Amnesiac General [Rebirth] Chapter 56

Li Chanxiu and Pei Er were in a dim room at the base of the wall, gathered around a bean-sized lamp, awkwardly sharing a bowl of plain porridge.

Suddenly hearing the shouting from the wall, Pei Er’s expression changed sharply. With a “clink,” he set down the spoon, immediately stood up, swiftly grabbed the armor beside him and put it on, and said to Li Chanxiu, “You eat, I’ll go take a look.”

Li Chanxiu had no mind to eat. He quickly stood as well, set the bowl on the table, and hurried outside.

By then Pei Er had already reached the doorway, but suddenly paused and turned back. Li Chanxiu couldn’t stop in time and nearly ran into him.

Pei Er caught him with one hand, then, through the cold armor, briefly held him, comforting him: “Don’t worry. Nothing will happen. Stay here, don’t go up onto the wall.”

Before Li Chanxiu could react, he had already let go, turned, and strode out.

Li Chanxiu stood there in a daze, the astonishment and bewilderment in his beautiful eyes not yet fading.

It seemed that since that night when they had nearly kissed, Pei Er had been having more and more close contact with him, and more naturally so, but each time left him with no chance to say anything.

No… perhaps even earlier, from that absurd moment when he had helped him at the foot of the mountain stronghold…

Faintly, a thought that had surfaced in his mind recently, but which he didn’t dare dwell on, or deliberately avoided, began to emerge again.

At that moment, the sounds of shouting and killing outside cut off his thoughts.

Li Chanxiu suddenly came back to himself, quickly grabbed an old cotton robe from nearby, hastily put it on, and went out.

Outside, he saw the city wall already lit with flames. Though the wall was too high to see the soldiers, arrows occasionally flew over from the other side, showing how fierce the battle was.

Li Chanxiu guessed that the Hu infantry were already close to the base of the wall. To have broken through the outer defenses so quickly, the attacking force was likely large.

The reality was indeed as he had guessed, the Hu forces attacking outside the wall far exceeded expectations, and before long they had already broken through the pits and other defenses set by Pei Er and the others.

While Li Chanxiu stood below the wall listening, the Hu soldiers had already reached the base and were rapidly climbing with iron chains and ladders.

On the wall, besides using bows and arrows and rolling stones to attack below, some soldiers stood at the edge with blades, desperately hacking at the chains.

At this moment, General Chen, clad in armor, was on the wall directing the defense, personally wielding a blade to cut down Hu soldiers attempting to climb up.

Pei Er was also on the wall supporting, his gaze fixed into the darkness beyond the wall, his eyes cold and resolute.

Before long, wounded soldiers began to be carried down from the wall, clutching arrow wounds and groaning in pain.

Li Chanxiu immediately lifted his medicine box and stepped forward, directing the soldiers carrying the wounded: “Lay him flat in a well-lit place, I’ll pull out the arrow first.”

The wounded soldier immediately showed a look of gratitude. In the past, when they were injured and carried down from the wall, they had to wait until being sent to the rear camp before receiving treatment.

Although Li Chanxiu had never treated patients under such tense conditions, just as in his dream, he worked steadily and swiftly, removing arrows, stopping bleeding, applying medicine, and bandaging.

Soon, two more wounded were carried down. Without even a moment to rest, he hurried over with his medicine box to treat them.

The sounds of battle on the wall continued from night until dawn, and Li Chanxiu worked from night until dawn as well. Only when he was truly too hungry did he hastily eat a steamed bun, forcing it down with water.

After dawn, the defenders could finally clearly see how many Hu troops were attacking. At a glance, everyone’s hearts trembled, the Hu cavalry and infantry together numbered nearly ten thousand.

In theory, with the advantage of the wall, even if the enemy had more troops, there was no need to fear. Moreover, once the beacon fire was lit, the elite troops stationed at Wuding Pass would quickly come to reinforce.

But the garrison at Yongfeng Town had previously only experienced small-scale harassment from the Hu. When had they ever seen such a large force?

After dawn, the garrison quickly dispatched another thousand men to reinforce the defense, replacing the previous soldiers for brief rest, but the Hu attack below did not lessen in the slightest.

By noon, another piece of bad news arrived, a message sent directly from the neighboring Yongding Pass, delivered over the wall.

After receiving the letter, General Chen quickly opened it, scanned it at a glance, and his expression suddenly changed. He let out a heavy sigh and struck his thigh with his fist.

Pei Er happened to approach with a saber at his waist. Seeing this, he immediately stepped forward and asked, “General, is the situation at Yongding unfavorable?”

General Chen folded the letter and glanced around. “Let’s go down first.”

The two hurried down from the wall. At the same time, General Chen summoned the military clerks and strategists, showed them the letter, wiped his face, and said wearily: “There has been a refugee uprising around Luoyang. Luoyang was nearly breached. His Majesty hastily moved the capital to Chang’an. A few days ago, more than sixty thousand of the eighty thousand elite troops at Wuding Pass were transferred to Chang’an to protect the emperor.”

After speaking, he couldn’t help but clench his fist and strike the table again. “Why did it have to happen at this time?”

In truth, General Chen had already heard about the refugee uprising around Luoyang.

Last year, floods struck the Yellow River region in the Central Plains. After the disaster, local officials showed no sympathy for the people and continued to levy heavy taxes, causing repeated unrest across Henan and Hebei. Previously, His Majesty had issued edicts to suppress the uprisings several times and had even executed a number of corrupt officials.

But this winter brought extreme cold, freezing countless disaster victims to death. The areas north and south of the Yellow River that had just suffered flooding saw no snowfall for a long time; the wheat seedlings froze and withered, meaning there would be no harvest next year, and even a locust plague might occur. Thus, another wave of refugee uprisings broke out.

Moreover, this outbreak was on a much larger scale. The leading refugees raised “the Mandate of Heaven of Great Zhou has ended,” and quickly gathered a force of one hundred thousand.

But previously, General Chen had heard that this group of refugees had already been suppressed by Liang Wang leading troops. How had they suddenly reappeared, and even nearly reached Luoyang, forcing His Majesty to… “go west on a hunt”?

Calling it a western hunt sounded nice, put plainly, wasn’t it just being frightened into fleeing to Chang’an?

Only because the other party was the reigning emperor, and with subordinates like Pei Er present in the room, General Chen did not dare voice his dissatisfaction.

Otherwise, he truly wanted to say: of all times to move troops, why choose this moment? And were there no other troops to mobilize? Why must it be the troops from Yongzhou?

How important Yongzhou was, did His Majesty not know? Not to mention that the Hu people were already prone to attack in winter.

This time, a letter from Wuding Pass had first been sent to Yongding, then forwarded to them. It stated that Wuding Pass now had fewer than twenty thousand men defending it, and urged these smaller passes to hold out at all costs until the troops from Chang’an returned. If they could not hold, and the Hu broke through, they must quickly redeploy forces to block the gap so that the Hu who entered would not be able to return.

In other words, Wuding Pass had already prepared for the worst. If small passes like Yongfeng and Yongding could not hold and were breached for plunder, then they should find a way to cut off the Hu’s retreat, so that even if they looted, they would not be able to return to the grasslands.

In short, no matter what, Wuding Pass could not send out troops now. If they did, and the Hu then attacked Wuding Pass, and it fell, then all of Yongzhou would fall, and even Chang’an might not be held.

If small passes like Yongfeng fell, at most nearby counties would be looted. But if Wuding Pass fell, it would affect the entire northwest, even Chang’an and Bingzhou.

How could General Chen not understand this reasoning? But if they truly could not hold, even if they later gathered forces and cut off the Hu’s retreat, what of the common people who had been looted? Could they be brought back to life?

The more General Chen thought, the graver his expression became. He looked up and asked his trusted subordinates, “What are your thoughts? Is there any plan to repel the enemy?”

The group exchanged glances, their expressions uneasy.

After a while, one person stepped forward and said, “General, at present, the only option is to hold to the death.”

As for how long they could hold, that would depend on fate.

Hearing this, a shadow of gloom appeared on General Chen’s face, though he was not surprised. After all, even he himself had no other option besides holding out and calling for reinforcements.

And now, even the path for reinforcements had been cut off.

At that moment, Pei Er suddenly stepped forward, clasped his fists, and said in a firm, ringing voice: “General, I am willing to lead three hundred cavalry tonight, take a detour out, and use the cover of night to strike the enemy from the rear. At that time, the garrison troops can charge out simultaneously to meet them, amplifying our momentum. With attacks from both front and rear, the Hu will not know how many troops we have, and in their confusion, they will surely collapse and flee.”

At these words, everyone present changed expression.

“Go out to meet the enemy? This… if we fail to drive them back, the entire Yongfeng will fall.”

General Chen, hearing this, hesitated.

Pei Er bowed again, his voice steady: “General, under the cover of night, the enemy cannot gauge our strength, there is a chance of victory. Especially if I attack from the rear, they will not expect it, and may think reinforcements have arrived from elsewhere, such as Bingzhou.”

After a pause, he added, “General, if we drag this out, sooner or later we will be breached. Rather than waiting to be trapped and defeated, it is better to strike unexpectedly and carve out a path to survival.”

Hearing this, General Chen finally gritted his teeth and agreed. “Alright, we’ll do as you say.”

But just after saying it, he hesitated again and asked uneasily, “You… how confident are you?”

Pei Er had less than fifty percent confidence, but glancing at the anxious faces around him and the still uncertain General Chen, he clenched his teeth and said in a deep voice, “Eighty percent.”

Hearing this, General Chen let out a long breath, his resolve strengthening. “Then we’ll proceed as you say.”

After receiving the order, Pei Er quickly went to assemble troops. The entire Yongfeng garrison had fewer than three hundred horses, and even adding those seized from bandits, they could barely gather three hundred.

As for the cavalry selected, they were all soldiers Pei Er had personally trained over the past few days.

After inspecting them, General Chen saw that each soldier stood tall and spirited, and he nodded in satisfaction, his confidence growing somewhat.

But when he turned and went up to the wall, saw the nearly ten thousand Hu soldiers below, then looked back at the hastily assembled three hundred cavalry under Pei Er, his confidence immediately dropped by half.

When Li Chanxiu learned that Pei Er was going to lead troops out, he immediately came to ask.

“Is the situation very bad?” He had been treating the wounded and had not gone up to the wall, so he did not yet know the current situation.

Pei Er nodded. Matters of military affairs should not be casually disclosed, but as he walked with Li Chanxiu to a secluded place, he frowned slightly and directly told him about the emperor fleeing west to Chang’an and transferring more than sixty thousand of the eighty thousand troops stationed at Wuding Pass.

After hearing this, Li Chanxiu was at a loss for words.

He finally understood why, in his dream, the northwest had fallen, corrupt officials selling government salt, the Hu releasing diseased sheep, the emperor withdrawing troops… under such circumstances, even if Pei Zhen of Bingzhou had come, he likely would not have been able to hold it.

Just as he was thinking this, he suddenly noticed that among the cavalry Pei Er had chosen, almost every three or four men carried a banner. On the banners were either the large character “Pei,” or “Xuan,” or “Bingzhou.”

He froze for a moment and asked, “This is…?”

Pei Er glanced at them, suddenly looking slightly embarrassed. He coughed lightly and said in a low voice, “I only have three hundred cavalry. If we fight head-on, we definitely can’t beat the Hu troops outside. I can only bluff, make them think reinforcements have arrived. Isn’t it said that Pei Zhen of Bingzhou wins every battle, and the Hu fear his name? I plan to… borrow it.”

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