Jinting Han people

When the Hu people's confidence in breaking the city was shaken, Liu Xian was actually struggling to hold on.

After the tragic loss of his beloved son, Suo Yu, Suo Jing managed to hold on for a while, but ultimately, the grief was too much for him to bear, and he collapsed within the city walls. The military doctor explained that Suo Jing had contracted a stroke and needed to rest for a while, as a quick recovery was unlikely. Thus, the entire burden of defending the city fell solely on Liu Xian's shoulders.

Although from another perspective, this could be considered a great power, as Liu Xian was commanding an army of nearly 10,000 people on his own for the first time, in reality, Liu Xian felt extremely exhausted. The lives of so many people depended on him, and he dared not relax at all. He did not want the failure of this battle to lead to the demise of his life's dreams.

Therefore, Liu Xian was exhausting all his potential, mulling over every possible means to counter the rebels' possible tactics. After the fire attack, there were the hook chariots. What came after the hook chariots? Well sieges? Battering rams? Tunnels? Cutting off the water supply?... These questions swirled in Liu Xian's mind, causing him to suffer from long bouts of insomnia. Even when his head was groggy, as soon as he lay down, all sorts of distracting thoughts began to battle within his consciousness, as if the two armies were fighting not on the city walls, but in Liu Xian's mind.

During this time, Liu Xian's sleep became extremely light, waking at the slightest movement and demanding the latest details. Everyone could see him becoming increasingly thinner, his eyes red and bloodshot, and a visibly haggard appearance. Even his voice became hoarse, and his gait slowed. This worried his friends and followers, who suspected he would collapse at any moment.

Liu Xian actually had the same feeling. He felt that he had overdrawn his vitality during the confrontation: headaches, swollen eyes, tinnitus, and occasionally heard some sounds that did not exist.

But strangely, Liu Xian felt that his condition was getting better and better.

At the beginning of the offensive and defensive battles, he hadn't been able to keep up with Qi Wannian's pace, allowing the enemy to seize the initiative several times. But for some reason, after gradually entering this state, he felt his understanding of war rapidly growing. Brilliant strategies that once required painstaking contemplation and poring over history books now began to surface unconsciously in his mind. These thoughts became more frequent and detailed, as if he had somehow achieved a breakthrough.

At this moment, Liu Xian's spirit has reached an unprecedentedly weak state, but also an unprecedentedly sharp state.

The moment the Hu people's first earth attack failed, he had already guessed what Qi Wannian was going to do.

"Judging from their actions, since they've already dug into the bottom of the wall, they definitely won't give up the attack easily."

Liu Xian urgently convened a military meeting and said to his subordinates:
"The real fierce attack will come in the next wave. We've only discovered five tunnels so far, but judging by their distribution, there are definitely more. So we have to be careful. The next wave of attack will definitely be led by their most elite soldiers, rushing out of the tunnels to engage in a bloody battle!"

"And this isn't the only area they're attacking. To contain us, soldiers will undoubtedly attack the hillocks south of the city to share the pressure on the tunnels. But this isn't a feint. If we can't defend one area, they'll turn that direction into their main attack. We must give it our all!"

After analyzing the enemy's deployment, he immediately began to explain the countermeasures:
"Brother Jingwu (Zhang Guang), you will lead two thousand men on the city walls. Use the rolling logs we've prepared recently and use fewer arrows. Arrows are becoming increasingly scarce in the city. Unless a key enemy figure appears, we should use less of them. The main focus is repelling the enemy's offensive, not worrying about how many people are killed."

"Brother Juxiu (Suo Chen), take three thousand men and quickly oversee the construction of wooden palisades on one side of the ditch inside our city. This way, even if the rebels conquer the trench, we will have room to maneuver."

"Binshuo, I'll give you a thousand men. Go and guard against the surprise troops that might be sent out from the other three walls. I doubt Qi Wannian would have people climbing the walls in the dark."

"As for the enemy in the trench, I will personally fight them with a thousand men!"

After Liu Xian made these arrangements, everyone was convinced. The only thing they were worried about was Liu Xian's current physical condition. Zhang Gu said to Liu Xian:

"Biji, I see you haven't been in good spirits lately. You should go and rest! Leave the matter of guarding against the tunnel to me!"

Liu Xian smiled disapprovingly and said:

"What are you talking about, A Tian? This battle is related to the morale of the Hu Lu army. The enemy will definitely fight to the death. If I am not here, how can the soldiers hold on? Don't say that I feel so good now."

Only in this way did Zhang Gu's doubts disappear.

That night, with the moon high in the sky and the flags fluttering in the breeze, Liu Xian sat in the center of the trench on the south wall, waiting for the rebels to launch their attack. Sure enough, the rumbling drums and shouts of siege troops could be heard from outside the city walls again.

But Liu Xian remained unmoved. He believed Zhang Guang would be able to repel the rebels, and he only needed to wait for the underground attack. However, he was too sleepy, and during this waiting moment, a wave of sleepiness came over him. The drums were still beating, and behind him, there were soldiers busy building wooden fences on the trench, but at some point, his head dropped, and he sat motionless in the trench, leaning on his Ever-Victorious Sword, as if he had fallen asleep.

Since Liu Xian had given the order, everyone had to stay awake at all times, including himself. The soldier next to him wanted to wake Liu Xian up, but Sun Xi, who was guarding nearby, glared at the soldier and whispered:

"The Lord hasn't had a good night's sleep in a long time. Let him rest for a while! It won't be too late to wake him up when you hear any noise."

What Sun Xi meant by "listening to noises" were the urns buried in the trenches. There was one urn every five meters in the trench. Soldiers could lie down inside and put their ears to the bottom of the urn, and they could clearly hear the noises coming from underground.

After an unknown amount of time, the soldiers listening to the jar heard a faint "dong, dong, dong" sound, as if a chisel was digging deeper and deeper, accompanied by some rustling and friction sounds, as if something was moving underground. They immediately realized: the rebels were about to dig in!

They immediately went to report. Sun Xi had wanted to stop them, telling them to step more quietly and that Liu Xian should sleep a little longer, but in the blink of an eye, Liu Xian had already stood up, sword in hand, and asked in a hoarse voice, "Are the rebels about to attack?" After receiving an affirmative answer, Liu Xian immediately set out in the trenches, monitoring the soldiers' condition while ordering, "Prepare the long hooks! Prepare the long hooks!"

The soldiers standing above the trench immediately raised their two-foot-long hooks. Their sharp, hard tips, illuminated by the firelight, resembled a forest of iron hooks. They nervously watched the trench's movements. Soon, the loess between the trenches began to shake faintly, and dust could be seen falling. The wall seemed poised to collapse at any moment.

Finally, with a loud bang, the first hole suddenly appeared in the trench. People seemed to hear someone say "It's the end", and then someone rushed out with dirt and dust blowing in their faces.

Though they moved quickly, the Jin soldiers were even faster. In an instant, seven or eight long hooks shot toward the cave entrance, snagging the leading Hu soldier by the armor and dragging him out like a corpse. No matter how skilled he was, he struggled under such circumstances. After a brief struggle, someone tore open his armor and struck him in the neck, sending the Hu soldier to the afterlife.

But the Hu people in the tunnel were all wearing heavy iron armor. The Jin army could use this method to deal with one or two people in front, but once someone from the back crawled out of the cave and gained a foothold, the long hook would not be able to solve the problem. Soldiers from the back kept crawling out, and drew out their ring-handled swords, chopping at the legs and feet of the Jin army on the trench. These people were indeed elite soldiers, and it was no problem for them to cut off their calves with one sword.

At the same time, more and more tunnels broke through the earth wall, and the fully armed Red Crow soldiers escaped like rabbits. They quickly occupied a section of the trench and either used knives to chop the long poles or the legs and feet. The long-hook soldiers could only retreat and leave the fighting space to the soldiers with knives.

The battlefield descended into a chaotic melee. Since the Jin army had built wooden palisades across the trench, the Jin soldiers who plunged into the bloody battle had virtually no escape route. Similarly, the trench was less than ten feet long, barely wide enough for three people to cross abreast. This rendered even the most sophisticated swordplay and knife techniques useless, forcing them to resort to simple hand-to-hand combat within the confined space. Both sides behaved like irrational beasts, either rolling on the ground with their enemies like monkeys or riding on top of them, stabbing and stabbing through gaps in their armor. Some even resorted to biting their enemies' necks and fingers with their teeth.

Liu Xian was still in the trench at this time. Although Sun Xi tried his best to persuade him to go up, Liu Xian said:
"I promised to live and die with the soldiers, but if I retreat now, what will the soldiers think? The morale of the army will collapse!"

He observed the war situation around him, and noticing something strange, he said:

"Something's wrong! The enemy's offensive is so fierce, beyond my expectation. Maybe there's an extremely important enemy figure here! What matters now is to find him quickly! As long as we kill him, this wave of enemy attacks will retreat!"

As he spoke, he listened to the intensity of the enemy fighting around him and headed directly towards the source of the loudest sound, followed by a dozen people. He quickly defeated the Hu people he encountered along the way, but he could also feel that the resistance was clearly increasing. Liu Xian knew that the person he was looking for was probably nearby.

After moving nearly a hundred steps east, Liu Xian finally stopped. Not far away, he saw a burly Hu man, eight feet tall, clad in red armor. He was surrounded by dozens of others, many of them dead Jin soldiers, but no living Jin soldiers. They had almost completely occupied a section of the trench. Behind them, from a dark hole, Hu men were constantly climbing out and, under the command of the burly Hu man, were seizing the wooden fence above.

Liu Xian knew that this was probably the person he was looking for.

Liu Xian immediately announced his name, "Liu Huaichong of Luoyang is here! You rats, dare you fight to the death?"

As soon as these words were spoken, the group of Hu people immediately turned their gazes, revealing bloodthirsty expressions. Liu Xian was not afraid and led his soldiers to meet the challenge, shouting loudly, signaling the Jin army in other places to come to support this place.

The burly Hu man leading the charge was none other than Chi Nu Kou, Qi's beloved general. Upon spotting Liu Xian, he rushed through the crowd without hesitation, charging at the head of the troops. The Jin soldiers in the front tried to stop him, but he slashed through their skulls with a single blow. His blow was so forceful that a chip appeared on the blade's edge, but Chi Nu Kou remained calm. He flung the broken blade forward, then whipped a gleaming, ring-handled sword from his waist. The gleam of the blade shone across his face, a truly intimidating sight.

Liu Xian knew that the soldiers around him were no match for him, so he immediately drew out his Ever-Victorious Sword and led his men to meet the enemy.

Chi Nukou chopped down with another powerful blow, but Liu Xian held the sword in reverse, leaned his left foot against the earth, and pressed his body back slightly, blocking the blow in mid-air. The two men were in a stalemate for a moment, and Liu Xian turned and leaned forward. With his right hand still in defense, he drew a half circle in the trench and suddenly elbowed Chi Nukou in the chest.

Chi Nu Kou was not to be outdone. Before Liu Xian could succeed, he drew his sword and swung it back, the blade's light following him like a shadow, enveloping Liu Xian's upper body. But halfway through, he had to bend his sword back again, intercepting Liu Xian's thrust towards his neck.

Sword fighting relies heavily on footwork, but within the trenches, footwork was limited, so the two simply competed in the speed and power of their swords. Liu Xian's sword was swift, Chi Nukou's strength was great, but the gap was minimal, unable to widen.

After a brief standoff, Liu Xian planted his left foot on the ground, aligned his shoulder, arm, and sword, and exerted force once more. With a swift leap, he lunged towards Chi Nu Kou's neck. Chi Nu Kou was well prepared, swinging his ring-handled saber across the air, meeting Liu Xian's sword thrust head-on.

After a clang, sparks flashed by. Liu Xian didn't hesitate, pulling out the Zhaowu Sword from his waist with his left hand. As he leaned in closer, Chi Nu Kou could clearly hear the sound of the sword being unsheathed. He thought to himself, this is not good.

Previously, he had observed that Liu Xian's swordsmanship tended towards advanced strikes, and he had always responded accordingly. However, he had not anticipated that Liu Xian would also be able to counterattack with his left-handed sword. In a life-or-death struggle between masters, there could be no room for error. If he miscalculated his opponent's swordsmanship, he would have already lost the initiative!
This was indeed the case. Liu Xian's left-hand sword cut vertically along the gap between the armor. The sharp edge of the Zhaowu Sword easily penetrated the skin, flesh and bones, and cut off Chi Nukou's left arm. Blood spurted out in an instant, and the severe pain also made Chi Nukou's hand weaken.

When Liu Xian noticed it, he kicked Chi Nukou to the ground, inserted the Changsheng Sword into his neck, and cut off the head of Qi Wannian's favorite general with a clean and decisive move.

When Chi Nukou's head was hung high on the Niyang city wall, the rebel offensive finally ceased. The Hu people on the city walls looked at Chi Nukou's eyes in disbelief, their hearts filled with shock beyond words. They all felt a sense of disappointment and fear for the future. Even the most famous warriors in the army had been beheaded by the Jin people. How could they possibly succeed? Without waiting for their leader's orders, they retreated like the ebbing tide.

The rebels who were still fighting hard in the tunnels below the city finally lost their fighting spirit after hearing the weakening of the attack from the city and the almost inaudible silence. Some crawled back through the tunnels, while others, with nowhere else to go, laid down their weapons and surrendered.

By dawn, the Hu people's offensive had completely ceased, and Liu Xian had won another battle. Facing the dim light of dawn, sleepiness once again swept over him, making his eyelids droop. But Liu Xian was somewhat accustomed to this state. He knew that the battle was not over yet, and he immediately threw himself into the preparations for the next attack and defense. (End of this chapter)