Madam, don't do this!

Chapter 455 Black Jingguan: Song Yan (11,000 words)

The entire Dehua County was ablaze. If you stood on a high mountain and looked out from afar, the county town would have looked like an enormous fireball.

Like a sun that has fallen to the ground.

Flames shot up dozens of feet high, making a whooshing sound.

The heatwave rolled in, like a tsunami carrying endless energy, buzzing and washing over everything around it.

Thick black smoke billowed into the sky, gathering in mid-air to form a massive dark cloud that blocked out the sunlight, demonstrating the ferocity of the fire. A scorching heat rushed towards Song Yan, ruffling the hem of his long robe and lifting his hair behind his ear. Standing atop a large tree, even hundreds of meters away, Song Yan could still feel the gradually spreading, scorching heat in the air.

The heatwave whipped up a breeze, and the leaves rustled.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could even clearly see some tender green leaves, which had become somewhat curled up because they could not withstand the increasingly high temperature.

Reaching out, a tiny object, about the size of a fingertip, floated lightly to my fingertip. It was the ashes from the fire. Looking up, the world was a hazy expanse of gray, with ashes falling from the sky like snowflakes, covering the ground in a thick layer in a short time.

From a distance, through the violently leaping flames, one could clearly see figures struggling and writhing in the flames, desperate to survive.

Song Yan smiled.

Burn it.

Burn it.

Like karmic fire spewing from hell, it burns away all the impurities in this world.

The wind carried the sound of screams.

It sounded like thousands of people were wailing.

Song Yan felt no pity whatsoever; on the contrary, the smile on her lips grew wider and wider.

When they massacred the city, these people were probably very excited. They probably never imagined that one day they would become the ones being slaughtered, and in such a tragic way.

……

Ah ah ah ah ah!

A Xiongnu wolf cub howled loudly. He was lucky; when the fire started, he took refuge in a house made of stones. The stones wouldn't catch fire, so the flames hadn't spread to him yet.

But things seem to be getting worse.

His body was curled up, and whether it was an illusion or not, the stone wall reflected in his eyes was gradually turning red... like the vermilion color of salted egg yolk. The air in front of him was filled with layers of mist, and the heat wave that hit him made his hair feel twisted, and the moisture on his body was being rapidly evaporated.

It's so hot, and it's getting hotter and hotter.

He dared not even let his feet stay on the ground for too long; the heat radiating through the soles of his shoes brought excruciating pain.

If this continued, he would be roasted alive... that might be the most despairing way to die in the world. The Hun squeezed the bag tightly; inside were the pieces of silver he had scavenged from the corpses of thirty-seven Han Chinese from the Central Plains—wealth he would never have possessed in his entire life.

I can't just die like this.

Thinking this, the Hun could no longer bear the approaching despair. With a howl, he rushed out of the stone house. As soon as he stepped out the door, the flames, like countless writhing venomous snakes, quickly coiled around his body. His hair vanished in an instant, and his scalp began to blister and crack from the intense heat, revealing the red flesh and white bone beneath.

Even breathing is painful.

The scalding air burned my lungs, and my throat was covered with countless blisters.

He staggered a few steps forward, then his speed slowed down. The flesh on his legs was quickly charred and roasted, peeling off piece by piece until only two white bones remained, which also quickly lost their original toughness.

With a snap, the bone broke, and the mutilated body collapsed to the ground, its hand, now only containing five finger bones, stretched out forward as if trying to grab something.

In front of the fingertips was a curved knife that had been heated to a red-hot state.

He was probably somewhat unwilling to accept it.

……

On the other side, a boy who looked to be sixteen or seventeen years old was climbing up the stone wall, soaking wet from head to toe.

The fire spread, and people scattered and fled.

He was just as panicked, and then luckily came across a well. Without the slightest hesitation, the boy jumped into the well, and no matter how fierce the fire was outside, the well water remained icy cold.

However, this relief did not last long. As the fire in Dehua City grew stronger, it seemed as if something unseen and intangible was being pumped out of the well, and a feeling of suffocation began to torment his body. The well water also seemed to be about to be boiled by the fire outside.

He knew he couldn't stay in that well any longer.

If you stay here, you'll either suffocate or be scalded to death by boiling water.

He gritted his teeth and climbed up the well wall little by little, clinging to the stones. Although the stones were scorching hot, and his fingers felt like they were about to be burned, he still endured it desperately.

He doesn't want to die yet.

He clearly had a bright future ahead of him and was about to become the tribe's first warrior. How could he die so inexplicably on Han Chinese soil?
He had only just tasted the pleasures of a woman.

Watching the Han woman struggle desperately beneath him, screaming in agony, scratching her fingers and breaking her nails, until finally her head was bleeding profusely, after he had his fill of pleasure, he chopped off her head with a single stroke, leaving her terrified, desperate, and dazed gaze...

This is what his mother taught him... Han women are like cattle and sheep, livestock, and have no right to conceive his child.

He had only experienced such an ultimate pleasure seven or eight times, how could he die like this?
He was breathing heavily, his throat constricted.

Perhaps it was the evil will within him that sustained him, but the Xiongnu boy finally climbed out of the ancient well. As soon as he stepped outside, all he saw was a fiery red expanse. The thick, pungent smell of smoke made it hard for him to breathe. He covered his mouth and nose with one hand, randomly chose the direction where the fire was least intense, and rushed out.

Just then, a gust of wind blew by.

A large tree in front of them, its branches and leaves burned away, tilted and crashed straight down towards the Xiongnu youth. Although his eyes were already blinded by the smoke, his instincts remained. The Xiongnu youth staggered backward, his heel seemingly hitting something, and he fell backward.

scoff.

His buttocks slammed onto the red-hot stone slab, producing an immediate, piercing sound, and black smoke mingled with a strange, meaty aroma that filled his nostrils. Before the Xiongnu youth could even get up, a charred tree trunk crashed down with a bang, landing squarely between his legs.

Faintly, one could hear the sound of something breaking.

The next second, the Xiongnu boy suddenly raised his neck and let out a mournful cry that was extremely shrill.

His body convulsed, and flames climbed up the Xiongnu boy's body from all directions, quickly turning him into a raging inferno.

……

Abal looked dazed.

The team has completely fallen apart.

The moment the fire was fully raging, his orders became completely ineffective. No matter how loudly he shouted, he could only watch helplessly as his soldiers descended into chaos.

They were like headless flies, bumping around aimlessly.

They were terrified, they were desperate, they screamed...

For some reason, this scene even felt somewhat familiar to Abaru, as if he had seen it somewhere before.

Ah, I remembered it.

It was Anzhou City, Ronggu County, those cities where rivers of blood flowed... When they raised their butcher knives, the Han people wore the same expression. Who could have imagined that in just a few days, such a distorted expression would transfer from the Han people's faces to the Xiongnu's?

The fire grew bigger and bigger.

As he watched helplessly as clusters of crimson flames devoured the lives of his soldiers, Abal trembled.

will die.

No, he is the eldest prince of the Xiongnu, the future Great Chanyu, and the emperor who will suppress the nine provinces.

He cannot die here, absolutely not.

Suddenly, Aballu let out a frenzied howl and plunged his sword into the neck of his warhorse. The horse, in pain, even forgot its instinctive fear of fire and galloped down the street toward the city gate.

This warhorse was personally tamed by Abal, the most magnificent and outstanding. While the other warhorses had long since lost control, only this one could still barely obey its master's commands. Blood flowed down the warhorse's neck, only to be quickly evaporated. Flames swirled around, and the warhorse's mane was rapidly ignited. Abal almost watched helplessly as the warhorse's flesh twisted into a tangled mess.

The city gate was only a few hundred paces away.

Although they couldn't see it, at the speed of the warhorse, it would only take a few breaths to reach them.

He can survive, he definitely can… Abalu thought to himself, lying on the horse’s back, watching the warhorse leap up and pass through the flames, and in the hazy light, he could even see the city walls of Dehua County.

Just as Abalu was overjoyed, thinking he was about to escape, his warhorse finally reached its limit. Its two front legs, which had been roasted, suddenly buckled to the ground with a cracking sound, and the leg bones broke.

Caught off guard, Abal was flung away.

His body slammed heavily to the ground, sliding more than ten meters until he crashed into a collapsed earthen wall, where he finally stopped. His limbs, whether from burns or injuries from the fall, were numb and he could barely feel them. His wide eyes were empty and lifeless. Watching a cluster of flames draw ever closer, Abal stopped struggling; he knew he was about to die.

call!
But then, a strange thing happened.

The flames that were about to engulf Abal suddenly spread outwards, as if someone had cleaved the fire in two with a sharp sword.

At the same time, a figure appeared in front of Abal.

A slight look of surprise finally appeared in Abal's almost blank gaze: "It's you?" He managed to utter the two words with difficulty. The scorching air he breathed into his trachea had already burned his throat, and his voice was somewhat hoarse.

He was a middle-aged man, his groom.

Aside from feeding the horses, he was someone who would leave almost no impression on Abalu. The coachman didn't say much, his face indifferent, and slowly walked towards Abalu. Strangely enough, although the flames were raging and the entire Dehua County had become a sea of ​​fire, just as the flames were about to engulf the coachman, they seemed to be drawn by some force and dispersed to the left and right on their own.

He walked straight up to Abal, grabbed Abal's shoulder, and with a light tap of his toes, the groom lifted Abal's large and strong body into the air.

His toes tapped in mid-air, making it seem as if he were treading on flames and flying through the air.

……

The raging flames were indeed terrifying, but no matter what, there were always some incredibly lucky individuals who managed to find a way out of Dehua County amidst the crimson inferno.

Their bodies were covered in charred marks, and they reeked of the smell of burning flesh. Before they were burned to death, they finally saw the city wall... Some of them didn't even have time to extinguish the flames on their bodies, and with their last bit of strength, they climbed up the low city wall.

He immediately leaped down.

If it's lucky, it landed on soft soil and wasn't damaged.

Those who were unlucky enough to land on rocks had their legs snapped instantly, bones piercing through the burnt flesh and exposing them bloodily.

Regardless, feeling the fresh breeze outside the city walls, they all opened their mouths and let out strange, loud laughs.

Two rows of large white teeth were visible on his dark face.

They were so excited they were trembling all over, and they couldn't even feel the pain in their bodies.

Some devout believers even knelt on the ground to thank the Eternal Heaven for its protection.

Then, figures emerged from the woods outside the city, and several spears pierced through the bodies of those who had barely escaped.

However, they were the black-armored soldiers and government troops of Pingyang City, as well as more than 8,000 civilians from Dehua County.

Some of the soldiers in the garrison were recruited from Li Er's side.

To be honest, apart from a few black-armored soldiers, most of the others had never seen Song Yan fight. They only heard stories from others about how brave and ruthless Song Yan was in battle, and how much he hated foreign races. Even just listening to these stories, they couldn't help but admire their general.

However, it still lacked a sense of realism.

It wasn't until they witnessed Dehua City engulfed in flames that they finally understood just how ruthless Song Yan's methods were.

Our general is truly a master strategist. Perhaps from the very beginning, the general never intended to engage the Xiongnu army in a direct confrontation. All he needed were some dilapidated houses, some firewood, branches, some thatch, grease, and a fire. In the blink of an eye, the Xiongnu army was reduced to ashes.

What incredible skill!

As for Ningguo's most elite army, it seems their mission was merely to eliminate any remaining fugitives.

Feeling the sweltering heat, almost everyone's admiration for their general reached an unprecedented level.

Listening to the mournful sounds carried on the wind, it was as if one could see through the city walls and flames to the countless Huns struggling and screaming inside the county town... The scene was probably quite terrifying, and many people had goosebumps all over their bodies.

Almost everyone felt a sense of relief.

Fortunately, this was their own general, someone who was on their side. If he were on the other side, the thought would only fill them with despair.

……

Song Yan remained motionless, staring at the sea of ​​fire before him.

Hua Lian Yue and Luo Tian Xuan had been quietly by her side. Suddenly, the two women seemed to sense something. They exchanged a glance, both showing surprise in each other's eyes. After exchanging a look, Hua Lian Yue got up from the tree branch. Despite weighing around a hundred pounds, Hua Lian Yue seemed to completely ignore the effects of gravity. Her delicate feet touched the finger-thick branches, which only bent slightly.

The wind blows.

Its full, graceful body swayed and danced with the branches.

"Ms. sir..."

A gentle voice drifted quietly into Song Yan's ears.

Song Yan turned her head: "Hmm?"

"I have a small matter to attend to here, I'll go take care of it first," Hua Lianyue said with a smile.

Song Yan wasn't particularly concerned. After all, this was a grandmaster-level expert. Unless he encountered a strong opponent of the same level, who could harm Hua Lian Yue? Even if a conflict did occur, the unlucky one would be the other party.

Song Yan nodded.

With a light touch of her toes on the branch, her body soared through the sky like a bird, her two fair legs appearing and disappearing amidst the fluttering of her skirt.

Seeing fewer and fewer people struggling within the county town, and witnessing those who managed to escape only to be killed by others... Song Yan was quite satisfied with the thousands of young men from Dehua County. Although it wasn't actual battlefield combat, the ability to raise a weapon and take lives already demonstrated the most basic qualities of an excellent soldier... After all, not everyone has the courage to kill.

Once this matter is settled, if we take these people to Pingyang City and train them well, they may have a chance to become elite troops in the future.

The fire continued to burn.

It burned from dawn until dusk, and into the night.

The fire gradually subsided.

People still can't enter Dehua County. The city walls and the ground are still radiating terrifyingly high temperatures, and thick smoke is still billowing from some places.

Looking up, I saw that the sky was completely dark, with no moon or stars in sight.

You can vaguely see layers of dark clouds churning in the night.

Occasionally, dark clouds collide.

The blindingly white lightning, like sharp scissors, tore the night sky in two.

The dense network of branches is enough to make one's scalp tingle.

then……

Rumble, rumble!

With a deafening roar, large raindrops poured down, the air filled with the sound of rushing water. His body was quickly soaked through, and the rainwater fell on the county town, causing large plumes of steam to rise into the sky. Letting out a heavy breath, Song Yan felt he was a little luckier than Prime Minister Zhuge; at least the rain hadn't fallen when the fire was raging, otherwise, his methods today would likely have been much less effective.

Song Yan climbed down from the tree and found the magistrate of Dehua County. He told the magistrate not to panic, as the county seat had been burned down, but Pingyang Prefecture would be responsible for rebuilding it. The magistrate merely grinned, his face showing little joy... Rebuild? Even if Dehua County were rebuilt, how many people would dare to move back in?
After all, far too many people have died in this fire.

I'm likely to have nightmares at night.

"I'm temporarily handing Dehua County over to you. Arrange for some people to clean up the corpses in the county town to prevent a plague." Song Yan instructed seriously. There was no need to worry too much about the plague, since the fire had burned everything to ashes, leaving only white bones.

Song Yan then turned his gaze to the north.

Within Anzhou Prefecture, the actions of the three Xiongnu tribes were all under Song Yan's control.

In the far south, the second prince, Alibu, has yet to capture the first county, leading some to wonder if he's leading an army of 50,000 just to sightsee and enjoy the scenery.
However, for Song Yan, this is a good thing.

After all, the fewer territories Anzhou Prefecture loses, the more people are still alive.

The third prince, Agsang, in the north is behaving quite well. He should have already captured the third county town, and there are still two counties town away from the border of Pingyang... Perhaps, we can take a bite out of him from behind.

Unfortunately, such burning of cities is most likely only effective the first time; otherwise, Song Yan really wanted to burn the three Xiongnu armies to the ground completely. Trading the buildings of a county town for the lives of 60,000 Xiongnu people—that's a good deal…

Putting aside everything else, the twenty-odd counties within Pingyang City alone could have been exchanged for a million-strong Xiongnu army, directly crippling the Xiongnu. It's a real pity that those Xiongnu cubs wouldn't obediently sit there and let themselves be burned.

After giving his instructions, Song Yan led the black-armored soldiers and the garrison troops northward.

Military boots pounded through the mud, splat, splat...

After Song Yan left, the magistrate of Dehua gathered several thousand strong young men together. His gaze swept over the crowd in front of him. Although he was just a magistrate, he still had a certain amount of authority in front of these people. The originally noisy crowd gradually quieted down.

"Everyone, listen to me..."

In the torrential rain, the magistrate's voice was not very clear, but he still shouted with all his might, trying to make his voice heard by as many people as possible:
"The Xiongnu army is finished."

"Dehua has been saved."

As he shouted these words, the magistrate glanced somewhat nervously at the charred ruins of the county town… his confidence in the words "preserve" was somewhat lacking. However, the people still gave him face, letting out bursts of excited shouts. For these simple folks, as long as they were alive, as long as their families were alive, that was enough.

A house can be rebuilt after it burns down.

Once a person is gone, they are truly gone.

"Quiet down, quiet down..." The magistrate waved his hand again, and when the surroundings quieted down again, he spoke again: "As everyone knows, our Marquis likes to build a mound of heads with the heads of foreigners."

"There's also a nickname: the Jingguan Maniac."

"But this time, the situation is special. Although the entire Xiongnu army was wiped out, the Marquis did not even have time to rest before he had to go to other places to provide support. There was no time to build a Jingguan (a mound of skulls).

"Therefore, this magistrate proposes that we build this mound of skulls in the name of the Marquis."

"In this way, we can highlight the Marquis's achievements!"

"Tens of thousands of heads, this will be the largest mound of corpses in the world."

"This is our congratulatory gift for the Marquis's victory!"

His gaze swept over the charred corpses around him, and a smug smile suddenly appeared on the magistrate's lips:
"This mound of corpses is called..."

"Black Jingguan: Song Yan!"

(End of this chapter)