Rise of a Lonely City: From Exiled Prince to Ruler of the Nine Provinces

The shadow of the grassland plague had just been dispelled by a righteous act like a spring breeze when the harsh winter arrived as scheduled, enveloping the northern border in an even more severe manner.

Halfway through the twelfth lunar month, a blizzard, the worst in decades, swept across the area north of the Yanshan Mountains.

The snow was knee-deep, the wind was biting, and the world was a vast expanse of white, with all things lying dormant.

In this kind of weather, even the most cold-resistant prairie wolves huddle in their dens, shivering.

Normally, this should be the season for truce and hibernation.

Whether it was the border troops of Northern Yan or the scattered tribes on the grasslands, they all retreated early into fortified villages, cities, and warm yurts, relying on stored food and firewood to get through the long, harsh winter.

However, in the Cold Abyss, this winter was destined to be anything but peaceful.

The drill ground outside Zhenbei City was now covered with thick snow, a vast expanse of white.

But the training ground was far from silent.

The deafening shouts, the rhythmic marching, and the clanging of weapons clashing converged into a scalding heat that dispelled the biting chill.

In the center of the training ground, thousands of elite soldiers of the merchant protection army, bare-chested and wearing only trousers, were conducting basic training in bayonet fighting, slashing, and parrying in the snow that was above their ankles.

Their breath condensed into a white mist, and hot sweat dripped from their bronze skin, scalding the snow beneath them and creating small pits.

Their muscles were bulging, and steam was rising from them, like a group of steel statues burning in the snow.

On the high platform, Xiao Chen stood quietly, draped in a black cloak.

The cold wind whipped the stray hairs on his forehead, but he seemed oblivious, his gaze sweeping over every soldier below the stage like a hawk's.

Beneath the cloak, he was also wearing only a thin, close-fitting outfit.

"Your Highness, this weather..."

Han Lie stood with Xiao Chen, and even though he was wrapped in a thick fur coat, he still felt the chill seep into his bones. Looking at the shirtless men below the stage, he felt even colder.

"Are you cold?" Xiao Chen asked calmly without turning around.

"It's cold... but the soldiers seem even hotter," Han Lie remarked, looking at the rising steam below the stage.

"We want them to be hot!"

Xiao Chen's voice suddenly rose, carrying a metallic clang, "The winter of the North is our enemy! If we can't even overcome the cold, how can we defeat the iron cavalry of Northern Yan? How can we flatten the icy plains further north?"

He turned around, looking at Han Lie and the generals arrayed below the platform: "Pass down the order! The entire army will break camp and march with heavy loads. Target—Wild Wolf Valley on the border of Northern Yan!"

"What?"

Wang Dashan was startled. "Your Highness, the roads are blocked by heavy snow. Wild Wolf Valley is a dangerous place, nearly two hundred miles away, and it is a frequent haunt of Northern Yan scouts..."

"That's exactly what we want them to see!"

A cold glint flashed in Xiao Chen's eyes. "Not only will we let them see, we will make them see clearly and tremble with fear! We will let Northern Yan, and all those who thought we would hide away in winter, know—"

He stepped forward, his voice like a drawn sword piercing through the wind and snow:

"My soldiers of the Cold Abyss fear neither heat nor cold! My blades of the Cold Abyss are sharp in all seasons!"

"This is not a war, but a military exercise! An exercise for the enemy, and also for ourselves!"

"Yes, sir!"

The generals below the stage, including Wang Dashan and Liu Yidao, had no further objections and responded in unison, their eyes burning with fighting spirit.

The order was quickly relayed to the entire army.

Military camps in Zhenbeicheng, Panshibao, Qinghezhen, and other places were all mobilized.

The soldiers didn't complain; instead, they were unusually excited.

They quickly checked their equipment: in addition to the usual swords, spears, bows, crossbows, and shields, each person carried an extra thirty catties of dry rations, salt blocks, dried meat, spare arrows, and gunpowder packets tightly wrapped in oilcloth.

The horseshoe-shaped bags were covered with non-slip grass mats, and snow vehicles such as sleds and trailers were also pulled out.

It was the 18th day of the twelfth lunar month, early morning. The sky was still dark, and the wind and snow had subsided slightly.

The north gate of Zhenbei City suddenly burst open.

The first to leave the city were a thousand heavily armored infantrymen. With heavy steps, they left deep imprints on the snow, like a moving steel fortress.

Following closely behind were three thousand light infantry and two thousand archers, their ranks orderly, silent and swift.

Behind them were 1,500 cavalrymen, their horses snorting thick white breaths, and the knights' eyes sharp.

Finally, there were five hundred engineers and support troops, escorting provisions, tents, and simplified components of siege equipment.

A total of eight thousand men, led by Xiao Chen's royal banner, moved like a black dragon slowly into the vast, boundless snowfield. There was no commotion, only the rustling of armor, the crunch of horses' hooves on the snow, and the heavy, orderly footsteps, all blending into a heart-pounding rhythm.

Target: Wolf Valley, 180 miles to the northwest.

The march was extremely arduous. In the deepest parts of the snow, it was up to the thighs.

The cold wind swirled with snowflakes, scraping against my face like knives.

Every step required many times more effort than usual. The heavy burden weighed on his body, and his breath froze into frost on his eyebrows and beard.

But the entire army, like a cohesive unit, stubbornly advanced forward.

The vanguard used specially made snow shovels and planks to clear a path, reducing resistance for the following troops.

The soldiers paired up, supporting each other. The weaker soldiers had their loads partially shared by their comrades. Not a single person fell behind, and not a single complaint was uttered.

The only sounds were the occasional low commands from officers and the fluttering of flags in the wind.

"Maintain formation! Watch your step!"

"Look after each other, save your energy!"

Xiao Chen did not ride a horse, but trudged through the snow like an ordinary infantryman.

He had already taken off his cloak, wearing only a single layer of clothing, and beads of sweat were visible on his forehead. With such a commander, how could the soldiers not fight to the death?

On the first day, they traveled fifty li (approximately 25 kilometers).

As night fell, the troops set up camp in a sheltered mountain hollow.

The soldiers skillfully cleared the snow, drove in wooden stakes, and used the tarpaulins and felt they carried with them to set up makeshift tents.

The engineers quickly built windbreaks with snow blocks. They lit campfires to melt the snow and heat the dry rations they carried.

There was no boisterous noise, only hushed conversations and the sounds of contented chewing. Scouts were sent out for miles, and hidden sentries filled the area around the camp.

The next day, the wind and snow resumed, making the march even more difficult. But their speed increased instead of decreasing, covering sixty li (about 30 kilometers) a day.

On the third day, they were less than thirty miles from Wolf Valley. The snowstorm stopped, but the temperature plummeted, and their breath turned to ice.

That very afternoon, on a secluded ridge on the north side of Wolf Valley, a thick snowdrift suddenly stirred slightly, revealing a pair of bewildered eyes.

This is an elite scout from the Northern Yan Night Watch, ordered to monitor the movements in the direction of Han Yuan.

He thought this awful weather would be another day of freezing cold, but he never expected to see a sight he would never forget.

At the edge of the horizon, on the vast snowfield, a black line was moving steadily and resolutely toward Wolf Valley.

At first he thought it was a shadow in the snow, but soon the "black line" became wider and clearer—it was the army!

A massive, heavily armed army!

"How is this possible..." The scout almost bit his own tongue.

In this weather, with this much snow depth, a normal army wouldn't even be able to leave its camp! Did the Han Yuan Army fly here?

He forced down his fear and carefully raised the monocular brass telescope to observe closely.

Upon seeing this, he was terrified out of his wits.

He saw infantry formations marching silently in knee-deep snow, maintaining their orderly ranks.

I saw cavalrymen trotting and patrolling across the snow-covered plains, their hooves flying and snow flying everywhere, yet their formation remained intact.

What terrified him even more was that during a brief rest in the middle of the journey, he saw many Hanyuan soldiers taking off their heavy winter clothes and, with their strong upper bodies bare, conducting combat training in the snow!

The shouts could be faintly heard, and the murderous aura, though several miles away, still made his skin sting.

The steam rising from the soldiers' bodies formed a misty fog under the dim winter sun!

The beads of sweat rolling down their bronze skin created tiny craters in the snow.

That wasn't a march; they were practically a group of iron men forged from a furnace! They were flames burning in the snow!

"Ghosts...ghost soldiers...heavenly soldiers have descended to earth!" The scout's hand trembled, and his precious telescope almost fell into the snow.

He scrambled out of the snowdrift, his heart pounding like a drum, his hands and feet icy cold.

He must get the message back immediately! The Han Yuan Army are inhuman!

They can march through such desperate terrain, they can train shirtless in the snow! How can you fight an army like that? What can you use to fight them?

This experienced night scout was now filled with nothing but boundless fear.

He didn't even bother to hide his tracks, tumbling and sliding down the ridge to find the horses hidden in the crevices of the rocks, and fled like a madman towards the fortress on the border of Northern Yan.

He wanted to tell everyone that the Han Yuan Army was invincible!

In Wolf Valley, the Cold Abyss Army is undergoing final rest and tactical drills.

Xiao Chen climbed a high slope and looked at the soldiers' eyes, which were sharper despite their fatigue. He watched them skillfully build simple fortifications and practice snow defense in the snow and nodded in satisfaction.

"Your Highness, Night Owl reports that the scouts of Northern Yan have discovered us and fled back in terror," Liu Yidao stepped forward and whispered.

"Um."

Xiao Chen wasn't surprised. "Let them see, that's to scare them. Order them to rest for two hours, eat and drink their fill. After nightfall, light torches and practice nighttime snow assault formations. Make a big fuss, and show off our firearms too."

"yes!"

That night, in Wolf Valley, flames soared into the sky, battle cries shook the wilderness, and even occasional rumbles like thunder could be heard. In the silent snowy night, these sounds and flames could travel extremely far.

At dawn the next day, the Han Yuan army broke camp and withdrew in an orderly fashion, even faster than they had come. It had taken them three days to come, but only two and a half days to return.

When the eight thousand Hanyuan soldiers reappeared beneath the walls of Zhenbei City, their faces were weathered, but their eyes shone brighter and their aura more refined, like blades tempered by ice and snow, their cold light even more intense.

Almost simultaneously, terrifying rumors about the "Iron Army of Hanyuan" conducting military exercises in the heavy snow, marching shirtless through the snow, training tirelessly day and night, and being like divine soldiers, spread like the winter wind across the Yanshan Mountains and into every military camp and fortress on the border of Northern Yan at an astonishing speed.

"...They are not human! They are heavenly soldiers descended to earth!"

The scout who had escaped back was still deathly pale and incoherent when reporting to his superior: "The snow was knee-deep, the march was swift, we were naked, the heat was intense, our shouts were like thunder, the night fires illuminated the sky, and there was even the aid of thunder... General, we are invincible, absolutely invincible!"

Similar reports came from multiple directions to the desk of the Northern Yan border army commander.

The generals of Northern Yan initially did not believe it, but after verifying it from multiple sources and finding that the details matched, they had no choice but to believe it.

An invisible chill, more biting than the snow in December, quietly permeated the hearts of the Northern Yan border troops.

They suddenly felt that this winter was exceptionally long and exceptionally difficult to endure.

On the other side, Han Yuan, under the command of that young Prince Jingbei, was no longer a border town, but a primordial behemoth that had honed its claws in the blizzard and could pounce at any moment.

This "snowy military exercise" achieved its goal without firing a single arrow or losing a single soldier, yet it subdued the enemy without a fight, delivering a heavy blow to the potential adversary on a psychological level.

The resilience, endurance, discipline, and toughness of the Hanyuan Army left an indelible mark on the hearts of all onlookers.

Under the northern sky, the might of the Frost Abyss army, accompanied by wind and snow, was incomparably fierce.