The Tyrant of the Great Qian Dynasty: Not only will I refuse to arrange a marriage alliance, but I w

The sky finally brightened.

The torrential rain that had lasted all night finally stopped.

However, the sky above the Northern Barbarian camp was still shrouded in thick smoke from the burning grain and fodder that had lasted all night, and the air was filled with a pungent, burnt smell.

Huyan Ba's desperate order to attack the city spread throughout the chaotic army.

This order, however, did not receive a response from everyone.

For most ordinary tribal chiefs and soldiers, after witnessing their supplies burned to ashes, their only thought was not to launch a hopeless siege, but to flee.

They fled back to the north, back to that barren but livable grassland.

"The Great Khan has gone mad!"

A tribal chief, standing before his tent, openly shouted at his soldiers, "We're out of food! What's the difference between attacking that fortified city now and throwing our lives away!"

"We shouldn't wait here to die! We should retreat north! While we still have the strength, perhaps some of us can still make it back home alive!"

His words ignited the emotions of the surrounding soldiers, and voices of agreement rose and fell.

Panic and despair spread through the army, morale completely collapsed, and the situation was beyond repair.

Standing before the commander's tent, Huyan Ba ​​coldly observed the chaotic scene before him.

One of his bodyguards suddenly drew a curved sword from his waist.

A flash of light.

The tribal chief who was inciting the soldiers had his head blown off, leaving a trail of blood in the air before rolling onto the muddy ground.

"Anyone who dares to utter another word of 'retreat' will face this fate!"

The guard's cold voice, combined with the bloody suppression, calmed the surrounding commotion.

But Huyan Ba ​​knew better than anyone else that this coalition of dozens of tribes with ulterior motives was completely finished.

His so-called "all-out attack on the city" was, from the very beginning, a complete charade.

His real purpose was to use this last, and most desperate, charge to buy himself a chance to survive, and to gain precious time and space for his own escape.

This is a cruel form of "survival by amputation".

The more than 100,000 soldiers who were still capable of fighting but belonged to different tribes were the "arms" he was prepared to cut off without hesitation to draw the enemy's attention.

He reorganized approximately 100,000 soldiers who were still able to take up arms and placed them at the forefront of the entire army.

He rode on horseback, speaking passionately and eloquently, delivering a final deception to these soldiers shrouded in despair.

He told them that this was the final battle.

Once they stormed into the capital, they would have inexhaustible food, endless silk, countless women, and immense wealth.

He himself, along with his most elite and loyal 10,000 Khan's personal guards, remained at the very back of the attacking column.

They called it "to support you."

Standing atop the city wall, Su Zhe had already seen clearly all of Hu Yanba's subtle movements below.

He looked down at the Northern Barbarian army below the city, which had regrouped but whose formation was chaotic and whose morale was low, and sneered.

He said to Chen Baipao and the other generals beside him, "Huyan Ba, it's time to put on a show of sacrificing an arm to save your life."

"He wanted to use the lives of these 100,000 people to pave a bloody road home for himself."

"Pass down the order to have the Mo Dao team and the Shenji battalion prepare. Since he wants to use human lives to pay the price, then we'll grant his wish."

The mournful and poignant bugle call to attack the city finally resounded in the northern barbarian army.

Those 100,000 northern barbarian soldiers, kept in the dark and driven by despair and false hope, launched their last and most desperate charge toward the towering walls of the capital under the immense pressure of their destroyed homes and cut-off roads.

They roared and howled, forming a massive horde that surged toward the nightmarish city.

They knew that they might die on this trip.

But they were even more afraid of staying there and starving to death.

A fierce battle of attack and defense once again unfolded beneath the walls of the capital.

The Mo Dao (陌刀) team advanced in an orderly fashion, forming an ironclad defensive line that reaped the lives of the barbarian soldiers who charged down to the city walls.

The muskets and crossbows of the Shenji Battalion were also spewing deadly flames from the city walls.

Just as the fighting below the city reached its most brutal stage, and everyone's attention was firmly drawn to this bloody battlefield.

Huyan Ba ​​moved.

He and his ten thousand most elite guards did not go to support their comrades who were fighting a bloody battle at the front, nor did they even glance at the tragic battlefield again.

Silently, they turned their horses around and began their desperate escape to the north, in the exact opposite direction from the battlefield.

He abandoned his army.

He abandoned his people.

He also relinquished his last dignity and glory as the Great Khan of the grasslands.

All he wants now is to survive.

On the city wall, a sharp-eyed general quickly noticed Huyan Ba's unusual movements.

He rushed to Su Zhe's side and reported loudly:

"Your Highness! Huyan Ba... Huyan Ba, with his personal guards, has fled north!"

Su Zhe's expression showed no surprise whatsoever.

All of this was still within his calculations.

He looked at Chen Baipao and his three thousand Snow Dragon Riders, who were already fully prepared and full of energy at the foot of the North Gate.

He can't escape.

Su Zhe's voice was soft, yet it carried a confident air of being in control of everything.

"Chen Baipao, your mission is to bring me his head."

"Great Snow Dragon Riders, it's time to attack."