A divine healer, a general, a young marquis! Who can rival them!

On the third day of the barbarian army's advance, the sound of horns pierced the cold morning mist.

The siege has officially begun.

This was the first time the barbarians had launched a full-scale attack since Yang Hu joined the army, and it was also a true test of life and death for this border pass.

A dark, imposing horde of barbarian cavalry, like a flood bursting its banks, surged toward the border fortress. Arrows flew like locusts, siege ladders stood in rows, and the battle cries shook the entire city wall.

This was the first time Yang Hu had witnessed such a brutal battle since joining the army.

Blood and fire, shouts of battle and wails of agony, severed limbs and broken arrows—all covered the sky. This was the border, the pass that Qin Ying had risked his life to defend. Having transmigrated here, he had thought that the words "chaotic world" were merely a light touch in history books, but now he truly felt its burning intensity and savagery.

On the city walls, the defenders fought desperately. Rolling logs, boulders, and arrows rained down wave after wave. But the barbarians were numerous and fearless; one wave was driven back, only for the next to trample over the corpses of their comrades and charge forward.

Wounded soldiers began to be carried down from the city walls one by one, batch by batch.

Yang Hu, along with Qin Ying, Liu Ye, Physician Liu, and a group of military doctors, stayed at the makeshift wounded soldiers' camp below the city, racing against time to treat them. Those with severed hands, broken heads, and arrow wounds bled profusely; the scene was horrific.

He was no longer the itinerant doctor who used to sit in the village clinic. With his methods of triage, hemostasis, and wound cleaning, even the most chaotic wounded soldiers' camp could be brought to order by him.

Those who could walk and were lightly wounded were placed in the back and pressed down; those bleeding from vital organs were stopped first; those who were not breathing were moved aside. Qin Ying, disguised as a medicine boy, handed over weapons, and Liu Ye carried things, their cooperation was seamless. This camp, which would have been in chaos with wounded soldiers waiting to die, was transformed by him into a flowing line of life.

The unexpected event occurred in the afternoon.

A series of hurried footsteps sounded, and several guards carried a person, tumbling and crawling into the wounded soldiers' camp.

"Dr. Yang! Quickly save Commandant Chen!"

Yang Hu's heart tightened.

The man carried in was none other than Commandant Chen, who had appreciated him and promoted him to the position of assistant physician.

Captain Chen was covered in blood, a barbarian wolf-tooth arrow piercing his thigh from the groin. After the arrow was pulled out, blood gushed from the wound in spurts, mingling with his heartbeat, and quickly formed a large puddle on the ground.

"The blood vessel in the thigh has ruptured!" Yang Hu's pupils contracted.

That wasn't ordinary bleeding. The thickest vein in the groin had been ripped open by the wolf-tooth arrow, and blood was gushing out in spurts, warm and pulsating. This kind of bleeding was extremely dangerous; if done quickly, a person would bleed to death in less than the time it takes for an incense stick to burn.

To onlookers, it looked like he'd been hit by an arrow, but only Yang Hu saw through it all; what was truly fatal was the gaping wound in his blood vessel.

Ordinary wound medicine and compresses are of no use whatsoever for this kind of gushing blood vessel injury.

"It's hopeless..." A military doctor glanced at the gushing wound, his face ashen, and shook his head repeatedly. "The major blood vessel is severed; the bleeding can't be stopped, not even a miracle could save him. Doctor Yang, while Captain Chen still has a breath left, let the brothers see him one last time..."

"Shut up!" Yang Hu shouted and pounced on him.

With one hand, he pressed firmly on the source of the blood vessel on the inner thigh of Captain Chen, feeling the pulse of that blood vessel throbbing in his palm. The gushing blood actually slowed down after he pressed on it.

"Bring me a strap! A sturdy leather belt or cloth strap! And a sturdy short wooden stick!"

What he had to do was apply a tourniquet.

Tightly bind the upstream of the broken blood vessel with a strap to cut off its flow, and the gushing blood will naturally stop.

"You're going to break his leg!" the army doctor exclaimed in alarm.

Yang Hu ignored him. This method of applying a tourniquet to treat a ruptured artery on the battlefield came from the time traveler's knowledge, which far surpassed that of this era. Where to apply the tourniquet, how tight, and for how long—the slightest error was unacceptable.

He quickly wrapped a leather belt around the wound on Captain Chen's groin, tied a knot, inserted the short wooden stick into the knot, and twisted it forcefully.

The strap tightened more and more, digging deep into the flesh.

The blood that had been gushing out incessantly stopped miraculously.

"It's stopped! The bleeding has really stopped!"

Everyone in the tent was horrified.

But Yang Hu's expression showed no sign of relaxation.

He knew that this tourniquet could be a lifesaver, or it could be a death sentence. It stopped the bleeding, but it cut off the blood supply to the leg, and if left unattended, it would slowly rot and die.

"Remember the time!" he instructed Qin Ying in a deep voice while quickly treating the wound. "Every half hour, loosen the bandage to let the blood drain, then tighten it again. Don't forget for a moment!"

What he wanted was a perfect alternative between saving his life and saving his leg.

To outsiders, this subtle manipulation was incomprehensible; they only perceived it as him tightening and loosening the reins, as if he were torturing the injured person. But only Yang Hu understood perfectly: loosening it slightly allowed the blood vessels to breathe, thus saving the leg; tightening it slightly stopped the gushing blood, thus prolonging the life. Life and death, a severed leg and its preservation, all lay in the precise control of this tightening and loosening.

After stopping the bleeding, Yang Hu quickly cleaned, applied medicine, and bandaged Chen Xiaowei's wound. Then, using the salt and sugar water method, he slowly brought the captain, who had lost too much blood and had already fainted, back from the brink of death.

After an unknown amount of time, Captain Chen slowly woke up.

Although weak and pale, Yang Hu managed to keep him alive with a strap and his hands.

"Captain Chen...Captain Chen is awake!"

The military doctor, sentenced to death, looked at the resurrected Captain Chen, then at the tourniquet on his leg, and blushed with shame, unable to utter a single word. He had served in the army his entire life, witnessing hundreds, if not thousands, of blood wounds, always watching helplessly as people bled to death. He had never imagined that such deadly bleeding could be contained by a single bandage.

Once again, Yang Hu snatched the life of a lieutenant from the clutches of death.

And what was saved was more than just one life.

Captain Chen is the commander of the eastern section of the city defenses of this western camp. If he dies, this section of the city wall will be leaderless and easily torn apart by the barbarians.

Yang Hu saved the backbone of this section of the wall, and was the key to victory in this bloody battle.

After resting for less than half an hour, Captain Chen disregarded Yang Hu's advice, gritted his teeth, and had his men carry him back up to the city wall.

The news that their commander was still alive was more effective than any military order. The morale of the troops, which had been wavering, suddenly rallied again. On the city wall, the general's flag, which had been teetering on the brink of collapse, was once again raised high.

The morale of the troops has been stabilized.

Yang Hu, standing on this battlefield of blood and fire, gazed at the general's flag that had been raised again, and his eyes gradually darkened.

This bloody battle was extremely dangerous. But even more dangerous than the barbarians outside the city was the hand hidden inside, ready to deliver a fatal blow at any moment.

The great battle has begun, and everything is in chaos. That hand, unable to restrain itself any longer, is about to extend its most lethal hand amidst this turmoil.

He gripped the blood-stained knife tightly, his eyes resolute. In this battle, they had to defend the city from outside, and more importantly, they had to bring out the hand that was lurking inside.