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

The siege lasted from dawn until the sun began to set.

The barbarians changed their tactics.

Previously, they charged wave after wave, piling up people to the foot of the city walls and using ladders to scale them. This time, they started with catapults. Dozens of catapults were positioned three hundred paces below the city walls, hurling stones the size of adult heads onto the walls in successive waves.

The city bricks were smashed and fell down, hitting the defenders more severely than swords and arrows.

A knife or arrow wounds one spot, but a falling stone often knocks down an entire group of people at once.

Yang Hu spent the entire day in the wounded soldiers' camp without ever straightening his back.

People were carried down one after another. Some had their legs broken by falling stones, some had their eyes blinded by flying bricks, and some had fallen from the city wall and were completely shattered inside.

"Triage!" he shouted through the pool of blood. "Standard triage! Those who can walk on their own go to the left, those who can't be lifted go to the middle, and those who aren't breathing go to the back!"

That set of rules was something Qing Shi Kou had practiced for two months. On this day, it saved more people than on any previous day.

But some are beyond saving.

As the sun began to set, Su Heng came down from the city wall, her clothes covered in ash and a bloody gash on her face.

"Captain Chen," she said, only uttering three words.

Yang Hu stopped.

"He's in the eastern section," Su Heng said in a low voice. "He threw stones and broke down a section of the parapet, and the barbarians climbed up. He led his men to block them, and they stopped them."

"Where is the injury?"

"Chest."

Yang Hu grabbed his medicine box and left.

Captain Chen was carried down by four soldiers.

The old armor, worn for two months, had a broken arrow stuck in the front; the shaft was broken, leaving only the arrowhead and a three-inch-long piece of wood embedded inside. Blood seeped from the seams, staining the entire front of the armor black.

The person is still awake.

"Yang... Physician Assistant Yang." He even smiled when he saw Yang Hu. "The eastern section... is blocked."

"Don't speak."

Yang Hu knelt down, cut open the armor ribbon, and peeled it off layer by layer.

The moment he saw the wound, his heart sank.

The arrow entered diagonally into the right chest, an extremely difficult position. Two inches further to the side was the heart, half an inch deeper was the lung. Right now, it was neither too deep nor too shallow, stuck right in that most critical crevice.

Pulling it out will cause massive bleeding. If it's not pulled out, the rust and bits of cloth from the arrowhead will remain in the flesh, inevitably causing ulceration within three days.

He did not have any anesthetic on him.

Last night, the half-jar of porridge was used on a cook with a broken leg. This morning, the cook was able to sit up and drink porridge. Yang Hu didn't keep any for himself, and never imagined it would be used today.

"Captain Chen," Yang Hu said in a very steady voice, "you must remove this arrow. It will hurt a lot without anesthesia. You have to bite down."

Captain Chen took a couple of breaths.

"Pick."

"It might not be possible to remove it," Yang Hu said. "If we take half of it out, blood will rush up and we won't be able to find the spot, so I'll have to cut it open another inch."

"Pick."

Yang Hu glanced at him and pulled out a small knife that had been heated and soaked in strong liquor from the medicine box.

Su Heng pressed down on Captain Chen's shoulder, while Physician Liu massaged his legs. Everyone in the camp who could free up their hands gathered around.

As the knife struck, Captain Chen's entire body taut like a bow.

He didn't shout.

Su Heng's hands, which were pressing on his shoulders, were lifted half an inch by the pressure, then pressed back down firmly. Doctor Liu's legs were pressed down so hard that he collapsed forward.

The dozen or so men surrounding the camp remained silent. They had witnessed countless similar scenes in the past two months. But this was the first time their commander had been lying there.

It took a full half hour to retrieve the broken arrow.

The wood splinter had already split open inside the flesh, and he had to pick it out one by one. When he got to the third splinter, blood suddenly gushed up, completely covering the wound. Yang Hu pressed down on that spot with his left hand, while his right hand kept moving downwards, relying on the location he had just clearly seen.

Su Heng asked in a low voice from the side, "Should we stop for a bit?"

"We can't stop." Yang Hu's voice was steady. "If we let go now, the blood will rush out, and the remaining scabs will be impossible to find. If they're not found, they'll rot in three days."

By the end, his forehead was covered in sweat, but his hands remained steady.

The blood seeped into the muddy ground beneath the bed, forming a small puddle. By the time Yang Hu finished stitching up the last stitch, it was already pitch black outside.

Captain Chen's face was as white as paper, but he was still conscious. He turned his head and looked outside.

Outside, torches lit up the city walls, one after another.

"Yang, the Physician Assistant."

"exist."

"This arrow," he said very slowly, "will prevent me from getting onto the city wall, won't it?"

Yang Hu paused for a moment.

"Not within three months."

"Three months..." Captain Chen chuckled, the laughter aggravating his wound and causing him to gasp in pain. "Qingshikou won't last three months."

No one in the camp responded.

Captain Chen took a breath and then suddenly opened his eyes again.

"Medical Officer Yang, please listen to me for a moment. While I can still speak."

"you say."

"The eastern section of the parapet collapsed by twelve feet," Captain Chen said, panting. "It was blocked today, but with people. More than seventy of them were used. Tomorrow the barbarians will attack from there again. If I'm not there, they won't be able to stop it."

"And then there's Commandant Wang and Commandant Ma," he paused, "two men, one in charge of defense, the other in charge of deployment. They argued for two months, neither willing to concede. When I was in charge, I could keep them in check."

As he said this, he suddenly raised his hand.

The hand, raised halfway, fell back down, landing on Yang Hu's wrist and gripping it.

"Yang, the Physician Assistant."

"exist."

Captain Chen stared at him, the light in his eyes flickering.

"I promoted you to medical officer," he said breathlessly, "because you could keep the soldiers from dying."

Yang Hu's heart skipped a beat.

"These past two months," Captain Chen's voice grew softer, "the soldiers who were carried away and those who were brought back, the entire city knows their story. They recognize you."

"Captain Chen."

"I know you're not a commander," Captain Chen interrupted him, his grip on his wrist tightening suddenly. "But in this city, there's no one else that the soldiers of the Third Battalion would listen to."

Yang Hu remained silent.

He could hear his own heart beating.

"I'm not dead yet." Captain Chen released his grip, catching his breath for a while. "It will be too late to say this after I'm dead."

That night, the torches on the city walls burned until dawn.

Yang Hu stayed by Captain Chen's bedside all night, changing his dressing three times.

Each time he changed the dressing, he would check the heat around the wound. If the heat came up, it meant the wound hadn't been cleaned properly; if the heat didn't come up, the arrow was considered to have been used.

After three rounds, that patch of skin remained cold.

In the middle of the night, Su Heng came in and squatted down beside him.

"The gap in the eastern section was plugged with sacks filled with earth," she said. "Halfway through, Commandant Wang and Commandant Ma started arguing on the city wall. One said they should build another inner wall overnight, while the other said they should take advantage of the night to go out of the city and burn the barbarians' catapults."

"Did you reach a conclusion during the argument?"

"No." Su Heng paused, "They each took their own people and went about their own business."

When she said this, her voice was flat, but the knuckles of the hand gripping the scabbard were white.

"My father was in the border army back then," she suddenly whispered, "and the battle in which he died was just like that. Two generals fought all night, and by dawn, the city had fallen."

Yang Hu stared at the ashen face on the bed.

Su Heng didn't say anything more. She stood up and gently tucked the blanket that had slipped down on the person on the bed.

Outside, a faint sliver of white appeared on the horizon. The footsteps of the changing guards echoed across the city walls, one after another, muffled on the frosty stone steps.

This is the fifth day since Qing Shi Kou was besieged. The person in the city who could best hold the line is lying on this bed, unable to get up for three months. And the barbarians' catapults will start again after dawn.