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

The barbarians arrived on the third day.

March 27th, afternoon.

They came from due north, not northwest. When Liu Ye's scout spotted them fifteen miles away, the first thing he reported back was: "They are walking."

"Walking?" Cui Ting didn't understand.

"There are no horses," the scout said. "There's a group of about a thousand riders ahead. Behind them, it's a dark mass of people on foot."

The people on the earthen beam all stood up.

The barbarian cavalry refused to dismount on the grasslands. Dismounted barbarians were at a disadvantage compared to the infantry of the Great Cheng. They were willing to walk for only one reason.

There aren't enough horses.

"How many have come?" Yang Hu asked.

"I can't see the tail clearly, but roughly speaking, it's around 20,000."

"Twenty thousand." Yue Chong stroked his beard, his injured arm still a bit stiff. "General, they brought all those who can stand up."

"Yes."

"This is a fight to the death," Shao Qi said. "They can't afford to drag this out. Their horses are scattered over a hundred miles to the south, while their men are here. If they don't win today, they'll all be scattered across the grasslands, men and horses alike."

Yang Hu closed the booklet in his hand.

"How many are available to play?"

"Five thousand one hundred and sixty," Cui Ting said, "one hundred and twenty-six more than the day before yesterday."

"Where's the horse?"

"One thousand one hundred can run."

"Bring out the six hundred who had their blood drawn."

Cui Ting was taken aback: "General, those six hundred horses can't run."

"No need to run," Yang Hu said. "Just line up at the back of the formation, with empty saddles on your backs and flags planted."

Shao Qixian understood: "The general wants them to see that we still have 1,700 men."

"What they fear most right now is horses," Yang Hu said. "They've lost all their own horses, and seeing that we still have so many makes them feel a little weaker."

The formation was arranged in front of the earthen ridge.

The earthen ridge wasn't high, but it was the only ridge within a twenty-mile radius of this depression. Yang Hu positioned his troops an arrow's width in front of the ridge: the front camp in the center, the left camp on the left, and the right camp on the right. 1,100 cavalrymen were divided into two wings, and 600 horses carrying empty saddles and flags were at the rear of the ridge. From the front, flags were everywhere, both on and under the beam.

The wounded soldiers' battalion remained at the innermost part of the depression. Of the more than 1,100 people who had signed up to carry stretchers, not a single one went to work that day. They stayed to watch over the more than 300 men who were still not up.

At the hour of Wei (1-3 PM), the barbarian vanguard pressed forward to within three li (approximately

The thousand riders charged first.

The enemy is charging towards the right flank.

Yue Chong's right battalion was located in the far east, in the most dangerous and fortified position. On the first charge, the right battalion's long spear wall held firm, and the barbarians retreated, leaving behind more than two hundred corpses.

The second time was a combination of riding and walking.

The cavalry charged ahead, and the infantry followed behind to fill in the gaps. The method of filling in was old and ruthless: the front row fell down, and the next row stepped on them, giving them no chance to draw their spears.

The right battalion's long spear wall reached its bottom at the third row.

This time, they broke through a corner of the right flank, and once the breach was opened, a dark mass of infantry poured in from behind.

Shao Qi saw this from the left wing and immediately ordered people to be transferred there.

"Don't move." Yang Hu pressed down the command flag in the central army. "If the left flank moves, the middle will be empty."

"General, the right flank is not holding out!"

"We can hold on."

Yue Chong went up at this time.

He untied the bandage from his wounded arm, threw it on the ground, and, carrying his sword, led thirty of his personal guards into the breach.

Cui Ting, watching from the center of the army, turned pale.

"General! General Yue's arm hasn't fully healed yet!"

Yang Hu didn't answer. He was looking at the gap.

The breach was plugged. Yue Chong led thirty cavalrymen to wedge in, forcefully cutting the incoming infantry into two sections. The first section was surrounded by the right flank, and the rest dared not push any further in.

At that moment, someone shouted from the earthen beam.

The one shouting the loudest was Captain Pang. He wasn't shouting for the right battalion; he was shouting for that flag.

Yue Chong's flag has always stood in the gap.

Then the flag tilted.

From the center of the army, the flag first tilted to the left, then sank down until it was no longer visible.

"The right flank is in chaos!"

Yang Hu turned his horse and rode away.

"General, you can't go!" Cui Ting grabbed the reins.

"Let go."

"General!"

"I'll go this time." Yang Hu pried Cui Ting's hands off. "I didn't go on the day of the Midsummer's Day, and all eighty-four people carrying medicine boxes were gone. I'll go this time."

He led two hundred cavalrymen and circled in from the right flank.

On the way in, he saw people lying on the ground. The men of the right wing and the barbarians were piled up together, and it was impossible to tell who was on top of whom. A soldier from the right wing sat in the pile of dead bodies, his hands pressed against a gash in his stomach. When he saw the horse approaching, he recognized the flag and raised his chin to shout.

Yang Hu did not stop.

He couldn't save the people on his journey.

When they entered, the right wing was already pulling back. Yue Chong was being dragged along by four personal guards, trailing behind two rows of people, still sitting down.

Yang Hu dismounted.

The arrow entered his right chest, very deep, with only three fingers' length of the shaft protruding. The shaft was broken, the break was very fresh, he had broken it himself.

"General." Yue Chong saw him and tried to bow.

"Don't move."

Yang Hu squatted down. He didn't touch the arrow; he looked at the lips first.

The lips are blue.

Next, observe the breathing. When inhaling, the right side of the chest collapses, and when exhaling, it expands, which is the opposite of a normal person's breathing pattern.

"Take off your armor."

After the armor was removed, the skin and flesh around the wound were bulging. Yang Hu placed his palm on it and pressed gently; a fine cracking sound came from under his fingers, like crushing a handful of dry grass.

Cui Ting followed him in and saw this action.

"General, how is it?"

Yang Hu did not answer this question. He moved his hand away, placed two fingers on the side of Yue Chong's neck and counted for a while, then opened his eyelids.

"The arrow pierced his lung," he said.

Cui Ting's breathing stopped.

"The air went into his chest cavity through the wound and can't get out," Yang Hu said. "When there's too much air in his chest cavity, it compresses his lungs. It's compressed to this extent that he can only take in half a breath."

"Pull the arrow out..."

"He'll be gone the moment you pull it out," Yang Hu said. "The arrow shaft is currently plugged. If you pull it out, all the air from outside will rush in."

As Yue Chong listened, he suddenly coughed. What he coughed up was red and contained fine foam.

"General," he gasped, "this humble general... has guarded the frontier for nineteen years, never dying on the grasslands. To die here today, it would be a fitting end..."

"Shut up."

Yue Chong was taken aback.

Yang Hu stood up and looked towards the front of the formation.

The barbarians' third charge hadn't even begun, but their rear guard was already assembling, and the drums were beating. This spot was less than two hundred paces from the front lines; arrows were still flying overhead.

"Bring the felt," he said. "Surround it on three sides."

"Is the general going to stay here?"

"We can't carry him," Yang Hu said. "It would take two quarters of an hour to carry him to the low-lying area. He won't last two quarters of an hour."

Cui Ting's throat was dry: "Then...what about the medicine? The equipment?"

Fourteen medicine carts were dispatched, but not a single one came out. The little medicine each member of the military medical team carried had long been used up. There was no anesthetic, no hemostatic medicine, and certainly no tools to pry open ribs.

Yang Hu rolled up his sleeves.

"Call Su Heng here."

"Yes."

"Have people boil water, the more the better. Anyone who has a knife, clean and sharpened, hand it over."

Cui Ting responded and remained standing.

"General, this place is less than two hundred paces from the front lines."

"I know."

"If this area is breached..."

"Then we'll all perish together," Yang Hu said. "Go and give the order: the right battalion retreats to twenty paces in front of the beam, and is not allowed to retreat any further. The left battalion and the front battalion each send five hundred men to reinforce them. Colonel Pang leads one thousand one hundred cavalry to circle around to the east, without engaging in battle, just let them see the horses."

Cui Ting noted it down.

"There's one more thing." Yang Hu wiped the last bit of dirt off his hands on the corner of his robe. "Tell everyone on the battlefield that General Yue is bandaging the wounds in the back and will be back in the time it takes for an incense stick to burn."

Cui Ting was stunned.

"Does the general want me to lie?"

"Is his flag still flying?"

Cui Ting glanced back. The flag had been lifted up again by his personal guards and planted behind the gap.

"Standing upright."

"Then it's not a lie," Yang Hu said. "The flag is up, so the person is there. Go."