If you die, I will be able to inherit your cultivation.

The fire raged until dusk, and the pile of corpses at the mountain pass was still burning.

Acrid black smoke billowed into the sky, turning half the sky a grayish-yellow color.

Su Mingyue did not let the fire go out. She sent tens of thousands of soldiers to cut down trees on the hillside behind the city. The dull thud of axes hitting the tree trunks continued from afternoon until nightfall.

The felled trees were continuously thrown into the fire. The thick trunks crashed onto the burning pile of corpses, scattering large sparks. The flames licked at the newly added firewood, making the fire burn even brighter.

She wanted to keep this wall of fire burning until the enemy was completely desperate.

At the same time, she also transferred a small group of archers from the army.

They weren't instructed to fire arrows at the enemy positions, but rather to climb the cliffs on either side of the mountain pass, tie numerous letters to the arrow shafts, and shoot them towards the enemy camp.

The letter was drafted by Su Mingyue herself, and the wording was as blunt as a knife stabbing into the heart.

"Your food supplies are exhausted, but our army has plenty. Hold your ground and wait. Anyone who surrenders with weapons within three days will be given enough food to eat."

"Those who kill the chieftain and bring him to the capital will be richly rewarded. Only the ringleader will be punished; the rest will be spared."

Each letter was stamped with the vermilion seal of the Youzhou Commander's Office at the end, resembling clumps of congealed blood in the twilight.

As the archers on the cliff drew their bows and released their arrows, some loud-voiced men stood on the cliff top and shouted in unison.

The sound, carried by the mountain wind, entered the enemy camp, each word clear and distinct, so that every hungry soldier on the opposite side could hear it clearly.

First came the shouts of dozens of people, then the shouts of hundreds of people, and finally the entire ridgeline was filled with messengers shouting orders at the top of their lungs.

The sound crashed against the opposite mountain wall in waves, bouncing back and forth, making the whole valley buzz. It was impossible to tell how many people were shouting.

The fire burned until late at night.

Zhao Chongyuan and Yuwen Shuo finally couldn't sit still any longer.

Their provisions had been burned to ashes during the first day's raid, and the hundreds of thousands of soldiers had been starving for a day and a night, having eaten all the dry rations they carried and boiled up the last black beans left in their horse feed.

If this continues, Su Mingyue won't even need to lift a finger; she can starve them to death at the foot of Qingyun Mountain.

The two men sent their trusted men to sneak around to the rear of the city and seize grain overnight.

This is the last resort. As long as we can seize food, the army can hold out for a few more days and launch another attack.

Su Mingyue had already thought of this.

Late at night, she dispatched her air force once again.

The paragliders silently arrived over the enemy territory under the cover of night.

The assassins under the umbrellas ripped open the water bags again, and thick, black oil silently spilled from the night sky, landing on the tents, the weapons, and the soldiers' remaining clothes and bedding.

Immediately afterwards, a fire was thrown down from the sky.

The entire enemy camp was engulfed in flames in the dead of night.

The tents were on fire, the military flag was on fire, the stretchers and bandages in the wounded soldiers' camp were on fire, and even the trampled hay and horse manure on the ground were soaked in kerosene and caught fire.

The firelight illuminated half the night sky, and cries, horse neighs, and chaotic footsteps mingled together as the camp erupted in chaos.

The loyalist army was completely thrown into chaos.

The soldiers, who had been starving for a day and a night, were already demoralized. The fire burned away even their last bit of courage.

Of the original 800,000 troops, only 600,000 were Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan's direct troops, while the remaining 200,000 were troops from other local warlords who came to the aid of the emperor.

After a day and a night of bloody battle with Su Mingyue at Qingyun Pass, nearly 200,000 people had been killed or wounded, and the feudal lords were already heartbroken.

Now that the grain and provisions have been burned to ashes and the main camp has been engulfed in flames, the troops of the other warlords have begun to waver.

The first to desert were the troops of a minor vassal state in the southeast. Tens of thousands of men quietly broke camp under the cover of night, without even taking their military flags, and ran back along the route they had come from.

Then came the second feudal lord, and the third feudal lord.

Just then, shouts came from the top of the cliff again, this time even more vehement than during the day:

"Only execute the ringleaders; those who surrender will not be killed! Kill Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan, those two traitors! Yuwen Shuo and Zhao Chongyuan are unrighteous, disloyal, and unfilial; they are using the death of the late emperor to seek personal gain and want to become emperor themselves!"

A series of shouts echoed in the night sky, one group after another shouted, with some interspersed throughout.

Slogans such as "His Majesty has ordered that the troops withdraw now, and past transgressions will be forgiven" are used.

The troops of the other feudal lords could no longer sit still.

Since His Majesty has ordered the troops to retreat and not be held accountable for past transgressions, what are we still doing here?

One or two units began to withdraw, then a third and a fourth.

At first, it was the troops of the feudal lords who were retreating, but later, soldiers from Zhao Chongyuan and Yuwen Shuo's own elite troops also began to secretly follow and run away.

In the darkness, no one could see who was who, and the retreat turned into a rout, with deserters growing bigger and bigger like a snowball.

Zhao Chongyuan and Yuwen Shuo's supervisory team killed a group of deserters and hung their severed heads at the camp gate as a warning, but this did not stop the rout.

The fleeing soldiers bypassed the supervising officers and continued running, some even breaking through the supervising officers' lines and trampling the officers to the ground as they ran.

The defeat was swift and devastating; the 600,000-strong army crumbled overnight.

Su Mingyue, perched atop the cliff, took in all of this and ordered the fire at the mountain pass to be extinguished with water.

Tens of thousands of soldiers, carrying buckets and basins, rushed to the wall of fire and desperately poured water on it. The water and fire clashed, creating a cloud of white steam that spread throughout the valley, obscuring the sky and the moon.

By the time the last embers of the fire were extinguished, dawn was approaching.

Su Mingyue mounted her horse, the dew on her black armor gleaming coldly in the morning light.

She pointed her silver spear forward, and the 100,000 elite cavalrymen behind her, who had been resting for a day and a night, all drew their swords in unison, the glint of their blades forming a bright, snowy wave in the morning light.

At her command, 100,000 iron cavalry poured out of the mountain pass like a flood bursting its banks. Their hooves kicked up clouds of ash as they pounded the still-smoking scorched earth, charging toward the routed loyalist camp.

The loyalist camp offered no further resistance.

The routed soldiers threw down their swords and shields, squatted on the ground, covered their heads, and formed a dark mass of them.

When the 100,000 iron cavalry charged in, they didn't even have the strength to stand up.

As the army charged, they shouted "Those who surrender will not be killed!" The sound carried from the mountain pass all the way to the depths of the camp. The fleeing soldiers who could not escape heard these four words, threw their weapons to the ground, and squatted down with their heads in their hands.

The battle ended abruptly just like that.

However, neither Yuwen Shuo nor Zhao Chongyuan were found among the surrendered troops.

The two knew the situation was hopeless the moment Su Mingyue's troops rushed out of the mountain pass, and fled under the cover of night with their personal guards.

Su Mingyue did not send anyone to pursue them. She simply stood in the center of the enemy camp, looking at the commander's tent that had been burned beyond recognition and the mess on the ground, and coldly ordered a count of the prisoners.

After a pursuit, Su Mingyue captured more than 200,000 enemy soldiers with only 100,000 elite troops.

The captured military equipment and armor were piled up like mountains, and various military flags were torn down and spread all over the ground.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the remaining people had already fled in all directions under the cover of night.