Frontier Hero: From Receiving a Convicted Woman to Becoming an Emperor for All Time

The northern route is a grain storage area, a natural semi-circular wasteland.

The three sides are sheer cliffs, as if cleaved by an axe, with only a narrow valley passage on the south side, no more than three zhang wide, with jagged rocks on both sides, and the wind howling through the cracks in the rocks.

Inside the valley, hundreds of grain stacks were neatly piled up, covered with tarpaulins. The night wind blew them up, making them flutter like sails—this was the three-month ration for the three thousand soldiers guarding Ling Shuang Pass, the lifeline of the border, which could not be lost.

When Shen Chuxiao led his men to the valley entrance, it was less than an hour before dawn.

He did not enter the valley.

Instead, they scattered the fifteen people on the mountain walls on both sides of the entrance.

"Tie Niu, take five men to the left. Sun Er Gou, take five men to the right." Shen Chuxiao lowered his voice. "The rest of you stay with me and guard the front. Remember, we're not here to fight to the death, we're here to hold off the barbarians. Fire a volley of arrows and then change positions, let them think we outnumber them. Anyone who tries to be a hero—"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over each person's face.

"Even if I die, I will haunt him as a ghost."

Tie Niu didn't laugh, but simply slammed his broadsword on the ground and said in a muffled voice, "Don't worry, Vice Captain, I haven't even gotten married yet, I can't afford to die."

Sun Ergou didn't say anything, but moved the quiver closer to him, his fingers unconsciously stroking the arrows; it was his last bundle of arrows.

He counted the thirty-two branches three times.

Fifteen people, like fifteen nails, silently wedged themselves into the shadows of the mountainside.

Soon after, footsteps came from the darkness.

Not sporadic, but in large swaths. The sound of leather boots stepping on gravel came from the depths of the valley, growing louder and closer, like the beating of a muffled drum.

Shen Chuxiao crouched behind a rock, squinting his eyes.

They arrived as expected.

The elite of the Black Stone tribe of barbarians.

The number of people was more than he had estimated, at least three hundred.

Leading the group was a burly man on horseback, half of his arm bare, with a machete slung over his shoulder. The blade gleamed a dark blue under the moonlight—it had been poisoned.

The wolf-skin boy was not in the queue.

Shen Chuxiao's heart sank. The person he should have been most wary of hadn't shown up. Did he have other plans? Or was this not his destination?

But if it's not here, then what's the deal with these barbarian soldiers?

But there's no time to think about it now.

Three hundred barbarian soldiers marched in two columns at great speed, with the vanguard already approaching the valley entrance.

Shen Chuxiao slowly raised his arm, his five fingers spread open.

As soon as the barbarian troops entered the range of the arrows, his hand clenched into a fist.

"put!"

Fifteen bows were released simultaneously.

The shrill whistles of arrows tearing through the night sky blended together, like a drawn-out scream. The first rank of barbarian soldiers charging at the forefront hadn't even had time to react before they were struck head-on by arrows.

Tie Niu's arrow flew from the left side of the mountain wall, striking a barbarian soldier squarely in the throat. The man didn't even have time to cry out before falling backward. Sun Er Gou's arrow followed closely behind, piercing the eye socket of a second man, the fletching disappearing to the shaft.

In the first volley, seven barbarian soldiers fell to the ground.

"There's an ambush!"

A roar erupted from the barbarian ranks, and the front-line soldiers hurriedly raised their shields, while the rear-line soldiers scattered to find cover.

The burly man carrying the mountain-splitting axe reined in his horse, his gaze sweeping across the mountain walls on either side like lightning, a ferocious smile twisting his lips: "These dogs of Da Jing dare to block the road? Are the ones who fired the arrows still breastfeeding—"

Before he finished speaking, two more rounds of arrows rained down from the left and right sides of the mountain wall.

This time the arrows were shot from different positions—Tie Niu immediately moved ten steps to the left after firing the arrow, and Sun Ergou darted fifteen steps to the right, using the protruding rocks on the mountain wall as cover, and ran away after shooting.

In the darkness, the barbarian soldiers couldn't see how many ambushers there were; they only felt arrows flying from all directions, with danger lurking everywhere.

Another seven or eight people fell down.

The vanguard of the barbarian army began to fall into disarray.

"Hold your ground!" the burly man wielding the axe roared, hacking a retreating barbarian soldier to the ground with a single blow. "Shields forward! Archers, return fire!"

Dozens of shields quickly formed a wall at the valley entrance, and barbarian archers took cover behind the shields and began to return fire at the mountain wall.

Arrows rained down like locusts, and stones flew everywhere.

A scout next to Shen Chuxiao groaned as an arrow struck his shoulder, causing him to stagger backward and nearly tumble off the rock face.

Shen Chuxiao grabbed his belt and dragged him back, tearing off a piece of his shirt and stuffing it into the wound, while whispering, "Watch out!"

"Vice Captain, I'm fine!" The scout gritted his teeth and reached for the bow that had fallen to the ground.

Shen Chuxiao did not try to persuade him.

Under the cover of their shields, the barbarian soldiers began to advance towards the valley entrance. The mountain-splitting axe became clearer and clearer in the moonlight, and the burly man carrying the axe's sinister grin grew ever closer.

Seeing the strange crossbow bolt on the ground that had almost killed him, the man licked his lips: "So it's the group the young master was talking about. Tonight, it was you bastards who killed a lot of my tribe's brothers, wasn't it? I'll twist your heads off one by one and hang them on the flagpole later."

Tie Niu heard it clearly from the mountain wall, and a surge of anger rushed to his head. He was about to jump down when he saw it clearly.

"tractor!"

Shen Chuxiao's shout was like a knife, pinning him to the spot.

"Hold your position! Don't act rashly!"

Tie Niu's teeth were clenched so hard they were grinding, and the veins on his hand gripping the knife were bulging, but he still retreated behind the rock.

The barbarian soldiers advanced another ten paces.

There are less than ten steps left.

Once the valley entrance is breached, the granary will be lambs to the slaughter.

Shen Chuxiao took a deep breath, took the repeating crossbow from his waist, and aimed it at the burly man carrying the axe. At a distance of ten paces, the power of the repeating crossbow was just right.

Three crossbow bolts flew out in a triangular formation.

The burly man reacted with lightning speed, dodging two arrows to the side, but the third struck his warhorse squarely in the neck. The horse let out a bloodcurdling neigh, its front hooves buckled, and it threw the burly man off its back.

The barbarian soldiers' offensive stalled.

"Retreat!" Shen Chuxiao seized the opportunity and ordered sharply, "Retreat into the valley! Second line of defense!"

Fifteen men leaped down the cliff face, firing arrows as they retreated, suppressing the advance of the barbarian soldiers. Tie Niu was the last to leave the cliff, and before he did, he picked up a stone from the ground and hurled it at a barbarian soldier who had shown his face, hitting him squarely in the face.

A group of people retreated into the valley entrance, to the second line of defense—a few abandoned grain carts inside the valley, which Shen Chuxiao had ordered to be pushed ten feet behind the valley entrance beforehand, barely forming a roadblock.

"Take a headcount!"

"Fourteen." Sun Ergou's voice tightened, "...Xiao Wu didn't keep up."

Xiao Wu, the scout who was shot in the shoulder with an arrow just now.

Shen Chuxiao turned sharply and looked towards the valley entrance. By the dim moonlight, he saw Xiao Wu kneeling on the cliff face, one arm hanging limply, the other still drawing his bow. The last arrow was nocked on his bowstring, its tip aimed at a barbarian soldier wielding a sword in the barbarian ranks.

The bowstring twanged.

The arrow pierced the barbarian's throat.

At the same time, a dozen or so arrows from barbarian soldiers pierced Xiao Wu's body.

Shen Chuxiao's pupils suddenly contracted.

The young man, not yet twenty, was still smiling the moment he was shot. He smiled faintly, as if he had accomplished something insignificant, and then slid down the mountainside and disappeared into the darkness.

This young man joined the army simply so that his four younger brothers could have enough to eat.

died!

"Xiao Wu!"

With a roar, Tie Niu turned around and charged back.

Shen Chuxiao grabbed him by the back of his collar and pulled him back forcefully.

"He's dead!"

Tie Niu's eyes were bloodshot, his chest heaved violently, and a low growl like that of a trapped beast escaped his throat. He wanted to curse, to curse the barbarians, to curse this damned world, to curse himself for not being able to take that arrow for Xiao Wu. But he couldn't utter a single curse; he simply slammed his broadsword into the ground, his whole body trembling.

"Don't let his death be in vain."

He then ordered, "Ergou, retreat to the granary and have the garrison inside prepare to fight the enemy."

In fact, the commotion here had already alerted the garrison at the granary, but strangely, instead of coming to their aid, they all retreated and remained inactive, as if they were deliberately sitting idly by and intending to use the barbarian soldiers to silence them.

A chill ran through Shen Chuxiao's eyes.

Could it be that these scoundrels have already colluded with the barbarians?

Before he could think any further, the barbarian soldiers attacked again.

This time, the burly man carrying the axe no longer rode a horse, but charged ahead on foot. With a single swing of his axe, he cleaved the obstacle in his path in two, sending wood chips flying everywhere.

Three hundred barbarian soldiers surged forward like a tide, their battle cries shaking the heavens.

Shen Chuxiao drew his repeating crossbow from his waist and aimed it at the burly man.

There are two crossbow bolts left.

One shot can be fatal, another can save your life.

He had no choice.

Just then, Tie Niu suddenly stood in front of him.

The towering man, carrying a large sword, turned around, glanced at Shen Chuxiao, and grinned.

"Vice Captain, I've never told you, but you saved my life. If you hadn't been protecting me in Black Wind Ridge, I would have died long ago."

He paused, then his voice suddenly softened.

"This time, it's my turn."

"Tie Niu, you—"

"I have an old mother back in the Great Wall. Her eyesight is failing, and she's incredibly stubborn. If I can't go back, just send her a bag of rice every few days. Don't let her go hungry."

Shen Chuxiao's throat moved, and his eyes welled up with tears.

Although he had only been at the scout camp for a few days, Lin Shang's soldiers were even more different from what he had imagined.

now,

Tie Niu had already turned around, his broadsword held horizontally in front of him, looking fearlessly at the surging barbarian soldiers.

He took a deep breath.

Then he let out a deafening roar.

"You bastards from the Black Stone Tribe, your Grandpa Iron Ox is here!"

He stomped on the pebbles on the ground, and like a tiger released from its cage, he charged against the flow of people.

The broadsword and the axe clashed violently in mid-air, the deafening clang of metal echoing through the valley, sparks flying in the darkness like a burst of fireworks.

Shen Chuxiao looked up.

He muttered under his breath, "Damn, it's been so long since I've fought this passionately side by side."

The hail of bullets from his past life suddenly appeared before his eyes in the subplot.

He then drew his short sword and charged to the front lines with Tie Niu.

It's not because I'm in a hurry to go and die.

But it was for the remaining people,

Live just one more moment.