The female prisoner was fierce

In the snowstorm at the valley entrance, the first thing to appear was a flag embroidered with a black wolf's head.

The cold wind whipped up snowflakes, making the wolf-head banner flutter wildly. Close behind was a dark mass of cavalry, their hooves pounding the frozen snow with a deep, rhythmic rumble, like rolling thunder.

Leading the procession were over a hundred vanguard cavalrymen, each clad in leather armor, with curved swords at their waists and longbows slung across their backs, their faces bearing the fierce aura of seasoned warriors. Behind them followed the main force of the Tiger Banner Battalion, half cavalry and half infantry, their ranks impeccably aligned, their armor gleaming, their swords and spears flashing coldly in the snow. The thousand-strong column stretched for half a mile, the neighing of men and horses filling the air with a menacing momentum; their sheer aura of slaughter alone was enough to make ordinary people's legs tremble.

Baturu walked at the head of the group, his dark face taut like cast iron, his eyes fixed on the entrance to the valley ahead, his brows furrowed in deep worry. The scene of the disastrous defeat at Table Mountain still replayed in his mind: the falling pottery jars, the deafening explosions, and the gruesome sight of his soldiers riddled with bloody wounds—the images pierced his nerves like needles. The closer he got to the valley, the heavier his unease grew.

"Baturu, why are you looking so glum, like your father just died?" Harbala urged his horse forward from behind, glanced at the narrow valley entrance, and curled his lips in undisguised mockery. "It's just a lousy mountain gully, is it really possible to hide a thousand troops? I bet that Xiao Jianyang is just a bandit king who lives in the mountains. Hearing that we have thousands of troops pressing in, he's already scared and hiding back in the city. He wouldn't dare to intercept us on the way."

He was a confidant of the fourth prince Temur, and his Tiger Banner Battalion was the elite of the Northern Di. They had won countless battles all the way south, and even the border army of Dawu was defeated by them. Naturally, they did not take a group of "mountain bandits" seriously.

Baturu said in a deep voice, "Harbala, don't be careless. Xiao Jianyang is a very strange person. He has something called Heavenly Punishment, which is extremely powerful. I suffered because of it last time. This valley is high on both sides and low in the middle. The terrain is too dangerous. If there is an ambush, we won't be able to act freely."

"Divine punishment?"

Harbala scoffed, patting the iron mace at his waist, his tone arrogant, "What divine punishment? I think it's just a trick by the Han people to play the gods. If it were that powerful, why would they bother guarding county towns? They could just march on Youzhou. I think you've been scared out of your wits after losing that battle last time, and you're even afraid of Han bandits."

He paused, then raised his chin. "I refuse to believe anything can stop the Tiger Banner Battalion's iron cavalry from charging. If there's an ambush, great, I'll just raze them to the ground and save the trouble of attacking the city tomorrow." Baturu wanted to say more, but Harbala waved his hand impatiently. "Alright, alright, just send some scouts to check. If there's an ambush, the scouts will know as soon as they investigate."

Having said that, he raised his hand and whistled. Immediately, twenty light cavalrymen stepped forward, spurring their horses and charging towards the slopes on either side of the valley. The cavalrymen galloped back and forth along the bottom of the slopes, using their longswords to push aside the low pine bushes, then charged uphill for a while, carefully searching for traces in the snow and woods. The wind and snow were fierce, and the slopes were covered with a thick layer of fresh snow, so there wasn't a single person in sight, not even a fresh footprint. Before long, the scouts returned, kneeling on one knee to report:

"Lord Commander, the slopes on both sides are covered with snow and low pine trees. We found no ambushes or signs of marching. The snowstorm is too heavy; even if there were footprints before, they would have been covered long ago."

"How about that? I told you so." Harbala glanced smugly at Baturu and laughed heartily. "The Han people are all cowards; they vanished at the sound of our horses' hooves. Send the order down: the entire army must speed through the valley, camp outside Dongshuang County tonight, and breach the city first thing tomorrow morning! I want to see if Xiao Jianyang's neck is tougher than my blade." Baturu stared at the deep valley, his heart still pounding. The scouts hadn't found anything wrong, and with the snow so heavy, hiding a few hundred people might be possible, but hiding a thousand was absolutely impossible. He suppressed his unease and nodded.

"Alright, let the brothers nock their bows and draw their swords, and be on their guard." "Okay, okay, you're so long-winded."

Harbala waved impatiently and spurred his horse into the valley first. A large contingent of Northern Di soldiers followed in single file. Cavalry in front, infantry behind, thousands of men and horses crowded the valley, shouts and neighing, the sounds of voices, hooves, and clattering armor mingling together in a noisy cacophony. Many soldiers chatted and laughed, completely disregarding the so-called Xiao family army, treating this as an easy journey. Harbala walked in the middle of the column, glancing left and right at the hillsides on either side. Snow-covered, the pines rustled in the wind; apart from the sound of the wind blowing through the branches, there was no movement whatsoever. He became even more certain there was no ambush, leaning back on his horse and laughing at his personal guards beside him, "Look at Baturu's expression, seeing enemies in every bush..." He only got halfway through his sentence.

"BOOM—!!!"

A deafening roar suddenly erupted from the direction of the valley entrance! The earth trembled violently, and snow cascaded down the slope, while snowballs on the branches crashed down, hitting the soldiers' heads and shoulders.

The entire valley seemed to tremble three times from the explosion. Harbala's smile froze instantly, his ears ringing, and for a moment he couldn't hear anything. He abruptly turned his head and saw flames shooting into the sky from the valley entrance, black smoke billowing upwards with snow-like froth. The first dozen or so cavalrymen, horses and all, were thrown two or three meters away by the blast, crashing heavily to the ground, lifeless without even a scream. A large crater was blasted into the official road, shattered earth, wood chips, and pieces of blood and flesh splattered everywhere. "What...what is this?!" Harbala's pupils constricted, and he exclaimed in shock.

Before he could finish speaking, "Boom! Boom! Boom—!!!" At the other end of the valley, three deafening explosions rang out in succession. Flames erupted one after another, like thunderbolts crashing into the valley floor, instantly blocking both the front and rear exits. The enormous sounds echoed back and forth in the valley, making eardrums ache. Many warhorses were startled, rearing up and neighing wildly, throwing their soldiers violently off their backs.

"Oh no! An ambush!!"

Baturu's face turned deathly pale. He roared at the top of his lungs, "Quick! Form ranks! Protect Commander!" But it was too late. Just then, a sharp whistle suddenly rang out from the high ground on both sides. "Whoosh—!!" The whistle pierced the wind and snow, clearly reaching everyone's ears. The next second. "Swoosh whoosh whoosh—!!!" A dense rain of arrows poured down from the high ground on the left, fiercely stabbing towards the crowded people at the bottom of the valley. The Northern Di soldiers were huddled together, unable to dodge at all. As the rain of arrows fell, they instantly fell in droves, screams rising and falling. Many didn't even see where the enemy was before several arrows were embedded in their bodies, and they fell straight down in the snow, their blood quickly staining the white snow beneath them.

"Fire! Counterattack!" a Northern Di commander shouted at the top of his lungs. The soldiers hurriedly drew their longbows and fired arrows haphazardly at the slope. But the Xiao family army on the slope were all hiding behind low pines and snowdrifts. The arrows either stuck in the snow or hit the tree trunks, and did not hurt anyone at all. Meanwhile, on the high ground to the right, an even more terrifying killing move had already fallen.

"Throw!"

Lin Qingxue stood beside the boulder, brandishing her long sword and letting out a cold shout. Dozens of grenadiers, already gripping their tinderboxes, immediately lit the fuses on the clay pots upon hearing the shout, then swung their arms and smashed them down towards the most densely populated area of ​​the valley floor.

"Whoosh—"

Hundreds of dark, charred earthenware jars, their fuses crackling and burning, streaked through the air like hailstones as they rained down on the Northern Di army.