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Zhang Liao narrowed his eyes, holding his spear in one hand behind his back. With a slight nudge of his legs against his horse's flank, he urged his steed into a steady gallop.
The narrowest section of the Hangu Pass allowed only three horsemen to ride abreast. Yet, the confined terrain also limited visibility from the pass itself. By the time Zhang Liao and his cavalry began their charge, the billowing dust had already risen high into the sky, finally catching the attention of those stationed atop the pass.
But by then, Zhang Liao was less than three li away!
For a man running at full speed, three li would be exhausting. But for warhorses, it was merely a warm-up. As the horses surged forward, the thunderous drumbeat of their hooves turned the faces of everyone—both atop and below the pass—ghostly pale.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
A squad leader on the ramparts clung to the soot-blackened parapet, his voice shrill with terror as he screamed the warning.
Unfortunately, though he sounded the alarm, no one stepped forward to rally the troops or issue commands.
Perhaps it was because Zheng Jian was absent from the pass, or perhaps because all of Zheng Jian's officers had already perished. When Zhang Liao and his two hundred Bingzhou cavalry appeared in the defenders' line of sight, the only men left on the walls were a few squad leaders, exchanging bewildered glances, unsure of what to do…
A craftsman repairing the gate stared at the oncoming cavalry, his entire body trembling as if the deafening hoofbeats had shaken him to the core. His hammer slipped from his grasp, clattering to the ground.
Zhang Liao roared, "Kill!"
Like a gleaming, razor-sharp sword, the two hundred Bingzhou cavalry charged straight toward the eastern gate—with Zhang Liao himself as the deadliest point of the blade.
Only then did the soldiers and craftsmen on the pass snap out of their daze. Some scrambled up the walls to mount a defense, others rushed to bar the gates, but their movements were chaotic and disorganized…
The most critical problem? The gate was only half-repaired!
The other half still lay on the ground, not yet reinstalled.
A few craftsmen desperately tried to lift the fallen gate section back into place before Zhang Liao arrived. But not everyone could remain calm in the face of impending doom. The moment the first man fled, it triggered a domino effect—soon, every craftsman and laborer at the gate had scattered.
Without its gate, Hangu Pass was like a beauty clad in nothing but a flimsy veil—offering only symbolic resistance, with pitifully little practical effect.
No one even attempted to stop them. Zhang Liao and his two hundred cavalry surged forward like an unstoppable flood, meeting no resistance as they stormed through the eastern gate.
Once inside, Zhang Liao immediately began driving off scattered soldiers. Whenever he spotted any attempting to regroup along the main streets, he ordered his cavalry to charge and scatter them…
On the relatively wider east-west avenue of Hangu Pass, Zhang Liao and his men cut through the enemy ranks with ease—none could withstand even a single clash!
By the time Fei Qian arrived with the follow-up infantry, Zhang Liao had already secured control of the pass's main thoroughfares. Without delay, Fei Qian ordered an assault on the inner city. Though some soldiers tried to hold their ground there, their numbers were too few to defend the entire inner wall, and they were swiftly overwhelmed and slaughtered.
Particularly decisive was the reaction of the two hundred Liangzhou soldiers stationed at the southern barracks. Upon learning the situation and discovering the corpse of Officer Li in the prison, they immediately sided with Zhang Liao, assisting in clearing and securing the entire pass…
All fortress walls are designed for external defense—Hangu Pass was no exception.
When Zhang Liao and Huang Cheng stormed up the western ramparts via the two sloping pathways, it effectively marked the fall of Hangu Pass into Fei Qian and Zhang Liao's hands.
With Zhang Liao taking charge of troop coordination, Fei Qian refrained from interfering. Instead, he led Huang Cheng and his own men straight to the courier station…
The station's gates stood wide open. The stationmaster and some of the couriers, having resisted, now lay dead—their bodies strewn haphazardly across the ground.
Fei Qian barely glanced at them. Perhaps his concern for the Cai family's books distracted him, or perhaps his experience at Gucheng had hardened him to such scenes. Though blood pooled everywhere and severed limbs littered the ground, he felt no discomfort this time and strode directly into the rear courtyard.
What he saw there made his heart ache.
Of the five original wagons, two had toppled over, their precious cargo of bamboo scrolls spilled across the ground. Fei Qian hurriedly began gathering them up, while the others righted the nearly shattered wagons and collected the scattered scrolls.
Huang Xu approached Fei Qian nervously, wringing his hands. "Young Master Fei… back then, the other wagons were too light. I… I was afraid they wouldn't break through, so I…"
Fei Qian patted Huang Xu's shoulder without reproach. It wasn't that he wasn't upset—of course he was—but he couldn't blame Huang Xu. In the dim light, he himself had been too focused on escaping to notice the scattered scrolls underfoot. Besides, Huang Xu's choice had been logical; a lighter wagon would have been useless against the sturdy courtyard wall.
Soon, the scrolls were gathered, but when reloaded onto the wagons, nearly a third were missing—likely consumed by the flames…
Before Fei Qian could dwell on the loss, one of Zhang Liao's messengers rushed into the courtyard, reporting that a large enemy force had been spotted west of the pass, advancing rapidly!
Leaving Huang Xu and a few men to finish the cleanup, Fei Qian and Huang Cheng hurried to the western wall.
From atop the gate, they saw Zheng Jian's troops arrayed below, already taunting them, trying to provoke Zhang Liao into open battle.
Leaning against the parapet, Zhang Liao smirked at Fei Qian's arrival and pointed downward. "Good thing we acted fast. If all these soldiers had made it inside, it would've been a real headache."
Fei Qian peered over the wall. Outside, the enemy forces stood in neat formations. A quick estimate based on their ranks suggested a force of one to two thousand men. In the center of the formation stood Hangu Pass's commander, Zheng Jian, gesturing toward the walls while speaking to what appeared to be a high-ranking officer.
At the foot of the pass, a few soldiers—just beyond arrow range—shouted insults at the top of their lungs, calling the defenders cowards, women, and other crude taunts in an attempt to goad them into battle.
Fei Qian curled his lip. Though Zhang Liao was unlikely to fall for such a transparent tactic, letting the enemy continue their jeers would inevitably dampen morale…
"Zheng Jian! As commander of Hangu Pass, you conspired with the Yellow Turbans—betraying your loyalty! You slaughtered your comrades—betraying righteousness! You abandoned your post—betraying courage! You burned innocent homes—betraying benevolence! You led your men to ruin—betraying wisdom! A man devoid of loyalty, righteousness, courage, benevolence, and wisdom! You, the Five-Poison Commander—how dare you still show your face in this world?!"
Fei Qian's voice rang out, echoed first by Huang Cheng and the others, then by the entire garrison—including Zhang Liao's men. By the time the words "Five-Poison Commander" were shouted, the chant had reached a crescendo, reverberating across the land as if heaven and earth themselves were mocking Zheng Jian.
Zheng Jian swayed in his saddle, barely suppressing the metallic taste rising in his throat. His eyes burned with hatred as he glared at Fei Qian on the walls—if looks could kill, he would have torn Fei Qian limb from limb right then.
Because Zheng Jian knew: even if he recaptured Hangu Pass today, unless he slaughtered every living soul for miles around, those four words—Five-Poison Commander—would haunt him forever, a nightmare he could never escape, a joke that would follow him to his grave.
Fei Qian smirked. 'Pathetic. "Thrice-Named Slave" is nothing compared to this… '