Chapter 475: Before The Fort Falls

The tables had been turned.

Dongxuan's morale was escalating to its peak. Adrenaline surged through both generals and soldiers as they charged forward, howling madly. As for Yutang, they could only watch this with gritted teeth, their eyes rimmed red.

They could only watch as their enemy completed their goals stage by stage, eventually falling upon their prided fort. It crushed all the Yutang soldiers, the desperation a bitter pill to swallow. It was worse than having a blunt knife slice into their flesh, slash after slash!

Qiu Jianhan, who already knew that they would lose the Fortress of Resilience, had not entirely submitted to fate; he had withdrawn all the injured militants and people who were in the fort.

The injured militants' wails were thunderous before they left. A lot of them were sobbing and begging their comrades to let them stay.

"I don't have an arm, but give me a saber, I can still kill an enemy and die with him!"

"Let me stay!"

"I'm not leaving! Even if you kill me now and move my body to the fort walls, stacking rocks to encase it inside, your father can contribute half a feet of height to Yutang!"

The injured fighters pleaded and begged but Qiu Jianhan and Fu Baoguo were stoic, uncompromising and firm on their stand.

"There's only meaning if you all live. You are Yutang's seeds, you can cultivate new seeds! Dying will bring an end to all of that."

"This is an order - stay alive! Do not let yourself fall, no matter what happens! Whoever has the temerity to die, we won't acknowledged him as our comrade when we meet in the underworld!"

"Staying alive means that Yutang's Fortress of Resilience still exists! All of you are the Fortress of Resilience!"

"The invulnerability of the fort was never due to the Fortress of Resilience itself, but because of the eastern army of Yutang who guards it. It never fell because of you, the eastern soldiers!"

Old Marshal Qiu was close to tears. "All of you, keep on living! Brothers, you must survive. Live and watch Yutang rally itself. Live and train new soldiers for us! Live... and help us watch over this beautiful land!"

Witnessing the old marshal's tears, all the injured militants went quiet, no longer protesting or whining. They began leaving in batches, their speed swift and footsteps sure.

They moved quickly to leave a wide path for the troops who were about to take the back so that the handicapped ones would not block the road and hinder the army's movement.

"Even if we can't complete our duty to the country with our brothers here, we will not be their burden!"

"We still have a mission. Even when the Fortress of Resilience falls, we're here to make another human Fortress of Resilience!"

"Dongxuan, invaders to be damned, be prepared to pass through another Fortress of Resilience!"

...

Time trickled. When it came to the ninth day, Dongxuan was basically done with their set stratagem.

The slope under them was no more than thirty feet from the top of the fortress now. At such a height, practitioners with basics could hop off it, so Dongxuan began to assemble their experts. Martial world experts, military experts, and school experts from Dongxuan were gathered together under the shadow of the looming hill.

Yutang was doing the same in gathering their proficient cultivators.

The similar activities by both sides were mainly due to the fact that skilled cultivators could only be handled by other apt cultivators. With the situation being as dire as it was, practitioners and cultivators who had never been favorites on the battlefield were warmly welcomed as they were the key to this battle!

It was on the same night that Qiu Jianhan ordered the kerosene; he had collected more than five hundred thousand buckets throughout the period and had them delivered before he set off, to be divided into five batches. The first batch was ready to be used.

On the slope, a thick layer of kerosene flowed; plenty of it had coursed down the slope, flowing smoothly despite being terribly viscous. The dozens of miles of slope was entirely covered in kerosene.

It was only a short while before the pungent smell spread everywhere as the kerosene continued to flow down from the top of the fort.

Han Sanhe watched the sea of kerosene with an unreadable expression; he had yet to order the start of their attack. He knew full well that this was Qiu Jianhan's last resort - the very last resort!

Just as he had said, he could think of what Qiu Jianhan could think of, and vice-versa; it was the same for both men, so this situation was well within their expectations.

As long as Dongxuan's soldiers could charge through this ocean of fire, a hell made out of kerosene, the Fortress of Resilience would belong to Dongxuan!

However, Han Sanhe hesitated when it came to the pivotal moment.

What greeted his sight now was not kerosene that stretched dozens of miles, but kerosene that drenched everything within many miles of its source. It was everywhere!

Although Yutang was at an immense disadvantage now, a force made up of tens of thousands of men and more would still be needed to attack the Fortress of Resilience.

At his command, tens of thousands of men from the army would easily set off to attack, but once they charged into this ocean of kerosene, there was simply no chance of them surviving when the fire was lit. There was no hope of survival.

"Flaming arrows!"

Han Sanhe delivered his command.

"Since the ocean of flame must happen, let it be our side who lights the kerosene!" Han Sanhe chuckled bitterly.

Blazing arrows landed on the kerosene like a storm before the fuel caught fire with a loud bang. Instantly, an ocean of fire obscured the sights of both attacker and defender. The heat wave licked an area tens of miles wide around them at once; everyone retreated immediately, afraid to linger.

From the top of Yutang's fort wall came Qiu Jianhan's guffawing voice, "Han Sanhe, you've finally lit the fire! This old man was starting to think that you were still steel-hearted! You hesitated! Perhaps Han Sanhe's decisiveness in battle is only a legend!"

Han Sanhe shook his head with a smile devoid of humor but said nothing.

With the kerosene set alight and burning in fury, Dongxuan's troops would not be able to go through it. The sea of fire made from the thick layer of kerosene was more threatening than a river of lava; looking at the sheer amount of kerosene, it would take a full day for it to burn away completely.

A day was time enough to melt more than ten feet of the ice slope Han Sanhe had painstakingly stacked up. The Fortress of Resilience would be damaged in the fire as well, basically ruined, but Qiu Jianhan did not care about that now. After all, the fort was meant to fall; it was not an issue whether it was destroyed!

On the contrary, the ten feet of the icy slope would take Dongxuan at least two days to rebuild. Two days later, though, this land would be doused once again with kerosene.

Qiu Jianhan had foraged more than five hundred thousand buckets of kerosene; even the cooking oil from the military kitchen and the citizens' homes had been collected. It was all for this frenzied battle, to drag the duration taken to conquer the fort for as long as he could.

No matter how apt Han Sanhe was in warfare, he could not know how much kerosene Yutang had prepared. No matter what, Qiu Jianhan wanted at least a hundred thousand of Dongxuan's men to be buried before the Fortress of Resilience fell.

Only then would the ultimate battle between Han Sanhe and Yutang's remaining troops take place.

Qiu Jianhan watched the dancing flames, his eyes gleaming with resolution and brutality.

Han Sanhe, if you don't put in these hundred thousand lives, how can you live up to the name of Qiu Jianhan's last battle, my last war!

"Fu Baoguo!"

"Here!"

"Order! Lead all of the men from the Steel Cavalry and Serving Troop out of the fort and retreat to the west mountain!" Qiu Jianhan said, "Other than the Tianxuan Cliff, I've destroyed all the mountains and steep slopes in the western region during these past few days!"

"There will be a narrow strip of land, the last before reaching our territory... Your Steel Cavalry and Serving Troop will form another line of defense there. There shall be Yutang's second Fortress of Resilience! Fight to the last soldier, to the last breath; do not let Han Sanhe pass easily!"

Fu Baoguo's tears coursed freely. "Old Marshal, this subordinate thinks that it is better if Old Marshal were to lead this operation. This subordinate doesn't have full control over the Steel Cavalry and only with Old Marshal's personal command can the whole situation be controlled. Things are set up here, let this subordinate stay."

"F*ck you!" Qiu Jianhan raged, "F*ck off quickly!"

"I'm not leaving! I should never be the one that leaves!"

Fu Baoguo was unusually stubborn, looking determined and resolute. "This subordinate has vowed to the heavens long ago that I will live and die with the Fortress of Resilience! Old Marshal, making me leave is forcing me to break my vow!"

"Vow your *ss! Swear your father! What the f*ck, this is a battlefield, this is a military base! Even if God is here right now, he has to listen to your father's military order! Any violation of a military order means immediate execution!"

Qiu Jianhan was increasingly livid. "F*ck off right now! Your father isn't letting you live, I'm letting you die in a war somewhere else! Did you not hear that there is also the Fortress of Resilience? How is that breaking your vow? Go, go go, off you go quickly... Still not moving? Your father will kill you where you stand!"