In the small hours, Yue Congyun brought the Ning'an Army clear across the city through the downpour and reached the north gate at last.

Of the five hundred she had taken, a little over four hundred were left.

They had kept clear of the Zhaohe soldiers where they could, and where they couldn't, they had cut their way through.

The men she had lost were only wounded, luckily, and Yue Congyun had told them to find somewhere to hide for now.

The gate tunnel at the north gate was packed with Chongzhou's people.

If Ning Chen dared shell the gate, these were the ones who would die first.

"Kill them. Not one alive!"

The Zhaohe soldiers guarding the people never expected the Ning'an Army to come at them from behind. They were caught unprepared.

Yue Congyun's silver spear flew high and low, and not one of the Zhaohe little runts could stand a single move against her.

One Zhaohe officer did block a few of her moves, and took her spear through the heart at the end of it.

With their officer dead, the Zhaohe fell into confusion.

The Ning'an Army came on like tigers. They left the ground strewn with corpses and the blood running like a river.

The common people, the ones being used as cannon fodder, stood shivering.

"Everyone out! I am Yue Congyun, deputy to the Prince Who Holds the Realm, Ning Chen, and I come by the Prince Who Holds the Realm's order to save you!"

Yue Congyun shouted it as she fought.

The people blocked the tunnel and she couldn't get through, and there were still Zhaohe soldiers on the far side. She had to reach them and finish them before the gate could be opened.

The people who had stood shivering a moment before had a light in their eyes now — the hope of living.

"The Prince Who Holds the Realm has come to save us!"

"Thank heaven, the Prince Who Holds the Realm is here, we're saved!"

"Fight these animals! Give me back my daughter's life..."

The Zhaohe army had come…