Ning Chen's words left everyone deep in thought.

But soon their faces darkened, filled with anger.

With that many logs, soldiers had still frozen to death.

That could mean only one thing: someone had let those men die on purpose, to lure them in.

What a vicious trick.

Meanwhile, up on the summit, Leng Wenyan's men realized their ruse had been seen through, so they dropped the act.

As long as they blocked the pass, Ning Chen's army would never get through.

This time, the man in command was named Ruan Wei.

Ruan Wei was one of Leng Wenyan's most trusted generals.

He'd brought thirty thousand troops, and his goal wasn't to crush Ning Chen's army. It was to slow him down.

Leng Wenyan knew perfectly well he was no match for Ning Chen.

Xiliang had promised to send troops to help.

He needed to slow Ning Chen down until Xiliang's reinforcements arrived... So he'd sent out two forces.

One lay in ambush in the Wangfeng Mountains.

The other lay in ambush here.

Ruan Wei was cut from the same cloth as Leng Wenyan: ruthless, and willing to do anything to get what he wanted.

Right now, Ruan Wei's face was livid.

He'd never expected Ning Chen to see through his scheme.

He'd brought his men here to ambush Ning Chen, and then out of nowhere, the heavy snow had come.

The wind and snow were savage on the summit, and the cold was terrifying. If they didn't pull back in time, they'd all freeze to death up here.

But he wasn't willing to pull back, and he didn't want to miss this chance.

Ning Chen was called the god of war of Great Xuan, the general who always won. He had never lost a battle.

If Ruan Wei could beat Ning Chen just once, he'd be famous across the realm.

So he'd come up with a truly vicious idea: sacrifice some of his men to save the rest.

All he had to do was pull the cotton out of half the soldiers' padded army coats and stuff it into…