Chapter 165

The people of Hagu Fortress were barely getting through the day, their nerves on edge.

Just a few days ago, the atmosphere had been good.

Who had they defeated? Chang-ran. A terrifying adversary who had set foot on the battlefield at the age of nine and had written a myth of ascent without a single defeat.

These were not victories against barbarians or bandits. The ones Chang-ran had defeated were so renowned that their fame could blot out the stars in the sky.

Zhang He, Guo Huai, Xu Huang, Zhao Hong, Zhao Chang… The stellar generals of the Wei Army, boasting the largest population, had fallen to her spear. Even those who had become wandering spirits were not few.

And Hagu Fortress had defeated Chang-ran not once, but twice. This fact gave the people of Hagu Fortress more than just the joy of victory—it gave them pride.

When Shangcong arrived and Chang-ran retreated, that pride reached its peak. Look! Even Chang-ran couldn’t handle us and chose to retreat!

With Crown Prince Sun Ding joining them, their morale, already sky-high, now seemed to pierce the heavens and reach the sun itself.

Pride soon turned into confidence. With Chang-ran gone and only about 10,000 troops surrounding Hagu Fortress, Zhu Huan quietly began to stir his offensive instincts.

If those fools dared to start a siege with just 10,000 men, he planned to tear apart their encirclement with a counterattack while defending. But it seemed their goal was merely to control through encirclement.

However, Zhu Huan didn’t stay idle. Hearing that some unknown figure was leading the enemy, he boldly attempted a night raid.

While lying low and luring the enemy into complacency, he struck their camp like an awl. Zhu Huan was confident. But Shangcong’s command was even more exceptional than Zhu Huan had anticipated.

Shangcong calmly dealt with Zhu Huan’s surprise attack, quelling the chaos among his soldiers and quickly forming a formation. Moreover, the Han army itself was no ordinary conscript force. These were the descendants of the Baiyi Army, tempered through countless battles following Liu Bei—this was the central army.

Despite the counterattack from Shangcong and the central army, Zhu Huan managed to return to Hagu Fortress without significant losses, proving his excellence. Indeed, as Zhu Huan had boasted, his command was a step above Shangcong’s.

But even that wasn’t enough to overturn the enemy’s numbers, which were twice their own, or the skill of the Han army’s elite central force. The gap in quantity and quality couldn’t be bridged.

Still, the fact that they had gone out and attacked meant that Hagu Fortress’s morale remained largely unchanged. It wasn’t even a half-victory, but at least they had attacked and returned safely.

The problem came afterward.

Chang-ran had returned.

She had annihilated the 10,000 reinforcements coming to rescue Hagu Fortress and brought back the heads of Sesheng and Sun Sheng.

At that moment, the people of Hagu Fortress remembered. The Chang-ran they had proudly defeated was the same one who had crushed countless formidable foes and written a history of terror.

Though they had momentarily panicked, the fact that Hagu Fortress hadn’t surrendered and was still resisting was entirely due to Sun Ding’s presence.

It was because of Sun Ding that they had memories of past victories, and because Sun Ding, their leader, was personally preparing for the next defensive battle. Despite their fear, they moved silently.

Even now, as Sun Ding was moving supplies for the defense, Zhang Hiu approached him.

“Your Highness.”

“Uncle, what is it? If you have nothing to do, come help me move this.”

“Naval forces have appeared on the Yangtze River.”

“Naval forces?”

Could it be that Sun Quan, defying all expectations, had arrived with an astonishing display of military prowess?

Holding onto that faint hope, Sun Ding asked again, but seeing Zhang Hiu’s expression, his hope vanished.

Zhang Hiu’s face was dark.

“Enemy General Kang Yu has captured the fleet from our reinforcements. With this, the water route we could barely break through is completely cut off.”

“…I see. So that’s how it is.”

Zhang Hiu had been adamant that Sun Ding should escape Hagu Fortress while Chang-ran was away.

With their numbers reduced, they could somehow open a path and escape via the Yangtze River.

Though Shangcong had also been wary of this and had heavily fortified the river, with the soldiers united in their determination to protect the crown prince, there was a chance.

But Sun Ding refused.

Whether he had hoped Chang-ran would be defeated while he held Hagu Fortress, or that Sun Quan would send reinforcements, or that he truly wanted to uphold his loyalty to the people of Hagu Fortress—

Sun Ding stayed.

“Now we truly have no choice but to fight to the death.”

Speaking as if half-resigned, Zhang Hiu lifted the burden Sun Ding was carrying.

Though he seemed to resent Sun Ding for dragging them to this point, Zhang Hiu was determined to stay with Sun Ding until the very end. Sensing his sincerity, Sun Ding quickly followed him.

“Let’s carry it together, Uncle.”

As they climbed the city walls together, Sun Ding asked, “How is Jin Piao doing?”

Jin Piao, who had come to Hagu Fortress with Zhang Hiu as part of Sun Ding’s entourage.

He had been part of the special assault force that went outside the walls with Zhu Huan. Leading the vanguard, he had been injured in Shangcong’s counterattack. Though it wasn’t life-threatening, he still needed time to recover and rest.

Zhang Hiu shrugged his shoulders and replied, “Don’t worry. Jin Piao is fine. He even insisted on coming to support Your Highness right away.”

“Haha, he’s still the same.”

The two chatted, brushing off their worries and anxieties.

It had already been two days since Chang-ran’s arrival, and the enemy would soon begin their siege.

Though the fatigue from the field and the march hadn’t fully dissipated, with the shock of the reinforcements’ annihilation, it was time to attack.

The soldiers, trembling with anxiety over when the enemy would strike, moved mechanically under orders, unable to hide their distress.

As Sun Ding walked around Hagu Fortress, a look of determination crossed his face.

“Uncle, gather the people.”

At Sun Ding’s request, Zhang Hiu gathered as many people as possible, excluding those on guard duty, including Zhu Huan and Jin Wu.

Standing on a platform overlooking them, Sun Ding held up a small piece of paper and shouted, “Men, a message has come from my father! The war in Huainan is over! He has not abandoned you and is coming here with all his might! Hold out for seven more days! If we hold out for seven days, the 50,000-strong army led by my father will crush the enemy and rescue Hagu!!”

Seven days.

Sun Ding’s words, that they only needed to hold out for seven days, reignited the soldiers’ morale like oil poured on a dying flame.

Combined with the trust Sun Ding had built with the soldiers, his confident voice left no room for doubt. The soldiers cheered, scraping together their last remnants of will and determination.

Yes. They were the warriors who had repelled the enemy countless times.

Just seven days. They could hold out for seven days.

Cheers filled Hagu Fortress.

Seeing Hagu Fortress, which had been in decline, restored to the state it was in when Sun Ding first arrived, Zhang Hiu felt both moved and a sense of foreboding. This was their last gamble.

Would Sun Quan really arrive in seven days? If so, would Chang-ran just sit idly by in Hagu?

Even if the war in Huainan ended, it would take well over seven days to reach Hagu. And even if Sun Quan somehow managed to arrive in seven days, would the soldiers, exhausted from such a forced march, be in any condition to fight?

Chang-ran would surely take advantage of their fatigue.

With Chang-ran’s martial prowess, now almost comparable to the Little Conqueror Sun Ce, and the combat strength of the Lanling Army, it wasn’t impossible.

Thus, Zhang Hiu was certain.

‘His Highness’s words are a lie.’

Even if they held out for seven days with their desperate resolve, what then?

But great expectations lead to great disappointments. When the long-awaited reinforcements didn’t show up, the despair would be overwhelming.

By then, it would be irreversible. No matter what Sun Ding did, it would be impossible to recover. It would be the end.

Sun Ding’s actions were sacrificing the future for the present. He was merely hoping for a miracle, some great change to occur within the seven days they held out.

Knowing this, Zhang Hiu couldn’t stop Sun Ding because there was no other option. Without this measure, Hagu Fortress would have fallen the moment Chang-ran began her attack, rendering all their resistance laughably easy.

But even Zhang Hiu’s worries were in vain.

As soon as the Lanling Army began their attack, Hagu Fortress was pushed to the brink of collapse.

Having restored their slightly shaken morale by annihilating the reinforcements, the Lanling Army fought with all their might to reclaim their reputation.

And most importantly, while Chang-ran had previously been in the rear command, she was now at the front, personally rallying the Lanling Army.

Just as Sun Ding had resorted to desperate measures, Chang-ran was now determined to bring down Hagu Fortress.

By the second day of the attack, Hagu Fortress was once again pushed to its limits.

The city walls were no longer solely the Wu army’s, and fear of the Lanling Army had reached its peak.

Though they managed to hold out this time, rumors spread openly that by the third day of the attack, they would inevitably lose the walls.

If this had been the fifth or sixth day, they might still have held onto hope, but the overwhelming difference in strength made even the seven-day deadline meaningless.

Just when it seemed like the end was near, the miracle Sun Ding had prayed for happened.

The miracle didn’t come from Sun Quan, but from the opposite side—Jing Province of the Han Dynasty.