Chapter 25: Black Armor at the Gates, Han Zhou's Last Stand

The Nanyue Black-Armored Iron Pagodas are among the most fearsome heavy cavalry of Great Yin.

Men clad in heavy armor, horses sheathed in iron scales, they charge like a steel flood.

Han Jin is not like Zhao Yin, who underestimated the enemy, nor like Meng Qing, who took reckless risks.

He chose the most direct approach.

A frontal Realm Suppression.

Thirty thousand Black Armored Iron Pagodas, plus fifty thousand Nanyue foot soldiers and twenty thousand Imperial Guard troops—combined forces of one hundred thousand—advanced straight on Hanzhou City.

On the walls of Hanzhou City, the wind and snow cut like blades.

Jiang Che stood atop the gate tower, gazing at the endless campfires in the distance.

Those campfires looked like a sea of flame, nearly blanketing the earth.

Chen Shanhe had rushed back from White Bone Pass, his armor still not removed.

"Young Master, Sun Zhao and five thousand men are holding White Bone Pass, so there's no worry there for now. But here at Hanzhou City…"

He did not finish.

Hanzhou City's garrison had been expanded to thirty thousand, but more than half were new recruits, and true veterans who had seen major battles were far too few.

Facing an army of one hundred thousand—especially the Black Armored Iron Pagodas—holding the city was still possible, but once the gates were breached, it would become a slaughter.

Xie Tingxue said, "Han Jin won't give us much time."

Sure enough, at dawn the next day, the Nanyue army began its assault.

First came the trebuchets.

Boulders tore across the sky and smashed into the walls.

The walls of Hanzhou City trembled without cease.

Next came the ballista carts.

Thick bolts pierced the battlements, pinning the defenders to the wall.

Finally, foot soldiers pushed forward siege towers and scaling ladders.

Chen Shanhe roared, "Loose!"

Rolling logs, boulders, and fire oil poured down.

The Hanzhou defenders fought back with all they had.

Sword Cultivators of Green Blade Camp spread out along the walls, specifically cutting down the experts climbing up.

Xie Tingxue alone held the eastern wall; her sword light was like snow, and by midday she had slain over a hundred enemies.

Jiang Che did not draw his sword lightly.

His wounds had not yet healed, and he had to conserve his strength for Han Jin and the Black Armored Iron Pagodas.

The fighting lasted until dusk, when the Nanyue army withdrew.

Beneath the walls, corpses piled up like a mountain.

The Hanzhou defenders had also suffered heavy losses.

Jiang Che descended from the wall and personally went to inspect the wounded.

A young recruit had taken an arrow to the abdomen, his face drenched in cold sweat from the pain, yet he grabbed Jiang Che's sleeve.

"Young Master, I didn't run."

Jiang Che gripped his hand.

"I saw."

The recruit smiled, and soon after breathed his last.

Jiang Che stood there for a long time.

At night, horns sounded from the Nanyue camp.

Chen Shanhe's face changed drastically.

"A night attack?"

No.

It was no ordinary night attack.

The distant earth began to tremble.

In the darkness, thirty thousand Black Armored Iron Pagodas slowly formed their ranks.

Han Jin had finally made his move.

He had not waited for the walls to be completely breached; instead, he meant to use his heavy cavalry to smash through the gates.

Ahead of the Black Armored Iron Pagodas were more than ten giant battering rams, linked by iron chains and covered in wet oxhide, making them hard to damage with ordinary fire arrows.

Once the rams neared the gates, the Black Armored heavy cavalry would charge in behind them.

Hanzhou was in grave danger.

Chen Shanhe bellowed, "Ballista carts! Fire oil!"

Rain of arrows and fire oil rained down, but the Nanyue shield formation held them off completely.

The battering rams drew closer and closer.

The gates shuddered.

The first impact split a crack in the gates.

The second impact snapped the crossbeams behind the gates.

Before the third impact, Jiang Che descended from the wall.

Xie Tingxue stopped him: "What are you going to do?"

Jiang Che said, "Hold the gate."

Chen Shanhe cried urgently, "Young Master, once the city gate is breached, the Black Armored Iron Pagoda will charge; no one can stop them!"

Jiang Che gripped the Green Bamboo Sword.

"So we cannot let them enter."

He stood alone behind the city gate.

Outside the gate, the battering ram crashed down with a boom.

Boom!

The city gate shattered.

Wind, snow, and cries of slaughter poured in at once.

Outside the gate, Han Jin rode a Black Armor warhorse, holding a long spear, his gaze cold.

Thirty thousand Black Armored Iron Floating Towers waited poised behind him.

Seeing only Jiang Che alone inside the gate, Han Jin sneered, "One man guarding the gate?"

Jiang Che raised his sword.

"It is enough."

Han Jin pointed his long spear forward.

"Crush him."

The Black Armor torrent surged forward.

The entire Hanzhou City trembled.

Jiang Che stood before the shattered city gate and closed his eyes.

He heard the breathing of the common people behind him.

He heard the furious roars of the soldiers on the city walls.

He heard the candle flames flickering before the Ancestral Hall Heroic Soul Tablets.

When he opened his eyes, a green flame ignited upon the Green Bamboo Sword.

"This strike."

"Borrows not from Heaven, nor from gods or ghosts."

"Borrows only from Han Zhou."

Three hundred and sixty City-Protecting Sword Intents within the city blazed to life simultaneously.

Within the Zhenbei Ancestral Hall, the Heroic Soul Tablets hummed.

Beneath Hanzhou City, the Earth's Sword Vein responded and stirred.

Jiang Che held his sword horizontally before the city gate.

The Black Armored Iron Floating Towers crashed into the sword light.

The first rank of heavy cavalry, men and horses alike, was forcibly halted.

Han Jin's pupils shrank sharply.

The ground beneath Jiang Che's feet cracked, and blood sprayed from his arms, yet he did not retreat.

The second and third ranks of Black Armor pressed forward.

The green sword light trembled violently.

Jiang Che gritted his teeth, his voice hoarse:

"Sons of Han Zhou."

"Stand with me to guard the gate!"

Upon the city wall, Chen Shanhe, eyes red, roared:

"Kill!"

Countless defenders charged down from the city walls, standing behind Jiang Che.

They formed a wall of flesh and blood, a skeleton of blades and spears.

The common people also moved stones and wooden beams to block the city gate.

That night, the single city of Han Zhou guarded a single gate.

Han Jin's expression changed for the first time.

Looking at the young man covered in blood yet taking not a single step back, he finally understood.

What has always been truly hard to break in Han Zhou was never the city walls.

It was the human heart.