Chapter 512

Northward Aspiration's banner snapped in the bleak autumn wind, and beneath it stood a Jun Ying that had been utterly transformed.

Lin Chong and Wu Yong integrated the troops they brought from Liangshan with the rebel militias they had gathered along the way.

Plus the elite reinforcements sent by Chao Gai from his secret base, bringing the total to nearly four thousand.

Although still far inferior to the Jin army's main force, their morale was high and their fighting spirit fierce.

They were worlds apart from the collapsing False Song official troops.

Although Zhen Ding Prefecture had fallen, scattered resistance continued in the surrounding prefectures and counties, like embers left after a wildfire is extinguished.

More precise news arrived: the Jin army's main force was dividing its troops to sweep the surrounding areas.

Intending to eradicate all resistance and consolidate their occupied territories.

One part of their spearhead was aimed at Zhao Prefecture, where the remnants of the False Song army and local militias were stubbornly holding on.

If Zhao Prefecture fell again, the Jin army could advance straight south, threatening more strategic points in the south.

"Zhao Prefecture must not fall into the hands of the Jin bandits!"

Inside the makeshift command tent, Lin Chong jabbed his finger hard at Zhao Prefecture's location on the rough map, his eyes sharp.

"If this place is lost, the Hebei resistance against the Jin will deteriorate even further.

"Our newly formed army needs a hard battle to gain a foothold and boost the morale of all under heaven!"

Wu Yong lightly shook his feather fan and added:

"Zhao Prefecture's city is small with weak walls; its garrison is feeble and unlikely to hold out long.

"Our rushing aid must be swift.

"We must arrive before the Jin forces encircle it, then strike from inside and out to have a chance of victory.

"But our troops are mostly infantry; forced marches could sap their vigor."

He looked toward Chen Wen, who had been standing silently aside, listening.

"Master Chen, this mission is perilous; the Jin army is nothing like the Binzhou scouts we faced before."

Chen Wen's gaze swept over the eager, determined faces of the officers in the tent, finally settling on the winding road shown on the map.

He could sense the tension permeating the air, as well as something coming from the north.

A heavy sense of Fortune Momentum, representing destruction and death, pressed down.

"Speed is essential in warfare, but so is precision."

He spoke, his voice steady.

"We can select five hundred elite troops, travel light, and march day and night.

"I can accompany them, using the Dawn Light technique to help them maintain stamina and vigor, ensuring we arrive before the Jin army breaches the city."

He paused.

"The remaining forces will be led by Elder Brother Chao Gai and Scholar Wu, advancing steadily.

"They will clear out small Jin detachments in the rear, establish supply lines, and send out scouts widely to monitor the main Jin force's movements.

The decision was made, and the action was swift as thunder.

Five hundred of the most brave and resolute soldiers were selected.

They discarded unnecessary baggage, carrying only a few days' dry rations and their personal weapons and armor.

At dusk, this unit was like an arrow released from a bow.

It slipped silently out of the main camp and plunged into the dimly lit Hebei plains at twilight.

Chen Wen walked in the middle of the unit, no different from an ordinary soldier.

When night deepened and all grew quiet, the troops became weary and their steps heavy, his mind stirred slightly.

An invisible force spread silently, like warm spring rain, moistening the weary bodies and minds of these five hundred warriors.

A fourfold boost to stamina and energy recovery took effect unnoticed.

Their formerly heavy legs seemed to regain strength, and their hurried breathing became smooth and prolonged.

Their gaze, somewhat scattered from fatigue, once again gathered a sharp light.

The unit's marching speed not only did not slow because of the night road,

but, in a strange state of exhilaration and focus, maintained a rapid advance.

The soldiers felt a surge of heat rising from their dantian to their limbs, dispelling drowsiness and fatigue.

Only one thought filled their minds: hurry, hurry faster, reach Zhao Prefecture!

At the same time, the main force led by Chao Gai and Wu Yong began to advance steadily northward.

They no longer concealed their movements, but openly raised the Northward Aspiration banner.

Along the way, whenever they encountered small Jin cavalry raiding for plunder or bandits formed from defeated soldiers, they crushed them with thunderous force;

when they met fleeing civilians, they distributed a little food and guided them toward relatively safe areas.

The reputation of the Northward Aspiration Army spread like ripples across the chaotic Hebei land as they acted.

Two days later, at dawn, the horizon just began to show a fish‑belly white.

After an almost sleepless forced march, Lin Chong's five hundred elite troops finally reached the vicinity of Zhao Prefecture.

Far off, faint shouts of killing and the sound of war drums could already be heard.

The air was filled with a pungent mix of gunpowder and blood.

A low‑lying city wall outline emerged in the morning light.

Outside the city, dense Jin army tents stretched continuously.

Like a crouching beast, they launched wave after wave of fierce assaults against the tottering Zhao Prefecture.

On the city walls, the defenders' banner hung askew, their resistance growing ever sparser and weaker.

"General! Judging by the situation, the city won't hold much longer!"

A scout, panting, reported, his face covered in dust.

Lin Chong drew a deep breath of cold air tinged with the smell of beacon fires; his eyes held no trace of fear, only boiling fighting spirit.

He looked at Chen Wen.

"Master Chen, the moment has come; please help our army defeat the enemy!"

Chen Wen nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the five hundred taut faces before him, tightened by forced marches and the impending battle.

He could feel the surging power and death-defying will within them.

"Target, the five hundred soldiers ahead."

He silently recited it in his heart.

"Endow, fourfold effect—strength, speed, endurance, reaction!"

That vast, invisible force descended again, as if completing the final tempering of a blade about to be drawn.

The five hundred soldiers' bodies shuddered in unison, their senses becoming unprecedentedly keen, power surging in their muscles.

The last trace of fatigue from the long march was utterly dispelled, replaced by a peak state capable of rending everything!

"Northward Aspiration Army!"

Lin Chong leapt onto a boulder, his spear pointing at the relatively weak rear camp of the Jin forces outside the city; his voice like thunder shattered the dawn's silence.

"Follow me to break the formation! Kill—!"

"Kill—!"

The five hundred men's roars merged into a terrifying sound wave, as if a ferocious tiger had burst from its cage!

They were no longer a marching army, but had become a low-lying, sweeping torrent of steel.

At a speed far beyond reason, they fiercely slammed into the unprepared Jin formation!

The Jin army's attention was wholly on the siege; they never expected a ferocious force to suddenly burst from their flank and rear!

Moreover, this army's speed and strength utterly surpassed their comprehension!

The sabers of the sword-and-shield troops, raised in block, were flung away together with their owners and shields;

Archers had just drawn their bowstrings when the enemy's spears already pierced their chests;

Cavalry attempting to form a line to resist found that the enemy infantry could nimbly dodge their horses' hooves.

Even leaping up to drag the horsemen from their mounts!

Lin Chong charged ahead, his spear dancing like a dragon; wherever he passed, men and horses were overturned, none could withstand a single clash.

The soldiers endowed with the fourfold gift followed closely, in groups of three, squads of five, coordinating seamlessly.

Like a red-hot blade cutting into solid butter, they tore a huge gap in the Jin ranks!

They swept all before them, charging straight for the Jin commander's central great camp!

Chaos spread through the Jin forces like ripples.

The assault units' advance stalled, and the defenders on the walls saw the suddenly appearing, wind-tossed black 'Northward Aspiration' banner.

Together with the rolling black smoke and earth-shaking shouts rising from the Jin rear camp outside the city, they could scarcely believe their eyes.

"Reinforcements! They are reinforcements!"

"Northward Aspiration Army! The Northward Aspiration Army has come!"

The ecstasy of finding life in desperation instantly ignited the defenders' lingering fighting spirit, and cries of counterattack rang again from the walls.

This surprise attack became the final straw that broke the besieging Jin army.

Under attack from within and without, the Jin force, which held numerical superiority, finally collapsed and began to retreat.

Zhao Prefecture City, beneath this suddenly appearing Northward Aspiration banner, miraculously held on—at least for now.

When Lin Chong, drenched in blood, held aloft the head of a Jin commander, standing amidst the ruins of the Jin camp,

The rising sun was showering myriad Huang Guang over the land.

He looked back at the unit behind him, though reduced by dozens, its spirit like a rainbow and its eyes sharp, his heart swelling with heroic pride.

He gazed at the calm Chen Wen not far off and gave a deep clasped-fist salute.

Everything was understood without words.

Battle interlude

Chen Wen stood alone atop a still-smoking ruin, gazing northward.

His brow furrowed slightly, not because of the battle before him, but because a growing doubt lingered in his mind.

Through Shi Yong, he could sense the black killing aura representing the Jin state's fortune.

Its expansion and the speed of its southern invasion were extraordinarily swift.

This was utterly unlike the rhythm of the world's grand trends he had previously sensed.

It seemed as if an invisible hand were desperately pushing the wheel of history from behind.

Driving it toward a preset, destruction-laden endpoint at an almost uncontrollable speed.

"Too fast……"

He muttered softly.

"The Jin barbarians have risen only a few decades; how could their Fortune Momentum accumulate so rapidly and massively?"

"Their resolve in the southern invasion, their veteran generalship, far exceed what a newly founded state ought to possess."

He recalled the fragmented 'cause-and-effect shards' that occasionally flashed with vague images and words about a far-distant future.

Those images vaguely connected to the tragedy unfolding now, yet existed in time with an inexplicable dislocation.

"Iron Crow Army……maintaining history……"

A thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

"Could it be that they are not merely preserving, but actually……accelerating?"

"They are pushing this 'Jingkang' change with such urgency—is it to consume the False Song's fortune more quickly, to eliminate this 'variable' of mine, or… to let themselves regain strength faster?"

This speculation sent a slight chill down his spine.

Because in his causal fragments, the events of the Jingkang humiliation should not have occurred this early.

The only explanation is that the master of the Iron Crow Army has again accelerated the historical script's juncture.

He no longer cares whether the script fully conforms to the so-called historical node logic; he simply pushes forward the development of important nodes.

If that is indeed the case, then what he faces is not merely a powerful enemy.

It is also an existence that does not hesitate to twist time and accelerate disaster to achieve its goal.

The beacon fires of these northern lands, the suffering of countless beings—in the eyes of the opposing side.

Perhaps they are merely pawns on the board that must be sacrificed for the general.

He drew a deep breath of air tinged with a burnt smell, and his gaze became resolute once more.

No matter what means the opponent employs, no matter how this historical torrent is accelerated.

All he can do is clench the power in his hands amidst this raging torrent.

For this realm, to strive for a sliver of different possibility.

The name of the "Northward Aspiration" army accompanied this exhilarating, sweeping counteroffensive beneath Zhao Prefecture City.

As if it had grown wings, it spread swiftly across the northern lands where beacon fires filled the sky.

This banner is no longer mere rumor.

But has truly become a striking, steadfast, and dazzling beam of light that cannot be ignored amidst the chaotic situation.