Deputy Brooks and the officers looked at each other in dismay. Then, gritting his teeth, he spurred his horse to follow behind Henry Clark, and the other officers and soldiers also urged their horses forward one after another. At this point, they were all going all in—if even the Emperor wasn’t afraid, what did they have to fear? Besides, the Emperor had recently become more and more like a character out of a fantasy novel, which gave them all a kind of blind trust.

After all, the scene yesterday had been too shocking.

A thousand cavalrymen thus quietly slipped past the Zhongyou Post under the cover of night, heading straight north for Ningyuan. Although they didn’t take the main road, the terrain in this area was flat, and many in the group were locals, so they were familiar with the roads. Even though the warhorses were already exhausted—dozens even collapsed along the way, and over a hundred men fell behind—an hour later, they finally reached Ningyuan.

“All dismount and rest.”

In a grove by the Ningyuan River, relying on his extraordinary eyesight, Henry Clark looked at Ningyuan City across the river and said.

“Your Majesty, it’ll be perfect to attack at dawn.”

Deputy Brooks said.

“No, we attack now!”

Henry Clark, seeing the look of utter despair on his face, smiled, patted him on the shoulder, and said, “But not you all—just me alone will attack!”

Ningyuan.

“What did you say?”

Captain Eldridge said in disbelief.

He was George Clark’s nephew, a Manchu of the Plain Yellow Banner. In history, after entering the pass, he followed Dodo in the massacre of Yangzhou and was later made a first-class marquis. Of course, right now he was just a Captain, serving as deputy to the gushan ezhen Duke Albert Lee, originally stationed in Jinzhou. After William Scott abandoned Ningyuan and moved south, he led a niru of Plain Yellow Banner Manchu soldiers, along with four niru of Plain Yellow Banner Han troops, to garrison Ningyuan and Zhongyou Post. In reality, it was just a precaution—everyone knew the Ming army definitely wasn’t coming back.

Yet now, the messenger before him was telling him the Ming army had returned.

This—this made no sense at all.

“Master, it’s true! The main force of the Ming cavalry has reached Zhonghou Post. The patrolling Mr. Ford was completely wiped out—only one rider made it back, and he collapsed from his wounds at Zhongyou Post. According to him, there’s a fierce general among the Ming, just like Xu Chu reborn, wielding a spiked club with the strength to take on ten thousand men alone.”

The Han Banner messenger prostrated himself on the ground as he spoke.

“Strength to take on ten thousand men? You Han people?”

Eldridge was directly amused.

But just then, suddenly, a thunderous cannon blast erupted outside. Immediately after, with a loud crash, countless pieces of rubble rained down from above. The messenger, terrified, leapt up, but at that moment, a small dark object fell from the debris and landed right on top of him, crushing him beneath. He was instantly turned into a bloody pulp, like a frog smashed by a hammer.

“Enemy attack!”

Eldridge didn’t hesitate—he jumped up and rushed out. At the same time, not far from him on the city wall, a series of screams rang out. By the starlight, he could see that on the black city wall at Chunhe Gate, a similarly black figure was standing there, holding a heavy, dark object. The figure spun it overhead, then suddenly let go. Against the night sky, it traced an elegant arc and landed right in the midst of a squad of Qing soldiers charging toward the wall.

It was a spiked log.

Basically, a round wooden beam studded with countless triangular spikes, suspended from a winch atop the city wall by a rope. When enemies climbed the wall, it could be dropped to smash them, and then winched back up for reuse. The result of this thing crashing into a crowd at high speed was easy to imagine—utter carnage!

“Hurry, enemy attack!”

Eldridge shouted urgently.

Of course, he didn’t need to shout—every one of the thousand garrison troops in Ningyuan City was already awake, and the guards on the wall, wielding all sorts of weapons, were swarming toward this terrifying enemy.

Naturally, the one who had come was Henry Clark.

He had walked to Ningyuan all by himself, not even riding a horse. At this time of year, the moat was nearly dry, so he simply waded across, walked up to the base of the wall, threw up a rope, and climbed up. His hearing and vision were so sharp that he easily avoided the Qing patrols on the wall, making the climb both easy and simple. Then, from atop the wall, he turned a cannon around and lit the fuse, greeting the Qing army in his own special way. As for why he nearly blasted Eldridge’s head…

Uh, with him standing out so obviously at the command post, who else would he aim at?

“Open fire!”

Just as Henry Clark picked up a second spiked log, an officer among the Qing troops who had rushed to the wall shouted.

A dozen muskets fired at once.

Three bullets struck Henry Clark’s chest almost simultaneously, making his body jolt. The spiked log flew from his hand like a ferocious beast, bristling with hundreds of triangular spikes, crashing savagely into the Qing ranks—once again, flesh and blood flew everywhere. But atop the wall, Henry Clark seemed completely unharmed. In fact, he really wasn’t hurt at all—he was wearing a layer of cotton armor, two layers of chainmail, and a piece of mountain-patterned armor front and back. With that kind of protection, the muskets simply couldn’t penetrate.

“Come on, let’s hurt each other!”

Dressed like a walking tank, he stood with his back to the starry sky, high atop Chunhe Gate, brandishing his two favorite spiked clubs and howling arrogantly.

Right then, a squad of Qing soldiers rushed up to him.