The deafening shouts of battle gradually subsided, and stray arrows kept flying past Henry Sutton, who was hiding beneath the stone parapet. He prayed to every god he knew, and finally, this assault on the city came to a halt, bringing a brief peace to the inner city once again.

“How’s the situation?” Only at this moment did Henry Sutton dare to emerge from behind the stone parapet, taking a breath of air thick with the scent of blood and gunpowder, before asking his deputy, Edward Grant.

Edward Grant was an unexpected discovery. He was a trained martial artist, and after drinking blood wine several times, his Thirteen Protectors’ Iron Body technique had reached perfection. In the recent battles, he had fought with unmatched bravery—no blade left a mark on him, and only he could strike others without suffering a scratch himself. Upon discovering such a fierce warrior, Henry Sutton immediately appointed him as his deputy. However, at this point, most of the officers had perished, and Henry Sutton, the acting commander, was merely a squad leader of ten, and a new recruit at that.

“These Caesar dogs have been driven back by us,” Edward Grant shouted.

“I know. If they hadn’t retreated, you wouldn’t have made it back. What I’m asking is, what are our casualties?”

“The brothers are holding up, but we lost another twenty men. Now we have one hundred and ninety-one left.”

One hundred and ninety-one men—though the inner city wall wasn’t large, this number was barely enough to defend it. It looked like they wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. Henry Sutton calculated in his mind: if they abandoned the city and fled, how likely was it that they could escape with their lives?

“Ooo... ooo... ooo...”

A loud horn sounded from the Caesar camp, echoing far and wide under the endless sky.

A horn—three long blasts? Henry Sutton leapt up, sprinting to the top of the wall. After fighting the Caesar people for so long, the Han Empire’s intelligence officers had already analyzed the enemy’s signals. Three long horn blasts meant gathering the troops, forming a defensive formation, and preparing for battle.

There were thousands upon thousands of Caesar soldiers outside the city, while there were fewer than two hundred defenders inside—an overwhelming disparity. If the Caesar troops were forming a defensive stance, the only possibility was that Han reinforcements had arrived. Once he realized this, Henry Sutton was so excited that he trembled all over.

The inner city wall was the tallest structure in the city. As soon as he climbed up, Henry Sutton saw the Caesar soldiers on the west side retreating from the city like a tide, gathering at their main camp, and trying to form a massive square formation in front of it.

Seeing them so on edge, Henry Sutton knew that one foot had already stepped back from death’s door.

To the east, a dazzling streak of red slowly rose on the horizon. Row after row of warriors in red light armor, riding horses and wielding lances, surged toward the camp like a tidal wave.

“Red... it’s a sea of red! My god, we’re saved!” Henry Sutton howled incoherently.

The Red Sea was the title of the Han Empire’s Fourth Legion. The empire’s five great legions were all renowned and battle-hardened. They were the true elite, the real trump cards of the Han Empire.

The Red Sea was made up entirely of lancer cavalry, stationed year-round at the empire’s northern camp, facing off against the empire’s age-old enemy, the Xiongnu. Because their armor was bright red, and their charges looked like a massive crimson wave, they were called the Red Sea. No one expected them to suddenly appear on the western battlefield today.

“Edward Grant, pass on my order—charge! Break out and kill those golden-haired Caesar dogs!” Henry Sutton was so fired up that he gave an order he would later look back on with embarrassment.

“Yes! Brothers, charge with me!” Edward Grant roared, shaking the heavens, and led the charge, with a hundred and eighty blood-soaked warriors following close behind.

Wait, what kind of order did I just give? I should have let the Red Sea charge the Caesar formation, while our men cheered them on from the side. How did it end up with my own troops charging first? As Edward Grant and the others rushed out beyond the outer wall, Henry Sutton finally realized his muddled command. But since they had already charged out, calling them back immediately would only invite ridicule. Fortunately, Edward Grant hadn’t taken everyone with him. From the first day he took command, he had chosen ten especially burly men as his personal bodyguards. In these days of flying arrows, their protection had been invaluable.

Although the Red Sea cavalry were riding swift horses, the distance between them and the Caesar army was too great. It was Edward Grant and his men who, following behind, were the first to engage the Caesar’s square formation.