Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

On the official road before dawn, an army of ten thousand people was marching rapidly.

Huo Guang rode his horse at the front of the team, with morning dew condensing on his armor.

From time to time, he looked back at the heavily guarded carriage in the center of the team - the Han Emperor Liu Che was being "escorted" in it.

"General, Suiyang is fifteen miles ahead."

The scout captain lowered his voice and reported, "But the Chu army has already set up camp three miles outside the city, with at least 50,000 men."

Huo Guang's knuckles turned white on the reins.

He looked at the exhausted soldiers behind him. These men had followed him through thousands of miles of battle. Their armor was torn, but their eyes were still burning with fighting spirit.

"Pass the order down, prepare the entire army for battle." Huo Guang said in a deep voice, "Have the archers prepare their rockets, and have the heavily armored soldiers line up in the front."

The deputy general hesitated and asked, "General, are we really going to force our way into the Chu army camp?"

Huo Guang did not answer, but just looked at the gradually brightening sky.

He knew that this might be his last charge in his life.

At this time, on a mountain road fifty miles away, Chu Ning's white horse cavalry were resting.

A galloping horse came over, and the Jinyiwei on horseback rolled off the saddle and knelt: "Your Majesty, the Han army has arrived outside Suiyang City!"

Chu Ning took the secret report and looked at it carefully in the light of the torch. Suddenly, he chuckled, "Liu Che didn't even go to Jicheng."

He handed the secret letter to Su Tingmei beside him: "It seems that the Emperor of the Han Dynasty is calmer than I thought."

Su Tingmei waved her feather fan and said, "Your Majesty originally planned to encircle and annihilate the Han army in Jicheng, but now it seems that the plan may have to be changed."

"It doesn't matter."

Chu Ning jumped on his horse and said, "Suiyang is better. Tell Han Xing to follow the second plan and let Liu Che enter the city."

Outside Suiyang City, the Chu army camp was filled with flags like a forest.

Han Xing stood on the observation deck, watching the dust rising in the distance. He touched the sword at his waist and sneered, "Finally."

"General, should we open the opening as planned?" asked the deputy general.

Han Xing nodded. "Leave a passage in the southeast corner, but the ambushes on both sides must be concealed. Remember, make it look like we're fighting our way through."

The sound of war drums suddenly resounded across the wilderness.

The sound of crossbows being strung in the Chu army's formation was like the flapping of locusts' wings, which was creepy.

Huo Guang drew his sword, the blade gleaming coldly in the morning light: "My fellow men! Follow me and fight your way out!"

The troops roared together, shaking the whole area.

The Han army attacked the southeastern defense line of the Chu army in a cone formation. Arrows rained down, and the soldiers at the front fell like wheat being cut.

Huo Guang was hit by an arrow in his shoulder armor. He gritted his teeth, broke the arrow shaft, and continued to charge.

"Protect His Majesty!" Huo Guang roared.

Seeing that the Chu army's defense line was indeed loose, he immediately led his personal guards to charge forward. Wherever their spears pointed, the Chu army retreated, but he intensified his offensive on both sides.

The battlefield instantly turned into a meat grinder.

A Han army captain was pierced by a spear, but he still held on to the enemy soldier and rolled into the fire. The archer shot his last arrow, drew his dagger and joined the hand-to-hand combat.

Huo Guang's mount had its front legs cut off, and he rolled to the ground, but was immediately helped onto a spare warhorse by his personal soldiers.

When the Han army on the Suiyang city wall saw this scene, they immediately blew the horn.

The city gate burst open and a team of elite cavalry rushed out to support.

The gate of Suiyang city slowly opened with the harsh sound of a winch.

The 10,000 Han cavalry led by Huo Quji rushed out of the city gate like an arrow, their horses' hooves crushing the morning frost.

Before the sentries in front of the Chu army could react, they were nailed to the deer fence by the whistling rain of arrows.

The long spears of the Han army's heavy cavalry gleamed coldly in the dawn light, and like a row of moving steel jungles, they slammed into the front line of the Chu army.

"kill!"

The moment the two armies met, the sound of bones breaking and the clanging of metal resounded across the plains.

Huo Quji's mount reared up, and its front hooves dented the breastplate of a Chu army centurion.

The Han army captain on the left was pierced by three spears at the same time, but he still swung his sword to cut off the wrist of the spearman.

The blood rose into a scarlet mist on the frozen soil, which was soon turned into mud by the chaotic footsteps.

The Chu army's archers fired a volley from behind the shield wall. Amid the whistling sound of arrows breaking through the air, the charging Han army fell like wheat being cut.

But the follow-up troops continued to advance on the corpses of their comrades. A soldier whose lung was shot through crawled and broke the enemy's bowstring with his teeth.

Han Xing sneered and waved the flag behind the formation.

The heavily armored Chu army ambushed on the flank suddenly rushed out, holding two-meter-long swords. Wherever the blades passed, the legs of the Han army's horses and the bodies of the soldiers were cut off.

A half-human-high wall of corpses quickly piled up in the center of the battlefield, and the soldiers of both sides continued to fight on this wall of flesh and blood.

Huo Quji's gilded armor was covered in blood. He led his personal guards to within thirty steps of the Chu army's flag, and broke through seven formations with his long sword.

Just as he was about to kill Han Xing, three crossbow arrows suddenly shot at him from tricky angles - two were blocked by the body of the personal guard, and the last one passed by him.

Huo Quji snorted coldly, threw his long sword backhanded, and nailed the crossbowman to the flagpole.

"It's General Huo Quji!" the Han soldiers cheered.

Just as the two Han armies were about to meet, the Chu army suddenly changed its formation.

A team of heavily armored cavalry rushed out from the flank and cut off the passage.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Huo Guang personally led the death squad to charge. His long sword had already cut a hole, and every swing brought up blood.

"Open the city gate!" roared the commander on the city wall.

The crossbowmen on the arrow embrasures fired wildly to buy time for the troops under the city.

Huo Guang finally rushed to the carriage and lifted the curtain: "Your Majesty, please follow me into the city!"

Liu Che looked at him coldly, his eyes a mixture of anger and ice: "General Huo, what you did today, I will remember."

At this moment, a cold arrow came through the air.

Huo Guang instinctively turned sideways, and the arrow pierced deeply into his right chest. The personal guards immediately formed a human wall, using their bodies to protect the emperor as he moved towards the city gate.

The suspension bridge groaned under the heavy load, as it was crowded with retreating Han troops.

As soon as the last soldier stepped into the city gate, the heavy gate fell down with a bang, blocking the pursuers outside the city.

Huo Guang leaned against the city wall and watched the Chu army outside the city retreat like a tide.

He spat out a mouthful of blood foam. Although the process was difficult, he finally escorted His Majesty into the city.

He grabbed Huo Quji's hand and said, "Protect His Majesty!"

Before he could finish his words, he fainted.

Huo Quji's face changed: "Come here, quickly call the military doctor!"

Meanwhile, outside the city, in the Chu army's main tent, Han Xing was reporting, "Your Majesty, as you instructed, Liu Che has entered Suiyang."

Chu Ning played with the jade pendant in his hand and chuckled when he heard this: "What a man Huo Guang is! He actually managed to send Liu Che into the city."

He turned to Su Tingmei and said, "Tell the secret agent in the city that we can start the next step."

Su Tingmei hesitated and said, "Your Majesty, if Liu Che finds out that the food supplies in the city have been burned..."

"That's exactly what I want." Chu Ning stood up and walked to the sand table. "Only a hungry wolf would break out regardless of the consequences. I have already prepared a surprise for him outside the north gate."

Outside the tent, the setting sun dyed the walls of Suiyang city blood red.

On top of the city wall, the Han army’s flags fluttered in the wind, but no one knew how long they would fly.