Several days later, Shen Yan's secretly dispatched trusted aide returned with news: A Yi Sha agreed to trade! The location was set at an abandoned ancient courier station ruins thirty li from the encampment—Huangsha Post (Yellow Sand Post). The time was dusk, two days hence.
This news was like a shot of adrenaline, giving the despairing camp a faint glimmer of hope. Under Shen Yan's strong persuasion and the pressure of reality, Huo Xiao finally, with difficulty, nodded in agreement. He personally selected twenty of his most elite, most loyal guards. Shen Yan would lead them, carrying a small amount of salt blocks and a few captured Oirat leather goods for trade, preparing to secretly head to Huangsha Post.
Through the cell window, Qin Yuan and the others saw the team readying. Huo Xiao personally held Shen Yan's horse, the two speaking in low tones at the camp gate for a long time. Huo Xiao's expression was grave; he firmly patted Shen Yan's shoulder, his eyes full of entrustment and worry. Shen Yan, as always steady, bowed, mounted his horse, and led the team disappearing into the rolling dust.
The camp's atmosphere grew even more oppressive. Huo Xiao spent almost the entire day on the earth wall, gazing towards Huangsha Post, like a silent statue. Eunuch Wang appeared like a haunting ghost, insinuatingly asking why the army wasn't mobilizing for bandit suppression, all brushed aside by Huo Xiao with "training troops, awaiting the right moment."
Time passed, minute by minute. The appointed dusk arrived, but there was no news from Shen Yan's team.
An uneasy mood spread through the camp.
In the middle of the night, the sound of urgent hoofbeats approached from afar! A horse, covered in blood, foaming at the mouth, carrying an equally blood-soaked, barely alive soldier, charged into the camp! It was one of the guards Shen Yan had taken!
"Gen... General!" The soldier rolled from the saddle, using his last strength to shout. "Am... ambush! Oirat! They... they knew about the trade! Deputy... Deputy Shen he... he... We... whole army..." Before he could finish, the soldier's head lolled, dead!
"What?!" Huo Xiao was as if struck by lightning, eyes wide with fury!
The entire camp instantly erupted! Grief, anger, fear, despair spread like plague!
"Deputy Shen!!" Huo Xiao let out a heart-wrenching roar of pain, punching the earth wall hard, blood flowing from his split knuckles. He instantly understood: the trade location was leaked! There was a traitor! And Shen Yan... his loyal deputy, was probably already...
At that moment, outside the encampment, from all directions, arose the low and earth-shaking sound of horns! Like a summons from hell!
"Oooooo—!"
Then, countless torches lit up like stars in the darkness, instantly illuminating the area around the camp bright as day! Under the torchlight were dense masses of Oirat cavalry clad in leather, wielding curved swords and bows! They surged forward like a tide, surrounding the small camp completely! Leading them was a massive Oirat general, fierce-faced, laughing triumphantly.
"Huo Xiao! Ming dog! Your time is up! Hand over your supplies and weapons, kneel and surrender, and we might spare your life!" the Oirat general shouted in crude Chinese.
A trap! A meticulously planned, inside-and-out kill trap! Its target: Huo Xiao and his army!
"To arms!!!" Huo Xiao's eyes were bloodshot, like a tiger cornered. He drew the knife from his waist! The blade reflected the torch and moonlight, the dark red gemstone shimmering with a deep light. "Men of the Great Ming! Follow me to kill the enemy! Serve the country with loyalty, the battle is here!"
Deafening battle cries instantly erupted! The Oirat surged forward like a tide, impacting the camp's crude earth walls! Arrows flew through the air like locusts!
The battle, from the very start, entered its most brutal phase!
Qin Yuan, Su Wan, and the others, trapped in the cell, heard the ear-splitting battle cries, the clash of weapons, the screams, felt the ground shake beneath them. Their hearts and livers felt torn asunder. They knew the final battle inscribed on the tomb's epitaph, the tragedy that led to Huo Xiao's "exhausted reinforcements and strength, fell in the sea of sand," was playing out before their eyes, alive and real!
Through the cell's narrow window, they could see the earth wall breached in multiple places. Ming soldiers fought bloody battles against enemies many times their number, falling continuously. Huo Xiao's figure moved through the enemy ranks like a war god, that ruby-inlaid combat knife cutting a bloody swath with every swing! He roared, his voice full of grief, indignation, and unyielding spirit, each cry seeming to rail against fate's injustice and the heart-piercing pain of betrayal!
"It was Shen Yan! He must have betrayed the General!" Xiao Liu cried out in despair.
"How did the Oirat know so clearly? Even the location and time..." Chen Feng's face was pale. "The traitor... probably wasn't just Shen Yan! That Eunuch Wang..."
Su Wan gripped the window bars tightly, her nails almost digging into the earth, tears blurring her vision. She watched Huo Xiao fight in the blood and fire, saw his guards fall one by one beside him, saw the camp's defenses crumbling before the overwhelmingly superior enemy force. She remembered the remains in the tomb, the fatal penetrating wound on the ribs, the crack in the left ulna... History was replaying itself in the cruelest way before her eyes!
"No... don't..." she whispered unconsciously.
Finally, after killing who knows how many enemies, Huo Xiao's warhorse was shot down! He fell to the ground, instantly surrounded by several Oirat cavalry! He leaned on his knife, covered in blood, armor shattered, left arm hanging uselessly (the prelude to the ulna crack!), yet still stood straight, his eyes burning with unyielding flame!
"General!" the remaining few Ming soldiers cried out in grief, trying to rush to his aid but blocked by more enemies.
"Huo Xiao! Die!" The Oirat general laughed nastily, spurring his horse, leveling his spear, and thrusting it hard towards Huo Xiao's chest! Straight at the heart!
At this critical moment!
"Halt!" A clear, sharp woman's voice, with a foreign accent in Chinese, pierced through the battlefield noise like an arrow!
An arrow with a strange whistling sound shot from the side rear of the chaotic battlefield, swift as a meteor!
"Thud!"
The arrow accurately hit the Oirat general's mount in the eye! The horse reared in pain, the spear thrust veered off, grazing Huo Xiao's rib cage, cutting a deep furrow (the rehearsal for the fatal rib wound!), but not fatal!
Everyone was stunned!
On a dune, a small group of riders had appeared at some unknown time! The leader, riding a white steed, wore bright tribal clothing, her face veiled, only a pair of deep, bright eyes like the desert night sky visible! She held a delicate horn bow, its string still vibrating!
"A Yi Sha?!" Huo Xiao clutched his rib wound, looking at the figure on the dune in disbelief, his eyes filled with shock, pain, and indescribable complex emotion.
The Oirat general was furious: "Where did this wench come from! Kill them!"
A portion of the Oirat cavalry immediately turned their horses, charging towards A Yi Sha's small group!
A Yi Sha took a deep look at Huo Xiao, her eyes containing too much: concern, resolve, sorrow... and a trace of farewell? She didn't speak, sharply reined her horse, and like agile desert foxes, she and her group turned and charged into the vast night, leading the pursuers away!
She had, in her own way, bought Huo Xiao a final moment of respite at the most critical moment!
But this chance, before absolute force, seemed so slim.
The Oirat general steadied his mount, his killing intent stronger: "Kill him!"
More Oirat soldiers swarmed towards Huo Xiao!
Huo Xiao, leaning on his knife, looked towards where A Yi Sha had vanished, then at the few remaining, blood-soaked guards still fighting desperately beside him, then towards the piled-up corpses of his comrades in the camp... An indescribable desolation and release surged in his heart.
"Great Ming... soldiers... kill the enemy..." He used his last strength to let out a hoarse cry, facing the forest of blades and spears, raising high once more that battle-scarred yet still sharp combat knife!
The final struggle began!