Chapter 86

As the Xiongnu troops retreated, Hua Tianxiong immediately gave the order to attack from the back gate. In an instant, battle cries shook the valley. Spurred on by the Iron Stone Guards, Wu Tian, Xiao Feng, and other officers—along with the braver soldiers among them—the pants-wetting soldiers of Lincang City quickly regained their fighting spirit. No longer afraid, they followed the instructions of their company commanders, taking the high ground to rain down a continuous stream of fire arrows. Though far inferior to the troops under the command of the Iron Stone Guards and Xiao Feng, they effectively dipped their arrows in oil, lit them, and fired wildly at the Xiongnu soldiers at the bottom of the valley, much like beating a drowning dog. Other soldiers on the valley's cliffs immediately hurled down the prepared rocks into the valley. With nowhere left to run and nowhere left to retreat, the more than five thousand Xiongnu cavalrymen could only endure the continuous, unbroken screams echoing through the valley.