At that moment, the guilt and self-blame in Gao Lan's eyes made Yuan Tan fully understand why Zhang He left in the name of revenge, and also why Gao Lan lost even the will to unleash his strength. It was all because of the first thing he said when he met the two of them.

Zhang He might have wanted to prove himself, but as Gao Lan's heart shattered, perhaps all that remained was guilt and self-blame. Even the so-called fear was Gao Lan's own suggestion to himself. He felt guilty, he blamed himself; the death of Yuan Shao was definitively concluded by his own son, Yuan Tan, and the root cause was him and Zhang He.

"Gao Lan, counterattack!" Yuan Tan shouted, and Gao Lan raised his long spear to issue the order.

At the same time, Yuan Tan also led three thousand sword and shield infantry to support Gao Lan, and personally led them to clear out the Northern Huns who had charged into their main formation, pushing them back while the Northern Huns had yet to gather in large numbers and had no one to command them.

Xubo Rong's Northern Huns Elite Cavalry, after their mounted archery volley was blocked by Ji Ling's shield-bearing soldiers, abandoned continued use of bows and arrows. All of his soldiers brandished their spears and attacked towards Ji Ling's direction.

Utilizing their extraordinary tactical skills and formidable short-range thrusting ability, they almost immediately scattered Ji Ling's sword and shield infantry. However, Ji Ling was no ordinary man either. His soldiers embodied his will, bursting forth with tenacious resilience, intercepting repeatedly, and delaying the Hun Elite Cavalry's advance.

Unfortunately, the massive influx of Northern Hun soldiers further compressed the defensive circle of the Han army.

Ji Ling's face was dark as he slaughtered the Northern Huns who charged to the second line of defense, immediately activating his Legion Talent. All the Han soldiers under his command had their eyes turn red, launching a ferocious attack on the frontal Northern Huns, momentarily suppressing them with sheer momentum.

Just before Ji Ling's sword and shield infantry's momentum reached its peak, Xubo Rong seized the moment to launch a charge towards Ji Ling's direction.

The Northern Hun Elites transitioned from disordered to orderly, from stationary to active, almost instantaneously, and when their formation suddenly spread out, the dark golden radiance tore open towards both wings, every Han soldier realized this was a military formation—a charging formation! 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Witnessing this, Sheni Pei, who had slightly relaxed due to Yuan Tan's arrival, suddenly felt a heaviness in his heart. Without any reservation, he immediately activated his Legion Talent.

Every soldier was suddenly covered by a thin layer of radiance, and the most significant change was a thousand-men squad of crossbowmen behind Sheni Pei; on their drawn crossbow strings, the radiance began to condense into a dark red glow.

As the Northern Hun Elites' charging formation closed within fifteen paces of Ji Ling, Sheni Pei's half-closed eyes suddenly opened wide, and with a wave of his hand, the crossbowmen all fired their triggers. At the moment of firing, the previously one-foot-long arrow instantly formed a five-foot-long, three-finger-wide streak of radiance around it.

In the next instant, with a horrified expression, the Northern Hun soldiers, already visible to the sword and shield infantry, appeared as if they were struck by a bed crossbow arrow and were skewered together like pieces of candied fruit by an invisible wooden rod.

Under this wave of crossbow bolts, with such terrifying power, even though the Northern Huns had astonishing tactical skills and combat experience, they were almost shattered, with more than a thousand men falling before Ji Ling. Sheni Pei decisively closed off this part of the Spiritual Talent, as this blow was enough to calm the Northern Huns for a while.

[It seems I can barely control my Spiritual Talent now, as long as I manifest only the Vanguard attribute, I can do it once more, and besides...] Sheni Pei looked at the radiance, realizing he could still use Ju Shou's legacy, and the close brush with death last time was not without gain.

"Full army counterattack!" Sheni Pei roared, and immediately Tao Sheng and others left some soldiers to protect Sheni Pei, charging outward with all their might, catching Xubo Rong, who was dazed by the crossbow-like barrage, unable to resist.

The Han army seized the opportunity and delivered a fierce blow, pushing the Northern Huns back hundreds of steps, only to be eventually stopped by a human sea wall of Hun Clan people.

At this moment, Sheni Pei no longer paid attention to the changes on the battlefield but led his soldiers to start the fire. He knew very well what his task was, and also what kind of senseless blocking battle this was about. His trump card could still be used once more, but before that, he had to burn all the granaries so that the Hun people couldn't save them even if they tried.

With the Northern Hun Clan people surging massively towards the central camp, on this battlefield, where the target was clearly defined and its significance known, the Northern Huns, regardless of men, women, young, or old, even women without a hint of pure iron, fiercely attacked the Han army.

In such a scenario, even with more than ten thousand Han forces coming over successively, no matter how desperately they fought, they couldn't withstand the endless attacks like tidal waves.

The defensive perimeter grew smaller and smaller, and the pressure greater, while the granaries storing provisions were specially nurtured and built by the Northern Huns, related to the fate of their clan. The Northern Huns weren't fools; despite believing they would never be set on fire, they nonetheless made them fire-resistant under adequate conditions.

This is why Jiangh Qi's speed in setting fires didn't pick up, a crucial reason why the pace of setting fires didn't increase, making a great victory for the Han army very bleak under current circumstances!

As more granaries ignited, the Northern Hun Clan people grew even more frantic, and the defensive pressure on every front of the Han army increased. With over ten thousand young and strong Northern Huns, who had been hidden until then, suddenly entering the battlefield from the north, the Han army's defensive line suddenly broke!

Meanwhile, the previously pushed back Northern Hun Elite Cavalry, regrouped led by Xubo Rong, seized the moment when Yuan Tan and Gao Lan's northern defensive line broke to launch a deadly attack on the southern Ji Ling's line.

"Jiangh Qi, start the fires, ignore the rest!" Sheni Pei said, his expression grave. The moment the Northern Hun Elite Cavalry moved, he directly activated his Spiritual Talent, and then the already strung heavy crossbows collectively fired, replaying the previous crossbow mechanism barrage scene.

The entire front line of the Han army and the Northern Huns fell into chaos, but the sword and shield infantry, known for their defense, suppressed and disrupted the Northern Hun Elites' formation during the chaos. Taking advantage of this chaos, Ji Ling stepped forward to suppress the frenzied Northern Hun Clan people.

This method could only be effective for a while. Fortunately, at this time, the last two granaries were forcibly ignited by Jiangh Qi, and immediately Jiangh Qi led his troops to the broken northern defensive line, struggling to block the Northern Huns' frenzied attacks.

Subsequently, Sheni Pei, with the remaining escorts, also rushed towards the northern defensive line, but by now too many Northern Hun soldiers had flooded the broken line, and it was impossible to allocate more forces from the other three directions.

"Kill!" Yuan Tan roared, holding a longsword, nailing a Northern Hun to death in front of him, but failed to notice a Northern Hun on the side thrusting a spear straight at his back.

"Puff!" Yuan Tan spat out a mouthful of blood, seeing the spearhead stabbing out from his chest, swung his longsword with effort, slashing the spear in half, along with most of the enemy's head behind him. The resulting blood loss made Yuan Tan's vision black out, causing his legs to go weak, and he knelt down on the ground.

Subsequently, many Hun people, eyes red, pounced on Yuan Tan, with Gao Lan desperately furious not far away!

"Puchi!" Gao Lan grabbed Yuan Tan, swinging his long spear to block most of the attacks, yet he still took two sword wounds.

"Yuanbo, it seems I can't make it, ultimately couldn't avoid..." Yuan Tan, mouth bleeding continuously, said, "But it's good not to die in a civil war..."

"No, no, no!" Gao Lan's eyes were bloodshot, the previous lord died due to his incompetence, and now this one would too. Why is he always so incompetent!

"Pity for the Yuan Family..." Yuan Tan whispered, a slight upward curl at the corner of his mouth, making a feeble gesture to reach for the sky, then suddenly halted, his lifted right hand suddenly falling!

"No!" Gao Lan's furious cry echoed in all directions at that moment, seemingly stopping the wind and snow in that roar.