In these past days, they had uncovered too many Great Qi soldiers with their own bare hands, unable to dispose of the bodies, they could only bury them in freshly-dug pits on-site.
In the end, they were even too exhausted to bury them. The bodies they uncovered were casually left piled up on the side. After all, regardless of how they were handled, these men were destined to be buried within the belly of this mountain.
The more they dug, the deeper they sank into despair.
This tunnel... it was just too long!
They had no idea how many collapses there had been along this tunnel.
Even when they did manage to clear a section, they mostly found corpses in large numbers. Very few survivors remained.
The collapsed area of the tunnel was infinitely larger than they had imagined!
In many places, stretches of it had collapsed entirely over distances of dozens of miles!
Consider the scene of all those Great Qi soldiers, packed tightly and densely together, only to be instantly buried alive.
What was even scarier was the feeling among those still alive that they were convinced they would die here... even if they didn't collapse, suffocate, starve, die of thirst, or succumb to disease, they would eventually die of despair!
The sight of only the bodies of their comrades being uncovered was causing a wave of despair to spread among all of them.
Rather than reopening this tunnel, only to see countless fallen comrades and despair, they were better off diverting their efforts towards digging upwards, following the map towards the thinner sections of the mountain.
Maybe this would lessen their despair somewhat.
Turning to look at the 5,000 survivors that remained by his side, each one dirty and exhausted, most of them wearing only their undergarments, Fang Dongming couldn't help but break into tears.
"I'm sorry... It's all my fault… that you ended up like this!" he confessed, his face streaming with tears. "We're probably... all going to die here. Dying for the country, bodies repatriated in horsehide, used to be glorious. But now… all we have is shame, no glory at all!"
At his tears, all 5,000 elite Great Qi soldiers couldn't hold back their own.
"It's not your fault, Grand Marshal, it's Heaven's Will… No one blames you!"
"Yes, Grand Marshal. This isn't a crime of war... we were tricked by the Great Xia."
All of these elite soldiers broke down in tears.
The Third Prince, Jiang Qiuyang gritted his teeth and declared, "We won't die, we won't! I will lead you out of here! If we don't avenge this, we're not human!"
"If we don't avenge this, we're not human!" The 5,000 elite soldiers spat out these words, filled with a sense of humiliation.
At that moment, they received a report that made them tremble with excitement, "Grand Marshal… I… I found… a ventilation shaft! There's still some air… it looks like it's not too deeply buried… we… we might be able to escape through there!"
Boom!
Everyone immediately boiled over with excitement.
"Can we really make it out alive?!"
"Can we actually survive this?!"
"Heaven.. heaven hasn't forsaken us!"
All the soldiers started to shout out in excitement.
But at this moment, Fang Dongming furrowed his brows, showing a bitter smile on his face. He looked at the Third Prince, "Your Highness, what do you think?"
After a pause, Jiang Qiuyang slowly said, "It might be another trap..."
Seeing that both their commander and the Third Prince were not sharing in their joy, the celebrating soldiers gradually calm down.
"Even if it is a trap... we must escape, right?" Fang Dongming's voice wavered. "Going out... is always better than dying here."
Jiang Qiuyang, however, fell silent. If this ventilation shaft was indeed a trap set up by Great Xia… then they were likely walking into captivity!
Others could become prisoners, but not him, Jiang Qiuyang… that was not an option!
Because if he were ever captured, any relations he had with the throne of Great Qi would sever!
No one in the court or beyond would accept a prince who had lost a million soldiers and been held captive as their emperor.
So, Jiang Qiuyang whispered, "Uncle Dongming... I can't go up with you!"
Without much thought, Fang Dongming immediately understood Jiang Qiuyang's meaning and nodded, "Alright, we will scout ahead first. If... there are no dangers, we will come back to escort you up, Your Highness!"
Jiang Qiuyang nodded, sitting still as he began to wait.
Fang Dongming sent off the remaining fit soldiers to dig open the ventilation shaft.
The shaft wasn't completely blocked off, and they managed to successfully clear it with only half a day's work.
This was the first time in more than ten days that they'd received fresh air from outside. Many of them cried tears of relief.
Then, they sent scouts to inspect the area.
A dozen or so scouts spent half a day investigating. They expanded their search radius to dozens of miles around but found no traces of any Great Xia troops.
Upon hearing their report, Fang Dongming turned his gaze to Jiang Qiuyang, who had been silently recovering his strength: "Your Highness, our troops will go up first!"
Jiang Qiuyang nodded.
And then, these surviving elites of Great Qi crawled out of the ventilation shaft one by one.
Having not seen daylight for many days, they finally emerged, their eyes squinting from lack of exposure, feeling as if they had been reincarnated.
A hundred miles away, at the peak of the Skybreaker Mountain Range, Zhang Rong, with a clear and cold look in his eyes, looked towards the direction of the ventilation shaft and sighed lightly. "Out of all the ventilation shafts in the tunnel, only two were not completely filled. It's incredible that they found one of them. But... this is a great gift for you! After all, losing a million troops without a single prisoner would not please either the emperor or the people!"
He gave an order, "Capture all these men!"
Whoosh!
An arrow shot into the sky, emitting a piercing noise.
The newly emerged elite soldiers of Great Qi shuddered in fear.
Just as Fang Dongming emerged from the ventilation shaft, he squinted, listening to the faint sound of the arrow, his face turned terribly grim.
Then, the Great Xia's miner soldiers who had long been prepared swarmed over from all directions with bows and crossbows, completely surrounding them.
"Surrender and you will be spared!" A young officer bellowed, "Resist and you'll be shot on-site!"
The dozen or so Great Qi scouts were dumbfounded. How did these people come out of nowhere? During their investigation, they hadn't detected any sign of human activity!
Even the highly perceptive Chu Mo was unable to detect this group of soldiers. To say nothing of the Great Qi scouts... it was a colossal wartime disaster.
For years the Great Xia's miner soldiers had blended into the Skybreaker Mountain.
They would have been deeply ashamed if the Great Qi's scouts discovered them.
All the surviving elite soldiers of Great Qi were filled with humiliation, anger, and thick layers of despair.
"Is heaven really going to abandon us?" muttered a young Great Qi officer.
All the soldiers then turned their eyes to Fang Dongming.
To fight or to surrender... now, it all depended on their commanding officer's decision. (To be continued...) If you like this work, please support us at qidian.com. Your support is our biggest motivation. For mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.
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