Chapter 21: The Wall of Death (1)

Lorjin led dozens of soldiers to the west side of the city, where they saw thick black smoke curling toward the eastern part of the city.
“Cough! Cough!”
Lor instinctively covered his nose and mouth, muttering in frustration, “What the hell is going on here? Even if the west side is ruined and poor, it’s not like everyone has to work as cooks!”
Since his meals were delivered to his room by his subordinates, he had never seen smoke rising from the kitchens, so he mistook this black smoke for the usual smoke from cooking. One of the cavalry soldiers cautiously stepped forward and said, “Lord, this isn’t cooking smoke…”
“What did you say? You say it’s not cooking smoke?”
Lor glared fiercely at the soldier. Seeing how unfamiliar he looked, he grew even angrier. Grabbing him by the collar, Lor demanded, “Then what is it? Where did this black smoke come from?”
“Lord, please calm down… cough…”
The soldier, held up by Lor, choked and tears streamed from his eyes.
“Hmph!”
Hearing this, Lor released him and threw him aside.
“Ow!”
The soldier landed on one foot and sprained his ankle, crying out in pain.
“Speak quickly! What kind of smoke is this? Where did it come from?”
Lor had no time to listen to the soldier’s whining. Glaring at him fiercely, he pressed for an answer.
“Ah, I’ll tell you! I think it’s smoke from burning buildings!”
“What!”
Lor was shocked. “You mean someone deliberately set buildings on fire? You’re saying it’s arson!”
The soldier now regretted picking up Lor’s train of thought, leading to this difficult situation.
“Yes, in my opinion, only burning buildings can produce such black smoke!”
“Damn it! That direction is the granary! The granary has been set on fire!”
Asel slapped his forehead and exclaimed, “There must be a traitor! There must be spies! There are Tang spies in this city, trying to create chaos during the battle!”
“No, that can’t be…”
Lor shook his head repeatedly and said firmly, “Suiye City has been under martial law for days—not even a mosquito could get in. If the Tangs wanted to send spies in, they’d be caught by the guards and thrown into prison. Unless… unless…”
“Hurry! Go check the granary!”
Fearing his worst fears might come true, Asel grabbed Lor’s arm and ran toward the direction of the smoke. …
“It’s over! Everything’s over!”

Staring at the granary now reduced to a sea of flames, Lorr murmured in bewilderment. How could this happen? How could it? Weren’t the granary heavily guarded? Even during wartime, there should be no fewer than a hundred guards outside. With so many people watching over it, how could the granary suddenly catch fire?

“General, General! We found many corpses over there!”
One of the Turkiš soldiers saluted Asel with one hand on his shoulder and reported respectfully.

“Hmm, go take a look!”

Asel still retained some sense of reason. He took Lorr with him and headed toward the direction the soldier pointed.

It was an alley. When Asel and Lorr entered, they realized something was wrong—it was clearly a dead end!

“Where are the corpses? Where are they?”

Asel was horrified. He yelled at the soldier, “Didn’t you say there were many corpses here? Where are they?”

“Aren’t the corpses right here?”

The soldier sneered and pulled a dagger from his sleeve.

“What… what are you doing…?”

Asel was shocked and stepped back slowly.

But the soldier didn’t give him another chance. He stepped forward quickly, slashed at Asel’s throat, and killed him.

“Well, this is just another corpse.”

The soldier sneered again and turned to look at Lorr.

“You’re not from the guard team!”

Lorr stared at his fellow who had just died, as if waking from a dream. Pointing at the group of Turkiš soldiers, he shouted, “Who are you? Who are you? Why did you do this?”

It turned out they weren’t guards at all. No wonder he found that soldier so unfamiliar—someone must have replaced them earlier…

But they were clearly Turkiš people. They had the same Turkic accent as him, the same clothing habits—they were indeed Turkiš.

Could it be that they were from the Tuyuhun Turks?

“No, I think there must be some misunderstanding. Whatever you want, I’ll give it to you. Just don’t come here!”

Lorr turned and ran toward the inside of the alley, ignoring the nearly ten-foot-high snow wall ahead.

“I want your head!”

The soldier threw the dagger with all his strength, piercing it deep into Lorr’s back.

“Ugh… ugh…”

Lorr struggled for a few moments before going still, his eyes wide as he gazed at the insurmountable snow wall in the distance…

“Lord Birjin, Lord Birjin! Something terrible has happened! Something terrible!”

A soldier covered in mud stumbled to Birkin’s side, sobbing as he knelt on the ground. “The granary! There’s a huge fire in the granary. The flames are too strong; our men can’t control them. It’s already spread to the eastern part of the city… Lord, please tell Moqi Zhitak quickly! If we wait any longer, it will be too late!”
“Useless wretch! All you know how to do is cry!”
Birkin had already found the black smoke in the west of the city suspicious. Now, after hearing what the soldier said, his worst fears had come true.
Walking back and forth with his hands on his back, Birkin roared, “Where are Asel and Lorr? Those two idiots! I sent them to the west of the city to gather stone workers, but they’ve disappeared without a trace!”
Those two were completely useless. Not only did they fail to bring enough stone, but they also failed to deliver such important news. What use was keeping them around?
“The two generals… they’ve been killed…”
The soldier hung his head and sighed deeply. “Someone pretended to be our men, took them to an alley, and killed them.”
“What!”
Birkin was horrified. If a fire broke out in the granary, it could be attributed to some rogue agents, but impersonating the guard team and killing Lorr and Asel must have been done by a powerful force.
And only Tuohuo Nantak in all of Shule City could deceive people without anyone noticing!
Could it be… he’s back?
“Come with me immediately to see Moqi Zhitak! Hurry!”
Birkin pounded his chest in frustration, sighed once, then turned and rushed toward the eastern gate of Shule City.
At that moment, looking east toward Shule City’s rooftops, there was indeed thick black smoke and swirling dust!