I, Zhu Di, would rather die standing!

Mobei, Great Snow Mountain.

A bitter wind whipped up snow that filled the sky, lashing every person's face mercilessly.

Inside a hastily erected command tent, several braziers burned fiercely, yet they could not dispel the bone-deep chill and despair permeating the tent.

The Great Ming Emperor, Zhu Di, sat in the seat of honor, clad in a heavily worn suit of Black Iron Armor.

The weather-beaten face that had once radiated heroic vigor no longer held any trace of its former grandeur, only a resolute, icy severity.

His sunken eye sockets and cracked lips showed that his body had already reached its limit.

Beneath the command tent, Duke of England Zhang Fu, Zhu Yong—the son of Duke of Chengguo Zhu Neng—and the great generals Xue Lu, Fan Zhong, and the others stood with snow clinging to their armor, their expressions solemn. The oppressive atmosphere made it hard to breathe.

"Your Majesty, we've already been trapped for seven days."

Zhang Fu's voice was hoarse and heavy. "The grain and fodder... can last at most one more day."

"The soldiers have already started slaughtering their warhorses for food."

"Arutai's main force has us surrounded in this valley, tightly hemmed in on all sides."

"They aren't attacking because they want to freeze us and starve us to death!"

Zhu Yong slammed a fist down on the table in fury.

The old general Xue Lu said anxiously, "That isn't the most terrifying thing."

"It's this damned blizzard!"

"We've sent out seven or eight groups of Messengers, but not one of them has managed to leave this Snowfield."

"Our connection with the lands within the passes has been completely severed."

A severed connection meant there would be no reinforcements.

Three hundred thousand troops were stranded beyond the frontier, their ammunition exhausted, their supplies depleted, frozen by the bitter cold, with hundreds of thousands of enemy cavalry circling outside.

This was a dead end.

Zhu Di listened silently, his placid gaze sweeping over every general in the tent.

He saw exhaustion, anxiety, and unwillingness—but not fear or retreat.

These were the soldiers he had forged.

"I personally led five expeditions into Mobei, beating the Tatars into trembling submission and forcing the Oirats to bow their heads and acknowledge their allegiance."

Zhu Di spoke slowly, his voice not loud, yet it rang out in every person's heart. "I thought that, for Great Ming, I had fought out a century of peace."

"Who would have thought that, in my old age, I would end up being brought down by this insignificant Arutai?"

A trace of self-mockery colored his tone, but what filled it even more was an unyielding will to fight.

"Your Majesty!"

The fierce general Fan Zhong dropped to one knee with a thud, tears glistening in his tiger-like eyes. "This General is willing to lead the Imperial Guard Camp and carve out a path of blood for Your Majesty!"

"As long as Your Majesty can return within the passes, we will die without regret!"

"That's right! Your Majesty, break through! We'll cover your retreat!"

All the generals knelt together and roared with one voice.

They could die, but the emperor of Great Ming could not die here.

"Everyone, get up!"

Zhu Di suddenly slammed his hand on the table and rose to his feet.

Though his body was gaunt and withered, the aura of an emperor who looked down upon all under Heaven erupted at this moment to its utmost intensity.

"I, Zhu Di, am the Son of Heaven who raised an army from Yanjing and fought my way out through mountains of corpses and seas of blood!"

"In my dictionary, there are no such words as 'run away'!"

He walked to the map. His eagle-like eyes fixed relentlessly on the most densely packed point of the encirclement—the central command tent of Arutai.

"Does Arutai think he has already won?"

"He wants to watch me starve and freeze to death?"

"Then I will do exactly the opposite of what he wants!"

Zhu Di's finger stabbed heavily into the map, producing a dull thud.

"Pass down my decree!"

"Gather the entire army and eat our final full meal!"

"Concentrate all the remaining gunpowder and Divine Machine Arrows!"

"At dawn tomorrow, with the Three Thousand Camp as the vanguard, the entire army will head due east and—punch straight through it!"

"Our target: Arutai's golden tent!"

"I will fight him to the death!"

"Either he dies, or I die!"

"Even if I die, I will drag him with me into hell!"

"Your Majesty, you mustn't!"

Zhang Fu paled in shock. "That's where the enemy's forces are strongest!"

"We'd be throwing an egg at a rock!"

"Yes! We are throwing an egg at a rock!"

Crazy flames burned in Zhu Di's eyes. "Arutai thinks I will break through at the weakest point. Then I will attack from the place he least expects—and the place he has fortified most heavily!"

"This is called 'placing oneself in a deathtrap and living afterward'!"

Looking at the emperor, who seemed possessed by madness, all the generals fell silent.

They knew that the emperor had made up his mind.

This was a reckless gamble with not the slightest chance of victory. The wager was the last shred of dignity and fighting spirit in the Great Ming army.

"This General... obeys the decree!"

Zhang Fu closed his eyes and clasped his fist in a solemn salute.

"Obey the decree!"

A wave of resolute shouts rang through the tent.

Just then, a sudden commotion came from outside.

A personal guard responsible for keeping watch came tumbling in, his face filled with utter shock and confusion.

"Report... report to Your Majesty! The east... something's happening in the east!"

"Did Arutai launch an attack ahead of schedule?"

Zhu Di furrowed his brows and snatched up the treasured sword at his side, the one that had accompanied him through campaigns in the north and south.

"No... no!"

The guard shook his head vigorously. Pointing east, he stammered, "It's... it's the sound of hooves!"

"Extremely orderly hoofbeats!"

"Like... like thunder!"

"Hoofbeats?"

Zhang Fu and the others all froze.

In this frozen wilderness, where could the sound of hoofbeats have come from?

To conserve their horses' strength, Arutai's cavalry had all kept their distance.

"How many people?"

Zhu Di asked in a deep voice.

"I... I can't tell..."

The guard swallowed, terror appearing on his face. "But... but that sound is making the ground tremble!"