No One Blows Up This Bridge

The stone bridge outside Jialing Pass was only wide enough for two carts to travel abreast. It had just rained at night, and the bridge surface was covered in mud. Seven medicine carts were jammed into a single string, and the very last one had not yet made it onto the bridge.

The soup kitchen on the west side of the bridge still had its fires glowing. The convoy should have been able to enter the city before dark, but the two guard detachments holding the bridge each clutched a contradictory military order and refused to open the gates. An old woman who boiled medicine squeezed past the shields, saying there was a child with a fresh fever in the carts; if they had to wait until dawn, the child's fever would likely spike again. A young soldier lowered his head upon hearing this and went to plead with the captain. Just as the captain was about to relent, the sound of a pushcart suddenly came from the riverbank.

Yuan Yu hurried to the rear of the convoy, watching from a distance as three figures in conical bamboo hats pushed a cart without draft animals down under the bridge. He shoved his wine gourd into the hands of the young soldier guarding the bridge, telling him to hold it steady. When the soldier caught it and saw the small seal of the Worship Hall carved into the bottom of the gourd, he immediately tightened his grip.

By the time Xiao Wu rushed over, a Spirit Hall soldier at the bridgehead was already drawing a crossbow mechanism, while the Heaven Dou soldiers on the opposite bank also raised their shields. Both sides had just received urgent orders, and separated by the convoy, neither dared to let go first.

"Lower your arrows!"