Wang Chong stood atop Tongguan City's walls and gazed down. Outside, troops and horses stretched into the distance, their linked camps and stockades forming a magnificent sight.
He had always worried that the allied forces of the Eight Grasslands Tribes would attack, but that worry had never come to pass, because his Mother Empress, Her Majesty the Empress, was fighting their allied forces beneath the walls of Luoyang. For the time being, they could not reach Copper Pass.
Still, he could not take his ease. The troops of Gao Chongxing, a general under An Dushan, were now outside the city and had already assaulted it five times in three days.
Although most of his soldiers were veterans, they were, after all, a force cobbled together from disparate groups, while Gao Chongxing had several times as many men. Without a mighty fortress like Copper Pass to rely on, Wang Chong reckoned he could never have held out for even half a day.
Fortunately, he had taken Copper Pass. Although his troops' fighting strength fell far short of Gao Chongxing's, they had suffered no disadvantage through several battles. Gao Chongxing had lost thousands of men and still could do nothing about Copper Pass.
As one of the world's Five Tiger Generals, Gao Chongxing was nicknamed the Mountain-Lifting Tiger. His strength was said to rank first among the Five Tiger Generals, almost approaching that of the Four Braves. Wang Chong had never fought him and did not know whether the rumors were true.
As Wang Chong watched intently, a force suddenly came around the city. From far away, one of its generals bent his bow, nocked an arrow, and shot.
Facing the feathered arrow hurtling straight toward his face, Wang Chong calmly flicked a finger. A wisp of wind from his finger snapped