Wang Chong had fully expected to join forces with Sun Mingke beneath Green Mountain Pass. Little had he imagined that by the time he arrived, the fortified pass would already have fallen.
The Tailwind Army brought word that Sun Mingke had ordered the surrendered Yegeluo Clan troops under his command to pretend they wanted to return to the grasslands. The uncouth, unsuspecting defenders had let him lead his troops inside. He had slain the commander of Green Mountain Pass in a single exchange, then fought a bitter battle, killing twenty-eight officers and seven hundred enemy soldiers to seize the pass.
After taking Green Mountain Pass, Sun Mingke had left behind a contingent of old, weak, and wounded soldiers to guard it, then swept the surrendered troops along with him straight toward another fortified pass.
This time, Wang Chong could hardly keep chasing after him.
Although Ba Prefecture City had the tallest, thickest walls in Ba Prefecture, and Cloud-Gathering Mountain and Heaven-Scraping Ridge had the most forbidding terrain, Qingshan Pass and White Ox Pass were also vitally important. They were the foremost line of defense against the Eighteen Tribes of the Grasslands, directly facing the grassland light cavalry. Though slightly inferior to Ba Prefecture City, they were still major fortified passes, ordinarily easy to defend and difficult to attack. Now that one had been taken, how could he possibly fail to guard it properly?
Wang Chong even allocated more than half the provisions he had gathered along the way to Green Mountain Pass. He also had the Tailwind Army repair the walls and recruited troops from the prefectures already conquered. After all, he had few soldiers under his command, and the Wind-Treading Cavalry had been organized as light cavalry for long-range raids, making them unsuited to defending a city.
Fortunately, Sun