Dorgon was exhausted to the bone, yet he still forced himself forward, because stopping meant death and only movement kept the illusion of survival alive.
His cavalry looked even worse.
The horses dragged their hooves as if molten lead had been poured into their legs, while the riders swayed on their backs with half-closed eyes, barely conscious and held upright only by habit and fear.
This was no longer a retreat in the normal sense.
This was survival stretched to its absolute limit.
Dorgon kept speaking, not because he believed his own words, but because silence would crush whatever little will they had left.
"Hold on a bit longer. Once we pass Jinzhou, we are home."
The words drifted through the wind, weak yet necessary, like a lie everyone agreed to believe.
Then something appeared ahead.
A small border fort stood quietly in the distance.
These forts were scattered all along the Ming frontier, remnants of the system built by Zhu Yuanzhang to lock down the Nine Borders and hold the empire together through sheer structure and discipline.
Time, however, had hollowed them out.
Most had become decorations, empty shells fading into the landscape, standing only because no one had bothered to tear them down.
Dorgon knew this.
He knew that around Jinzhou, most of these forts had long been abandoned, with Zu Dashou pulling all troops into the main city and playing his usual balancing game between survival and betrayal.
So Dorgon did not slow down.
He intended to pass by casually, like stepping around a useless rock on the road.
Then everything changed.
Heads appeared on the wall.
Not one or two, but a whole line of them, popping up almost in unison.
Shouts erupted from within the fort.
Soldiers ran into position.
Weapons were raised.
Formations locked into place with an efficiency that did not belong to a decayed outpost.
A moment later, the beacon tower ignited, sending a thick column of smoke straight into the sky.
Dorgon stared, his mind refusing to process what he was seeing.
"What the hell is this."
Behind him, the remaining five hundred cavalry echoed the same disbelief.
"What the hell is this."
Anger replaced confusion almost instantly.
"Zu Dashou, are you insane? If you are sick, go find a doctor instead of playing games here."
A Ming officer stepped forward on the wall and shouted back without hesitation.
"Zu Dashou is already dead under our blades. This land now belongs to Dao Xuan Tianzun."
Dorgon's thoughts stalled.
For a brief moment, nothing made sense.
Then he saw the soldiers on the wall raise their firearms in perfect coordination, each barrel aligning directly with him as if guided by a single will.
They did not fire.
They simply aimed.
The message was clear.
Come closer if you dare.
Dorgon felt his chest tighten, not from fear alone, but from the crushing realization that the world around him had shifted without his knowledge.
Yet retreat was impossible.
Behind him, Lu Xiangsheng was closing in.
Ahead of him, this fort blocked the only path home.
He had no choice.
"Charge. We go around it."
He drove his heels into his horse and surged forward, forcing momentum back into his collapsing force.
The cavalry followed immediately, not out of confidence, but because stopping would kill them faster.
They did not seek to fight.
They only wanted to slip past.
However, a border fort existed precisely to deny passage.
The ground around it was filled with obstacles, deer antlers, barricades, wooden spikes, fences, and random debris arranged in a chaotic yet effective pattern.
Dorgon's horse twisted and leaped, barely maintaining balance as it navigated the nightmare terrain.
Then the command came from above.
"Fire."
Gunshots exploded across the field.
The air filled with the sound of impact and the sharp cries of men being struck down.
One by one, riders fell from their horses, their bodies hitting the ground and disappearing beneath the chaos.
Dorgon felt the pressure of bullets slicing through the air above his head, each passing shot a reminder of how thin the line between life and death had become.
He gritted his teeth and pushed forward harder.
Fear no longer mattered.
Only movement mattered.
The defenders were few in number, barely a hundred men, and they could not sustain continuous fire.
After several volleys, Dorgon's force broke through.
When they regrouped on the other side, a quick count revealed the cost.
Another hundred gone.
Four hundred remained.
Dorgon did not allow himself to dwell on it.
"Keep moving."
Then he saw the horizon.
Smoke columns rising everywhere.
Beacon after beacon igniting across the landscape.
The entire defensive network around Jinzhou was activating.
This was no longer a scattered resistance.
This was a system closing in.
Dorgon's eyes hardened.
"Then we keep going."
Not long after, another fort appeared ahead.
Dorgon prepared to repeat the same maneuver.
But this time, something stood in front of it.
An army.
Fully formed.
Waiting.
A single banner rose above them, its character clear even from a distance.
Cao.
At the front stood Cao Bianjiao, mounted and steady, holding his spear with casual confidence, his gaze fixed on Dorgon as if watching prey that had already been cornered.
He spoke loudly, his tone almost amused.
"If I shoot you, it would not feel like a proper victory, so today I will kill you with this spear instead. Do you dare to face me."
Dorgon's vision turned red as rage burned away the last of his restraint.
"Shut up and die."
He drew his spear and charged.
Cao Bianjiao laughed and spurred his horse forward as well.
The distance between them vanished in an instant.
Their spears collided with a sharp, ringing impact.
Cao Bianjiao remained completely stable, his posture unchanged.
Dorgon's body shook violently, nearly thrown off balance.
Under normal circumstances, he would never have been this weak, but exhaustion had hollowed him out completely.
Cao Bianjiao shook his head slightly.
"So this is Dorgon."
There was disappointment in his voice.
Dorgon roared and charged again, forcing his failing body to respond one last time.
They crossed paths once more.
This time, Cao Bianjiao struck cleanly.
The spear hit Dorgon square in the chest.
The armor held, but the force drove him backward, throwing him off his horse and onto the ground.
The moment he fell, everything was decided.
Cao Bianjiao did not hesitate.
He rode forward and thrust downward.
The spear pierced through Dorgon's face, breaking through bone and ending everything in a single, decisive motion.
Blood scattered across the ground as the helmet flew off and rolled away.
Cao Bianjiao pulled back his weapon and exhaled lightly.
"This was not very interesting."
He raised his hand.
The army surged forward, swallowing the remaining four hundred cavalry without resistance.
The battle ended as quickly as it had begun.
The next day at noon, Lu Xiangsheng arrived with his infantry.
As they approached the fort, they saw a head hanging above the gate, swaying gently in the wind.
It was Dorgon.
Lu Xiangsheng stopped and stared for a moment before breaking into a rare smile.
"Which general is stationed here."
"I am."
Cao Bianjiao stepped forward and cupped his hands respectfully.
"Minister Lu, your strategy was flawless. The encirclement was perfect, and I merely followed your arrangement to complete the task."
Lu Xiangsheng blinked, clearly caught off guard.
"I do not recall making such an arrangement."
Cao Bianjiao smiled calmly.
"You are the Minister of War. All movements of the army fall under your command."
Lu Xiangsheng opened his mouth, then closed it again, unsure whether to argue or accept the logic.
It sounded correct.
Yet something about it felt completely wrong.
Cao Bianjiao removed the head from the gate, placed it into a box, and handed it over.
"Please take this back to the capital. With this, the voices advocating peace will lose their footing, and the pro-war faction will gain the upper hand."
Lu Xiangsheng's eyes sharpened instantly.
He understood.
This was not just a victory on the battlefield.
This was leverage.
"This time, the direction of the war can finally be decided."
And with that, the balance of the entire system shifted quietly, setting the stage for everything that would follow.