A full-on offensive on the city soon started. The Wan cavalry charged out of the city gates in a very threatening manner, followed by a great number of infantry part of whom were carrying shields. Anybody could tell from the menacing air they were emanating that the Wan Kingdom was determined to win this battle.
Jiang Xi and He Xiao didn’t dare take the enemies lightly. As bugles of both sides sounded attack in unison, the two of them leading the cavalry charged at the enemies.
The two opposing cavalries were both large, and the ground was making a perpetual rat-tat as horses’ hoofs stamped on it, the quake of it spreading outward as though in response to the beat of war drums. The whole battlefield instantly turned into an ocean of militant spirit.
Every one of the Wan cavalrymen had a fierce look in their eyes. They had sworn to crush the cavalry of the Great Wen, so they were charging in an uncommonly ferocious fashion.
When they were halfway to the front of the enemies, however, the cavalry of the Great Wen suddenly split up into two groups and galloped towards the two wings respectively, seemingly intending to outflank them.
The Wan cavalry found it hard to believe. Though the opposing cavalry were the equal of them, staying together to fight them head-on was the safest strategy, but they were actually splitting up on their own initiative! Wasn’t this suicide?!
The commander of the Wan cavalry was overjoyed to see this scene, feeling that it was a godsend. Since Yuwen Tong’s men were seeking their own deaths, they would be fools not to seize the opportunity and rout the enemies.
“Advance! Kill them all!”
“Advance!”
“Kill them!”
Their morale boosted, the Wan cavalry charged forward even faster, targeting the opposing cavalry.
They were galloping so fast that it was too late for them to stop when they found that something was wrong.
Some of the cavalrymen of the Great Wen suddenly strained at a long rope they were holding, which blocked the path of the Wan cavalry like a hurdle. The vanguard of the Wan cavalry tripped over it and dashed to the ground one after another like dumplings being poured into a wok. Those behind them, what with the inertia, were unable to rein in their horses in time and crashed smack into the horses ahead. Because of their fast speed, the force of the impacts was so great that their horses neighed madly in pain. The cavalrymen either flew forward or fell heavily to the ground; some of them got their feet caught in their stirrups, and when their horses turned sharply, their legs instantly broke; some others, after landing on the ground, were trampled by horses galloping from behind.
But this was not the worst part. As the cavalry of the Great Wen scattered, a team of archers emerged and with that sharp arrows accompanied by chill airflow were fired at the Wan cavalry unhesitatingly. The warhorses in front, along with their riders, took the brunt of the first salvo.
The battlefield was soon full of intermittent cries of anguish and curses. The same thing was happening in several spots. The cavalry of the Great Wen extended their formation. Almost half of the vanguard of the Wan cavalry lost their lives because of the rope the sudden appearance of which caught them flat-footed, and those who survived soon got killed when the arrows rained on them. Though a few of them flukily survived both, the cavalrymen of the Great Wen charged up to them and took their lives as their warhorses turned around.
Thus, the vanguard of the Wan cavalry were wiped out only a few moments after engaging their adversaries.
Such a disastrous outcome shocked all the other Wan soldiers.
The cavalry of the Great Wen, while the enemies were in shock, regrouped and charged at the main force of the Wan cavalry once again.
“This can’t be happening! How could they have tripped so many people?!”
Many Wan soldiers couldn’t believe their eyes.
How was it possible to trip the vanguard charging with that momentum with a mere rope?
In fact, were the cavalrymen and the ropes common ones, they would have not only failed to stop the charging enemies but also been dragged off their horses and ended up grievously wounded or even dead.
However, those holding the ropes were not common soldiers but special cavalrymen with very powerful internal energy and extraordinary physical strength, all of whom were, when not on the battlefield, heroes capable of fighting off kung fu masters vastly outnumbering them. On this occasion, masquerading as common cavalrymen, blending in with the crowd, they were barely recognizable.
It hadn’t been easy for Yuwen Tong to seek out and recruit these men.
The Wan soldiers were blindsided by this unexpected change, but the troops of the Great Wen, however, had been expecting it. Therefore, Jiang Xi and He Xiao, without further ado, charged at the main force of the Wan cavalry who had not come to themselves yet, their men closely following in their wake.
“THEY’RE COMING! WATCH OUT FOR THEIR ROPES!” bawled the commander.
Though why those ropes were so stout was a mystery to them, it was a fact that their fellow cavalrymen’s warhorses had tripped over them. The commander was instantly on the alert at the sight of the opposing cavalry led by Jiang Xi and He Xiao charging at them.
Because of this, the Wan cavalrymen did not dare charge fast and, most of their attention concentrated on guarding against the enemies’ ropes, tried to dodge when the enemies split up into two groups once again.
But as they turned their horses, a team of archers on horseback emerged from behind the cavalry of the Great Wen, drew their bows and fired arrows at them without hesitation.
The sounds of arrows penetrating armor and flesh were heard at fleeting intervals, cavalrymen and warhorses sinking to the ground in patches amid a rain of arrows.
The commander cocked an eye at the enemies and found that this time they were not using any ropes and were just pretending to be! What with this, many of his men had been unprepared for the arrows and shot to death!
“Fuck! These bastards are so crafty. Nobody falls back another pace! Charge and kill them all!” The commander was beside himself with fury.
Another batch of cavalrymen were downed in the time it took for them to turn around and make a beeline for the enemy archers on horseback after finding themselves fooled.
Meanwhile, the cavalrymen led by Jiang Xi and He Xiao also hurtled towards the opposing side.
Owing to the chaos at the beginning of the fight, the Wan cavalrymen were still in a state of bewilderment. On top of that, watching their fellow cavalrymen going down one after another, many of them were baffled as to what was going on and thus powerless to defend against the pre-planned assault of the enemies during which they were soon slaughtered.
It had been barely an hour since the start of the battle, but the Wan Kingdom had lost nearly one third of its cavalry.
Jiang Xi and He Xiao made a perfect team. While some of the Wan cavalrymen had not regained their composure, the two of them, along with their troops, started massacring the enemies. Other soldiers of the Great Wen, inspired by the valour of the two of them, charged at the enemies as well, their morale soaring, their faces glowing with militant spirit and hunger for the enemies’ blood.
Ling Zhang, who was standing on a chariot watching the battle, also felt an overwhelming urge to join the fight and would have jumped off the chariot, mounted Snowflake the horse and galloped towards the enemies had he not promised Yuwen Tong he would stay put.
But Yuwen Tong beside him was very composed, watching the fighting develop with his penetrating eyes.
Because although things were going smoothly as planned, and they had faced the Wan cavalry down in the first battle, in his eyes this was just a beginning, and only when the war was won would they be able to call themselves the winners.
Ling Zhang clenched his fists, staring fixedly at the fighting, his desire to join it still churning inside him.
The objective of this offensive was to annihilate the cavalry of the Wan Kingdom. Xiao Jiangyue and the others’ task was to assist Jiang Xi and He Xiao and hold back the reinforcements of the enemies so that Jiang Xi and He Xiao’s men could wipe out the Wan cavalry famous in the three countries.
As a result, the fighting between the two opposing cavalries was the most intense on the battlefield.
Watching Jiang Xi and He Xiao battling the enemies with their men, Ling Zhang was feeling not only an urge to join the fight but also a mounting nervousness.
Fortunately, Jiang Xi and He Xiao lived up to the expectations of their comrade-in-arms. After almost two hours’ fierce fighting, they successfully exterminated the Wan cavalry isolated by infantry of the Great Wen. Even the commander of the Wan cavalry, after being grievously wounded, died to Jiang Xi’s spear.
“Bravo!” Ling Zhang involuntarily let out a cheer at the sight of the commander’s death and then exhaled deeply, unclenching his tight fists slowly, a hum in his head because of the abrupt sense of relief. Just now he had been so nervous.
A thunderous cheer went up from the troops of the Great Wen on the battleground. They had suffered heavy casualties as well during the fighting, but now that this formidable Wan cavalry had been eliminated, the Wan capital had lost its strongest protectors, and the rest of the defenders were no threat to the Great Wen.
Compared with the rapturous troops of the Great Wen, soldiers of the Wan Kingdom were in a deathly silence. All of them found it hard to believe that their cavalry, their most trusted and strongest armed force, had actually been defeated – wiped out, to be precise …
It had been the strongest cavalry of the Wan Kingdom, one that they had been proud of, but it had actually been disposed of just like this!
The defeat came as a greater shock to surviving Wan soldiers than the death of their monarch would have been.
The army of the Great Wen exploited the victory by hot pursuit and killed all the other Wan soldiers on the battlefield. The city gates of the capital were tightly shut and no reinforcements whatsoever were sent out.
The great battle lasted a whole day and it was not until night fell that the fighting came to an end.
Yuwen Tong looked at the city gates of the Wan capital which had been closed from start to finish, a derisive expression in his eyes.
“Sound retreat.”
The bugle sounded retreat and with that the army of the Great Wen fell back. Given the current circumstances, it was inadvisable to continue the attack. The Wan capital, which had been reduced to a paper tiger, was still standing there, alone and vulnerable. The falling night seemed to be a herald of the city’s fate.
…
The gates of the Wan capital, though still tightly shut, were unable to provide any sense of security for the residents or officials inside the city. Their strongest defense lost, they were like turtles in a jar waiting to be caught by the soldiers of the Great Wen. They were really scared. Citizens packing things helter-skelter could be seen everywhere. They wanted to flee the city, because they were not inclined to die with it.
Officials in the royal palace of the Wan Kingdom, as though having died with the soldiers, gave no reaction to the panic among the citizens.
The courtiers, after coming to know the disastrous defeat of the cavalry, retired to their respective abodes one after another on the pretext of not feeling well. The palace, well-lit as it was, was empty except for a small number of courtiers and Shan Congli, who had been sitting on the throne in silence all along.
The staying courtiers were trying to convince Shan Congli to flee.
“Sire, we may flee north through the secret passage leading off the city. We still have some troops garrisoned at the northern border, and after we get there, we can lead them out of the pass, subjugate those tribes, incorporate their men into our forces, muster all our troops and make a comeback! There’s still hope!”
“Sire, His Lordship is right. You must not give up because of this setback. We’ll do everything in our power to help you take back what’s rightfully yours, whatever the cost!”
“Yes, Sire. Flee this city right away. Where there is life, there is hope.”
The hall was full of intermittent suggestions from the courtiers, but Shan Congli was still sitting motionless on the throne, appearing not to hear any of them, gazing fixedly out of the audience hall, looking like a cornered beast. There was no sign of life on him except for the look in his eyes, which was rather scary. Gradually, the courtiers’ voices died away. Faced with this seemingly lifeless Shan Congli, they were at a loss what to do.
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