knife

Chapter 145 War begins

If you were to send 10,000 infantry and cavalry to attack places like Zhenwu City, Baoping City, or Tai'an City, he would definitely think that the person who gave the order was crazy.

But attacking Yuan'an City is a different story.

Compared to the three fortified cities mentioned above, Yuan'an City was just an earthen walled city.

In the past, Xiao Changche, who was poor and destitute, practiced offense instead of defense.

If you bite me once, I swear I'll bite you three times before I'm done.

Xiao Changche, like a mad dog, is quite a fearsome character. You might not make much money attacking Yuan'an, but if he gets a chance to bite you, the losses could be huge.

Therefore, no one wanted to mess with her.

This time it's different. Xiao Changche has been promoted to Protector-General of Anxi Protectorate, theoretically making him a figure on par with Linghu Ye. Moreover, the Yuan Dynasty has too many grudges against him. If they can take Yuan'an and give Xiao Changche a good slap in the face, it will be a huge political boost.

Moreover, the intelligence system of the Northern Yuan reported that Xiao Changche was still reorganizing his army outside Baoping City, while his main cavalry force was still in Baoping Prefecture clearing out the remnants of the Yan clan.

What they didn't know was that the general who swaggered around Aquarius City wearing a demon mask and surrounded by a retinue was nothing but a fake.

The earthen wall, over ten feet high, could be leaped over by skilled horsemen.

Xiao Dongwei stood on the city wall, watching the plumes of smoke rising continuously in the distance.

Everywhere.

That was when small groups of Yuan troops began to invade, sweeping and scouting the surrounding area. It was a pity that the houses of the local people were destroyed. Although they were just mud-brick and thatched houses, they were still a considerable asset for the people of Yuan'an!
Now it's all burned to the ground by those bastards.

Even more regrettably, in order to deceive the enemy, when evacuating the surrounding people into Yuan'an City, they forced these people to take only what one person could carry.

For example, if you can carry 100 jin of grain, you can carry 100 jin with you. If your family has 200 jin, then sorry, you can't take the rest.

Many people from Yuan'an left their homes in tears.

What they took away was mostly food.

For them, food is everything.

With food, one can survive; and as long as one survives, the other lost items can be earned back.

All of this was simply to create the illusion that the evacuation around Yuan'an was chaotic and hasty.

This was to convince Charlevin that the attack would be successful.

A burly woman with a thick waist and broad shoulders carried a stone weighing over a hundred pounds up the city wall. She threw the stone at the base of the wall and watched the thick smoke rising in the distance. Tears streamed down her face as she wiped her eyes and looked at Xiao Dongwei, saying, "My sow in the pigsty just gave birth to eleven piglets. I've never had so many in the past two years. I thought I could make a fortune, but now it's all gone."

Xiao Dongwei snorted, "What are you crying for? After this battle, I'll buy you a horse!"

The strong woman immediately stopped crying and looked at Xiao Dongwei, saying, "Deputy General Xiao, you can't lie to me. If you don't give it to me, I'll make a scene."

"Why would I lie to you? The Yuan army has sent several thousand horses this time. We'll wipe them out, and then you can pick them up in the wilderness!" Xiao Dongwei said, "If you keep crying and disrupting morale here, I'll tie you up and display you to the public!"

"General Xiao said before that all spoils of war would be turned over to the public and distributed uniformly. You're lying to us again, Deputy General Xiao!" The strong woman immediately became unhappy when she heard that it was about collecting spoils of war after the battle.

"Now it's not chariots, it's cavalry!" Xiao Dongwei corrected. "And the rules have changed too. From now on, all spoils belong to you! Tell your man that if he's still hiding in the back when charging into battle, he won't get any good loot, and he'll be crying!"

The strong woman was furious: "General Xiao, don't slander people so easily! My husband is the fiercest fighter in battle!"

"Hmph, so fierce in battle? I think you should take his place as a soldier. You're all skin and bones. Did you not feed him enough at home?"

A burst of laughter erupted from the surroundings, and someone shouted, "Deputy General Xiao, it's not that you're not full, it's that you've eaten too much! Look at Sister-in-law Wei's figure, how could Brother Wei not be full?"

Enraged, the burly woman turned around, picked up a large stick from the ground, and slammed it down heavily: "You damned bastards, you're trying to slander my man again, aren't you itching for a beating?"

The crowd dispersed amidst loud laughter.

"Deputy General Xiao, have you really changed the rules? From now on, whatever we seize in battle will be ours?" the strong woman asked.

“Yes, what you grab is yours, but you won’t get paid anymore!” Xiao Dongwei said.

The strong woman gave him a disdainful look: "That little bit of military pay isn't even enough for a family to live on! It's good that the rules have been changed!"

Watching the strong woman carry the stick down from the city wall, Xia Zhi, who had been watching the commotion from the sidelines, asked Xiao Dongwei with some confusion, "General Xiao, why is that woman surnamed Wei so thin even though she's eaten so much?"

Looking at Xia Zhitian, dressed in red, with an innocent and inquisitive expression, Xiao Dongwei suddenly felt an intense itch in his blind eye sockets behind his black eye patch. He rubbed them vigorously and chuckled dryly, "Well, actually, I don't know much about this either. You can ask General Gu later; maybe he knows!"

Xia Zhi nodded: "Senior Brother is indeed very knowledgeable. I'll ask him later. Oh dear, we can already see the enemy's banners. I'm going out to form ranks!"

"Be careful!" Xiao Dongwei warned. Xia Zhi grinned, picked up the horse-slaying sword that was even taller than her, leaped onto the city wall, and then floated down from the city wall like a fiery red flower.

As the war drums thundered, heavy infantrymen poured out of the city gates in droves and began to form ranks.

On the city wall, archers and crossbowmen took their positions.

Countless flags leaped out from the horizon, followed by countless small black dots rushing forward, and behind these scattered black dots, a black line slowly advanced.

Charlevin has arrived.

Knowing that Xiao Changche's three thousand iron cavalry were not in Chang'an, the Yuan cavalry were extremely arrogant, roaring in without any restraint.

Below the city, a thousand soldiers were divided into three small square formations, three hundred on the left and right and four hundred in the middle. The soldiers were covered in heavy armor and their spears were like a forest. In the very center of the formation, under the flying tiger banner, Xia Zhi, dressed in red, stood holding a sword.

Amidst a sea of ​​black armor, such a vibrant red flower stands out strikingly.

Ding Ergou, dressed in iron armor, with a steel knife at his waist and a long spear in his hand, glanced back at Xia Zhi through the gap in his visor, and felt a little more at ease.

The Flying Tigers have selected veterans to fight in Yuan'an this time, with Ding Ergou and Huang Dafu being the main force. Although their numbers are small, their combat power is extremely terrifying.

Ding Ergou is currently at the third level of the Solid Realm. The next step would be to enter the Qi Control Realm.

So even though he was wearing dozens of kilograms of iron armor, Ding Ergou didn't feel any burden at all.

If a large-scale mobilization were to take place, someone with Ding Ergou's cultivation level could command a hundred people, but right now, he can only command ten.

The leader of their 300-man team was Lü You, who wielded two large Xuanhua axes. The fat Lü You, a sixth-rank Qi Master, couldn't find any iron armor that matched his size, so he simply wore a piece of iron armor on his chest and back, which was then tied to his body with leather straps.

The Yuan cavalry roared and galloped around Yuan'an City. Many of the bolder ones even approached the infantry formations time and time again, their warhorses galloping up and firing arrows at the formations from dozens of paces away, testing the strength of the troops before them.

Generally speaking, it is difficult for new recruits to withstand such probing. Arrows rain down from the sky, which do not pose a great threat to heavy infantry, but the psychological pressure is still considerable.

After several probing attacks, the enemy remained completely unmoved, making no other unnecessary movements except to see them lower their heads. This was a well-trained force. Having confirmed this, the Yuan cavalry moved away, while the Yuan infantry pressed forward from a greater distance.

Using cavalry to charge such a heavily fortified infantry group is something only a fool would do.

Magic can only be defeated by magic. The infantry of both sides will engage in direct combat. As long as our infantry can break through the enemy's heavy infantry formation, then it will be the cavalry's turn to shine.

Lu You glanced back at the red flag in the hands of the general behind him, then turned around and shouted sternly, "By order of the central army, my troops will take the lead in attacking! Forward! Forward! Forward!"

With three sharp shouts, Lü You strode forward.

"Kill!" Ding Ergou and the others leveled their spears and followed Lü You forward.

The three formations were led by Lü You, with three hundred men at the front. The second group of three hundred men was led by Hu Kan, a butcher by trade. Hu Kan was at the fifth level of Qi Control and, like Lü You, wielded a heavy weapon: a large guillotine.

The four hundred men in the central army, personally commanded by Xia Zhi, were at the very end.

The three square formations are not the usual figure-eight formation or the triangular formation, but a rare trapezoidal layout.

The enemy infantry surged forward like a tidal wave, with rows of shield bearers leading the charge, followed by spearmen.

The Northern Yuan cavalry was renowned throughout the world, but their infantry was no less formidable. Even when launching a charge, they managed to maintain their formation, albeit crookedly, which was truly remarkable.

Looking at the forest of spears opposite him, Lü You took a deep breath, then his massive body leaped up, soaring more than ten feet, before crashing straight down into the enemy ranks.

Countless spears were immediately raised.

Lu You's body began to spin, and the two large axes spun like windmills as he spun, shrinking him into a large ball of flesh.

Then, he slammed it down hard.

Ding Ergou stood in the first row.

He felt a sudden weight on his hand, a tremendous resistance coming his way. At the same time, he felt something slam heavily against his breastplate, which hurt a lot.

He roared and thrust his hands forward. With a bang, he shattered the large shield opposite him. The spear pierced the shield soldier's chest. The shield soldier looked down at the spear in disbelief, and with a scream, he gripped the spearhead with both hands. Ding Ergou roared and forcefully lifted the Northern Yuan soldier's body up, then threw him away heavily.

The spear that had struck him in the chest broke. Ding Ergou looked down at his breastplate; it was dented inwards with a small hole in the middle.

I don't know if the bone is broken!
The thought only flashed through Ding Ergou's mind for a moment before he forgot about it. He threw away the spear in his hand and drew the steel knife from his waist.

After a round of thrusting spears at each other, the two sides collided head-on.

The Yuan army never expected that these enemy soldiers charging in a line were actually martial arts masters at the third level of the Solid Realm.

(End of this chapter)