knife

Chapter 706 Ending
As dawn broke, a sliver of pale light appeared in Ma Dacheng's eyes.

Standing atop the city wall, he could clearly see the unusual activity within the enemy's sprawling camp.

Although wisps of smoke rose from the vast camp, the sounds of men shouting and horses neighing could still be heard.

But the feeling it gives is always completely different from the past.

Of course, only those who have served in the military for a long time can understand this feeling.

“Li Guohua probably already left last night!” he suddenly said.

“I feel the same way!” An Xuan nodded beside him. “The camp across the way has lost its usual solemn atmosphere. It feels floating and light!”

"So, did Cui Ming and the others run away too?" Zhou Zhi glanced at the two of them. "If he ran away too, wouldn't all your preparations from yesterday have been for nothing?"

“It’s also possible he’s escaped!” Ma Dacheng said. “But I still think Cui Ming will make a last-ditch effort. For example, right now, he’s lying in ambush in this seemingly empty camp.”

"Is he trying to lure us into attacking him, and then turn the tables on us?" Zhou Zhi chuckled. "He's trying to lure us into attacking him, and then turn the tables on us?"

“It’s not impossible!” Ma Dacheng laughed. “Li Guohua is dreaming. He’s killing two birds with one stone. He’s using Cui Ming and his men to cover his main force’s retreat while also setting a trap for us. If we think they’ve all left and rush straight into their camp, Cui Ming will ambush us from all sides, annihilate our troops leaving the city first, and then take advantage of the chaos to attack the city.”

Zhou Zhi nodded: "That old bastard Li Guohua is very cunning, even more so than Linghu Ye. He really knows how to pull off such a trick!"

“I’ll give it a try!” An Xuan laughed. “I’ll lead my cavalry out, but instead of attacking their main camp, I’ll go around to the side.”

“That’s exactly right!” Ma Dacheng said, “Firstly, it can test how many troops Li Guohua has committed to this final attack. If the enemy is committing all their forces, you should immediately flee. If they are not committing enough, then you can cut off their retreat and annihilate the remaining troops.”

"Then I'll go!" An Xuan cupped his hands in greeting and left the city.

A moment later, the thunder of hooves sounded, and the side gates on both sides of Yangguan opened simultaneously. Two groups of cavalrymen rode out from the side gates, first gathering together and then, after peeking around and observing for a while, they bypassed the main camp and galloped wildly towards the rear at the sound of horns.

An uproar immediately broke out in the camp.

Li Guohua's main force began to withdraw last night, but he still left some room for Cui Ming's final attack. This trap, designed to lure the enemy in the city to attack, was his design.

Whether it was Ma Dacheng or An Xuan, they were both seasoned veterans of the battlefield, and they could tell whether the camp was real or fake.

Based on the current battle situation, Ma Dacheng judged that the enemy had abandoned their camp. This was actually a routine operation. In general, under such circumstances, ambushing the enemy in the main camp to launch a counterattack would not actually help the overall situation. A rational commander would not do this.

Therefore, Li Guohua felt that the other party might still take the bait.

Because at this moment, Cui Ming was far from calm.

Just as he told Li Guohua, without the Cui family of Boling County, they would become rootless duckweed, dependent on others.

If they can reclaim Boling County as soon as possible, that would be fine. But if they fail to reclaim it for a long time, the decline of the Cui family is to be expected.

Cui Ming is going all out! Well, even if Cui Ming loses all five thousand armored men here, Li Guohua doesn't care. He even thoughtfully left two more elite family teams for the Cui family.

These two prominent families had an extremely close relationship with the Cui family, and their long-standing intermarriages had created a deeply intertwined bond. They originally wanted to go with Li Guohua, but Li Guohua insisted on keeping them there, leaving them with no choice but to grit their teeth and stay. Refusing would not only be disobeying military orders but also offending Cui Ming.

For Li Guohua, if he didn't cause you to split into four or five factions, you would still be able to unite with the remaining forces of the Cui family after returning home, and they would still be fighting against the imperial court. So he naturally wanted to take this opportunity to solve the problem once and for all.

Cui Ming knew he couldn't wait any longer.

The enemy's tactics were extremely shrewd; this move, combining offense and defense, effectively cornered the troops ambushed in the camp.

"Beat the drums, blow the horns, attack!" Cui Ming shouted sternly.

With the sound of drums and horns, thousands of armored men, along with their vassal tribes, poured out of the camp.

Leading the charge was Cui Ming, the head of the Cui family.

The power of innate masters is undeniable, just like when Li Dachui attacked Shu from Yinping Trail. Without corresponding masters to resist innate masters, the city's defenses pose no threat to them.

When they were still a hundred paces away from the city gate, two spears appeared in Cui Ming's hands. With a flick of his wrist, the spears shot straight toward the city gate like streaks of light.

On the city wall, Zhou Zhichang laughed and waved his hand, sending out two more spears to intercept them mid-air. With a deafening roar, all four spears shattered in mid-air.

"Old man Cui Ming, I've come to have a go at you!"

Like a roc spreading its wings, Zhou Zhi descended from the sky, holding a large sword in his hand.

All the gates of Yangguan were wide open, and countless soldiers poured out of the city. On the city walls, rows of archers appeared, and arrows rained down from the sky.

Behind them, An Xuan's three thousand cavalry, who had previously circled around, turned back after confirming that Li Guohua's troops had withdrawn, and attacked Cui Ming's rear.

There were originally more than 30,000 troops in Yangguan. Several thousand went to Huoshan Fortress and several thousand went to Huxiaoyuan. There were still about 20,000 troops in Yangguan. When Li Guohua's main force was there, the Yangguan garrison naturally did not want to fight in the field against an opponent that was many times their size. It would be foolish not to make full use of the strategic pass.

But now the enemy is exhausted and their morale is low, so we should take advantage of their weakness and finish them off.

On the main road leading to Boling County, a long procession stretched out.

Li Guohua stood on a high ground, looking towards Yangguan with a gloomy expression.

"General, everything is ready!" A general jogged up to Li Guohua and whispered.

Li Guohua nodded: "You stay here. Take in as many as you can! If the Beiting army doesn't know what's good for them and doesn't know how to restrain themselves, then we might as well give them a good beating so they'll remember that we're not easy to bully!"

The general nodded vigorously: "Understood, General. When we were fighting the Yuan people to the death, they were nothing but a bunch of bandits. They really thought we were easy targets. I'll show them that we are rock solid!"

(End of this chapter)