Tiger Owl

Chapter 236 Night Battle at Wild Elephant Pass

Zhou Guang nodded. "I know. Is there enemy activity?"

"Enemy scouts were spotted during the day, but there has been no enemy activity yet!"

Zhou Guang slowly said, "The enemy should have already laid an ambush. It's not even the first watch yet. They're waiting for the second half of the night, to launch a sneak attack after we fall asleep."

"Now we have five hundred men in total. Can we hold them off?"

"it should be OK!"

Zhou Guang said confidently, "They are just a raiding force, and their numbers won't be too large, at most two or three thousand. As long as we hold out until dawn tomorrow, my cavalry will be able to go into battle."

In a dense forest about two miles from Wild Elephant Pass, Shi Zhi led more than 2,300 soldiers to wait for the opportunity at midnight. They had discovered the transport team during the day, and Shi Zhi immediately gathered his men from all directions.

Shi Zhi initially only planned to lead two thousand men into battle, but Shi Xie temporarily gave him an additional one thousand.

Shi Zhi was originally eager to try his luck and make a name for himself, but after a fire killed more than 600 of his men, he calmed down.

If it were according to his previous personality, he would have already attacked after dark, but it was precisely because he had calmed down that he decided to strike at midnight.

Sometimes being calm isn't necessarily a good thing. It was precisely because of his calmness that he missed an opportunity. When he heard that hundreds of cavalrymen had entered Yexiang Pass, he was filled with regret.

At the second watch of the night, Shi Zhi could wait no longer and gave the order to attack.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The deep, resonant sound of war drums resounded as over two thousand Jiaozhi soldiers charged to a point a mile below the pass. The mountain path was narrow, allowing no large force to advance. The Jiaozhi soldiers had no choice but to file uphill.

The troops were getting closer and closer to the pass, but when they were a hundred paces away, the army stopped advancing.

The commander-in-chief, Shi Zhi, stared fiercely at the pass a hundred paces away. He had no experience in attacking cities; he was simply assessing how many troops the pass could accommodate.

"Send five hundred soldiers first!"

At his command, the war drums pounded, and five hundred Jiaozhi soldiers, holding wooden shields, swarmed toward the city wall.

At this critical moment, Zhou Guang bit his lip and stared coldly at the hundreds of enemy soldiers charging up from the darkness. Five hundred Jiaozhi soldiers rushed towards the city gate in groups on the mountain path that could only accommodate three to five people. After running for only twenty or so steps, their speed suddenly slowed down, and they began to move forward cautiously, their shields forming a shield wall.

The pass could only accommodate a maximum of three hundred soldiers. Three hundred Western Chu soldiers, each holding a crossbow, aimed at the ever-approaching Jiaozhi soldiers. They were waiting for the optimal firing range, which was about eighty paces. At this distance, the Western Chu crossbow bolts could pierce the oak shields of the Jiaozhi soldiers.

The enemy troops drew closer and closer, now within a hundred paces. The drumbeats ceased, and silence fell over the pass, broken only by the rustling sound of the Jiaozhi soldiers advancing.

Zhou Guang watched the enemy advance, and when they were within eighty paces, he gave the order, "Fire!"

Three hundred soldiers fired simultaneously, sending three hundred powerful crossbow bolts flying towards the enemy ranks from the front and sides. The crossbow bolts of the Western Chu army were extremely powerful, piercing through shields with armor-piercing arrows. A series of screams rang out as more than twenty Jiaozhi soldiers were shot down, rolling to the ground. Several soldiers even fell off the cliff next to them, tumbling down the hillside, their screams echoing long on the hillside.

But now that the war had begun, there was no reason to retreat. The Jiaozhi soldiers suddenly accelerated, charging frantically towards the mountaintop. Once they reached an open area of ​​thirty paces, their forces could expand to both sides. The Western Chu army unleashed a hail of arrows, three hundred men in three shifts firing in rotation. Groups of Jiaozhi soldiers fell screaming, and the enemy troops behind them surged forward again, advancing wave after wave to the beat of the war drums. The Jiaozhi army provided cover with their bows and arrows, raining down a dense barrage on the city walls. Western Chu soldiers fell continuously, but for every one that fell, another immediately took its place.

The battle was extremely fierce. On the short mountain path between eighty and thirty paces, corpses began to pile up rapidly. In just a quarter of an hour, more than two hundred Jiaozhi soldiers were killed or wounded. The first batch of five hundred men finally could not hold on and retreated like a tide.

Commander Shi Zhi snorted coldly. He had already discovered the enemy's weakness: they were not numerous. After the probing attack, Shi Zhi gave the order for a formal attack: "All troops, attack!"

The attacking Jiaozhi army suddenly increased fivefold. More than two thousand Jiaozhi soldiers roared and brandished their swords as they surged madly toward the mountain pass. Arrows rained down, and wave after wave of soldiers fell, only to be met with another wave of new soldiers rushing up.

Seeing the enemy's fierce offensive, Zhou Guang immediately ordered, "Bring three hundred incendiary bombs!"

Zheng Rong led his soldiers to quickly retrieve three hundred wooden crates, taking advantage of the temporary retreat of the Jiaozhi army.

The Western Chu army threw three hundred incendiary bombs onto the mountain path. The pottery jars were very thin, and they shattered after rolling a few times, and the oil immediately flowed all over the mountain path.

Just then, the war drums sounded again, "Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The commander-in-chief, Shi Zhi, personally led two thousand soldiers to attack again, swarming back along the mountain path.

Zhou Guang coldly ordered, "Everyone, prepare kerosene bottles and obey my commands!"

Each scout was equipped with five bottles of kerosene. Seeing the opportunity, Zhou Guang shouted, "Fire!"

Three hundred bottles of kerosene were lit and thrown at the Jiaozhi soldiers on the hillside. Thousands of Jiaozhi soldiers had already felt the slippery ground and smelled the pungent odor, but they did not know what it was.
Just then, countless fires rained down from the sky. Shi Zhi suddenly remembered the fires being thrown at them from the hillside. Terrified, he shouted, "Retreat! Retreat immediately!"

But it was too late. With a loud "boom," the flames instantly engulfed the Jiaozhi soldiers.

Thousands of soldiers screamed in agony. Countless people were set ablaze and turned to flee in disarray. Many had flames burning on their heads and bodies as they cried out and fell headfirst into the fire, slowly curling up in flames.

Shi Zhi led over a thousand soldiers who hadn't managed to attack and fled in a frenzy, running for two miles before disappearing back into the woods. Only then did he stop, still shaken, and gaze at the still-burning fire on the distant hillside.

They had never seen such terrifying fire weapons before. Even the burning of the valley a few days ago had not been as shocking or frightening as this moment.

"General, what do we do?" several generals asked in alarm.

Shi Zhi took a deep breath. "Let's go! The farther the better."

.......
Wangmei County had no civilians; all the civilians had been evacuated, leaving it as a completely military city. All the civilian houses had been demolished. The Western Chu army soldiers rested for three days, leaving more than 3,000 to guard Wangmei County and watch over the prisoners of war.

Bu Zhi continued to lead his 25,000 troops toward Longbian County.

The procession included hundreds of large wagons pulled by horses, all of which were spoils of war, including catapults and provisions.

Although the carts moved slowly, the Western Chu army still arrived at Longbian County by noon the next day.

(End of this chapter)