Chapter 305: Fierce Battle

He Lingchuan had his eye on the hillside on the side of the high ground, shaped like terraced fields, where scrapped carriages and various sundries were piled up. Most importantly, the Yuan army's weapons were placed here!

Weapons were bound to be one of the targets the opponent wanted to destroy first. He Lingchuan had just led people to make arrangements here when the enemy troops arrived.

Zhao Pan's main tent was pitched on the high ground; there were several paths from the riverbank to the high ground, and the Xunzhou army's main force naturally had to choose the shortest main road to charge, while the rest spread out in all directions, finally forming a siege on the high ground.

The hillside He Lingchuan chose was on the side, with few attacking enemies, which was conducive to their steady and solid fighting.

You ask about the Xunzhou main force? Oh, there would also be Yuan army main forces defending in front of Zhao Pan's tent, which were also not to be trifled with; let them fight it out.

He Lingchuan would never be greedy for merit at a time like this.

Don't look at the chaotic and complex battle between the two armies; in the end, it was still decomposed into small teams fighting each other.

As long as He Lingchuan led the team to fight, he was contributing strength to his own camp. Not to mention, he had to intercept the enemies who came straight for the weapons.

As for Father—

He looked back at the main camp; He Chunhua was beside Zhao Pan, in the core of the entire troop's protection, which could be said to be quite safe.

A messenger rushed out of the main camp and ran to He Lingchuan, shouting: "The Superintendent has ordered, He Lingchuan, hold the weapon area firmly!"

Although a beat slow, He Chunhua quickly realized the importance of this position.

He Lingchuan pointed to the woods and said to the medicine ape: "You go into the trees." In battle, swords and spears have no eyes; it was better for this non-combatant to stay away from the battlefield.

Lingguang wasn't pretentious either; it jumped into the tree in two steps and disappeared in the blink of an eye.

The group had just finished arranging when the enemy arrived, shouting and killing.

Two large horses charged in the front, crashing up like the wind. The cavalrymen on the horses grinned and waved their long spears, aiming at He Lingchuan's brow.

This kid looked like a leader, weak and easy to kill; it was just right to snatch the first merit.

For this kind of enemy who didn't know the situation, He Lingchuan's reaction was to raise his middle finger and make a universal gesture.

Seeing this, his subordinates pulled the tripwire hard.

With a "duang" sound, the front hooves of the two warhorses were tripped, and both horses and men flew several zhang away.

The two cavalrymen were thrown into a daze and hadn't had time to crawl up before they became ghosts under the blades of Shan Youjun and others.

The remaining infantry were surprised and rushed up, roaring.

The archers hiding in the big tree in the rear began to snipe; in this dim environment, they could also achieve two or three arrows per person, very fast.

The remaining infantry charged a few steps against the arrows, then suddenly bent down in pain.

It turned out that poisonous caltrops had been scattered on the ground. These three-edged spikes were known as the nemesis of the soles of the feet; let alone humans, even if a bear demon stepped on them, it would howl and shed tears, and the soles of its feet would swell like buckets before long.

When He Lingchuan led his subordinates to hunt down the demons causing trouble, this treasure of poisonous caltrops had repeatedly made great contributions; today, using it to deal with people was just as effective.

He Lingchuan didn't stand on ceremony with them, taking advantage of their illness to take their lives.

The remaining lucky ones who hadn't stepped on the poisonous caltrops could finally fight them fair and square.

Although the Xun people sneaked onto the south bank during the night rain, the boats were limited after all. In order to transport as many troops as possible in a short time, they could only bring fewer horses and more people, which caused the number of cavalry to be far from enough, and the attacking team was mainly infantry.

Fortunately, the role of infantry in this kind of mountain warfare was not buried.

But clearly, the impact was smaller.

He Lingchuan chopped down one with a blade, bumped with his shoulder, and easily bumped another one flying, but he was stunned himself: were the Xunzhou soldiers so weak?

They were clearly not small in size and looked quite sturdy.

On that side, Shan Youjun and others were also fighting vigorously; if not for the arrows and stray bullets flying from the rear from time to time, they could almost fight one against three or four.

Not to mention the rock wolf showing great power, biting one to death in four or five bites. These Xun people under its mouth seemed to be thin-skinned and big-stuffed.

Instead, their attacks were weak; the rock wolf was chopped twice with an axe, leaving only a white mark on its fur, and not even blood seeped out.

Although its defense was originally high, it hadn't been like this in previous battles.

According to this situation, they could not only hold the hillside but perhaps even have a chance to organize a counter-push.

What was going on?

Jiao Tai had been burying his head in chopping people, chopped three, and suddenly turned to He Lingchuan: "Proprietor, the Xun people are very weak, look at them!"

He Lingchuan was already puzzled; after being pointed out, he looked closely: when the Xunzhou soldiers were fighting, there was no faint light flashing on their bodies at all.

Those in front were like this, and those in the distance were the same.

It was normal for there to be no light when the Xun people were lurking and approaching under the bank, but it was still like this in close-quarters combat, which only had one explanation—

He Lingchuan turned his head and used his true power to roar at the hillside: "The Xunzhou army has no primordial power!"

The roar was like thunder, covering the sound of wind and rain, traveling far away.

He even roared three times, and almost the entire battlefield heard it.

For the same army, having primordial power and not having it was a world of difference in combat power.

It wasn't just a matter of strength and agility bonuses; primordial power even affected damage reduction, immunity, and hit rate. So government soldiers were always relatively relaxed when fighting bandits, so the Yuan army fighting the Xun people—

Shouldn't have been terrified at all! At this time, the battlefield was chaotic, and the Yuan army had been caught off guard. Facing the enemy troops charging up waving weapons, some hadn't even put on their armor properly, and some were even knocked down by hurried companions or warhorses; how could they gather much fighting spirit?

The Yuan army at this time had very low morale. If the Xun people were strong, they could rout the entire troop in a few rounds.

In the final analysis, a battle is a test of strength and confidence. A successful sneak attack on a camp often lays a solid foundation for final victory.

At this time, He Lingchuan's shouting was a timely rain, waking the dreamer with one word! Zhao Pan couldn't hold back anymore, rushed out personally to chop down two or three enemy soldiers, and also felt the opponent was very weak. Hearing He Lingchuan's words, he suddenly realized: the Xunzhou army couldn't grow wings and cross the river, and the Hanhe River was suddenly so calm; it was mostly likely that old thief Nian had done something.

He couldn't resist the might of the Hanhe River with his own strength, so it was nine out of ten that he had misappropriated the primordial power of the entire troop!

No wonder, no wonder they could cross the river.

No wonder the Xun people were so weak; they had no primordial power at all right now!

"The Xun people have no primordial power, chopping them is like cutting vegetables!" Zhao Pan roared, "Kill for me! Kill them into the river!"

Bullying the soft and fearing the hard is an instinct engraved in the bones. The Yuan soldiers who were originally quietly fleeing heard that the opponent had no primordial power; first they were suspicious, but after blocking twice, they discovered:

Eh, really!

So they became bold and began to counterattack.

In fact, the Xun people at this time were indeed suffering, because the Green Intent Bottle continuously extracted primordial power to suck the flood rushing down from the upper reaches into the bottle, giving the rear fleet more time to grab the crossing. Therefore, after landing, every Xun soldier actually felt exhausted, depressed, and had negative states like fear of the enemy and weariness of war, just like running thirty miles with a heavy load on a rainy night, wishing they could fall down and sleep for a long time.

It could be said that their morale was already negative.

Although the Yuan people who were sneak-attacked were panicked, they at least had primordial power to protect them.

If this tug-of-war continued, the scales of victory would sooner or later return to the Yuan people.

Going against heaven, the price paid was indeed heavy.

Fortunately, Nian Zanli had long foreseen this, and before setting off, he had gone through two or three rounds of mobilization, clearly telling all soldiers "as long as you persist for half an hour, you will win," and at this time, the supervisory team was shouting "move forward to live, retreat to die," forcing everyone to charge forward desperately.

Both sides were trying every means to boost morale.

Whoever's confidence collapsed first would lose.

At Nian Zanli's order, the twelve cannons on the riverbank were reloaded and began a new round of high-angle firing! If military strength wasn't enough, firepower would make up for it.

At this time, the Yuan elite were all protecting Zhao Pan and He Chunhua, engaging in fierce fighting with the Xunzhou army's main force. Once the crowd gathered, it was the best target, and at least nine of the twelve cannons aimed here to fire.

With a few rumbles, four or five shells landed within the high ground one after another, knocking down a large area with mother-son shells.

The personal guards behind Zhao Pan fell in response, and he himself was almost hit, roaring angrily: "Scatter, all of you scatter!"

A shell also landed near He Lingchuan; his inner warning signs were triggered, and he had already ordered everyone to avoid it, but two personal guards still stood too close, couldn't avoid it in time, and died on the spot.

Even Jiao Tai was hit in the left arm by the lead balls blasted out; fortunately, it didn't break.

He Lingchuan cursed, looked back at He Chunhua, and saw him looking solemn and issuing orders, but he didn't seem to be injured, which made him feel relieved.

Above the Yuan army's main camp, a thin, pale green light shield suddenly appeared, as if it existed or not, very inconspicuous in the darkness.

However, the shells fired from the riverbank hit the light shield before landing, triggering a series of explosions.

The light shield flickered a few times and actually held up.

Afterward, the lead balls in the mother-son shells fell down; because there was no superimposed explosion power, the threat to people was very limited.

Wave after wave of arrow rain was also intercepted, and very few could find gaps to shoot in—

The battle formation was finally activated, and the Yuan people's pressure was greatly reduced in a short time.

In fact, this battle formation was not very tight and could not be called all-encompassing or without dead angles; gaps would appear on the light shield randomly, which was a coordination problem for the formation mages—after all, this formation required more than twenty people to cooperate—or the profound crystals were not supplying enough energy.

These two things were almost unavoidable; the matter arose in a hurry, and Zhao Pan didn't have high requirements for the formation, as long as it could hold off large-scale attacks as much as possible and drag it out as long as possible.

In the Yuan people's eager anticipation, the weapon area behind He Lingchuan's team finally started working; the stones thrown by more than a dozen catapults were at least larger than a millstone, all aiming at the cannons on the bank and the boats near the bank.

Due to the interference of the torrential rain, several cannons couldn't work; the Yuan people didn't have water-repelling talismans like their opponents, so the long-range power was greatly reduced.

However, the giant stones thrown also smashed three cannons and two ferries, and the rest fell among the enemy troops, smashing out large areas of flesh and blood flying.

The Yuan people cheered.

As time dragged on, the scales of victory were tilting toward them. After carrying the fiercest first few waves of attacks, the Xun people's army clearly showed the disadvantage of lacking stamina.

(End of Chapter) ===== CHAPTER 306 =====