Chapter 95

He Lingchuan felt secretly regretful; he hadn't practiced at all, yet this arrow had been remarkably accurate! He had already climbed over the second layer of the wagon formation and was hiding behind a carriage to fire these arrows, so he was actually only a dozen steps away from Meng Shan.

Of course, that was measured by Meng Shan's stride.

For the next arrow, he aimed for the opponent's knee, the same spot Commander Xiao had hit earlier.

Unfortunately, the accuracy was off this time; the crossbow bolt stuck into the opponent's thick armor without even piercing a plate.

He simply fired another arrow.

Well, it didn't even scratch the opponent's skin.

But Meng Shan was successfully enraged.

More importantly, he remembered that his primary duty was to break the formation! Commander Xiao was hard to kill, so he should finish his mission first.

Therefore, taking advantage of Commander Xiao being knocked back, he turned and charged toward the second layer of the wagon formation in long strides! Mud and water splashed everywhere, and He Lingchuan even felt the carriage he was lying behind trembling along with it.

"Get out of the way!" the squad leader nearby hurriedly ordered.

Everyone scattered like birds and beasts.

With a crisp sound, the carriage toppled and the chest fell.

Meng Shan let out a roar and actually lifted the carriage high over his head, throwing it into the river! In that instant, a green light surged on his body.

"Holy crap!" Seeing this, He Lingchuan scrambled away, but while running, he didn't forget to fire one last arrow, shooting his final piece of stock.

He chose a particularly vicious moment—just when Meng Shan was throwing the carriage and both his hands were occupied.

The other Dafeng soldiers had the same idea, and arrows arrived like rain.

Meng Shan immediately ducked his head.

He was already red-faced and thick-necked; ducking his head was like a turtle retreating into its shell, and most of the arrows hit his heavy armor.

But two arrows still found their mark: one hit his neck, and one hit his eye socket.

Meng Shan didn't fall, however; he leaped, followed immediately by a ground shield bash.

Another group of Dafeng soldiers fell.

"Stop jumping." He Lingchuan felt anxious. This guy wasn't a toad, so why was he so good at hopping? If he jumped a few more times, he'd clear the trap!

Fortunately, this move didn't seem like something he could use at will. Meng Shan switched to a long-strided charge, preparing for a collision.

There was no good outcome to being hit by him; He Lingchuan was a living example.

But he had only run three steps when a crisp metallic sound suddenly came from the ground—"Crack!" Meng Shan felt a tightening on his leg, pain piercing his heart, and he couldn't even stand steady, collapsing forward.

When he landed with a painful roar, the ground shook as if it couldn't bear the weight.

"He's hit, he's hit!" Everyone was overjoyed and cheered. He Lingchuan let out a long sigh of relief:

"Thank you, Governor Sun."

Meng Shan looked down and saw his lower leg firmly clamped by a giant animal trap.

He couldn't fathom for the life of him why such a thing would appear on a battlefield! In fact, these were stock items from Governor Sun's chest, each over three feet in diameter, four in total, originally intended for catching bears. Those creatures could grow to over 1,200 jin, with thick hides and immense strength, so the traps used against them were the largest size, with super-strong clamping force.

The Dafeng army had specifically buried them in the mud two zhang behind the second wagon formation, sprinkling mud and leaves on top and inserting a grass marker that only their own people could understand. In such pitch-black conditions, who wouldn't fall for it?

This was the underhanded trick He Lingchuan had devised.

No matter how powerful Meng Shan was, he hadn't transcended the category of a human; once clamped by this thing, his leg bone snapped on the spot.

Wearing nearly 200 jin of heavy armor, he couldn't stand up at all and could only roll on the ground, howling earth-shakingly.

Seeing this, He Lingchuan finally vented the pent-up anger in his heart.

"Fill the gap!" The squad leader directed everyone to move the carriages again to plug the hole in the defensive line. During this time, sporadic enemies charged over, but they were all dealt with.

Clearly, Meng Shan enjoyed high prestige among the Baling army. Once he fell and began to wail, it immediately crushed the morale of a large group.

The Dafeng army's opponents suddenly became weaker.

Originally, they had the bonus of the State Decree, making them stronger than individual opponents, and now that the gap had widened further, they killed with even greater ease.

The battle line slowly pushed back, even threatening to return to the first wagon formation.

As long as this gap was plugged, the Baling army's previous efforts would go down the drain.

Just then, the archer on the riverbank suddenly pointed and shouted, "Enemy reinforcements, enemy reinforcements have arrived!"

No sooner had he spoken than the horns of attack sounded from behind the Baling army.

Commander Xiao stabbed an opponent to death before asking upward, "How many enemies?"

"Eight hundred, no, at least a thousand!"

The enemy reinforcements had arrived first. Commander Xiao's face was as dark as water; he waved for the soldiers in the rear to climb out of their cover and clear the enemies within the first wagon formation first.

The carriages here were nearly smashed to pieces and needed to be rearranged.

Working while under fire from the enemy was a daunting task.

He Lingchuan, wounded, remained behind the second wagon formation and asked another injured soldier, "Why not release the Soul-Confusing Insects to help?"

The Soul-Confusing Insects were the Three-Corpse Insects; that's what everyone called them.

"Huh? What are you saying?" The injured soldier squinted at him. "What is that? Never heard of it."

Uh, did these Dafeng soldiers not know about the existence of the Three-Corpse Insects either?

He Lingchuan had no way to explain and could only laugh dryly. "Nothing, nothing, I might have misremembered." But he muttered to himself, could it be that Commander Zhong and General Hong treated the Three-Corpse Insects as a secret weapon, unknown even to their own people?

So, in the end, he still had to rely on himself.

The Dafeng army had just finished setting up their defenses when the enemy tide surged up.

Half an hour later.

The hillside by the river was stained with blood; hardly an inch of mud had been spared.

Of the three-layered wagon formation, the first two were completely destroyed, with only the last one still standing firm.

He Lingchuan and the others had retreated behind the third defensive line. This was the Dafeng army's final line of defense and their foundation for survival, so the offensive and defensive battle between the two sides was exceptionally fierce.

The archers on the riverbank had also been cleared out by the opponent; that was now the enemy's high ground.

The arrows flying down from above caused great interference for the Dafeng army.

Such an isolated and helpless situation was the most despairing thing of all.

A man whose lips were cracked and whose face was numb muttered, "Where are the reinforcements? Where are our reinforcements?"

The opponent's reinforcements had arrived, so why were theirs so late to appear?

Commander Xiao was also covered in wounds; a graze on his face had caused the flesh to turn outward. It was a stray arrow shot from above the riverbed that had nearly taken one of his eyes.

"They will come," he said coldly. "Hold your blade tight, and if you ask one more time..."

He didn't finish, because a broken spear shot from behind the carriage, piercing the man's heart—

This man would never have the chance to ask again.

Hu Min raised his hand and fired an arrow back from behind the carriage, avenging the man.

He was too close to the carriage; He Lingchuan picked him up from the ground and moved him a few steps away, leaning him against a rock.

Hu Min nodded at him. "Thank you, I'll remember you."

He Lingchuan smiled back, though he knew that was impossible.

(End of Chapter)