Chapter 640: Breaking the Formation 1

Bai Lang raised his hand to see the guest out, but Wang Ziteng still wanted to persuade him, "The imperial court has one hundred thousand troops, and you have no more than ten thousand; how can you possibly win? Listen to your uncle, just surrender. The granddaughter of the Duke of Rongguo is still waiting for you." Bai Lang smiled, "Whether I can win or not, we'll only know after we fight. Uncle, you may return; tomorrow on the battlefield, the outcome will be clear!"

Later that evening, the logistics troops arrived, and the Bai siblings all came, bringing a piece of news. "Sure enough, that Governor has defected again, but he doesn't have many troops in his hands now. Except for some officials, the military families in the city were all killed, so he really can't scrape together many troops. It can only be said that this is a verbal defection." The Governor could withhold grain and fodder, but Bai Lang's grain and fodder were obtained locally anyway...

Ultimately, Bai Lang had no people, so it was impossible to establish a political regime in the occupied areas. This person was now like a locust, belonging to the one-wave type that left no retreat, and could also be considered the so-called "forerunner for the king." "He who throws the world into chaos must be Lang!"

Would the morale of the army waver? With the experience and military command ability of those four younger siblings of the Bai family, the news that there was no retreat had already spread throughout the army. Logically speaking, this should have been the moment for the entire army to collapse and flee under the cover of night. However, those who fled were not even one-tenth, and they were mostly the rear guard that had just arrived. They reinforced the camp overnight, while Bai Lang slept soundly. After breakfast at dawn, Bai Lang began to put on his armor and casually laid out the battle plan.

"You four guard the main camp; Bai Bao and Bai Biao, follow my flag signals and take turns attacking. This battle should be over before we eat dinner today." Bai Lang had his two younger sisters help him put on his armor—those three women were too weak, and even lifting the parts of the armor was a struggle. Bai Lang put on his mountain-pattern armor and wore his helmet with the tassel tidied up. The horse was already prepared, with felt for arrow protection on the front, and armor on its neck and head.

Bai Lang took his saber and spear, vaulted onto his horse, and led three hundred elite cavalry out of the formation. Behind him was the main camp, and similarly, Bai Biao led one thousand spearmen to line up behind the obstacles and trenches outside the main camp. In front was the prefecture city; the so-called one hundred thousand imperial troops were half in the city and half stationed in camps outside, also thinking it was a pincer formation. Now the city gates were wide open, and squads of troops marched out of the city to form ranks. Outside the main army, there were of course obstacles, and the first to come out were the spearmen and crossbowmen to stabilize the formation and avoid being charged by Bai Lang.

The mobilization of the main army could be considered orderly; these were imperial troops fed with silver and aware of their numerical advantage, so their morale was not bad. Moreover, the most frequent drill in the Capital Battalion was forming ranks for the Emperor to see, so the formation was set up quite quickly. Seeing Bai Lang lead only three hundred elite cavalry out, they were even more contemptuous. By the time the hour of Chen arrived, the imperial army was ready and began to remove the obstacles, intending to press forward and fight.

If it were the Mongols outside the pass, they wouldn't do this. The reason they did so was that they habitually viewed Bai Lang's troops as just another rebel army of the imperial court equivalent to them. Bai Lang raised the long spear in his hand, and after a whistle, he led the elite cavalry to start a slow run. The cavalry that met them were naturally the imperial cavalry, and this batch of cavalry had come from Liaodong. Half of them were foreign troops and barbarians, Jurchen cavalry recruited from outside the pass by the Liaodong military families.

Bai Lang took the lead, first knocking away the arrows shot by the opponent, and crashed into the enemy cavalry formation. These Jurchen cavalry were also lancer cavalry, each carrying a large bow and a soft bow on their backs; they used the soft bow on horseback and the large bow when fighting on foot. Now, the arrows shot from the soft bows were all knocked away by this great general before them, and there was no time to use the heavy arrows of the large bows for foot combat, so they simply raised their tiger spears to charge. No matter what, these Jurchen cavalry were equipped with good armor; their generals were willing to spend money on these barbarians.

Bai Lang's horse was fast. With his right hand holding the saber and his left hand holding the spear, he drew a semicircle, crossed them under the horse's neck in front, and then separated them with a backhand. With just this one move, he had already killed more than ten Jurchen cavalry, and he broke through them, man and horse alike. Next, his left hand thrust repeatedly while his right hand slashed with great force. Within a few breaths, he easily killed his way through the charging formation, leaving a bloody alley behind him.

On both sides were the Jurchen cavalry and Liaodong cavalry he had killed. With him as the centerline, all Liaodong troops within a zhang to the left and right were killed. Now Bai Lang turned his horse's head. His three hundred elite cavalry were also possessed by the White Tiger ghosts, forgetting fear and roaring as they charged the formation. Bai Lang didn't want his own cavalry to suffer losses now, so he turned his horse's head to continue killing, but the Liaodong army actually scattered.

Bai Lang alone killed the most elite cavalry, and the remaining thousand or so actually lost their nerve. In front of Bai Lang's roaring troops, they turned their horses' heads diagonally and ran in circles. Bai Lang laughed, "Ignore them, follow me to trample the army in front!" After saying this, he charged directly toward the front of the imperial army. Naturally, he was greeted by a rain of arrows, but Bai Lang waved his weapons and knocked them all away. Where the saber swung, the spearheads were all cut off, and the next moment, the horse crashed into the formation.

The cavalry behind him also charged into the formation one after another. Bai Lang just killed all the enemy troops in front of him; even the general commanding the formation was just stabbed off his horse by a spear in front of him. The saber flashed, and the general's flag was also cut down. Bai Lang killed the general and cut the flag, moving forward without resistance, directly shattering the first formation of the imperial court and driving the defeated troops to charge the center army. He patted his warhorse's neck, and his hand was covered in sweat.

"Continuing like this will hurt the horse's strength. Although we can charge a few more times, it's not necessary." Bai Lang changed horses directly in the formation; anyway, there were plenty of ownerless warhorses in the formation he had broken. He ordered his elite cavalry to watch over their own horses, and Bai Lang continued to whip his horse and swing his saber to charge the second formation. The Liaodong army met them, shooting and stabbing the defeated troops who dared to charge their own formation without hesitation. Seeing this, Bai Lang abandoned his horse.

"I see it's hard to crash in with a horse. You all wait for me to break the formation before pursuing and killing. Raise the flag! Let Bai Bao bring his main force to fight." After Bai Lang gave the order, he dismounted to break the formation on foot. Imperial troops were flanking from both sides, and even the Shandong army went directly to attack Bai Lang's main camp. Bai Lang didn't care; what did it matter if the troops flanked? Now his cavalry subordinates were also dismounting one after another, preparing to fight on foot to break the formation. They couldn't care about the enemy troops flanking from behind.

Bai Lang swung his saber to chop off the spearheads in front of him, and the long spear swept horizontally, causing the soldiers to be beheaded in rows. Once such inhuman means were revealed, the imperial soldiers in the rear began to waver. Bai Lang killed like a storm; where he rolled, flesh and blood flew. As his soldiers killed more and more, the baleful aura and pure strength on their bodies grew stronger and stronger, looking like non-humans. ===== CHAPTER 641 =====