Chapter 683: Two‑Sided Assault, the Opening of the Flesh Mill

All troops, hear the order: advance!

Feng Muye stood upright on the command vehicle. The Xuan Armor reflected the scorching sun.

He swung his horizontal blade forward with a fierce slash. The blade tip pointed straight at the chaotic mass of Qi troops in retreat. Those men flailed about like headless flies.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

With that command, ten thousand Great Zhou infantry square formation instantly activated.

Heavy war boots stepped uniformly onto the cracked earth. The ground emitted a heart‑pounding thud. The sound carried a rhythmic beat of death. Each footfall made the stones on the surface tremble slightly.

It struck like a heavy hammer, crushing the fragile heart of the Qi soldiers.

Raise shields! In step, advance!

The snarls of junior officers rose and fell. Their voices carried a cold hardness.

The black shield wall resembled a moving steel citadel. It slowly pushed north. Between the cold shield gaps, countless long spears angled toward the sky. Cold glints flashed continuously among them.

A Qi Captain of the Ten stared at the advancing black wall. The broken sword in his hand trembled uselessly. With a sobbing voice he shouted, "This… this isn't a human at all! It's an iron‑forged monster!"

Shut up! Spread out! Don't block my escape!

A comrade behind him shoved him hard, only to find there was no way out ahead.

Feng Muye stared coldly at the trapped beasts. His tone was icy, without a hint of fluctuation. It seemed he was not issuing a killing order but moving beads on an abacus.

Release the arrows!

The two thousand cavalry on both wings instantly loosened their taut bowstrings.

A piercing buzz merged into one. A dense rain of arrows rose into the air. They interwove mid‑air into black, death‑god wings. The noon sun was instantly eclipsed.

The dark cloud carried a mournful whistling. They plunged into the Qi formation like a swarm of locusts.

Puff! Puff! Puff!

The sound of sharp arrows piercing flesh was dull and brief.

My eye! Ah!

A Qi soldier clutched his eye socket and collapsed. Blood gushed wildly through his fingers.

Don't stop! Trample over the corpses and charge!

The Qi Junior Officer shouted hoarsely. In the next second he was nailed to the ground by three arrows. His limbs convulsed. Blood foam mixed with organ fragments spewed from his mouth.

Kill!

The Qi front line was being baptized by the arrow rain. From the rear, Chen Yan finally launched the final all‑out assault.

Over nine hundred elite cavalry ceased deliberately keeping a half‑li distance. They instantly became a black torrent, crashing into the Qi rear ranks with a force that tore down everything.

Chen Yan led the charge on his mount. The jet‑black warhorse, Black Dragon, let out a fierce, long neigh.

The horse spear in his hand surged like a poisonous dragon from a cave. Harnessing the warhorse's ten‑thousand‑jin charge, each thrust inevitably claimed a life.

Pfft!

A Qi centurion wore a snarling face. He had just raised his battle blade to rally the scattered troops when Chen Yan's horse spear already swept past his blade. The long spear precisely pierced his throat.

Chen Yan's wrist twitched. Using the warhorse's momentum, he flicked the body, sending the hundred‑plus‑jin corpse swinging aside like a stalk of straw.

The body smashed over several fleeing soldiers. Chen Yan said coolly, "Want to organize resistance? Not in this life."

His gaze burned like a torch, cutting through layer upon layer of blood mist, fixed unwaveringly on Gao Xiaoyu's conspicuous golden hue.

The battlefield's center had become a massive Flesh Mill. Heat rose from it, and a foul stench filled the air.

Lu Ming fully activated his peerless mode amid the crowd. His terrifying frame, nearly two meters tall, wielded a forty‑jin steel heavy spear. It was the infantry's nightmare.

Monster! He's a beast drilled out of hell!

Several Qi soldiers stared wide‑eyed. They watched helplessly as Lu Ming's spear cleaved their own Captain of the Ten at the waist. Guts spilled across the ground. Someone was so frightened they wet themselves on the spot, yellow fluid dripping down their trousers.

Lu Ming grinned, his blood‑splattered face looking especially ferocious in the sunlight. He resembled a shura descended.

He swung the heavy spear violently. The spear tip generated a piercing rush of wind.

Run! Why have you stopped? Where's the ferocity you showed when besieging the city?

Bang!

Amid the whistling spear wind, the flesh‑bound bodies seemed so tiny.

Before absolute power, the Qi army was easily torn apart, shattered.

The Qi army's interior completely fell apart, trying to evade Lu Ming and Chen Yan's unilateral slaughter.

The remaining Qi cavalry astonishingly began galloping to trample their own infantry.

Move aside! Get out of my way! If you don't want to die, scram!

A Qi cavalryman wildly swung his battle blade, hacking at his own comrades blocking the way, his eyes reddened as if about to bleed.

They're our own! You're insane, pfft!

A veteran hadn't finished shouting when a warhorse mercilessly stepped on his abdomen, the ground emitting a tooth‑aching bone‑cracking sound.

Gao Xiaoyu drifted with the current, surrounded by his personal guards.

He watched the scene, his stomach churned repeatedly.

His complexion turned as pale as a corpse, muttering to himself.

How could this happen, how could we be defeated so quickly…

Feng Muye's advance remained steady and cold.

He strictly carried out Chen Yan's pre‑battle instructions.

No large‑scale surrender was accepted, no effort was spared.

Raise spears!

Thrust!

The Zhou infantry marched in perfect unison.

The Long Spear mechanically thrust out through a gap in the Shield, then withdrew.

Each time it withdrew, the spear tip was drenched with spurting fresh blood.

"Spare me! I surrender! I surrender!"

A Qi army soldier dropped his sword and knelt on the ground.

He raised both hands high.

"Puff!"

The Long Spear, without any hesitation, pierced his chest.

Feng Muye coldly watched from the command vehicle.

He showed no mercy.

"The Pillar of the State said, the debt of Gancao City must be repaid with lives."

"Pillar of the State! That dog Crown Prince is over there! I'm staring at that golden armor, it's dazzling!"

Peng Chong swung his sword, cutting down the charging Qi troops.

He shouted hoarsely at Chen Yan, his face excited, "I'll go snatch him over and make him your Night Pot servant!"

"Hahaha! Old Peng, your Night Pot must be a bit too precious!"

The Zhou Army soldiers around burst into loud laughter.

Chen Yan's voice thundered across the noisy battlefield.

The voice fell clearly into everyone's ears.

"Gao Xiaoyu! If your father knew how disgraceful you look today, he'd probably be so angry he'd fall off the Dragon Throne!"

Gao Xiaoyu curled up within the Personal Guard formation.

His teeth chattered, clicking.

He was about to crush his silver-filled mouth.

He stared fixedly at the distant large banner of Duke of Wei Chen.

His eyes were filled with bitter poison.

"Chen Yan, you vile mongrel..."

"His Highness, the situation is lost. These twenty thousand men cannot be saved!"

The Commander of the Personal Guard was drenched in blood. He had just personally slain a deserter trying to seize the Crown Prince's horse. He leaned close to Gao Xiaoyu's ear. His voice was pressed down to a whisper, tinged with frantic resolve.

"We must have the brave cut off their wrists."

Gao Xiaoyu looked at the scattered limbs and broken arms covering the hills.

Those soldiers who fought desperately for his ambition now turned into mush under the horses' hooves.

A faint, extremely weak struggle flashed in his eyes.

But it was instantly swallowed by fear.

"How to cut? Tell me how to cut!"

"Use these twenty thousand broken soldiers as flesh shields, to draw the Zhou Army's main force's attention."

The Commander of the Personal Guard pointed at the rolling hills to the west. His tone was urgent: "His Highness, change into ordinary soldiers' armor at once. We'll take the few dozen elite Personal Guard and, while the front is chaotic, break out west!"

"But, but that's the west. It's a barren desert…"

Gao Xiaoyu asked in a trembling voice.

"Head west! Cross that desert and you'll reach the western border of Lingzhou!"

The Commander of the Personal Guard stared fixedly into Gao Xiaoyu's eyes.

"As long as we can see Duke of Kudi, we can keep our lives. Then we'll kill our way back for revenge! His Highness, hesitate any longer and we'll truly be dead!"

Gao Xiaoyu watched Lu Ming charging from afar.

With each step that death god took forward, several Personal Guard fell.

He nodded fiercely.

His movements were astonishingly swift.

"Good! Do as you said! Quickly, strip that corpse's clothing off for me!"

He fumbled, unfastening the expensive gold‑inlaid battle armor. His fingers trembled constantly from excessive tension.

"As long as I can survive, after returning home you'll grant me a marquisate and a ministerial appointment. I will never break my word! Faster! Faster!"

At this moment, Gao Xiaoyu completely abandoned the last shred of responsibility as commander.

He no longer cared about the lives of the twenty thousand troops.

He only wanted to stay alive.

Even if it meant stepping on the bodies of those twenty thousand comrades.

Even if he had to scurry into a hole like a mouse.