Chapter 10: Burning Horses to Break the Siege

"Brothers, set fire to the horses!"

Chu Feng, in a flash of inspiration, ordered the soldiers to set fire to the horses.

Upon receiving Chu Feng's order, the soldiers did not hesitate to throw the torches in their hands into the horse corral.

As soon as the torches landed in the corral, a raging fire ignited, and many warhorses even had their tails set ablaze.

Unable to endure the burning of the flames, the warhorses went mad, one by one, wanting to leave this place of trouble.

This ended up causing great misery for the group of Xiongnu soldiers who had gathered around.

"No good, the horses are spooked! Quick, quick..."

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

What animals fear most is fire.

Countless warhorses began to flee in all directions, stimulated by the flames.

The Xiongnu soldiers gathered around were instantly caught in the disaster.

They had originally thought that by relying on their massive numerical advantage, they could easily wipe out Chu Feng's unit.

Who would have thought that this massive numerical advantage would, at this moment, become their greatest shackle.

In order to escape this place, countless Xiongnu soldiers had long since fallen into chaos.

Most of them were either trampled to death by their own people or kicked to death by the spooked warhorses.

It is unknown how many Xiongnu soldiers' bodies on the ground had already been trampled into pulp by this moment.

"Brothers, take the opportunity and run!"

Taking advantage of the chaos created by the warhorses.

Chu Feng immediately led his unit to charge out from the Xiongnu's encirclement.

After breaking out of the encirclement, everyone ran forward like madmen.

They ran for an unknown distance before finally coming to a halt.

"Big Brother, the Xiongnu didn't catch up!" Niu Yuan walked up to report the situation.

"Everyone rest where you are, count the numbers!"

In a short while.

Liu Peng summarized the unit's losses.

"Big Brother, we have forty-five brothers left, and half of them are carrying injuries!"

"The losses are this heavy?"

Chu Feng murmured.

Their losses alone exceeded half, and it was unknown how many of those two thousand people were still alive in the end.

But this was not a situation for Chu Feng to consider; war had always been this way since ancient times.

As for the Xiongnu camp, they didn't need to worry about it; causing them such a huge mess was enough to keep them busy.

On the other side.

The Great Wei cavalry responsible for the harassment also chose to withdraw their troops and return to camp at this time.

Two thousand against tens of thousands, and furthermore, dealing with the Xiongnu who were even more adept at cavalry warfare, they simply could not gain much of an advantage.

Therefore, Xu Hong and Peng Yuan, who were in charge of commanding the battle, immediately decided to quit while they were ahead.

The remaining Great Wei soldiers also hurriedly withdrew from the scene after achieving their goal.

There were simply too many Xiongnu soldiers here; continuing to stay would only lead to the entire army being wiped out.

"Look quickly, the Xiongnu camp in the distance is on fire!"

"Really?"

The soldiers responsible for guarding the walls of Dingning Pass immediately gathered together.

The flames in the distant Xiongnu camp were burning very fiercely and were quite conspicuous.

They lit up the entire area as if it were broad daylight.

"Haha, these Xiongnu dog pups have finally gotten a taste of their own medicine, let them be arrogant!"

"Indeed! It's a real pity I didn't go, otherwise I would have definitely chopped off a few Xiongnu dog heads!"

"But have you noticed, the Xiongnu camp located in the west was the first to catch fire, while the other areas were much slower!"

"It really is, how could that be?"

The garrison soldiers gathered together and talked incessantly.

By this time, the sky was already beginning to brighten.

Dingning Pass North Gate.

A group of battered and exhausted troops appeared nearby.

"General, they have returned!"

"Oh? Go and welcome them quickly!"

Upon learning that the troops who had raided the camp had returned, Zhao Ping went to welcome them in person.

These were all lone heroes who had performed great meritorious service.

It was precisely because of their sacrifice that the pressure suffered by Dingning Pass would be reduced significantly.

The city gate opened.

The troops led by Tang Kai walked in one after another.

When they left, there were as many as two thousand of them, but upon returning, the number was not even three hundred.

The two Thousand-Man Commanders Chang Yi died in the chaotic battle, and Liang Zhou was severely wounded, still having two arrows stuck in his body.

Tang Kai was not doing well either; there was not a single intact spot on his entire body.

"Brothers, you have worked hard. On behalf of all the soldiers and civilians of Dingning Pass, I express my gratitude to you!"

Everyone was speechless.

To be precise, they did not know what they should say.

"For the raid on the camp last night, everyone is credited with a merit and rewarded with ten taels of silver. Wine and meat have been prepared for you, brothers; go down and get some good rest!"

After leaving, Zhao Ping inquired about the situation of last night's battle.

According to the report.

The battle last night was a surprise attack initiated by Liang Zhou's side, and the results achieved were also the greatest.

Zhao Ping praised Liang Zhou endlessly.

Only when he learned that it was Chu Feng who led his unit to sneak up to the enemy camp and open a path for the troops behind.

Zhao Ping was secretly surprised, lamenting that this kid was truly no ordinary person.

But when he asked where Chu Feng was now, Liang Zhou fell silent.

It turned out that they had not seen each other since Chu Feng killed his way into the enemy camp.

It was very likely that Chu Feng had already perished inside.

"Sigh, go down and get some good rest!"

Zhao Ping sighed.

He had long known about Chu Feng's situation; he was a rare genius of the Martial Dao.

He had intended to cultivate him well after he returned from the camp raid, but as a result...

The scene shifts.

The Xiongnu camp.

After the Wei soldiers retreated.

The Xiongnu camp was already in a state of total disarray at this moment.

Everywhere there were charred corpses and burnt-down tents.

As well as warhorses running around in panic due to the stimulation of the flames.

It was not until dawn that the Xiongnu camp stabilized the situation, but the losses were extremely heavy.

Inside the tent of the Zuo Xian.

All the generals present were as silent as cicadas in winter, not even daring to breathe loudly.

The losses caused to them by the Wei soldiers last night were simply too great.

No one dared to open their mouth to explain the situation, for fear of facing the monstrous rage of the Zuo Xian.

"Which fellow was responsible for the watch last night? Drag him out and chop him up to feed the dogs for this King!"

The furious Zuo Xian immediately took the officer responsible for the watch last night as the first target.

The enemy had already reached their doorstep and they were still completely unaware; if he didn't behead him, who would he behead?

"What were the losses last night?"

After ordering the execution of the watch officer from last night, the Zuo Xian finally began to ask about the specific losses from last night.

"This..."

The people present looked at one another, and finally, a Deputy General stood out.

"Great King, the Wei Army raided our camp last night, and our army suffered over sixteen thousand casualties."

"More than half of the provisions were lost, and most of the warhorses went missing; only a few hundred were found back this morning. The damage to tents, equipment, and so on..."

"Enough, say no more!"

Listening to the battle damage reported by his subordinate.

The Zuo Xian's face turned green.

In just one night, such huge losses were caused, and the number of casualties actually reached over ten thousand.

They only had one hundred thousand people in total.

One-tenth was lost in a single night.

The most important things were the provisions and warhorses.

What Xiongnu soldiers relied on most were horses; they were almost all natural cavalry warriors.

The loss of most of the warhorses was equivalent to weakening their most elite strength.

Then there were the provisions.

Attacking Dingning Pass was for the purpose of plundering the supplies of the Da Wei Dynasty.

But right now, they had lost half of their provisions directly.

Coupled with the fact that winter was approaching soon, all these things were extremely unfavorable to them.

"Zhao Ping, that scoundrel!"

The Zuo Xian roared in a rage, "Immediately assemble the army for this King; today, you must break through Dingning Pass for me!"

Facing such huge losses.

Even the Zuo Xian, who had been through a hundred battles and spent half his life on horseback, was so angry that he lost his reason at this moment.

This time, it was truly a disgrace of epic proportions.

To suffer such a high casualty ratio against a few thousand people.

If the Right Wise King were to find out about this, he would definitely laugh his head off.

"Great King, absolutely not!"