Chapter 1565: [Attack] (Part 2)

History has no shortage of precedents for using the Fire Ox Formation; skilled Beast Tamers can control the bulls' consciousness without harming them, but this method has a drawback: it affects the bulls' judgment and reaction ability.

Pain and the sensation of impending death most easily arouse a creature's potential; a thousand bulls, under the searing pain stimulus to their tails, forgot fear and directed all their hatred at the Xichuan army, charging forward fearlessly, using their sturdy bodies to block the enemy's forces and slashing lives with the sharp daggers on their horns.

After the poison rain, another frenzied slaughter ensued; the Xichuan army's advance had completely halted. At the forefront of the troops, a ****** bloody melee unfolded, flesh and blood flying, the bulls' formidable combat power making the enemy tremble. One bull slammed into a cavalryman, knocking his mount to the ground; although the cavalryman speared the bull's back, the tremendous impact's inertia flung him from the bull's back, he fell to the ground, and before he could rise, the enraged bull drove its horn-mounted steel blade into his chest and abdomen, then jerked its head, hurling his corpse far away.

Several bulls, horns tipped with steel blades, charged into the enemy camp with irresistible force, continually flinging enemies to the ground.

The vanguard camp of Xichuan was already in utter chaos; a voice in the crowd shouted, 'Hold steady! Everyone hold steady!' Yet it was Yan Hu Cheng who led the charge, fighting at the very front. Faced with a madly charging bull, Yan Hu Cheng showed no panic, urging his black horse forward. Just before impact, he lightly tugged the reins, steering the horse aside to avoid the bull's head-on collision, brushing past it. As they passed, Yan Hu Cheng raised his iron snake spear and thrust it fiercely into the gap between the bull's shoulder blades. The spearhead pierced deep into the bull's body, reaching its heart; the bull let out a mournful cry, its forelimbs gave way, and it collapsed with a thud.

Yan Hu Cheng pulled out the bloodied snake spear and shouted loudly, 'Spearmen, take the front to blunt their edge. Separate them and attack from the flanks!'

Yan Hu Cheng's voice had some effect; the soldiers who had just been thrown into disorder by the frenzied bulls began to regroup, separating the bulls and launching long-range attacks with spears, halberds, and similar weapons. After a bout of charging, the bulls' stamina began to wane, and their killing power noticeably diminished.

Kill cries rang out ahead as Yuan Qing Shan led five thousand men escorting the Tortoise-Shell War Chariots, already advancing to close range.

Yan Hu Cheng had never seen such war chariots; as each Tortoise-Shell War Chariot charged into our formation, it immediately protruded sharp long blades from holes around its iron armor. The blades whirred like windmills, pulled by the warhorses, surging into the battle formation and frenziedly slaughtering Xichuan soldiers. Irresistible, they swept all before them.

Yan Hu Cheng hurriedly issued orders: have the archers first shoot the horses pulling the Tortoise-Shell War Chariots, for he thought that eliminating the horses would deprive the chariots of mobility. But it was not as he imagined; even after killing those horses, the chariots could still move. The hundred Tortoise-Shell War Chariots spun blades all over, like slaughter machines; Xichuan soldiers' arrows and weapons could not pierce the iron armor, leaving them completely passive under the chariots' blows.

Yuan Qing Shan led five thousand elite soldiers in a mobile pursuit, advancing and retreating with measure.

After these three waves of impact, the Xichuan troops suffered heavy casualties; even while under the bulls' assault their morale had begun to disintegrate, and now the addition of these terrifying Tortoise-Shell War Chariots made them dread the sight, many turning to flee.

Su Yuchi waved a black flag, personally leading the 20,000-strong army to launch a decisive battle against the enemy.

Although the three attacks left Xichuan with over ten thousand casualties, they still vastly outnumbered the Yunyang side in troop strength. Yet after these three terrifying assaults, the morale that Xichuan had painstakingly built up from Yan Hu Cheng's three victories collapsed instantly. The killing power of the hundred Tortoise-Shell War Chariots was secondary; most importantly, they could tear apart the enemy's formation, preventing effective attacks, and while slaughtering flesh and life, they also relentlessly crushed the enemy's morale.

While Yan Hu Cheng was fighting blood-soaked, he suddenly heard the recall signal from behind; he could scarcely believe his ears—Li Yan, that good-for-nothing, actually sounded the retreat while the battle was still stalemated, which at such a moment amounted to surrender, and Su Yuchi would surely not let this chance to pursue slip away.

Upon hearing the recall, the Xichuan soldiers felt as if a burden had been lifted, turning and fleeing; their advance had been like a surging tide, but their retreat was like wind-scattered clouds, even swifter.

Su Yuchi raised his sword and shouted, 'Lads! Kill for me!'

'Kill!' The battle cry shook the heavens; 25,000 Yunyang soldiers' blood boiled, and like fierce tigers they flung themselves without hesitation at the enemy's formation.

Li Yan's reason for ordering a retreat was to preserve his own strength to the greatest extent; after learning that the Xingzhou side remained idle at the appointed time, his confidence completely wavered. Su Yuchi proved far more formidable than he had imagined—Poison Rain Formation, Fire Ox Formation, Tortoise-Shell War Chariots, one tactic after another appearing. Li Yan's mind went from assuming certain victory to doubt, and now he was utterly shocked by the enemy's astonishing combat power, able only to think of retreat.

Defeat collapsed like a mountain; the already terror-stricken Xichuan soldiers, upon hearing the recall, immediately turned and fled. Su Yuchi did not let them escape, leading his troops in relentless pursuit.

Above the battlefield, Hu Xiaotian, Xia Zhangming, and Zhuge Guanqi overlooked this heart-pounding war; Su Yuchi's combat ability far exceeded Hu Xiaotian's imagination. The Fire Ox Formation was nothing novel, but the appearance of these two killing implements—the Heaven-Shaking Crossbow and the Tortoise-Shell War Chariot—astounded Hu Xiaotian. The venom sprayed by the Heaven-Shaking Crossbow already belonged to the realm of biochemical weapons, and the Tortoise-Shell War Chariot was essentially a primitive armored vehicle. Fortunately these were directed against the Xichuan army; if turned on himself, he would hardly be able to cope unless he activated the Heaven-Shaking Thunder, otherwise he could not hope to match the enemy.

Hu Xiaotian originally thought that with Xichuan and Xingzhou attacking from front and rear, Su Yuchi would be hard-pressed, but once the battle truly began he realized the situation was not as he had imagined. Xingzhou's Guo Guangbi, cherishing his reputation, merely made a show of force symbolically without actually launching an assault on the city; as for Xichuan, although Yan Hu Cheng was brave, the war's outcome could not hinge on one person's valor, and in a conflict of this scale an individual's contribution was minuscule.

Su Yuchi won with fewer against many, reversed the situation, turned from passive to active, and the field had become a one-sided massacre. His side pursued for over ten li before sounding the retreat, slaying more than ten thousand Xichuan soldiers, with countless wounded.

The Xingzhou side under Guo Guangbi also received news of this battle immediately; after hostilities began they merely sent a symbolic detachment to hurl insults at the north gate, yet no matter how they shouted, the Yunyang side kept their gates shut, simply holding the door. Hearing that the Xichuan side had been routed, Guo Guangbi at once ordered his troops to withdraw ten li; he was no fool—Li Yan, leading a hundred thousand elite troops to besiege the city, had still been beaten by Su Yuchi into this miserable state, and Guo Guangbi knew he was far inferior to Li Yan in numbers, equipment, and combat power, so how could he dare to confront Su Yuchi head-on?

Xie Jian had already obtained the detailed battlefield situation from scouts; he furrowed his brows and entered Guo Guangbi's tent to report what he had learned point by point.

Guo Guangbi, hearing this, involuntarily sucked in a breath of cold air and said, 'Su Yuchi actually possesses such formidable weapons?'

Xie Jian nodded and said, 'Those two things are called the Heaven-Shaking Crossbow and the Tortoise-Shell War Chariot; the Heaven-Shaking Crossbow fires venom. According to the information we have, the Xichuan side has already lost sixteen thousand dead and over twenty thousand wounded—a truly heavy toll.'

Guo Guangbi felt a lingering fear; if Su Yuchi used those two weapons against us, we would be even less able to stop them. He said in a low voice, 'It seems we still lack understanding of Yunyang.'

Xie Jian said, 'As I have learned, these two weapons were sent to Yunyang before the war by the Heaven's Secret Bureau; according to their reports, they still have even more formidable tricks up their sleeve.'

Guo Guangbi paced back and forth, torn between staying and leaving. If they insisted on staying, with their present strength they could not possibly resist Su Yuchi's side; but if they left, they would have no way to answer to the Da Yong side, which would cut off their grain supply, leaving their tens of thousands of troops facing the prospect of starving to death.

Xie Jian saw his hesitation and said softly, 'My lord, even if we joined forces with Xichuan and added Hu Xiaotian, Su Yuchi's combat power would still be beyond us; the killing power of the Heaven-Shaking Crossbow and Tortoise-Shell War Chariot is simply too terrifying.'

Guo Guangbi said, 'You should know what awaits us if we go back.'

Xie Jian nodded and said, 'Yunyang is indeed the toughest bone to crack; since we cannot gnaw it, we had better abandon it while we still have some strength.'

Guo Guangbi shook his head and said, 'If we leave now we will not only be branded as faithless and treacherous, but also offend the Da Yong side, which would surely refuse to continue supplying us with grain.'

He pointed to the map above and said, 'My lord, we should decisively abandon Xingzhou and shift westward; staying means only a dead end, while withdrawing offers a chance of survival.'

Guo Guangbi pursed his lips; having spent so many years to establish this foothold, he now felt natural reluctance at Xie Jian's urging to give up Xingzhou decisively.

Xie Jian said, 'A rib, a rib—tasteless to eat, a pity to discard. The vicinity of Xingzhou has no civilian villages left; none of the powers of Da Yong, Dakang, or Hu Xiaotian can we match. I originally thought Su Yuchi was the weakest link, and if Xichuan could truly take Yunyang we might profit from it, but today's battle shows Su Yuchi is not the weakest—his combat power may be the strongest of all. If we insist on staying, we will either face annexation by Da Yong or have to resist Hu Xiaotian's attacks. My lord, we simply cannot afford to wage war.'

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Recently I have been studying at Lu Yuan, so updates have slowed; they will change in late month! Hope you all understand! (To be continued~^~)