Chapter 1011: The Heavy Cavalry's Slaughter

Chaos.

Everything visible seemed to be at war.

The chaos was even more exaggerated than a pot of porridge that had been stewed and stewed through.

But in the eyes of those commanding officers, such chaos was normal and also orderly.

The only one who might feel a bit of a headache was probably Li Qichen.

He, whose plans had come to nothing, was now furious, yet had nowhere to vent.

He knew Chen Wuji possessed Shocking Heaven Thunder, a great killer, and took special precautions, covering the warhorses' ears in advance.

Having never truly experienced Shocking Heaven Thunder, he misjudged its lethal power.

He didn't expect that plugging their ears would be useless.

Having realized this in time, he intended to use the heavy cavalry's brutal charge to break Chen Wuji's formation, unleash a powerful killing force, destroy their morale, and turn the tide; unexpectedly, Chen Wuji's troops were slippery, always keeping an elusive distance, impossible to catch.

The heavy cavalry's charge was indeed unstoppable, but it had a well-known flaw: it was clumsy.

Lacking agility and mobility, it runs out of steam!

Facing the Nan Jun cavalry, which darted near and far like monkeys, ever elusive, Li Qichen's heavy cavalry was nothing but a clumsy shield.

With power and lethality maxed out, yet they couldn't hit anyone.

On the contrary, his own formation was repeatedly thrown into disorder by Shocking Heaven Thunder, leaving men and horses overturned, a utter mess.

Li Qichen collapsed.

Damn it, how could there be such a devilish thing as Shocking Heaven Thunder in the world? The person who created it deserves to die!

Watching his three thousand heavy cavalry, painstakingly built at great cost, dwindle wave after wave, now having lost hundreds, Li Qichen's eyes turned red.

"Withdraw!"

Li Qichen blew hard on the bone whistle hanging from his neck.

No matter how unwilling, he must withdraw now.

If he continued to hold out, he wouldn't inflict much loss on Chen Wuji; instead, his own losses would keep growing, for they had already caught on, and their harassment tactics were becoming ever smoother—so in the end, only he would suffer.

After charging back and forth in Chen Wuji's camp, and then rushing out to engage the Uyghur heavy armored cavalry for several li, upon hearing Li Qichen's whistle, they hesitated not at all, instantly turned their steeds and followed him eastward at full gallop.

The retreat whistle instantly lifted the already severely sagging morale.

Fists as big as sandbags pounded repeatedly on cotton, leaving the soldiers unable to hold out any longer.

They were tired.

At last they could return.

But Chen Wuji would not let them get away so easily.

"Chase them!" Chen Wuji ordered in a low voice.

In the middle of the night they disturbed his sleep and destroyed the camp tent he had built at great expense; this score cannot be left unsettled, the iron tortoise can't move—now is the time for a proper reckoning.

At the sound of the order, Qin Yu's unit, the Neck Mansion Camp, surged forward first.

"Brothers, strike while he's sick, take his life!" Qin Yu, seeming mad, roared at the top of his lungs.

"They have armor, we have armor too; they only have extra armor on their warhorses, which is no advantage but a burden, it will exhaust these cowards, then we'll slash them down!"

"Even if we fall from our warhorses, we are still the bravest infantry! Kill them for me!"

Li Qichen's retreat not only filled his own troops with sudden hope, but also greatly boosted Chen Wuji's morale, which had been brewing all night and now erupted in an instant.

The young soldiers craved merit, and this was the best moment to establish it!

There is no time when it is easier to gain merit than when the enemy retreats and we pursue.

What had been a tentative skirmish instantly turned into a reckless pursuit and a panicked rout.

Li Qichen was almost going mad!

Since the formation of this heavy cavalry, this has been the most suffocating battle.

No exceptions!

They were once merely his personal guard, later becoming the peak cavalry of the entire Uyghur people, victorious in every battle, never having met an equal.

But today, all of that has been shattered.

They suffered their first ever disgraceful retreat since the unit's formation.

Like a grandson trapped in a crack.

The roar of Shocking Heaven Thunder kept exploding in their ears, the warhorses went mad, knights were thrown from their mounts.

Li Qichen watched helplessly as this unfolded.

He could only withdraw now.

He felt ten thousand urges to turn back and fight, but reason told him he couldn't.

If he did, even he himself might not make it back.

Chen Wuji is too sly.

So sly that he could find no opening.

Although they met the enemy in disarray, his cavalry acted as if they had drilled the tactic beforehand, smoothly entering the battlefield and instantly splitting into several forces at first contact—you go high, I go low, you go low, I go low, taking turns to harass.

This style of fighting gave Li Qichen the feeling of having blundered into a fly nest.

He could barely swat a few flies, yet the flies kept buzzing back and forth before his eyes.

They nauseated him, picking at him.

"Your Highness, we can't go on like this."

A knight, man and horse both panting heavily, rushed to Li Qichen's side; the warhorse gasped as if possessed, its hooves tangled, and from beneath the rider's faceplate came ragged wheezing breaths.

Li Qichen could tell who was speaking just by the sound.

This was his subordinate, the commander Mo Le, a fellow who loved married women, always sneaking into the felt tents of big-waisted, big-bottomed women, taking pride in it, and boasting to anyone about his frenzied exploits of a certain night.

I know, but what can we do? Chen Wuji is like an annoying horsefly; our troops and horses are all exhausted—what can we do? Li Qichen shouted in a muffled voice.

Mole shouted loudly, panting heavily: "Your Highness, let the deputy general take some men to stay behind as rearguard; if we keep going like this, I fear no one will escape."

"Cut the crap, how many people can you block?" Li Qichen roared, "Look behind you—Chen Wuji is advancing on three fronts simultaneously, harassing from left, right, and rear; how many can you stop?"

Senhan's face mask blocked Mole's expression, but Li Qichen seemed to see him smiling.

"Your Highness, I still have 228 troops; blocking three directions is enough." Mole shouted, "Even if I can only hold them for a moment, you and the other officers and soldiers will gain a chance to survive—we can't keep going like this. Chen Wuji's stockpiled Shocking Heaven Thunder clearly hasn't been exhausted; if they keep throwing thunder like this, we… might not make it back."

"Cut your mother's stinky fart, we are the Uyghurs' bravest and most skilled knights—how could we possibly be defeated in these desolate mountains? You damn well run, old man; any more nonsense and we'll beat you to death!" Li Qichen roared.

Mole shook his head. "Your Highness, you know I never like to boast! Chen Wuji has surely already seen through our army's plan; he's just waiting in ambush."

"Your Highness, the deputy general speaks out of turn, but we can no longer underestimate Chen Wuji—this is absolutely our Uyghurs' greatest enemy; acknowledging his strength is not our incompetence, but rather heroic insight."

"We Uyghur people who soar on the highlands have never feared defeat, nor feared death."