Chapter 1023: Countermeasure

"Da-da-da..."

The tongues of fire from the machine guns appeared exceptionally bright in the night.

Seeing signs that the fleeing Piaoman soldiers were turning back, Guan Tong felt not a shred of worry, but instead grew excited.

If the Piaoman were only launching a probing attack and would retreat upon meeting resistance, that would actually disappoint him.

A desperate, all-or-nothing gamble was exactly what he wanted.

"The General truly guessed the enemy's intentions this time; they are determined to drive us into the Great Swamp tonight," Yan Heng said with a wide grin, like a hunter watching prey fall into a trap.

Guan Tong smiled smugly, "Then we won't be polite. Let's see how long they can hold out. Right, have the commanders prepare for a pursuit; this time we will annihilate them in one fell swoop."

"Yes, General." Yan Heng looked excited as he turned and left.

Immediately, Guan Tong looked toward the charging Piaoman soldiers again.

Under their counterattack, the five hundred Elephant Cavalry of the Piaoman were either dead or running about in chaos, which created no small amount of disorder for the Piaoman army.

Now, only the Piaoman Infantry were charging at them.

These Piaoman Infantry were numerous, each holding a Long Blade, charging toward them in a dense mass with less than two meters of space between each soldier.

Such a dense formation became a ready-made target for the machine guns.

Although they came wave after wave, they were still unable to break through the short distance of two hundred meters.

However, some Piaoman soldiers did manage to charge within fifty meters.

At this moment, the Vermilion Bird Army soldiers immediately used Hand Grenades to kill the enemy, wiping out these approaching Piaoman soldiers.

The intense charge and counterattack lasted for a full hour, and the corpses of Piaoman soldiers carpeted the battlefield.

Afterward, their offensive suddenly stopped, as if they had received an order.

This order was issued by none other than Yongya.

In just one hour of charging and killing, they had paid the price of sixty thousand deaths.

Most importantly, despite so many deaths, they still had not caused any damage to the Vermilion Bird Army's defensive line.

"Your Majesty, what should we do now? It is obvious that the thing that can fly into the sky and provide illumination is the firearm of the Da Song army," a Piaoman commander asked, his face tense.

"And that firearm that can fire continuously is too terrifying; otherwise, it would be impossible for us to have lost so many soldiers in just one hour," another added.

"I believe the Da Song army was not tricked, but rather intentionally played along with our ruse."

"..."

The commanders spoke one after another, and Yongya grew increasingly irritable as he listened.

He roared, "All of you, shut your mouths."

With his chest heaving violently, he raged, "What to do? What else can we do! Now you understand the power of the Da Song army; we couldn't even beat them in a night raid, so how are we supposed to fight the next battle!"

The commanders fell silent.

What Yongya said was the truth; the current Da Song army was too terrifying, even more so than the Frankish army of the past.

Back then, they surrendered because they feared the Frankish firearms and Artillery.

Now, the Da Song's firearms and Artillery were even more terrifying than the Frankish ones.

This battle was simply impossible to fight; after an entire night raid, they were practically throwing their lives away.

"All gone dumb?" Seeing the commanders not speaking, Yongya became even more furious.

Da Song was the enemy of the Piaoman, and they had originally thought that by riding the coattails of the Westerners, they could take revenge and encroach upon Da Song.

Now, the situation had reversed.

If they could not annihilate this Da Song army, Da Song would inevitably devour the Piaoman Kingdom.

What to do?

He struggled violently in his heart.

Even with sixty thousand dead, he still had three hundred and forty thousand men available; should he just let this opportunity slip away?

"There are only two paths to take now: one is to charge again, and the second is to stop engaging the Da Song army and instead rendezvous with the Western Lands Allied Forces to fight the Da Song army together with the Westerners." After thinking for a while, Yongya proposed two methods.

He paused and faced the commanders, "Tell me, which one should we choose?"

"Continuing to engage will only increase casualties in vain; it is not wise. It would be better to choose the second option," a commander said after hesitating for a while.

"But the time it takes to find the Western Lands Allied Forces is enough for the Da Song army to seize our entire Piaoman Kingdom.

If the Westerners then break their promise, wouldn't we be left homeless?" another commander said.

"This war was the Westerners' idea in the first place; their determination to eliminate Yan Wang is firm, and they will not betray us."

"But if we miss this golden opportunity, I fear the Westerners will look down on us."

"..."

The Piaoman commanders argued back and forth, falling into a dispute.

Yongya was also in a dilemma; he looked toward the Da Song army's camp, his teeth itching with hatred.

Just as the Piaoman commanders were discussing how to proceed.

Seeing that the Piaoman were slow to attack, Guan Tong discussed it with his commanders for a while and decided to take the initiative to launch a pursuit.

If the Piaoman could launch a night raid on them, why couldn't they launch a night raid on the Piaoman?

Moreover, it was currently just past midnight, and there were still three hours until dawn.

At the same time, this was also their pre-planned strategy.

Guan Tong had asked Yan Heng to prepare for this very reason.

"The Piaoman are retreating; we pursue. We must not let them leave here easily," Guan Tong said loudly.

After a moment of contemplation, he continued, "The subsequent pursuit will depend on the situation. If the Piaoman have not withdrawn and remain in their camp, then we will perform a counter-encirclement, bypassing to the north of the Piaoman main force to drive them into the Great Swamp. If they have withdrawn, then we will bite down hard on them and pursue them to the end."

"Yes, General," Yan Heng and the others replied in unison.

Having settled this, the Vermilion Bird Army commanders ordered the scouts to go first, while they led the troops behind them.

Since the two sides were separated by about ten li, the scouts reached the vicinity of the Piaoman camp in approximately two quarter-hours.

Due to their recent failed attack, the scattered Piaoman soldiers were still shaken, and the Piaoman army seemed to be in chaos, with the camp still in disarray.

Observing this situation, the scouts immediately fed the intelligence back.

Upon learning that the main Piaoman army was still there, Guan Tong felt encouraged and ordered the main army to flank around to the rear, sneaking toward the back of the Piaoman camp, while simultaneously deploying forces on both wings to prevent the Piaoman army from escaping.

While the Vermilion Bird Army was moving, the Piaoman commanders and Yongya finally reached an agreement, which was to launch another attack.

If this attack failed, they would choose to rendezvous with the Western Lands Allied Forces.

Having decided this, the Piaoman commanders immediately reorganized their troops, preparing to launch a charge toward the Great Song army camp.

After preparing for two quarter-hours, the Piaoman commanders led an army of one hundred thousand to set out toward the south.

But when they approached the Great Song army camp, they suddenly felt that something was wrong.

Focusing their eyes to look closely, they discovered that the Great Song army had disappeared.

This gave them a great shock.

"Oh no, something is going to happen." A Piaoman commander immediately realized something.

The location of their camp was surrounded on all sides by open Pingyuan.

If the Great Song army took the opportunity to flank to their rear, then not only would they have failed to force them into the Great Swamp, but they themselves would likely be forced into the Great Swamp instead.

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