Chapter 435: Death Struggle!

A great wind whipped up dust on the battlefield, staining the sky yellow.

As Yang Feng brought the chaotic military formation in the north under control, the Northern Di Cavalry began to retreat, revealing the Northern Di Infantry that had already finished forming their ranks.

In front of the Northern Di military formation was a row of bronze Artillery, numbering over three hundred; the pitch-black muzzles made the entire world feel oppressive.

At this moment, the Northern Di soldiers appeared very composed.

It seemed as if the fate of the Great Song Northern Expeditionary Army was already in their hands.

"Great Khan, Xiliang has already launched a counterattack." On a hilltop, Mule Hongzhen and Tiemuta stood side by side.

Tiemuta looked toward Yongcheng, his eyes narrowed into slits.

Mule Hongzhen nodded; in this way, Xiliang would hold back a large number of Great Song soldiers for them.

This would make their own offensive go more smoothly.

"Launch the attack; their Emperor is fleeing." Mule Hongzhen looked toward a force of troops fleeing to the south.

The Great Song army before them was clearly trying to stop them from pursuing.

Over these past few days, he had gradually lost his patience and only wanted to annihilate this Northern Expeditionary Army immediately.

He wanted to make the Emperor of Great Song kneel before him.

"Yes, Great Khan!" Tiemuta then took an ox-horn bugle and blew it himself.

"Woo, woo-woo, woo-woo, woo..." The sound of the bugle, two short blasts and one long, traveled down from the mountaintop; this was the order to attack.

North of Yongcheng.

The Coalition, composed of the powerful clans' armies and the Imperial Guards, had set up a grand formation.

The two hundred Artillery pieces in front of the grand formation were aimed at the Northern Di military formation.

Yang Feng concentrated 150,000 Infantry and 50,000 Cavalry on the flanks, a total army of 200,000.

Suddenly, a burst of bugle calls rang out.

This sound came from the mountaintop; it was the signal for the Northern Di to launch their attack.

Yang Feng looked toward the direction the sound came from, his expression grave.

"Woo-woo-woo..."

The Northern Di bugle calls rose and fell one after another; this was how they relayed military orders.

The retreating Northern Di Cavalry suddenly split into two wings, wrapping around the Northern Expeditionary Army from the left and right.

The Infantry formation also moved; the Artillerymen in front of the Artillery lit their torches one by one.

Seeing this scene, Yang Feng's heart could not help but contract.

"Northern Di, oh Northern Di, you really put in the effort this time." Yang Feng sneered.

This was the reason he had let Zhao Heng flee to Xian City immediately; there were at least 150,000 Northern Di Iron Cavalry on the battlefield, and the Northern Di also had Artillery—if they waited any longer, they would not be able to leave.

And he himself did not know how long he could hold out.

It was not just him; when the generals and soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army saw the Northern Di's Artillery, the confidence they had built up instantly collapsed.

Throughout this campaign, everyone had regarded Artillery as a divine treasure.

Now that their enemies also had Artillery, and the quantity seemed no less than their own, how could they not panic?

"Fire!"

Just as the Northern Di Artillerymen lit their torches,

Yang Feng immediately gave the order.

"Boom, boom, boom..." The roar of the Artillery immediately rang out, and cannonballs landed among the Northern Di troops.

Northern Di soldiers were immediately struck and died screaming.

At this time, the Northern Di soldiers also lit their fuses and fired at the Northern Expeditionary Army's formation; cannonballs immediately poured into the Northern Expeditionary Army's ranks.

"Ah..."

Screams also rose incessantly from the Northern Expeditionary Army.

Facing the Artillery attack, Yang Feng had no solution; if they dispersed into loose formations now, they would inevitably be slaughtered by the enemy's Cavalry.

But for the Northern Expeditionary Army, this was only the beginning; the Northern Di Artillerymen seemed to have brought Grape Shot as well.

"Fire!" a Northern Di Artillery commander shouted loudly.

"Boom, boom, boom..." With the sound of each cannon blast, the front-row soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Army, covered by the artillery fire, fell like wheat being harvested.

Faced with the sharp lethality of the Northern Di Artillery, the Northern Expeditionary Army soldiers in the front began to fall into chaos.

Yang Feng gritted his teeth as he watched this scene; he had long anticipated that this war would be extremely difficult and hard to win.

But he could not refuse to fight; he was loyal to the Great Song, loyal to Zhao Heng.

Even if Zhao Heng was an incompetent monarch in his heart, he had to spare no cost to win him time to escape.

While the Infantry of the two armies bombarded each other in the center,

the Cavalry on the two wings also began to clash.

The Northern Di Light Cavalry came and went like the wind, constantly drawing their bows to attack the Northern Expeditionary Army's Cavalry on the flanks.

And when the Northern Expeditionary Army's Cavalry charged with their Cavalry Sabers, these Light Cavalry would turn and flee.

While fleeing, they would turn back and shoot.

The Northern Di Cavalry's archery was very accurate, and Great Song Cavalrymen were constantly falling from their horses.

Moreover, the number of Northern Di Cavalry was twice their own, and they fought with ease.

Soon, the Cavalry on the two wings fell into chaos, and their formations became loose.

Just then, the Northern Di Heavy Cavalry, who had been hiding behind the Light Cavalry, suddenly appeared.

The Light Cavalry cleared a path, and they slowly emerged like a wall of steel, launching a charge from a distance of one hundred meters from the Infantry.

The Northern Expeditionary Army's Cavalry on the flanks were all entangled by the Light Cavalry and were completely unable to stop them.

They watched helplessly as the Northern Di Heavy Cavalry rolled forward like giant boulders, crushing the Infantry phalanx along the way.

"Ah..."

Screams of agony erupted immediately.

Three thousand Heavy Cavalry on each of the east and west flanks plunged into the formation like a steel blade into tofu.

They tore a gap through the entire Northern Expeditionary Army formation.

The Northern Expeditionary Army soldiers fell into chaos; they scrambled to avoid the impact of the Heavy Cavalry, which immediately threw the formation into disarray.

Yang Feng noticed this situation at once.

Despair could not help but rise in his heart.

He was witnessing the legendary invincible battle tactic with which the Northern Di dominated the Grassland.

But this was a scene he truly did not wish to see with his own eyes.

Dou Xiao and Wang Bi were so terrified their faces turned pale, and he said: "General Yang, this is the consequence of fighting the Northern Di; if you don't retreat the army yet, what are you waiting for? Do you intend to bury all of Great Song's elite forces here?"

"Indeed, General Yang, if these troops retreat, they can still continue to resist the Northern Di; if they all die here, who will guard the Great Song empire?" Wang Bi shouted.

Yang Feng sneered several times, "If you run, can you outrun the Northern Di Iron Cavalry?"

If the Northern Expeditionary Army could retreat in an orderly fashion, why would he need to risk his life to buy time for Zhao Heng?

If they had all retreated with Zhao Heng, they would likely already be corpses strewn across ten miles, hunted down by the Northern Di Iron Cavalry.

Seeing that Yang Feng was unmoved, Dou Xiao and Wang Bi fell into utter despair.

At this moment, the chaos of the Northern Expeditionary Army was spotted by the Northern Di commanders.

Suddenly, horns blared loudly, and the Northern Di Infantry launched a charge.

"Kill!"

"Kill!"

Every time they walked a distance of five paces, the Northern Di army would shout "Kill" in unison, their momentum like a rainbow, calm and unhurried.

The two sides drew closer and closer, and at this moment, the battle between the cavalry on the two flanks was decided.

The Northern Expeditionary Army cavalry collapsed completely, leaving the two flanks entirely exposed to the Northern Di cavalry.

Coordinating with the Heavy Cavalry, the Northern Di Light Cavalry kept charging back and forth, using bows and arrows to attack the Northern Expeditionary Army soldiers.

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Finally, the two armies met, and relying on the advantage of distance, the Northern Expeditionary Army fired first.

However, under the bombardment of Artillery, the Matchlock soldiers in the front row of the Northern Expeditionary Army suffered heavy losses.

Scattered gunfire rang out, and only a few dozen Northern Di soldiers fell.

The Northern Expeditionary soldiers continued to move forward, and at a distance of fifty meters, the Northern Expeditionary Army fired another round, but it still had little effect.

"Kill!"

Fifty meters was already the distance for close-quarters combat, and the Northern Di soldiers rushed over immediately, while the Shield-bearers of the Northern Expeditionary Army stepped forward at once.

A deep, rumbling sound echoed through the valley like angry waves crashing against the shore; the moment they made contact, the collision of blades and swords produced intense clashing sounds.

Curved Blades and Long Spears struck each other, Cavalry Sabers and Curved Blades flashed by, a dense rain of arrows descended like a swarm of locusts, and the entire battlefield was filled with furious war cries and the screams of those facing death.

While the Northern Expeditionary Army was locked in slaughter with the Northern Di, the Xiliang army gradually achieved victory at the city gates.

Great Song's one hundred thousand troops were simply unable to stop the two hundred thousand troops of Xiliang and Ma Jin within Yongcheng.

Having defeated the Great Song soldiers guarding the city, they immediately headed north.

They attacked the Great Song Northern Expeditionary Army from the rear.

Suddenly caught in a pincer attack, the Northern Expeditionary Army fell into even greater chaos.