Chapter 581

The zi hour is approaching.

In the northwest corner of Yancheng, inside the broken hidden gate of the urn city, silent armored soldiers were packed.

The torches had long been extinguished; only thin moonlight filtered through the crenels, outlining the iron helmets and the cold gleam of spears.

The air was viscous as solid, mixed with the stench of blood, sour sweat, and earth.

Yue Fei stood by the gate with his hand on his sword, his gaze slowly sweeping over the front rank of the Iron Mountain Army heavy cavalry.

Both men and horses were clad in heavy armor, like statues cast in iron.

Only the occasional snort of the horses and the faint scrape of metal plates proved they were living beings.

"The time has come."

Yue Fei's voice was not loud, yet it cut clearly through the silence.

There was no rousing pre-battle rally.

Everything that needed to be said had already been said by day.

Every decision that needed to be made had already been turned over in his heart a thousand times.

He raised his hand and made a forward cutting gesture.

"Open the gate."

"Vanguard, charge!"

The heavy hidden gate was shoved open by several strongmen, emitting a piercing screech.

The darkness beyond the gate was not silent.

There were the campfires of Jin cavalry scouts, the sound of clattering watches, the snores of a sleeping encampment, and countless hidden killing intents lurking in the night.

"Iron Mountain Army—"

Commander Zhang Xian bellowed, pointing his lance forward.

"Follow me to break the formation!"

"Kill—"

The three hundred heavy cavalry surged like a black iron torrent, crashing out of the city gate!

Horse hooves struck the frozen ground, from slow to rapid, ultimately becoming a thunderous rumble like rolling thunder.

The earth trembled.

Almost the instant the hidden gate burst open, the outpost sentries of the Jin army's forward camp let out a shrill alarm.

Clamor of gongs and horns for warning came in disorder.

But it was too late.

The heavy cavalry's charge hinges on a suddenness.

A distance of several tens of zhang is, for cavalry charging at full speed, merely a few breaths.

The first crude abatis was easily smashed.

A few Jin soldiers who hurriedly scrambled out of their tents, before they could see the enemy, were either knocked over by the heavy hooves or flung into the air by the spear tips.

Zhang Xian led the charge on horseback, sweeping his lance left and right, smashing two Jin squad leaders attempting to rally, along with their swords, clean off their feet.

The heavy cavalry behind him followed close, like a red-hot blade cutting into butter, instantly tearing a bloody gap in the Jin forward camp.

"Don't get bogged down!"

"Pierce through! Keep pressing forward!"

Zhang Xian roared, sweeping the lance shaft sideways, smashing a Jin archer from the watchtower.

Their aim was not to rout this camp.

But to bore through the Jin army's relatively weak outer picket at utmost speed, opening a passage for the following infantry.

After the heavy cavalry came Wang Gui's elite infantry, chiefly spearmen and sword-and-shield troops.

They surged out of the gate like a tide, rushing swiftly along the corridor torn open by the cavalry.

They quickly cleared residual enemies on both flanks, securing the passage.

Yue Fei galloped out under the escort of his personal guards.

He glanced back at the outline of Yancheng's city wall fading into the night.

There, Niu Gao would lead two thousand palace troops, after the main force broke out, continuing to feign a defense to buy time, and at the last moment attempt a diversionary breakout from another direction.

Every moment, someone stayed behind, staking their life to buy a chance for their comrades.

Yue Fei suppressed the surging emotions in his chest, abruptly turned his head, and fixed his gaze on the dark plain ahead, gradually lit by torches and shouting.

"Center force, keep up!"

"Maintain formation, do not break!"

The breakout force, like a continually lengthening awl, strove to pierce the northwest corner of the Jin encirclement.

Yet the Jin army's reaction was faster than anticipated.

Or rather, the siege commander Wanyan Zongbi had prepared a counterplan for Yue Fei's breakout.

Just as the Iron Mountain Army heavy cavalry broke through the second line and was about to crash onto a relatively open slope,

ahead, to the left and right, countless torches suddenly flared.

The firelight merged into a sheet, illuminating the dense ranks of Jin infantry.

Spears stood like a forest, crossbows drawn.

Moreover, an unknown number of crippled-horse light cavalry prowled the flanks like wolves lying in wait.

A deep voice carried on the night wind, laced with icy mockery.

"Marshal Yue, why must you rush so?"

"Our marshal has prepared a feast and wishes to invite the marshal for a meeting!"

He is the Jin army's great general Han Chang.

Obviously, this was not the weak link we had anticipated, but a carefully laid trap.

Zhang Xian's pupils contracted slightly, but the momentum of the charge could not be stopped.

"Charge forward!"

"When narrow roads meet—"

He shouted loudly, his voice shaking the wilderness.

The Iron-backed heavy cavalry behind him roared in unison.

"The brave win!"

The iron torrent accelerated again, fearlessly crashing into the awaiting spear forest.

In the next instant, the clash of steel and flesh, the muffled twang of bowstrings, the piercing whistle of arrows slicing the air, the tragic neighs of warhorses, the shouts and wails of soldiers—countless sounds exploded, sounding the symphony of death.

The heavy cavalry crashed into the spear formation.

The front-rank Jin spearmen were flung forward, men and spears together, with the clear sound of breaking bones.

But the following Jin soldiers fearlessly pressed forward, stabbing horse bellies with spears and hacking horse legs with battle axes.

Warhorses continually whined as they rolled and fell, throwing their riders heavily to the ground, where they were immediately hacked apart by random blades.

The tip of Zhang Xian's lance was already stained crimson; he felt his arm growing sore, and the panting of his steed beneath him grew heavier.

Looking ahead, the Jin troops still lay in layered ranks.

On the flanks, the crooked-horse riders had begun to press in, continually harassing the middle of the infantry formations with horse archery.

"Marshal!"

A personal guard rushed up to Yue Fei's horse, his face smeared with blood and anxiety.

"Han Chang has massed troops here; the front is blocked, the flanks are harassed, and the rear faces immense pressure!"

"General Niu Gao's side has sent word: the Jin army is launching a fierce assault on the eastern city; he probably can't hold out much longer!"

Yue Fei's face was as still as water.

He quickly assessed the situation.

Han Chang's presence here indicates that part of the Jin army's main force has been successfully drawn to the northwest.

This is both pressure and opportunity.

"Tell Zhang Xian, don't stop!"

"Give it your all forward, break through Han Chang's main camp!"

"Wang Gui, detach troops to block the flanks' crooked-horse riders, at any cost, protect the sides of the central army!"

"Turn the rear into the front; archers and crossbowmen fire upward to hinder pursuing troops!"

A series of orders were swiftly issued.

He knew that any hesitation now would be fatal.

The only way out is to tear a gap in Han Chang's line with desperate courage.

If the offensive falters and we become entangled in melee, once the Jin forces from all sides encircle us, the result will be the annihilation of the entire army.

The battle entered its most brutal phase of attrition.

Every inch of ground gained was carpeted with corpses.

The Iron-backed troops lived up to being the Yue Family Army's sharpest blade; even when surrounded, they still erupted with astonishing combat power.

Zhang Xian led from the front, literally carving a bloody path through the Jin ranks.

Yue Fei personally led the central elite, clinging tightly to the opening made by the vanguard and continually widening it.

Wang Gui's flank units, with flesh and blood and crude shields, blocked wave after wave of arrow storms and impacts from the crooked-horse riders, suffering heavy casualties but never allowing enemy cavalry to pierce the core.

Time slowly passed amidst the bloody melee.

It seemed as if an hour had passed, yet also as if only an instant.

When a thread of icy, pale fish-belly white appeared on the horizon.

Zhang Xian, drenched in blood with his armor battered in many places, finally saw the enemy formation loosen ahead.

Han Chang's main-camp banner lay just a hundred paces away!

"The enemy is exhausted!"

"The final blow!"

Zhang Xian roared hoarsely, raising his bladed lance.

The remnants of the Iron-backed cavalry summoned their last strength and launched a desperate charge.

This time, the Jin army's formation finally showed clear disorder.

Han Chang's complexion looked extremely grim in the firelight.

He never expected that the Yue Family Army, trapped in encirclement and outnumbered, could still unleash such terrifying striking power, literally boring through his defenses.

"Stop them!"

He bellowed sternly.

But the frontline troops, already frightened to death by slaughter, faced that last charge of the iron cavalry that seemed oblivious to pain or fatigue, and they momentarily broke.

It was this brief retreat that decided the battle.

Zhang Xian lifted his lance and flung away Han Chang's personal guard commander; the horse's head nearly struck Han Chang's banner.

Han Chang had no choice; under the desperate cover of his personal guards, he retreated hastily.

As the banner moved, the army's morale wavered further.

"The gap is open!"

"All forces—break out!"

Yue Fei seized the fleeting opportunity with sharp eyes, pointing his sword forward, his voice like a tolling bell.

The exhausted Yue Family Army soldiers, hearing this command, let their survival instinct override their physical limits, bursting with their last strength as they desperately surged toward the gap.

Han Chang tried his best to reseal the breach, but the collapse was already irreversible.

The sky grew faintly light.

Yue Fei looked back and saw flames shooting into the sky in the direction of Yancheng, the sounds of killing still ongoing.

Along the breakout route behind them, corpses littered the field and banners lay fallen on the ground.

Roughly counting the troops that had broken out, they numbered less than sixty percent of those who set out, everyone wounded, and their formation was in disarray.

But the core Beiwei Army and the elite central troops had mostly managed to break out.

"Count the numbers, treat the wounded, do not linger!"

"Rush toward Commoner Mountain!"

Yue Fei suppressed the urge to look back toward Yancheng and hoarsely gave the order.

He knew that Niu Gao and the brothers of the rear guard were likely to suffer more losses than survival.

And perhaps an even harsher trial still lay ahead.

The first step of the breakout was completed.

But the price paid was so heavy.

Blood stained the road from northwestern Yancheng to Commoner Mountain.

True dawn had not yet arrived.