Chapter 248: Another Noob-Stomping Battle

When the Third Prince of the Bahalil Dynasty was shaken awake from his sleep by his guards, he simply could not believe what he saw before his eyes.

Orange-red firelight lit up the sky, brighter than the glow of dawn on the horizon, as wailing Bahalil soldiers surged like a tide toward the main camp where the central army headquarters was located.

These panicked wretches, in their desperation to reach the main camp, had actually pushed over the wooden palisade of the main camp itself.

The Third Prince suddenly felt that these men were not their own soldiers at all, but spies sent over by the enemy.

The central army main camp was the core of this Bahalil Dynasty army; this one camp alone held thirteen thousand soldiers.

Moreover, it was the elite of the entire army. The other twenty-odd camps, large and small, together held only a little over thirty thousand men.

Hoofbeats rang out. The Myriarch of the central army main camp, wearing only a single thin garment, rode up to the Third Prince's side.

The Third Prince, already frantic and at a loss, rushed over as if he had found his anchor, grabbed the reins, and shouted.

"General, where has this enemy come from? Is it the army of Juer Khan? How could they appear here?"

"Your Highness, never mind whose army it is — quickly have the war drums beaten and organize the men to defend!"

"The fact that the enemy could launch a surprise attack before dawn proves not only that they are elite troops, but also that their numbers cannot be very large. As long as we can steady the troops' morale and hold on, we can turn defeat into victory."

The Myriarch and the Third Prince had a fine idea, but the men Zhang Zhao had brought were indeed not many — only four thousand in the first wave, with another three thousand still on the way.

But the chaos and slaughter they caused was absolutely not something an army of four thousand could have produced.

These four thousand men were four thousand strong archers, and also four thousand heavy infantry and elite cavalry — able to shoot from afar and fight up close, able to harass and able to storm fortifications.

As for the Bahalil Dynasty soldiers in the camp, never mind wearing armor — many of them were stark naked. What were they supposed to hold on with?

More importantly, when tens of thousands of men were herded together, the speed at which this kind of fear spread was utterly terrifying.

The crowd would sweep each other along, losing all judgment and willpower. Even a well-trained army struck by a sudden night attack and camp panic was a dreadful thing, let alone a force like the Bahalil army, which could barely be called an army at all.

More than twenty-five thousand men, driven in a deliberate herding maneuver by Zhang Zhao's troops, fled toward the central army main camp.

The mob fleeing for their lives, desperate to reach the main camp they believed was safe, would tear to shreds in their terror any person or thing that stood in their way.

Those who fell could basically not get back up, because the people behind them would not stop; they would simply run right over them.

The neat wooden palisade of the central army main camp could not stop them, and the few chevaux-de-frise could stop them even less — all were pushed over by the frenzied mob.

As for calming a crowd that had already fallen into this madness, the most effective measure was actually to separate them from the troops who were still disciplined.

If at that moment the Myriarch had ordered his men to shoot down the mob surging toward the main camp, he could still have steadied the main camp's soldiers.

But the Myriarch hesitated. He did not immediately begin directing the deployment; instead he first went to seek the Third Prince's approval.

The Third Prince hesitated for a moment as well. This prince was still somewhat naive, thinking that perhaps not all the soldiers had been frightened out of their wits.

As a result, they missed the critical window. By the time they thought to separate the ten thousand-odd men of the central army main camp from the twenty thousand-odd outside, the crowds had long since mingled together.

The rumors grew more and more exaggerated as they spread — from the initial report that Juer Khan had sent a hundred thousand troops on a surprise attack, it gradually became Juer Khan summoning a hundred thousand demons from Shiva.

By the end, when the horse archers were spraying fire everywhere with their pear-blossom lances, Great Khan Zhang had been directly upgraded into Shiva himself, transformed into his terrifying aspect, come to carry out the power of destruction and slaughter.

By this point, the situation had essentially spun out of control. Nearly forty thousand people instantly burst the central army main camp at the seams, countless twisted faces staring at one another in terror.

The Third Prince, in despair, ordered the war drums beaten, hoping the drumbeats would calm the terrified crowd. Zhang Zhao grinned. So they wanted to use magic? Then he would use magic to defeat magic.

"The imperial wind of the four seas spreads far; the virtuous waters run clear for a thousand years. The armor of war is worn no more; today we proclaim our victory complete."

Zhang Zhao took the lead in singing the "Music of the Prince of Qin Breaking the Battle Lines." His voice carried across the chaotic battlefield, and the heavy infantry, already formed in horizontal ranks, immediately took up the song.

In itself, this was just a perfectly ordinary song, but to the Bahalil Dynasty soldiers on the other side, it did not sound quite right.

In their eyes, those troops across from them, wearing strange and terrifying armor, were chanting incantations.

Yes! Chanting incantations — they had never heard such strange tunes and accents before.

The stirring melody and strange tune hammered hard at the hearts of these Ah San fellows.

They were men of little experience. Were it not for the war, many of them had never even left their village. Now a great horde of strange people had suddenly appeared, speaking a language they could not understand and slaughtering them at will — naturally, many were frightened out of their wits.

"Bai Congxin, take your horse archers forward! Fire all the pear-blossom lances in a single volley!"

"Li Ruotai, bring the Iron Horse Unit's fully armored cavalry to the front and prepare to charge! Strike at the thinnest point in their ranks!"

Seeing that the atmosphere was about right, Zhang Zhao quickly made his dispositions. The "Music of the Prince of Qin Breaking the Battle Lines" had just finished, and the heavy infantry, under their officers' commands, called out cadence and opened the front. The horse archers of the Youyi and Feihu units advanced in orderly ranks.

In an instant, sparks blazed across the sky like the Milky Way's stars falling from the highest heavens. A scorching waterfall of fire-dragons surged from the horse archers of the Youyi and Feihu units and shot like thunderbolts at the Bahalil Dynasty soldiers opposite, the roar shaking the four directions!

Even in later ages, a thousand large fireworks going off at once would be an utterly stunning sight — to say nothing of now.

When had the Ah San of the Bahalil Dynasty ever seen such a scene? Prince or Myriarch, it did not matter — all were terrified into trembling legs by the dreadful spectacle.

These must be demons sent by Shiva! Otherwise how could they breathe fire?

The actual damage was secondary; the psychological intimidation was absolutely, fatally devastating.

Just as the flames from the thousand pear-blossom lances had not yet faded, Li Ruotai had already readied eight hundred fully armored cavalry.

Eight hundred riders, man and horse both in armor, spaced a little over a meter apart, charged head-on at full gallop.

The horse archers behind also drew their sabers, preparing to follow the heavy cavalry and exploit the breakthrough.

The pounding of galloping hooves hammered at every man's chest, and the very earth trembled. The Bahalil Dynasty soldiers, already scared out of their wits by the pear-blossom lance flames, collapsed with a roar.

Men screamed and surged backward, none daring to scatter to the sides, because those eight hundred riders were charging with a meter's gap between them — only eight hundred men, yet they looked as if they covered the whole earth.

Over ten thousand utterly broken routed soldiers helped Li Ruotai's armored cavalry smash through the last line of defense that the Third Prince and the Myriarch had organized, and the entire camp fell into complete collapse.

The second wave of horse archers also seized the moment and attacked, relentlessly driving the routed men and triggering even greater chaos.

In the midst of the chaos, Zhang Zhao's second group of three thousand men also arrived, and the combined forces drove the routed soldiers toward the river.

This was the final moment. Those whose minds were still somewhat clear simply pressed their heads to the ground to show absolute submission.

Those whose minds were completely gone, wearing only thin garments, actually jumped splashing into the icy river. This was early spring, the second month — once they went in, they would never come back up.

"Screen them carefully. All nobles are to be executed on the spot. Register the prisoners — they will all be fine helpers for you and me to farm the Ningyuan Basin!"

Zhang Zhao patted Guo Tiance on the shoulder. He was going to find a place to rest properly.

Great King Zhang even felt that he could not fight too many of these noob-stomping battles. If he fought too many, he would suffer badly later when he ran into those elite Imperial Guard toughs in Kaifeng in the Central Plains.

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