Chapter 687: First Volume_Chapter 687: Sweeping the Borderlands

First Volume_Chapter 687: Sweeping the Borderlands

Since the ambush, Beidi Colonel Lü Qiu and his men had been worn ragged, constantly on the run.

Whether the soldiers or the warhorses beneath them, their stamina had been severely drained.

The Beixi Light Cavalry, on the other hand, could rely on the support of troops behind them, rotating in and out to rest.

One side lost ground while the other gained it.

Faced with the Beixi Light Cavalry's pursuit, in the span of a single incense stick's time, the Beidi Cavalry were caught up.

The two sides immediately erupted into fierce battle.

Lü Qiu clamped his thighs tightly around the horse's belly and let go of the reins completely with both hands.

He kept kicking and squeezing the horse's belly to drive his mount forward at full gallop, while watching for an opening, then twisting in the saddle to loose an arrow.

His superb archery sent one Beixi Light Cavalryman behind them tumbling from his horse.

Amid the chaos of battle, that Beixi Light Cavalryman was trampled into meat paste in an instant by the dense mass of hooves.

"Where is the messenger!"

"Where the hell did the messenger go!"

"Pass the military order down at once—everyone, make for the nearest County City. If you get separated from the main force, fight your way out of the encirclement on your own!"

Lü Qiu retreated while firing arrows back at the pursuers.

Spurred on by Lü Qiu, the rest of the Beidi Cavalry also brought out their best skills one after another.

Although the Beidi Cavalry had given their all to resist the Beixi Light Cavalry's pursuit, their casualties remained extremely heavy.

After all, as the side being hunted, the Beidi Cavalry could only twist around and shoot backward.

The Beixi Light Cavalry, meanwhile, were in no way inferior in archery, and only had to shoot forward.

Add to that the momentum of a victorious pursuit.

The Beidi side's losses were clearly greater, and the scales of military victory were tipping ever more toward the pursuers.

Still, as locals, the Beidi Cavalry naturally had one advantage—intimate familiarity with the terrain.

Judging by the surrounding landscape, Lü Qiu immediately determined that they were less than twenty li from the nearest Kelan County.

"Hold on for me, lads! Once we reach Kelan County's borders, the pursuers won't dare keep pushing forward!"

Just as Lü Qiu was loudly rallying morale, he suddenly lost his balance entirely.

He slid straight off the horse's back and slammed heavily into the ground.

That fall nearly killed Lü Qiu on the spot.

Luckily, the leather armor he wore provided good cushioning; even so, Lü Qiu's left arm was still broken by the impact.

Lü Qiu gritted his teeth and climbed up from the ground, covered in dust.

He had assumed his mount had been hit by an arrow from the pursuers, but on closer inspection, he found the horse hadn't been struck at all.

Yet the mount lay prostrate on the ground, and no matter how Lü Qiu whipped it, it refused to get back up.

At the same time, white foam kept pouring from its nostrils and mouth.

Clearly, after such intense exertion, even the finest warhorse had reached its limit and collapsed on the spot from exhaustion.

"Over here, come on!"

Lü Qiu waved his left arm, loudly calling out to a comrade not far away.

Just as that comrade spurred his horse over to help, he was dropped with a single arrow from the pursuers.

Seeing this, the remaining Beidi Cavalry all pulled hard on their reins.

"Colonel Lü is down on the ground, go help him!"

"Whoa! Turn back and fight!"

"Liang Kingdom bastards, I'll take you all on!"

Several dozen Beidi Cavalry rushed back to Lü Qiu's side at once, but in the blink of an eye they were surrounded by the pursuers.

The cavalry gathered together, placing Lü Qiu in the center for protection, and kept shooting arrows at the Beixi Light Cavalry circling the outer perimeter.

The Beixi Light Cavalry were equally sharp, forming a dense encirclement that cut off Lü Qiu's retreat, while trading arrows fiercely with the Beidi.

In the span of a few breaths, over ten cavalrymen around Lü Qiu had been shot from their horses.

On the battlefield, the number of soldiers is of the utmost importance.

It is absolutely not as simple as one plus one equals two.

A twofold gap in numbers will directly create an overwhelming advantage.

Five against four might still cost some effort.

Three against two might still hold out for a while.

But two against one, in the vast majority of cases, is a complete victory.

The Beidi side's cavalry numbers were already disproportionate to begin with, and with the constant attrition—

The Beixi Light Cavalry had already formed an extreme advantage of four-against-one, even five-against-one.

The Beidi Cavalry's losses were mounting faster and faster.

In the blink of an eye, of sixty or seventy cavalry, only a single-digit number remained.

The surviving Beidi Cavalry let out beast-like roars from their throats.

Some, knowing they absolutely could not escape, simply gave up dodging, sat there on their horses, and kept nocking arrows and drawing the bow string, firing madly at the pursuers.

Kill one and you break even, kill two and you make a profit.

Some went even further, dropping their bows outright and pulling out a cavalry lance from the saddle.

Alone on horseback, they launched a suicidal charge against the densely packed Beixi Light Cavalry.

Lü Qiu dropped straight onto his backside on the ground, bracing his feet against the bow arm and gripping the bow string with his left hand.

He waited until the bow was drawn into a full circle, then released, and the arrow flew out.

Even though his right arm had been broken from a fall, leaving him with only one arm, he still managed to consecutively shoot and kill two Beixi Light Cavalry soldiers.

When the last Beidi Cavalry soldier fell from his horse, only Lü Qiu remained on the field.

Several hundred Beixi Light Cavalry circled around from all directions, yet none of them were in a hurry to take Lü Qiu's life.

Only because, judging from Lü Qiu's attire, he had to be a general.

Just then, a youth of seventeen or eighteen, gripping a horse lance, rode out and charged straight up to Lü Qiu.

The sharp lance tip pointed directly at Lü Qiu.

"I am Xu Ping, cousin of Beixi Main General Xu Mozhi!"

"Who are you? What is your official rank? Report it at once!"

Facing Xu Ping's interrogation, Lü Qiu wasted no words, stepping on the bow arm as he prepared to nock an arrow.

But the moment he showed any threat, Xu Ping thrust a halberd straight through his shoulder, pinning him to the ground.

Fresh blood gushed out.

Yet Lü Qiu clenched his teeth and made not a sound.

A glint of admiration flickered in Xu Ping's eyes: "You are a man of mettle, I'll give you that!"

"I ought to have you escorted back to Beixi County and handed over to the Brocade Guards for severe interrogation."

"But out of respect for your bravery and loyalty, I shall leave you with at least a shred of dignity."

"Ben Zhou has already seen seven of its cities fall to our Beixi Soldiers!"

"The Beidi City has low City Walls and crude Garrison Commander Military Equipment — compared to our Shedynasty City, it's like Window paper, pierced with a single poke."

"By tomorrow, our army will have conquered this entire province. You lot should stop making meaningless struggles like cornered beasts."

Lü Qiu's right arm was broken from a fall, his left shoulder pierced through — he could no longer lift a Weapon.

But facing Xu Ping, he returned a furious glare.

He rebuked him harshly.

"The Liang Kingdom has no honor — it ambushed our territory under the guise of State Peace Talks!"

"If my Xiongying Brigade and Snow Wolf Brigade were here, you lot would be nothing but pigs and dogs, slaughtered at will!"

In response to Lü Qiu's cursing.

Xu Ping's gaze remained placid: "When it comes to dishonor, compared to you Beidi, our Shedynasty gladly concedes defeat!"

"You lot lost the war and sued for peace, yet you show no awareness of being a Defeated Nation — strutting about arrogantly, without a shred of humility."

"If we don't beat you into pain, beat you into wounds, where would the negotiations come from!"

"Such matters of state are none of a mere martial general's concern!"

As his words fell, Xu Ping pulled out his horse lance. As he turned, the Cavalry beside him had already shot Lü Qiu full of Arrows, turning him into a Hedgehog.