Chapter 382: Encircled Them

However, the Ming Army's harassment continued and even intensified, no longer just cold arrows and rocks, but replaced by gongs, horns, and shouts of battle.

The Ming Army created all kinds of movements around their camp, sometimes flames soared to the sky in the east, and the shouts of battle shook the ground; when Wei Xi Yuan sent troops to rescue, they found nothing.

Sometimes war drums beat in the west, as if a large army was attacking, causing the whole army to be unable to sleep all night, their spirits highly tense, and many soldiers even experienced auditory and visual hallucinations.

The next day, this unit, which was still considered elite, was already at the end of its rope, everyone with dark circles under their eyes, their expressions listless, and their hands holding weapons trembling slightly.

As the saying goes, the first drum raises the spirit, the second exhausts it, and the third drains it!

Wei Xi Yuan had come with the determination to die, and even if he were to die, he wanted to die heroically, but now the pent-up energy in his heart had not been vented, but instead became more and more knotted.

When they dragged their heavy steps and charged toward the key pass they were scheduled to break through, what awaited them was the Ming Army's regular troops, who had long been ready in full battle array and were guarding the dangerous terrain!

Da Qian had indeed used 270,000 troops to contain many of the Ming Army's men, but this did not mean the rear was empty, especially with the Ming Army having made preparations in advance.

Huang Yan's eyes lit up when he saw this situation; he and Han Xiao were guarding one side each, and he didn't expect his luck to be good enough to encounter this dog Emperor's unit.

"Brothers, charge!"

Without too many words, Huang Yan raised his spear and charged, a fierce light appearing in his eyes.

Wei Xi Yuan looked at the dense Ming Army, but the anger in his heart could not be vented.

Wasn't this head-on charge exactly what he wanted? But at this moment, he didn't feel any excitement, because the energy in his heart could no longer be spat out.

He knew this was the last, and most dangerous, pass leading to Shuoning.

Charge through, and perhaps there was still a glimmer of hope for survival; fail to charge through, and it would be a place of burial.

"Soldiers!" Wei Xi Yuan drew his sword, his voice somewhat weak, "Ahead is Shuoning! Charge through this pass, and wealth and honor are within reach! Zhen is with you! Kill!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The Imperial Guards were stimulated by the Emperor's words and the desperate situation, emitting hoarse roars, raising their shields, and beginning to charge toward the pass.

As the distance between the two sides grew closer, Huang Yan immediately ordered.

"Fire arrows!"

The archers who had long been prepared in the square formation immediately drew their bows and strings, and the arrows instantly dived and poured down!

The court army's shields made dull thudding sounds under the dense rain of arrows, and people constantly fell to the ground with arrows in them, screams rising one after another.

But the wave of the charge did not stop immediately, and the subsequent soldiers continued to charge, stepping on the corpses of their comrades.

"Kill for me!" Huang Yan roared again, and then the soldiers of both sides collided, instantly opening a battlefield like a meat grinder.

Huang Yan did not shrink to the rear, but charged at the front, and none of the enemy troops before him were a match for him in one move.

Capture the bandits by capturing their leader first; his target was Wei Xi Yuan!

This was the first full-scale engagement between the court's Imperial Guards and the Ming Army, and there was no distinction between offense and defense, but the gap was immediately apparent.

The Ming Army was not docked military pay, and their food was actually quite good, plus the unique geographical environment of Beijiang, which led to the soldiers being stronger.

Even more than the people, even the warhorses under them had a huge difference.

Now the Xiongnu grasslands were the Ming Army's horse farm, with the best quality warhorses supplied, which was more than just a little better than the Imperial Guards.

The Ming Army here was tall and strong, and even their weapons were very sharp, not just making up the numbers.

Conversely, the Imperial Guards' morale, which had been barely raised, had long since dissipated under the Ming Army's harassment.

Under such circumstances, the gap between the two sides was very obvious; the Ming Army was fierce and unparalleled, while the Imperial Guards were retreating the more they fought.

"Do not retreat! Charge for Zhen! Charge up!"

Wei Xi Yuan watched from the rear, his eyes splitting, personally leading the Imperial guards to supervise the battle, continuously hacking down several soldiers who were cowering and not advancing.

Death stimulated the nerves of the remaining Imperial Guards, and under the threat of death from the Emperor and the supervision team, they emitted howls, bit the bullet, and charged again.

The battle lasted for nearly an hour, and the Imperial Guards' offensive became weaker wave by wave. Corpses piled up like mountains, and those still alive were almost fighting on top of corpses.

The Imperial Guards who were still alive had only numb fear left in their eyes, many of them with hands holding weapons trembling violently, just mechanically moving forward with the crowd, and then being killed.

Huang Yan finally had a good time killing this time, and the number of soldiers who died under his hands was unknown, but unfortunately, his hands were sore from hacking, and he still hadn't charged to Wei Xi Yuan's front.

Wei Xi Yuan, hiding at the very back, had disheveled hair, his face stained with the blood of who knows whom, his arms numb from holding his sword.

Looking at the boundary that he could never cross, and the fewer and fewer guards and soldiers beside him, this kind of complete powerlessness finally overwhelmed all anger and madness.

He realized that his final "shattering" strike, which had poured all his heart's blood, hadn't even managed to knock a single intact brick off the enemy's wall, and was about to turn into a pile of withered bones and blood mud that no one cared about on this nameless battlefield.

No! He was unwilling! He couldn't die here!

It wasn't fear of death, but he couldn't die so... without value! So stifled!

"Your Majesty! We cannot attack anymore! The brothers... cannot hold on!"

A general with a face full of blood and gore crawled to Wei Xi Yuan's horse, crying hoarsely, "Retreat! If we don't retreat, it's all over!"

"Retreat...?"

Wei Xi Yuan repeated blankly, his gaze sweeping across the battlefield covered in corpses, sweeping across those soldiers with hollow eyes waiting for the next death order.

The surprise attack had completely failed. Staying here only meant being ground down by the Ming Army bit by bit.

Just then, on the mountain ridge to the left, a loud horn and even more violent war drums suddenly sounded! A flag with the character "Ming" was raised high!

"Not good! The Ming Army is going to press down from the flank!" A sharp-eyed general shouted in horror.

Only to see dust rolling on the mountain ridge to the left, and it was unknown how many Ming Army troops were moving along the mountain ridge, trying to cut off their retreat!

"We've been tricked! They were waiting for us to exhaust our strength!"

Wei Xi Yuan suddenly woke up; Jiang Jinshi didn't just want to block him, but wanted to annihilate him here!

"Retreat! Pass the order! The whole army retreats! Toward the southeast, to converge with the main army! Fast!"

Once the order to retreat was given, the court army, which was already on the verge of collapse, instantly lost its last bit of organization.

The instinct for survival overwhelmed everything, and the remaining soldiers let out a shout, dropped their weapons and all burdens, turned around, and fled for their lives in the direction they came from.

The generals could not restrain them, and were even scattered by the routed soldiers, and the retreat instantly evolved into a great rout.

"Want to run? Not that easy!"

Huang Yan roared and continued to charge; how could he let go of such an opportunity to expand the results of the battle?

"Brothers, hold them down, continue to charge for me, drag them down for a while, and old Han will bring people to encircle them!" ===== CHAPTER 383 =====