Chapter 224 - Turning Things Around
Chapter 224 - Turning Things Around
Translator - TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
The orderly clatter of the horseshoes shocked both sides, causing the battle to come to a stop.
"The Lord Flag, it's the lord. The lord personally brought the Guards unit to assist us." The 1st regiment soldiers were delighted.
On the opposite side, the enemy troops morale dropped to the freezing point. Sha Pojun and the others muttered, "How? How did they rush here so fast? It's not possible, no!"
The Guards unit had made the record of traveling 60 kilometers in just 2 hours, from Shanhai City all the way to the city west camp.
Ouyang Shuo walked to the front of the group. After analyzing the situation, he didn't hesitate or take any rest, directly leading the Guards unit to rush towards their sword-shield soldiers.
Sha Pojun didn't give up and made a final struggle. He ordered the sword-shield soldiers to give up on killing the enemy sword shield soldiers, and raise their shields to block the cavalry's charge.
The Guards unit was the elite of the elite, the sharpest weapons of all, all of them were equipped with Mingguang armor, and rode on Qingfu horses. They were each equipped with a lance, a Tang Blade, a strong bow, and other top class equipment; their average rank was a terrifying 8th rank, and there were even rank 10 war elite soldiers.
Such strong men, how could anyone block their charge? The sword shield soldier formation, which looked to be impenetrable, was like paper and was one-shotted by the Guards from one end of the formation to the other, tearing it apart. The shining horse lances, under the huge momentum, effortlessly pierced through their armor, fresh blood splattering into the air. In the sword shield soldier formation, there appeared a long trail of emptiness strewn with many dead bodies.
After charging, the Guards took their lances and turned their horses around, pulling out their exquisitely built Tang blades. They were soldiers who’d been through hundreds of wars and were riding on the best of horses. Before the enemy could react, just as they wanted to cut at the horse legs, the guard's Tang blades had landed on their heads.
This was the same tactic the 1st regiment had used successfully on the light armored cavalry, but light infantry wanting to use that on heavy armored cavalry was the same as throwing an egg at a rock.
The reinforcements from the Guards unit helped raise the morale of the 1st regiment; especially with lord Ouyang Shuo fighting by their side, if they didn't fight with their all, how could they answer to the lord?
The middle troops and the remaining 1st and 2nd units, under the leadership of major Shihu and major Shibao, had started to focus on killing the trapped cavalry.
The 4th unit that was shifted down from the front lines, under the orders of Shi Wanshui, dived into the central troops to assist the 1st and 2nd units for completing the killing against the cavalry.
The Guards unit took over the defensive line and started to attack the sword shield-soldiers of the alliance like how they would to raiders, splitting them up and making them fend for themselves.
In the backmost line, the 3rd unit had killed most of the archers. The sword-shield soldiers who came to support as the number were too little. They couldn't put up a fight, adding with the low morale, they could only eat dust at the back.
The alliance had a big army, but it was being cut off piece by piece, unable to form a whole force. At that moment, even if Sha Pojun wanted to reorganize the troops, it was too late.
The scales of victory was starting to favor Shanhai City.
War was a huge test of the ambitions of both sides. Especially for the Guards unit who rushed here and immediately got into the battle, it was a huge test to their fitness.
Perseverance, only through that can one succeed.
……
On the eastern border of Shanhai City, a 2,000 man army had crossed the border and entered Shanhai City’s territory. This was an alliance force made up of Broken Blade Town, Yishui Town, and Gushan Town.
Out of a consideration of various benefits, the Eastern alliance commander, Ba Dao, didn't attack at the same time as the Western alliance troops. He was waiting for confirmation that the western troops had engaged with The Shanhai City army before entering the territory. Based on his view, Shanhai City's main force would be made busy by the western forces, and wouldn't bother about the east.
Unfortunately, what Ba Dao didn't know was that the 3rd regiment that was built not long ago was undergoing a raider operation at the eastern border. After receiving the distress signal, E'Lai sent out a scouting team to patrol the border region.
Hence, once the eastern troops entered the territory, in less than half an hour, they were spotted and reported to E'Lai.
Upon hearing the intel, E'Lai laughed coldly. "An army of fewer than 2,000 men, to think they even dare to stroll into Shanhai City, they really don't put me, E'Lai, in their eyes."
He gathered his troops and laid in wait on the road they had to pass. He knew that the 3rd regiment was just built and filled with rookies. Especially the 1st and 2nd unit mountain barbarian warriors, not only were they not equipped with the Buren armor, even a single hard battle also wasn't fought.
Hence, even though the 3rd regiment had more men, E'Lai wouldn't be so stupid to fight head on. At the same time, he reported the intel back to the main camp.
The one who was in charge in the main camp was Military Affairs director Ge Hongliang, first received the intel from the eastern camp, then the distress signal from the western camp. After confirming the plains were quiet, Ge Hongliang ordered for the 1st unit of the 2nd regiment to assist the western camp, and the 2nd unit would assist the eastern camp, the 3rd, 4th and 5th would stay still and focus on the plains.
The reinforcements of the second unit made E'Lai more confident to swallow the alliance troops to the east.
……
Under the leadership of E'Lai, the 3rd regiment was ready to ambush the east alliance troops. The battle at the city’s western camp had already entered the white-hot stage.
The first one to break the stalemate was the 3rd unit of the 1st regiment, the cavalry used their Tang blades to withhold Shanhai City military's honor, going on a rampage on the remaining archers. As more than half were killed, the soldiers lost their courage to resist and turned and ran, even the reinforcement sword-shield soldiers all lost their morale and started to scatter and run.
The 3rd major Li Mingliang wasn't ready to let them off, the cavalry chased after them, following closely and not letting any escape.
Every cavalryman in the Shanhai City army was armed with horned arrows. As they rode, they used the bows to mercilessly claim more enemy lives.
The arrows shot from the bow made a clear air breaking sound, piercing the leather armor and penetrating the skin, spinning into the bone and intestines.
In the endless wilderness, there wasn't anywhere to hide. The short, wild grasses couldn't block the view of the cavalry as they chased their prey like hunting dogs.
There was nothing more terrifying than seeing your friends die one after another. Their arrows were like a magician's tricks, accurate and endless.
In the end, the deserters couldn't run anymore. High amounts of adrenaline squeezed out all of their stamina, the soldiers were already desperate, and they stopped, raising their hands to surrender.
The surrender was like a plague, the moment it started, it spread and didn't stop.
After the 3rd unit, the 1st and 2nd units took the stage. They were the trump card units of Shanhai City, equipped with the Buren armor and came from various mountain barbarian tribes. They treated honor as their life and would never take a loss.
However today, because of the sneak attack, the soldiers of the 2nd unit were beaten convincingly. If it weren't for the help of the 1st unit, the 2nd unit would’ve been decimated.
Losing their honor and being insulted, one could only use the enemy's fresh blood to wash it off.
The warriors of the 1st and 2nd unit were as close as brothers. They had an understanding, two surrounding one cavalryman, one cutting the leg, the other killing the soldier that fell off.
Since the start, the alliance cavalries hadn’t faced such a tough bone before.
It was like they fell headfirst into an iron barrel in a quagmire, no matter how they tried to turn left and right, what they met was metal. Once the metal barrel started to spin at high speed, they would be grounded by it and smashed.
What was worse was there were a bunch of spear wielding idiots who were ambushing them from behind. These shameless soldiers made use of their advantage to pierce the horses and not the people, it was really shameless.
They didn't want to think about victory, falling into the trap, they wanted to escape from this nightmare.
The cavalry wanted to escape, but the mountain barbarians weren't willing to let them. Their bodies weren't full of the enemy's fresh blood. Around their feet weren't all the enemy's bodies. This wasn't enough to wash off their shame; this wasn't enough to increase their honor.
The warriors wore an early 30 kg heavy Buren armor, so such a highly intense battle exhausted them. But they didn't want to rest, they squeezed dry all their energy to deal the final blows to the enemy. The Tang blades in their hands were still sharp, and the shields that they raised were still unbreakable.
"Ahhhh!” the mountain barbarians hollered, this was the death proclamation that they made to their prey when they were hunting in their tribes. Today, the proclamations were made towards the enemy cavalry.
The shouts spread across the wilderness, awing the hearts of everyone.