"All crows are black, as the sect leader has said long ago," the young soldier said slowly, a hint of sorrow in his voice. He then added, "You all need to work hard and gather some fodder nearby. There might be a fierce battle tomorrow, and the horses can't afford to go hungry. Zuo Sijing, go and order the rear guard to speed up. We'll make do outside this village tonight. No matter what, we must find Li Jun!" When he mentioned "Li Jun," the young soldier gritted his teeth, seemingly filled with both boundless hatred and boundless hope.
two,
"To attack or not to attack, that is the question."
Wei Bian, the commander of the army originally sent by the State of Su to conquer the State of Chen, had hoped to display his might in a foreign land, but unexpectedly ended up in this predicament. His mind was constantly preoccupied with whether or not to send his soldiers back to attack the position on the other side of the river, where countless lives had already been lost. Blood flowed within the Gui River, and corpses piled high on its banks. Every day, gazing at the murderous aura and death-shrouded opposite bank from this side of the river, even a veteran general like him, could not help but feel a chill run down his spine. The soldiers' morale was already low; it was already a feigned standoff with the enemy on this side of the river. As for an attack, it would likely only force them to mutini.
Looking at the heavily fortified enemy lines on the opposite bank of the river, Wei Bian shook his head and sighed. He had already stationed his troops on the border between Jiangsu and Chenzhou. Upon hearing that Fenglin Ferry had fallen, he rushed over, but unexpectedly encountered Fang Fengyi's stubborn resistance. Not only could he not clear the way back, but he was also caught in a dilemma.
Just as he was lamenting that his reputation would be ruined on the banks of the River Kwai, the already disorganized rear guard suddenly broke into disarray. He frowned, his expression one of utter helplessness.
Several disheveled soldiers, their faces grim, rushed over. Wei Bian's guards stopped them from afar, but Wei Bian waved his hand, signaling them to come closer.
"Marshal, something terrible has happened..."
“This is indeed a very bad thing…” This stuttering soldier made Wei Bian, who was already furious, lose his temper. He said in a deep voice, “Judge, what is the punishment for those who disrupt the formation, run around and make loud noises in the army?”
"Execute!" The military judge uttered this cold word. Wei Bian gave a signal, and the strongman came up and pulled the soldier away. The soldier was in tears, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence.
When his intermittent pleas for mercy turned into screams of agony, Wei Bian turned to the remaining soldiers who were paralyzed with fear and said, "Do you also want to be beheaded?"
"Marshal, spare us... We have urgent military intelligence to report, it's extremely urgent, that's why we broke through the enemy lines..."
The soldiers' pleas for mercy made Wei Bian feel a little better, and his expression softened: "What's all the fuss about?"
"Chen Guo Liu Guang's army... is less than a hundred li from here!"
Wei Bian shuddered, his composed demeanor vanishing completely. He knew defeat was inevitable, but the Peace Army's forces were limited and unable to annihilate him. If Liu Guang, a renowned general on par with Lu Xiang, appeared behind him with a large army, it would mean the certainty of his complete annihilation. What would be lost on the banks of the Gui River would not only be his military reputation built over many years, but also his life.
"Impossible...this is impossible..." he muttered to himself. According to his intelligence, the situation in Chen Kingdom had recently changed drastically. The five leaders of the Lotus Law Army, who had previously cooperated, had fallen into conflict because two of them had declared themselves kings. Liu Guang had seized the opportunity to defeat them one by one. Logically speaking, Liu Guang should be advancing into Yu Prefecture at this time, taking advantage of Li Jun's expedition to eliminate this major threat. Although Su Kingdom had sent troops under the pretext of punishing his autocracy, the two sides had not yet truly clashed and had not yet formed an irreconcilable enmity. Could Liu Guang really be so unable to distinguish between primary and secondary matters?
"Are you sure it's Chen Guobing?" Wei Bian finally came to his senses and asked.
"I am certain that the accents of those thieves I heard were all from the Chen Kingdom."
The officer inadvertently revealed that he and his men had feigned death to escape when attacked, which is why they heard that the other party's accent was not that of the Su Kingdom. Wei Bian shook his head and said, "Impossible. It must be a small group of bandits from Yu Prefecture who outflanked our army. Their accent is also similar to that of the Chen Kingdom."
His insistence on this issue was merely an excuse to refute it. He forgot to ask the crucial question: when did the enemy reach within a hundred li? Before he could recover from his shock, the rear guard was thrown into chaos once more.
"What's going on? Do they really think I have no regard for military law?" Seeing the chaos escalating and the ranks faltering, he roared. But the army was already in an uproar.
"Enemy troops! The enemy is attacking!"
The already terrified soldiers of the Su Kingdom saw a large enemy force appear behind them, and the leading cavalry charged forward in a wedge formation. Their imposing momentum made them disregard the enemy's numbers, and many began to fire arrows indiscriminately, while others threw down their weapons and fled for their lives.
"They're just like frightened birds!" the young soldier in the lead roared. "Hurry them into the river!"
The arrowheads, composed of five or six hundred cavalrymen, were now less than five hundred feet from the rear of the Su army. A strong south wind was blowing, and they came riding the wind, carrying billowing yellow dust. For a moment, the Su soldiers had no way of judging the enemy's numbers.
"Attack! Attack!" Wei Bian roared hoarsely, but few listened to him. The yellow dust blinded the Su soldiers; all they could hear was the rapid, increasingly loud clatter of hooves. Some panicked soldiers let out piercing screams, as if the enemy were right in front of them. Meanwhile, his comrades beside him hurriedly brandished their weapons to attack the enemy, who was still some distance away, only to find themselves fighting amongst themselves.
"Useless thing!" The young soldier swung his great axe, splitting half of a Soviet soldier's head off. Brain matter mixed with blood splattered onto the faces of his comrades. Before the surrounding Soviet soldiers could wipe it away, the axe whirlwinded down again, cleaving into the chest of another Soviet soldier on the other side, tearing a long gash. His internal organs and intestines, shattered by the qi, spilled out of the wound. The soldier screamed and tried to grab them back in, but his efforts were only halfway through when a warhorse galloped up and knocked him down. He fell into a pool of blood, letting the horse's hooves trample over him.
The young soldier charged into the enemy ranks. Amidst the roar of his warhorse, he wielded his great axe, causing the enemy soldiers to pale in fear wherever he went. He seemed to harbor resentment, for his attacks were extremely ruthless and decisive; those struck by his axe died instantly. In a short while, he and his horse were both turned crimson with blood.
"It's not Liu Guang, it's not Liu Guang!" Wei Bian suddenly shouted. Although the enemy cavalry was brave and fierce, their armor was neither the uniform of the Chen Kingdom army nor that of the Heping Army. His mind raced, and he suddenly remembered: "It's the Lianfa demon! Everyone, don't be afraid, it's just the Lianfa demon bandit!"
But amidst the chaos, few could hear his shouts. The rear guard offered no effective resistance and was quickly torn apart and scattered. The defeated troops then disrupted the left, center, and right wings of the army, and the officers and soldiers, who were already disheartened, scattered like birds and beasts in an instant.
"Kill!" Wei Bian knew that if he didn't use ruthless methods now, he wouldn't be able to subdue these demoralized soldiers. The enemy's numbers were now clear: only five or six hundred cavalrymen, followed by several thousand infantrymen. Compared to the tens of thousands of Su soldiers on his side, they were at an absolute disadvantage. As long as they could withstand the enemy's charge, there was still a chance to regroup.
He swung his broadsword, cutting down several panicked generals in succession. With bloodshot eyes, he roared at his guards, "Anyone who flinchs at the enemy and disrupts the formation will be killed without mercy!"
His hundred or so mounted guards shouted in unison, "Anyone who flinchs at the enemy and disrupts the formation will be killed without mercy!" The voices of these hundred or so men, spoken simultaneously, were much louder than those of Wei Bian alone.
"They're just treacherous bandits, nothing to be afraid of. All soldiers, stand your ground and resist! No one is allowed to retreat a single step!"
This time, the Su soldiers nearby heard his shout and learned that the newcomer was not Liu Guang, whom they feared like a tiger, but Lianfa Army, which was formed after the people's rebellion. Their spirits lifted and their courage increased considerably.
"Now this is more interesting!" The young soldier was not surprised to see the enemy regroup from disarray. Instead, he laughed loudly. His cavalry had just charged into the thickest part of the Su army's formation. Their morale had been more than half depleted, but the infantry followed up and launched another attack.
Seeing that the formation was gradually stabilizing, Wei Bian felt slightly relieved. As long as they weren't scattered, this Lianfa army would be no match for him in a war of attrition. He wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, but just then, cries of alarm rang out from the ranks.
This exclamation came from the vanguard on the riverbank; Fang Fengyi on the opposite bank had finally made her move!
Dozens of boats of varying sizes, fully loaded with peace troops, were forcing their way across the river against the wind. Although the headwind prevented the boats from sailing at full speed, they were still moving at a pace that would allow them to cross the River Kwai in less than half an hour!
"Damn it!" The thought of being attacked from both sides by the river, especially by the Peace Army which had inflicted heavy losses on them, filled the Su soldiers with fear. The formation that Wei Bian had painstakingly stabilized immediately fell into chaos again. The young soldiers of the Lianfa Army brandished their axes, signaling their men to scatter, and the chaos quickly spread within the Lianfa Army's ranks.
Wei Bian could no longer control the situation. He spurred his horse, and his many years of military service had greatly improved his ability to escape. Surrounded by his guards, he fled westward, and in an instant, his 60,000 to 70,000 troops scattered like birds and beasts.
"It's the Peace Army! We've finally found them!" The young general of the Lianfa Army, seeing that the Peace Army ships had not landed and had stopped advancing after the Soviet troops scattered and fled, stood cautiously in the middle of the river, raised his arm and shouted, "Which general's troops are these? I want to see Li Jun!"
Fang Fengyi was taken aback. He had just seen smoke and dust rising from the Su army's ranks, accompanied by the sounds of battle, and deduced that a mutiny had broken out within the Su army. Therefore, he seized the opportunity to lead his troops across the river. Upon recognizing the enemy as the Lianfa army, he ordered all boats to halt their advance. The fact that the Lianfa sect, which had always operated only within the Chen kingdom, had actually crossed the border into the Su kingdom and penetrated more than two hundred miles into Su territory greatly surprised Fang Fengyi. This could only prove one thing: a tremendous change had occurred in the Chen kingdom within the past ten days.
"This is General Fang Fengyi's troops!" The deputy general emphasized the name Fang Fengyi. After this battle, Fang Fengyi would become a famous general in the Peace Army, and the deputy generals felt honored. "Who are you, and why do you want to see Commander Li?"
"It's not Li Jun here alone," the young soldier said in a low voice, somewhat disappointed. After a moment, he called out loudly, "We are under the command of Master Cheng Tian of the Lotus Dharma Sect. I have urgent military intelligence to report to Li Jun!"
The fact that the other side mentioned Li Jun's name twice, instead of using the more familiar title of "Commander" that the Peace Army was used to, displeased Fang Fengyi and the others. His face darkened, and before his deputy could speak, he shouted, "Commander Li is not here. If you want to see him, lay down your weapons and come with me alone!"
"I'm not your prisoner!" the young soldier cursed, turning around to ask, "What do you say?"
"We leave everything to our master." The other officers looked at each other, their eyes filled with despair. They had nowhere else to go, otherwise they wouldn't have come to Li Jun, who had once been Cheng Tian's enemy.
"Where exactly is Li Jun?" the young general asked again.
"Ignore him, turn the ship around and return to camp." Fang Fengyi coldly ordered. He felt that the arrival of the Lianfa army was definitely not for anything good. Although it might be related to changes in the Chen Kingdom, Zhuo Tian's intelligence network should also report the situation in the Chen Kingdom. There was no need to ask them for any more information.