Cui Shaolin spurred his horse down the hillside, his two maces clashing together with a piercing sound, seemingly a warning to Ji Su that the newcomer was no ordinary person. But before he could speak, Ji Su unleashed a powerful slash with his saber.
Seeing Ji Su's fierce swordsmanship, and Cui Shaolin's inability to retaliate amidst the flashing white blades, Liu Guang couldn't help but chuckle, "Shaolin is powerless against this Rong woman. If we forcibly take her back, I'm afraid she'll be in trouble." "My lord," Liu Zheng said, frowning, "Shaolin is a brave general under your command, always loyal and steadfast. We cannot allow him to fall. Please devise a plan to rescue him."
"Hmm, that's simple." Liu Guang turned around and said, "Feng Jiutian is not defending the fortified city but coming to meet the enemy. He must be afraid that we will cut off his supply lines after besieging the city. He is a cautious man. If he sees one of our cavalry leaving from the side, he will suspect that I have a cunning plan and recall the Rong woman. In this way, we can save Shaolin without losing face for him." "My lord, please let this humble general go!" Knowing that he intended to divide the troops to confuse the enemy, Han Chong cupped his hands and said.
“Alright, I grant you permission to act according to the situation. If Feng Jiutian doesn’t move, you should circle around and attack his rear. If he moves, you can decide on your own countermeasures,” Liu Guang said. “However, remember to stay aligned with my central army.” Not long after Han Chong left, the sound of retreating troops indeed came from the Peace Army’s formation. Ji Su coldly snorted, forced Cui Shaolin aside, and said, “I’ll kill you next time!” “Charge!” Seeing that the Peace Army had already shown signs of collapse before Ji Su retreated to his own formation, Liu Guang was taken aback at first, but in a flash, he understood Feng Jiutian’s intentions. A strange smile appeared on his lips as he unfurled the yellow flag in his hand.
"Since you're offering such a generous gift, I'll gladly accept it!" Liu Guang turned his gaze to the retreating Peace Army's central force. Although the Phoenix Banner was still fluttering wildly in the air, it no longer possessed the imposing aura it had when the two armies first clashed.
The nine generals, commanding nine armies, saw the banners raised in the central camp surge forth from their ranks like nine torrents. If Feng Jiutian could calmly observe at this moment, he would surely be amazed by this perfect display of nine dragons emerging from the water. These nine dragons were led by light cavalry charging forward, flanked by heavy cavalry, and supported by lightly armored infantry. They charged with extreme speed, yet their formation remained unchanged for a considerable period. Even as the cavalry galloped, they did not easily widen the distance between their front and rear armies, preventing the enemy from seizing any openings.
The nine units did not advance in unison, but rather in a staggered formation of three leading and six trailing. The three fastest units swiftly penetrated behind the retreating Peace Army, charging in without hesitation. Unlike the other units that spread out to the sides to divide the Peace Army, they continued to advance, their target being the Peace Army's central force.
Following these three faster forces, three other Chen troops took advantage of the chaos following the vanguard's attack and quickly penetrated into the Peace Army. The Peace Army, which had just been separated after the first round of attacks, was still in shock when these three forces arrived one after another, forcing the Peace Army, which was forming a defensive formation, to disperse again.
The last three units consisted mainly of lightly armored infantry armed with short swords. In the midst of the chaotic melee, their short swords proved invaluable, delivering devastating blows to the outdated Peace Army. It was precisely their relentless, nibbling attack that devoured the mulberry leaves.
Amidst the chaos of battle, Ji Su and her five hundred Rong cavalry were overtaken by Chen soldiers, their retreat cut off by enemy troops who had already breached the Peace Army's battle lines. Ji Su leaped to her feet and looked around; in just a moment, she was surrounded by swarms of Chen soldiers, like ants and locusts. After three years of rest and training, the Chen soldiers, who had been so easily defeated just a few years ago, were now so elite! Although this was something Feng Jiutian had anticipated, Ji Su's heart still pounded wildly, and a strong sense of fear washed over her like a bucket of cold water.
"Kill!" No sound other than the shouts of battle could be heard. Although the Peace Army had barely managed to form the Crimson Dragon Formation to defend against the enemy, Liu Guang's Nine Dragons Emerging from the Water Formation seemed to be designed to counter the Crimson Dragon Formation, which was good at localized warfare. It squeezed the Peace Army together and then used its speed and numerical advantage to force the Peace Army's Crimson Dragon Formation to shrink continuously. When it finally shrank to the point where it could no longer exert its power, the Peace Army could only be slaughtered by the enemy.
"If anything happens to Ji Su, I'm afraid Li Jun won't let you off the hook." Feng Jiutian's warhorse galloped away. Amid the chaotic sounds of the defeated army, he could still hear Lei Hun's cold voice in his ears. He smiled bitterly. Originally, it was a feigned defeat, but unexpectedly, the charade turned into a real defeat.
"As expected of Liu Guang, his military tactics are swift as the wind." In the midst of his busy schedule, he looked back and saw that the Peace Army, which was originally the vanguard, was now submerged in a sea of Chen soldiers. Moreover, three enemy armies were following him like arrows, and the Peace Army protecting him was about to be overtaken.
"Five hundred steps..." Feng Jiutian looked ahead again, silently calculating in his mind. Five hundred steps was only a moment's distance in the midst of a rush, but Feng Jiutian felt that moment was as long as a hundred years. The shouts of battle behind him were getting closer and closer, and he didn't even dare to look back.
The Chen soldiers, advancing swiftly, stormed into the Peace Army's camp in an instant. Some of the Peace Army soldiers, who were responsible for the camp's inhabitants, were intercepted and surrounded, while others were driven out of the camp. The Chen army did not rest and pursued Feng Jiutian, who had fled the camp in defeat.
Watching his men easily separate the enemy forces from the high ground, Liu Guang lost his smile.
With the abilities of the Peace Army, the wisdom of Feng Jiutian, and the courage of Ji Su, why were they defeated so quickly? Liu Guang's mind raced, and he waved the yellow flag in his hand again.
The piercing sound of the gong rang out before his hand even touched the ground. The Chen soldiers who were chasing Feng Jiutian stopped almost as soon as the gong sounded. This allowed Feng Jiutian, who was running at full speed, to secretly breathe a sigh of relief. Liu Guang's military tactics were indeed disciplined and his orders were strictly enforced.
"Your greatest strength is also your weakness." Feng Jiutian, having just recovered his composure, sneered. The battlefield was now divided into two parts: Ji Su and a small force were surrounded by Chen troops, while Feng Jiutian and the main force of the Peace Army were retreating, leaving the vast area from the battlefield to the Peace Army's camp to the Chen troops. The nine Chen troops that had launched their attack sequentially began to regroup upon hearing the gong.
Liu Guang looked around and his expression suddenly changed drastically. His troops had failed to entangle the Peace Army. Apart from fighting around Ji Su, the main forces of both sides were clearly separated. After the sounding of the retreat signal, his troops stopped the pursuit, while the Peace Army also stopped after advancing for another hundred paces!
"Not good!" Although he couldn't quite put his finger on what was wrong, Liu Guang still shouted, "Quickly retreat!" Upon hearing this, the messengers around him began to strike the gong again, but to their surprise, they didn't hear the sound of the gong!
What they heard was a deafening explosion, followed by a dizzying darkness. It seemed as if a whirlwind had swept across the entire battlefield, and the once clear sky was instantly shrouded in dust. Within ten paces, flying sand and stones made it impossible to open one's eyes, and the army's flags were blown about wildly.
Immediately afterward, a rain of sand and gravel began to fall from the sky. The sand and dust, mixed with the fierce wind, pelted down, carrying large drops of water. These water droplets were crimson red, and one could even feel their temperature. Liu Guang instinctively shielded his eyes with his hands, and the guards beside him hurriedly held up a canopy for him, but the strong winds caused the canopy to be overturned.
After the first loud bang, a series of explosions followed incessantly. The area where the Peace Army camp had been located, now where Liu Guang's nine elite troops were concentrated, was erupting like flowers blooming everywhere. It was as if the goddess of the earth was enraged and wanted to display her power here, or like the waves stirred up when hailstones hit a calm lake. Black or dark yellow smoke rose into the sky with the explosions, soaring straight up to the heavens.
With a "thud," a soft, squishy object landed in Liu Guang's hand. Liu Guang shook his hand, his expression turning grim. It was a piece of human viscera. Those nine assault troops were the elite forces he had meticulously trained over the years, and now it seemed they had all been destroyed by his carelessness.
The air was thick with the pungent smell of saltpeter. Liu Guang already knew Feng Jiutian's scheme. He had planted a large amount of explosives at the location where the Pingjun army was positioned, then used Ji Su's bravery to lure his entire army into a full-scale attack. Once his army had captured the enemy's camp, he would detonate the explosives. Although he hadn't committed all his troops out of caution, that explosion had turned tens of thousands of elite soldiers into a bloodbath, and his army's morale had plummeted to rock bottom in that instant.
"His mind is indeed deep, and he's extremely audacious." Although his heart was breaking, Liu Guang had to admire Feng Jiutian's boldness. Igniting the explosives wasn't a quick process; he must have lit the fuse after his army's assault. If he had been slower, the Peace Army would have been reduced to dust in the explosion. But he had timed it perfectly; even if some Peace Army soldiers were killed in the blast, they would only be a very few isolated individuals.
The tremendous noise and the ensuing anomaly caused the Chen soldiers to drop their weapons in terror, with many even falling to the ground in fright. What had been the Peace Army's battleground was now just a huge, still-smoking crater, large enough for an entire army to drill within. Of the tens of thousands of elite Chen troops who should have been there, only a few at the edges remained with visible corpses; the rest had vanished, their bodies transformed into the blood rain that had just fallen from the sky.
Chaos reigned on the battlefield. Both sides were shocked by the massive explosion, and everyone was speechless. But the warhorses neighed and galloped wildly, out of control.
Ji Su stood stunned in the midst of the battle. Although she was somewhat prepared—the explosives were originally used by the Yue people for blasting rocks and clearing mountains, something Mo Rong was extremely familiar with, and Ji Su had heard her mention their power before she arrived—the sheer magnitude of the explosion still horrified her. Everyone on the battlefield stopped fighting, staring in disbelief at the remnants of the explosion, forgetting the battle, forgetting the enemy.
"Waaah..." Suddenly, someone covered their mouth and burst into tears. The massive explosion made them truly realize what cruelty was; even soldiers like them, whose lives hung by a thread on the battlefield, could not bear it. The Chen soldiers near the blast site didn't even notice that blood was seeping from their ears, and they couldn't hear anything.
"Capture that Rong woman alive!" Only Liu Guang recovered fastest after the upheaval. He issued the order with unwavering authority; he now understood Feng Jiutian's entire scheme. The Rong woman probably didn't even know she had become a victim of Feng Jiutian's explosion. He had kept her among his army, simply to use him to eliminate her and ensure the Rong people's irreconcilable enmity. Although he had only now fully seen through the man's plot, now that he had, he wouldn't let him have his way!
His heavy voice not only startled the Chen soldiers, but also made Ji Su realize that although most of the Chen soldiers who had launched the attack had been wiped out, he himself was surrounded by tens of thousands of enemy troops. With him, there were only less than a thousand Peace Army soldiers and Rong cavalry.
"Charge to the southeast!" she shouted, brandishing her saber again. But neither the Peace Army nor the Chen soldiers could muster any killing intent after this sudden shock. The Peace Army was particularly disheartened, while the Chen soldiers, still driven by a desire to avenge their fallen comrades, felt abandoned.
Ji Su charged forward on her horse, her saber swift and agile as the wind. She sliced down the shaft of an enemy general's spear, severing his five fingers. The general dropped his weapon and turned to flee, but Ji Su's saber followed suit, slashing down from behind his neck. The saber was curved and thin, better suited for assault than direct confrontation. Therefore, Ji Su always tried to avoid direct weapon clashes with the enemy. Her movements were extremely swift, often beheading her enemies before they could even raise their weapons to parry.
Two spears suddenly thrust forward from the side. Ji Su ducked, and the two enemy spears missed their mark. She then slashed out with her saber. A red line appeared on the throat of one of the enemies, with white bubbles occasionally escaping from his ruptured throat. He clutched his throat and retreated, collapsing to the ground after only a few steps. The other rolled away, avoiding Ji Su's blade, but as he stood up, he felt a weight on his shoulder, and half of his body snapped over, only his waist still connected by skin and flesh.
Ji Su killed the enemy with her sword energy, but before she could catch her breath, several more enemies charged at her. She knew that if this continued, she would exhaust herself to death. Looking around, although not all five hundred Rong cavalrymen had been killed, their horsemanship advantage was difficult to utilize under the enemy's swarming numbers, so there were not many left.
"God, protect me!" Ji Su couldn't help but pray to the God of War, Po Tian, in her heart. At this moment, she understood the meaning behind Lei Hun's order from Li Jun, strictly forbidding Feng Jiutian from making any rash moves. If that was the case, Feng Jiutian would abandon her and let her die amidst the vast army. She would never be able to return to the boundless grasslands, never be able to drink the milk tea soaked in yak butter, and never be able to act spoiled and playful in front of her aging father.
"Li Jun, Li Jun!" she cried out in her heart. The man chosen by the God of War, the man who took off her helmet—would she never see him again? Would she never understand the words he had spoken before his expedition to the State of Su?
Tears and sweat streamed down her face, mingling together. She had sustained several wounds, none of them serious, but her battle robes were stained with blood. She felt as if the enemy before her was as vast as a mountain or a forest, impossible to break through no matter how she charged. Piles of corpses lay beneath her horses' hooves, and she had changed horses twice, yet she still could not break through the blockade of the Chen soldiers.
Seeing Ji Su relentlessly fighting within his own ranks, showing no signs of fatigue even after a long battle, and with several more of his generals falling victim to her, Liu Guang was filled with genuine rage. He ordered, "Try to capture that Rong woman alive, or at least kill her if necessary!" Just as the Chen archers began searching for an opportunity to unleash their arrows, a strange rumbling sound came from the southeast. This startled Liu Guang. Could it be that his prediction was wrong, and that Feng Jiutian had no intention of abandoning this Rong woman here?
Ji Su was overjoyed to hear the voice; she knew she had not been abandoned after all. From behind the trees, two dark, shadowy creatures emerged from the source of the voice.
Liu Guang paused for a moment, then quickly realized that these were actually two iron carts, but without any animals pulling them or soldiers pushing them from behind; they seemed to be moving forward on their own. Each iron cart was about the height of a one-story building, six feet wide, and thirty feet long. Several crossbows extended from the top of the carts, and the sides were sharp blades. A shovel-like protrusion appeared at the front. The wheels rubbed against the ground, producing a dull, rumbling sound.
Even before the iron chariot was three hundred paces away, the crossbows on it unleashed a torrent of arrows. The bolts weren't long, but their range was immense, their power capable of piercing iron armor, and dozens could be fired simultaneously. The Chen soldiers, already stunned by the iron chariot, fell to the ground in droves. One such chariot was equivalent to a small squad of elite barbarian archers!
When the iron chariot and the Chen soldiers approached within fifty paces, a window suddenly opened at the front of the chariot. Inside sat a figure, sword in hand. A flash of red light appeared where the sword pointed, and the Chen soldiers facing the light felt an intense heat wash over them, turning them into fireballs. Liu Guang gasped; the person sitting in the window was a sorcerer!
While the mages of the three religions possessed formidable combat power, their lack of coordination, the excessive destructive force of their spells (which were indiscriminate and indiscriminate), and the significantly smaller attack range compared to catapults and crossbowmen, coupled with the fact that mages themselves could not wear heavy armor, meant that they only appeared as a powerful military force before the Thousand-Year War. During the Thousand-Year War, numerous renowned generals emerged, and mages became their primary targets. Countless fierce battles reduced many of the most powerful mages in the Divine Continent to ashes, leaving behind only rudimentary introductory spells. Although Yuzhou possessed an ancient magic academy, it had always been in decline, unable to grow in scale or become a significant fighting force. Therefore, Liu Guang had not considered the mages of the magic academy when considering the enemies of Yuzhou. Now, the mages of the three religions were not only participating in the war, but also fighting within these strange war chariots, rendering the archers, who were originally highly effective against mages, completely helpless against them!
"Trenches!" Liu Guang knew in his heart that only trenches could stop these armored vehicles from advancing. The soldiers' flesh and blood would only increase casualties before these fully armed and fast-moving iron chariots. But on this battlefield, how could the enemy give him time to dig trenches? Fortunately, the enemy only had two of these strange vehicles, otherwise he really wouldn't know what to do.
But his luck quickly ran out, as two more strange vehicles swiftly moved in after the first two. Liu Guang was unaware that these strange vehicles were designed by Mo Rong after seeing the Xuanji Tower used by Peng Yuancheng in the siege. Each vehicle had five Qiang men inside, each pedaling a gear to propel the four wheels of the iron vehicle at a normal jogging speed. Besides the five Qiang men, there was also a Yi man who controlled the direction through a long slit at the front of the vehicle and was responsible for adjusting the crossbow on the roof. Beside the Yi man was a mage from the Magic Academy; when he finished his incantation, he would open the iron window in front of him to release the spell, and then close it again before the enemy could attack. Mo Rong, being lazy, still named the iron vehicles after Xuanji, because they were quite labor-intensive to build; in the past two years, the Peace Army had only built about fifty, and forty of them had been brought by Liu Guang to meet the enemy!
After forty mysterious chariots emerged one after another, completely extinguishing the last vestiges of resistance from the already terrified Chen soldiers, a large contingent of Peace Army cavalry appeared behind them. Liu Guang sighed deeply. In this battle, even after falling victim to the explosive trap, he was still able to regroup and rebuild his troops, but upon seeing these iron chariots, he had no choice but to retreat. Until he could devise a way to counter them, he had no choice but to temporarily refrain from fighting.
A strange feeling also rose in his heart. It seemed that the ancient military force of mages would be thrown back into the battlefield of Shenzhou after the appearance of this strange iron chariot, becoming a troublesome target that everyone would pay attention to.