After setting their respective attack directions, the three tribes, divided into four teams, surrounded Zhuzi and his men from four directions.
"Brother Zhuzi! We're surrounded!"
A company commander under Zhuzi, spotting the troop movements of Gudu Duo with his binoculars, nervously tugged at Zhuzi's sleeve.
"What nonsense is this? With them, they think they can stuff us into a dumpling?"
"Relay the order to the left and right: deploy the plate armor cavalry!"
"Yes!"
Upon receiving the order, the company commander quickly summoned two soldiers to relay the message.
When Zhuzi and his men went to the Western Regions, they wore plate armor.
This time, when recruiting mercenaries, he had collected these thousand sets of plate armor and awarded them to the fiercest Western Region warriors.
The purpose was to have elite knights who could charge against the enemy in situations like this, buying time for the arquebusiers to kill.
When the order reached the left and right flanks, two thousand-strong cavalry detachments emerged from both sides, plate armor in front, leather armor behind.
They charged towards the Gudu Duo tribesmen attacking from the flank.
Gudu Duo led half of his chieftains to attack the left flank. He adjusted his formation and had just reached about a hundred meters from Guanyin when he suddenly saw the enemy daring to split their forces to charge at him. This made his heart leap with joy.
"Only a thousand men, yet they dare to face my thousands of cavalry behind me. I truly don't know where these Western Region beggars who came with the Tang army get their confidence!"
"Warriors of the steppe, raise your sabers and kill!"
Gudu Duo, wielding twin sabers, let his warhorse charge forward. A hundred meters was nothing, and the two sides collided in an instant.
As the Western Region mercenaries picked up speed, the two sides crashed into each other.
With this simple collision, Gudu Duo's heart tightened!
These people's warhorses were far superior to those on the steppe! They were all purebred Ferghana horses!
Their bodies were at least half a foot taller than the Turkic warhorses. Such a large frame brought a charging force far beyond what Turkic warhorses could match.
In that instant, many cavalrymen around Gudu Duo were thrown from their horses, while those Ferghana horses, with undiminished momentum, like sharp swords, split Gudu Duo's cavalry behind him in two!
In the clash, the Turkic weapons could barely pierce the outer mercenaries' plate armor. Only those warriors wielding iron maces or spiked clubs could occasionally knock one or two men off their horses.
When the mercenaries advanced into Gudu Duo's formation, Guanyin severed the head of an enemy in front of him and shouted to his rear.
"Explosive packs!"
The leather-armored soldiers, protected by the plate-armored cavalry, synchronously took explosive packs from their horses, lit them, and threw them with all their might into the Turkic cavalry.
Swish, swish, swish, swish!
Five hundred explosive packs flew from the mercenaries' formation, making Gudu Duo's hair stand on end.
"Disperse! Scatter, damn it!"
But how could cavalry entangled in combat disperse so easily?
The explosive packs were thrown twenty to thirty meters, landing amidst the Turkic soldiers, and then detonating violently.
Boom, boom, boom!
A series of explosions left only some stunned Turkic cavalry in front of the mercenaries.
Moreover, a vacuum was created between these Turkic cavalry and those further away, with severed limbs and scattered bodies, human and horse alike, forming an obstacle for the following Turkic cavalry to charge.
"Brothers, kill! Kill one, get five hundred cash reward!"
Guanyin, after felling another enemy with his saber, shouted.
"Hahaha, I've killed ten! Lord Guancheng, prepare the bounty!"
"Lord Guancheng, I've killed eight!"
Mercenaries of various hair colors laughed heartily, responding to Guanyin's words while hacking at enemies.
This feeling was so exhilarating. With plate armor on, a blow from another would do no harm.
A counter-attack with a saber for five hundred cash, it was just great!
Gudu Duo was in a panic. He directly brandished his twin sabers and urged his warhorse towards Guanyin. Clearly, from his attire and hair color, he recognized Guanyin as the leader of this group.
Upon reaching close quarters, he raised his saber and struck at Guanyin.
While parrying with Guanyin, he also tried a wicked trick.
"Brothers from the Western Regions, the steppe tribes have always kept to themselves. If you stop now, I, your chieftain, am willing to offer five thousand taels of silver to treat you all to drinks!"
"Of course, if you are willing to help me take down these Tang people, each head will fetch five taels of silver! I swear it!"
This bounty was ten times higher than what Guanyin had offered!
But his response was the roaring laughter of those Western Region warriors.
A burly Western Region man, after casually felling a Turkic cavalryman, shouted at Gudu Duo.
"Hahaha, money is not important. What's important is that Lord Guancheng can grant us Tang citizenship. Can you do that?"
"Hahahahahahaha!~"
The others also laughed while cutting down enemies. One of them, accidentally missing his mark, cleaved a perfectly good head in two.
Then, a roar erupted!
"Damn you, you dare make me laugh? Pay me my five hundred cash!"
Saying that, he actually squeezed out of the melee and moved towards Gudu Duo.
The results from other directions were unclear, but the five thousand men he had brought were now less than half.
In contrast, the opposing force of only a thousand men had suffered less than twenty percent casualties!
Guanyin noticed the retreat in Gudu Duo's eyes and the Turkic soldiers closing in again. He shouted once more: "Explosive packs!"
"Retreat! Retreat! Quick, retreat!"
Gudu Duo, as if hearing the death knell from hell, immediately shouted to his subordinates.
The Turkic cavalry, already terrified by the explosions, rejoiced upon hearing Gudu Duo's order to retreat.
"Retreat, retreat!"
They quickly controlled their warhorses and charged out of the battle line.
Where were the explosive packs!
Guanyin couldn't help but laugh in his heart at this, but he still gave the order: "Pursue! Don't let a single one escape!"
ps: First update, I apologize, I had many things to do today, so the update is late.