Sishi (9-11 AM). The decisive battle near Tuanshan Mountain had begun. On the battlefields south of Hanzhong Ancient City, the Huaxia Army had repelled two rounds of attacks launched by Wanyan Xiyin. Black smoke drifted in the wind, and the heat from the explosions scorched the air and soil on the battlefield. Corpses of men and horses piled up on the positions.

Wanyan Xiyin had sensed something was amiss.

Over the ten li distance between Tuanshan and Hanzhong, small-scale chaos and skirmishes were unfolding. Scouts sent from Zong Han's main camp towards Hanzhong were intercepted and killed along the way. Near the west gate of Hanzhong City, two companies of the Huaxia Army had launched another attack on the city gates, causing a wave of confusion earlier in the morning and preventing messenger soldiers from the west from easily entering the city.

By this point, the hot air balloons rising from the city walls could vaguely observe the flames and chaos ten li away.

At the third quarter of Sishi, Wanyan Yuchi emerged from Hanzhong City and arrived at the Jurchen camp southeast of the city. While reporting the news from the west to Wanyan Xiyin, a lull occurred between attacks. Wanyan Xiyin, mounted on his warhorse, listened to Wanyan Yuchi’s words, which confirmed his suspicions. The old man closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

"We chose this place for the decisive battle, but they chose Tuanshan..." he murmured, then opened his eyes and looked ahead. "You mobilize three thousand battle-ready soldiers from the city and head west to support the Grand Commander. Tell the city's defenders that Hanzhong can be conceded, give up half of it."

Wanyan Yuchi was stunned for a moment, then bowed and accepted the order, turning to leave.

The old man placed his hand on the long sword at his waist. At this moment, he fully understood that the Huaxia soldiers on the opposing positions had repelled his two fierce offensives that morning with insufficient forces.

In such a battlefield, it was not unusual for the opponent to repel several attacks with a small force while putting up a desperate resistance. However, what truly bothered Xiyin was the Huaxia Army's continuous attacks from last night until this morning, and their act of retaining only a small force here while maintaining rationality.

Even if the entire Huaxia Seventh Army went west to attack Tuanshan, they would only number over ten thousand.

Something was pounding in his mind.

This was a hint that he had noticed many years ago, something that had begun to sprout when he first turned his gaze to Xiaocang River in the northwest. That rebellious army of the Wu Dynasty, who had assassinated their ruler and rebelled, subsequently defeating the Western Xia people at Dongzhiyuan, he vaguely sensed that this was a potential threat, a bad seed that was sprouting. Although this seed was too small under the vast scale of the Jin Dynasty, he still sent people over to recruit them, and later to eliminate them.

The tenacity of Xiaocang River exceeded his expectations. Although he had never personally gone to the northwest, he had gradually collected information from there. In his accumulated combat experience, many things displayed by Xiaocang River puzzled him.

That army should have collapsed long ago.

The Jurchens also emerged from extreme adversity, but even if replaced by the army led by Aguda, Xiaocang River was still perplexing, especially since the two armies had completely different appearances.

Since the end of the three-year war at Xiaocang River, the sacrifices of Lou Shi and Ci Bushi had awakened Zong Han and many others. Together with Xiyin, they focused on the southwest, hence this southern expedition. At this time, they were all veterans who had experienced countless battles. Some might only accumulate experience on the battlefield, while others were well-versed in history and military strategy. However, the appearance displayed by the Huaxia Army in the southwest did not exist in any historical record or military treatise.

The experience of the disastrous defeat in the southwest expanded their knowledge each time. As the decisive battle with the Huaxia Seventh Army unfolded, he could vaguely feel that the complete form of something had been revealed before him.

In recent days, this feeling had been pounding more and more heavily in his mind, reminding him that he and Zong Han were facing a situation unlike anything they had encountered before—perhaps the people of the Wu Dynasty had also faced similar surprise when they first knocked on the gates of the Wu Dynasty, but the warlike northerners were recorded in many historical books. Only this time, he and Zong Han were facing something that had never existed in history.

Such subconscious, disharmonious appearance was "thumping" in his head. The opponent should have collapsed long ago, but they did not. The opponent should not be fighting like this, but the situation had occurred. He could not predict the consequences of his operations.

But apart from the decisive battle, there was no other option.

He was old.

People always learn in their youth, experience in their adolescence, and by middle age, the wise have generally seen everything in the world. Even those who have not personally experienced it can often infer from one instance to another. Just like the "Gewu" studies (investigation of things) that arose in the southwest under Ning Yi, even though many new things were emerging, he always understood the basic principles, and it was not incomprehensible.

But at this moment, the outline of darkness seemed to have risen from the seabed.

Thump, thump, thump...

——

He could faintly hear such sounds.

But apart from the decisive battle, he had no more choices.

If he could quickly break through the Huaxia Army's position at the south gate of Hanzhong, he could decisively interfere with the battle at Tuanshan.

Letting Wanyan Yuchi lead the elite troops from Hanzhong City was to give the Black Flag Army outside the south gate a way out. They were few in number. When their position could not hold, if they entered Hanzhong City, Xiyin could go straight to Tuanshan.

He had done all he could in terms of strategy and planning.

Soon after, outside the south gate of Hanzhong City, another attack began. The most ferocious charge came crashing down like a landslide. Cannonballs flew, and smoke obscured the sky.

Chen Hai went to meet it.

Thump, thump, thump——

The outline of a new era was knocking on the doors of people's minds.

Wanyan Xiyin attacked with all his might.

……

At Tuanshan, Wanyan Zong Han in the midst of the battle also saw clearly the true form of the Huaxia Seventh Army's attack.

The massive offensive was like mercury pouring onto the ground, peeling away the outer layers of the Jurchen army. The fighting spread, and large numbers of Jin soldiers fled in all directions. Zong Han observed all of this in silence. Although he had guessed many things beforehand, he was truly witnessing such a large-scale scattered infantry charge for the first time.

In the face of the Huaxia Army's charge, fighting in formation was completely useless. Facing dozens of people charging towards a battle formation of thousands, the power of arrows was minimized. Moreover, when the enemy charged close, they could only organize a counter-charge. If they wanted to stand still and wait, the dozens of people would throw fire bombs, turn around and run, and they would lose a large number of their own men.

They could only charge to meet them.

However, if a hundred-man formation charged to meet them, after one battle, this unit might lose its command. Soldiers not swept along by the battle formation would try to find a place to hide or choose to flee. Soldiers unwilling to scatter would often gather in a group, which would become a target for fire bombs. They were often unable to cope with the Huaxia Army's counterattacks. These Jurchen units that lost their formation could not even retreat. A retreat without formation would turn into a large-scale rout.

The Huaxia Army did not encounter such a situation. This was the most basic difference. In the early stages of the battle, one hundred-man unit after another was thrown out, some being directly defeated by just over twenty opponents, while others, when迎击(yingji) the charging Huaxia Army队伍(duiwu), encountered attacks from both sides and quickly collapsed.

The Jurchens were not psychologically unprepared for scattered infantry warfare. They had encountered similar situations in the southwest. But at this time, facing the Huaxia Army's swift and efficient small-scale charges, they were several levels behind.

Dozens or even hundreds of points of attack merged into a vast tide, but Zong Han could see that the opponent had only mobilized a few thousand troops. They could throw out several times more troops than the opponent, but the response at each point was not as flexible as the opponent's.

Of course, he did not sit idly by. At the second quarter of Sishi, as the operational situation on the periphery began to become chaotic, Gao Qingyi led two thousand iron cavalry surging out from the north, trying to sweep the entire battlefield. The Huaxia Army came surging from the north, northeast, and southwest, each with a thousand-man reserve隊(dui), invading towards the Jurchen main camp.

Gao Qingyi's two thousand cavalry caused serious containment and打击(daji) to the Huaxia Army's attack. Although a large number of Huaxia Army部队(budui) quickly gathered, counterattacking with fire bombs and spears, still several troops were overwhelmed by the cavalry, and the exchange ratio on the battlefield approached one-to-one.

In the past, this was a ridiculous number. If they were facing the Wu Dynasty or even the Liao people on the battlefield, two thousand Jurchen iron cavalry could often determine the outcome of a war. They would often choose to avoid facing large-scale battle formations of infantry, but as long as the infantry's formation was disrupted, their impact was enough to defeat tens of thousands of troops. But at this moment, facing the scattered Huaxia Army, a one-to-one exchange ratio had become the only trump card.

At noon, the cavalry's impact was contained. Gao Qingyi led his team back. Some Huaxia Army teams peeled away the outer layers of the Jurchen troops like peeling an onion, approaching the core of eight thousand men in the Jin camp, and the fighting became more intense. Some Huaxia Army troops temporarily stopped or began to support their comrades on the flanks.

The military front was浩荡(haodang), with waves of explosions. The wind carried the taste of death. On the right side of the field of vision, the Huaxia Army launched a struggle for a Jurchen artillery position on the丘陵(qiuling). A team of personal guards was ordered to支援(zhiyuan). In front of the field of vision, black flags were gradually converging into a滔滔(taotao) river. On the left side of the mountains, the figures of defeated soldiers surged towards the mountains. Zong Han stood under his banner, unwavering, only occasionally talking to Han Qixian beside him.

"Dozens of people can form a陣(zhen), and can adapt after being散(san)ed... How did they do it..."

"I heard they even let every soldier read and write..."

"Military strategy and battle formations are mostly useless from now on..."

Since thousands of years ago, various kinds of military strategies were born because of the different characteristics of armies. The movements of thousands of people on the battlefield were difficult to coordinate, so drumbeats were needed to plan the steps. When countless warriors deployed in battle formation, one person擠(ji)ed against another. Even if someone was胆怯(dianqie) and wanted to逃跑(taopao), they could not move at all. A few people could accept an order and try to execute it, and they could become officers. More soldiers were just swept along by the army. If thousands of people could move in one direction without getting亂(luan), that was often the key in military strategy.

If you are a thousand people acting笨拙(benzhuo), and I act slightly more smoothly, I can繞(rao) to your side, so that you do not have time to反應(fanying) and產生(chansheng) chaos - only the most归属感(guishugan) soldiers and personal guards can脱离(tuoli) the battle formation without亂(luan), not逃(tao), not偷懒(toulan), they can become斥候(chihou), and many times,斥候(chihou) also determine the key to victory or defeat on the battlefield.

And the Huaxia Army threw tens of thousands of people all over the mountains and plains.

They do not need鼓点(gudian), they do not need整队(zhengdui), they do not need裹挟(guoxie)... Past military strategies will be useless from now on. Zong Han knew that everything he had accumulated over the past decades had failed here.

This is not a victory or defeat in a military strategy交锋(jiaofeng).

——This is just a head-on碾压(nianya) of elite forces.

Even the once so-called "world's first" Tushan Guard was no match for the Huaxia Seventh Army in front of them now.

He could know what Ning Yi, Qin Shaoqian, and others had done. He just could not understand how they had done it.

"Qixian...哪(na)..."

At one point, he spoke with some dryness in his throat, then paused for a long time, because the sound of the battlefield came in the wind. Han Qixian拱手(gongshou) and waited. After a moment, he said: "Grand Commander, perhaps it is time to break through." The things he saw clearly, the many Jurchen generals, in these days, had not seen it clearly.

Zong Han shook his head. The shouts of the Huaxia Army came in the surrounding wind. The sound of that呐喊(nahuan) was vaguely: "Kill Nianhan——"

What resonated in his mind was the scene from more than ten years ago, when the Jin Dynasty first invaded southward. They knocked open the gates of Yanmen Pass and advanced south all the way, destroying everything in their path. The Han people put up a weak and powerless resistance. Some relatively stubborn resisters were killed and their bodies hung on the city walls. When the army advanced to Xinzhou, there was an assassination team, for the first time and almost the only time, that刺(ci)ed their锋芒(fengmang) in front of him.

That was in a Taoist temple in Xinzhou. The leader was a white-haired Han old man. He挥舞(huiwu) a large spear, leading dozens of Han knights to charge in, killing with鮮血滾滾(xianxuegun滚). The old man's枪锋(qiangfeng) once刺(ci)ed in front of his eyes, almost succeeding in the刺杀(cisha), but in the end, these people were淹没(yanmo) in the围杀(weisha) of the army.

"Kill Nianhan——" That was what those Han people were叫喊(jiaohuan) at the time.

In the many years that followed, perhaps many people had叫喊(jiaohuan) like that, but Zong Han had not heard them. At this moment, that sound came again from afar, as if separated by more than ten years of time, and rushed to the眼前(yanqian) again. Zong Han抬起头(taiqitou), and the flames were burning in his eyes.

"Qixian...哪(na)... Look..."

He pointed to the east.

"That is Qin Shaoqian."

At this moment, the Jurchen army still had an advantage in numbers. For decades, the old man had never been a weak綿羊(mianyang). Most of the time, he had become accustomed to being a lion, but even in moments of disadvantage, he would never let go of any opportunity.

As noon was coming to an end, the giant beast moved.

……

"Good soldiers! Follow me to冲陣(chongzhen)——"

In the Jin army's main camp, Wanyan Saba拔剑(bajian) with the old man and roared.

……

In the front, middle, and rear directions, the teams of the Huaxia Army came surging one after another.

Company commander Niu Chengshu挥舞(huiwu) his long刀(dao), his body染血(ranxue), and came to 陷阵(xianzhen).

"Kill Nianhan——"

……

The sound of calling汇(hui)ed into a 汹涌(xiongyong)烈(lie) tide, and they each轰碎(hongsui)ed together with an一往无前(yiwangwuqian) momentum——