Chapter 1 The Cavalry Charge

The cavalry charged towards the encampment. The front ranks had already thrown their grappling hooks, snagging the front fence before circling around the flanks, using their horses' strength to "pull up stakes."

The following cavalrymen drew their bows and nocked arrows, responsible for suppressing the wildmen inside the encampment.

The cavalry behind them split off a portion, bracing their lances and preparing their horses' strength, while the rest dismounted, preparing to advance on foot.

Inside the encampment were trenches and all sorts of obstacles. Forcing a dense cavalry charge without sufficient room to maneuver would only result in men and horses being crushed together, becoming living targets.

The vanguard's task was to tear open a gap in the encampment, clearing enough battlefield area for subsequent troops to enter.

The entire movement of this force, the multiple divisions of labor, were all well-organized, all honed by Liang Cheng when attacking those wildmen settlements in the Heavenly Fracture Mountain Range.

This even led to a joke. A wildmen village had clearly surrendered and had no will to fight, but Liang Cheng still executed two perfunctory centurions, ordering his troops to re-attack the "surrendered" wildmen village according to requirements.

People always yearn for the unrestrained ease of reducing strongholds to ashes with a laugh and a chat, but in reality, truly strong armies owe their strength to meticulous accumulation in peacetime.

In the distance, Tian Wujing, who was observing the battle situation, spoke at this time:

"How is it?"

Wang Ge and the other commanding generals all showed admiration on their faces. They were all old soldiers and naturally knew how difficult it was to execute such a well-ordered and organized attack, especially when primarily relying on foot soldiers.

Tian Wujing said:

"My Yan army fears no opponent in open-field battles, but siege warfare is a clear weakness. If we go south in the future, the Qian people's fortresses and cities will be obstacles that our Great Yan iron cavalry cannot avoid."

Wang Ge said:

"Lord Marquis, Zheng Chengshou is indeed skilled at training soldiers."

"After this battle is over, you should go and learn from him."

"We obey."

"We obey."

Tian Wujing then issued another order:

"Wang Ge, Zhang Cheng, don't wait any longer. Gather your troops and prepare to follow up."

An expert reveals his skill with a single move. If such an offensive couldn't tear open a gap in the wildmen encampment, then those inside weren't wildmen, but the Western Army of the Qian Kingdom, who were masters of defensive warfare.

Wang Ge and Zhang Cheng, the two commanding generals, responded in unison before riding back to their own formations. Immediately, their two divisions of nearly ten thousand cavalry began to advance.

In the northwest direction of the encampment, after cutting open the wildmen camp without much difficulty, Zheng Fan's troops had already begun to advance rapidly, and close-quarters combat had begun between the two sides.

Of the troops Zheng Fan brought this time, the thousand Jingnan soldiers were a given, and the remaining routed Jin soldiers also had no morale issues when facing the wildmen. Moreover, the Qi knights of the Three Jin regions were of excellent quality to begin with. After a round of fighting, the gap torn in the encampment was growing larger and larger.

On the arrow tower, A Lai continued to stroke the scar on his face. The wildmen king had already left.

A Lai could clearly see that the situation was becoming increasingly dire, and from his high vantage point, he could see that a large number of Yan soldiers were already following up from the west.

It wasn't that his own warriors weren't fighting to the death. In fact, because he, as the "king," was here accompanying them, they all seemed fearless in battle.

But the problem was that the Yan soldiers on the other side were also not cowards. When there wasn't much difference in morale between the two sides, the quality differences in other aspects began to stand out.

The Yan people's armor, weaponry, and operational order made the wildmen warriors, who hadn't yet escaped the habits of tribal mixed combat, very uncomfortable. Often, a group of wildmen would rush up, but the Yan people would first stabilize their formation and not charge head-on. After the two sides were locked in a stalemate for a while, the Yan people would then choose several directions to advance together, and soon the wildmen on this side would collapse and retreat.

The words that the king once said floated into A Lai's mind: He said that our Holy Clan still has a long way to go before true civilization.

But first, there has to be that road.

A Lai knew that the obstacle preventing the wildmen from continuing on the road was not the Yan people in front of him, but the Snow Sea Pass of the Jin Kingdom.

"Whoosh!"

A Lai stood up.

He raised the royal flag that was planted behind him.

This was a flag made of snow leopard leather from the snowfield. A Lai held it up and waved it.

Fight on, warriors of the Holy Clan,

Your "king,"

Is with you!

At this moment, A Lai felt that he was the real king; he had truly become the person he would gaze at every day.

The king had also said that every warrior of the Holy Clan is actually his own king, and also the king of the clan.

A Lai didn't quite understand this sentence at first. When drinking with other chiefs, he heard them analyze and say, could it be that the king thinks we have too many warriors under our command, and the king is starting to worry?

Now, A Lai truly understood the meaning of this sentence.

When your clan needs you to stand up, you are the king of your clan.

It was a pity that A Lai couldn't write. The wildmen's writing system had long been discontinued. Apart from some receivers who could read the ancient texts, most wildmen were unfamiliar with their own problems. Some, like the "Wildmen King," who had gone out to see the world, had instead learned the Xia language and script of the past.

A Lai really wanted to record his current feelings. If there was a chance, he could leave it for other clansmen to read. He really wanted to share his excitement and feelings at this moment.

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!!!!!!!"

Fan Li roared, swinging the double axes in his hands. Coupled with the "tin can" armor he was wearing, he was like a bulldozer, successfully breaking through the wildmen's defense line. Subsequent troops immediately followed up, forcibly tearing the gap wider.

From then on, the wildmen's attempt to block the "gap" in this area completely failed. The battlefield was no longer limited to a small area but began to expand rapidly.

At the same time, the sound of iron hooves came from behind. After the vanguard successfully opened up the battlefield area, Wang Ge and Zhang Cheng's reinforcements didn't need to dismount and charged straight in.

The momentum of the warhorses, coupled with the sharpness of the blades, deprived these fearless wildmen warriors, eager to protect their king, of their last ability to resist.

One battle line after another was cut open and defeated, and one ferocious Yan soldier after another charged in. The battle situation also began to collapse like an avalanche. The wildmen were already in complete disarray, unable to conduct any more command, and could only be divided into groups to await annihilation.

At this time, there were still less than eight hundred soldiers in the main camp who hadn't joined the battle. They were the reserve army.

A Lai stopped the flag in his hand and no longer waved it.

Sometimes, this kind of powerlessness is the most despairing. There will never be a situation in this world where you have exhausted everything and will definitely win.

A Lai turned around, grabbing the royal flag with one hand and the pillar of the arrow tower with the other, and slid down. When he landed, many wildmen nearby immediately gathered around him.

The wildmen didn't realize that their king had actually been replaced.

"Mount up and charge out!"

A Lai shouted loudly.

He knew that the king had asked him to replace him in order to buy time, not to give him a "dignified" way to die.

The wildmen around him immediately mounted their horses. The front of the encampment had already collapsed, so A Lai didn't hesitate to lead his last group of less than a thousand wildmen warriors on horseback to charge out from the rear of the camp.

Zheng Fan leaned on his saber, his armor already smeared with blood. He gasped for breath and said to Liang Cheng beside him:

"Did we win?"

Liang Cheng's expression seemed a bit serious. He looked at Zheng Fan,

And said:

"Lord, something seems to be wrong."

…………

"Lord Marquis, that's the Wildmen King's flag."

General Li Dingdong said to the Marquis of Jingnan.

Tian Wujing's gaze narrowed slightly, and he shook his head, saying:

"There's something wrong with this battle."

The problem had been emerging from the very beginning.

"Lord Marquis, are you worried that this is luring us in deep?" Li Dingdong asked.

"No, that's not what I'm thinking. If that Wildmen King dares to play the trick of luring us in deep, then I can see how big his belly is to be able to swallow us.

What I'm worried about is that they're not luring us in deep, but that they really only deployed this little bit of troops here.

What is empty, treat it as empty; doubt begets doubt."

At this point, a touch of helplessness appeared in Tian Wujing's eyes.

He suddenly thought of a possibility, and this possibility seemed increasingly real at this moment.

A royal tent and a royal flag stood there, but they suppressed the Yan army's footsteps.

Now, they had even left a huge encampment with only less than ten thousand troops, as if it were being delivered to his mouth.

Using ten thousand troops as the price to delay his footsteps, what they were plotting must be something far more important than these ten thousand troops.

Tian Wujing's gaze slowly shifted to the southeast direction.

"Lord Marquis, that royal flag..." Li Dingdong asked.

A general of his level might know how to fight the current battle well, but the big picture was not his forte.

"Your division will pursue."

Tian Wujing issued the order.

Li Dingdong immediately organized his troops to attack.

Tian Wujing continued to sit on the back of the Pixiu. The battle ahead was almost settled, and he never had much excitement about victories that were already in hand.

On the contrary, at this moment, a sentence that Zheng Fan had once uttered popped into his mind:

Pig teammate.

This phrase sounded very novel, but it was also easy to understand the literal meaning.

Sighing,

Tian Wujing reached out and grabbed the Pixiu's mane,

A look of enjoyment appeared on the Pixiu's face. It really liked this kind of intimate behavior with its master.

Just like how outwardly cold and noble a woman might seem, it's only because you don't have the qualification to allow her to show her weakness and charm in front of you.

"Situ Lei, you must not be that pig teammate."

………

Summer of the first year of Yongping in Great Yan,

The Cheng Kingdom's eighty thousand troops marched out of the Snow Sea Pass again to launch a northern expedition, were ambushed at Nuo Lake, the entire army was annihilated, the Snow Sea Pass was breached, and the wildmen entered the Pass.