12dz Chapter 2198 Hard Bones
Chapter 2198 Hard Bones
On the battlefield, the fierce battle is in full swing!
The Chu cavalrymen desperately reined in their horses, but the fire spread extremely quickly, instantly engulfing dozens of riders.
"Go around! Go around from both sides!" the Chu general shouted urgently.
The cavalry began to disperse to both sides, attempting to bypass the wall of fire.
But this was exactly what Xue Che wanted.
"Flanking barrier—Spearmen, advance!"
On both sides of the gentle slope, the Tang army had already built simple stone fortifications.
At this moment, a thousand spearmen emerged from behind the ramparts, their twelve-foot-long spears pointing diagonally forward, forming two steel thorns.
The cavalry wanted to charge the ramparts, but their horses were afraid of the spears, and the cavalrymen kept stopping and turning in front of the ramparts, causing the formation to become chaotic.
At that moment, the Tang archers on the hilltop began their second volley.
This time the distance was even closer, less than fifty paces, and the arrow was shot almost horizontally.
Although the Chu cavalry were protected by light armor, at this distance, the armor was like paper. Amid screams, dozens more riders fell.
In just a quarter of an hour, nearly a thousand of the three thousand Chu vanguard soldiers were killed!
"Retreat! Retreat first!" Seeing the situation was not good, the Chu general immediately ordered a retreat.
The cavalry retreated like a receding tide, leaving behind corpses, fallen warhorses, and a wall of raging fire.
Their first charge was repelled by the Tang army.
At the top of the hill, the Tang army erupted in deafening cheers.
"We win! We win!"
"The Chu army has retreated!"
But Xue Che showed no joy whatsoever.
He could see it clearly—although the Chu army had temporarily retreated, their formation remained intact; they had simply regrouped three hundred paces away.
Moreover, further away, the main force of the Chu army was rapidly approaching. The black dragon banner was already clearly visible.
That last move was just a test.
The real bloodshed is yet to come.
"Give the order to the entire army,"
Xue Che's voice was hoarse: "Repair the defenses immediately! Collect the arrows and weapons left behind by the Chu army! Evacuate all the seriously wounded to the stream behind the slope! Those who can still fight, get to your positions immediately!"
"General, our arrows..." the lieutenant's voice was hoarse, "...we only have...less than five each."
Xue Che was silent for a moment, then slowly said, "Tell the archers—fire again when they are within thirty paces. No, twenty paces. Every arrow must kill one enemy."
"What if the Chu army's next attack is even more ferocious..."
"Then use a knife to cut, a spear to stab, or a tooth to bite."
Xue Che turned his head and looked at the black dragon flag that was getting closer and closer in the distance, a resolute look flashing in his eyes.
"In short—as long as we have a breath left, we will not allow the Chu army to cross this defensive line!"
"I will finally understand!"
The order was given, and the Tang army began an emergency reorganization.
They collected arrows from the battlefield, and even if the shafts were broken, they would attach new shafts as long as the arrowheads were still usable.
They stripped usable armor from the corpses of the Chu soldiers and put it on themselves.
They collected the weapons of their fallen comrades and distributed them to those who were still able to fight.
Everyone knew that the next wave of attacks would be even more brutal.
But they had no way out.
Three hundred paces away, the main force of the Chu army had already arrived.
Chu Ning stood on his horse at the front of the formation, looking at the still-burning wall of fire and the Tang army waiting in battle on the gentle slope, a solemn look flashing in his eyes.
“Xue Che…” he murmured to himself, “He’s a tough nut to crack.”
"Your Majesty," Feng Mulan spurred her horse forward, "Let me lead the Xuanjia Iron Cavalry in one more charge! This time we will surely break through in one fell swoop!"
Chu Ning slowly shook his head: "There's no need to charge. Xue Xuan is clearly going to hold out for reinforcements and use his life to buy time. If we force our way through, we'll be playing right into his hands."
He paused, then looked northeast—where Li Shiming's imperial carriage had disappeared into the distance.
"Give the order to the entire army,"
Chu Ning slowly said, "Divide into three teams and take turns launching feint attacks to wear down the Tang army's arrow stamina."
"At the same time, send a detachment to bypass the gentle slope and outflank them from the rear. Remember—don't rush things, just hold them off and prevent them from escaping."
"Your Majesty means..."
"Li Shiming can't get very far."
Chu Ning's lips curled into a cold smile: "Zhang Shijie's navy has already headed north along the Huai River and will intercept him before he reaches the ferry."
"And we... only need to stay here, slowly wear down Xue Che's ten thousand men, and then calmly pursue them."
He took one last look at the tattered banner with the character "Tang" on the gentle slope, and said softly:
"Order—begin the attack."
"All troops, advance!"
The main force of the Chu army pressed down on the city like a dark cloud, slowly advancing towards the Tang army's positions.
This time it was no longer a probing attack, but a full-scale offensive.
Chu Ning divided the remaining 20,000 troops into three routes: the left route was led by Feng Mulan with 8,000 Xuanjia Iron Cavalry, who would outflank the enemy from the west side of the gentle slope; the right route was led by 6,000 infantry, who would cut off the retreat route from the east; and the central route was led by Chu Ning himself with the remnants of the White Dragon Cavalry and the main force of infantry reorganized by Xue Huaide, for a frontal assault.
The three attacks launched simultaneously were as powerful as thunder.
Xue Che saw this clearly from the top of the slope, and his heart sank.
He knew that the final moment had come.
"The whole army obeys the order!"
He roared hoarsely, his voice as broken as a gong: "The Chu army is about to encircle us from three sides! We have no way out but to fight to the death!"
"Remember—the more enemies His Majesty kills, the greater his chance of survival! The greater the hope for the Tang Dynasty!"
"Fight to the death! Fight to the death! Fight to the death!"
Ten thousand people roared in unison, their voices shaking the wilderness.
But the initial fervor was gone from that roar; only a numb resolve remained.
The battle broke out in full force when the Chu army came within a hundred paces.
In the center, the Chu army's infantry formation, like a moving iron wall, slowly pressed towards the Tang army's first trench.
This time, instead of using cavalry to charge, they used infantry to fill the trenches—the front-line soldiers carried sandbags and planks, braving the rain of arrows, and managed to fill the first trench.
"Fire arrows! Fire arrows!" Xue Che roared from the top of the slope.
But the Tang army really didn't have many arrows left.
After a volley of fire, many archers had emptied their quivers.
They could only pick up the arrows scattered on the ground, or simply throw stones at them.
The first trench was filled in, and the Chu infantrymen, stepping over the corpses of their comrades, began to charge the second trench—the still-burning wall of fire.
"Pour the kerosene! Pour all the kerosene down!" Xue Che ordered.
The last twenty barrels of oil were poured behind the wall of fire, and the flames instantly shot up three zhang (approximately 10 meters) high, forming a real barrier of fire.
Caught off guard, dozens of Chu infantrymen at the forefront were engulfed in flames, screaming and rolling in the inferno.
But the Chu army was too large.
The soldiers behind them wrapped their bodies in wet cloaks and protected their heads and faces with shields, and charged through the wall of fire!
Their clothes were set on fire, and their skin was burned, but they still charged madly towards the Tang army's defenses.
"Spearman—Thrust!"
Three thousand Tang soldiers with spears thrust forward from behind the second trench.
Twelve-foot-long spears shot out like a forest, piercing through the Chu soldiers who charged through the wall of fire one by one.
But the Chu army pressed forward relentlessly, using their bodies to wear down the spears and their lives to tear open a breach.
Spears kept breaking, and Tang soldiers kept being dragged into the enemy lines and brutally dismembered.