Chapter 1: The Sun Rises for the First Time Section 26

  The Qizhen tribe's army, after losing Mongli Zhe, still showed great tenacity under the command of three thousand-man commanders, calmly responding to the fierce charge of the Black Eagle Iron Cavalry.

  Tie E swung his great sword, fighting hard in the front row. He had to break through the defense of the rear guard of the Ji Ming tribe and complete the interception of the entire army, entering the stage of division and encirclement. Otherwise, he would be trapped in a chaotic battle, dragged down by the enemy, and casualties would increase exponentially.

  "Kill... kill... break through the enemy's array, break through the enemy's array..." Tie E cut down an enemy soldier who was charging towards him with a long spear and shouted loudly on horseback.

  "Strong crossbows, shoot together...!" The chiliarch in charge of the vanguard shouted loudly. The soldiers suddenly rushed to both sides with the sound of the horn, leaving a space of twenty steps on the front battlefield. The archers and crossbowmen who had concentrated on this impact surface immediately poured countless long arrows and short swords into this space. The enemy soldiers watched themselves being shot like hedgehogs but had no power to fight back.

  "Kill..." Iron Gao led the long spear team to sweep past the bow and crossbow soldiers like a mad wind, trampling on the enemy's corpses and charging again. The two sides of the war knife team protected in parallel, aiming at the rear army array of the Horned Wolf tribe like a cone and stabbed down.

  When the chiliarch of the rear army was lifted high by three long spears, the defense of the entire Xiongnu army finally collapsed. The Black Eagle Iron Cavalry successfully broke through, cutting off the 3,000-strong army in half. The warriors of the Black Eagle Iron Cavalry cheered and rode their horses at full speed, pouring through the breach like a flood, beginning to encircle and divide the enemy.

  Iron Fruit stood at the very center of the enemy formation. This was the heart of the enemy, and also the web of encirclement that Red Sleeve had carefully laid out. As soon as he heard the sound of the bullhorn signaling that the enemy's rear defense line had been breached, he led his gathered 300 soldiers in an attack on the enemy's powerful right wing. The right wing was originally the vanguard of the Rising Phoenix tribe's great army. Generally, the vanguard undertook the most arduous and difficult tasks, so the soldiers' tactical awareness was extremely high, their equipment excellent, but their casualty rate was also the highest. Iron Fruit's troops felt a strong pressure from the enemy forces on their right flank.

  A loud, shrill bugle call came from afar. Tie Guo raised his battle knife and shouted: "Kill... ah..." He led the charge against the enemy's dense phalanx of long spears. A thunderous roar erupted from the warriors' mouths: "Kill..."

  The soldiers of the Black Eagle Iron Cavalry were fiercely battling the enemy, but after suddenly receiving support from these reinforcements, their morale immediately surged and they felt the pressure from the other side "whoosh" away.

  Before Tieguo approached the enemy, arrows rained down behind him, whizzing over his head and piercing into the enemy's formation. Tieguo's blade chopped into the enemy's body, emitting a dull thud, as blood spurted out. A Black Eagle warrior leapt high on horseback, and with a swift kick, sent the enemy soldier flying off his own horse. A sharp long spear suddenly shot up from the ground like a venomous snake, aiming at Tieguo. The warrior following behind Tieguo was quick-eyed and swift-handed, shooting an arrow that pierced through the enemy's heart.

  All sorts of roars, killing sounds and horn sounds were mixed together, filling the entire battlefield.

  The warriors of the vanguard tribe were at their wit's end as they skirmished with the enemy cavalry on the distant battlefield. The enemy, twice their number, was like a pack of starving wolves, hunting them down in groups of a hundred. If surrounded, they would be subjected to brutal slaughter. The soldiers on both sides of the battlefield were like riders competing in a spring festival, now galloping, now trotting, now turning, now doubling back, crisscrossing each other without pause. The tension and danger, cruelty and bloodshed, fear and anger - all this was beyond the comprehension of outsiders.

  The fiery red sun slowly sank down, leaving behind a blood-colored sky and crimson clouds.

  The sun sets in the west. The remaining sunlight is like blood.

  On the distant horizon, between the crimson sky and earth, a massive army suddenly emerged.

  The clarion call of the charge will rouse the troops from their bloody stupor.

  The enemy and our side on the battlefield were stunned, with faces of despair and desperation under the bloody sunset, looking especially helpless. At this moment when the mountain was exhausted and the water was exhausted, facing such a cavalry team with high morale, anyone could only surrender, unable to resist.

  Murong Feng's face was expressionless, calm and composed. It had already come to this, what else was there to fear? Li Hong stood behind Murong Feng, holding a pair of knives in his hands, with a look of shock on his face, every muscle in his body tense.

  A massive cavalry corps began to move, started running, started galloping, and finally it was flying, with a momentum that could overturn mountains and seas, bringing with it a huge storm, like a surging tide, rushing forward. The loud sound of the horses' hooves shook the entire plain, and the earth trembled.

  Suddenly, Li Hong threw away his two swords and raised the commander flag stuck in the ground, shouting loudly: "Hū jiào... Hū jiào..."

  Murong Feng looked up and saw that the approaching army had suddenly raised its own great flag, a fiery red banner with a golden eagle emblem. The reinforcements had finally arrived. The Sky Blue Tribe and the Earth Wolf Tribe had finally arrived at the last moment.

  "Hurray......" The warriors were excited, they suddenly changed from despair to madness, from hell back to heaven. They shouted out the excitement and joy deep in their hearts, "Hurray......"

  The warriors' excited roar echoed across the vast plain of Juntu, spreading to every corner of the battlefield and straight into the clouds.

  The warriors of the Niu tribe finally collapsed. They began to scatter and flee. The soldiers, who had been as energetic as a rainbow, suddenly gained endless strength, like a group of unbridled wild horses, shouting, roaring, waving their battle knives, and pursuing relentlessly.

  The cavalry army that was providing assistance suddenly split into two parts. One part rushed to the southwest battlefield, while another part hastened to the northeast battlefield.

  The great general of the Wolf Tribe, Wu Meng, and the young general of the Sky Blue Tribe, Wei Ran, dismounted their horses and came to pay respects to Murong Feng. Murong Feng was in a very good mood and waved his hand for them to rise.

  "Thank you for arriving on time."

  "Great General, you've won all the battles. Are there any more battles for us to fight?" Wu Meng said with a big laugh.

  Murong Feng smiled and said: "Yes. Wumeng, didn't your troops go to the battlefield of Tiegong to take credit?"

  He smiled slyly.

  "You go." Murong Feng said to Wumeng with a wave of his hand.

  Wu Meng gave Murong Feng a salute and flew onto his horse and left.

  "Leopard, let's go take a look at how Iron Wolf is doing?" Murong Feng struggled to get up, but the pain was unbearable, and he sat back down.

  Li Hong also saw that the battle on the northwest battlefield had basically ended before the arrival of reinforcements. A long time had passed, but he didn't see their commander Tie Lang come to report on the military situation. Li Hong was getting anxious. He hastily made a simple stretcher with several of Murong Feng's attendants using long spears, and they carried Murong Feng towards the northwest battlefield.

  Not even thirty steps away, a centurion covered in bloodstains arrived. Murong Feng didn't wait for him to dismount and asked abruptly: "Where's Tie Lang? Where are Gong Sunhu and Duan Song? Why haven't they come? Are they injured?"

  That thousand husband knelt on the grass, bowed his head, and didn't answer for a long time. Murong Feng's heart suddenly turned cold. Then he heard the other person's sobbing voice, desperately suppressing his own crying.

  Tears burst uncontrollably from Li Hong's eyes. He ran a few steps, leapt onto the warhorse ridden by Qian Fuzhang, and galloped northwest. Murong Feng heard Li Hong wailing loudly on horseback.

  Someone who has been closest to me since I can remember is suddenly gone.

  The Uighur troops quickly passed through the northwest battlefield.

  The warriors were stunned. This was no longer a battlefield, but a bloody slaughterhouse. Nearly ten thousand corpses of soldiers and war horses lay scattered in various poses on the vast grassland, with an endless view. The green grass was barely visible, except for the dense bodies and the dark brown congealed blood. Countless long spears, war knives, and war flags were either abandoned on the ground or stuck into the skeletons of soldiers and war horses, or still tightly grasped in the hands of warriors. Thousands of war horses wandered among them, neighing mournfully, whinnying pitifully, or lowering their heads to search for their former masters among the piles of corpses. Some war horses carried dead soldiers on their backs, standing alone in the midst of the corpses, as if still waiting for their master's call.

  The remaining soldiers lay among the corpses, having lost all interest in doing anything, and even lacked the interest to look up at the cavalry army that was galloping by like thunder.

  A shocking battlefield, a tragic and inhumane battlefield, an exciting and thrilling battlefield.

  The great commander of the Wolf Tribe, Wumeng, suddenly spurred his horse and galloped along his troops. He held high his long sword and shouted: "For our fallen brothers, charge!"

  The soldiers of the wolf tribe saw the battlefield in front of them, their emotions low and sorrowful, the heroic spirit that had just been present slowly disappearing. War was too cruel.

  The commander's loud cry drew their gaze past him.

  Wu Meng raised his knife again and shouted loudly: "Revenge! Hoooo..."

  The soldiers shouted in unison: "Hoo-ah... Hoo-ah..."

  A thunder-like roar stirred up the warriors' vengeful psychology: revenge, revenge.

  The army of the Wolf Tribe ran faster and faster, like a long arrow off the string, approaching the battlefield in the northeast. The horn sounded continuously, telling the Black Eagle Tribe to quickly vacate the front line of the battlefield.

  Tie E stood at the outer edge of the battlefield, bursting into laughter: "This wild wolf, nothing is missing from him." He immediately turned his head to the horn-blower and said: "Call Tie Guo to lead his troops to leave the battlefield and rush to rescue the brothers of the Xian Chi tribe. Hurry!"

  Iron Fruit led his troops to squeeze the battlefield space of the Right Wing Corps of the Rising Sun Tribe, and it was only a matter of time before they were completely annihilated. Hearing the support signal from the Wolf Tribe and the horn sound sent by his father to rescue the First Tooth Tribe, Iron Fruit angrily cursed: "What kind of thing is this, Wolf?"

  "Rally... rally..." Iron Fruit shouted at the top of his lungs. The horn blew fiercely. The soldiers on the periphery retreated and gathered under Iron Fruit's great banner, forming a line.

  The soldiers of the right-wing troops of the Rising Hawk tribe suddenly felt a sudden relief. The Black Eagle Iron Knights who were fighting hard on the opposite side suddenly retreated, and their hearts relaxed, thinking that their stubborn resistance had repelled the Black Eagle Iron Knights. It was unclear which soldier started cheering first, but soon all the soldiers cheered up.

  Suddenly, the cheers were cut off like a knife, and disappeared into thin air. The soldiers heard the dense sound of war horses galloping, this sound pierced their hearts like a sharp sword. In an instant, fear once again shrouded them. They suddenly realized that the enemy had launched another powerful charge with fierce iron cavalry. This time, they had no resistance at all and could only wait for death.

  The cavalry of the Wolf Tribe arrived.

  Tie Guo gazed far away at the Tu Lang troops charging into the enemy like a fierce tide, and spat out a mouthful of saliva, "A pack of wolves."

  Tie Guo exerted force, clamping the horse's belly, raised his knife and pointed forward, shouting loudly: "Kill..." The three hundred Black Eagle Iron Riders were like a black whirlwind sweeping across the ground, rushing towards the distant battlefield.

  Behind him, the Iron Eagle Cavalry's charge sounded fiercely, one louder than the other.

  The Battle of Juye ended completely after sunset.

  The Iron Wolf tribe, which launched the battle earliest, suffered the heaviest casualties. Although they annihilated the 5,000-strong Long Deer tribe led by Quanju and captured Quanju himself, they lost nearly 4,000 men. All three of their main generals were killed in action.

  Murong Feng personally led 4,000 troops to engage in a decisive battle with the Niutou tribe's 5,000-strong army. Although they initially gained the upper hand, they soon found themselves embroiled in a fierce struggle. The Niutou tribe's army was annihilated, and Feng Lie was captured and heavily injured. Murong Feng's side also suffered heavy casualties, losing nearly 3,000 men, including the death of General Li Kui.

  Tie Niu and Hou Li's 4,000-strong army successfully attacked the Qimuer tribe's 5,000-strong army led by Meng Rui Zhe. The Qimuer tribe's army was completely annihilated. Meng Rui Zhe, the leader of the Qimuer tribe, was beheaded. However, due to the Xian Chi tribe's initial head-on resistance and subsequent encirclement by the enemy, they suffered heavy casualties, with nearly 2,000 soldiers killed in action, in addition to the losses of the Black Eagle Iron Cavalry.

  The Battle of Jiezi: Murong Feng's Bitter Victory.

  But this battle changed the history of Xianbei State and also affected the historical development of Great Han State.