Chapter 1: The Sun Rises for the First Time Section 19

  Iron Wolf, after completing the encirclement of the enemy's left wing troops, immediately ordered his soldiers to gather more men and horses, and launched a decisive battle against the surrounded enemy in the southeast direction at the shortest time. With superior forces, they annihilated one of the enemy's units. The fierce hand-to-hand combat was extremely brutal. Iron Wolf led by example, wielding his war knife, fighting in the front row. The soldiers were inspired, all vying to be the first to fight with the enemy and risk their lives.

  Duan Song knew that if they couldn't break through the enemy's encirclement of Gong Sunhu in time, their situation would be extremely critical. Once Gong Sunhu's troops were exhausted, the inner circle of enemies would turn around and attack them with all their might. In this way, under the siege from both inside and outside, the casualties would definitely be heavy. Although the enemy's right wing that surrounded them had only one thousand people, he could now command his troops to easily break through the encirclement. But he wanted to rescue Gong Sunhu and more than 200 soldiers. So he immediately ordered all his men to spare no effort to first break through the enemy's inner circle of encirclement and rescue Gong Sunhu's troops.

  More than 600 soldiers were completely enraged, with no fear of the siege by General Duan's troops. Gong Sunhu and his men carried out a bloody massacre against the Longluo tribe soldiers, greatly stimulating the ferocity of the soldiers. They gritted their teeth, crazily charging at Gong Sunhu's bucket-shaped defensive formation again and again.

  Gongsun Hu's war horse had been shot and killed, so he stood at the outermost edge of the formation, wielding his great axe, bellowing incessantly, loudly directing his troops to shoot arrows, thrust spears, and engage in close combat. At his feet were piled up the corpses of enemy soldiers he had slain. But there were too many enemies, several men attacking one, if not from the front then from the side, if not from the side then with cold arrows shot through the gaps between people. Every possible means was used to kill one man at a time.

  Duan Song's troops were being attacked from behind while also having to deal with the sudden raids of the enemy within the inner circle, and at the same time organizing people to break through the encirclement. Everyone was entangled together, busy and chaotic, but the effect was minimal, and the losses continued to grow. Duan Song became enraged.

  Due to the insufficient number of enemies on the outermost periphery, there were only heavy troops in front and behind the central battlefield, while the troops on both sides were relatively thin. Ke's arrangement was also a helpless move. In the case of equal numbers, it could only block the enemy's impact on the main camp and prevent the enemy from retreating, which are the two most influential routes for the battle situation. As for the protracted war, that is still a distant matter.

  Duan Song's sharp observation found that there were fewer enemies on the right flank of the enemy army, with a space of about 50 steps. This distance was just enough to let the horses run. So he led several subordinates to ride horses to the farthest place first. Several enemy cavalrymen came to intercept.

  He raised his hands and cut down an enemy soldier who was rushing up, shouting loudly to his men: "Assemble, assemble, reorganize the formation, reorganize the formation!"

  The horn-blowing soldier blew the horn loudly, and the sound shook the eardrums. From different directions, 70 or 80 cavalrymen galloped over to form two rows with Duan Song. Duan Song didn't care about the long arrows shooting from all sides and the approaching enemy cavalry, he pulled hard on the reins, the warhorse was in pain, it kicked its front legs high into the air, raised its head and let out a loud neigh. Duan Song leaned back on his horse, waving his battle knife and shouting loudly: "Huuu...huuu..."

  The soldiers were in high spirits, each one willing to die, and they responded in unison, "Hoo-ah... Hoo-ah..."

  The bugler sounded the charge at the right moment.

  He loosened his reins and the warhorse shot out like an arrow. Instantly, the small corner of the battlefield was once again filled with the rapid pounding of hooves.

  Gongsun Hu was trying hard to find a breakthrough, preparing to join forces with Duan Song. The two armies were only fifty steps apart, but it seemed like they were separated by a mountain, and no matter what, they couldn't gather together. Gongsun Hu heard the sound of Duan Song's horn reorganizing his troops. He immediately understood that Duan Song was making a last-ditch effort. If time dragged on any longer, this army wouldn't be worth saving either, basically wiped out.

  Gongsun Hu immediately shouted loudly to his subordinates: "Move in the northeast direction." The bucket-shaped formation, after persisting for more than half a watch, was again deprived of more than 100 lives by the enemy. Although the enemy paid a higher price, it was a fatal blow to the heavily surrounded vanguard. The remaining 160 or so people, under Gongsun Hu's leadership, slowly rotated their formation and approached the encirclement in the northeast direction.

  The right-wing army of the Long Deer tribe apparently realized the severity of the problem. Under the command of a chiliarch, they immediately sounded the signal horn to shrink the encirclement. The soldiers of the Long Deer tribe listened to the order and immediately fought desperately again, fiercely rushing towards the enemy soldiers inside the encirclement.

  Gongsun Hu heard the clear sound of the charge horn blown by Duan Song's troops amidst the chaotic sounds of the battlefield. Gongsun Hu was excited and emotional, raised his large axe, and shouted loudly: "Brothers, follow me to break out!" He took the lead in running on the battlefield. The soldiers without horses followed behind him, shouting and running, each holding their weapons, advancing forward fearlessly. The mounted soldiers immediately formed a charging formation, guarding the infantry on both sides, and charged together.

  Fifty paces, in the blink of an eye. Duan Song and his cavalrymen did their best to get the horses up to a certain speed using all sorts of methods. Although it wasn't ideal, it was more than enough. The soldiers of the Longluo tribe had barely heard the dense sound of hooves before they turned around to see the cavalry squad charging towards them, and by the time they turned their horses around to prepare for battle, it was already too late. Duan Song and his men had already unleashed a thunderous momentum, raising their blades to strike. The massive impact sent half of the soldiers flying off their horses, while the other half were killed by the fierce aura of the soldiers.

  At the same time, Gong Sun Hu's powerful axe fell from the sky, cutting off half of an enemy soldier's head and taking half of his shoulder with it. The soldiers behind him swarmed up like a pack of ferocious beasts seeing their prey.

  Two ferocious troops almost simultaneously stormed a position. In the face of this bloody and brutal massacre, with severed limbs flying in the air, the enemy's morale was immediately crushed. Although the bugle calls to retract the encirclement continued to sound in their ears, after prolonged fighting and confrontation, the soldiers were extremely exhausted and could no longer bear the bloodshed.

  The gap was opened. Duan Song let the horse pass by Gong Sunhu's side, and shouted to the soldiers behind him: "Heavy strike, heavy strike..." The soldiers on both sides cheered at the same time, and under Duan Song's shout, they killed each other again, trying to take advantage of the situation to expand their gains and completely destroy the inner circle. At the same time, the excited horn sounded, informing the soldiers who were fighting in various places to gather at the gap, preparing to gather more strength to kill the enemy soldiers in the inner circle.

  On the left-wing battlefield, a loud bugle call suddenly sounded. Iron Wolf led the soldiers to fight for a long time and finally waited for the last blow. They thoroughly annihilated the enemy in the encirclement of the southeast direction.

  Ke Zui realized that the outcome of today's battle was uncertain. The key to victory lay in the central battlefield. If they could utilize their numerical superiority to annihilate Gong Sunhu and Duan Song's two armies first, they could at least mobilize a thousand troops to support the left-wing battlefield. On the left-wing battlefield, although Tie Lang had annihilated a unit of his own army, he had also exhausted his troops. As long as they could rush to the left-wing battlefield in the shortest time possible, they could annihilate Tie Lang's three-thousand-strong army. Ke Zui firmly believed this. Even if it was a Pyrrhic victory, it was still worth fighting for.

  The chaotic and crisscrossing front lines on the battlefield made it difficult to distinguish between friend and foe. General Ke ordered more than 200 original soldiers from the central army who had retreated from the battlefield, plus more than 200 logistics soldiers left in the big camp, to form a team, preparing to lead them personally to support the central army's battlefield.

  But the messenger from the General's residence told him: The general does not agree.

  Ke's most painful almost shouted out loud. He wanted revenge too much. And this opportunity was right in front of him, within reach. A subordinate of Quan Ju took over the command.

  Kerui sat alone on his horse, staring blankly. Kerui had no idea that the Wind Splitter elder of the Ox Head tribe was leading a 5,000-strong army, which had been secretly stationed on a small hill behind him for two days.

  At this time, Que Yu had already fallen out with Feng Lie.

  Qiao Ju lay on the grass, his hands and feet tightly bound. Feng Lie hated him for making a disturbance and ordered someone to grab a handful of grass from the ground and stuff it into his mouth. Seeing that Qiao Ju was still struggling with rage, Feng Lie waved his hand at several guards behind him, "Beat him." Several strong men immediately pounced on him, punching and kicking Qiao Ju. Before long, Qiao Ju lay motionless on the ground.

  At this moment, a messenger ran up quickly.

  "Old man, Ke Da's greatest person has committed suicide."

  Feng Lie was taken aback for a moment, then burst out laughing again. "Good death, good death!" He turned to his subordinates and shouted loudly, "Did you hear that? This is the outcome of betraying General Wei! We will all die today, we must all die!"

  His subordinates were stunned.

  The situation on the battlefield is unfolding according to its own inherent laws. The Iron Wolf's troops are regrouping and accumulating strength, preparing for a second attack. Gong Sunhu and Duan Song, although they have exhausted all their strength to annihilate the enemy soldiers in the inner circle, have also put themselves in a desperate situation. They no longer have the power to break through. But they know that even if they could break through, they would not rush out. Because their mission is to launch a preemptive attack, disrupt the enemy's formation, hold back the enemy, and wait for the main force of the commander-in-chief to arrive for the final annihilation.

  Murong Feng led an army of 80,000 men and appeared on the mountainous terrain three miles away from Juntu.

  Tie Niu and Hou Zong galloped out of their respective troops to ask the commander if he had any instructions before dividing the army.

  Murong Feng hesitated for a moment, then slowly said: "After you arrive at the northeast of Juyuan, don't attack first. If our 4,000 cavalry can solve the problem, you save your strength and take one step ahead to surround Da's army. If something unexpected happens, you can also be a surprise force, achieving twice the effect with half the effort."

  Tie E and Hou Jun responded in unison and rode off. The army immediately divided into two routes, one heading east and the other west.

  The closer to the battlefield, the clearer the killing sounds are, and even the bloody smell floating in the air is getting thicker.

  Murong Feng waved his hand at the horned soldiers behind him, "Tell them, we're here."

  Dozens of horned soldiers simultaneously held up large cow horns and blew them. "Oooo... oooo... oooo..."

  A continuous, gigantic sound suddenly surpassed the dense and noisy hoofbeats, rushing straight into the clouds. The hornblowers of other troops also heard the signal and spontaneously followed suit, blowing their horns. The neat and loud sounds filled the entire empty plain at once.

  On the battlefield, Murong Feng's soldiers cheered in unison. The soldiers of the Changluo tribe, on the other hand, looked flustered and lost.

  The wind on the small mountain suddenly turned its head to look at the distant horizon, a satisfied smile appearing at the corner of his mouth. He turned back to his troops and called out excitedly: "Form ranks, prepare to charge!"