Chapter Eighteen: The Bamboo Spear's Heroism

  "Fall into the ambush! Retreat quickly!" Fan Qie's expression changed, and he hastily ordered the soldiers in front to stop their footsteps. Using his body to lure the enemy into a trap, using cunning words to confuse the army's mind, this Li Yuan was indeed extremely crafty.

  "Thud!" The sound of falling into a pit came from the rear, accompanied by the miserable screams of the defeated soldiers, making Fan Qiang's heart skip a beat.

  "General, something is wrong, we've been ambushed! There are also pitfalls in the rear!" The companion's urgent and mournful cries were like a messenger from hell, causing the soldiers of Fan's army to lose all hope.

  On the road where Fan Jun was coming, several straight trenches stretched out like snakes, dozens of feet away. In the middle of the road, there was a narrow path that only allowed one person to pass through sideways, and the wooden board's imprint was still clear. Qin dog had indeed done something on the road, but it was unknown how the road that was safe just now had become a deadly trap.

  Li Yuan's soldiers had been working in the city of Daliang for many days, and their achievements were now apparent. It was as if they had dug up the roads like modern-day pipe repairs or cable laying, but under Li Yuan's orders, the Qin army turned the streets of Daliang into a series of deadly drains. At the bottom of these waterways, sharpened bamboo sticks were inserted upside down, so that anyone who fell in would be impaled, like sugarcanes being roasted, only this time it was blood that flowed instead of syrup.

  "Charge!" Fan Kuai shouted, waving his heavy sword to command the soldiers to squeeze through the narrow path. Fan Kuai was very confident, even if there was only one way up Mount Hua, he believed that his soldiers could defeat the enemy.

  ——。

  Li Yuan coldly gazed at Fan Jun, who was in a state of confusion and disorder, and raised his right arm high. Behind him, a black Qin army flag with golden edges also fluttered in the wind.

  "Great Qin, charge! Charge! Charge!" Li Yuan loudly shouted, fiercely waving his right arm downwards. The large flag immediately displayed the signal for the ambushing Qin army to launch a full-scale attack.

  "Brave old Qin, restore my rivers and mountains! Blood will not dry up, the battle will not stop!" The Qin song is low and majestic, team after team of Qin soldiers holding bamboo spears lined up to advance in the sound of the song.

  "Kill!" The desperate soldiers of the Fān army, under heavy pressure, couldn't help but shout out. Under the leadership of a brave and fierce general, a team of Fān soldiers formed a line and advanced along the small path.

  "Ah!" Before he could take a few steps, Fan Jun's eyes blurred and a long bamboo spear flashed with cold light towards his face.

  "Whoosh!" The bronze sword surged with power and rose, under the mighty swing of General Fan's arm, cutting off a section of the bamboo spear and sending it flying. General Fan's troops were overjoyed and hastily stepped forward, wanting to leap over this obstructing segment.

  "Peng——hu!" The truncated bamboo spear suddenly stretched forward, drilled out from under the crotch of General Fan's horse, and then violently swayed left and right, instantly causing General Fan, who was already unstable, to fall into the pit.

  At the other end of the bamboo spear, a Qin soldier held his gun with both hands, looking at the scene in front of him with a shocked expression. Obviously, he was not fully prepared for the outcome of the battle just now. The difference between the little soldier and the officer is not only reflected in their identity, but also in their experience, confidence and many other aspects. If it were to fight in another place, ten little soldiers might not be able to withstand a seasoned commander.

  The vanguard of Fan's army was packed tightly on the narrow path, unable to move forward due to the threat of Qin's long bamboo spears. The front line was almost at a standstill, while the rear troops were eager to escape and kept pushing forward, causing many soldiers in the middle to lose their footing and fall into the ditch, becoming a string of human flesh on the sharp bamboo stakes.

  The bamboo spears were so powerful that the soldiers of Fan Kuai's army were at a loss for words. Compared to the bamboo spears, which were several feet long, their own weapons could not reach the Qin army no matter how they stretched out. Even if they managed to cut off the bamboo spear, it would only bring them slightly closer. It was impossible for such lucky events to happen repeatedly, and besides, there was more than one bamboo spear coming at them.

  Fan Jun's morale was low, and he was caught in a pincer movement. What had been expected to be an easy battle with benefits had turned into a massacre, and it was his own side that was being slaughtered. Some desperate soldiers began jumping down the trench, trying to swim across this treacherous stretch of water, but as soon as they hit the water, they let out cries of alarm.

  "Despicable Qin dog!" Under the water, there were long and short bamboo stakes everywhere. The longer ones had corpses hanging from them, while the shorter ones below could still pierce through the soles of the Chu soldiers' feet.

  "General, hurry up! We'll break through the wall and run!" A Chu army officer shouted urgently. He was indeed clever in a crisis, thinking of an unorthodox method. With Qin troops ambushing both front and back, the only way to break out was to blast through the walls on either side.

  "Break the wall!" A team of Fan's soldiers, under the command of Fan Kuai, began to wield heavy shields and sharp swords, thrusting them into the gaps in the stone wall. Under the force of their movements, the stones started to show a slight loosening.

  Gan Huaibo and Zhou Xing's two routes of Qin army continuously pressed the soldiers of Fan Jun in the surrounded circle, unlike Fan Kuai's unprepared army. Every time the Qin army advanced one step, they would lay thick wooden boards to shorten the distance between the two sides, making it convenient for the bamboo spears to thrust.

  After several rounds of fighting, the Fan army soldiers finally collapsed, sat down on the ground one after another, threw their weapons to one side and silently waited for their fate of being captured.

  "Report, Fan Kuai has broken through the wall and escaped!" Gan Houbao panted, his face flushed with shame as he spoke to Li Yuan, who was directing the battle. The side that Fan Kuai had broken through was precisely within his defensive zone. Just now, he had only been concerned with blocking the large enemy force, and he had not anticipated that Fan Kuai would find a breakthrough point in the solid stone wall.

  The stone wall of the main beam has been weathered for many years, and cracks have appeared in many places, giving Fan Kuai a chance to escape.

  "Don't worry, he can't escape!" Li Yuan sneered and ordered Gan Houbao to continue sweeping the battlefield while he chased after Fan Qiang who was fleeing with Zhou Xing and Luo Jia.

  Daliang East

  Fan Kuai was left with only a handful of men, and in the recent breakout battle, they were constantly intercepted by Qin soldiers. After losing more than 600 elite soldiers, Fan Kuai had no will to fight against the Qin army anymore. He just wanted to leave this haunted city that he deeply hated and would never forget as soon as possible.

  "Dang, dang, dang——!" The sound of horseshoes shattered, and the desolate Qin drum echoed in the wilderness. A team of Qin cavalry appeared in Fàn Jiāo's line of sight, their black armor like ghosts, just like a team of soul-searching ghostly cavalry.

  "Ah!" Fan Kuai shouted, stumbling forward with chaotic footsteps. His pace was already disorganized and his confidence was on the verge of collapse. No one could remain calm after suffering repeated setbacks.

  "Fire!"

  A hail of gleaming triangular arrowheads rained down, causing Fan Kuai's body to convulse violently. Slowly, his eyes began to lose focus, and the heavy sword in his hand fell to the ground.

  A horse galloped over, the sword light flashed, and Fan Kuai's head flew into the air, with a burst of blood spraying from his neck, from rapid to slow, until not a single drop of blood flowed out.