Chapter 4: Fight to the Death

  Yongqiu Left Archery Ground

  Under Li Yuan's command, the two battalions of soldiers had already firmly controlled this place, and the Qin army's formation inside the city had been completely disrupted. The original garrison troops were mostly from the thief-hunting pavilions in the city, with negligible combat effectiveness, let alone being friendly forces coming to occupy.

  "Hu lu lu!" The sound of war horses neighing, not far away, the shouts of Chu army officers and men can already be heard. The stables in this era belong to the cavalry's resting place, although located in the west of the city, but there are two walls blocking it. The Chu army is not familiar with the road conditions inside the city, and for a while, they still cannot reach the school field.

  "General Li, there are too many people and not enough horses. What should we do?" Seeing Li Yuan bring hundreds of people here, Hou Xi, the clerk in charge of counting grain and fodder, was at a loss.

  Hou Xi, a native of Xianyang, was thirty-two years old. In the twenty-seventh year of Qin Shi Huang's reign, he joined the army and became a first-class craftsman. Looking at Hou Xi's resume, there is no record of how many levels of beheading he had achieved. If it weren't for his ability to write and his talent with numbers, an ordinary soldier like Hou Xi would have probably become cannon fodder long ago.

  Li Yuan's military achievement of beheading Cai Ci was recorded by Hou Xi. As a fierce warrior who could kill enemies on the battlefield like Li Yuan, Hou Xi naturally wanted to get close to him. For Li Yuan, a transmigrator who temporarily didn't recognize what a fierce warrior looked like, Hou Xi became the first person to talk to him and naturally also became an object of his recruitment efforts.

  More than 300 war horses, with about 500 Qin army officers and men following, on the escape route, having a horse or not is almost the difference between life and death. At this time, if the Qin army were to fight internally, without the Chu army attacking, this group of defeated soldiers would disperse on their own.

  "Pass the order, form up!" Li Yuan shouted loudly, his voice not loud but enough to be heard clearly by the surrounding soldiers. After witnessing Li Yuan's series of deployments, even if they were not originally from Li Yuan's unit, the soldiers acknowledged and accepted Li's unified command.

  United we stand!

  The end of lone warriors is only one - being killed!

  "Scout soldiers, fall in!"

  "Crossbowmen, fall in!"

  "Skilled riders, advance!"

  "The rest of you, get on your horses and let's give it a try!"

  There were no more complicated orders, and Li Yuan immediately began the process of selecting breakout cavalrymen. The Qin army had strict military discipline, and as a military marquis, he was the highest decision-maker, and his orders were action directives.

  Soon, the Qin army cavalry had almost reached full strength, and except for Li Yuan's original seventy-odd old soldiers, the remaining war horses were also divided up among the Qin soldiers. The quality of their horsemanship could be clearly seen from their posture when mounting, the movement of their legs kicking the horse's belly, and the expression on their faces. Each person had a standard in mind.

  Survival of the fittest.

  The natural law, the eliminated Qin army soldiers still had more than 200 people left, and many of them cast envious glances at the cavalry.

  "Li Junhou, I have a request to make of you. If it's possible, please deliver this item to Zheng Lao'er's house in Dingxi County, Didi Dao. If you do, I will die without regret!" A sturdy man with a curly beard and dressed as a battalion commander walked heavily towards Li Yuan, his hands tightly grasping a cloth-wrapped object with several lines of blood-stained characters visible on it.

  "What's your noble surname?" Li Yuan took over the cloth package and nodded in response.

  A certain Zheng Chengzhong, rank second. The Han soldier saw Li Yuan nod in response, a smile of relief spreading across his face, the worry in his heart lifted, he no longer hesitated, turned around and returned to the infantry formation.

  "Brave old Qin, restore my rivers and mountains! Blood will not dry up, the battle will not stop!" Zheng's hoarse voice sang out the Qin army's war song, at first it was just him singing alone, slowly, a few people, dozens of people, then five hundred Qin soldiers shouted in unison.

  "A certain Liu Wu, a native of Xianyang!"

  "Sū Dà, from Shàng Jùn Jiǔ Yuán, his family has an elderly father who is over 70 years old!"

  One by one, the Qin army infantrymen walked to the front of the formation and stopped in front of Hou Xi, the clerk in charge of recording names. They reported the names of their loved ones that needed to be recorded and put down the things they treasured most beside them.

  This moment is life and death apart.

  "Mount up, gentlemen! Kill the enemy!" Li Yuan's eyes were already moist. The brotherhood on the battlefield was the same a thousand years ago as it is now. He seemed to have returned to the time when he fought side by side with his good brothers in the army.

  Horse hooves echoed, leaving behind a vast expanse of dust.

  Zheng Chengzhong's eyes narrowed, standing still on the spot, letting the yellow sand and dust cover his body. Half of the yellow earth buried the bones of war, this city was also a good place to bury the dead, at least it was lively.

  The remaining Qin infantry is now led by Zheng Chengzhong, who commands them to fight to the death. With no blood left unshed and no rest until death, this group of Qin soldiers has nothing to lose. They have only one thought in mind: to let the Chu people see what it means to be a Qin soldier!

  ——。

  West of Yongqiu City, five miles outside.

  Liu Bang sat cross-legged on the edge of his chariot, shoeless and gazing listlessly at the rolling thick smoke in the sky above Yongchu City.

  "Ah Yin, tell me, when will the rabbit we're waiting for appear?" Liu Bang lifted his foot and kicked over a clump of wild grass on the side of the war chariot, asking the charioteer driving in front.

  Guarding the tree stump waiting for rabbits.

  No mistake, Liu Bang led more than 2,000 people in the west of the city, preparing to wipe out the Qin army that broke out of the city. The battle inside the city is now under Xiang Yu's command. Liu Bang has been defeated many times and has been forced to stand by, but he is not willing to let Xiang Yu take all the credit, so he prepares to be a hunter.

  "Marquis of Pei, Xiahou Yuan reported not long ago that he has already followed the Chu army and broken into the city. This Li Yu is probably unable to come out, why don't we go forward to meet him? Perhaps we can still get a few heads?" Xiahou Yuan was eager to respond, as Cao Ren was his good brother, who was now leading tens of thousands of Liu Bang's main force to kill into the city.

  Watching his brother achieve great merit, while he himself was sweating and toiling outside the city, not to mention Xiahou Ying, even the soldiers of Liu Bang's army next to him were all discontent. If the plan to guard the tree stump wasn't Liu Bang's idea, it's likely that Xiahou Ying and others would have raised questions by now.

  "Haha, Ah Yin, you've underestimated the city's Qin dog. Our army has been stuck for several days, not because of the soldiers' weakness, but because of the Qin dog's frantic barking. I'm guessing that fatty is coming soon!" Liu Bang burst out laughing, but a hint of coldness flashed in his eyes. This battle at Yongchu was one that Old Liu had fought with all his might, yet after half a day of effort, he had lost over ten thousand men and horses, and still couldn't capture the city by a hair's breadth.

  If it weren't for the gang of fools making a racket, shouting that the losses were too great and that if they continued to fight they would be wiped out, Xiang Liang wouldn't have sent Xiang Yu to pick up the ripe peaches.

  "A young whippersnapper, and yet you're so self-satisfied for a moment!" Liu Bang spat out a wad of straw, seething with anger in his heart.

  "Marquis of Pei, look! He's coming out, the dog of Qin is emerging!" Xiahou Yuan stood tall and saw far, his excited shouting voice lifted the heads of Liu's army officers and men who were drowsy from the scorching sun.

  Not far away.

  A black line is growing bigger and longer. The Chu army wears red, the Qin army wears black, this black wave is like a tide crashing against the rocks, even if it means being torn to pieces, they must fight to the death!

  With the sacrifice of Zheng Chengzhong and other infantrymen, Li Yuan led the last organized Qin army in the city to break out. He chose the direction of the breakout, which was exactly the west side of the city where Liu Bang was located.