Chapter 21: The Bravery of King Wu of Cheng

  Zhang Zixing imitated the Tang and Song dynasties, dividing his army into vanguard, central army, and rear army. The vanguard was the advance troops, led by Huang Feihu; the central army was the main force led by the commander-in-chief himself, naturally led by the emperor in person; the rear army was mainly responsible for covering and warning tasks, Zhang Zixing also considered Jiang Wenhuan's youth and impulsiveness, so he appointed him as the commander of the rear army.

  Due to Jiang Huanchu's persistent and bitter advice, Zhang Zixing had no choice but to abandon his intention of taking personal action. He instructed Huang Feihu a few words before letting him lead the vanguard to rush to Dongyuan to meet the enemy.

  "Report to His Majesty, a large number of enemy troops have been spotted ahead, estimated to be around 30,000 strong!"

  "Oh? So many troops? How's the marching speed?"

  "The enemy is marching in formation, with a large number of troops and a grand momentum, but their speed is not fast, and they are not a decoy force."

  "It seems that Jiang Huan Chu is going to fight us in the wilderness this time?" The commander of the Dongyi Allied Army, King Cang Jie of Youqiong Country, furrowed his brow when he received the scout's report: "He knows how powerful our army is and has always been cautious in battle. Why did he make such a poor decision today? Is there some kind of trickery involved?"

  "Report to His Majesty, the one leading the army this time is not Jiang Huan Chu, but the King Zhou of Shang who has come to personally conquer."

  "I've heard of this great king, he does have some talent, the 'Baicao Jing' he wrote is revered by all tribes as a treasure... Unfortunately, he doesn't understand military affairs. If his army defends the city firmly, our army can only burn and plunder around it, but has no power to take the city. This time in the wild battle, we will use his weakness to attack our strength, and he will surely be defeated. This person has no military strategy at all, not worth worrying about!" As he spoke, Cang Jie's gaze fell on a beautiful woman below, smiling: "Wang Yueji, you're not very supportive of this Zhou Wang, are you? Watch me capture him and make him your doctor?"

  The Moon Princess King seemed to ignore his kindness, coldly saying: "Hmph! Cang Jie Wang, this Zhou Wang can write three great strange books, and his mind must be extraordinary. With Jiang Huan Chu assisting him, why dare he fight a field battle with me? I think there must be some hidden scheme. Moreover, the enemy army has 100,000 troops this time, plus the original garrison of Dong Lu, their military strength far surpasses our allied forces. We absolutely cannot underestimate them."

  "What's the big deal? I think it's that Emperor Xuan of Qi who is being arrogant and impulsive, not listening to Jiang Huan Chu's advice, and rashly going into battle." Cang Jie's words actually guessed a few parts of the truth. "Although our army can't match the number of soldiers in the Shang army, each one of them are elite warriors with extremely strong combat power, having an obvious advantage in field battles. Throughout history, we have always been able to win with fewer men against the great Shang, as long as we're careful, what tricks could they possibly use to harm us?"

  Cang Jie Wang did have a bit of the flavor of "in the face of absolutely overwhelming power, any schemes or tricks are not worth mentioning", and Yu Jie Wang couldn't find any reason to refute him, so he stopped advising. However, can Dong Yi's power really be called "absolutely overwhelming" now?

  The majestic and powerful King Cao led his troops to slow down their pace, arraying them in a strict formation, preparing for a grand battle against the Shang army on the plains.

  The two armies faced each other from a distance, with an atmosphere that seemed ready to erupt at any moment.

  "Is that the great king of Yin coming from ahead?" King Cang Jie jumped off his horse and asked loudly, his voice full of energy, echoing across the plains.

  A general with a golden armor, beautiful eyebrows and whiskers, holding a full copper long gun, riding a five-colored divine cow came out and responded: "I am the vanguard commander-in-chief of the Great Business Conquering East, Town National Martial King Huang Feihu is here! Announce your name!"

  Originally, the Shang Dynasty's main weapon was the halberd. Under Zhang Zixing's improvement, various cold weapons emerged ahead of time. The Double Moon Divine Spear in Huang Feihu's hand is one of them, and a set of exquisite spear techniques evolved from the halberd technique corresponds to it.

  "This great king is the leader of the Eastern Yi coalition, and he is none other than King Mu Gong! I heard that King Zhou personally led the expedition, but why didn't he dare to come out and fight me? Is it because he's afraid of this great king? Haha!" As soon as these words came out, the Eastern Yi army burst into a fit of laughter.

  "How dare you be so rude! To deal with a lowly soldier like you, does the Emperor need to take action himself? You, Chong Jie, do you have the guts to fight me?" Huang Feihu's anger reached its peak upon hearing Chong Jie insult the Emperor.

  "Hmph! An unknown general, you're worthy of my attention, Ujazmu! Go and take his head, to warn the merchants' king!" Cang Jie was also cautious, knowing that Huang Feihu dared to challenge him to a duel, he must not be an ordinary person. So he didn't fight personally, but instead sent out his trusted general Ujazmu. This Ujazmu was strong and powerful, with unmatched strength, known as the first fierce warrior of the Eastern Yi, let out a loud roar, and galloped towards Huang Feihu with a fierce momentum.

  Huang Feihu urged the Five-Colored Divine Ox to advance quickly, and the two of them engaged in a fierce battle at the forefront of the armies. Huang Feihu's long spear clashed with Wuzhaomu's massive axe, producing a loud "clang" sound, and both horses retreated several steps. Wuzhaomu's strength was unmatched among his people, and he had thought that one strike would be enough to send the enemy's weapon flying. However, the merchant general before him wielded a light and agile long weapon, which unexpectedly allowed him to fight on par with Wuzhaomu himself. Enraged, Wuzhaomu swung his axe wildly like a whirlwind. Huang Feihu knew that this barbarian was a formidable foe, and earlier he had relied on the stability provided by the Five-Colored Divine Ox's stirrup to avoid falling behind in their exchange of brute strength. He immediately steeled himself, focusing his mind on the enemy.

  The two men fought nearly a hundred rounds, with Wuzamu at a disadvantage due to his monotonous moves and excessive waste of energy. Huang Feihu's martial arts skills were originally superb, and with the help of his horse stirrups, his spear technique became even more agile and varied. Wuzamu gradually found himself unable to keep up. This Eastern Yi "fierce" warrior was not a simple-minded brute; after feigning an attack, he turned his horse's head and fled. Huang Feihu refused to give up and chased after him on horseback.

  Wu Zhaomub meant to lure the other party into chasing, seeing Huang Feihu "falling into the trap", secretly taking out an arrow from the quiver, Huang Feihu had long heard of Dongyi's good shooting reputation, and also had a guard in his heart, putting the gun on the hook of the saddle, his hand quickly reaching for the light horse behind him.

  As expected, Wu Zha Mu suddenly turned around on his horse, drew his bow, nocked an arrow, took aim, and shot in one swift motion. His marksmanship was so precise that even Huang Fei Hu couldn't help but admire it. The bowstring twanged, and Huang Fei Hu let out a loud cry as he fell off the Five-Colored Divine Cow. Wu Zha Mu saw that his arrow had hit its mark and felt great joy in his heart. He turned his horse around, wanting to behead the enemy.

  Just then, Uzamu's ears suddenly heard three strange mechanical sounds. His rich experience made him aware of the existence of danger, and he subconsciously dodged to one side, but unfortunately it was too late. He felt severe pain in his chest and shoulder, as if several strong arrows had pierced him at the same time. Uzamu knew that he had fallen into the enemy's trap, and hastily turned his horse around to rush back to his own formation. Just when he thought he had escaped the effective range of the shooting, his back suddenly hurt again, and a vital spot had already been deeply nailed by a long arrow. Uzamu swayed a few times before falling off his horse, and it seemed that he was doomed to die.

  Watching Wu Zha Mu turn victory into defeat, the generals of Dong Yi couldn't believe their eyes. They saw Huang Fei Hu's entire body slowly standing up from the single foot on the stirrup, spitting out the arrow shaft in his mouth - it turned out that at the critical moment earlier, Huang Fei Hu had bitten the arrow shaft with his teeth, pretending to be shot and hiding under the belly of the five-colored divine cow. Taking advantage of Wu Zha Mu's relaxation, he counterattacked with a light crossbow, which Wu Zha Mu was not prepared for. The speed and power of the consecutive shots were too strong, and all three hits were fatal.

  Although this light crossbow was not as good as the one Zhang Zi Xing used during the hunting trip in Dong Jiao, it had the advantage of being lightweight and portable, and could also fire three arrows consecutively. Its power was not to be underestimated. When Wu Zha Mu escaped with injuries, Huang Fei Hu quickly replaced his bow with an improved composite bow modified by Zhang Zi Xing, and shot that first warrior of Dong Yi dead on the spot from a super long distance.

  This time, using arrows to control arrows, they greatly defeated the enemy's vanguard, and the morale of the Shang army was greatly boosted.

  After Huang Feihu's victory, his first reaction was not excitement, but admiration and gratitude. He was able to perform such a high-difficulty move earlier, of course, thanks to his own bravery and skill, but without the horse stirrup, it would have been absolutely impossible to complete. And later, shooting and killing Wuzamu relied on three consecutive shots, and secondly, on the combination bow. All these treasures, including the long spear in hand, were none other than the "inventions" of the Son of Heaven. At this time, Zong Jie Wang and the Dongyi generals had only one word in their minds - shock. They did not expect that the first fierce warrior Wuzamu would die at the hands of Shang Jiang, and still lose to the Dongyi people's most skilled riding and shooting techniques.

  Cang Jie knew that the vanguard had been beheaded, and the morale of the Dongyi army was suddenly low. He hastily ordered his elite archers to take action - no matter how powerful Huang Feihu was, he was only one person, and it was impossible for every soldier in the Shang army to have such strong riding and shooting skills. Cang Jie decided to use his usual long-range tactics to give the enemy a strong blow, to avenge the death of Wuzamu. The elite archers were selected from among the Dongyi tribes, with superb horsemanship, excellent at guerrilla warfare, and although they numbered only 5,000, they were Cang Jie's trump card army, as well as the most important military capital for the country to become the first great power of the East Yi. They had rich experience in fighting against the Shang army, and did not rush forward to attack, but instead formed a line array, advancing slowly, while putting pressure on the enemy and waiting for an opportunity to attack.

  However, what surprised Cang Jie was that the Shang army did not form a defensive formation as early as before, nor did they rush up to engage in close combat. Instead, several rows of soldiers holding longbows stood out. The kings of the allied forces looked at each other with disdain. The strong bows of Dongyi were famous throughout the world, and whether in terms of strength or accuracy, they far surpassed those of the Shang army. Unless every soldier of the Shang dynasty had archery skills and strength comparable to that of Huang Feihu, they would not be a match for them. The problem was that it was impossible for the Shang dynasty to have so many "Huang Feihus".

  It's even more ridiculous that the merchants' arrows were not aimed at the enemy's fine cavalry, but at the sky. Moreover, they had already shot out their arrows before the Dongyi fine cavalry had even entered effective range - even with the strong bows that the Dongyi took pride in, it was impossible to hit the target at this distance, let alone score a hit.

  Just then, the Moon Princess Wang, who had been frowning tightly, suddenly exclaimed: "Not good! Quickly let the elite cavalry return!"

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