Chapter Thirty: The Letter of Surrender

  For An Meng's question, Gong Sun Ce's answer was simple: "Smoking is one's own business, as long as it doesn't bother others. In the original society, men had a lot of pressure, and smoking could shift their attention and relieve stress. As for women, as long as they're not giving birth, they can smoke at any time, after all, men and women are equal."

  "Oh, does big brother like Mengmeng smoking?" Mengmeng took a puff of smoke, tilted her head and lightly pursed her lips, blowing out a stream of smoke onto Gong Sun Ce's face.

  Gongsun Ce didn't think much of it, and continued to smoke while glancing at the battlefield. He said, "When a girl smokes, she looks very natural, with a natural expression and movements, all of which are beautiful. However, try to smoke less in the future, as smoking can cause acne on your face. That wouldn't be pretty, and if you're not pretty, there won't be any spectators."

  "Wow! After smoking for many years, my face is still as smooth as jade!" An Meng said with great confidence while touching her own face and taking out a small mirror to take a look.

  "Never mind that, how did you know the crossbowmen need to make adjustments?" Gong Sun Ce also had doubts in his heart. An Meng's impression on him from the beginning was a unique and unconventional girl, but now she suddenly transformed into a tactician who understood military strategy, making it hard for him to understand.

  An Meng adjusted her mindset, using the mentality of watching a movie to scan the battlefield. In response to Gong Sun Ce's question, she replied simply: "Playing more games will do, the Total War series is very good. Especially the Three Kingdoms MOD made by Zhuzi Workshop, it's very realistic. Playing more will give you some experience. Adding some common sense and using it reasonably will be fine. Last time I saw big brother use crossbowmen in an unreasonable way, so I came to find big brother to adjust."

  Two people were chatting on the rooftop, when they smoked their third cigarette, half of the soldiers behind the second short wall lost their combat effectiveness, and most of them died. The originally solid defense line now seemed precarious, the archers on the rooftops on both sides of the village had exhausted their strength, with few remaining arrows, and the occasional shots only indicated their existence, without causing much trouble for the White Wave Army.

  "The greatest effect of the crossbowmen is their direct shooting. The enemy's vanguard has already lost more than half, and there are less than a thousand people left." An Meng pointed at the White Wave Army trapped behind the second short wall and continued: "Brother, with three rounds of continuous shooting from the crossbow array, 500 arrows will be shot each round. As long as we conduct three segments of shooting, we can wipe out more than half of them!"

  An Meng explained what three-stage shooting was, and Gong Sun Ce also knew about the three-stage strike. He only knew how it worked, but didn't know the specific operation. What's strange is that An Meng actually knew, and his explanation was clear and logical. This made Gong Sun Ce extremely surprised, but he suppressed his curiosity first and began to order the soldiers to retreat.

  The two battalions of the White Wave Army fought hard, first being blocked outside the second low wall, with soldiers continuously passing along both sides of the low wall and being surrounded and killed by the defending army. Then they climbed up along the low wall, but unexpectedly the low wall was like a thorny bush, not only difficult to climb, but also the focus of the archers on both sides, plus the enemy soldiers holding spears behind the low wall. The casualties from climbing over the wall were also great, suddenly discovering that the defending army was unable to hold on and intended to retreat, the two battalion commanders fought bravely and pursued them relentlessly.

  "The enemy commander is an idiot! If I were him, I would have defended my position and rested my troops by now, letting the elite vanguard come in before attacking!" An Meng gazed at the enemy army that was desperately chasing after the halberdiers with a look of disdain. She had already seen how this group of enemies would be annihilated!

  As expected, the soldiers covered each other and retreated behind the third low wall, where the crossbowmen were in a state of readiness. The enemy troops who had passed through the third low wall only pursued the soldiers, completely unaware of the crossbowmen on the other side! They even ignored Gong Sun Zhan standing on the rooftop, focusing solely on pursuing the retreating soldiers.

  After the Gebing rushed into the gap of the crossbow array, Gongsun Zhan concentrated his mind and looked at each other, constantly calculating in his heart. What he gained from Lü Bu's inheritance was not the greatest gain, but the greatest gain was that his soul was completely condensed, and his consciousness was visualized as a starry sky. His wisdom had been fundamentally improved, and his computing power had also increased exponentially.

  The first ring of crossbow machines, thirty sets of five-linked light crossbows fired one hundred and fifty crossbow arrows in less than a breath. The dense crossbow arrows pierced the bodies of the military souls one by one, the front row of military souls were all pierced with arrow holes, black blood had not flowed out, but rotted together with the military soul, turning to ash.

  The first row of crossbowmen retreated, making way for the third row to advance and reload. The original second row of crossbowmen moved up to the first row's position, followed by the third row. Gong Sun Zan's idea was simple: to keep the crossbowmen's firepower continuous, without a break if not necessary. Otherwise, three rows of crossbowmen would exhaust their arrows in one go, and although the power would be great, it would lack follow-up strength. When the enemy charged again, the crossbowmen might not have time to reload.

  An Meng bit his collar, his eyes constantly scanning the houses below, and after a moment said: "Big brother, the crossbowmen have just killed over a hundred enemy soldiers! They even took out one of the enemy's high-ranking officers, half of the enemy army is in chaos!" Gong Sun Ce simply nodded to indicate that he knew, his eyes fixed on the road ahead of the crossbowmen's circular formation.

  The enemy army regrouped, without the obstruction of Ge Bing's troops, and in one breath, they broke through the three short walls, with 700-800 men launching a charge. This time, the momentum was immense, with an attitude of not stopping until death. Moreover, Li Le outside the village did not expect that the defending army would be so resilient and could withstand a beating.

  At noon, the sun was already westward, and two thousand people had been fighting for an hour without winning. Li Le was very dissatisfied, so he led a charge. However, he still let the vanguard of one thousand soldiers take the lead, while he brought five hundred personal soldiers to cover the rear.

  "Fire!" Gong Sun Ce gripped the tiger tally tightly and lightly spat out a word. Thirty five-linked light crossbows fired again, round after round of crossbow arrows shot out flatly, rushing into the front White Wave Army, who were pierced through their chests and backs by the crossbow arrows, still running forward with inertia, running and running until they died and rotted.

  The second row of crossbowmen, forty in total, stood behind the first row. Gong Sun Zan stared intently at those enemy souls who had died but not yet fully decayed. These guys' existence severely affected the power of the crossbows, but also hindered the charging speed of the rear enemy troops. When the enemy's front row of dead souls had fully decayed, within twenty meters of the crossbowmen's formation, he gave the order to fire through the tiger tally!

  This round of crossbow arrows killed half of the charging enemy army and threw them into complete chaos, apparently the commander was taken out. At this time, the first row of crossbowmen had just finished reloading, Gong Sun Zan directly ordered this row of crossbowmen to shoot another round, and with a fierce impact from this round of crossbow arrows, the White Wave Army suddenly collapsed, and in the chaos they turned around and ran.

  An Meng suddenly discovered a very interesting thing, that is, running away from the crossbow arrow with his back to it would actually die faster! The strong crossbow arrow shot through the enemy army running in the last row and continued to fly forward until its strength was exhausted, killing three or four people. If you launch a charge in the direction of the crossbow arrow, at most only the people in the front rows will die. Even if the corpses would rot, before the crossbow arrows were exhausted, these soldiers who died in the front could use their own rotting bodies to consume the force of the crossbow arrows!

  This is not good, the remaining two hundred or so White Wave Troops are about to retreat over the third low wall, but unexpectedly a large number of fresh troops suddenly appeared at the passageways on both sides. The two groups of White Wave Troops were squeezed together in the passageway on both sides of the low wall, neither giving way. Gong Sun Zan took advantage of the time to order his crossbowmen to prepare for shooting.

  When the vanguard is defeated, the central army is in disarray, and the rear army retreats. The White Wave Army's vanguard was defeated and retreated, becoming entangled with the central army. Li Le's 500 personal soldiers who were guarding the rear were about to be thrown into chaos when Li Le swiftly cut through the confusion with his sword, killing a retreating general with one stroke of his blade. He loudly shouted: "Anyone who retreats will be killed by those on their left and right!"

  The White Wave Troops, upon hearing the order, were very concise. As long as they retreated backwards from their position, it was just a matter of cutting down with one slash, and soon they finished cleaning up, leaving behind a patch of withered gray where the dead soldiers' souls had departed. The remaining White Wave Troops trampled over the withered gray left behind by the fleeing troops and passed through the third low wall, catching sight of Gongsun Zan's crossbowmen, and hesitated to advance further.

  When Li Le squeezed through the crowd, he saw the three-ring formation of the crossbowmen. The battle had reached this point, and it was too late to retreat. Moreover, he couldn't retreat, as retreating would lead to the entire army starving to death. Charging forward was their only chance at survival! Mainly because there were too few crossbowmen, they didn't pose a significant threat to Li Le.

  "Kill! Charge, victory is ours!" Li Le shouted loudly, leading the charge. After the White Wave Army launched a full-scale charge, he hid himself in the crowd again. Facing the crossbow array's charge, even cavalry had to think twice, let alone his own poorly equipped self? Li Le had been fighting on the battlefield for over a decade, accumulating rich experience.

  Gongsun Zan stared intently at Li Le, seeing him hiding in the crowd, and rushed past from under his own feet, revealing a cruel smile! He directly ordered the crossbowmen to fire three rounds, forming an effective firepower strike, and after shooting down the enemy's bravest vanguard, he abandoned his crossbow and held a spear, leading all infantry to charge together!

  The three rows of crossbow arrays began to fire in sequence, and Gong Sun Ce turned around and slid down the ladder. He picked up a green dragon halberd standing next to the ladder, turned his head to An Meng on the roof and said: "Stay well upstairs, if my brother wins, I'll send you a treasure. If my brother loses, we die together. Alright?"

  "Alright, I'll wait for you." An Meng kicked over the ladder, showing her determination. Gong Sun Ce smiled wryly at this, and turned to lead his 15 personal guards, who were all former soldiers of Bu Bing that had been promoted to officers - five were lieutenants, ten were squad leaders, each wearing iron-plated armor, holding large halberds, with long swords hanging from their waists.

  With one kick, the wooden gate of the courtyard was knocked down. Gong Sun Ce emerged with a qinglong spear in one hand and a yanfeng knife in the other. The dense enemy army that had been packed tightly together now stood scattered and sparse, with only a few still standing, most lying on the ground, some dead and rotting, others struggling and wailing.

  With a casual swing of his sword, he beheaded an enemy soldier who was charging towards him. He took a glance around and spotted the leader of the enemy forces, who turned out to be Li Le. Gong Sun Ce only knew that this general's surname was Li, but nothing else; in fact, he didn't even know what era this formidable army came from.

  Gongsun Zhan didn't know Li Le's situation, so how could Li Le have known Gongsun Zhan's information? In short, they would fight as soon as they met, and it was either you die or I perish. It wasn't just them; inside and outside the Divine Land were all like this.

  Li Le was unlucky, even hiding in the middle of the team, but the strong crossbow arrows still pierced through the crowd in front and shot around him. He was also lucky, with White Wave soldiers constantly being shot dead or injured by crossbow arrows all around him, yet he remained unscathed. However, Gong Sun Ce came down from the rooftop, specifically to hack him, and his luck began to run out!

  "Follow me! That man is the enemy general, and it's not impossible to rise three ranks at once!" Gong Sun Ce chopped and stabbed with his knife, and soon scattered the enemy soldiers at the gate. The goose feather knife returned to its scabbard, and he grasped the Qinglong spear in both hands, leading Xiang Wei and Li Le towards him, not forgetting to give Xiang Wei some encouragement. For the soldiers of the symbol camp, regardless of military rank, they have an extraordinary obsession with the heads of enemy officers, let alone the main general of the enemy!

  Yu Wei's men were fighting bravely, and surprisingly, they were even faster than Gong Sun Ce. On the other side, Li Le also discovered that Gong Sun Ce had suddenly appeared from the adjacent courtyard, cutting off his retreat! Li Le led his personal soldiers in a hurry to fight back, not seeking to kill Gong Sun Ce, but just wanting to break through him and return to his own camp, where he still had a chance to rise again. If he was trapped here, being attacked from both sides, he would surely die!

  Li Le's personal soldiers were all fierce and fearless of death, entangled with Fu Wei's soldiers in a fierce battle. Several of them broke through Fu Wei's soldiers and rushed towards Gongsun Zan. Gongsun Zan had been holding back his killing intent for a long time, but it finally burst out. With his Blue Dragon Halberd, he killed two men with one thrust and one hook, then followed up with big strides. The halberd stabbed left and right, and all the enemy soldiers within its range of attack fell to their deaths.

  Li Le saw the silver-armored cavalry general being so brave, only charging towards himself, his courage was directly lost by half, and he turned around to leave. Turning around, he saw that his vanguard troops were being killed by the defending infantry, retreating in defeat, he let out a sigh, and also saw that another part of his troops had stopped advancing, being shot at by the suddenly bursting archers, they fled in disarray, he knew it would be difficult for him to escape.

  Lee Yue, with a determined spirit, turned around and killed Gong Sun Ce again. The sword in his hand had not been stabbed out yet, but was cut off by Gong Sun Ce's spear along with his wrist. Before Lee Yue felt the pain, Gong Sun Ce rotated the Green Dragon Halberd and counterattacked, stabbing Lee Yue in the chest.

  Those iron-clad warriors fought with a ferocious style, and the manner in which they died, dragging their shields behind them, left a deep impression on Gong Sun Zan. He had not expected that this commander would be so vulnerable; one thrust of his spear struck true, and before he could even pull it back out, his head lolled to one side, his helmet fell to the ground, and he was dead, beginning to rot!

  The enemy army that was still fighting collapsed immediately, those who could escape turned around and ran away, those who couldn't knelt down to surrender. The other group of enemy soldiers who were hesitant to advance turned around and fled amidst a shower of arrows, some even abandoned their weapons and surrendered directly.

  Staring at Li Le's dead body, Gong Sun Ce finally felt at ease. He picked up a yellow paper left behind by Li Le after his death and ordered his men: "Pass down my order to the whole army, pursue and kill them relentlessly! Do not stop until they are all dead!" Several soldiers who had surrendered heard this and immediately killed their captives with one blow of their spears. They then followed the troops in pursuit of the enemy. Even the crossbowmen at the rear abandoned their five-bolt light crossbows and, led by Bai Ta and Zhao Jia, went to pursue and kill the enemy with long spears.

  As the black armored cavalry surged forward like a wave, Gong Sun Ce's symbol-bearing cavalry also disappeared from view. At that moment, Gong Sun Ce rode his symbol-adorned horse in pursuit, simultaneously unrolling a yellow paper scroll, on which a line of clerical script appeared, with three large characters first catching his eye: "Letter of Surrender!"