Chapter 67: Life and Death

  Ma Wan was on duty at the Qin army's right camp when he heard the sudden outbreak of battle cries outside the military camp. He, who had been somewhat dazed, was like being splashed with cold water, his spirit lifted, and he stood up abruptly.

  "General! The Liao army has launched a night raid!" A lieutenant general, with his troops who had just been scattered, retreated to the front of Ma Yu's tent, looking flustered.

  "I know! Take you to the top! Must hold on!" Ma Wan drew out a straight knife, staring at this general with a fierce expression. If this general dared to say another word of nonsense, he would definitely be chopped down by him with one knife.

  "Brothers, follow me and kill!" The general took a deep look at the knife in Ma Wan's hand, let out a loud roar, and led his troops to charge towards the Liao army.

  At this time, the Liang army was like a rainbow, and in the right camp, they were like tigers and wolves. The Qin army had not yet assembled, one by one like lambs and young deer, fleeing in all directions, being chased by the Liang army, cut down with one knife, turned to ashes.

  "Kill! Charge in!" Suo Xiao waved the long sword in his hand, and waves of Lianjun poured into the camp gate, but were blocked by some timely reacting Qin soldiers at the main passage. The two sides fought fiercely, refusing to give an inch.

  "Yang Qiu! Gather the troops, I'll lead them to the top!" Ma Wan saw Yang Qiu arrive at the main tent under the protection of his personal guards and shouted loudly as he led his personal guards in a charge against the Liao army.

  Yang Qiu saw that at this time, half of the big camp had been breached by the Liao army. In the breached camps, Qin soldiers who ran out of their tents were either surrounded and killed or banded together for self-protection. In the other half of the camp that had not been breached, various military officers were reorganizing their troops, and those who had finished reorganizing were rushing towards the main tent.

  "You, take some men and go quickly to the Central Army for reinforcements!" Yang Qiu pointed to a squad leader with his hand, and that squad leader turned around and led his men out of the camp gate.

  "Set fire! Set everything on fire!" Suo Xiao shouted loudly, the surrounding guards holding torches that had just been lit, hearing the military order, scattered in all directions. Seeing the camp tents, they ignited them, the torches smeared with oil and grease, touching the fabric tents, under the night wind, the tents were instantly engulfed in flames.

  One by one, the Qin soldiers hiding in their tents fled for their lives, only to be cut down by the Liang soldiers guarding the perimeter. Watching his infantry being slaughtered at every turn under the firelight, Ma Yunyang was enraged.

  The left camp was also like this, with each tent burning and shining in harmony with the right camp four or five miles away, just like day and night.

  "Full military preparation!" Gong Sun Ce gave the order, and at this time, there were only three thousand halberd soldiers and one hundred heavenly soldiers under Gong Sun Ying in the central army camp, which was very convenient to command.

  "General, the vanguard has begun to assemble, the camp gates are closed!"

  Liang Jun's scouts brought back the information they had investigated, and Xie Ai listened to them pacing back and forth. After a brief hesitation, he said: "Zhang Dan, bypass the vanguard of Qin's army and attack their rear camp! I don't believe it, Gongsun Zan can still hide and not come out!"

  Zhang Fei received the order and led 3,000 elite soldiers to bypass the central army and attack the rear camp of the Qin army.

  The two armies on both sides kept reporting the situation back, Xie Ai did not expect the surprise attack to be so smooth! If he had known earlier, he would have attacked Gong Sun Ce's main camp directly!

  "I've overestimated him! I didn't think he was so incompetent!" Xie Ai said, turning around to issue orders, preparing to launch a strong attack on Gongsun Zan's central army, while also sending for reinforcements from Jincheng.

  "King Xiang, Zhong Jian general is seeking help, preparing to gather forces and break through the Qin army's camp!" The city wall of Jincheng, Wei Xiao's face was filled with joy, and he loudly relayed Xie E's request for aid.

  Zhang Chonghua was standing at the gate, looking at the fires rising from the two camps of Qin on both sides, knowing that the night raid had been successful, and his heart was filled with joy, but there was a faint sense of unease.

  "This battle is related to the fate of our Great Liang country, I am uneasy in my heart, it's normal." Zhang Chonghua comforted himself secretly, but his mind was thinking about the road ahead for Great Liang after breaking through the Qin army in front of him.

  As for rebuilding the country, he also felt that it was a very distant thing. After his resurrection, he had already purged Zhang Zuoyi's remaining party and fulfilled part of his long-cherished wish, leaving only the foundation of Daliang.

  "Send out the troops!" Zhang Chonghua waved his big hand, and the sheepskin cloak on his body fell off the city wall, revealing a suit of golden armor.

  The city gate opened wide, and the troops waiting at the city gate rushed out. Except for the sound of armor colliding and footsteps, there was no other noise. Next were Zhang Zhonghua's personal troops, a thousand heavy armored heavenly soldiers, led by his trusted general Wei Zhen. They escorted Zhang Zhonghua as he charged out of the city.

  After Zhang Chonghua led the army away, the city gate was closed tightly, and in front of the gate there was only a sheepskin that had been trampled into black. The blackness was like this night, extremely difficult to discern.

  The ghostly figure of Li Jin emerged from the dark corner, observed the patrol rules on the city wall for a while, and then climbed up with a dagger in each hand. This was his second attempt tonight, and he was quite familiar with it.

  "Kill!" The Qin army's rear camp was less than a mile away from the main camp, and the deafening killing cries faintly reached Gong Sun Ce's ears.

  "According to Li Jin's reconnaissance, there are at most 30,000 Liao troops inside Jincheng. If we exclude the Liao troops attacking the left and right camps and the rear camp, we will face about 15,000 Liao troops." Gong Sun Ce suddenly said to his cousin.

  Gongsun Yang was also shocked, and asked directly: "What can you use to fight? There are only three thousand people in the camp, Ma Chao, Gao Shun, Ma Dai, and Zhuge Xu have less than two thousand people together, plus that one thousand Yuqi riders, what can three thousand riders do?"

  "Big brother, are you scared?"

  "Are you crazy! How can six thousand people defeat fifteen thousand, a difference of nine thousand people!" Gong Sunying was not afraid of his own death, but worried about Gong Sunce's unexpected situation. Gong Sunce is now the hope of the entire Gong Sun family, although the Gong Sun family currently has only two or three big and small cats.

  "I really rose to power, it can be said that I relied entirely on a night raid. My continuous understanding of night raids naturally made me realize that the best way to deal with night raids is to launch a night raid!" Gong Sun Ce underwent a qualitative change, which was in that night raid outside Chongxin County City.

  In that war, he truly experienced the magic of military strategy. He began to really like military strategy, constantly studying it, making him infatuated.

  "Kill!" Outside the Great General's camp, the Liang army held torches, a sea of flames that seemed to have no end. The Liang army shouted in unison, their momentum overwhelming.

  "Charge!" Xie Ai was given the power to command the entire army, and under the firelight, he pointed his sword at the Qin army's large camp.

  "Charge!" The officers of the Cooling Army commanded their troops, rushing towards the Great Qin camp.

  "Release the arrows!" Countless crossbow arrows shot out from the gaps in the camp's palisade, hitting the front row of Liang soldiers regardless of rank. Anyone hit by the crossbow bolts suffered severe injuries at the very least. Even if they held a shield, it only slowed down their death.

  "Kill your way in! Qin's archers have at most five rounds! Within the five rounds, we must break through the camp!" Xie Ai shouted loudly, and the Liang army holding torches in the dark night was like a fire dragon, pouring endlessly towards the central camp.

  The Qin army shot five rounds of arrow rain, and the Liang army lost over a thousand men. The remaining Liang army had already rushed to the fence, and the crossbowmen hastily retreated with their five-barreled light crossbows. The halberdiers moved forward, separated by the fence, and began fighting the Liang army.

  The fence here, the halberdiers were at a disadvantage. The long halberds were often blocked by the fence and could not effectively kill the Liang army. However, the Liang army's spearmen found it difficult to stab the halberdiers from behind the fence, resulting in a stalemate.

  Xie Ai saw that the Lü Bu's army was blocked outside the fence and could not rush in for a while. He knew that time was pressing, and he had to break through in a short period of time, without giving the Qin army crossbowmen time to load.

  "Ram the palisade!" The well-prepared Liang army carried logs and charged at the palisade, while the Liang soldiers along the way hastily retreated, fearing being crushed to death by the logs.

  "Crack!" The fence creaked in agony, on the verge of collapse, as the halberdiers retreated in disorder.

  The fence was knocked down section by section, and the vanguard of the cooling army would not have thought that the Qin army would retreat. They trampled over the fence, waving their weapons and killing them as they went.

  "Fire!" Gong Sun Ce shouted as he stood amidst the reorganized battle formation of his halberd-wielding soldiers.

  Gongsun Ying's hundred heavenly soldiers, holding torches, threw them at the tents in front of the enemy formation. In an instant, the tents on both sides of the central camp were rapidly engulfed in flames, burning extremely fast because they had been doused with oil!

  The big fire of the tent was dancing in the wind, with beautiful postures. The flames rolled over and ignited the surrounding tents that had been doused with oil, and for a time all the tents in front of the infantry phalanx were set ablaze, with waves of heat rolling forward like daylight.

  In front of the cool army, there was only a 30-meter-wide passage. They didn't hesitate and rushed up. The fire zones on both sides were not their dare to set foot in, because they would be burned to ashes!

  A tall and sturdy centurion of the Roman legion may have longer legs, rushing to the front, shouting loudly at a distance of thirty meters from the phalanx formation: "Kill!"

  He raised the long-handled greataxe in his hand, and his speed increased even more. Before he could take two steps, he suddenly fell to the ground with a loud cry. His two legs, which were longer than those of ordinary people, had been broken at the knee, and black blood gushed out from the wound. The school lieutenant hugged his broken leg and let out a few mournful cries before being trampled to death by the pursuing Liao soldiers behind him.

  These vanguards of the Liao army fell one after another, all with a broken leg! The reason was that Gong Sun Ce had dug pitfalls for horses in this area.

  Individual flower pots of varying thickness, half a meter deep pitfalls, are not only effective against cavalry, but also against charging infantry, equally lethal!

  "Fire!" The crossbowmen finished loading, under the command of Lieutenant Bai Ta, round after round of arrows shot upwards, and another rain of arrows fell on the Liao army's heads. The Liao soldiers who charged to the front of the halberd formation were sparse and scattered, and in the blink of an eye they were chopped to pieces by the chaotic halberds.

  "The Qin army has long been prepared! Your Majesty, if we continue to fight, even if we win, it will be a miserable victory!" Xie Ai knelt in front of Zhang Chonghua, his expression sorrowful. Because he and Zhang Chonghua both knew that as long as they could not defeat the Qin army in one battle, their hope of rebuilding Da Liang would be completely shattered.

  The Qin army will not give them a chance, and the forces around them will not give them a chance either.

  "Kill! The Lonely King wants to take Gongsun Zan's head and offer it to our Great Liang!" Zhang Chonghua's face was icy cold, completely devoid of his usual majestic demeanor.

  He was like a gambler who had lost his wife and children, now his mind was a complete blank, only wanting to kill Gongsun Zan to vent his anger, killing Gongsun Zan to mourn for his already dead, lifeless Daliang!

  Before this battle, he had confidence in defending the Golden City, but could not withstand Xie Ai's description of the huge temptation after the successful night raid on the Qin army. First, seeing the success of the attack on the two camps of the Great Qin, his heart was filled with joy.

  He seems to have already seen himself defeating the Qin army, using this great victory to intimidate the surrounding forces, and becoming the main force against the Qin army, incorporating other forces under his command, squeezing their blood, and restoring his own Great Liang.

  Ke had just told Xie Ai that he failed!

  The plan to raid the Qin army has failed! It represents something, it represents his shattered dreams, it represents that his own Daliang will never revive again, it represents that he will live in a dull and uninteresting world even if he survives.

  "Long live the king!" Xie Ai stood up, bowed again and turned around to leave.

  "My great Liang Jian, who among you is willing to die with me for our great Liang?" Xie Ai drew his sword and slashed his own cheek, the bright red blood was smeared on his face, under the firelight it looked even more ferocious.

  "I'd rather die with General for our great Lü Bu! A centurion drew his sword and cut open his own face, revealing black blood that showed he hadn't fully revived back to human form."

  "To death!" The Liao soldiers around Xie Ai cut their own faces and smeared their faces with black blood.

  "To death!" More of the Lü Bu's army were inspired by this spirit of desperation and joined their ranks. The morale that had just been dealt a blow was restored, and it completely exploded!

  "Kill!" The cool soldiers no longer feared the flames that could burn them to ashes, enduring the high temperature of the fire, one by one wailing in agony, gripping their weapons tightly, and charging through the sea of fire.

  They charged at the thin wings of the halberd formation, their bodies aflame, skin bursting and fearless of death. As they were about to die, they grabbed onto the long halberds, disrupting the rhythm of the halberd attacks, creating an opportunity for the following Baize troops to strike and kill the halberd-wielding soldiers.

  Under the fierce attack of the Lianjun army, which was fearless of death, the spear array shook and swayed, on the verge of collapse at any moment.

  Gongsun Zan grasped his Green Dragon halberd and directed the infantry to fight while retreating. The crossbowmen also retreated while firing, but their aim was largely off.

  The vanguard of the cooling army lacked the strong suppression of crossbow arrows, and the launched attack was even more fierce.

  Gongsun Ce looked at the row upon row of fallen halberd-wielding soldiers and the vengeful spirits of the Liang army, and his heart was filled with understanding.

  The battle has reached its most critical moment, it depends on whether you can hold on or not!

  He miscalculated this battle and didn't expect Liang Jun to be so powerful!