Chapter Twenty-One Victory

  Situ Leidian was born into a military family, his ancestors were founding generals who followed the founding emperor to conquer the south and north, making great contributions. However, after several hundred years passed, with the stabilization of the empire, a large number of literati and scholars emerged, posing a huge challenge to the military. Adding to this, the emperor's suspicion led to a significant decline in the status of the military. The once glorious military families gradually declined, including Situ Leidian's family. As a founding military family, they were targets for recruitment by the literati. Over several hundred years of evolution, the former military families had become representatives of the scholars, and Situ Leidian was an outlier in his family, disliking learning poetry and literature, wanting to revive his ancestors' glory. From a young age, he abandoned the classical studies of the scholars and learned martial arts instead. At 18 years old, he joined the military and became a commander of a thousand cavalrymen in six years. This time, following Yang Chengfeng's troops to Wuwei, he made great contributions in the Battle of Wuwei, and after the expansion of the Tianlang Army, he became a commander of ten thousand cavalrymen.

  The day before, Sartorius received a secret order from Yang Chengfeng to lead 5,000 light cavalrymen to wait for orders on the Narati grassland. Sartorius looked at the order in his hand with confusion, not knowing what the Prince of Liao meant. However, as a soldier, he had no choice but to lead the 5,000 light cavalrymen to secretly wait for orders on the Narati grassland.

  At noon, a knight rushed towards the location of the great army.

  "What's going on?" Shi Tu Lei Deng asked without waiting for the knight to dismount. He knew that only Liao Wang knew about this, and even his old superior, Wang Zu Wei, was unaware of it.

  "General Wanqi, His Highness is under attack by the Ma family army. He's waiting for your rescue." The knight panted and said.

  "What?" Sutherland was startled and immediately reacted, beckoning to the light cavalrymen behind him: "Brothers, follow me."

  Five thousand light cavalry followed Stuart's orders and galloped with him towards the place where Yang Chengfeng had encountered trouble.

  ……

  Almost an hour had passed, and the fierce battle was still going on in the prairie. Yang Chengfeng's personal guard had decreased from 400 to around 150, while Marquis Mahe's cavalry had lost about a thousand men. Such casualties were unbearable for both Yang Chengfeng and Marquis Mahe.

  Yang Chengfeng's personal guard was a group of seasoned and elite warriors, and losing several hundred men in one go made him feel terrible. However, Yang Chengfeng also knew that he had embarked on a path of no return, and such incidents would happen again. He tried his best to keep his heart calm.

  Ma Zai, as the leader of the Ma family army, was quite confident in his own elite guard, but now an hour had passed and he couldn't eliminate Yang Chengfeng's few hundred elite guards. This made him furious, especially since Lusaka and Sun Yingjie each led fifty light cavalrymen who constantly created trouble for his troops with their incredible speed and agility, making his iron cavalry exhausted from chasing them. This made him feel even more humiliated. After all, the Ma family army was founded on its cavalry, but its elite cavalry couldn't compare to the newly formed Tianlang Army Corps.

  "We can't go on like this." Looking up at the sky, Mahler ordered: "The Ma family's iron cavalry, charge!"

  "Yes." The Ma family knights immediately opened up a distance with Yang Chengfeng and his men, forming a charging formation.

  ……

  "Your Highness, the enemy is about to launch a general attack." Shen Yuehua said with a serious expression.

  "I know, but it's too late for a general attack now." Yang Chengfeng smiled coldly and pointed south: "Look, our cavalry is coming."

  Shen Yuehua looked southward and saw a black line on the horizon getting closer from afar.

  "Reinforcements, our reinforcements have arrived." Shen Yuehua exclaimed excitedly.

  The Imperial Guards beside him heard Shen Yuehua's words and saw the cavalry troops rushing from the south, their faces all showing excited expressions.

  "Be careful of the fight." Yang Chengfeng said in a low voice.

  "Yes." The Imperial Guards had just remembered they still had to face the Ma family's Iron Cavalry attack.

  ……

  Yang Chengfeng and his men discovered the reinforcements, and Ma Chao also found them. Seeing the rolling cavalry, Ma Chao counted and found that there were probably several thousand riders in this reinforcement army.

  "Damn it, how did the Fenris Legion get here so quickly?" Mahler cursed angrily.

  "What should we do now, Second Master?"

  "What's to be done? Let's go all out. Everyone, kill for me!" With that, Mahler personally led the 200 guards who stayed by his side into the charge.

  "Archers, ready, fire."

  "Stranger with a sword, come forth and kill."

  The enemy cavalry, 500 meters away from Yang Chengfeng, launched an attack by the Imperial Guard's archers. A rain of arrows flew towards the enemy cavalry, and many were shot down, but they still charged towards the Imperial Guard. At 300 meters, 200 meters, 50 meters, the archers retreated to the back of the troops, shooting a deadly rain of arrows into the air. The halberdiers held their halberds at an angle, pointing forward, forming a dense forest of death.

  The cavalry rushed forward, some of the cavalrymen couldn't stop their horses and were immediately chopped in two by the machete-wielding men. The cavalrymen turned around after a brief pause and scattered to both sides.

  At this time, Yang Chengfeng shouted loudly: "Brothers, charge!"

  The stranger thrust forward with his sword, and Yang Chengfeng also drew out his long sword and charged towards the enemy. He rushed a few steps before facing off against the enemy's cavalry. A burly enemy raised his sword high and chopped down at him, but Yang dodged to the side, avoiding the fatal blow by a hair's breadth. With a swift counterattack, he stabbed his sword into the enemy's abdomen. Turning around, he saw Shen Yuehua frantically battling an enemy soldier. Yang Chengfeng rushed over and struck down the enemy with one swing of his sword. The two sides clashed together in chaos, the sound of clashing steel on armor ringing out, accompanied by incessant cries of pain.

  Around Yang Chengfeng, some of his guards had fallen, and so had many of the enemy. Shen Yuehua was in front of Yang Chengfeng, fighting a duel with one of the enemy generals. Several enemy soldiers lay defeated beside him. At the same time, Yang Chengfeng saw that one of his guards' squad leaders had stabbed an enemy soldier through the chest, but another enemy sword also struck his head, and he fell to the ground along with the enemy.

  Facing the desperate attack of Ma's army, Yang Chengfeng ordered a retreat while fighting, and Shen Yuehua also retreated to Yang Chengfeng's side, his body covered in blood. Now surrounded by the enemy, everyone knew there was no way out, only hoping for reinforcements to arrive quickly. Yang Chengfeng continued to wield his long sword, striking down one enemy after another. Comrades fell one by one.

  Just then, the sound of horseshoes rang out, and Sartorius led 5,000 light cavalry in a charge. They were like a sharp sword, cutting down the enemy in their midst, and the enemy soldiers beside the Imperial Guard were cut down. For a time, the enemy's formation was thrown into chaos. Yang Chengfeng hastily gave the order to charge out, and the enemy's cavalry also quickly came up to meet them. The battle continued until nightfall, when Ma Heshou's entire army was annihilated, and Ma Heshou himself was captured.

  In this battle, 320 of Yang Chengfu's 500 personal guards were killed, and the rest were wounded. Of the 5,000 light cavalry brought by Sicheng Lenden, 400 were casualties. Ma Heshou's 3,000 iron cavalry was completely annihilated except for Ma Heshou himself. Some war horses wandered around on the battlefield after losing their owners. Corpses were everywhere.