Chapter 38: The Enemy Chieftain's Final Day

  (Running to the internet cafe in the heavy rain to upload, pants legs all wet, suffering! Didn't expect writing to be so hard, uploading is just as hard......)

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  Whoosh! A dense hail of arrows poured down, and many of the militiamen were hit. Fortunately, thanks to their thick armor, except for a few unlucky ones who took an arrow to the face, the rest, although they had frighteningly long arrow shafts stuck in them, were basically unharmed.

  That golden army, however, was not in the least concerned about such a weak battle record. It circled around and rushed back, firing another round of arrow rain at the position it had just hit. Although the killing effect was not much better than the previous round, the righteous people were overjoyed to see that if this continued for a few more rounds, this "army" would collapse.

  Yang Chong's face turned red with anger: "The enemy is cunning, using this tactic again. The Jurchen-led Jin army loves to use the 'decoy cavalry' tactic, repeatedly attacking a certain point of our army with horseback archery, causing it to collapse, and then spreading the chaos to the entire army... In the past, our Great Song Western Army was often defeated by this despicable tactic."

  "This is the standard tactic of our Jurchen army, which has been tried and tested many times. On the battlefield, as long as we can win, it doesn't matter if we're shameless."

  Yang Chong's face turned red with rage, and he was about to strike him down with his spear, but Di Lie stopped him: "He's right, tactics are not good or bad, what can defeat the enemy is a good tactic. The Jurchen people excel at horseback riding, archery and horsemanship, this kind of battle array can take advantage of their strengths, attack our weaknesses... then what are our strengths?"

  He furrowed his brow, gazing at the dozens of fierce horse silhouettes 30 zhang away, amidst the rolling smoke and dust. These last few dozen cavalrymen were indeed difficult to deal with. Was it really that besides explosives, there was no other way to take care of these guys? How did the game put it again? Cavalry counters infantry, archers counter cavalry!

  Di Lie slapped his thigh and threw away the long spear in his hand, shouting loudly: "Divine Arm Bow! Bring me the Divine Arm Bow!"

  Previously, Di Lie had handed over the only twenty divine arm crossbows to twenty Xun army soldiers who were skilled in shooting techniques. However, it was unknown whether they lacked courage or were intimidated by the chaotic crowd, and they had not been able to appear on the front line of confronting the cavalry charge. At this time, under Di Lie's command, one by one, the divine arm crossbows and chisel arrows were being passed over in a flurry of hands.

  Di Lie took one for himself, Yang Zhechong, Zuo Kai, A Shu, Zhi He and more than a dozen other righteous citizens also divided up the remaining divine arm bows. They all stepped on the copper rings with their feet, held their breath, drew the bowstrings, and then pointed those terrifying arrowheads that looked like ladles at the Jin soldiers who were 60 or 70 paces away, faintly visible in the misty smoke.

  "Fire!" With Di Lie's order, more than a dozen crossbow arrows shot out like a swarm of angry wasps, emitting an ear-piercing whistling sound different from ordinary arrows, and disappeared into the rolling yellow dust. Immediately, waves of heart-wrenching wails and war horses' mournful neighs echoed through the air.

  The surviving Jin soldiers fled with the yellow dust, and as the smoke cleared, a bloody scene of broken limbs and bodies was revealed - this round of shooting had caused nearly ten casualties among the Jin soldiers. Although some arrows hit non-vital areas such as hands and feet, the damage area and strong penetration power of these crossbow bolts were terrifying, almost equivalent to a small axe chopping through, cutting off feet and hands, not to mention piercing horse bodies. A person who had lost a limb and was bleeding profusely fell from their horse and was even pinned down by the dead horse, basically on the verge of death.

  With the powerful range of the divine arm bow and the fierce penetration power of the chisel arrow, a surprise attack on the unguarded cavalry from the side could have achieved even greater results. However, as the most powerful crossbow in the Song army, not everyone can handle it. In the Song army, archers were normally equipped with horse yellow crossbows and jumping crossbows, only "first-class infantry crossbowmen" could learn to use the divine arm bow. The upper string, advancing arrow, and firing of the divine arm bow all had their own rules, and without a certain degree of training, it was impossible to master and use it proficiently. Therefore, except for Di Lie and a few others who could accurately hit the target, the rest of the militiamen were just shooting randomly in one direction, luckily hitting a few "dead mice". Among them, at least a quarter of the divine arm bows were not fired at all, and even one of the crossbow's tooth triggers was broken by the panicked militiamen.

  Jin Bing's troops were reduced to just over twenty riders, and after a round of fierce shooting by Di Lie and others, they suffered heavy casualties. For the time being, they did not dare to turn back again.

  Di Lie yelled at the top of his lungs to Fang Hong, who was leading two hundred cavalrymen in a distant retreat: "The remaining turtle sons are left to you! Ten dozen one, if you can't win again, get out of here with your whole family! I don't collect waste!"

  His face was as red as if he had been injected with chicken blood, and he suddenly opened the bright armor on his chest, threw away his helmet, and let the whistling morning wind blow against his hairy chest. With both hands waving a willow-leaf-shaped knife, his hair and beard were standing on end, and he roared: "Brothers, give your old man one more charge, the last charge! Those who survive are my brothers! If you die, I'll kowtow to your corpses!"

  The Jin army cavalry let out a loud roar, gathered into a dense formation and charged once again at the already very sparse Golden Army's vanguard - after all, they were Han people from Yan land, under the rule of the Khitan people who took wolves as their totem for over a hundred years. The Han people's veins had also been infused with a bit of wildness, vastly different from those so-called "Southerners" under the Song dynasty's rule, who were rich and at ease, and had already lost their will to fight. In times of overwhelming force, perhaps they didn't dare resist, but when it came to beating a fallen enemy, they still had the guts for that.

  He let out a long sigh, what a pity. If the enemy army hadn't formed their long spear array in time, he had confidence that with over thirty light cavalrymen, they could have crushed them; if it weren't for suddenly being hit by the divine arm bow, and another one or two rounds of arrow rain, they would definitely be able to defeat the enemy's rear army, then drive away the defeated soldiers and attack the enemy's long spear array, which would collapse on its own. Once the main array was broken, the enemy cavalry would not dare fight again, and in this way, they could stage a final comeback.

  With dozens of riders breaking through thousands of troops, this astonishing feat has been performed countless times in the process of the Jin army's two southern expeditions against the Song Dynasty. The defeated Song armies included the elite Western Army, the Emperor's Imperial Guard, and the garrison forces from various provinces...

  Unfortunately, all of this was ruined by the leader of this temporarily assembled motley crew.

  Gong Xin had exchanged a glance with that person when he passed by the gun array. With just one glance, he could determine that this person was not someone who could be conquered by force or willpower. This was a male lion!

  A single male lion leading a flock of sheep can actually stand up against a pack of wolves.

  Gao Xing knew he had no chance of turning the tables, so he shook his numb and weak arm, ignoring the wound on his left elbow that was stabbed by the signed military cavalry, allowing fresh blood to flow freely. Gao Xing put away his bow and drew his sword, looking back at the more than 20 remaining Jurchen warriors who were panting and covered in bloodstains. His mouth twitched slightly as he spoke in a hoarse voice: "The eagles in the sky won't be kicked to death by rabbits; they'll only fall from exhaustion. The wolves on the grasslands won't be bitten to death by sheep; they'll only die of hunger and fatigue. Ah, heroes of Aguda, are you willing to defend your last honor, making those rabbit-like southerners tremble with fear?"

  "Hah! Hah!" The momentum emitted by more than twenty female Jurchen people far surpassed that of the thousands of righteous civilians.

  "Kill!" With Gu Xin as the arrowhead, more than 20 female Iron Knights urged their exhausted horses forward, charging head-on into the enemy cavalry that outnumbered them by ten times, and were immediately engulfed by the massive army like a mad tide...

  "We won!" Zuo Kai let out a long sigh and sat down on the ground with a thud, this long night of battle was finally over.

  Yang Zhechong also slowly put down the long spear in his hand, and secretly wiped a cold sweat: "Fortunately, the enemy army only has the strength of one Pu Ke... if there is one Mou Ke..."

  Di Lie Xin threw his long spear, shook his head and said: "If the enemy had a strategist, we would have won in the end. But this newly formed army is finished..."

  "Ah Shu suddenly shouted: 'No! Gu Xin has run away!'"

  Everyone was shocked, and with a burst of energy, they looked up to see that in the rolling smoke and dust, a lone horseman emerged from the array and galloped away into the distance.

  Due to the great distance and the dense fog, coupled with the fact that the person was covered in blood, his helmet had fallen off, and his hair was disheveled, he looked extremely wretched. For a moment, no one could recognize who it was. However, as Ah-Chu had once been a guard of Genghis Khan, his familiarity with this Temujin far surpassed that of the others; he said that this man was indeed Genghis Khan, and in all likelihood, it was him.

  Just as Art shouted, Di Lie burst out like a gust of wind, leaped onto the horse's back and galloped away.

  Fang Hong led the remaining one hundred and eighty cavalrymen back in a circle - yes, it was that charge just now, he had lost more than twenty men again. Seeing the two horses fleeing and chasing each other in the distance, becoming smaller and smaller into two small black dots, Fang Hong was furious and rushed to Yang Zhe who was sitting on the ground resting, shouting loudly: "You bastard, how could you let the Lord take risks personally! That Gongsun is extremely fierce and brave, he has already killed five of my men, although it's a strong crossbow at the end, don't you know that a wounded wolf is the most dangerous?"

  Yang Zhe said lazily, "You've also seen the lord's skills... but I'll tell you, he's stronger than you think. Just a mere Gong Xing with only half his life left... Heh heh, I think this person is already not far from losing his head!"

  Yang Zheshui's guess was indeed correct. At this time, Gu Xin had just escaped to the banks of the Wan River and jumped onto a small boat hidden there. As he rowed across the river, he shouted at Di Lie, who had just climbed up the mountain and was still about 100 paces away from the riverbank: "Haha! I am the eagle of the Female Realms, and I will never die in the hands of a rabbit-like Southerner like you. The nearest boat is one mile downstream; go find it slowly if you dare. If you have the guts, Gu Xin will be waiting for you at Xiangzhou City ten miles away, bring your flock of sheep along! Haha..."

  "It's just a fly, so noisy." Di Lie tightly pursed his lips, calmly opened the gun box, and smoothly assembled the sniper rifle. He inserted a long sniper bullet into the barrel with a sleeve, then raised the gun, aimed, and put that crazy and ferocious messy head in the crosshairs...

  Just as Di Lie Xing was about to pull the trigger, a sudden change occurred in the scope.

  The river water burst open, and a figure flew out of the water, a desperate heavy punch fiercely smashed onto Gu Xin's stunned face.

  Despite the distance, Di Lie seemed to hear the sound of facial bones shattering. Through the scope, he could clearly see that Geng Xin's face was smashed by a massive iron hammer, his nasal bone shattered, teeth flying everywhere, lips torn apart, and half of his cheekbone caved in. The sudden increase in intracranial pressure forced one eye to burst out of its socket, leaving only a thread of tendon connecting it, trembling and hanging on the edge of his face... The sight was as terrifying as it could be.

  With a loud thud, the "Cangying" of the Jurchen people, the commander-in-chief of the Jin army's first route returning north, finally fell on a lonely small boat, convulsing non-stop, gradually becoming still and silent...