Chapter Thirty-Six: The Final Collision

  Thank you, brothers, for the update votes, three rivers votes, recommendation votes, evaluation rewards and collection clicks. I have nothing to repay but can only use a more rigorous and focused mindset to work with you all to make this book better and better... By the way, the Three Rivers list is really intense!

  Just as Di Lie was wiping his horse and encouraging his troops, preparing to take the remaining defeated soldiers as a trial by fire for the new recruits, the small team led by Zuo Kai, who had been sent out on patrol, suddenly reported: "A small group of Jin soldiers has gathered in the enemy's central camp, judging from the rising smoke, there are no less than 40 or 50 people and horses."

  "Regroup? Launch a counterattack?" Di Lie couldn't help but admire this new development. With hundreds of casualties among his own troops, he must have known that it was impossible to escape, yet instead of thinking of ways to retreat, he actually wanted to launch a counterattack. It's hard to say whether he was being stubborn or arrogant. Moreover, if they really wanted to attack, they should have chosen the moment when the righteous civilians and the Golden Army were engaged in fierce battle, and launched a surprise attack from behind, which would have definitely led to a complete reversal of the situation.

  When it was time to take action, he didn't, but now that the dust has settled, he wants to turn things around. What was he doing earlier?

  Di Lie was actually wronged by Gu Xin, Gu Xin didn't not want to attack from both front and back, but because the development of the war was too fast, also too dramatic, making him miss the good opportunity.

  When Huli withdrew all the troops from Guxin's headquarters, rushing towards the East Gate with a must-kill momentum, it finally turned into a must-die situation. As soon as Guxin received the news, he knew that this time he might not be able to escape. The night was as black as ink, and the battlefield was chaotic, Guxin couldn't even figure out how many enemies had arrived, but the fact that they could annihilate his most elite forces so quickly and easily made him tremble with fear at their terrifying combat power.

  With every deafening explosion, he seemed to hear the mournful cries of the heroic Jurchen warriors falling to the ground. He could even feel that in the dark night sky, there was a pair of devil-like eyes staring at him coldly and cruelly, as if looking at a dead man with indifference.

  Gu Xin had already made his preparations. When the enemy troops entered the big account, he wanted to take a look at that devil with his own eyes, and then choose whether to die gloriously or commit suicide.

  However, after the long night had passed, things took a turn for the better. The Imperial Guards who went to scout out the East Gate brought back an exciting piece of news: the enemy was not numerous, and could even be said to be quite few. It was highly likely that they had been wiped out in the repeated battles of the previous night, along with our own soldiers. What's more, the soldiers who were sent to patrol and search the banks of the Wan River had returned. And due to their heavy losses, the enemy was forced to use those Song Dynasty prisoners, who were like sheep, to defend the gate - this was a great opportunity for a pincer attack!

  Even a close guard can see the opportunity, how can this old general who is familiar with the battlefield not see it? But seeing it is one thing, and whether he can correctly estimate the development of the battle is another matter. He never thought that when he hastily transmitted the order, gathering all the remaining Golden Soldiers, including the twenty Golden Soldiers at the Western Camp Gate and the twenty Golden Soldiers guarding the material warehouse, it was not an easy task to gather dozens of scattered soldiers in this large camp of nearly five miles around.

  More than 40 of the last Jurchen warriors finally gathered, just as they were about to give those southerners who had eaten bear gall (the Jurchens believed that bears were much more ferocious than leopards) a good beating. But the development of the battle suddenly turned around and gave them a good beating instead - with a loud rumble, Huang Hua's army was defeated!

  When the battle at Dongzhai Gate was raging like wildfire, it suddenly became eerily silent. Gong Xin's heart also sank gradually. All the Jin soldiers behind him seemed to have realized something, but not a single face showed any hesitation or fear.

  Perhaps the enemy's reinforcements have arrived, perhaps the Khitan soldiers saw that things were not going well and ran away, perhaps the enemy still has some deadly tricks hidden up their sleeve, or perhaps... But no matter what happened, they had all lost their way back, either they would kill off the enemy, or they would all die in battle, there was no other choice.

  The soldiers have no way out, and as the main general, Gu Xin has no choice either. As the commander of an army, having lost so badly, there is no reason to survive except for a final blow.

  Two brave and determined armies, each with their own unyielding spirit, marched towards each other in the central camp of the Jin army. According to military strategy, it is said that "a desperate army will always win", but if both sides are desperate armies, who will ultimately emerge victorious?

  Narrow road encounters the brave win, although Goliden has never heard of this Chinese proverb, but undoubtedly, he has such confidence. Speaking of bravery and fearlessness, under this sky, there is no soldier in any army that can compare with the Jurchen female warriors of the Great Jin State.

  An ordinary Jurchen warrior can take on three Song soldiers; an elite Jurchen warrior can take on five elite Song soldiers; an elite warrior with a determination to die can take on ten elite Song soldiers. Now, he still has nearly fifty fierce and fearless Jurchen warriors in his hands, while facing only over a thousand remnant soldiers and yesterday's slaves who were as humble as ants... Can fifty hungry wolves deal with a thousand sheep?

  A face covered in scars broke into a ferocious grin, looking back at the battle-hardened knight with bared fangs, exuding an aura of murder, then gazing ahead at the hesitant and scattered cavalry of the Qin army and the disorganized crowd of young militiamen... Does this answer need to be said?

  Gu Xin raised his left hand, and the Golden Army behind him immediately slowed down their pace, letting the war horses trot slowly to accumulate strength, waiting for the moment they entered the charging distance, then striking with lightning speed.

  Although Jinbing had only a few dozen riders, the fierce and ferocious killing aura that had been tempered through countless battles, along with the heroic and proud spirit of the Jurchen people who had never lost a battle since they first rose up in arms, and had destroyed two great powers that had lasted for centuries within a decade, was enough to intimidate the opposing troops, who were once slaves or quasi-slaves, causing them to fall into disarray. The scene where a mere few dozen riders could pressure an army of over a thousand infantrymen into continuous retreat was truly astonishing.

  To be precise, the only one who was truly stunned was Di Lie, the "newcomer to time and space". The others, Yang Zhechong and Zuo Kai Zheng were sweating profusely as they shouted at the militiamen to form up in ranks. Fang Hong was also constantly cheering on his cavalry troops. Only A Shi seemed to have seen it all before, his expression was quite calm, with a look of "seen it all" on his face.

  The enemy is already two miles away, donning armor and grasping spears, the war horses are gradually accelerating, about to launch an attack. Our own army is still in disarray. The battle has not yet begun, but we have already lost half of it. When the enemy cavalry charges, I estimate that before they even get close, this mob will directly collapse and scatter in all directions.

  Di Lie secretly sighed, the real battle was indeed not something that could be solved by relying on temporary bravery. To win victory, it relied on the soldiers' strict and arduous training every day, continuous actual combat, and the experience and courage accumulated in actual combat, plus a qualified commander...

  And now, Di Lie doesn't meet any of the conditions, including himself, and isn't even a qualified commander - commanding over a thousand people in battle like this, even in his own time, he wouldn't have had the chance to do it, let alone in an era of cold weapons.

  Di Lie's intention was to rely on the numerical superiority of his troops, using the method of "a thousand ants biting an elephant to death" to devour the last remnant of the Golden Army. With a gloomy face, he said to Hong: "The Golden Army has less than fifty cavalry, while you have nearly three hundred men, six to one. Six of your men will fight against one of theirs. I don't care what tactics you use, but you must delay the enemy for a period of time, allowing our army to form its battle formation."

  Looking at the long spear shining with cold light in front of him and the iron cavalry approaching silently like a mountain, Fang Hong's big face was swollen red, while the cavalry behind him were all pale.

  Di Lie slowly drew out the curved knife with a golden hilt, his eyes gradually turning cold: "To be my subordinate, the first thing is to unconditionally obey orders. The consequence of disobeying orders is either to get out or... die!"

  Fang Hong took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and suddenly raised the iron spear high. With a loud shout, he exclaimed: "Brothers, right in front of us are those sons of bitches, Jin Yu, who don't treat us as human beings! They have less than 50 riders, while we have 300 riders. Six against one, let's go! I, Fang Da Tou, have no other request, just ask you brothers to charge with me once, just once!"

  The faces of the cavalrymen were still pale, but their robust chests under their armor began to heave, and the joints of their fingers grasping the long swords also turned white from excessive force.

  As Fang Hong yelled, "Avenge the injustice, avenge the hatred, charge!" he galloped forward first. Closely following him were two riders, three riders, and then over ten riders, after which all the cavalry charged out.

  Although they failed to form a triangular formation or a phalanx due to the order of their deployment, and the density between cavalry units was not as high as that of the approaching Jin army, the outcome of this collision was hard to predict. But Di Lie knew that in this battle, regardless of victory or defeat, they had taken the first step towards becoming true soldiers - fighting, which required not only courage but also could not lack it.

  He swept a glance over the militiamen, who were still scattered about in disarray, and looked at their pale faces, filled with fear and panic. Without saying a word, he dismounted his horse, walked to the front row, picked up a long spear that had fallen to the ground in front of a militiaman who was trembling all over and had empty hands, stood among them like an ordinary soldier, held the spear firmly with both hands at a 45-degree angle. Then took a deep breath, suddenly his voice boomed out: "Soldiers, attention!"

  It was unbelievable that the commander-in-chief, who was as noble as a prince, led by example and stood in the first row of the army array - even the most ignorant young militiamen knew that when facing the charging cavalry, the first row of infantry phalanx had an absolutely high mortality rate.

  The rioting civilians were apparently all frightened by Di Lie's action, and a scene of thousands of people simultaneously freezing in place appeared.

  Yang Zhechong and Zuo Kai rushed over, panting, from the crowd: "Your Highness, Your Highness, as the commander-in-chief, you absolutely must not..."

  Di Lie coldly swept a glance over the two of them: "Return to your combat positions."

  Yang Zhechong rushed forward in a hurry, grabbed the long spear with one hand: "Don't talk about us for now, you're the same, first go back to your own combat position."

  Di Lie shook his spear, shaking off Yang Zhe's palm: "Do you think I want to be like this? Turn your head and take a look at these mobs, although they are dozens of times more than the enemy, can they withstand the first wave of Jinbing's impact?"

  Yang Zhechong gritted his teeth and shook his head: "If the Jin army rushes over now, it will be a massacre."

  Di Lie raised his eyes to look at the two armies about to collide in front of him, his gaze gradually hardened: "Not bad, pulling untrained troops onto the battlefield, what awaits them is a massacre... However, we have no choice, fortunately, the enemy army only has a few dozen people. We don't need tactics, we don't need battle experience, we don't need excellent equipment, and we don't even need the general's command. We only need a basic formation, and - courage!"

  Yang Zhe nodded: "I understand, I will be the backbone of the soldiers, let me do this 'backbone'."

  "No, deploying troops and formation, I'm not as good as you; charging into battle, you're not as good as me. Let's each do our own job." Di Lie's words weren't humble, he had only been in this era for a short ten days, although he had also fought a few battles, but most of them were his specialty, special operations, and commanding thousands of people in a frontal battle was a first for him. Especially with cold weapons combat, it was completely unfamiliar territory. From his impression, apart from some video materials, there were only partial online text materials, these speculative things from later generations, compared to actual ancient warfare, feared that there would be a certain gap.

  Yang Zhechong, although only a small scout lieutenant in the original Western Army, had not even commanded a hundred men, but was still an old soldier who had been in the army for nearly ten years. He hadn't eaten pork, but he had seen pigs run; arranging a simple infantry phalanx shouldn't be a problem.

  But Yang Zhe didn't know that this mysterious leader, who was invincible in his mind, was actually clumsy in battle and couldn't even arrange his troops properly, still trying to grab the long spear from others.

  Just then, a series of hair-raising crashes shook the air as the two cavalry units finally collided.

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