Chapter Fifteen: Blood Battle (Two)

  Next week on Sanjiang, haha, I've been writing books for over a year, this is the first time on Sanjiang, previously it was rejected after application, but this time it went very smoothly, looks like there's progress, recommend, collect, brothers, help out!

  "Hurry, retreat, return to the camp." Li Jinhua wiped her face, but it felt sticky and wet, her hands were covered with a mixture of blood and sweat. As a woman, she was usually clean and tidy, but at this moment, her heart was burning with anxiety, and she couldn't care about these things anymore. At this time, the 200 Western Qin cavalry had less than 100 men left, and they were still surrounded by over 300 Western Xia cavalry in front of them. The camp was not far away, but they couldn't get back. Li Shu tightly grasped her horse's reins, refusing to let her go forward and fight. Her anxiety and urgency could be imagined.

  The Hu Lun army, although numbering three thousand, had only eight hundred regular soldiers, the rest were all conscripted civilians. At this time, the camp was in chaos, the Qin army infantry had been split into several groups, and people were constantly falling to the ground with blood splattered everywhere, body parts flying off in all directions. These civilians had never seen such a scene before, some immediately vomited, while others turned pale, and some even turned around and ran, but were cut down by dozens of regular soldiers behind them.

  "Deserters will be beheaded." Chen's hoarse voice echoed through the ranks.

  "Deserters will be beheaded." Dozens of law enforcement officers followed behind him, shouting in unison.

  On the battlefield, there was no room for sentiment. The Imperial Guards were all filled with a murderous aura, their swords at the ready, and they continued to strike down over a dozen men who turned to flee, their blood splattering everywhere. Blood could drive people mad, but it could also intimidate them.

  As the rear guard of the imperial army pressed forward, the hesitant civilians slowly formed their ranks.

  "Charge forward and block the Western Xia people. Everyone will be able to survive. Otherwise, we'll all die together." The leaders of each team shouted with effort.

  The camp was set up on a small hill, with grain carts scattered around the hill. This terrain inadvertently helped the Qin army a lot. Although they were killed and dispersed by the enemy, the Qin military law was strict, and at this time, no one had any intention of escaping. They were the grain-protecting army, and if the grain was lost, even if they escaped back, it would be a fate worse than death. It was better to lean against the hill and fight to the death.

  Ye Lizi suddenly saw a Qin soldier in front of his horse, battered and bloody, with eyes already red. He had been feeling stifled during the cavalry charge, as the Qin army's mounted troops broke into their formation from the side, leaving him with a sense of punching empty air. But the cavalry charge couldn't be stopped, and he watched helplessly as the enemy slaughtered his comrades in a circle around him, driving him to a frenzy of rage.

  In his hand was a wolf-toothed club, the dark surface of which was covered with uneven thorns. The material could not be discerned, but it was absolutely heavy, yet in Ye Liqi's hands, it seemed as light as nothing, showing that this person's strength was indeed considerable.

  "Follow me, kill them." A furious roar burst out, and instantly more than a hundred people gathered around him, charging towards the small hill.

  In front of the cavalry, infantry that has lost its formation is not a threat. Wei Liqi, who had been at war with Western Qin for many years, knew that as long as they kept up the pressure, the enemy would eventually scatter and flee. Moreover, it seemed that there were still many civilians among them. Now what needed to be done was to let them know as soon as possible that victory was impossible. As long as one person escaped, the entire team would escape. At that time, how could human legs outrun horses?

  Ye Lizi's mouth twitched with a hint of a sneer, and with a sharp cry, Ye Lizi reacted extremely quickly, immediately dodging to the side. An arrow flew past his shoulder, and Ye Lizi stared after it with wide, bloodshot eyes.

  On top of a carriage, a young man stood holding a crossbow, his face bearing an air of indifference that belied his age. Even from dozens of meters away, surrounded by subordinates charging forward with all their might, Ye Liqi still felt the youth's icy, emotionless gaze fixed intently on him. The eyes were as cold as frost, yet seemed to harbor a burning flame deep within. Even someone like Ye Liqi, who had killed countless people, felt a chill run down his spine. He was familiar with this kind of gaze. When he was 16 years old, he followed his father in attacking the Western Qin's Zhou Ping Camp. The camp was guarded by 400 Qin soldiers, and the army of tens of thousands attacked for six whole days. In the end, the remaining defenders of Zhou Ping Camp charged out, breaking through nearly a hundred meters amidst the massive army. The leader of the Western Qin forces had this same gaze. With his large bow, he shot down the central army's flag with one arrow and killed Ye Liqi's father with another. It was too far away to see the man's face clearly, but Ye Liqi saw that he was covered in blood, as if he had been soaked in it. The man only glanced at him from afar, his eyes filled with a deadliness that scared the 16-year-old Ye Liqi, who had just entered the battlefield for the first time, into urinating in his pants. That man eventually died of exhaustion on the battlefield, but within ten meters around his body, which was surrounded by corpses and bloodstains, he left behind an enemy army several times larger than his own. The Western Xia people have always revered brave warriors, so even though that person was an enemy, they still lifted his body out, washed it with clean water, and found that it had countless wounds, with over a dozen arrowheads lodged in it. It seemed that this kind of person not only didn't care about other people's lives but also didn't value their own life. Later on, Ye Liqi heard that the ones defending the place were from the Yang family of Western Qin, and those 400 Qin soldiers had a name - they were called the "Yi Luo River" troops. They were all prisoners, including that leader, who was demoted to that position after killing someone. From then on, Ye Liqi led by example in battles, never retreating, but his temperament became increasingly violent and tyrannical. This was because every time he thought of that person, he felt that no matter how brave or how many people he killed, he couldn't compare to that man.

  The young man adjusted the crossbow a few times and held it up again. It was clear that his aim had not been bad just now, but the bow had not been calibrated yet. At this moment, several people stood out beside the young man, each holding a crossbow in their hands, all aiming at Wilder Zhi's direction. These people all looked pale, and their clothes were extremely simple. Without asking, these were all civilians who transported grain, but the crossbows in their hands were all genuine lethal weapons.

  Ye Lizhi was greatly shocked in his heart, the Han people's bows and crossbows were sharp weapons on the battlefield, at such a close distance, even with armor to protect himself, he couldn't bring himself any safety, the Western Xia cavalry sitting high on their horses were just excellent targets.

  They didn't even have time to think about how a group of civilians would appear with bows and crossbows. Suddenly, Ye Li Zhi fell off his horse, and with a whooshing sound, an arrow flew out from beside his shoulder, piercing the body of one of his personal guards behind him. The bolt penetrated the thin light armor, shooting the guard through, and he let out a miserable cry as he fell off his horse.

  "Charge! Charge!" Yoriichi shouted without hesitation.

  But more and more of the Han men, learning from the young man, climbed onto the carts, while the young man directed people to line up the grain carts one by one in front, finally forming a wooden wall at the top of the small hill, dividing the camp into two parts.

  "Bows and arrows, bows and arrows, shoot them down." Several more people were shot dead, these crossbow bolts apparently had no accuracy at all, but the killing power was undiminished. At such a close distance, with people crowded together, there was nowhere to hide.

  Ye Lizi didn't care about these things, at this moment his eyes only had that calm and unhurried youth who was not fazed by the deafening sounds of slaughter in front of him. He even felt a little jealous, he yearned to become such a person, but that bloody figure was like a nightmare following him, every time on the battlefield it made his emotions lose control, and the cowardice of those years made him doubly violent.

  Kill him, kill him, there was only one voice in Yeli Zhi's heart now, as if the figure wrapped in blood color appeared in front of him again, and what he had to do was to face each other and kill each other.

  The slaughter was even more brutal, the cavalry that charged into the camp had slowed down to the lowest speed, casualties gradually increased, but still pressed the Qin army to retreat step by step. It seems that collapse is only a matter of time.

  But on the mound, there was another scene. Chen Qian stared blankly at hundreds of militiamen taking out bows and crossbows from the carts under the command of a young man, and the bolts were also distributed. These were all military equipment being transported to the front lines. Even if they exceeded the number of damaged goods, the soldiers escorting them would be punished by military law. How could...

  As a military officer, should I go up and stop him or just pretend I didn't see it?