Chapter 104: Fierce Battle
Without their horses, the Tartars couldn’t escape to the Northern Frontier through this sea of fire. With no retreat, their only path was to fight for survival.
Everyone’s eyes were bloodshot, filled with murderous intent. Some were even on fire, looking like a horde of demons emerging from hell!
Jinsui turned to look at the Yan Prefecture Army. Half of the fleeing soldiers had vanished. She ordered the remaining half, “Everyone stand up! Pick up your weapons and slay the Tartars!”
The Black Feather Camp Soldiers responded in unison, “Slay the Tartars! Slay the Tartars!”
Jinsui then said to Assistant Secretary Wei, “Take the female family members and leave first!”
Assistant Secretary Wei turned and instructed Chen Yunniang, “You take the female family members and run into the forest.”
Chen Yunniang looked deeply at Cheng Yu, showing no intention of being a burden, and gripped her anesthetic needle tightly.
She nodded heavily, “Rest assured, my lord, I will protect the sisters!”
Facing such a great enemy, the so-called battle-hardened Yan Prefecture Army was inferior to a single woman from my border city.
Jinsui truly wished she could drag Li Heng here to see, and drag the gentry of Yanzhou to see.
No matter how high your city walls are, or how large your population, without the will to fight, you are nothing but weaklings!
Assistant Secretary Wei picked up a knife from a Yan Prefecture Army soldier and ran to Jinsui’s side, holding it:
“This subordinate will advance and retreat with the Prince!”
Jinsui smiled at him, “After this battle, this King will surely help Assistant Secretary Wei return to Chang’an!”
She then loudly addressed the soldiers behind her:
“Soldiers, do you see? The Tartars that the common folk fear like tigers are now like plucked chickens in our border city!”
The soldiers burst into laughter, a laughter filled with extreme humiliation. They believed that even if the Tartars opposite couldn’t understand, they would be incredibly enraged.
Jinsui shouted again, “The Tartars are not to be feared; what is to be feared is retreating without a fight, abandoning the battle and fleeing!”
“We, the border soldiers, must show the Yan Prefecture Army that when facing enemies, one should draw their swords and charge, not cower and flee!”
“For every Tartar head cut off, a reward of ten taels of gold!”
“Warriors of the border city, follow this King, and slay the Tartars!”
The soldiers were all filled with burning passion. The enemy felt the same; after all, our army was larger, and they knew that defeat in this battle meant death, with no retreat.
A fierce battle was about to erupt!
“Charge!”
“Kill!”
Instantly, both armies clashed. The background of the battlefield was the border city, with incessant explosions and flames raging.
The difference was that our army had fine horses and silver spears, while the enemy had no warhorses and tied the hilts of their scimitars to their palms with cloth strips.
The Tartars were indeed a people of the steppes; their understanding of horses surpassed that of the Han Chinese. Even in their current disadvantageous position, they could always strike a fatal blow to a warhorse with a single slash.
Two slashes killed the soldiers mounted on the horses.
Our army’s combat experience was clearly insufficient. The Black Feather Camp soldiers were using tactics for dealing with bandits and mountain brigands, while the Tuntian Army soldiers had only undergone training and had never been on the battlefield.
They usually hunted wild boars that ruined good farmland and wolves that stole sheep.
The Yan Prefecture Army, on whom great hopes were placed, was even worse than the Tuntian Army. Those who hadn’t fled before were now hiding at the very back, afraid of the Tartars charging towards them.
The most imposing force in our army was the three hundred soldiers who had previously escorted the Li King. Leading them in battle now was Cheng Yu.
Jinsui had seen Cheng Yu kill before, but she hadn’t expected that the former Assistant Secretary had been holding back.
The current Cheng Yu gave Jinsui the impression of an enraged physics teacher; normally, you wouldn’t listen when he reasoned, so he had to resort to force to make you understand!
His swordsmanship was good, but his spear skills were even better. Mounted on his warhorse, his spear was like a dragon, knocking down one Tartar with a single thrust and piercing another through with a backhand strike.
Jinsui had previously said that without alcohol, he turned into an ordinary uncle.
Now she realized how wrong she had been; an ordinary uncle would never have this combat prowess!
The entire battlefield became a scene of fiery red in the background, with hundreds of Tartars charging out of the inferno, and our army forming a semicircle to surround them.
However, the Tartars’ killing intent was fiercer, breaking through like a bamboo, growing braver with each kill, and directly causing the semicircle to expand.
The section defended by the Yan Prefecture Army was like the city wall of the border city – a mere decoration.
And a small team led by Assistant Secretary Cheng acted like a sharp sword, piercing out from the semicircle and fiercely stabbing into the Tartar ranks.
This immediately broke the Tartars’ unified formation.
Once the Tartars were scattered, their combat effectiveness indeed weakened significantly. However, they split into several small teams, fighting fiercely in all directions, their combat power still astonishing.
It could be said that at this moment, every Tartar was like a demon crawling out of hell, a hungry tiger emerging from a valley.
Each of them required multiple soldiers from our army to work together to subdue.
Calling the Tartars demons was not just about their killing intent; it was also because each of them had burns. Some had burns on their faces and scalps, with flesh and blood blurred, oozing pus and yellow blood.
With glaring eyes and scimitars in hand, they were living demons from a picture book!
Killing them all was only a matter of time, but the longer it dragged on, the heavier our army’s losses would be.
The disparity was evident: the border soldiers had not undergone formal training, and their weapons and armor were insufficient. The Tuntian Army, who were essentially farmers, were now being used as the main force.
As for the Yan Prefecture Army, they had likely recognized the reality. Retreating and fleeing now would only expose a gap for the Tartars to pursue, so they were warily maintaining a hunting formation but dared not advance to engage in close combat.
Jinsui herself was self-aware; she had only recently learned to ride a horse and dared not fight on horseback.
Furthermore, her purpose here was not to kill enemies but to stabilize morale.
As long as she was present, our army’s morale would be steady; even with heavy casualties, they would not retreat.
If she turned and fled, she would be no different from the Yan Prefecture Army!
Our army’s defense would instantly collapse. If these hundreds of Tartars broke into the inner city, they would only vent their fury through killing and would surely massacre villages and towns.
Even Assistant Secretary Wei, who had urged her to leave at the first sign of danger, now stood by her side, holding a knife, staring intently at the enemy, and not once suggesting that the Prince should leave first.
Seeing the enemy’s fierce assault, Jinsui shouted, “Soldiers, hold your ground! Reinforcements are coming!”
This was not a lie told to boost morale. Han Xing and Captain Huang, knowing the Tartars had broken through the south gate, would surely rush to their aid on horseback.
The Tartars remaining outside the city were not numerous and would not hinder the reinforcements.
She estimated that as long as they could hold out for half an hour until the reinforcements arrived, even one slash per person would turn these Tartars into mincemeat.
Our army was trying every means to achieve victory, and the enemy was no different!
The Tartars were not brainless; they soon realized that the handsome youth protected by the Han soldiers was their true leader.
This general, who looked like a teacher but fought like a butcher, was merely a general!
Although their formation had been disrupted by Cheng Yu, they quickly devised an escape strategy by shouting to each other in their Tartar language.
That was for the others to cover their leader as he led a small team to break through and capture the enemy leader.
That is, the youth on the warhorse.
The first to see through their scheme was Cheng Yu, who was fighting fiercely while also observing the overall situation.
When he realized that the Tartars were not primarily attacking him but trying to intercept him, and that their breakthrough direction had shifted from the weak Yan Prefecture Army to the Prince’s side.
Everyone, don’t think Jinsui is too weak. Jinsui is not omnipotent; she is still learning and will grow in warfare.
This is the first battle of our border city defense, and everyone will grow through iron and blood.
Thank you, my dears, for your support! Jinsui is immensely grateful!
