Chapter 105: Dilemma
Cheng Yu instantly realized what their intentions were. He didn’t shout to Jin Sui because the sound of fire burning behind them was too loud to be heard.
He just turned his head sharply and looked anxiously at Wei Assistant Secretary.
As expected of two old colleagues who had disliked and supported each other for many years at the borderlands.
Even in such a rapidly changing situation, Wei Assistant Secretary immediately understood Cheng Yu’s meaning.
He grabbed Jin Sui’s reins and said, “Prince, run! The Tartars want to capture you!”
To catch the leader is to catch the thief; the Tartars knew this principle.
Jin Sui was not a general and had never fought in a war. This was her first time on the battlefield in two lifetimes.
To be honest, seeing both sides hacking at each other with real swords and spears, with blood and minced flesh flying, severed limbs and broken arms dancing, and heads crushed by horse hooves, brains spilling all over the ground.
People burning alive rushed out of the city, screaming for death.
Even though she was a doctor and accustomed to seeing corpses, seeing such a brutal scene of cold weapon warfare.
Her heart felt as if it were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand. The explosions in the border city, the screams of the Tartars, the neighing of horses, and the sound of flames burning wove a tragic song of the Yellow Springs.
It stole her heartbeat, as if her heartbeat was held in the hands of these sounds.
If not for her strong sense of responsibility, this plan was designed by her, and these soldiers had followed her!
She had voluntarily impersonated the Prince Li, and there was Ling JinSui, that poor little girl, who had given her body to her, and she hadn’t yet fulfilled the little girl’s last wish.
With layer upon layer of responsibility pressing down, she could only force herself to remain steady on horseback, ordering her brain to think calmly, boost morale, and minimize our army’s casualties as much as possible.
When she heard Wei Assistant Secretary tell her to run, she instinctively pulled the reins, wanting to turn and flee this hell of fire.
But seeing those familiar faces, Dave, who used to hold a dung scoop, now wielding a long saber and desperately killing enemies.
The fleeing figures of Chen Yunniang and the other women were still faintly visible; they hadn’t yet reached a safe place.
The Yan Prefecture Army was collapsing like a flock of sheep surrounded by wolves. Although they outnumbered the enemy, they were timid and ready to abandon their weapons and flee at any moment.
In such a situation, how could she run away by herself?
If she ran, even if they won this battle in the end, it would be a defeat for her!
So many brothers died in vain, and our Prefecture City was burned in vain!
This thought made her suddenly sober. She pressed her palm, and an object slipped out. She shouted to Cheng Yu, “Run!”
At the same time, she raised the object in her hand. Cheng Yu, who had charged into the Tartar ranks, instantly understood the Prince’s intention.
He immediately shouted to his subordinates, “Run!”
The small group of people ignored whether the Tartars were in front or behind them, and only charged in one direction, breaking through the Tartar ranks without regard.
The Tartar ranks, dispersed by Cheng Yu, regrouped. Before they could celebrate or adjust their strategy on how to capture the handsome leader.
They saw the leader forcefully throw an object in his hand. It was an exquisite glazed glass bottle, and the Tartars’ eyes followed the bottle’s trajectory.
It wasn’t until it hit the ground and exploded with a “boom” that they realized the explosive device in the city was such a beautiful thing!
This explosion completely disrupted the Tartars’ plan and also gave our army time to adjust its combat strategy.
Unfortunately, because they were too close, some of our army was also affected by the flames and explosions. Although the fire on their bodies was extinguished in time, their combat effectiveness was greatly reduced.
And at this moment, Cheng Yu also ran to Jin Sui’s side.
He was much fiercer than Wei Assistant Secretary, shouting directly at Jin Sui, “Prince, hurry and leave! We have already won this battle!”
“The remaining Tartars want to fight to the death. The most important thing right now is your safety!”
The soldiers of the Black Feather Camp, more than Wei Assistant Secretary, listened to Cheng Yu and said one after another:
“That’s right, Prince, retreat quickly! We will cover your retreat!”
Seeing Jin Sui still hesitating, Cheng Yu directly slapped Jin Sui’s horse’s back with his saber.
The Big Black Horse neighed and bolted.
Cheng Yu quickly assigned a team to protect Jin Sui, and then turned his horse to charge again at the Tartars who were dazed by the explosion.
The current situation was very clear. More than half of the Tartars who had escaped from the city had already died.
The remaining approximately two hundred or so were still putting up a desperate struggle, and annihilating them was only a matter of time.
However, a cornered beast will unleash its full strength to injure others before it dies, and the Tartars were the same; they only wanted to kill more Han Chinese before they died.
Although Cheng Yu also felt heartache for the lives of his soldiers, compared to the safety of Prince Li, what did it matter if they all died?
Our Prefecture City will surely leave a deep mark in the Historical Records from tonight onwards, and all the brothers who died tonight are the ink for that mark.
The thoughts of the Border Soldiers were no different from Cheng Yu’s; they would rather use their own lives to hold back the Tartars than let them harm the Prince!
And seeing Prince Li retreat, the Yan Prefecture Army’s reaction was completely different. They had no intention of sacrificing their lives for Prince Li and immediately turned to flee:
“Run! The Tartars are like demons, they’ll eat people!”
Coincidentally, the direction they were fleeing was the forest where Chen Yunniang and the others had run into.
Cheng Yu’s eyes instantly widened with rage. That was where his newlywed wife, who had just gone through trials and tribulations and finally become husband and wife, was, and here were the Prince and the brothers who trusted him.
He let out a pained howl, “Yan Prefecture Army, deserting the battle is a capital offense!”
But the horse beneath him couldn’t take a step forward. In a flash, it felt like time had frozen for Cheng Yu.
He could still vaguely see Yunniang’s white dress flashing through the trees.
The Yan Prefecture Army’s desertion and flight into the forest created a gap that the Tartars mistook for an escape route.
Half of them immediately pursued the Yan Prefecture Army, slaughtering them from behind while charging into the forest.
The other half continued with their original plan to capture the young leader. They had lost this battle too badly and had to make the Han Chinese pay the price!
When the screams of women came from the forest, Cheng Yu’s horse finally moved.
But it only moved a little when his reins were grabbed by another plump hand. If he were tall enough, Wei Assistant Secretary would have slapped him right then.
He couldn’t give a slap, so he only condemned him with his eyes, “I knew you would be sentimental!”
“I’ll go save your wife. You must lead the soldiers and kill all these scoundrels!”
Cheng Yu showed a look of shame, but it was only for a moment. Soon, his shame turned into fighting spirit, and he raised his arm and shouted again, “Brothers, charge with me!”
Just then, Han Xing and Huo Zi’an, covered in blood, arrived with a small force. Seeing the situation, Han Xing instinctively thought Wei Assistant Secretary was going to save the Prince.
Without even meeting up with Cheng Yu, he led his troops to aid the less numerous Wei Assistant Secretary.
Huo Zi’an hesitated for a moment. In the face of such a righteous cause as killing Tartars, his feud with Prince Li seemed much lighter. He immediately followed Han Xing.
Although Cheng Yu did his best to intercept all the Tartars, more than twenty of them still managed to steal horses from the Yan Prefecture Army and break through the interception.
