Translator: ryangohsff Editor: Nora
Chapter 958 – Cavalry That Doesn’t Charge Is Useless
Gaia 4th year, 10th month, 15th day, Swordsman City.
The sun rose from the east, and the golden sunlight spread across the white mist of the southern outskirts, chasing away the darkness of the night. Along with the morning light, the camps that were silent for the night became noisy once more.
The cooks of each unit woke up the earliest. Before the sky even lit up, they had started to cook for the entire unit.
The war today was special, and to raise the morale of the entire army, Feng Qingyang was really generous. He specially gave each unit a fat pig, fat sheep, chicken, duck, salted fish, and the like. There were even delicacies like fish, prawn, and crab.
It was said that Swordsman City was already preparing for the celebratory feast, which was going to be held on a larger scale with better ingredients.
There were hundreds and thousands of horse keepers that were busy feeding the horses and brushing their fur. They needed to ensure that the war horses would be at their top level for the war.
Some experienced soldiers had already woken up. After washing up, some of them started to warm up to get their bodies to the optimum condition. Others wiped their armor and inspected their weapons.
The soldiers were clear that being careful before the war meant that they would have a little more hopes in surviving it.
Who knows how many of them were going to fall on this battlefield?
At 7 AM, the entire camp had already woken up.
After having their breakfast, the soldiers formed up into units. Under the lead of their majors, they left the camp and headed to the designated form up points in the wilderness.
The forces orderly arrived on the battlefield. Forming up, the 360 thousand troops laid out into hundreds of formations, spreading from east to west. The entire length of the army formation was even longer than the Swordsman City city wall, a majestic sight.
On the left wing, 150 thousand Shu Han guards troops waited solemnly. They looked really strong, but they were actually the weakest bunch.
After a dynasty moved into the imperial city, the guards troops would automatically change into the equipment of that dynasty. As a result, the current Shu Han guards were wearing cloth armors, and only the generals could wear pieces of armor.
Even the two piece armor could not be compared to the Mingguang Armor or the Buren Armor. On this day, when Gaia had already opened up armor making techniques, the Shu Han guards appeared really backward.
As a result, when Zhao Yun looked at the equipment of the Alliance Army, his eyes were filled with envy.
In the middle, Wei Yan led 60 thousand Swordsman City troops. If one looked carefully, one would notice that this was the most nervous group out of the entire Alliance Army. This was because the 50 thousand of them had come down from the frontlines. They had witnessed the strength of the Great Xia Army. Seeing that they were about to fight with them once more, they were obviously nervous.
The right wing was naturally the 150 thousand reinforcements led by Lianpo personally.
This batch of reinforcements was moved by Di Chen and the others from their main cities. They were all guards. They were comparable to the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers.
As a result, Lianpo was confident about being able to win this war.
The heavens were shining on them. In a rare turn of events, it did not rain last night, delighting Lianpo becayse this was the best possible sign.
Once the army had gathered up, Lianpo ordered the army to go down south toward the Great Xia Army at the foot of the mountain. Anywhere the army passed, no life remained.
Every five miles they moved forward, Lianpo would order them to stop and adjust their formation. He did this to ensure that they were facing the enemy with a flawless formation. He wanted to make sure that he did not give them any chances.
After two hours, they could finally see the Dragon Legion Corps.
Lianpo stood on the specially built moving command tower and analyzed the enemy formation.
The first to enter his eyes were those unassuming little hills. The hills that were empty last night now had some troops camping there.
What astonished Lianpo was that there were many P2 Type Cannons on the hills. The cannons formed a circle with no dead spots. It was heavily guarded by soldiers that were looking down from above.
Lianpo knew that these hills were all war castles. If they did not remove them, it would be tough for them to fight against the main force of the enemy.
The Dragon Legion Corps arrangement was also really weird.
Facing the Alliance Army left wing was the Dragon Legion Corps right wing, which basically consisted of only cavalry.
The middle troops and left wing of the Dragon Legion Corps mostly consisted of infantry. Only at the outermost side of the left wing were there 10 thousand cavalry. At the front of the formation were two rows of P2 Cannons and behind them were archers.
“This is a defensive formation.”
Lianpo frowned, as this formation really was not the style of the Great Xia Army.
Although that was the case, this war had to be launched. When they were 1.5 kilometers out from the enemy, Lianpo told his army to stop to make their final preparations.
In an instance, the noisy army slowly quietened down, making the entire wilderness totally silent. Only the breathing of men and horses could be heard.
The Alliance Army soldiers were all really nervous. In a short while, the atmosphere of the war caused all of their blood to boil.
“Sound the drums!” Lianpo ordered.
Since they had the numerical advantage, Lianpo naturally wanted to win against them in terms of aura too.
‘Dong! Dong! Dongdong!’
The sounds of the war drums broke the silence of the wilderness. It caused the hot blood in the bodies of the soldiers to boil once more, making all of them excited and ready to tear their enemies apart.
Weirdly, the Dragon Legion Corps was still silent.
No shouts, no drums; the 200 thousand odd soldiers were dead silent. They simply stood still on the plains. This silence gathered up into an aura that was enough to send a chill down one’s spine.
The entire Dragon Legion Corps was like a mountain, like a long iron wall.
The faces of the Swordsman City soldiers trembled as they thought of something horrifying. Their bad memories flowed into their brains, and they gave out looks of fear.
The Dragon Legion Corps was a bunch of human devouring devils.
When Wei Yan saw that, his brows were locked tight, but he did not have any solution to the problem. Anything he said now would have a negative effect, so it was best if he did not speak a word.
The war drums got more and more hurried, and it pushed their emotions to a new peak. Blades were unsheathed, their bows were in hand, and their spears were gripped tight as they stared at the enemy. They were getting ready to charge at any moment.
The final battle was ahead of them.
…
The current Dragon Legion Corps camp was unusually peaceful.
The arrangements that they needed to make were already completed, so all they needed to do now was gather up energy. They needed to wait for the enemy to charge toward them before dealing them the fatal blow.
Chen Gong stood on a section high ground. His hands were holding onto a talisman as he stared at the battlefield.
The talisman in his hand was the War Stopping Talisman. When used, it could prevent any imperial city guards troops from participating in a Lord battle, and this effect lasted for a week.
Ouyang Shuo was not personally on the frontlines, so he did not have a grasp on the best time to use it. As a result, he passed it to Chen Gong, who would use the talisman to change the battle.
This was the key to the outcome of this battle.
…
With a ‘Shua!’, Lianpo pulled out the sword by his waist and said in a low tone, “Attack!” Receiving the order, the messenger troops waved the flags above their head and ordered the army to attack.
“Kill!”
The Alliance Army that was raring to go was like wild horses released into the wilderness, and they charged out with a killing aura.
‘Hong! Hong! Hong!’
On top of the hills, the cannons fired, opening the proceedings to this battle.
In a short while, the hills were surrounded by Alliance Army troops. A huge number of soldiers tried to charge up to destroy the cannons.
“Raise your shields!”
Each hill was defended by a regiment of Dragon Legion Corps soldiers. The sword-shield soldiers were as the front, while the archers behind. They had the high ground and the cannons helping them, so they had the advantage.
Although the Alliance Army had a menacing aura, they would not be able to take down such a hills so quickly.
The morale that they had gathered could not help but freeze up.
When the Alliance Army generals saw this, their faces became really ugly. Gritting their teeth, they threw wave after wave of soldiers up to try and take down the hills in the shortest amount of time possible.
Killing shouts broke out; cannons fired.
Under the stubborn defense of the Dragon Legion Corps, stacks of Alliance Army corpses were piled up at the foot of the hills. Soldiers had to climb over and step on the dead bodies of their allies to attack.
At the same time, the main force braved the cannon fire and continued to charge at the Dragon Legion Corps camp.
One thousand meters, 900 meters, 800 meters….
Very quickly, the Alliance Army soldiers at the front could clearly see the faces of the Dragon Legion Corps soldiers. However, that was when the cannons fired.
Two rows of cannons and archers formed up the first long range attacks.
The Alliance Army troops at the front were knocked up, and both their horses and them were sent flipping. As they were charging, the forces behind them were unable to dodge and could only continue forward.
Numerous casualties were created as a result of being stepped into meat paste. Amongst them, there were soldiers that fell down injured and were stepped on before they could be saved.
This was war; there was no mercy at all.
600 meters, 500 meters, 400 meters.
Both sides were getting closer and closer, and a close combat massacre was impending.
The Alliance Army soldiers were suddenly excited once more. They had withstood the fire of the enemy cannons. After paying a heavy price, they were finally in front of the enemy formation.
It was time for them to take revenge.
Thinking about this, the bloodthirsty soldiers could not help but lick at their dry lips. Their black pupils started to show a hint of red, what an evil sight.
Zhao Yun was really excited. The cavalry he personally led charged at the front. They wanted to teach the Great Xia Army a lesson; they wanted to show them the strength of the Shu Han Army.
Although they did not have good equipment, Zhao Yun was still really confident.
However, the further in front he got, the more confused he felt. If the Great Xia infantry forces were lying in wait to defend, it would make sense. However, in front of them were all cavalry forces.
Cavalry that did not charge at the enemy was no different from trash.
Facing the high speed charging Shu Army cavalry, the Great Xia cavalry that did not move were like living targets. Zhao Yun really did not believe that the enemy would commit such a basic mistake.
The Shu Han Army was charging right at them.
