novelraw Chapter 686 456: Fierce Battle
Chapter 686 456: Fierce Battle
The aide was somewhat panicked and hurriedly said, "Your Highness King Huai, the enemy is coming on fiercely. Shouldn't we avoid their sharp edge for now and retreat to the rear?"
He was a Han who had surrendered and had once followed Yesui in battles across the Desert North, subjugating many tribes that refused to submit. The persuasion letters to the Haixi Jurchens were all crafted by him, showing he was by no means a cowardly or incompetent person.
But he had never seen such a fierce iron cavalry and only felt that these people would crash into them at any moment, crushing them into meat paste.
"Ridiculous!"
Yesui was furious and whipped him hard. "I am the grand Grandmaster King Huai. How could I move my Great Banner because of these mere few hundred cavalry?"
His "Nomadic Empire," in essence, was a tribal alliance led by the Wala tribe, supplemented by affiliated tribes like the Hami tribe. Even the Wala tribe itself was formed jointly by over a dozen tribes of various sizes.
If this prime lion, in his prime, showed any weakness, this "Nomadic Empire" could instantly fall apart.
After all, he, Yesui, did not possess the blood of the Golden Family. The true Great Khan of the Northern Yuan was still Tudubuhua, whom he had ordered to attack Liaodong.
In front of his Great Banner, there were also over two thousand elite Kheshig troops, the best of the best, among whom were dozens of Eagle Shooters, each capable of drawing a 120-pound bow. A single volley could even kill a Great Demon.
A mere few hundred cavalry wouldn't be left with much after enduring two waves of arrow rain.
The Hu Cavalry grew closer.
Yesui could even see a rider at the forefront of one column of Hu Cavalry, holding a banner emblazoned with a white fleur-de-lis, her well-shaped figure barely concealed by her fitted plate armor, and golden hair flowing beneath her helmet.
"Leading the charge is actually a Hu woman!"
"Another contingent as well, these Mongolians and other Central Asians with women in command, could it be that they hold women in high esteem?"
The people began to discuss.
Sitting on his horse, Yesui took down the riding bow from his saddle. The riding bow was carved with a golden eagle poised to take flight, the most precious artifact in the Yuan Court, said to be a relic of the famous general and greatest Divine Arrow shooter of the Tatars, Jebey, from their western expedition.
He concentrated his strength, and the heavy iron bow was immediately drawn to a perfect circle. A shining silver arrowhead flew out, momentarily appearing to transform into a golden eagle.
"What splendid archery, Your Highness!"
Several Tatar generals exclaimed in admiration.
Yesui remained calm. Though he no longer acted easily as his power grew, merely relying on ancestry wasn't enough to claim a domain on the plains of survival of the fittest.
In his youth, he was also dubbed "Jebey," charging in with his knife to fight for his father, Tuhuan Khan, during the eastern and western expeditions, achieving numerous merits. Although his individual combat strength was not as great as his brother, who wielded the Power of the Demon Flood Dragon, he was only slightly inferior.
As he spoke, the arrow flew out like a flash of lightning.
Clang—
A giant ghostly face phantom opened its bloody mouth to bite fiercely at the golden eagle, tearing at its feathers with great force. This ethereal scene was reflected in reality, seen on the pitch-black Ghost Face Shield, its sharp teeth causing the flying arrow to get caught.
Prajna remained calm, breaking the arrow and casting it aside as if blocking this shot was an everyday occurrence for her.
Yesui couldn't help but exclaim, "What a formidable Hu Ji!"
He instinctively questioned a nearby Hundred Households, "Turuk, you once visited Timur Country. Can you tell the location of this Khanate, which seems to have such a wealth of talented individuals?"
The Hundred Households shook his head, "From what I know of the Western Countries, I have not heard of a place called Khanate, but the Eagle Banner carried by these Hu Cavalry is often talked about, though I don't know which country it belongs to."
The Northern Yuan Court had limited dealings with the West. Yesui knew that beyond the fractured Golden Horde Khanate to the West were European countries, but he didn't care and had no time to care about European countries.
In comparison, Central Asia's Timur Country, not far away, was not only aware of Austria's Habsburg Dynasty but had also welcomed emissaries from Spain at the western extremity of Europe to its court.
One of the Kheshig army's Hundred Households spoke, "King Dahan, let me go into battle. I have my eye on that blond woman leading the troops and want to capture her personally!"
The nearby Tatar generals laughed aloud, "You don't even know what that Hu Ji looks like. For all you know, she might be a rough and burly woman capable of lifting you up like a fat slob!"
The Hundred Households laughed heartily, "Wouldn't that be perfect? A man from the plains should have a woman capable of charging into battle!"
The Tatar generals fell silent.
Many of them were Tatars who had lived in the south or the Timur or Golden Horde Khanate's courts, so their sense of beauty had become quite different from these plains folks.
"This is not the place for you to display personal valor!"
Yesui shook his head, refusing the Hundred Households' request to fight. He waved his hand to order the two thousand Kheshig troops to ready their riding bows for shooting.
In the blink of an eye, the Hu Cavalry was within range.
Yesui once again drew his bow, shooting a whistling arrow that shrieked as it flew toward the Hu Cavalry unit. The next moment, over two thousand arrows rained down.
In an instant, chaos reigned, with men and horses falling. Of the more than six hundred cavalry initially counted, over a hundred were quickly lost. The arrows fired by the Eagle Shooters could penetrate even plate armor, let alone the Hu Cavalry rides that only had a single horse clothing piece without armor.
Yesui looked pleased, sneering and drawing his bow again, "Just a few hundred men and they dare charge straight at my central Great Banner!"
…
Up ahead, the melee between the mission infantry and Tatar cavalry reached a fever pitch in a cutting-up-the-flesh fashion.
Laine, wielding his war axe, spat a bloody phlegm after a Tatar rider struck his chest with an iron mace. If it wasn't for his sturdy chest armor, he would no longer be alive.
These unknown Eastern nomadic cavalrymen were formidable, refusing to collapse despite the chaos, fighting back with strong force, and their numbers were considerable,
Model swung his axe to sever the leg of a strong Tatar steed,
splitting a Tatar cavalryman's face in half with his war axe, blood spraying all over him.
…
Baron Charles was tackled off his horse by a Tatar general, the two locked in a grappling struggle. Charles felt his opponent's strength was astonishingly greater than his own, and he shouted, "In the name of God, in the name of Dragon Lord Losa!"
Beneath his iron armor, scales akin to Losa's triangular scales emerged, shimmering with a molten hue.
His strength surged, and he delivered a fierce headbutt to the enemy's skull. Seizing the moment of the opponent's daze, he lifted the helmet and exhaled Dragon Flame into it.
The terrifying high temperature roasted the head within the helmet into charcoal.
As the first of the Dragon Blood kin, Charles' Dragon Flame couldn't compare to Losa's, but it still possessed the Dragon Flame that only lesser Fire Dragons had, making it effortless to kill a single target.
Fully in his Half-Dragon Transformation, Charles' consciousness was gradually replaced by that of the Giant Dragon. His golden beastly eyes brimmed with excitement as he charged into the crowd, slaying recklessly. Driven purely by instinct, he had not yet devolved into a mindless monster, as the combat instincts inherited far exceeded the martial arts he originally possessed.