novelraw Chapter 78 : Iron Hooves of Anxi (2/9)
Chapter 78 : Iron Hooves of Anxi (2/9)
Chapter 78: Iron Hooves of Anxi (2/9)
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Yue Fei stood at a high vantage point, his cold gaze sweeping across the vast battlefield.
Under his command, the four hundred thousand cavalrymen of Anxi left only one hundred thousand troops as decoys, exposed to the Jin army’s sight.
The remaining three hundred thousand elite riders had already vanished into the shadows of the forests on both flanks—like predators lying in wait for their prey to step into the snare.
The Jin Empire’s reconnaissance cavalry halted their horses ten li outside Canglong Pass.
The leading captain narrowed his eyes and waved his hand. Several skyhawks took to the air, their sharp eyes scanning the earth below, attempting to discern the true state of the Zhou army.
However, just as the birds entered the mouth of the valley, several sharp whooshes split the silence apart.
Standing at the frontlines, the Queshe Army’s main general, Aruba, drew his heavy bow into a perfect crescent. His arrows shot forth like meteors.
“Whizz! Whizz!”
The arrows pierced through the hawks’ throats with pinpoint precision. Before a single cry could escape them, the birds plummeted lifeless to the ground.
Half an hour passed.
The hawks did not return.
The reconnaissance captain’s face darkened like stormy water. His fingers unconsciously rubbed the hilt of his blade.
“The skyhawks were discovered? Seems this Anxi Army isn’t entirely unprepared. Time waits for no one. Sons of Jin, follow me—let’s find out what’s going on!” he growled and clamped his heels against his horse’s flank.
Behind him, over a thousand elite Jin cavalry thundered into motion, kicking up clouds of dust as they charged toward the valley leading to Canglong Pass.
They soon reached the mouth of the gorge.
The view opened up before them. The sight in the center of the valley entered their eyes.
Over a hundred thousand infantrymen stood in tight formation behind their fortifications. Spears bristled like forests; tower shields loomed like mountains. A suffocating killing aura rolled toward them.
What made the reconnaissance captain laugh, however, was the scene farther back toward Anxi’s direction—
The “sneaky” cavalry of Anxi, trying in vain to use the sparse woods and terrain to hide their movements.
To his seasoned scout’s eyes, their maneuvering looked downright “clumsy” and laughable.
“Hahaha!”
The captain couldn’t help but throw back his head and laugh, his voice dripping with scorn.
“Anxi Prefecture—frogs at the bottom of a well! Our general planned to trample Canglong Pass first and crush you afterward, yet you dare come crawling to your own deaths? You think such pathetic rabble could ambush the iron cavalry of Great Jin?”
Without hesitation, he activated the communication talisman he carried, swiftly sending the intelligence he had gathered back to the main army.
“Outside Canglong Pass, roughly a hundred thousand Anxi infantry have arrayed themselves for battle, and another hundred thousand cavalry are poorly concealed.”
Mission accomplished. Yet this Jin reconnaissance unit was audacious beyond measure.
Instead of retreating, they galloped straight into the V-shaped valley, hoping to approach and probe the enemy formation’s true strength.
“Courting death.”
From his high vantage point, Jiang Zhaoming’s eyes glinted coldly. He raised his right hand slightly.
A deep, resonant war horn sounded through the air.
The five thousand elite Queshe cavalry, who had been restraining themselves all this while, suddenly burst forth from the forested flanks like wolves answering their alpha’s call.
Their hooves thundered like rolling storm clouds.
These master horse archers from the grasslands displayed their astonishing riding and shooting skills on horseback.
Man lent strength to horse, horse amplified man’s might—bows drawn and arrows loosed in a single seamless motion as they charged.
“Loose!”
With the centurion’s command, a storm of arrows shrieked through the air, descending like a dark cloud upon the Jin reconnaissance force deep within the valley.
These were no ordinary arrows—their heads shimmered faintly with blue wind-imbued runes, traveling at terrifying speed and penetrating with devastating power.
Caught completely off guard, the Jin scouts were thrown into chaos within moments.
Arrows tore easily through their leather armor, bursting into sprays of blood.
Screams and the panicked neighs of warhorses mingled into a cacophony of agony.
In just three volleys, more than two hundred elite Jin riders had fallen to the ground, lifeless.
“Retreat! Fall back!”
The reconnaissance captain’s eyes were bloodshot with rage and fear.
No longer daring to linger, he spun his horse around and fled the valley with his surviving men in disarray.
Despite their heavy losses, the captain’s face was not stricken with fear.
Instead, a twisted grin of elation spread across it.
He had personally witnessed one of Anxi’s most elite units—the fabled Queshe Army—in action.
Though their arrow storm was fierce, its lethality seemed limited.
It had not displayed the overwhelming, earth-shattering power that the rumors claimed.
This only reaffirmed his belief that the Anxi Army was nothing but a herd of lambs awaiting slaughter.
As the Jin reconnaissance unit galloped away with their “vital discovery,” drunk on arrogance and false triumph—
Hidden in the forested ridges, Jiang Zhaoming’s lips slowly curved into an icy smile.
The bait had been cast, and the trap was set.
Now, he only needed to wait for the proud Jin main army to march confidently into this “harmless” valley of death.
At dawn, the prelude to the decisive battle began.
The dim light of morning seeped through heavy leaden clouds that pressed low upon the land.
From the horizon, a black tide came rolling—an endless mass of Jin soldiers advancing.
Golden wolf-head banners tore through the morning mist like bloodthirsty eyes, announcing that the Jin army had arrived outside the valley.
Commander Guo Donglin sat at the center of the main formation, while his deputy commander Guo Xiazhi led the vanguard.
The enormous army began pouring steadily into the V-shaped valley.
Two hundred thousand infantry, serving as the vanguard, marched in disciplined squares. Their spears bristled upward as they advanced step by step toward the Anxi formation in the valley’s heart.
Their target—the thirteen thousand “decoy” troops of the Blood Refining Realm, arrayed in grim readiness.
Meanwhile, three hundred thousand Jin cavalry—under Guo Xiazhi’s direct command—split into two fierce divisions.
One force of one hundred fifty thousand riders, personally led by Guo Xiazhi, charged like a tiger breaking its chains, kicking up a storm of dust.
Their thunderous hooves rolled toward the valley’s center, aiming to crush the enemy infantry in one overwhelming blow.
The other one hundred fifty thousand cavalry were commanded by a fearsome general of the Myriad Phenomena Realm.
With naked disdain, they galloped straight for the rear of the valley—toward the “poorly hidden” one hundred thousand cavalry of Anxi Prefecture.
They intended to crush this “minor detachment” like stepping on ants.
“Dividing forces?”
Inside a flying vessel hovering above the valley, Jiang Zhaoming’s lips curved into a cold arc.
Yue Fei immediately understood. A sharp gleam flashed in his eyes as he silently waved the command flag.
When the Jin cavalry were only two li away from the decoy formation, the world suddenly erupted.
From both sides of the silent forests came the explosive neighing of warhorses and the grinding of steel.
Countless banners surged forth like a flood of iron from the earth itself.
An overwhelming tide of cavalry appeared, instantly filling the Jin army’s flanks.
All four hundred thousand Anxi cavalry had been lying in ambush here.
“Four hundred thousand?!”
The Myriad Phenomena Realm general of the Jin army froze, his pupils contracting sharply. A cold dread pierced his chest—this was a catastrophic intelligence failure.
He swallowed hard, forcing down his panic.
Recalling reports that the Anxi cavalry’s “combat strength was mediocre,” arrogance surged back into his heart.
“Hmph! Rabble! Numbers mean nothing. Form up and charge—crush them!”
He roared the command, hoping to overwhelm the enemy through sheer momentum.
“Kill——!”
Yue Fei’s voice thundered across the battlefield.
Four hundred thousand iron riders of Anxi surged forth like three converging torrents of destruction, colliding head-on with the Jin army.
The Pacifying Rebels Army and the Black-Armored Cavalry struck through the center like a colossal steel wedge.
Meanwhile, the Queshe Army and the Guan Ning Iron Cavalry unfolded like wings of death, sweeping in from both flanks, forming an enormous pincer to crush their foes.