novelraw Chapter 82 : Battle of the Plains (6/9)
Chapter 82 : Battle of the Plains (6/9)
Chapter 82: Battle of the Plains (6/9)
The grand army of Jiang Zhaoming returned triumphantly.
A piece of earth-shattering news, like a thunderclap, tore through the court and the people, instantly overshadowing the great victory of Anxi.
Prince of Huaijiang, Jiang Zhaoding, personally led his elite Tiger Guards northward.
His sword was aimed straight at the heart of the Great Jin Army entrenched in the northern part of Great Yan Prefecture.
Even more shocking was his public declaration: he swore to drive the iron hooves of Great Jin completely out of the mountains and rivers of Great Zhou.
Arrogant.
This was arrogance beyond precedent!
Throughout Great Zhou, both within and without, uproar ensued.
The fervor of Anxi had not yet faded, and all eyes were instantly drawn to this even more astonishing gamble.
Their gazes fixed upon that stretch of northern land that was about to become a hellish purgatory.
The Huaijiang Army moved like lightning.
Mounted uniformly on first-grade dragon-blood warhorses, their iron tide surged forth. In just half a month, they pierced through the southern reaches of Great Yan Prefecture, their momentum driving straight to the north.
What made everyone’s jaws drop was that, faced with the Great Jin’s pride—their torrent of iron cavalry—
The Prince of Huaijiang, Jiang Zhaoding, known for his scholarly grace, chose to form up a formal line of battle upon the vast, boundless plains.
To pit heavy infantry head-on against the overlords of cavalry?
Madness! The Prince of Huaijiang must have gone mad!
The entire Great Zhou echoed with that cry.
The commander of the Jin Army, Pucha Yanghui, a newly advanced Profound Core Realm expert, laughed in fury when he heard the news.
He personally led a million iron riders, cloaked in clouds of dust and killing intent that blotted out the sun, charging toward that plain—vowing to crush the Huaijiang Army into dust.
But what happened next overturned everyone’s understanding.
On that vast and open plain—supposedly the kingdom of cavalry—the Huaijiang Army, composed mainly of heavy infantry,
Stood like a moving wall of steel, colliding head-on with the thirty divisions of Great Jin’s proud iron cavalry.
The battle was so fierce that even Heaven and Earth changed color.
In the end, Great Jin’s vaunted iron hooves were crushed, leaving two hundred thousand corpses scattered across the plains in a rout of utter disgrace.
The banners of the Huaijiang Army fluttered proudly above the mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
When the news reached the Jin forces, the newly advanced Profound Core Realm expert and Jin commander, Pucha Yanghui, flew into a rage.
He could not tolerate such a humiliating defeat, nor could he endure someone challenging the majesty of his realm.
In his fury, he personally led a million iron cavalry, carrying an overwhelming tide of wrath like a black storm cloud that blotted out the sky, charging straight at the Huaijiang Army.
He swore to grind that audacious army into dust, leaving not even ashes behind!
Everyone held their breath, as though they could already see the Huaijiang Army about to vanish into ashes before such absolute power.
Yet, at that critical instant, a single figure calmly walked out from the ranks of the Huaijiang Army.
It was none other than the Prince of Huaijiang, Jiang Zhaoding.
He still wore a simple azure robe, a jade belt at his waist, his demeanor composed and serene.
It seemed not as though he was walking to a battlefield of life and death, but to a refined scholarly debate.
This image stood in absurd contrast to the million Jin cavalry behind him, surging with killing intent that reached the heavens.
Pucha Yanghui looked upon that “mantis trying to stop a chariot” figure and even sneered in disdain.
A mere prince, daring to face the might of the Profound Core Realm?
The next instant, Heaven and Earth trembled!
The calm and composed aura around Jiang Zhaoding suddenly vanished!
An aura vastly greater, more domineering, and more soul-shaking than Pucha Yanghui’s burst forth—
Like an ancient behemoth awakening from slumber, erupting in terrifying might.
The oppressive power of the Profound Core Realm no longer belonged solely to Pucha Yanghui; at that moment, Jiang Zhaoding was the true master of Heaven and Earth.
Under the horrified gazes of a million Jin cavalry, Jiang Zhaoding moved.
Without an army at his back, only with the invisible power connected to the Huaijiang Army’s formation—
He transformed into a streak of light that split the sky, charging straight toward Pucha Yanghui.
What followed redefined everyone’s understanding of “strength.”
Pucha Yanghui, empowered by the Jin army’s formation, was utterly overwhelmed and grievously injured by Jiang Zhaoding.
With their commander gravely wounded, the Jin army’s morale collapsed in an instant.
How could Jiang Zhaoding let such a chance slip by?
With a single command, the Huaijiang Army pounced like tigers from their cage, beginning a merciless pursuit.
That day, the million elite iron cavalry of Great Jin, warriors of the Blood Refining Realm, suffered their bloodiest massacre since the war began.
Eight hundred thousand brave cavalrymen forever fell upon that blood-drenched plain.
The world was shaken!
The entire Great Zhou Dynasty seemed struck by an invisible thunderbolt.
From the grand halls of court to the distant martial world, from the bustling imperial capital to small border towns, even to the austere courts and camps of the Great Jin—
All who heard of the battle’s details were left trembling and speechless.
Who could have imagined?
That the Prince of Huaijiang, Jiang Zhaoding—that man of understated presence, often ridiculed in private by many—
That old noble prince, dismissed as “weak” for his cautious conduct and lack of maternal backing—
Was in truth a deeply hidden Profound Core Realm powerhouse!
This shocking revelation struck like a hammer to the hearts of all who fancied themselves perceptive.
Even more terrifying was the power he displayed when crushing Pucha Yanghui—
Jiang Zhaoding was no newly advanced cultivator, but a dragon long hidden in the depths.
His realm was profound, his might vast—like the bright moon of the ninth heaven against a flickering firefly.
Between him and Pucha Yanghui yawned an unbridgeable, despairing chasm.
For a time, praise and reverence surged toward Jiang Zhaoding like a breaking flood.
His former “humility” was reinterpreted as “concealed brilliance,” his “weakness” as “the patience of the benevolent.”
No longer was he a dim old prince without radiance, but a peerless hero who turned the tides, single-handedly upholding the northern sky.
He became the pillar of Heaven, the savior who lifted countless lives from the flames of war and sparked Great Zhou’s counterattack.
Even the proud Prince of Great Yan, Jiang Zhaoqian, who usually regarded all heroes as beneath him, appeared personally—
Carrying unprecedented solemnity and a trace of complex emotion, he expressed heartfelt gratitude to this half-brother.
Yet, the skies over Great Zhou’s northern frontier did not clear entirely with this victory.
The dark clouds of war still hung thick.
The grievous defeat and humiliation of Pucha Yanghui were like a stinging slap upon the face of the Great Jin Dynasty, igniting their furious wrath.
The dignity of Great Jin could not be defiled; the majesty of the Profound Core Realm had to be washed clean with blood.
Soon after, another figure stepped onto that war-torn scorched land—
The younger brother of the King of Great Jin, also a newly advanced Profound Core Realm expert: Wanyan Kang.
His arrival injected immense stabilizing strength into the collapsing Jin defense line.
The front that had been on the brink of collapse, with its commander wounded and elite troops lost, miraculously steadied once more.
Relying on the combined power of two Profound Core Realm experts, the Jin army finally held back the unstoppable edge of the Huaijiang Army.
The northern battlefield fell once again into a suffocating, blood-soaked stalemate.
The forces of both sides were forcibly dragged back to the same starting line by this brutal struggle.
At the heart of Great Zhou—the Imperial Capital.
In the garden, the Emperor Father, watching flowers bloom, burned the war report in his hand, a faint smile curling his lips.
“This boy—I’ve prodded him so many times, and he finally made his move. If you hadn’t, how could I dare let you inherit the throne?”
The Emperor Father shook his head. What he said that day in the Golden Hall—those words were meant for Jiang Zhaoding.
Fortunately, Jiang Zhaoding had understood.
As he pondered, the Emperor sensed a certain presence, his gaze shifting toward a distant direction, brow slightly furrowing.
“Coming again, are you? It seems the time left for me grows short.”