Demoness, where are you Fleeing to?
Chapter 905 - 745 The Iron Cavalry’s Swan Song (Requesting Monthly Votes and Subscriptions)_2

Chapter 905: Chapter 745 The Iron Cavalry’s Swan Song (Requesting Monthly Votes and Subscriptions)_2

At that moment, Lord of Baihu Palace, Shi Tianze, suddenly interjected, "Khan, please reinforce your flanks with the eighty-thousand infantry under your command, and reassemble one hundred thousand elite cavalry to retreat ten miles to prevent surprises."

He knew that not all of Yecian Chrolus’ troops were cavalry, as this Khan of Vala always harbored ambitious aspirations to conquer the Central Plains.

Therefore, for over a decade, the Vala Department had maintained the organization of eighty thousand infantry. They were skilled in horsemanship, yet even more adept at dismounted infantry combat.

Yecian Chrolus had tremendous respect for this Jin general from the heyday of Mongwu, and promptly inquired for an explanation, "Master Shi, what do you mean by that?"

Shi Tianze did not respond immediately, but used his longsword to draw two horizontal lines on the ground, representing the formations of the two armies.

Then, at either flank of the line on the left, he each drew a sword mark, and crossed them at the back of the line on the right.

"I perceive that Prince Fenyang intends to also decide the battle at the flanks. He seems to be planning a flank breakthrough to envelop our Central Army’s rear, rendering my Central Army’s cavalry of several hundred thousand with no way to retreat!"

The Alachien was instantly full of doubt and suspicion, "Master Shi, the Jin cavalry surely doesn’t possess the strength to break through our flanks."

"The essence of military tactics is to first ensure invincibility and wait for the enemy to be vulnerable!"

Shi Tianze looked coldly at the Alachien, "You are a famous general from the plains and a leader of the Jin troops, have you not read the ’Art of War’? While the Jin cavalry indeed faces a significant disadvantage, even if just one unit were to strike at our army’s flanks, it would result in severe casualties for our troops."

The Alachien immediately spoke no more, and Yecian Chrolus, too, went along with the counsel and began to redeploy the forces.

Dasiming could not interject about the large army’s campaign, but at that moment her fists were clenched tight, staring at the surging forces of both sides, she could feel her emotions swelling.

If she could defeat Li Xuan in this battle, then the situation in Shaanxi could also be broken, and Prince Yi’s army’s condition was bound to improve.

She could then refuse the support from ’Changsheng Emperor of the South’ and ’Heavenly Emperor Taichi,’ rejecting their further interference in the mortal realm.

※※※※

Li Xuan’s ’Tao-protecting Eyes’ keenly noticed the change in Mongwu’s army formations, but he only glanced once and didn’t care much about it.

The opponent had clearly discerned his intention, yet this did little to shake Li Xuan’s fixed tactics.

In front of decisive force, no amount of cunning maneuvers were of any help.

At that moment, his four hundred and thirty thousand Jin Army moved like a well-oiled machine. Once activated, they advanced in an orderly fashion without needing further commands from Li Xuan.

Their advancement was actually not slow, and their momentum was still ’like mountains and forests’.

All infantry were well-trained. Every hundred steps they took, they would reorganize once.

But the Mongwu cavalry in opposition was also slowly retreating, keeping a distance of five miles.

Yecian too had remarkable control over the several tens of thousands of Mongwu Cavalry, with such a massive retreat that did not result in chaos. Their formation was slightly mixed but not chaotic.

It should be known that during the ancient Battle of Fenyang, when Mikado Fu Jiàn retreated, his troops collapsed like tumbling mountains.

Contrary to the Central Army, the cavalry of both sides, amounting to hundreds of thousands on the flanks, constantly closed in. The distance between them was now less than one and a half miles.

Both sides tacitly started to accelerate their horses, while seventy thousand Qiexue troops from Mongwu’s army separated from the flanks and maneuvered towards the rear of the Jin Army.

At that moment, on the right flank of the Jin Army formation, sixty-three thousand Iron Cavalry from Liaodong Town, led by Yang Zhen, were so excited that their eyes were bloodshot.

"Control your pace! No rush! No rush! Keep seventy percent of your speed, what matters is stability. Keep the rhythm and conserve the horses’ strength, we still have battles ahead."

"Keep the distance! The distance between two horses should not exceed two horses; they must proceed like a wall! That’s right, very good."

"Be cautious of the ground later, don’t get tripped up by those corpses!"

He let out a deafening roar, striving to make his voice heard by all his subordinates.

Due to deliberate control by many Jin generals, the cavalry formation of the Jin Army maintained its pace until the two opposing formations were merely fifty yards apart, without accelerating to full speed.

Khan of Vala, Yecian, witnessing this scene, immediately smiled.

Alachien shook his head slightly, thinking how foolish the Jin people were.

Based on his decades of experience in cavalry battles, the faster the horses, the greater the advantage, usually meaning bigger impact force.

Even Master Shi Tianze from the Lord of Baihu Palace slightly raised his eyebrows, though he did not relax his guard.

The Jin Army had annihilated the Mongwu Cavalry several times consecutively along the supply routes, a matter that had always puzzled him and about which he considerably cared.

At that moment, Shi Tianze saw the Jin troops all raise their right hands simultaneously, each picking up a peculiar firearm.

Shi Tianze recognized that the object was called "revolver," at which time the intelligence network of Jinque Palace within the Jin Court and the military had been almost entirely uprooted.

Particularly since Shaosiming had woken up and resumed activities, with "Tingtian" and "Liu Er" — two creatures — eavesdropping within and without Capital City, it was very difficult for the Jinque Palace to learn about the core secrets of the Jin Court, especially from critical departments like the mansion of Du Du, Jingying, and the Ministry of Works.

However, their people had still managed to draw a diagram of the "revolver," which the Jin Army had recently equipped on a large scale, and submitted it to the Jinque Palace.

Although Shi Tianze had seen the diagram of the revolver, he had always been puzzled about how the strange firearm was constructed internally and what its purpose was.

Only at that moment, when Shi Tianze saw those tens of hundreds of cavalry raising the "revolvers" in their hands, did a sudden paralysis seize his heart.

At a distance of twenty-five zhang, the Jin cavalry started firing the first round.

The ’bang bang bang bang’ sounds shook the battlefield, as clouds of blue smoke rose into the sky.

Opposite the Jin Army, there was a commotion of people yelling and horses neighing, with countless people screaming while those warhorses and Earth Dragons let out cries of agony.

The normal killing range of the revolver for the second-level Wu cultivators is only fifteen zhang, but the ferocious speed of the Mongwu people increased the killing range of the revolver.

And the strength of the majority of the Mongwu knights and warhorses was only about that of the third house level.

In that instant, the formation of the entire Mongwu Cavalry suffered a massive blow. Countless warhorses thundered to the ground, causing the fast-charging Mongwu knights behind them to fall unexpectedly, with up to thousands of knights tripping over.

Those with exceptional riding skills promptly pulled on the reins, causing their warhorses to leap high.

Yet those soaring through the air suddenly trembled in their bodies.

It was because the opposing Jin Army had already begun their second round of volley firing.

In a flash, nearly ten thousand war horses collapsed to the ground, their riders either shot or knocked down by the inertia of their mounts.

In this world, both Earth Dragons and Dragon-blood Horses, when charging at full force, can cover four hundred li each shichen.

So even though these Mongwu warriors were physically robust, with strength of a thousand jin, the tremendous inertia still made them spit blood from severe injuries, with limbs shattered.

What followed were the third and fourth rounds.

The ’bang bang bang’ of gunfire occurred nearly every two breaths, the dense rain of bullets continuously reaping the lives of the Mongwu knights.

Since both sides adopted dense formations, the accuracy rate of the Jin Army was astoundingly high.

In just under one hundred twenty breaths, after twelve consecutive rounds of firing, the ground was littered with precisely one hundred twenty thousand warhorses and Earth Dragons, and a similar number of Mongwu warriors.

The originally solid formations of the Mongwu Army’s flanks instantly showed signs of collapse. Less than sixty thousand cavalry remained, their formations so scattered that they appeared exceedingly frail and vulnerable in front of the Jin cavalry forces, as if they could no longer withstand a single blow.

In the center of Mongwu’s army, Khan Yecian of Vala remotely watched this scene, feeling as if a giant hand was tightly squeezing his heart, throbbing as if on the brink of death.

The faces of those presiding, including Dasiming, Alachien, and Princess Shi Tianze of Baihu, turned ashen.

At this time, the speed of the Jin Army did not increase but slowed to about sixty percent.

And the first line of Jin cavalrymen who had finished firing, had already calmly reloaded their revolvers and quickly broke through the remaining Mongwu cavalry in front, directing their weapons toward the rear formation of the Mongwu infantry!