Chapter 61

  Remy Azab was not surprised at all by the voluntary withdrawal of the Wind Army. As early as several days ago, he had calculated that the Wind Army would launch a final decisive battle, and if they could win, they would win; if they couldn't, they could only retreat. Now it has turned out just as he had expected.

  He had a plan in his heart, but the other Dukedom generals didn't think so. Looking at the peaceful Wind Army camp, the tents and flags were all still there, not even one was missing, how could it be that the Wind Army had retreated?

  A Turkic general asked anxiously: "Our army has not received any news of the Wind Army's retreat, how did you know, General?"

  Remy Azzopardi cast a glance at him, raised his head and said: "Ordinarily at this time, the Wind Corps would have started cooking, now can you see any smoke from the stoves in the Wind Camp?"

  When they heard this, all the generals were shocked and looked closely, and indeed, there was not a single wisp of smoke in Feng Jun's camp. No wonder it seemed like the camp was still intact but lacked vitality. It turned out that this was the reason. Another general asked in a low voice: "General, could this be one of Feng Jun's tricks?"

  Rémi Azzopardi, still lying down, replied to the questions of his subordinates in a cold tone: "Whoever speaks again and confuses my army's mind, I will nail his head to the flagpole!"

  One sentence made all the generals shrink their necks and dare not question half a sentence again.

  Remy Aza led about 80,000 Dukedom soldiers to rush out of the camp and head straight for the Wind Army's large camp. He had not sent scouts to investigate whether the Wind Army's camp was empty or not before leading his army to charge in directly. Remy Aza was indeed skilled at calculations and bold with a meticulous heart, and the movements of the Wind Army were mostly within his expectations.

  Now the Wind Army's large camp is empty, not even a shadow of the wind soldiers and generals can be found. The tents are all empty, with miscellaneous objects scattered all over the ground. Nearly three hundred catapults and trebuchets have been abandoned in the camp. In the warehouses, millions of weapons, armor, and military uniforms that were left behind before they could be taken away remain.

  At this scene, the soldiers of Duji were all excited and opened up a frantic grab, everyone wanted to take more, so that they could have their own spoils when they returned home.

  Remy Azabah quickly passed down the military order, and the wind army's luggage was not allowed to be taken by either side. The whole army went through the camp and continued to pursue and kill the wind army. At the same time, he also sent out his own elite 30,000 cavalrymen to chase and kill first, hoping to use the speed of the cavalry to catch up with the wind army as soon as possible and hold them back. Then, he had someone send a flying letter to the town of Wal, ordering the 30,000 Dukyi troops stationed there to come out and attack the retreating wind army, and no matter what, they could not let the wind army use their old tricks again, bypass the town, and withdraw smoothly.

  Now he is confident, determined to annihilate the three water armies, and with one breath, intimidate Feng Guo, making them understand the consequences of being an enemy of Du Ji, so as not to cause trouble for their own side in the future.

  Dukis and Besas, although from the same origin, have a big difference in their military branches. The Duki cavalry is purely light cavalry, and in the desert, there is no room for heavy cavalry to display its prowess. Under Remi Azabao's command, the Duki cavalry was led by two Duki generals, Kamal and Zoi, and chased after them like a whirlwind.

  The retreat of the San Shui army was a whole hour earlier than Du Ji's pursuit, and the entire army did not bring any heavy loads, lightly armed and ready to fight, but even so, they still could not outrun Du Ji's light cavalry.

  Just at noon, the scouts behind the palace ran back to the army and reported to Liang Qi that a large number of cavalrymen were chasing from behind.

  Liang Qiweng was also secretly shocked, Du Jijun's pursuit and killing speed was much faster than he had expected. Bai Yong asked nervously: "How many enemy cavalry are there?"

  "This has not been investigated clearly, but judging from the sound of their horses' hooves, there are at least tens of thousands of cavalry!"

  Bai Yong sucked in a breath of cool air and muttered, "It seems the enemy has sent out all their cavalry..." He paused for a moment before turning to Liang Qi and saying, "General, Du Ji's cavalry is extremely fast. If our army doesn't split off some troops to cover our rear, I'm afraid it won't be long before the enemy catches up and starts attacking!"

  In the era of cold weapons, the power of cavalry was too great, and it is a concept with armored troops in modern warfare. If they were to be chased by Duqi cavalry, the infantry-based San Shui Army would suffer greatly. Bai Yong understood this point, and Liang Qi naturally also understood. He thought for a moment before responding.

  Bai Yong bit his lip and said: "The general leads the army to retreat first, and I will lead 10,000 brothers to stay behind and cover the rear!"

  Before Liang Qi finished speaking, Shangguan Yuanrang snorted and asked back: "How long can you hold out after the emperor leaves? Half an hour or a whole hour?"

  Shangguan Yuan's words were harsh, but they were also the truth. With a mere 10,000 infantrymen blocking tens of thousands of cavalry, and without even having warhorses or earthworks for defense, being able to hold off the enemy for half an hour was already quite good. Bai Yong said, "This is also a helpless measure, we can only hold out as long as we can..."

  "Never mind! Our army has already lost too many brothers, you don't need to take a million brothers as a shield for your own death!" Shangguan Yong said to Liang Qi: "Our army still has 10,000 cavalry, I'll take 5,000 brothers and leave the rest to hold off the enemy's cavalry."

  Li Qilei, who had been silent all along, immediately replied: "Then I'll leave it to Yuan Rang." In Li Qilei's heart, whoever stayed behind was useless, only Shangguan Yuanrang staying behind might still have a glimmer of hope.

  Bai Yong licked his lips and said worriedly: "This... this is too dangerous, isn't it?!"

  Shangguan Yuan couldn't help but laugh out loud and said, "If it's a dangerous mission, who else will do it if I don't? Isn't that why Liang Qi asked Your Majesty to send me on this expedition in the first place?"

  He was hit right on the spot by Yuan Rong's words, but Liang Qi didn't blush or gasp for air. Instead, he shamelessly praised: "The one who knows me is indeed Yuan Rong!"

  Shangguan Yuan gave him a cold glance and swallowed back the curse that was on the tip of his tongue.

  He went to the cavalry formation of the Sanshui Army, first stating that he wanted to pick out 5,000 people to stay behind and block Du Ji's pursuing troops. Then he asked who among them was willing to follow him to stay behind. Among the 10,000 cavalrymen, not a single one hesitated, and they all urged their horses forward, indicating their willingness to stay behind. Shangguan Yuan nodded his head, allowing the skilled horse archers to step out of formation.

  Tens of thousands of cavalrymen lined up, in Fengguo, archery was one of the basic skills of cavalrymen, as for whether they were good or not, no one wanted to admit that they were weaker than others. Seeing so many people lining up, Upper Official Yuan let out a sigh and found it difficult to decide. After deliberating for a while, he eliminated all those who were the only sons in their families, or those who had not yet married or had children. In the end, only about 4,000 cavalrymen remained, and he was satisfied with this number, saying: "You stay with me, other brothers, quickly retreat with the main army!"

  The three armies retreated quickly along the original route, while Shangguan Yuan led about 4,000 cavalrymen to stay behind and guard the rear. The scouts of Tianyan and Diewang came back and forth like a revolving lantern, constantly reporting the enemy's position and information to him.

  Now that the scouts have basically determined, Duji's cavalry has about 30,000, and how to use 4,000 cavalry to hold off the opponent's 30,000 cavalry, Shangguan Yuan also can't think of a good solution.

  Among the four thousand cavalrymen, there were only three chiliarchs. Shangguan Yuan let all three of them come to his side and said: "When we fight with the enemy later, you will lead your brothers to follow me, I will charge forward, you will follow me to charge forward, I will retreat, you will follow me to retreat, do you understand?"

  "Yes! General!" The three centurions bowed in unison.

  "In this battle, we will fight if we can, and retreat while fighting if we cannot. Let's use arrows to consume the enemy as much as possible!" Shangguan Yuan said solemnly: "Duji's cavalry is good at throwing, but their range is far inferior to that of archery, which is our opportunity."

  The three thousand husbands nodded again and replied: "We understand."

  Shangguan Yong handed down what he thought was a feasible tactic and then stood in the middle of the road with his sword drawn, quietly waiting for the arrival of the enemy.

  Before seeing the enemy's shadow, they saw the dust rising high in the distance. The rumbling thunder kept coming, getting louder and louder. Gradually, the ground began to shake, at which point the war horses under Yuwen Yuan and others became restless, occasionally stomping their hooves on the ground.

  Shangguan Yuan let the war horse steady itself, narrowed his eyes slightly, and slowly raised the three-pointed double-edged knife in his hand. Without turning back, he shouted: "Release the arrow!"

  Whoosh! With his command, the four thousand wind cavalry took down their bows and arrows, nocked them on the strings, and aimed at the same target in mid-air.

  The speed of the Duji cavalry was amazingly fast, and they were still two miles away just now, but in the blink of an eye, the vanguard troops had already appeared before everyone's eyes.

  Shangguan Yuan is not a clever general who excels at planning and strategy, but he has extremely rich experience on the battlefield. He knows clearly when to shoot arrows and when to charge forward.

  He estimated that the enemy army was almost within range, he raised his long knife in mid-air and shouted: "Release the arrows!"

  Buzz!

  Four thousand carved feathers rose into the air behind him, and when they reached their peak, arrows drew arc lines in mid-air, falling into the camp of Duji's cavalry.

  Boom, boom, boom - in an instant, the dull thud of the Tuji cavalry camp was continuous, with only the sound of people shouting and horses neighing, wailing continuously. Some soldiers were shot off their warhorses, while others had their warhorses pierced by arrows, rolling forward with both horse and rider. Many fallen soldiers who were not yet dead struggled to get up, only to be knocked flying by their comrades charging from behind.

  After just one round of arrow volleys, hundreds of Turkish cavalrymen running in the front had half fallen off their horses, but the remaining cavalry did not panic and instead increased their strength to charge forward.

  Next, they will have to withstand the second wave, third wave... of arrows from the Wind Army.

  Large numbers of Ducal cavalrymen were shot to pieces in the charge; a knight who had been shouting "Hurrah!" in the crowd might vanish in an instant, leaving behind only his empty horse, and by the end not even a complete corpse could be found.

  Against the wind army's arrow array, Duji cavalry rushed to within twenty steps of the wind army, and had already entered their shooting range. Only to see the Duji cavalry running in the front row throwing out the long guns and long spears in their hands with all their might, then drawing back their curved knives and long swords, continuing to charge and kill.

  When the two sides are far apart, the throwing motion is not powerful, but within twenty steps, the Douqi cavalry's throwing power is not to be underestimated. Long spears and long lances fly into the Feng army crowd, and as soon as they are stabbed, the whole person will be nailed under the war horse, alive and kicking on the ground.