Chapter 63

  Shangguan Yuan let led more than 2,000 cavalry to break through a bloody road, killing out of the encirclement of Duji's army. Everyone ran for more than 20 miles in one breath and finally shook off the Duji cavalry, only then did they stop to rest.

  People dismounted their warhorses and sat on the ground, panting heavily. Even Shangguan Yuanchen, with his deep cultivation, took advantage of this brief moment to dispel the spiritual armor on his body, recall his spiritual soldiers, and conserve his spiritual energy consumption.

  He looked around at the people under his command, basically all of them were covered in blood, some were enemies', some were their own, and there were only a few Wind Troop members who had escaped unscathed. How could they continue to fight? Just one head-on confrontation, and his brothers had been reduced by half, each one wounded, if they did another head-on confrontation, he estimated that these two thousand people would all be handed over to the enemy.

  Shangguan Yuan's eyebrows were tightly locked, and he let out a light sigh.

  Hearing his sigh, the three thousand men's leaders walked over and said to Shangguan Yuan: "General, this time we can only fight and cannot retreat. Let's counterattack again! Every moment we delay the enemy is a gain!"

  Shangguan Yuan looked at the three of them and shook his head, saying: "I'm afraid that after this counterattack, it will be very difficult for you to break out again!"

  "General, we are not afraid of death!" a chiliarch said with a sharp tone.

  "Yes, General! Order the countercharge! Killing one of them will make up for our losses, killing two of them will be a profit!" Another chiliarch said with his eyes wide open.

  At this time, the wind cavalry who were originally sitting on the ground resting stood up one after another and surrounded them, saying in unison: "General, we are not afraid of death!"

  As he gazed out at the young faces before him, Shangguan Yuan let suddenly understood what Liang Qi had once said: war was cruel, but when familiar faces slowly disappeared one by one, it was no longer just cruelty, but would give rise to a sense of despair. If the commander-in-chief had such a mentality, he was no longer suitable to be in charge of an army.

  Shangguan Yuan took a deep breath, his face set in determination and firmness. He sprang to his feet, mounted his horse, grasped the three-pointed two-edged spearhead, raised his head and shouted: "Brothers, mount up! Prepare to follow me into battle!"

  Hua la la - The morale of the Wind Army was shaken, they pulled their horse reins in unison, mounted their war horses, and their eyes fell on Shangguan Yuanrang, waiting for his order to charge out together.

  They didn't need to launch a charge, the Dukchi cavalry behind them had already caught up and started killing. Having been tricked once before, the Dukchi cavalry did not divide their troops to set up a vanguard, instead gathering all of their forces together, with more than 20,000 horsemen rushing forward like a tidal wave.

  Shangguan Yuanrang swung the knife in his hand to the back, and a thick white mist burst out of his body. The Ling armor and the spirit of the soldier were completed at the same time. Then, he raised the Ling knife, looked at the Duji cavalry rushing forward, and was about to drop the knife to order the whole army to charge. At this moment, there was a rapid horseshoe sound coming from behind, and someone shouted loudly: "Wait! General Yuanrang, wait!"

  At the sound of shouting, Shangguan Yuan and his men were all startled, turning their heads to look back, only to see a horse rushing towards them from behind, with a young man on it, wearing casual clothes, looking like a scout from Tianyan and Diewang.

  "I've come to pass on General's military order, brothers quickly make way!" The person hadn't arrived yet, but the shout had already been passed over.

  The cavalrymen did not dare to slack off, and they hastily dodged to the left and right, clearing a path. The man rushed forward in one breath, arriving before Upper General Yuan Rang, without even dismounting his horse, he saluted with his hand from atop the horse, saying: "General Yuan Rang, you have orders, quickly retreat and reunite with our main force!"

  "What? Retreat?" Officer Yuan Letian raised an eyebrow in disbelief. Now that he was ready to shoot, the Duji cavalry in front of him were about to kill them at close range, how could they retreat now? He asked sternly, "If I retreat, who will stop the pursuing Duji cavalry on the other side?" As he spoke, he pointed towards the direction of the Duji cavalry.

  That scout swallowed his breath, secretly shrinking his neck. The momentum of the Duji cavalry was frightening enough! He drew out Liang Qi's token from his waistband and handed it to Yuanchuan in front of him, saying in a low voice: "The general said that General Yuan will withdraw immediately after receiving the order. If he disobeys... then there will be severe punishment!"

  Shangguan Yuan snatched the token and took a closer look, it was indeed Liang Qi's token. Without using much force, he grasped the token with his palm covered by the spiritual armor and crushed it into pieces with a cracking sound. Seeing this, Feng Jun's scout almost fell off his horse in shock.

  He glanced at his own brothers, then looked at the increasingly close Douqi cavalry, hesitated for a moment, and finally swung down the Ling knife fiercely, turned around the horse's head, and shouted to the crowd of cavalry in a deep voice: "Withdraw!"

  Whoa——Shangguan Yuanrang gave an order, and the upper and lower ranks moved in unison. More than 2,000 wind cavalry rear troops changed to front troops and quickly retreated. While running back, Shangguan Yuanrang was also pondering what trick Liang Qi was playing. Did he want to use infantry to fight against the enemy's cavalry? Wasn't that a suicidal move? If so, how many of their own generals would be killed?!

  But then he thought again, Shangguan Yuan let shook his head, in his mind, the commander of each army of his country who was most skilled in using troops was Liang Qi. Every time he sacrificed a soldier or a general, there was a calculation, and later he could make a profit by changing the situation. He wouldn't be stupid enough to use infantry to fight against cavalry, there must be a trick.

  Shangguan Yuan guessed it right.

  He led the army to retreat for more than ten miles, and then there was a scout who came to report that he should slow down his speed and not let Du Ji's cavalry get too far away. Not knowing what Liang Qi wanted to do after all, Shangguan Yuan let him continue to act according to plan, slowing down the speed, and keeping a distance of about two or three miles from Du Ji's cavalry.

  As they went further ahead, the road gradually narrowed and the flat road turned into a rugged mountain path. On both sides were either peaks or dense forests. The vanguard led by Yuwen Yuan let them pass smoothly, but when the Duji cavalry followed behind, the mountains and forests on both sides of the road suddenly echoed with shouts and screams, and countless Fengjun soldiers hidden in the dense forest stood up from the grass, drew their bows and shot arrows at the Duji cavalry on the road.

  It was just a round of shooting arrows, and the camp of Duji's cavalry was in chaos, with many falling off their horses.

  After hearing the sound of fighting coming from the rear, Xiang Yu ordered an immediate halt to the retreat and turned around to look.

  Well, far away, only the Douji cavalry on the road behind was attacked from both sides, and arrows shot out of the mountains and forests on both sides like raindrops, falling into the crowd of Douji soldiers. The Douji cavalry camp seemed to have exploded, with people shouting and horses neighing, chaotic.

  No wonder Liang Qiren retreated, it turned out that he had set up an ambush here. Shangguan Yuan let out a loud laugh as he watched, his mouth wide open in excitement. The wind cavalry behind him were even more excited and agitated, each one tightly gripping their weapons, their bodies trembling with anticipation.

  At this time, the scout came again to transmit the order, ordering Shang Guan Yuan to lead his troops to kill the enemy with a counter-attack.

  Shangguan Yuan slapped his own head heavily, right, if we don't take advantage of the chaos to launch a surprise attack now, when will we? He looked up at the sky and laughed loudly, shouting: "Brothers, follow me in killing the enemy!"

  "Kill——"

  These two thousand or so wind cavalry were like they had been given chicken blood, unfolding a counter charge along the mountain road, while the wind army hiding in the dense forest also took the opportunity to rush out and cooperate with the cavalry, launching a pincer attack on Duji's army.

  The front had Feng Jun's cavalry counter-charging, the two sides had Feng Jun's infantry enveloping, and Duji's cavalry which had been ambushed and was dizzy from turning around, how could they still withstand?

  As they watched their infantry being slaughtered by the Wind Army, the officers lost their space to charge forward. Kamal and Zoi, the two main generals, were shocked and didn't dare to hesitate for a moment, quickly ordering a full retreat, leading their cavalrymen to flee faster than rabbits, fleeing in disarray.

  However, in this one battle, the Duji cavalry suffered nearly 10,000 casualties. On the mountain road, ownerless war horses were everywhere to be seen, and the number of corpses on the ground was uncountable.

  This was a typical ambush, of course, Shangguan Yong's contribution in this battle cannot be ignored. If he hadn't held off Duji's cavalry, the three water armies might not have made it to the mountain road before being caught up by the enemy. If he hadn't defeated Duji's vanguard and made them afraid to split their forces again, Feng Jun's ambush wouldn't have been able to hit Duji's main force, let alone heavily damage the enemy cavalry.

  In this battle, Liang Qi's strategic planning and adaptability combined perfectly with Shangguan Yuanrang's bravery, resulting in minimal casualties for the Wind Army. However, Du Ji's 30,000 elite cavalry was defeated, with over 20,000 horses lost.

  The enemy has escaped, and Shangguan Yuan is still thinking of pursuing and killing them, but he was stopped by Liang Qi's military order. Simply put, Liang Qi is also afraid that if they defeat the enemy too quickly, the enemy will be intimidated and not dare to pursue and kill again, which would cause their overall plan to fail.

  They drove away the Dujie cavalry, and the pressure on the three water armies was suddenly reduced. Before withdrawing from this place, Liang Qi specially left behind the scouts of Tianyan and Digang, as well as more than 100 divine shooters, to continue ambushing in the dense forest. As long as they saw enemy scouts coming to investigate, they would shoot and kill them immediately. If a large army came, they would all withdraw.

  He used the strategy of feigning defeat, laying an ambush with a small number of elite archers to kill the enemy scouts, making the enemy think that their own side still had an ambush set up in this location. The cavalry did not dare to advance rashly and could only wait for the main force to arrive before advancing step by step, thus giving the Three Waters Army ample time to retreat.

  Liang Qiyu deployed his troops in a false and true, deceitful and unpredictable manner, once again proving that his nickname 'Ghost Genius' was not undeserved.

  Shangguan Yong let saw Liang Qi, who was sitting in the carriage eating. When he saw Shangguan Yong let arrive, Liang Qi immediately put down his bowl and chopsticks, smiling: "Yong let has worked hard."

  Shangguan Yuan let out a nonchalant wave of his hand and said proudly, "A mere ten thousand enemies? I haven't even taken notice of them." As he spoke, his gaze fell upon Liang Qi's rice bowl.

  Liáng Qǐ saw this and quickly beckoned: "Come come come, Yu?n Ràng let's eat together!"

  Shangguan Yuan let out a cold snort and turned his head to stare at him sideways.

  Liang Qiduo was clever and quickly understood what Shangguan Yuanrang was thinking. He turned his head to Bai Yong beside him and said, "Take note, reward the brothers who follow Yuan Rang into battle with 200 copper coins, two catties of meat, one catty of wine, and record a major merit once. For every brother who dies in battle, add five taels of silver to their consolation money."

  Upon hearing this, Shangguan Yuan let him get into the carriage and had someone bring over food, which he devoured in big mouthfuls.