NOVPUBThe sky had turned completely pitch-black by now, illuminated only by the torches and the unextinguishable burning kerosene beneath the city walls. Li Tong could clearly see the situation on the walls.
Seeing yet another assault on the city walls, with the entire city teetering on the brink of collapse, Li Tong no longer hesitated. He immediately led a reserve corps that had been held back all this time and pressed forward decisively. After several failed attempts to capture the city, he'd already figured out that victory hinged on a decisive blow of overwhelming force.
"Finally making a move, are they?" Fa Zheng, observing the three clusters of flames gathering together on the western city walls of Xiapi City, chuckled lightly and turned to look at the silent death soldiers beside him. "Even if our command banner is snapped and I fall, none of you should turn back. Do you see that banner? I want it slashed down."
"Understood!" Three hundred death soldiers clasped their hands in salute, donned their armor, and silently bowed before moving toward the rear army at the western city walls. By this time, the Yuzhou Army had exhausted all reserve forces. Just as Zhou Yafu had done when waiting for rebel forces at the State of Liang and seizing victory at the last moment, the reserve forces were fully deployed into the fray.
Slowly approaching the charging Yuzhou Army, at a distance of just over ten meters, the three hundred death soldiers suddenly burst forth. A cacophony of battle cries erupted in an instant. Fa Zheng's death soldiers surged into the Yuzhou Army in a tightly-knit phalanx, throwing the enemy's rear lines into utter chaos. Flaming kerosene soon spread across a large portion of the Yuzhou Army's rear ranks.
"Reinforcements have arrived!" shouted the soldiers defending Xiapi City from atop the walls as they witnessed the utter disarray spreading through the Yuzhou Army's western flank. The advancing Liu Bei's Army, who had been forced into retreat and on the verge of losing the city walls, suddenly had their morale restored.
As Zhao Yun had once said, even without Cloud Qi or formal military formations, if every soldier is willing to face death unflinchingly, they can still fight any army in the world without external reinforcements.
The three hundred death soldiers plunged into the Yuzhou Army with relentless determination. As chaos engulfed the rear ranks of the Yuzhou Army, Fa Zheng immediately mounted his horse and charged toward them, leading his troops into battle. This method of defeating a stronger force with a weaker one depended heavily on the commander leading by example.
"Kill! Spare no generals!" Fa Zheng brandished his precious sword and roared, charging forward. His soldiers echoed his shout as they charged alongside him. While Fa Zheng lacked expertise in commanding troops, he knew that in chaotic battles, the deciding factors were experience and courage—and his soldiers had an abundance of both.
As Fa Zheng surged ahead, Gan Ning, following Fa Zheng's ambush plan with a separate unit of two thousand soldiers hidden in the east, also made his move. Unlike Fa Zheng's approach, which relied on death soldiers clearing the way, Gan Ning led the charge himself. In an instant, the Yuzhou Army descended into total chaos, with men and horses thrown into disarray. The forces attacking the western walls were caught off guard, and before they could react, the eastern flank was also under attack. At the same time, Liu Bei's Army within the city counterattacked, plunging the Yuzhou forces into complete disorder.
"Hold steady! Hold steady!" Yan Jun shouted fiercely. In such a situation, stabilizing his soldiers was paramount. In large-scale battles at the corps level, morale collapse was often the primary cause of a devastating loss—not the opponent's ferocity. Even with seven or eight thousand men, or even pigs, maintaining order would make them difficult to defeat.
"Kill!" As Yan Jun worked to stabilize his troops, death soldiers disguised similarly to Yuan Shu's Army burst forth amidst the chaos. Before Yan Jun could react, one of them struck him down with a blade, severing his head. Then another slashed through the command banner. Yan Jun, who had not stepped onto the city walls but remained in the far rear, met his fate before he could make any move.
With Yan Jun dead, the Western Route Army's outer perimeter lost its leadership, collapsing into immediate defeat as Fa Zheng's forces pursued them relentlessly, driving them forward toward Lai Min, who was also stationed at the western city walls. Panic spread rapidly through Lai Min's ranks, seeing that Yan Jun had been meant to command from the rear while Lai Min led the charge. Instead, Yan Jun had been killed, and before Lai Min could fall back to assume command, one of his corps was caught up in the routed soldiers from Yan Jun's corps and pushed forward like ducks being herded. Fa Zheng's force of three thousand drove them toward South City.
At the same time, Yi on the eastern flank was killed by Gan Ning, while Huo Jun, who had climbed the city walls, narrowly escaped death. Yan Jun, hailed in history as one of the Five Lords of the Wu State, who had held the position of Imperial Secretary, died at the hands of low-ranking soldiers. Meanwhile, Yi, who had been expected to live to the ripe old age of eighty-one, instead fell under Gan Ning's blade before reaching thirty.
Gan Ning and Fa Zheng now pressed their respective forces toward South City. If the routed forces from the east and west collided in South City as anticipated, it was almost certain that the entire remaining forces in South City would fall into disarray and collapse completely.
Upon hearing news of reinforcements arriving, Li Tong immediately knew the situation had taken a dire turn. He leapt down from the city walls, intending to establish rudimentary defenses before the forces approaching from the east and west converged. He now understood where he had gone wrong.
Unfortunately, fate would not align with his plans. Before his soldiers could set up defenses against the advancing east and west forces, the routed troops had already collided, and then Gan Ning's forces and the death soldiers army smashed into Li Tong's troops from north and south.
"Chengming, lead the rear army and withdraw quickly according to the original plan to Eastern Wu. Do not linger. I will stay behind to cover the retreat!" Li Tong decisively ordered Pan Rui.
Pan Rui, recognizing there was no time for hesitation, immediately led the soldiers from the southern wall to suppress and shoot the routed troops attempting to charge into the formation, retreating while engaging the enemy. Li Tong, in turn, led his trusted aides forward to intercept the routed troops flooding in from the east and west, using ruthless methods to cut down these routed soldiers.
"So quick to see the flaw—it's true you're exceptional. But I've already joined forces with Xingba." Fa Zheng, lacking night blindness, could still see decently in the dark. As Fa Zheng observed Li Tong's frantic assault on the routed troops, he quickly deduced the rationale behind Li Tong's actions.
"Hmph! You want to intimidate your routed troops with sheer brutality, driving them to fear death enough to countercharge my army? Clever—and ruthless. But if I let you succeed, I wouldn't deserve to be called Fa Zheng!" Fa Zheng let out a cold laugh. "Kill them all!"
"Gan Mo, notify Xingba immediately. Bring that man down. With the chaos in the battle, even the Cloud Qi has dissipated. Yet he dares to act so boldly? Tell Xingba I want him alive!" Fa Zheng commanded to Gan Mo, who had been continuously escorting him.
Before Gan Mo could leave, Fa Zheng suddenly turned, only to be shot off his horse. As Fa Zheng himself had mentioned before, without Cloud Qi active, acting boldly in such disarray was practically courting death.
Li Tong spotted Fa Zheng, and Fa Zheng naturally also saw Li Tong, clad in his Confucian robe. Li Tong instinctively let loose an arrow, which struck its mark. Fa Zheng, who neither noticed the arrow nor tapped into his spiritual capacity, was decisively shot from his mount.
"The enemy commander is dead!" Li Tong shouted loudly as he saw Fa Zheng fall from his horse. Though Li Tong couldn't be certain of Fa Zheng's death, morale was the priority in that moment.
However, Li Tong's shout didn't have the desired effect. Fa Zheng was not regarded as a true general, nor was he technically leading the charge himself.
Fa Zheng's unexpected fall only threw his guards into chaos. The rest of his troops continued fighting as instructed—focusing on dismantling the enemy forces decisively regardless of the command banner's status.
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