xymnovel Chapter 972 Crushing Strike, That Red-Clad Woman!
Chapter 972 Crushing Strike, That Red-Clad Woman!
Wei Qing watched the battle from behind the lines with a cold eye, his command flag moving left and right. The five hundred heavy cavalry on the left side immediately split into ten groups, biting into the Yellow Turban army's formation like sharp teeth.
These heavy cavalrymen were all equipped with "Black Tortoise Shields," the shields inlaid with black iron from the North Sea. No matter how you cut or slashed them, they would only produce sparks. When the shield wall advanced, it actually pushed dozens of Yellow Turban soldiers off the cliff. Their screams mixed with the sound of weapons clashing echoed in the valley like the wailing of ghosts.
"Light the signal fire!"
A Yellow Turban general hurriedly gave an order, but as soon as the smoke rose, twenty iron-clad wooden gates suddenly rushed out from the Imperial Guards, the gates covered with caltrops.
These specially made "iron chariots" rampaged wildly, dragged by warhorses, leaving a trail of blood and flesh in their wake.
Just as a Yellow Turban flag bearer lit the beacon fire, he was cut in half by an iron gate. The torch in his hand happened to ignite a nearby grain cart, and the fire, fueled by the wind, turned the entire camp into a sea of flames.
"It seems that the Yellow Turban Army under Meng Zhang's command in Luzhou is of decent quality, as he managed to muster only 20,000 'elite troops'."
Su Ye remained standing at the highest point of the cliff, dressed in white, his Chun Jun sword at his waist still sheathed. He looked down at the battle below and suddenly chuckled.
As they were talking, Huo Qubing had already led his troops to the central army of the Yellow Turban army.
"Brave warriors, follow me to slay generals and seize flags!"
The young general lifted the enemy general's head with the tip of his spear and laughed loudly.
Upon receiving the order, the Imperial Guards behind him moved, their formation suddenly changing to the Big Dipper constellation, with seven elite troops piercing the enemy's vitals like sharp arrows.
Riding a crimson dragon horse, wielding a double-edged spear in his right hand and a hooked halberd in his left, Ran Min personally led the "Tian Shu" troops straight to the enemy's central command tent. When the black iron hooves of the heavy cavalry broke through the tent, the panicked Yellow Turban leader inside was directly shaken so badly that blood flowed from his seven orifices.
The "Tianxuan" division specialized in supply trains. The long swords engraved with the character "Su" split open the wooden crates, and crates full of iron arrowheads and oil canisters fell into the hands of the Imperial Guards.
"Surround three sides, leave one side unfinished!"
Ran Min, who was fighting in the rear, suddenly shouted, and the Imperial Guards immediately left a gap in the west. The fleeing Yellow Turban army surged into the depths of Hulu Valley like a flood breaking through a dam.
However, they were unaware that Wei Qing, who had planned ahead, had already ordered the deployment of "Tiger Crouching Cannons" at the valley entrance. These ballistae, modeled after the Mohist Huihui Cannons, were capable of launching stone projectiles the size of buckets.
"Boom boom boom!"
With a series of deafening roars, the deserters cried out and huddled together, trampling each other to death.
At the same time, at Hulukou on the east side of Hulu Valley, two hundred crossbows that had been lying in ambush behind the rock wall suddenly fired.
These crossbows were improved by the Mo family descendants gathered by Su Ye in Hengzhou. They can fire twelve crossbow bolts in succession, and the bolt box contains the secret of "mother-and-child arrows".
The sound of the crossbow bolts was like a dense rain hitting tiles. The first volley of crossbow bolts had just pierced the enemy's shields when the second volley exploded in mid-air, turning into a sky full of iron caltrops that sealed the narrow valley entrance completely.
One of the Yellow Turban soldiers who fled the fastest was covered in thorns from the iron spikes, looking like a charred hedgehog.
"Commander Wei, General Huo has beheaded the enemy general!"
When the messenger rushed in covered in blood to deliver the news, Huo Qubing was holding the bloody head on the tip of his spear. The young general's armor was covered in grass clippings, which only made him look more heroic.
The Xuanlin cavalry following behind him were counting the spoils of war. One of the soldiers held up a blood-stained Yellow Turban banner, the four crooked characters "Acting on Behalf of Heaven" on the banner were scratched to shreds.
"Meng Zhang certainly knows how to use someone else's strength against them."
Wei Qing gazed at the distant battlefield for a moment, then suddenly chuckled.
"Incorporate these surrendered soldiers into the supply battalion and inform the lord that the eastern flank has been cleared."
He casually tossed the command flag in his hand to his personal guard.
By this time, the sun had risen high in the sky, and a faint smoke of gunpowder rose from the east side of Hulu Valley. The soldiers of the Imperial Guard were wiping their weapons, their white armor stained with grass clippings and bloodstains, yet it shone even brighter in the sunlight.
"Silly boy, this is what the Yellow Turban Army uses to gather in the mountains. I'll have your General Huo turn it into a chamber pot for you later."
A new recruit was holding a captured gong in a daze when a veteran patted him on the shoulder and laughed.
When Huo Qubing returned on horseback, he overheard this jest and feigned anger.
"You scoundrel Chen Laoliu, how dare you joke about this general's spoils of war!"
As he spoke, he tossed a broken spear, the tip of which pierced the bronze gong with pinpoint accuracy, causing the surrounding soldiers to burst into laughter.
Wei Qing, who had arrived from behind, looked at the laughing and joking crowd and suddenly recalled the scene when he first met Huo Qubing at the Hengzhou training ground three years ago.
At that time, the young general had just reached the age of twenty, yet he defeated seven fierce generals in succession on the training ground. Finally, holding up his blood-dripping broken spear, he laughed and said, "This spearhead is dull; it should be replaced with a new one."
The broken spear has long since been replaced by a gilded lance, but the bloodstains on the tip of the lance have never dried.
"Commander Wei, the lord has sent word that something big is about to happen in the west."
The guards hurried over, carrying a sealed bamboo tube.
Wei Qing took the bamboo tube, pointed to the spider pattern engraved on the tube with his fingertip, and suddenly looked up into the depths of Calabash Valley.
There, the smoke of war burned even brighter, and the Meng banner could be faintly seen fluttering in the smoke. Under the banner, a figure clad in a bright yellow battle robe was pointing at a certain spot in the valley and laughing loudly.
"Go tell General Huo and General Ran to clean up the battlefield as soon as possible. The real hunting ground... has only just begun!"
Wei Qing tucked the bamboo tube into his robes, a cold glint in his eyes.
At his command, the sound of uniform clanging rang out once again from the Imperial Guard formation.
...
"Ding! Li Cunxiao's skills Divine General and Flying Tiger have been activated!"
Li Cunxiao currently has a base martial strength of 110, wields the Yuwang Spear with both hands, and the Bi Yan Claw increases his martial strength by 2. When the second effect of the skill "General God" is activated once, his martial strength increases by 10. Furthermore, when he is in a non-charge state, the third effect of the skill "General God" is activated, increasing his martial strength by 5. When the first effect of the skill "Flying Tiger" is activated, his martial strength increases by 5.
当前李存孝武力值110+2+10+5+5，当前武力值上升至132！」
On the other side, in the Calabash Valley, the rain of arrows had just stopped when Li Cunxiao's bronze Yuwang Spear cleaved through the blood mist.
This fiercest general of the Yellow Turban Army possessed a powerful aura that flowed like iron-gray clouds, and wherever he passed, the armor of the Qian army shattered like paper.
As soon as Han Junfeng, a veteran of the Wuxiong Guard, uttered half a sentence, "Form ranks," the tip of Bi Yan's mace had already grazed his throat, and with a slight twitch, blood splattered three feet.
This veteran general, who had fought hard for the Great Qian Dynasty for decades, was killed on the spot by Li Cunxiao in this small Calabash Valley!
"Old Han!"
Wei Tieyan's eyes were bloodshot, and before he could fully draw his iron bow, Li Cunxiao's spear tip had already pierced through the rock.
The gray battle robe of the Chongyan Guard commander billowed like a sail, pressed tightly against the mountain wall by the qi. Li Cunxiao grinned as he tossed Han Junfeng's corpse into the air, and the blood droplets dripping from the tip of the bronze spear reflected an eerie red light in the morning light.
The central command flag suddenly shook violently, and Gu Changqing struck the gilded bell in his hand with a deafening roar, causing the old general's cloudy pupils to suddenly contract.
"General Suzaku, please act swiftly!"
Gu Changqing roared and tore off the ribbon binding his head, his gaze falling on the silent, motionless figure in red beside him.
Even before arriving here, Gu Changqing had already made preparations for dealing with Li Cunxiao, the "bug" among the Yellow Turban Army.
They borrowed the seventh seat on the World Ranking from Su Ye in advance: Blazing Radiance - Vermilion Bird!
Zhuque, who can be called the most outstanding archer in the world, has been firmly in seventh place on the World's Power Ranking since the beginning. His strength has long been recognized by the world.
Therefore, Gu Changqing did not expect Zhuque to cause any harm to Li Cunxiao, but she was happy as long as she could temporarily hold off this great demon king!