Gaia fourth year, 15th day of the tenth month, Swordsman City.
As the sun rose from the east, the golden sunlight dispersed the white mist that permeated the southern outskirts of the basin, completely expelling the darkness and silence of the night. Accompanied by the morning light, the military camp that had been silent for the night gradually became noisy.
The cooks of the various camps were the first to wake up. Before the sky had even brightened, they had already started cooking for the soldiers.
Today's battle was extraordinary. In order to reward the three armies in advance and boost their morale, Swordsman City's lord, Feng Qingyang, was especially generous. He specially ordered people to send fat pigs, sheep, chickens, ducks, fish, and other poultry to the various camps. There were even exotic delicacies, fish, prawns, crabs, and so on.
It was reported that Swordsman City had already prepared a celebratory feast ahead of time. The standards were higher and the ingredients were more abundant.
Similarly busy were the hundreds and thousands of grooms. They were busy feeding the warhorses and washing their hair, striving to make the warhorses enter the battle in peak condition.
The experienced veterans had also woken up one after another. After washing up, they would head to the drill grounds to warm up, allowing their bodies to enter peak condition. Some of them would wipe their armor and check their weapons.
The veterans knew very well that the more careful they were before the battle, the more hope they had of surviving on the battlefield. It was unknown how many good men would die in this war of the century.
At seven in the morning, the entire military camp was completely awake.
After breakfast, the soldiers gathered at their respective drill grounds. Under the leadership of their commanding officers, they left the military camp one by one and formed a formation at a designated spot in the wilderness.
One unit after another arrived on the battlefield in an orderly manner, forming phalanxes. There were more than a hundred phalanxes of the 360,000 soldiers. They were arranged in the east and west directions, stretching for hundreds of miles. Sabers and spears stood in great numbers as flags fluttered in the wind. The length of the entire military formation even exceeded the length of Swordsman City's city walls. It was a spectacular sight.
On the left flank, the 150,000 Shu Han Imperial Guards appeared to be in a tight formation, but they were the weakest unit.
This was because after an emperor entered the capital, the imperial guards' equipment would automatically be replaced with the equipment of the emperor's dynasty. Therefore, the Shu Han Imperial Guards mainly wore cloth armor. Only officers could wear two-gear armor.
And even two-gear armor was far inferior to the Tang Dynasty's Radiant Armor and Song Dynasty's Infantry Armor. Therefore, with Gaia opening up its armor manufacturing technology, the Shu Han Imperial Guards' armor appeared somewhat backward.
It was no wonder that Zhao Yun looked at the equipment of the other allied forces with envy.
In the middle of the army, Wei Yan led the 60,000 Swordsman City soldiers and waited with rapt attention. Upon closer inspection, one would realize that this was the most nervous unit in the coalition army. Out of the 60,000 soldiers from Swordsman City, 50,000 of them had withdrawn from the frontlines. They had witnessed the ferocity of the Great Xia army, and now that they were going to fight the Great Xia army again, how could they not be nervous?
The right flank was naturally the one hundred and fifty thousand reinforcements led by Lian Po.
This group of reinforcements had been mobilized by Di Chen and the others from the main city. All of them were members of the Imperial Guard, and their strength was comparable to that of the Grand Xia's Dragon Stallion Army.
This was also where Lian Po's greatest confidence in winning this battle lay.
It was rare that it didn't rain last night, which made Lian Po excited. This was a good sign.
After the army was assembled, Lian Po ordered the army to head south and slowly approach the Great Xia Dragon Xiang Army at the foot of the mountain. Wherever the army passed, it was like a swarm of locusts. Not even a blade of grass grew.
Every five kilometers they advanced, Lian Po would order the army to pause and reorganize their formation. He had to ensure that the army was in the most orderly formation and not give the enemy any opportunities to take advantage of.
After walking for a full two hours, they finally saw the Great Xia Dragon Xiang Army in the distance.
Lian Po stood on a specially built mobile command tower and observed the enemy's formation from afar.
The first thing that came into view was the plain and unremarkable hilltops. The hilltops that were empty yesterday were now faintly discernible with troops stationed there.
What made Lian Po even more alarmed was that the Dragon Stallion Army had set up numerous P2 cannons on the hilltops overnight. They formed a ring with no blind spots and were heavily guarded.
Lian Po was well aware that these hilltops were like battle pillboxes. If he didn't get rid of these pillboxes, he wouldn't be able to seek out the enemy's main force.
The Dragon Stallion Army's formation was also rather strange.
The Dragon Stallion Army's right flank was facing the coalition army's left flank, and it was basically made up of cavalry.
The Dragon Stallion Army's center and left flank were mainly infantry phalanxes. Only 10,000 cavalry were stationed at the outermost perimeter of the left flank for support. At the front of the formation were two rows of P2 cannons, and behind the cannons were archers.
"This is a defensive formation."
Lian Po frowned. This formation really didn't seem like the Great Xia's style.
Even so, the arrow was already nocked on the bowstring and had to be released. When they were one thousand five hundred meters away from the enemy, Lian Po had the army stop for one last rest and reorganization.
In an instant, the clamor of marching troops gradually died down, and the entire wilderness fell silent. Only the breathing of men and horses could be heard.
The soldiers of the allied army were all extremely nervous. In just a moment, the atmosphere of a great battle had been strung together, causing everyone's blood to boil.
"Beat the drums!" Lian Po ordered.
This was to gain the upper hand by a show of strength. Since they had the advantage in numbers, Lian Po naturally had to suppress the enemy in momentum.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of the war drums broke the silence of the wilderness, further stimulating the hot blood in the bodies of the allied army. Their emotions were aroused, and their bodies heated up as they prepared to tear apart the enemy at any moment.
Strangely, the opposing Dragon Stallion Army remained silent.
There were no shouts or war drums. The army of more than two hundred thousand soldiers was like a pool of stagnant water, silently towering over the wilderness. When this silence condensed into an imposing aura, it was enough to make one's heart turn cold.
The entire Dragon Stallion Army was as immovable as a mountain, a great wall of steel.
The faces of the soldiers of Swordsman City slightly trembled as if they were recalling some dreadful memory. Bad memories immediately surged into their minds, giving rise to slivers of fear.
The Dragon Stallion Army was a group of man-eating devils.
Wei Yan frowned, but he had no solution. Anything he said at this time would only have the opposite effect, so it was better to say nothing.
The war drums grew more and more hurried, pushing the soldiers' emotions to new heights. Their sabers unsheathed, their bows and arrows in their hands, and their spears in their hands, their eyes fixed forward, ready to charge at any moment.
The final battle was right before them.
… … …
At this time, the Dragon Stallion Army was abnormally calm.
The necessary preparations had already been made yesterday. What the soldiers needed to do now was to build up their strength and wait for the enemy to arrive to deliver a fatal blow.
Chen Gong stood on a high ground, a talisman in his hand as he stared at the battlefield.
This talisman was naturally the War Stopping Talisman. Its effect was to prevent the Imperial Guard of any Royal City from participating in the War of the Lords for a week.
Ouyang Shuo could not personally go to the front lines and grasp the right time to use it, so he had given this talisman to Chen Gong and authorized him to use it according to the situation on the battlefield.
This talisman was the key to victory or defeat.
… …
Lian Po unsheathed the sword at his waist and sternly ordered, "Attack!" The messenger waved the banner in his hand and gave the order for the entire army to attack.
"Kill!!!"
The long-prepared coalition army charged forward like a wild horse, a flood bursting through a dam. Filled with killing intent, they charged forward with unstoppable momentum.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The cannons on the mountains at the front opened fire, opening the curtains to the battle.
In just a few moments, the allied army had surrounded the mountains so tightly that not even a drop of water could trickle through. Large numbers of soldiers attempted to charge to the mountaintops and destroy the cannons, achieving the greatest merit in this battle.
"Raise your shields!"
Each mountain was guarded by a brigade of Dragon Stallion Army soldiers. The saber-shield soldiers were at the front and the crossbowmen were at the back. With the cannons supporting them, they had the advantage of both terrain and time.
Although the coalition army was imposing, they were unable to take down these mountains in a short time.
The morale that they had just gathered unwittingly stagnated.
The coalition commander grimaced and clenched his teeth as he sent wave after wave of soldiers forward. They had to take down each mountain as quickly as possible.
For a moment, the sky was filled with the sounds of battle and the roar of cannons.
The Dragon Stallion Army tenaciously defended, and the corpses of the coalition army were quickly piled up at the base of each mountain. The latecomers had no choice but to step over the corpses of their comrades and charge up the mountain.
At the same time, the main army braved the cannons and continued to charge toward the Dragon Stallion Army.
One thousand meters, nine hundred meters, eight hundred meters.
Soon, the coalition soldiers at the very front could clearly see the faces of the Dragon Stallion Army, but before they could understand what was going on, they were met with a barrage of deadly cannons.
Two rows of cannons were fired, coordinating with the crossbowmen to form the first wave of long-range attacks.
The allied forces that were charging at the forefront were immediately blown into a complete mess and were utterly routed. Because it was a rapid charge, the soldiers following behind were unable to dodge and could only forcibly push their way through.
Countless dead and wounded soldiers were immediately trampled into meat paste, their figures disfigured. There were also wounded soldiers lying on the ground. Instead of receiving help, what awaited them was the merciless trampling of their comrades.
This was war. There was no mercy in it.
Six hundred meters, five hundred meters, four hundred meters.
The two sides were getting closer and closer, and a close combat was about to begin.
The coalition soldiers suddenly grew excited. They had endured the baptism of the enemy cannons, and after paying a heavy price, they were finally about to reach the enemy lines.
Now was the time for their revenge.
As they thought of this, a few bloodthirsty soldiers unconsciously licked their chapped lips, their pitch-black eyes beginning to glow with a strange blood-red color.
Zhao Yun was also incredibly excited. He was personally leading the cavalry at the very front precisely so that he could teach the Great Xia army a harsh lesson and show them the power of the Shu Han army.
Although he did not have the advantage in armor, Zhao Yun was still full of confidence.
But the more he advanced, the more doubt flashed through his eyes. It was understandable that the Great Xia's infantrymen were only defending and attacking, but the Great Xia had arranged for the Shu army to be completely composed of cavalry.
Cavalry not charging? That would be no different from trash.
In the face of the high-speed charge of the Shu cavalry, the motionless Great Xia cavalry were nothing more than live targets that could be slaughtered as they pleased. Zhao Yun found it hard to believe that the Shu army would make such a low-level mistake.
The Shu army was about to reach them.
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