Chapter 526: - Fuck 'Em!

The “Zheng” command banner rose above the command carriage.

Three broad-backed, thick-waisted personal guards stripped off the armor covering their upper bodies and began beating the great drum.

Count Pingye, sitting sideways in the commander’s seat, glanced back at the sight and could not help feeling a little regret.

The Sword Saint beside him noticed.

“You can still withdraw now.”

The situation was dangerous, certainly, but the command carriage had been positioned far enough back that it still had room to influence the battlefield while retreating in good order.

Even if things worsened further, with the Sword Saint’s ability, taking Zheng Fan out alive would not be especially difficult. The Chu had only just surged out from the fort and had not yet formed a full encirclement.

Count Pingye merely shook his head.

“That isn’t what I meant. I just think a command carriage this handsome deserves better than three rough bastards beating the drum. It isn’t beautiful.”

“Not beautiful?”

“Right. It doesn’t fit my sense of aesthetics. So I feel a little regret.”

The Sword Saint did not know what “aesthetics” meant, but he could hear the unmistakable affectation in Count Pingye’s voice.

Truthfully, there were many times when even the Sword Saint could not understand why this Count and those subordinates of his always insisted on displaying this kind of wildly inappropriate sentimentality at the strangest moments.

Count Pingye turned his gaze forward again while the drums thundered in his ears.

“If the Fourth Lady were beating the drum right now, she’d do it with such style. Red sleeves flying, graceful as a startled swan, yet with a spirit that yielded to no man. You wouldn’t be able to take your eyes off her. If it were the princess, she’d be dressed in magnificent robes, lips pursed, probably struggling just to lift the drumsticks, but she’d still strike the drum very seriously, one beat at a time. She wouldn’t know any proper drum rhythm, but she’d somehow create one of her own. A great general marches to war, and a princess beats the drum. Ah. Beautiful. Truly beautiful. If it were Liu Ruqing, with that slender waist and all that charm, I might have to stand behind her, one arm around her waist and the other guiding her hand. At our side, tens of thousands of soldiers would be fighting to the death. And I alone would dote on the beauty in my arms, taking the war drums as music. Iron cavalry and clashing steel, a beauty in my embrace. What an exquisite contrast. What a beautiful scene. What an experience to long for. Beauty. That is beauty. Beautiful enough to intoxicate a man.”

As Zheng Fan spoke, he actually closed his eyes and raised one hand, lightly tapping the air in front of him as if beating the drum himself.

The Sword Saint said, “Long ago, one Son of Heaven of Great Xia lit the beacon fires and summoned the feudal lords with their armies merely to make a favored consort smile. What you’re describing is much the same.”

This was the first time Zheng Fan had heard the real version, in this world, of “playing with the feudal lords using beacon fires.”

He froze for a moment.

“So that happened here?”

The Sword Saint continued, “Historians across the states generally agree that Great Xia’s decline began with him. From that point onward, the feudal lords gradually stopped obeying the commands of the Son of Heaven.”

“Tsk.”

Count Pingye waved a hand dismissively.

“Winners become kings and losers become bandits. You see only the absurdity of him lighting beacon fires to toy with the feudal lords, but in truth, Great Xia had already weakened while the feudal lords had risen and begun ignoring central authority. Take me. Didn’t I hold a military review at Snow Sea Pass before? The princess stood right beside me. Wasn’t I essentially showing off my Snow Sea Iron Cavalry for her to admire? Heh. What difference is there between that and that Son of Heaven of Great Xia? But among the commanders of my Six Garrisons, who was dissatisfied? Who refused to cooperate? Who even dared feel resentment?”

The Sword Saint thought carefully, then slowly nodded.

“When you hold great power, even absurdity becomes romance and heroic spirit. Once you decline, everything you do becomes wrong. Haa... what a pity. I had originally planned to send the Blind Man home after a while to take charge there and switch the Fourth Lady over here instead. Who would have thought we’d have to beat the war drum today? Who knows when I’ll get another chance like this?”

The Sword Saint found it amusing.

“This seems to have become an obsession of yours.”

“Of course. I have never slackened on the road of pursuing beauty.”

A’Ming stood beside Count Pingye, pulled out his wineskin, and took a drink. The faint scent of alcohol spread through the air.

Zheng Fan glanced at him and poked a finger toward the space directly in front of himself.

A’Ming put the wineskin away and stepped into position before his Master.

Then Zheng Fan looked at the Sword Saint.

“The command carriage is here. This is the center of the army, even the point where the spirit of the entire force gathers. I must trouble the Sword Saint to protect me.”

The Sword Saint answered indifferently:

“If you don’t go down there, neither will I.”

Meaning:

If you do not run, I will stay.

“Listen to yourself. I’ve raised my banner. I’ve given the orders. Look around. The central army, rear army, and the troops on both wings are all gathering around me now, using me as the axis. Where could I possibly go? The only road left is straight into them. Either that Pillar of State from Chu buries me, or I bury him. Once the drums sound, one thing is already certain. On this day next year, either he or I will be having a death anniversary.”

The Sword Saint asked, “Just because you don’t want to lose?”

“I simply don’t want to lose.” Count Pingye lightly slapped his thigh. “What sane person wants to lose?”

“Is it worth it?”

“We’re playing anyway. I treasure my life, yes. But I treasure it because I don’t want to die meaninglessly. I want to keep this life so I can keep looking at scenery, keep enjoying myself properly. Right now, this is exactly the kind of fun opportunity worth accepting. And besides, this isn’t about whether it’s worth it. It’s about whether you’re willing to stake it.”

“Willing to stake it...” The Sword Saint savored the words. “Because one is willing to let go, one gains great freedom.”

“Stop, stop. This is not the time for you to comprehend the Dao. Let’s deal with the proper business first.”

Count Pingye adjusted his posture again.

His body leaned slightly forward.

His left hand supported his chin.

His eyes remained fixed on the front.

Beside him, Gongsun Zan slowly drew his own saber. As the grandson of Li Bao and the son of Gongsun Zhi, possessing a weapon made to fit his size was perfectly normal.

The boy was excited now, but not because Count Pingye was radiating heroic spirit.

His father was still fighting atop the Chu walls.

By the same token, Fan Li was still up there as well.

Other things could be sacrificed.

But unless matters truly became unavoidable, Zheng Fan could not bear to sacrifice any Demon King.

In this life, only they were truly his family.

That bond ran deeper than blood.

A’Ming spoke.

“Master, I truly did not expect A’Cheng to send word telling you to withdraw first.”

Zheng Fan smiled.

“He was provoking me.”

...

“I was not provoking Master. As the general managing the front line, I was naturally obliged to give the commander in the rear the most practical and safest recommendation. Whether Master follows it, and what choice he makes, is Master’s business.”

“But Fan Li is still on the wall. So are Gongsun Zhi and Gong Wang.”

“Fan Li holds the position of a fierce general beneath me. As for Gongsun Zhi and Gong Wang, if both of them die in battle, then after Master leads the army back and cleans up the situation, he can absorb the remnants of both forces completely into his own command. You know how to calculate that account. It would not be a loss.”

“But Master won’t choose that. And you know Master won’t choose that,” the Blind Man said.

Liang Cheng did not deny it.

That attitude was effectively agreement.

The Blind Man pointed behind them.

“Master’s command carriage is already moving forward. He intends to ram the Chu army straight back.”

Liang Cheng nodded.

“Then we ram them back.”

“Do we have a chance of winning?” The Blind Man reorganized the question. “I mean, what are the odds?”

“At this point, there’s no point calculating it anymore. It’s simply a matter of zero or one.”

The Blind Man finally peeled his orange.

“I thought the great orange was already settled. Who knew it would turn into this again? I do not enjoy dancing on the edge of a blade. Planning thoroughly before acting is much more my style.”

“But how can reality ever obey every wish?” Liang Cheng drew his saber. “This world is actually quite interesting. Take today. That Chu Pillar of State has genuinely surprised me several times.”

“You screwed up.”

“Yes. But it doesn’t matter. There has never been a true general who wins every battle, nor anyone who can calculate every last thing. Even the Prince of Jingnan won battlefields while exterminating his own clan and losing his wife at the same time. He won war, yet lost his own life as a man. And precisely because of that, this world is interesting. Otherwise, if everything went the way you like, farming, pushing steadily forward, pushing steadily forward again, until our entire lives became nothing more than a game of coloring squares, how boring would that be?”

“But this isn’t a game. You can’t put in another coin and get an extra life or restart after dying.” The Blind Man reminded him, “Do you know how long it took us to build this foundation?”

“Blind Man.”

“Mm?”

“When did you start thinking about things like this? In my mind, you should be the most detached and carefree among all of us. Back in Tiger Head City, after you got your first customer, you put a stall outside the inn for half a year. Every day you just basked in the sun. You couldn’t even be bothered greeting customers.”

“I like doing nothing. But once I do something, I want to do it as well as possible.”

“If we still want to play, then we start again from nothing. No matter what, it won’t be harder than when Master first woke up. And if we don’t want to play anymore, then we find somewhere new and something new and play with that.”

“A’Cheng, have you noticed your way of speaking lately is starting to sound a little like Master?”

“I have indeed been learning some things from Master recently.”

“For example?”

“Human relations and worldly dealings.”

“How exactly is that showing?”

“A very, very long time ago, when I faced a situation like this, I ordered a force of warriors absolutely loyal to me to seize the ruler’s great banner and carry it forward by force. This time, I handed the choice to Master.”

“A very, very long time ago... Don’t tell me that was...”

“The Battle of Zhuolu.”

“Heh.”

Thrum!

A Chu arrow struck the ground less than several dozen paces in front of them.

Far away, beneath the sunlight, the Fire-Phoenix Banner of the Chu Pillar of State glittered with golden light.

“Aiya.”

The Blind Man sighed, then rapidly stuffed segment after segment of orange into his mouth while chewing.

“I’ve discovered something. Once you get used to doing things from behind the curtain, suddenly standing at the front really takes some adjusting. It’s like someone who normally never drinks suddenly gulping down several cups of strong liquor. Goes straight to the head.”

“Stay behind me,” Liang Cheng said.

“Obviously. I’ll sweep aside arrows for you.”

“In truth, the other side is gambling its life. We only need to endure this one breath and we remain the winners. The Chu forces on the perimeter cannot hold our cavalry on both wings forever.”

Thrum!

Another arrow came.

The Blind Man swept it aside with telekinesis.

He stood behind Liang Cheng and snapped irritably:

“Focus.”

Liang Cheng raised his saber.

“Did you hear the Count’s military order? Can you see the Count’s command carriage? The Count is behind us. The Count has come! For the Count! For Snow Sea Pass! Follow me. Kill!”

“Kill!”

...

Beneath the Fire-Phoenix Banner stood an ancient-looking war chariot.

It appeared to be cast from bronze, and the whole vehicle carried a weathered dignity, as though centuries had settled into its metal.

Its surface was covered with countless dents, cuts, and scars, all traces left by battle.

The chariot itself was not large.

Two men handled the reins.

Two stood at the sides with halberds.

One man stood at the front holding a bow.

One man sat at the rear.

The seated man was elderly.

His hair and beard were entirely white.

Great Chu had four Pillars of State.

One came from the Qu Clan.

One from the Dugu Clan.

One from the Xie Clan.

All three were first-rank noble houses.

The fourth belonged to the Shi Clan.

Among Chu nobility, the Shi Clan ranked only third.

It was an unusual family.

The ancestor of the Shi Clan had begun as a personal guard to the Marquis of Chu. After receiving the Marquis’s favor, generations of the Shi family followed the rulers of Chu through campaigns north and south.

When the family was finally granted nobility, it should have received second rank.

The Shi Clan refused.

It chose to remain third rank.

Generation after generation thereafter produced generals, helping the Xiong imperial house manage the Imperial Clan Guards of Chu.

Because the Shi Clan rigidly upheld its ancestral rules and refused to raise its noble rank, the imperial house, wanting to reward its service, specially bestowed upon it the title Pillar of State.

The old man beneath the Fire-Phoenix Banner on the bronze war chariot was Shi Yuantang, current head of the Shi Clan.

And the Imperial Clan Guards of Chu surging out beside him were troops he had personally trained.

Years earlier, when the late Emperor of Chu died and the Princes’ Rebellion erupted, the chaos had been suppressed so quickly largely because the Regent had gained the Shi Clan’s support early.

That was why, during the Princes’ Rebellion, the other princes had been almost completely unable to mobilize the Imperial Clan Guards. They had been forced to seek support from noble houses in the provinces instead.

The Regent, who could mobilize the Imperial Clan Guards to suppress rebellion, naturally accomplished twice the result with half the effort.

Even during the late Emperor’s reign, the struggle among his sons had already taken shape.

Other princes had tried to win over the Shi Clan.

The Shi Clan never moved.

The Second Prince had even married a daughter of the Shi family as his princess-consort, yet when he raised troops, the Shi Clan and all the forces under its influence remained completely silent.

After the Princes’ Rebellion was settled, the Shi Clan retained enormous influence within the Imperial Clan Guards.

Across Great Chu, many people wondered why the Shi Clan had so willingly stood behind the Regent.

After all, if the Shi Clan wished it, if Shi Yuantang wished it, his own grandson might very well become Great Chu’s next Crown Prince.

“Everyone keeps guessing why I, Shi Yuantang, fixed my support on the Regent. There are theories of every sort. But in truth, I already explained it clearly in the memorial where I requested that His Majesty ascend the throne. In temperament, breadth of mind, methods, and vision, His Majesty was the best choice to rule Great Chu.”

The bowman standing before him was a man in simple leather armor.

He wore no helmet.

His hair was long and broad around his face in the style Chu men favored, with a faintly alluring cast between his brows.

Chu men actually regarded that sort of appearance as beautiful, a mark of uninhibited spirit.

“Lord Shi’s loyalty to the public good and devotion to the state are things they will never understand. In their eyes, everything written in a memorial must be official rhetoric. Every character must be picked apart, interpreted, and overinterpreted. How could they imagine that sometimes the honest truth really is just sitting on the surface?”

“In those years, every Highness came to visit the Shi Clan. The Second Prince even married my youngest daughter. Only the Fourth Prince never stepped through my gate, nor did he send ceremonial gifts during festivals.”

The bowman smiled.

“His Majesty truly is interesting.”

“Not interesting. His Majesty understood my heart and the heart of the Shi Clan. If the late Emperor had left a final decree, then the Shi Clan would naturally obey that decree. There would have been no need to court us. If there were no final decree, then the Shi Clan would act according to loyalty to the state. Among the princes, the Fourth Prince had already formed the broadest vision. That gave him even less reason to court the Shi Clan.”

“If only more things in this world could be so simple and direct.”

“Like your arrows?” Shi Yuantang asked with a smile.

The bowman nodded.

“A pity about your fine disciple.”

“To die on a battlefield is ordinary. What is there to pity?”

“True.”

The bowman’s surname was Mu.

His name was Yang.

Mu Yang had once commanded one branch of the Imperial Clan Guards of Chu.

During the late Emperor’s reign, he was convicted after shooting a noble youth dead in the street and imprisoned in the Phoenix Nest Guards’ Zhao Prison.

After the Regent took power, Mu Yang was released and returned to the army under Shi Yuantang.

The man who had hidden among the Savage slave soldiers yesterday and fired an arrow at Count Pingye was Mu Yang’s disciple.

Shi Yuantang sighed.

“I truly did not expect the Yan, who were always best at mounted field warfare, to advance this far in siegecraft. Had I not insisted on staying behind to hold this place when the Yan took Central Mountain Camp, and ordered Dugu Nian to withdraw the original garrison under the banner of Imperial Clan Guards, then today, if those men had been defending, the fort might truly have fallen.”

Mu Yang smiled.

“Even with Lord Shi defending, it nearly fell.”

“Hahahaha!”

Shi Yuantang laughed loudly.

“Yes, yes, yes. But at least this old man still had the strength to overturn the table once. What a pity. If we could have fought for another ten days or half a month before suddenly charging out, we would not merely have broken the siege of East Mountain Fort. We might have shattered Yan’s entire eastern deployment. Both sides have hundreds of thousands of troops. It looks enormous. Soldiers everywhere. But once you truly begin using them, most units are matched piece for piece against one another. One small problem in one small direction can make the whole battlefield short of troops. This Yan force surprised this old man enormously. Fortunately there are no Qu Clan men here, so I can still say one thing without offending anyone: as expected of Yan’s Count Pingye.”

“Even if Qu Clan men were here, what would stop you from saying it?”

“You. That temper of yours needs changing. You spent seven years in Zhao Prison because of it. Was it worth it?”

“I can’t change it. And I’m too lazy to try.”

Shi Yuantang nodded.

His gaze sharpened as he watched the troops beside him surge out through the gates.

“Order the cavalry from the eastern and western gates to entangle the Yan cavalry. The central army continues forward. Keep charging until we reach the Yan camp.”

“Woooooo!”

“Woooooo!”

Chu horns sounded.

The Chu troops charging out of the fort displayed formidable combat strength.

The vanguard cleared the way.

Shield soldiers followed.

Archers and crossbowmen came behind.

Even while charging, the formation maintained this steady rhythm.

The moment they encountered resistance, they shifted into smaller formations with astonishing speed. Some groups entangled the enemy, others surrounded them, while the rest continued pressing left and right, spreading across the battlefield in the shortest possible time.

There were two reasons for this.

First, they needed to create enough open space for the troops still emerging from the fort.

Second, they wanted to expand the effect of this unexpected counterattack as much as possible, because every extra bit of expansion meant a greater harvest from the battle.

Mu Yang stood with bow in hand, watching the field.

“Everyone beneath Heaven believes Yan’s iron cavalry are unrivaled. In truth, every army merely has its strengths and weaknesses.”

Cavalry excelled at mobility.

When Count Pingye struck Central Mountain Camp earlier, the true foundation of the maneuver had been the Prince of Jingnan using cavalry mobility to split and match forces rapidly, thereby creating a “Tian Ji horse-racing” opportunity for the ace army beneath his command.

Had the Yan been dominated by infantry, they could never have completed such large-scale redeployment in so little time.

Even if they somehow managed it, the delay would have given Nian Yao more than enough time to respond.

And in close-range fighting, well-equipped, well-trained infantry still suffered some disadvantage against cavalry because the enemy had horses beneath them.

But it was not enough to make resistance impossible.

Handled properly, infantry could absolutely fight cavalry.

Winning was nothing extraordinary either.

Since ancient times, examples of infantry defeating cavalry were beyond counting.

“Infantry defeating cavalry is troublesome by nature.” Shi Yuantang did not seem concerned. “I hear the Zu Clan over on Qian’s eastern coast has developed a new method.”

“The Zu Clan Army of Qian?”

“Exactly.”

“A pity. We probably cannot expect anything from Qian in this war,” Mu Yang said.

“A war between states is a war between states. If you are counting on someone else, what kind of war between states is it?”

“Lord Shi, look! We’ve broken open the Yan formation.”

Mu Yang was a divine archer.

His eyesight was extraordinarily sharp.

He was right.

Faced with Chu troops suddenly surging out, the Yan had clearly been caught unprepared.

The cavalry originally left on both wings had been meant to clean up the battlefield afterward or block small mounted detachments, as they had done the day before.

Now those Yan riders were already tied down by Chu cavalry.

The Imperial Clan Guards of Chu had pierced directly into the large formation the Yan had deployed for the siege.

For a time, it created the effect of rolling back a beaded curtain.

Mu Yang said, “Lord Shi, if this momentum continues, our army can press all the way forward and smash through the Yan camp in one stroke!”

Shi Yuantang shook his head.

“That is exactly where the problem lies. The enemy before us is Yan’s Count Pingye. Did you know he built not one military camp, but three? Two more stand behind the first.”

“Two more?”

Mu Yang clearly had not known.

Shi Yuantang looked helpless as well.

“The world says Count Pingye loves dangerous moves. Whether it was the thousand-li rush to Snow Sea Pass or riding into Qu Clan territory to abduct the princess, he took risk to the extreme. On top of that, he is young, hot-blooded, already ennobled and occupying a high position. Even this old man once believed his temperament should be fierce and arrogant. But after truly crossing hands with him, I discovered his way of war genuinely carries a shadow of Yan’s Prince of Jingnan. He can play dangerous moves on campaign, yet still cook a small fish with perfect care. I hear the young man once rode in the same carriage as His Majesty. Heh.”

“Forgive a forbidden remark, but perhaps His Majesty regrets not strangling Yan’s Count Pingye to death inside that carriage?”

Shi Yuantang shook his head and laughed.

“His Majesty was probably thinking: if you wanted to become my brother-in-law, you could have simply said so.”

“Hahahahaha!”

Mu Yang and Shi Yuantang laughed together.

This was a battlefield.

A battlefield where winds and clouds surged violently.

Yet the chief commanders on both sides still somehow displayed a kind of relaxed ease.

One could hardly blame Shi Yuantang for being in a good mood.

Chu troops had already reached the Yan trebuchet positions.

Quite a few Chu soldiers were smashing the machines apart.

Those trebuchets had caused the defenders inside East Mountain Fort enormous suffering during the siege.

At the beginning, the Chu had never imagined Yan trebuchets would surpass their own in both number and performance.

The Yan collapse had already begun.

Whether the eventual gains proved large or small, this battle could at least be called a victory.

“Lord Shi, what do you think Count Pingye will choose?”

“He will step back and discover the sea and sky are wide. His command carriage is positioned toward the rear of the central army. He can gather the center as a blocking force while gradually pulling the rear army back into the first camp. If the camp can be defended, he defends it. If not, he abandons it and withdraws to the second camp, hoping our army grows greedy and continues pursuing. Once our line stretches long enough, the two Yan cavalry forces originally pinned on the perimeter should be able to return. Count Pingye himself should also have gathered another body of troops by then. If we become greedy and continue pressing forward, he may reverse the situation and cut us off, grinding our army to pieces between those two camps. That is why I rejected your earlier suggestion of driving directly into the Yan camp. At the very least, East Mountain Fort has stout walls we can rely upon. If we abandoned this fort, then took the Yan camp instead, would that not be the stupidity of trading a city for a camp? Our momentum is strong now. He should withdraw. Once he steps back, he will still be besieging the fort and we will still be defending it. A commander must always place the greater situation first. I refuse to believe Tian Wujing’s disciple would fail to understand that principle and allow himself to be driven by youthful impulse...”

“Lord Shi.”

“What is it?”

“The Yan command carriage is moving forward.”

Shi Yuantang stood immediately.

He looked toward the front.

His eyesight could not compare with Mu Yang’s.

He could not see the command carriage clearly.

But he could see Yan soldiers who had already scattered beginning to gather again in the rear.

The Yan central and rear armies had suddenly tightened.

Large bodies of men began forcing their way toward the Chu.

“Heh.”

Shi Yuantang reached out and patted the side of the bronze chariot.

“Young. In the end, still young. Why? What for? Is the reputation of a man who has won a hundred battles without defeat truly worth that much?”

Mu Yang said, “It seems Count Pingye simply refuses to lose, not even one engagement.”

Shi Yuantang issued his order.

“Tell the armies on both wings to spread outward. The central army will use this old man’s chariot and this Fire-Phoenix Banner as its direction and press forward! Break the Yan center for me! They have delivered themselves to our door. What Yan Count Pingye? Looking at him now, he amounts to nothing more than this. With a temperament like his, no matter how deeply he studies technique, no matter how much he acquires or refines, he will never grasp the true Way!”

At Shi Yuantang’s order, the Chu forces on both wings began rapidly expanding outward.

Their purpose was to create room for the central army to strike the Yan main formation head-on.

Since ancient times, one of the great frustrations of infantry fighting cavalry was that even after winning, infantry often could not catch the enemy.

That had more or less been Shi Yuantang’s problem earlier.

But once the Yan command carriage advanced and forcibly gathered troops for a counter-push, that problem disappeared.

The Yan had delivered themselves forward.

Truly delivered themselves.

So long as the Chu smashed the Yan central formation in one stroke, the greater part of the Yan force would scatter like dust kicked into the air.

It might fill the sky.

But it would no longer possess real cohesion.

Mu Yang nocked an arrow to his longbow.

His body leaned slightly.

Shi Yuantang quietly sat down again.

He slapped his thigh.

And began humming a Chu folk tune.

At the same time, the Imperial Clan Guards of Chu pushed forward with even greater momentum.

Before those neat forests of Chu weapons, the Yan troops, caught unprepared, were like tiny boats tossed in violent surf, squeezed outward step by step.

Great Chu could stand among the four great eastern states for a reason.

...

Guo Dong and Xu An were running backward.

The Chu’s sudden attack had thrown auxiliaries like them into the most awkward possible situation.

Their File Leader did not know what to do.

Their Squad Leader did not know what to do.

Even the Lieutenant Commander who had always led them seemed not to understand what was happening before a Chu halberd picked him up and killed him.

So the auxiliaries scattered almost immediately.

It was not a collapse of morale.

It was confusion.

These past days, they had only been trained to hold shields.

“Damn those bastards! Have the Chu gone insane? They actually dared charge out on their own!”

Guo Dong shouted in disbelief.

His side had clearly been attacking the fort.

How had the battle somehow turned into the defenders charging out and driving them backward?

Then Xu An suddenly grabbed Guo Dong by the shoulder and stopped him.

At first, Guo Dong did not understand.

Very soon, he saw the command carriage moving toward them in the distance.

And ahead of him stood Snow Sea soldiers forming ranks with sabers drawn.

A group of broken troops had already crashed into those ranks.

The Snow Sea soldiers simply raised their sabers and cut them down.

They were killing their own people.

But this was correct.

The Yan on the outer sections had already been driven back by the sudden Chu counterattack.

They had become broken troops in fact.

If the collapse continued spreading, it would turn into a rolling-curtain rout.

The broken troops would smash through the central army.

Then the center would disrupt the rear.

At that point, there would be no battle left to fight.

Years ago beside the Wang River, the main force of the Savage King had been defeated in very much the same way.

“The Count has ordered: soldiers of Great Yan, fight to the death and do not retreat!”

“The Count has ordered: soldiers of Great Yan, fight to the death and do not retreat!”

Gao Yi held a long saber and personally led troops from the guard camp forward, shouting the order again and again.

Guo Dong still stood there dazed.

Xu An slapped him sharply across the face and shouted:

“Weren’t you going to avenge your father? Your chance is here!”

...

On the command carriage, Count Pingye remained seated in the same posture.

With the pounding of drums and the guards repeatedly shouting the Count’s orders, large numbers of Yan soldiers had already gathered around him.

Some belonged to his own force.

Some came from Gongsun Zhi’s and Gong Wang’s armies.

Some were auxiliaries.

Many had already been scattered earlier.

But when they passed the command carriage, or saw the direction in which it was moving, they gathered again like snow rolling into a ball.

Then they turned and began fighting back toward the Chu.

The battlefield was already in chaos.

Complete chaos.

On the walls, Yan and Chu troops were still fighting.

Farther away, Yan and Chu cavalry were entangled.

Farther still, Chu troops from the eastern and western gates had pinned down the detached forces Gongsun Zhi and Gong Wang had left on the wings to cover the original siege.

And in the struggle directly ahead, the Chu left and right wings had expanded outward and divided the battlefield again and again.

Like peeling an onion until, at the very center, only the sharpest, wettest core remained.

It was almost a miniature version of the Prince of Jingnan matching pieces across a battlefield of nearly a million soldiers.

The Chu were matching pieces too.

A battlefield was an art with ten thousand transformations.

At a particular time, in a particular environment, under a particular situation, it could always produce some astonishing and almost unbelievable pattern.

For the first two days, the Yan had assaulted the fort with unstoppable momentum.

Now the Chu counterattack had chosen its moment just as perfectly.

Even if the force before them was not noble private troops but Imperial Clan Guards, the overall truth remained that Yan was stronger and Chu weaker.

Yet the Pillar of State opposite them had forcibly manufactured this opportunity.

Masters exchanging blows.

This was a true exchange between masters.

Count Pingye had, after all, received Tian Wujing’s true instruction.

He did not believe the present situation meant Liang Cheng had lost.

Some changes could never have been controlled by A’Cheng in the first place.

When Tian Wujing defeated the Savage King, had that victory not depended on Zheng Fan taking Snow Sea Pass and blocking the Savage retreat?

That had never been part of Old Tian’s original calculation.

Sometimes a willow planted without thought truly grew into shade.

So Zheng Fan felt neither anger nor disappointment.

In fact, when his command carriage gathered Yan soldiers around itself and actively smashed toward the Chu formation, Zheng Fan felt not the slightest fear or anxiety.

Instead, a tremor rose from the depths of his heart.

Excitement.

Hot blood.

This was not performance.

It was genuine emotion.

“The first Marquis of Zhenbei once broke half a million Qian troops with thirty thousand men. Old Tian once campaigned a thousand li in ten days and destroyed half of Jin. As for me, I keep saying I’ve never lost a battle. But the few times I went south into Qian, even counting the time I followed Li Fusheng, they were only small fights. I was never the main character. When I followed Old Tian onto the snowfields, I mostly handled logistics and picked up a military achievement along the way. The one thing I can truly point to is the thousand-li rush to Snow Sea Pass. But even there, the main battlefield was won by Old Tian leading the elites of the Zhenbei and Jingnan Armies. So what I’ve always lacked is one truly solid, unquestionable military achievement entirely in my own hands. Good. Imperial Clan Guards of Great Chu. One Pillar of State of Great Chu. Fine. I’m done being picky. I’ll take him.”

Count Pingye yawned.

Then he gave the order.

“Pass the word. My command carriage is the line. Anyone who falls behind it will be treated as a deserter. Kill without mercy!”

“Pass the word. Fire every signal flare. Any soldiers in our camps or on the perimeter who can see the signals are to come reinforce immediately!”

The Yan were the attacking side.

Naturally, their deployment covered a broad area.

That was exactly the opening the Chu had exploited.

And now Count Pingye intended to gather every soldier he could.

A hundred.

Two hundred.

Three or five together.

He would take them all.

Thrum!

An arrow flew toward the carriage.

The Sword Saint raised his sword and knocked it away.

Ahead, Gao Yi’s guards had already smashed into the Chu formation and were fighting with complete abandon.

Looking across the field, the snowball that had gathered around the command carriage had now become a line expanding constantly outward.

Chu, Yan, and Jin soldiers fell upon each other like wild beasts.

The Sword Saint raised the Longyuan Sword and asked Zheng Fan:

“I’ll ask you one more time. Do you want me to go down there and kill, or stay here and hold up your command carriage?”

“Hahaha!”

Count Pingye laughed loudly.

The command carriage had already entered the Chu formation.

Chu soldiers went mad trying to force their way toward it.

They knew perfectly well who sat there.

The Yan and Jin troops around the carriage fought even more desperately to protect it.

They knew even better who sat there.

“Yan dog Count Pingye is here!”

“The Pillar of State has ordered: whoever kills Zheng Fan will have his family raised in noble rank!”

“Protect the Count!”

“Protect the Count to the death!”

The battle around this section had become so intense that both commanders were forcibly driving their own armies forward using themselves as the axis.

Sitting on the command carriage, Zheng Fan could already see the bronze war chariot behind the Chu battle line in the distance.

He could see the Fire-Phoenix Banner planted upon it.

At last, Count Pingye looked toward the Sword Saint.

Then he pulled the Barbarian saber he had driven into the command carriage earlier back out.

Clad in golden armor, for the first time in his life, he stood this openly conspicuous at the very center of a battlefield.

In the past, he had never dared.

He had always thought that kind of display was asking for death.

Yet he had always envied Old Tian.

Every time Old Tian charged, he rode a Pixiu, wore gilded armor, and killed his way at the front of ten thousand troops.

Envy.

How could he not envy it?

He had truly envied it.

And now, forced by circumstances, he had finally been given the same opportunity.

Once every trace of apprehension and unease was cast aside, standing out as the brightest figure on a blood-soaked battlefield truly was intoxicating.

It made a man swell with pride.

It made him feel free.

It made him feel alive.

A man ought to be like this!

A’Ming and the Sword Saint both watched Zheng Fan.

They were waiting to see what he himself would choose.

Count Pingye stood.

Holding the Barbarian saber, he stretched lazily and grinned.

“How the fuck could I possibly lose? I came here to attack the damned fort! Now the Chu ran out by themselves. I don’t even have to climb the wall anymore. Fuck all that other messy nonsense. I just can’t understand it. Isn’t this exactly what I dreamed of? Why would I lose? What right do I have to lose? I only know how to win. I can only win. And I fucking have to win!”

Then

Count Pingye released a long roar.

Black light surged around his body.

He leapt from the command carriage.

His saber smashed into the face of a Chu soldier.

Then he ripped the blade free.

Blood sprayed across his face.

Warm.

Scalding.

In that instant, everything seemed to return to the laborer camp of long ago, when Xue San and Liang Cheng had pinned down a Barbarian soldier and told him to kill.

That time, he had gathered his courage and brought the saber down.

Blood had sprayed all over him then too.

In this world, whether you called it circling from west to east, or clawing your way from the bottom to the top, when all was said and done, what else were you seeking but one chance to live to your heart’s content?

A Chu halberd came chopping down from behind.

A’Ming appeared beside Zheng Fan and blocked it.

Zheng Fan turned.

The Barbarian saber cut across.

It split the other man’s armor.

The blade bit into bone.

Zheng Fan stepped forward, seized the hilt with both hands, and kicked the Chu soldier in the chest.

The man flew.

The saber came free.

Count Pingye wiped the blood from his face.

He looked around.

And roared:

“Fuck ’em up!”

[End of Chapter 526]