Chapter 976: Destroy the State!

“Pfft!”

The spear in the Chu soldier’s hands punched into Qu Peiluo’s chest, its point piercing straight through his armor.

Yet the former young master of the Qu Clan now carried a rough, savage ferocity that would once have seemed unimaginable. His saber swept upward and chopped the spear shaft apart. Without bothering to pull the broken spearhead from his chest, he lunged forward and drove his blade into the Chu soldier’s abdomen. He twisted hard, then kicked the man away.

Only then did Qu Peiluo have to plant his saber against the ground to support himself while he gasped for breath.

The Chu Battalion had held this camp for days against a Chu force several times its own size.

Their losses had been horrific.

But Qu Peiluo had no mind left to brood over the irony of Chu men slaughtering Chu men here.

Instead, he cursed aloud:

“Zheng, you bastard! Where the hell is your hidden hand?!”

The person who understood you best might be your enemy.

Or, more precisely... your former enemy.

As the former young master of the Qu Clan, a man defeated by the Regent Prince both on the battlefield and in matters of romance, Qu Peiluo actually understood Zheng Fan better than most people did.

At the beginning, he too had believed this was simply one mistaken move, a gap the Chu had seized to drive the Yan backward in a single surge.

But the longer he held this camp... the more certain he became.

All of it... had been arranged by that bastard Zheng.

He had no evidence.

Only instinct.

And by now, that instinct had hardened into certainty.

Looked at another way, perhaps that instinct was the only thing still allowing him to keep holding this camp, a place that had long since become little more than a meat-grinding basin.

Outside the camp, Zhao Han stood with saber in hand, personally overseeing the assault.

His original task had been to lead his own troops in taking this Yan camp east of Zhennan Pass, then coordinate with the main army to complete the encirclement of the pass.

What he had not expected... was for this camp to be so brutally difficult to bite through.

What shocked him even more was the identity of its commander.

Qu Peiluo of the Qu Clan... a man who had once possessed status no less exalted than Zhao Han’s own.

As a noble of Great Chu, Zhao Han naturally possessed aristocratic pride.

And his hatred for Chu traitors was even stronger.

Qu Peiluo’s defection could practically be called a stain upon the honor of Chu’s nobility.

Worse still, Qu Peiluo had led his men in resisting Zhao Han for this long, preventing him from joining the main army against Zhennan Pass earlier.

That multiplied the anger in Zhao Han’s heart.

“Qu Peiluo! Qu Peiluo! Even if you insist on being a traitor to Chu, do you really have to work this damned hard at it?!”

Bang!

At the very core of the camp, the Water Dragon Stockade Gate finally fell.

The Chu soldiers erupted in cheers.

They had finally taken the killing ground that had blocked them for two full days.

Now the remaining defenders inside the camp had no strong position left to hold.

Zhao Han drew his saber and issued an order.

“Take Qu Peiluo alive! This general will skin him personally!”

Qu Peiluo watched the Water Dragon Stockade Gate fall.

His own troops no longer had the strength to stop the enemy.

The Chu army was suppressing and breaking them completely.

Qu Peiluo simply exhaled and sat down on the ground.

At that moment... the image that appeared in his mind was actually that little girl.

The way she affectionately called him “Uncle Qu.”

The way she smiled at him.

So brightly.

The thought made Qu Peiluo grit his teeth and force himself back to his feet.

Yes.

He did not want to die.

He still wanted to live.

Even if... the hope was almost nonexistent.

Then, at that exact moment... the earth began to tremble.

It sounded like thunder bursting from dry ground.

From the east, black-armored cavalry appeared.

Endless cavalry.

A black tide charging straight toward them.

Among the Chu army, Zhao Han stared blankly to the east.

Despair flooded his face almost instantly.

He understood.

If one Yan army appeared here... then there could not possibly be only one Yan army appearing across the entire battlefield around Zhennan Pass.

For them to choose this exact moment to reveal themselves meant the Yan believed the timing had arrived.

And the fact that they could remain composed until the timing was perfect meant one thing very clearly.

The Yan... had prepared for this long ago.

Which meant their main force...

Zhao Han roared:

“FORM TO THE EAST! FORM RANKS! STOP THE YAN! STOP THEM!”

Qu Peiluo saw the sight from the east as well.

He laughed.

Something wet shimmered in that smile.

He knew he had no right to cry.

No face to cry.

But tears were not always something a man could control.

Qu Peiluo swayed twice.

Then finally collapsed again.

Fortunately, the Chu had no attention left to spare on clearing the surviving defenders inside the camp.

Almost all of them were rushing frantically outward.

“Young Master.”

A guard hurried forward to help Qu Peiluo up.

Qu Peiluo pushed him away.

The hope he had clung to for so long had finally become reality.

And somehow, now that it had... he felt almost dazed.

He murmured:

“This time... Great Chu really is going to disappear.”

...

The eastern camp outside Zhennan Pass was defended by the Chu Battalion.

The western camp, meanwhile, was held by a Yan detachment together with all the Savage auxiliaries.

For the Savage auxiliaries, the situation was simple.

They had no choice except to fight to the death.

Over the past several months, they had slaughtered far too many Chu civilians.

They understood perfectly well that if they lost, the Chu would never spare them.

Nor would the Chu accept their surrender.

At the same time, even if Zhennan Pass fell, any attempt to return home would still require passing through Snow Sea Pass.

But Snow Sea Pass remained in Yan hands.

Even if they deserted now... could they actually make it home?

Flee elsewhere?

That was another dead end.

The Yan would soon regroup and launch another round of war.

And these deserters would be the first men marked for liquidation.

For all those reasons, the Savage auxiliaries defending this camp displayed astonishing fighting spirit.

They had nowhere left to retreat.

Even so, the western camp was now just as precarious as the eastern one.

Mandun had already been struck by two arrows.

Fortunately, earlier he had stripped the armor from a dead Yan soldier and put it on himself.

That armor had saved his life.

Even with it, however, he had suffered no fewer than five other wounds.

Now he could only lean crookedly against a support and was no longer capable of going forward to fight.

Everywhere he looked... corpses lay in layers.

One pile atop another.

Mandun thought of his woman.

His two sons.

His daughter.

He had already earned enough military merit.

More than enough.

It was like pouring wine from a great jar into a tiny cup.

His merit had overflowed long ago.

He already possessed the qualifications, despite being a Savage, to become a Standard Household in eastern Jin.

He could bring his woman and children to live there with him.

He could enter the regular Yan army and openly wear the armor of a soldier of the Residence.

Step by step, he might climb higher.

Perhaps one day he too could wear Brocade-Clad uniform, like those few men of his own people already had.

His woman did not know how to farm.

That was fine.

She could work in a workshop.

The wages were excellent.

His children could attend the free schools, learn Xia script and the Xia language, and avoid walking the same hard road their father had.

When they grew up, they would naturally become subjects of the Residence.

Subjects of the Prince.

Everything good in life had drawn so close.

And then... all at once... it had been pulled impossibly far away again.

Because everything depended upon one thing.

He had to survive.

“The Stars... no... Great Prince, please protect your loyal subject...”

“KILL!”

“KILL!”

Suddenly, killing cries erupted everywhere.

Mandun had lost so much blood that his senses had grown hazy.

He had not even noticed a huge cavalry force approaching.

By the time he recovered enough to understand what was happening, endless Yan cavalry had already smashed into the Chu formations and begun slaughtering them.

At the sight...

Mandun bit down hard on his own lip until blood ran.

He did not notice the pain.

He opened his mouth wide.

And with a hoarse voice, shouted:

“We live! We live! We live!”

...

A side battlefield remained a side battlefield.

The force attacking Zhennan Pass itself was the central Chu army under Xiong Tingshan.

Likewise... the Yan force now striking it was their main army.

This army gathered the main strength of eastern Jin together with old Jingnan Army and Zhenbei Army formations drawn from other parts of Jin.

Now... a vast tide of iron cavalry was launching a massive charge against the Chu formations.

Standing atop his field command platform in the center of his army, Xiong Tingshan did not cry.

Nor did he shout himself hoarse.

When truly enormous despair arrived... even he was surprised by how numb he felt.

The dream had been too beautiful.

So beautiful that, somewhere deep inside... perhaps he had already known it might only be a dream.

Now... the dream had simply been punctured.

Xiong Tingshan calmly ordered his field headquarters to advance, using his own movement forward to call the Chu soldiers around him into the danger.

If one looked down upon the entire Zhennan Pass front from above, no fewer than ten local Yan-Chu clashes were erupting across the line at once.

The main forces of both sides, however... were colliding south of Zhennan Pass itself.

Xiong Tingshan could not retreat.

Even though he already understood that the Chu no longer possessed any hope of victory.

The Yan still held the mighty pass.

Their main army remained intact.

Great Chu had no chance whatsoever of taking Zhennan Pass now.

But Xiong Tingshan could not turn around.

Only by remaining here and pinning the Yan main force could he create room for the other Chu formations on both wings to withdraw.

If his center collapsed... the Yan main force could immediately advance at leisure, cutting apart, surrounding, and devouring any Chu force it chose.

Earlier, when the Yan had fought, lost, and retreated while still maintaining order, it was because almost every Yan formation making contact had been cavalry.

If the Yan could not win... they could still outrun the enemy.

But the Chu?

Imagine it.

Across the nearly flat expanse of Shanggu Commandery, several hundred thousand Chu troops, mostly infantry with cavalry only in support, began retreating across the entire front.

Then the road from Zhennan Pass all the way to the Wei River would become a slaughter ground for those hundreds of thousands of elite soldiers of Great Chu.

They would become prey fleeing in panic.

And the Yan would hunt them madly from behind.

How many would make it back alive?

And that was before asking whether the Wei River itself could even stop the Yan pursuit.

Riding the momentum of such a victory, the Yan might simply punch straight through the three-commandery defensive line as well.

Then Great Chu would lose nearly five hundred thousand elite soldiers... lose the three-commandery defense... and allow Yan spearheads to enter directly into the capital region.

Or rather... the people who had once lived beneath the feet of the Son of Heaven in Great Chu’s heartland... would suddenly become frontier civilians.

That was why Xiong Tingshan had to hold.

He had to create room for the Chu armies to withdraw in organized formations.

Just as Grand General Nian had once voluntarily abandoned Zhennan Pass and withdrawn south of the Wei River.

If victory was no longer possible, then as a descendant of the Xiong Clan, Xiong Tingshan had to preserve as much blood for Great Chu as he possibly could.

But rising against the tide was not something a commander could accomplish merely through courage.

The charges of elite Yan troops struck the Chu like blade after blade from a sharpened cavalry saber, brutally carving through flesh and bone.

And the great standard symbolizing the Regent Prince himself kept moving south.

Forward.

Forward.

Still forward.

It pointed directly toward Xiong Tingshan’s command banner.

Without the slightest attempt at concealment.

Zheng Fan rode atop his Pixiu with Wuya in hand.

Around him, the Brocade-Clad personal guards charged with their Prince.

Calling it a charge was almost inaccurate.

It felt more like simple forward movement.

Across a long stretch of ground, the Brocade-Clad formation never once encountered an organized Chu unit capable of truly stopping them.

Until... the momentum of the various Yan attacks was finally checked when the Chu paid enormous casualties to force the line to stabilize.

Only then did Zheng Fan finally see the Chu formation standing before him.

And behind that formation... the commander’s banner of the Chu.

Xiong Tingshan saw Zheng Fan’s great standard at the same time.

He could not help feeling a little rueful.

They were both princes.

Yet the Prince opposite him certainly lived a far more... overbearing life.

That great standard even carried gold edging.

It was almost indistinguishable from the Jinwu great standard reserved for an Emperor.

Then again, Xiong Tingshan had no face to complain that his own imperial elder brother had failed to trust or value him.

Otherwise, he would never have been given command over this many troops.

He would instead have been left in Ying Capital all those years ago... to burn alive alongside his brothers.

*Brother... blame your little brother for being useless.*

That was what Xiong Tingshan thought.

But his expression did not change.

He continued issuing orders, organizing the formations around him against Yan attacks still crashing in from every direction.

The battlefield was enormous.

Even when a commander remained in the rear, he often saw only the tip of the iceberg.

Once the commander himself entered deeply into the fighting... his perception of the entire battle became little more than one drop in an ocean.

But Zheng Fan understood that what was happening elsewhere was now secondary.

The sudden arrival of his main force meant the overall situation would inevitably collapse in his favor.

The Chu no longer had any possibility of reversing defeat into victory.

But Zheng Fan wanted more than a great victory.

He wanted to swallow all five hundred thousand elite soldiers of Great Chu in one breath.

And if he could smash through the formation directly ahead... if he could bring down that commander’s banner... then everything he wanted would become reality firmly held in his hand.

“A very solid formation,” Zheng Fan said.

“Yes, Master,” A’Ming answered. “It may genuinely take some time to break.”

Zheng Fan shook his head.

“You seem to have forgotten something. A pity. Ah Cheng spent years cultivating it, and I’m the first one who gets to taste the result. Dahu! Pass the order. Armor on. Mount up!”

“Yes!”

Liu Dahu immediately ordered a Brocade-Clad comrade beside him to transmit the Prince’s command.

From behind them... a force that had been following all along finally appeared.

Only three thousand men.

But those three thousand riders were accompanied by another three thousand auxiliaries serving as attendants.

More importantly... the riders were currently mounted on one set of horses.

Their true combat mounts... were running beside them riderless.

Now the princely command had arrived.

The riders switched back onto their actual heavy-armored war mounts.

And nearly half of those mounts... were not warhorses at all.

They were Pi Beasts.

This was the force Liang Cheng had spent three years painstakingly creating: eastern Jin’s heavy-armored iron cavalry.

With auxiliaries helping them don the final layers of armor, and with long cavalry lances lifted into their hands, an absolute battlefield monster finally revealed the ferocity and edge it had been born to display.

Zheng Fan faced them.

The Pixiu beneath him stared at the formation with a nearly red hunger in its eyes.

It wanted to lead this cavalry.

Wanted to lead those Pi Beasts.

Wanted to charge.

Although... it understood perfectly well that such a thing was almost impossible.

Then, at that moment...

Zheng Fan sheathed Wuya.

At the same time, he reached over and took the Black Dragon Banner from Liu Dahu.

The flagstaff came forward.

He tucked it beneath his arm.

And held it like a cavalry lance.

As if sensing what was about to happen, the Pixiu became almost frantic with excitement.

Hot breath blasted from its nostrils.

Its four hooves stamped uncontrollably against the earth.

“Master, this is very dangerous.”

“I know.”

“Master... aren’t you afraid?”

“I am.”

“Victory is already decided. Master could simply...”

“But I’m more afraid that someday I’ll regret not making this choice today.”

Zheng Fan looked at A’Ming.

“Among the great states, only Qian and Chu remain. A war of this scale and importance will probably happen only two more times. I truly do not want to miss one. Besides... if we’re going to play, then let’s enjoy it completely. I’m afraid of dying, but I’m even more afraid of missing a chance like today.”

“Master, reconsider.”

“If fear of death means you can’t play, then what’s the point of playing at all? What, only you lot are allowed to have all the fun while I’m forbidden from joining in? I know. My battlefield luck really has been terrible sometimes. That captured Daoist once said my luck was poor because I’m some kind of Rootless Person rejected by Heaven and Earth. Not only me. Lin’er. Big Girl. They are too. So even if I do nothing for myself, as their father, I have to prove something for them once. Don’t be afraid of Heaven and Earth refusing to tolerate you. Let them understand that Heaven itself is just like their old man here. It looks bright and magnificent from the outside, but in truth... it’s really not such a damned big deal.”

Zheng Fan urged the Pixiu forward.

The Pixiu exploded into motion.

Carrying the Black Dragon Banner like a cavalry lance and dressed in his princely robes, the Prince raced at full speed past the front of the heavy cavalry formation.

Then... without another speech... without a single word to stir their blood... he turned south toward the Chu formation.

And took his place at the exact center of the foremost line.

The Black Dragon Banner lowered.

Level.

Behind him swish! swish!

Every heavy cavalryman lowered his lance together.

Level.

The Pixiu began to run.

Behind it... three thousand heavy-armored iron cavalrymen began to run as well.

Great Yan’s Regent Prince... charged first.

A Pixiu running at full speed was terrifyingly fast.

The wind smashed into Zheng Fan’s face so violently that he could barely keep his eyes open.

He had to turn his head slightly.

Through his blurred vision... he seemed to see another figure racing beside him.

Gold armor.

White hair.

Mounted on a Pixiu too.

“Hahahahahaha...”

The Regent Prince of Great Yan began laughing.

“Before... you were in front of me. Later... you were beside me. But perhaps... you’d rather...”

“HYAH!”

The Pixiu felt its master’s command.

It squeezed out every scrap of strength and accelerated again.

Every time its four hooves struck the ground... they smashed pits into the earth.

And in Zheng Fan’s vision, the white-haired figure running beside him began falling behind.

Growing faint.

Growing unreal.

Zheng Fan turned his eyes forward again.

Toward the Chu formation drawing closer with every heartbeat.

Watch carefully.

The Chu you failed to destroy...

I’ll destroy it.

Brother.

Now... you’re behind me.

[End of Chapter 976]