Chapter 743: Chapter 575: The Hunt_2
Once an Innate Martial Artist takes the lead in a charge, the effect they can create is immeasurable.
Even in battles that involve thousands of soldiers, an Innate Martial Artist can be a decisive factor in winning or losing.
At this moment, neither side had a clear understanding of the other, so neither dared to act rashly.
While Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze were observing Bayandelei City, the soldiers had already begun to rest and eat.
Covered in bloodstains, faces dusty, hair in disarray, and huge patches of dried blood on their armor, they still calmly gnawed at their dried meat.
Over twenty days of slaughter had honed these soldiers into devils from hell.
For them, killing had become as simple as eating and drinking.
If they were considered elite before, they were now elites that had been tempered through a thousand trials by blood and fire.
The soldiers of Camp used to be powerful, but most of them had only experienced a handful of wars; now they were truly seasoned veterans.
After filling their stomachs, many soldiers simply lay on the ground and fell into deep sleep, completely unconcerned about the looming city.
Of course, the necessary sentries were still in place, with scouts patrolling within dozens of miles around.
Inside Bayandelei City, they continued to hold their ground, when suddenly a long horn blast came from the west.
The horn sounds followed one after another, startling the sleeping soldiers awake, who almost reflexively jumped up and mounted their horses.
In the blink of an eye, the scene of disarray transformed into an atmosphere filled with murderous intent.
Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze exchanged gaze, "Sound the horn, gather the troops!"
Wuuu wuuu wuuu~~
The heavy sound of the horn blew, and the resting soldiers quickly began to converge from afar.
Without further words, the two charged towards the west.
And as they raced, more and more cavalry gathered behind them.
In just a moment, the cavalries that were spread out had already assembled.
The over ten thousand cavalry seemed somewhat disorganized, with no apparent formation, but upon closer inspection, it was evident that every ten cavalry would gather together, and then every group of fifty formed a cone-shaped formation, with two such formations providing mutual support.
On the flat ground, they stretched out like a long dragon, with numerous light cavalry squads roaming on both sides.
"It’s a large group of cavalry! Looks to be no fewer than three thousand!"
Yang Mingzhen observed the front while riding his horse, using a telescope.
"Exterminate them?" Yang Chengze asked.
"Um!" Yang Mingzhen agreed without hesitation.
Then, he raised both hands and waved them to the sides, and the banner soldiers behind him quickly understood, lifting the flags to signal the sides.
Boom boom boom~~
The concentrated ten thousand cavalry immediately split into two and began to encircle from both sides.
On the city walls, the four elders of the Kerelie Tribe had very grave expressions.
"It’s the mining cavalry!"
"Dammit, why would Tuli bring his troops at this time?"
"It’s possible they received news of an enemy attack and came to reinforce us!"
"Do we need their reinforcement?"
"Never mind, now is not the time for argument. Lead the troops out immediately, or Tuli is doomed!"
The four tribal elders could not afford to argue and immediately leaped down from the city wall, gathering the city’s cavalry for battle.
But since they had initially planned to defend the city, the soldiers had run to the city walls, making it chaotic as they now had to rush down and mount their horses to sortie.
Before they even opened the city gate, the battle outside had already begun.
Tuli was Er Yao’s eldest son, and also the heir to the Banner Master of the Kerelie Tribe, having always been in charge of the tribe’s White Jade Mine.
That White Jade Mine was the tribe’s most important asset, which for over a hundred years had provided innumerable wealth in gold, Silver Coin, and silver to the Kerelie Tribe.
Just now, Tuli was still joyfully looking at the newly mined piece of white jade ore outside the White Jade Mine, a hundred-pound piece of snow-white jade, the best quality and heaviest mined from the White Jade Mine in recent decades.
A single piece of ore could sell for tens of thousands of Silver, which had nearly made Tuli jump for joy.
But before he could savor his happiness, he received news that the enemy army was approaching Bayandelei City, and that many tribes had been massacred.
In his urgency, he led the soldiers guarding the jade mine to rush to their aid without any hesitation.
However, he did not anticipate that he would run into the enemy army before even reaching Bayandelei City.
Seeing that the enemy was about to surround them, Tuli immediately turned his cavalry south without a moment of hesitation.
Yang Chengze, seeing the Northern barbarian cavalry preparing to flee south, did not change his charge direction, but rather crashed into the midst of the Northern barbarian cavalry.
With a wave of his long spear, he instantly overthrew three Northern barbarian riders.
The cavalry behind him, either wielding long spears or swinging broadswords, kept slaughtering the colliding Northern barbarian cavalry.
The soldiers were silent, without even a battle cry, only knowing to kill in silence.
Soon, the approaching Northern barbarian cavalry were pierced through by them. Out of approximately four thousand, two-thirds were intercepted, and only a little over a thousand escaped their encirclement along with Tuli.
Yes, it was an encirclement and hunting.
Elsewhere, Yang Mingzhen noticed that the enemy had begun fleeing southward; instead of pursuing, he circled around and trapped the soldiers of the Right Camp within, then positioned himself in front of the Right Camp, directly facing the direction of Bayandelei City.
He and the soldiers of the Left Camp did not engage in combat, guarding against enemies from the direction of Bayandelei City.
Yang Chengze was merely blocking less than three thousand Northern barbarian cavalry; there was no need for them to join the battle.
The two of them, without any communication, coordinated perfectly.
Yang Chengze did not seek complete victory, just aimed to intercept a portion of the Northern barbarian cavalry; Yang Mingzhen did not seek to kill enemies, just to guard against enemies inside Bayandelei City.
The entire battle lasted no more than a quarter of an hour. Two thousand Northern barbarian cavalry were slaughtered to near extinction, and the soldiers of the Right Camp even had time to dismount to treat their injured comrades and carry away the bodies of their fallen.
When the gates of Bayandelei City opened, the buglers by Yang Chengze’s side had already sounded a short burst of the horn.
The signal for retreat sounded, and Yang Mingzhen without a second word led his soldiers to turn around and retreat.
Boom, boom, boom~~
The sound of horse hooves thundered across the earth like the dull roar of thunder. In a moment, they were far in the distance, leaving behind only a dark silhouette and a cloud of dust.
The four elders of the Kerelie Tribe led their Northern barbarian cavalry to the battlefield, their faces extremely grim upon seeing the ground littered with corpses.
All were their brave warriors of the Kerelie Tribe, not a single enemy body to be found.
What chilled their hearts even more was that they could not find even a single piece of the enemy’s armaments.
A battle where they could understand taking away the dead, but even scattered weapons had been removed.
In battle, armaments clash, and weapons are sometime lost from grip; a ring-headed knife could still be tied to the wrist, but what about the long spears?
When they looked up towards the northwest again, not even those blurred figures were visible anymore.
Aside from the hoof prints, it seemed nothing was left behind.
Coming without a shadow, leaving without a trace!
Tuli, riding his horse at a gallop, arrived with his heart still trembling with fear and asked, "Who were they?"
"The enemies from Da Rong!" one of the elders said.
Tuli, looking at the bodies strewn across the ground, his face full of shock and fear.
Good thing he ran fast!
Good thing the enemy had no intention of killing them all!
Otherwise, his life might have been lost there today.
In actuality, Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze also feared that the Kerelie Tribe would relentlessly pursue them, as they were truly exhausted and their horses worn out.
Fortunately, the Kerelie Tribe feared their strength and had no thoughts of pursuit, which gave them the opportunity to leave at their leisure.
Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze didn’t run far; they only galloped for an hour, roughly over forty li, before they had to stop and rest.
After days of forced marching and killing, the soldiers were mentally and physically exhausted. Even though their nerves were fairly robust, they couldn’t withstand such continuous strain.