Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1650 - 1590: Battle Begins, Camp Assault
As Zhou Yu gave the command, Li Yan and others began to arrange their troops under the silent cover of night, fortunate that these soldiers did not suffer from night blindness, otherwise just forming ranks would have been a hassle.
"How many emotions can your Legion Talent utilize?" Zhou Yu turned to Chen Xi and asked.
"Seven kinds," Chen Xi thought for a moment and replied, "Which one are you using?"
"I’ll uplift morale, you ignite the spirit to fight to the death," Zhou Yu told Chen Xi.
"Such mind-contrary emotions, even if I can stir them due to mutual recognition, won’t last more than ten breaths," Chen Xi shook his head slightly, honestly, unless absolutely necessary, he was reluctant to use such a method.
After all, this was like forcibly making others fight to the death for yourself due to their recognition of you, philosophically, their will hasn’t reached this extent. If used and the situation doesn’t turn, these soldiers might feel disgusted.
"Rest assured, ten breaths is enough, before I say to act, you and I need only maintain the army’s morale, when I say to move, don’t hesitate," Zhou Yu said, looking at the campfires of the Huns’ camp in the pitch blackness in the distance.
"No problem," Chen Xi nodded, "But are you sure not planning a retreat is okay?"
"Victory or defeat comes in an instant. If we cannot win this battle, given what you told me about the Military Spirit Legion, I don’t think any preparation can allow us to retreat unscathed. Conversely, if we win, whether or not there’s a retreat doesn’t matter," Zhou Yu smirked coldly.
"Alright then, as you wish, I’ve nothing to say about battlefield command anyway, I have more confidence in you than in myself in this regard," Chen Xi shrugged.
"However, what I want to say is, Zijian attacking the camp is fine, but don’t expect too much confusion, even if he kicks over the whole camp, the chaos won’t be that great." Noticing Zhou Yu emotionlessly accepting his praise, Chen Xi changed the topic.
"I know, another camp might be thrown into disarray, but not the Northern Huns. You’ve mentioned the Military Spirit Legion’s characteristics too many times, I understand what it is, so there’s no need to worry," Zhou Yu replied without turning back.
[When the enemy is cautiously guarding their weaknesses, starting from their strengths is the most likely way to break the current situation.] Zhou Yu thought silently, [Besides, hopefully, Wen Pin can spot the enemy generals at first sight, the enemy’s mistakes are critical for our strategy.]
While Chen Xi and Zhou Yu were carefully observing the front, Cheng Pu, leading the most elite Eastern Wu archers, finally moved within thirty paces of the Northern Huns’ camp. If they advanced further, they’d enter the coverage area of the opponent’s firelight.
Cheng Pu and the deputy general beside him carefully observed the setup at the Northern Huns’ camp entrance. Although they’d dispatched scouts several times over previous days, they hadn’t truly approached the camp gate, thus they had a clear view of the visible sentries but hadn’t ascertained the exact number of hidden ones.
This time, to ensure everything went perfectly, after carefully observing for a quarter of an hour, with luck, they waited for a mid-shift change, allowing Cheng Pu to finally identify the position of every hidden sentry.
Immediately after confirming the shift change and once the Northern Huns and Miscellaneous Hun soldiers went to rest, Cheng Pu abruptly stood, drew his bow, and shot five hidden sentries dead. As for the visible sentry at the front, before they could react, the Eastern Wu archers behind Cheng Pu had already taken their lives.
"Quickly, follow me to move the caltrops and remove these bodies," after taking down all the sentries at the camp gate, Cheng Pu ordered his men to clear the caltrops and open the camp gate while others checked if there were traps on the camp roads.
Cheng Pu was evidently experienced in these matters, quickly concluding that the Northern Huns’ precautions hadn’t reached the level of Gan Ning, who would dig pits both before and behind the camp gate. He immediately ordered men to raise the torches at the camp gate and twist them several times like the character for number eight.
The mist had long been dispersed, and the firelight was very conspicuous in the night. Upon receiving the signal from several miles away, Hua Xiong immediately led his army to start advancing slowly. Although they tried to keep the sound as low as possible, the noise of twelve thousand cavalry moving was not small.
"Let’s move too, Zichuan, it’s up to you to push away the dark clouds," upon receiving the message from the forward scouts that Hua Xiong had begun the march, Zhou Yu immediately ordered the large army to advance, and soon all the preparations Zhou Yu had made were about to begin.
"No problem," Chen Xi gently exerted his extraordinary spiritual capacity, using fluttering white clouds to push away the dark clouds, bit by bit revealing the clouds. Under the cloud-scattered moonlight, the silvery glow of the full moon on the fifteenth night of the lunar month cast onto the grasslands.
The Han army hidden in darkness, under the silver moon’s glow, matched their dark raiment, and black battle armor with the silvery moon perfectly at this moment.
As the clouds drifted west and the silver glow spread over many archers, slipped over Chen Xi and Zhou Yu, spilled over Wen Pin, Li Yan, and slowly caught up with the advancing Wuhuan Cavalry, and Xiliang Iron Cavalry, eventually spilling from the leader Hua Xiong.
At the moment when the silver glow fell on the commander Hua Xiong of the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, Hua Xiong suddenly spurred his horse, and just a mile away from the Northern Huns’ camp, the ideal charge distance for cavalry, as for hiding, charging cavalry could never be hidden.
At the moment Hua Xiong accelerated, the Iron Cavalry soldiers, who were still holding back their movement sounds, instinctively accelerated in unison, as did the Wuhuan Cavalry trailing behind, naturally speeding up with the force in front.
Instantly a noise not too loud turned into thunderous booms, and the earth-shaking clamor caused by the synchronized pounding of hooves awed Cheng Pu, making him realize the current gap between himself and Hua Xiong.
Cheng Pu was a truly principled general who, understanding the objective of this battle, apart from avoiding face-to-face encounters with Hua Xiong, did not act as conspicuously as others. He hadn’t forgotten Zu Mao’s death, but for the national interest, he set aside personal feelings.
A mile is a blink of an eye for cavalry; before waiting for Hua Xiong to storm into the Northern Huns’ camp, the cautious Northern Huns were startled awake from their sleep. Such thunderous roars were telling for the horse-mounted nation, the Northern Huns knew very well who was coming!
However, knowing that it was cavalry wouldn’t change a thing. Even if the Northern Huns’ main force could be called elite, an unexpected night assault prevented everyone from instantly returning to normalcy, with many chaotically dashing out with nothing but a battle saber.
"Break it for me!" Hua Xiong cleaved the Northern Huns’ camp gate open with a single stroke, then led the Iron Cavalry in a dragon-like onslaught into the Northern Huns’ camp, disturbed by horses’ hooves and thrown into chaos.
