Death Sutra

Chapter 838: Melee

Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations

Gu Shenwei had changed directions once again. Recalling Dugu Xian’s suggestion, he planned to diagonally charge at the enemy and rush past Luoluo’s Middle Corps from the periphery of its formation so as not to be surrounded by the enemies.

Luoluo had at least dispatched 50,000 cavalrymen to the battlefield. How many more troops did he have left in his Middle Corps? And where were they specifically?

Gu Shenwei had no idea at all. And he could only vaguely gauge the approximate angle of his attack from the blurry image of the sun that he could see in this low-visibility weather.

If Dugu Xian were here, he would absolutely object to this tactic. The larger the scale of the war, the higher the possibility of things going out of control. Due to poor communication methods, soldiers would have to fight by themselves even if they were on the same battlefield, let alone on several different battlefields that they were not familiar with at all.

The wind speed dropped slightly, and Gu Shenwei slowed down in response. Although the visibility was not very good, it was still good enough for him to see several miles into the distance. He didn’t see any armies, but he did see mountains.

Gu Shenwei had no idea whether he had traveled too far south or whether the mountains actually stretched out into this area.

There were 6,000 plus men left in the Dragon Army, and all of them were highly motivated, like a bunch of hounds on their first hunt. What they needed was not a vast wilderness, but prey.

Gu Shenwei was sure of one thing, though — they were now at the enemy’s rear. If they kept advancing west alongside the mountain range, they would surely find Luoluo’s army eventually. With regards to whether it would be his Middle Corps, Left Corps, or some unit of the reserve army that they were going to encounter, that would be a decision for God to make.

In order to let the horses regain some of their strength, Gu Shenwei kept riding speed somewhat low. Before long, he heard the sounds of fighting. The battlefield was actually right in front of him.

There must be a catch somewhere , Gu Shenwei thought, but he didn’t have enough time to think it through. He immediately blew the bugle twice, ordering his troops to speed up and charge.

As it happened, Gu Shenwei had run into an army of the Central Plains — they had indeed traveled too far south.

That night, Tu Pianpian and Fan Yongda had returned to the army camp of the Central Plains and persuaded the Commander-in-chief and Royal Uncle of that army to break through the tight encirclement when the war started. In accordance with the agreement, the time when the armies of the Central Plains were supposed to retreat from their camp was after the war had fully broken out and when Luoluo’s left wing was empty. However, the engagement between the two Middle Corps had lasted for too long, and their patience had run out. So, they had rushed out of their encampment ahead of schedule.

The organization behind this action of breaking through the encirclement was very rough. From the generals to the soldiers, nobody wanted to engage the enemies. As soon as the camp gates opened, all of them raced each other to rush out. The Royal Uncle’s guards even had to force their fellow soldiers to make way for him.

What took place next was a chase, the Norlanders’ favorite. The enemies were running in the front, and the Norland cavalrymen were divided into two contingents. The two contingents maintained a moderate distance from each other, forcing the armies of the Central Plains to flee towards the mountains.

If it weren’t for Gu Shenwei having advanced in the wrong direction, the armies of the Central Plains probably would have been wiped out here. If the Royal Uncle’s identity was disclosed, it would have become an abject humiliation for the Central Plains.

But luckily, the Dragon Army troops finally caught sight of their long-awaited enemies and the fighting spirit that had been building in them for so long was released at once. Gu Shenwei had to advance at full speed to make sure that he would stay at the front of the formation.

The soldiers of the armies of the Central Plains were the first ones to be startled by this unexpected army, and a lot of them immediately knelt down and surrendered.

To his surprise, Gu Shenwei found that most of them were infantry.

He had formulated a plan to break through the encirclement of the Central Plains’ army, but he had forgotten to ask about the simplest issue — how many horses they had.

The Dragon Army rushed past these panic-stricken Central Plainsmen and soon encountered Luoluo’s cavalrymen, who were trying to outflank the Central Plains’ army.

The extent to which Luoluo’s troops had been surprised was not lesser — if not more — than how much those Central Plainsmen had been. This was because they had held the initiative all along, and they had been absolutely sure that there were no enemies within a hundred miles of their rear.

When these soldiers armed with spears engaged with these horseback archers, the power balance between the two sides shifted instantly. Most of the Norland cavalrymen didn’t even have enough time to shoot, and so they had no choice but to turn their horses and run.

Just like Dugu Xian, Gu Shenwei didn’t like disorder and surprises, but he had been in both of those two situations for too long, and he had no other choice anymore. All he could do was try his best to adapt to the changing circumstances. “Follow them! Follow them back to their camp!”

Gu Shenwei turned his head and yelled, mobilizing his internal energy to make his voice heard by more people. He suddenly understood that this was a rare opportunity to attack the enemy — the Dragon Army could follow Luoluo’s cavalrymen into their own camp and possibly evade the first volley of arrows with this maneuver.

To these two battling sides, the third faction of the Dragon Army was like troops sent by God — they had come out of nowhere, and they had left so soon that those Central-Plains soldiers with slow reflexes barely understood what had happened, even when their reinforcements had rushed far away. Their dignity survived, though — they hadn’t knelt and surrendered.

“Please stop! Dragon King!” Tu Pianpian’s voice came over from a distance — only people with outstanding internal energy could make themselves heard over these continuous bugle sounds. “My Royal Uncle wants to say something! Mrs. Luo…”

Those words were all Gu Shenwei could hear and he had to continue pursuing the enemy without even thinking about who “Mrs. Luo” was because he couldn’t afford to miss this opportunity that was already in his hand.

After this battle ended, even the one who most knowledgeable about this war was unable to give an exact description of the overall situation. Especially the fact that the 6,000 strong Dragon Army troops had managed to circumvent and flank Luoluo’s left wing - that was something that nobody could explain. By precise calculation, the Dragon Army shouldn’t have been able to make it that far in that amount of time.

Anyways, the attack that the Dragon Army launched from the rear of Luoluo’s army was far beyond Luoluo’s expectation and the horror it caused among their enemies was far beyond the imagination of Dugu Xian and the Dragon King.

The Central-Plains armies deployed in the east had always been regarded as the most critical threat by Luoluo and his advisors.

He once flanked an army of the Central Plains in Loulan Kingdom of the Western Regions and wiped them out. Thus, he knew very well that the Central Plains would surely retaliate. This concern had spread through all of his troops, and everybody had been hoping that they would destroy the allied forces in the west as soon as possible so that they would have enough room to set camp for the winter.

This was an extremely risky plan, but with some precise calculation and good timing, they would be able to defeat their enemies with a multi-pronged attack and secure victory.

As a result, when the Dragon Army of merely 6,000 men charged at them from the rear, the false message that started spreading among Luoluo’s troops was that the main forces of the Central Plains had arrived.

At that time, Gu Shenwei didn’t think too much of this. He only remembered one remark that Dugu Xian had made: “Try to stay close to the Norland cavalrymen.”

Spears were long, but they were no match for bows and arrows in terms of range.

‘Charge. Keep charging. Never stop.’

Gu Shenwei lost count of the number of people and horses that he had stabbed with his spear. He saw numerous enemies divide and flood back towards the two sides. It was like a miracle, and he and the 6,000 troops behind him were the ones who had created this miracle.

Luoluo’s left wing was like a huge dam across a river, and yet it had been breached by a common arm, even as this arm was still in danger of being crushed by falling rocks.

The Dragon Army flanked Luoluo’s left wing and fought their way to an area where no man had ever lived.

Gu Shenwei made another risky decision at this moment. He changed directions once more and advanced toward Luoluo’s Middle Corps, firmly determined to see with his own eyes what Luoluo… and Zhang Ji looked like.

Although he had never heard any news about Zhang Ji, Gu Shenwei firmly believed that Teacher Zhang Ji had been staying with Luoluo this whole time. He was a man with long hair and beard, was of big build, and was ready to see the Dragon King’s failure.

Gu Shenwei wanted him see another eventuality take place.

After the war, when Gu Shenwei was regretting his decisions, he recalled that it was from this moment on that he forgot that he was the Dragon King and that there were several thousands of loyal officers and soldiers behind him.

Yes, he saw Long Fanyun who had been by his side all along and the Red Crow Flag in his hand, and he saw those Big Snow Mountain swordsmen and his savage guard soldiers whose faces were very familiar to him, and he also those new recruits of Shule Kingdom who were yelling and charging. But in his eyes, all these people had suddenly become meaningless, and the only thing he wanted to do was charge at the enemies, as if he were still a killer who was on his own.

Facing the second round of charges launched by the Dragon Army, Luoluo’s Left Corps didn’t fall apart any further. On the contrary, they soon found that their enemies were not the main force of the Central Plains that they had imagined them to be. Thus, they started regrouping.

The Dragon King and his men advanced with unstoppable momentum, but there were also more enemies approaching them from behind as well as from their two sides.

Luckily, the allied forces’ right wing arrived just in time.

Shulitu was leading the army himself this time. He shared Dugu Xian’s opinion — the confidence and unity of this army was not in a good state, and it was very likely that the formation of the troops would be shattered right after the initial engagement if their commander was not with them.

He was not good at horsemanship, and he had never ridden this fast before, but this time, he thought that riding was fun and that it was not difficult at all.

Nie Zeng had been by the young king’s side this whole time along. In his eyes, the chaos in the army camp and the war didn’t matter. All that mattered was the young king’s safety, because keeping him safe was his duty.

Shulitu and his several thousand cavalrymen arrived just in time and joined with the rightmost wing’s Dragon Army who had departed earlier. They summarily joined hands and engaged Luoluo’s left wing who were still disordered.

In this world, nothing could stay unchanged. In the blink of an eye, the seemingly most important thing might actually happen. Gu Shenwei would only have to wait a very short time before he could join hands with Shulitu’s army and defeat the enemies with the advantageous of a higher troop number. However, he instead chose to take a risk.

On this day, Gu Shenwei had taken so many risks and there had been so many surprises that he almost forgot the existence of normal tactics.

The two most powerful armies among all the forces of the grasslands were having a final showdown. The battlefield stretched dozens of miles from the south to the north, with several lulls in between. The gods in heaven were the only ones able to see how chaotic this battle truly was — there were many soldiers who had charged into the enemies, but thought that they were fleeing to the rear; there were also soldiers who had just won a hard fought victory in a particular area before being wiped out soon after by an unknown army.

Dugu Xian led his army to the middle of the battleground where the allied forces’ first victory had been claimed.

The Court Attendants Army’s strength proved to not have declined in the slightest. Especially after the war entered a chaotic state, the disadvantage of them lacking officers was minimized. Those who used to be the old Khan’s guard soldiers displayed an even greater combat effectiveness.

However, if it weren’t for Dugu Xian and his men arriving in time, the Court Attendants Army would have suffered extremely heavy casualties.

“Pursue the enemies. Take Luoluo alive.” Dugu Xian issued an order before the battle had even fully ended.

“Where’s Dragon King?” Red Bat asked urgently. Neither she nor the Instructor had seen any Dragon Army soldiers.

“He should be in the north,” said Dugu Xian. According to their plan, the Dragon Army was supposed to charge at Luoluo’s right wing diagonally and lure them towards Duodun.

The Dragon Army could probably use some help, but from the perspective of winning this war, Dugu Xian still firmly believed that he should keep attacking Luoluo’s Middle Corps.

After Dugu Xian regained command of the Middle Corps, all Shangguan Ru had been thinking about was another man. On the Flame Foal, she rode northwards at full speed, followed hotly by dozens of female soldiers of the Land of Fragrance.

Tie Linglong was the only one who had hesitated time and time again. In the end, she had decided to stay with Dugu Xian.

For a moment, Dugu Xian had almost sent a contingent to the north, but with a military career that spanned for so many years, he knew very well that that was definitely not a wise thing to do.

“Women know nothing about war,” Dugu Xian mumbled. He ordered the exhausted army to keep marching eastwards — he also wanted to see what Luoluo looked like.

In the rear, escorted by Mo Lin, Mo Chu was heading for Duodun’s encampment in the left wing even as his trepidation peaked.

To their surprise, there were no cavalrymen in the left wing, and they easily arrived at the main tent with around just a thousand guards.

Standing at the entrance, Duodun was on the verge of breaking down. He hadn’t received any accurate news from the other positions for a very long time, and it seemed as if everything was falling apart and that nothing had worked out as planned.

“You brought me Mo Chu, Silver Condor? Great!” Duodun’s tone was dramatic, as if it would bring him some good luck.

“Where’s the army?”Mo Lin asked coldly.

Duodun didn’t answer this question and he didn’t even notice that these guards were not his men. He excitedly said, “The Naihang Tribe surrendered and their 100,000 men belong to me now…”

A herald galloped over from the north, but he fell off of his horse before it even came to a stop. After several rolls, he picked himself up and yelled, “Luoluo’s armies are coming! Luoluo’s armies are coming!”

Duodun didn’t believe him at all. “The Naihang Tribe’s armies are in between us. How could Luoluo get here?”

Luoluo’s right wing had circled around, and they were indeed coming.

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