Chapter 342: Deadly Battle

Two armies faced each other. In front of the lines, a black-clad youth dragged two corpses from a gibbet. Before the cavalry behind him charged, he hurled the bodies high into the air towards Dong Zhuo. They crashed to the ground, disintegrating into two puddles of gore. This provocation made the eight thousand cavalry behind the Dong banner clench their teeth, tighten their grip on their spears, and instinctively squeeze their horses' flanks. These battle-hardened veterans used the brief pause to ensure their weapons were ready on their hooks. Once the formations interlocked, an early grasp of a blade meant an extra chance to kill and to survive. A vibrant black banner with red characters fluttered in the wind. For Dong Zhuo's army, positioned on the windward plain, this would slightly impede their horses' speed. However, when the veterans looked up at the scarlet "Dong" character, all other thoughts vanished. They merely awaited General Dong's command to crush this weary force, which numbered only half their own, into dust.

Many cavalrymen silently recited a simple rhyme in unison: "Dong family warriors, with saber and spear, on dead horses and by their side."

Dong Zhuo held a Green Spring Spear, once the treasured artifact of Mount Tibing. When Dong Zhuo became his son-in-law, the Mount Tibing chieftain gave it to him as his daughter's dowry. Behind Dong Zhuo were eighteen riders. Their horses and armor appeared normal, but unlike Dong Zhuo's regular cavalry, they didn't all carry spears and have saddle-hung equipment. They wielded whatever weapons felt most suitable, with more than half carrying swords at their waists. The eighteen riders lacked the grim, battle-hardened aura typical of veterans; instead, they seemed relatively relaxed. Yet, the surrounding commanding officers, known for their arrogance, showed no trace of contempt, especially when they looked at a slender old man sitting empty-handed on horseback, regarding him with genuine reverence. After all, the second seat of Mount Tibing was not something just anyone could attain.

The youth, accompanied by a terrifyingly large black tiger, began to run. Dong Zhuo, whose Green Spring Spear had been pointing at the ground, suddenly raised it and pointed forward.

Both armies charged almost simultaneously. When two cavalry forces establish sufficient distance, the first to charge isn't necessarily at an advantage. If the distance is too great, morale often wanes after the initial burst of energy, and the penetrating power of the first spear thrust diminishes. However, in this confrontation, the distance between the two sides before impact was such that both could bring their horses' speed and charge power to their absolute maximum.

The ground trembled ceaselessly under the hammering of hooves, and yellow dust billowed.

Two waves advanced with lightning speed.

In typical cavalry battles, whether with whistles or shouts, riders preferred to make noise during a charge to build momentum. Some cavalry units with excellent horsemanship, as the clash approached, would throw out blinders to cover their horses' eyes, preventing the horses from shying away and losing speed. However, both the four thousand Dragon Elephant Army and the eight thousand Dong Zhuo Army were unusually silent, lacking such superfluous actions. Riders and horses rose and fell in unison, embodying a silent, blood-soaked rhythm. The sixty-plus Mount Tibing warriors, led by the eighteen riders, and four thousand combat cavalry had already charged. Dong Zhuo remained stationary, accompanied by two thousand light cavalry behind him. The other two thousand light cavalry swung in an arc, avoiding the direct front, and attacked the relatively weaker Dragon Elephant Army from the flanks in a wedge formation.

Dong Zhuo waited calmly for the decisive blow.

The first contact between the two sides was visceral, penetrating flesh and bone.

A Dragon Elephant cavalryman and a Dong family cavalryman simultaneously thrust their spears through each other's breastplates. Their horses continued to charge forward. Abandoning their spears, they drew their sabers. As they passed each other, each delivered another cut. The Dragon Elephant cavalryman chopped off the Northern Barbarian's head, then, ignoring his severe wound, turned his head to dodge a spear. Just as he was about to desperately deliver another blow, he was impaled by a spear from a following Dong family cavalryman. The spear formed an arc in the air. Before dying, the Beiliang cavalryman threw his sabre with one hand and gripped the spear with the other, preventing its tip from being pulled from his body. The enemy cavalryman released his spear, drew his saber, deflected the flying Beiliang sabre, and continued to ride silently forward.

Two riders, horse and man, collided head-on. Their horses' heads shattered on impact. The cavalrymen sprang from their saddles, using the momentum to thrust two spears into the enemy's chest. Both fell backward simultaneously, but still gripping their spears. Before they could engage in ground combat, or fight on foot against mounted opponents, they were impaled through the head by spears from the cavalrymen following behind them.

A combat cavalryman of astonishing strength could impale an enemy rider with a single spear thrust, and using the residual momentum of his horse's charge, pull out the spear to kill again. A Dragon Elephant cavalry commander brutally pierced the chests of two Northern Barbarians with one spear, and as their bodies fell from their horses, they remained strung together like candied hawthorns.

With a powerful spear lodged under his armpit, he twisted a Dong family cavalryman, who hadn't immediately abandoned his spear, off his horse, then sliced off half his head and an entire shoulder with a saber.

Some severely wounded Northern Barbarian cavalrymen, dismounted but not yet dead, still managed to hack off the legs of Beiliang horses before dying.

The two armies engaged in mutual slaughter, with life and death decided in an instant as they swept past each other. Apart from a few officers exceptionally skilled in cavalry combat who never abandoned their spears and constantly slew enemy riders during the charge, it was utterly impossible for a single rider to leisurely advance, surrounded by a dozen cavalrymen, and sweep them away with a spear. Nor was it possible to turn back and fight for dozens of rounds against an equally matched enemy general. There was only one exception: in the middle of this long battle line, an enormous, unconventional hollow circle had formed. When the black-clad youth had previously leapt into the air, a slender old man, unarmed, had struck him squarely in the chest with both hands, sending him crashing to the ground. Immediately afterward, he was fiercely intercepted and entangled in combat by the eighteen riders, some mounted, some dismounted. A general who personally entered the fray in the Spring and Autumn period was always a conspicuous figure destined to face a tidal wave of attacks. The area around such a figure became a massive chopping block, with layers of blood, flesh, and corpses piling up. Xu Longxiang, black-clad and barefoot, despite having been deliberately targeted and intercepted at Wazu after leading his army into Beimang, had only truly been stopped today.

The old man in the green robe was Gong Pu, second only to the chieftain of Mount Tibing. His internal energy was profound, and he had spent years practicing martial arts with the chieftain. The other seventeen riders were Mount Tibing warriors capable of fighting a hundred men alone, not to mention the forty-odd Mount Tibing Penglai Gigantic Slaves. Each of them was ten feet tall, naturally strong as oxen, and after practicing martial arts, they were steeped in medicinal vats, tempered to a state the martial world called "Pseudo-Vajra." Unfortunately, they had encountered Xu Longxiang, who was born a Vajra. If the youth got close enough to grapple them, dismemberment was the outcome. Within the large circle, over a dozen Penglai Slaves lay dismembered. At this moment, Xu Longxiang ignored a Mount Tibing swordsman's blade piercing his back. He punched through the chest of a gigantic slave, slowly pulled out his heart, and casually tossed it to the ground. The sharp sword struck his back, astonishing the middle-aged swordsman. It was clear Xu Longxiang was not relying on qi to circulate his body and defend against sharp weapons. After thirty years immersed in the Way of the Sword, the swordsman was quite confident in his blade, having struck the youth's back. Yet, no matter how much sword energy he applied, the blade failed to penetrate even a millimeter of flesh. The black-clad youth was incredibly slow when slow, and even faster when fast. Disliking the lack of sharpness in the green-edged longsword, he leaned back, deliberately pressing against the sword's glowing tip. Before the swordsman could release his grip and abandon the sword, the renowned blade was instantly bent, then snapped. The youth's backward movement was so fast that the swordsman's longsword not only broke but he himself was sent flying, his chest utterly shattered. He floated backward, falling into the yellow earth, as dead as could be.

The black tiger roared to the sky, its claws seizing the indistinct corpse of a Penglai giant. With a slight hook, it pulverized the body, blood soaking into the yellow sand.

The black tiger lunged towards the next closest muscular giant.

Gong Pu, who was not eager to engage in close combat with the black-clad youth, saw this and roared, "Vile beast!"

The black tiger was struck sideways by Gong Pu's waist-level palm, sending it flying. After landing, it still slid five or six zhang before shaking its head and standing up. A mounted Mount Tibing warrior immediately thrust his spear, piercing the black tiger's back by a full foot. The black tiger felt no pain, its four paws sinking into the ground. After gathering its strength, it lunged, killing both rider and horse. The spear-wielding knight was horrifyingly bitten in half at the waist by this black tiger, which served Qi Xuanzhen. This divine beast, subdued at the Demon Slaying Platform and made to acknowledge the black-clad youth as its master, whipped its iron-hard tail, carving a bloody furrow from head to chest on a Penglai slave behind it. It then lunged forward, tackling another fearless giant. The giant, face flushed, held open the black tiger's mouth, preventing it from biting down. The black tiger slammed its entire head downwards, breaking the giant's arm and smashing his head into the mud.

Gong Pu, his face contorted with rage, rushed over and kicked the black tiger again, sending it flying. It rolled through a dozen cavalrymen from both Beiliang and Beimang.

Xu Longxiang completely ignored the battle involving the black tiger. With a seemingly casual sweep of his arm, he bisected a Mount Tibing swordsman at the waist, then seized the upper half of the body and swung it in an arc, smashing the chest of a gigantic slave into a pulp. A stoic-faced elderly swordsman's blade moved like a rain of pear blossoms. Each thrust at the barefoot youth's body rebounded off the tip, allowing him to retreat several zhang. Back and forth, in a dizzying display, over ninety swords strikes landed in an instant, leaving no part untouched—hands, feet, head, cheeks, chest, abdomen. A series of crisp, metallic clangs resounded. The old swordsman sought to find the demonic youth's vital point. When a sword tip pressed against Xu Longxiang's brow, he saw the young demon, whose fearsome reputation rivaled Luoyang in Beimang, grin. Just as the swordsman, who had integrated Daoist "Treading the Dipper" steps into his movements, was about to shift, leveraging the sword's slight flex as it recovered, he took only one step before the youth, who had instantly appeared before him, punched him on the left side of his ear. The elder hastily channeled his qi to neutralize seventy to eighty percent of the killing intent, but the immense force sent his body flying upward, headfirst, as if pulled from the ground like a leek. Xu Longxiang grabbed his legs and thrust him downwards into the ground like a spear. The renowned swordsman was so compressed that his head disappeared, only his chest level with the yellow sand. Xu Longxiang then lightly kicked, breaking the sword master's legs. He glimpsed the masterless sword, hesitated, then bent down to pick it up. He lightly tossed it up, then pressed his palms together, sandwiching the sword hilt and tip. The blade shattered into countless fragments between his cupped hands. Holding the fragments in both hands, he looked up and saw the only two remaining swordsmen. His body erupted forward, terrifying them out of their wits. Disregarding any notion of refined swordsmanship, they fled desperately. One did not run fast enough and was struck across the face by the black-clad youth's palm, his mouth filled with fragments, his face unrecognizable. A dignified swordsman died, pathetically and comically, by being "fed" sword fragments.

The other swordsman, having been shielded by a Penglai giant who died to intercept, narrowly escaped. But his courage was shattered, and he had no desire to fight further. Regardless of whether he would face severe punishment from Mount Tibing later, he retreated, his figure disappearing into the cavalry.

Xu Longxiang, bloodthirsty as if his life depended on it, tore apart a giant and was about to find his next target when Gong Pu, with a shoulder charge named "Lifting Mountain," sent him staggering back several steps. Gong Pu's rage flared. He strode forward, each step creating a depression, his powerful fists tearing through the air, whipping up sand and wind, and then delivering a ferocious blow to the youth. Xu Longxiang's feet left the ground. He kicked Gong Pu's shoulder, and both men recoiled, sliding back a dozen zhang before simultaneously stopping. Like cavalrymen from opposing armies, they charged back into each other. Gong Pu landed a punch on the youth's forehead, and the youth returned a punch to his chest. With the two of them at the center, a large circle of yellow sand billowed outwards.

Xu Longxiang spat out a mouthful of blood, slammed his right fist into his left palm, and let out a grim smile.

Two streaks of blood seeped from Gong Pu's nostrils, which he lightly wiped away.

Battles where over ten thousand troops were committed, and the entire army fought to the last man without surrender or retreat, were unrecorded before the Spring and Autumn period. During that era, only the Battle of Concubine's Tomb was such an instance. In that battle, Yuan Zuozong, the second-ranked of the "Butchers," was the only one left standing. With sixteen thousand light cavalry, he desperately held back the forty thousand elite, heavily armored iron cavalry of Western Chu. This allowed the Xu family army, not yet known as the Beiliang Army, to complete its strategic encirclement of Western Chu, forcing Western Chu's forces to fully retreat and consolidate, ultimately leading to the Battle of West Leibei, famously said to have decided the Spring and Autumn period in one stroke. In that battle, atop Concubine's Tomb, the sixteen soldiers protecting Yuan Zuozong, the "White Bear," were all common soldiers, as over thirty officers and generals had already perished. From the outset of that battle, Yuan Zuozong led from the front, fighting from horseback to foot. He killed sixteen enemy generals, and with a single silver spear, slew over 170 enemy cavalrymen. If Chen Zhibao had not defied orders to bring reinforcements, Yuan Zuozong would have certainly died at Princess's Tomb. When Chen Zhibao, clad in white, walked onto the tomb, Yuan Zuozong stood, leaning on his spear with both hands, covered in so much blood that his face was unrecognizable.

Generally, when military strength is depleted by one-third, morale begins to collapse. In the Spring and Autumn period, countless ambitious figures seized the opportunity of chaos to raise rebellions. As soon as they gained some momentum, they would hastily crown themselves kings or even emperors. However, most of these motley forces would collapse upon contact with elite regular armies, proving utterly vulnerable. There were absurd battles where fifty to sixty thousand rebels were chased for a hundred li by a few thousand cavalry, let alone holding their ground in a fight to the death. The powerful ministers of the Liyang Dynasty harbored their own schemes, claiming that Gu Jiantang, if in Xu Xiao's position, could also pacify the Spring and Autumn period. Yet, they never considered whether Gu Jiantang could command fierce generals like Yuan Zuozong, or lead the 300,000 iron cavalry of Beiliang, whose morale remained cohesive even after the Spring and Autumn period was settled.

The Battle of Hulu Pass was nothing short of horrific.

The two armies began their charge shortly after noon and fought until dusk.

Yellow sand permeated Hulu Pass, and the fighting never ceased for a moment.

The four thousand Dragon Elephant Army and six thousand Dong Zhuo Army fought from mounted combat to ground combat, almost unprecedented in history! No one would believe it if they hadn't witnessed it themselves.

Dong Zhuo's ability to exceptionally occupy three major military garrisons in the Southern Dynasty and to glare defiantly at several grand generals in the Southern court was due to the sixty thousand "jackal" troops under his Dong banner. When the Empress personally toured the borders, she once asked "Fatty Dong" if, should a major war erupt in the future, he would be willing to trade sixty thousand of his troops for sixty thousand of the enemy's, to gain a Southern Court Grand King. The implication was that Dong Zhuo's sixty thousand troops were capable of annihilating any sixty thousand cavalry from Beiliang's three hundred thousand. As for Dong Zhuo's foxy reply, naturally, no one knew.

Dong Zhuo's face was as calm as water, but a faint, unreadable smile played on his lips.

The two thousand light cavalry behind him had still not entered the bogged-down battlefield.

The complete system of beacon towers along the Western Border Post Road in Beimang, including the Wupu military garrison, seemed comprehensive but had never truly experienced the bloody baptism of war. It was flashy but impractical. Dong Zhuo had always seen this, knowing it perfectly well, yet he had never once mentioned it in court. For instance, this time, eight thousand Dragon Elephant troops penetrated deep alone, fighting all the way to the military garrison of Wazu without a single wisp of wolf smoke being seen. After taking Junyuan, the beacon towers briefly lit up to send word, but then the Southern Dynasty became blind again. Wherever the Dragon Elephant cavalry pointed their hooves, hundreds of beacon towers in front of Ligumao Pass sent no news. Even Dong Zhuo himself had not anticipated that the four thousand Dragon Elephant troops were not heading to attack Ligumao, but instead were making a forced march to ambush and intercept reinforcements.

"If it weren't for the eight thousand troops I personally trained, this Dragon Elephant Army might have truly devoured them whole, leaving no bones behind, right?"

Dong Zhuo was still waiting.

Although his cavalry had also galloped hard to reinforce Ligumao in this sudden battle, they couldn't be described as well-rested. However, they still held an advantage over the Dragon Elephant Army, which had endured two fierce battles. Dong Zhuo had expected that a four thousand-on-four thousand engagement would lead to a disadvantage, but he hadn't anticipated that even with the two thousand light cavalry joining the fight, they still wouldn't be able to decisively defeat the Dragon Elephant Army, which was stretched to its absolute limit like a taut bowstring.

Dong Zhuo shifted on his saddle, vaguely discerning the figures of the black-clad youth and Gong Pu of Mount Tibing on the battlefield.

The fat man chuckled, "They can really fight! I shamelessly begged my father-in-law for the eighteen riders from Mount Tibing, plus forty-odd Penglai giants, and with Master Gong leading them, they've almost all been slaughtered. After this battle, my wife won't let me into bed for days, will she?"

A light cavalry general rode up to Dong Zhuo, asking in a low voice, "General?"

Dong Zhuo shook his head and said, "No hurry."

The robust general cautiously asked, "If the stalemate continues, Lord Gong might...?"

Dong Zhuo stated bluntly, "I'm waiting for him to die."

The general, who had followed Dong Zhuo through many campaigns, showed no change in expression and quietly withdrew.

The sky was now like an unruly child spilling ink on white paper; the more ink, the deeper the night grew.

The battle was finally about to cease. Dong Zhuo waved his hand, and the general quickly rode over. The fat man chuckled, "Give the order: our two thousand cavalry will go kill that black-clad youth. Focus solely on him; ignore the remaining Dragon Elephant Army. Whoever takes that youth's head can choose: become a powerful fourth-rank official in the Southern court, or be promoted three ranks under me, Dong Zhuo. It's his choice."

The general grinned knowingly and said in a deep voice, "Understood!"

Dong Zhuo hefted his Green Spring Spear, finally preparing to enter the fray himself.

Six thousand troops for four thousand Dragon Elephant soldiers and the head of a "Human Butcher." Was it worth it?

Dong Zhuo sneered, "It seems this old man is about to make a huge profit."

Fifty li outside Hulu Pass, eight hundred cavalry galloped wildly.

All were on white horses, in white armor.

At the forefront, a handsome, tall mounted general carried a silver spear.