Chapter 962: Western Chu's Twin Jewels (3)

On the vast northern plains of Liuzhou, the Beiman frontline, comprised of countless troops, naturally stretched even further, dense like a locust swarm.

Huang Songpu's nearly twenty thousand elite cavalry gradually opened a two-hundred-pace gap from the cavalry on his left and right flanks.

These twenty thousand cavalry expertly formed ten large horizontal rows, with significant spacing between them. Generally, four rows of heavy cavalry were positioned at the front, and five rows of light cavalry at the rear. Notably, one row of light cavalry followed closely behind the first row of heavy cavalry.

The so-called heavy cavalry under Huang Songpu's command were the elite cavalry common to the Beiman steppes. They were not the King's Tent Heavy Cavalry, considered a national treasure by the elderly matriarch of Beiman, nor were they the truly formidable heavy cavalry units like Beiliang's 'Fat Tiger' and 'Wei Bear.' Unlike the simple leather armor of light cavalry, their armor typically consisted of scale mail padded with oxhide, mimicking the 'unparalleled armor and mounts' of the Great Feng Dynasty. These scales were interconnected like fish scales, heavier than chainmail, and generally impervious to horse bows. The warhorses of these heavy cavalry units sometimes wore light leather armor, and the riders carried long spears and wore sabers at their waists, with some also resting mace-like weapons on their saddles.

Cavalry battles between Liang and Man had raged for over twenty years. Beiman was ill-suited for the sporadic hit-and-run tactics of cavalry attacking infantry. Feigning retreat against the well-understood Beiliang border army would only backfire.

Just as the foremost row of light cavalry under Huang Songpu prepared to accelerate and charge forward, intending to pierce through the gaps in the heavy cavalry...

An unexpected turn of events occurred.

The plan was for Huang Songpu to first use that row of light cavalry to halt the Beiliang cavalry's charge, even at the cost of their lives, before the four rows of heavy cavalry behind them would then decisively punch through the enemy formation!

However, the Liuzhou Dragon Elephant cavalry, which had been advancing abreast, suddenly shifted formation in a bewildering manner. The ten thousand cavalry in the center intentionally or unintentionally slowed their momentum slightly, while the left and right flanks instantly began to converge, rapidly thickening their formation. They then ceased to conserve their horses' strength, abruptly accelerating and almost bypassing Huang Songpu's central army. They inserted themselves into the vulnerable junction between the three camps, where the dispersed formations were weakest, as if to rip off both arms of Huang Songpu's main force.

It was too fast.

It was clearly premeditated!

Despite this sudden change, Huang Songpu showed no hesitation, continuing to bravely lead his army forward. Even if the two Dragon Elephant cavalry units successfully pierced through their formation in the gaps, his central army camp alone had ten thousand elite infantry stationed, eliminating any concern of a camp collapse. Once both sides turned their horses to charge again, the hundreds of heavy cavalry hidden in the left camp, whose strength was closest to that of the King's Tent Iron Cavalry, could seize the opportunity to break out and potentially decimate one of the Dragon Elephant cavalry units!

If the charges of the two Beiliang cavalry units on the flanks were cunning and tricky, then the fierce collision of the central armies was a straightforward, no-holds-barred clash.

First, Huang Songpu's light cavalry line rapidly accelerated through the gaps, throwing javelins. These light cavalrymen were all exceptionally strong individuals from the Southern Dynasty border army. Within fifty paces, the javelins possessed far greater power than horse bows!

In almost an instant, three hundred Dragon Elephant cavalrymen fell dead from their horses.

However, the first line of the Beiliang cavalry continued to advance abreast, their faces grim. Those who feared death died first!

Regardless of other armies in the realm, this principle had been carried by the Xu family soldiers from the Central Plains' Spring and Autumn period all the way to the northwestern frontier, passed down for over forty years!

After throwing their javelins, this Beiman light cavalry line either drew their sabers or threw lassoes, facing a forest of horizontally held long spears with equal ferocity, unafraid of death.

The Southern Dynasty border army of Beiman had spent twenty years learning how to survive in their life-or-death struggles against the Beiliang border army!

In a mere passing collision, nearly a thousand Beiman light cavalrymen were impaled and killed on their horses.

Those light cavalrymen would then have to face successive rows of Dragon Elephant army iron spears.

It was destined to be a brutal outcome, with scarcely one in ten surviving.

This was a true cavalry charge into a formation.

There was no exchange of horse archer fire, no fancy maneuvers.

Due to the resolute sacrifice of this light cavalry line, the first spear collision between Liang and Man gave Huang Songpu's heavy cavalry line a distinct initial advantage.

Most of Huang Songpu's nearly one hundred personal guards, arrayed around him, effortlessly unseated their enemies with single spear thrusts.

In a cavalry charge, those who fell from their horses were certain to die; this was an unyielding rule of the frontier.

During a cavalry charge and spear thrust to break a formation, it was extremely crucial to avoid impaling an enemy completely. Even if a spear could be quickly withdrawn, it would still delay a critical moment, and in a life-or-death situation, there was no room for error. Moreover, when two armies carved through each other's formations, it wasn't just a single front line involved; otherwise, the term 'carve' would lose its meaning.

Delivering a fatal blow while conserving maximum strength was the guarantee of survival.

The elite cavalry directly commanded by General Huang Songpu were, after all, among the top-tier forces of the Southern Dynasty border army. Apart from the extremely heavy casualties of the first light cavalry line, the subsequent three rows of heavy cavalry sustained only slightly more losses in their exchange with the Liuzhou Dragon Elephant army.

Silently, the last row of heavy cavalry moved to the very rear, as four rows of light cavalry rapidly advanced past the frontline.

Because Huang Songpu deeply understood that in battle, the final burst of morale must not falter!

Among the ten thousand Dragon Elephant cavalry on the left flank, a refined-looking middle-aged general spearheaded the charge, fearlessly breaking through the formation. Cavalry positioned at the front of such a formation were invariably vanguard shock troops, the first and fastest to fall.

The Beiman Western Army was already familiar with this individual, and after their encounter ten days prior, they harbored an even deeper hatred.

Perhaps only this man in the entire Beiliang border army could be so unconventional, wielding an iron spear, with a sword and saber at his left and right hips, and a bag of halberds hanging from each side of his saddle.

It was none other than Li Mofan, the Dragon Elephant Army's deputy general, who was renowned for his courage and combat prowess within the Beiliang border army, yet strangely infamous!

The breakthrough point for these ten thousand cavalry was precisely the main force of Huang Songpu's central army and the elite cavalry from the Longguan 'A' class aristocratic families. Probably no one had anticipated that the Beiliang border cavalry would avoid a head-on confrontation, which made the ten thousand cavalry's penetration seem unstoppable, like a knife slicing through tofu, effortless and precise.

The insertion of another Dragon Elephant light cavalry unit was even easier. Several cavalry units, assembled from the Southern Dynasty's 'B' class noble families, hastily left their camp. There was already a gap in their formation with the central army, and they were instantly cut down by the ten thousand cavalry on their flank, suffering a loss of over a thousand riders. While killing over a thousand enemies in a frontal charge of ten thousand cavalry might not seem remarkable, and on the 'Liang-Man' battlefield, accustomed to battles to the death, it wouldn't even be called 'brutal,' it was quite absurd for one side to lose a thousand men in this purely passing charge formation. This clearly showed that the second-tier elite of Beiman's Southern Dynasty border army, facing the Dragon Elephant Army, once hailed as the premier light cavalry of Liangzhou, were still powerless, despite Beiman cavalry's strong eagerness to fight and lack of fear.

If the Dragon Elephant Army's light and agile breakthroughs on both flanks were already incredible, then their subsequent actions left the Beiman Western main force even more bewildered.

After carving through each other's formations, they should have turned their horses and launched a second charge—this had been the essence of twenty years of cavalry warfare between Liang and Man. However, a scene that stunned the Beiman right and left cavalry camps unfolded: under the command of Li Mofan and another Dragon Elephant Army deputy general, the twenty thousand cavalry surprisingly headed straight for the Beiman main camp!

The Beiliang iron hooves easily breached Beiman's crude barricade defenses and, once inside the main camp, navigated with remarkable familiarity, as if strolling through their own courtyard. The light cavalry pushed deep without any hesitation, and the two currents gradually converged, swiftly charging towards the weakly defended supply camp at the rear!

In contrast, the central Dragon Elephant Army, which had directly clashed with Huang Songpu's central army, sustained the heaviest casualties and had the slowest penetration rate. Both sides left over two thousand bodies on the battlefield, with the Dragon Elephant Army losing slightly over two thousand and Beiman nearly three thousand. Such an exchange was already enough to be called heroic.

Huang Songpu, his iron armor splattered with blood, reined in his horse at the rear and shook the blood from his spearhead. The old general turned his horse, his eyes wide, instantly grasping the Dragon Elephant Army's true intention. He roared, "Wanyan Yinjiang! Ignore the enemy's left and right flanks; fight desperately to entangle their central army! Do not let them infiltrate our camp!"

The Beiman right and left cavalry camps were already frustrated. After passing the two Dragon Elephant light cavalry units, they had continued forward, intending to link up with General Huang Songpu's main army. Upon hearing the old general's roar, from Wanyan Yinjiang, a descendant of the Longguan aristocratic family, down to his myriad commanders and chiliarchs, everyone realized that this battle was destined to be different from previous ones! Consequently, they disregarded their formations. The vanguards of both cavalry camps swiftly turned around, while the rear cavalry, which had not yet bypassed the central Dragon Elephant Army, began to cut diagonally, attempting to sever them inch by inch, like chopping a long snake. Once a cavalry unit lost its formation, it largely lost its speed, and once mired, could only surrender to its fate.

The Dragon Elephant Army's valor and combat skill were unquestionable, but they were not invincible deities. It was impossible for them to remain unstoppable under these circumstances.

Facing this predicament, the central Dragon Elephant Army unhesitatingly made a desperate move, like a warrior severing his own wrist. Over a thousand cavalrymen on the two flank lines immediately fanned out, invisibly creating a significant distance from the main body of cavalry in the center. This was done to delay the desperate charges of the Beiman cavalry on both sides.

These one thousand Dragon Elephant cavalrymen, who resolutely deviated from their formation, were sacrificing their lives to maintain the stable formation of the main cavalry force.

The thousand cavalrymen on the outer flanks, continuously moving away from the main force, galloped furiously. Driven by the Dragon Elephant cavalrymen, their intuitive warhorses utterly disregarded their own stamina.

It was a magnificent act, akin to moths drawn to a flame.

Continuously, Dragon Elephant light cavalrymen were impaled by Beiman cavalry spears and knocked from their horses, only for a Beiman barbarian following behind to swiftly decapitate them with a saber.

Some were pulled from their horses by Beiman cavalry lassoes, dragged along, and left a bloody, mangled mess.

This thousand-strong Dragon Elephant cavalry, fighting individually and without cohesion, was certain to be annihilated against the relentless flow of Beiman enemies.

One cavalryman, after being pierced in the shoulder by a Beiman spear, still managed to thrust his own spear into the neck of an approaching enemy rider as he fell. However, he was quickly knocked off his horse by the next Beiman barbarian, and before his body even hit the ground, a third Beiman cavalryman, skilled in horsemanship, bent low and delivered a powerful saber blow, severing his head.

They could not be stopped.

Huang Songpu, leading his main force to turn and re-engage, sighed heavily.

The old general had not anticipated that the Dragon Elephant Army's true objective would be the supply camp, a vital grain depot. Nor had he expected them to be so familiar with the internal layout of his own main camp.

Everything happened too quickly.

The Dragon Elephant Army's breakthroughs on both flanks, the central force's penetration, and the sacrifice of those one thousand Dragon Elephant cavalrymen — all occurred with astounding speed.

Leaving the battle-hardened Beiman old general completely unprepared!

Huang Songpu suddenly turned his head to look.

Hooves thundered, and dust billowed.

Huang Songpu gravely instructed a nearby attendant, "Send word: all infantry in the camp are to leave and form ranks south of the main camp! Order the army from the left camp to join our central force in pursuing the Dragon Elephant Army. Each should circle around the camp and relentlessly engage the enemy! Do not seek personal glory. If the Dragon Elephant Army attempts to retreat to Qingcang City by splitting up, ensure you corner and annihilate one of their cavalry units nearby. Have Wanyan Yinjiang lead his forces to intercept the ten thousand cavalry at the rear; that should be General Kou Jianghuai's cavalry from Liuzhou, mostly composed of young vagrants mixed with a few Beiliang border soldiers, whose combat strength is negligible."

Huang Songpu suddenly added, "Oh, and tell Wanyan Yinjiang to beware that Xu Longxiang himself might be hidden within Kou Jianghuai's army. Don't worry about anything else!"

At the same time, a middle-aged man beside Huang Songpu, clad in ordinary chainmail, smiled and said, "If the General is concerned, I can go with Wanyan Yinjiang and, while I'm there, experience the 'enemy of ten thousand' Xu Longxiang for myself."

Huang Songpu glanced at the second master of the Zhong family and nodded.