The Demon Lords-Chapter 720 - 151 Despair_6

The Wild People's king was already in a daze. By the time the Yan Army had started repeatedly breaking through the formations of the Wild People troops, he understood. The Yan Army before him was no mere rat army composed of the Cheng State army, local forces, and imperial guards. This kind of tactic, this method of warfare—he had witnessed the Zhenbei Army use it countless times in Beifeng Prefecture!

This was the pinnacle of cavalry strategy, the most powerful interpretation of cavalry tactics. It was exactly like a pack of wolves herding goats across the mountainside.

Gou Moli had originally hoped that the brave warriors under his command could create a miracle, because his side clearly had more men. He had even begun to pray for the protection of the stars!

Only when a person feels utterly helpless and lost in reality do they cling to the hope of finding comfort in the ethereal.

But it was now daytime, and during the day, stars are not visible.

Sang Hu, leading over a thousand cavalry, desperately guarded the Wild People's king. At this moment, A'lai also arrived at the king's side. He removed his mask, revealing a face strikingly similar to the king's.

The implication was self-evident.

Previously, it was before Lord Jingnan's mighty army that the Wild People's King had departed, leaving A'lai as his substitute.

Now, facing Lord Jingnan once more, it seemed the wheel of fate had turned, replaying the same scene.

The Wild People's king blinked, his eyes slightly moist. Without waiting for his confidants to persuade him, and without any hesitation, he quickly took off his white wolf-skin robe, handed it to A'lai, and then, alongside Sang Hu, spurred his horse and began to flee eastward.

Collapsed.

Defeated.

It was already...

Powerless to reclaim victory!

In truth, the actual casualties on both sides from the fierce fighting so far only numbered in the tens of thousands. Compared to the vast scale of this battlefield, with over two hundred thousand combatants, this was truly not much.

However, one side's collapse had already begun, and for the victor, the rest of the battle would be simple.

All columns of the Yan Army instinctively began to charge eastward.

It was like a plow; even if the wild people tried to flee, they would be plowed over again! The aim was to utterly crush them, scatter them, and leave them no chance to rally their forces.

The fleeing wild people reached the banks of the Wang River and, without hesitation, began to retreat the way they had come.

However, because the great Wild People army had crossed the river in such a rush—unlike the Yan Army, which had made thorough preparations and taken precautions when crossing the previous night—the ice had already developed numerous cracks and collapses during their initial passage. Indeed, quite a few Wild People warriors had fallen beneath the ice, prematurely finding the embrace of the stars before even reaching the battlefield.

Now, crossing the river again so quickly, and because night had not yet fallen, the damaged ice had not had a chance to properly refreeze. Consequently, as the wild people crossed, ice holes of all sizes appeared one after another.

Some Wild People riders, along with their horses, plunged into the river, desperately shouting for help from their kinsmen passing by. But at this moment, everyone was focused solely on their own escape; who could possibly stop to help?

Other Wild People riders had their warhorses slip on the ice, sending both horse and man sprawling. Those following behind simply trampled over them.

When they had first crossed, their haste had led to some disorder. Now, their passage was utter chaos.

After the chaos persisted for some time, the river ice began to crack on a massive scale. Some fissures stretched over twenty meters long. Once a large crack formed, others quickly proliferated across the rest of the ice.

More and more wild people plunged into the bone-chilling river water. Some, seeing the unstable ice ahead, tried to rein in their horses and find a different crossing point. However, they were shoved forward by the Wild People riders pressing from behind, who were oblivious to the danger. Shouting was useless; men crushed against men, horses against horses. From the riverbanks, wild people were continually being squeezed into the water.

To avoid this fate, some wild people brandished their weapons and attacked the kinsmen pressing against them, which only incited greater panic.

Behind them, the Yan Army's pursuit hadn't slackened in the slightest. And upon seeing the large-scale collapse of the ice ahead, the eyes of all the Yan people seemed to gleam.

Last time, it was tens of thousands of men from the Yan Army's Left Army who were forcibly "pushed" into the river by the wild people, their corpses left floating all over the Wang River.

Now, it was the wild people's turn to taste that same fate.

...

Below Jade Plate City, Ran Min's contingent received new orders: fifteen thousand cavalry were to be redirected upstream.

The Chu army, noticing the Yan people redeploying troops, seemed to sense something unusual but soon settled down again. This was because the force dispatched by the Yan people was simply too small; the remaining Yan Army outside the city still vastly outnumbered the Chu army.

On the city wall, Qu TianNan leaned weakly against his command chair.

The Yan people below had dispatched fewer than 20,000 cavalry northward. This indicated only one thing: such a force was now sufficient. What they were likely facing was not the Wild People in their full, imposing might, but a massive, routed Wild People army.

It's only been such a short time… Qu TianNan almost laughed.

In the end, all the anger and unwillingness in his heart could only be distilled into one phrase: "Ultimately, they're useless beasts."

Then, Qu TianNan raised his hand and ordered, "Relay my command! All troops outside the city are to return. Archers and crossbowmen on the walls will provide cover!"

Qu TianNan was not worried about his troops returning through the three city gates. He did not believe the Yan people would choose to attack at this moment, as they no longer had any reason to sacrifice more lives to capture the city.

Those remnants of the Wild People's routed forces that had barely managed to cross the river had yet to catch their breath when they suddenly spotted cavalry figures approaching from the south.

Seeing their armor, seeing their banners, the wild people cried out in horror,

"The Zhenbei Army is here!"

"The Jingnan Army is here!"

Perhaps a few high-ranking Wild People commanders, including their king, and some discerning chieftains had realized earlier. The forces launching those terrifying charges and breakthroughs against them from the west bank of the river were by no means mere local forces or troops from the Cheng State; they were the true elites of the Yan, disguised in different armor.

But the ordinary Wild People cavalrymen were unaware of this. They still believed they had been so utterly crushed by a "motley rabble." Now, having barely escaped with their lives, they encountered the even more terrifying and formidable ace iron cavalry of the Yan.

At this point, there was no need to fight at all; the wild people despaired completely. Some began to flee chaotically in all directions, heedless of any restraint, while others dismounted, dropped their weapons, and prostrated themselves, begging for mercy.

They were exhausted; they admitted defeat. Now, no matter how brilliantly the stars might shine, their will to fight could not be rekindled.

However, the wild people who knelt in surrender were met only by a cold slogan, shouted repeatedly from within the Yan Army ranks:

"The Lord has ordered, capture no prisoners!"

"The Lord has ordered, capture no prisoners!"

"The Lord has ordered, capture no prisoners!"