Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

"How dare they!" Enraged that a mere few thousand men dared to charge straight at his massive army of ten thousand, Cui Shilu roared, "Fire the arrows!"

Archers behind the guards unleashed a hail of arrows. Lin Xingzhu's rattan shield bearers moved almost parallel to the ground, their vital organs completely covered by their shields, resulting in very few being hit. Cui Shilu hesitated for a moment, then ordered his muskets to fire again. However, his army was currently engaged in a direct confrontation with the enemy, and there weren't many musketeers at the front. Furthermore, these rattan shields, made from the tough mountain rattan of Fujian soaked in tung oil, were not only lightweight but also offered superior protection compared to ordinary shields; they were difficult to injure even from fifty meters away. The sparse volleys of fire only felled about twenty men. The well-trained rattan shield bearers rolled swiftly across the ground, quickly closing in on the guards and engaging in fierce combat.

Although Cui Shilu was surprised, he didn't take it seriously. His army had an overwhelming numerical advantage, so what was there to fear in close combat? Unexpectedly, once inside the enemy ranks, these Wu soldiers transformed into ferocious tigers, wielding rattan shields and repelling thousands of men. They leaped eight feet forward and retreated ten feet backward, making them invincible. Even more terrifying was that they advanced in groups of three to five, forming small, cone-shaped formations, quickly carving holes in the Wei army's main formation.

Lin Xingzhu, displaying unparalleled bravery, led five hundred personal guards straight towards the guard's banner. Anyone who dared to block his way was instantly cut down. Seeing the situation turning against them, Cui Shilu ordered over a hundred cavalrymen in the central army to charge, hoping to use the cavalry's momentum to crush these ground rats. Seeing the cavalry charging, the rattan shield soldiers were not afraid, rolling on the ground and drawing their swords to slash at the horses' legs. Although many were trampled by their horses or stabbed by the cavalry, many horses were also felled. As more and more cavalrymen fell, the hundred-odd riders were quickly overwhelmed by the rattan shield soldiers.

"Ah yeah!" Cui Shilu shouted, his previous confidence vanished, and he turned his horse to flee. A dark shadow flashed past, and Lin Xingzhu pounced on his horse like a ghost, severing its leg with one stroke and decapitating it with another. With their commander dead, Cui Shilu's troops immediately collapsed. Taking advantage of the victory, Lin Xingzhu turned and fought against Ke Sheng's troops.

Ke Sheng was shocked and gritted his teeth to form a defensive line. Facing the overwhelming momentum of the Wu army, they were overwhelmed and on the verge of defeat. Suddenly, the sound of horses' hooves was heard, and General Hilgen of the Second Guards arrived with ten thousand cavalry and infantry.

Seeing that enemy reinforcements had arrived, Lin Xingzhu was unwilling to linger in battle and led his troops in a slow retreat. Contrary to the expectation of overwhelming the enemy, the Wei army's first battle in Guangxi ended in defeat. After the battle, a headcount revealed that the losses amounted to as much as 5,000 men, while only about 200 corpses of Wu's army were left on the battlefield.

Upon hearing of the initial defeat, the proud and arrogant Great Khan Lianhua was enraged and ordered his entire army to march towards Huangsha Pass, vowing to avenge the defeat with the enemy's blood. Although outnumbered, Lin Xingzhu was not afraid. Huangsha Pass was built on a mountain, offering a strategic advantage, and with reinforcements on the way, what was there to fear? Reinforcements arrived quickly. Hearing that the Wei army was attacking Quanzhou, Gao Dejie personally led more than 20,000 elite troops from Guilin to reinforce the city. After joining forces with Tao Jizhi, the Quanzhou garrison commander, they gathered more than 40,000 troops and marched to Huangsha Pass to defend it.

"A mere forty thousand bandits dare to block my horse's hooves? They truly have no sense of mortality!" Looking at the fortress faintly visible on the mountain, the Great Khan of Lotus held his riding whip and said contemptuously.

"It is clearly an army of 400,000, why does Your Majesty say 40,000?" Grand Secretary Liu Haogu asked with a smile.

Sultan laughed, "Master Liu, you are mistaken. The spies I sent have found out that there are only about 40,000 enemies at the pass. Where did this 400,000-strong army come from?"

"No, it's 400,000, not 40,000," Liu Haogu shook his head. "Your Majesty has always been knowledgeable in military affairs and should understand the importance of terrain. The Five Ridges are precipitous and can withstand an army of 400,000." The so-called Five Ridges are the five most important mountain ranges in the Nanling Mountains. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the mountains south of the Chu Kingdom (the area bordering Hunan, Guangxi, Jiangxi, and Guangdong) were collectively called the Nanling Mountains, and five strategically valuable locations within the Nanling Mountains were known as the Five Ridges. These five ridges are not only precipitous and easy to defend, but they also block important transportation routes for large armies marching south in ancient times. Except for Qitian Ridge in southern Hunan and Dayuling in Jiangxi and Guangdong, the other three ridges—Yuecheng Ridge, Dupang Ridge, and Mengzhu Ridge—are all located between Hunan and Guangxi. To march south from Huguang to Guangxi, one cannot avoid these three natural barriers. It is precisely because of their strategic importance that Liu Haogu said they could withstand an army of 400,000.

“What Master Liu said makes sense, but ‘favorable timing is not as important as favorable location, and favorable location is not as important as favorable human relations.’ As long as our army is united, what dangerous mountain can’t we conquer? Back then, when I led troops to the snowy region to attack Tsangpa Khan, there were also many mountains, and the number of soldiers was much smaller than now, but we still managed to conquer them.” Although Sultan thought Liu Haogu’s words made sense, he did not think that a few mountains could block his way.

However, once the battle began, he realized he had been careless! Huangsha Pass was located on Yuecheng Ridge in the Five Ridges, surrounded by mountains both in front of and behind it. Under the personal supervision of the Great Khan, the Wei army launched a fierce attack on Huangsha Pass. Gao Dejie, Tao Jizhi, Lin Xingzhu, and others led the Wu army to defend the pass, fighting to the death and repelling the Wei army's attacks more than ten times. In order to atone for his mistakes before the Great Khan, Ke Sheng, the Wei army's deputy general of Fuzhou who had suffered a defeat in battle a few days earlier, led more than a thousand elite soldiers to scale the mountain and briefly reached the walls of Huangsha Pass. Gao Dejie, a Wu army general known for his bravery and skill in battle and the left wing general of the Imperial Guard's Iron Cavalry, disregarded his position as commander-in-chief and personally led his elite troops to meet the attack, killing Ke Sheng in battle and repelling the Wei army once again. After more than ten days of unsuccessful attacks on the mountain and the loss of five thousand soldiers, the morale of the Wei army was severely dampened.

The seasoned Khan of Lotus was unwilling to continue the direct assault and ordered Prince Sumur of Liao to lead 70,000 troops to attack Xiyan City in western Quanzhou. Initially, things went smoothly; they easily captured the towns of Bashili Mountain and Yixiang. However, their attack on Xiyan City was met with fierce resistance from the garrison commander, Ma Xiong, the Governor of Guangxi. Xiyan City was built atop the main peak of Yuecheng Ridge, its terrain even more treacherous than Huangsha Pass. Although Ma Xiong's force numbered only 20,000, their defenses held firm, preventing the 70,000-strong army from advancing an inch. Sumur, a seasoned general himself, was not content with this. He decided to take a longer route, bypassing Guilin Prefecture, and planned to enter Guangxi from Guni Town in Liuzhou Prefecture. While Guni Town's terrain was not as treacherous as Huangsha Pass or Xiyan City, its location north of the Xun River made it difficult for his army to launch a full-scale siege due to the river's influence. Wu Liuqing's deputy general, Shen Wei, led 15,000 men to hold out at Guni Pass while sending messengers to Guilin for help. Wu's general, Zhao Yu, and deputy general, Li Maozhu, led 15,000 men from Guilin to reinforce them, arriving on the south bank of the Xun River in just three days, where they supported Guni Pass. Having lost several thousand men and failed to capture the mountain, and with enemy reinforcements arriving, Su Mu'er realized the situation was hopeless and led his troops back to Xiyan County to join his brother in a defensive position.

"Hmph! Though the Five Ridges are long, I do not believe they can protect the entire Hunan-Guangxi border!" The Great Khan, unwilling to give up, ordered Prince Qi, Melas, to lead 100,000 troops to cross the Guan River and seize Guanyang City. Guanyang was the eastern gateway to Guilin; if captured, they could directly reach the city. Melas confidently led his army, but the Wu army was prepared. General Xie Juefu of Dinghai led 10,000 naval troops and over 200 warships patrolling the Guan River. Melas, a skilled warrior, ordered General Dang Shousu to lead 5,000 elite soldiers in small boats to cross the Guan River under cover of night, bypassing the Wu navy. Dang Shousu, a former general under Li Zicheng, was extremely brave and actually managed to cross the river secretly at night, intending to seize the strategically important Haiyang Mountain between Yuecheng Ridge and Dupang Ridge to cut off Guanyang's connection with Guilin. However, Gao Dejie, a master strategist, had already ordered Deputy General Wang Fuhan of Youjiang to lead 10,000 troops to lie in ambush at Haiyang Mountain. At dawn, seeing that the guards had launched a sneak attack, Wang Fuhan led his troops down the mountain to fight their way down. The guards numbered only five thousand men and were exhausted after a whole night of fighting. Even though Dang Shousu was incredibly brave, he was no match for the overwhelming numbers and was utterly defeated. He himself died in the chaos of battle.

Upon hearing of Dang Shousu's death in battle, Mairas was deeply saddened. This man was extremely brave in battle; though he had been a bandit, he had always been utterly loyal to him, and now he had fallen here! After requesting permission from his father to give him a proper burial, he led his army along the Guan River towards Guanyang, traversing numerous peaks of the Dupang Ridge along the way, until he was utterly exhausted. Finally arriving at Guanyang, he found that Jin Guangzu, the governor of Guangxi, had already arrived with 20,000 elite troops, waiting in ambush along the Dupang Ridge and the Guan River. After a failed attempt to cross the river, His Highness Prince Qi had no choice but to write to his father explaining the difficulties and set up camp on the east bank of the Guan River to await an opportunity to attack. (End of Chapter)