Jinting Han people

Chapter 197: Turning In (4k)

Just as Liu Xian guessed, Hao San's strategy was ridiculous. In fact, it was to mobilize all the elite troops in the army under the cover of other departments and attack Sun Xiu with all their strength.

There is no way around it.

Previously, Hao San had been caught in Zhang Gui's tight net, completely helpless and practically cornered. Yet, even so, Hao San maintained immense patience, patiently awaiting change in Linfen. His sole reason was his faith in the infallibility of the imperial court. If the court were truly infallible, he likely wouldn't have rebelled and fled into exile.

Finally, at this last critical moment, he finally got what he was waiting for!

Upon receiving Sun Xiu's challenge, Hao San was overjoyed to learn that the Jin army had changed its generals at the last minute. He immediately devised a strategy: to gather all the army's armor and elite soldiers into one elite force. After scouting Sun Xiu's location before the battle, he would lead his elite troops to attack him fiercely. If Sun Xiu could withstand the pressure and collapse, the rest of the Jin army would be powerless to recover.

He had sent Qiao Hu to challenge him before the battle for precisely this purpose. Although he was outmatched by Zhang Fang, he had managed to clearly see the platform where Sun Xiu was standing. Therefore, during the battle, Hao San personally led the troops and launched a full-scale attack on Sun Xiu's main camp.

He led only cavalry, and launched a reckless attack from the outset. Although Sun Xiu's own forces were equipped with most of the elite troops, including cavalry, crossbowmen, and warriors like Zhang Fang and Li Ju, the command was in Sun Xiu's hands, and the result was a reckless and reckless resistance.

But there is no distinction between those who are not afraid of death. The rebels were also unwilling to die. At the same time, they had clear tactical goals and local numerical advantages. After two rounds, they still forced their way in and the arrows had already hit the platform where Sun Xiu was.

This was a normal occurrence on the battlefield, but Sun Xiu was so frightened when he saw it.

He came down from the high platform and called his confidant Liu Ji and said, "Tell the soldiers in front to hold on! When I am out of danger, I will reward two gold coins for each person who dies in battle!" After that, he asked his followers for horses and pretended to escape and retreat.

Liu Ji quickly tried to persuade him, saying, "Chief, the two armies are now engaged in a fierce battle, and the outcome is still uncertain. Our army even has the upper hand. If you leave now, we will be defeated in an instant! Chief, please hold on a little longer! If all else fails, you can send a message to the two wings, asking them to come to our rescue!"

This made Sun Xiu extremely angry. He yelled at Liu Ji, "Ha! Who do you think is responsible for this situation? These villains! Are they eager for me to make a fool of myself and beg them for help? I want to see who will be the one to lose his life!"

As they were talking, a cavalry unit of the rebels rushed in about ten steps, and several arrows flew directly over Sun Xiu's head, and one was even nailed to the flagpole. Sun Xiu heard this and didn't care about anything. In front of everyone, he directly mounted his horse and ran away.

Sun Xiu's escape was so quick and smooth that before the others could react, or know how to react, he had already left the battle formation on his own.

Without their commander issuing orders, what could anyone do? The Jin soldiers in the center were truly elite, fighting for three quarters of an hour even after their commander abandoned the army. But as the Xiongnu charged toward the platform, they severed the flags and pierced the Jin army's drums. Without further ado, the entire army could see that something was seriously wrong with the center.

Seeing this, Li Han's troops made a decisive move and retreated. In an instant, a huge gap was exposed in the basic line of the Jin army that had been maintained.

The line is the source of discipline. When the soldiers see the neat line, they feel powerful and dare not leave the group even if they are beheaded. But if they see the line in chaos, even if they are surrounded by their relatives and friends, they will feel that the situation is hopeless, which leads to the collapse of the entire line.

The spread of collapse was unstoppable. Even Liu Xian, far from the left army's outermost edge, could feel the force of the chaos and panic: hundreds of flags tossed to the ground, armor and swords tumbling one after another, sending up countless clouds of dust and smoke, like a thick yellow fog rising from nowhere, enveloping everything within sight. The silence of the military drums was unnerving, while the Xiongnu's excited cheers were like a death-dealing curse.

Xue Xing, Zhang Gu, Sun Xi, Cai Fang, and the others rushed over, their faces covered in sweat. They pursed their lips and asked Liu Xian, "Lord, what should we do now? Should we retreat?"

Liu Xian turned to look at them and said sternly, "Retreat! Of course we must retreat! But we can't lose our composure now!"

"Now is the most critical moment. We are surrounded by wolves. If we lose our composure, we will be attacked by the enemy. We would rather retreat slowly than disrupt our formation!"

"Everyone, hurry back and form up! Follow my flag!"

As he said this, Liu Xian knew that relying on only his thousand men would be difficult to survive against the pursuit of tens of thousands of people. Therefore, he specifically called Cai Fang and said to him, "Cai Caoyuan, go and inform Captain Bai immediately. While the situation is not too bad, we should unite the left and right armies so that we can evacuate safely."

Logically speaking, Liu Xian was a subordinate of Bai Yun, the commander of Fengyi, and should have actively sided with him. However, the collapse of the front had already spread widely throughout the left army. Liu Xian had prepared early, moving north ahead of time, to prevent the collapse from spreading to his own camp. In reality, he wasn't sure he could find Bai Yun, so he simply took a gamble, hoping to hold on to as many people as he could.

After Cai Fang led a dozen or so riders to make contact, Liu Xian dismounted and shouted to his men, "Don't panic! The enemy is a mob after all. We've defeated them several times before, and this time will be no exception!"

After a slight pause, he continued, "How many arrows do we have left? Shoot them all!"

Thanks to Liu Xian's prior preparations in Xiayang, the soldiers had received considerable archery training. They were also equipped with two fully loaded quivers, and despite the previous exchange of arrows, they still had a considerable supply of arrows.

At this point, the Jin army was completely disengaged. While retreating under Liu Xian's banner, they fired relentlessly at the pursuing Xiongnu. After half a day of fierce fighting, the Xiongnu's quivers were mostly empty, and they could only scavenge the few usable arrows on the ground to return fire. The result was clear: the Jin army's hail of arrows completely overwhelmed the Xiongnu rebels, like an iron curtain descending from the sky, forcing them to retreat without a trace.

Liu Xian took advantage of the situation and retreated a distance. Seeing this, the pursuers saw that this group of Jin troops were in good order, while the Jin troops on other lines were scattered and disorderly, so they simply let them go and turned to attack others.

But Liu Xian did not dare to relax at all. While observing the enemy, he maintained his own line. He would rather walk slowly than let the formation be disrupted.

At this point, smoke and dust filled the air, and the fleeing soldiers were everywhere. It was also visible that the Xiongnu who were pursuing the Jin soldiers had become extremely disorganized, with few organized units remaining. As Liu Xian marched eastward, he spotted groups of a dozen or so Jin soldiers and ordered Sun Xi and his men to lead the remaining cavalry to break up the siege and gather up the fleeing soldiers.

After half an hour, Liu Xian's troops continued to gather, gradually reaching nearly two thousand men. Cai Fang, who had just been sent out, also returned and said to Liu Xian, "County Master, I didn't find Captain Bai, but I ran into Captain Zhang. He's leading over a thousand men. I heard you're still here and heading this way!" Hearing that Zhang Guang was still there, Liu Xian was overjoyed. He thanked Cai Fang for his hard work and ordered the troops to rest for a while. He also urged everyone to seize the opportunity to eat all the dry food distributed today. After fighting hard for most of the day, they were already hungry and thirsty. Now they had the opportunity, they hurried to eat. However, many people were so thirsty that they drank the remaining water in one gulp, leaving them with no choice but to face the hard dry food with a gloomy face and gnaw it with their teeth.

Soon, Zhang Guang finally arrived with his troops and joined Liu Xian. Liu Xian personally went forward to greet him. He saw Zhang Guang's face was covered in dust, and his armor and the ring-handled sword in his hand were covered in blood. It was obvious that he had been through a hard battle.

Zhang Guang reined in his horse, wiped the sweat from his face, and immediately brought bad news to Liu Xian. He said, "Huai Chong, quickly prepare for battle. When I came here, a cavalry was chasing us!"

Liu Xian saw from a distance a cloud of dust rising as a group of Xiongnu cavalry appeared on their flank, numbering nearly two thousand. He was startled to see so many Jin troops still standing there, and dared not approach immediately, instead riding his horses to flank them.

Cai Fang said to Liu Xian, "County Lord, before the rebels surround us, let's rush to the side."

Zhang Guang waved his hand and said, "No, we have more infantry than us now. If we run ahead, they will chase us down. We have to go up and attack them first and inflict heavy damage on them! Only then will we have a chance of survival."

Liu Xian also agreed deeply. He ordered his cavalry to gather together with Zhang Guang's cavalry, which numbered nearly two hundred. He then mounted his horse and ordered Li Sheng's commanding officers to slowly follow up while they, the light cavalry, charged forward first.

This group of Xiongnu cavalrymen did not expect that someone would dare to directly counterattack. They were caught off guard, and Liu Xian, Zhang Guang and others were already entangled in a fierce battle with these cavalrymen.

Liu Xian, Zhaowu Sword in hand, led his men in the front. When he encountered enemy soldiers, he didn't deliberately aim for harm, but instead stabbed their limbs. His sword swings were incredibly fast, and combined with Fanyu's speed, it far surpassed that of an ordinary horse. Galloping, they were as swift as the wind and as fierce as lightning.

The mounted Huns saw a horse charging ahead and thought it was a golden opportunity to kill the enemy. However, even before they could get close, they felt a surge of overwhelming pressure, making it difficult to breathe and slowing their movements. But in that moment of distraction, the variegated horse with the cross on its head had already swept past.

By the time they reacted, they felt a chill on their wrists or a pain in their legs. Immediately afterwards, they dropped their weapons or fell to the ground. Their companions watched them groaning and clutching their wounds, as if they had seen a ghost.

The one leading this cavalry at this time was none other than Qiao Hu, who had challenged Liu Xian earlier. Seeing Liu Xian's bravery from a distance, he said to his deputy general, Wu Dousou:
"I lost face in front of the enemy before and was unable to compete with Zhang Fang. I am afraid that the other tribes are laughing at me. Now that I have met such a good opponent, I can just redeem myself."

Wu Dousou said, "Brother Qiao, are you sure you can win?"

Qiao Hu hesitated for a moment, then said, "How about this? You support me from a distance. If I'm not doing well in the fight, you can shoot arrows to support me. It's a sure thing."

After saying that, he immediately spurred his horse out and galloped straight towards Liu Xian.

Qiao Hu was indeed a renowned strongman among the Xiongnu in the rear. He wielded a long spear weighing over twenty kilograms. While not as powerful as Zhang Fang, he was still quite formidable. Liu Xian had just charged back and forth and was turning when he came face to face with him. Seeing the iron halberd coming towards him, he didn't take it head-on, but quickly dodged to the side. The halberd barely grazed Liu Xian's sleeve.

But while dodging, Liu Xian suddenly stopped, and at the same time, he suddenly stretched out his right hand and grabbed Qiao Hu's exhausted spear, and then pulled it to his side. Qiao Hu almost lost his balance, and had to pull the reins to avoid being thrown off the horse.

As he was adjusting his stance, Qiao Hu glanced sideways and saw Liu Xian holding a gleaming longsword in his left hand. He was startled. He tried to pull back his iron spear, but found the opponent's arm strength was too great. In a panic, he dropped the spear and reached for the ring-handled sword at his waist.

The two horses were almost side by side, as if they were in a loving embrace. Liu Xian watched his movements. At the same moment Qiao Hu's hand grasped the hilt of his knife, Liu Xian's sword blade struck out instantly. In a flash of sword light, it directly cut off four fingers of Qiao Hu's right hand.

Then the Zhaowu sword jumped to Liu Xian's right hand like a fish leaping into a rainbow spring, followed by a circle of sword stabbing, hitting Qiao Hu's throat exactly.

The burly man opened his eyes wide, covered his throat, which was gushing with blood, with his broken palm, and made a few grunts, as if he was amazed at Liu Xian's swordsmanship, but finally lost consciousness and fell under his mount.

No sooner said than done, Liu Xian heard another sharp sound of breaking through the air ringing beside his ears. Alarm bells rang in his heart, and he subconsciously tried to lower his head to avoid it.

But the arrow flew like lightning, leaving him no time to react. It practically brushed Liu Xian's hair. Liu Xian followed the sound of the arrow and saw a Xiongnu man on horseback, bow in hand, about to fire, when an arrow pierced his throat and he collapsed to the ground, staggering.

Liu Xian looked towards the archery station again and found that Xue Xing was running towards him with a longbow in his hand. It turned out that he was the one who shot the arrow.

Xue Xing quickly apologized to him, saying, "Damn it! I almost shot the county lady just now!"

Liu Xian patted his chest with lingering fear and said to him with a smile: "Haha, it's okay, I didn't even notice someone was plotting against me. Ji Da just saved my life!"

After a brief regrouping, he led his cavalry to continue the battle. The Xiongnu, having lost two of their tribal leaders, dared not engage the Jin army any further. Within two quarters of an hour, they dispersed like owls. The remaining Xiongnu naturally did not dare to fight again, but they were unwilling to let the Jin army escape so peacefully, so they followed from a distance.

I don’t know what time it was in the afternoon, but the sky gradually darkened and there were more clouds. Under the setting sun, the dusk made people feel hazy and trance-like.

As night was approaching, the Huns felt that there would be no breakthrough, so they gradually stopped chasing and watched the Jin army slowly leave and finally disappear completely into the night.

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(End of this chapter)