Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 83: Bravely Attack the Enemy
The hilly area at the southern foot of the Dabie Mountains has a very uneven ground with undulating layers, which is completely different from the flat land in Henan Province.

Such terrain was not conducive to cavalry charges.

This was also the reason why Zhu Wen chose to dismount and defend the valley entrance.

But for Meng Kai, whether he can charge smoothly or not doesn’t make much difference.

To him, the warhorse was nothing more than a platform for attack.

Even the soldiers in the rear tower of Wang Jian's Zhongwu Army, whose every man was worth ten men, were frightened by Meng Kai's roar and shouts, and everyone began to think of retreating.

Riding on horseback and wielding an axe, man and horse became one, Meng Kai seemed like a killer star descended from the sky.

The big axes chopped down on the heads of the government soldiers, and heads and broken limbs flew into the air one after another. The blood curtains painted the soil on the hills with a cruel red color.

The sudden arrival and the blow that forced back the two leaders and Wang Jian had already raised Meng Kai's momentum to the extreme.

In reality, the retreat of the two sect leaders and Wang Jian was quite unexpected. However, they were easily forced back, which temporarily caused the morale of the officers and soldiers to be scattered. Facing Meng Kai's attack, they were almost completely defeated.

Wang Jian cursed in his heart, not only was his martial arts skills far inferior to Meng Kai's, but how come the two leaders were so useless?
"Brother, you've done a great job." Zhu Wen gave a thumbs-up and praised, "With you here, the elite loyal warriors and the Uighur cavalry are nothing but a bunch of chickens and dogs!"

As Zhu Wen said, there is a world of difference between the Cao Army cavalry with or without Meng Kai.

Now the knights of the Grass Army followed Meng Kai to charge, everyone was filled with a desire for revenge and shouted loudly, as if the sky was collapsing and the earth was splitting, which further depressed the morale of the government army.

The Uighur cavalry in the distance was approaching in the smoke and dust. Their war horses were tall, the sound of their hooves was regular, their armor was bright, and they had a majestic posture as they marched.

The Xianbei, also a northern Hu people, descended from the Donghu clan. While they had a few beauties, most had broad faces, narrow eyes, thick inner eye wrinkles, and high cheekbones. The Khitans and Shiwei people of the present-day grasslands are related to the Xianbei.

The Uighurs who came from the Tiele system had higher cheekbones, pointed faces, deep eye sockets, narrow foreheads, and many had hooked noses, making them look more ferocious than the Donghu people.

As long as the terrain was not too rugged, the Uighur cavalry had no fear of mountain battles. Their horses could climb up and down hills and enter and exit streams as if they were walking on flat ground. They were considered "incomparable to Chinese horses."

After the collapse of the Uighur Khanate, which had been in confrontation with the Tang Dynasty for a hundred years, the Uighurs scattered around and established many small countries. A large number of Uighur cavalry also went south to serve the Tang Dynasty military leaders and even wealthy people like Tiemole.

When the two hundred Uighur cavalrymen closed within a hundred paces, they began to unleash a hail of arrows. Their arrows shot with incredible speed, and as the distance closed, the lethality of their arrows grew stronger and stronger. When they hit directly, they could even penetrate the armor of the Cao army soldiers.

One hundred Cao army knights versus five hundred elite official army infantry, plus two hundred Uighur cavalry, the difference in combat power seems to be extremely huge.

But Meng Kai was not afraid. He held a big axe in his hand, like an angry King Kong, and his roar turned into thunder.

The axe blade swept across the sky with cold light, shooting down sharp arrows that whizzed through the air, as if shaking off the dust on clothes.

The two most ferocious Uighur knights came side by side, one on the left and one on the right, stabbing at Meng Kai with their spears.

Meng Kai roared, swung his huge axe forward, and chopped off a knight's spear. He pushed hard and chopped off the horse's head in an instant, cutting the Uighur knight on the horse in half.

Meng Kai grabbed the other knight's spear with his left hand, pulled it hard, and yanked it directly off the horse like a child.

Meng Kai stuffed the man under his armpit and squeezed him with force. There were continuous popping sounds at his neck, and even the collar made of iron lock rings was squeezed and collapsed. Meng Kai actually squeezed the man to death on the spot and threw him off his horse.

Covered in blood and mud, Meng Kai's smile was even brighter than the morning sun. "Tiemole, are these your Uighur cavalry?"

Meng Kai swept his eyes around and saw the Uighur knights who were aiming their bows at him. They all felt as if they were struck by thunder, their hearts trembling, and they were suppressed by the invisible momentum and could not move.

Only then did the government troops realize that what Meng Kai said, "Now that Alliance Leader Wang is gone, I, Meng Juehai, will be the second Alliance Leader," was not just nonsense.

In just one or two years, the Cao army will once again have a peerless general whose strength surpasses the four marshals!

Meng Kai charged forward bravely, and single-handedly pierced through the entire Uighur cavalry formation, as if he were chopping melons and vegetables, leaving a pool of blood in its wake.

Zhu Wen, Tian Jun, Huo Cun and others followed closely behind and rushed in, killing the Uighur cavalry as easily as cutting wheat or grass.

Just now, Tian Jun had been tempted to flee with Zhu Wen, hoping he would take her with him. But when Meng Kai arrived, he single-handedly turned the tide of battle, leaving her feeling incredibly ashamed, her face burning. Now, she charged with exceptional valor, her lance slashing across the air, piercing the necks of several Uighur cavalrymen, sending them careening through the throat and sending them spewing blood and falling from their horses.

Seeing the Uighur soldiers he recruited at a high price suffering heavy casualties, Tiemole felt heartbroken.

They are not ordinary Uighur herdsmen, but the elite warriors among the Uighurs with outstanding martial arts skills!

With such strong hatred, Tie Moler wanted to chop Meng Kai into pieces and feed them to the dogs. But he could only think about it and ultimately did not dare to rush forward to confront Meng Kai.

Otherwise, the one who would be chopped into pieces might be Tiemole himself.

"With this person here, Wang Xianzhi can be said to be immortal!" Someone among the government troops wailed like this.

The soldier who said this was immediately stabbed in the throat by Chen Liqing with the Green Heavy Spear: "You demoralize our troops in battle, you deserve to be killed!"

The Uighur cavalry always brought their own horses with them, and their number was definitely more than 200. They distributed the horses to the imperial infantry, and Wang Jian, Chen Liqing, Liu Xun, and the two leaders all mounted their horses and went into battle.

The enemy switched from fighting on foot to fighting on horseback, and the pressure was undoubtedly increased several times.

But Meng Kai didn't take them seriously at all.

He glanced away with his gleaming eyes, and it seemed as if all he saw was a cloud of dust.

Wang Jian's heart was bright as snow. Compared with the last confrontation, Meng Kai's skills had improved beyond words.

In small-scale battles, especially cavalry battles, the role of such top-level generals cannot be overestimated.

Their presence not only serves as the team's indestructible edge, but also boosts the morale of the soldiers fighting with them.

Lu Bu, the "Flying General" during the Three Kingdoms period, and Ran Min, the "Wudao Heavenly King" during the Sixteen Kingdoms period, could both lead dozens or hundreds of cavalrymen to charge into the midst of thousands of troops and be invincible.

On a towering rock that looked like a pillar of heaven, Li Cunxiao, who was watching the battle, saw Meng Kai so heroic that he could not help but scratch his ears and cheeks with joy, rubbing his hands together, obviously he was so excited to see the prey that he wanted to go down and fight with the opponent.

But Li Guochang slapped him hard: "You are not allowed to go down."

"The government troops are about to be defeated," Li Cunxiao said, "They are no match for that bronze-faced brute."

"My junior sister has clearly refused your participation. Besides, Wang Xianzhi is already dead." Li Guochang said calmly, "You are not allowed to attack anyone else except Wang Xianzhi."

"Why?" Li Cunxiao was quite puzzled.

"Let's just think of these guys' shared life and death loyalty as a reminder for Grandfather, Grandpa, of the days when he was learning from your great-grandmaster." Li Guochang said calmly, "Besides, who will truly be the invincible figure who rivals the 'Land Godly Immortal' Wang Xianzhi will be revealed in the future. Why rush now?"

That being said, none of the officers and soldiers present actually witnessed Wang Xianzhi's martyrdom. They didn't see the shocking scene where Wang Xianzhi, facing a massive siege, single-handedly killed over 800 men, beheaded the descendants of the four dukes, destroyed the three corpse kings, wounded the Flame Marshal Zhen Ranyu, and buried the broken arm of the governor Zimian.

Hearing is not as good as seeing. In their eyes, Meng Kai's power is even greater than that of Wang Xianzhi, who is only a name known by reputation!

"Brother Wang Jian, I didn't expect that those Uighurs were useless. They are just like the two leaders, with silver-plated spear heads." Liu Xun said to Wang Jian in a low voice.

These Uighur knights were truly elite. While they didn't wear full horse armor for faster maneuvers, their horses only wore leather visors, neck guards, and chest guards to protect their fronts, their knights were fully armored, leaving only their facial features exposed. They also carried quivers, allowing them to rain down arrows.

Not only were they excellent archers, the Uighur cavalry also underwent rigorous sword and spear training. They were able to charge into battle with spears, as well as draw their swords and engage in close combat when the enemy got close.

However, the undulating terrain made it difficult for the Uighur cavalry to launch an unstoppable wall-to-wall spear charge. Faced with Meng Kai's unprecedented bravery, they were caught off guard and fell into their current unfavorable situation.

"It's okay. They brought the war horses we need and bought us time to mount them." Wang Jian said calmly. He glanced around and saw that all 150 of his direct soldiers had put on their armor and mounted their horses.

Wang Jian seemed more confident in the Zhongwu Houlou soldiers under his command.

An officer with dark hair, white complexion, high nose and deep eyes said in a trembling voice: "Wang...Wang Jian, you are not asking us to die, are you?"

This man was none other than Ba ​​Wuji, a sixth-rank official from Guidesi, who had mocked Wang Jian in the tent of General Song Wei during the Songzhou battle. Ba Wuji's ancestor was Ba Fenghan, a famous hero during the founding of the country, known as the "Desert Mad Blade."

Ba Wuji and his close friend Xu Shen, known as Xu Langjun, were enlisted in the Shen Ce Army. Previously, while serving under Song Wei, they had repeatedly troubled Wang Jian. Unexpectedly, after Yan Shuai defeated a small contingent of the Cao Army in the Battle of Shenzhou, the post of General of the All-Road Camps was transferred from Song Wei to Zhen Ranyu, known as the "Huaying Flame Dancer." Unexpectedly, Ba Wuji and Xu Shen were assigned to serve under the temporary command of their sworn enemy, Wang Jian!
Ba Wuji and Xu Shenwei really didn't know what Yan Shuai was thinking. Maybe she didn't even know that the two brothers were causing trouble for Wang Jian.

But when they received the order, they felt like they were struck by lightning - it was like a bucket falling into a well!
Wang Jian said calmly, "Many people know about our grudge. Now you two are following me directly. If I deliberately kill you two, not only will my brothers suffer heavy casualties, but I will also be at great risk. I, Wang Jian, am not a scoundrel like the Song brothers. Can you please stop judging others by your own standards?"

Now that Song Jue is dead, Song Wei is seriously ill and bedridden, and has been stripped of his position as the commander-in-chief of the anti-rebel campaign. Wang Jian does not hesitate to openly criticize Song Wei.

You have to know that Song Wei was a man of unrepentant ways. After the disastrous defeat at Songzhou, he even colluded with Lu Xie, one of the prime ministers, to seize the 7,000 elite troops sent by Governor Zang Zimian to support him. Right Prime Minister Zheng Ting immediately submitted a memorial, arguing that Song Wei and Zang Zimian had a long-standing feud and that if he were under his command, he would surely be killed. This was how the plan was stopped.

Meng Kai injured Song Wei, causing him to become seriously ill and dying. Objectively speaking, this really eliminated a great threat to the Tang Dynasty court.

(End of this chapter)