How could the militia possibly have the experience or effective means to withstand and suppress the impact of a large-scale cavalry formation? In panicked confusion, they raised spears and shields to block while dozens of hunting bows behind the shield wall shot chaotically overhead in scattered volleys.

The arm-drawn crossbows hung on the left side of the saddles, swaying and slapping rhythmically with the galloping warhorses.

On one hand, they needed to deceive the more formidable Xuanzhou troops attacking from the south. On the other hand, the Chishan Army’s supplies had long been so scarce that even crossbow bolts had to be conserved. More importantly, the cavalry battalion simply had no time to become entangled with the Honglin Pier militia—only by charging directly with spears could they guarantee routing the Honglin Pier militia in less than one incense stick’s time.

Han Donghu tightly clamped the ten-foot-plus lance under his right arm. His left hand gripped the reins while also raising his arm to shield his face. In just three to five breaths, he felt seven or eight arrows strike his body, but the hunting bows were weak and feeble—all seven or eight arrows bounced off his armor plates. Next, he clamped down on his lance and thrust fiercely toward a wooden shield before him.

The large shield was made of hardwood with outer layers covered in animal hide and copper-iron—quite finely manufactured—and was not immediately pierced through. But the impact force generated by the warhorse’s high-speed charge was tremendously powerful, like a thousand-pound hammer smashing down. It immediately sent the large shield flying along with the two militiamen bracing it from behind, knocking them back seven or eight paces.

In that instant, Han Donghu pulled the reins, turning his warhorse to trample toward the sword-and-shield soldiers on the left. Despite such a forceful collision, the lance clamped under his right arm remained steadily held without slipping. He then smoothly swept it in a half-arc to the right rear, the sharp blade edge slicing across the neck of a militiaman on the flank, bringing forth a spray of blood…

Three arrows in rapid succession shot past Han Donghu’s waist at extreme speed. Han Donghu looked up to see three militiamen raising spears to stab at his mount, but all three took arrows to the face and toppled forward.

Without looking back, Han Donghu knew this was Captain Zhao Wuji’s godlike archery at work.

Shooting from horseback required time to retrieve arrows from quivers or pouches, nock them, and draw the bow. Those with exceptional archery skills would simultaneously grasp several arrows in hand, eliminating the time needed to retrieve arrows and enabling them to shoot in rapid succession in the shortest time possible.

This sounded easy, but maintaining sufficient accuracy while holding two or three other arrows between one’s fingers when drawing the bow—among a thousand skilled archers, one might not find even one person with such exceptional archery skills.

In this blink of an eye, the cavalry formation tore open a gap three to four paces wide and seven to eight paces deep. Several fierce warriors positioned at the left and right of the wedge formation’s point, led by Han Donghu, slashed, hacked, and stabbed with their weapons at this moment, blood spurting and limbs flying.

Among the militia, there were fierce men who had trained year-round to resist bandits. They attacked from both flanks with swords and spears, using shields to cover their chopping blades and thrusting spears. For a time, they managed to bog down the dozen or so elite cavalry leading the fierce charge.

The dozens of vanguard shock troops charging at the front were dare-to-die squads. Their military equipment was the finest, all wearing complete suits of lamellar armor that even company-grade officers only received in limited quantities.

Except for the extremely unlucky few who were shot or stabbed in vital points through gaps in the armor plates, or whose mounts were stabbed or shot down causing them to be thrown from their horses, the vast majority of vanguard shock troops, even when hemmed in by militia and facing dozens of long spears and short lances thrusting at them, would only suffer injuries in the short term to places like their lower legs that the armor couldn’t cover.

However, facing a cavalry formation surging like raging waves, truly only a minority of fierce militiamen could avoid trembling in fear and continue holding the battlefield.

In fact, even more fearless militiamen wouldn’t help, because the Chishan Army cavalry elite they faced were equally fearless, with even better equipment and more men willing to fight.

The cavalry were fearless. At this moment, to seize the initiative, they completely disregarded casualties to their mounts, charging directly with warhorses weighing seven to eight hundred or even a thousand pounds. It would take at least five or six fierce militiamen working together to possibly stop one rapidly charging warhorse in open terrain!

Zhao Wuji had given Han Donghu one incense stick’s time to tear through the Honglin Pier militia’s formation. In fact, Han Donghu and his men only needed half an incense stick to send the three hundred-plus Honglin Pier militiamen fleeing in wailing chaos.

If the three hundred-plus Honglin Pier militiamen had not been greedy for glory but instead occupied and defended the sturdy courtyard residences within the market town north of the pass, Zhao Wuji would have found it extremely troublesome.

After all, the infantry they could mobilize from the north in the shortest time numbered only about a thousand, while the Xuanzhou troops coming through the mountain valley post road between Shifo Mountain and Magu Mountain would gather in increasing numbers over time. They had no leisure to attack Honglin Pier.

At that point, while they blocked the Xuanzhou reinforcements’ attack at the southern pass, these three hundred militiamen would be like a poisoned thorn driven deep into their flank.

Unfortunately, the Honglin Pier militia leaders and the Xuanzhou military commander now leading the first batch of three hundred cavalry pressing from the south both lacked strategic vision—they only thought of breaking open the pass at the first opportunity.

Having routed the three hundred Honglin Pier militiamen into fleeing chaos, Han Donghu left the pursuit and extermination to the lightly armored cavalry on the flanks. He gathered the dozens of armored cavalry, wheeled them around, and reformed into a wedge formation for charging, aimed at the southern pass direction.

The three hundred-plus Xuanzhou cavalry at the southern pass had nearly finished clearing the obstacles on the post road by this time.

After the other two cavalry squadrons had reassembled on the flanks, Zhao Wuji reined in his warhorse. Seeing that the Xuanzhou cavalry were also forming battle arrays at the pass preparing for a counter-charge, he ordered: “Vanguard squad advance slowly, flanking crossbow cavalry take the lead!”

Han Donghu muttered in dissatisfaction a couple of times, but still reined in his warhorse and reached out to stroke the ears of his mount Zao’er, who was neighing incessantly from the stimulation of the recent fierce combat. He calmed Zao’er’s currently irritable temper, then controlled the speed, letting Zao’er advance in small steps along the muddy post road. The cavalry squadrons on the flanks now unhooked the arm-drawn crossbows hanging from one side of their saddles and leveled them at chest height—the crossbow bolts had already been loaded and strings drawn during the previous charge wave. First advancing slowly, when the enemy cavalry charged out from the pass in several squads, they would suddenly accelerate. At fifty paces distance, they would pull the triggers to shoot forth bolts gleaming with cold light, then quickly wheel their horses aside.

The opposing Xuanzhou cavalry had also already taken their carved bows in hand with feathered arrows nocked on strings. Although in the hands of well-trained horse archers, the time to draw and release was very brief, in that instant when the two armies met, whoever could shoot the arrow in their hand first would seize the initiative and advantage.

Perhaps in the first-rank exchange between mounted archers and crossbow cavalry on both sides, the difference wasn’t obvious. After all, the Chishan Army’s crossbow bolts shooting across fifty paces of space also required time—time enough for the opposing Xuanzhou cavalry to complete the motions of drawing, releasing, and shooting. But by the second and third rank exchanges between mounted archers and crossbow cavalry, the gap rapidly widened.

After all, when facing dozens or hundreds of arrows shooting toward them, crossbow cavalry only needed to pull the trigger to complete firing. How many could calmly draw their bows and maintain any accuracy at such a moment?

“Thud thud thud”—in the first round of close-range exchanges, the Xuanzhou troops had twenty to thirty men shot down, while the Chishan Army lost only seven or eight riders.

The shortcoming of crossbows was slow loading speed. If they couldn’t rout the enemy through exchanges, they either had to abandon the crossbows and switch to swords and spears for close combat, or pull back distance to escape the enemy’s entanglement and find time to reload the crossbow bolts.

The main task of the first wave of Chishan Army crossbow cavalry charging forward was to disrupt the enemy formation, making it easier for the vanguard cavalry led by Han Donghu to charge in with more devastating momentum. Thus after shooting the crossbow bolts in their hands, they immediately scattered with the dismounted wounded toward the open slopes on both flanks. At this time, the hooves of the vanguard cavalry thundered across the earth, so they had no fear of enemy cavalry pursuing them…

……

……

Shiji Mountain on the southwest foot of Jieling Mountain—the entire mountain and valleys were covered with weathered gravel. Looking at it was like a desert, hence the name Shiji Mountain.

As the sky gradually darkened, a ragged and tattered troop was advancing through valleys filled with broken stones. Most of the soldiers wore straw sandals that had walked countless roads. Fine gravel pressed through the loosening gaps in the sandal soles, grinding their callused feet bloody.

Though many gasped in pain, no one stopped walking. In the dim twilight, the sallow-faced, emaciated soldiers were silent and fierce as a pack of hungry wolves.

From Xianshan Lake to Nantang Stockade, the distance was exactly one hundred ten li.

Last night heavy rain had fallen in Guangde. The Second Division mobilized six thousand troops from the Jiudu Mountain and Xianshan Lake defense lines, divided into six columns advancing west. But after walking a full day and night on muddy roads, even the fastest column was still nearly thirty li from Nantang Stockade.

When Han Qian mobilized reinforcements from Xianshan Lake, the original plan was to position them all along the Longxu River line thirty li south of Nantang Stockade and a dozen li north of Langxi City, using the terrain to organize a second defensive line. This would also facilitate Lin Haizheng’s withdrawal of the First Division’s elite main force from Nantang Stockade to reorganize.

However, the main Chuzhou Army force stationed at Liyang charged out biting too tightly and too fiercely. The thousands of Chuzhou troops from Jintan, Danyang, and Yangxian were also assembling toward Nantang Stockade at unimaginable speed. Lin Haizheng couldn’t withdraw the First Division’s elite main force—both sides had fought to red-eyed fury near Nantang Stockade. Whichever side withdrew first would likely trigger an uncontrollable collapse.

Han Qian could only adjust the battle deployment. Not only did he order Wei Chang to lead the Chishan Army’s mere four hundred cavalry from Tingzi Mountain to rush to Nantang Stockade as reinforcement, he also transmitted orders for Gao Shao to change the Second Division’s reinforcement assembly point from Longxu River to Nantang Stockade, commanding the six thousand troops to reach Nantang Stockade at the fastest possible speed to participate in intercepting the Chuzhou Army!

The Langxi City garrison, learning that both sides had reinforcements coming, had very strong resistance will. After half a day of assault, with both sides repeatedly contesting the east and north gate towers several times, they still couldn’t break through.

The overcast sky with dim light was extremely unfavorable for siege warfare. The Third Division’s forces could only withdraw to rest and reorganize. Seeing he couldn’t help much near Langxi City, while also more worried that the Nantang Stockade line couldn’t hold, causing the entire operational plan to collapse, Zhang Ping requested from Han Qian to go supervise the northern front, hoping that his appearance as Military Commissioner representing Yueyang might slightly boost morale.

Zhang Ping, accompanied by a dozen guards, encountered the first wave of troops transferred from the eastern front for reinforcement while crossing Shiji Mountain.

After exchanging passwords, Zhang Ping joined up with Xiao Dahu, the battalion commander of this troop column.

Over a thousand soldiers temporarily stopped on the south side of Shiji Mountain to rest, eating cold noodles and wheat cakes washed down with boiled mountain spring water. Though every one of them was sallow and emaciated, they ate the cold noodles and wheat cakes with vigor and high spirits. It was hard to imagine that soldiers who had trudged through muddy roads for a full day and night, and who over the past two or three months could only eat half their fill each day, enduring hunger and starvation, would have such soaring fighting spirit.

Perhaps this was Han Qian’s greatest strength in commanding troops.

In such a short time, under such terrible supply conditions, he could actually make an army composed mainly of slaves and bondservants display such tenacious fighting will and perseverance.

Perhaps the Chuzhou Army’s elite troops, each individual soldier’s combat ability, generally surpassed the Chishan Army. But when thousands upon thousands of elite Chuzhou soldiers gathered together and thunderously collided with an equal scale of Chishan Army, did they really have better than fifty percent odds of victory?