Queen Seondeok had three husbands simultaneously—Kim Yongchun, Chimban, and Eulche. Who could have imagined that with one small attempt at demanding surrender, Queen Seondeok would simultaneously lose her primary husband Kim Yongchun and secondary husband Chimban? Her other secondary husband was presiding over state affairs at home and hadn’t come. Otherwise, Niu Jinda’s casual remark would have turned Queen Seondeok into a complete widow.

Don’t think that competing for favor is something only women do—when men do it, they’re even more mindless. The dangerous area between two opposing armies became a stage for Queen Seondeok’s harem husbands to compete for favor.

Passages of eloquent literary flourishes, passages of righteous condemnation, waves of compassionate exhortations—none of it was sufficient to move Niu Jinda’s cold heart. Two extremely handsome young men were turned into two piles of shattered, mangled flesh in the wild roar of the eight-ox crossbows. Niu Jinda himself came from a scholarly family but had no connection with these profound things, which became the greatest regret of his life. Therefore, he couldn’t stand others showing off their learning in front of him.

The war began in an instant. Queen Seondeok, having lost her husbands, launched a fierce attack at the first sound of the eight-ox crossbows. Cavalry—under such terrain conditions, the Silla people would naturally deploy the cavalry they were so proud of. Back when the Great Tang emperor campaigned against Goguryeo, it was this cavalry that assisted the Great Tang in attacking Goguryeo. They had successfully pinned Yuan Gaesomun down at Wonsan, allowing the Great Tang’s army to sweep across all of Liaodong.

The commander leading this cavalry was General Kim Yusin. Niu Jinda recognized him—this fellow had been the first to come forward to demand surrender just now. For the sake of this fellow’s loyalty to the Great Tang in earlier years, Niu Jinda didn’t order him killed, only killing the two royal husbands who, seeing no danger, ran forward to compete for favor and establish merit.

Morale was something that always rose with the first drum, weakened with the second, and exhausted with the third. Once morale fell, trying to raise it again was extraordinarily difficult. Kim Yusin was at least a famous Silla general and knew this principle. At this moment, only by using blood to stimulate his soldiers could he squeeze out their last courage.

With one blade he cut down a subordinate who was hesitating to advance. Kim Yusin’s cavalry could finally charge. Two li away, the warhorses had just started running when they encountered a wire fence. This wire fence wasn’t high—the warhorses only needed to jump once to fly over it. Most of the cavalry could get through. Of course, many people couldn’t make it through, getting tightly tangled in the wire fence, lying on the ground struggling.

“Why wasn’t the first wire fence pulled higher?” Niu Jinda turned to ask the officer behind him.

“Reporting to Commander, this is the first wire fence. Its purpose is to prevent the cavalry from fleeing, not to block their attack. Now their warhorses’ speed has picked up, so naturally they can easily leap over. But if they want to go back, it will be difficult. Without speed, the warhorses can never again jump over this wire fence. Their best response would be to dismount and thoroughly destroy the wire fence, rather than charging about recklessly like this. However, most cavalry will overlook this small detail.”

The young officer grinned, baring his teeth, as he explained to his commander the purpose of doing this.

Countless cavalry from all directions crossed the wire fence and charged toward the Tang army formed in a circular formation, like waves striking a reef in the sea.

“Catapults, fire!” When the cavalry crossed the third wire fence, Niu Jinda issued the attack order. Countless single-arm catapults immediately began working. The leather cords wound around the single arms immediately started operating. The counterweight bluestone fell, and the long arm tip immediately brought a blackish jar, spinning half a circle before violently flinging it out.

While the jar was still flying through the air, soldiers had already pressed down the counterweight, resetting the arm tip. Another jar was once again flung out along the same angle.

Just as Niu Jinda was about to ask whether the jars contained gunpowder or fire oil, he discovered that one jar had already heavily smashed down in front of the first wire fence. There was no movement, only some liquid splashing out. Countless jars fell to the ground or fell on people—all would shatter. Some bold Silla cavalry, confident in their superior martial skills, would even cleverly use flails to smash these jars falling from the sky. Although some people were killed by such jars, before these Silla people who had seen life and death countless times, such casualties were simply not worth mentioning.

“Get away! This is fire oil! Beware of the enemy setting fire! Go quickly!” Kim Yusin raised his hand and smelled the liquid that had splashed on his body. He couldn’t help but be greatly alarmed and hastily urged his subordinates to quickly leave this death zone.

Apart from Kim Yusin, only the Tang people knew the purpose of doing this. When the Silla cavalry filled the open space between the second and third wire fences, a huge gunpowder bomb carrying sparks exploded in the crowd. The enormous explosion shockwave instantly tore nearby warhorses and cavalry into fragments. Flames tinged red and black burst into flames with a roar. A wall of fire rose up from flat ground, forcibly cutting the Silla cavalry’s formation into two sections.

“Go back!” Kim Yusin’s soul nearly left his body. Only at this moment did he clearly know what the Tang army intended to do. It was too late. Cavalry were good at charging but not skilled at turning around. A horse needed sufficiently large space from starting to fully running. How could they possibly turn around in such a short time?

Dozens of warhorses were covered in raging flames. The fire oil that had just stuck to their bodies now exerted maximum effect. The crazed warhorses and dozens of crazed fire-people immediately scattered the battle formation in the first moment. When their bodies leaned against the wire fence and could no longer move, the Silla cavalry finally remembered what those black jars contained.

When these jars once again descended from the sky, they could only watch helplessly as they fell to the ground and shattered, then turned that landed area into a new sea of fire.

Wailing, frantic rushing back and forth, the neighing of warhorses—all echoed between the wire fences. The large Silla forces outside the flames could only watch through the flames as their comrades struggled in the fire.

“Break out!” Kim Yusin’s voice had already become shrill. He pushed away the personal guards surrounding him and personally drove over a dozen warhorses, charging fiercely back the way they came. The warhorses crashed into the wire fence. Driven mad by the raging fire, they paid no heed to the wire fence’s entanglement, uprooting the wire fence posts completely. With their bodies wound full of wire, they roared and continued charging forward. Some warhorses’ necks had already been forcibly strangled by the wire, their heads tilted to one side, still being dragged forward by the other horses. Some warhorses’ bellies had been torn open by the barbs on the wire fence, their internal organs dragging on the ground, stained with fire oil, burning on the ground. After walking a few steps, they collapsed thunderously.

Seeing the warhorses had broken through the wire fence, Kim Yusin gave a long howl and led his remaining subordinates like a flood, running forward along the path the warhorses had charged open. Behind them came the sharp whistling sound of crossbow bolts again…

Gunpowder crossbow bolts exploded in the raging fire. The flames suddenly extinguished, then rapidly exploded and burned again in an instant. Kim Yusin watched with his own eyes as his guard captain was blown to pieces by the gunpowder on the crossbow bolts. His own left arm also had flames burning on it.

He couldn’t bother dealing with these things. Only by running beyond the range of the crossbow bolts would he be safe. Kim Yusin didn’t know how he managed to run out. It wasn’t until he was supported by the Silla people outside, and they poured water on his arm, that he realized he was already safe. Only his left arm transmitted the scorched smell of burning meat.

Looking back once again, only a mere hundred-plus people had broken out following him, and half of them still had flames on their bodies. No matter how much water was poured on them, they couldn’t extinguish the hellfire on their bodies.

The Tang people’s battle formation was silent. They were merely watching the fire burn. Between the wire fences, there were no longer any anguished cries. Occasionally one or two flaming warhorses would collapse thunderously after running a couple steps…

Queen Seondeok’s eyes brimmed with tears. She hatefully kept striking her riding whip against her saddle. She very much wanted to cry but forcibly restrained herself. Roaring at Kim Yusin, she said: “Didn’t you say that on flat terrain, cavalry are invincible?”

The Grand Sangdaedeung Pidham advised: “Your Majesty, this battle’s failure was not due to the Military Commander’s poor combat, but because the Tang people’s plans were too vicious. Those fire oils were used by the Tang army before—it was we who were negligent. This cannot be blamed on the Military Commander. Losing the first battle doesn’t mean anything. We can still afford to lose five thousand cavalry. As long as we proceed carefully from here on, we can certainly turn defeat into victory.”

Kim Yusin’s face was pitch black, looking just like an evil spirit. He slowly peeled off his armor. The armor on his arm had already been deeply branded into his flesh. He stretched his left hand twice and, feeling it could still be used, ordered his subordinates to put the armor back on him properly. In a hoarse voice, he said to Queen Seondeok: “Your Majesty, we have no way back. No matter how powerful the Tang people are, we must fight to the death. Otherwise, Goguryeo’s fate will be our fate.”

“This humble minister will now rally the subordinates for a second charge. This humble minister knows Your Majesty is afraid. This humble minister just now also felt boundless terror. But Your Majesty, we absolutely cannot stop fighting. At this time, we must continue attacking. We cannot abandon the attack out of cherishing our soldiers’ lives. Otherwise, Pyongyang’s battle situation will repeat itself here.”

Kim Yusin bowed in obeisance, then used his right hand to grab his warhorse’s reins and once again mounted the horse. His tattered left hand extended his long blade and knocked it against the long blades of the Silla warriors prepared to attack with him again. He pulled the horse’s head around and, facing the remaining cavalry, shouted loudly: “This battle—fight to the death! This battle—burn our boats and break our cauldrons!”

After finishing his words, he urged his warhorse forward and, without looking back, once again charged toward the battlefield where the great fire had just been extinguished. This time he planned to first clear away those troublesome wire fences. These inconspicuous little things had actually buried his most elite five thousand subordinates. He very much wanted to see whether, after he destroyed the Tang people’s defenses, they still possessed the legendarily formidable combat strength.

Rage made him forget how powerful the Tang state was.