Chapter 751 - Famous in One Battle
Yan Liang chose two scapegoats to continue defending Xuanwu Pass while the army quietly retreated towards Weiwu Pass. Under the heavy cannon fire, Xuanwu Pass was devoid of all forms of life and was filled with death.
The unusual situation with the Alliance Army was quickly noticed by the 2nd legion.
"General, the situation is not right, is the enemy falling back?"
Zhang Han also had such doubts, thinking about it, he ordered decisively, "Shoot the city gates and get ready to enter!"
"Yes commander!"
Amongst the rumbling of the cannons, the city gates broke apart.
The army was like a black flood as they swarmed into Xuanwu Pass, but only five thousand defending soldiers met them.
These two scapegoats lacked courage and righteousness. When they saw the enemy fight into the pass, they cleanly chose to surrender. They answered all the questions of Zhang Han willingly.
After learning that the main force of the Alliance Army had already retreated, Zhang Han immediately ordered, "Chen Yucheng!"
"Present!"
A young general answered and stepped out; this was one of the two great cavalry generals of the Taiping Country - Chen Yucheng.
Chen Yucheng was fearless in battle; and his comprehension ability was extremely high, obtaining the trust and recognition of Zhang Han. This general had grown into a pillar of the 2nd legion.
Ouyang Shuo had instructed long ago that be it Chen Yucheng or Li Xiucheng who was under the charge of Di Qing, the various legion generals needed to focus on developing these kids with potential and help grow them into true talents.
Especially generals such as Li Xiucheng, who was born in the Qing Dynasty, and Chen Yucheng from the Taiping Country. They were familiar with firearms and were the best choices for leading the future firearm forces.
"I order you to lead five thousand cavalry and chase them. Remember this: do not be greedy for credit. Before you reach Weiwu Pass, immediately stop." Zhang Han ordered.
"Yes commander!"
Chen Yucheng cupped his fists and went to follow the order.
After a short while, five thousand elite cavalry charged out of Xuanwu Pass and chased after the enemy.
Zhang Han led his troops to take over Xuanwu Pass and take charge of the fallen soldiers and clean up the battlefield. At the same time, he needed to write the battle map to the Leopard Legion Corps Marshal Han Xin and wait for orders regarding the next course of action to take.
...
Chen Yucheng led the troops to chase. Just as he entered the middle portion, he found the retreating Alliance Army.
"Kill!"
Chen Yucheng did not hesitate at all and directly charged toward them.
Between the two passes, there was only a narrow connecting mountain pass. This narrow path and was only three to four meters wide, so the 40 thousand Alliance Army troops formed a long dragon. The front troops had entered the Wuwei Pass while the back troops were still halfway there.
Facing the attacks of Zhang Han's forces from behind, Yan Liang was prepared.
Apart from the five thousand soldiers that were left back at the Xuanwu Pass, Yan Liang arranged forces to be in charge of defending the backlines. However, he had made one mistake; he had underestimated the decisiveness of Zhang Han.
The moment he noticed that the situation was not right, Zhang Han immediately ordered troops to enter the pass. Furthermore, when he received the intel that the enemy had backed off, he arranged an elite cavalry force to chase them.
With that, he had caught the back troops totally off guard.
On the narrow mountain path, the sword-shield soldiers in charge of covering their retreat were stabbed into by the cavalry Chen Yucheng that led before they could even form up.
If someone looked down from the skies, they would see the five thousand elite cavalry act like a sharp arrow stabbing right into the enemy lineup. Then, they were like a skewer stabbing through meat, penetrating all the way through.
The cavalry passed anything they charged through, be it sword-shield soldiers or spearmen. They were either crushed to death or pierced through by the spears of the cavalry. Even more of them were pushed off the mountain path and down the valley.
The situation was complete chaos.
Chen Yucheng was extremely smart, and he did not intend to kill all the enemies. His mind was only filled with one thought – to charge, charge and charge; he aimed to split the enemy troops apart and crush their mental strength.
On the narrow mountain path, the field of sight seemed really small.
The troops at the back felt terrified when they faced such a charge by the cavalry. They totally did not know how many enemy troops there were, and they were only occupied with running to the front.
"Run, the enemy is here!"
The soldiers threw down the heavy resources and items that they were carrying and squeezed forwards like rabbits.
"How many are there?" The sergeant asked.
Another soldier replied, "At least five thousand!"
"What, five thousand? At least ten thousand!" Another one retorted.
The sergeant's face turned ashen white from fear as he threw down the stuff that he was carrying and tried to escape as well.
The soldiers were like a group of terrified rabbits as they hobbled forward.
Their emotions were like dominos as the fear spread toward the front.
During this entire process, the enemy numbers they reported seemingly snowballed. First, it was five thousand, then ten thousand, and then 20 thousand. At the very end, the numbers had reached 100 thousand.
"100 thousand? The enemy legion only has 70 thousand men, where did 100 thousand come from?" The sergeant felt doubtful.
Another soldier once again said confidently, "You do not know this, but the enemy sent more than one legion."
"Brother your words make sense."
When the sergeant heard these words, he did not care whether or not the words made sense. In fact, he just wanted to quickly escape into Weiwu Pass.
The troops that had not entered the Weiwu Pass were in chaos. During this period of time, stepping on comrades, brother betraying brother, and similar incidents were numerous. Solely soldiers being stepped on by their own men numbered no less than 500.
At this point, Yan Liang who had entered the pass realized that the situation was not right, "What's happening?"
"General, the enemy has chased over." the deputy general replied.
"How many people came? Why have you all panicked?"
"100 thousand!"
The deputy general stammered; it was obvious that he was uncertain, and he did not know whether he should trust this intel. The problem was that all the soldiers who escaped into the pass all claimed that the enemy numbered 100 thousand.
Each of them swore on their lives, and they looked really honest about it.
Such sincerity; if their officer said they did not trust them, the soldiers would reply that they would rather just jump down the city wall to prove their innocence.
'Pa!'
A crisp sound rang as the furious Yan Liang could not take it anymore, whipping out and giving the deputy general a blue black.
"Scumbag! 100 thousand troops? Are you joking, you can even believe that?"
The foolishness of the deputy general had totally enraged Yan Liang.
"I'm sorry!"
The general did not dare to retort; he just kneeled down onto the ground.
"You fool!"
Yan Liang could not stand seeing such an idiot; it was killing him, "Scram!"
After dealing with the deputy general, Yan Liang went up to the city wall and looked toward the mountain path, and his expression became solemn all of a sudden.
On the long mountain path, the Alliance Army was in total chaos.
The enemy cavalry roamed fearlessly amongst them; it was like they were harvesting wheat as they collected the lives of the Alliance Army. The chaotic Alliance Army did not have any intentions to fight as they just ran; they were just trying to keep their lives.
On the two sides of the mountain foot, numerous Alliance Army soldiers were trying their best to escape.
"General, should we send an army down to assist?" Another deputy general suggested carefully.
Yan Liang shook his head, "It's no use. The mountain path is too narrow, so sending troops now will only block their way of retreating and will only add to their fear."
'It might even chaos greater panic and chaos!' As for this sentence, Yan Liang did not say out loud.
"Then, then what should we do?"
Yan Liang expression was extremely cold, "Wait for another half an hour. After which, immediately close the city gates."
"Yes general!"
The deputy general felt his heart tremble; he did not dare to say anything.
Yan Liang could not be blamed for being cruel. Although he did not believe that the enemy troops would number 100 thousand, he still did not know how many enemies there were. What if the enemy took this chance to charge into Weiwu Pass? That would be fantastic.
A merciful person would not be placed in charge of troops; this was the reason behind it.
...
'Honglong!'
Half an hour later, the Weiwu Pass city gates slowly closed, determined and resolute.
One city gate helped separated two worlds.
Those who entered were safe while those who did not were like fish on the chopping board; they were there for the slaughter.
Some of the soldiers who escaped to the city gate with much difficulty were mercilessly blocked outside of the city gate. Each one of them was desperate. The despair they felt contained rage and craziness.
The despair from being abandoned spread amongst the soldiers.
"Open up, open the gates!"
"Open the gates; let us in."
"General, save us!"
In contrast to Xuanwu Pass, Weiwu Pass only had 20 thousand troops present. Hence, as a general under West Gate Big Official, the moment Yan Liang moved in, he immediately took charge of command.
The Weiwu Pass did not even dare make a fart.
Not to mention other matters, West Gate Big Official was the top Lord in Chuanbei City-State, the true giant.
Yan Liang did not loosen his stance and no one dared to open the city gates.
In such a short while, Chen Yucheng led his troops and rushed near Weiwu Pass. When he saw the shut city gates, he smiled coldly. The reaction of the enemy was as expected.
"Stop your advance."
Chen Yucheng was not blinded by all the killings and remembered the instructions of Zhang Han.
With a 'Shua', the 5 thousand cavalry that had suffered basically no loses even in such a chaotic environment all stopped in unison.
Such strong discipline was not something the Alliance Army could compare to.
"Send the orders, anyone who surrenders will not be killed."
Chen Yucheng followed up the orders as he saw that the Alliance Army troops outside were already on a different page with the troops inside the city.
"Yes general!"
All of a sudden, hundreds of light armored cavalry went out and scattered to spread the order for the enemy to surrender.
The moment the Alliance Army soldiers heard this news, since the city gate in front of them was closed, what loyalty was there to speak of? They rather not do anything and chose to directly surrender.
With someone taking the lead, more and more people decided to surrender.
All of a sudden, there were countless people who surrendered. At the later stages, those soldiers who were still hesitating trembled and surrendered as well when they saw that all their allies had surrendered.
They were really worried that if they dragged on, they would be tied up by their allies and dragged to claim war merits.
Rather than that, why not just surrender now?
They had heard that the strength of the Shanhai City Army far exceeded them, so why would they hesitate?
On the city wall, when Yan Liang saw this situation, his face became even uglier.
This day was really hard to pass for Yan Liang.
...
Chen Yucheng did not dare to waste any more time. Moreover, he did not want to provoke the Alliance Army troops on the wall at this moment. After cleaning up, he led the tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers back on the route to Xuanwu Pass.
During this battle, Chen Yucheng used five thousand cavalry to kill six thousand enemies and capture 10 thousand, a great win.
Even Zhang Han who ordered this chase would not have expected such great results.
General Chen Yucheng had gotten famous in one battle!