Changning’s Imperial Army - Chapter 96

Chapter 96 – Military Officer Is Powerful!

“Qu Xiong!” Meng Changan turned around and yelled.

Qu XIong went over to him. “Yes, military officer?”

“Take your ten-man squad and protect those Lang Jue people. Continue advancing. The remaining five ten-man squad stay behind with me.”

Qu Xiong immediately said, “I’m willing to stay with you. Please choose another squad leader to protect the Lang Jue people and advance instead.”

“Go.”

Meng Changan said calmly, “You should understand me well. There is a basis to every decision I make. Even though you don’t know their language, you are the best person to communicate with them. I don’t like it when people waste time. Every moment on the battlefield concerns life or death.”

“Military officer!”

“When do I have to give my order twice?”

Qu Xiong gritted his teeth. “My people are going!”

The ten-man squad started to disperse. They continuously to hurry the hundreds of Lang Jue people while protecting them. After knowing that the Heiwu cavalry were catching up with them, those Lang Jue people, who were originally extremely exhausted, had newfound bursts of energy, and started to run frantically.

They might be a clan, but this was a knockout competition.

Women, children, the elderly and the weak started falling behind, while the young men were right at the front.

Meng Changan reached out his hand and took an iron tire bow from his soldier. It was a three and a half stone bow. He pulled the arrow fully and fired. The arrow was like a meteor.

Pff!

The young Lang Jue man who was right in front was shot in the back. He fell forward. Before that happened, he was pushing aside the women around him as he continued charging forward.

“Get the young and strong men to carry the elderly, the weak and the children. If they don’t listen, they will die.”

Meng Changan shifted his gaze and focused on the black line that was approaching closer and closer. The snowy plain was flat and wide enough. The cavalry were spaced out in a row as they charged forth. They looked like the waves of the ocean approaching the land.

“Get into formation,” said Meng Changan plainly.

“Defense formation!” yelled one of his soldiers.

“No.”

Meng Changan took down the long lance that was being hung on the saddle of his horse and pointed to the front. “Charge.”

His soldier was dumbfounded. “Military officer, there are around 400 to 500 Heiwu troops. And they are Fei Xiong.”

“Since they are not Da Wei Tian Lang, there’s no need to be too bothered.”

Meng Changan continued speaking like a blockhead. However, it was not that he was numb. Instead, it was a type of calmness. He had no emotion fluctuations on his face.

Da Wei Tian Lang was the most elite cavalry of Heiwu. They were the only troops who could put up a fight against Great Ning’s Northern Border cavalry. They were carefully selected from the entire Heiwu military force. Some of them were Sa Ke people; some of them were Gui Wu people; and the rest of them were Man Du people. Every single one of them was very ferocious and tough. They killed like scything flax.

It was rumored that Da Wei Tian Lang only had 10,000 troops, split into nine battalions. Not long ago, Meng Changan had personally experienced the power of Da Wei Tian Lang. He and his best scouts were being chased over 93 miles, resulting in the death of a third of his men. If it were Great Ning’s ordinary cavalry instead, the odds of success would be even lower.

Fortunately, even though Meng Changan and his men were heavily outnumbered, their horses were fast. After all, they were not as heavy as the armed forces.

Afterwards, Meng Changan found out that it was Zhen Zi battalion of Da Wei Tian Lang that chased them. Their general was called Liao Shalang…Whenever Wu Xinyu mentioned that person, he would always use a word – ‘diabolical’.

They had been trained to become killing machines. Every single one of the cavalry seemed as though they had no emotions. The only thing they knew was to massacre. They killed regardless of who the other party was – be it whether they were women, the elderly, the children or men. They simple charged forth. Anybody or anything that stood in their way would be trampled to pieces.

Da Wei Tian Lang, nine battalions. Each and every one of them charged forth regardless of the situation.

General Wu Xinyu was a very ruthless person. He was the champion in the main Great Ning military competition, and became one of the ten great talents of the younger generation. Some said that he was the leader of the ten. Some said it was another young general named Hai Sha in the northern border. Others said that it was the southern border’s great general Shi Yuanxiong’s son, Shi Podang. From this, one could tell how frightening Wu Xinyu’s strength was. Even a person like him felt that Liao Shalang was difficult to deal with. It could clearly be seen that he was an extremely formidable person.

The main Great Ning military competition was held once every three years, across its entire military force – the four borders and depositories, as well as combat soldiers in all nineteen divisions. It was a grand occasion in Great Ning. Every single Great Ning emperor made their appearances at the competition.

In the year before last, the champion was Peng Zhansha. Xie Zhe came in second, and Gao Xiao mei, a man with a unique name, came in third…

However, those three men were not one of the ten great talents. Peng Zhansha was extremely unhappy and vowed to take part in the next competition.

There were ten great generals and ten new talents. The Navy’s commander, Zhuang Yong, was one of the ten great generals. He was the only scholar amongst the ten great generals.

Meng Changan said that since their opponents were not Da Wei Tian Lang, they had nothing to worry about. Even though Fei Xiong had a reputation for being ferocious amongst the Heiwu cavalry, he felt that they were not worth being worried over.

From the looks of it, the armed forces, Da Wei Tian Lang, were chasing behind. They were a lot slower than the light cavalry, hence they dispatched Fei Xiong to stop them first.

“Blow the bugle,” instructed Meng Changan.

His soldier looked at him. “Are we really charging there?”

Meng Changan tilted his head and looked at him. That soldier immediately blew the bugle. He thought about what the military officer said before – one must not question a military order.

“Long lance.”

Meng Changan lifted his long lance. The five ten-man squads of scouts took down their long lance at the same time from their horse’s saddle. They lifted them up slightly, at the same angle.

It was extremely expensive to manufacture long lances. They were only given to scouts. Ordinary cavalry were only given a hengdao and a spear, which was a lot cheaper to manufacture.

“Feng Shi formation, center.”

Meng Changan whipped his horse and gradually advanced. “Kill!”

His horse suddenly sped up and neighed. Its neigh was powerful and ferocious.

The six ten-man squads that Meng Changan came with were not at full strength. Right now, he had five ten-man squads. Including him, there were only 52 people.

There were at least 500 Xiong cavalry; ten times their number of people.

However, those 52 men were not fearful at all. Perhaps before the battle, they might think about how they should not be facing them head on due to the wide disparity in strength. However, after the order was given, those young men did not think about anything else. The only thing on their mind was to charge forward!

Meng Changan took the lead. He was at the front of the Feng Shi formation. The 52 cavalry were akin to a sharp dagger. They charged ferociously towards the Heiwu troops.

“Kill!”

“Kill!”

The two people at the sides bellowed. It was their biggest resolute and ruthlessness in the fact of death.

Meng Changan leveled his long lance; right before he was about to charge into his enemy’s formation, he lifted it higher. He pierced cavalry right across from him in the heart. The two inch point of his lance pierced through the chest. Meng Changan only used one hand to hold the long lance. With his long lance still pierced into the cavalry, he carried him off his horse. The man was hanging on the long lance just like that, and yet Meng Changan’s hand was extremely stable!

Thud!

Second one!

Just like a stick of sugar-coated hawthorn, the long lance pierced into a second cavalry.

Feng Shi formation was pointed at the front, and wide and the back. The formation was akin to a dagger. Meng Changan charged right into Heiwu’s Fei Xiong’s formation. The Great Ning cavalry at the back that were charging faster and faster were like a wedge that smashed the opening, enlarging it.

There were already three people hanging from the long lance. Finally, Meng Changan held the lance with both hands and swung it hard, flinging the three corpses away. The two cavalry that were heading towards him were struck by the corpses and fell to the ground. His swung his long lance and easily slashed the neck of another Xiong cavalry. Just with one swing, at least three quarters of the cavalry’s neck was severed, leaving behind a small thin layer. His head could not help but tilt to one side. Blood gushed out of his neck and spurted everywhere like a fountain.

Under the sun, on the snowy plain, there was blood everywhere, making the snowy plain seem like a bed of red plums.

Meng Changan killed six people, and broke his opponents’ formation. His troops charged through the Heiwu Xiong cavalry’s single line formation and split it into two. Those Xiong cavalry did not expect them to be that daring to attack them head on, to the extent that they did not even have the time to change formation.

“Broke through!” yelled one of the Great Ning scouts in excitement. His voice was already hoarse.

Meng Changan whipped his horse and led his troops to make a semicircle and turned back. The troops rearranged themselves and became uniform again…After they crossed swords, the Xiong troops readjusted their formation. Their single line formation became a Yan Wei formation, which was pointed in front. It was the cavalry’s basic formation for attacking, allowing them to advance and retreat.

“Military officer, the Heiwu troops changed formation!” The soldier next to Meng Changan reminded him.

“What should we do?”

Meng Changan looked at the blood on the lance as the sun shone down on it. The blood looked more vivid.

He lifted his lance and hurried his horse. “Kill again.”

Feng Shi formation was the most decisive. Once they charged into the enemy’s formation, because the troops front and rear were too spaced out, they would be inevitably broken up. Once they were tightly encircled, they would surely die.

However, that depended on whether the person right at the front of the Feng Shi formation was ruthless enough.

He was Meng Changan.

Hence, he had no other choice. He had to break through once.

Once again, Great Ning’s cavalry charged over. The horses charged faster and faster; the long lances were lifted slightly higher. The sunlight reflected from them was not even the slightest bit warm. It was so chilly that it made one’s scalp numb.

“Kill!”

The troops on both sides clashed once again. The exquisitely made long lances had the absolute advantage. The other party was used to using a machete as they rode on the back of the horses. They would be at a disadvantage during the first attack.

A row of long lances pierced the row of Xiong troops who were facing them head on, killing them. However, there were some scouts who were being thrown off their horses as a result of the force of the attack. After they fell onto the ground, they did not even have the chance to stand back up. Both sides were moving at an extremely fast pace – if one were to fall onto the ground, within less than two breaths, he would be trampled by the horses into minced meat.

Those older combat soldiers were younger than thirty years of age. The younger ones were slightly younger than eighteen. From the time they stepped foot into the battlefield, the young men’s lives were very splendid, bloody and bitter. Hence, they fought without restraint.

If they survived, they could raise their blood-stained sword to the sky and whistle in pride.

If they died, they would merge with the ground and be put to eternal rest.

The sound of hooves, the clashing sounds of weapons, the sounds of rallying cries and the sounds of bodies being sliced open by weapons became the battle song on the battlefield that shook the hearts of people.

In the second round of attacks, Meng Changan broke through their enemy’s formation once again with his men. Even if the enemy’s formation was any stronger, the scouts that charged through would turn back around as fast as lightning. They still had 41 people left, out of the inital 52.

On the opposite side, there were at least a hundred odd corpses. At this moment, the power of the entire group of carefully selected elite scouts was unbridled.

Meng Changan was responsible for the death of half of the dead Heiwu soldiers.

The first time he attacked, he killed six people. The second time he attacked, he killed forty odd people. This showed how cruel the second round of attacks was. The strong formation of the Heiwu’s Xiong troops was almost rendered useless by the Ning troops’ speed. Once they were encircled, it would lead to their total defeat. The reason why the Ning troops did not get stalled was because their leader, Meng Changan, was ruthless and strong enough!

Once again, he turned back. Meng Changan still remained expressionless.

He had already killed so many people; the hand that he used to hold the long lance was trembling slightly. However, nobody could see it. Neither would he allow his men to see it.

He inhaled and exhaled slowly. Once again, he lifted his lance.

At a distance away, the Xiong troops that abandoned more than a hundred copses got in line as well. However, they did not start charging over.

Meng Changan lifted his head. “Blow the bugle. Attack!”

The bugle sounded.

His soldier blew the bugle and the troops picked up speed once again.

The Xiong cavalry on the opposite side suddenly dispersed. They started to turn around and retreated. All that was left behind was a layer of snow in mid air, created by the hooves.

“They are scared!”

One of the scouts hit his hengdao against his breastplate. The banging sounds were were akin to that of a battle drum.

“They are scared!”

“Great Ning is powerful!”

“Military officer is powerful!”