Outbreak of War (3)
The Bladed War Wagons deployed in a single horizontal line unfurled like the wall of an iron fortress. For the armies of Ma Teng and Han Sui, who needed to launch a general offensive, the sight was nothing short of dismaying.
Rumble-rumble-rumble—
The Bladed War Wagons moved.
Their formation curved from a single straight line into a U-shape. They were changing formation to protect their relatively vulnerable flanks.
"No hesitation in their movements. They've clearly drilled their formations relentlessly."
"Mengqi and the Iron Cavalry will take the front. You and I will handle the left and right. If we press them with wave attacks from three sides, they'll have to expose a weakness."
Ma Chao and the Iron Cavalry took the front;
Han Sui's army took the left, and Ma Teng's army concentrated on the right.
Outflanking the battlefield to strike directly at Liu Chong's army's rear was too dangerous. Behind Liu Chong's army, where the protection of the Bladed War Wagons' rugged iron walls ended, elite cavalry and Long Spear soldiers were arrayed.
"Launch the general offensive!"
"Now! Suppress the traitors who falsely claim the imperial title!"
Bwoooooo—
The blare of horns signaling the general offensive blanketed the battlefield.
At the same moment, Ma Teng and Han Sui raised their sword-points and launched their troops.
Hostilities commenced.
The battle proper had begun.
The unit that seized the initiative was the Xiliang army's Ma Chao and the Iron Cavalry.
"A volley of arrows is incoming! Ignore it and charge!!"
The Xiliang Iron Cavalry armored their entire bodies in solid iron plate. Their warhorses, charging with lightning speed, were also outfitted with scale-shaped iron plates as Horse Armor.
Pabababak—!!!
Several thousand arrows loosed as one.
The countless volley of arrows that darkened the sky in an instant was as ferocious and intense as a heavy downpour. It was raining hard enough to blur the line of sight ahead.
"Kh—! These arrows...!"
"They're swarming like bees! We can barely see ahead!"
Liu Chong's Repeating Crossbowmen, armed with Repeating Crossbows, specialized in rapid volleys.
Ten bolts in twenty seconds.
Compared to an ordinary crossbow that could fire two bolts a minute, the rate of fire was staggering.
"Guhk!"
"Damned—! My, my leg is...!"
—Hiiiing!!
No matter how solid the heavy armor, microscopic gaps existed. Stray bolts flying through the sustained volley tore across the battlefield and threatened the Iron Cavalry that were breaking through.
The gaps between iron plates.
The flanks of horses that the Horse Armor did not protect.
And the psychological pressure of a volley falling like a torrential downpour.
The Repeating Crossbow was a weapon that maximized rate of fire, so its power was somewhat lower compared to an ordinary crossbow. The countless bolts that bounced harmlessly off the iron armor, failing to penetrate, proved the Repeating Crossbow's weakness.
"We're clear now! Breach the enemy lines!"
The Iron Cavalry who had weathered the countless volley shouted.
The Bladed War Wagons were in sight.
The officers and men of Liu Chong's army, positioned behind the Bladed War Wagons, were visible.
They aimed their sharp spearheads forward and prepared to meet the charge. If an armored warhorse rammed them at full speed, breaching Liu Chong's army's defensive wall would have been straightforward.
"Kgh...! Gaaagh!!"
Just as they reached the wall,
the Archers and Crossbowmen, who had been waiting for the Iron Cavalry to close in, drew their bowstrings.
Composite Horn Bows and Heavy Crossbows.
These were powerful bows that maximized power by drawing on extreme tension.
Twang—!!
Sharp arrows pierced through the iron armor. At close range, the arrows that struck true had a nine-out-of-ten chance of punching through the solid plate.
"Filthy traitors!"
"Break through the wagons! The young lady has charged into the enemy lines!!"
A woman warrior with flowing orange hair breached the Bladed War Wagons alongside her Iron Cavalry. They had exploited the gaps left by the Bladed War Wagons, immobilized because their wheels were caught in ditches.
She leaped over the Bladed War Wagon.
But there was no room for optimism.
The moment she entered the interior, sharp Long Spears surged toward her.
"Push them back! Open a path so our brothers can get inside!"
They had reached Liu Chong's army's defensive wall at the cost of heavy casualties. Ma Chao and the Iron Cavalry, having breached the Bladed War Wagons, pushed back Liu Chong's Long Spearmen and began forcing open a path for their comrades to enter.
* * *
The troops of Ma Teng and Han Sui, attacking the flanks, also had to face the volley of arrows falling like a downpour and the wall of Bladed War Wagons that boasted iron-fortress solidity.
Specialized in anti-cavalry warfare.
The combination of the Bladed War Wagons and Archers and Crossbowmen was impregnable.
Approaching was impossible without committing Iron Cavalry armored in solid plate. The many Xiliang officers and men sacrificed to the volley fire of bows and crossbows illustrated the gap in fighting power.
"It is a great victory! The Xiliang horse-thieves attacking from three sides have simultaneously withdrawn!"
"You seized the momentum from the first clash, General of Agile Cavalry."
Our army's casualties were minor compared to those of Ma Teng and Han Sui. Ma Teng and Han Sui, who had attempted a frontal breakthrough just as they had against the warlords of Xiliang, suffered a bitter defeat from the very first skirmish.
Dong Zhuo's army's decision was the direct cause of the defeat.
Ma Teng and Han Sui had no experience commanding a large-scale Pitched Battle. They had only clashed in skirmishes with minor frontier warlords while contending for spheres of influence.
"I heard some casualties occurred at the front where numerous Bladed War Wagons were deployed... Did General Who Guards the East and General Who Guards the West not command the front line? I heard the Bladed War Wagon line briefly collapsed."
"Our apologies. We allowed a breach by the Xiliang Iron Cavalry."
General Who Guards the East, Huang Gai.
General Who Guards the West, Han Dang.
These were the fierce generals that Sun Jian's army boasted.
It is a basic principle of military tactics to place the main force bearing the greatest fighting power at the front. Therefore, Sun Jian's mighty generals had been placed in preparation for the general offensive of Ma Teng and Han Sui.
The front had nearly been penetrated.
In other words, the battle line had been at risk of collapsing.
Several hundred soldiers were killed in the hand-to-hand combat. Liu Seong-hwi found himself wary of the fierce general of Ma Teng's army who had weathered the volley fire and temporarily broken the Bladed War Wagon line.
'It looks like it must be Xiliang's Ma Chao. Or maybe Xiliang's fierce general Pang De? Ma Chao's cousin Ma Dai might have joined the battle too.'
Ma Chao. Pang De. Ma Dai.
They were Xiliang-born fierce generals representative of the Three Kingdoms era.
They had fought the officers and men commanded by Huang Gai and Han Dang to a stalemate. A fiercely brave commander that outstanding could not possibly hold a low, insignificant rank.
Liang Province was a land of brave warriors.
The Guanzhong Warlords, who in the original history had repeatedly shattered Cao Cao's army after she dominated the Central Plains, were proving Xiliang's reckless courage.
"The issue is how Dong Zhuo's army will respond. Having experienced firsthand the might of the Bladed War Wagons, which boast iron-fortress solidity... they will now devise a countermeasure to render the Bladed War Wagons useless, regardless of means and method."
"A countermeasure, you say? Our army has preemptively occupied the vast open plain. There are not many ways to defeat Bladed War Wagons on a vast open plain."
"Dong Zhuo's army has a host of brave, seasoned fierce generals and veteran commanders, but their quick-witted advisors are noticeably few. However, if... there is a strategist who advised Dong Zhuo to draw the old cadet imperial clansmen into an alliance, she will find a way to defeat the Bladed War Wagons in half a day."
"...Hmm!"
The strategist of a thousand changes.
The individual to be most wary of in Dong Zhuo's army was the S-rank Advisor, Jia Xu.
What countermeasure would she produce?
She would no doubt discern the Bladed War Wagons' weaknesses without difficulty.
Liu Seong-hwi ordered reinforcements to be deployed in preparation for the worst contingency. The plan was to turn Jia Xu's stratagem for attacking the Bladed War Wagons back on her.
* * *
When the sun was approaching its zenith,
Dong Zhuo's army temporarily sidelined the armies of Ma Teng and Han Sui and committed fresh troops.
"Heavy infantry. Have they realized that cavalry alone isn't enough?"
Thud— Thud— Thud—
Iron plate protecting their entire bodies.
Heavy shields hoisted high in both hands.
And a densely packed formation that minimized the spacing between soldiers to the utmost.
Heavy infantry.
By armoring themselves with heavy armor and shields, they secured solid defensive power. They must have been committed to block the volley fire laid down by Liu Chong's army's Archers and Crossbowmen.
There was no way to stop their approach.
Every arrow that briefly darkened the sky bounced off shields and armor.
"Good! Now throw!"
"All throwers, aim for the wagons!"
Splat.
The heavy infantry opened their ranks.
Light infantry, unarmored, revealed themselves. Moving with agility, the light infantry swung Throwing Pouches and lobbed dark, clay-like lumps.
Splat—
Slosh—
Mud.
It was mud kneaded into balls like rice-cake dumplings.
The mud slung by Dong Zhuo's army's light infantry landed squarely on the Bladed War Wagons fitted with sharp blades.
"Could it be oil?!"
"No, it's just mud...! They're just throwing mud!"
Except for the iron-armored sections, the Bladed War Wagon was a weapon constructed of wood. Because of this, Sun Jian's army officers had feared that Dong Zhuo's army would employ a Fire Attack.
But it was simple mud.
Not mud soaked in oil.
Just ordinary mud, wet with water, nothing more.