Great Battle of Jiangxia (3)
More than ten Siege Towers deployed at the front were engulfed in fierce flames. Moments later, disaster struck as the towers, with thunderous roars, lost their balance and came crashing down.
Liu Chong's army had launched a fire attack.
Oil jars filled with a sticky black liquid.
And flaming arrows.
In an instant, most of the Siege Towers were destroyed.
They must have prepared countermeasures beforehand to deal with the siege engine assault. Staring at the Siege Towers consumed by fire, Dong Zhuo turned pale and trembled violently all over.
"Fall back! The whole army, fall back!"
"The Siege Towers are collapsing! All soldiers, evacuate now!"
Wreckage sheathed in flame came crashing down, turning the battlefield into a sea of fire. Soldiers of Dong Zhuo's army, momentarily cut off in the inferno, fled helter-skelter covered in ash.
Military order and formation were nowhere to be found.
Only a frantic struggle to survive remained.
This had been the perfect chance to completely eradicate the southern rebels once and for all. As if betraying that expectation, nothing but the soldiers' pitiful screams and wails filled the air.
"E-Excellency...! Look at that!"
"What in the name of—what is that!"
After Dong Zhuo's officers and men withdrew,
Liu Chong's army, having once again repelled the assault, paraded their victory by displaying the enemy commander's severed head on a spear.
The traitor to the state: Niu Fu.
Niu Fu, General of the Guards who had commanded the offensive, was killed in action and beheaded. His Personal Guard Corps was also annihilated, following their master into the afterlife as headless ghosts.
Niu Fu.
He was unmistakably the Excellency's son-in-law.
His face was contorted, frozen in an expression of pitiful agony.
The Xiliang generals went pale as they stole glances at Dong Zhuo's reaction.
"N-Niu Fu...! Are you telling me Niu Fu is dead?! Every officer and soldier who abandoned their chief commander on the field and ran shall be executed, regardless of rank!"
"Excellency! Please, calm yourself!"
"Calm myself! You would have me forgive those curs who left their chief commander behind?!"
"..."
Director of the Palace Gentlemen Li Ru pleaded loudly to dissuade him.
But Dong Zhuo raged violently, his murderous intent exploding forth.
"Excellency, might I be permitted to offer counsel?"
Just when he was about to execute several hundred officers and men,
a woman with ash-gray hair flowing down made a respectful bow and spoke.
Master of Writing Jia Xu.
She was the strategist who had repeatedly proposed ingenious schemes.
Dong Zhuo looked upon the Talented Woman whom Li Ru himself had never tired of praising, and for a moment suppressed his rage.
"Speak."
"Regrettably, we have lost the Siege Towers, but the Battering-Ram Carts remain intact. If we commit all the Battering-Ram Carts and Leather-Covered Siege Carts, we can completely collapse Liu Chong's formation. What would the Excellency say to placing the officers and men who fled and abandoned the General of the Guards into a special assault unit?"
A special assault unit.
In other words, a Death-Defying Unit prepared to die.
Commit the men to the force escorting the Battering-Ram Carts and grant them the chance for a glorious death. Dong Zhuo listened to Jia Xu's counsel and fell into thoughtful silence.
"..."
"That is precisely it! Though the General of the Guards' soldiers have committed a grave crime... meeting their end on an execution ground would be far too merciless. Have they not served Your Excellency with absolute loyalty all this time? We beg you, allow them to die on the battlefield!"
They had abandoned their chief commander and fled the field.
It was a capital crime for which tearing off their limbs on the spot would not seem enough.
Yet after Jia Xu, even Li Ru intervened to dissuade him, and Dong Zhuo's killing intent receded.
"I shall grant you curs a final mercy, so that you may meet a heroic end. Lead the Battering-Ram Carts and smash Liu Chong's defense line. Break that wall and tear open a path so our cavalry may storm Liu Chong's camp!"
Commandant Puhu Chi'er. General of the Household Xu Hu.
Alongside them, several hundred officers and men knelt.
* * *
When the fourth day dawned,
Dong Zhuo's army arrayed dozens of Leather-Covered Siege Carts.
Leather-Covered Siege Carts were wagons fitted at the front with shields made of iron plate and leather. Their primary role was to shield infantry taking part in siege operations from arrow fire, so they could reach the walls safely.
"Loose!"
"Hurl the oil jars!"
A fierce, close-quarters struggle unfolded.
Liu Chong's soldiers deployed oil jars, just as they had when they brought down the Siege Towers.
Whoosh—!
Flames erupted over the Leather-Covered Siege Carts.
Flaming arrows rained onto the Petroleum, and in a flash the blaze spread.
But the Leather-Covered Siege Carts did not collapse helplessly into the inferno the way the Siege Towers had. Dong Zhuo's soldiers hauled the carts with desperate effort and reached their positions.
"Boulders incoming!"
"They're ordering a general assault and bombarding with catapults at the same time...! Have they lost their minds?!"
Just as they faced the ferocious onslaught of Dong Zhuo's army dragging the Leather-Covered Siege Carts,
massive boulders came hurtling overhead into Liu Chong's army.
Dust exploded and shockwaves rippled outward.
It was a merciless bombardment that made it plain no one cared in the slightest about friendly-fire casualties.
Liu Chong's Archers and Crossbowmen suffered substantial losses. Simultaneously, Dong Zhuo's own troops advancing with the Leather-Covered Siege Carts also took horrifying damage when boulders flying from behind scored direct hits.
"Now this is a special assault worthy of real men!"
"The warriors of Xiliang aren't bad at all! Shouldn't our Jiangdong warriors show them the mettle of men ready to die?"
Prepare for close-quarters combat.
General Who Guards the East Huang Gai and General Who Guards the West Han Dang drew their blades.
At that, Sun Jian's officers and soldiers gripped their weapons and braced for a final decisive clash.
"A Battering-Ram Cart! The ram is approaching!"
"All troops, push the Bladed War Wagons forward! The defense line must not be breached!!"
The Leather-Covered Siege Carts, rushing onward even as they remained shrouded in flame, altered their trajectories to the flanks. At the same moment, the Battering-Ram Cart they had been protecting revealed itself.
A triangular iron roof proofed against fire and arrows.
A Siege Ram fitted with a sharpened metal head.
Wheels to propel the heavy cart smoothly forward.
The Siege Ram, wrought in the likeness of a fierce demon's head, gleamed against the firelight and proclaimed its presence. The moment the Battering-Ram Cart emerged from the Leather-Covered Siege Carts' cover, it slammed into the mud-caked Bladed War Wagon with lightning speed.
CRAAASH—!!
"Gaaah!"
"B-Block it...! It absolutely must not break through!!"
Liu Chong's soldiers braced both hands against the Bladed War Wagon, trying to withstand the Battering-Ram Cart's penetrating force. But with each repeated impact the ram hammered home, the soldiers let out pained screams.
CRASH—!
CRAAASH—!!
There was no way to hold.
The Bladed War Wagon, struck head-on by the Siege Ram, crumpled like scrap iron.
The Bladed War Wagons were collapsing.
The defense line was being pulverized.
It seemed as if the Siege Ram would punch through the wagon's iron plating and smash inside at any second.
"The line is breached! Charge!"
"Those are the murderers of His Excellency the General of the Guards! Annihilate every last rebel!"
Bladed War Wagons that could not endure the ram's impact were overturned in ruin. As if a levee had burst and river water was pouring through, the instant the wagons collapsed, Dong Zhuo's soldiers leaped inside.
As feared, a melee had broken out.
Huang Gai and Han Dang, who had been preparing for this fight, swung their swords and entered the fray.
"It's not just the center! Word is the left and right flanks were breached simultaneously!"
"It seems Dong Zhuo's army is prepared for a Fight to the Death...!"
Battering-Ram Carts that had smashed through the defense line.
Catapults shelling without letup.
And the Death-Defying Unit of Dong Zhuo's army that had carried out the special assault.
This was the final decisive battle.
On the fourth day, the final decisive battle was joined.
Its outcome in close combat would determine victory or defeat in this great war.
"The center checks the enemy assault and withdraws slowly to the rear! The left and right armies hold their current positions! There is no need to drive out the enemy who have forced their way into the line. Concentrate solely on holding out as long as possible!"
"Understood, Your Highness the Crown Prince!"
Just as I had foreseen, Dong Zhuo's army began its attack, ready for a Fight to the Death.
Liu Seong-hwi drew his bowstring and issued orders to all commanders.
"Repeating Crossbow soldiers, hold your fire and stand by!"
Stand by with arrows nocked on the bowstring.
The repeating crossbowmen, who had expected to pour down volleys of arrows, flinched in confusion. That was because they could not understand Liu Seong-hwi's sudden order.
Dong Zhuo's troops were swarming closer.
They ought to be unleashing volleys right now to cut off Dong Zhuo's follow-up forces.
Why,
what in the world was he waiting for?
Just as the repeating crossbowmen showed signs of momentary disarray,
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM──!!!
Dust clouds erupted.
The earth trembled, and a heavy, muffled roar detonated.
And when the black shadows that had charged forward with the speed of lightning drew near, savage bestial cries rang out.
"Cavalry!"
"Dong Zhuo's army has unleashed the Xiliang cavalry!"
They breach the Bladed War Wagon line with Battering-Ram Carts.
They commit frontline troops to provoke a melee.
And then they sweep the battlefield—where friend and foe are tangled together—all at once with a cavalry corps charge.
It was a brutal and merciless tactic.
They were treating their own soldiers entirely as expendable assets.
Dong Zhuo's special assault, prepared for Mutual Destruction, was more than enough to overwhelm the tide of battle.
"Now! Loose!"
The thunder of hooves and the dust cloud had drawn near enough.
Liu Seong-hwi immediately ordered the repeating crossbowmen to fire their volleys.