Turning Point (1)
The rampart was breached.
Swarms of cavalry swept across the approach and overran Liu Chong's Army's encampment.
They'd succeeded.
They'd gotten past those damned bladed war wagons.
The main-force troops thrown into the assault were the cavalry divisions of Ma Teng's Army and Han Sui's Army.
"Break through Liu Chong's Army! The tide is turning!"
"Attack!"
A beautiful heroine with flowing orange hair and boys who still looked adolescent showed themselves. They were the eldest daughter of the General Who Conquers the West, Ma Teng—Ma Chao—and his eldest son Ma Xiu and second son Ma Tie.
This was the final phase.
How many brothers-in-arms had fallen to reach it?
Break through.
Fight to the last breath.
If we can't punch through the battle line this time either, there won't be another chance.
Ma Teng's and Han Sui's cavalry attempted a merciless breakthrough. Officers and men of Liu Chong's Army and Dong Zhuo's Army locked in brutal close-quarters combat were toppled and trampled beneath the thunderous hooves.
"You Qiang bastards...! You mean to kill us too!"
"Aaargh! Everyone fall back!"
By throwing battering-ram carts at the front to breach Liu Chong's Army's rampart, they had fulfilled their role as the vanguard detachment. Expendable goods that had outlived their purpose were to be discarded without a second thought.
Commandant Puhu Chi'Er was crushed beneath the hooves.
General of the Household Xu Hu, who'd been leading the rank and file, died in the chaos of the melee.
They swept away the officers and men of Liu Chong's Army who were fighting Dong Zhuo's Army's vanguard detachment in close quarters. Bones were shattered and flesh pulped by hooves, opening a gruesome road of blood.
"Ma Xiu and Ma Tie, hit their flank! Ma Dai and I will strike their main army!"
"Understood, big sister!"
After ordering her younger brothers to attack the flank, the General Who Pacifies the West, Ma Chao, aimed to personally storm Liu Chong's Army's main army alongside her cousin Ma Dai.
A deluge of repeating-crossbow bolts was raining down from straight ahead.
The arrows were plenty sharp.
It was Liu Chong's Army's last desperate flailing to somehow fend off the offensive. The torrential downpour of bolts was severing the reinforcement columns bringing up follow-up troops.
"Fear not, brothers! The momentum is ours!"
Ma Chao galloped single-mount into the fray and felled Liu Chong's Army officers one after another. The headlong Martial Power of the warrior who represented Guanxi was more than enough to dominate the battlefield.
Ma Chao the Brocade
The fiercest warrior west of the passes.
Her personal strength and valor were said to match those of Peng Yue and Ying Bu, founding heroes of the Han Dynasty.
Even General Who Conquers the East Huang Gai and General Who Conquers the West Han Dang of Sun Jian's Army couldn't halt Ma Chao. Huang Gai, in particular, suffered the humiliation of being defeated and routed by Xiliang's Brocade Ma Chao in a single mounted clash.
"Rescue the General Who Conquers the East!"
"We cannot let these barbarian bitches rampage any longer!!"
Deputy generals under Huang Gai and Han Dang rushed forward.
Ma Chao raised her spearpoint in response.
"Sister...! Let me join you!"
"I alone am enough. The enemy's main camp is close—the head of Liu Seong-hwi belongs to our Xiliang Army!"
Every time the sharp spearpoint flashed, another deputy general of Sun Jian's Army fell spraying blood. Ma Chao galloped at full speed and radiated staggering presence as she cut them down in succession.
It was spearplay elusive as a ghost.
And her command of her warhorse approached a state of oneness with the beast.
Liu Chong's Army's main camp was near. Glaring at the camp where the grand command banner rippled, Ma Chao relentlessly struck down the Liu Chong's Army officers and men who blocked her path.
"Tch!"
Just as they'd pushed through again and drawn close to Liu Chong's Army's main camp—
A steel arrow, shrieking with a bone-chilling roar of split air, came flying in.
A steel-sheathed arrowhead.
And the shaft was nearly the length of a short spear.
It boasted a destructive force as fearsome as a bolt loosed from a heavy crossbow of tremendous draw weight.
CRACK!!
I raised my spear and knocked it aside.
I hadn't caught it with my eyes.
It was a purely instinctive defense born of the intuition that warns of death.
"Mengqi, sister!"
Unable to withstand the impact, I tumbled from my horse.
Ma Chao swallowed a groan against the shock that hammered her whole body and steadied her reeling vision.
"What the...! What the hell hit me?"
It felt like taking a full swing from an iron mace.
Both hands that had extended her spear were trembling uncontrollably.
"General Yang Xing!"
"Damn it...! General Yang Xing is down!"
The question was answered at once. Because Commandant of Jincheng Yang Xing, who'd swept past Ma Chao and Ma Dai while they were momentarily halted and charged toward Liu Chong's Army's main camp, had fallen.
A steel arrow had struck him square in the face.
It had punched through Yang Xing's head and gone on to transfix the officer behind him. Clotted with brains and scraps of flesh, the steel arrow embedded in the dirt halted Ma Teng's Army's advance.
"It's the Greatest Archer Under Heaven! No question it's the Greatest Archer Under Heaven!!"
Commandant of Wuwei Zhang Heng, who'd been following Ma Chao, cried out in pure terror.
A shudder ran through the officers.
The atmosphere sank like cold water thrown on a fire of blazing valor. That was no doubt because they'd just witnessed Yang Xing die with a scream right before their eyes, struck dead without ever realizing the arrow was coming.
And it was also because of the fame of the Greatest Archer Under Heaven, who'd shaken the whole Thirteen Provinces of the Han Dynasty.
A master archer who had repelled countless foreign foes and rebel armies.
They said he boasted Hundred Shots, Hundred Hits that even ghosts and spirits feared.
"Where in the world did he shoot from...!"
"Seven hundred paces. He shot from at least seven hundred paces away."
The farther the distance, the more power drops. That's a given.
Seven hundred paces.
The Greatest Archer Under Heaven had definitely shot from seven hundred paces out.
What would have happened if he'd shot from three hundred paces, half that gap? Without a doubt I'd have died like Yang Xing, killed with a scream before intuition could even react.
Ma Chao answered Ma Dai's question while brushing the dust from her body.
'If I'd been decked out in armor and weapons as garishly brilliant as those Dong Zhuo's Army bastards drowning in vanity... he would have waited until I got in close and loosed a One-Hit Kill. I got lucky. The Greatest Archer Under Heaven must have simply happened to aim at me.'
Was it bad luck?
Well, whatever it was, I'd escaped with my life by a hair's breadth and that was what counted.
Ma Chao straightened the ranks disordered by the repeated forced marches and prepared for a final charge. Not even the Greatest Archer Under Heaven, who'd entered a divine bow's domain, could possibly shoot thousands of cavalry dead.
"Left General Li Jue and Right General Guo Si's soldiers are closing in!"
"Good, we'll link up with them and smash Liu Chong's Army's main camp."
Most of Sun Jian's Army's officers who'd been commanding the battle line were already routed back to the main camp. Only the final defense line led by the General of Agile Cavalry Sun Jian now remained.
This was the chance to end it.
Now they could escape this battlefield, this hell of carnage and screaming chaos.
Left General Li Jue and Right General Guo Si were already swarming in with their troops like hornets, intent on claiming the head of the overall commander Liu Seong-hwi. Other Dong Zhuo's Army officers who'd been directing the rear units joined in one after another, until they had readied themselves to break through Liu Chong's Army's main camp.
* * *
Liu Chong's Army's center was being routed back step by step.
Yet Liu Chong's Army's left and right wings held their ground.
A crescent moon.
Liu Chong's Army's formation was bending into a crescent-moon curve. Dong Zhuo's Army, which had been pressing its fierce offensive, was gradually losing its breakthrough power.
Laymen ignorant of military strategy would predict an overwhelming victory for Dong Zhuo's Army, naturally. But a strategist well-versed in warfare, sighting Liu Chong's Army's battle line unfurling a crescent-moon formation, would have felt a chill run down one's spine.
"Esteemed Director of the Palace Gentlemen, we must finish Liu Chong's Army's main army immediately! That Liu Bei and Sun Ce of Liu Chong's Army who are facing off with the cadet imperial clan members will pull their troops around and link up any moment now!"
"I know! I'll issue the military orders again!"
His Highness the King of Shu, Liu Yan, and the King of Chu, Liu Biao, were greedy schemers who wanted our forces and Liu Chong's Army to destroy each other. Liu Yan and Liu Biao, who hoped for mutual destruction after a grueling pitched battle, would keep the Liu Bei and Sun Ce armies pinned on the battlefield by whatever means necessary—for as long as they could.
But,
just how long could they keep them pinned?
The armies of Liu Yan and Liu Biao were nothing but jackals running cold, calculating arithmetic. If the battle intensified to the point their own lives were in danger, they'd order a withdrawal without hesitation.
"Urgent report! The Left General's and Right General's offensive has failed!"
"Liu Chong's Army's main army, which had been repeatedly falling back, suddenly began holding as if it had turned into an iron fortress... so Ma Teng's and Han Sui's cavalry have also ground to a halt at the front!"
The breakthrough had failed and the front was now locked in a stalemate.
And so the cavalry corps that had been driving the breakthrough was brought to a stop.
Liu Chong's Army's crescent-moon formation.
Swarms of cavalry were caught inside the curve of the crescent moon. Having lost their breakthrough power, the horsemen had paused to dress their ranks.
'The basic principle of warfare is to safeguard the main army first and foremost, even at the sacrifice of the flanking left and right wings... Liu Chong's Army did the exact opposite: it pulled its main army back and lured in the cavalry offensive. That's how this deformed battle line, bent like a crescent moon, was created.'
Liu Chong's Army had not been retreating feebly.
It had surrounded our cavalry committed to the breakthrough from three sides.
The main army had fully absorbed the cavalry's shock.
The left and right wings, jutting forward, were now naturally enveloping the cavalry.
Wrong.
The cavalry was fully encircled.
Pulling the cavalry caught inside the crescent-moon formation back out would demand a great deal of time.
Piiiiiiiing──!!!
Just when only the Ever-Changing strategist was crying a terror born of the abyss,
an arrow shot upward.
A Whistling Arrow loosed from Liu Chong's Army's main army.
The Whistling Arrow emitted an eerie thunder through its wind-hole, pulling the gaze of every officer and soldier on the battlefield toward the darkening sky.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
How long after the Whistling Arrow's flight?
A great drumming abruptly resounded.
It was the sound of war drums from the rear of Dong Zhuo's Army.
Liu Bei's Army and Sun Ce's Army had arrived.
After routing both the armies of Liu Yan and Liu Biao stationed in Jiangxia Prefecture, they had been lying in ambush behind Dong Zhuo's Army. The moment the Whistling Arrow signaling a general offensive rang out, Liu Bei's Army and Sun Ce's Army revealed themselves.