The battlefield grew increasingly noisy, and both sides, looking around, felt a chill in their hearts.
From the west, three thousand barbarian cavalry appeared!
From the east and northeast, two forces of about a thousand men in white robes arrived to provide support.
"What kind of troops are those, the white-robed soldiers?"
These barbarian cavalry had never encountered the white-robed soldiers who had changed into padded armor. They had only heard from the defeated troops of the Left Worthy King that their equipment had changed and they were stronger than before.
Nan Jiyun finally felt relieved. With a roar, another barbarian swift horse fell, struck by an arrow.
At this, all the barbarian swift horses no longer dared to approach the Great Gan scouts.
The barbarian general was furious: "Cowards!"
With two hundred elite barbarian cavalry, they could have easily intercepted and held the more than one hundred Great Gan soldiers. With their two thousand troops arriving, they could have overwhelmed the enemy and recaptured Kuang Sha!
But that white-robed general, with arrows that never missed, had scared away all the approaching elite troops from both sides, causing them to miss the best opportunity for encirclement!
"The Left Worthy King's prized horse, Kuang Sha, was actually stolen by this enemy general!"
The barbarian general was furious. He roared at the arriving friendly forces, completely omitting that the Left Worthy King had been defeated and lost his horse.
The two armies converged. Lü Changhe had also successfully met up with Nan Jiyun and the scout team.
Two thousand white-robed soldiers and five thousand barbarian cavalry faced each other in the desolate wilderness.
The barbarians were urgently discussing whether the enemy were white-robed soldiers and whether they should attack.
A white-robed soldier led a spare warhorse and offered it to the scouts behind Nan Jiyun. After they mounted, he stared coldly at the five thousand barbarian cavalry, radiating killing intent.
This barbarian force moved too fast. They were clearly elite troops, preparing to disperse and engage in guerrilla tactics to harass the main camp.
After a brief rest, Nan Jiyun drew his Shocking Heaven Bow, gathering his strength.
The two sides maintained a distance of three hundred paces, glaring at each other.
Lü Changhe observed the enemy's formation and momentum from afar, his thoughts racing: "If we let them escape unscathed, scouts in other regions will face the threat of encirclement day and night..."
In one day, the Great Gan had eliminated over fifty barbarian scouts. Five Great Gan scouts had also failed to return and were likely captured or killed by the barbarians.
"General Lü! Revenge!" The white-robed soldiers behind Lü Changhe, their eyes bloodthirsty as they glared at the distant barbarians, all shouted in unison.
The reason these white-robed soldiers became white-robed soldiers, besides their own capabilities, was that more than half of them had lost loved ones to the barbarian cavalry.
Having assessed the enemy, Lü Changhe immediately raised his spear and roared, "Scouts reported, white-robed soldiers! Do not disgrace General Tian!"
As Lü Changhe's words fell, the two thousand white-robed soldiers shouted in unison, "Barbarians will be decapitated!!" Following Lü Changhe, they spurred their horses and charged towards the barbarian cavalry!
"A one-against-three fight to the death? Charge the entire army!"
Facing an elite force more than twice their size, the white-robed soldiers' decisive attack was undoubtedly a disdain for a weaker force, finally enraging all the barbarian cavalry.
The barbarian cavalry were eager to earn merit and prove that as barbarians, they were by no means inferior to the Great Gan's white-robed soldiers.
The white-robed soldiers, on the other hand, were determined to disperse the enemy and ensure the safe passage of their scouts.
The two armies were on the verge of battle, engaging in the first round of archery!
The white-robed soldiers were relatively spread out, wearing padded armor and carrying small shields to block arrows.
The barbarians all wore leather armor and had small leather shields to block arrows, but in close-range volleys, over fifty of them were still shot and killed by the white-robed soldiers!
In the first round of engagement, only a dozen white-robed soldiers suffered leg wounds, which greatly shocked the barbarians: there was no phenomenon of hundreds being killed in a single round, which was very unlike the Great Gan!
Soon, the barbarians discovered that when arrows hit the Great Gan soldiers in the upper body from a distance, they simply fell to the ground. The enemy seemed almost unharmed!
"Are these Great Gan wild dogs made of bronze and iron?"
The barbarians were both shocked and enraged, and had to try to engage in close-range archery.
The white-robed soldiers fought and retreated, continuously drawing and nocking arrows, ready to shoot down any approaching enemy.
Another chieftain was killed by Nan Jiyun. Nan Jiyun, riding Kuang Sha, finally made the barbarians fly into a rage.
"At all costs, kill this person and recapture Kuang Sha!"
Warhorses like Kuang Sha were priceless. As a nation on horseback, the entire barbarian land could not find ten such horses. Their king's mount had been ridden away by an unknown individual, and the barbarians were truly desperate.
The white-robed soldiers did not rush into close combat. Instead, they leveraged their equipment advantage, continuously exchanging arrows, retreating when the enemy advanced, and advancing when the enemy retreated.
The barbarians were shocked and dismayed.
Five thousand barbarian cavalry, after five rounds of archery, might have lost over five hundred men!
Meanwhile, the white-robed soldiers had only one man killed and a dozen wounded in the legs!
A casualty ratio of one to five hundred, such a shocking disparity, was unacceptable to the barbarian cavalry. Two barbarian generals joined forces and simultaneously roared orders: "Charge the entire army!!"
The barbarians did not continue to suppress the white-robed soldiers with their numbers and arrows. Instead, the entire army charged with the two generals, aiming to annihilate such elite Great Gan soldiers as the white-robed soldiers as much as possible, while also suppressing the enemy's long-range killing power.
The arrows in the white-robed soldiers' quivers were finally depleted, and the barbarian cavalry were reduced to four thousand men.
Even Nan Jiyun's Dragon Tooth Arrows were exhausted.
Facing the four thousand barbarian cavalry surging like a tide, the white-robed soldiers not only chose not to retreat, but under the leadership of Lü Changhe, they closed the distance even faster, selecting terrain advantageous to them, while also limiting the barbarians' archery!
Just as the two sides were about to engage in close combat, the sound of hooves and battle cries echoed from the west again.
Both sides turned to look. It turned out to be another barbarian cavalry force of two thousand men arriving!
Realizing the precarious situation of their scouts, Lü Changhe made a decisive move and led the charge himself.
"Charge!"
With an order, the two thousand white-robed soldiers fearlessly charged into the enemy formation.
The two thousand barbarian cavalry from the west were also rushing to rendezvous.
"Two thousand white-robed soldiers can cut off four thousand ears!"
The four thousand barbarian cavalry in front were immensely excited. They abandoned their ineffective archery against the white-robed soldiers, raised their long sabers, and collectively charged at the white-robed soldiers.
As long as they could inflict losses of two thousand white-robed soldiers on the Great Gan, the morale of the northern border troops would be significantly impacted!
"Pfft!"
In the first clash, the sounds of blades piercing leather armor and flesh could be heard.
The barbarian cavalry at the forefront, with looks of shock, heard the deafening sounds of fighting, followed by piercing screams as they fell from their horses, dying in vain on the spot!
In one engagement, nearly five hundred were killed by the white-robed soldiers, and over a thousand were wounded!
"How is this possible?!"
They were all elites among the barbarian cavalry, and they were in the open wilderness where they excelled. In a single clash, five hundred were killed by the enemy!
Meanwhile, the white-robed soldiers' armor and helmets effectively defended against the barbarians' spears and arrows. Under the intense charge, only a dozen or so had died!
At this moment, these barbarian elites finally deeply understood that the white-robed soldiers of today were far more formidable than those of the past!
"General San Luo has been slain!"
"General Bai Hulu has been slain!"
As the barbarians were in shock, cries of alarm rose from within the army.
It turned out that the two imposing barbarian generals had been defeated and killed by Lü Changhe and Nan Jiyun respectively!!
Four thousand men fighting two thousand, suffering one-eighth of their strength in one engagement, and losing two generals in one round, the morale of the four thousand barbarian cavalry plummeted. They fought and retreated, awaiting reinforcements from the rear.
The white-robed soldiers did not stop there, but chose to pursue relentlessly.
The barbarian cavalry that had come to reinforce from the rear had not yet understood what was happening when the white-robed soldiers launched their pursuit. Their long sabers and steel spears pierced through the layers of barbarian leather armor, killing them on the spot. Some even pierced through their chests with a single thrust!
As the barbarians were in terror, earth-shattering shouts echoed from the south and the north.
Two more units of white-robed soldiers had arrived from both sides, launching a flanking attack!
The barbarians finally realized the problem.
They might have been lured and surrounded!
Three hours later, Liang Xiao was in a tent discussing the marching route with Lü Yi when a victory report arrived from outside.
"Our white-robed soldiers have defeated six thousand barbarians, pursued them relentlessly, and beheaded three thousand! We have discovered that tens of thousands of enemy cavalry are assembling in the west. We request the Marshal's decision!"
September 1st-30th, wrote 320,000 characters. Here, I would like to commend the old thief of Spring and Autumn!!
I am too sleepy to hold on. I have repeatedly checked and revised this chapter, worrying that I haven't written it well due to my lack of state. I'll sleep first... Happy National Day!