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🕑 Added 2024-12-12 08:43:13 +0000 UTCThe Black Moon Assassin
Chapter 140 - The Attacks
A few hours later, following the attack on Jun’s fortress, the entire place was engulfed in flames.
Jun, who had been holding back the enemy with attacks on their ranks, faced a frontal battle that ended much sooner than expected.
Although they didn’t kill Jun, his army was crushed, and the city was taken. Unfortunately, the city was set ablaze, leaving them no choice but to relocate to the forest.
The burning fires extinguished one by one, and the eastern sky turned pale white. Silence engulfed the wasteland, and all the soldiers of the coalition of warring states were still lost in their dreams.
“I didn’t think taking that city would be so easy. We didn’t even need to use the mother ladders,” remarked a night watch soldier outside the camp. He yawned lazily, rested the spear he was holding under his arm, walked a few steps to a patch of grass, unfastened his trousers, and relieved himself, making use of his free time.
The soldier instinctively glanced at the wasteland before him, bathed in the morning light, and caught sight of a dark shadow out of the corner of his eye.
At first, he paid it no mind, but after nearly two breaths, he suddenly snapped to attention.
“Someone on horseback?”
“Looks like one of ours!” The soldier felt a chill run down his back and quickly summoned several other soldiers who were standing guard.
The other soldiers, along with Ri Boku, who had been sleeping, were awakened by the panicked cries of the guards. Ri Boku quickly got up and rushed to the camp’s outer edge to see what was happening. In the faint dawn light, he saw a dark cavalry unit silently approaching the camp.
“Why are you just standing there? Wake everyone up!” Ri Boku roared at the top of his lungs, thinking it was another enemy attack. “Sound the trumpet, now! Move it!”
In the next moment, the loud blare of horns pierced the sky, rousing the coalition army’s soldiers one after another. Under the scolding of their commanding general, they hurriedly gathered, forming a messy and noisy formation in response to the unsettling scene. Protected by dozens of cavalry soldiers, Ri Boku and the others also rushed to organize.
But it was still dark, and the coalition soldiers, barely awake, witnessed the most horrifying scene of their lives. Many of them would spend their entire lives unable to forget what they saw that morning. That dreadful sight became a nightmare that haunted them forever.
In the dim morning light, horses slowly advanced toward the coalition camp, dragging the dismembered corpses of watchmen—men who were supposed to be stationed miles away from where the main army rested.
There were no waving flags on the bodies, but everyone knew they were their own men.
Nor could they ignore the terrifying weapons dubbed the “Heavenly Dragons”—Jun’s fire-spitting catapults—or the lack of battle cries and typical battlefield noise.
There was only the clatter of armor, the gruesome sight of bodies dangling around the horses, and blood dripping everywhere! In total, five hundred soldiers stood before them as the confused coalition soldiers scrambled to respond to the sudden war cry.
“Oh, God, what is this?”
“My God, could it be that legend?”
“Damn it, we’re sure we saw only one man on horseback before the rest followed, dragging all the watchmen, right?”
The coalition army’s military formation began to waver.
Fear spread like poisonous weeds in the hearts of the soldiers as they exchanged panicked glances.
“What am I supposed to do about this…” Ri Boku muttered, taking a deep breath before yelling, “What the hell is going on?”
Kaine felt his vision blur, his legs growing numb. After a moment, he sighed heavily and said, “General Li Bie fell in battle. These 500 headless riders are probably the same 500 soldiers who chased down those who escaped the city after the fight ended.”
“What?” Shin Sei Jou exclaimed in shock, then cried out, “That’s impossible!”
“Brother!”
Just as Kaine finished speaking, Shin Sei Jou let out a miserable wail and rushed toward the headless cavalry of 500. He and Li Bie had been brothers-in-arms.
“This can’t be happening.”
At that moment, an unending blare of war horns echoed in the distant horizon. Ri Boku, born a battlefield expert, immediately paled and shouted, “No, it’s an enemy attack! Kaine, form a circular defensive line. Move the grain and fodder carts to form an outer wall. Hurry!”
As soon as Ri Boku finished speaking, horns sounded simultaneously from three other directions. The frightened coalition soldiers turned the grain and fodder carts on their sides, lining them up to create a defensive barrier. Then, from the southeast, northwest, and northeast, Jun’s cavalry appeared from all four directions at once.
However, their numbers weren’t large—only about a thousand riders in each direction.
And so, a bizarre sight unfolded. Over ten thousand cavalry soldiers split into hundreds of groups, taking a stance that threatened to swallow the fifty thousand disorganized coalition troops, crushing them from all sides.
The fifty thousand coalition soldiers clustered around the camp, gripped by panic all day long.
…
Narrow Lake City
Jun’s thirty thousand troops finally reached the outskirts of the city.
The coalition army had set up three interconnected camps on the city’s outskirts, surrounding it tightly from the north, east, and south, leaving the western gate completely unguarded.
Jun’s war of attrition to organize his main army with the King of Qin had been successful. Now, he had a unique opportunity to devastate a considerable portion of the enemy army camped at one of the more isolated sites.
Mounted on a black horse, Jun murmured, “If everything goes as planned, losing five catapults will have been worth it. At least now, we can even the losses from earlier.”
“We could kill Ri Boku. I don’t understand why we’re waiting,” Kyou Kai said, unable to comprehend Jun’s reasoning for sparing such a significant enemy.
Jun, riding beside her, replied, “I want that bastard to see his army annihilated—life for life. That mental burden must weigh on his conscience forever.”
“Remember, the objective is to kill, burn their resources, and retreat before reinforcements from the other camps arrive.”
Shen clenched his fists and replied respectfully, “Understood, my lord.”
“Won’t we need our main army here for the battle?”
“No,” Jun replied, shaking his head at Kyou Kai’s question. His tone was calm but chilling. “I have an interesting plan to force the surrender of many warring states.”
At that moment, Jun fought not only for the unification of China but also for his own glory.
…
In the city where Ei Sei was stationed with reserve forces, additional preparations were being made just in case.
Ei Sei was having dinner when a military officer rushed in and quickly reported, “My Lord, there’s an urgent report from the battlefield!”
“Oh?” Ei Sei stood abruptly and said in a deep voice, “Speak!”
The soldier, catching his breath, said, “General Jun’s 10,000-strong army has penetrated the enemy front and encircled one of their camps.”
“Really?” Ei Sei asked excitedly. “If General Jun can kill as many enemies as possible without using his main army, that would give us a significant advantage!”
“Report!”
Another officer entered hurriedly just as Ei Sei finished speaking.
“Speak,” Ei Sei commanded.
“A much larger enemy army has been spotted entering the same area where our forces penetrated. Estimates suggest over a hundred thousand soldiers.”
“That would make over three hundred thousand soldiers—far more than we estimated.”
“What is the state of our army?”
“They’re holding their ground against an enemy three times their size.”
Ei Sei fell silent, contemplating the unexpected developments. “Inform Jun. He must know.”
…
Jun advanced with his personal army on the battlefield.
Even knowing the enemy numbers exceeded expectations, he would not retreat.
No, now was the time to deliver a devastating blow to the coalition army.
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