Dragon's Soul Chapter 35: Battlefield

Death was inevitable but she did not fear it nor would she try to avoid it. So on a battlefield she did not pity those who were going to die.

One day she will have to be apart from Zhang and Ai. That thought someone made her heart ache. Over the many months of being together the trio has had a very strong bond. Despite all of her reasoning and thoughts she knew if something happened to Ai or Zhang she would of course worry about them. If they died, then she would join them because they were the reason that kept her in the world of the living.

Beside Yuying riding her horse was Ai. Over the many months Ai had grown very close to Zhang and Yuying, especially Yuying. The two of them became like sisters, eating and sleeping together. She learned many things from Yuying with the two stayed together.

In other words, to her if thousands or hundreds of thousands of people disappeared in front of her she would not bat an eye. But if something bad were to befall on Zhang or Yuying she felt that a part inside of her would lose control and she would go mad.

Inside the city Xi Ning's one thousand and seven hundred soldiers stormed the wall they met little resistance. On top of the gate there were only roughly five hundred soldiers. The vast majority of Red Mist city's soldiers were kept inside the lord's mansion.

Of the one hundred thousand soldiers the city had roughly five thousand was kept on rotating shifts to guard the walls. The walls of Red Mist city were built very high so they did not feel the need to have too many guards guarding it.  

In the lord's mansion a huge commotion broke out as messengers from all around the city came running.

"Bad News thousands of enemy cavalry has stormed into the city!!!" Another one yelled.

It had been very late at night and Jin Sho had just went to bed but was woken up by all the screaming. Originally he was going to go outside and punish all of these people for bothering him when he was trying to sleep.

"What are you fools doing?! Send the soldiers from the inner ring out! Stop them!! Also alert all soldiers who are not on active duty to return to duty and help defend the city!" He yelled.

"Now go get someone to tell me the current status of the city!" Jin Sho yelled.

Zhang had lead his ten thousand cavalry into the city and up the walls and then took five hundred cavalry soldiers while Lu Xun lead five hundred in opposite direction. Their goal was to capture the city walls. If they didn't there was a chance that the gate they came into might be closed from behind them and they would be trapped and surrounded.

The cavalry soldiers following Zhang galloped on top of the walls of the city and anyone they ran into would either be cut down or trampled over by their horses.

Being cavalry soldiers they were not very useful in occupying a city. Their job was mainly to charge and disperse the enemy or chase after fleeing enemies. If they stayed in one place too long they might be shot at by archers or outnumbered by spearmen. Thus they needed infantry.

However, clearing the eastern outer ring was fairly easy to begin with they had the element of surprise on their side. The soldiers guarding the outer ring of Red Mist city did not have a chance to fight back before getting killed.

The infantry soldiers led the charge into the middle ring with cavalry following behind them. While moving in they screamed at the top of their lungs.

"DISARM OR DIE!!" The soldiers continued to yell.

Many soldiers of Red Mist city dropped their weapons and kneeled down onto the group with their hands cupping the back of their heads. Some feared death, while others were simply displeased with their current lord and did not want to fight for him.

Once they surrendered the soldiers of Red Mist city were all tied up and led to outer ring.

But he was confident that even if they had to face these fifty thousand soldiers they could win but with heavy casualties. The soldiers Zhang brought were elite soldiers from Aurora city. Aurora being known as the strongest influence within the warring states region meant that its soldiers were no laughing matter.

Because there was no possible way for regular infantry soldiers who ran on two legs to outrun cavalry soldiers who had four legs. So if the attack on the city failed they would only have to retreat outside and constantly raid Red Mist city with their cavalry until they chipped away enough soldiers.

As Zhang's forces advanced the soldiers of Red Mist city got slaughtered. They could not repel Zhang's soldiers this was because if they formed formations to push back the invaders cavalry would charge in and trample them.

"ARCHERS FORM UP!" A man on a horse yelled out to the soldiers of red mist city.

"FIRE!"

"Fallback!! Fallback!! Take cover!" Zhang's soldiers yelled.

"Ai let's fall back to the rear!" Yuying yelled as she whipped her Inferno Wind Walker to move. Ai soon followed and the two moved out of the distance of the archers.

"ATTACK!!!" A voice rang out.

Originally the army entered through the eastern gate so all of the battling was happening on the eastern side of the city. This allowed Zhang to flank the defending archers who were keeping his soldiers at bay.

To begin with Archers did not have very much armor this allowed the cavalry soldiers to cut them down with ease.

"JOIN THE COMMANDER!!!!" The rest of the army yelled as they charged to join the fray.

"Brother! We are coming!" Ai Yelled and she and Yuying charged alongside the soldiers into battle.

Hundreds of corpses lined the streets of Red Mist city and small rivers of blood flowed. Some soldiers were lying on the street heavy injured and just awaiting death.

"Take the wounded to the rear!" Zhang commanded to some soldiers.

Ever since Zhang joined the main army morale shot through the air. Unlike some commanders he fought on the front lines with his men and inspired them to fight harder. His men felt that instead of being his subordinates they were more like brothers in arms.

"Commander! The northern gate is ours and most of the civilians in the outer ring has been evacuated." Lu Xun said to Zhang as he came on top of his horse coming from the northern gate.

Once Zhang left Lu Xun began commanding the soldiers.

Following his commands, the soldiers began falling back into the alleyways. In such tight spaces the enemy's numbers would not matter and that would allow for Zhang's forces to be able to fight them evenly. The alleyways were only big enough for five or so men to talk from side to side next to each other so only five enemy soldiers would be able to engage them in battle. Whereas for Zhang's soldiers they would break into formation with five swordsmen in front with five spearmen in back.

The cavalry soldiers moved back and assembled into formations. They stayed far away from the fighting allowing the soldiers of Red Mist city to group up and try to attack the alleyways where the infantry was holed up in.

Lu Xun was extremely experienced at the art of war and know how to properly use his troops strengths against enemies.

Upon hearing this most dropped their swords and surrendered.

"You imbeciles! Why are you surrendering!! Get up and fight for me!"

"Fight and everyone will get one hundred gold coins each! I may something but money isn't one of those things!" Jin Sho yelled.

If under normal circumstances he would of most likely put all of these men to death.

Those dishearten soldiers picked up their swords once more and stood up.

But Jin Sho just showed up with ten thousand fresh soldiers and on top of that the majority of the reinforcements that he had sent out earlier to the middle ring were still alive and fit for battle.

"You think you can run!? Kill them! Whoever brings me their commanders head I will give that person the rank of general and ten thousand gold coins!" Jin Sho yelled.

"How can the lord of Red Mist city which is the trading hub of the western edge of the warring states region be so stingy. Fifty thousand? You are giving them chump change." A voice laughed.

"It's you!" Jin Sho yelled. However, in his heart he cursed his son for making enemies of this man in front of him.

"Surrender? Why should I surrender! I clearly have the upper hand here. You are fighting within my city! With a trivial number of soldiers at your side. Once all my forces mobilize you will be outnumbered vastly and be crushed." Jin Sho sneered. But he was indeed correct if all of his forces were mobilized he would be able to crush Zhang.

Shortly after the rhythmic marching got louder and louder and from the corner of the street behind Zhang, rows of soldiers in golden armor wearing white scarves with a golden lotus sewn on them appeared.

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Thoughts? Not sure how this chapter turned out but I oddly spent most of the day writing it and changing this and that. T__T

Chapter end