Chapter 638 - Release The Supreme Commander From His Post, I’ll Do It (XV)
Chapter 638: Release The Supreme Commander From His Post, I’ll Do It (XV)
Dozens of Red Lotus followers desperately tried to prop up the city wall. Due to the movements caused by the ax, sandy soil from the outermost layer of the wall was rustling down on top of their heads.
The day was bitterly cold and the ground was freezing, they couldn’t use all of their strength in such conditions. They put both hands up against the wall and it just felt as if they were touching a large ice cube.
“Let’s hold on for a bit longer, we can’t let those thieves get in…”
The words of the leader of this small group were cut off as dozens of people felt an incomparably powerful force coming from outside of the city gates. It was like a mountain had collapsed and the ruins were pressing down on their heads.
The next moment, the city gate, which already had huge cracks in it, suddenly opened wide with a screech.
The people behind the city gate were squeezed together. They had the distinct impression that their intestines were about to be squeezed out of their throats. They fell heavily.
Before they could even react, a snow-white figure accompanied by the clatter of hooves rushed towards them at a lightning-fast speed.
A gust of wind and dust blew over them.
Heads flew off with the slash of a long ax, leaving behind several headless, still-warm bodies.
As Jiang Pengji rushed through the city gate, the soldiers who were following behind received a great boost to their morale. Their vigor was amplified and their shouts to kill and attack echoed through the skies.
“Kill!”
Dian Yan did not have the two long axes that he usually carried on him, so he had found a long spear to replace them. He led his soldiers to rush into the city with Jiang Pengji.
Yang Si felt as if he had just taken the steepest roller coaster ride and was then forced to bungee jump. His heart thumped violently.
When he heard the soldiers around him asking if he wanted to provide support for the attack, Yang Si cleared his head with a furious jerk.
“Attack! Coordinate and support the Commander!”
Yang Si frantically pulled out the scholar’s lance that he usually used as decoration from his belt. He was so excited that he almost bit his tongue.
The Red Lotus soldiers resisting their forces at the city gate had all been killed by Dian Yan, who had rushed in soon after the gate was broken.
The reinforcements who had rushed over were not a match for them at all. The soldiers were thoroughly battered down at the first confrontation. The scene was only composed of the sounds of slaughter and the images of blood spraying everywhere. Jiang Pengji rode on Little White. Not only was she fast, but when the long ax in her hand swung down like the scythe of the grim reaper, she was absolutely deadly. If a soldier Jiang Pengji struck down somehow didn’t die, Little White would supplement with a stomp from his hooves, breaking the soldier’s sternum.
The number of enemy soldiers who died that way was too many to count.
Little White and Jiang Pengji had only worked together a few times before, but the horse was very intelligent, and he was just as good as Big White. One could hardly see a trace of his usually shy and wimpy self. He stepped on a fallen enemy directly and efficiently. If anyone tried to raise a hand to obstruct him, Little White would stomp their arms into pieces along with their sternum.
The ranks of the Red Lotus Group’s solders in Jinmen County broke down like a mountain collapsing on itself. They scattered in all directions, running away like headless chickens.
Some people had just gotten out of their beds. They opened their bleary eyes, still in a stupor. They could not believe that Jinmen County had changed hands so easily.
“Why is it so noisy outside?” someone asked suspiciously.
After the troops at Jinmen County were transferred away, their number had been reduced by a lot. Now that it was winter and most people were unwilling to go out, so the streets were silent. The streets had suddenly become so lively that the bustling outside caused many to be astonished.
But only when one listened carefully would he realize that something was wrong. How could that be the sounds of excitement and jubilation?
It was shouting to fight and kill, blood-curdling screeches and howls.
Was a battle being fought outside?
“Let us sleep! Why are you so noisy?”
Some with bad tempers began to rush towards the area where the noise originated from, raging and ranting. Seeing that it was ineffective, they returned home to grab a kitchen knife in an attempt to intimidate whoever was making the racket.
However, before he had even stepped outside the fence, a blood-stained man flew in from the streets and fell to the ground, a pool of blood trickling from his body.
Witnessing such a scene, the man was so frightened that his knees went weak, and he fell to the ground in a shivering mess. He then turned around and crawled back into the house.
That was so scary he could have died!
Jiang Pengji and her army fought all the way to the city center of Jinmen County; there was no stopping them. Nearly all the areas that they had passed through possessed no ability to resist them.
Jiang Pengji ‘s soldiers were all well trained. They trained continuously throughout the year. Their training was concentrated in the height of summer and winter.
They wore the same armor, held standard weapons, and coordinated with one another in combat. Three to five people formed a team.
Alternatively, look at the Red Lotus Group. There were many clad in rags. This weather alone could defeat them, let alone an opposing army.
They were old, weak, sick, and disabled. They could hardly walk on their own, how could they take up weapons to fight against an external enemy?
The other Red Lotus Group members who had rushed there upon hearing the news were so frightened that they went weak in the knees. They could not gather the slightest will to fight. With ashen faces, they dropped their weapons in surrender.
Many people did not even know that Jinmen County had changed hands in a single day.
If not for the blood and dismembered limbs that had been cleaned from the streets, who would have thought that a siege had broken out a short while ago in seemingly peaceful Jinmen County? Besides “quick,” Yang Si could not think of another word to summarize this battle…
The soldiers destroyed the spirit of the Red Lotus garrison, making them unable to gather the will to fight. Then they shouted that they would not kill those who surrendered.
Jiang Pengji was bellicose, but she did not delight in meaningless slaughter.
An enemy who had no will to fight was not worthy of being killed by her.
She shook off the blood and hacked flesh clinging to the ax, turned over, and dismounted.
“Little White, well done, I’ll get someone to prepare the best food for you when we return.”
Jiang Pengji stroked Little White’s mane. The horse snorted a reply. It stuck its face into her palm and rubbed against it, acting coy and meek.
Because the opening of the battle had been so violent, Little White’s white fur had been dyed crimson. However, it only made him looked more heroic and handsome.
Yang Si gave out the commands. Dian Yan cleared up the stubborn enemies and captives. Jiang Pengji also followed the Vanguard Battalion in its charge.
It was noon and the sun climbed overhead.
Jiang Pengji leaned on Little White’s side and raised her hands to wring the sleeves under her armor.
Sticky blood squeezed out and trickled down onto the ground.
It was a bloody, terrible, and hair-raising scene, but she did as naturally as if she was squeezing rainwater from her clothes, not human blood.
“My lord!”
A call came from a distance. When Jiang Pengji looked up, she saw Yang Si stumbling as he dismounted from the jujube-red horse’s back.
Jiang Pengji glanced at the scholar’s lance at Yang Si’s waist. This thing was only supposed to be for decoration. It was merely a good-looking piece of decoration, but it was drenched in blood now. One could tell that it had also drawn blood. Looking at Yang Si’s face, which held a subtly feverish expression, her expression gentled.
“Are you okay? The battlefield is so chaotic, yet you dare to run around?”
Yang Si’s labor was always in his mental efforts. It was better to leave the fighting and killing to the military.
If something happened to Yang Si, the already scarce skeleton members of her team would become even more understaffed.
Jinmen County had already been conquered. There would be many more things to keep themselves busy in the future. They could not reduce their staff at this moment.
Yang Si did not know what Jiang Pengji was thinking and thought that she was showing concern for him. His heart suddenly felt warm.
When he had shouted “my lord” just then, he had done it very willingly.
“Thank you, my lord, for your concern. I am all right.”
Except for the horseback riding, which had painfully chafed the insides of his thighs, he was totally fine.
He had also gotten over his addiction to charging and breaking through the enemy’s lines. The gentleman’s martial arts that he had learned before were not totally useless.
Jiang Pengji asked in a flat voice, “Has the battlefield has been cleared? How many injured do we have? How many prisoners? Did anyone take the opportunity to make trouble?”
Yang Si had already prepared. He reported, “We have not finished clearing the battlefield, and there are still small waves of enemy renegades who stubbornly resist by hiding in dangerous terrain. But Vice-captain Dian has brought people with him to deal with them. A rough calculation of the captives gives us about 1,000 people. Men have been dispatched to collect the bodies of the dead and injured. As for the injured soldiers, most of them are only slightly injured. The doctor from the Women’s Battalion is helping. The total number is less than 100, and our losses are not great… “