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Chapter 1149: The Perfectly Countered Troops
🕑 Added 2024-12-03 14:06:57 +0000 UTCThe amateur translator conveyed to the Parthian envoy that the Han Dynasty would take on this responsibility, prompting endless gratitude from the envoy, who believed the Han Empire was still dependable.
Li Jue, bored out of his mind, handed some final instructions to the old garrison soldiers to guard the territory, rewarding each of them with three gold coins. He then distributed fifty thousand gold coins among the Xiliang Cavalry. Over three thousand men eagerly donned their armor, grabbed their crossbows, slung short spears over their backs, saddled their horses, and prepared for battle.
The Xiliang Cavalry who followed Li Jue and Guo Si were essentially war criminals, men who were skilled only in killing. Over the past ten-plus years, through relentless warfare, their profession and passion had merged into one: mastery of the battlefield.
This was why these men didn’t follow Hua Xiong but instead chose to follow Li Jue and the others. Their very existence was to bring death. After conquering a small kingdom to establish their base, they had been idle for only a few months before growing restless.
So, after each soldier received ten gold coins, they became thoroughly excited. Fully equipped, they were ready for a fight. Who cared who the enemy was? On the flat plains of Central Asia, there was no way they could lose—unless their opponent was a god!
The Parthian envoy, seeing the army numbered only a bit over three thousand troops, felt somewhat helpless. This was all they had? Compared to the massive Roman legions, how would this small force stand a chance?
"General, shouldn’t you notify your emperor? This is a battle involving hundreds of thousands of men," the Parthian envoy asked Li Jue, speaking in a language he didn’t understand.
"General, he says the battle is big, and you should seek the emperor's assistance," the amateur translator explained.
"Tell him, on the plains, we are gods," Li Jue proudly responded.
The translator conveyed this to the Parthian envoy as, "We are gods," plunging the envoy into despair. The Han generals were truly arrogant.
But whether they were arrogant or not, the Parthian envoy had no choice but to endure it. Riding with three horses per man, they sped for ten days and finally arrived at the Parthian kingdom. By this time, the Roman army was already at the gates.
"General, deploy the troops quickly!" The Parthian envoy shouted urgently after receiving the news.
Though Li Jue didn’t understand the words, he could guess the situation. Besides, he could already see the dark line of Roman soldiers on the horizon, just a few dozen miles away.
Immediately, Li Jue ordered his soldiers to form a charge formation, advancing at a steady pace toward the enemy. When they were only a mile away, Li Jue let out a battle cry, and the Xiliang Cavalry, as if on instinct, burst into a gallop.
Simultaneously, a black aura of battle qi surged from the army, covering the entire Xiliang Cavalry. At that moment, the cavalry surged forward with an explosive momentum, like they had been given a boost.
"We're finished!" the Parthian envoy cried out in despair. A mere four thousand cavalry, having already been spotted, dared to charge into the well-prepared Roman archers with bows drawn.
The Roman lookouts had spotted Li Jue’s cavalry from dozens of miles away and had alerted the rear guard to prepare. Having nearly annihilated the surrounding Parthian reinforcements, the Romans had laid siege to the Parthian capital. Thus, they had reduced their defenses in the rear.
Additionally, the Romans had pulled all the spear and shield infantry from the rear to the front to prepare for a final assault on the Parthian capital. Li Jue's sudden appearance took them by surprise, but it was too late to reposition their forces from the front lines.
However, the Romans then witnessed what they believed to be the Xiliang Cavalry’s suicidal charge, rushing headlong into the arrows. How foolish! In all their years, they had never seen cavalry charge straight into a hail of arrows.
The first volley of arrows rained down, and the Xiliang Cavalry instinctively ducked low. But to their surprise, the arrows that struck them were easily deflected by their defenses.
Though the Xiliang Cavalry were accustomed to their battle qi automatically strengthening their defenses, they had never experienced arrows simply bouncing off. In past battles, they charged through enemy attacks, but this time the enemy’s arrows couldn’t even break through their defenses!
"Charge! Destroy these weaklings!" Li Jue laughed wildly, completely ignoring the hail of arrows.
At this moment, Li Jue realized that the enemy was using bows, not crossbows. He burst into laughter. Who in their right mind would use bows? Even at sixty paces, a bow would struggle to penetrate the Xiliang Cavalry's defenses. But for cavalry, sixty paces was nothing—it was gone in the blink of an eye!
Though the Roman archers fired volley after volley with inhuman speed, releasing ten waves of arrows before the cavalry closed the distance, they failed to inflict any damage. The Xiliang Cavalry’s battle qi covered everything, even deflecting arrows from their horses.
Amid the Romans’ disbelief at their ineffective archery, the Xiliang Cavalry raised their crossbows and fired a volley at the enemy, not bothering to check the results. They then slung their crossbows back onto their saddles and drew their short spears, charging full speed at the Roman lines.
After executing maneuvers they rarely had a chance to use, the Xiliang Cavalry finally switched to their large broadswords as they clashed with the Roman infantry.
With perfect charging conditions on the plains, unscathed by the arrow volleys, and their morale sky-high, the Xiliang Cavalry descended upon the terrified Roman soldiers like gods. In the instant after the broadswords began to spill blood, the Roman line crumbled, overwhelmed by the explosive power of the fewer than four thousand cavalry.
Breaking through eleven defensive lines, they smashed into the Roman center, turning the battle into a rout within moments. The Roman vanguard had no time to react before their formation was shattered by the retreating rear guard, who were trampled into the ground by the massive cavalry charge.
Vologases V, watching from within his besieged capital as the Romans nearly scaled the walls, was on the verge of deploying his final reserve troops. But in just a few moments, he saw the Roman army fall into chaos. Even a fool could see that reinforcements had arrived. Seizing the moment, he dispatched his royal guard to join the fight, pushing the Romans back from the walls and opening the gates to launch a counterattack.
After the slaughter finally ended, Li Jue felt fully satisfied, as did his fellow Xiliang warriors. They had killed at least six to seven thousand Roman soldiers, while their own casualties, even counting the wounded, amounted to only a few hundred. More importantly, they had effortlessly wiped out a force of ten thousand.
"They really are gods..." The Parthian envoy muttered to himself as he gazed at the battlefield strewn with Roman corpses. The Xiliang Cavalry’s combat prowess had shattered everything he thought he knew.
"This so-called ‘mighty Rome’ isn’t that impressive after all," Fan Chou spat on the ground, showing disdain.
"No, Rome is indeed formidable. If it weren’t for us, any other cavalry unit would have been annihilated," Li Jue said seriously, picking up a Roman short bow. "Their bows shoot farther than our large yellow crossbows, and they fired ten volleys of arrows."
"But it was completely useless," Fan Chou laughed heartily.
"Their rate of fire is even faster than our White Horse Archers. Do you understand what that means?" Li Jue said, patting Fan Chou on the shoulder.
"It doesn’t matter how fast they shoot. The White Horse Archers can’t pierce our defenses anyway. If they get close, we’ll crush them in no time," Guo Si finally spoke up. "But that’s only if we can catch them. When the White Horse Archers start running, all we can do is eat their dust."
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