Chapter 441: The Steel Cavalry! The Steel Cavalry!
The hundred and fifty thousand men of the Steel Cavalry that Tie Zheng had kept with him was the crème of Yutang's most elite platoon; they were also his trump card in this battle.
What was more, Wang Dingguo was his ace general!
There should be a ninety percent chance to win the battle. Besides, the timing was a godsend, irrecoverable if missed.
The invasion would definitely be accompanied by casualties, but it would not be too troublesome; instead, the loss would be extremely valuable for the current state of war.
"One doesn't command the army by being kind; one doesn't commit to great things by being sentimental; one does not manage wealth by prioritizing kinship; one doesn't become an official by being benevolent!"
"Baoguo, one doesn't command the army by being kind! Why is that?"
Fu Baoguo closed his eyes, Old Grand Commandant Fang Qingtian's wise advice playing in his mind.
"Baoguo, what is war? To both countries, war is a contention of manpower, military strength, resources, wealth, and determination. The last man standing reigns supreme, the last man standing wins."
"However, to the marshal of the army, war is contending with casualties, the depletion of lives - to see who can keep it going longer! Whoever has more people living in the end, wins."
"You must remember, there is only victory and defeat on the battlefield. There is no sympathy, no lives!"
Fu Baoguo sighed, looking at the sky.
"Teacher..."
Hearing the uniform galloping of the horses, Wang Dinggguo's sonorous roar, followed by the thunderous noise of attack, Fu Baoguo opened his eyes to look at the warriors whose faces spelled resolution and fearlessness.
No one had the confidence of coming back alive after charging out of the base this time. There would definitely be lives lost. He wondered how many familiar faces in this formation that he would lose.
"Teacher... what you said is true but... these are my comrades, my brothers!"
...
Wang Dingguo galloped, the cold wind tinged with the copper scent of blood from the battlefield brushed his face, but he did not feel cold nor solemn. The only thing he felt now was the blood boiling through his entire being!
He was filled with an impulsive to explode into action - right there and then.
In front of him was the enemy, by his side were his comrades; under his legs was his warhorse, in his hand was his sharp blade.
Underneath his feet was the battlefield!
His eyes turned bloodshot abruptly as if stained with crimson.
Fu Baoguo's appointed Steel Cavalry was behind him, all thirty thousand of them, galloping quietly as well. Everyone knew that this battle was their initiative to catch the enemy off guard but casualties were imminent, they might not live long themselves. However, they did not regard the fact that they might not return too much; all of them felt their blood gushing heatedly, just like Wang Dingguo.
The bubbling spirit of war within Wang Dingguo seemed to be infectious as it stimulated the entire Steel Cavalry behind him.
All their eyes were burning with the passion of a fighter that only a truly devastating battle could thoroughly unleash!
Nobody said a thing, but they could not help urging their warhorses forward, the galloping picking up speed.
Thirty thousand Steel Cavalry thundered past, looking like a raging dragon that charged out of Yutang's base from one side before turning into a sharp arrow, shooting its way to the east.
Wang Dingguo was at the lead, like the tip of the sharpest arrow cutting through wind and any other form of resistance. He sprawled low on the horse's back, his upper body hovering and tipping forward while his thighs rested on the flanks; his center of gravity was tilted to the front.
Anyone who had ridden a horse knew that doing so could save a lot of the horse's energy and form a fearless impulse that kept the horse from bolting.
It wasn't only Wang Dingguo, but all thirty thousand men from the Steel Cavalry behind him were employing the same position. Their bodies were tilted forward; their hands were not even grasping the reins, their left hands pressing lightly on the horse's head while their right hands gripped their weapons, allowing the metal to stick close to their horses as if they were one.
Their eyes were sparkling, burning passion a crackling firework in their orbs.
They were all waiting silently, waiting for the moment when they actually came into contact with their enemy. Once the moment arrived, the most brilliant firework of blood would definitely erupt!
The men on the horses were ablaze with battle-fury, the intent to fight soaring; the horses under the men seemed to have felt their partners' thirsting battle spirit as they galloped whole-heartedly as well. Where they could only normally move thirty feet in a single pace, the current gallop had pushed them to forty or even fifty feet at once.
The men's blood was boiling as were their warhorses'! For a moment, the simultaneous blaze was unstoppable!
The sudden strike was just like Fu Baoguo had predicted, their enemy had not been able to react in time. After all, Fu Baoguo had been acting like a coward these days, playing at maintaining a defense and not countering at all. He had lulled the enemy into thinking that they were planning to stay put perpetually.
No one would have thought that Fu Baoguo would actually opt for the moment when the enemy's two troops would meet in a rising momentum to invade and attack!
The Steel Cavalry had already traveled more than half of their designated distance before the enemy base finally let out the warning horn.
Wang Dingguo guffawed maniacally.
The chilling wind of winter was still blasting strongly, swooshing past him as his war robe fluttered noisily in the gale.
Wang Dingguo's voice came abruptly like lit crackers in the dead of winter.
"Brothers!"
Wang Dingguo's tone was filled with fervor as much as it was gruff, like a thunderbolt that struck in midair.
"Here we are!" The thirty thousand men from the Steel Cavalry hollered in unison.
"We are Yutang's Steel Cavalry!" Wang Dingguo roared.
"We are indomitable!" Thirty thousand throats from the Steel Cavalry cheered uniformly.
"We were born here!"
"Born here!"
"We grew up here!"
"Grew up here!"
"This is our homeland!"
"Our homeland!"
"This is territory we will guard with our lives!"
"Territory we will guard with our lives!"
"We will die to protect it!"
"Protect it!"
The vows grew louder, one after another, the next one more aggressive than the last.
Initially, the Steel Cavalry's morale was already at its peak. Now that Wang Dingguo's explosive voice growled, they felt as if they had gone past their boundaries, excited to the brink of spontaneously combusting!
"Our enemy is in front of us!" Wang Dingguo's pupils were dilated; blood had surged into them, filled with an insatiable bloodlust.
"Enemy!" Thirty thousand soldiers roared at the same time.
"Our comrades are by our side!"
"Comrades!"
"Our home is behind us!"
"Home!"
The cries and cheers grew increasingly spirited, the volume loud and resonating within the icy battlefield, like thunderclaps crackling over and over again in the sky, deafening and intimidating.
"For our parents!" Wang Dingguo saw the rushed response from the enemy's gathering troops, the panicked distribution of men to come towards them, intending to stop their invasion.
His hand was raised slowly, the seventeen-foot blade made of green steel gleaming wickedly in the cold sky.
"Parents!" The Steel Cavalry raised their weapons in unison, the shiny blades pointing to the front.
"For our children!"
"Children!"
"For our women!"
"Women!"
The cheer was louder, one after another, turning into a thunderous cry that shook both heaven and men alike. Yutang's Steel Cavalry could no longer help the burning blood that was surging within them as they howled into the sky; their momentum was like an enraged lion that was dashing down the hill.
In front of them, arrows fell like a storm as they began to hit home.
"Kill!" Wang Dingguo raised his saber, bouncing with his horse like a meteor, and entered the shower of arrows brutally, charging into the enemy's base.
This was the call for the bloodbath to begin. This battle was destined to go down in history and legend, a battle of steel and blood.
Wang Dingguo, who was in a forward position, was like a sharp blade that burned bright red, digging deep into the cold butter that was the enemy's defenses.
"Kill!"
Behind him, thirty thousand men from the Steel Cavalry roared in unison, as if growling out the boiling blood within them. All of them felt each strand of their hair standing on end.
They were like a black tidal wave that could not be stopped, charging into the enemy base in the fastest and most intimidating speed possible as they roared bloodcurdlingly. It was imposing and resolute.
Then, it was as if a miracle appeared. The long stretch of the invasive force held; a huge triangular arrow head formed by the Steel Cavalry was not broken up at all - no one was left behind!
Each Steel Cavalryman guarded their position securely; the thirty thousand men were as one, embedding themselves into the assembly point of the enemy's army of hundreds and thousands of men in a frenzy.
Further on, Zhan Ge, who had been waiting to assemble with his comrades but had to stand at a higher point due to this emergency, was watching this scene with involuntary trembles.
It was because when the Steel Cavalry had brutally crashed into his base with an imposing momentum, Zhan Ge could clearly see a neat wave of blood rising into the air. His sight was filled with red in that single moment.
All movements on the battlefield seemed to have halted while all the actions seemed to have turned slow motion.
The blood splattered, a fine mist still hovering in the air; when they landed on the ground due to gravity, the Steel Cavalry had actually charged past like a catapulting arrow within the split-second gap.
Their speed was petrifying!
Wang Dingguo and his Steel Cavalrymen must not have realized that, at that moment, their speed had created calvary history and would go down in legend. They were only roaring insanely, fearlessly pushing forward with no regard to their own life and limb.
To charge!
To push forward!