Chapter Thirty-Two: The Retreat of the Tulan Army!

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At the southern wall of the city, barely half an hour after the battle began, Tulan’s army had already used the sacrifices of its cavalry to advance within roughly fifty meters of the fortifications.

With the concerted efforts of dozens of infantrymen, several enormous siege ladders had been raised and propped against the wall.

The Divine Strategy soldiers atop the battlements had long since become blood-crazed. Ignoring the arrows streaking upward from below, they continuously loosed volleys at the enemies climbing the ladders.

Amid one scream after another, Jurchen soldiers tumbled from the siege ladders in succession.

Some died instantly upon impact; others suffered grievous injuries and could only writhe and howl in agony.

Yet with military orders before them, the Jurchen soldiers continued climbing without the slightest fear of death.

At last, after a fierce struggle, one of the ladders on the right side of the wall successfully reached the top.

But the moment three Jurchen soldiers landed, Divine Strategy troops charged at them with drawn blades.

The two sides instantly became locked in slaughter. One Divine Strategy soldier, exhausted beyond endurance, was the first to fall.

Seeing their comrade die in battle, the remaining soldiers seemed to be injected with fresh life. They hurled themselves at the enemy without regard for their own lives.

After only two or three exchanges, one of the Jurchen soldiers was struck so fiercely that his head went flying.

The Divine Strategy soldier who felled him was in no better condition; a blade had cut into his shoulder.

But at that moment, such wounds could no longer restrain either side’s murderous fury. Another Jurchen soldier collapsed, yet still more were climbing up from the ladder.

In the distance, a trace of a smile finally appeared on Gurna’s perpetually tense face.

The Divine Strategy Army had been defeated so quickly that it perfectly confirmed his deduction: they had long since been exhausted.

Tulan threw back his head and laughed. “Reverend, your strategy of wearing down the enemy has indeed worked. Those Divine Strategy soldiers don’t appear to possess even half the strength they had before.”

“No matter how formidable the Divine Strategy Army may be, they are still made of flesh and blood. We have besieged the city for seven days; they must be starving and exhausted. This battle—”

Gurna was just beginning to revel in his triumph when his expression suddenly changed.

“What is going on?”

His eyes bulged as though he had seen a ghost. Tulan was equally stunned and instinctively blurted out, “The cavalry is charging?”

At the southern gate, which had remained tightly shut until then, the doors suddenly swung open. A force of armored horsemen burst into the battlefield like a whirlwind.

The infantry of Tulan’s army had never dreamed that the Divine Strategy Army would dare open the gates at such a moment.

Fully armed cavalry plunged into the massed troops like beasts, charging recklessly through the ranks.

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At the same time, even more cavalrymen surged out, tearing several breaches through the battlefield.

“Loose the arrows!”

Qin Xuan, who should have been at the northern wall, suddenly appeared atop the battlements and issued the order in a thunderous voice.

Countless arrows fell upon Tulan’s army like a torrential rain so dense that not even the sky seemed visible between them.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds and then thousands of Tulan soldiers lay dead on the ground.

“How dare he?”

Gurna was momentarily stupefied.

Everyone knew that a defending army must never open its gates lightly. Yet Qin Xuan had deliberately done the opposite. Could there be some hidden scheme?

“He dares challenge my army to a cavalry charge? My Tulan cavalry is the true king of the battlefield!”

Furious, Tulan gave the order, and twenty thousand Tulan horsemen immediately charged into battle.

But he overlooked one crucial point: the battlefield formations currently placed the infantry in front, the archers in the middle, and the siege troops behind them.

If Tulan’s cavalry wished to reach the front, they would inevitably collide with the siege troops and the archers, and might even injure their own men.

“No! Something is wrong with the strength of these Divine Strategy soldiers.”

Gurna seemed to have seized upon a vital clue and suddenly shouted, “Tulan, there’s a problem! These Divine Strategy troops charging out show no sign of exhaustion whatsoever.”

Tulan also realized the truth, but his bloodlust had already been roused. He asked instinctively, “So what?”

“If the Divine Strategy Army has remained at full strength all along, then what was the point of our seven-day siege?”

“And Qin Xuan is a military genius of his generation. He could never have made such a low-level mistake as throwing open the central gate.”

“More importantly, he was supposed to be defending the northern wall. Why has he appeared here at the southern wall?”

Gurna’s barrage of questions irritated Tulan, but they also forced a growing unease upon him.

“Have the Great Qi allied forces reached the foot of the walls yet?”

Gurna quickly summoned a scout. Trembling, the man replied, “Reporting to the Reverend, half an hour ago the Great Qi allied forces were still more than a hundred meters from the walls.”

“Go and investigate again at once.” Gurna felt an unbearable sense of foreboding.

Although the Great Qi allied forces were weaker than Tulan’s army, they possessed a full one hundred and fifty thousand troops. No matter how inferior their fighting strength, it was impossible that they had still failed to reach the walls by now—unless they had merely been putting on an act.

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At that thought, Gurna’s face instantly went pale.

“Damn it. How can the Divine Strategy Army have so many troops?”

Suddenly, Tulan’s furious curse drew Gurna’s attention.

Gurna whipped around and discovered that beneath Beining City’s southern gate, the Tulan soldiers who had charged inside when the gates opened were now being slowly driven back out.

Spears flashed like the sickles of death, rapidly harvesting the Tulan soldiers who had entered the city.

They were heavily equipped pikemen. After swiftly emerging from the city, they formed a long line and arranged themselves into a massive square formation.

Even from a distance, the formation appeared to contain no fewer than ten thousand men.

Gurna’s pupils contracted sharply. When he looked up again, he saw that the Jurchen soldiers who had occupied the battlements had all been killed. In their place stood the Divine Strategy Army—dense and numerous, as though the entire wall could scarcely contain them.

“Reporting!”

The scout returned once more and spoke urgently. “The infantry of the Great Qi allied forces is retreating…”

The words struck Gurna like a thunderbolt. He immediately roared, “Tulan, withdraw the army at once! This is Great Qi’s scheme. If we do not leave now, we will be attacked from both front and rear.”

“That’s impossible! The Emperor of Great Qi clearly sent an envoy. Besides, these past seven days, the Great Qi allied forces have been—”

Tulan tried to argue, but a sudden thunder of hooves and battle cries came from the western flank of the army.

Under the cover of night, Tulan could see only a vast mass of shadows racing toward the side of his forces at tremendous speed.

“Have you still not understood?” Gurna was frantic now, shouting furiously. “This has been Great Qi’s trap from beginning to end. Their sole purpose was to wipe out our entire army!”

“If the Divine Strategy Army had truly been surrounded by the Great Qi allied forces for seven days, they could not possibly possess this level of combat strength.”

“And the southern wall had no more than thirty thousand defenders. Yet look at it now! The cavalry and pikemen alone who have charged out number nearly thirty thousand. And what of the archers and infantry covering the entire wall?”

“You heard the scout just now. How many troops does the Divine Strategy Army have in total? Why have they all appeared at the southern wall? Did they simply abandon the northern wall?”

“This is all a ruse. The fighting at the northern wall was merely an act. The Divine Strategy Army must have moved every last soldier to the southern wall.”

Tulan’s heart shook violently, and his face went white. In a strained voice, he cried, “Pass down the order! Retreat immediately!”

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