The morning of April 24th saw the unfolding of a chaotic and brutal battle near the ancient city of Hanzhong.

The fighting commenced at the pre-determined battlefield near the south gate of Hanzhong, where the main defensive force consisted of the First Brigade of the First Division of the Seventh Army of China, along with the artillery and engineering regiments directly under the First Division, and a regiment led by Chen Hai. According to later statistics, they numbered approximately 3,300 men. They faced 13,000 relatively fresh troops under Wanyan Xiyin, and over 10,000 Jin soldiers who had already retreated into Hanzhong.

In terms of numbers, they were facing an enemy approximately eight times their size.

This would be the most brutal delaying action of the entire Hanzhong campaign.

At the first moment of artillery fire, the Chinese army's positions remained eerily silent, the soldiers behind the fortifications and trenches fully aware of their combat mission and objective.

They had to cooperate with the reinforcements that might arrive later (and likely would be few), to pin down Wanyan Xiyin's army to the east of Hanzhong, buying precious time for the main force advancing rapidly westward to complete its strategic objectives.

As the first cannon shells exploded, the morning's drifting clouds were overhead, and the explosions kicked up low clouds of dust, and the soldiers behind their cover gazed upwards.

"I say, why isn't our mission to just chop up Wanyan Xiyin here? There are only 10,000 or so of them on the other side…"

One soldier said, and the soldiers around him laughed.

The company commander nearby threw a clod of earth at him, hitting him on the head.

This was a small snippet of the battle's commencement.

At this moment, Wanyan Xiyin had no idea of the changes taking place in the opposing camp. Fifteen miles west of Hanzhong, skirmishes were already beginning.

…

The skirmishing began with the outer scouting parties.

This was standard procedure in any battle. Wanyan Zonghan's main force still numbered nearly 30,000 at this point, and as the army advanced, scouts were sent out nearly two miles ahead. The feedback of information naturally had a time lag. But before long, the intensity of the fighting increased in several different directions.

In the days since the start of the Hanzhong campaign, the situation had been chaotic and intense, with both sides' armies broken down into countless small units. As Wanyan Zonghan disassembled his army into small teams and sent them out, the Chinese army responded with small operational units.

Unlike the Jurchen troops, when the Chinese army's teams broke away from the main force, they were still able to maintain a clear operational direction and strong fighting will based on a larger objective. The consequence of this situation was that skirmishes by scouting parties occurred frequently near the Jurchen main camp for several days.

Sometimes they encountered large Chinese army units of company or battalion size. These teams had even lost track of the core forces of the Chinese army, and were heading towards Wanyan Zonghan’s direction with the aim of "killing Nianhan" (Wanyan Zonghan’s Chinese name). Of course, they would suffer various attacks along the way, but surprisingly, some units managed to break through the defenses and extend their spearhead to Wanyan Zonghan's face. They then lurked, watched, harassed for a while, and then fled when things looked bad.

At other times, Jurchen outer scouts would even encounter a few Chinese soldiers who were good at cooperating with each other and had sneaked over after leaving their teams. They did not expect to assassinate Wanyan Zonghan, but instead constantly set traps on the periphery, specifically to capture small teams and lone Jurchen soldiers, kill them, and then move on.

These Chinese soldiers were proactive in combat and had a strong sense of purpose. The Jurchen soldiers were occasionally ambushed. If they didn't chase after them, that was fine, but if these scouts were provoked and gathered their forces to pursue them, those Chinese soldiers would tirelessly drag them around in the mountains. Anyway, there weren't many of them, so attracting attention was a victory. On several occasions, false alarms even caused tension in Zonghan's entire army.

The Jurchens originally had a large number of elite scouts, but with the end of the Southwest War and the deaths of generals such as Yu Yu, the strength of the scouts had dropped to its lowest point in history. Starting on the afternoon of April 19th, the high-intensity combat for five days meant that these elites were the first to be sacrificed. By April 24th, the task given to the scouts by the Jurchen high command had even become conservative defense and intelligence gathering. They were no longer encouraged to actively pursue and kill the enemy in peripheral skirmishes, because there had been too many situations encountered in the past few days.

More than half of Zonghan's nearly 30,000-strong main force were now defeated soldiers who had tasted defeat. Some had returned voluntarily, and others had happened to encounter the route of Zonghan's army and rejoined the reorganized unit. In this regard, Han Qixian and others had first-class internal affairs capabilities. Not only did they quickly adjust the leadership issues of the returning soldiers, but a Chinese army team disguised and preparing to take advantage of the chaos to blend into the Jurchen army was also screened out and fled in embarrassment—they underestimated Han Qixian's control over the army and thought that under such a chaotic situation, the Jurchens would see the same defeated soldiers and would not have time to distinguish who was who. Simply naive.

In a sense, apart from the highly concentrated areas of several armies, the fields near Hanzhong had now become a huge scouting battle sandbox. Skirmishes of all sizes were happening every day, every moment. Even if the Jurchen routed soldiers lost their will to fight and wanted to find a direction to escape, they might unintentionally encounter several interceptions, and small Chinese army teams would also encounter the enemy from time to time.

When Wanyan Zonghan and others inside the battlefield learned of the battle information coming from several directions, nearly half of the scout network in the southeast direction had been broken through, and battles had also occurred in the east and north.

The battle originally scheduled near the south gate of Hanzhong was imminent. At this time, there were naturally two possibilities for encountering an attack: either a Chinese army unit of regiment size launched a large-scale harassment against their side to prevent them from reaching Hanzhong, or the main force of the Chinese army had already rushed towards them. Zonghan instinctively denied the former possibility in the first instance.

With his proud nature, some things were originally deeply hidden in his heart. In terms of the outcome of the five-day battle in Hanzhong, he had not yet reached the point of defeat. Although a large number of his troops had collapsed in the fighting, the Jurchen army would not fall into the valley for a while. In such a battle, the Chinese Seventh Army was far more tired than his own. When the opponent was worn out, the two sides would have another major battle, and his side would not lose.

This was the most special battle he had ever encountered in his life. The Chinese army's ability to attack fortifications was too strong, almost like a life-threatening ghost. If the two sides engaged in a battle with full strength, his side would have already experienced defeat in the Southwest and would only taste the bitter fruit similar to Hubudagang. He could only maximize his side's temporary military advantage in this way. Strategically speaking, this was correct.

He still maintained the strength of one battle, and with Xiyin's arrival, the Chinese army once again adopted a violent combat posture in the south of Hanzhong as always—from the start of the war until now, the fierce combat style of the Chinese Seventh Army under the leadership of Qin Shaoqian had never changed—but as the intensity of the outer scout battle continued to increase, the old Jurchen general, who had traversed his entire life, finally realized that he was in the dark under the lamp.

The arrival of the Chinese army was not a simple matter of dividing their forces to harass them, using a small number of troops to contain his advance and prevent his western troops from reaching the Hanzhong battlefield. Rather, in the continuous battles of the past few days, relative to the Xiyin troops, who were small in number but full of energy, his side had fallen to a low point and become a weak point on the battlefield, becoming the "opportunity" in the eyes of the Chinese army.

In countless battles over the past decades, no one would underestimate Wanyan Zonghan, no one could underestimate Wanyan Zonghan. The area where he was located was the most solid and terrifying place on the entire battlefield. Therefore, until he woke up after resting this morning, he had never considered such a possibility—perhaps he had such an idea in his reason, but it was concealed by his pride before it took shape.

At this moment, it was like a head hammer, blood churning in his mind, and he felt humiliation and shame, followed by enormous anger. He seemed to be able to see the scene in the Chinese army's staff discussing the battle: "Come, here's a soft persimmon called Nianhan, let's go and pinch him." Just like the insult and anger that Xiyin felt when Yue Fei desperately wanted to break through Xiyin's military formation outside Zhenjiang.

Of course, his expression at this moment was calm, and no one knew that he was experiencing a tsunami in his heart.

"...Prepare for battle."

Soon after, the Chinese army confirmed his thoughts.

…

Only by looking back can people feel the critical, heart-pounding atmosphere of a certain decisive battle, but at the time of the battle, all of this did not exist.

The Chinese Seventh Army had already experienced five days of complex and high-speed combat. Although Xiyin had taken on a fierce posture in the south of Hanzhong, what did it have to do with them, who were in the battlefield? This was just another battle in many fierce battles.

They had been constantly fighting and moving since the past few days. Until last night, Chen Hai, that madman, was constantly attacking Xiyin's camp. This morning, the rested troops began to transfer to the northwest direction to launch an attack. Only that idiot Xiyin would regard that place as a key battle location.

Just like playing chess, the two sides always check each other. If one check doesn't kill, they'll come with another one. During these days, the two sides in the decisive battle were nothing more than checking each other like this.

At the second quarter of Chen Shi (around 7:30 AM), the bloody atmosphere was constantly breaking through the sparse forest. Company Commander Niu Chengshu watched the scattered Jurchen scouts run past the forest. He pulled up the strong bow on his back and shot an arrow at the distant figure. The strong bow was recently grabbed, but failed to hit the target. The soldiers in the company stopped at the edge of the forest, and the outline of the Jurchen army could already be seen not far away.

Niu Chengshu estimated the time: "Little Sun, ride your horse as fast as you can to tell the regimental headquarters that we have broken through the outer perimeter and are ready to fight at any time."

The area where the entire regiment was scattered was not far away, and the signalman Little Sun quickly rode away. Niu Chengshu looked around.

"I'll repeat the combat mission again, all of you be alert, First Platoon!"

"Here!" The platoon leader stood out.

"You are responsible for attacking fortifications! As long as there is an opportunity, charge up! Throw grenades in batches into the enemy formation, and blow them up! But you don't have many grenades left, so pay attention to throwing them in batches, and reserve three opportunities for me to break through the formation!"

"Yes!"

"The Second Platoon is prepared to deal with cavalry. If the enemy cavalry comes up, I'll leave it to you. If you really fight, it's not a loss to exchange a grenade for a horse. If they really don't want to die, the horse team will be very dangerous, don't hide it from me!"

"Yes!"

"The Third Platoon is the reserve team and is responsible for the general attack. Once the First Platoon opens a gap, you will press up for me. Cut down those dog bastards! Did you understand—"

"Yes—"

"The only thing to pay attention to is that if the enemy's artillery fire is fierce, we will hide and pay attention to finding a place to protect ourselves! Once the enemy's artillery fire moves away, we will make the momentum bigger and let them pay more attention to us! As long as they stare at us, the other brothers will be able to cause them trouble!"

Niu Chengshu's body was also like a bull. While speaking, he swung his hands and feet in front of everyone. His voice was still ringing, and on a nearby mountain, a firework flew into the sky with a huge noise. Subsequently, fireworks also rose in the sky in the southeast.

"The entire regiment is in place! Everyone, today is a big day, all of you cheer up. Our people have surrounded Wanyan Zonghan, and today we will invite him to dinner! I still say the same thing, observe carefully! Fight calmly! Kill people—be festive—"

Firework signals were rising one after another in the refreshing summer sky, representing that operational units of at least battalion size had included the enemy in their combat vision. On the battlefield, the Jurchen's huge military formation was whistling, moving, and changing formations. The huge beast had lowered its body, and more than 7,000 troops of the Chinese army had surrounded this Jurchen army of nearly 30,000 people in the first instance, and the rest of the troops were still on their way.

Before the third quarter of Chen Shi (around 7:45 AM), the battle began.

The ant colony cut to the giant beast!