Chapter 953 Are You Worthy?

The Jìndōng army was about to launch a strategic offensive, while the Chǔ army needed a strategic withdrawal.

This battle would either not happen, or it would be a "performance" of military engagement.

Zheng Fan was certain of this.

Sitting in the royal carriage, the Regent Prince was actually hoping the Chǔ people would lose their minds and engage in a decisive battle right there.

His Jìndōng troops would then be able to thoroughly crush the main force of the Chǔ imperial guards, and any casualties would be worth it.

Once the Yàn reinforcements arrived, all that would remain would be the tedious task of coloring in map squares.

The location of his royal banner wasn't a secret to the Chǔ people at all.

The royal banner was indeed for his own people, but it was also for the enemy to see.

Sending Tiantian to the other side was to give him experience.

Because Tiantian was his eldest son, and also the eldest son of the Jingnan Prince, he should rightfully stand in that position and inherit his mission and responsibilities.

As for entrusting the Jǐnyī personal guards to Tiantian, it wasn't just Zheng Fan's favoritism, paving the way for his son.

The root cause was that the Chǔ people would either retreat without a fight, or they might send out an elite force to try to win a local victory to boost morale before resuming their strategic withdrawal.

Based on this, the first troops to land had to be elite enough to suppress all unstable factors.

Chén Xiānbà's troops, like his personality, were unruly. In recent years, while operating in the Shang Valley area, the commanding general of Zhènnán Pass had repeatedly sent memorials implying, "I can't control this young man."

Such a troublesome force could hold its own in a crucial battle.

As for Qū Péilùo's Chǔ Character Camp, Zheng Fan wouldn't talk about the zeal of converts. Under Liang Cheng's advice and arrangements, the Jìndōng army had also begun to focus on infantry construction. Qū Péilùo's Chǔ Character Camp, built in the style of the Azure Luan Army, was also well-suited to be a vanguard, forming a line on the shore to resist the Chǔ army's offensive.

But compared to either,

his own direct-line Jǐnyī personal guards were more reliable.

However,

when the military report came from the front,

informing Zheng Fan that the opposing Chǔ army was actually flying the banner of the Great Chǔ Prince Dìng,

the Regent Prince, who had seemed so lazy earlier,

unconsciously straightened his back,

and abruptly clenched his hands that had been resting on the armrests of his chair.

But,

even so,

the Prince still used the calmest tone, with a hint of disdain, to joke:

"Heh, these Chǔ people are really dishonorable."

At this time,

messengers from below kept sending requests from the generals, with Chén Xiānbà, Qū Péilùo, and others requesting to cross the river early to provide support.

Obviously, the appearance of the Chǔ Prince Dìng's banner had brought a different turn of events.

Zheng Fan tilted his head slightly, forcing his body muscles to relax again,

and said:

"Pass down the order, cross the river according to the original plan, do not rush and scramble.

So what if it's a Chǔ prince?

Don't panic,

watch the young ones defeat the enemy!"

………

When crossing a river with ships, speed and order are key, and these had been calculated and predicted in advance. The later batches of troops already had arrangements.

Because the first batch of troops emphasized combat capability, the second and third batches focused on speed of support, and even included a small half who were wearing only leather armor or no armor at all, and were very good swimmers.

Therefore, temporary additions would easily disrupt the rhythm. If the troops were blocked on the shore or capsized midway, the losses would be even greater.

How to soberly deploy troops, he, Zheng Fan, didn't need anyone to teach him.

Right now,

Zheng Fan could only maintain a "calm" posture while repeatedly muttering in his heart;

He was too embarrassed to mutter that Tiantian was his son,

because if he put himself in his shoes, in the same situation, whether he was there or Tiantian was there, there would be no fundamental difference.

After all, whether it was for himself or for Tiantian, the Jǐnyī personal guards would inevitably fight to the death;

Spiritual victory was already at its limit, adding a little more or a little less wouldn't make any difference.

Therefore,

what Zheng Fan kept muttering in his heart was:

You are Tián Wújìng's son,

you,

can do it.

The day of the assassination at the Nánwàng City Prefect's mansion, Old Tián sat on the threshold and watched him;

When he privately led troops south to break through Mianzhou City and was surrounded by the Qian army, the Jingnan army appeared;

Ever since he first joined the army,

on the battlefield,

Old Tián was synonymous with omnipotence.

His son,

of course, could do it too.

…

Tiantian pursed his lips. The vibration of the horses' hooves ahead was so clear, and the clods of earth beneath his feet were already crumbling slightly.

Right now, the Jǐnyī personal guards were all infantry, and for infantry, facing a cavalry charge, the most terrifying thing wasn't being slaughtered by the cavalry, but the short period of time when the cavalry was charging towards you.

That was the pressure of facing death head-on.

Tiantian began to calm his breathing. On his chest, the magic pill gently knocked twice, this was comfort from Elder Sister.

A smile appeared on the corner of Tiantian's mouth;

If possible,

he really wanted to learn from his father now, to make some carefree and relaxed gestures, jesting and scolding, nonchalant, silently burying the opponent in the mire.

But he wasn't his father, at least, he couldn't do what his father could do right now.

This was a very interesting sight,

the father on the opposite bank was watching his son, praying that his son could inherit his father's abilities;

The son on the opposite bank was thinking about the father sitting behind him.

Tiantian gently raised his shield, tapping it on the ground.

Behind him, all the personal guards holding shields did the same, and the rhythm gradually became unified.

The neat movements allowed him to feel the response from his comrades, and on the battlefield, only his comrades could give him the greatest sense of security and courage.

The Chǔ people's royal banner was already clearly visible, the golden fire phoenix above it carrying an arrogant ferocity.

"That bird isn't as good-looking as my dad's Píxiū."

After Tiantian muttered this sentence in his heart,

he shouted:

"Raise!"

Immediately,

the shield was pressed on the ground, and the body began to lean back further, one side of the spear hooked into the barb on the edge of the shield, raising it even higher.

The two rows of shield-bearers behind Tiantian also did the same.

In this way, they, the shields, and the spears were almost fixed together, directly becoming the real barrier carried on the front line. This also meant that they had no chance of escaping when facing a cavalry charge, and could only endure the impact of the cavalry along with their weapons.

The weapons of the Jǐnyī personal guards were specially improved and designed, and not suitable for promotion to the entire army, because ordinary soldiers could not reach the quality of the Jǐnyī personal guards at all;

To a certain extent, the Jǐnyī personal guards were the multi-functional combat troops of this era, and could also be called special forces.

Their riding and archery skills were first-rate. Once on horseback, they were the most outstanding cavalry. After all, at critical moments, they needed to accompany the Prince's royal banner to break through the enemy's formation;

On foot, they were also well-trained infantry. To ensure the Prince's safety, they were good at using formations to face the assassination of the Prince by top experts, and if they faced a rapid cavalry charge from the enemy, they could quickly form a formation to resist and buy enough time.

Because in this world, the only possible ways to harm the Prince were these two: either the sudden appearance of top experts, or a swift cavalry raid. At other times, with the Prince's power, he could eliminate most threats.

As the distance between the two sides grew closer,

Xiong Tingshan had already clearly seen the formation of the Jìndōng army ahead. At a glance, it was like a solid hedgehog.

Chǔ cavalry was precious, and elite cavalry was even more precious;

At other times, Xiong Tingshan would never have chosen to have his direct-line elite charge such a "hard lump," it was too much of a loss.

When cavalry faced infantry, kiting, coordinating, and pulling out flaws was the most cost-effective and kingly way.

But unfortunately, Xiong Tingshan simply didn't have time to do these things now. Not to mention that behind this Jìndōng army, the second batch of troops would soon arrive as reinforcements, and the Jìndōng army should already be landing on both flanks. At that time, he might be the one surrounded.

Xiè Yù'ān was right, he only had this one chance to strike.

He could even be sure that,

if he became entangled in the battle, the little Xiè brat wouldn't even take a look, and would directly order a retreat and contraction, and wouldn't send a single soldier to rescue him, and would instead write to His Majesty:

Xiong Tingshan disobeyed military orders, was fond of boasting, and rushed into battle, and was killed!

But the problem was here, knowing the cause and effect, Xiong Tingshan still agreed to be this blade.

For no other reason than,

since the tens of thousands of Azure Luan troops were ambushed in Jade Plate City,

in the nearly ten years of war between Yàn and Chǔ, the Chǔ State had been... too suffocated.

Now that the Yàn people had attacked their homeland again, if he didn't strike, he wouldn't be able to vent his anger!

"All the warriors of Great Chǔ!"

"Here!"

"Here!"

"Follow this Prince and charge!"

"Understood!"

The next moment,

the distance between the two sides reached a critical point, and the Chǔ cavalry began to volley.

"Clang, clang..."

The Chǔ people's arrows didn't cause much serious damage to the Jǐnyī personal guards;

Under their fancy brocade clothing, they wore the most rigorous protective armor. Of course, even the best defense would have its weaknesses, and there were some unlucky ones who were shot by arrows that happened to enter through the gaps in the armor, but they basically endured it, at most letting out a muffled groan. Therefore, the entire formation remained motionless.

After a few more breaths,

the archers and crossbowmen in the center of the army quickly stood up and shot at the oncoming cavalry.

For a time, many Chǔ cavalrymen fell. Although most of this elite Chǔ cavalry was also armored, their warhorses were not.

Tiantian had made all the defensive preparations in the front row,

Finally,

after confirming that the Chǔ people were going to make a one-off deal,

he shouted:

"Hold!"

Battlefield command, especially in commands with small numbers of troops, required brevity.

The archers and crossbowmen who had shot out their arrows immediately threw their bows and crossbows on the ground and took out their knives or axes.

The fact that the Chǔ people weren't here to fight a prolonged battle, but were directly charging the formation, was very clear.

At this time, it was meaningless to continue shooting, because the battlefield environment wouldn't give you time to maneuver. The only thing to do right now was to hold the line!

Once the line was broken when facing a cavalry charge, the situation would be dire.

The distance between the two sides was getting closer and closer;

Finally,

they collided!

"Bang!!!!!!"

"Puff!!!!!!"

"Ah!!!!!!"

In an instant,

the sound of warhorses colliding with shields, the sound of spears piercing the flesh of warhorses and knights, and the screams from who knows which side, rang out together.

Tiantian's spear pierced a knight's warhorse, and even pinned the knight's body from under the warhorse.

However, before he could let go of the spear and switch to his knife, another warhorse collided with the large shield in front of him.

"Bang!"

Tiantian's throat felt sweet, but he held the shield firmly, not letting it fall, and then quickly took out his knife and slashed at the gap on the side of the shield.

"Puff!"

A section of the horse's leg was cut off, the warhorse screamed and fell, but the knight also lunged at Tiantian.

Elite against elite, at this moment, all they could think about was how to kill the enemy in front of them as quickly as possible.

"Get... out!"

The opponent's knife struck Tiantian's chest, but the armor, which was already naturally superior, combined with Tiantian's own Qi and blood protection, only made Tiantian sway and produced a series of sparks;

Immediately, Tiantian directly grabbed the Chǔ knight's neck with one hand, and with another knife, cut in from the other party's neck, and blood immediately splattered on Tiantian's face.

However, unlike his father, who needed a while to calm down after being splattered with blood on the battlefield for the first time, Tiantian didn't care about the things on his face, and didn't have time to care.

A knight was charging again from the front.

Tiantian clenched his left hand into a fist and slammed it on the warhorse's head!

"Bang!"

Under a burst punch, the warhorse was directly weakened.

Before the knight on it could react, Tiantian grabbed the other party's calf, pulled him down hard, and stabbed him with the knife in his hand.

After doing all this in one breath,

Tiantian stood up,

Just as he was about to catch his breath,

a strong killing intent rushed over from the side.

In fact, the role of the shield-bearers was to build a line of defense with their flesh and blood for their comrades behind them. Facing the warhorses' unreasonable charge, their casualties were also the highest;

And Tiantian was standing in the most prominent position in the first row. As long as he was still standing, he would have to face a constant stream of Chǔ troops.

However,

this time, the attack was obviously different. Most importantly, the Qi and blood in Tiantian's body hadn't had time to circulate back, like a person who had just held his breath underwater, just surfaced, and was directly stuck before he could even open his mouth.

"Buzz!"

A horse lance stabbed over.

Tiantian only had time to turn halfway,

"Puff!"

The horse lance pierced Tiantian's chest. In an instant, the armor was broken open, and the protective Qi and blood were also broken open. Tiantian was lifted up, impaled in mid-air.

The one holding the horse lance was the Great Chǔ Prince Dìng, Xiong Tingshan.

When Xiong Tingshan had charged with his lance earlier, he wasn't sure what the identity of the young general in front of him was. In this chaotic situation, he didn't have time to think about these things.

In fact, he was very irritable right now, extremely irritable;

He was confident that the cavalry under his command was the first-class iron cavalry of Great Chǔ. Under the premise that all the private troops of the major nobles except for the Xiè family had declined, his troops were enough to run rampant in Chǔ.

But the first round of charging was like a confident person crashing headfirst into a wall of copper and iron, covered in blood.

He couldn't command the overall situation anymore, but he could clearly see that the enemy's formation, which he had expected to break through with a certain number of casualties, was still standing firm.

When the shield-bearers died, the ones behind them immediately followed up, and the entire line of defense remained stable. On the other hand, his own side, after the cavalry lost its momentum, immediately became stagnant and turned into a meat grinder with the enemy.

The enemy troops were well-organized, and both their individual martial strength and their level of cooperation were perfect. The current situation was no longer as simple as whether they could break through the opponent, but whether they should withdraw as soon as possible to avoid even greater casualties, or even being completely stuck and pinned here.

Charging with cavalry, but being bitten back by the opponent, was simply a great humiliation!

To put it bluntly, Prince Dìng had overestimated the combat power of the Jǐnyī personal guards.

It was no exaggeration to say that if the Regent Prince wanted to, he could directly draw five hundred Jǐnyī personal guards to establish a sect in the martial world. Unifying the martial world might not be possible, but unifying half of Jìn's martial world and becoming a martial arts overlord was really no problem.

The Jǐnyī personal guards weren't gods descending to earth, they would also die. Many had already died now, but their daily training was enough to ensure that in any situation, their opponents would die much more than they did.

"Hmm?"

Xiong Tingshan suddenly realized that his horse lance hadn't pierced through the body of this silver-armored young general.

Logically speaking,

with the strength of his Third-Rank martial artist, plus the momentum given by the divine steed under his crotch, it would be no problem to pierce through three layers of armor with one lance, but here, he was directly blocked.

"Puff!"

Tiantian also spat out a mouthful of blood, feeling a burning pain in his chest, and the Qi and blood in his body were almost scattered.

But he didn't die under this tyrannical lance,

because he had a stone on his chest that helped him offset most of the damage.

To some extent, it could be said that:

He had finally experienced the joy of his father.

In this moment of stunned silence, Xiong Tingshan's gaze suddenly narrowed. From the details of the other party's armor and the knife in his hand, he finally roughly confirmed the other party's identity.

Finding something after searching high and low, and finding it without any effort!

"As expected of Tián Wújìng's son, you have guts!"

Daring to fight in the first row, not bad!

This was praise, like father, like son.

For the Great Chǔ royal family, who believed in noble bloodlines, this was the highest evaluation.

Next sentence:

"The one who will take your life is Xiong Tingshan, you can be proud of yourself!"

Xiong Tingshan waved his horse lance, knocking Tiantian directly to the ground.

Then,

he leaped down,

holding his lance,

and stabbed straight at Tiantian.

Tiantian's Qi and blood were collapsing at this time, and he was extremely weak, but at this moment, a familiar laughter came from his chest:

"Jie jie... jie jie... jie jie..."

Immediately afterward,

a familiar force began to try to enter his body.

Tiantian didn't do anything to stop it, and at the first moment, he released all of his mind.

In this world, almost everyone who inherited the power of the magic pill would become... a lunatic.

Only two people were exceptions,

one was Zheng Fan, he was the master of the magic pill.

The other,

was Tiantian.

Because Tiantian had been with the magic pill since he was a child, and their minds had long been connected.

Of course, perhaps Zheng Lin could also do it when he grew up. His physique was different, and he had also grown up under the care of the magic pill, but Zheng Lin was still frequently ill. If he was stimulated by the magic pill possessing him, he would probably be terminally ill.

At the moment when Xiong Tingshan's horse lance was about to stab him,

Tiantian's eyes showed a gray-white color,

and the aura around his body suddenly burst forth,

Immediately afterward,

not only did he split the oncoming horse lance with one knife,

but he also slid up from the ground, landing steadily, causing Xiong Tingshan's attack to completely miss.

Tiantian slowly raised his head,

looking at Xiong Tingshan in front of him,

His expression didn't show the ferocity of being possessed by an evil spirit in the traditional sense, and there wasn't much ghostly color;

Apart from the suddenly increased aura and resentment, what was revealed was more of an absolute confidence.

At this moment,

the son of the Jingnan Prince slowly raised the knife in his hand, pointing at the Great Chǔ Prince Dìng,

and said calmly:

"Are you worthy?"