When Li Qiu's army saw the arrows coming, they were initially nervous and raised their shields to block them. However, they found that the arrows had an astonishingly low hit rate. It seemed that the archers only aimed for distance and not for accuracy. Even if they did not block, it would be difficult for them to be hit. So they all lowered their shields and retreated with peace of mind.
Aside from a few extremely unlucky individuals who were inexplicably struck by arrows, the overall casualties were far fewer than those who died at the hands of Vietnamese soldiers because their retreat was slowed by blocking arrows.
Xu Yuanhua suddenly dodged as he retreated, and a sharp arrow grazed his ear before landing on the ground.
Xu Yuanhua, who had already dodged countless arrows, did not feel much joy. On the contrary, as he watched the dense arrows on the ground being trampled and broken by the hard hooves of his warhorses during the retreat, his unease never dissipated.
Over the years, the four kingdoms have occasionally had minor skirmishes. He had fought against the Yue army before. The Yue archers were well-trained and their generals were second only to Yue's formidable talent. When did their accuracy become so poor?
I feel like something's not right, but I can't quite put my finger on it.
Another arrow flew past, and Xu Yuanhua casually dodged it, glancing out of the corner of his eye as the arrow was once again crushed under the iron hooves.
Wait, what's that?
Xu Yuanhua's gaze sharpened as it fell upon the broken arrow on the ground. Without dismounting, he caught any more arrows that came his way without dodging or avoiding them.
The arrow flew too far through the air and by the time it reached him, it had lost much of its force and was easily caught in his hand.
Xu Yuanhua gripped the arrow in his hand, and with a slight exertion, the arrow broke in two. White powder was exposed on the hollow shaft, and it drifted all over Xu Yuanhua with the whistling wind created by the galloping warhorse.
"Oh no, there's something in the arrow! Block it, block it, don't break it—" Xu Yuanhua didn't have time to think about what it was. His feeling that something was wrong was finally confirmed, and he shouted without thinking.
But how could it be possible without breaking it?
With so many arrows falling from the sky, how could anyone possibly catch and hold them all? And with so many arrows falling to the ground, it would be a complete fantasy to avoid stepping on them during such a massive retreat.
Xu Yuanhua was speaking nonsense in his haste, and after saying it, he knew it was impossible. He had no choice but to order a faster retreat to shake off the archers behind them as soon as possible.
The idea was good, but unfortunately Xu Yuanhua reacted too late. Just as he dropped the arrow, he felt dizzy and his vision went black. He fell off his horse.
Those following Xu Yuanhua didn't have time to react. People trampled and horses trampled him. In the blink of an eye, Xu Yuanhua was no longer human.
The allied forces of Li Qiu were thrown into chaos. The only remaining nominal general, Li Yuan, was desperately fleeing on horseback like a headless fly.
At this critical moment, Li Yuan unexpectedly unleashed his potential. Normally, wearing such heavy armor, he couldn't even ride a horse steadily, but now, running among thousands of troops, he has been swaying and hasn't fallen off even now.
If Hua Cai saw this, she would definitely be very ashamed and retract her previous statement that "the protagonist's halo is fake".
They couldn't rely on the living, nominal commanders, and Xu Yuanhua on the ground was barely alive. They couldn't even hastily collect his body. They could only continue to run, carrying out Xu Yuanhua's orders. Before long, however, they also felt a dizzying sensation.
More and more people fell. Hua Cai stood before the endless mass of fallen Li Qiu soldiers. Without human command, the warhorses wandered aimlessly through the crowd, trampling countless more people.
"Don't chase the rest." Hua Cai raised her hand to stop the archers who were about to continue forward, and watched helplessly as the remaining less than 40% of the Li Qiu soldiers fled in disarray.
"General, why don't we give chase?" A young general, as black as charcoal, asked in surprise, but there was no dissatisfaction in his voice.
Hua Cai turned her head and saw a very familiar face: "Ning Jin, it's you. Is everything settled at the military camp?"
Ning Jin was one of the aristocratic scions who was punished by being forced to run around in circles on the first night of the march because of his extremely straightforwardness and constant undermining of Hua Cai. He left a deep impression on Hua Cai from the very beginning.
"It's all settled now. Even the post-battle cleanup is over. The lieutenant general sent us over here to see if there's anything we can do to help."
Ning Jin is considered the de facto successor of the Ning family in Yue Du. However, he is usually protected too well by the head of the Ning family, and it is feared that he will not be able to win the support of the people when he takes over as head of the family. When the head of the Ning family learned about the situation of this expedition, he had the idea of sending Ning Jin here to gain experience.
As soon as the Ning family head spoke, Ning Jin immediately agreed. However, his purpose was not to gain prestige, but to truly train. Among the dozen or so young masters from aristocratic families who came with him this time, he was one of the most diligent in his training. In just two months, he transformed from a pale-faced young man into a lump of charcoal.
Ning Jinhua Cai seems to be quite similar to Yue Chen. Both are well protected, and both are carefully brought out by the family head to make their presence known. How similar they are.
Hua Cai looked at Ning Jin's serious expression and thought for a moment: "Take the rest of these people, pull some of them out and take the warhorses away, and the rest of you surround the people on the ground."
Watching Ning Jin happily leave after receiving his orders, Hua Cai smiled slightly and looked at the countless broken arrows on the ground.
Why not pursue them? Of course not. If we leave all 100,000 Li Qiu allied troops here, what to do with them will be a problem. She is even more afraid that Li Zheng will be scared away by her big move.
The world is so big, if Li Zheng is determined to hide, it will be more troublesome for her to find him. It would be better to find an opportunity to let Li Zheng come to her door.
The dosage of the medicine she prepared was small, and the treatment time was short. By the time Yue Chen arrived with his troops as darkness fell, they were surrounded by Yue's army. The Li Qiu allied forces, stretching for several miles, had mostly woken up.
However, although they woke up, their limbs were weak due to the effects of the medicine, and many were also injured by being trampled by horses. Even among tens of thousands of people, only a few could stand up after waking up.
"What are you going to do with these people?" Yue Chen, still in full armor, walked up to Hua Cai and stood beside her, looking at the endless prisoners.
Yue Chen remained calm and spoke naturally, as if nothing had happened that morning.
Hua Cai snorted softly, wanting to turn her head away and ignore him, but Yue Chen was indeed asking about serious matters, and she really couldn't bring herself to throw a tantrum at this time. She simply took two steps away from him with a clear stance: "Before it gets completely dark, send an ultimatum on horseback. The ransom is to be exchanged for the prisoners. Also, before the ransom is received, the food expenses for these tens of thousands of people will be calculated separately. We only want gold and silver, not cash. Payment upon delivery."
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