As Yom gazed at the thick smoke rising in the distance, he fell into deep thought. What he couldn't understand was how a force of about a thousand men could dare to roam right under his nose.
He had actually spotted this force two days prior. On the first day, yesterday, he didn't take any action, but instead expanded his search area. The appearance of such a force most likely indicated it was an outpost of a larger army, so he didn't want to alert them, but rather try to locate this mysterious main force. Unfortunately, the intelligence gathered by his elite cavalry after a day and night of riding revealed that besides them, the only other presence nearby was this reckless thousand-strong force.
So the next day, Jom did not hesitate to send four thousand cavalrymen to wipe out this reckless force.
The thick smoke from the fire brought a smile to Yom's lips. He thought that after wiping out this force, there would be no more obstacles in his path, and he would be safe in as little as two days. Two more days, and their wealth would be safe too.
As Jom was pondering how to seize power and subdue the officials upon his return, several soldiers with torn armor and disheveled clothes rushed up to him.
"Sir, we were ambushed, but fortunately the losses were not significant, and we have a firm hold on them. We will wipe them out soon."
Yom frowned. To be ambushed despite having four times the enemy's strength? Marquis Kurman's ability to lead troops could only be described as incompetent.
"How were you ambushed?" Yom suppressed his displeasure and asked carefully.
The two soldiers looked at each other, both hesitant.
Yom snorted, patted his sword impatiently, and threatened, "What, can't the two of you talk?"
The two soldiers hurriedly fell to the ground and stammered out the story of Kurman's ambush.
It turned out that Kurman wasn't too concerned about this operation. Due to the plague, two-thirds of his soldiers had fallen ill and were almost all concentrated in the second echelon. Of the four thousand cavalrymen he was leading, only seven or eight hundred were his own trusted men; the rest were Belvedere's cavalry.
So, after locating the enemy camp, Kurman did not gather four thousand troops to encircle and annihilate it as previously planned. Instead, he led his trusted men to charge into the camp. Of course, a Belvedere cavalry commander saw through Kurman's plan and also led his thousand cavalry into the camp. Then, in the empty camp, a violent explosion occurred, and soon the surrounding area burst into flames. The two thousand-plus cavalrymen fled in disarray through the woods, countless of them killed by crossbow bolts.
Fortunately, there were still more than two thousand cavalrymen providing support on the perimeter. This prevented the army from collapsing. Kurman was then able to regroup and lead his troops to catch up with the culprits who had escaped from the woods.
As the two soldiers recounted their experiences, Yom had a fairly good grasp of what had happened. A bad image of a greedy, reckless soldier who disregarded military discipline had already formed in his mind.
Yom sneered. He wouldn't keep such a terrible commander for even a second unless he was going to use him in the future.
Despite this unexpected turn of events, and the apparent shortcomings in Marquis Kurman's command abilities, the problem should not be too significant in the face of overwhelming strength.
Cyrus, Morrison, and Blazer galloped forward on horseback, followed by six or seven hundred mounted soldiers and several large wagons. After inflicting heavy losses on their enemy, this thousand-strong force emerged from the woods.
At first, everything went as planned. The enemy fled in disarray, buying them a great deal of time. But soon, their optimism vanished. The enemy forces hadn't committed their entire army to the battle, and the troops they had painstakingly defeated weren't completely routed.
An orderly retreat quickly turned into a chaotic escape.
The enemy pursued relentlessly while also diverting some of their forces to intercept them. Without a doubt, they would soon be caught in a pincer movement and annihilated by Belvado's cavalry.
Cyrus ran up to Morrison, frowned, and shouted, "We're about to be surrounded! What do we do? Let's split up!"
Morrison shook his head; he was panicked and completely lost his composure.
"Splitting up, splitting up, I'll find a way to attack them again!" Blaze remained high-spirited. He had spotted the direction of the enemy cavalry commander and was planning to use the chaos of splitting up to launch another surprise attack.
Before Morrison could even respond, Cyrus and Blazer had already led their troops in different directions.
"What's going on?" Marquis Kurman was suddenly bewildered when he saw the enemy's formation split into three. "What, do you think you still have too many troops? Divide them up again?" So he decisively divided his forces, leading his personal guards to pursue Morrison's troops. Because his troops were the smallest and closest to him. The other troops also split into two, each pursuing one of the other two forces.
The division of forces did have some effect, at least delaying the enemy's initial encirclement plan. However, the downsides of the division soon became apparent: the troops were engaged separately, and none of them had any chance of escaping.
Blazer continued to look for an opportunity. He led his hundred-odd cavalrymen in a sudden turn and charged toward Kurman's troops who were pursuing Morrison.
Cyrus seemed to have noticed that the forces pursuing Morrison were the fewest, and with a sudden flash of inspiration, he changed direction and pounced on Kurman's troops.
Kurman's troops, who had already lost two or three hundred men, suddenly realized that they had become the target of the enemy's encirclement. This sudden turn of events surprised Kurman. But when he saw that the other troops did not seem to intend to come to his rescue, this surprise quickly turned into panic.
"Catch up with those ahead and charge out from there!!" Kurman knew that his soldiers' morale was on the verge of collapse, and if the enemy really surrounded them, he would have little chance of defeating them.
Kurman cursed the Belvedo cavalrymen in his heart for their inaction, and planned that if he escaped today, he would definitely take revenge on all those generals.
Meanwhile, given Kurman's abysmal command that day, the Belvedere cavalry commanders watched with amusement as Kurman's troops attempted to escape the encirclement. After all, the enemy was merely putting on a death throes; seeing Kurman get a fright was quite satisfying.
However, Morrison, who was being pursued by Kurman, was not so calm. He also realized that the situation had changed, but with less than fifty riders under his command, it was a real question whether he could hold out for even one round and allow the other two forces to complete the encirclement.
Just as Morrison was hesitating whether to stop, he suddenly saw a new cavalry unit appear in the distance. The enemy was small, about twenty riders, and the leading rider was carrying a flag, which was Yun Zhe's blue and green flag!
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