The next morning, Ren Baqian left the city with his guards and went straight for the north.Back then, when he watched television series, he saw those horses of the generals that looked all majestic with long weapons like broadswords and lances hanging from their backs.
Ren Baqian had currently strapped the folded up frame of a W-85 machine gun to the side of a fork-horned cow. He felt that he had more swag compared to famous people such as Guan Yü, Lü Bu, and Li Xuanba.
A question for the aforementioned three men: Would you be afraid of this gun?
Even after two days, his bodyguards still occasionally glanced over at that heavy machine gun which was over two meters long. The test-fire from the other day had indeed left a very deep impression on everyone .
The empress took 13 days to march from Lan City to Liao City, but Ren Baqian reckoned that his party would only require nine days to arrive. Furthermore, he had to return to Earth on two of these days.
When that time arrived, he would then be able to demonstrate the power of technology and show them what unmatched power and destruction looked like.
Ren Baqian got all fired up at the thought of this. He felt that his huge gun couldn"t wait for action.
...
Not long after Ren Baqian and his party had set off, the empress ran into the mounted scouts of Great Xia.
As soon as the other party spotted the scouts of the winged cavalry from a few hundred meters away, they immediately turned their horses around and dashed back.
The goat riders were simply too easy to identify. The winged cavalry were the only troops who used giant goats as mounts. In the eyes of Great Xia, the winged cavalry were their main focus, and they were able to identify them simply by looking at the equipment and mounts of the scouts.
A few scouts from the winged cavalry saw their enemies running away in the distance, leaving behind a trail of dust. They turned around and went back to report the situation to the empress.
"Your Majesty, a few of us ran into the scouts of Great Xia. I"m afraid that they will find out about us very soon."
"How far away are we from Liao City?" the empress asked faintly.
"Another 25 kilometers to go."
"Get ready to face the enemy," the empress replied faintly as she reclined into the thick animal hide on her throne. She rested one hand on her head while the other held a gla.s.s of wine.
"Turn on the radio station," the empress said.
Hong Luan immediately switched on radio station.
"Li Qianqiu, where are you at now?" the empress asked.
Li Qianqiu responded after some time, "Your Majesty, we have already arrived at Pingjin Mountain."
Pingjin Mountain was about 15 kilometers to the east of Liao City, which was approximately the same distance as Liao City was from where the empress was. That was why both parties were constantly in contact with each other.
"In a few moments, the winged cavalry will head straight toward the barracks of the general of the Great Xia army after breaking through the siege of the enemy troops. When that happens, the Great Xia army will be in disorder. You will then take that opportunity to launch a surprise attack," the empress"s face blushed when she uttered those words, and her eyes shone as bright as stars. There was no telling how much of this was her feeling tipsy and how much of this was her feeling excited for the impending battle.
As for whether the winged cavalry were able to break through the siege, that wasn"t even a consideration for her.
It would be a joke if 1,200 Earth Wheel experts couldn"t break through siege of the Great Xia army.
...
25,000 Great Xia soldiers surrounded the east gate of Liao City and constantly attacked their enemies. Long scaling ladders were put up against the City wall as battle cries resounded across every inch of it. Occasionally, there would be people screaming as they fell off the walls. In addition, there were also many of them lying motionless at the top of the walls.
A middle aged general armored in platemail, looked toward the distant city wall as he stood in front of the tents with his eyebrows tightly knitted.
This Liao City was indeed a tough nut to crack.
There were 1,000 soldiers defending the city, 2,000 injured soldiers who had retreated from Shun City, and an entire city of commoners. These people had been resisting an army of 70,000 Great Xia soldiers at the city walls for exactly 10 days, and there were countless dead bodies lying everywhere.
At this moment, a few mounted scouts dashed toward the camp.
"Sir, we have spotted the tracks of the winged cavalry 25 kilometers away."
When he heard the news, the middle aged general paused intermittently as he ran his left hand through his beard. "Do you know the exact positions of the enemy?" he asked in a heavy voice.
"We ran into their scouts before we could even get close and immediately returned to report the situation, but looking at the dust that was swept up from afar, it seemed that they had less than 2,000 soldiers. They will probably take another four hours to reach us."
"Continue to investigate quickly."
Following which, the middle aged general ordered, "Go and inform the General-in-Chief at the main camp."
An hour later, out of the 25,000 Great Xia soldiers, 15,000 soldiers were sent from the east gate of Liao City toward the empress. At the same time, another 10,000 soldiers rushed over from the north.
Even though the empress only had less than 2,000 soldiers, Great Xia didn"t dare to lower their guard a single bit.
The power of over 1,000 winged cavalry warriors was equivalent to over 10,000 soldiers from Great Xia. Furthermore, the winged cavalry was very flexible and could adapt to situations very readily.
Furthermore, just a while ago, 10,000 Great Xia soldiers from the north barracks had been shifted to the east gate of Liao City to join forces with the 30,000 soldiers outside. They simultaneously surrounded the east gate as well as kept a lookout for the 5,000 aboriginal soldiers around Pingjin Mountain.
The Great Xia general had dealt with Dayao for over 10 years. As such, he naturally knew their power as their weakest soldiers were minimally at the Man Wheel level. He was also aware of the prowess of the winged cavalry that numbered less than 2,000 soldiers.
At present, the winged cavalry had already defeated the soldiers of Great Xia Protectorate of the Center at Guke City and arrived in the vicinity of Liao City. The Great Xia army dared not act blindly without thinking anymore, and they felt that their own military strength had been weakened. Even the siege from three directions had gradually slowed down, allowing the defenders and commoners in Liao City to take a temporary breather.
Within Liao City, barely half of the 3,000 soldiers survived. If the commoners hadn"t picked up the weapons of the deceased and aided in killing the enemies, they would have yielded long ago.
They had already persisted for nearly 7 days under the violent attacks of the 70,000 Great Xia soldiers. Also, under the attack of the 40,000 soldiers that came from Guke City, they had managed to hold out for another two days.
At this moment, every part of the city wall was devastated and every step taken would cause one to step in blood. Everyone on top of the city wall had already gotten used to the b.l.o.o.d.y stench. When the Great Xia army had retreated, it was unknown how many people actually sat in the blood.
The majority of those people were the commoners that Ren Baqian thought were very ordinary. Yet, they were the ones who caused many of the Great Xia soldiers to shed blood after picking up weapons and fighting.
Over the last few days, they had thrown down at least 20,000 corpses from the top of the city walls.
The number of casualties within Liao City were also equally disastrous.
...
When the empress and the winged cavalry arrived seven kilometers southeast of Liao City, they saw the siege of Great Xia troops ahead. At a rough glance, there was an estimated 20,000 soldiers. There were so many weapons that they seemed as dense as a forest. Many of the troops had blood stains on their armor, and an austere vibe was emitted from them.
The ground in front of the battle formation was filled with rusty caltrops. Each caltrop had four spikes protruding out and a hole in the middle. They were all strung up together by ropes in groups of six, which would make it easier to retrieve them after the battle.
"Trample over them." The empress stood on the golden throne with a killing intent that permeated the entire place as she looked at the battle formation in the distance.
"Dismount!" Following this command, thousands of winged cavalry warriors flipped over and dismounted in an orderly fashion.
"Ha!" Everybody let out a loud cry, and the convergence of the thousands of voices sounded like an explosion, immediately causing a slight disturbance among the Great Xia soldiers far ahead.
"Kill!" a man commanded.
"Kill!" Thousands of winged cavalry warriors formed into three rows and dashed straight toward the enemy. They were all holding onto their swords as an ice cold killing intent permeated everywhere.
Even though they were up against an army 20 times more numerous than their own, they didn"t seem to cower in the slightest.
This was the winged cavalry, the elite of the aboriginals.
"Fire." Following a command from the Great Xia army and a "swoosh," countless white feathers blanketed the land with dark shadows before smashing down again.
It was like a rainstorm.
At this moment, numerous shadows soared into the sky. The blades in their hands transformed into streaks of cold white light, clearing the sky of the rain of arrows.
"Fire!" Another barrage of arrows was loosed from the battle formation of Great Xia.
Hundreds of shadows soared into the sky again.
"Kill!" Many of the winged cavalry warriors had eyes that were scarlet in color as they stared into the battle formation ahead.
In one jump, they leaped over 10 meters and went straight into the sea of spears that reflected the cold light.
Like a tiger entering a herd of sheeps, a b.l.o.o.d.y ma.s.sacre arose.
Looking at the scene from the skies, it looked as if tens of red-hot steel knives were cutting through a huge piece of b.u.t.ter. It first sliced through and then melted on both sides. The Great Xia army immediately routed and became scattered.
After finishing a gla.s.s of wine on her golden throne, the empress smashed the gla.s.s onto the ground. Then, she transformed into a streak of red shadow and leaped several hundred meter in a flash, stepping on the heads of the Great Xia troops and heading for the rear of the battle formation.
Her clothes were as red as blood. Guan Yu, courtesy name Yunchang, was a general serving under the warlord Liu Bei in the late Eastern Han dynasty. Lü Bu, courtesy name Fengxian, was a military general and warlord who lived during the late Eastern Han dynasty of Imperial China. Li Xuanba was Tang Gaozu"s third son, courtesy name Dade.