Chapter 49: The Final Battle with Little Overlord (Part 2)

  When the Junzi army rushed out of the north gate of Guangling, the battle on the west gate battlefield had already reached a white heat. Seeing the suspension bridge at the west gate catch fire and be burned, the retreat route was cut off, and the Xu state's second-rate troops were suddenly panicked, and many greedy and timid people fled to the suspension bridge that had not been completely destroyed to cross the river in order to survive. The experienced Sun Ce army took advantage of the situation to charge and slash wildly, slaughtering these cowardly people who had abandoned their companions' protection. The casualties of the Xu state troops suddenly increased, and the pressure on the two generals Zhang Xuan and Xu Sheng also increased greatly.

  It's okay, the three thousand troops from Xuzhou who came out of the city, although mostly composed of newly reorganized surrendered soldiers, also had about six hundred old soldiers from Xuzhou who were brought by Zhang Yi to Guangling, so their combat effectiveness was somewhat guaranteed, and their cohesion was relatively strong. There were also three hundred gentleman soldiers under Xu Sheng's command who had some cohesion and combat effectiveness. The sudden appearance of the bamboo spear array was not something that Sun Ce's army could immediately break through, so no matter how fiercely Sun Ce's army charged, it was very difficult to quickly disperse this group of besieged Xuzhou troops. They could only surround and attack this unit, engaging in a fierce and exhausting battle.

  The close combat was a consumption, and the Xuzhou army was not an opponent of Sun Ce's army. The casualties were far greater than those of Sun Ce's army. It took three or four people to die in order to kill one soldier from Sun Ce's army. Therefore, despite being unable to disperse Zhang Xuan and Xu Sheng's troops in a short period of time, Sun Ce and Zhou Yu were not anxious, but patiently commanded the army to surround them, peeling away at the Xuzhou army layer by layer like an onion. At this point, Zhou Yu discovered a strange situation: the trapped Xuzhou army continued to move towards the west gate after seeing the destruction of the suspension bridge, without turning north or south.

  At this scene, Zhou Yu hastily reminded Sun Ce: "Bofu, have you noticed? The besieged Xuzhou army is still using that strange bamboo spear array to open the way and retreat slowly towards the west gate suspension bridge. The suspension bridge has already been burned by us, isn't there a trick in this?"

  "I've also noticed that." Sun Ce's brow furrowed, tense in his analysis: "What exactly is Tao Ying doing? Does he have a flying bridge to receive him at Ximen City, so he can lead the defeated army into the city at any time? Or does he have some other plan?"

  "No matter what tricks Tao Yingxiao is playing, we can't let him have his way!" Zhou Yu said resolutely: "We should strengthen the blocking force, and send both long shieldmen and archers to the front of Tao Yingxiao's bamboo spear array to suppress his bamboo spear array!"

  A good idea to make Tao Qian's deputy angry, Sun Ce would not ignore it. As the orderlies rushed around, the archers and long shieldmen in Sun Ce's army quickly turned east and lined up to intercept the bamboo spear array of the Xuzhou army. The long shieldmen arrived at the bamboo spear, and the archers shot and killed the bamboo spear men. However, for the convenience of charging, the number of long shields in Sun Ce's army was obviously insufficient. Sun Ce had to urgently call in 300 long shieldmen from the main camp to reinforce, fortunately, the main camp was not far away, and the 300 long shieldmen arrived quickly and were quickly put into battle, joining the blockade against the bamboo spear array.

  The long-handled shield and bowmen quickly entered the battlefield, but Sun Ce and Zhou Yu made a big mistake this time when they encountered the Macedonian phalanx. They dispatched the long-handled shield and bowmen to the front of the bamboo spear array, which once again formed a hammer-and-anvil tactic with Xu Sheng's bamboo spear array as the hammer and the defending archers on the walls of Guangling City as the anvil. The bamboo spear array pushed forward desperately under the arrow rain, forcing Sun Ce's shield and bowmen to retreat step by step. The defenders on the city wall took advantage of the situation and shot arrows from behind, killing Sun Ce's shield and bowmen. As a result, not only did Sun Ce's shield and bowmen fail to stop the bamboo spear array from advancing, but they also increased unnecessary casualties for Sun Ce's army.

  "Soldiers, we're almost at the moat! Make an effort, charge! If we can just reach the edge of the moat, we'll be able to survive!" Xu Sheng was shouting loudly in the bamboo spear formation, rallying the troops. The handpicked bamboo spearmen were also doing their best, shouting slogans and advancing forward desperately under the hail of arrows. The first row of spearmen fell down, but the second row immediately filled in the gaps, and then the third row filled in the gaps left by the fallen soldiers of the second row. They advanced relentlessly, pushing Sun Ce's intercepting troops back step by step. Zhang Xuan led the regular army of Xuzhou to desperately protect the two wings and rear of the bamboo spear formation, not giving the enemy any chance to get close, slowly but surely approaching the moat.

  There were also archers on the walls of Guangling, who were desperately drawing their bows and shooting arrows to kill the enemy's intercepting troops, helping the friendly forces outside the city to quickly break through the blockade and approach the relatively safe moat.

  Under the full force of the charge, Sun Ce's army, which was attacked from both front and back, could no longer withstand the onslaught of the Xuzhou army. They fled in all directions, while Xu Sheng's troops with bamboo spears shouted loudly as they stabbed and killed the soldiers who refused to disperse. At the same time, they charged forward desperately and finally reached the remains of the bridge that had been burned down after a short period of time. Zhang Xuan led his infantry to quickly move up and merge with Xu Sheng's troops, gradually expanding towards both banks of the river. Sun Ce's army continued to charge forward, cutting down Xu Sheng and Zhang Xuan's troops who were fighting with their backs to the water, and the battle was still fierce enough to leave people breathless.

  Upon seeing this, Sun Ce did not erupt in anger or shout loudly. Instead, a cold smile appeared at the corner of his mouth as he thought to himself: "Tao Ying's little trick, I'd like to see what other tricks you have up your sleeve! If you ambush my troops, you're asking for death. If you use flying bridges to help your defeated soldiers cross the river, I'll take advantage of the situation and attack Guangling City! I don't believe it, can you still set another fire in the jar-shaped city, burning both my siege troops and your elite forces to death?"

  "Boom! Boom!"

  The strange sound that suddenly rang out told Sun Ce of Tao Ying's true intentions. In the midst of the strange and loud noise, five fireballs suddenly flew up from the city wall of Xuzhou, whizzing out three or four hundred feet away, scattering onto the battlefield in the dark night, turning several of Sun Ce's soldiers into human torches, also igniting five giant fires that shot up to the sky. In an instant, it exposed the true position of Sun Ce's army! At the same time, it made Sun Ce, who was on the verge of collapse, jump up from the four-wheeled cart and shout out in shock: "What is that? How can it fly so far?"

  ……………

  At the same time Sun Ce let out a cry of surprise, Tao Ying led more than 700 Junzi troops, also taking advantage of the night to cover their approach, circling around to the rear of Sun Ce's main camp. They quietly made their way to the side of the rear camp's palisade, while the main force of Sun Ce's army had already been deployed in full on the western gate battlefield. There were less than 1,500 troops left guarding the camp, and they were all secondary or tertiary auxiliary forces with weak combat strength and a lack of sense of responsibility. They had only symbolically arranged a few sentry posts to monitor the palisade, and hadn't even deployed a patrol team in the rear camp, which greatly facilitated the Junzi army's surprise attack.

  When such a situation arose, Tao Ying would not disappoint the deep feelings of Sun Ce's army guards. First, he used his bow and arrow to kill the nearby sentry, then quickly used the shovel he brought with him to fill in the moat, filling in about ten or so zhang of the trench. After that, the Junzi Army soldiers quickly tied up over a dozen hemp ropes on the palisade, urging the war horses to pull the ropes and pulling out a section of wooden palisades by the roots. Finally, Tao Ying drew his sword and with one swing, over 700 Junzi Army soldiers charged into Sun Ce's army camp with torches, shouting and killing!

  It was also at this time that the general of Sun Ce's army, Heng Jiang, who had been left to guard the camp, finally woke up like a dream and hastily organized his troops to come and fight. However, when Heng Jiang led his army to collide with Junzi Army, apart from being extremely shocked to discover that the team that ambushed the camp was actually the real Junzi Army, he also unexpectedly discovered that the soldiers of Junzi Army, who had been breaking through the enemy lines with arrows a few days ago, had all switched to long guns this time. Heng Jiang did not dare to slack off and hastily raised his gun and shouted loudly, "Up! Kill these fake gentlemen!"

  "Kill……." The battle cry of the Heng army had just begun when it suddenly stopped, because on the tip of the Junzi army's long spears, flames over a zhang (about 3.3 meters) long suddenly spouted out. The Heng soldiers, who had never seen such a weapon before, all shouted in surprise. Hengjie was even more despairingly shouting, "What is that? A fire-spewing spear?!"

  "The Master said: 'When it comes to food, I do not reject what is finely prepared, nor do I make a distinction between the tender and the coarse. But I only eat when there is no rush or urgency; if the fish is not fresh or the meat has gone bad, I will not eat it. If the color is unappetizing, I will not eat it. If it is not properly cooked, I will not eat it. If it is not served at the right time, I will not eat it. If the cutting is not done correctly, I will not eat it.'"

  With the flying fire spear in hand, the Junzi army directly shouted out the charge this time. Chen Ning's heavy cavalry led the charge, first using flames to burn the enemy's face and then using sharp gunheads to kill them. Countless Sun Ce troops were sprayed with high-temperature iron sparks from the flames, instantly losing their sight and screaming as they covered their eyes with both hands. The sharp gunhead had already stabbed in, piercing both hands and face together, either killing or severely injuring them. Chen Ning, who was following closely behind Tao Ying's buttocks to fight a fierce battle, charged straight at Hengjie on horseback, shouting loudly, "You dog thief! Come and surrender!" Before the spear arrived, the flames had already sprayed onto Hengjie's face.

  "How to fight?" The strange flame rushed forward, and Hengjie was completely blinded. He subconsciously raised his gun to block the flames, but naturally blocked nothing. The flames passed through the gun and hit Hengjie's face, with hot iron sand entering his eyes. Hengjie suddenly let out a miserable cry like a slaughtered pig, losing his sight. His eyebrows, beard, and hair caught fire at the same time. Chen Ning stabbed again with his spear, piercing Hengjie's throat. Hengjie, who had once retrieved Sun Jian's body to make great contributions to the Sun family, fell off his horse with a head full of flames and died on the spot.

  As soon as Heng Jiangyi died, the soldiers of Sun Ce's army, who had already been frightened by the flying fire lance, immediately scattered like birds and beasts. The Junzi Army took advantage of the situation to kill people and set fires everywhere, burning tents and carts wherever they saw them. At the same time, they captured Sun Ce's soldiers and interrogated them about the location of their grain stores. However, unlike Fu Ying, Sun Ce's ordinary soldiers were not loyal to him, so the Junzi Army only caught two prisoners. The two prisoners eagerly expressed their willingness to surrender and serve as guides for the Junzi Army, leading them on a killing spree towards the location of Sun Ce's hidden grain stores in the right camp. The main force of Sun Ce's army had already scattered, and not one person dared to come forward to block their way.

  The momentum was like breaking bamboo, killing into Sun Ce's army right camp. Cheng Pu's eldest son, Cheng Zi, who was guarding the grain and grass, led his troops to fight to the death to block them. The Junzi army, which liked to use many to defeat a few, reused its old trick, concentrating more than ten flying fire guns to burn Cheng Zi. Cheng Zi dodged east but couldn't dodge west, and soon he was burned and blinded in both eyes, then killed by the Junzi army's chaotic gunfire. The soldiers he led were also frightened and scattered. The Junzi army directly broke into Sun Ce's grain depot, burning the grain wantonly, and Sun Ce's grain depot quickly ignited a towering inferno, with thick smoke billowing hundreds of feet high, a magnificent sight to behold.

  ………

  At the same time, Sun Ce's main force, which had been lured to the side of the moat by Zhang Xuan and Xu Sheng, also began to taste the power of the Xiangyang cannon. One after another, huge stone balls weighing over 150 pounds kept falling from the sky, smashing into the ranks of Sun Ce's army, instantly creating a bloody splash, with cries of pain filling the air. Even if they hit the ground, they could still bounce back and injure more people. Any soldier of Sun Ce's army who was hit by the stone balls would either have their tendons broken or their bones fractured. Occasionally, a burning ball made of wood and doused in oil would fall down, and once it hit a soldier, it would turn that person into a human torch, making them let out a blood-curdling scream that could rival Pavarotti's.

  The Xiangyang cannon's firing speed was not fast, and it took about five or six minutes to fire a shot. There were only five of them, and in the face of Sun Ce's army of over 4,000 soldiers, they were just a drop in the bucket, unable to play a significant role. The greatest effect was actually psychological intimidation, making Sun Ce's soldiers dare not fight with confidence. However, this was enough. When seeing the catapult that could throw such heavy stones from so far away for the first time, even famous generals like Lü Wenhuan would be at a loss, let alone Sun Ce's soldiers who had never seen an ordinary catapult before. Therefore, despite the low firing frequency and small number of Xiangyang cannons, Sun Ce's army was in chaos, shouting and fleeing in all directions. Zhang Xuan and Xu Sheng took advantage of the situation to reorganize their troops, rescue the wounded, and wait for the turning point on the battlefield as ordered by Tao Ying.

  "It's coming again! Run quickly!"

  In the midst of the soldiers' mournful cries, another massive stone projectile landed over a hundred paces in front of Sun Ce's flag array, killing only one unfortunate soldier from Sun Ce's army. However, it caused dozens of Sun Ce's soldiers to flee in panic, and several others simply abandoned their flags and weapons to escape for their lives. Witnessing this scene, Sun Ce, who had already roughly figured out the number of Xiangyang cannons on the walls of Guangling City, was furious, his face smoking with rage. He stood up again and bellowed, "Pass down the order, reorganize our troops! Anyone else who panics and flees will be executed on the spot! The enemy's stone-throwing weapons are limited, don't fear them! As long as we continue to attack, victory will surely be ours!"

  "General! General is not good!" It seemed to be intentionally opposing Sun Ce, and another batch of Sun Ce's soldiers suddenly cried out for no reason. Sun Ce was even more furious, just about to draw his sword to personally direct the battle when those soldiers' next words made Sun Ce's gall bladder split open: "General, look at our big camp! It's on fire! Our big camp is on fire!"

  "My big camp is on fire?" With a pale face, Sun Ce quickly turned his head and saw that his own camp was indeed ablaze, especially the right camp where grain and hay were stored, which was even more fiercely burning with flames shooting up to the sky and thick smoke rolling!

  "It's another trick!" Just as this thought flashed through his mind, Sun Ce's body swayed and he collapsed again, weak and limp. As Zhou Yu and the others rushed forward to support him, a fast horse came galloping into the camp, reporting: "General! We've been tricked! Tao Ying's son took advantage of our main force leaving the camp and personally led the true Gentleman Army to attack our camp! They set fire to our grain depot! Our food and supplies are all on fire!"

  "Hengjie and Chengzi, why didn't they stop Tao Yingxiao?! Why couldn't they even hold him back for a moment?!" Sun Ce struggled and roared wildly, "Hengjie and Chengzi, I'll have them sliced into a thousand pieces and executed by slow dismemberment!"

  "General Heng and General Cheng have been killed!" The messenger cried out, "Tao Yingxiong's young son used a strange long gun that spewed fire, General Heng and General Cheng were caught off guard, their eyes blinded by the flames shot out from the strange long gun, both of them died! With their deaths, our troops guarding the camp completely fell apart! We've collapsed!"

  "TAO——YING——XIAO——ER——!" The words were shouted out one by one, and poor Jiangdong Xiao Ba Wang Sun Ce spat out another mouthful of blood, the arrow wound on his leg bursting open again, and he fainted once more.

  "Bo Fu! Bo Fu!" Zhou Yu's voice was shaking with a cry as he called out to Sun Ce, and his clear eyes couldn't help but flow with hot tears. Now that Sun Ce's army was in this situation, no matter how clever or resourceful Zhou Yu was, there was nothing he could do. In Shouchun, Yuan Shu had fallen for the divisive plot and had dispatched 30,000 troops to capture Sun Ce, who were rushing day and night towards them. The city of Guangling was high and deep, making it difficult to take quickly, and now their food supplies had also been poisoned, leaving them without grain, aid, or a foothold. Even Sun Ce himself had suffered serious injuries, so what should they do next? Zhou Yu didn't even know what to do anymore.

  As the crazy fire of the Junzi army, the big camp of Sun Ce's army was burning more and more fiercely, with more and more fires, bringing a chain reaction, of course, the whole army of Sun Ce was in a panic, under the military heart, including the experienced Cheng Pu and Huang Gai were forced to let go of the Xu state troops who had been trapped on the edge of the moat, leading the army back to Sun Ce's side, asking for instructions on the next step. And Sun Ce had fainted, Zhou Yu saw that the military heart was already in chaos and could no longer fight, and could only use a dead horse as a living one to doctor, usurping the command to order a full retreat, retreating back to the big camp to rescue the barracks and grain with all one's might.

  As soon as the order to retreat was given, Sun Ce's army, which had been disheartened, suddenly became like a dog that has lost its master, fleeing in a hurry like a bird startled by a bowstring, rolling and crawling towards their main camp, trampling each other, with many killed. Meanwhile, Zhang Liao repeatedly confirmed from the city wall that Tao Ying's sneak attack on the enemy camp had succeeded, and then decisively opened the city gate, releasing the emergency flying bridge vehicles that had been prepared in advance, and with the help of Xu Sheng and Zhang Xuan's troops, set up a bridge. Then, Zhang Liao left Lu Su to guard the city, personally leading the elite troops from Xuzhou to launch a counterattack, joining forces with Xu Sheng and Zhang Xuan to pursue and kill Sun Ce's army.

  In an instant, the situation was reversed, and from being the pursuers they became the pursued, with Chai Man and Huang Gai's former soldiers under Sun Jian faring slightly better, still able to maintain some semblance of order in their retreat. However, the majority of Yuan Shu's soldiers were not so fortunate, each one rushing to flee in panic, dragging their spears and flags as they desperately sought to escape, with cries of "Father! Mother!" ringing out incessantly. On the battlefield, where cold steel reigned supreme, the most terrifying thing was not the enemy's pursuing troops, but rather one's own disorganized defeated soldiers. These defeated soldiers, driven by terror, had one characteristic: wherever there were more people, they would go there, dispersing their own organized units and trampling to death even more of their own comrades than the enemy did, and even drawing swords against each other for a path to escape.

  Thousands of defeated soldiers rushed forward, and the original troops of Sun Jian, which had only 700 or 800 people left, could not withstand it. The neatly arranged troops were quickly dispersed by the tide of defeated soldiers, and countless old soldiers who followed Sun Jian through thick and thin were trampled to death in the chaos. The cries and wails merged into a sound that echoed for ten miles. Even the personal army led by Sun Ce was almost dispersed by this group of defeated soldiers if it weren't for Cheng Pu and Huang Gai leading the troops to fight to the death to protect them. Zhang Liao and Xu Sheng took advantage of the situation, driving Sun Ce's army crazy with killing and beheading countless people, also capturing many.

  When Sun Ce's army, which had lost many soldiers and generals, finally escaped back to their main camp, the gentle and refined Zhou Yu had already used up all his fire arrows. He immediately withdrew from the complex campsite that was unfavorable for cavalry battles, leaving behind a blazing campfire that Sun Ce's army could not rescue. Zhou Yu and Cheng Pu were so grief-stricken that they wanted to cry but couldn't, and they abandoned the campsite that had no value left to salvage. They led their troops in a detour around the campsite and fled towards the Yangtze River. Zhang Liao and Xu Sheng pursued them relentlessly, killing and capturing soldiers along the way, not giving Sun Ce's army any chance to catch its breath. Tao Qian also joined the pursuit from an open area, teaming up with Zhang Liao to hunt down Sun Ce's defeated troops.

  During the pursuit, Tao Ying and Zhang Zhou met at one place and continued to command the troops to pursue and kill. Meanwhile, Tao Ying also ordered Zhang Zhou: "General Zhang, the enemy's morale has already collapsed. Please order our soldiers to shout that Sun Ce is dead, which will further shake the enemy's military heart."

  "Alright!" Zhang Liao, who had already been deeply impressed by Tao's abilities, loudly responded and continued on his own initiative: "Young Master, please take command of the vanguard, while I lead the troops in a fierce charge! Today, I will surely behead Sun Ce's little brat and present his head to you as a trophy!"

  "Alright, General Tao, please be extremely careful." Not liking to fight a tough battle, Tao Yinan quickly replied and hastily instructed: "General, our goal in this war is only Sun Ce's youngest son and his central army. Sun Ce's youngest son has injuries on his body, he will definitely not escape alone, and there must be his trusted central army protecting him! So we only need to pursue and kill the central army of Sun Ce's youngest son, as for the other enemies, if they can be surrendered, then surrender them, if they cannot be surrendered, let them flee, do not divide troops to chase them, concentrate all our strength on Sun Ce's youngest son alone! Annihilate his core forces!"

  "Alright!" Zhang Liao responded again, whipping his horse and charging forward with his spear, shouting loudly like thunder, "Men, all of you shout for me, Sun Ce's little boy is dead! Sun Ce's little boy is dead! Surrender and we won't kill you——!"

  "Sun Ce's infant son is dead! Sun Ce's infant son is dead! Surrender and you will not be killed! Sun Ce's infant son is dead, surrender and you can avoid being killed!"

  The soldiers under Zhang Liao's command shouted loudly, and when they heard the shouting, Sun Ce's army, which had already collapsed, became even more chaotic. Especially the soldiers from Shouchun who were deceived by Sun Ce from Yuan Pu, they were unwilling to fight, either fleeing in all directions or surrendering on their knees. The Xuzhou army took advantage of the victory and pursued Sun Ce's main force relentlessly in the gradually brightening dawn light, while our poor Little Overlord Sun Ce was seriously injured and now fainted unconscious, even if he wanted to imitate Cao Cao's escape by disguising himself and riding alone, it was impossible...

  Note: To avoid repeating past mistakes, Deputy Director Tao's catapult was renamed Xiangyang Cannon.