lcionline Chapter 309: A good horse
Chapter 309: A good horse
"Where do you think you're going, brat!" Zhao Yun saw that Ustuk was preparing to retreat, so he spurred his horse and charged over, unleashing a full-force attack, determined to stop Ustuk and kill this great general of Dayuan, skilled in both literature and martial arts, on the spot.
After shouting the order to retreat, Ustuku turned his horse when he heard Zhao Yun's shout. He saw Zhao Yun had already rushed up to him, raised his sword, and used both hands to resist the downward force of Zhao Yun. The two weapons made a metallic sound as they rubbed against each other, and the two steeds passed each other again.
Ustuku straightened up, his wrist trembling. This time, caught off guard by Zhao Yun's full-force attack, his wrist bones felt like they were about to crack, as if his joint was about to dislocate.
Ustuku turned east, shifted his horse's direction, placed his left hand on the hilt of his sword, and began to wield the sword with both hands. He glared fiercely at Zhao Yun, let out a roar, and launched a full-force attack on Zhao Yun, charging forward.
Regardless of the outcome, he didn't want to fight Zhao Yun anymore and prepared to retreat.
Zhao Yun killed another Dayuan soldier who tried to ambush him, then turned his horse around and blocked the main road where Ustuku was retreating westward. He was surprised to see that Ustuku did not take a detour to escape, but instead dared to charge towards him.
Zhao Yun was overjoyed and spurred his horse forward, charging towards Ustuku once more.
Both horses were excellent steeds, and the short distance was covered in an instant. Ustuku wielded his sword with both hands and slashed at Zhao Yun with force. Zhao Yun pushed his steel weapon upwards, and the enormous force made Ustuku's body lean backward, and his sword was also deflected from Zhao Yun.
In a flash, Zhao Yun changed his move with all his might, thrusting his weapon horizontally at Ustuku's body.
Ustuku leaned back and caught a glimpse of Zhao Yun thrusting his weapon. Unable to parry in time, he flipped over his horse and hid on the other side of the steed to avoid Zhao Yun's full-force attack.
The weapon missed Ustuku, but Zhao Yun did not follow the steed past him again. Given the urgency of the situation, Ustuku was likely to escape and break into the guards' protective formation, making it unlikely Zhao Yun would be able to kill him.
The horse charged forward with undiminished momentum, but Zhao Yun suddenly stood up, took his feet off the stirrups, leaped up, used the saddle for leverage, and flipped backward.
Ustuku used his horse to dodge Zhao Yun's sudden attack, secretly rejoicing.
As he mounted his horse and fled forward, he glanced back and saw a figure swooping down from the sky like an eagle swooping down on its prey, charging straight at him. A steel weapon, wielded by Zhao Yun, was pointed directly at his throat.
Ustuku was terrified and quickly turned his head to duck. At the same time, he shouted and swung his right hand backward with all his might, intending to use his sword to attack Zhao Yun and force him to parry, thus letting him go.
Ignoring the blade slashing from the right, Zhao Yun continued his attack with undiminished momentum. With a roar, he pressed down with both hands, instantly striking Ustuku, who was ducking to dodge. Ultimately, time was of the essence, and Ustuku couldn't evade the attack; Zhao Yun pierced his brain.
The sharp blade, under Zhao Yun's full-force attack, pierced through Ustuku's hard skull and instantly penetrated his once-in-a-century brain.
In the middle, a wound more than ten centimeters long was torn open, and brain matter and blood spurted out along the blood groove, splattering Zhao Yun's face with blood.
Ustuku was killed by Zhao Yun's weapon, but his right-hand sword continued its momentum and struck Zhao Yun in the waist.
Zhao Yun's armor was also meticulously crafted, with special steel plates protecting vital areas. Ustuku's sword struck the steel plate of Zhao Yun's armor at the waist.
Although his sword was equally sharp, it could only barely cleave through Zhao Yun's armor before its power was exhausted.
Zhao Yun was unharmed.
Zhao Yun pounced and landed on Ustuku's steed, grabbed Ustuku's body and threw it upwards. His weapon shredded Ustuku's head, then instantly pierced the corpse's abdomen. Holding up the blood-soaked body, he shouted to the surroundings, "Ustuku is dead! Surrender and you will not be killed!"
"Surrender and you will not be killed! Surrender and you will not be killed!" The Hua soldiers nearby, who had watched Zhao Yun kill the enemy general with a single thrust of his weapon and wave the corpse like a flag, roared loudly and shouted along with Zhao Yun as they launched a full-scale counterattack.
The nearby Dayuan Imperial Guard cavalry, having received Wustuku's order, were turning from a full-scale attack to a retreat. Amidst the chaos, they were all greatly alarmed to hear the shouts of the Chinese soldiers.
It didn't matter that they couldn't understand the shouts, but there were Ustuku's guards and cavalrymen nearby. When they saw Ustuku being stabbed to death by Zhao Yun with a single weapon, their expressions changed drastically.
When Zhao Yun saw that the general's brain had been crushed, he held up the body and waved it around to show the crowd. Some soldiers felt that the situation was hopeless and ran away while shouting, "The general is dead! Everyone run for your lives!" They knocked down many of their own cavalrymen who were unaware of what was happening.
Another group of very loyal guards and cavalry, filled with grief and indignation, charged towards Zhao Yun, intending to tear the culprit who killed his commander to pieces on the spot.
Zhao Yun killed Ustuk and obtained a priceless corpse, but he didn't want to get entangled with these soldiers. He still carried Ustuk's body and spurred his horse to ride aside.
While running, he shouted, "Ustuku is dead, surrender and you will not be killed!" The enemy soldiers and guards chasing behind him were stopped by Ma Teng's soldiers and cavalry.
In the central part of the Tovia battlefield, the Chinese soldiers switched from defense to offense, and the Dayuan cavalry fell into chaos under the shouts of "retreat" from the Ustuk guards.
Some cavalrymen, unable to hear the orders, continued to charge forward in the darkness, knocking down and scattering their own retreating cavalrymen, leaving them in a sorry state.
As some cowardly soldiers shouted, "The general is dead! Everyone, run for your lives!" more and more Dayuan soldiers learned that the general of Wei, Ustuku, had died on the spot. For a moment, they were at a loss and did not know where to go.
The Dayuan cavalry, located at the rear of the battlefield, were still running forward, while the 1st and 2nd Brigades of the 131st Company were closing in on them, with the two groups of soldiers less than two kilometers apart.
Some soldiers saw Sun Ce's signal flare and heard the war drums of the Hua soldiers, but they did not know the reason and still charged forward.
Only a small number of soldiers on the periphery, seeing the sudden change in the Hua soldiers' morale, quickly abandoned their weapons and turned to flee, but they began to run away without receiving orders to retreat.
Although these cavalrymen escaped with their lives, it did not affect the overall situation. Deserters are not of much use anywhere, and may even corrupt other normally disciplined troop units.
As news of Ustuku's death spread, accompanied by shouts of retreat, most of the Dayuan cavalry finally stopped their charge, turned their horses around, and retreated westward, but it was too late.
Except for a few hundred soldiers at the very back who managed to escape the encirclement in time, everyone else was stopped by Zhang He, Zhang Ji, and Sun Ce leading elite soldiers.