On the west bank of the Jinma River, across the open beach, plateau soldiers charged madly towards the escorts.
The escorts were still landing.
When the plateau infantry were only a few dozen zhang away from the ships, every escort had successfully reached the shore.
At that moment the plateau troops had fully entered the range of the trebuchets. With one order from Zhang Liang, a single volley from the prepared machines would have wiped out most of the one hundred and fifty plateau soldiers.
Yet, to gain a clearer picture of the actual combat difference between his escorts and plateau cavalry, Zhang Liang withheld the trebuchets and heavy crossbows, letting the enemy close in.
“Hand crossbows!”
When the two sides were barely ten zhang apart, the escort company commander roared and raised his crossbow.
Swish, swish, swish!
Hundreds of bolts flew towards the plateau soldiers.
But these were not bandits; they were prepared.
At their leader’s command, the plateau infantry instantly raised their shields.
Only three unlucky soldiers were hit in the lower legs. Every other bolt thudded harmlessly into shields.
“Arrowhead formation, kill!”
The company commander bellowed and drew his black sabre.
The escorts immediately formed two triangular wedges.
Male escorts with shields and black sabres in front, female escorts with crossbows behind.
The two forces smashed into each other.
Battle erupted instantly.
The fighting power of plateau infantry was on a completely different level from bandits. In the very first clash, six escorts were stabbed dead and two wounded.
The escorts, by contrast, killed only two plateau soldiers and wounded seven.
The plateau troops were battle-hardened veterans. They struck fast and viciously, aiming straight for necks and hearts.
The escorts seemed slightly flustered. Though they too aimed for vital spots, only two managed to land killing blows.
Still, the escorts held the numerical advantage. Fallen and wounded comrades were instantly replaced.
After the impact, many plateau shields had been knocked aside. The female escorts seized the chance and fired.
More than a dozen plateau soldiers dropped at once.
The rest hurriedly raised their shields again.
But once shields were up, their vision was blocked.
The front-line male escorts immediately attacked the unprotected legs.
…
It had to be admitted, plateau infantry fought with ferocious abandon, charging the escorts as if they had no regard for their own lives.
Yet they had no formation whatsoever. Each man fought alone or, at most, in pairs or trios with close comrades.
The benefits of the coordination Jin Feng always stressed now became clear.
These escorts were not pampered troops. They had all drawn blood while suppressing bandits, and Jin Feng’s pre-battle speech had done its work. Not one escort stepped back.
Their teamwork was flawless. They successfully withstood the first plateau charge.
Then the escorts counter-attacked.
More and more plateau soldiers fell to bolts from the female archers at the rear.
Survival is the instinct of all creatures. When their losses passed one hundred, the remaining several dozen plateau infantry finally broke and turned to flee.
All that awaited them were crossbow bolts.
Ten minutes later, the fight was over.
All one hundred and fifty plateau infantry lay dead.
Twelve escorts had fallen, twenty-two were wounded.
Almost all the wounded bore serious injuries.
Jin Feng and Zhang Liang exchanged a glance. Both saw a trace of gratification in the other’s eyes.
To fight plateau infantry blade-to-blade and achieve such a result far exceeded Jin Feng’s expectations.
The accompanying medics reacted swiftly. Under Zhou Jin’s lead, all twenty-two wounded had already received initial cleaning and dressing.
“Carry our fallen brothers and the wounded back aboard. Chu Suian, take your men and seize the bridge!”
Zhang Liang issued the order loudly.
“Yes, sir!”
The escort company commander immediately led his men charging towards the fortresses.
One hundred and fifty had not been enough for them to kill; the remaining fifty were hardly worth mentioning.
Neither Zhang Liang nor Jin Feng bothered watching the west bank any longer. They both turned towards the east bank.
On the east bank, the plateau infantry captain in charge of guarding the fortresses was still stunned.
Before coming here he had heard that Dakang soldiers were all weaklings.
The seizure of the bridge had proved it.
His men had barely started fighting properly when most of the Dakang bridge guards fled.
The few dozen who stayed were easily slaughtered.
So he had believed the rumours were true.
Yet the battle he had just witnessed on the opposite bank completely overturned his view.
After the initial setback, those escorts had utterly dominated his comrades.
“Captain, their ships are coming. What do we do?”
His subordinate’s shout finally snapped him out of his daze.
He looked up at the river. Sure enough, several large ships were heading straight for the east bank.
Each deck was packed with black-clothed figures dressed exactly like the killers across the water.
Further back, the dozens of other ships were the same.
“By the great Immortal of Light, there’s no fighting this!”
Despair flooded the captain’s heart.
The men on those dozens of ships had to number at least seven or eight thousand.
All four fortresses together held fewer than five hundred plateau troops. How could they fight that?
Even if the newcomers were ordinary civilians, seven or eight thousand people could drown them just by sheer numbers.
Yet fleeing outright would brand them deserters, and the punishment awaiting them back home would be far crueler.
While the captain still hesitated between fight or flight, the two west-bank fortresses had already fallen to the escorts.
Then another large ship drew alongside the west bank. A group of escorts leapt ashore carrying sledgehammers, crowbars, and shovels and began smashing the bridge piers with loud clanging.
The infantry captain’s face blanched. He understood their intention at once.
“Cidan, ride at once to Mao’er Mountain and inform General Sangji! The Dakang forces are going to destroy the bridge!”
The captain roared, “Everyone else, follow me across the bridge and stop them!”
This stone bridge was the shortest route home. If it was demolished, the consequences would be worse than dying in battle.
They might very well be hanged by Danzhu.
In plateau folklore, warriors who died in combat were heroic and went to paradise.
Those who were hanged had their souls sealed inside their corpses, condemned to eternal darkness.
“Yes, sir!”
The subordinate named Cidan mounted a warhorse and galloped away.
The captain led the rest of his men in a frantic charge towards the west bank.
This time Zhang Liang gave them no chance. Several onboard trebuchets fired simultaneously.
The plateau soldiers on the bridge instinctively looked up.
A dark cloud appeared above their heads.
Moments later, a dense rain of stones covered the entire bridge surface.
Of the two hundred-plus plateau troops on the east bank, all except the horseman Cidan who had ridden off were smashed to death on the bridge.
Not one escaped.
The bridge was not far from Mao’er Mountain. By the time Zhang Liang’s men had finished gathering the plateau corpses, Cidan had already reached the mountain on horseback.
“General Sangji! Disaster! Thousands of Dakang troops have arrived! They’ve seized the stone bridge and are trying to tear it down!”
