Chapter 139: Fire Attack

The Wuhuan cavalry, after a flurry of activity, finally reformed their lines. A furlong ahead of them lay two piles of their compatriots' bodies, the surrounding earth stained crimson with blood. Scattered along the entire barricade line were the corpses of Wuhuan horsemen and warhorses, amongst which feeble, agonizing screams and groans echoed from time to time, rendering the atmosphere of the entire battlefield exceptionally cruel.

Following the fierce battle around the second double-hour of the afternoon, coupled with the time spent by the Wuhuan cavalry clearing the battlefield and filling in the anti-cavalry barricades, it was already the fourth double-hour. Chamuco had even allowed the Wuhuan cavalry to rest for a while, drinking some water to refresh their spirits. By the time the Wuhuan cavalry had regained their strength and prepared to launch their second charge of the day, dusk had arrived.

The setting sun hung low over the mountain ridges.

The setting sun, the battlefield, the military formations, the corpses, the blood, and the occasional caw of a crow.

Qin Cheng placed a hand against his forehead to block the blinding sunlight, squinting as he quietly watched the Wuhuan cavalry arrayed a furlong away. Despite having suffered a minor defeat earlier, the morale of these Wuhuan cavalrymen did not seem dampened; on the contrary, death appeared to have stirred the raging fires of their hatred, and this fury only fueled their momentum all the more!

Looking at these Wuhuan horsemen who looked as though they longed to devour the Han soldiers alive, a smile crept up the corners of Qin Cheng’s lips. Just moments ago, he had not sent his cavalry or infantry forward to disrupt the barricades that the Wuhuan cavalry had labored so hard to fill. Firstly, if Qin Cheng had dispatched troops, the Wuhuan cavalry would have charged regardless of whether they were rested, and his men likely would not have had time to retreat before the enemy crashed into them—that would have been disastrous. Secondly, there was simply no need.

Were not those mounds of tent timbers and wooden boards the very graves of the Wuhuan people?

Therefore, Qin Cheng smiled and asked Liu Mu, "Have you ever heard of digging one's own grave?"

Having perceived everything before him and fully grasped Qin Cheng’s intentions, Liu Mu was in high spirits. Thus, he revealed a rare smile—and a rather cunning one at that. "This subordinate can only say that it was the General who compelled them to dig their own graves, and to do so most joyfully."

"A rare compliment indeed!" Qin Cheng grinned. "If I recall correctly, this is the first time you’ve ever praised me, isn't it?"

With that, Qin Cheng added, "You should cast your gaze further ahead. In truth, from the very moment the Wuhuan King decided to make an enemy of the Great Han, he had already dug the grave for himself and his tribe."

"...What the General says is true." Liu Mu smiled, though in his heart he thought: And wasn't it true that from the very moment the Wuhuan King decided to make an enemy of you, General, he had already dug the grave for himself and his tribe?

Naturally, Liu Mu kept these words to himself, as he was never accustomed to flattering others.

"They are moving." As the Wuhuan cavalry formation began to stir, the smile at the corners of Qin Cheng’s mouth deepened. "Braziers, ready!"

At Qin Cheng’s command, a hundred or so soldiers carried a hundred ceramic braziers and placed them beside the infantry archers, then crouched down beside the pots to await further orders.

Qin Cheng glanced briefly at the braziers now in position, then looked across at the charging Wuhuan cavalry, his eyes filled with mockery. In doing so, he caught sight of a figure clad in white battle robes near the rear of the Wuhuan formation. Upon spotting this white-robed figure, Qin Cheng suddenly broke into a grin.

Though he could not make out the features clearly, Qin Cheng already knew who that white-robed figure was.

It was not difficult for Yixue'er to find Qin Cheng within the Han cavalry formation, for Qin Cheng sat on his horse right at the dead center. Moreover, amidst the rows of Han soldiers whose hands all gripped longbows, he was the sole person holding a saber. When Chamuco issued the command to charge, Yixue'er fancied she saw Qin Cheng smile.

Though indistinct, the sensation was intensely vivid.

Yixue'er saw that Qin Cheng was smiling with smug triumph and profound delight.

The sight of Qin Cheng’s smile caused Yixue'er’s brows to furrow tightly. Suddenly, a chilling premonition of being outwitted surged into her mind, making her feel as though her entire body had plunged into an ice cellar, leaving not an inch of her at ease. Feeling a strange disquiet, Yixue'er subconsciously turned the matter over in her mind, and with that realization, she instantly perceived what was amiss. Thus, she let out a sharp cry: "This is bad!"

"Wuhuan King, sound the retreat at once!" Yixue'er turned and shouted to the Wuhuan King beside her.

At that moment, the Wuhuan cavalry formation was barely a hundred paces away from the Han army's former barricade line.

The Wuhuan King cast a cold, harsh glance at Yixue'er, asking with an unfriendly tone, "Princess, what are you blabbering about?"

"I told you to call off the charge, there are traps ahead—" Before Yixue'er could finish the word "traps," a chorus of miserable shrieks erupted from the charging Wuhuan vanguard.

A stunned Yixue'er and a frowning Chamuco simultaneously snapped their heads toward the charging Wuhuan cavalry, and there they beheld a scene so shocking it left them speechless.

Right at the front of the charging Wuhuan cavalry formation, towering flames surged upward as if erupting from the depths of hell, completely engulfing the vanguard of the Wuhuan forces. The spectacle resembled a gigantic demon opening its colossal maw to swallow the Wuhuan horsemen whole. Countless Wuhuan riders plunged headlong into the demon's mouth, enveloped by the roaring fire, and emitted blood-curdling shrieks!

...

As the Wuhuan vanguard surged past the hundred-pace mark before the barricades, Qin Cheng shouted the order: "Ignite the braziers!"

A hundred-odd Han infantrymen waiting beside the braziers instantly pulled out fire-strikers and set fire to the ceramic pots filled with liquid fuel. With a muffled *whoosh*, flames immediately leaped from the hundred braziers.

"Fire arrows, ready!" Qin Cheng drew his saber from its scabbard and bellowed.

Several hundred infantry archers drew iron arrows wrapped in oil-soaked cloth, which they had prepared in advance, thrust them into the braziers, and then drew their bows in unison, their movements perfectly synchronized.

"Infantry oil-fire array, Wuhuan cavalry formation, loose!"

"Whoosh! Whoosh!" Over two thousand iron arrows soared once more toward the oncoming Wuhuan cavalry formation!

Among these two thousand iron arrows, five or six hundred had tips that were actively burning. Striking the oil-soaked ground, these fire arrows instantly ignited the accelerant spread across the earth!

Flames erupted toward the heavens in an instant!

The Wuhuan cavalrymen who had just set foot upon the barricade line were immediately engulfed in the midst of the raging inferno.

Following the first piercing shriek, the subsequent screams merged into a chaotic chorus. Innumerable burning men and horses appeared merely as faint, shadowy figures darting within the sea of fire. Before any of those shadowy figures could burst out of the blazing zone, they collapsed within it—either burned down alive or picked off by the iron arrows of the Han troops!

"Fire arrows, loose!"

When the Han infantry archers loosed their second volley of fire arrows, the tent timbers, wooden boards, and other materials previously used by the Wuhuan cavalry to fill the barricades were also ignited by the soaring flames and fire arrows!

The firestorm expanded instantly once more!

"Bow!"

"Arrows!"

If the wooden barricades could be bypassed, the fire arrows and the blazing array offered nowhere to hide. Static and dynamic, the fire arrows and the flame array echoed and fueled one another. Within the span of a few brief moments, they tightly enveloped the Wuhuan cavalry within their embrace!

"Halt! Stop the charge! Pull back at once!" the Wuhuan chiliarch shrieked frantically. Yet once cavalry momentum reached its peak, checking their speed was no easy feat. Although countless riders desperately fought to control their mounts, the sheer momentum of the charge was too great, and wave after wave of Wuhuan horsemen plunged blindly into the blazing inferno!

The barricade was inanimate, but the sea of fire was alive. Once the leading Wuhuan horseman caught fire, the flames surged forward, and the rider behind him could not escape the fate of being ignited either. Especially with a fire of such magnitude, a single bound could swallow a whole cluster of riders, while the deadly hail of fire arrows drove the intensity of the blaze to its absolute extreme!

The fire array, like a rushing flood of living flame, surged endlessly toward the Wuhuan cavalry.

Moreover, since the Han army camp faced southeast (as noted previously), a northerly wind swept across, fueling the flames with even greater fury. Driven by the wind toward the Wuhuan cavalry formation, the towering inferno swallowed even more horsemen who failed to escape in time!

Some of the Wuhuan riders who had plunged into the fire array first, desperate and hardened, relying on the fact that they were already close to the Han encampment, forced their way out of the blazing zone, intent on bringing the fire into the Han ranks.

Yet they had barely taken a few steps out of the flames when cold iron arrows pierced their bodies, knocking them from their saddles. Those Wuhuan soldiers whose internal organs were already burning felt the sudden, icy chill of the iron arrows entering their flesh as an exquisite comfort!

In the ruddy glare of the fires, Qin Cheng’s expression appeared somewhat ferocious.

Within the Han army formation, many men were drenched in sweat from the blistering heat of the fire more than a hundred paces away. Yet not only did this fail to hinder the pace of their arrow-shooting, but it made their movements even more vigorous.

Because as much as they suffered, the Wuhuan cavalry opposite them suffered far more! Compared to the Wuhuan soldiers being burned to ashes, the Han soldiers felt their own meager suffering was utterly worthwhile. Thinking thus, this bit of heat was of no consequence at all!

At the rear of the Wuhuan formation, Chamuco had tumbled from his horse. He roared like a madman toward the charging and trapped Wuhuan cavalry: "Fall back! All of you, fall back to this King, hurry and fall back!"

"Sound the retreat! Sound the retreat! The King commands a retreat!" The remaining heralds rushed forward en masse, terrified of lagging even half a beat.

The Wuhuan tribe was never populous to begin with; the thirty thousand cavalrymen sent on this expedition comprised nearly all the able-bodied young horsemen of the entire tribe. If all these cavalrymen were to perish here—to say nothing of losing the entire force, even if only half were lost—how could the Wuhuan tribe ever hope to establish a foothold on the grasslands in the future?

By then, the entire Wuhuan tribe would likely be reduced to slaves of other clans!

It was precisely this realization that made the Wuhuan King unable to suppress the agony and terror gnawing at his heart!

Yixue'er stared pale-faced at everything unfolding before her, her pristine white teeth biting deeply into her scarlet lower lip.

She had anticipated that Qin Cheng would employ stratagems and lay traps, but she had never imagined that Qin Cheng’s trap would be so viciously ruthless!

She even realized that Qin Cheng’s earlier barricades had been laid out entirely in preparation for this colossal fire. The Wuhuan cavalry, having had their assault thwarted by the barricades, naturally thought to use tent timbers and boards to fill them in—and it was precisely those tents and boards that, once ignited, became the graves of countless Wuhuan troopers!

Blood seeped from Yixue'er's lips. She had never imagined that infantry facing cavalry could employ such a method to utterly crush horsemen!

"Qin Cheng... What a ruthless scheme... What a cruel heart! Are you attempting to rout the Wuhuan cavalry in one fell swoop and achieve complete victory in a single battle?"

A freezing chill gripped Yixue'er's heart.

...

Of the nearly thirteen thousand Wuhuan cavalrymen who participated in this charge, over three thousand perished in the Han army's oil-fire array, and nearly half of the remainder suffered severe burns! Even during the chaotic retreat of the Wuhuan cavalry, a vast number of horsemen were burned to death or severe injury!

Fire attacks are best left unused; but once deployed, they are bound to achieve monumental success!