Chapter 59: First Battle (2)

  "Crush them!" Zhang Kai's face was crazed, his large blade already stained red with blood, and the flesh and blood on his body were mixed together as if he had crawled out of hell.

  "Run! Run quickly!" The dead no longer had fear, but the living truly felt terror. The supply camp was in complete disarray, and more than a thousand of the five thousand people in the supply camp had died, most trampled to death, with only a few unlucky ones being killed on the spot by the Yu state cavalry.

  "General!" Cheng Yu stood on one side, looking at Liu Mao's motionless and expressionless face. Although Cheng Yu was a seasoned soldier with the ability to command troops in battle, he had never directly faced a cavalry charge before, so he felt a bit flustered. However, seeing Liu Mao's calm demeanor, his heart gradually calmed down.

  If Liu Mang knew that his idea would get him killed, he wouldn't be calm and composed at all, but rather his facial muscles would twitch with fear, which is why he appeared to have a tranquil expression.

  "General, these are our own logistics troops?!" Liu Mang now faced the first wave, which was neither the Yu Province cavalry nor Chen Lan's army led by Lei Bu, but his own family's logistics troops.

  These porters were scattered by the cavalry, and they fled in terror. There is a characteristic of people, the more afraid they are, the more they run to places with many people, perhaps thinking that the people around them will be scared for him!

  About three thousand people were about to rush towards their own formation.

  "Absolutely not, absolutely not!" Liu Mang muttered to himself. He knew that if these heavy infantry were really allowed to charge and scatter their own formation, it would truly become a slaughter, and he himself, wearing his shining golden armor, would have no chance of escape.

  "Bang!" The first wave of heavy infantry had already charged into the front row of giant shieldmen.

  "I won't die! How can I die here!" Liu Mang had already seen the frenzied bloodthirsty look on the faces of the cavalrymen in front, Liu Mang staked everything, drew out his long sword and whipped up his horse to charge from the side wing of the phalanx.

  "General?!" Cheng Yu saw Liu Mao rush out and hastily pulled his personal guards to follow him.

  "Absolutely cannot let you disperse!" Liu Mang went crazy, as the saying goes, if not destroyed in fear, then go crazy in fear.

  Liu Meng borrowed the momentum of the horse and instantly arrived at the front row of the square array.

  The soldiers in the front row of the heavy camp saw Liu Mang and all shouted "General, General, save us!" The impact was even more fierce, they wanted to break through the square array to reach the rear, only then did they think they were safe.

  "Save you?!" Liu Mang muttered to himself "Who's going to save me?! Sorry!"

  "General!" A nearby soldier of Liu Mang's stared with eyes wide in disbelief "You, you..." Before he could finish speaking, he fell to the ground, blood splattering onto Liu Mang's face.

  Liu Mao was also stimulated by this blood and loudly shouted: "Anyone else who dares to charge will be killed without pardon!"

  Liu Mang's killing did not intimidate these vanguard soldiers, one of them shouted "Going back is a dead end, those who want to live, come and charge with me!" As he swung his big knife towards Liu Mang.

  "Yes! Charge forward, we can live! Kill him, kill him!" Some of the rear logistics soldiers who were frightened by the Henan cavalry had already started picking up knives and swords. They didn't dare to fight against the enemy in the back but dared to take action against their own people.

  "How dare you!" Liu Mang underestimated the ferocity of the mutiny. These soldiers, in their desperation to survive, no longer cared if he was a general or their leader; they would do whatever it took to stay alive.

  There were already heavily armed soldiers pulling on Liu Mang's horse reins, wanting to pull him off the horse and behead him.

  Liu Mang was about to be dragged off his horse and killed in the chaos of the battle.

  "Who dares to touch the general, kill without pardon!" A swift figure rushed over, the long spear in his hand sweeping across, and instantly Liu Mang's side was empty. Those rebellious soldiers who wanted to mutiny fell into a pool of blood, like rain. He always followed closely behind Liu Mang at the first time.

  "The enemy cavalry is coming! If we don't leave now, we'll be dead!" The figures of the Yu state cavalry were getting closer and closer. "There are only two of them, kill them!" Someone else shouted.

  "Who dares to touch the general, kill without pardon!" Behind Cheng Yu were 100 imperial guards cavalry, who also rushed over together. They didn't care if you were a friendly army or not, they just charged and killed anyone who wanted to harm Liu Mang.

  Like a meat grinder! Due to their superior tactics, this hundred-man vanguard cavalry actually killed over two hundred people.

  "General, are you alright?!" Cheng Yu said with concern.

  "I'm fine!" Liu Mang was so scared that if it weren't for Cheng Yu coming over in time, he would have probably died here.

  Two hundred corpses lay on the ground, calming down many people in the logistics camp.

  Retreat is death, advance is also death!

  Many of the soldiers in the heavy camp had lost all hope, they dropped their weapons, some even wailed loudly, and the fear of death had already taken control of them.

  Survival is the most basic instinct of every person, they were just ordinary farmers and small vendors before becoming soldiers, how could they possibly experience the kind of slaughter on the battlefield, even seasoned veterans would be nervous when encountering cavalry, let alone them.

  Were they wrong to flee? No! They were just the logistics troops, their task was only to escort grain and fodder. Were they wrong to charge forward? Not at all, they just wanted to survive.

  Liu Meng looked at these logistics camp soldiers and felt a pang of distress in his heart. If he were to block them here, it was likely that not one of the 5,000 logistics camp soldiers would survive. These were 5,000 lives, after all, and they would be slaughtered on the spot just because of his one order.

  Liu Mang's heart softened a bit, especially when he saw that there were some tender faces among the heavy troops, and an old body. The elderly and children? These objects that should be taken care of in peacetime can only struggle hard in this chaotic world. The long sword in the hands of the young is higher than their body, and the old man can still hold a weapon?

  They may be someone's son or someone's old father, but here there is only one name: soldier.

  "Get out of the way!" Liu Mang suddenly said with a very firm decision.

  "Huh?!" Cheng Yu was puzzled. "Let them through?" "General, absolutely not! If we let them through and they break our formation, we're done for!" Cheng Yu also knew that the only way to counter cavalry was with a well-formed battle array. Once scattered, it would be like serving themselves up to be slaughtered.

  Let them go? They will disperse in all directions.

  "Walk along the edge of the road!" The city management army formed a square array with a passageway on one side that could accommodate two people.

  "Thank you, General, for sparing our lives! Thank you, General, for sparing our lives!" The soldiers of the logistics battalion saw a glimmer of hope and joyfully thanked him before rushing to leave by the side road.

  "Whoosh!" Another good head fell to the ground, Liu Mang struck again, causing the logistics camp people to be shocked and lost in color. Had this general changed his mind again?

  Liu Mang coldly said, "Line up with the old and weak in front and the strong and sturdy in back!" If they rush forward all at once, those who will definitely be trampled to death or abandoned are the old and weak. It's also possible that they'll scatter the city guard army's formation. Only by lining up can this be avoided. Just now, Liu Mang executed a man who had pulled a soldier from the front line and thrown him behind an intruder in the queue.

  "Yes, yes!" These soldiers of the logistics camp had already seen Liu Mang's methods and one by one they obediently passed through in an orderly manner.

  One hundred people, two hundred people, three hundred people, five hundred people, one thousand people. When it had already passed two thousand people, Liu Mang suddenly ordered the closure of the thoroughfare.

  "General, no!"

  "General, please let us pass, please!"

  "General, save us! Save us!"

  Liu Mang could no longer bear these cries for help and mercy. He turned his head and coldly said, "Either charge forward against the enemy or try charging into formation! Anyone who charges into formation will be killed without pardon!"

  It was not that Liu Mao did not let them pass, but the enemy's cavalry had almost arrived, and Liu Mao had already seen the face of the opposing cavalry general.

  "Come on! Let me see how powerful the most terrifying troops of the Cold Arms era are!"