Mythical Three Kingdoms

If the enemy’s ground battle is as terrifying as their naval battle, then there’s nothing more to say—this formation is quite safe for retreat as well. After all, sacrificing himself just to save Gan Ning is the sort of thing Zhou Yu absolutely wouldn’t do.

If Kushan’s ground battle is still passable, then Zhou Yu can quickly extend both wings to fight a suppressive battle, forcing the Kushan Navy to shift their focus from Gan Ning to the Land Forces, easing Gan Ning’s pressure so he can hurry up and run.

Of course, if they’ve already reached that point and Gan Ning still doesn’t retreat, Zhou Yu feels that with his temperament he’s already done all that righteousness demands, worthy of Chen Zichuan’s trust. Whether Gan Ning runs or not, he himself will pull back first.

If Kushan’s ground level is below a certain standard, Zhou Yu plans to trade some manpower, and forcibly use the central formation’s ”chef’s knife” to hack the enemy Central Army to pieces.

After that, taking advantage of the chaos, he’ll push hard into the enemy Military Camp and directly set it ablaze. Zhou Yu simply doesn’t believe that under such circumstances the Kushan Navy will still have the mood to encircle and annihilate Gan Ning. What a joke—so many warships, their supplies must rely heavily on the Land Forces’ camp.

Without Logistics and supplies, Zhou Yu doesn’t believe they can maintain such an insanely large fleet to its limits. Mm, Zhou Yu admits he himself would like to have a fleet like that.

”Huh?” Zhou Yu pressed his fingers to his forehead, staring speechlessly at Sunx Ce. In just this short while that he hadn’t gone along, Sunx Ce had managed to stab out such a huge mess. This was the rhythm of everything going to hell.

”What do I do, Gongjin?” Sunx Ce said, somewhat panicked. His built‑in brain is usually switched off, but some things he still understands—for example, after this round, once Ma Chao and Zhao Yun catch their breath they’ll definitely come looking to beat him up.

”In that kind of situation, when Marquis Wenn is fighting Zhao Zilong, you go hit Meng Qi,” Zhou Yu said, with a certain maliciousness. ”Later Marquis Wenn sees you’ve already beaten Meng Qi, he definitely won’t have the mind to keep targeting Meng Qi. Wouldn’t you have saved Meng Qi’s life then? And when Zhao Zilong comes for you afterwards, with Meng Qi’s IQ he’ll definitely be willing to join you in beating Zhao Zilong.”

”Eh?” Sunx Ce was dumbfounded, realizing it could be played that way. Then he reacted again, ”Even the two of us together might not be able to beat him.”

”At least two people won’t end up worse than just one,” Zhou Yu said casually. Anyway it’s Sunx Ce getting beaten, not Zhou Yu. Besides, Zhao Yun does have a bottom line; he’s not going to kill Sunx Ce. So Zhou Yu simply doesn’t take this matter to heart.

”Right, right.” Sunx Ce thought it over and felt it made a lot of sense, nodding repeatedly on the spot.

”Enough, drop that topic. The rest we’ll talk about later. For now, follow me to probe the enemy’s Military Camp. Get everything ready that can be activated—Legion Talent, Military Formation, Cloud Qi Solidified Army Formation.” Zhou Yu issued orders to everyone.

The Han Army hadn’t yet advanced to the position Zhou Yu had previously estimated when Kushan’s main force already appeared before him. Taking in the somewhat loose enemy formation and those inexplicable formation nodes, Zhou Yu relaxed a great deal and decisively prepared to use the ’chef’s knife’ to chop the other side to death.

Even if those points are all camouflage, they still genuinely affect their own Combat Power. If someone can, in the middle of combat, instantly sort out that kind of scattered node layout, then Zhou Yu admits he can directly concede defeat.

Because if someone’s ability to Command Troops genuinely reaches that level, then whether Zhou Yu’s judgment is correct or not doesn’t really matter—either way he’s dead.

Both sides, upon seeing each other, showed no intent to halt. When the distance closed to within a hundred paces, the small thousand‑odd cavalry on Kushan’s side, under Barry’s single order, pierced in from the flank toward Zhou Yu. Zhou Yu didn’t even look at the enemy cavalry, directly ordering the main army to advance under arrow‑rain suppression.

Having taken part in the Northern Frontier war and witnessed a true tide of ten thousand horses, Zhou Yu already possesses extremely high mastery in infantry counter‑cavalry tactics. For him, this wave of a bit over a thousand cavalry is nothing more than an appetizer.

Arrows rained down from both sides. The Sword and Shield Infantry at the very front of the Han Army naturally angled their Great Shields into a curve that deflected the arrows. After too many wars, a lot of things have become instinct.

And as the first wave of arrow‑rain burst forth, the Han Army’s Legion Talent, Thrust Formation, and the Cloud Qi Formation solidified in the sky all manifested simultaneously.

”Extend the flank. Jiangh Qin will lead the Central Army Guard in an assault. Li Yan’s Elite of Danyang will lead the archers for arrow‑rain suppression,” Zhou Yu ordered. With his sensitivity to Military Formation, he’d already discovered three months earlier the advantages of combining Cloud Qi Solidified Army Formation with the formation itself.

Although with both applied simultaneously the effect can’t quite reach the sum of the two, once certain attributes reach a certain level, every bit of improvement can be called a qualitative leap.

This time, the formation Zhou Yu used was one of the formations he’d forcibly carved out from that grand array of Chen Xi’s back then, one that can greatly improve their own reaction speed.

This formation, in Zhou Yu’s classification, is something that’s like slicing melons and vegetables when used against a weaker enemy; gives a pretty good boost when used against an equal; and is most suitable for running away when used against a stronger foe—and right now, this formation is the most fitting choice.

With Zhou Yu’s command, the entire army flared with all kinds of radiance, and Zhou Yu’s zither sound calmed every soldier to the steadiest state.

Although from a certain point of view, calm soldiers are not suited for war, because with that calm mindset they cannot explode with combat power beyond their limits.

However, Zhou Yu doesn’t need them to burst out with extreme power; Zhou Yu only needs the soldiers’ mentality to be calm enough to obey his orders.

As long as they can attack when it’s time to attack, and know to retreat when the order to withdraw is given, that’s enough. As long as they don’t charge in while their brains are muddled, fall into the enemy formation and take excessive losses, it’s fine. After all, there was no intelligence at all before this battle was joined, so the only thing Zhou Yu can do is be careful and cautious.

In fact, when the army under Zhou Yu’s command and the great host under Barry’s command came face to face, both sides already knew that the other side was a regular army. They might not know which country the other regular army belonged to, but it definitely wasn’t from some petty state, because when they looked across, each side could see the Leather Armor on the other side’s soldiers.

Yet when both sides closed to the range where arrow rain burst out, the Han Army blossomed with its own Legion Talent, the grand army formation and Cloud Qi solidified, the Kushan Commander-in-chief instantly guessed the identity of the force opposite him.

For this kind of land-force military might, Kushan can think of only one country—the Han Dynasty. As for small states, there simply does not exist any petty state that can create this kind of power. To speak plainly, this is the heritage of the Great Righteous Nation. Thus in an instant Barry understood why Qiu Lique had called this a campaign to wipe out bandits!

”Duruka, order the Death Soldier Camp to put on armor and prepare to block the enemy’s assault! Tell them: in this battle, if they slashing kill even one enemy, they can become Regular Soldiers. If we win this battle, every man in the Death Soldier Camp can obtain a Regular Soldier slot!” Barry made up his mind on the spot and issued orders directly to Duruka.

Duruka froze. The two of them were both nobles, and as army commanders they each held quotas—that is, every year they had a fixed number of Lower Class people who could escape from misery through them. In Kushan, there was no shortage of anything else, but there were especially many Lower Class.

Several million, tens of millions of Lower Class—that’s roughly the situation. Although many of those whom the nobles called Lower Class did not technically belong to that caste level, in practice, for nobles, anyone below the Kshatriya level was Lower Class. That’s why in later ages the Prime Minister of India would say that India only had two hundred million people.

In this era, the Lower Class in Kushan’s Death Soldier Camp, or rather its slave camp, are true Lower Class. Their sole meaning is to charge into the enemy’s great army and fight for their lives, then survive, and have their individual situations assessed. Generally speaking, if someone can survive ten such charges, he can thoroughly leave the Lower Class ranks.

But to speak reasonably, among a thousand Death Soldiers you’ll be lucky if one manages to accomplish this; all the rest die in the process. And this kind of rigid caste system in Kushan, with the upper levels exerting strong control over the lower levels, makes every stratum desperately eager to rise.

Yet in reality, the difficulty of rising is extremely high; the higher you go, the harder it gets. Kshatriya is basically the hard limit. Precisely because it is so hard, every caste cherishes every opportunity. As for Lower Class people—whose lives are already worthless—staking their lives is still worth it.

Thus Barry naming such a clear price is practically divine favor for those Lower Class in the Death Soldier Camp. But from Duruka’s point of view, this is simply messing around. Putting armor on Lower Class, what kind of joke is that? Aren’t Lower Class supposed to be used to block arrow rain and then hacked down in the charge?

”There’s a ninety percent chance the opponent is the Han Army Regular Army!” Barry said coldly. ”Do you want to suffer a crushing defeat like Brack and Yano Lipu?”

Duruka started, then immediately turned his head to look at the opposing side, his heart tightening. ”I’ll go and organize the other Death Soldiers right away, get armor on them. You hold them off here for a bit; if that doesn’t work, send my Porona Corps up to the front first. How could we allow the Han Army to look down on us!”

”Hurry up and organize those armored Death Soldiers. I’ll block them here. As for whether your Porona Corps gets wiped out, that depends on how fast you move.” Barry said, not even turning his head.

Right in front of Duruka, Barry pressed Duruka’s Elite Legion straight up to the front line, then thought about it and pushed his own trusted aide forward as well. The opponent was the Han Army, and knowing exactly how Brack and Yano Lipu’s lot had lost back then, neither Barry nor Duruka dared to underestimate the other side.

Jiangh Qin took the lead on horseback, commanding his own trusted aide to plunge straight into the enemy’s main formation under the cover of the Elite of Danyang and the Eastern Wu Archers. The arrow rain volley cut off Kushan’s counterattack even as it cooperated with Jiangh Qin’s army to forcibly break apart the enemy formation.

You could say that, under heaven today, among archer legions capable of this kind of high-difficulty coordination, in the Central Plains there’s probably only this group from Eastern Wu. After all, not just any legion’s archers can guarantee that their arrow rain will land precisely three to ten paces in front of their own comrades, and moreover avoid friendly fire.

As for that cheat-like archery of the Elite of Danyang, which can shoot through the gaps between their comrades’ arms and legs to hit the enemy without accidentally wounding their own—that is entirely based on the Double Talent of full-field vision plus lead-time judgement. Any normal archer who tried it would be courting death.