The decisive battle for the nation's destiny

Maha Bandula was furious as his reinforcements were harassed and attacked, but he was helpless. Now, his greatest hope was that his father could send some troops.

However, Maha Thihathura was also powerless; over the past few years, Toungoo had lost nearly 100,000 troops under Gao Yuan.

Year after year, wave after wave, they hadn't even had a chance to catch their breath. Just at this moment, trouble arose in the north; the Mughal Empire suddenly dispatched troops and captured small countries like Tripura.

The buffer zone between Toungoo and the Mughal Empire was gone, forcing Maha Thihathura to send Bayinnaung and the last 30,000 mobile troops to the northern front.

In other words, apart from the troops Maha Bandula could assemble, the 30,000 troops Bayinnaung led to Chittagong on the northern front, and the 10,000 troops stationed at Toungoo City, the King had no soldiers left at his disposal.

Many county towns had reached the point where they only had a few dozen veteran soldiers left, a testament to their miserable state.

However, Maha Thihathura also knew that this upcoming decisive battle at Ayutthaya would be the one that determined the national destiny of Toungoo.

If Maha Bandula was defeated, Toungoo would no longer have the ability to organize any decent resistance, and Gao Yuan would be able to occupy any prefecture he wanted at any time.

Therefore, even despite such difficulties, he still decided to transfer 7,000 men from the capital's garrison to Ayutthaya.

Toungoo was now like a weak elephant; it looked massive on the surface, but internally, it was already terminally ill.

It was a pity that Gao Yuan didn't know this. If he had known, he wouldn't have bothered with a decisive battle; he would have just split his troops and headed straight for their home base.

After stumbling and struggling for nearly two months, Maha Bandula finally assembled over 60,000 troops, gaining the courage to fight Gao Yuan.

On Gao Yuan's side, the various units had completed their missions and regrouped. Previous casualties and losses had finally been replenished, and the soldiers, after resting, were in high spirits.

This decisive battle, which would determine the national destiny of Toungoo, finally arrived in the sweltering summer.

Since arriving in the Southwest, this was the first time Gao Yuan had fought a battle where his numbers were not at a disadvantage; well, it could be considered a rare battle fought with abundant resources.

However, his good mood was quickly evaporated by the scorching weather, leaving nothing behind. Fortunately, his logistics support was excellent, providing not only ice water but also fruit.

Toungoo did not have such good treatment. After the two sides stood in a standoff for over an hour, some Toungoo soldiers could no longer hold on and collapsed, causing quite a commotion.

This was the first time Gao Yuan witnessed what real large-scale unit warfare was; it was not simply everyone charging up and hacking away.

Both sides deployed their formations, stood in a standoff, and maneuvered, looking for each other's weaknesses. This process was very long, and it was possible for this repeated maneuvering to last for several hours.

Seeing Liu Rengui commanding with such composure, Gao Yuan finally understood why he still only had A-rank command ability despite reading so many military books; the gap was truly immense.

After a long standoff, the gap between the two sides quickly became apparent.

On the Toungoo side, both the level of the commanders and the training of the soldiers were far inferior to the Qian Army. Furthermore, logistics support was inadequate, and once the soldiers' water skins were empty, they had to just tough it out.

Seeing that many soldiers had cracked lips and would likely suffer from heatstroke if they didn't drink water soon, Maha Bandula had no choice.

"Send laborers to deliver water and let the soldiers take turns drinking."

Having been thirsty for so long and finally seeing cool water, human instinct caused some Toungoo soldiers to forget their duties. The Toungoo formation finally fell into chaos, and gaps appeared.

At this moment, Liu Rengui waved his command flag and shouted an order.

"All troops, attack!"

The war drums rumbled and grew faster and faster; the Qian Army soldiers immediately stood up and began to advance.

Xia Luqi quickly peeled an orange and stuffed it directly into his mouth. While mounting his horse, he chewed greedily, and juice flowed from the corners of his mouth, leaving a yellow trail.

Soon, this trail changed color, from orange to the bright red of blood, and then gradually turned dark red.

Maha Bandula had guessed that the Qian Army would attack at such a moment, but even knowing this was useless. At this moment, he could only abandon the first line of defense and order the second line to move up, hoping to stabilize the formation.

At this moment, the rumbling of hooves emerged from the flank of the Toungoo army formation, and soon a troop of Cavalry appeared before them.

In black iron armor and wearing black iron face masks, each of the Cavalry looked like a demon from hell, terrifying to behold.

On the command platform, Mu Qing stared nervously at that rapidly moving black dragon, keeping her eyes fixed on the man in the formation who made her heart ache with worry.

The Toungoo heavy shield soldiers were already engaged in the front and had no ability to turn and deal with the Cavalry that had appeared on the flank; they could only rely on the spearmen on the flank to hold the line.

However, Gao Yuan, leading the Cavalry, did not choose to charge the formation directly. Instead, they quickly swept in an arc, and then the Cavalry drew crossbows with unique designs and began to quickly pull the mechanisms on them.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh..."

The arrows fired from the repeating crossbows flew into the Toungoo formation like a dense rain. The unprotected spearmen became living targets, falling one after another as they were struck by arrows.

In just a few breaths, the ten crossbow bolts in the magazine were fired, and the Cavalry quickly disengaged from the battlefield to the side to prepare for the next round of assault.

After reloading the magazines with bolts, the Cavalry approached the battlefield from the flank again.

Another dense rain of arrows slaughtered them; the Toungoo's flank, which had just been reorganized, suffered a heavy blow again, and the formation began to fall into chaos.

Seizing this opportunity, Gao Yuan hung the repeating crossbow on his Desheng hook and raised his spear.

"Wedge formation, charge!"

Like a sharp knife, the Cavalry plunged into the flank of the panicked toungoo people and quickly widened the wound. The splashing blood made Gao Yuan excited and terrified the toungoo people.

Gao Yuan was protected in the middle by his Personal Guards and could only pick off a few stragglers to satisfy his urge, which gave him the feeling of having all this strength but nowhere to use it.

Having pierced through the Toungoo formation, Gao Yuan did not rush to turn back and pierce through again; everyone stopped to let the horses catch their breath and feed them some water.

Gao Yuan took the opportunity to call Zhao Meng over.

"Zhao Meng, let's switch it up this time. I will serve as the arrowhead, and you all follow me!"

"My Lord, you cannot! It is simply too dangerous!"

Others also tried to persuade him, but Gao Yuan stubbornly blocked them all.

"I am a warrior general, after all. Being protected in the middle like this without even a chance to swing my blade—what does that look like? If you don't agree, I will go fight on foot."

Unable to win against Gao Yuan, the group finally agreed to let Gao Yuan fight behind Zhao Meng.

Ancient generals always brought Personal Guards with them when fighting. If the general suffered any mishap, these Personal Guards would have to be buried with him, so Gao Yuan understood the concerns of these Personal Guards.

After resting for a long time, seeing that the Toungoo formation was on the verge of collapse, Gao Yuan knew it was time for him to move!

He swung onto his horse, put on his iron face mask, and turned to look at his soldiers.

"Soldiers, victory is right before our eyes. Follow me and charge to crush the enemy!"

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The momentum of the 400-plus Cavalry was no less than that of a thousand troops and ten thousand horses.

As the three shouts of "Kill!" ended, this Cavalry once again became silent gods of slaughter, and as their warhorses gradually accelerated, they charged toward the enemy formation again.

The weather was hot, and the Toungoo soldiers, who had barely drunk any water, were already on the verge of collapse; they were now at the end of their rope.

At such a time, even the slightest blow could cause them to collapse completely.

At this moment, the person who would make them collapse had arrived!