204: Chapter 204 The Second Expedition

This was simply not a war fought on equal footing!

This was clearly a one-sided, bloody massacre, devoid of any tactical elegance and purely crushing through absolute power, carried out by a group of professional soldiers armed to the teeth and forged with iron discipline and military spirit against a rebel army composed of desperate refugees and a rabble incited by profit!

Within a mere month, the so-called "Jingnan Army," which claimed to have three hundred thousand men and a massive momentum, was swept away like fallen leaves in an autumn wind by Xiang Hao's unreasonable torrent of steel, instantly ground into nothingness!

On the battlefield, corpses lay everywhere and blood flowed like a river; the rebels' flags were torn to shreds and buried deep in the moist soil of Jiangnan alongside severed limbs.

And those members of the "Anti-Wu Alliance" who hid behind the scenes, believing that the law could not punish the masses and thinking they could sit back and relax, soon tasted what true, bone-deep "despair" was!

Leading his "Divine Power Battalion," which had long since turned bloodthirsty from consecutive fierce battles, Xiang Hao followed the death list that "Tianwang" had already investigated clearly—down to which brothel each person liked to visit on a daily basis—and carried out the most thorough and bloody liquidation, door by door, across the entire Jiangnan region!

Every Jiangnan gentry and salt and iron merchant who participated in this rebellion, whether principal offender or accomplice, regardless of gender or age, had their families wiped out, with not even a chicken or dog left behind!

Those centuries-old noble families that had once acted tyrannically in the Jiangnan region, treating human life like grass and acting with supreme arrogance, were crushed like fragile ants by the state's violent machine, which knew no reason and recognized only military orders.

The scalding blood once again stained the rippling waters of the Qinhuang River red; the pleasure boats on the riverbank remained, but there was now an indelible tremor in the singing girls' zither music.

The shrill screams and desperate wails echoed for a long time over the prosperous Jiangnan, becoming an eternal nightmare in the hearts of all the survivors.

And with these tumors, which had entrenched themselves in Jiangnan like bone-gnawing gangrene, completely uprooted, an unexpected surprise appeared before Gao Feng, the Martial God.

The treasury of the Wu Dynasty, which had originally been incredibly empty and arguably riddled with debt, became, overnight, so full that it reached a terrifying level enough to drive any emperor crazy!

The mountains of gold, silver, and jewelry confiscated from the homes of these rebels required hundreds of large carts to barely transport; the grain and cloth, enough to completely fill the warehouses of the entire Ministry of Revenue, meant the imperial court would not have to worry about military provisions for years to come; and the tens of thousands of liberated slaves and tenant farmers injected the most powerful and surging fresh blood into this newborn Dynasty that had just experienced the trauma of war!

Gao Feng used such a bloody and cruel method that bordered on "killing the goose to get the golden egg," not only completely resolving the financial crisis that had plagued him for so long but also clearing the last and most stubborn obstacle to his grand blueprint aimed at creating eternal peace!

From then on, no one in the world dared to question any decree of this young emperor! His will was the only and supreme law of this country!

The fullness of the treasury was like injecting the most sufficient fuel into this massive and vibrant war machine.

Those military generals who had been constrained by poor logistics during the first Northern Expedition and were filled with endless grievance and unwillingness, their long-restless, warlike hearts once again burned fiercely like flames doused with hot oil!

Especially Ma Qianli, the vanguard general who had witnessed thousands of his comrades-in-arms launch suicidal charges without fear of death just to create a battle opportunity for him at the foot of Langjuxu Mountain, only for the culprit Boerte to flee in a panic like a frightened bird—the flame of unwillingness and revenge in his heart burned to the extreme!

He woke up almost every night from nightmares of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, his back soaked in sweat.

The eyes of those thousands of comrades-in-arms before they died, filled with unwillingness and expectation, were like the sharpest knives, slicing his already scarred heart over and over again!

He knew that he had to personally take Boerte's head and use the blood of the Prairie King to pay tribute to the spirits of the comrades who had died miserably on the grasslands!

Otherwise, he would live the rest of his life in this endless regret and self-reproach, unable to sleep or eat in peace!

Therefore, at the victory banquet for the Jiangnan rebellion, just as everyone was immersed in the great joy of a full treasury, shouting long live, and clinking glasses, Ma Qianli, who was already flushed and had bloodshot eyes, suddenly stood up from his seat.

With a "thud," his heavy armor colliding with the gold bricks to make a loud sound, he knelt on one knee before Gao Feng, who sat high on the dragon throne, and roared with a hoarse voice filled with endless tragedy and determination:

"Your Majesty!"

"Your subject, Ma Qianli, requests to fight!"

"Please, Your Majesty, give this subject one more chance! Give this subject fifty thousand iron cavalry!"

"This subject is willing to stake his own head as a guarantee! If I cannot take the head of that brat Boerte and present it before Your Majesty, I am willing to commit suicide on the battlefield to apologize to the world!"

Ma Qianli's words were like a boulder, slamming into the already turbulent lake of the imperial court, instantly stirring up a thousand waves! All the ministers were stunned by his bloody, almost crazy, and resolute posture!

Gao Feng quietly watched his beloved general kneeling before him; in those bloodshot eyes burned a raging fire and endless obsession sufficient to burn the entire world to the ground. A trace of imperceptible complexity flashed in his own eyes, which were as deep as a sea of stars.

He knew that the battle at Langjuxu Mountain, although a glorious strategic victory, was an eternal, unerasable Heart Demon filled with humiliation and unwillingness for Ma Qianli, who had personally experienced the bloody battle.

If this Heart Demon could not be broken by his own hands, then the martial path of this General of Cavalry, who originally had a limitless future, would likely end here.

Moreover, from the perspective of the country, Boerte, who was still wandering in the depths of the grasslands like a lone prairie wolf, was indeed a confidant threat that had to be eliminated.

Now that the treasury was full and the troops were strong, it was indeed the best time to thoroughly resolve the northern border trouble.

Furthermore, Zhao Yu, who had achieved final victory in the first Northern Expedition but had paid a painful price, and his Dragon Steed Iron Cavalry, which had been almost crippled, indeed needed a period of rest and replenishment and were not suitable for battle for the time being.

In terms of emotion and reason, and both publicly and privately, this request from Ma Qianli seemed to have nothing improper about it.

Thinking of this, Gao Feng slowly stood up from the dragon throne; he personally walked down the imperial steps and helped Ma Qianli, who was already in tears, up from the ground.

"Beloved subject, rise." Gao Feng's voice was filled with endless gentleness and trust, "Your loyalty and courage greatly gratify My heart."

"I grant it."

"However," Gao Feng's tone shifted, and a trace of unquestionable majesty and gravity flashed in his deep eyes, "I also have one condition."

"For this battle, I can make you the commander-in-chief, responsible for all military affairs of this Northern Expedition."

"However, I want to send someone to be your deputy general."

"You must unconditionally follow his suggestions. All major military and national affairs must be discussed with him before a decision can be made. If there is any violation, I will definitely deal with it according to military law, and I will never be lenient!"

Ma Qianli was slightly stunned upon hearing this; although he was somewhat unwilling in his heart, he still replied in a deep voice without hesitation: "This general obeys the decree! I do not know whom Your Majesty intends to send to accompany this general?"

Gao Feng turned around slowly; his cold gaze swept over the civil and military officials in the hall and finally landed on a young general who had been standing like a javelin in the ranks of the military generals—this person looked unremarkable, but his eyes always shone with a steady and calm light like a rock.

"Flank General." Gao Feng's voice was calm and filled with unquestionable power.

"This subject is here!" Flank General suddenly stood out from the ranks; there was no extra expression on his face, which had been weathered by wind and sand, but his deep eyes shone with the light of wisdom and rationality.

"I appoint you as the deputy commander of this Northern Expedition to assist Ma Qianli!"

"I only have one request!" Gao Feng's voice suddenly became extremely heavy!

"For me, watch him!"

"Tell him when to charge and when to stop!"

"I do not wish to see another battle report of a tragic victory filled with humiliation and unwillingness!"

"This subject obeys the decree!" Flank General's voice was resonant and powerful! He knew that what he was carrying on his shoulders was not just the honor and power of a deputy commander, but also the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers and the safety of the entire Empire!

Autumn, the fifth year of Qiyuan of the Wu Dynasty. The second Northern Expedition officially kicked off under the gaze of the entire Empire, full of endless expectation and fanaticism.

The scale of this expedition and the adequacy of its preparations were even greater than the first one!

One hundred and fifty thousand elite troops of the Wu Dynasty, who had long been rested and were in high spirits, led personally by the commander-in-chief Ma Qianli, once again stepped onto the unknown and dangerous Hanhai Grasslands like a black torrent of death!

However, this time, what they were about to face was no longer the Boerte who still carried a trace of the prairie people's characteristic straightforwardness and preference for head-on decisive battles.

But a Prairie King who had become more cunning, more cruel, and more ghostly after experiencing the crushing defeat at the foot of Langjuxu Mountain!

Boerte had profoundly learned the painful lesson from the last time, when he had underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, engaging in a head-on decisive battle with the Wu Dynasty's army, only to end up losing his main force and fleeing in a panic!

He knew that in the face of the Wu Dynasty's unreasonable and terrifying firearms, any form of head-on confrontation was tantamount to self-destruction!

He completely broke down his few but elite Azure Wolf Rangers into small units of hundreds, like a pack of wolves merging into the prairie, becoming one with this vast, seemingly endless green ocean!

Utilizing their bone-deep familiarity with this land and their terrifying, wind-like mobility, they engaged the sluggish, giant-like Wu Dynasty army in a protracted game of cat and mouse, filled with endless danger and torment!

The commander, Ma Qianli, already blinded by the flames of vengeance and the desire to achieve glory, fell completely into the death trap Boerte had meticulously prepared for him, just as Gao Feng had predicted!

He completely ignored the earnest advice of his deputy, Flank General, who even went so far as to invoke military law to urge him to "advance steadily, fortify step by step, and compress their living space with fortresses," stubbornly believing this was merely a desperate tactic by Boerte to exhaust his enemy.

Stubbornly, he left his sluggish main force of 100,000 infantry far behind, and personally led 30,000 of his most elite vanguard cavalry, deep into enemy territory like an arrow released from a string, launching a nearly insane long-distance pursuit toward the traces of the so-called "enemy main force" discovered by his scouts!

However, after pursuing for ten full days, he did not even see a shadow of the enemy, and instead led his 30,000 cavalry into a deadly wasteland that had never been marked on any map.

It was a vast, seemingly endless black Gobi desert. There was not a single cloud in the sky, only a scorching, venomous sun like a fireball, wantonly baking this dead land that had long since lost all vitality.

On the ground, there was not a single blade of green grass or a drop of water to be seen, only scorching black gravel and strangely shaped, weathered rocks.

When Ma Qianli led his exhausted, parched 30,000 cavalry into this "Black Wind Gobi," which was like a living hell, he finally realized, too late, that he had been tricked!

But it was already too late! Boerte, who had been waiting patiently outside the Gobi, finally closed the massive death net he had long since cast, like the most patient of hunters.

Tens of thousands of "Azure Wolf Rangers" appeared simultaneously from all sides of the Gobi like ghosts, surrounding Ma Qianli's forces so tightly they were like turtles in a jar!

However, Boerte did not choose to launch an immediate all-out attack. He only ordered his rangers to hang far around the Wu Dynasty army, surrounding them without attacking, using only poisoned arrows to conduct endless, unavoidable harassment!

He wanted to use the terrifying high temperature of this Gobi, which was enough to melt steel, and the desperate thirst that could break even the hardest of hearts, to wear these "prey," who had lost all paths of retreat, to death right here!

This was a psychological strategy more cruel and vicious than direct slaughter!

Three days without water! Three full days without a single drop!

The scorching sun was like the most malicious curse, mercilessly baking the bodies and Souls of every Wu Dynasty soldier who was already on the verge of collapse!

Their lips were already dried and cracked into shocking bloody gashes, and their throats were so parched it felt as if they were about to burst into flames on the spot!

Their eyes, once filled with sharpness, now held only deep despair and numbness, like dead ash.

The morale of the army had completely collapsed!

Some soldiers, unable to endure the terrifying torture which felt like being sliced by a thousand knives, began to go mad, brandishing their sabers and attacking their comrades like mad dogs, just to snatch the long-empty water skins!

Ma Qianli, this once arrogant General of Cavalry who thought himself invincible, now sat powerlessly on the scorching gravel like a defeated rooster whose spirit had been drained away.

His face, already darkened and cracked by the wind and sand, was filled with deep regret and despair. Watching those loyal soldiers who had fallen into a death trap because of his stupidity and arrogance, he felt as if his heart were being tightly gripped by an invisible hand, so painful he could barely breathe!

For the first time, he felt what "true despair" meant.

He knew he was finished. The 30,000 cavalry under his command were also finished. He would become the greatest and most ridiculous sinner in the entire Wu Dynasty!

However, just as he was about to be completely swallowed by endless regret and despair, and was even preparing to draw his sword and commit suicide before the troops to apologize to the world, a calm and powerful voice exploded in his ears like a thunderclap!

"General! We have not lost yet!"

Ma Qianli raised his head abruptly and saw his deputy, Flank General, whom he had always regarded as a "coward," standing quietly before him.

Although his face, weathered by the wind and sand, was also filled with fatigue and thirst, his deep eyes still shone with a calmness and determination as unshakable as a rock!

"Not lost yet?" Ma Qianli let out a bitter and self-mocking laugh upon hearing this. "Flank General, open your eyes and look! We have run out of ammunition and food, and haven't had a drop of water! We will be thirsty to death within three days! What do we have to win with?!"

"With this!"

Flank General did not waste any words. He abruptly drew the saber at his waist and, under the gaze of all the dumbfounded soldiers, unhesitatingly stabbed the belly of his own warhorse, which was also at its last gasp!

"Splurt!" The scalding horse blood gushed out frantically like a fountain!

Flank General caught a full helmet of the steaming horse blood, which was filled with a pungent, gamey odor. Then, in front of everyone, he raised his head and drank the horse blood, which would make any normal person gag on the spot, in big gulps!

"Soldiers!" Flank General wiped his mouth with his blood-stained sleeve. His bloodshot eyes swept over every soldier present, who had been rendered speechless by his crazy act, and he roared with a hoarse voice full of endless power: "I know you are thirsty! You are hungry! You are desperate!"

"But I tell you! We are the soldiers of His Majesty the Martial Emperor! We are the soldiers of the Wu Dynasty!"

"Not a single soldier of the Wu Dynasty is a coward!"

"Even if a soldier of the Wu Dynasty dies, he must die standing! He must bite a piece of meat off the enemy!"

"Now, listen to my command!" Flank General's voice suddenly became filled with unquestionable authority! "Kill the horses! Drink the horse blood! Eat the horse meat! And then, build me a defensive line! Pile up all the horse carcasses to use as cover! Reinforcements will arrive soon! We must hold on! Hold on until the moment the reinforcements arrive!!!"

Flank General's words were like thunderbolts from the Nine Heavens, striking hard at the hearts of every soldier who was on the verge of collapse! In their eyes, which had long since lost their luster, the roaring flames of "hope" and "survival" were instantly reignited!

They forgot despair, they forgot death! In their hearts, there remained only the most primitive and pure desire to survive!

"Kill!" "Kill!!!" "Kill!!!!!"

Under Flank General's infectious command, the 30,000 cavalry, whose morale had long since disintegrated, seemed to come back to life, once again erupting with a terrifying cohesion and combat power that could make the heavens and earth change color!

They killed the warhorses that were already overwhelmed as quickly as possible, moistened their parched and cracked throats with the scalding horse blood, and filled their starving bellies with the pungent, gamey horse meat!

Then, they used the tens of thousands of cold horse carcasses and the scorching gravel to build a circular defensive line that was simple yet indestructible!

They were like wounded beasts driven to a dead end, baring their ferocious fangs, already stained red with blood!

Boerte, who had been watching all this from afar, saw that the Wu Dynasty army, which had originally been like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, had regained its combat power in the blink of an eye. For the first time, a trace of imperceptible gravity appeared on his usually confident and composed face.

He knew he had underestimated this seemingly unremarkable Wu Dynasty deputy.

Supported by drinking horse blood and eating horse meat, and under Flank General's calm and efficient command, this isolated army, which had been driven to a dead end, was like the most tenacious cactus in the desert, stubbornly holding out for another two full days on this deadly Gobi!

And just as they were about to be completely submerged by the endless enemies and were about to bleed their last drop of blood, the long-delayed reinforcements finally arrived!

The God of War Zhao Yu, who had been waiting anxiously in the rear, received the plea for help desperately delivered by the messenger sent by Flank General. He made a prompt decision not to wait for His Majesty's imperial decree, and on his own authority led the 50,000 Dragon Steed Iron Cavalry under his command, who had already finished resting, like divine soldiers descending from the heavens. With the momentum of a thunderbolt, they slammed fiercely into the rear formation of Boerte's army, which had been holding victory in its grasp.

Attacked from both the front and the rear! The "Azure Wolf Rangers," who had originally been arrogant, instantly fell into a state of unprecedented chaos and collapse!

Ma Qianli's troops, who had been besieged for many days, saw the familiar "Zhao" commander's flag fluttering in the wind. Their suppressed anger and Battle Intent exploded at this moment!

They let out deafening, wild roars like prehistoric beasts released from their cages, charging fiercely out from the circular defensive line made of horse carcasses. Working with the reinforcements that had descended from the heavens, they launched the bloodiest and craziest counterattack against the prairie barbarians, whose ranks were already in disarray!