Chapter 609 - 608: Peasant Woman 37
Yang Youchang gritted his teeth. "We’re not taking the tunnel! We’ll go to the city gate and coordinate with My Lady from there!"
「Two hours earlier.」
Outside the walls of Youzhou City, Yuan Cheng sat ramrod straight on his horse, his eyes growing increasingly anxious.
He glanced at Tan You, positioned just ahead and to his side, a sense of disbelief still lingering. ’How did I end up just following her orders? Leading seven thousand troops straight out of Yunzhou City?’
There was still no sign of movement from within the city. ’Could Yue Shu and his men have failed? If our group stays outside Youzhou City, won’t the Beirong discover us at dawn?’
Lost in these thoughts, Yuan Cheng didn’t dare utter a single question. He felt there was something uncanny about this woman. She seemed to know everything, and in her presence, he felt completely transparent.
Just as Yuan Cheng and the other commanders were growing uneasy, several loud BOOMS suddenly echoed from within the city. Chen Yue’s face lit up with excitement. "They did it! I told you they should have let me go too."
An Wen glanced at her. "If you went, you’d just get in the Yue Team’s way, and they’d have to babysit you."
Chen Yue pouted. "Mom, shouldn’t we be charging in now? We should kick ’em while they’re down! With so many of us, we can carve a path straight through them."
Tan You held up a hand. "No rush. Now that they’ve seen our signal flare, Yue Shu and his team will head for the gate. It’s better to wait for them than to waste our strength forcing our way in."
Chen Yue grinned. "An attack from both sides!"
Tan You nodded. "Chen Yue is right about one thing: we have to strike while they’re down. If we wait until dawn, the Beirong army will have time to calm down. Their internal power struggles will begin, but if we show up then, they’ll only unite to face a common enemy."
"But if we attack now, we can easily catch them completely off guard."
As Tan You spoke, the clash of weapons suddenly rang out from within the city, mixed with shouts of "Enemy attack!" and "Treachery!" In truth, a commotion had broken out on the city walls the moment the signal flare had been fired, and some soldiers had even been sent out to investigate.
However, Tan You and her forces were hidden too far away and in a well-concealed position, so the Beirong soldiers hadn’t discovered them.
Chen Yue was raring to go. "Mom, is it time to charge?"
Tan You raised her right hand. "Attack!"
The morale of Yuan Cheng and the other commanders surged. They knew the Beirong army inside was in chaos, and they even had allies opening the way. Plus, they had the gunpowder provided by Tan You. It was safe to say every soldier was now champing at the bit to fight.
Soon enough, Yue Shu and Yang Youchang threw open the city gates. Yuan Cheng and his men spurred their horses and charged inside. But Chen Yue was even faster. Like a Little Leopard, she shot to the front of the charge. "Mom, I’ll be your vanguard! I’m going in!"
Tan You shook her head but simply followed the main force forward.
For this expedition, only Chen Xi had been left behind to guard Yunzhou State. Apart from Chen Xing, who remained with the clan, everyone from the Chen family was present on the battlefield. To put it bluntly, if a single explosive were to land in their midst, the Chen family would be completely wiped out.
The moment they opened the gates, Yue Shu and Yang Youchang spotted Tan You arriving with the Yunzhou State garrison. The two men rushed over. "My Lady, we have fulfilled our mission! The heads of Tuoba Qi and his generals are all here."
Yuan Cheng was so excited he nearly leaped from his horse. "Really? Tuoba Qi is actually dead?"
Yue Shu opened an oilskin bundle. "Yes. This is Tuoba Qi."
Tan You glanced at the distinctly foreign-styled braids before indifferently looking away. "You’ve done well. Is anyone injured?"
They all broke into smiles. "No, we were careful."
Tan You said, "You’ve just fought a hard battle and must be exhausted. For the rest of this fight, you should stay in the rear. Get some rest and regain your strength."
Yue Shu’s voice boomed. "My Lady, I’m not tired!"
The other members of the special squad chimed in, insisting they weren’t tired at all! They could go another three hundred rounds.
Tan You lowered her gaze, a small smile playing on her lips. "I won’t stop you from seeking glory. But your health must come first. Fighting on a battlefield while exhausted is no trivial matter."
Yang Youchang laughed too. "I’m getting old. A run like that has completely worn me out. It’s natural for the young ones to want to charge forward and prove themselves. I’ll stay with you, My Lady."
Tan You smiled. "Then stay with me, Master Yang. The rest of you, don’t push yourselves beyond your limits."
After that brief exchange, the group quickly joined the main formation. They were all naturally curious about what had transpired inside the military camp, but the war had already resumed the moment they entered Youzhou City. Any gossip would have to wait until the fighting was over.
Even though Yue Shu and his men had caused such a massive uproar within the Beirong camp, it was still an army of one hundred thousand. At most, they had taken out ten thousand or so. The remaining number of soldiers, even scattered and fleeing, was still immense.
Even with the over seven thousand soldiers Tan You brought, their numbers were pitifully small against such a massive force. That was why she had given clear orders on the way here: regardless of anything else, they were to lead with their most destructive weapons.
Chen Yue executed Tan You’s orders perfectly. After charging into the city, she led a squad to repeat their signature tactic. Everywhere they ran, the ground trembled with thunderous explosions.
To date, only the personal guards Tan You had brought were proficient in using the explosives. As for the garrison soldiers, Tan You wouldn’t dare let them use the weapons even if they were trained, fearing accidents and friendly fire.
Therefore, Yuan Cheng and his men could only follow behind the guards and clean up the survivors. While it felt a little anticlimactic, they had to admit that fighting this way was... incredibly exhilarating. It was the joy of an effortless victory.
For the Beirong army, this was a night of absolute horror. First, their camp had been thrown into utter chaos, their supplies torched, and their Great Khan, Tuoba Qi, along with his top commanders, beheaded.
Before the Beirong forces could even stabilize, a series of thunderous explosions tore through their ranks, causing innumerable casualties. Warhorses stampeded in terror, trampling even more soldiers to death in their flight.
Then came a relentless assault from the outside. The Beirong were utterly exhausted. In the end, this army, once hailed as the Wolves of the Borderlands, had no choice but to surrender.
Once one soldier surrendered, a second soon followed. All the while, the Yunzhou State troops were shouting, "Disarm and you will be spared!"
And so, in less than two hours, the battle—a victory of the few against the many—was finally over. Just then, the first light of dawn began to touch the horizon.
Chen Yue glanced disdainfully at the surrendering Beirong soldiers. "I thought they were supposed to be tougher than this. Mom, I’m not even warmed up yet."
As she spoke, she casually tossed a tinderbox up and down in her hand, as if weighing the possibility of finishing them all off. The surrendered Beirong soldiers stared at her as if she were the King of Hell himself, come to claim their souls.
This little girl, merely eleven or twelve years old, had claimed the most lives. Despite her tender age, she had already carved a place of deep psychological trauma in the minds of these prisoners.