Nine dragons fight for the throne, I don't want to sit on this throne

When the morning light pierced through the snow-capped peaks of the Tianshan Mountains, the sound of the Tang army's horses' hooves had already caused the gravel on the ground to roll.

Yuchi Gong stood on his horse with whip in hand high up on a sand dune, with ten thousand pieces of armored armor behind him reflecting dazzling silver light.

This brave general from Longxi had a leopard head and round eyes like an eagle, and his tall stature made the armor on his body bulge.

The Qinghai horse under his crotch had charcoal-colored fur all over its body except for its four snow-white hooves, which were now anxiously digging in the hot sand.

"Sharp Arrow Formation!" Yuchi Gong's loud shout startled a few flying birds.

As the command flags fluttered, three thousand light cavalrymen swept over the slope like a swarm of locusts, and the flails they carried across their shoulders made a whistling sound in the air.

Four thousand armored cavalrymen from the center of the army slowly pressed forward, and the sharp blades of their eight-foot-long lances formed a silver wave under the scorching sun.

Three thousand crossbowmen in the rear unloaded the whirlwind cannons from the backs of their horses. Amid the sound of the capstan turning, the stone bullets soaked in kerosene were ready to be fired.

"Someone, come and challenge us!"

Amid Yuchi Gong's sneer, a tall Tang soldier rode his horse to within an arrow's reach of the Chu army camp.

"Chu army, please come out quickly. Today my general wants to test your strength!"

"If you don't dare to come out, raise the white flag and surrender!"

"My general is magnanimous and will definitely give you a way out."

"Otherwise, today will be the day you die!"

Upon hearing this, the Tang army behind him shouted in unison: "Today is the day you will die!"

Amid the deafening shouts, many Tang soldiers burst into laughter.

But at this moment, the cowhide war drums of the Chu army camp suddenly exploded, and the bronze camp gate burst open.

Chu Ning was standing on the chariot wearing a golden soft armor. The prince had a handsome face but a fierce look on his brow. Before he threw the command arrow in his hand, the bearded general Ran Ming beside him had already rushed out on his horse.

Ran Ming chuckled and said, "Your Highness, leave that guy to me. I must crush his spirit today!"

Ran Ming had long heard that Yuchi Gong was a powerful general of the Tang Dynasty, and he had always wanted to meet him, but he never had the chance.

This time, when Chu Ning called him, he spurred his horse and traveled day and night, and arrived in less than three days.

I didn't expect that I would be challenged by Yuchi Gong just after a night's rest!

Without waiting for Chu Ning to speak, he bravely rushed out of the formation.

Chu Ning looked at the imposing Ran Ming, with a smile on his face: "General Ran Ming, if you can defeat the enemy today, I will remember your achievement!"

As soon as these words came out, Ran Ming's eyes widened: "Your Highness the Crown Prince said this yourself, you are not allowed to regret it!"

After he finished speaking, the warhorse had already rushed some distance.

In the distance, Yuchi Gong saw someone riding a horse rushing towards him and couldn't help but look up.

The Chu general was nine feet tall, with heavy black iron armor that could not hide his muscular body, and his mountain-splitting axe could even create a faint thunderous sound when he swung it.

"Tang dog, look out for the axe!" Ran Ming's roar made the eardrums of the shield soldiers in the front row hurt.

Yuchi Gong sneered and swept the steel whip across. The nine-bend whip brushed against the axe blade and sparks flew out.

The moment the two war horses passed each other, Qinghaicong suddenly stood up and kicked Ran Ming's mount in the face with its iron hoof as big as a bowl - this turned out to be the secret skill of the Yuchi family called "hiding in the pedals".

"The thief is so cunning!"

Ran Ming roared angrily and quickly pulled the reins, and the warhorse barely avoided the attack.

Yuchi Gong's steel whip came towards him with hot wind. The moment Ran Ming blocked it with his axe, the bronze eye on the axe suddenly spewed out sulfur smoke.

General Tang quickly closed his eyes, but the whip did not stop. The nine-bend steel whip circled around the axe blade like a living snake and swept towards Ran Ming.

Ran Ming took advantage of the situation and swung out a half-moon axe. The axe blade passed by the back of Yuchi Gong's neck, cutting off three strands of hair that were stuck to the iron armor by sweat.

The battle was fierce and lasted for a long time. It was so intense that it lasted from morning to noon.

The midday sun made the steel whip as hot as a branding iron. Yuchi Gong pulled off his cloak and wrapped it around the whip handle, then used the "jade belt around the waist" move to attack the enemy's lower body.

Ran Ming turned the axe handle upside down and stabbed it downwards, causing the sand to explode into dust and smoke a foot in size, and poisonous caltrops mixed in the sand and splashed everywhere.

Three steel spikes suddenly appeared on the sole of Yuchi Gong's boots. He used the force to flip into the air behind the enemy. The seventh copper ring of the steel whip suddenly flew out of the handle, brushing against General Chu's earlobe and tearing off half of his cheek guard.

The two men's mounts were covered in blood and foam from their mouths and noses. Ran Ming suddenly broke the camel's reins and threw it into the air.

When Yuchi Gong swung his whip to attack, Ran Ming pushed hard on the saddle bridge with his feet, and the huge axe took advantage of the downward momentum to chop out with a tremendous force.

The steel whip embedded itself into the gap in the axe blade with a sound, and a series of sparks burst out from the place where the two brute forces were competing. The molten copper dripped onto the sand with a sizzling sound.

As the sound of the horn pierced through the bloody twilight, the gaps in their chain mail were filled with sand, and the broken edges of their swords were stuck with blood-clotted rags.

At the last moment of crossing each other, Yuchi Gong's long sword knocked off Ran Ming's lion helmet, while the hidden blade of the Chu general's axe handle cut open the Tang general's fish-scale battle skirt.

The midday sun was sizzling the sand, and the two warriors had fought for more than a hundred rounds.

Yuchi Gong's steel whip sometimes felt like a spirit snake wrapped around his neck, and sometimes like thunder piercing his head. The soul-stirring sounds of the seven copper rings forced the Chu army's war drummers to retreat again and again.

Ran Ming's axe skills were so powerful that even the air was split by white marks wherever the axe blade passed. Once, it almost cut off the golden ring that bound the Tang general's hair.

A half-foot thick layer of floating sand gradually accumulated in front of the two armies, and when it was lifted up by the horses' hooves, it condensed into a golden mist in the air.

At three quarters after pm, Ran Ming suddenly showed a flaw, and three poisonous caltrops shot out from the hollow of the axe handle.

Yuchi Gong barely dodged it by leaning on his back, then turned around and whipped the axe-shaped blade right in the right eye - that was the hidden wound left by the Chu craftsman when he was quenching the axe.

There was a loud "clang" sound, and a half-inch crack appeared on the axe. Blood immediately oozed out of Ran Minghu's mouth.

"Change horses!" the two shouted almost at the same time.

Yuchi Gong's new mount was a fine horse from Dayuan, its body wrapped in coarse linen soaked in well water.

Ran Ming rode on the white divine horse, with a hide water bag dangling from the side of the saddle.

When the setting sun stretched the warrior's shadow to three meters, the steel whip and the battle axe had collided six hundred and thirty times, Yuchi Gong's heart-shielding mirror was sunken like a pot, and Ran Ming's lion belt was broken into two pieces.

As dusk deepened, Yuchi Gong suddenly changed his tactics. He thrust his steel whip in a spiral along the axe handle, and the copper ring on the tip of the whip went straight for Ran Ming's throat.

When Ran Ming realized it, it was already too late to avoid it, so he had to turn his head and use his shoulder armor to take the blow.

The shoulder-devouring beast forged from fine steel shattered with a sound, and Ran Ming's left shoulder was instantly covered in blood.

Almost at the same time, a sharp blade suddenly popped out from the end of his axe handle, leaving a foot-long bloody wound on Yuchi Gong's right rib.

Seeing this, Jia Yu frowned and said in a deep voice: "Your Highness, if we continue to fight, I'm afraid he will die together with us!"

"Withdraw the troops!" Chu Ning, who was watching the battle, finally became worried and decided to withdraw the troops.

Ran Ming’s life is much more important than intimidating the Tang army!

As both sides sounded the horns, the two blood-soaked generals continued to stare at each other until their personal soldiers forcibly dragged them back to their camp.

Thirty-six Kongming lanterns were lit in the Tang army's formation, while the Chu camp lit a bonfire of mugwort to drive away evil spirits.

When the Milky Way stretched across the sky, only crisscrossing bloodstains remained on the Gobi Desert, which were soon completely buried by the yellow sand blown up by the night wind.