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

The June night wind was filled with the smell of gunpowder. Yuchi Gong stood outside the Chu army camp clutching a blood-stained battle report. The candlelight cast flickering shadows on his angular face.

The flickering torches around swayed in the hot and humid air, casting distorted shadows of the attacking soldiers onto the cowhide tent.

"Report——!"

The scouts rode over, bringing with them a gust of hot air.

"Lord Li and his men are surrounded at Eagle's Beak Cliff, and the Crown Prince of Chu is personally leading his men to close the siege!"

Yuchi Gong held the mace tightly in both hands, his whole body shaking from the force.

He looked in the direction of Eagle's Beak Cliff, which was only thirty miles away from the Tang army camp, but in between were three linked camps of the Chu army.

"Send a message to General Pei!"

He suddenly roared, the scales of his armor glowing dimly under the torches: "Send 10,000 elite cavalry to follow me to help, and the rest of the troops will continue to besiege the Chu army camp."

The deputy general was about to dissuade him, but he saw that Yuchi Gong had dropped his mace and grabbed his 10-foot-long lance. The dark red necklace drew a bloody arc on the tip of the lance.

"If Lord Li dies here, how can we face His Majesty again?"

When the three thousand cavalry rushed out of the Tang army camp, they startled the night owls in the forest and caused them to cry miserably.

The horse's hooves wrapped in linen stepped across the soft riverbed, but when it turned into the mountain path, the sound of metal clashing suddenly rang out.

Yuchi Gong reined in his neighing warhorse and saw torches like stars at the pass ahead and the black banner of the Chu army fluttering in the night wind.

The first one stood on his horse with an axe in hand. The nine-foot axe shone coldly in the moonlight. It was none other than Ran Ming, a brave general of the Chu army.

"Where are you going, Yuchi Gong, to attack at night?"

Ran Ming's laughter echoed in the valley, startling the birds and sending them flying in panic.

Before he finished speaking, countless archers suddenly appeared on the cliffs on both sides, and their poisoned arrowheads glowed blue in the moonlight.

Yuchi Gong's pupils suddenly shrank, and he swept his lance across, knocking away three cold arrows. Several cavalrymen behind him fell off their horses.

"Form a fish scale formation!"

Yuchi Gong shouted like thunder, and the Tang army's cavalry instantly shrank into a cone shape.

He pointed the tip of his spear at Ran Ming's throat, and the black horseman stood up: "My men, follow me to break the formation!"

The two torrents collided with a loud bang, and sparks from the collision of metal and iron splashed like rain in the night.

Ran Ming's axe split the shield formation, and the armor was shattered wherever the blade passed. Yuchi Gong's horse spear was like a dragon emerging from the sea, killing seven brave cavalrymen of the Chu army in a row.

Suddenly, thunder was heard in the melee, and raindrops as big as beans hit the iron armor with crackling sounds.

Mud mixed with blood surged in front of the formation, and the Tang army's horses stumbled one after another on the slippery mountain road.

Yuchi Gong swung his spear to knock away three long spears, and caught a glimpse of three red smoke rising in the southwest - that was the last signal for help from Li Mi's camp.

"General, be careful!" The guards' exclamation was drowned out by the thunder.

Ran Ming's axe came towards him wrapped in wind and rain, and Yuchi Gong blocked it with his spear. The two magical weapons collided and sparks several feet long flew out.

The black horse retreated three steps in the mud, and Yuchi Gong's knuckles were broken, and blood flowed down the spear.

He tore off the cloak straps with his backhand and entangled his palm with the lance tightly.

Suddenly, a strange blue light appeared in the rain. Ten crossbows were pushed out from behind the Chu army. Giant arrows soaked in kerosene flew through the air with a pungent smell.

The Tang army's formation was suddenly in chaos. The burning arrows ignited the dry grass, and the flames spread abnormally along with the rain.

Yuchi Gong swung his spear to split the two rockets, but saw that Ran Ming had led his personal soldiers to cut off their retreat, and the heavy armored infantry of the Chu army were surrounding them from three sides.

At three quarters past three in the morning, when the sky in the east was turning pale, Yuchi Gong, covered in blood, finally led the remaining troops back to the camp.

He looked at the wolf smoke gradually dissipating in the direction of Eagle's Beak Cliff and thrust the broken lance heavily into the soil.

At the same time, the battle at Eagle's Beak Cliff was coming to an end.

The bloody moonlight soaked through the rugged rocks of Eagle's Beak Cliff. Li Mi leaned against the blood-soaked sand with the broken sword in his hand. His fifth-grade scarlet robe had long been torn into rags by arrows.

The Tang army he brought with him formed a Yu Li formation at the bottom of the valley, but now only a few hundred remnants were left standing back to back in a sea of corpses and blood.

The broken Tang-character flag was stuck diagonally on the pile of corpses, and the flag surface was glued into an iron plate by the solidified blood plasma.

"Sir, the southwest corner has collapsed again!"

Only half of Captain Zhang Huan's left arm was left with bones, but he still held the command flag with his teeth to command the remaining troops.

I thought this was a perfect location to rob the Chu army of their food supplies.

But now it has become an iron coffin from which it is impossible to escape even with wings - the Chu army burned the only exit with kerosene and set up three hundred crossbows on the top of the cliffs on both sides.

Chu Ning's chariot rolled over corpses all over the ground, and the seven heads of Tang army generals hanging on the bronze shafts were still dripping with blood.

Chu Ning put his hands behind his back, his dark python robe spotless, and said calmly: "Why do you have to resist, Minister Li? Do you still want to wait for Yuchi Gong to save you?"

"To tell you the truth, Yuchi Gong can't come!"

Just as he finished speaking, dozens of burning grass balls suddenly rolled down from the top of the cliff.

Li Mi's pupils suddenly shrank. It was the head of a Tang army scout, which was covered with pine resin, set on fire and thrown into the valley.

The firelight illuminated his blood-stained hair and beard, and also reflected the cold gun formation of the Chu army's heavy armored infantry three feet away.

"Raise the shield!" Li Mi's roar mixed with the sound of breaking wind rang out.

Finally, as hundreds of leather-covered wooden shields were raised, a rain of iron arrows poured down.

Amid the dull sound of arrows piercing shields, the surrounding soldiers suddenly pounced in front of Li Mi. Three armor-piercing arrows pierced through his back. The blood foam from the boy's mouth dyed Li Mi's jade belt with python pattern red.

"Sir...you promised...to take us back to Chang'an..."

When the young man died, his fingers were still tightly grasping the corner of Li Mi's robe.

Li Mi closed the boy's wide-open eyes with trembling hands, and his own hot tears mixed in the sticky blood plasma in his palms.

He remembered that when he set out on his expedition three days ago, it was this young man who knelt down with a golden helmet in his hand and asked to hold his horse.

At the end of the Yin hour, when the last thirty Tang soldiers formed a circle with their broken spears, Chu Ning finally waved the command flag.

Three thousand heavily-armored infantrymen marched forward to the rhythm of drumbeats, their black iron boots shaking the gravel at the bottom of the valley.

Li Mi tore off his torn official robe, revealing the yellow shirt bestowed by the Tang Emperor. He pointed his sword directly at Chu Ning:

"The men of the Tang Dynasty would rather die than surrender!"

In the melee, Li Mi's sword split three iron shields, but broke with a clang when he cut off the seventh spear.

He staggered and fell onto the pile of corpses, looking at the mutilated bodies of the Tang soldiers on the ground - some bit the throats of the Chu soldiers until their death, and some inserted their hands into the enemy's eyes and died together.

With a "clang" sound, Li Mi pulled out the jade-inlaid dagger from his waist.

This short blade bestowed by the emperor was supposed to be used for cutting documents, but now it glowed coldly under the moonlight.

He took one last look in the direction of Chang'an, and the blade suddenly turned towards his throat.

"Ding!" The sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the valley.

Chu Ning's sword accurately knocked the dagger away, and the huge force pulled Li Mi to the ground.

Eight strong men from the Chu army immediately pounced on him and tied him up like a dumpling with cowhide ropes soaked in medicine.

"Sir Shangshu, do you know how many cities you are worth?"

Chu Ning raised Li Mi's chin with his sword, glanced at him, and sneered:

"I still remember your provocation a few days ago. Now, it's time for me to fight back!"

Li Mi felt as if he had fallen into an icy cave when he heard this. He finally understood why the Chu army surrounded him but did not kill him - he was actually the most expensive chip in this game.

When Chu Ning wanted to retract his sword, he suddenly attacked with his own neck, but was gagged with an iron gag by the Chu army who were prepared.

As the morning light pierced through the blood mist, Chu Ning's carriage rolled over the mountain of corpses on Eagle's Beak Cliff.

Li Mi was hung by iron chains on the back of the chariot, watching the twelve surviving Tang army prisoners being pierced through the scapula by iron hooks.

Amid their miserable wails, the Chu army returned to the camp!