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

"General! The losses are too great!" Hulun's face was covered in soot, and an arrow was stuck in his left shoulder.

"Keep rushing!"

Ashina wiped the blood from his face: "We've already broken through two lines of defense! They won't have a fourth!"

He guessed right, and he guessed wrong.

There was no fourth fixed line of defense, but there was something even more terrifying—the Northern Army's reversal of tactics.

Su Tingmei waved her feather fan three times in succession.

The Youzhou army formation writhed, split, and reorganized like living things.

The originally solid square formation suddenly dispersed, transforming into dozens of small, mobile combat groups.

Each combat group consists of approximately five hundred men, with a perfect ratio of crossbowmen, spearmen, and swordsmen/shieldmen, capable of both long-range shooting and close-quarters combat.

These fighting packs, like a pack of wolves, pounced on the Scorpion Clan's iron cavalry, whose formation had been thrown into disarray, from all directions.

Instead of engaging in direct confrontation, they focused on attacking the flanks, cutting off the rear, and harassing the command center.

"What kind of battle tactic is this?" Ashina's pupils contracted.

He had never seen an army split and reorganize so flexibly, as if every soldier knew where to go and what to do.

"Su Tingmei's 'Divide and Combine Formation'." Chu Xuan sneered from afar, "You've witnessed it today, so you can say you died a worthy death."

The Scorpion Clan's charge was significantly slowed down.

For every hundred steps forward, hundreds of lives are lost.

The 40,000 cavalrymen were like giant beasts stuck in a quagmire; although they were still advancing, every step was incredibly heavy.

At that moment, on the besieged hill, Bald Hun witnessed all of this.

"That idiot Ashina!"

He roared hoarsely, his wounds bursting open in his agitation, blood soaking through his battle robes: "Can't he see this is a trap? Can't he see they're deliberately letting us rendezvous?"

"General, what should we do now..." Tuoba Lie's voice was hoarse.

The bald man stared intently at the battlefield.

Although Ashina's cavalry suffered heavy losses, they were indeed closing in little by little.

The two armies were less than a mile apart, with only the last line of defense of the Northern Army remaining in between.

That defensive line looked too neat and orderly.

It's unnaturally neat.

It was like a passage deliberately left open, waiting for Ashina to burst in, waiting for them to converge, waiting to gather the 48,000 defeated soldiers in one place, and then...

"Encircle and attack reinforcements."

The bald man muttered, cold sweat sliding down his forehead: "They don't want to annihilate Ashina, they want to gather us together and then wipe us out or drive us away."

He recalled the "breakout" at Yingchou Gorge and how he had been "driven" here.

Chu Xuan and Su Tingmei were never chasing or killing, but guiding, like a shepherd leading his flock to the slaughterhouse.

"General, reinforcements are almost here! Let's rush out and join them!" a young soldier shouted excitedly.

"Shut up!" the bald man shouted fiercely.

He looked around at the two thousand wounded soldiers, their eyes filled with a mixture of despair and the last glimmer of hope.

This hope is exactly what the enemy wants.

"Everyone obeys orders."

The bald man's voice suddenly calmed down: "Gather all the arrows and swords that can still be used. Pile the bodies of our fallen brothers in front of the battle lines."

"General?"

"Do as instructed." The bald man stood up, sword in hand. "Then, charge with me—but not towards Ashina."

He turned his blade and pointed it southeast—that was where the Chu Xuan King's banner was located, and also where the encirclement looked the thickest.

"General, that's Chu Xuan's main camp! We can't get through!"

"I know we can't get through."

The bald man grinned, a bleak and crazed smile: "But only if we charge there will they 'let' us go."

The soldiers were stunned.

“They will deliberately let us break through so that we can reunite with Ashina; that’s their plan.”

Bald Man took a deep breath: "So what we need to do is—disrupt this plan."

He mounted the last warhorse that could still run: "Those who want to live, follow me and charge into Chu Xuan's main camp. Those who don't want to charge, stay here and wait for Ashina."

No one stayed.

Two thousand remaining soldiers gathered in a cone formation, their spears aimed directly at Chu Xuan's golden royal banner.

They burned all the supplies they couldn't take with them and poured the last bit of kerosene on the pile of corpses.

As flames soared into the sky, Baldman sounded the charge.

It was not a call to live, but a lament for death.

As expected, chaos broke out in Chu Xuan's main force.

The heavy infantry "hurriedly" formed ranks, and the crossbowmen "quickly" fired their arrows; everything was performed perfectly—causing casualties while leaving gaps.

But the bald-headed group did not follow their pre-set script.

Just before rushing into the crevice, he suddenly turned and led his troops diagonally, crashing into the other side of the junction between the Chu army and the Northern Army.

There, because of the need to "let the water out," the defense was indeed weak.

"What?" Chu Xuan frowned.

"Interesting." In the distance, Su Tingmei paused, fanning herself with her feather fan. "He actually saw through it."

Two thousand remaining soldiers pierced the junction like sharp knives, actually tearing open a gap.

It wasn't the opening Chu Xuan and Su Tingmei had planned, but another one.

"Should we pursue them?" the lieutenant asked Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan looked at the small group that was determined to break through, remained silent for a moment, and then shook his head: "No need, let them out."

"But Your Highness, they will join Ashina..."

"What good would it do if we reunited?"

Chu Xuan sneered: "It's better for the 42,000 defeated soldiers to be gathered together. Issue the order to make way for Ashina according to the original plan."

On the other side of the battlefield, Ashina finally broke through the last line of defense and saw the hill—but the hill was empty, with only a pile of burning corpses.

"Where is General Bald Hun?" He grabbed a wounded soldier.

"They...they broke through...to the southeast..."

Ashina turned his head and saw a remnant of the army struggling to move along the edge of the battlefield, their banners bearing the banners of the Black Wolf Guard.

"All troops, turn around! Provide support for General Bald Hun!"

The 40,000 cavalry turned again, having lost more than 5,000 men, but they finally rejoined the remnants of Tuoba Hun's forces.

When the two remaining armies met at the foot of the hill, Tuoba Hun fell off his horse and was caught by Ashina.

"Why...why did you come..." The bald man grabbed Ashina's armor, his eyes bloodshot.

“Because you are my brother,” Ashina said in a deep voice. “Now, I will take you home.”

He looked around and saw 42,000 remnants of the army gathered together, all exhausted and wounded.

Meanwhile, in the distance, the Chu army and the Youzhou army regrouped, and the encirclement was formed once again.

But this time, they surrounded not eight thousand, but forty-two thousand.

"All troops, heed my command!" Ashina raised his long sword: "Break through to Black Stone Fortress!"

The remnants of the army began to move, like wounded giants, staggering northward.

Chu Xuan and Su Tingmei stood side by side in the distance, watching this scene.

"Prince Xuan, all the fish have been caught in the net." Su Tingmei gently waved her feather fan.

“Next,” Chu Xuan drew his sword, “it’s time to close the net.”

The darkness before dawn is the deepest, and this hunt is only just beginning to reach its climax.