14 Joining the battle

"Fourth army infantry, get into formations" screams an officer getting our battalion's attention and causing us to quiet down before moving onto the fourth army's next battalion.

The fourth army is divided into two different general sections. The first of these sections is the fourth army infantry which are the backbone of the Qin army for this campaign. The other section of the fourth army is its cavalry or mounted unit. The mounted unit severs more specialized purposes than the infantry and is overall considered as a trump card or shock troops of a battlefield. They have other uses in an army beyond the battlefield but those are the two most basic uses. The mounted units in a conscription army will for the most part be the bodyguard for a thousand man commander.

For the campaign to take Keiyou the Qin headquarters organized six armies to take part all under the command of Duke Hyou a general of the instinct kind. However due to rapid changes in initial plans because of Wei general Go Kei's swift attacks, the battlefield has been moved from the city of Keiyou to the Dakan plains an are that heavily favors Wei due to having room to properly utilize their chariots and having a terrain as well as a number advantage. Despite initially having similar numbers at the start Duke Hyou instead decided to attack the Wei with only two of his armies present. This created a desperate need for reinforcements causing the fourth army to be pushed into the battle as soon as they arrived.

The fourth army is positioned on the left flank of the battlefield putting them opposite General Kyuu Gen, the commander of Wei's third army. The Wei are positioned on three hills that overlook the battle. The three hills form a triangle that has one army on each hill. Only two of the hills are under attack with the first army attacking the second Wei army and the second and fourth attacking the Wei third army.

To make up for our numerical difference the Qin commanders will order the fourth infantry to charge in a suicidal manner in order to reach the top of the hill allowing for Duke Hyou to confront Go Kei and his army.

Although Qin forces emerged victorious from the battle the fourth army was nearly obliterated with large losses to cavalry and and only a pitiful amount of infantry left. The fourth army effectively ceased to exist but its valiant sacrifice won the battle .

I went over all the information I remembered of the battle in a short time before Baku Koshin came up to us announcing that squads would now be assigned to thousand man commanders. A few minutes later we found out that we were assigned to Baku Koshin's unit, the same unit Shin was in but also the same unit that suffered the largest casualties in the whole battle. Baku Koshin went into the battle with around a thousand men but died during the battle along with approximately 950 of his men.

We are now lined up at the front of our battalion behind our battle line and waiting for the orders to charge. Gen Ki is still laughing just like always. Akuma is still maintaining that lazy look on his face but I can see the bloodlust in eyes indicating that I now have a squad where the majority of people are battle maniacs. The To Mo twins are jumping up and down in anticipation of the battle ahead with no fear or despair present anywhere on their faces. I had gotten over any fear of killing I might have had after killing a hundred people in a matter of minutes in cold blood. Unfortunately many of the people around us didn't share the feeling as plenty of them looked nauseous or nervous or they were even barfing.

Despite the already extreme levels of noise present on the battlefield it wasn't hard to miss the trumpet which signaled one of their battalions to move forward. A hole had formed in the battleline and the opposing general had ordered his soldiers to march through it in a attempt to flank our forces.

Seeing this Baku Koshin rode up on his horse to the front and pointed at the opposing enemy with his sword before yelling "Baku Koshin unit, CHARGE" with all his might. Having received orders the Go units break out of line formations and start sprinting towards the Wei forces.

(AN: GO is the new term for wu or squad)

Seeing our charge the opposing unit stops moving and raises their shields forming a shield wall a technique that when done right can stop even cavalry right in their tracks. Out of the corner of my eye I see Shin moving faster then our battalion and quickly approaching the enemy's formation.

"Lets pick up our pace, we can't let Shin take all the glory can we" I shout to my unit to be heard over the yelling going on all around us. The only response I get is everybody in my unit grinning and picking up the pace. We quickly separate from the battalion and charge towards the shield wall.

We rapidly approach the shield wall and deciding to start the battle with a splash I go right to Sun Breathing. "Sun Breathing Tenth form Fire wheel" I murmur before jumping off the ground just out of the reach of their spears. I float through the air behind the first line before rapidly rotating generating enough force to swing my sword though the necks of seven soldiers decapitating them. The heads fall to the ground as I land gracefully causing many of the soldiers to look at me in fear.

Their training quickly takes over however making the soldiers in the rear of the shield wall aim their spears at me. The action by then is pointless as I am already cutting through their ranks with Sun Breathing creating a large gap in their line which is only made larger by my Go unit who come crashing into their lines swinging their weapons even Gen Ki who swings his bow with enough force to crack skulls open. Before the battle he told me that when he is caught in melee he can use his bow as it is nearly as durable as a sword despite being made of wood. He wasn't bluffing as he has already bashed in close to ten soldiers by this point and it hadn't broken.

Now with two openings to choose from the Baku Koshin's unit's initial charge does much better than in the manga with soldiers filling behind us before Wei forces can fix the gap. The neat battle lines quickly descend into chaos as more Qin forces charge and Shin had killed the Wei battalions commander some time after the initial charge.

Now willing to lose our momentum my GO unit continues charging leaving a trail of death behind us. I spearhead the charge with Gen Ki on my left and Aku Ma and the To Mo twins on the left. Suddenly a trumpet signal comes from Wei headquarters causing the Wei forces to retreat.

'Time for the chariots' I think turning my gaze to the left flank where a cloud of dusk is now forming. "Gen Ki get your bow ready" I command before stating to the rest of my group " start gathering bodies to form a wall as defense against the chariots" while beginning to gather bodies myself.

A few minutes later we have formed a defense large enough to protect us from the chariots and just in time as we can now see the chariots in the distance. Our group made it further than the main body of our army so there are only a few chariots heading towards us instead of the entire chariot group.

"Hahahahaha, ready to loose when you are" laughs Gen Ki while asking for the order to release his arrow that was aimed at the first of the three chariots.

(An: Loose is the proper terminology as fire wasn't coined until gunpowder was used on the battlefield)

Once the chariots were around 100 meters away I gave Gen Ki a small nod indicating that he could release when he was ready before picking up a spear. Within a second an arrow thundered down range finding itself in the head of a horse instantly killing the horse and sending the chariot tumbling throwing its riders from the chariot. Moments later another arrow has already been released duplicating the event from earlier. The last chariot was already upon us so I gripped the spear I picked up took a stance and threw it with all my might piercing the forehead of the last chariots driver sending it crashing into the pile of corpses. Akuma quickly kills the archer and spearman who were on board the chariot.

We now have the option to go back and help Shin and the other stranded soldiers or continue onwards while the enemy is out of formation. Making the obvious decision we continue towards the hill under the cover of the dust cloud.

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Thank you for reading this and special thanks to those who leave a power stone, review or comment.

This chapter covered manga chapters 53-57

(1555 words)