Chapter Twenty-One: The Formidable Northern Barbarian Warriors

Of course, more importantly, the number of Northern Barbarians who charged over was simply too small.

The prestige of elite cavalry is indeed formidable, but the impact surface that a hundred riders could form was far too narrow. Because Luo Fang and Xue Chengqian had risked their lives to crash into them from the sides, the barbarians were unable to crush the refugees blocking their path head-on. The other refugees, in truth, felt only limited fear; once they surged forward and began to slaughter, and their blood began to boil, how could they possibly remember such a thing as "fear"?

It was a matter of life and death! As long as they killed these Northern Barbarians, at the very worst, there would be their flesh and the meat of their warhorses to stave off hunger!

When Xue Chengqian devised the plan to actively "intercept" the Northern Barbarians, and even when he realized that over a hundred of them had managed to cross the Angry River, he never imagined the battle would turn out so tragic and fierce. The Northern Barbarian cavalry had been surrounded, unable to gain momentum, and the advantage seemed to have suddenly shifted back to the refugees.

More importantly, he and Luo Fang were truly favored by fate this time. Charging in with their lives on the line, they successfully pulled individual riders from their horses without being trampled to death by the following mounts. The rider Xue Chengqian tackled had it even worse; due to his momentum, he was knocked unconscious upon hitting the ground. Not only was he unable to counterattack, but he also unwittingly gifted Xue Chengqian a sharp saber.

It was precisely by relying on this saber and the support of Luo Fang that he was able to fight his way out and reunite with his brothers. Seeing that he had survived and that the Northern Barbarian cavalry was now hemmed in by their numbers, Xue Chengqian could not help but feel a surge of wild joy.

They had finally done it! They had not been crushed by the Northern Barbarian cavalry. Once a tangled melee was formed, even if they had to trade a hundred men for one, the Northern Barbarians would inevitably be defeated in the end.

However, Xue Chengqian’s smile soon faded. Even without the speed of their horses, the Northern Barbarians still possessed sharper weapons and a more bloodthirsty, ferocious nature. These hundred-odd men seemed entirely unaware that they had been completely surrounded, or that their main force had been cut off on the other side of the Angry River; they fought without a shred of cowardice. As the slaughter reached a fever pitch, the leading Northern Barbarian chieftain even fought stripped to the waist, roaring and bellowing as he took the lead in charging into the densest clusters of refugees.

"Is this... is this what the Northern Barbarians are like?"

Even though his own blood was boiling with the heat of the slaughter, Xue Chengqian could not suppress the horror in his heart. This was his first time truly facing the Northern Barbarians. Before, outside Wangjiang City, even when he heard the border refugees speak of how cruel and bloodthirsty the barbarians were, it had felt like mere hearsay. Now, he finally understood why, despite the vast disparity in population between the Central Plains and the grasslands, the great nations of the Central Plains were being squeezed until they could barely breathe.

These people were born for the battlefield. With bodies tempered by the bitter northern winds, personalities forged in a more brutal way of life, and a deep-seated contempt for the people of the Central Plains in their bones... their will to fight seemed impossible to break.

However...

Xue Chengqian gripped the saber he had just seized and glanced at Luo Fang, whose expression was equally grim. They now had to be even more bloodthirsty and ferocious than the Northern Barbarians! The barbarians might have been born that way, but they were fighting for their only chance at survival!

"Boss Luo! Let's pull back from the heat of the fight for a moment. Let the other refugees wear them down, and then we'll move in once the barbarians have exhausted their strength." Wang Huzi and the other brothers, chilled by the slaughter, huddled near Luo Fang to whisper their suggestion.

"Pull back, my foot!" Xue Chengqian roared, furious. "Boss Luo, we absolutely cannot drag this out. We must gather our toughest brothers and scatter the barbarians, even if it costs us our lives! We cannot let them stay grouped together!"

Xue Chengqian knew very well that, aside from weaponry and cruelty, the two sides were not even on the same level in terms of willpower. The refugees, influenced by him and Luo Fang, had surged forward on a wave of adrenaline to fight for their survival. But once they saw their comrades being slaughtered by the barbarians, fear would slowly regain the upper hand. If they came to feel that "the Northern Barbarians are invincible and cannot be killed," then not even the Heavens themselves could force them to charge again. They had to break the barbarians before the refugees' fighting spirit was exhausted and fear reasserted its control.

Luo Fang swung his hand back and slapped Wang Huzi away. "Today, we are going to fight these bastards to the death! How long have I been waiting for this chance?"

"If you've got guts, then follow me and fight! If you want to act like a woman and crouch to pee, then you’re no longer a brother of mine!"

From the other side, Xiang Rui also stood up. "Boss Luo is right! We don't want to sit here and wait for death. If Boss Luo is willing to lead, my men are willing to follow and charge with you!"

Xiang Rui was a man of some experience. Seeing the ferocity of the Northern Barbarians, he was also afraid, but after being awakened by Xue Chengqian, he realized that the battle could not be allowed to drag on.

Fortunately, most of Luo Fang’s men were from military households, and with Xiang Rui’s support, they actually managed to rally over three hundred men in a short time. These three hundred were nothing compared to the tens of thousands of refugees, but they were genuinely willing to follow Luo Fang into death, and their impact on the battlefield was far greater than that of a larger, disorganized mob.

The Northern Barbarian cavalry, possessing rich battlefield experience, realized instantly that these three hundred men charging from behind posed a greater threat than all the other refugees combined. They desperately split off a dozen men to counter-charge, hoping to use this near-suicidal maneuver to neutralize the threat from Xue Chengqian and his men, or at least suppress them through sheer intimidation.

However, Luo Fang, Xue Chengqian, and the others were already committed to a fight to the death. They didn't care about the weapons swinging toward them; there was only one thought in their minds: to bury their blades into the enemy before they "died"! To kill the enemy in front of them, no matter what!

Luo Fang and the other military men had received basic training, and coupled with their desperate courage, they ultimately used their numerical advantage to scatter the barbarians. The Northern Barbarian leader was isolated, and the rest were gathered in small clusters of five or six, unable to defend their fronts and backs at the same time. Facing weapons stabbing in from all directions, no matter how long they resisted, their fate was sealed.

Only then did Xue Chengqian dare to say that they had secured victory. As the adrenaline faded, an endless exhaustion and the pain of his wounds surged up, forcing him to stop and catch his breath. Looking back at the ongoing slaughter, he still felt a sense of terror. Most of the Northern Barbarian soldiers had been surrounded and killed by their overwhelming numbers.

However, the chieftain was still fighting without respite, flanked by his three remaining guards. There were over thirty wounds of varying sizes on the chieftain’s body, and his sword was notched and chipped. Yet, he was still fighting back and forth, claiming the lives of a dozen more refugees.

If it weren't for the fact that there were no other Northern Barbarian soldiers nearby, and if it weren't for the fact that Xue Chengqian and his men had made a decisive move to scatter and surround them early on, even with only a hundred men crossing the Angry River, such a ferocious leader might truly have been able to break through the encirclement—or even drive the refugees into a total collapse.

Only now did Xue Chengqian finally understand what kind of enemy he had "defeated" this day. If it hadn't been for the "might of Heaven and Earth," utilizing the ice on the Angry River, he could have had a hundred lives, and he would still have faced certain death today.