Chapter 1435: Fierce Battle!

Although he had drunk quite a lot of wine and was rather tipsy, the instincts he had honed over years of campaigning everywhere with Liang Shide had not been forgotten. After a brief moment of shock, Chen Cai immediately shouted, “Quick, light the torches!”

His words had just left his mouth when several sharp whooshing sounds cut him off. A few streaks of cold light suddenly tore through the night sky, shooting toward them.

“Ah—!”

A miserable scream rang out as an arrow struck Chen Cai in the chest, and he toppled from his horse in an instant.

Right after that, several Deputy Generals riding nearby also fell from their saddles with a thud. The sight terrified everyone around them. The night was already heavy and dark, and with the flames suddenly extinguished, the men were plunged into utter blindness. Now, struck by this sudden attack, they became like startled birds, crying out in panic as they scattered in all directions.

But before they could run far, several more arrows came whistling toward them. The hiss of arrows cutting through the air was unceasing; a few more men were struck down at once, screams bursting forth on all sides. The smell of fresh blood quickly spread through the cold night wind.

After hitting the ground, Chen Cai did not die immediately. Clenching his teeth, he reached back with one hand, grabbed the arrow in his chest, and snapped it with a savage jerk. Blood spurted at once in a crimson spray. The alcohol in his system was driven clean away; clutching the wound from which blood was gushing, he hastily shouted to the men around him, “Don’t panic! Get down, now!”

The soldiers, who had been like startled birds, dropped flat to the ground as soon as they heard him.

Once they were down, the pitch-black darkness swallowed everything; nothing remained visible. Another volley of arrows came flying at them, but now only a few men who failed to react in time and kept turning to flee were struck and fell. Chen Cai, eyes bloodshot, raised his head and immediately judged that the archers were hidden in that small grove to the east of the path ahead.

Their numbers should not be great.

If there had been many of them, they would not have waited until the column had come so close without being discovered, nor would they have left the birds and beasts along the road undisturbed. Moreover, though the two earlier arrow volleys had been frightening, a closer look showed that the number of arrows was not large.

Sure enough, once his men lay low, the enemy immediately ceased their attack.

Chen Cai panted like an ox, the blood flowing from his chest already staining a patch of ground beneath him bright red. Just as he lifted his head to carefully observe the movements ahead, he suddenly saw, in the darkness before him, several wavering points of fire flare to life. They swayed unsteadily, faintly illuminating a few shifting human figures around them.

That was—

Looking closely, a cold sweat broke out over Chen Cai’s body. It turned out to be a squad of men who had lit the tips of their arrows and were now shooting them in his direction.

At once, the rush of wind sounded in the air; within that wind, flames roared, the whooshing like the distant bellow of some monstrous beast. The arrows, trailing fire, shot up into the sky, instantly lighting up this patch of night and clearly revealing every figure beneath that darkness.

Chen Cai lifted his gaze toward the front. Not only did he clearly see the archers who, after loosing the Flaming Arrow, immediately lit their torches and prepared to keep shooting, he also saw the formation of men arrayed behind them, numbering a few hundred. Among them were several tall figures on horseback. As the firelight streaked across the sky, he caught sight of one young man at a glance—armored, striking in appearance—who was directing the archers in front to continue firing at them. The men around this figure all bowed their heads in deference, seeming to be shouting the words “King Qin.”

At the very instant he recognized that man, the first wave of flaming arrows was already raining down.

In a moment, screams erupted everywhere. When the arrows struck, sparks burst in every direction, casting every gruesome detail of the men’s suffering into sharp relief.

A few Deputy Generals scrambled in panic to Chen Cai’s side. “My lord, what do we do?”

Chen Cai’s eyes, reddened by strong drink, fixed on that armored figure surrounded by his men—clearly someone of high status—and he shouted, “The one in front must be Yu Wenye!”

Yu Wenye!?

The moment those three syllables reached their ears, everyone around them stiffened, their spirits snapping taut!

Before they had left Luoyang, Liang Shide had warned him again and again to be extremely cautious. But Chen Cai had believed that Yu Wenye was being held in check at Hulao Pass by Xiao Yuansui’s army of a hundred thousand, and could not possibly spare the troops to intercept him. That was why he had been so bold along the way. He had never imagined that Yu Wenye would truly lay an ambush here—after all, once they left Luoyang City, though small detachments sent by Yu Wencheng had harried them along the road, Huilu Storehouse was only a few dozen li away, whereas Hulao Pass was more than a hundred li from this place!