As Prophet - Chapter 120



Only Krnovel

Episode 120. Cavalry Battle

The vanguard, who had been concentrated in the center, began to move down the road to avoid the arrows. They were trying to avoid the arrows, but it looked like they were running away. It wasn’t a plan, but a struggle that was almost like an instinct to avoid being scared.

“charge!”

If you charge when told to, you are a soldier. No one dared to advance.

“If you just stay, you’ll get shot by arrows and die! There aren’t many enemies! Charge! Go and kill them!”

I shouted and pushed them away, hitting their shoulders. As the ones behind me started to disperse, I was able to send a few forward. Someone ran out and I followed them.

“Charge! Charge!”

Judging by the amount of arrows flying, there aren’t many of them. If you charge, they’ll retreat.

The prediction was right. A dozen or so men ran out, and then another one ran after them, and the archers turned their horses and ran away. This is it! This should have happened a long time ago.

“Charge! Charge!”

A simple charge causes them to flee. Those who had been cowering in fear now charge forward shouting, ‘Whoa!’

Cheolmuwoong slowly retreated his soldiers.

“Slowly! Slowly, a hundred steps! Retreat a hundred steps immediately.”

“debriefing!”

“debriefing!”

“debriefing!”

When Cheolmuwoong pulled back the soldiers, the men hurriedly chased after them, but it was no use. A person’s pace could not keep up with the speed of a horse. Dozens of men followed closely behind, but soon the distance between them widened.

Cheolmuwoong smiled with satisfaction. He was still grateful to the stupid commander who gave the order to charge. Cheolmuwoong felt like he could make a decisive move.

“All troops, stop! Turn your horses!”

The 30th horse stopped and slowly turned its head. After retreating about a hundred steps, it turned its head again and stood in line. The men who were chasing it stopped.

“Line up left and right! Back into firing formation! Line up!”

As I widened the road to the maximum, the guys who were running towards me stopped. The guys who were out of breath stopped and groaned, touching their knees. Cheolmuwoong started blowing his whistle again.

Beep! Beep!

Thirty or so arrows flew. Those who had been chasing were hit by arrows and fell. As the corn fell, those who had been following behind stopped. Some had already turned their backs. Some of the ones in the lead turned their backs and ran away. When one ran away, those who had been with him followed suit. There was no such thing as a rabble.

They only ran like crazy when they were facing an enemy who showed their backs. They were like the scoundrels of the sword world who were weak against the strong and strong only against the weak. They would not hesitate to draw their swords in front of the good civilians, but they were just a rabble in front of a trained army.

The enemy’s vanguard, which had been approaching with a gap between them and the rear, stopped as if blocked by an invisible wall. This was because Cheolmuwoong’s soldiers had stood firm and stopped. If they went any further, there would be a line of death somewhere. Cheolmuwoong advanced his archers forward by about twenty steps.

Those who had stepped forward were making a fuss. Some told them to move forward, while others told them to run away. Everyone was breathing heavily. They were groaning and couldn’t even straighten their bodies.

Beep! Beep!

The horn sounded again and dozens of arrows fell on the men milling about on the road.

“evil!”

“Ahh!”

“Ahhhhhhh!”

Dozens of screams erupted, and the men turned their backs and fled. I thought they were running away, so I chased them, but they were reorganizing their formation and starting to shoot again, so there was no way out. When Cheolmuwoong ordered them to advance again, those who had been separated from the rear guard ran away in a race.

The enemy leader who had just gathered his troops and brought them back clenched his teeth. The sight of the men who had been charged running away was pitiful. They even ran to the left and right of the road when they saw our main force. They were afraid that they would be ordered to charge again.

“Don’t run away! Don’t scatter! Gather!”

We collected those who ran away while swearing, but we couldn’t even save half of them. We started out with 300 men, but somehow, less than half of them remained. They were injured, died, and ran away. The problem is the bow. We don’t have any bows.

“All you guys with bows, come out!”

They only thought about sneaking in and swinging their swords, but they never thought about running into an army. They just gathered a lot of people, but they didn’t care about their weapons and protection.

Only numbers mattered. This was because there were experts in the field. The scoundrels believed that no matter how expert they were, if they pushed back with numbers, they would eventually fall. If one didn’t work, they would send two, and if two didn’t work, they would send ten to solve the problem. Increasing numbers alone was a mistake. They collapsed in vain before the interception of the cavalry under the command of the military commander.

“He who wields a bow, forward! He who wields a bow, forward!”

“The one with the bow, forward!”

“The one with the bow, forward!”

“The one with the bow, forward!”

When you gather a lot of people together, there are bound to be some who are a little clueless. Those who came out with bows were exactly that kind of person, and they were treated like VIPs and sent forward and forward again.

About twenty people came forward. If it were any other time, they would have scolded me for carrying such a thing.

“Your job is to hit those guys. Got it?”

“yes!”

“Shoot! Hit!”

About twenty men shot arrows at the enemy. The men were taken aback when they were able to return fire. The men who had been taking the hits were delighted.

“It’s nothing. Shoot!”

Another arrow flew and I could see the enemy hesitate at a glance.

“Wow!”

Those who had been getting hit shouted. They must have thought, “We have bows too.”

But it was already too late. More than half of the troops had fled or were incapacitated. Cheolmuwoong had no intention of charging and destroying the enemy. His goal was to reduce their numbers and distract the cowardly ones.

“Hey! Those guys have bows.”

“Ohhoho, it’s out now! Hehehe.”

“What should I do?”

“I have to take care of it.”

Cheolmuwoong pulled back his soldiers and got out of their firing range. He tried hard to find the ones with bows and fired back, but the cavalry ran away and opened up the distance, so it was no use. That was the difference between cavalry and infantry. He gathered the scattered ones and ordered them to advance.

But the guys stopped right there. No more, no less, exactly at a hundred or so bowshot range, and harassed them. While they were firing back, the guys with bows in the front fell down. They were concentrating their fire on the guys with bows.

The other guys picked up the arrows that the fallen guy had dropped and shot them, but it was no good. They shot recklessly in their haste, so they almost never hit the target. To make matters worse, they ran out of arrows.

“General, it looks like they’re out of arrows.”

“Really? Hehehe.”

Cheolmuwoong smiled with satisfaction. He brought more because he thought that giving forty feet to each person was not enough. He took all the spare traditions he had.

“What should I do?”

“Come forward 50 chapters. Make sure to control it properly.”

“Loyalty!”

Iron Man’s soldiers formed a line and closed the gap. The shooting began again, and the barely held line dispersed again.

Some of the men who couldn’t stand it any longer made a detour. They were told to go back and block their retreat. Dozens of them got off the road and detoured through a wide open area. But the moon was bright and the wide open area was so bright that they could clearly see the men turning back.

“General, they are making a detour.”

Cheolmuwoong snickered. The idea was right, but what use was it after he had already suffered so much?

“Hey, it was good for a while… … . There’s nothing I can do. I’m retreating.”

Cheolmuwoong turned his horse’s head and retreated. He didn’t just retreat, but waited for the men who were making a detour to come, fired a few arrows, and then fled.

The battle reached a stalemate as the men blocked the road and shot arrows, then retreated, and so on. Cheolmuung ordered everyone to check.

“Check your arrow count!”

“Loyalty!”

“Five shots!”

“Three legs!”

“There are ten feet!”

“doesn’t exist!”

Cheolmuwoong, who had been listening to the shouts and confirmation, stuck out his lower lip and nodded. There was nothing he could do now. It would have been good if he had blocked 300 people with 30 people and caused damage. The purpose of the battle was definitely not to kill everyone. The bigger goal would have been to destroy the enemy’s fighting power and make the next battle impossible.

“We are retreating!”

“insect!”

“insect!”

“insect!”

About thirty cavalrymen left the battlefield. They galloped through the night toward the school. They met friendly vanguards hiding on the roadside, explained the enemy situation, and then continued to run.

“Loyalty! I report. More than half of the 300 enemy soldiers are injured or fallen.”

“Oh, thank you for your hard work. What about our damage?”

“doesn’t exist.”

“Well done.”

“If I had arrows, I could harass them more, but I’m out of arrows… … .”

“Get your arrows. Get out before they come. When they start attacking, attack their flanks and rear. The rules of engagement are the same. Avoid close combat.”

“Loyalty!”

Cheolmuwoong, who had received the order, quickly left the school with his soldiers, taking the arrows with him.

* * *

The one in charge of the battle on the back mountain was Yu Seok-do. He assigned 50 archers to his command. Ten archers from the main army and 40 soldiers from the training center. Yu Seok-do also made sure that the soldiers had enough arrows and checked their armor.

Before it got dark, I went up the mountain and set up. Those who had been working in the afternoon had changed the route that the men were going to take. After checking the changed route and the cliff at the end, I deployed my soldiers.

I went up the path to lure them. I checked several times that they were lured to the place the workers called the cesspool, and then I deployed the military. I placed a forward soldier on the path they were coming up so that they could know in advance. I sent two people down to the foot of the mountain to get a sense of the enemy’s forces.

It was at the end of the night that people began to appear far below the mountain. As the sun set, they moved around without caution, even holding torches, so there was nothing to look around or do. They thought that the school was beyond the mountain, so they couldn’t see it. They didn’t even guess that they were looking down from the ridge.

When this moment passed, the men began to move. They began to climb the mountain, carrying torches. I could see them climbing at a glance. They were not even careful at all, checking the signs and shouting.

The vanguard came up and reported.

“I report. The enemy number is about 150, all armed with swords. They are not wearing armor and have no shields. Few have bows.”

“One hundred and fifty?”

“yes!”

“How did you confirm that?”

“When we gathered together as if for a roll call, we were counted in groups of ten.”

“Well done.”

The march is done by looking at the signs. We quickly advanced along the red cloths and red flags hanging all over the road. Since it was an uphill road, we didn’t go fast. Soon, the forest was filled with the sound of gasping for breath. We turned off the torch before we crossed the ridge.

“Turn off the lights!”

“Turn off the lights!”

“Turn off the lights!”

The order was passed back, and before they crossed the ridge, the rear became dark. The leader crossed one ridge.

“Check the sign!”

“This way.”

“It looks like we’re going downhill.”

“This is the right way.”

“advance!”

150 people are crossing the mountain. It can’t be quiet. The beast startled by the sound of heavy breathing runs away, and the screams of those who misstepped occur one after another.

When they climbed the ridge, Yoo Seok-do swallowed hard. He told them not to engage in combat if they were not lured in, and to come down. Yoo Seok-do shook his head. That was his order, but he had no intention of doing so. He felt that he would not be satisfied unless he killed them all by himself.

When I came to my senses, how much regret I felt. I was unable to move, but I should have died in Hanyang. Rather than suffer the shame of surviving and the guilt of not being able to protect, I should have died. Now, I have no intention of repeating the same mistake.