The army of the Shang Dynasty, which was the strongest human army in this era, without a doubt, was determined by the level of productivity and production relations.
The Shang Dynasty could be destroyed by civil war, but foreign invasion to occupy this land? It can only be said that they were thinking too much.
Deng Chanyu led 800 cavalry, galloping through the fire sea with the speed of wind and lightning. The enemy was caught off guard, and arrows showered down relentlessly. None of the soldiers feared the bone or copper arrows.
Arrows aimed at the eyes, face, or horses were deflected with weapons, while those aimed at the bodies were ignored.
Biaozi's speed was the fastest, and he didn't even have to put much effort in, as he quickly pulled ahead of Su Quanxiao by two body lengths.
Deng Chanyu rode her horse, shifting her center of gravity to the left, extending her arm, and snatching a wooden spear from an enemy's hand.
The rough weapon caused her to furrow her brow slightly; it was too light.
The weapon was light, and she was using her left hand, which she wasn't very accustomed to. However, she still reversed the spearhead and threw it with all her might. The longspear traced a graceful parabolic trajectory, impaling a figure with colorful feathers on their head, a fur-covered body, holding a short sword, who appeared to be an officer.
Among a group of soldiers bare-chested, this guy stood out the most, though whether he was an officer or not was anyone's guess.
The long halberd in her hand was nimble and deft, slicing through the head of a soldier on the left. She flipped her wrist and, without hesitation, sliced off two more heads to her right.
The 800 horsemen charged through the enemy ranks like grass being cut down, shattering the already-rather-loose formation. If they were spears, then Deng Ai's 2,000 foot soldiers were like heavy hammers. The soldiers lined up and fought bravely, but those who barely escaped the charge of the horsemen were only able to wail as they faced the charging soldiers. Later, they were impaled by the foot soldiers with long spears.
The Grand Priest, who was leading an attack on Yong City, had not expected his incantations to be forcibly broken. The wrinkled face showed a hint of uncertainty, but in order to lead his people out of the mountains, he must persevere.
The Grand Priest muttered a series of low, dreamlike words, and produced a cup made from an unknown human or animal skull.
More than a hundred naked soldiers from the Shu State walked up to the Grand Priest, without fear, and with their short swords beating on wooden shields, they shouted the name "Yu Fa Yu Fa."
When their emotions reached a peak, they all turned their swords around and plunged them into their own chests, stabbing themselves through the heart. The Grand Priest took ninety-nine drops of their heart's blood and swallowed them in one go. A mask made of gold quickly emerged on his face, featuring a creature that resembled neither a human nor an animal.
The Grand Priest held up a gold staff over a meter long, from which a figure emerged. After blending with the face that appeared on the gold mask, it transformed into a human-like shadow wearing a five-toothed wizard's hat, dangling triangular earrings, and holding a swimming fish and flying bird.
The shadow's index and middle fingers were long, and it raised its arms horizontally, pointing its four long fingers towards Deng Chanyu's direction.
In the next instant, the flames that had been extinguished began to reignite. This time, the flames were even more ferocious. Two of the closest Deng family servants only had time to shout before they were consumed by the flames along with their horses, turning into ashes.
The name Yu Fa echoed throughout the battlefield. The sky appeared to form an even larger human shadow. The Shang people also believed in the spirits of their ancestors. At this moment, both the reinforcements and the defending soldiers were extremely panicky, whereas the soldiers of Shu were greatly boosted in morale.
"Pretending to be divine," Deng Chanyu commented rather arrogantly.
"Su Quanxiao!"
"Understood!"
Deng Chanyu pointed her long spear towards the northwest direction and said, "Lead the charge in that direction."
Su Quanxiao gritted his teeth and nodded resolutely, even as he glanced at the fire sea over a man's height. "Yes!"
Deng Chanyu took out the Qiankun bow and the Zhitian arrow, her spiritual awareness spanning over ten miles, locking onto the Shu nation's Grand Priest wearing the golden mask.
"Death!"
The Zhitian arrow shot past two meters above the ground at high speed.
Deng Chanyu had also attached her Chiguang (Crimson Light) spiritual power to the arrow. With a swift shot, the fiery sea, which was a hundred steps long and seventy to eighty steps wide, vanished instantly.
The arrow turned entirely red, and the arrowhead began to display the phantom of the Feng (Phoenix) race. After spanning a distance of over ten li, the piercing sound had just reached Su Quanxiao's ears when the Zhitian arrow drilled a bloody hole straight through the face of the Shu nation's Grand Priest.
Through the broken golden mask, one could see that the Grand Priest's face was unnaturally pale, his eyes were twice the size of a normal person's, his nose bridge was high, and his chin was square.
Deng Chanyu felt a little confused. "Is this a human? How did they end up looking like this? Did the Shang Dynasty start plastic surgery?"
She retracted the Chiguang spiritual power from the Zhitian arrow, feeling slightly unwell for a moment.
The second fire the Grand Priest used had a lot of other miscellaneous things in it, like things related to human nature, very chaotic and murky. Deng Chanyu's Chiguang spiritual power was released again, and all the impurities that didn't belong to fire were thrown out.
From the moment the arrow was shot, to the death of the Grand Priest, and then to the collapse of the humanoid shadow on top of their heads, it actually took just two breaths. Su Quanxiao, who deservedly held the title of General in the northern lands, seized the opportunity and led his 800 cavalry force to thoroughly destroy the enemy formation.
The soldiers of Shu were extremely determined, and no one retreated even as they watched Su Quanxiao charging forward with a fearless spirit, as if there were no one in his path.
Their fighting spirit was strong, but unfortunately, their equipment was very poor. They were all shirtless, holding stone spears and copper swords. From the perspective of the Yin Dynasty, they were making their final resistance.
"Aid forces have arrived!"
"Reinforcements have arrived!"
The city of Yong had been besieged for over two weeks, with most of the soldiers dead or wounded. The defending commander hesitated for a moment before leaving behind 2,000 soldiers and his vice-commander to defend the city and bringing out his 3,000 troops to support them.
Both inward and outward, resembling a millstone, they went back and forth attacking.
Shu sent 10,000 men for an expedition, adding to the army assembled by southern vassals, bringing the total force to 20,000. However, facing the double attack from Deng Chanyu's 6,000 troops, they were completely reduced to walking achievements of war.
"Surrenderers will not be killed! Lay down your weapons and spare you all!" The Deng family's mounted soldiers continued to call out. Some soldiers from the southern vassals, seeing no hope of escape, immediately surrendered.
The Shu soldiers resisted for another meal's worth of time.
More than 6,000 of the 10,000 soldiers in the Shu army were killed, and the remaining troops finally could not hold out any longer; they surrendered.
The last few dozen die-hard followers held up the Grand Priest's gold staff and shouted, "The people of Yu Fa! We will never surrender!"
Deng Chanyu heard the shouts of these people and was slightly moved.
The enemies would rather die than surrender, so they must be killed.
Su Quanxiao killed the remaining resistance and presented the gold staff to Deng Chanyu.
She picked up the Grand Priest's gold staff, which was made of wood inside and covered with a layer of gold on the outside. The gold staff was carved with flowers, birds, fish, and insects, which looked quite appealing. However, in her opinion, the symbolic meaning of the gold staff far outweighed its practical significance.
"Pack it up and send it to the capital of Shang." She handed the gold staff to a servant beside her. The King of Zhou should like such things. Then she thought it was not appropriate and signaled to Deng Ai to take the gold staff and put it away. She felt that she might need this item in the future, and giving it to Zhou Wang would be a waste.
