Pursue the Victory and Expand the Gains

The armor-piercing spike carved an afterimage through the air and slammed heavily into the tilted drum frame.

A muffled boom exploded, as though tearing apart the battlefield's brief stillness. Chen Wuya had yet to withdraw his arm, his knuckles faintly whitening from the force. He stared at the chariot still rampaging through the enemy ranks, his voice low but landing like an iron hammer: "Kill!"

Shouts erupted from every direction. The assault troops who had been crouched behind the ruins sprang up first. Some slipped and fell into the mud pits, yet scrambled and crawled forward all the same. Archers straightened behind the earthen slopes, nocked and drew, and a rain of arrows instantly blanketed the enemy's collapsing front line. Dust billowed from the flanks as the cavalry spurred their horses forward, iron hooves trampling the scorched earth and rolling up waves of gray ash.

Bai Zhi leaped onto a crumbling wall, drawing her flexible sword three inches from its sheath, its tip aimed directly at the heart of the enemy formation—where the command flagpole had been smashed apart by the chariot and lay planted upside down in the mud, its banner half-covered in blood and grime. She called out sharply, "The enemy commander has lost his position! Seize the moment!"

Her voice rang clear as a bell, distinctly audible across the battlefield. Soldiers lying in ambush everywhere raised their heads, the last trace of hesitation in their eyes igniting. An old veteran with a face smeared in blood suddenly drove his broken blade into the ground, drew the spare iron hammer from his waist, and charged forward with a hoarse roar.

The enemy formation truly had descended into chaos.

Like a crazed beast, the chariot crushed its way through its own ranks. Its tracks churned up corpses and shattered