(Thanks to all the readers for your tips, especially Banyu Yusheng il for giving so much at once. It would be hard to justify not posting extra chapters now. But I have some family matters to deal with, and this volume is ending. I need to plan the next arc, so it will take a few days to build up a backlog. Rest assured, I always make good on what I owe. It's been a long time since I posted extra chapters, so there will be at least ten this time!)
But the Heaven-Pacifying Army was already in chaos. No one stood in the way of Li Yun and the Xian'an iron cavalry as they rode out of the city...
Forty li away, in the Heaven-Pacifying Army's central camp, the Heaven-Pacifying King and his commanders also heard the thunderous crash.
"A bolt from the blue? What happened?"
An army of several million was simply too vast. Even at Flying Goose Pass, only a few hundred thousand could dig into the mountain and quarry stone at one time. The rest had to take turns.
And capable as the Heaven-Pacifying King was, he could not command them directly from forty li away. He would not even know what had happened at Flying Goose Pass until someone came to report it.
But before any report arrived, cries rose like a roaring sea.
"We've lost!"
"Run! The government troops are coming!"
The cries kept coming as unit after unit withdrew from Flying Goose Pass in a panic.
The Heaven-Pacifying Army had been made up of refugees from the start, and its organization had never been tight.
When a battle went their way, they could at least hold on to their morale.
But amid that thunderous blast, more than ten thousand men had been torn