“What are the casualties now?” Ye Tao asked bluntly as he stepped into the command tent again.

“It’s a great victory… an unprecedented victory.” Dai Shiheng pressed his right hand down gently, signaling a jumpy officer, eager to report numbers, to sit down. “Before you know the numbers, be sure that what you’re pursuing is victory first.”

Ye Tao already knew then that while the casualty numbers might not be truly shocking, they were definitely considerable. In the battle he had participated in earlier, he had seen quite a few soldiers fall right beside him. Although it was the umpteenth time he had seen such a scene, it still deeply touched his soul. He knew that he would never get used to, much less enjoy, such scenes.

“Since the battle has been fought on such a scale, if we can’t achieve victory, then those soldiers will have died in vain. I admit…” Ye Tao sat down on a stool to the side, and two guards immediately stepped forward to remove his armor. Ye Tao had been fighting for a long time, and wearing that iron shell in this kind of weather, the expenditure of energy was considerable. The cotton-linen blend samurai outfit that Ye Tao wore under his armor, with pure cotton shoulder pads, was almost completely soaked with sweat. In fact, Ye Tao had even started to emit a somewhat sour odor. This smell, mixed with the heavy, bloody scent emanating from the armor, was perhaps the smell of the battlefield.

“So far, we have deployed a total of thirty-three battalions, all of which are regular Yun Province formations, including four garrison battalions. There are also about six reserve battalions, including auxiliary soldiers from three Veteran Farms and ranches, and the ten thousand tribal warriors Gordan sent ahead of time. Gordan himself is also leading more than twenty thousand tribal cavalry, who, if they complete their mission, may appear on the battlefield at any time; they need supplies even less than we do.” Dai Shiheng explained in detail, “In addition, those deployed in battle also include your guards and airships against these troops. Overall, the combat situation is good. The number of enemies annihilated has already exceeded one hundred and twenty thousand, but the exact number is still unknown. And our combat losses are currently around seventeen thousand four hundred, of which eight thousand nine hundred were killed in action.”

These numbers made Ye Tao dizzy for a moment. Almost three entire battalions of soldiers had died in battle just like that. Naturally, Ye Tao also understood that this was indeed an absolutely impressive victory in terms of the ratio of casualties on both sides, but any commander would always hope to kill more enemies and suffer as few losses as possible.

“Alas… we must properly settle the families of all the fallen and seriously injured soldiers…” Ye Tao sighed.

Dai Shiheng didn’t speak. He thought for a moment and said, “Let’s delay for a while, and then send the tribal cavalry and those auxiliary soldiers into the battlefield together, launching a general offensive. The time is almost right. In addition, I have ordered the airship squadron to replenish and come over immediately to attack the enemy. It would be best if they could strike down in one fell swoop. I still hope to solve the problem before Ni Sigui and Jia Qingyun’s forces arrive on the battlefield.”

Dai Shiheng still couldn’t get his wish. After a short while, Jia Qingyun arrived on the battlefield with a unit of cavalry. Although these mere thousands of cavalry were far from enough to change the situation, they greatly boosted the morale of the Western Ling army.

“Marshal…” Jia Qingyun dismounted and prostrated himself before Jiang Xujing’s warhorse. “This subordinate has arrived late…”

“Where is Sigui?” Jiang Xujing stroked his beard and asked.

“…Sigui he… he died in battle.” Jia Qingyun didn’t dare to raise his head.

Jiang Xujing’s body swayed, but he didn’t seem to feel too much surprise. “Was it those… those things flying in the sky?”

Jia Qingyun trembled and said, “Marshal… this… this is really impossible to resist.”

“Get up, rest for twenty minutes, and then you take your unit and launch a fierce attack on Chi Lei’s wing for me, provoke him and entangle him. Can… can you do it?” Jiang Xujing asked.

“This subordinate will definitely not fail the marshal’s expectations,” Jia Qingyun said seriously.

After sending Jia Qingyun away, Jiang Xujing sighed. Now, he could only do his best, but Jiang Xujing himself didn’t know what the final result would be. His eyes again fell on the airship squadron, flying so leisurely in the weather with its gentle breeze. This time, the airship squadron’s formation was more dispersed, and they were carrying more kerosene bombs. Knowing that the flying distance was much shorter than before, but the requirement for ammunition delivery was higher, this time the entire airship squadron chose to lightly load fuel, freeing up weight to load more kerosene bombs.

“Captain, the main command tower orders: attack at will,” the messenger reported, looking at the flags and light boxes on the main command tower.

“Brothers, did you hear that? Attack at will!” Seeing that the signal light boxes on all the airships had repeated the order and given a response, the airship squadron formed into two loose rows, slightly lowered their altitude, and began to run wild over the heads of Jiang Xujing’s army.

Kerosene bombs were thrown down one after another, and the airships tried to find the most densely populated areas and drop the kerosene bombs. Because the battlefield space was limited and the number of people was too large, almost every kerosene bomb could burn a large group of people. The screams of those directly ignited by the kerosene bombs made the surrounding people even more terrified. Even being splashed by the kerosene bombs' burning light oil, even just a little bit, caused unbearable pain.

“Scatter… scatter…” Jia Qingyun hurriedly helped to evacuate, but with the Yun Province army in front, having rested for a while and now beginning to steadily advance with heavy infantry as the vanguard, and with airships shuttling back and forth overhead, dropping fireballs from time to time, this kind of scene was really not something that soldiers of this time and space could easily cope with.

“Marshal… be careful!” An officer whipped Jiang Xujing’s mount hard on the rump, and the horse darted out a few steps, finally dodging a not-so-accurate kerosene bomb.

Jiang Xujing was still feeling lingering fear, but more than that, he was furious. He had been fighting for so many years, but this was the first time he had encountered a situation he didn’t know how to deal with. If he had to deal with gliding bombs before, that was just a kind of powerlessness. At least the accuracy of gliding bombs was not so reliable. Although it was a bit frustrating to be beaten all the time, he could turn a blind eye to it. But now it was different. The casualties caused by these shuttling airships were okay, and at a glance, it didn’t seem like many people had really been blown to death. But with the army in such chaos, especially with a large number of soldiers almost losing the courage to fight, this was a problem that couldn’t be dealt with all of a sudden.

“Full army charge,” Jiang Xujing raised his sword high and ordered. The last two garrisons, who had been waiting for a long time, also moved, slowly accelerating as they rushed toward the battlefield.

“Full army charge,” at this time, the same order also came from Dai Shiheng’s mouth. Immediately, Dai Shiheng said to Ye Tao, “Marshal Ye, you sit here and hold the fort. This old man will go stretch his muscles.” Saying that, Dai Shiheng propped himself up from the sandbox and strode out of the command tent. Outside, not only him, but Dai Shijin had already put on his armor and was ready. The two older fellows, shoulder to shoulder, led their personal soldiers straight out of the central army camp and headed towards the battlefield. Seeing Dai Shiheng and Dai Shijin going to the battlefield together, the soldiers cheered again. For many ordinary soldiers, today’s battle was so worthwhile. Their commander had been fighting alongside them all along. The Dai family’s old patriarch and old commander, Yun Province’s rising star general, the Prince of Dongping, and the Pacification Commissioner Ye Tao… For many people, it was a luxury to even see one of them. And now, these people were all with everyone. Their loudly commanding figures were deeply engraved in the soldiers’ hearts.

Ye Tao was not very used to commanding this kind of battle against the sandbox. He took three steps and made two steps to climb the main command tower, issuing orders entirely through signals and flags. Although Ye Tao knew that he still had to stick to this post at the moment, he did not hesitate to send the Guards Cavalry Battalion and the Guards Infantry Battalion into the battlefield again…

“Ten thousand victories!…” “Ten thousand victories!…”… With the release of each order, the soldiers shouted out passionate cheers, and teams lined up neatly and moved forward, cooperating with each other to deal with the enemies in front of them. The Yun Province army had high morale, many types of troops, troops were well-coordinated, armor was tightly protective, and weapons were sharp and sophisticated. It can be said that each had its own strengths, but now the Yun Province army had one great advantage: the air. When their opponents needed to pay attention to the top of their heads at all times, the Yun Province army began to have great advantages. Indeed, the Yun Province army was indeed tired now, but under the control of a strong desire to win, this fatigue was ignored at this moment. Will this state of excitement last until the end of the battle? In fact, neither side had a psychological bottom line now.

The decisive moment finally arrived. When the remnants of Jia Qingyun and Ni Sigui’s forces finally appeared on the horizon, Jiang Xujing was almost about to cry. Just a moment ago, relying on two rounds of covering bombing by the airship squadron and continuous concentrated attacks by the heavy equipment battalion, the right wing led by Chi Lei finally broke through Jiang Xujing’s left wing. Because the scout cavalry was not good at conducting battles, Chi Lei led a mixed unit of mainly Tieyun cavalry and Jingyun cavalry, and had always been uncomfortable using them. But when Tan Weiran kindly handed over the archer cavalry battalion that had always been used as a reserve force in the middle to Chi Lei, Chi Lei seemed to suddenly discover the feeling of attack. The kind of fighting style that touched and retreated, and then constantly relied on killing to create holes in the enemy’s forces, and then launched piercing-style charges, can be said to be very difficult and also very clever. Noticing that Chi Lei suddenly made smooth progress, Dai Shiheng, who was commanding at the front, Ye Tao on the command tower, Tan Weiran in the middle, and even Chi Lei himself, all asked to strengthen this route again and again. The consequence of the strengthening was that he actually directly pierced through the Zhenbei Army Division’s military formation, and Chi Lei personally led a cavalry detachment of two thousand people directly to the enemy’s rear…

Jiang Xujing’s central army, facing Tan Weiran’s oppressive fighting style, couldn’t draw out troops to intercept Chi Lei’s cavalry that had pierced through to his back. Jiang Xujing was a little aware at this moment that the formation was about to be broken.