NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 34: Retreating Westward
“Your Majesty, you have suffered.”
In a tent, an Albanian military commander greeted the First Imperial Consort, who had just arrived.
“The Albanian army has come to protect the imperial family. We won’t hesitate to lay down our lives for Your Majesty and the true Sultan!” the military commander said with confidence. “We’ll send those who dare covet the Sultan’s position to hell!”
“Good, good!” The First Imperial Consort, who had escaped here, nodded in approval.
However, she soon recalled something and trembled. She nervously asked, “How many men do you have right now? How strong are they?”
“…” The Albanian military commander’s eyes flickered. “Rest assured, Your Majesty. I have brought 10,000 brave warriors with me. They will take down any enemy who dreams of staging a coup!”
10,000 men? That doesn’t sound safe.
The First Imperial Consort frowned.
Days of being chased by Shu Yichao had made her sensitive like an alarmed bird. She was shocked by what the Khitans were capable of. Any troops they left behind to stop the Khitans’ pursuit were swiftly destroyed.
They told their soldiers to stall the Khitans for a little while, and those soldiers were only held on for a little while.
It was fortunate she had the sense to toss away her extravagant accessories and the flag that signified her identity. The Khitans also attacked some of the more strategic locations along the way instead of devoting their full attention to pursue her.
Thanks to that, she wasn’t trampled by them like an ant.
She estimated that they would require at least 5000 Janissary soldiers to deal with the 1000 Khitans, but there were only 10,000 ordinary soldiers here…
Thus, the First Imperial Consort glanced at her aide, and the latter caught her drift.
“You have worked hard, pasha. The Sultan won’t be stingy to those who are loyal to him. Go and collect your reward,” the aide said.
The Ottomain military commander was overjoyed. “I am humbled by Your Majesty’s generosity! Our loyalty toward the Sultan is unwavering!”
He joyfully led his subordinates out of the tent to collect their reward.
The First Imperial Consort turned to her aide.
“Your Majesty, he is lying,” the aide frankly replied. “My son assessed their army’s scale earlier; they only have 5000 soldiers at most. This fellow is stealing military rations. Furthermore, not all of them are trained soldiers. I’d estimate that only 2000 to 3000 of their troops are ready to fight. They will only be crushed by the Khitans.”
“What?!” The First Imperial Consort leaped to her feet as if someone had pricked her with a needle. “We only have 2000 to 3000 soldiers? W-what should we do?”
She felt the world spinning around her.
“We need to retreat,” the aide replied. “We should continue heading westward. The Khitans are fighting everyone en route without any specific target, and they are prioritizing more populated areas.
“As long as we flee fast enough, the Khitans’ attention will turn to the larger Morean army gathering in the south… We’ll let them fight it out first before joining the fray.”
“That’s our only option now,” the First Imperial Consort replied with a resigned tone.
Unexpectedly, the entire Albanian army vehemently objected to her order to retreat westward.
“Your Majesty, why are we retreating? Our army is looking forward to seeing our Sultan’s crowning in Edirne as our empire’s true ruler. If you’re worried about the Khitans, there’s no need to. Those barbarians aren’t a match for us!”
The First Imperial Consort wanted to berate them when it suddenly struck her.
Are these people really loyal to me? Most of the people whom I brought out of Edirne with me have died under the Khitans’ pursuit. The Albanian army must be thinking that this is a chance for them to hold us hostage and control the imperial court!
Her worries came true.
In the following days, the First Imperial Consort and the Albanian army kept arguing back and forth about the matter of retreating westward, but they were unable to come to a consensus.
She couldn’t help but notice that the military commanders’ eyes were slowly becoming impatient and dangerous. At this point, she realized that she was more afraid of these conceited soldiers turning against her.
However, this fear wouldn’t last long, for…
“I’m here!”
The blood twin-headed eagle flag arrived amidst a cloud of dust.
Shu Yichao had noticed an Ottomain barracks with at least thousands of people while taking down a nearby fortress. This excited him, as it had been days since he stumbled upon such a huge group of people to slaughter.
Thus, he immediately led his army toward the Ottomain barracks.
“Enemy attack!”
“Prepare to defend!”
The Albanians immediately sprung to action upon noticing Shu Yichao. They swiftly closed the barrack doors, distributed the weapons, and raised their fences. They were ready to clash with Shu Yichao.
“What are those Khitans thinking of?” the leader of the Albanian army murmured with a frown. “They’re thinking of breaching my barracks with just a thousand people?”
To fend against potential assaults, he had constructed his barracks backed against a steep cliff and beside a rapid tide, so the enemy could only confront them from the front and the left.
However, they had raised fences in those places, with a deep trench dug in front to prevent horses from charging right through. On top of that, archers were positioned behind the fences to prevent anyone from climbing across.
Their defense was solid.
You Khitans might be valiant warriors, but aren’t you making light of us by launching such a reckless attack?
“Wait for the Khitans to draw closer before firing the arrows,” the leader ordered. “Their armor looked well crafted. That must be the reason they dare launch a frontal attack at us…”
Whoosh!
Halfway through the leader’s words, he suddenly saw one of his soldiers flying across the air.
Tok!
The soldier was pinned onto their flagpole as if a nail.
Weng!
It was only at this point that those in the barracks belatedly heard the intense vibration of the arrow that struck the soldier..
They are sniping us from more than a hundred feet away? Is that even humanly possible?!
But what happened next made the earlier sight look unimpressive.
Bam bam bam!
Heads suddenly began splattering like blooming roses.
Sharp arrows had slipped through the small cracks in the fences to burst the heads of the Ottomain archers, who were waiting to fire their arrows. In a few moments, there was already a huge vacuum in the Ottomain army’s long-range firepower.
“GAH!”
Shu Yichao’s steed charged forward at an astounding speed. His ‘Master of Mounted Archery’ talent allowed it to leap across both the deep trench and the fence to descend upon the enemy’s barracks like heavenly soldiers.
“Ah?” The Ottomain soldiers were startled.
Before they could snap out of their daze, there was a flash of white light, and blood splattered everywhere.
Following that, Shu Yichao stabbed his spear at the bottom of the fence and levered it upward.
“Hmph!”
With his immense strength, he propped up a section of the fence and hurled it back. The fence crashed down on the Ottomain soldiers, most of whom were too stunned to move. Screams of agony ensued, as these soldiers were reduced to meat paste.
Shu Yichao didn’t stop there. He moved on to prop up another section of the fence and hurled it back.
It only took him moments to open up a path for cavalrymen to enter the Ottomain barracks.
“Kill them!”
“Gahhh!”
The Elite Horse Archers finally caught up with Shu Yichao. Their steeds leaped across the deep trench with ease and entered the Ottomain barracks, where they began their slaughter.
Chaos immediately befell the Ottomain soldiers.
“We have been defeated!” they cried while attempting to flee from the barracks.
In the end, just like the soldiers whom the First Imperial Consort had left behind to cover them, they only managed to stop Shu Yichao for a brief moment. Just a brief moment.
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Starve’s Notes:
The Albanians are part of the Ottoman Empire too, just to clarify in case there’s any confusion.