Eikyuu Central Front – Day 8
The center of the Qin army was being torn apart.
With the Hi Shin Unit engaged in brutal cliff fighting and the left wing still too distant, the heart of the battlefield had become a slaughterhouse. The Zhao center surged forward like a wave crashing on a weakened shore, cutting down countless soldiers as the Qin front line collapsed.
"Where is Kan Ki?!"
Zhao commanders demanded answers, but none came. Despite their overwhelming victory, one question haunted every officer on the Zhao side:
Why hadn't they found Kan Ki yet?
In the growing madness, Ryuu Fu split off from his right-wing post and launched a raid with 8,000 troops toward the center to find the elusive general. He scoured the field, turning over corpses, probing ridgelines, burning supply carts—but found nothing. No trail. No camp. Not even a trace of the main Kan Ki Army.
"Are we hunting a ghost?" one officer muttered.
"No…" Ryuu Fu growled. "He's waiting for something."
In the Zhao HQ tent, officers and strategists surrounded Ko Chou, bursting with confidence.
"We've broken their center!"
"The right is pressing forward under Ryuu Fu's charge!"
"This battle is ours!"
Then—"Emergency report!!"
A panicked messenger burst in, blood on his shoulder.
"W-we're under attack! Multiple enemy units have begun raiding the perimeter! They're heading straight for headquarters!"
"WHAT?!"
Commander Chou Ritsu attempted to calm his men, stepping outside with a retinue to assess the situation himself. He barked orders, trying to regroup the guards.
Then a blur moved through the smoke.
A massive figure, face hidden beneath warpaint and chains—Zenou.
Chou Ritsu turned just in time for Zenou to cleave him down the middle with a single swing of his club.
Screams erupted. Officers ran. The Zenou Clan surged forward like rabid beasts, tearing into the HQ's defenses.
Inside, strategists fell into chaos.
"They're only a thousand strong—!"
"No, there are more!"
"They're coming in waves! From everywhere!"
Ko Chou didn't panic. He stared at the map with grim focus. Then, realization dawned on his face.
"…Sun Bin's strategy."
The officers froze.
"He used the old strategy," Ko Chou explained calmly. "Kan Ki let real deserters flee, counting on their panic. But hidden among them were soldiers under strict orders. They waited among the bodies. Some dug holes. Others vanished into the terrain."
"Then… when we sent Ryuu Fu to the center and committed our reserves…"
Ko Chou nodded. "He struck. And he only made this move because the Hi Shin Unit held the cliff. If they had failed, none of this would have worked."
Silence.
"This wasn't luck," Ko Chou muttered. "He planned this before the battle began."
Commander Ka Man burst in.
"We have to run! We still have the numbers to win elsewhere. If we survive this ambush, we can regroup with Ko Haku's 5,000!"
"No," Ko Chou said. "Kan Ki likely predicted we'd run there. We'll go the other way."
They mounted horses and began to flee west—
Only to be stopped by a black tide of cavalry.
At the front, his blood-slicked glaive resting lazily on his shoulder, rode Kan Ki.
Ko Chou's elite cavalry—100 handpicked riders—charged. They were Zhao's finest.
But Kan Ki sent in the Shu Ma Clan—200 grim riders whose reputation rivaled even the Zenou Clan's.
The battlefield turned into a cavalry grinder, but the Shu Ma held the upper hand. One by one, Ko Chou's guards fell under superior tactics and ferocity.
Ka Man, in desperation, broke through the line and charged Kan Ki directly.
"DIEEE!!"
Kan Ki didn't blink. He leaned sideways, parried the blade with a twist of his glaive, grabbed Ka Man by the throat, and stabbed him deep in the gut.
"Gkkh…"
Blood poured from Ka Man's mouth. He locked eyes with Kan Ki.
"Your eyes… they don't reflect pain. Ko Chou lost that light long ago…"
Kan Ki, unmoved, cut him in half.
Ko Chou watched Ka Man's lifeless body fall. The Shu Ma surrounded him. Kan Ki's shadow loomed closer.
But Ko Chou didn't reach for his sword. He looked toward the map still in his mind… and sliced his own throat in one clean motion.
He collapsed to the ground without a sound.
Kan Ki stared down at the corpse, then motioned coldly.
"Take his head."
His men mounted the blood-soaked head on a spear and marched it toward the frontlines.
Ma Ron began spreading a lie:
"Ou Sen is coming. So is Yo Tan Wa. 100,000 troops… each."
The rumor took root like wildfire.
Zhao soldiers, upon hearing of Ko Chou's death and the incoming reinforcements, began surrendering by the thousands. Many simply dropped their weapons, weeping.
Even the deserters from Kan Ki's army returned, swelling the ranks again to help capture prisoners and collect supplies.
Commander Ko Haku, realizing too late what was happening, returned from his failed attempt to reach HQ—only to find himself surrounded by men already surrendering.
The only one still resisting was Ryuu Fu. When he received the news of his father's death, of Ko Chou's suicide, and the collapse of their command—he howled in fury and refused to stand down.
But then, Koku'Ou appeared.
Riding alone with a squad of assassins, she intercepted Ryuu Fu's forces and launched a surprise counterattack. The fighting was swift and violent—but efficient.
Ryuu Fu was forced into retreat.
The center front of the Zhao army collapsed entirely.
The Kan Ki Army had pulled off the impossible—and captured tens of thousands of prisoners, more than any campaign in their history.