Chapter 84 – The Offensive Unleashed
As the heavy cavalry tore through the front line and drove deep inside, the interior of the enemy formation began to shudder.
The front had already collapsed.
The rear still did not understand what was happening.
Yeong-u's gaze swept across both flanks.
They were deep enough.
Now—cut.
"Spread to the flanks."
The command fell, short and clean.
Jongmang understood instantly.
"Archers—wings!"
The mounted archers flowing behind the heavy cavalry peeled outward, left and right.
What had been a single mass unfurled, reshaping its movement mid-charge.
The breakthrough pressed forward in the center.
On both sides, bows were raised.
"Loose!"
The arrows came slanting in—
not from the front,
but from the sides.
Shields guard forward.
Spears point ahead.
The flanks—
are open.
The men struck from the side collapsed at once.
Those standing and those falling tangled together,
their lines unraveling where they stood.
The deeper the formation, the more fatal the wound.
The front was shattered.
The sides were torn open.
The entire army wavered.
Yeong-u drove further in.
He did not slow.
He did not look back.
"Keep pushing."
The heavy cavalry surged again,
forcing open the gap they had already carved.
Into that widening breach, arrows poured like rain.
They struck into fleeing flanks,
ripped apart knots of men,
split what little cohesion remained.
Orders broke.
Drumbeats faltered—then scattered.
The front no longer knew the rear.
The rear no longer knew the front.
The army split in two—
no,
it ceased to be an army at all.
It became fragments.
Moving bodies.
Nothing more.
"Don't hold them!"
Yeong-u's voice cut through the chaos.
"Let them scatter!"
If gathered, they would fight again.
If scattered, they were finished.
Arrows continued to fall from the flanks.
The faster they ran,
the faster they died.
The flow broke.
The Liao army broke with it.
In a heartbeat, the formation split apart.
Commanders tried to rally—too late.
Once a formation is severed,
the battle is already decided.
One man turned.
Then another followed.
Then another.
Retreat spread faster than sound.
The scattered mass bent westward,
instinct driving them away from the Jurchen advance.
Yeong-u, having cut through the formation, pulled his horse around.
Jongmang shouted—
"There! The center of the main force!"
"Forward!"
Yeong-u spurred ahead.
The silver tide of heavy cavalry stretched into a line behind him,
driving straight into the heart of the enemy.
They tried to block him.
It meant nothing.
With a single strike, Yeong-u shattered the line again.
Men were swept aside like dry leaves.
The front rank collapsed.
A gap opened.
One man turned to flee.
A heartbeat of hesitation—
then he broke.
The man beside him saw it.
His spear wavered.
Then he turned as well.
Panic outruns orders.
"Hold!"
someone shouted.
The command was given—
but the body no longer obeyed.
Pressure closed from the front.
Arrows struck from the side.
Only one path remained—back.
Survive.
That single thought spread through them all.
Yeong-u saw it.
Caught it.
"Now."
He drove harder.
Faster.
"Push them! Break them!"
The silver mass of heavy cavalry—
blades flashing,
spears thrusting—
cut straight across the enemy's depth.
What had split in two was torn into three.
Into those fractures, arrows fell again.
They did not pursue.
They drove.
They did not block the way.
They forced the enemy to turn their backs.
They chose the direction of flight for them.
Arrows fell from both sides,
burying themselves in the ribs of fleeing men.
Stop—die.
Run—live.
That choice spread through the entire force.
The front ranks collapsed.
The ranks behind them faltered.
When one line breaks,
no line behind it holds.
Jongmang roared—
"Do not chase! Drive them!"
Chase—and they fight.
Drive—and they collapse.
The heavy cavalry surged once more.
They plunged into the fleeing mass,
forcing the broken current forward without pause.
The Liao army compressed into a single direction.
West.
The direction of their rout.