"Immediately gather and organize your troops, eat your fill and drink plenty in preparation to fight the enemy to the death."
"Yes, sir!"
The general immediately ordered people to bring dried meat and water to the Grand General.
At the same time, he ordered the troops to build fires and cook meals to prepare food for the soldiers who had retreated.
"Grand General, what exactly happened?"
The Grand General sighed and said, "We fell for the enemy's tactic of luring the tiger from the mountain. Fortunately, I noticed early and withdrew quickly, otherwise it would have been worse than just losing a city. It was possible the whole army could have been wiped out."
"What a pity for those 50,000 soldiers in the city," he said as he smashed his leg in frustration.
"How many troops do we have left?"
"A little over 200,000."
"And how many does the enemy have?"
"The Flame Country originally dispatched over 1.2 million troops. It looks like they have about 300,000 chasing us."
"The rest of their troops are still tangled with our frontline forces."
After thinking for a while, the general asked, "What should we do now?"
"We must now retake the city we lost and ensure reinforcements continue to head to the frontline. Otherwise, the frontline forces will be completely wiped out."
The general worriedly asked, "Can we defeat them?"
The Grand General replied, "Whether we can defeat them or not, we still have to fight! What we lack most right now is time."
As the retreating soldiers gradually entered the rear of the army, Tang Xiaoyu felt increasingly uneasy.
[These were clearly routed troops rather than an organized retreat! Armor, provisions all gone. Fortunately their weapons weren't discarded, or we'd all be toast.]
Due to the generals' orders, the retreating soldiers quickly calmed down and lay on the ground, not wanting to move anymore.
Time trickled by. To ensure the army's strength, the standing troops took a break in place.
After about an hour, Tang Xiaoyu saw dust swirling in the distance.
The enemy had arrived.
The bugle sounded again and Tang Xiaoyu and his men readied themselves for battle once more.
Behind them, the troops continued eating and resting to recover their strength.
As time passed, the enemy army also appeared before Tang Xiaoyu, advancing not in a disorderly mob but in neat marching formation.
Seeing the army arrayed on the hillside, the enemy generals ordered their troops to form battle formations and prepare to attack.
Soon the great army began to move, regiment by regiment arranging themselves in rectangular formations before Tang Xiaoyu and his men.
After about half an hour, deafening war drums sounded as the enemy formations slowly advanced up the hillside.
Although the terrain favored Tang Xiaoyu and his troops, the enemy clearly didn't want to waste time and chose a frontal assault.
They didn't want the main force behind them to catch their breath.
For the exhausted and tense soldiers, an hour's rest was far from enough. And after resting, they would need some time for their minds and bodies to re-adjust to battle.
The enemy also knew this. While chasing, they wouldn't blindly expend all energy, because though strong in spirit, the chance of unexpected incidents also grew large.
Seeing the enemy array neatly below them and marching towards his position, and the endless reinforcements still streaming in, Tang Xiaoyu felt his legs shaking. He now felt things weren't looking good for his side.
And not just him - the morale of the whole army was sliding. Not for anything else, but seeing the enemy's momentum and numbers made them unable to envision the hope of victory.
Signal flags waved as messengers continuously relayed the general's orders.
Tang Xiaoyu's thousand-man team stood at the very front, the first to meet the enemy's attack.
Gripping his spear tightly, Tang Xiaoyu prayed desperately in his heart: [Nuwa Goddess protect us, Three Purest Celestial Beings protect us, Jade Emperor protect us, Divine Erlang protect us...] beseeching all the way back to their heroic ancestors.
Only then did Tang Xiaoyu's heart slowly calm. Recalling their ancestors' valor and fearlessness towards death, as well as Xiao Wu's words, his blood began to boil with excitement.
"Behind us lies the motherland, we have no path of retreat!" Tang Xiaoyu shouted loudly.
His compatriots were stunned for a moment before loudly echoing his words.
"Long live the motherland!"
"Long live!"
Morale greatly recovered in an instant, everyone's blood boiled with fervent excitement.
Seeing the right timing, Wu Yong ordered, "Attack!"
Utilizing their high ground, Tang Xiaoyu and his men relied on momentum to directly shove the climbing enemy troops down the hill in a tumble.
Their battle formation thrown into chaos, the enemy generals immediately ordered a retreat.
The rear thousand-man teams promptly took over the front line positions.
For a time, the battle reached a fever pitch.
By now, the entirety of the enemy's reinforcements had arrived and their battle formations were set.
On the order to "Attack!", the enemy forces surged forth, determined to fight to the death.
The several hundred thousand strong army wasn't just targeting Tang Xiaoyu's 30,000 men, but all their forces.
A battle on such a scale wouldn't end in a day or two.
Sheltered by the army formation, Tang Xiaoyu didn't face too much danger and only needed to follow orders. But most crucially, he had to keep high morale.
As time passed, Tang Xiaoyu's thousand-man team had already rotated off the front line to rest twice.
Things were far less optimistic on the Grand General's side, with several thousand-man teams already routed. Lack of equipment and fatigue were big factors.
With no other option, the Grand General could only swap Tang Xiaoyu's well-equipped troops to replace the more battered ones, taking advantage of their geographical superiority.
Before long, Tang Xiaoyu's stalwart thousand-man team entered the fray at the frontlines.
The battle was intensely chaotic, the ground awash in blood. Tang Xiaoyu's arm was slashed open but it didn't hinder his fighting.
As night deepened, both sides sounded the call to withdraw.
The Qin army had suffered heavy losses in this battle but had narrowly avoided total rout, thanks to the Grand General's shrewd command, rotating out units showing signs of collapse so they could hold out until nightfall.
Returning to the great camp built by the auxiliaries, the Grand General received good news.
Two more relief forces would arrive tomorrow, and the city behind them had already dispatched men with weapons, armor, and provisions which would reach them by noon.
"Excellent, very good! We'll launch a counterattack as soon as the relief troops arrive."
After dressing his wounds, Tang Xiaoyu heard Wu Yong relay the good news and immediately felt tremendous relief.
"We have Xiao Wu alone to thank for making it through today instead of getting toast," he murmured.
Just then Xiao Wu walked over. "Brother Tang, how will you repay me?"
Tang Xiaoyu joked, "I have no way to repay you, except with my life."
"Now that would be avenging kindness with enmity!"
The two men joked for a while. Tang Xiaoyu asked, "What's the situation with the enemy?"
"No idea. Scouts can't even get close."
Tang Xiaoyu considered, "The enemy will probably retreat since they've lost the chance to annihilate us completely. They'll want to rejoin the main force to destroy our frontline army."
"How did such a massive army make it behind us anyway?"
"Flanking around to our rear isn't hard, the issue is their supply line. This entire attack was a gamble at the cost of their lives. If they didn't capture the city, their fate is easy to imagine."