Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1508 - 1451: Ambush and Losses

Perhaps Li Youu's mind was too expansive, and the scope of distortion required was too large, making it somewhat beyond Li Youu's estimation. As the time dragged on, Li Youu, needing to handle state affairs, had no choice but to leave the semi-finished product to Zhuge Liang. There was nothing else to do, as the saying goes, 'When the teacher is busy, the disciple takes on the labor…'

Naturally, Zhuge Liang studied the formation and eventually found that this kind of light refraction worked well with fewer people, but with more, the difficulty was indeed too high. Simply put, Li Youu's imagination was somewhat impractical.

The so-called fewer people meant the formation worked fine with hundreds of men, but once the number exceeded a thousand, honestly, as long as the scout cavalry was a bit careful, it would be easy to spot the problem. A truly excellent Commander-in-chief would never cut corners on scouting cavalry.

However, with Xun Youi's Spiritual Talent, although there remained the problem of increased visibility with greater numbers, when combined, the strengths complemented each other, and Zhuge Liang felt it could be attempted. The double-layer coverage of concealment and ignoring should pose no problem.

As a result, Zhuge Liang dispatched Li Tong to determine the overall level of concealment.

After receiving Zhuge Liang's order, Li Tong led a dozen scout cavalry out. After 30 steps, when looking in the direction of Zhuge Liang's army, things seemed a bit blurry and somewhat instinctually disregarded. After advancing 50 or 60 steps, only by focusing completely could he make slight discoveries.

More importantly, this kind of detection would naturally be ignored. If he hadn't known that Zhuge Liang was nearby, it would have been difficult to notice the situation here.

Li Tong rode back and informed Zhuge Liang of the situation, and Zhuge Liang visibly breathed a sigh of relief; indeed, the possibility of being discovered was greatly reduced when the two techniques were combined.

After determining that they wouldn't be exposed, Zhuge Liang immediately ordered 3,000 of the nearly 10,000 soldiers to ambush five miles away, while the others remained to practice formation and prepare the ambush with him. Speaking of Xun Youi, it's notable how insignificantly small the drain of his Spiritual Talent was.

Simply put, Zhuge Liang found out that using only Xun Youi's Spiritual Talent could last him a whole day. Based on the consumption rate, Zhuge Liang calculated how long Xun Youi could use his own Spiritual Talent and almost had his eyes pop out.

Other Spiritual Talents, except for the passive ones, always have a duration limit. Xun Youi's Spiritual Talent could be open for a month, then close for a moment and open for another month…

The remaining task was to combine the Legion Talents, even if I could only activate the Legion Talent to get responses from a few hundred people, still, it's useful as a spearhead. Zhuge Liang adjusted his soldiers and began selecting the best combination of Legion Talents.

After experimenting with all the Legion Talents, using Zhong Yao's quick judgment, he chose the best combination.

Lyu Bu's full-attribute increase of 10%, combined with Zhang Fei's intimidation, Zhao Yun's Legion Talent removing negative effects on our side, Ma Chao's strong reaction force, and finally, Sunx Ce's destructive power on the enemy's Legion Talents.

Honestly, there were still quite a few other Legion Talents, but Zhuge Liang's slender frame could only withstand so much, and any more would surely cause trouble. It was fortunate that Legion Talents didn't burden the commander excessively; if it was five Spiritual Talents opened like this…

How come this Legion Talent is so similar to Marquis Wenn's... Zhuge Liang thought with curiosity. In all these years, he'd never seen an identical Legion Talent or Spiritual Talent before, but now he had.

Once Zhuge Liang had everyone in place, dawn was beginning to break. Without much ado, Zhuge Liang activated the Legion Talent. Truthfully, Zhuge Liang was still a bit nervous; it was his first battle, and he felt unprepared in many aspects, yet here he was, about to fight a major battle.

Kongming, remember, war is something for which you can never be fully prepared, and opportunities pass in a flash. What you must do is make the most appropriate choice at the moment. Zhuge Liang recalled Li Youu's teachings in his mind.

Despite the limitations of equipment, I haven't made the best preparations, but for the retreating Northern Huns, my preparation far exceeds theirs, Zhuge Liang thought fiercely. This battle would test how much he'd truly learned.

Fa Xiaozhi achieved small successes in his first battle; why should I have none? At this moment, Zhuge Liang's eyes were as calm as water.

The harsh living conditions of the Northern Huns meant that each one of this generation, raised in the Central Asian Region, was battle-hardened. Even Chanyu Huyan Chu couldn't avoid the war. Thus, upon realizing a victory was no longer possible, Xubo Cheng immediately opted for cutting losses to survive.

The Miscellaneous Huns were easily discarded, and as for the main Northern Huns force, despite Xubo Cheng's heartache, he ultimately chose to break through. As a result, over 3,000 Northern Huns were trapped in the formation, coupled with nearly 6,000 Northern Huns warriors already lost. The Northern Huns successfully withdrew less than 10,000 men in total.

However, Zhang Fei's division of 5,000 Tugi cavalry suffered over 3,000 deaths on the battlefield last night. Zhao Yun's White Horse troops experienced over 1,000 losses. During mounted archery, the main Northern Hun force couldn't handle the White Horse, but during the breakthrough, they lost over 1,000.

As for the Wolf Cavalry, even with Zhang Liao's main force utilizing the Legion Talent, significant casualties occurred due to fierce combat, resulting in nearly 1,000 losses. For Chengg Lian, Song Xian, and Hao Meng, mainly providing support, the losses were not significant.

5,000 men cut down over 6,000 of the Northern Huns' main force and over 10,000 Miscellaneous Huns. In the final siege battle, after losing a few hundred men, they took down 3,000 more Northern Huns. Barely a great victory, but it highlighted many problems.

Counting Zhang Fei's troops forced into retirement after the battle and excluding the Miscellaneous Huns, both sides suffered mutual losses.

Zhang Fei's main force was nearly exhausted after this battle, and the Northern Hun prince, Luandi Marquis, perished. The force he led was almost entirely dismantled in this battle as well.

One could say Zhang Fei's division was the main force in this battle, culpable for the largest casualties. However, without Gao Shun taking down the Hun Guards, both sides might have fought till dawn, and then mutually sounded the retreat to cease the battle.

It's worth noting that the battle became this severe due to both sides' staggering Will to fight. By right, when the Luandi Marquis fell, their division should have been in disarray, but the appearance of the Hun Guards brought them back to the frontlines for battle.

Hatred factors played a substantial role here, deviating the conflict from a normal war into a typical battle that demanded both spiritual and physical obliteration. Neither side harbored thoughts of capturing the other.