Chapter 451: Rushing

Gan Ning and his men charged as fast as they could away from the enemy camp, they had met some resistance at the Enemy Camp Gate as they left, but had dispatched the Celtic Warriors within and were charging to the South East, aiming to take a clear distance away from the Battle and come back towards Eruthros’s Wall on the Southern Side near where Tomoe would be based.

A couple of the Batavi were injured in the group, bandaging their wounds as they rode. One had an Arrow in his shoulder and was clearly struggling, with his horse strapped to the two riders beside him to get him back to Eruthros. The safest route would have been to head back to the River and cross to the north, however it would also take the longest and the information they had could be important.

Gan Ning had chosen this route as the safest, with the least chance of getting caught up in any Battles, or so he hoped. Some enemy Cavalry had followed them, and Gan Ning had split his force in two. The Main force was led by himself, whilst Centurion Chariovalda was leading the Rear Guard. Chariovalda had the most dangerous part of the plan, but had volunteered for it himself.

The Rear Guard occasionally departed from them, using different tactics as they engaged their pursuers. They occasionally Separated in to smaller units, with one that would draw the enemy in, and the other would flank or hide further down and ambush them as they rode past whilst chasing the majority of Chariovalda’s men. Some times they just charged straight at them, cutting them down. They had taken some injuries but Gan Ning wasn’t sure if there was any losses, he just heard them shouting and yelling cheerfully every time they caught up.

They had been escaping for around forty minutes when they came across the Cavalry of Zhao Yun in the distance, who were in a battle of their own at the moment. Over one thousand Lazarus Kingdom Cavalry were currently slaughtering their enemies. There was a gap between them and the open ground between them and the enemy Army beside the River who were currently out of sight that Gan Ning could charge through. However, he knew that his men turn the tides in Zhao Yun’s favour. He didn’t know why or how Zhao Yun’s men had got here, but as a fellow General, he knew that if he left them, even with his important task ahead, it could have wider repercussions to the wider battle.

"We need to help Zhao Yun’s men so they can re-join the main battle quicker!" Gan Ning ordered as he directed them towards the Battle that was taking place in the distance.

"Sir, are you sure? We need to get back to Eruthros quickly." One of his Guards questioned him, as he charged beside him.

"We give see if we can change the situation, we will not stay for long." Gan Ning replied, knowing his guard was correct and was always keen to listen to the thoughts of his men, which was one of the reasons he was so well liked by the Warriors across the Military.

There was commotion as Gan Ning and his men charged in to the mix. Gan Ning led from the front, his formation being a wide semi-circle as it covered the enemies possible escape route and closed the Circle that Zhao Yun’s men were trying to create. They had cut of the enemies main opportunity to retreat and struck hard. His men were tall and powerful, whilst the enemies were lightly armoured spear wielding men, on stunning brown horses with curved ears. The Batavi Horsemen were powerful, having been a major Auxiliary detachment of the Roman Empire who shook fear in their allies and enemies alike.

As they charged in, their powerful horses crashed in to the enemies horses, their strong muscles over powering the beautiful horses of the enemy. They swung their swords and axes, taking limbs, heads and cutting huge gashes in to their enemies as they smashed in to them. The sound of screaming men and horses could be heard as they joined the Battle, with visible shockwaves ricocheting throughout the forces.

Gan Ning did his best to aim for the horseman themselves, to retain as many horses as possible due to the constant need for them in the Kingdom. Whilst it wasn’t the moment to be thinking about rewards as they first had to defeat an enemy that was much larger than they had expected, he still didn’t want to aimlessly cut them down. The horses were also interesting, their curved ears was something he hadn’t seen before, and they were lean and quite clearly would add a different variety to the possibilities of Cavalry forces in the Kingdom if they could breed them.

Behind him was one of his Batavi Guards, armoured slightly different from the Batavi Cavalry. Their armour was thicker and had the markings of Gan Ning’s unit on them. He and a small unit kept back in the formation, keeping hold of all of the key items they had taken from the Enemy Camp. Gan Ning had given him orders that his priority was to deliver these to Lazarus and Xun You, his own safety being negligible. They were to leave first if the situation turned dire and Gan Ning had made a mistake in involving them in this clash. Their role was to charge to Eruthros and take horses from others if needs be as spares if the worst case situation arose.

Gan Ning slashed his blade down, cutting an enemy spear in half, before the Batavi beside him followed through and cut in to the enemies chest, blood spurting from the cavity in his chest and covering the men around him. The now dead enemy fell slump on his panicked horse as they pushed through around them towards their next targets.

Gan Ning dodged an incoming spear strike, directing his horse with only his knee’s, he grabbed the spear with his free hand and yanked the enemy from his horse. The Batavi on his other side cut down as the enemy fell, whilst Gan Ning looked for his next target in the packed ranks before him.

The enemy were thinning quickly, and whilst most of the Cavalry seemed to be from this one unit of the enemies forces, there were some armoured mounted Celtic Warriors and others mixed in. He wasn’t sure why Zhao Yun was here, or why these enemies were currently engaged, but he could tell that the enemy hadn’t expected this Battle to take place. Gan Ning wanted to help Zhao Yun finish faster and it seemed that he was getting more engaged in the battle than he had initially planned. He turned to his guards behind him, planning to dispatch them soon so he could warn him of the things he had seen in the camp, however he hoped he could grab some of Zhao Yun’s horses instead, as Zhao Yun’s cavalry were faster than Gan Ning’s who were excellent Swimmers and for Forests. Gan Ning noticed Zhao Yun in the distance and intended to fight his way through to his fellow General.

"More are coming!" One of his men warned him, as a small group of enemy Cavalry seemed to be charging in their direction in a wedge formation, keen to create a gap within their lines to allow the rest to break free. This unit was heavier armoured Celt’s rather than the other units and Gan Ning wasn’t sure where they had come from. He suspected the enemy were searching for their own Cavalry. Gan Ning wasn’t worried though, as Zhao Yun had seen it before him, sending a unit to meet them and was ordering his other men to push the circle in quicker with Gan Ning’s two hundred extra men to finish this Skirmish faster.

Gan Ning could see what the enemy were planning with this new unit’s arrival, by sending them in and Zhao Yun replying, the encirclement would have a thinning section allowing them to break free. Gan Ning suspected Zhao Yun also knew this, but wouldn’t counter his fellow Generals decision. The two of them hadn’t spoken much due to the difference in their roles, but they had a level of respect for each other as two of Dom’s most senior Commanders. One was a General for large scale Battles and Cavalry, the other for Skirmishes and Special Operations in a Battle.

Gan Ning cut his way through his area, as a group of enemies began to push themselves free as he had suspected and create an opening within Zhao Yun’s Boatian Lines. Gan Ning saw it and pushed his own men in that direction, but was caught off guard by a group of men riding pale horses amongst them aiming to flee. He hadn’t noticed them earlier, as there were plenty of Banners and Units mixed in the forces that were being cut down. Their armour was similar to that of the Han Cavalry amongst the Lazarus Kingdom forces. The Warriors wore fur on their armour, their armour being much tougher than that of those riding the curved ear Horses. Their armour had streaks of green on them and Gan Ning recognised the flag they hoisted above them from the five he had taken from the enemy Camp.

Within the centre of the group was a tall man, with a red spotted face that looked like the colour of blood. He had large blue eyes and had two large iron maces that he had been swinging against the Cavalry of Zhao Yun as he charged out. On his waist were two bows and quivers. He seemed to hook his maces as his men moved to surround and protected him in their escape attempt. They looked like they were from the same Tribe, and he pulled one of his bows from his waist. Gan Ning recognised him, having read about him in some of the works written by Gu Kaizhi, as well as information given to him by some of the other members of the Kingdom who had a good historical understanding of the Three Kingdoms Period. He was a minor character in the history of the Three Kingdoms, and according to Gu Kaizhi he was little but a footnote. However, as Gu Kaizhi had also explained, he was significant to Gan Ning.

Gan Ning shook his head, a brief moment of indecision as an Arrow flew towards him from the enemy General, whom had already targeted some of the Centurions and Optio’s within Zhao Yun’s ranks, clearly trying to target obvious leaders and create command gaps to aid his escape. The Arrow seemed to part through the crowd of Cavalry between them and came directly for Gan Ning’s head. He wasn’t sure how the General had knew who to target and felt a moment of panic, the first in a long time, as if fate was laughing at him from beyond a hidden veil. He couldn’t move to avoid it and the moments he thought of this had passed in milliseconds with inaction from his body.

There was a clang, and then an incredible pain in his chest as it could deep. One of his Batavi Guards had tried to deflect the incoming Arrow, catching it slightly as it glanced from the down chopping cut of the Batavi’s sword and hit Gan Ning in his armoured chest, instead of the face where it was initially aimed. The power took Gan Ning from his horse as he began to fall from it, the chaos of the Battle continuing around him as his vision blurred.