As the art of war states, an execution serves to demonstrate military might. If the killing of one man can shock an entire army, then let him be killed.

Soldiers will not fear both the enemy and their own leaders.

If they fear their leaders, they will disdain the enemy; if they fear the enemy, they will disdain their leaders. If the leaders are disdained by the soldiers, the battle will be lost; if the leaders have authority among the soldiers, the battle will be won.

During this time, Chen Mo has learned a great deal.

Moreover, these five thousand men under Zhao Ye were originally assigned to him by Lu Yonggang, so Chen Mo could be considered Zhao Ye's superior.

Now that Zhao Ye wants to desert in the face of battle, Chen Mo naturally has the right to execute him.

The art of war also states that if one cannot earn the affection of soldiers for their willing service, they will not be of use to me.

If one cannot command respect and authority from soldiers to instill fear, they will not obey my command.

Chen Mo lacks the affection needed to earn the soldiers' willing service, but by executing Zhao Ye, he can establish his authority.

Indeed, watching Zhao Ye being split in two by Chen Mo's blade, the entire army was shaken.

Furthermore, since Chen Mo succeeded Yang Minggui, he was originally one of the four deputy generals in the army, now with Lu Yonggang dead, he has the right to command the entire army.

Looking at the Three Guards sharpening their blades, everyone could only follow Chen Mo's orders with fear and trepidation.

"Now that Marshal Lu is dead, Marshal Li, and Marshal Song have died in battle, and Marshal Huang's fate is uncertain, the state cannot be leaderless for a day, the army cannot be without a commander for a day. Appointing Deputy General of the Yu Celestial Master Army, Chen Mo, now takes temporary command of the army.

Now, the entire army heed my order, ascend the city walls." Chen Mo commanded decisively.

It is unclear whether the fleeing soldiers were inspired by Chen Mo's aura or threatened by the troops of the Three Guards, but they could only obey and ascend the city walls.

"Han Wu, Su Wu."

"Present at your command."

"I specially task you two to organize a Supervision Team composed of one hundred Divine Brave Guards, two hundred Divine Martial Guards, and two hundred Xianzhen Guards, to stay in the rear of the army. For those retreating, do not report; execute them directly."

"Understood."

"Sun Meng."

"Present at your command."

"Position your Personal Guard Team at the gate, follow my orders, be ready to close the Guanxuan Gate and lower the Thousand-Pound Gate at any moment, with no errors."

"Understood."

…

The entire army followed Chen Mo's orders in succession, Chen Mo led Xia Zhining and others to ascend the castle's rear gate tower, raising the large banner, everyone gazed into the distance.

The Golden Crow set in the west, and the sky gradually darkened.

The Personal Guard Battalion led by Huang Da, also the last main force among the deserters, fell under the Yu State Army's blades, and Liang Song's golden banner began to advance slowly.

Liang Song would not spare these rebel leaders, each would be personally executed.

Of the three commanders pursued and one commander-in-chief, all had fallen in battle, and a large number of Celestial Master Army soldiers who realized they couldn't escape had no choice but to surrender.

Those who did not surrender and continued to flee would naturally not be spared by the Yu State Army, who gave their utmost to begin the slaughter.

"Whoosh!"

A feathered arrow descended from the sky, the fierce arrow piercing through the back of a fleeing Celestial Master Army soldier, who fell lifeless onto the path of escape without a sound.

The Profound Leopard Cavalry began their mounted archery slaughter of the distant fleeing rebel army, closing in and drawing their swords to behead the slower rebel soldiers.

This was like a hunting frenzy.

The Profound Leopard Cavalry were the hunters, and the Celestial Master Army were the prey, only knowing how to flee without resistance.

"Mighty!"

The Yu State Army crushed the fleeing rebel army like a tidal wave, the narrow official road echoed with cries of despair.

The rebel army fell one after another, Shi Meng mechanically swung his dual Pumpkin Copper Hammers, not knowing how many enemies he crushed to death, his face splattered with countless drops of fresh blood, his excitement growing.

In his eyes, this group of rebel soldiers was like wheat in the field, being harvested madly by him.

Until a sound of wind breaking came, a warning cry from behind him, Shi Meng barely reacted, looked up to see a feathered arrow brushing past his face.

Due to the surge of adrenaline, it took Shi Meng a while to feel the pain coming from his right ear, he raised a hand to touch it, but instead felt warm blood as he could not feel his right ear.

"Ahh..." Shi Meng's scream echoed.

On the city head, Chen Mo sighed, the distance where Shi Meng was located was not within the range of the Cloud-Chasing Arrow's lock, Chen Mo could only use his own strength to shoot the feathered arrow four hundred paces, of course the accuracy was far from ideal, only grazing Shi Meng's right ear.

He looked at the strong bow in his hand, already showing several cracks, and sighed again, as his Power increased, the Twelve Stones strong bow was no longer suitable for him, once the force exceeded a certain limit, it could no longer withstand it.

"Close the city gate." Chen Mo shouted.

"Close the city gate."

The command flag waved, the orders were passed along the personal soldiers, reaching Sun Meng, who no longer concerned himself with the Celestial Master Army deserters outside the city, and with a fierce shout, closed the heavy Guanxuan Gate together with Liu Ze, then lowered the Thousand-Pound Gate.

"Bang..."

The Guanxuan Gate met the impact of the deserters, unmoving.

"Hurry, bring the logs." Sun Meng instructed the personal soldiers to bring the logs, setting them upright against the Thousand-Pound Gate.

On the city wall, Chen Mo waved his hand mightily: "Release the arrows."

"Release the arrows!"

"Release the arrows!"

The command spread, and the command flags fell one by one. A rain of arrows rose towards the Profound Leopard Cavalry chasing outside the city.

The Profound Leopard Cavalry saw the rain of arrows coming and their expressions changed drastically. They quickly raised their round shields, but in such a dense rain of arrows, some arrows still grazed the edges of the shields, hitting the rear cavalry's thighs or horses.

The locust-like feathered arrows, accompanied by whistling winds, shot into the ranks of the Profound Leopard Cavalry, including some Divine Arm Crossbow arrows that could penetrate even round shields.

The Profound Leopard Cavalry behind, along with the infantry of the Yu State Army who caught up, stopped and retreated beyond the shooting range of the arrows.

The soldiers of the Celestial Master Army below the city saw the Yu State Army no longer chasing them and thought they were safe, so they began to bang on the Guanxuan Gate, urging the Celestial Master Army inside to open the city gate.

But at this time, Chen Mo certainly wouldn't open it. Opening the Guanxuan Gate and raising the Thousand-Pound Gate takes time.

And the Yu State Army could take advantage of this time and infiltrate Zhuima City.

Of course, Chen Mo wouldn't just stand by and let people drop baskets to pull people up.

But at this time, human nature was revealed.

The basket was only so large, it could pull up at most two people at a time.

And there were hundreds or thousands of Celestial Master Army deserters below. Naturally, they didn't line up but scrambled desperately.

This led to the basket being torn apart in the chaos.

Additionally, although the Yu State Army did not dare to approach the shooting range, they had ways to attack the Celestial Master Army below the city.

Screams rang out outside the city gate.

In response, Chen Mo no longer allowed the basket to be lowered.

No matter how many deserters there were, it was useless to lower the basket, especially at a moment of life and death with the Yu State Army pressing in step by step. They wouldn't queue anyway; shouting wouldn't help, as no one would listen under such circumstances.

"Never mind, respect their fate."

Chen Mo turned around, and to the Celestial Master Army deserters who had just escaped into the city, he said aloud, "My name is Chen Mo, Deputy General of the army, Marshal Lu is dead, and I will temporarily act as Commander-in-Chief. If you don't want to die, listen to my orders."

The Celestial Master Army deserters, who were terrified, looked at each other, but seeing the supervision team glaring at them, all were forced to submit.

They had thrown away all their weapons during the escape.

"Sun Meng, take the Personal Guard Team and select hundreds from among these people, go to the front city and move whatever beating wood and fire oil remains on the city walls." Chen Mo ordered.

"Yes." Sun Meng responded and immediately went to select soldiers from the deserters.

Chen Mo actually didn't intend to defend Zhuima City, since most of the Celestial Master Army's main force had been annihilated by the enemy.

The reason to continue defending was first, to stabilize morale temporarily.

Second, if he fled with this group of deserters, his Three Guards would also be affected, and in the chaos of fleeing, they would quickly be caught by the enemy.

Third, since it was nearing nightfall, outsiders like them were certainly less familiar with the roads than the enemy, and now they were closely entangled; fleeing at night was too risky.

When he fled at Luqing Mountain, he had retreated from the enemy first.

...

Trampling, trampling, trampling...

The sound of orderly footsteps echoed.

The Yu State Army's central forces arrived.

Surrounding them were Yu State Armored Warriors brandishing their weapons, cold and still bloodstained, emitting a chilling gleam even at dusk, while their sturdy armor clattered as they ran.

Large shields adorned with fierce beast patterns surged like tides, and waves of shouting and killing crazily impacted the Celestial Master Army on the city walls.

The Celestial Master Army on the walls saw the massive momentum of the enemy and their bodies quickly tensed, trembling like a sieve.

Seeing this, Chen Mo frowned deeply; a motley crowd, difficult to make great use of.

"Beat the drums," Chen Mo shouted.

"Boom boom boom..."

The drumbeats thundered like a storm, heavy and long, overpowering the Yu State Army's shouts, thereby slightly reducing the inner fear of the Celestial Master Army.

Looking at the almost crowded rebel army on the city walls, Liang Song, standing on the battle wagon, frowned, realizing the ambush troops in the city were probably completely wiped out.

In his plan, if successful, once the city gates closed, he would drive the defeated army over and capture the rebel army like turtles in a jar, completely eliminating the force.

But the result did not unfold as planned.

After all, how can every link of a plan go smoothly?

At least at this stage, he already counted as winning.

"Sir, sir, he is the one who killed General Xu,"

Just then, a soldier formerly under Xu Jie's command, jogged forward, pointing at the young man on the distant city head.

Though too far to clearly see his face,

the soldier recognized him at a glance by his beautiful "Bright Armor."

"Sir, my right ear was shot away by him," Shi Meng said, covering his bandaged wound, his expression fierce.

The whole army shuddered upon hearing.

Liang Song squinted his eyes slightly, gazing toward the city head. Although ordinary soldiers couldn't see clearly due to distance, Middle-Grade Martial Artists with enhanced perception could see clearly.

He instructed Shi Meng briefly, then gave an order: the battle wagon and over a dozen personal soldiers surged from the central army to the forefront, stopping at the shooting range of the Divine Arm Crossbows.

Liang Song stepped down from the battle wagon alone, walked forward three steps, bowed slightly, and said aloud, "I am Liang Song of the Hedong Liang Family, currently serving as Prefect of Yuzhou. Who are you? Would you mind stating your name?"

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