Book 7: Chapter 3: Inconceivable Changes
Book 7: Chapter 3: Inconceivable Changes
These Yunqin troops’ archers didn’t seek precision at all, only pursuing firing rate.
Every single barbarian soldier was equivalent to a half cultivator. The blood of Yunqin’s Dragon Snake Border Army that flowed through this earth several decades ago already proved that this type of method of using large amounts of military tools to exhaust these barbarian soldiers was worth it.
It was to the extent where much of the experience Yunqin’s elite troops needed to face cultivators were obtained through constant battles against cave barbarians.
Under terrifying bowstring vibrating sounds, the black arrows in the air immediately formed a concentrated black rain.
The Yunqin military officer at the very front wielding a light green long blade raised a clasped fist, starting to slowly accelerate.
Yunqin’s border army had already fought on this land with the cave barbarians for several decades. Even though they suffered countless casualties, most of the deaths happened under some sudden attacks by the cave barbarians and when fighting in environments even more vile than East Orchid Valley. In great battles on a scale of over a hundred people, Yunqin’s numbers compared to the cave barbarian’s numbers would be at a four to one ratio, always resulting in great victories.
According to Martial Sector’s statistics, even in the years when the cave barbarians were most tyrannical, producing some powerful soldiers, the casualties of both sides still remained at a one to one proportion.
Even though this was established behind Yunqin army’s powerful supporting forces, built on the exhaustion of endless arrows and other military tools, compared to these cave barbarians who could easily brandish heavy weapons weighing fifty to sixty jin, basically half a cultivator, it was still an achievement to be proud of.
This only proved just how powerful soldiers were produced after an empire founded on martial might continuously fought for sixty years.
This military officer who only had his eyes exposed was already so experienced he understood these muscle for brains barbarians like the back of his hands.
He knew that under a frontal battle like this, the instant Yunqin’s soldiers showed themselves, these border barbarians would frantically throw all the spears they had on them. Then, when facing the concentrated rain of arrows, these cave barbarians would immediately scatter, hiding their figures in the underbrush while continuously throwing themselves at them.
However, a moment later, these barbarians would see the difference in strength between the two sides, realizing that they couldn’t deliver substantial damage to Yunqin’s army at all, and then ultimately directly choose to retreat.
From the start until now, the performance of these cave barbarians whose bodies exuded savageness and violence went exactly as he had anticipated. At this time, under the vibrating noises of bowstrings and the rain of arrows from Yunqin soldiers who only pursued rapid firing rate, all of the cave barbarians, including the massive alligators, frantically fled towards the thick shrubbery that could hide their figures.
After several dozen breaths of time and after leaving behind some corpses, these cave barbarians would start to run away, which was why this Yunqin military officer didn’t stop here, instead raising a fist into the air, leading the four hundred Yunqin soldiers whose entire bodies were wrapped under black cloth and black armor forward, quickly closing in on these barbarians.
When the Yunqin soldiers began to run while remaining in formation, the cave barbarians began to panic, rows of waves began to appear within many areas of the grassland.
“Rush!”
The instant these waves appeared, following a shout, this Yunqin military officer’s clasped hand fiercely moved forward.
“Kill!”
Meanwhile, following this fierce shout that wasn’t all that loud, all of the Yunqin soldiers behind him released a cold roar, running with their fastest speeds, running at full speed without worrying about their stamina!
The orderly advancing troops immediately turned into a black flood!
The cave barbarians’ stamina and endurance far exceeded Yunqin’s elite soldiers. This type of explosive full speed sprinting advantage could only be maintained for a hundred steps of distance.
While running crazily like this, as soon as it exceeded a hundred steps, the decline in strength would prevent them from catching up to these cave barbarians.
…
These Yunqin soldiers didn’t worry about their stamina. After sprinting in this manner that could only be continued for a hundred steps, the Yunqin soldiers at the front who ran the fastest could already clearly see the backs of the cave barbarians.
Even under this type of escape, these cave barbarians’ rock sculpture-like backs didn’t have a drop of sweat, only some bloody scars from being brushed by thistles, thorns and leaves.
Because of the humid heat and the irritation from being bitten and stung by bugs, since these cave barbarians were right before them, these Yunqin soldiers whose stamina had already been largely consumed instead ran even faster, even more fiercely.
However, right at this time, the expression of the Yunqin military officer who ran at the very front suddenly changed, his steady breathing becoming a bit unstable. He turned his head to the left.
Up ahead to the left was a swamp that was full of tall bulrush.
The instant he turned around, a gale suddenly swept through this swamp, a lot of them immediately snapped. Meanwhile, what created this gale and caused these bulrush cattails to break, were crude steel spears that flickered with cold light.
“Break!”
This Yunqin military officer immediately reacted, releasing an extremely alarmed loud shout.
In Dragon Snake Border Any, a hand signal and a word could represent significant information. Without the slightest hesitation, the soldiers behind this Yunqin military officer all dropped to the ground and rolled, regardless of what was on the ground up ahead.
These were all seasoned elites. They understood extremely clearly that following orders loyally would considerably increase their chances of survival in a cruel battle formation.
However, even though this Yunqin military officer’s orders were extremely precise, the elite soldiers also carrying them out without hesitation, over a hundred rough steel spears still immediately penetrated countless black-armored soldiers’ bodies, the sounds of spears impaling bones and flesh as well as uncontrollable miserable screams immediately sounded.
The Yunqin high ranking military officer was still fine, the five or six spears spinning at him viciously were all deflected by his green long blade. However, when he saw the crazily roaring figures who stood up from within the bulrush and the second wave of rough steel spears, the expression under his black mask became incredibly pale.
An ambush!
These cave barbarians who only knew how to fight with brute strength, when did they learn how to use such cunning tactics?
In Yunqin’s textbooks… as well as Dragon Snake’s decades of war, this had never happened before!
Even when these cave barbarians launched sudden attacks in the night, they would always only rush forward like a swarm of bees and then flee together in a similar manner when they weren’t a match.
From the examinations of all of the captured cave barbarians, these cave barbarians’ intelligence was at most equivalent to half that of an ordinary Yunqin soldier. There were always only experts with great strength, never those with high intelligence!
Scheming and war tactics were things that simply didn’t exist in these cave barbarians’ blood.
The significance behind this ambush itself, compared to the immediate casualties that they suffered, even more so left this seasoned Yunqin military officer in horror.
…
Originally, victory was already assured, yet these frantically pursuing Yunqin soldiers, when such a large amount of their stamina was consumed, suffered this ambush that definitely shouldn’t have happened.
The moment the second wave of air ripping spears entered flesh or earth, almost as if in response to this Yunqin military officer’s doubt, someone walked out from an expanse of thick weeds.
It was a woman whose entire body was covered in a green cloak.
This woman’s facial features couldn’t be made out, she was currently two hundred steps from the blood splashing, miserably howling Yunqin soldiers, yet her body instead possessed a type of indescribable unique temperament. Even this Yunqin military officer who was currently in an incredibly chaotic battlefield immediately noticed the existence of this woman who was calmly walking out.
This Yunqin military officer was greatly alarmed, all of the surging blood in his body making him wish to charge towards this woman, but his rationality firmly controlled his body, ordering him to take responsibility for all of the elite soldiers behind him who still had a chance of surviving.
“Retreat!”
He decisively turned around, releasing a vicious shout again. All of the remaining Yunqin soldiers thus began to withdraw as quickly as possible.
However, right at this time, all of these Yunqin soldiers instead discovered that the earth beneath them suddenly trembled.
Like an earthquake, the sturdy soil they already surveyed suddenly broke apart chunk by chunk. A dozen or so black-armored soldiers who, despite falling down, still remained calm, not releasing cries of alarm, were then sent flying by the tremendous force, blood spurting out crazily from their mouths.
The pupils of the Yunqin military officer immediately contracted.
Time seemed to have completely frozen at this moment.
Massive figures dug their way out from the scattered earth one after another.
Flesh-eating lizards!
These were carnivorous lizards in the Great Desolate Swamp whose bodies were even larger than Devil Alligators.
Not even ordinary heavy armored soldiers could stop the attacks of these vicious beasts that weighed close to a thousand jin. Ordinary arrows couldn’t shoot through these vicious beasts’ dark green sturdy skin at all.
This type of lizard’s thick skin was the raw material Yunqin used to make Green Lizard Armor!
The cave barbarians didn’t have the ability to tame this type of giant creature. However, at this time, many black-armored Yunqin soldiers who still remained calm even after their comrades lost their lives couldn’t suppress the horror they felt anymore, releasing cries of alarm.
What was on these giant lizards’ bodies were actually leather saddles, there were two strong cave barbarian soldiers seated on every one of them, their bodies now standing up amidst the randomly flying earth.
Mounted soldiers!
How did these cave barbarians suddenly have cavalry?!
Moreover, what these cave barbarians rode were flesh-eating lizards whose bodies were several times larger than those of Yunqin soldiers. Furthermore, they hid underground, cutting off these Yunqin soldiers’ path of retreat!
When he saw the cave barbarians riding on these giant lizards’ backs, looking at the three meters long giant crude spears held by the barbarians in the back, this Yunqin military officer’s entire body began to shiver with chills. He turned around to look towards that mysterious green cloaked woman in the back again, but his line of sight was already blocked by those barbarians who turned around, as well as those who made their ways out from the reeds, crazily charging in their direction.
The overcast heaven and earth was completely filled with heaven shaking shouts of slaughter and incomparably massive figures.