The Empress’s Gigolo

The next day, an army of several hundred thousand from the Yun Nation blotted out the sky and covered the land as they rushed to Sanxi City, which was dozens of kilometers away. Their flags covered the sky, and although they advanced in a somewhat disorderly manner, it wasn’t that much of a problem.

The Protector General of the Northeast, Zi Donglai, had already been waiting for a long time. When the army of the Yun Nation was ten kilometers away from Sanxi City, they opened the city gates, charged out, and clashed with the Yun Nation soldiers. After engaging the enemy, they split into two columns, bypassing the center of the Yun Nation’s West City army and taking a circuitous route to attack the coalition forces at the rear.

The coalition forces were well equipped and even an ordinary soldier wore armor, but the biggest issue was the lack of unified command. Each member of the coalition had the idea of conserving their own strength. Upon meeting the enemy, they were instantly slaughtered in the confusion while the several hundred thousand strong army of the Yun Nation was scattered by the forces of the Protectorate of the Northeast. If not for a pincer attack launched by the Yun Nation’s West City army after reversing their direction, the losses incurred by the Yun Nation would have been more than half of their total forces.

Zi Donglai stood tall and upright upon a mound by the side. He was using the binoculars that he had received a few days ago. Watching the Yun Nation soldiers flee in all direction, Zi Donglai laughed grimly.

These Yun Nation riff-raff actually dared to take advantage of Dayao and act recklessly.

“Each barracks, gather your own soldiers, separate into two columns, and move along the inner city for two kilometers before following the ridges of Mount Yuguan and Mount Daze. Then, take a break and wait for orders, but keep your distance from the West City army!”

After that, he used the binoculars to carefully observe the West City army from afar. They were considered to be the best fighting unit in the Yun Nation, orderly in marching, disciplined, and full of killer instinct.

However, they were only elites from the Yun Nation.

Zi Donglai was interested in a carriage-like item that the West City army possessed. On top of it was a box that was similar in size to a human while there were two men standing behind it.

“Zhao Yue, Zhao Yang, Zheng Qian, and Chi Zuo, lead all of your soldiers out to attack!” Zi Donglai ordered. 4,000 aboriginal soldiers drew out their long sabers and rushed toward the West City army that was gathered on the central plains.

The 4,000 aboriginals soldiers charged at more than 100,000 men without any hesitation.

Zi Donglai used his binoculars and saw that the West City army was pushing those carriages to the front of their battle formation. After that, the rear wooden panel was opened, revealing densely packed arrows.

“Fire!”

When hearing this command from within the battle formation of the West City army, the two men on the carriage immediately pulled a lever at the side of the box, causing countless arrows to fly out and blacken the sky.

“Kill!” The aboriginal soldiers at the front brandished their long sabers to cut down the arrows, but a large number of arrows slipped through this defensive net. Many of the aboriginal soldiers instantly fell to the ground after being hit in critical parts of the body. Even more soldiers were struck by the arrows, paused for just a moment, and continued charging forward while roaring with both eyes blazing.

After a round of shooting, soldiers armed with shields and lances passed through the gaps between the carriages and surrounded them.

Some of the people beside the carriages immediately loaded some cases on them. These cases were full of exposed arrows.

Someone aligned the back of the case with the vacant holes left by the discharged arrows, pushed it in, and a quarter of the arrows were installed in a short time.

With four full cases pushed in, the box on the carriage was fully reloaded with arrows.

“Retreat!” Zi Donglai gave an order.

From what he had just seen, he had already understood the role of these carriages from the Yun Nation.

A minimum of 100 arrows were fired at a time. These arrows fanned out, covered a large area, and had great penetrative force. Their range was far more than the 100 step range of an ordinary arrow, and they still packed formidable power at two hundred steps.

With just one volley of shooting, at least 200 soldiers were already dead.

The other party only deployed six such carriages in each direction, and from what he saw, the Yun Nation possessed at least 60 of these carriages.

Another noteworthy point was the fast reloading speed of this new weapon, which could be reloaded within a count of 30 seconds.

Encountering this type of device in the wilderness was something rather troublesome.

He immediately ordered everyone to bypass the West City army and to return to the city.

Zi Donglai dared to split his forces in half to bypass the West City army and attack the coalition forces directly. He also dared to retreat directly in front of their eyes.

If the West City army dared to chase after them, that would be what he wanted. Those carriages with the arrow boxes were only suitable for when two armies were confronting one another and not suitable for pursuing the enemy.

Zi Donglai gently tossed and caught the walkie-talkie with one hand. This was really a good device because it allowed him to easily convey his orders on the battlefield and pass down orders directly to the different barracks. With 10,000 soldiers divided into ten barracks, it was as if he was personally there.

…

Ren Baqian learned about this battle that very night. He heard about how Zi Donglai split his soldiers into two forces to bypass the West City army right in front of their eyes before attacking more than 100,000 coalition soldiers at the rear with devastating results.

Ren Baqian didn’t know much about Zi Donglai, the Protector General of the Northeast. A person who could achieve this position was definitely not someone who was easy to deal with.

According to the guard next to him, among these five Protector Generals, Hong Wu from the north was the best at martial arts, Li Qianqiu from the center was the most loyal, Xi Wanya from the south was hoping to succeed Hong Wu, and Zhuo Yue from the southeast was inscrutable, never made any mistakes, and many people felt that he didn’t seem like an aboriginal.

Protector General of the Northeast, Zi Donglai, was the coolest in temperament, sharp as a knife, and unmatched in deploying the army.

Ren Baqian tossed aside the matter of the northeast. He was approaching Li Qianqiu’s position, and if Li Qianqiu stayed in the same spot, he would be able to see him the next evening.

Now that the Great Xia soldiers were turning back and the reinforcements from the Protectorate of the South were arriving in two days, only the 3,500 soldiers recruited from the various towns and cities were chasing Great Xia from behind.

Li Qianqiu’s forces, the winged cavalry, and those 3,500 soldiers faced great difficulty in directly attacking these Great Xia soldiers because they had many practitioners from the Great Xia sects. As such, if they employed the same tactics in the wilderness that Zi Donglai had used, but the aboriginals were obstructed, then the Great Xia archers would cause much more casualties to the aboriginals.

After all, those sect practitioners were much faster than the aboriginal warriors who were at the same level as them.

As a result, Li Qianqiu maintained his distance from the Great Xia forces and began to retreat in order to reunite with Ren Baqian.

Using the mortar bombs from Ren Baqian to throw the enemy soldiers into confusion and deploying the winged cavalry to harass them with sharp sabers, Li Qianqiu’s forces could increase the chaos. At that time, when the 3,500 soldiers joined in the attack, this Great Xia army would be attacked from all sides and would suffer defeat.

“Just stay and wait here. Running around is exhausting!” Ren Baqian decided to stay put after learning about Li Qianqiu’s plan.

The next afternoon, Ren Baqian met up with a mounted scout from the winged cavalry and was warmly greeted by him.

After being supported by the grenades, mortars, and machine gun, they would feel rather unaccustomed if Ren Baqian wasn’t controlling them.

At present, whenever they saw Great Xia’s battle formation, their first thought was to find Ren Baqian so that he could fire the mortars before lobbing grenades to mess up the enemy forces. After that, they would charge in to easily mop them up.

Not long after the forces of Li Qianqiu and Ren Baqian reunited, Li Qianqiu patted Ren Baqian with his big palm and said, “Principal Ren, I feel like I am missing something when you are not around. I am relieved to see you.”

He patted Ren Baqian as he spoke. Just like hammering a nail, Ren Baqian’s ankles sank into the ground after Li Qianqiu finished speaking.

In the future, when I can pat you into the ground, I will think of you even if I only don’t see you for a day! Ren Baqian thought this as he pulled his legs out. What was the meaning of “do not bully the poor youngster?” This was it!

“Where is the Great Xia army at?” Ren Baqian asked.

“30 kilometers southeast of here,” Li Qianqiu immediately replied.

“When do we attack?” Ren Baqian asked another question.

“Tomorrow night!”