Chapter 535: The Situation Is Lost, Surrender Talks Begin |
The Yang Xu Cauldron was different from the Ancestral Spirit Stele. It had only two functions: one was to raise temperatures, and the other was to suppress Abominations. Within the coverage range of the Ancestral Spirit Stele, Xia Hong could sense any life activity that wasn't from a Great Xia person.
It was just a pity that the Pass City and the entire northern region of the five towns were not yet considered Great Xia territory, so the Ancestral Spirit Stele couldn't be brought here for use. Otherwise, within a hundred-mile radius of any battlefield where Xia Hong was present, everything would be under his control. What enemy could possibly defeat the Xia troops then?
Precisely because of this, what Xia Hong could currently rely on were only the two sub-buildings: the Yang Xu Cauldron and the Frost Beast Stakes.
Let's not even talk about the Frost Beast Stakes. It was foreseeable that for many years to come, Great Xia would have to rely on them to contend and wrestle with the Feudal Towns of Mo'ao Chuan.
As for the Yang Xu Cauldron, for the military, it was an existence akin to a divine artifact.
Having it accompany the army not only prevented the troops from being infiltrated by Abominations but also provided warmth for the soldiers during marches or when setting up camp, preventing them from suffering from the cold. Most crucially, only with it could the smooth operation of the Frost Beast Stakes be ensured.
From the moment the negotiations failed last night and Cai Qianshan was dead set on personally entering the fray, Xia Hong understood clearly in his heart that with the current strength of the Xia troops, the chances of victory in a confrontation with the Feudal Towns were certainly not high.
Even if the main forces of Caiqiu hadn't descended yet, this was still the case!
After all, Caiqiu had been established as a feudatory for over three hundred years. Let's not even mention the number of Tribulation Body Realm experts for now; their feudatory must have hidden various Trickery methods. Combined with Cai Qiuhu's confident statement last night that the Wuchuan army still had a follow-up plan, ever since the negotiations failed last night, Xia Hong had been on extreme alert.
As mentioned earlier, within the radiation range of the Yang Xu Cauldron, there was only the effect of raising temperatures, not the function of surveillance. Therefore, when Qin Feng's fifty thousand troops marched swiftly all the way from Donggu City and approached within a dozen kilometers of the Pass, Xia Hong, along with the entire Right Route Army, was unaware.
However, Yuwen Tao's military leadership talent was no joke either.
The forty thousand Xia troops of the Right Route had arrived at the foot of the Pass City in the latter half of the night on the 28th. Upon arrival, Yuwen Tao had immediately dispatched a large number of sentries within a twenty-kilometer area west of the military camp, conducting patrols day and night without cease. Therefore, the moment that chilling wind enveloping the Wuchuan army approached, the sentries discovered it.
All Great Xia sentries were equipped with Yellow Candles, and Yuwen Tao's Right Route Army under his command was naturally no exception. The Wuchuan army formation enveloped by that chilling wind was too massive to escape the notice of those sentries.
To be precise, when the sentries came to report, the Wuchuan army was only seventeen kilometers away from the military camp. Based on the sentries' observation of the Wuchuan army's marching speed, the preparation time given to Xia Hong at that moment was less than a quarter of an hour.
Less than a quarter of an hour, for forty thousand troops, what kind of deployment could be made?
If it were any other camp, no matter how strong its strength or how good its military discipline, it would probably be beyond saving.
But just by chance, what Caiqiu encountered was Great Xia!
On the latter half of the night of the 30th, the moment Xia Hong arrived at the Pass City and learned that Yuwen Tao's strategy for breaching the city was to dig tunnels, he immediately had an idea.
When it came to digging tunnels, who could compare to the Long-Tailed Gnawer Rats?
Although Great Xia didn't have the means to tame Frost Beasts, they had Frost Beast Stakes!
The digging speed of low and mid-level Gnawer Rats was already terrifyingly fast, let alone Frost Beast Stakes transformed into Beast King-level Gnawer Rats?
Xia Hong wasn't here before, so both the Frost Beast Stakes and the Yang Xu Cauldron could only remain in Xia City to ensure the safety of the great rear. Now that he had personally arrived, the Yang Xu Cauldron and the Frost Beast Stakes naturally should play their roles.
Having soldiers dig slowly there, how could that compare to letting the Frost Beast Stakes do the digging?
The key point was that Xia Hong had brought all fifty Frost Beast Stakes this time.
The system's Frost Beast Stakes could automatically transform into that type of Frost Beast as long as they had recorded the essence blood of that Frost Beast. This transformation type was unrestricted. With Great Xia's current hunting capabilities, the variety of essence blood recorded by the fifty Frost Beast Stakes had long exceeded a hundred types, naturally including that of the Beast King-level Gnawer Rat.
With fifty Beast King-level Gnawer Rats digging underground simultaneously, where was the need for the previously mentioned ten days to half a month? Following the route previously surveyed by Yuwen Tao, it took less than a quarter of an hour to completely dig through the tunnel.
With the tunnel dug through, the next steps became easy!
Great Xia's individual soldier strength was currently in a league of its own within the Southern Foothills region. Where did Qin Feng's fifty thousand troops get the courage to engage the Xia troops alone?
No need to guess; they must have communicated in advance with the Jinshan army inside the Pass City. Once their fifty thousand surprise troops attacked from the east, the sixty thousand Jinshan troops would inevitably sally forth from the Pass City. The two armies joining forces would completely annihilate Great Xia's forty thousand Right Route Army troops.
Such a clever scheme didn't even need Xia Hong to point it out. Almost all the generals under Yuwen Tao's Right Route Army understood it immediately.
Since they had guessed the enemy's intention, the countermeasure was very simple.
Xia Hong recalled all the sentries scattered on the periphery, pretending not to know about the arrival of the Wuchuan army. Then he sealed off the military camp, secretly ordering Yuwen Tao to lead twenty thousand troops into the tunnel while he himself stayed in the camp with the remaining twenty thousand, creating the false impression that the main army hadn't moved at all.
Therefore, the moment the sixty thousand Jinshan troops marched out of the Pass City, Xia Hong knew this great battle was already a foregone conclusion.
Without these sixty thousand troops, Yuwen Tao's twenty thousand Xia troops, emerging from the tunnel behind the Pass City, who in the city could possibly stop them?
Yuwen Tao didn't disappoint him either. Less than fifty breaths after the sixty thousand troops sallied forth from the city, he had already led his troops to capture the Pass City.
As for that Beast Emperor-Level Puppet that shattered the Pass City's gates, it was naturally the handiwork of Xia Hong, who had been controlling the overall situation from the sky.
"Jinshan rebel troops, how dare they attempt to block the vanguard of our Great Xia army?"
"Cut through the Jinshan rebel troops and join up with Commander-in-Chief Hou's forces!"
"Brothers, military merits are right before our eyes! Ennoblement and ascending to the court happen today!"
"Kill!"
………………
Overwhelming shouts of slaughter already filled the entire area outside the Pass City.
Yuwen Tao, the Grand Marshal of the Right Route Army in his own right, had already drawn his broadsword and personally entered the fray. His strength was formidable; a single sweep of his giant sword could take down over ten enemy soldiers.
The two hundred men of the Dragon Warrior Army scout battalion behind him were no simpletons either. With Commander-in-Chief Yuwen Tao as the core and five flag officers marking positions, they formed a triangular military formation behind him. Supporting each other on the left and right to block Jinshan soldiers from the flanks, the central army continuously fired crossbow bolts. The entire unit was like a sharp awl, charging forward over two hundred meters in a mere moment, forcibly tearing a breach through the impenetrable Jinshan army formation.
On the western side, the twenty thousand Xia troops led by Yuwen Yong and Hou Quan were equally murderous. Especially after detecting that the Wuchuan army in the rear was closing in, the two became even more ferocious. Ignoring the obstruction of several Sun Manifestation Level experts from Jinshan, they led their respective scout battalion personnel, emulating Yuwen Tao, formed triangular military formations, and frantically charged forward another three to four hundred meters.
The location where the Xia troops had camped was only two kilometers from the Pass City. Yuwen Tao led his forces from east to west, while Yuwen Yong and Hou Quan led theirs from west to east. With the combined efforts of the two armies, they had already shattered the sixty thousand Jinshan troops into disarray. The distance between the two armies was only this far. With Yuwen Tao charging forward a few hundred meters and Yuwen Yong and Hou Quan charging forward a few hundred meters, in less than thirty breaths from start to finish, the vanguards of both sides could already see each other.
"Hahahaha, I see the Grand Marshal! Brothers, put in more effort! Charge over and join up with the Commander-in-Chief! Our army will have nothing to worry about then!"
Although Yuwen Yong was a retainer of the Yuwen family, in recent years, as Yuwen Tao's status within Great Xia became increasingly important, his own status rose accordingly. He was promoted from Battalion Commander of the Dragon Warrior Army scout battalion to Deputy Commander-in-Chief, then to Commander-in-Chief, until last year when he broke through to the Sun Manifestation Level and assumed the position of general of the second battalion of the allied army. Now he was clearly also a pillar of Great Xia.
Xia Hong's intention was crystal clear to him.
Although the Xia troops were strong, the Right Route Army after all only had forty thousand men. The combined armies of the Jinshan and Wuchuan towns totaled one hundred and ten thousand. Both sides' soldiers were at the Warmth Realm cultivation level. Although Great Xia excelled at battle formations and their soldiers' cultivation was slightly higher, they still couldn't possibly engage an enemy nearly three times their size in a head-on confrontation.
Taking the Pass City via the tunnel to disrupt Jinshan's morale, then taking advantage of the momentum to charge and slaughter, coordinating from afar with the twenty thousand troops left outside to crush the Jinshan army. After the two armies merged, they would retreat back into the Pass City, using the Pass to hold off the two armies from Jinshan and Wuchuan. This was Xia Hong's true intention.
Caiqiu had gone to great lengths to bring the fifty thousand Wuchuan troops here, surely using some means to deceive Luo Yuan and Xia Chuan. Crossing over a hundred kilometers in a little over an hour? Don't even think about it. In a short period, Luo Yuan's Central Route Army and Yuan Cheng's Rear Route Army definitely couldn't make it in time.
As for Xia Chuan's twenty thousand elite troops, let's not even mention them. They were currently surrounding Wuchuan Town City; how could they possibly abandon the town city to come support them?
Therefore, holding off these one hundred and ten thousand troops and quietly awaiting reinforcements from the Central and Rear Route Armies was the proper way. If they truly deployed in formation here to engage Jinshan and Wuchuan, Great Xia would certainly gain no advantage.
The plan, up to this point, was actually eighty percent successful.
No, it should be ninety percent!
Boom…………
Yuwen Yong's weapon was also a broadsword. He was the adopted son of Yuwen Hu, having grown up with Yuwen Tao since childhood, learning the same things and using the same weapons.
The broadsword swept through over ten Jinshan soldiers in front, creating a thunderous roar as it struck the ground. He leaped high into the air over ten meters, just about to turn his head when a sword tip suddenly shot toward the space between his eyebrows.
Whoosh…………
He was turning his head to confirm how far Yuwen Tao still was from him, but he never expected that within the Jinshan army hid a swordsman of such terrifying strength, who would suddenly erupt at this moment, aiming to take his life.
Yuwen Yong's breakthrough to the Sun Manifestation Level was very recent; his base strength was currently just over 4 Jun. With the amplification from the Great Xia Sacred Mark and Martial Arts, it was still less than 7 Jun. The power of this sword tip clearly exceeded 20 Jun. How could he possibly block it?
Clang…………
At this critical moment, another silver broadsword suddenly appeared before him, accurately and precisely parrying that viper-like sword tip.
A loud sound erupted. The armored swordsman clearly panicked as well, quickly retracting his sword in an attempt to retreat.
"You're already here, and you still think about running!"
Who else could the owner of that broadsword be but Yuwen Tao?
Yuwen Tao's current appearance was somewhat disheveled. His armor was almost completely ruined, and he had quite a few wounds on his body, but none seemed fatal. His Fighting Spirit, however, was extremely fierce.
After rescuing his elder brother Yuwen Yong, seeing the swordsman trying to retreat and escape, his gaze suddenly sharpened. A cold, icy sound issued from his throat as his broadsword circled behind and swept down low. A mighty "sweeping away a thousand troops" slash violently struck the fleeing swordsman's flank.
Crack…………
"Petty scoundrels of the Feudal Towns are only fit for these sneaky, underhanded schemes!"
Yuwen Tao succeeded with a single strike, sending the swordsman flying forward dozens of meters. Along the way, he crashed into over twenty Jinshan soldiers. The force was too great; the five Jinshan soldiers at the forefront died instantly. The others were knocked senseless; though they didn't lose their lives, they were too frightened to approach this area again.
"Grand Marshal, the losses in the city were significant?"
Yuwen Yong keenly detected the anger in Yuwen Tao's voice. He instantly realized that Yuwen Tao must have encountered something when leading the troops to capture the city.
Yuwen Tao nodded, his voice heavy. "Caiqiu left over fifty Sun Manifestation Level experts in the city. Fortunately, the Lord Leader's Beast Emperor-Level Puppet helped out. Otherwise, we probably wouldn't have taken the city gates so easily…"
Recalling the previous battle inside the city, Yuwen Tao still felt a lingering fear.
Before the Jinshan army sallied forth from the city, he hadn't dared to show himself. After all, he only had twenty thousand men. Although the Lord Leader had given him a Beast Emperor-Level Puppet, Caiqiu also had a Tribulation Body Realm expert stationed there, plus Fang Bo Cai Qianshan himself.
The moment the Jinshan army exited the city, he immediately led his troops to sally forth from the tunnel.
Both sides took action almost simultaneously. The Jinshan army that had poured out of the nest naturally wasn't that agile, but those Sun Manifestation Level experts were different.
They turned around immediately, and a few Jinshan Sun Manifestation Level leaders among them organized a small portion of the Warmth Realm and Digging Realm soldiers in the city to resist the Xia troops attacking from the rear.
The twenty thousand Xia troops were a heavenly army descending from above, emerging from the tunnel and entering like they were in no man's land. How could the hastily organized personnel within the Pass City possibly resist them?
It must be said, the Sun Manifestation Level remained a shortcoming for Great Xia.
The only variable lay precisely here.
Over fifty Sun Manifestation Level experts, leading the hastily assembled defenders in the city, actually almost managed to block them. If not for the Lord Leader dispatching another Beast Emperor-Level Puppet, they would have had absolutely no chance of so smoothly fighting their way to the city gates, let alone later rushing out of the gates to reinforce the twenty thousand Xia troops outside the city.
"We suffered some losses, and many soldiers were lost. But now, none of that matters anymore. Jinshan and Wuchuan, their momentum is spent. From this point on, the entire northern region belongs entirely to our Great Xia!"
Hearing this, Yuwen Yong was momentarily stunned. Then he turned his head to look at the battlefield, his spirits lifting.
The fact that he could meet Yuwen Tao on the battlefield meant that the two divisions of Xia troops, inside and outside the city, had completely merged.
The reality was indeed so.
The battlefield outside the Pass City had now become astonishingly large. Just think about it; after all, the total number of soldiers from both sides combined had already exceeded one hundred and fifty thousand.
One hundred and fifty thousand people. Even if calculated at one square meter per person, that's a full one hundred and fifty thousand square meters. Moreover, every soldier on the battlefield currently had Warmth Realm cultivation. With their equipment, weapons, armor, plus the commotion they created while fighting, the area occupied per person couldn't possibly be only that much.
Currently, the entire battlefield stretched at least two Chinese miles from east to west. Everywhere one looked, there were soldiers. If not for the distinctive features of the three sides' armor and weapons, an ordinary person would probably find it very difficult to distinguish friend from foe on the battlefield.
Yuwen Tao and the other man had Sun Manifestation Level cultivation; by rising slightly into the air, they could clearly see the situation on the battlefield.
The front sections of the two Xia army divisions had completely merged. The Jinshan army was attacking from the north and south, trying to close the breach torn open by the Xia troops. However, there were simply too many people on the battlefield; they couldn't concentrate their force in one place and simply couldn't close the breach.
Great Xia was different. With the two Xia army divisions merged, Yuwen Tao's troops continuously made way for the western Xia troops. As soon as they received one wave of people, they immediately let them in. In just over a hundred breaths, they had likely received about half of the Xia troops.
"The Wuchuan army has already pressed forward. Eight Tribulation Body Realm experts, plus over one hundred and fifty Sun Manifestation Level experts. This Cai Qianshan is really investing heavily!"
Hearing Yuwen Yong's exclamation, Yuwen Tao immediately looked toward the western side. Without the slightest hesitation, he drew his sword and charged over.
The western side, meaning the twenty thousand Xia troops still outside the city, still had half their number unable to merge with the main army. Meanwhile, the fifty thousand Wuchuan troops, assisted by Cai Qianshan and a group of Tribulation Body and Sun Manifestation experts, had already bypassed those twelve Beast Emperor-Level Puppets and were attacking the rear of that half of the Xia troops.
"I'll go hold off Wuchuan. You lead the main army to continue holding the breach where you are. Don't retreat any further. After receiving all our brothers, then retreat back into the city!"
Yuwen Tao's mind was clear. The ultimate goal of this great battle was to bring the Xia army's effective strength back into the Pass City, not to annihilate the two armies of Jinshan and Wuchuan. As long as they achieved this point, the two towns would never be able to make waves again.
"Quite a few people have come, but it's a pity they're a bit slow…"
Yuwen Tao's face now showed little worry. Never mind that the Wuchuan army had only caught up to the rear; even if they truly managed to pin down these ten thousand Xia troops, it would have no impact on the overall situation.
The thirty thousand Xia troops that had completely merged, when viewed from a distance, had already formed a long dragon. Its tail was at the Pass City gates, and its head was about three Chinese miles west of the city gates.
As long as he gave the order now, the army could smoothly retreat into the city without any problem.
He ordered Yuwen Yong to lead the army to hold the breach where they were simply because he didn't want to abandon these ten thousand Xia troops.
Of course, they couldn't be abandoned either!
Great Xia did not have the habit of abandoning its own brothers.
………………
"Shangguan Yang, Qin Feng, you have already lost. Will you still stubbornly resist? Are you truly prepared to continue following Caiqiu down this dark path to the end?"
Just as Yuwen Tao arrived at the rear and rescued several dozen Xia soldiers trapped in the Wuchuan army's encirclement and slaughter, Xia Hong's immense voice came from the sky.
The Lord Leader was beginning to urge surrender!
The targets of the surrender urging naturally wouldn't be Cai Qianshan, but rather Jinshan's Lord Leader Shangguan Yang and Wuchuan's Lord Leader Qin Feng.
Although Xia Hong's words were loud, they received no response and had an extremely limited impact on the battlefield. The soldiers were momentarily stunned, then quickly threw themselves back into the slaughter.
The soldiers of the Jinshan and Wuchuan towns simply couldn't see the situation clearly. All they knew was that a noisily crowded mass of their own people covered the mountains and plains, while the Xia troops were trapped in the central area. In their view, as long as they could fight their way over, the Xia troops would surely be defeated.
The thoughts of the Great Xia soldiers were even simpler. The vast majority naturally didn't understand Xia Hong's intention. They only knew that the Lord Leader had already begun urging surrender. If Jinshan and Wuchuan surrendered at this moment, they would lose the chance to earn more military merits.
Therefore, soldiers from both sides actually fought even more fiercely!