Chapter 564: Unrest in Guangning Mountain, and Hou Bing Acting on His Own Initiative |
The fifth day of the first lunar month, night, in the thirteenth year of Great Xia.
Bang!
"Brothers! The Guangningshan camp has been breached! Follow this general to slay the enemy!"
Fifteen kilometers north of Valley Village, on the western side of Caiqiu's Guangningshan camp, the sounds of fierce battle shook the heavens. As the heavy western palisade doors collapsed with a thunderous crash, Hou Bing's high-pitched command echoed through the air.
Then, came the noisily crowded tide of Great Xia soldiers, surging forward like a flood, trampling over the fallen palisade doors as they charged inward.
"Isn't the Xia army stationed at Valley Village? Where did they come from?"
"They must have circled around from somewhere else to attack the camp."
"No, no, the main Xia force is all at Valley Village, I saw it with my own eyes. There are at least fifty or sixty thousand people wearing Great Xia standard armor in Valley Village. This isn't the Xia main force."
"Are you an idiot? Look at the gold armor those soldiers are wearing. Isn't this the Xia main force?"
The Xia army's sudden attack had clearly caught all the Caiqiu soldiers in the entire Guangningshan camp off guard. Everyone's voices were filled with shock and terror. Some, too agitated, even began to argue.
"What's there to panic about? It's just a small force of Xia troops! Behind them are all Caiqiu rebels! The entire army, prepare for battle! Hold the eastern palisade doors!"
Caiqiu's response came quickly.
"It's the City Lord!"
"With the City Lord here, there's no need to panic."
"It really is just a small Xia force. Those people outside the palisade aren't even armored."
…………
As Cai Yunzhou's command echoed from above, the Caiqiu soldiers seemed to find their backbone. The panic immediately subsided.
Once the panic stopped, many Caiqiu soldiers noticed something odd.
The Xia army attacking from the east, while making a huge commotion, upon closer inspection, only the front row of about ten thousand men were clad in armor. The thirty or forty thousand following behind all wore coarse linen clothes, clearly identifiable as rebels from Evergreen Valley.
So, it was exactly as Cai Yunzhou said. The attackers were just a small Xia force, the rest were all Caiqiu rebels.
Then what was there to fear?
"Whole army, halt! Loose arrows!"
Coincidentally, Cai Yunzhou in mid-air also gave the order.
The first group of Caiqiu soldiers to be organized, roughly thirty to forty thousand men, immediately drew their bows and nocked arrows upon hearing the command. A massive wave of silver arrows tore through the night sky, pouring down outside the eastern palisade.
"A mere ten thousand Xia troops, leading thirty or forty thousand rebels, and they dare to attack our camp? The two major battles at the Bone-Erosion Path have really given this Great Xia some confidence. Today, I'll let you see the true strength of Caiqiu's military might!"
Having just given the order from mid-air, Cai Yunzhou looked down at the Xia troops on the ground, his face full of ferocity, the killing intent in his pupils almost overflowing from his eyes.
Both major battles at the Bone-Erosion Path ended in defeat. Caiqiu lost more than half of its two hundred thousand strong army. Now, more than half of Linchu County was also lost. It seemed the entire territory was about to fall into Chencang's hands.
Caiqiu had been established as a feudatory for hundreds of years. When had it ever suffered such a huge loss?
The key point was, after the defeat at the northern side, the Little Fang Bo who managed to escape—his uncle, Cai Qiuhu—intercepted this army, originally intended to head south for support, and practically in front of the seventy thousand troops, gave him a severe dressing-down.
"Great Xia quietly stirred up hundreds of thousands of rebels in Evergreen Valley, and you, the City Lord of Qinghua City, didn't have the slightest inkling?
Hundreds of thousands of laborers conspiring to rebel, and the Administration Office sent by Qinghua City to manage them were all as blind as bats! The rebel army was already attacking before you finally set out with the army! If you weren't surnamed Cai, I'd really think you were a spy for Great Xia!
Useless, useless, useless! Where is your seventy thousand strong army going now? All of them, garrison at Guangningshan! Great Xia doesn't have the capability, and most likely not the intention either, to continue pushing north. You just stay at Guangningshan and keep an eye on them for now, wait for word from the Mufu!
I need to return to the Mufu to check on the Fang Bo's situation and discuss the next steps."
Being called useless three times in a row by his uncle, even though Cai Yunzhou was nearly a hundred years old, he was still so ashamed his face flushed red. His hatred for Great Xia naturally skyrocketed.
If it were just being scolded like that by his uncle, he wouldn't be this angry. The problem was, Caiqiu's losses this time were truly enormous.
When Cai Qiuhu escaped back from the mouth of the Bone-Erosion Path, news of the great defeat in Linchu County had already arrived ahead of him.
The county city was lost. When the Fang Bo arrived, not only was he unable to turn the tide, he was ambushed by Chu Longteng, Chen Liwu, and several Tribulation Body Realm experts from Chencang. If it weren't for Li Gangfeng from Wei Bo arriving with his men just in the nick of time, the Fang Bo might very well have died in Linchu County City.
"The reason Li Gangfeng arrived so promptly was because Great Xia sent someone to Wei Bo to deliver a message. So, first, the cooperative relationship between Great Xia and Chencang isn't that solid. Second, perhaps seeing Chencang capture Linchu County City, Great Xia also doesn't want Chencang to grow any stronger..."
Following this line of thought, Cai Yunzhou quickly understood the meaning behind his uncle's last words: Great Xia doesn't have the capability, nor the intention, to continue pushing north.
No intention, precisely because they don't want to see Chencang grow stronger.
No capability, because although the Xia army won both major battles at the two mouths of the Bone-Erosion Path, their own casualties were also significant. According to his uncle, during the battle at the northern mouth, the Xia army deployed a total of one hundred thousand troops. By the end of the battle, they probably had at most eighty thousand left.
The great defeat at the northern mouth cost Caiqiu at least more than half of its one hundred fifty thousand strong army. While there were no specific casualty figures, based on intelligence from scattered soldiers they took in and reports from scouts, Cai Yunzhou could roughly infer that the Xia army now held at least fifty thousand prisoners.
Just managing this batch of prisoners would consume a massive amount of manpower from the Xia army. His uncle's comment about 'no capability' probably meant exactly this.
More than a day had passed since the battle ended. Cai Yunzhou had scouts keeping watch at the Bone-Erosion Path. Apart from small-scale troop movements, Great Xia showed no signs of any reinforcements. So, Cai Yunzhou had long concluded that Great Xia truly had no plans to continue pushing north.
Cai Yunzhou was a cautious man. Even though he was seventy to eighty percent sure the Xia army wouldn't attack again, he still deployed a large number of scouts and hidden sentries throughout the Guangningshan area, including around Valley Village, to constantly monitor the Xia army's movements.
Soon, the scouts sent back reports.
The Xia army totaled ninety thousand troops. Their main force, nearly sixty percent, about fifty thousand soldiers, had all entered and garrisoned at Valley Village. Apart from sending out small units to clear the surrounding areas, they took no other action. This aligned perfectly with his earlier speculation.
Additionally, over the past day or so, he had been trying his best to gather Caiqiu's scattered troops. He also received news that a general named Yuwen Yong was leading a Xia force of about twenty thousand men, operating south of Valley Village, hunting down and exterminating their scattered soldiers everywhere.
Apart from these two groups, there was another Xia force, also twenty thousand strong, commanded by a general named Hou Bing. This was the one Cai Yunzhou paid the most attention to.
The reason for focusing on Hou Bing's Xia force was that this unit was specifically responsible for transporting Caiqiu prisoners of war.
After the battle at the northern valley mouth, over fifty thousand Caiqiu soldiers were captured. Cai Yunzhou naturally kept a constant watch on how Great Xia would treat these men.
On one hand, these soldiers were Caiqiu's foundation. Cai Yunzhou understood their importance very well; his concern was genuine. On the other hand, Great Xia would most likely use these fifty thousand plus prisoners to their advantage later—either demanding ransom, forcing them to defect to Great Xia, or, in the worst-case scenario, if Great Xia executed them all en masse. Whatever the situation, he needed to think of countermeasures in advance.
Yesterday's scolding from his uncle, Cai Qiuhu, while embarrassing Cai Yunzhou, also thoroughly woke him up.
Great Xia was definitely not some minor player.
If they continued to underestimate them, Caiqiu might lose more than just Evergreen Valley. Besides, right now, Chencang in the west was advancing step by step. The Great Xia situation had to be handled properly.
Approaching with such a cautious mindset naturally yielded good results.
Just after nightfall, Cai Yunzhou received a scout report: Hou Bing had also split off ten thousand troops and, under the pretext of clearing the area around the prisoner camp, had begun operating around Valley Village.
This reason was actually quite reasonable.
The Caiqiu army's defeat at the northern valley mouth was too disastrous. The area south of Guangningshan was practically littered with their scattered troops, differing only in scale. The smallest groups might have less than ten men, the largest several hundred.
After the Xia main force entered Valley Village, they immediately set up seven or eight checkpoints around Guangningshan, each guarded by over a thousand men. Apart from the earliest batch of scattered troops who escaped, subsequent groups found it difficult to break through the checkpoints. To return to the Guangningshan camp, they either had to take long detours or split up and sneak through gaps in the Xia checkpoints.
Yuwen Yong's Xia force had a full twenty thousand men. They only cared about larger groups of scattered troops. When encountering small groups, they simply ignored them.
Therefore, for the safety of the prisoner camp, Hou Bing splitting off ten thousand troops to search the surrounding area for Caiqiu's scattered forces was completely reasonable.
Upon receiving this news, Cai Yunzhou initially didn't pay it much mind.
But as Hou Bing's ten thousand troops, intentionally or not, moved closer to the Guangningshan area and even dispatched a large number of clandestine operatives for close observation, he immediately and keenly sensed something was wrong.
After capturing and interrogating a few prisoners, it was indeed as he suspected. Hou Bing, using some unknown method, had rallied nearly forty thousand rebels from around Guangningshan, planning to use these rebels, along with his ten thousand Xia troops, to attack the Guangningshan camp.
Ten thousand Xia troops, leading forty thousand rebels, to attack the Guangningshan camp garrisoned by seventy thousand Caiqiu troops?
If he hadn't personally witnessed the scene on the eastern side of the camp, exactly as the intelligence reported, Cai Yunzhou would have still believed that Hou Bing was just a decoy set up by Great Xia to divert their attention, and that the Xia main force definitely had other plans.
Scouts had just reported that the Xia main force had remained stationary at Valley Village. Yuwen Yong's twenty thousand troops were also still in the central area of Qingyu Gully, over thirty kilometers away from Guangningshan.
Therefore, Hou Bing truly intended to attack their Guangningshan with this meager force.
Had Great Xia lost its mind?
The battle at the northern valley mouth really gave Great Xia too much confidence...
The anger Cai Yunzhou felt earlier had now vanished, because he had slowly come to a realization. Judging from the calm and uneventful signs from the Xia main force at Valley Village, he could roughly deduce it.
This attack was most likely this Hou Bing acting on his own initiative.
He hadn't coordinated with the Xia main force.
On the battlefield, the situation changes in the blink of an eye. Cases where a commander doesn't issue orders, but a general takes the initiative to lead troops into battle also happen in Caiqiu. But Cai Yunzhou knew very well that such situations generally fall into two categories:
The first is to seize a fleeting opportunity, acting for the public good.
The second is to grab credit, acting out of the private interests of the general and soldiers.
His uncle's words, through the Xia army's actions over the past two days, had been confirmed. Great Xia didn't have the capability nor the intention to continue fighting. So, Hou Bing's case was clearly the second type.
Realizing this, Cai Yunzhou was undoubtedly even more furious.
"Really taking my Caiqiu for a soft persimmon that anyone can squeeze? Coming to grab credit right under my nose as City Lord!"
Pulling his thoughts back to the battlefield, Cai Yunzhou looked at the Xia soldiers who had already all charged into the camp. He could no longer suppress the rage in his chest. Drawing his Long Sword, he swiftly descended to the ground. At the same time, he shouted to his soldiers, "Rear army, shoot the rebels! Front army, follow this general to repel the enemy! Kill all these ignorant and arrogant Xia troops!"
Whoosh...
The title of Sword Saint of Caiqiu was not an empty one.
Striking out in anger, even though facing only a group of Warmth Realm soldiers, Cai Yunzhou fiercely used the Restraining Heaven Sword Art.
The Long Sword was like a hundred-meter-long white rainbow tearing through the night sky, instantly landing on the ground. The dozen or so Xia generals charging at the front were immediately blinded by the sword light.
The base strength of the Sun Manifestation Level is measured in Jun. One Jun equals one hundred Zong. For those at the Warmth Realm, whose strength is measured in Zong, this is a classic case of overwhelming superiority.
Moreover, Cai Yunzhou was no ordinary Sun Manifestation Level expert. His nickname was the Sword Saint of Caiqiu, a long-renowned sword path master in Mo'ao Chuan, listed on the Heaven Ranking, his strength far surpassing that of ordinary Sun Manifestation Level experts.
Among the leading Xia generals, Lu Yin was at the very front. Although he hadn't broken through to Sun Manifestation, Great Xia now had many Sun Manifestation Level experts. Just from Cai Yunzhou's aura, he could tell that the impact force of this sword strike coming at him was at least over 25 Jun.
Maybe even more!
"Block it!"
Yet, facing this sword strike, he still chose not to evade. Instead, he raised his head and roared furiously. Three blood-red vertical cloud patterns suddenly appeared between his eyebrows.
Of course, he wasn't the only one activating the Great Xia Sacred Mark. The dozen or so Xia generals beside him all activated their Sacred Marks at the same time. After gathering momentum with their weapons, they each unleashed their strongest Martial Arts.
Including Lu Yin, there were sixteen Xia generals in total. They understood very well that once they retreated in the face of Cai Yunzhou's sword strike, the ordinary soldiers following behind them would be the ones to suffer.
"51 Zong strength. With the Sacred Mark and Martial Arts, my maximum strength is close to 1 Jun. Plus, the Golden Body Pill enhances defense. If it were just me alone, I definitely couldn't block this sword strike. But..."
The moment Lu Yin made contact with the sword light, his pupils were filled with terror. But as over a dozen other weapons blocked the path of the sword light in front of him, the pressure on him suddenly lessened, and his mindset instantly relaxed considerably.
His strength wasn't particularly outstanding among the Xia generals.
Nearly every one of the dozen or so Xia generals beside him at this moment could unleash strength above 1 Jun.
One person was nothing, but over a dozen people joining forces made the situation completely different.
Clang...
Cai Yunzhou's sword light forced the dozen or so Xia generals to retreat continuously.
But, that was all—just retreating. It had no other effect.
"Jun-level strength? Great Xia has this many Warmth Realm experts?"
His Restraining Heaven Sword Art was blocked by over a dozen Warmth Realm experts joining forces?
Seeing this scene, Cai Yunzhou's expression instantly became somewhat disarrayed.
"City Lord Cai! Guangningshan is about to change hands!"
A voice suddenly came from mid-air. Cai Yunzhou quickly suppressed his chaotic thoughts, looked up at Hou Bing in the sky, and sneered incessantly, his eyes filled with mockery and contempt.
"So you really plan to resist head-on. It seems you're convinced my Great Xia doesn't want to continue pushing north. You're wrong. Dead wrong!"
But soon, as a voice came from the northern sky, the sneer on his face instantly froze. The mockery and contempt in his eyes vanished in an instant, replaced only by panic and terror.