Chapter 670: Intercepting Reinforcements

Chapter 670: Chapter 670: Intercepting Reinforcements

Though it was called an ambush, the actual positions lay half a li to either side of the path the barbarian army had cleared, and with the array concealing them, ordinary barbarian soldiers had no way of discovering the troops lying in wait.

The barbarian vanguard consisted of several squads of wolf cavalry, spreading forward, just barely moving past the edge of the low-lying ground. The stony hollows were full of jagged rocks; the wargs’ paws could easily be injured stepping there. With the array’s concealment, the wolf riders simply circled the low ground instinctively and continued ahead, never suspecting that these patches of hollows concealed swarms of men.

After the scouts had passed, another incense stick’s time went by. The muffled rumbles of the earth grew ever nearer; everyone knew the main barbarian force had arrived.

From a distance, in the dim pre-dawn, a dense black mass of barbarians was jogging quickly in column. Judging by the battle flags, it was a ten-thousand-strong unit.

The messenger’s palms were slick with sweat, his focus absolute. He waited for the commander’s order.

Closer and closer—the scout balls revealed the barbarians were moving in a snake formation for speed, five men per file, an endless column trailing away.

Judging by the spacing, Zeng Zhou estimated the formation stretched over three or even four li. He inwardly praised this—snake formations were thinnest, leaving little room to maneuver when pinned from both flanks. The traps previously placed along the path would thus work to maximum effect.

Nearer still. Once almost two-thirds of the barbarian column had entered, Zeng Zhou gave a signal. The messenger subtly waved his command flag, sending out a unique mana pulse.

Almost as soon as the messenger relayed the command—within three breaths—spikes of earth as thick as a child’s arm and five or six feet tall erupted from the entire path, nearly covering it wall to wall.

"Kill!"

The killing move of the formation struck first: the familiar but deadly "Earth Spike Array" commonly used in the army, preset on the path. Once the barbarians stepped into the kill zone, it was triggered, aiming to instantly inflict mass casualties on the enemy foot soldiers.

The first to burst out of the Earth Spike Array’s killing field were the barbarian Body Cultivators, lightning-fast. Some remained behind to rally the soldiers’ retreat, while others charged the suddenly revealed Jingjiu Dynasty Army Array, hoping to slow the envelopment and interception.

"Breaking Arrows!"

"Thunder Charms!"

A barrage of Breaking Arrows stalled the Body Cultivators’ charge. Then, under a rainstorm of Thunder Charms, those who managed to survive were on their last legs; finally, the Jingying Prefecture cultivators finished off any survivors without mercy.

The Earth Spike Array alone devastated the barbarian reinforcements. In their panic, they could not assume a proper battle array for defense, and, being poor at field formations to begin with, the result was predictable.

On both flanks, four crisscrossing Rhombus Arrays rapidly closed in on the barbarian column, pierced through its thinnest point, and wheeled around for encirclement.

Dawn broke. Zeng Zhou glanced up—it was just past early 7 a.m. The battle had gone even smoother than he’d anticipated. Of ten thousand barbarian reinforcements, at least six thousand died on the spot; the rest scattered. Friendly casualties were under two hundred dead, fewer than ten seriously wounded, minor injuries not counted. There was neither the need nor the time to pursue the fugitives for now.

"Don’t clean the battlefield—forced march, we go to the next location!" Zeng Zhou barked. Zuo Yuliang had assigned them precisely because they excelled at field combat and long-range raids on foot.

At the same time, two dispatches about the successful ambush were personally sent by Zeng Zhou via Thousand-Mile Sound. One would be relayed several times before reaching Zuo Yuliang far off at Wu Lake. The other went straight to Shen Wanlin, commander of the Central Military Camp at Jianchuan.

...

Zeng Zhou hurried on, and some of the vanguard cultivators even slapped Divine Travel Talismans onto their legs—further arrangements still needed to be set up ahead.

Meanwhile, at the Central Military Camp, Shen Wanlin sat upright in his tent, eyes closed, conserving strength, fully armored and ready.

Suddenly, the Thousand-Mile Sound in his hand vibrated—a message from Zeng Zhou: just five words—Victory at First Strike!

Shen Wanlin glanced at it, then burst out laughing, stood up, strode from the command tent, and waved his hand, his voice ringing out: "Sound the drums! All troops, attack!"

The target of the Central Military Camp was, of course, the barbarians encamped opposite. It was those very barbarians who’d earlier sent over ten thousand men to reinforce the siege at the forward military camp.

Unlike Cheng Jinhou’s concealed advance and close-quarter tactics before, Shen Wanlin’s force moved out in full strength, banners unfurled. The thunderous advance sent a mighty shockwave across the field; from afar, the barbarians could only hurriedly assemble into battle array, attempting to halt them midway. For if they cowered in their camp, their odds of victory shrank further.

"You think I don’t know your numbers after all this fighting? You’ve got just a bit over fifty thousand—not even sixty thousand. Now you’ve lost ten thousand sent out, so at best you’ve got forty thousand left. Let’s see how long you can hold out!"

Shen Wanlin sat astride his steed, gazing across at the sternly arrayed barbarians, a mocking sneer on his lips. He now commanded fifty thousand men—thirty thousand original garrison troops of Central Camp, joined recently by twenty thousand under Li Zhongzheng.

Given prior casualty ratios, Shen Wanlin was confident he could wipe out the forty thousand barbarians before him at the cost of about twenty thousand men. But given the scale of this military operation orchestrated by the Daoxing Chief’s Office, they’d never accept losses that high. Which was why, for now, Shen Wanlin’s mission was not to fight the barbarians to the death, but to wait, to seize a better opportunity.

So the battle raged fiercely, but neither side pushed for all-out victory. Li Zhongzheng’s troops, holding the rear, never got a chance to enter the fray.

The posture Shen Wanlin adopted was that of grinding the barbarians down by attrition.

Clash, withdraw, clash again, then break once more. Collect the corpses, treat the wounded, fill any gaps in formation. The Jingjiu Dynasty lines were never in a hurry to retreat after a single skirmish; it was clear the intent was to settle the outcome today.

Meanwhile, further south, the Lower Military Camp at Jianchuan was also withstanding a fierce assault by the Jingjiu Dynasty—but their situation was far better than those of the upper and central camps. At the first engagement, they’d already sent over ten thousand troops to reinforce what they believed was "the human race’s main assault target"—Central Jianchuan.

Why were the barbarians so certain Central Jianchuan was Jingjiu Dynasty’s main attack point? Because they judged the earlier assault at Upper Jianchuan as a feint, meant to draw central forces to support and thus weaken the center’s strength. Now, with fifty thousand Jingjiu troops attacking the center, it was obvious they meant to strike through. Thus, the upper camp had no choice but to hold, and the lower camp was compelled to reinforce the center.

Truth be told, the barbarians’ judgment was not wrong. Zuo Yuliang’s main assault truly was on the central region. But aside from that, he had orchestrated a "besiege the stronghold to strike the relief" move, which would soon force the lower camp into the upper camp’s same predicament.

By then, all three main barbarian forces at Jianchuan would be completely pinned down—only then would the true general assault begin.