Book 13: Chapter 24: Momentarily Silent Great Battle
Book 13: Chapter 24: Momentarily Silent Great Battle
“Sir Lin!”
Jinte Town army’s highest ranking officers Xie Ying and Huang Tingchi, as well as the escort army’s highest ranking officer Liu Kun arrived at Lin Xi’s side, showing Lin Xi a deep bow of respect.
After experiencing this ordeal that was related to their lives and deaths, as well as the greater situation of the empire that was even more important than these soldiers’ lives, even this type of extremely simple salute looked especially sincere and dignified.
When these three Yunqin officers bowed towards Lin Xi, almost all of the Yunqin soldiers, even those who were wounded, their injuries wrapped up, began to bow with respect towards Lin Xi with the help of other Yunqin soldiers.
“There is no need for excessive formalities. All of you should know that this definitely isn’t something I did alone.” Lin Xi turned around to look at Qin Xiyue, and then looked at the three Yunqin high ranking military commanders whose ages were all much greater than his own, saying in self-mockery, “Moreover, even if Government Sector still doesn’t acknowledge my rank, my rank should still be under sirs’.”
“Sir Lin, your respected self is Priest Hall’s High Priest…” Xie Ying quietly reminded Lin Xi.
Lin Xi originally wanted to smilingly say that he was still on probation, but the strong bloodiness that flooded his nose immediately reminded him that now wasn’t the time to speak nonsense. As such, he couldn’t help but furrow his brows a bit, look at these three high ranking commanders and ask, “I know that Great Mang has a main army advancing towards East Scenery City, wishing to pass through East Scenery City and then carry out a joint attack on Meteor City. How is the military situation according to the most recent intelligence?”
The three high ranking military officers exchanged a look. Liu Kun was the first to speak, saying, “Our military equipment has a total of two hundred sets of Moon Piercing Crossbows and two hundred sets of Revolving Blade Carts, the rest are all some crossbow bolts and other arrows, as well as the giant crossbow arrows East Scenery’s City Defending Crossbows need. There is also a ball of oil soaked woolen thread for lighting purposes at night. Sir Lin, the amount of time your respected self has spent in the military is already not short, so you should already understand that… this amount of military equipment is already extremely vital to defending the city. We were delayed for half a day here by these heavy cavalry… this place is also only half a day’s journey from East Scenery City, already not far, but East Scenery City hasn’t sent us a scouting cavalry, carrier pigeon, or even smoke signal and other things, so I fear that Great Mang’s main army might already be attacking East Scenery City.”
Lin Xi thought for a bit, nodding his head. “They didn’t even send a carrier pigeon or a smoke signal… this indeed can only mean that the situation in East Scenery Province is already in a state where they have no room to tend to other things, the scouting army even more so unable to break free from Great Mang’s encirclement. It is possible that the main Great Mang army has already begun its attack on East Scenery City. This is at least seven or eight hours earlier than the military anticipated?”
“Eight hours.” Liu Kun nodded his head in a grave manner, looking at Lin Xi and saying, “This Great Mang army originally belonged to Great Mang’s backline reinforcements, their itinerary originally two days or so behind Great Mang’s main army headed for Meteor City. Five or six days ago, this troop was marching and fighting in an extremely rushed manner… That is why according to the military division’s fastest estimations, if this Great Mang heavy cavalry didn’t appear, with our ordinary speed, we would still have four hours of time to spare after arriving in East Scenery City, enough to open up and equip this batch of military equipment.”
“To carry out a forced march day after day, and then only forcibly squeezing out four hours of time…” Lin Xi’s brows furrowed even tighter. “This type of march that exceeds the limit, and then exceeds the limit again, just how did this Great Mang troop accomplish this?”
“Medicine.” Li Wu who was always listening silently spoke up calmly at this time, saying, “Thousand Devil Nest has a type of devil flower, the medicine refined from its juice able to greatly stimulate one’s spirit and strength, to the extent where it could make one continuously remain in a mentally excited state, retaining their vigor without even sleeping. Only, the day after the medicine’s effects wear off, the user will feel extremely tired. The most crucial part is that it carries great addictive properties. In the future, when this type of medicine cannot be obtained, they will feel extremely uncomfortable. It is to the extent where their condition will also worsen from a lack of appetite.”
“Poppy flower? Opium?” Lin Xi stared blankly. “Thousand Devil Nest has a lot of these flowers?”
“Thousand Devil Nest calls them Devil Eye Flowers.” Li Wu nodded and said, “On some Thousand Devil Nest hills, they stretch as far as the eye can see. Only, because the harmful effects are greater than the benefits, normally, they only serve as assisting medicines in the preparation of other medicines. If Wenren Cangyue doesn’t care about the price, in the past year, accumulating enough medicine for hundreds of thousands of soldiers to use it once is still enough time.”
“It seems like Wenren Cangyue has squeezed out as many resources out of Great Mang as possible… I reckon he doesn’t really care about how many of these Great Mang soldiers would ultimately live either.” Lin Xi said with a cold laugh. “By moving four hours ahead of schedule, this can greatly disrupt much of our Yunqin military’s arrangements.”
“East Scenery City is in danger, Sir Lin, please lead the entire army, issue the order for the army to carry out a forced march.” Xie Ying, Huang Tingchi, and Liu Kun exchanged a look, and then bowed deeply again, pleading in a sincere and anxious manner.
Lin Xi remained silent for a long time, and then he calmly raised his head, looking at the three high ranking officers and saying, “Alright, I agree that I will command this troop… However, from here on out, you all must obey every order I give, even if my orders are entirely without any reason. You all can produce doubt, but if I can explain, I will explain, if I cannot, I will not explain.”
“I will not ask any questions.” Xie Ying narrowed his eyes slightly. “In our military, whoever dares question the commands of sir, I will personally remove his head, including my own.”
Liu Kun calmly and respectfully said with a low voice, “This is true for my army as well.”
Lin Xi nodded. He showed these three Yunqin high ranking officers a military salute, and then said calmly, “The entire army is to advance as usual with full speed, carefully clean up the battlefield… bring all of these Great Mang heavy cavalry’s equipment that could be brought with us. Even the arrows that are a bit damaged, but their firing trajectory won’t be affected are to be brought, placed in the carriages and brought to East Scenery City.”
…
“Why?”
Qin Xiyue who was sitting on a military equipment covering rain tarp looked at Lin Xi who finished issuing military orders, even having someone store the Divine Wooden Flying Crane on a carriage, asking Lin Xi this.
“East Scenery City is facing more than seventy thousand with only fifty thousand… the number of cultivators within both sides is also unknown.” Lin Xi said, “Our side’s strength can’t be considered much. If East Scenery City already cannot hold on before we arrive, then whether we can arrive already lacks all meaning. Moreover, we just experienced a great battle, the soldiers need rest, we also need rest and meditation cultivation to replenish soul force.”
“I understand that you wish for our army to be in our best condition, to enter as a fresh army.” Qin Xiyue calmly looked at Lin Xi, shaking her head. “When I asked you why just now, it wasn’t to question your military orders, but rather why you hesitated so long before agreeing to their request, becoming the leader of this army? You are our academy’s Divine General this generation, I believe many people already know this, so there shouldn’t be many areas to feel misgivings over.”
Lin Xi looked at her calm and beautiful face, releasing a forced smile.
He discovered that even though he hadn’t interacted much with Qin Xiyue, ever since there was that misunderstanding back in the academy, she was just like Gao Yanan, understanding him quite well.
“Treating myself purely as a cultivator and fighting this way, charging and breaking through enemy lines is completely different from commanding an army.” Lin Xi looked at her and explained. “This is especially the case in this type of great war situation. As a commander, a military order is tied to the lives of many people… Sometimes, in order to ensure more people survive, in order to obtain victory, one even needs to have some soldiers carry out orders to sacrifice their lives, to send some soldiers to places of inevitable death.”
“When we head to East Scenery City, there is a high chance where you must give these types of orders.” Qin Xiyue looked at Lin Xi. She understood that Lin Xi’s feelings right now, in the eyes of some people, were excessively soft-hearted and unnecessary, but this might very well be the reason why both her and everyone else would fight together with Lin Xi. She looked at Lin Xi, calmly and quietly saying, “However, you must shoulder this type of responsibility… because this is tied to the lives and deaths of even more people.”
“With great power comes great responsibility[1]… When I heard this line before, I always felt that these were quite the hilarious words. However now, I’ve realized that these are instead extremely painful words.” Lin Xi nodded, saying this calmly.
Bian Linghan looked at Lin Xi. If it was much earlier, she might just scold Lin Xi like Tong Wei for saying some stupid things again, but at this moment, she instead empathized with Lin Xi’s emotions greatly. She only silently sat in a carriage to the side, closing her eyes to try and enter meditation cultivation, recover her soul force.
…
East Scenery City.
A great battle indeed already erupted.
East Scenery City was still a plains terrain, but along the roads, there were many trees, rivers and rice paddy fields. Light cavalry and infantry could still make it through this terrain rather quickly, but some heavy cavalry troops and fleets transporting military equipment could only move through East Scenery City, through the main path behind East Scenery City.
Great Mang’s army naturally feared suffering a surprise attack by the more than fifty thousand East Scenery City soldiers as well, fearing that it might get pincered on the other side by Meteor City as well.
By wiping out most of the Yunqin forces here, preparing their own defenses here, cutting off the supply and reinforcements of Yunqin troops, Great Mang even needed this place for their own advance… Due to all types of reasons, this battle was going to be the decisive battle between Yunqin and Great Mang.
Muffled and thunderous military equipment operating rumbling noises covered East Scenery City’s skies.
The Stone Catapult Carts and City Defending Crossbows in the city and the Stone Catapult Carts of the Great Mang army outside continuously fired at each other.
Because of their forced march restraints, what this Great Mang army brought were all small scale collapsible Stone Catapult Carts, the range and weight of the stones that could be flung naturally couldn’t compare to the city’s large scale tower style Stone Catapult Carts. However, this Great Mang Army’s goal was extremely clear; these Stone Catapult Carts only flung sharp conical shaped giant pillars, the front end embedded with solid steel. The objective of all of the Stone Catapult Carts wasn’t to injure the Yunqin soldiers on the city walls, instead, all of them were adjusted so that their maximum range barely reached. All of the heavy objects that were flung out smashed into the lower half of the city walls.
These Great Mang Stone Catapult Carts were like chisels, continuously striking against East Scenery City’s city walls.
East Scenery City’s Stone Catapult Carts’ targets were instead these Great Mang’s Stone Catapult Carts.
Great Mang’s ocean tide-like great army was all a set distance away from these Great Mang Stone Catapult Carts. Most of them were outside the range of the city’s Stone Catapult Carts.
In this instant, even though there were large amounts of crushed stone that fell from the city walls, dust spreading everywhere, giant boulders smashing down on Great Mang’s Stone Catapult Carts from time to time, giant wooden pillars and shattered steel strips flying chaotically, this scene was still exceptionally cold. Under the giant noises, this type of great battle even momentarily seemed a bit deathly still.
1. Spiderman reference