Chapter 1215: Sir, the Era Has Changed!
Translator: Lordbluefire
“Eldest Martial Sister, don’t be depressed. It isn’t injustice that Li Xuan lost!”
Helian Beifang consoled Li Ziqi.
This strategy of the Chu Army was extremely practical when it came to small-scale skirmishes. However, once the scale of battle increased to that of above ten thousand people, the effect would be greatly discounted. This was because the importance of single fights in such a great war would dwindle immensely.
Ten thousand soldiers might be very formidable, but they wouldn’t be able to block the shots of ten thousand arrows.
The soldiers of Great Tang actually weren’t bad. If the commander was one with practical experience, they would still be able to trounce Great Chu. Yet, none of Li Xuan’s reactions were correct.
The second round was Great Xia against Great Wei. One could say that this was the main event.
Wei Wu`an originally could choose to clash against the second unit of Great Xia. However, he didn’t do so. Instead, he stood out and directly challenged Xia Taikang.
He wanted to prove that he was the most outstanding one among the crown princes of this generation.
Usually speaking, the first unit was stronger than the second unit.
Very soon, the two army units appeared on the drill grounds.
The Great Xia Army was clad in red, while the Great Wei Army was clad in black. Based on their auras, Great Wei seemed somewhat stronger. This was because soldiers of Great Wei, when they were recruited, were all above two meters tall and had an iron-like muscular body, looking extremely fit and imposing.
When the ceremonial cannon sounded and the battle began, the two troops marched forward directly.
Great Xia’s soldiers were equipped with heavy swords and used no s.h.i.+elds. However, Wei’s soldiers had a round s.h.i.+eld in one hand and a hammer in the other. Clearly, it was used to break the s.h.i.+elds of their enemies.
They didn’t use bows or long spears.
From the viewpoints of the commanders from both armies, bringing along bows just for a single shot increased the difficulty of transitioning between military formations. There would also be additional loads on the soldiers.
During a close-ranged fight, things would be even more chaotic. Hence, the simpler the battle was, the better it would be. It was like during a fight, there were no fancy moves. The most effective move was a punch straight to your opponent’s face.
When both parties were 20 meters away from each other, both Xia Taikang and Wei Wu`an gave the command to charge.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The soldiers ran and clashed against each other.
A slaughter began.
There were no fancy tricks but stark naked ferocity and bloodiness. Whoever felt fear first would be the first to lose.
The comrades beside them had their heads crushed. But even so, the Xia soldiers showed no fear. They waved their swords and hacked and slashed. When their swords hacked into corpses and couldn’t be pulled out, their enemies took this chance to kill them.
The Xia soldiers didn’t scream or roar. They were as silent as a machine. As for the Wei soldiers, they kept letting out roars of anger.
Blood and scattered pieces of flesh flew everywhere as corpses littered the area.
The soldiers stepped on the bodies of their comrades and continued killing. They were like two ancient ferocious beasts that wanted to kill the other no matter the cost.
“I didn’t expect that the army of Great Xia could actually compete equally with the army of Great Wei!”
The Qi Emperor was shocked. “Yuzhen, what are your thoughts?”
“My Flying Swallow Army is inferior to them!”
Jiang Yuzhen honestly spoke. She actually didn’t approve of changing the battle strategy, but it just so happened that only this battle strategy could display the military soul of a unit.
Li Xuan looked at this scene. His originally depressed mood dispersed by quite a bit because he knew that it was impossible for him to get the first place.
“Xiang Ge`er, what do you think?’
Xiang Zhao also turned pale from watching.
“Although the people of Chu don’t fear death, honestly speaking, we can’t win against them. Even if we can, it would be a pyrrhic victory!”
Xiang Ge`er sighed.
The most important point in their strategy was to crush the morale of their enemies and pick up the stragglers. However, for Great Xia and Great Wei, even if only a few of their soldiers were left, they were those types that were willing to continue fighting, going all out even if there was no hope all the way until they died.
“Besides, the armors of Great Xia were forged very well. Look, the Wei soldiers actually possess an advantage in terms of martial strength, but they are losing out in terms of equipment.”
Finally, both sides had casualties of 200 pax and it was a draw.
Sun Mo once again rejected the Qi Emperor’s invitation. He then went into a tent erected by the Tang soldiers as he shared his observations.
The martial battle started again on the second morning.
The first round was Great Qi against Great Wei.
Great Qi sent Jiang Yuzhen and her Flying Swallow Army out.
Jiang Yuzhen knew she would lose in a head-on clash. So, she chose guerilla tactics and split her 500 soldiers into five waves that continuously fired arrows as hara.s.sment.
The Wei soldiers’ s.h.i.+elds were soon riddled with arrows.
“Isn’t this a little too unfair?”
Lu Zhiruo mumbled.
“This is a battle between 500 people. What fairness are you speaking of?”
Helian Beifang explained. “Strictly speaking, the Flying Swallow Army is a cavalry unit. They would be the ones suffering in this type of foot battle!”
A cavalry unit without their mounts, wanting to fight with foot soldiers on the ground. Weren’t they courting death?
Jiang Yuzhen looked at the turtle-like armors of her opponents. They were calm and unhurried, waiting for her soldiers to finish using up their arrows before charging them for the slaughter. Hence, Jiang Yuzhen decided to charge them now.
“The Flying Swallow Army is going to lose!”
Tantai Yutang’s lips curled. Such an attack was meaningless.
“Yeah, that’s purely courting death!”
Helian Beifang was very fond of these Wei soldiers.
On the surface, they won very easily. But in reality, their powerful will was the crucial point of why they won.
Not all armies could handle the rain of arrows, remaining composed and unmoving. Many would have chosen to charge forward impatiently to close in the distance, wanting to lower the times the arrows could be fired.
That sort of pressure of watching your comrades dying was too tormenting. And as expected, Great Qi was the loser.
“The second round. Li Ziqi of Great Tang against Xia Taikang of Great Xia. The battle will begin in half an hour!”
After hearing the ceremonial officer’s words, Li Ziqi, who was clad in armor today, stood up. “Teacher, I’m heading over!”
“Mn, be more careful!”
Sun Mo encouraged her. He had said everything he needed to say before this.
Xuanyuan Po and Helian Beifang also followed her. Although the two of them were still youths, they were tall and muscular. They acted as Li Ziqi’s left and right hands to protect her safety.
“Ziqi, I’m cheering for you!”
Li Xiu hoped that her niece could win because this concerned the prestige of their country.
Very soon, the two armies were in formation.
When the ceremonial cannon sounded, the battle began. The Xia soldiers’ footsteps were heavy and stable.
As for the Tang soldiers, a minor commotion occurred among them.
There were no solutions. After witnessing the soldiers of Great Xia and Great Wei going all out with no fear of death, who wouldn’t panic?
This was death! Even if the princess had given their family compensation, when death came, everyone would still feel nervous.
Because this was a battle to the death!
“Teacher has said before that on the battlefield, we must not give the soldiers time to think. The more they think, the more terrified they will be!”
Li Ziqi didn’t blame these soldiers for being cowards. After all, it was human innate nature to fear death. Hence, she spoke out, “Everyone, there’s no need to be afraid. Just act accordingly to our battle strategy earlier. Not a single one of us needs to die.”
“Now, listen to my countdown and await my command. Ten, nine.”
There were still people panicking, but halfway through the countdown, they started to pay attention to the countdown.”
“What’s going on? Why aren’t the Tang soldiers moving?”
The Qi Emperor was astonished.
“They must have been frightened silly?”
The queen guessed.
“They should want to counter action with stillness!”
Grand Tutor Su a.n.a.lyzed.
“Che, it’s boring!”
The Qi Emperor preferred to watch the hot-blooded clash between armies instead.
“The Tang army probably will lose!”
“Be bolder and remove the word ‘probably’. Look at the morale and formation of their army. They can’t possibly be stronger than Wei, right? Even the Wei Army failed, so how can the Tang Army succeed?”
“Oh no, it’s going to be another ma.s.sacre!”
The audience discussed. But at this moment, the Tang Army changed its formation.
After the Great Xia Army reached a distance of 30 meters away from them, Li Ziqi gave a command.
“Everyone, pay attention. Levitate!”
Upon hearing the command, the soldiers immediately did what they had trained for. They channeled spirit qi into the Skyward Spirit Rune on their backs. After that, their legs left the earth’s surface.
“What the h.e.l.l? Why are there people flying?”
“Are my eyes dazzled?”
“d.a.m.n, I recalled it now. Great Teacher Sun has invented a spirit rune that is capable of allowing a human to fly. He couldn’t have tattooed the spirit runes on these soldiers, right?”
The spectators were directly in an uproar. Many people even stood up from shock and stretched their necks forward, wanting to see the scene more clearly.
In fact, envy appeared on the faces of many people. After all, flying was everyone’s dream.
“d.a.m.n!”
The Qi Emperor cursed.
Jiang Yuzhen’s eyes immediately narrowed as a heavy look appeared on her face. As someone on the verge of becoming a military G.o.d, she instinctively sensed that the way of warfare in the Nine Provinces was going to change.
These Skyward Spirit Runes were just tattooed on these Tang Soldiers. Besides, in order to keep this a secret, they had to hide their flying training from everyone’s eyes. Hence, the amount of training time they had was too short and they weren’t used to it yet.
Hence, someone flew high and someone flew low. The line-up wasn’t uniform and looked like hornets flying wildly.
“Stabilize your emotions, don’t be anxious!”
Li Ziqi reminded them. Sadly, there would always be human errors.
Some lost control and fell, while a few even knocked into each other mid-air, losing their balance.
When Xia Taikang saw this, his countenance changed as he immediately roared.
“Charge, kill them all!”
The Xia soldiers started to charge furiously. Some of them took the chance and leaped up into the air, wanting to kill their enemies.
At this moment, the majority of the Tang soldiers had risen to a height of over 30 meters in the air. Only a small portion of them were still in the lower part of the air due to not being proficient enough in flying. Hence, these people were slashed by the Xia soldiers.
Helian Beifang could see that his eldest martial sister was very nervous. She seemed to want to give the command to save those soldiers that landed on the ground. Hence, he hurriedly grabbed her and reminded her in a low voice.
“We can’t save them, get everyone to scatter!”
In the air, there was basically no need to maintain a strict formation. This was just everyone’s habit as they were not used to air battles yet.
“Scatter! Scatter!”
Li Ziqi shouted loudly.
Finally, three minutes later, other than twenty plus unlucky fellows, the others had successfully floated in the air.
The Xia soldiers stood on the ground and lifted their heads to roar at their opponents.
“What?”
Li Xuan, who was spectating, stood up in shock.
(d.a.m.n, I’ve forgotten this tactic?)
“Can we win?”
Li Xiu was excited.
“Eldest Princess, you are thinking too much!”
Han Cangshui coldly laughed.
“Get into formation!”
Xia Taikang glanced at the weapons of the Tang soldiers and chortled before giving an order.
(Wanting to use arrows to shoot my soldiers down? What a foolish dream!)
(I might not be able to do anything to you guys, but you guys won’t be able to win. At most, it will be a draw.)
(No, flight-type spirit runes like this will consume a lot of spirit qi. They can’t possibly remain floating in the air for a long time, right?)
Upon thinking of this, Xia Taikang’s battle will ignited once more.
“Shoot!”
Li Ziqi gave the command.
The Tang soldiers pulled their bows and fired.
Swish~ Swish~ Swish~
Because they were at a height advantage, they could casually take aim. As for those Xia soldiers, they were like live targets. However, the arrows blasting into the Xia soldiers were useless as they could at most break the first layer of defense.. They wouldn’t be able to pierce the inner armors.