Chapter 53
Chapter 53 – Don"t Kill Us . We"re On The Same Side!
Paled-face Xin Ping sat in the main tent in the eastern camp . He heard about the incident last night .
In his calculation, he never expected Tong to be able to raid the southern camp without getting detected by the patrol teams . Furthermore, it was reported that Tong went out with 3,000 men, which was more than half of ้his entire army .
Xin Ping was the one who had advised Pan Feng to spread out their troops to encircle the fort, after which it backfired on them and crippled their army .
Now, Pan Feng was captured and his fate was unknown . Therefore, Xin Ping was made into their army supreme commander by default .
Xin Ping gritted his teeth as he blamed everything as Tong"s fault . If Tong weren"t here, he would have destroy the Zhang family, and would have gained more achievements to the point that he could step on Ju Shou .
He was left with 3,000ish men, yet he wasn"t willing to retreat . But his insight and his instinct kept telling him that it was the time to swallow his pride and withdrew the troops . Ten years was not too late to get his revenge on Tong .
With that in mind, he stepped out of his tent to calm the remaining soldiers for now . The news of Pan Feng"s defeat sunk the moral of the troops to rock bottom, so he had to do something or the soldiers might desert .
…
Afternoon of the same day .
Zou Jing, who was the commander of Liu Yan 3,000 men army, was observing the fortress from afar . Unlike the inexperienced Guo Dian and Pan Feng, he was more cautious toward the fortress formations .
He did not form up his soldiers and lay siege right away, instead he settled his camp ten kilometers away from the fort and fortified his camp first . Instead of surrounding the fortress directly, he chose to step back and gave rooms to Tong . So he, too, could have rooms to retreat, or he could alter his plans depending on the situations .
Moreover, he sent scout teams to survey every outer parts of the fortress and its surrounding to understand the geography and the terrains .
Another team of scouts had already came into contact with Guo Dian Army and Xin Ping Army, after which they received the news of Pan Feng"s defeat . They also managed to capture Pan Feng Army deserters and obtained the details about the battle .
Zou Jing gazed upon the wooden fort and frowned . He didn"t expect that the bandits he had heard from Guo Dian could fortify their camp, and turned it into a monstrous structure like this .
The night raid tactics and the past achievements of Tong caused Zou Jing to become wary of him . Zou Jing judged Tong as his equal and would not let his guard down .
He returned to his camp to think of a plan . He wasn"t confident in the direct siege or prolonged war as the troops of the three armies were too low in numbers to continue the encirclement . The only way to defeat these bandit group was to force them into a bitter fight .
Zou Jing sent a letter to both Xin Ping and Guo Dian Army, telling them to relocate their bases and step back by ten kilometers or Tong and his men might raid them at night again .
The letters arrive in the hands of the two, afterwards they followed Zou Jing"s judgement and retreated back ten kilometers .
…
5 PM . Tong Resting Tent .
Tong woke up from his afternoon nap . The night raid and the prisoner management last night tired him out, thus he rested to recharge his energy .
As usual, Hua s.h.i.+ sneaked into his bed again . She was still asleep while her arms were holding Tong tight .
Tong shook his head . He pried off Hua s.h.i.+"s arms and left his tent to resume his duty . After he checked his radar map, he was shocked . Liu Yan Army had arrived and stationed ten kilometers to the north . Meanwhile, the other armies retreated back and also settled their camp ten kilometers away .
Majority of their troops went out of Tong"s map range . He couldn"t use it to monitor their movements anymore .
Furthermore, Wen Chou troops retreated further beyond the radar range which caused Tong to lose trace of these groups .
Tong rubbed his chin and fell into deep thought . He couldn"t help but admire this move of his enemies . At the same time, he was concerned of how he could proceed next .
Guo Dian still had 6,500 men to the west while the north and the east had 3,000 each . And there was Wen Chou and his 500 elite cavalry that hid outside of Tong"s map range somewhere in the northeast . Meanwhile, Tong Army was left with 4,800 men and 2,000 prisoners .
Tong stood still, using his brain to simulate hundreds of scenarios in his mind till dusk . Then he glanced at his prisoner camp . An impossible scenario was happening in Tong"s mind when he was looking at them .
Ten minutes later, he visited Zhang He in the prisoner camp to gather every officers that Zhang He had recommended him .
…
After everybody was gathered, Tong explained a strategy he had in his mind, which caused all of them to look at Tong in surprise and suspicious .
"Will you really reward us if we succeed?"
"Is this plan even possible? What if they execute all of us for deserting?"
"How can we be sure that what you told us is true?"
Doubts was in their eyes, the stratagem Tong had just told them required their absolute trust toward Tong . At the same time, their cooperation was required as well .
"I have nothing to vouch what I just said . "
The crowd was mad . Even a child could tell that the plan was impossible, yet this brat just proposed it to them and asked them to risk their lives for him?
"But I can tell you one of my secret . "
Tong suddenly drew his sword, which scared the crowd and Zhang He . Was Tong going to kill them all?
However, Tong raised his hand and used the sword in the other hand to chop his hand off!
*SHUA*
Tong"s left hand dropped on the ground and blood splashed from the severed hand . The crowd was flabbergasted .
"My lord, you …" Zhang He was panic .
"Don"t speak . Just watch . "
Tong activated his regeneration skill . He had to spend five hundred years of lifespans just to regenerate his lost hand . But if he could make the prisoners believing in him, then it was worth it .
A light flashed from Tong"s wound and a new hand appeared, replacing the lost part of Tong"s body .
Everyone in the tent were stunned . Some of them rubbed their eyes, and Zhang He pinched his friend"s cheek to check if he was dreaming .
"Ouch! Why the h.e.l.l are you pinching my cheek!?"
"Because I don"t want to hurt myself?"
"Screw you! Pinch your own cheek you @#$% . "
Seeing the atmosphere and the astonished crowd . Tong coughed to get their attention .
"Ahem . As you can see, I"m not a human but an immortal, a child of heaven, a heavenly messenger or whatever you want to call me . I was sent here from the Neither World to reform the land and the people . "
The crowd stared at Tong in wide eyes . They had heard the rumor about the Immortal Zhang Tong before . However, seeing was believing, the real miracle had just happened in front of them . Furthermore, the hand that was cut off was still wiggling on the ground with blood flowing out of it, so it could not be fake . Thus, they could not find a reason to refute Tong, but to believe in the absurd story that Tong made up .
"Right now, this body is still young and helpless . So I need all of your help . I swear by the heaven that I will keep my promise as long as you have faith in me and do what I just asked all of you . "
Tong smiled at them as if he was a prophet of a religion in an ancient time . The crowd rubbed their eyes because they hallucinated that there were halo light behind the back of Tong . One by one, they knelt down and kowtowed to Tong as if he were a deity .
"Now, the first phase is over . Then second and the third is going to be problematic but it"s still doable . "
After Tong handled the prisoners, he went back to tell his plans to his uncles and Hua s.h.i.+ .
…
…
The day pa.s.sed peacefully without a siege because of the shock of the night raid . However, in the middle of the night, two thousand men dressed in Pan Feng Army clothes slipped out of fortress .
After they slipped out and ran away for a certain distance, a loud explosion sound came from inside the fortress . An oil pot was lit on fire and exploded .
*BOOM*
Within a few seconds, loud bells and shouts echoed with in the fortress, which caused an uproar among the men inside .
Meanwhile, Zhang He and two thousand men ran toward the east without bothering hiding themselves . Instead, they tried their best to get Xin Ping and his men to notice them .
Afterwards, a patrol scouts from Xin Ping camp spotted the men . They stopped Zhang He and his crews .
"Stop! Who goes there!?"
Zhang He immediately stepped forward and appeased them .
"Please don"t kill us! We are from the same side . We were Pan Feng"s men!"
"Pan Feng"s men!? Where did you come from? I thought most of you were either captured or ran away . "
"We were indeed captured . But we manage to escape with most of our friends . We want to return home . "
The scouts stared at them in suspicious . However, one of the scout recognized his friend among the escaped prisoners .
"Little Long!? Is that you?"
"Brother Zhou? Brother Zhou!!"
The scout leader stared at the two and then glanced back at Zhang He .
"What were your rank when you served Pan Feng?" The scout asked .
"I was a hundred men commander . My name is Zhang He . My family runs a tavern in Ye!"
"… I remember it now . There is a tavern ran by someone with Zhang surname . What is your family"s specialty?"
"Rice wines and pork steamed buns!"
The scout leader nodded . Then he ordered .
"They are our guys! Lead them back to the camp!"
With that, the two thousand ex-prisoners managed to return to Xin Ping Army camp . However, the scout team was unaware that there was an extra person who mixed within the crowd .