Chapter 389 - What to doOn the square above the Northern Good County City, a large defensive formation was erected, separating out a circular region. The circular region was surrounded by clouds and mist, and one could not clearly see what was happening within the formation.
However, the entire formation was surrounded by all sorts of cloud beasts. They gathered into a sea, continuously rushing towards the formation, either slamming into it with their powerful bodies or clawing at it with their sharp fangs. They were all desperately trying to break open the formation.
Although the formation couldn"t stop trembling under this kind of impact, it didn"t show any signs of being immediately destroyed.
Inside the formation, the Snow Wolf Cavalry and the soldiers of the PaG.o.da Armoured Cavalry had already dismounted. They sat in meditation on the spot to replenish the energy that they had used up along the way.As for the soldiers of the Beishan County, with the help of the commoners, they simply treated and bandaged the wounded. A battle to the death caused almost all of the soldiers to be wounded.
Xiang Yun"s soldiers cleaned up a few Cloud Beasts and used their spears to support themselves. They used fire crystals to roast the Cloud Beasts" meat to feed the already exhausted people.
At this moment, within the formation, other than the three thousand Buddha Armoured Cavalry and three hundred Snow Wolf Cavalry, there were also more than seven hundred soldiers from the Northern Good County and more than five hundred women and children.Within this formation, they enjoyed a period of peace that was hard to come by. They ate their first sumptuous meal in several days, and after filling their stomachs, most of the citizens and soldiers of the Beishan Prefecture fell into a deep slumber.
After resisting the beast tide for three days and three nights in a row, both the civilians and soldiers were exhausted.
In a corner of the great formation, Bi Hongzhang also lowered his body, stretching out his legs and sitting on the ground without the slightest hesitation. Xiang Yun followed suit, the two of them lowering their heads as if they were conversing about something.
"Grand Guard Bi, are there only these people left in the Northern Good County?"
Xiang Yun turned his head to glance at the people sleeping soundly in the great array. He looked at the blood-soaked soldiers and the frightened and raving faces of the commoners in his dreams as he asked with a frown.
"Sigh." Bi Hongzhang"s eyes showed sorrow when he heard this, and he let out a long sigh, "Just as Your Highness has seen, out of the two hundred thousand people in my vast Northern Good County, besides those who have fled south, there are only less than two thousand civilians and soldiers left!"
Bi Hongzhang had served as the Overseer of the Northern Good County for more than twenty years. He had witnessed the gradual growth and prosperity of the Northern Good County.
Seeing that everything was flourishing and going in a good direction, he did not expect the first beast wave would turn everything into a waste. How could he not feel sorrowful and sorrowful?
"Sigh." Xiang Yun let out a long sigh, his heart filled with sympathy. He had roamed all the Northwest counties before, and had naturally witnessed the prosperity of the Northern Good County. However, in the blink of an eye, all of this had been ruined."Bi TaiShou, now that things have come to this, lamenting is useless. Tell me, the current situation of the three counties in the northwest, when did this beast tide erupt?"
Hearing Xiang Yun ask about this matter, Bi Hongzhang had turned solemn as well as he earnestly recalled."When I received the news of the beast tide outbreak, seven days ago, I received a message from the Western Lion County. They said that the Western Lion County was affected by the beast tide, so I told the Northern Good County to evacuate the population and prepare preventive measures as soon as possible."
"However, I didn"t pay much attention at that time because there would occasionally be small-scale beast tide outbreaks in the Northwest region. At most, there would be dozens of Rushing Cloud Beasts charging into the villages, robbing food or attacking the people.
"In the following few days, some Cloud Beasts were indeed discovered wandering around the borders of the Northern Good County and hara.s.sing the local citizens. However, they were all destroyed by the border guards."
"A few more days pa.s.sed, and the people of the Western Lion Prefecture …
"Send me an alert. Tell me that a large scale beast tide has erupted in the whole of Xiliang County. Tell me to evacuate the people of the entire county in time."
Saying this, a look of deep remorse appeared in Bi Hongzhang"s eyes, "It"s all my fault! If the citizens had been evacuated earlier, there would not have been such a tragedy today, where so many innocent lives were lost! "
Xiang Yun did not interrupt, but continued listening to Bi Hongzhang"s story.
It turned out that Bi Hongzhang had received the news at the time. Although he raised his vigilance, he did not immediately let the citizens flee to the south. Firstly, there had never been a large beast tide that could threaten a county on the northwest border; secondly, he was afraid of causing panic or chaos among the people.
After a moment of contemplation, Bi Hongzhang chose to send troops to investigate the northwest. However, none of the first troops he sent out returned.This aroused Bi Hongzhang"s high level of vigilance. He quickly dispatched a second team to scout the area and inquire about the situation.
This time, there was finally a reply. Of the hundreds of people in the scout group, only one managed to escape with heavy injuries. The news that came was that the beast tide had already reached the borders of the Northern Sage County.This time, Bi Hongzhang finally understood the seriousness of the situation. He immediately ordered the people in the northwest part of the prefectural city to seek refuge in the prefectural city. The people in the south of the city immediately fled to the south.
Although the order was issued very quickly, they had already missed the best opportunity. In the direction west of the city, there were many casualties. In the end, hundreds of thousands of refugees rushed into the city.
And Bi Hongzhang had finally seen it. The so-called "beast tide", the mighty and surging great army of cloud beasts that was like a tide, had made his heart turn cold.In order to be safe, Bi Hongzhang first sent a request to Dragon City for help, and then gathered the troops and resources of the entire county. He activated the defense formation of the county city, planning to withstand the beast tide this time, thinking that as long as he could withstand the first wave of beast tide, he would be able to wait for the cloud beasts to return to his lair.
However, he never expected that the beast wave this time would be so large that it exceeded his imagination. Not only did this group of cloud beasts not give up on attacking the city, but as time pa.s.sed, the number of cloud beasts gathering increased, each wave stronger than the last. At first, he was able to borrow the power of the defensive formation, and with the help of the entire city"s army, he was barely able to contend with them.
After that, they broke through the city walls one after another, charging into the County City. The County City"s soldiers desperately resisted, using their geographical advantage to fight the Cloud Beasts for three days.
During this time, Bi Hongzhang had been waiting for reinforcements from Dragon City, but he didn"t even see a shadow of a person. In the end, he still couldn"t match up to the increasing number of cloud beasts."Currently, half of the three counties in the Northwest region have fallen into the horde of Cloud Beasts. My Northern Good County has been completely breached. Only the Western Lion Country"s County City is still standing guard!"
Listening to Bi Hongzhang"s narration, as well as the b.l.o.o.d.y scenes he had seen along the way, Xiang Yun could imagine what kind of h.e.l.l the civilians and soldiers of the Beishan County had been subjected to over the past few days.
Seeing the pained expression on Bi Hongzhang"s face, Xiang Yun patted this Old Grand Guard"s shoulder, comforting him, "Grand Guard Bi, this matter cannot be blamed on you alone. Don"t be too guilty."
Through the information he had received from Xiang Lei, as well as the thoughts he had gone through along the way, Xiang Yun also came to a conclusion. The Beast Upheaval this time definitely involved the seven sects of Qin Feng City vying for the divine summons from the heavens.
"What I don"t understand is why the Dragon City didn"t reply even once after I sent more than ten requests for help. If the Dragon City sent out reinforcements, our Western Lion Country wouldn"t have ended up in such a miserable state!"Due to the fact that Xiang Lingnan had taken away a large number of Western Coldsteel Cavalry in the entire Northwest, news had spread that he was in the south.
The news of the a.s.sa.s.sination had spread like wildfire. Almost all of Silver City"s Snow Wolf Cavalry soldiers had already set out to the south.
The northwest was empty and without troops. Bi Hongzhang could only ask Dragon City for reinforcements, but there was no news.
Hearing this, Xiang Yun"s expression turned ice-cold, "Hmph, I"m afraid some people would be eager to see the Northwest Lands being swept by the beast tide!"
It was clear that he had understood the meaning behind Xiang Yun"s words. This was a battle between dynasties, and even though he, Bi Hongzhang, was very perceptive, he did not dare to speculate too much and could only remain silent. However, his resentment towards Dragon City had been exacerbated by this!
Just as Xiang Yun was about to inquire about some matters, he suddenly sensed something in his heart. He turned to look at the silver formation disc floating in the air at the center of the great formation. With his astonishing eyesight, he could see that a crack had appeared at the bottom of the formation disc.
Bi Hongzhang turned his head to look as well. When he saw this scene, his expression immediately changed.
"This formation!"
Xiang Yun nodded calmly. He had actually already expected this to happen. He said to Bi Hongzhang in a low voice, "Grand Guard Bi, this array can only last for six more hours before it"s broken by the Cloud Beast."
"What!"
Currently, everyone was relying on the protection of the great formation. If the formation was broken, then what would happen to the soldiers, soldiers, and the wounded? Bi Hongzhang turned his pleading gaze towards Xiang Yun. In this situation, he had no idea.
Xiang Yun calmly looked at Bi Hongzhang and said: "There is no need to panic, Grand Guard Bi. Now that the beasts are swarming in, there will only be more and more Cloud Beasts. Even if the formation persists a little longer, it"s pointless. Sooner or later, the Cloud Beasts will break through.""On the other hand, there aren"t that many Cloud Beasts right now. With the Snow Wolf Cavalry and the PaG.o.da Armoured Cavalry to protect these civilians and soldiers, we can still break out of this encirclement in one go. Otherwise, if we wait for too many Cloud Beasts to gather, I"m afraid we won"t be able to leave even if we want to."
Hearing this, Bi Hong and Zhang Ye nodded their heads in understanding. However, the next question was, which direction should the army go in? Originally, they had chosen to head south and avoid the beast tide.
However, the beast tide had a long way to go south, and there were still so many civilians and injured people to escort back. Travelling for a long distance was not feasible, and accidents might happen during the journey.More importantly, Xiang Yun now had to head northwest. With just this, if they were to split up again, it would undoubtedly be even more dangerous. For a moment, both of them were lost in thought!
Time pa.s.sed second by second. Seeing that there was less than two hours until the great formation was broken, the civilians and soldiers of the Beishan County were still in a deep sleep.
Bi Hongzhang"s thick eyebrows were tightly locked together. He scratched his hair with all his might, but he couldn"t think of any way to make him give up on these civilians and the injured!
As time was running out and Bi Hongzhang was feeling extremely anxious, Xiang Yun, who had been deep in thought, suddenly turned to look at Bi Hongzhang!"Grand Guard Bi, you said just now that the Western Lion Country city hasn"t been broken through by the Cloud Beast tide, right?"
Bi Hong Zhang nodded his head and replied, "Two days ago, I received a message from the Grand Guard Meng Yue Zhang"s tamed Cloud Beast Hawk. He said that the Grand Guard of the Eastern Tomb County has abandoned the city and brought troops to the Western Lion Country to unite the two counties. Together with the Great City Barrier Formation of the Western Lion Country, they can temporarily stabilize the situation and protect the county city from destruction."
"It"s a pity that the Western Lion Country city is in the northwest direction and is the upper reaches of the Cloud Beast Tide. Otherwise, I would have led my troops to meet them.""Hmm?" Bi Hongzhang looked doubtfully at Xiang Yun, "Your Highness, what do you mean by asking about the Western Lion Country? Don"t tell me you want to?"
The corner of Xiang Yun"s lips curled upwards, his eyes revealing a hint of resolution!
"That"s right, why don"t we go against the current and fight our way to the Western Lion Country!"