Chapter 548: An Unavoidable Game [V6C78 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]
The empire’s fledgling camp was bustling with activity as squads of soldiers rushed out from the grounds and set out toward their designated targets. Behind them was a half-constructed camp with all its paused construction machinery.
The Nangong family had dispatched an entire division into battle. Despite the large numbers, their soldiers couldn’t be considered elite. This was quite abnormal for the Nangong family who had always wanted to compete with the four major clans. In truth, the Nangong family was set back significantly after the b.l.o.o.d.y battle with their losses grossly outweighing the profits. They had no choice but to lay low and preserve their young descendants.
The two elders in charge couldn’t help but smile at one another after receiving the order. They felt quite fortunate because they had also been eyeing that s.p.a.ce in the defensive line. The military power there was quite weak, and the land around it was even more so. Although there was little in terms of cover, it would allow them to deploy forces with greater ease.
The Evernight main camp was nothing more than a temporary base. Moreover, the dark races’ planning had always been inferior to the empire’s, and their defenses, usually insufficient. The base would be there for the taking as long as the formation of dark race troops were routed. This disadvantage, at that time, would no longer be a disadvantage.
Easy missions like this where they could harvest contributions were simply wonderful. The two Nangong elders set out for the designated area immediately and without the slightest bit of hesitation.
The situation on a battlefield of this scale could change in the blink of an eye, and others would have taken the good stuff if they were late. They would have nothing to say at that point.
The imperial army moved without pause under the night sky. Several dozen streams of steel flooded toward the Evernight main camp.
The Nangong family squad overtook one unit after another and charged at the Evernight camp like a pack of hungry wolves.
Qianye hadn’t even set out at this moment. According to the order, he would have to wait another half an hour before setting out. Qianye stacked two crates of ammunition in pa.s.sing and lit up a wrinkled cigarette on the embers near his feet. The glow of the burning cigarette flickered in the darkness as he inhaled slowly.
Most of the vanguard battalion soldiers were sleeping soundly on the floor, seizing the moment to get through the exhaustion that followed the usage of stimulants. The raging flames and explosions in the distance had no effect on these old veterans.
Time pa.s.sed by slowly. All of a sudden, the origin sundial in Qianye’s hand began to ring. Qianye silenced the alarm and called out in a deep voice, “Time’s up. Prepare to leave!”
The soldiers who were in deep sleep just a while ago leapt up to organize their equipment. Not long afterward, they were in formation and ready to go. Qianye boarded a jeep and set out first toward the Evernight camp. The soldiers of the vanguard battalion boarded the transport vehicles in neat rows and were soon following behind the command vehicle.
Flames lit up in the mountainous vicinity of the Evernight main camp, illuminating even the deep colors of the firmament. Tens of thousands of soldiers were killing one another with no care for their own safety. Numerous lives were snuffed out in the flames of war with each pa.s.sing moment.
Although there were no powerful defensive structures in front of them, the battle was more arduous than the imperial generals had thought. The Evernight side seemed to have entered a state of frenzy. From the ranked experts above to the ordinary soldiers below, each and every one of them was fighting with their lives on the line. When things became desperate, they would choose to end in mutual destruction rather than retreat.
At this moment, the faces of the two Nangong family elders were ashen as they intercepted the deluge of cannon sh.e.l.ls in the sky. They managed to detonate one sh.e.l.l after the other, but these feats were quickly draining their origin power.
At this moment, an officer with blood all over his face ran over and shouted, “Elder! Reinforcements, we need reinforcements at the front!”
The elder, who was taking a short break, shot to his feet. “Didn’t I just send two companies over there?”
“They’re dead! All dead! Those black-blooded b.a.s.t.a.r.ds have all gone crazy. Now, several hundred of our brothers are trapped inside, I must have more reinforcements to get them out!”
The elder roared furiously, “The enemy numbers less than a thousand. I gave you three thousand men and a thousand more in reinforcements. How come you only have that many left?”
The officer replied, “It’s definitely not just a thousand, there’s simply no end to them at all. Moreover, their heavy cannons keep on firing without a care for their own men. It feels like all cannons are blasting at us!”
“I’ll give you two more companies. Use whatever means you can think of, but you must secure that pa.s.sage for me!”
The elder was left seething after the officer left with the troops. With nothing else to vent on, he kicked hard at the nearby wall and caused a large segment of it to collapse.
From a bird’s eye view, one would find that the flames of war covering the Nangong family’s area was the fiercest and most tenacious. Every step they took forward was paved with the lives of their own men.
The other battlefronts were progressing much faster. Some of them had broken through rapidly and were beginning to press on the main camp, while others had turned sideways to outflank the defending army in the adjacent areas.
The fierce battle lasted for several hours before the defenses at the Evernight main camp finally collapsed. The Nangong family killed off the last dark race soldier there and managed to step into the Evernight main camp. However, the two elders had no joy on their faces. Their lips trembled as they observed the corpses strewn across the battlefield. They wanted to curse out loud, but no words escaped their lips.
They had suffered unceasing cannon fire from the beginning and all the way to the end. If it weren’t for the two elders and several champions taking turns to s.h.i.+eld the troops, their casualties would’ve been even higher. There was no telling if they could even take this segment of the wall.
The dark race cannons poured down in torrents without distinguis.h.i.+ng between friend and foe. The greater half of the Nangong soldiers were blasted to death while tangling with the enemy. Even a rank-nine fighter could hardly escape injuries—the acc.u.mulation of which would lead to sure death on the battlefield.
The Nangong family had paid with the lives of thousands of men in order to take down this seemingly fragile defensive line and had lost over half their troops. It could be said that their unit had been badly damaged and would need a long time to recover its fighting capacity.
This motorized private army was all the force the Nangong family could muster. They had never expected to be beaten up so badly at the outset. The main family couldn’t transfer any more soldiers from the upper continents or else their core defenses would be affected.
The two elders were both furious and heartbroken. They couldn’t understand why the dark race cannons would fire so fiercely. From the intensity of the bombardment, it was quite likely that most, if not all, of the cannons in the enemy camp were concentrating their fire on that small zone. In other words, the Nangong family had soaked up the greater half of the enemy’s defensive firepower.
“Elder, what do we do now?” an officer inquired.
The two elders glanced at one another and said helplessly, “Rest and reorganize on the spot. Rescue the wounded.”
The officer’s expression was also helpless. Rest and reorganization meant that they would have no more opportunity to join the later battles. Be it military contributions or spoils of war, the true profits lay at the very end. Stopping here was barely pa.s.sable and signified that the Nangong family wouldn’t be able to recoup the losses they had suffered.
But over half of their forces were dead, and there was also a large number of wounded soldiers who would die from worsening injuries if they weren’t treated in a timely fas.h.i.+on.
At this point, many people were suspicious as to why the fight in this particular segment of the battlefront was so fierce. The other sectors managed to break through the unreasonably weak Evernight defenses, while some never even saw a single cannon sh.e.l.l.
The two elders exchanged somber glances as they recalled that military order at the same time.
At this moment, the heightened activity in the temporary imperial camp had come to an end. The last unit had left half an hour ago, leaving behind only the command center and a token defense force. The others that remained were non-combat personnel like engineers and doctors.
Song Zining had slipped out of the staff office and into a deserted tent. There he was enjoying his secret stash of wine in the company of two intimate female officers. The two ladies’ alcohol tolerance was rather mediocre. They had only downed a cup or two when their faces grew flushed—no one knew if the alcohol had intoxicated the person, or if it was the other way around.
One of the beauties said, “Alcohol is prohibited in the army. You’re quite the bold one!”
Song Zining laughed heartily. “Trysts are also prohibited in the army. You two are pretty gutsy too.”
The other young girl glared at Song Zining. “You seem to be in a good mood today, did anything happen?”
“That’s because I figured out a certain principle,” Song Zining said with a smile.
“A principle? What about?” The girls were both curious and expectant as they would always hear profound words from Song Zining.
“This principle is related to power,” he continued without keeping them in prolonged suspense, “power is a wonderful thing. With it, one can do some things others cannot. For instance, I was able to sneak some wine in and you two were able to mix your way into the imperial camp.”
“What else?”
Song Zining pushed a gla.s.s of wine over the table and watched as it fell over the edge and shattered on the floor. He then said with a laugh, “With enough power, one can send other people toward a cliff with a flick of his finger, then push him over with a light tap. Stupid people might not even know what happened.”
“Then what about smart people?”
Song Zining said with a laugh, “Smart people will, of course, be able to guess the reason. Why otherwise would they be called smart?”
One of the girls pondered while looking at the shattered gla.s.s on the floor and sighed contemplatively. “Say, do you think it"s better to be dumb or smart?”
The other girl replied, “Of course, it’s better to be smart!”
Song Zining shook his head and said, “No, it’s better to be dumb. The smart person will have no choice but to jump down knowing full well that it’s a cliff in front of him. Such is the true benefit of power.”
The first girl sighed again. “That is indeed so. Just like us, we clearly know that our future marriage holds nothing but suffering, yet we have no choice but to jump into it.”
Song Zining was startled as he hadn’t expected her thoughts to have drifted in that direction. But what level of character was the seventh young master? He immediately changed the subject and made the girls happy again.
In truth, Song Zining was thinking about that map of the Evernight camp. Most of the enemy heavy cannons had been found out and marked upon it.
Judging from the distribution of the cannons, it was obvious that many of them had been moved to defend against the empire’s vanguard unit. The main imperial army, under Zhang Boqian’s orders, had launched an all-out attack immediately after arriving at the front lines. As such, the defending Evernight army simply had no time to s.h.i.+ft these heavy cannons back into position. This caused the cannons’ coverage areas to become fragmented, and many defense lines were left uncovered.
Meanwhile, the area a.s.signed to the Nangong family was the place of maximal fire coverage. As matters stood, no one knew whether or not the Nangong family generals had guessed the reason, but just as Song Zining said a while ago, it made little difference.