When the scouts approached, one of them dismounted, clasped his fists, and half-knelt, speaking loudly:
"General, there is an enemy position half a day's journey ahead. Yan Meng's troops are waiting in formation. We don't know how many people are there. There is also a large, vague camp in the distance behind that has not been evacuated. It seems to be the Wolf Peak Balin that the general mentioned."
"We're finally here." Xi Heng nodded.
Calculating the time, it’s about the same.
I don’t know how many defenses the enemy has set up in Langfeng Balin, and how many Yan Meng people have gathered to defend it.
It will definitely be more, not less.
Xi Heng ordered the military to take a break for a while, and during this short break he went to the service troops in the rear and asked them to slaughter a cow and bleed it first.
He held the spirit stone in one hand, dipped his other hand in blood, and slowly drew the magic pattern of the Blood Sea on the back of his hand.
After the drawing is completed, return to the front of the army, stop the soldiers for a rest, and continue marching.
The sword of cold wind carried snowflakes, and the girl wore a dark red armor embroidered with gold edges. Her white hair fluttered freely, and the twisted spell patterns on her neck and forehead were faintly visible.
Her pupils were slightly scarlet, and her various peculiarities overlapped with each other, making her look truly extraordinary.
……
Another day later, early morning.
The weather is gloomy with light mist.
The closer they got to the enemy troops, the calmer Xi Heng's mood became as he anticipated the brutal war that was about to happen.
Just like a fish about to enter the sea, the thinking gradually becomes clearer and faster.
Sniffing the cold wind in the air and exhaling a visibly warm breath, the girl curled up the corners of her mouth.
Yesterday's snowy weather has subsided. Although there are still some snowflakes flying in front of my eyes from time to time, they are just blown by the strong wind on the grassland.
As the reconnaissance cavalry returned one by one, the enemy's forces at the front were also discovered.
The reply he got was that the enemy army was so large that it seemed as if there was no end in sight, and there might be as many as one hundred thousand of them.
The terrain in front of us is a plain where cavalry can perform best.
In the extremely cold winter, Yan Meng's army, which has long adapted to the cold winter, can gain more advantages.
One hundred thousand Yan Meng's troops faced off against the fifty-three thousand Northern Frontier Ever-Victorious Army, which was a little tired after a long journey... Just looking at the combat power, it was obvious that the enemy was superior.
Moreover, there are other large tribes behind them who can send troops to attack at any time.
The Yanmeng people are a warlike people, most of whom are warriors. They do not rely on agriculture and weaving to support their families, but only on the rules passed down from their ancestors - plundering from all directions and stealing whatever they need.
It was not until the last thirty years that they began to promote agriculture, following the example of the cities and towns they occupied.
But in the Yanmeng people's concept, farming is something that the weak do, and they would only drive captured slaves to produce for them. They called slaves "sheep people".
They call themselves a warrior nation, with the running wolf as their totem, and there are many good fighters in their tribe.
If there are really two million Yan Meng people here, it is not impossible to gather hundreds of thousands of people who can fight.
Generally speaking, if one wants to severely damage the vitality of Yan Meng State, one should first support a powerful family regime that opposes the current royal family of Yan State, sell weapons and armor to provide military support, and try to plunge the entire Yan Meng State into an endless civil war, making it impossible for it to develop, with people's livelihood weakened and the country collapsed.
But this approach requires constant weighing and developing relationships, which is a waste of time.
As always, Xi Heng chose the simplest and most direct approach.
Gradually, many blurry figures appeared in the fog in the distance.
The order was given, the Great Zhao stopped and the army formation dispersed.
The heralds then gathered flags and shouted in the rear, and as the triangular flags were waved, tens of thousands of soldiers gradually lined up in the order that had been set before.
A quarter of an hour later, she raised her right hand and waved it forward.
Immediately, the sound of steady war drums was heard from the rear, and the army slowly moved forward.
After a hundred steps, the formation was reorganized for a moment, and then the next command was given to repeat the process.
This happened three times, and the enemy troops appeared before the military headquarters of Da Zhao.
All that could be seen were almost all cavalry.
The last two thousand remaining Iron Buddha heavy cavalry in Yan Meng Kingdom are now all arranged in the front center, forming a cone at the front end of the entire Yan Meng army formation, like the beak of an eagle.
In the rear, there was an endless stream of light cavalry, or ordinary militiamen who were only wearing cloth and cotton clothes, holding swords and scimitars, and seemed to have never received any military training.
But even though it can be seen that most of the soldiers are not well-educated, the overwhelming numbers and military momentum they show are enough to fight against the officers and soldiers of the Great Zhao.
As the two armies faced each other, Xi Heng was about to cite some of the enemy's crimes as a basis for attacking, but he saw a carriage detached from the main army and slowly approaching from the front of the enemy.
The carriage looked rough, just wooden planks piled together and covered with leather and other things.
The wooden wheel rolled with some ups and downs.
The carriage stopped fifty meters away from the army formation, and a group of figures completely different from Yan Meng's cavalry walked down from it - they looked more like witch doctors and wizards than generals.
The figure was wearing a gray or blue robe, with rough and hard bare feet. A series of small bones of unknown origin were hung around his neck in front of the open robe, and the thick whip hanging in front of his body was also tied with bone decorations.
Among them are human, animal and bird bones, and you can faintly see bone beads that look like pearls that were ground out from some of the human bones.
It looks particularly weird.
In particular, there was an old woman in the center with a hunchback and a bone staff in her hand, her whole body looked weird like a ghost.
They walked side by side until they were twenty meters in front of Xi Heng, and stopped to look at him together.
Under the tattered blue robe, a pair of deep black eyes looked over.
The girl frowned slightly, she felt a strange resentment.
"Beile of the Southern Kingdom, although you lead an army of 100,000, you only command a majority of them." The old woman said in a hoarse voice:
"This is the place where our Yan country worships the gods and ancestors. Warriors from all over the country gather here. There are hundreds of thousands of young and strong men here, all of them are brave warriors. If you lead this army to attack, you will only suffer a great defeat."
"But the place where our country offers sacrifices to the heavens cannot be stained with blood. We do not want to fight a war with the Southern Kingdom here, nor do we want another war to start in our territory..." The other party bowed deeply and said:
"Now that Yan Qingshi, the leader of the invasion of the south, is dead, the sins and hatred should be eliminated. I am the Great Prayer of Yan State, and my status is similar to that of the State Master of the South State. I have come to the battlefield to petition for peace talks between the two countries."
"Peace talks?"
The other party added: "I know that the crime is hard to forgive, but Yan State is willing to try its best to reconcile with Zhao State. So - Yan State will offer 10,000 cattle, sheep, strong horses, 10,000 pieces of woolen cloth, cheese, dried meat and other things... in exchange for winning back the heart of the Southern State." The other party put his rough hands together and bowed like praying.
The conditions offered by the other party seem good.
Xi Heng had only led the army here for a month, and he had easily achieved this harvest without losing a single soldier.
If you take it and return along the same route, you can make a lot of profit.
After all, the purpose of most wars is to plunder resources and benefits, and now it is a good choice to let the other party voluntarily offer a large amount of resources and treasures.
But if we directly take over this huge capital city, we will definitely get even more vast resources and treasures.
And Xi Heng didn't come here just for these.
"The Great Zhao will not negotiate with the barbarians." She said bluntly: "Since your country is confident that you can defeat our army, then just lead the army to attack."
"..." The old woman was silent for a moment, and then said: "I will also give you three taels of dragon heart polyp and a piece of dragon bone."
"Haha." Xi Heng laughed lightly, and it was unclear whether he was sneering or mocking. He then asked:
"Do you have the heart of a dragon?"
The other party shook his head: "The dragon's heart and liver were devoured by the demon Shura decades ago. Now, the only useful thing left is five taels of dragon heart polyp."
The girl became slightly interested: "After that person ate the dragon's heart and liver, did he really turn into a dragon?"
"Yes." Dazhu said:
"But the creature it transformed into was not a flying dragon in the sky, but a soil dragon that had to lie prone on the ground like a crocodile. After swallowing the heart and liver of a real dragon, it became extremely hungry and devoured hundreds of living creatures until they died of starvation."
Xi Heng clicked his tongue.
She had originally been somewhat looking forward to this method of transforming into a dragon, but now it seems to be of little use.
"If we want to use this thing to improve our combat power, we may need to do some serious experiments first..." After thinking about it, she calmly responded on the horse:
"If you don't have it, that's fine. Even if you do, I will definitely attack this place."
"Money, resources and food can be used as compensation, but our Great Zhao was invaded by Yan Mengnan, and millions of people were displaced by the war, and hundreds of thousands were injured and killed... Their grievances cannot be compensated - I came here to avenge the suffering people."
"..."
The old woman in the tattered cloak was silent for a moment and stepped back.
"as you wish."
After she finished speaking, she walked slowly back to her own huge army formation on her bare feet.
A few minutes later, as this man let out a long sigh, horns were blown one after another in Yan Meng's army.
"Woo——"
The dull sounds of many horns overlapped with each other, and it was impossible to tell how many sound sources were resonating together.
It was only seen that the enemy's front-line heavy cavalry had already galloped forward, and as the sharpest spearhead, they were charging straight towards the Zhao army.
Along with the almost countless light cavalry in the rear, it was like a surging sea wave.
The endless sound of horse hooves kept overlapping at the same time, like the continuous rumbling of thunder on a cloudy summer day.
"My blood is the ocean and I am the fire, sweeping the world and washing away all things."
However, Xi Heng had a calm expression and was chanting a spell.
The surrounding Zhao generals immediately began to order their soldiers to line up their shields and raise their spears, ready to meet the enemy cavalry charge. Heralds kept waving flags and shouting, and the army formation was arranged neatly.
"Love and body are both tainted, life and soul are both tainted!"
The fourth time he used the Sea of Blood Technique, the speed of both pinching his fingers and chanting the spell was obviously much faster.
The spell was no longer just a vague murmur as before, but turned into a loud call.
It was as if he was giving orders to the heaven and earth, asking them to give him something.
And the heaven and earth obviously responded to her call.
Countless fluorescent red dots appeared out of nowhere, and the light covered the sky.
Everyone's hearts and minds trembled, and an unspeakable sense of terror filled the entire battlefield.
It seemed that in the next moment, demons and evil spirits from hell would come and take everyone's lives.
After the spell was recited, blood streaks dissipated.
The fluorescence grew larger and larger, and as a full hundred spirit stones suddenly appeared in Xi Heng's hands, they emitted an even more intense light.
The red light gradually became so dense that it almost condensed into a solid entity, covering the attacking large number of enemy heavy cavalry and spreading to a thousand meters.
Then, the sky suddenly darkened.
Thick, red blood precipitated from the red light.
Xi Heng clasped his hands together, making a crisp sound. A strange, muffled vibration and the whistling sound of water burst out at the same time.
Balls of black and red were gushing out by the red light, instantly blocking the vision.
The black tide, which is thousands of meters wide, forms a tsunami, creating a huge wave that sweeps across the world.
…………
(The following is a short extra chapter)
At the same time, in the east of Da Zhao, in the land of Hailu.
Hong Miao was dancing lightly with a sword in a small courtyard of a private house.
With gentle movements, the blade in her hand swayed gracefully, like a dragon playing in the water. She animated a phoenix with the sword in the air. Her posture was steady, and the sword movements were gentle and flowing, gradually suppressing the fierce force of the Bloodline Sword.
Although some hidden sharpness can be vaguely seen during the movement, once it breaks out, it will turn into a sword of killing.
But judging from the footsteps, the body movements, at least the surface sword moves, they have almost changed.
At one side of the courtyard, a young-looking woman with many gray hairs in her tied-up hair was looking at him indifferently. Noticing Hong Miao's progress, she nodded slightly.
"At least the surface skills are in place." She said: "As for the inside, it won't change in a few months. Just practice this Hun Yuan Gong method slowly."
Hong Miao stopped moving her sword, exhaled slowly, and said, "Senior, I just want to achieve Hua Jin as soon as possible. Is there a shortcut?"
"Enlightenment." The other party only said: "Our Bloodline Sword Sect is not very good at internal strength, but Hunyuan Gong is a martial art that focuses on internal strength. If you don't want to practice internal strength slowly, you can only rely on enlightenment."
"Understanding?" Hong Miao knew that her speed in learning sword skills was quite good, but her comprehension was probably average.
