Several horsemen appeared in Wei Yuan's field of view. All were clad in red armor, and one held a banner emblazoned with the character for "Fu."
Standing beside Wei Yuan, Xu Yi remarked, "Prince Fu's men? That kid came to participate in the hunt too? Why aren't his people attending to proper business instead of wandering out here?"
Wei Yuan stroked his chin. How was he supposed to know why Prince Fu's subordinates were wandering around here for no good reason?
Gazing at them from a distance, Wei Yuan felt that the scenery around the riders seemed slightly distorted, as though steam were rising, leaving them hazy and indistinct.
They were just a few ordinary soldiers, however, so Wei Yuan paid them no mind. "Leave them be," he said.
The horsemen also spotted Wei Yuan's fortifications and halted. One turned and galloped away, only to return a moment later followed by over a hundred foot soldiers. Judging by their uniforms, they were also Prince Fu's men. The gesture seemed like summoning companions to bolster their courage.
Behind a hill at the far edge of the flat terrain, several thousand members of the Liao Clan lay concealed. Their chieftain poked out only his eyes, observing Wei Yuan's fortifications. This place had neither forest nor water, lay far from any treasure vault, and had few Liao camps nearby—meaning there was no Autumn Hunt merit to be earned here.
For a fortified position to appear suddenly in such a barren, desolate place defied all common sense!
Seeing the hundred or so troops of Prince Fu give Wei Yuan's position a wide berth and head north, the Liao chieftain breathed a sigh of relief and began pondering his next move.
What a pity that the armor and weapons scavenged from that military commissioner along the way were too few; a large portion of his clansmen could not disguise themselves. How to get them across would take some careful thought. At this point, they were only one step away from escaping the hunting grounds. The real battle would be breaking through the blockade of the two thousand human garrison troops; slipping past peacefully now was naturally the best outcome.
Just as the Liao chieftain was thinking, the earth suddenly trembled. Several hundred armored cavalry burst forth from the position, charging straight toward Prince Fu's men!
The sudden turn of events made the Liao chieftain's mind go blank, momentarily leaving him at a total loss for how to react.
Back in the fortifications, Xu Yi asked in confusion, "Why attack them?"
Wei Yuan said solemnly, "I felt they were provoking us."
"Provoking? How were they provoking us?"
"They kept staring at me," Wei Yuan replied.
Xu Yi naturally knew this was a joke. Understanding that Wei Yuan did not want to say, she dropped the matter.
Wei Yuan truly could not explain himself. He could hardly admit that the moment he thought of Prince Fu, an inexplicable surge of disgust welled up inside him. Wei Yuan was not about to lose face by picking a fight with a seven-year-old child.
The hundreds of iron cavalry swept over the group of Prince Fu's men like a tempest, wiping them out to the last man in the blink of an eye. Leading the charge, Cui Yu suddenly turned back and shouted, "These are all Liao! They used a dao art to disguise themselves!"
Hearing this, Wei Yuan inhaled sharply. The Liao really were cunning! If not for his inexplicable distaste for that kid, they would have slipped right past him!
Even Wei Yuan had failed to see through it, which showed just how sophisticated the Liao disguise art was. Although Wei Yuan had not bothered with ordinary grunts and had not actively peered at them with divine abilities, for it to fool him meant the art was extraordinary.
Wei Yuan realized at once that this unit was merely a vanguard sent to scout the route; the main force was likely right behind them. As for the genuine troops of Prince Fu who had been replaced, their fate was undoubtedly grim.
Wei Yuan immediately recalled the cavalry and ordered, "Prepare for battle! First-degree readiness!"
Wei Yuan left a hundred men in the center of the position as a reserve while the rest entered the defensive line. Every knight took out paper-wrapped ammunition packs from their satchels, set them in the trenches, and stroked them with dao power. A slick sheen immediately coated the ammunition, making it silky smooth and easy to reload. With the ammunition laid out, they drew two-foot straight-bladed bayonets and locked them onto their steel-tube guns with a sharp click.
Seeing hundreds of armored cavalry pour out of the position, the Liao chieftain's face darkened like still water. Gritting his teeth, he said, "The humans truly are shameless, stationing a cavalry force here of all places! If we don't wipe them out, none of us will survive. Form up! Bows and crossbows forward—assault!"
The ground to the north was flat. Under pursuit and harrying by several hundred heavy cavalry, they would never make it a hundred li. Rather than being cut down piecemeal in flight, it was better to fight to the death right here!
Dismounted heavy knights fighting on foot were just as terrifying, but the Liao chieftain knew he had no choice left—battle was the only option!
As Liao warriors swarmed across the hills and plains, Xu Yi was shocked beyond measure. What stunned her most was not their sheer numbers, but that they wore Western Jin armor and held Western Jin weapons.
"The Crown Prince, Prince Fu, Prince Wei... the Military Commissioner of Yunxiang—oh, we threw those uniforms away... Six factions? Six factions were wiped out?" Xu Yi could hardly believe it.
Cui Yu also remarked, "Every nation has a tradition of Autumn Hunts, and using foreign tribes as prey is common enough. But for Western Jin to let the foreigners form an army while their own hunters are wiped out completely—I've never even heard of such a thing."
"Who knows what the King of Jin is scheming behind closed doors," Xu Yi said.
Wei Yuan frowned slightly and said to Xu Yi, "Tell them they can just bypass us from the flanks. We won't attack."
Xu Yi shouted the message across, but it was met with a roar of earth-shaking laughter from the other side, followed by a curse: "Shameless humans! You go back on your word! Not even a child would believe what you say!"
Inside the main hall of the temporary palace, a faint smile finally appeared on the King of Jin's face. "Wei Yuan's grasp of military strategy is still a bit crude," he said. "The Liao Clan aren't stupid pigs; how could they be tricked by words so blunt?"
With the King of Jin smiling, the courtiers naturally chimed in with dutiful smiles, though some sneered inwardly: Does a barbarian even know military strategy?
Wei Yuan felt helpless. His intentions had been thoroughly sincere—how could he not receive the response he deserved?
Right now, Ten Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains could not be manifested, he had no Outlaw of Heaven and Earth, no boost from karmic luck, the honeycomb flying sword launcher was unusable, and he lacked the Instant of All Beings. Wei Yuan felt unprecedentedly weak and truly had no desire to fight this battle.
Yet the Liao were already charging!
As the attacking Liao formed into disciplined battle arrays, they actually coalesced soaring military qi that surged to the heavens!
In the main hall of the temporary palace, Prince Fu's mouth fell open, while the others remained impassive on the outside but were shaken to the core. Judging by this military qi, even an equal number of raiders formed into an army by a major tribe of Northern Liao would be no more impressive than this. Most of these foreigners were ordinary herdsmen—where had such strength come from?
At the northwestern edge of the hunting grounds, the Liao in the military camp had finished donning armor and mounted warhorses, each man having two mounts with spares to spare. The young Liao leader's expression shifted as he looked toward the east. "The military qi has risen," he declared. "Chiliarch Mengda has launched the attack. It is time for us to go home!"
"We follow the Great Khan unto death!"
An elderly Liao man said, "We failed to force out the Qianji poison pill, so we shall stay here to hold off any pursuers for the Great Khan. When the Great Khan returns to this land one day, remember to avenge us!"
The youth beat his chest with a fist and nodded solemnly, then spurred his mount out of the camp and rode north.
Several dozen riders galloped like lightning, vanishing into the north in the blink of an eye. Among the dozen or so riders left behind, one suddenly cried out, "I don't want to die! I want to go back north too!"
Ignoring their attempts to stop him, he spurred his horse northward. But after galloping a few li, the moment he crossed the boundary of the hunting grounds, he abruptly pitched forward off his horse, dead.
The old Liao man said, "Do you see? Running is death all the same. Better to die gloriously in battle right here—at least we can kill to our hearts' content!"
The Liao drew their sabers toward the sky, roaring in unison.
Looking at the high-grade heavy crossbows held by the hundreds of advancing Liao, Wei Yuan cursed silently. It was bad enough that his so-called teammates couldn't defeat the Liao, but they had even gifted them all their fine equipment.
The main body of the Liao approached slowly, loosing bolts as they advanced. If anyone in the trenches poked their head out even slightly, several crossbow bolts would immediately come whistling in. The Liao were renowned for their marksmanship, and their reputation was well deserved.
Yet the trenches dug across the position were more than waist-deep, over half a person tall. Crouching against the trench wall made it impossible to hit anyone. When the Liao drew within dozens of zhang, they began their charge; warriors in varied armor bounded past the crossbowmen, lunging toward the defensive line.
The knights in the front line rose in an instant, raised their guns, and fired. Amid thunderous roars, a wall of gunsmoke billowed before the line, and a swathe of charging Liao crashed to the ground.
The knights lowered their guns to reload, their movements as fluid as flowing water. Then the roaring thundered again, and another wave of Liao fell.
Compared to the Liao, who were generally in Body Casting, the knights—all Dao Foundation cultivators—were remarkably swift. Their movements were clean and precise: raising their guns and firing wherever their eyes landed. In the blink of an eye, they unleashed three volleys, cutting down the front ranks of the Liao like grain.
Chapter 321