Chapter 219 The Five Thousand Zhenhuang Legion is Annihilated, and the Great General is Enraged
Did something bad happen?
Are we going to retreat again?
Upon hearing this, Feng San revealed a disdainful expression. "What nonsense are you spouting? Do you think I don't know what the situation is like in Niujia Village? There are only a little over a hundred people in total, and more than two-thirds of them are the elderly, weak, women, and children. Do you really think that five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers would be defeated by them? What a joke!"
“General, in battles, sometimes it’s not necessarily the case that whoever has more men will win,” a lieutenant explained worriedly. “Moreover, although you, General, are familiar with the situation here, the soldiers of the Zhenhuang Army are not. If the villagers have already set traps or some kind of ambush in the village, they might just be able to thwart our men!”
Another lieutenant also advised, "From the very beginning, when the village chief was waiting at the village entrance with a few villagers, I felt that they were fearless and did not seem to be afraid of us. Thinking back to what just happened, the more I think about it, the more I feel that they are luring our soldiers into the village. General... forgive my bluntness, but you may have fallen into their trap!"
After the two finished speaking, they and several other deputy generals said in unison, "Please, General, order a retreat and inform the soldiers to evacuate immediately!"
Feng San was exasperated. He dismissed the deputy generals' analysis, believing they were just trying to scare him by making things up. He angrily shouted, "If you keep spouting nonsense, you'll be dealt with according to military law!"
In the cold wind, the stench of blood grew stronger.
A strong sense of unease made the lieutenants feel like they had a thorn in their side.
"General Feng, if five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers are lost here, we will not be able to explain ourselves to the General! If you want to punish us according to military law, then do so! Your subordinate is sorry!"
After one of the lieutenants finished speaking, he took the horn from his waist and blew it with all his might.
The deep and resounding retreat bugle call pierced through the howling cold wind and echoed over Niujia Village.
Enraged, Feng San drew his sword and pointed it at him, shouting, "You dare disobey my orders? You're courting death! Do you really think I wouldn't dare kill you?!"
Just then.
The deputy general he had just sent out to investigate the situation in the village has returned.
He seemed extremely frightened, shouting in terror, "Dead...all dead! It's all corpses! Run!"
Feng San and the others were stunned.
They watched as the lieutenant rode past them like a madman, galloping away into the distance without looking back.
"This..." Feng San was dumbfounded.
"Quickly, give chase!" The other lieutenants immediately followed.
Feng San glanced in the direction of the village with suspicion, and could only follow the deputy general away.
The deputy general, who was fleeing on horseback, lost his way and his horse stepped into a ditch, causing him and his horse to fall to the ground.
Feng San and several other deputy generals finally managed to catch up with him, and after a great deal of effort, they managed to subdue him. From him, they learned what he had seen after entering the village.
He said the village was littered with the corpses of the Zhenhuang Army.
The further you go in, the more corpses you find; it's practically a river of blood.
He also saw the remaining Zhenhuang Army fighting against countless black figures.
The snowstorm was too heavy, and he couldn't make out the shape of the dark figure.
All that could be seen was the Zhenhuang Army, utterly powerless to resist, their lives mercilessly reaped by those ghostly figures.
The terrifying one-sided crushing of him terrified him, and he dared not approach any further, turning around and fleeing.
In conclusion, the five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers were destined to be annihilated!
Upon hearing these horrific details, Feng San began to tremble, his face turning deathly pale.
The other deputy generals, who had also fought in battles, were filled with terror.
"Stop standing there, run! Get back to Zhenhuang Pass immediately!" a lieutenant shouted.
The group snapped out of their daze and hurriedly continued their escape on horseback.
Feng San came to his senses, but hesitated.
He remembered the pledge he had made to himself...
He was originally full of confidence and certain that he could lead his army to take the Xuan Kingdom camp in the Xuanhuang Mountains, but... before he even entered the mountains, all five thousand of his Zhenhuang troops were wiped out.
If we go back, according to the agreement in the military pledge, wouldn't the general cut off one of our legs?!
Thinking of this, Feng San felt his legs begin to ache.
Ahead, the figures of several lieutenants were about to disappear into the wind and snow.
Behind them, a strong, overwhelming stench of blood assaulted their senses.
Feng San was terrified and broke out in a cold sweat. He turned his head and looked around. He didn't know if he really saw it or if he was hallucinating from fright, but it seemed that countless ghostly black shadows with murderous intent had emerged from the village in the vast snowstorm.
"A ghost...a ghost!"
Feng San let out a howl, brandished his whip and lashed the horse's rump wildly, chasing after the retreating figures of his lieutenants in a panic.
Returning to the desolate town would result in losing a leg, but if those shadowy figures caught up with him, he would be dead!
There's no need to weigh the pros and cons further.
Soon, the figures of Feng San and his men galloping on horseback disappeared into the wind and snow, and the deep hoofprints on the snow were quickly covered by the heavy snow.
Ning Jinli's tall figure appeared at the village entrance, calmly gazing in the direction they had fled.
"Fairy, all the Zhenhuang Army soldiers who entered the village have been killed." A Xuanjia soldier reported to her. "Only Feng San and his few lieutenants are left. The drones are also continuously tracking them."
Ning Jinli nodded. "Send the tracking information to the camp so they can prepare to attack Zhenhuang Pass as well."
"Yes, fairy!"
In the battle just now, Ning Jinli's Xuanjia Army won a great victory and also got a general idea of the combat strength of the Huangguo Town Army.
It can be described as utterly vulnerable.
Considering that although the road in the Xuanhuang Mountains that connects the east and west sides has not yet been completed, there are multiple routes provided by the old village chief, and the remaining several thousand Xuanjia soldiers in the camp can now be mobilized.
Zhenhuang Pass was built in a relatively hidden location due to its terrain. Even the old village chief of Niujia Village did not know how to get there. Moreover, there were many traps set up around the pass. Even the Xuanjia Army would suffer if they were not familiar with the route.
Now, all we need to do is use drones to track Feng San and his deputies to find the best attack route.
With lightning speed, they marched straight to Zhenhuang Pass.
This is much more convenient than the Xuanjia Army scouts using drones to explore routes on their own.
Therefore, Feng San and the others had no idea that they were able to escape because Ning Jinli deliberately let them go.
The border troops of the desolate kingdom at Zhenhuang Pass were completely unaware that a great calamity was about to befall them.
"Reporting to the General! General Feng is back!" A soldier rushed into the camp of General Zhenhuang.
General Zhenhuang was both surprised and delighted. "It's only been less than half a day, and General Feng has already captured Xuan Kingdom's secret camp? Good! Excellent! I will reward him handsomely!"
The soldiers looked grim. "No, General..."
General Zhenhuang was too excited to notice the soldier's reaction. He rushed out of the tent, eager to see Feng San.
But as soon as he stepped out of the tent, he saw Feng San and several deputy generals walking towards him with mournful faces.
The group looked disheveled, and their armor was nowhere to be found.
"General..." Feng San knelt down with a thud and kowtowed heavily, "This humble general was careless... The five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers you assigned to this general were all... all lost, this humble general... deserves to die!"
The lieutenants all knelt down, saying they had come to confess their sins.
The General of Zhenhuang was stunned for a long while, his cheeks twitching. "You're not lying to me, are you? Five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers! How could they all be gone?"
Feng San wept bitterly, "This humble general would not dare to deceive the Great General!"
General Zhenhuang's vision went black, and he almost fell over.
"Feng San!" He grabbed Feng San by the collar and lifted him up, angrily shouting, "Didn't you tell me that there were at most two thousand men in that camp? I gave you five thousand soldiers to launch a surprise attack, and you managed to wipe them all out?!"
Feng San was so frightened by the general's angry expression that he trembled all over and couldn't even speak.
Several lieutenants explained that General Feng had not yet led his troops to attack the Xuan Kingdom's camp; he had only gone to Niujia Village.
Moreover, no one knew what happened to those five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers, and they all died inside.
"What?!"
General Zhenhuang's pupils dilated in shock. This situation was a thousand times more outrageous than he had imagined, and he truly couldn't believe it.
"How many people are in such a run-down village?!"
"Our five thousand soldiers! Five thousand! They were wiped out right there in the village!"
"You...you really aren't talking nonsense?!"
Faced with the general's rebuke, Feng San was so frightened that he almost fainted.
It was only after several lieutenants described the situation in detail that the general accepted the facts.
The General of Zhenhuang threw Feng San to the ground, kicked him repeatedly to vent his anger, and then asked, panting heavily, "You don't even know who your opponent is?"
The lieutenants shook their heads.
The Great General Zhenhuang's face was ashen. "Men! Drag these idiots away and behead them all! Hang their heads on the city gate!"
"General, spare my life!"
The lieutenants quickly begged for mercy, while simultaneously shifting all the blame onto Feng San.
What they said was all true.
If Feng San hadn't led his troops to Niujia Village without authorization and given some disastrous orders, the Zhenhuang Army wouldn't have suffered such heavy losses.
Knowing he couldn't refute it, Feng San remained silent.
The General Zhenhuang, barely suppressing his anger, said, "Since that's the case... you few will each receive fifty strokes of the military rod! Feng San, behead him and display his head to the public!"
"Thank you for your mercy, General!" The lieutenants breathed a sigh of relief and quickly withdrew.
"General..." Seeing that he was about to be executed, Feng San, driven by his will to survive, mustered his courage and crawled to his feet, pleading desperately.
"This humble general has signed a military pledge and is willing to accept punishment... Please, General, spare this humble general's life, considering that this was not intentional and was merely a momentary mistake!"
"This humble general is utterly loyal to the General; otherwise, he would not have willingly returned to accept punishment. Besides..."
"Besides, General, you need me to lead the way to find the Xuan Kingdom's border army's camp in the mountains!"
"General... I am still of use, please spare my life for now!"
The General Zhenhuang was furious, but what he said made sense.
Most importantly, keeping him alive means he might still be useful.
"Fine...fine! Then I'll spare your life for now!" General Zhenhuang gritted his teeth, drew his long sword, and slashed at Feng San's right leg.
Swish—
A flash of light appeared.
Feng San's right leg had separated from his torso.
A blood-curdling scream suddenly rang out.
"Take him to get bandaged up," General Zhenhuang coldly ordered, wiping the blood from his blade before turning and returning to his tent.
Feng San, screaming and howling in agony, was quickly dragged away, leaving his leg and a pool of glaring blood on the ground.
Night is about to fall.
A deputy general who had been flogged was carried into the general's tent.
General Zhenhuang frowned and said, "Why don't you go and rest? What are you doing here in front of me? Don't you think I'm angry enough already?"
"General..." The lieutenant, lying on the ground, said weakly, "I've thought about it for a long time, and I feel that the whole thing is extremely strange from beginning to end. I suspect that the people who killed our five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers in Niujia Village this morning may be the Zhenxuan Army of Xuan Kingdom."
The General Who Guards the Wasteland coldly asked, "What makes you say that?"
The lieutenant pondered for a moment and said, "In this Xuanhuang Mountain range, besides us, there is only the Zhenxuan Army. I really can't think of any other possibility."
"What a joke!" General Zhenhuang's face darkened. "When did the Zhenxuan Army become so powerful? If they were that strong, they could easily ambush and wipe out five thousand Zhenhuang soldiers in a village. They would have already crossed the Xuanhuang Mountains and reached me!"
The lieutenant asked, "Then, General, who do you think... who killed our soldiers in Niujia Village... could it be?"
The General Zhenhuang was speechless.
He also spent the entire afternoon pondering this situation.
But I had no clue.
Even though he couldn't understand it, he refused to believe that it was the Zhenxuan Army on the other side of the mountain who did it.
"General," the deputy general said again, "no matter who they are, we must be on guard. I suggest we strengthen patrols around Zhenhuang Pass. We only have 25,000 troops left. It would be best to transfer some more troops from other border passes, just in case."
The General of Zhenhuang's face darkened with anger. "When you escaped back, were you followed?"
The lieutenant looked back carefully, then shook his head. "We were not being followed."
"What's there to be afraid of?" General Zhenhuang said in a deep voice. "Since we weren't being followed, there's no way they could find the exact route to bypass the traps around Zhenhuang Pass. They'd be courting death if they came! Besides, how am I supposed to explain to the other border generals why we need to borrow troops? Tell them that all five thousand of our Zhenhuang soldiers died in a small village? Do you want me to be ridiculed?"
The lieutenant broke out in a cold sweat. "This humble general had no such intention. This humble general merely..."
"Enough!" General Zhenhuang said impatiently. "Not only can we not borrow troops, but we also cannot let this shameful matter spread! All of you shut your mouths! In Zhenhuang Pass, anyone who discusses this matter will be executed on the spot!"
The lieutenant sighed inwardly and reluctantly replied, "Yes... General."
After nightfall, everything in Zhenhuang Pass remained as usual.
After eating some delicious food that he had previously robbed from Niujia Village, and then covering himself with a warm cotton quilt that he had also robbed from Niujia Village, General Zhenhuang fell into a comfortable dream.
Outside the city wall, the soldiers of the Zhenhuang Army on duty made a perfunctory inspection, and then gathered in groups of three or five to hide in the corner of the wall, huddled around the fire to keep warm and avoid the wind.
In the deep darkness of the night, the howling winds from all directions sounded like the wailing of ghosts and wolves, perfectly masking the approaching commotion of a Xuanjia army swiftly trudging through the snow...
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