"Damn it, what kind of wolves are these? How can they be so big?" Hidden in the trees, the Qing soldiers watched as wolves pounced on their companions, tearing them apart and devouring their corpses. Many more wolves circled below. Faced with such a large number of enormous wolves, their faces drained of color. Their situation was now a matter of life and death, and they cursed under their breath. These wolves were enormous, more than twice the size of wolves found on the grasslands, and far more ferocious. Most of them, in their panic, hadn't even grabbed their weapons.
"Damn it, these wolves can actually climb trees!" A Manchu soldier who was already off the ground suddenly exclaimed and quickly climbed back up.
His exclamation drew the attention of the others. One after another, wolves gripped the tree trunks with their front paws and began climbing, moving with the speed of tigers and leopards. Their bloodthirsty eyes were fixed on the soldiers climbing higher, and their speed was no slower than theirs. From the other trees, wolves began climbing one after another. The Manchu soldiers in the trees turned ashen-faced and scrambled to even higher positions.
"Ah..." A scream rang out as a slow-climbing soldier was bitten on the buttocks by a wolf. The wolf then used its limbs to push off the tree trunk and dragged him down.
"Ah..." An even more shrill scream rang out from under the tree. The Manchu Qing, who had just been torn from the tree trunk, fell to the ground, and a pack of wolves pounced on him, tearing at him frantically. However, the screams stopped abruptly after a short while.
Seeing this, the others climbed even harder.
"Ah..." Another piercing scream rang out, tinged with terror. It soon faded into the low howls and tearing of the wolves. More and more wolves had climbed the trees; everyone knew that death was likely only a matter of time for them. But no one wanted to die such a gruesome death.
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In a sparsely wooded clearing, over two hundred Manchu soldiers formed a defensive circle, their broadswords and spears flashing and thrusting rapidly. Outside their defenses, a pack of gray wolves, numbering no less than a thousand, surrounded them. These wolves relentlessly charged at their defenses, felling and killing soldiers one by one. These wolves were fearless; even impaled by spears and slashed by broadswords, they would not cease their attack and tearing, their sharp jaws still locked on their prey even in death. The Manchu defensive circle of over two hundred men steadily shrank, their numbers dwindling.
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On the other side, more than 10,000 gray wolves had caught up with the thousands of Manchu soldiers who had been defeated by Gai Nie and his men. These were the soldiers who had not participated in the pursuit of Wang Han.
"How come there are so many wolves here?"
"What kind of wolves are these?"
The already routed and fleeing troops ran forward in a chaotic mess, wishing they had two more legs.
"Ahh..."
"don't want....."
"Don't come any closer..."
"Help me..." Continuous screams and cries for help echoed from the rear of the fleeing column. One by one, the last Manchu soldiers were pounced on by wolves, then surrounded and torn apart by dozens of them. Some soldiers, knowing escape was impossible, turned and attacked the wolves with their weapons, but were overwhelmed by the sheer number of wolves and were pounced on and killed within three seconds. Their bodies were torn apart by the wolves; the ferocity of these gray wolves far exceeded their expectations.
"At this rate, none of these Manchu soldiers will escape; their annihilation is only a matter of time." On a hillside, Wei Zhuang looked at the pack of gray wolves chasing after the fleeing Manchu soldiers and said with a heavy heart. These wolves were too ferocious, and their speed, strength, and stamina far surpassed that of ordinary wolves. Although the Manchu soldiers managed to escape, the rescued slaves and prisoners were not so lucky. Fortunately, none of the wolves pursued them.
"Xiao Zhuang, let's hurry up and go," Gai Nie said as he approached Wei Zhuang. "We still have a lot to do."
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"The dead are truly everywhere! I never imagined it would be this bad by this stage of the dynasty." In the south of the Ming Dynasty, Wang Han rode a fine horse along the main road, looking at the scene around him and finally couldn't help but sigh. A fire of anger was burning brighter and brighter in Wang Han's heart. Wang Han never forgot that he was still human, that he still had a conscience, and he couldn't help but sigh at the sight of his surroundings. Otherwise, Wang Han wouldn't sometimes be so overwhelmed with compassion. After all, even after experiencing many worlds, Wang Han always remembered that he was still human, that his conscience hadn't been completely extinguished, and that he still had his own principles.
On both sides of the road, tree bark and weeds were gone, and almost every few steps there was a skeleton or a rotting corpse. These skeletons and corpses even bore teeth marks or were missing parts. There were traces of bonfires by the roadside, surrounded by pieces of bone. With Wang Han's keen eye, he easily identified the teeth marks on the bones as human teeth marks. The bonfires were also traces of cannibalism. All of this was left behind by humans fleeing in panic; even the tree bark and weeds along the roadside had been devoured by the refugees.
"Giddy up..." Wang Han lashed his whip across the horse's rump, and the horse galloped forward. Along the way, the roadside was littered with withered bones and rotting corpses, numbering probably no less than five thousand. And this was only what Wang Han saw by the roadside.
"Whoa..." Suddenly, Wang Han pulled on the horse's reins.
"Heave-ho..." The galloping horse suddenly reared up and stopped.
After the horse stopped, Wang Han immediately dismounted and walked to the roadside. There, three emaciated, pale, and sickly children were picking maggots from rotting corpses and eating them. Perhaps it was because they were at the back that they hadn't been eaten by the other starving refugees. Exchanging children for food was a common occurrence in such years of disaster.
Hearing the sound of horses behind them, the three children immediately looked up in alarm. Judging from their movements, they seemed to be much slower to react, perhaps because they had been hungry for a long time and had no strength. Looking at their thin and bony appearance, Wang Han was afraid that their bones would break if they moved too much.
"Little brother and sister, run!" Seeing Wang Han dismount and walk towards them, the three children were immediately terrified. One of the older children quickly pushed his younger siblings. He then looked at Wang Han with fear and bravely stood in front of the other two children. "Eat me if you want."
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