Yun Zhe and his two companions quickly returned to their respective groups. The events were not complicated; the elves had utterly crushed the morale of the Donic family's army in just a few days.
"This is a complete rout." After hearing Yun Zhe's description, the other soldiers felt a strange mix of schadenfreude and relief at surviving a disaster. Yun Zhe couldn't quite define it for a moment.
"While we were getting beaten up by vampires, they were getting beaten up by elves. Thinking about it that way, we're still the stronger ones." Chad's words resonated with the soldiers and largely expressed their sentiments.
Indeed, from the soldiers' perspective, ignoring numbers, elves were insignificant compared to vampires. However, the fact that the Donic family suffered a complete rout and lost far more than they had at the stables was simply a disgrace.
The battle has been going on for four or five days, and they still don't know how many elves there are. Some say five thousand, some say ten thousand, and some say at least fifty thousand.
Yun Zhe stood on a small mound, riding his horse, watching the slow, winding flow of people, pondering Philby's words.
"It was obvious that the elves attacked from two directions. One attacked from Sind's side, while the other bypassed Andrew and went straight into the heart of the territory. We had no warning at all. We only realized that the elves had attacked when Sind's defeated army fled to the city of Donic. And just one day later, Andrew's family also fled to Donic. He couldn't even muster a hundred soldiers!"
"They fought a battle outside Donic, and I received the message to go to their aid. But before I even reached the battlefield, I was told to escort refugees. Given the speed of the elves' attack, I'm very pessimistic about completing my mission."
Pincer attack, deep penetration—several war terms from his previous life surfaced in Yun Zhe's mind. Yun Zhe found it hard to believe that in a different world where war theory was so rudimentary, there was already a race that had applied such advanced war theory so skillfully.
Yun Zhe was lost in thought when he saw a commotion and chaos erupt among the soldiers in the far distance. This chaos quickly spread to all the troops; the peasants scattered and fled, and the soldiers, like headless flies, were unsure whether to maintain order or join the fleeing. Philby's behavior also highlighted this contradiction; he rode back and forth on horseback, shouting loudly, but the chaos continued to escalate without any sign of abating.
Yun Zhe quickly discovered the cause of the commotion: a group of twenty elven cavalrymen. They appeared in people's sight, but that was all.
Yun Zhe sensed some interesting thoughts from the soldiers. Clearly, after suffering losses at the hands of the vampires, they were eager to get revenge on these elves.
Yun Zhe was somewhat surprised. Shouldn't these soldiers complain about their bad luck, lose morale, and go home?
But morale is high.
"Soldiers, you must all be disgusted by the act of surrendering without even fighting," Yun Zhe said as he rode his horse, making sure that every soldier could hear him.
The soldiers looked at each other and nodded repeatedly.
"The elves there have won one battle after another. Although there are no specific battle reports, judging from the scene before you, it shouldn't be hard to guess how powerful the elves are."
The soldiers looked around, their eyes brightening.
"We haven't won a single battle in the past period, but we've paid a heavy price. I know everyone is burning with anger and resentment. But, facing those elves who have won battle after battle, whose morale is high and whose army is at its peak, do you really want to regain your confidence by taking their blows?"
The soldiers grew excited. Chad reined in his horse, about to raise his arms and shout, but Mobik pulled him back. Chad was puzzled, but then he saw Mobik raise his arm. "My lord, leave it to us. We'll make sure not a single elf is left alive."
"I'm furious!" That was his line. He spurred his horse forward and said, "Sir, you don't need to provoke us. We've been wanting to fight for a long time. Sir, tell us how you want to fight, and we'll do it."
"Excellent, the elves are strong; this will help restore the soldiers' morale," Yun Zhe thought to himself. However, he also knew that if they lost this time, the army's morale might truly be gone forever. Yun Zhe steeled his resolve, his face remaining impassive. "Alright, the elves are charging. Once they've caught up with those soldiers, we'll circle around..." Then Yun Zhe saw several wounded soldiers jumping from the carriage. Gao, the leader, blushed, "My lord, we want to go too!"
Yun Zhe was slightly taken aback, then pretended to be angry and shouted, "Gao, what are you doing causing trouble? Just focus on recovering from your injury. Are you worried about not having any Pokémon to fight in the future?"
Gao could tell that Yun Zhe wasn't truly angry. He had been listening to Yun Zhe the whole time, and considering how dire the situation was, Yun Zhe was right. There would be many more battles to come; after all, this was just a small skirmish with twenty men. With that thought, Gao's mood improved, and he quickly changed his attitude, immediately starting to persuade the other soldiers, "Let's wait until we're fully recovered before going to fight a big battle. Let them go through this small skirmish. Good things come to those who wait; let's just focus on recovering."
"Gao, do you believe that the war will be over once you've recovered from your injuries?" Chad, who had just suffered a setback, finally found an opening.
"Get out of here! Have you forgotten my kindness?" Gao stopped abruptly as he saw Philby riding towards them.
"The soldiers are temporarily calmed down, but the farmers are too chaotic and are still running around in all directions. Yun Zhe, I need you to help maintain order, quick!" Philby shouted loudly from more than ten meters away.
Yun Zhe glanced at Philby and said, "Philby, when the elves attack, you're in charge of holding them off while we flank them from behind. We absolutely won't let those elves escape."
Philby paused for a moment, letting the horse rush up to Yun Zhe. "What, what are you going to do?"
Yun Zhe pointed to the elves who had formed their battle formation and were beginning their attack, "Surround them, crush them!"
Philby gasped. Had he forgotten what he'd just told him? Looking back at the lines of troops that had been weakened by the elf charge, Philby sighed helplessly. Lately, things had taken a toll on his patience and temper. He was already too busy with his own troops to care whether Yun Zhe was stupid or mentally unstable. Philby turned his horse around, saying, "I'll do my best. Good luck," before galloping back towards his army.
The changes in the human forces caught the attention of the elven scouts; they hadn't expected the enemy's rout to stop. Of course, they also hadn't expected the human soldiers to start scattering as soon as they saw them.
"Attack! We must throw them into disarray so that the main force can achieve victory more easily," ordered the cavalry captain named Philnis.
The elves quickly spread out in a V-formation, took down their longbows, and charged towards the human soldiers' lines while firing arrows.
As Philnis had predicted, the human soldiers' lines fell into disarray once again.
"Charge! The main force is almost here! We must break them apart as soon as possible!" Philnis shouted.
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