Chong Xuan Sheng, though usually cheerful and gregarious, rarely held others in true regard. With his exceptional talent and sagacity, he was destined, once past the stage of accumulating strength, to sooner or later stir up the winds and clouds of the world.

But in this expedition, he lauded Cao All’s military prowess repeatedly, his admiration knowing no bounds.

Through his explanations, Jiang Wang, though unversed in military matters, could also glimpse the grandeur and vastness of the art of war.

Perhaps the winds upon the eastern bank of the Lianjiang were too gentle.

Reflecting upon the world, recalling ages past and present, Jiang Wang couldn’t help but pose a rather dull question: “In your estimation, if Commander Cao were to confront your uncle on the battlefield, who would emerge victorious, and who defeated?”

This question was truly insipid, one that only a military layman could ask. Among the contemporary top renowned generals, none would ever attempt to determine victory or defeat through speculation outside the battlefield.

Yet Chong Xuan Sheng actually pondered quite seriously for a moment, then spoke: “To discuss their victory and defeat with our limited vision is akin to swallows and sparrows discussing the Kunpeng. But I shall speak casually, and you may listen casually.”

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“Just a casual chat.” Jiang Wang’s eyes remained fixed on the Jiangyin Plain across the Lianjiang, as if also infected by the atmosphere of war, his voice softening.

“The qualities of a renowned general are not solely manifested on the battlefield. From the imperial court to the military camp, from conscription to training, all aspects contribute to a commander’s complete military capability. Of course, in the end, victory and defeat are required for proof.”

Chong Xuan Sheng continued: “Since you speak of battlefield confrontation, let us assume their soldiers and troop quality are evenly matched in all respects… In such a scenario on the battlefield, I believe there are only two possible outcomes.”

“Which two?” Jiang Wang inquired.

Chong Xuan Sheng replied: “Either my uncle achieves a great victory, or Commander Cao achieves a small victory.”

He added: “In my personal deduction, the probability of my uncle’s great victory is three parts in ten, while the probability of Commander Cao’s small victory is seven parts in ten.”

Jiang Wang opened his mouth to speak.

Chong Xuan Sheng supplemented again: “Furthermore, the duration and scale of the war will also affect their win rates. Thus, an emperor who understands warfare but chooses generals often selects the commander most suitable for that specific battlefield, not necessarily the conventionally strongest general.”

Jiang Wang considered this for a moment, remaining silent.

Amidst the endless sea of armies spanning both banks of the Lianjiang, the conversation between the two friends was truly like tiny waves.

And not long after, a flag officer galloped on horseback, roaring—

“Transmit the Grand Commander’s order! Order Li Zhengyan’s entire army to attack!”

That orderly host, crossing the frozen Lianjiang, the Chasing Wind Army, moved in an instant.

This vast flow of troops, from gentle to swift, required only the time it took to announce a single military order.

The entire earth became like a war drum, struck by the hooves of this orderly cavalry!

Thump, thump, thump!

Thump, thump, thump!

The sound of the surging flood was the declaration of the Great Qi Empire.

The nine armies of Great Qi were all world-class elite troops, capable of cavalry battle on horseback and infantry battle on foot.

However, in specific tactics, each naturally had a different emphasis.

Among the nine armies of Great Qi, the Chasing Wind Army was the most adept at cavalry warfare, capable of engaging in head-on charges against grassland cavalry.

After Sword Peak Mountain fell, this field battle outside Tongyang City was inevitable, so Cao All specifically deployed the Chasing Wind Army as the vanguard for attacking Xiangyou Prefecture.

And he first used the twenty-three cities of Fengjie Prefecture to sharpen their swords and mount their horses, ensuring their momentum was victorious!

Si Jiao had to use this field battle to raise the banner for the Xia Army, to re-establish the war spirit of Xia’s military and people, and Cao All had absolutely no objection. He just needed Si Jiao to pay a sufficient price!

At the level of superhuman warfare, the Lianjiang, hundreds of li wide, was directly frozen. The so-called “half crossing and strike” was, of course, impossible in reality.

But Tongyang City’s four gates were wide open, and Xia’s Upper General Long Jiao personally led the Town Nation Army, leaping onto horseback at this moment, still choosing the best timing.

Horse hooves on ice, after all, were difficult to exert force from.

The army divided, after all, was not easy to defend promptly.

If the Chasing Wind Army’s reaction was slightly slow, they would face this head-on cavalry collision before their warhorses could pick up speed.

One side was unified in man and horse, the other resisting alone.

Then the outcome of the battle was predictable.

Facing the Town Nation Army’s grand sortie from the city, Cao All’s command was exceptionally decisive, merely “entire army attack,” just four words.

The Chasing Wind Army also fully displayed the quality of a world-class strong army, moving like a rushing tide.

Just like a long river passing through Tianma Plain, under a huge terrain drop, it impacted into a surging section of the Yellow River!

In this rushing tide, men and horses, like fish and boats, floated and sank together.

Ten thousand men seemed to breathe the same breath, stepping to the same rhythm. They seemed to share the same pair of eyes, those firm, solemn eyes—looking at the enemy!

Spread out on the vast plain, yet they constructed an order difficult to imagine.

A great sea, a rushing tide!

If someone were to look down from high above, they could see the vastness, the boundless plain where this ten thousand strong Chasing Wind Army, treading swift winds, chasing cold blades, in their unstoppable charge, continuously adjusted their formation, always maintaining a crescent-shaped battle formation.

On the plain, the battle formation was like the moon; in the sky, military malevolence soared like clouds.

And to truly penetrate into the ranks of this charge, to feel the intensity of every warrior up close, you could only see—see their eyebrows and the corners of their eyes, see in those minute details, courage flowing in droplets of sweat!

You could only discover how majestic their blood energy was, how their vital blood power had already soared.

Countless grains of Dao Yuan contaminated with the energy of war malevolence surged together.

And the accumulated, unstoppable sharp edge from consecutively capturing twenty-three cities within three days!

Within a world-class battle formation, such terrifying, towering military malevolence, like an angry sea, was thus mixed.

Before the ten thousand strong Chasing Wind Army, the contemporary Marquis of Destroying Cities, Li Zhengyan, was clad in full armor, his single horse leading the charge. Not a hint of his usual gentleness remained.

He had inherited the glory of a top renowned family in Great Qi, and once earned the merit of riding horseback across ten thousand borders.

His daughter, Li Fengyao, wearing a top helmet and armor, galloped at the head of the army on the left.

His son, Li Longchuan, with a jade belt across his forehead, led the army’s charge on the right.

His aged mother, at this moment holding a dragon-headed staff, was stationed in Shimen County. His wife, wearing armor and wielding a sword, also assisted there.

His elder brother served before the monarch, also doing his part, contributing to this war.

It could be said that the entire Li family was on the battlefield.

And in such a large-scale, high-intensity war, this one charge, it was impossible to say if the direct lineage of the Great Qi Li clan would be exterminated!

But this precisely proved the bravery of the Li clan!

The Shimen Li clan guarded the border for Qi; for how many years had they feared life and death, and what did death and injury count!?

There is a poem that says, “The world praises Shimen Li…”

Why does the world praise Shimen Li?

Precisely because of one battlefield after another, one shedding of blood for the country after another, one life of a loyal martyr after another!

The Shimen Li clan never rested on the merits of their ancestors; the glory of the Marquis of Destroying Cities remained brilliant and dazzling because generation after generation of the Li clan had wiped it with fresh blood!

At this moment, the Xia country had a strong army called the Town Nation Army, under the leadership of Upper General Long Jiao, just manifesting their determination to protect their home and country.

Angry horses raised their heavy hooves, their bows and knives filled with killing intent.

More intense than a mountain collapse, more furious than a flood surge.

And thus burst forth, covering the heaven and earth with its mighty power!

Facing the charge of such an army, not a single man in the ten thousand strong Chasing Wind Army flinched.

At the very center of the collision of twenty thousand cavalry.

Galloping on the boundary of life and death.

Beneath the fluttering Chasing Wind battle flag.

Li Zhengyan raised his left hand.

His armored left hand gripped! As if gripping something that supported heaven and earth.

He seemed to grip a bow!

A bow connecting heaven and earth.

And his armored right hand extended forward, that steady and precise, as if attached to the distant horizon.

He attached the string!

And the endless Chasing Wind military malevolence howled like a tornado, gathering towards him, the commander of the Chasing Wind Army.

Heaven and earth were shaking, trembling, tensing!

He gripped heaven and earth tightly, pulled the horizon taut, mobilizing the power of the majestic military formation.

He looked remotely at Xia’s Great General Long Jiao, also leading the charge on a single horse in the center of the enemy formation.

Thus he released the string!

One arrow shot into the enemy formation!

With heaven and earth as the bow, with the horizon as the string, with the military malevolence of the ten thousand strong Chasing Wind Army gathered as the arrow, what a sight was this strike?

Heaven and earth, everything within sight, seemed to be torn apart!

Wherever this arrow penetrated, there all things were annihilated.

People seemed to see a huge, terrifying void, swallowing everything in its path, penetrating the entire Jiangyin Plain, falling towards the majestic, sea-like center of the Town Nation Army formation!

The arrow clearly traveled through the air, but merely the stirred airflow carved a huge gully on the ground.

This vertical gully itself was like an arrow! An arrow penetrating the earth, dividing the Jiangyin Plain!

The Chasing Wind battle arrow, unmatched in killing, who could withstand a single one?!

“I seem to understand why the Marquis of Destroying Cities, the foremost hero of the restoration, could destroy a strong city with ten arrows!”

Still in the ranks of the Autumn Kill Army on the eastern bank of the Lianjiang, Chong Xuan Sheng couldn’t help but exclaim.

And excitedly patted Jiang Wang once: “Brother Wang! You must hold onto Sister Fengyao tightly!”

Seeing Fourteen beside him glance over, he chuckled: “This fellow with the surname Jiang is getting more and more like it. Let him seek a marriage alliance for our family!”

Jiang Wang was completely unable to deal with this fat fellow’s teasing.

Because at this moment, his mind was completely immersed in this arrow.

He had sparred with Li Longchuan more than once, and he had also seen Li Fengyao’s exquisite archery skills.

But he had never expected that such an arrow could exist in the world. It could be so majestic, so grand!

He could already feel the weight on his vision; at this moment, he only felt his sight also being infinitely swallowed by this arrow. He had to activate his Qian Yang Red Pupils to “pull back” his sight!

What a fearsome arrow, traveling through the territory of Xia.

Bringing the will to destroy everything, and the determination to crush all resistance.

Then Jiang Wang saw, above the distant Town Nation Army formation, rise up a three-legged, two-eared bronze giant cauldron.

The blood energy of the soldiers was the firewood, the malevolence of the cauldron was the military might.

The relief on the surface of the giant cauldron was imprinted into Jiang Wang’s eyes, flowing with red light.

He saw—

Mountains collapsing, someone supporting them with one hand.

River banks breaching, someone leaping down to intercept the flow.

Great armies pressing the border, someone charging on a single horse…

He saw—

The one supporting the mountain did not support the mountain.

The one intercepting the flow was swept away by the flood.

The one charging was submerged in ten thousand armies…

But the mountains and rivers were still there!

Mountains and rivers still had people coming!

Year after year, generation after generation.

This bronze giant cauldron instantly bloomed with unimaginable great glory. The efforts and struggles of countless people were engraved by time into indestructible honor.

It stood firmly between heaven and earth, as if suppressing everything!

This cauldron bore the nine heavens above, suppressed the nine nether realms below, inherited the will of ten thousand people, and protected mountains and rivers.

This was the soldier formation killing method personally created by the Xia Xiang Emperor of yesteryear, named “Mountains and Rivers.” In the contemporary era, where Dao techniques were rapidly innovating, with massive Dao techniques eliminated every day, it still ranked among the top tier of soldier formation killing methods!

How do warriors town the country?

With flesh and blood! With life and death!

With this cauldron’s descent, mountains and rivers were stable.

With this army present, the country would not perish!

Long Jiao stood his horse, and the ten thousand strong Town Nation Army under his command stood their horses.

Long Jiao charged, and all the warriors of the Town Nation Army charged.

Their will was burning, their banners fluttering.

Their courage and blood energy continuously poured into the bronze giant cauldron. They made every minute inscription concrete, sensed the traces of heaven and earth, and became substance!

On the fertile Jiangyin Plain, two branches of world-class strong armies, whose soldier formation power had gathered, finally met head-on.

The arrow that penetrated all things finally collided with the cauldron that suppressed everything.

That kind of huge impact was impossible to encompass with the eye, impossible to describe with language!

That kind of vastness and majesty made all onlookers seem tiny.

Between heaven and earth, mournful songs resounded.

Grand sounds covered everything.

Military malevolence and military malevolence intertwined, desperate wills collided—

And dissipated in an instant.

The bronze giant cauldron and the heaven-might arrow both disappeared.

The still surging Chasing Wind Army tide surged over this foreign land, forever leaving behind some warriors. Their blood energy was exhausted, their strength depleted, and they died.

They could no longer perform any actions, only wait to be silently collected by the friendly troops following close behind—

Perhaps not collected.

Before the great war was thoroughly settled, at most, they would only be moved to one side, to temporarily clear the battlefield.

And opposite the Chasing Wind Army formation, backing against Tongyang City’s charge, a large section of the Great Xia Town Nation Army formation fell down! But that gap was immediately filled again by the cavalry behind them!

The charge was still ongoing.

The charge of both sides was still ongoing!

Whether it was Li Zhengyan or Long Jiao, whether it was the Chasing Wind Army or the Town Nation Army, neither had any intention of retreating.

Their banners still fluttered as before, their warhorses still thudded their hooves.

Li Zhengyan, whose “speed was like the wind,” displayed his rarely seen bravery today.

As the battle flag shook, the main array of the Chasing Wind Army surged like a great tide.

In such a violent charge, they actually smoothly completed a diversion, dividing into ten orderly ten-thousand-man armies. Like wave crests, like surging tides, they extended front and back, their military momentum connected, truly world-class elites!

The first army was Li Zhengyan’s.

The next was Li Fengyao’s.

Then Li Longchuan’s.

And so on.

Father succeeded daughter, elder sister succeeded younger brother.

Main general succeeded secondary general.

The Duke’s household succeeded with the eldest son.

After the eldest son, they succeeded with commoners!

Hang the long sword on the bird’s wing ring, bring my great iron spear, and hang it on that victory hook!

Lift the iron spear, gallop the horse.

Charge straight forward.

Charge forward!

This was a final charge, without any tricks.

This was a confrontation on the boundless plain, destined to be described with casualties.

On a battlefield where moments change, the brave do not necessarily win, the strong do not necessarily win, but the dead truly die completely!

Li Longchuan stared intently forward, his lower body pressing tightly on his warhorse, mixed with the bloodline of demonic beasts.

Before him was the ten thousand strong cavalry led by his elder sister, Li Fengyao. Even in the midst of the charge, this branch of her cavalry gave off a chilling feeling.

As if an ice river plunged into the sea, there was only one lonely sound after another.

He understood Li Fengyao’s Frost Heart divine ability, which allowed her, in the midst of this ten thousand strong cavalry charge, to still precisely reflect every detail, ultimately achieving cold slaughter like an ice knife.

His own Candle Micro divine ability could also help him grasp battle details more concretely.

But at this moment, he felt it wasn’t so necessary.

His father, his main commander, charged at the very front.

His family, his direct elder sister, rushed at the next front.

He gripped tightly the great iron spear in his hand, specialized for cavalry battle, pressing it tightly against his body.

Thump, thump, thump!

Bowl-sized horse hooves trampled the earth.

Thump, thump, thump!

The sound of horse hooves, as if treading on his heart.

Every sound was so clear.

Li Longchuan only felt his heart beating faster and faster, faster and faster… And the earth’s war drum beat together, intensely, surging, as if to leap out of his chest!

“Charge…”

He involuntarily shouted: “Ah!”

On the vast Jiangyin Plain, two powerful cavalry forces, a total of twenty thousand men, charged at each other!

Heaven and earth had little light, the sun seemed to retreat.

The tide of people surged like a tide of clouds, military malevolence penetrated heaven and earth.

One side was the nine armies of Great Qi, the first of the Four Symbols being “Chasing Wind”!

One side was the elite troops of the Xia country, filling the borders with flesh and blood, the “Town Nation Army”!

A flood of flesh collided!

Clang, clang, clang!

The symphony of metal weapons.

Neigh, neigh!

Men fell, horses tumbled.

The great army tide surged and rolled over, leaving behind only horizontal corpses everywhere.

With just one charge, both sides actually suffered tens of thousands of casualties!

Individual wails and grief were completely annihilated in this slaughter.

The fear of living beings was completely submerged by the atmosphere of war.

After iron and blood burned through the Jiangyin Plain, the Chasing Wind Army’s flag rose high again! But almost at the same time, the Town Nation Army flag also unfolded opposite them!

Both sides were world-class strong armies.

Both commanders were world-renowned generals.

As soon as the battle flag unfolded, well-trained soldiers immediately gathered towards the flags.

Their boiling blood had not yet cooled, their breathing was still like a rainbow.

Li Zhengyan merely pulled the reins, threw his iron spear, and drew his long knife.

At this moment, he had no time to observe his daughter, no time to glance at where his son was, not even time to seek out the enemy general Long Jiao!

He saw only enemies, enemies everywhere, dense enemies!

“Raise the flag and follow me!”

He only gave this instruction to his close guards, then again led the charge at the very front, a single horse leading, carving his way towards the most solid position in the enemy formation!

The 《Shimen Military Strategies》 states: “He who is a general, the gall of a hundred soldiers, the hero of ten thousand armies, should first trap himself in death ground, then stand on the desperate path, thus ten thousand armies use their lives, and nothing is unbreakable!”

Twenty thousand strong armies engaged in a desperate confrontation, at this point completely interwoven. What kind of military strategy was useless.

Neither side could command every soldier at this time, nor could they assemble fine military array diagrams. At this moment, they could only rely on the sheer bravery of the two armies, on the quality of the soldiers themselves, on whether their daily drills were truly heartfelt, whether they had shed sweat, whether they had trained with their lives!

And for a general in such a situation, there was nothing but to lead the charge, nothing but to raise the battle flag high. To keep the flags from falling, to tie the morale of the soldiers to his body, thus, was the duty of a general in this chaotic slaughter!

Including Li Zhengyan, including Li Fengyao, including Li Longchuan!

So Li Zhengyan did not hesitate at all, directly carving his way towards the most difficult place. If he fought a little harder, his soldiers might die a little less. It was that simple!

A great iron spear penetrated an enemy soldier’s throat, the corpse fell, and was trampled into meat paste amidst howls.

Horse hooves trampled a skull, and thus broke a horse’s leg. The soldier on the horse tumbled down, no longer able to climb up… No one could stand up again in this charge.

Could not distinguish human shadows, could not see human forms, only saw the different military uniforms, then went up with a knife!

Or, be cut down by a knife!

On the vast Jiangyin Plain, the slaughter of twenty thousand people shook heaven and earth, beating the fertile land into a millstone of flesh.

Listening to the frantic hooves, watching the fluttering banners, amidst the light of blades and the light of blood, feeling the cruelest part of war.

Jiang Wang’s heart tightened!

His close friend was fighting for his life within it. His family’s loved one, their entire family, stepped onto the line of life and death.

He believed that at this moment, those people of the Xia country watching this slaughter from atop Tongyang City also shared the same mood!

In the vertically and horizontally intertwined trajectories of life and death, in countless rapidly beginning and ending slaughters, he noticed that the two main flags of Chasing Wind and Town Nation suddenly collided in the center of the battlefield!

Waiting until the flags passed each other, he suddenly realized that this was a brief confrontation between the main commanders of both sides, two true contemporary masters!

It was a pity that even with the eyesight of his Qian Yang Red Pupils, he could not see the details of that place for a time.

He saw the Chasing Wind battle flag shake once, and his entire being suddenly tensed!

But that pole of the Chasing Wind Army’s main flag immediately stood steady again, and drew a beautiful long arc on the battlefield, extremely efficiently gathering soldiers, re-gathering military malevolence.

The main flag on the Town Nation Army’s side also shook in four directions, quickly gathering cavalry.

Both sides formed arrays on one side, and slowly pulled away from each other on the other.

Jiang Wang thus knew that this extremely tragic slaughter… Finally ended a segment.

In the central army of Great Qi, atop a military assault tower cart, Ruan Qu, with a youthful face, said: “Long Jiao is injured but not dead. The Chasing Wind Army suffered over thirty thousand casualties, and the Town Nation Army suffered over half their strength.”

With the Great Xia Town Nation Army formed to counter the nine armies of Great Qi, truly engaging in a straightforward cavalry confrontation with the Chasing Wind Army, a life-and-death mutual killing.

The ratio of soldiers killed on both sides was nearly three to five!

This was absolutely not merely due to Cao All’s proper command leading to victory in momentum, but also due to Qi country’s comprehensive advantage in armor, soldier quality, military array diagrams, and military array killing methods!

Cao All nodded, Ruan Qu’s observation of the outcome was consistent with what he had seen.

He was, of course, confident in his own sight, the reason he still needed someone like Yandao True Monarch to confirm it once was simply that this war was by no means easy for him either.

He also had to think again and again, be careful again and again.

Not to mention, over thirty thousand men of the Chasing Wind Army had already died here! The entire Li Zhengyan family went to battle, fighting with their lives!

If this war was not won, how would he account for it?

“The Town Nation Army can return, but they cannot return so easily.”

After roughly reviewing it in his mind, confirming that there were no omissions in any detail, Cao All then said: “Order the Town Army’s military master Ruan Qu to enter the battle!”

Ruan Qu, the steel wall behind him, nodded slightly, indicating that he had already received the commander’s order within the army.

With a roll of his star-chart Dao robe, he stepped onto the battlefield!