The cold wind was strong and there was still a thin layer of snow in the field. The golden sunshine fell on the soldiers who were slowly moving forward on the snow, shining on them as if they were gods descending from heaven.
However, these "gods" were not as brave and fearless as they imagined. Instead, their bodies trembled a little while walking.
Winter winter winter winter!
The thunder of huge war drums urged the soldiers to move forward faster.
Upon hearing the signal from the rear, among a group of soldiers, the knights on war horses ran back and forth, shouting loudly.
"You will attack this group today, and after finishing this round, you will have enough food and wine when you go back, and you can also rest for two days."
"The general has an order. Anyone who climbs first will be rewarded with a hundred taels of silver. If he comes back alive, he can be incorporated into the headquarters barracks and be separated from the first camp."
"The general has an order. In this battle, those who retreat will live and those who retreat will die. If there is no military order, all those who dare to retreat will be killed."
Loud orders fell into the ears of these soldiers under the repeated shouts of these knights.
The soldiers below who were trudging forward in the snow looked at the knights galloping, fear and desire flashed in their eyes, and some even flashed hatred.
But no matter which emotion they were in, when the knight glanced over or rode his horse past, these soldiers lowered their heads and did not dare to look more.
The experience of the past few days told them that if they offended the team commanders and battalion commanders who had the responsibility of supervising the battle, there was only one outcome: they would be sent to the front row to withstand the most violent attack from the rebel army.
And this arrangement means death for the vast majority of soldiers.
No one wants to die.
They didn't want to, so they chose to obey orders at this time.
The bandit's camp ahead will soon arrive.
The soldiers who were assigned to attack the first formation also showed a trace of determination on their faces.
There is no way to survive if you run away and mutiny. Because at the rear, there were troops several times larger than our own, and they were all supervising troops.
If you dare to resist and run away, the supervising team will lose a few rounds of arrows, and it will be a hornet's nest.
Instead, he attacked forward and obeyed the orders, maybe he could survive.
If you are lucky, you may even be regarded as a warrior, promoted to the first camp, become a member of the war supervising team, and live a good life.
This is what many people have seen with their own eyes these days, and it is also the only hope in their hearts.
The door to the thief's camp was still closed, but there was a thick layer of corpses in front of the door and under the corner of the camp.
These are the corpses of colleagues and rebels who died in the past few days.
In the winter, corpses lying on the ground will freeze into popsicles in a short time. There is no need to worry about any plague caused by too many corpses.
Therefore, neither side arranged anyone to collect the bodies.
When they reached about a hundred feet away from the camp, they estimated that they were almost within the enemy's archery range, so the army did not move any further.
The officers supervising the battle arranged the array of their men, and then looked at the uneasy faces of each of them, and gave the order with a cold expression.
"The first team and the second team come forward and attack!"
Upon hearing the order, the soldiers pushed ladders, rushed cars, and even carried bamboo ladders, and rushed forward with shouts.
In front is a small village of five hundred people.
Two hundred soldiers were scattered on a battlefield a hundred meters wide, just covering the area of the village wall.
During the charge, Lu Yuan's direct descendants, who were supervising the battle team at the back, also began to form an arrow array and fired three rounds of rapid fire towards the camp in front to provide long-range support to the charging soldiers.
Hundreds of arrows were lost, hitting the camp like raindrops in three waves.
Some of the thieves above had no time to dodge, and were immediately hit by arrows. They were either pinned to the ground, or were carried away and fell off the wall of the village.
After finally escaping three waves of arrows, the thieves crawled out tremblingly to meet the enemy under the yells of the generals.
Those soldiers who climbed into the camp first had already reached the wall. Some of the fast ones even climbed up the stairs and ladders to the top of the wall.
Then the two sides met. Needless to say, one was an official and the other was a thief. They started fighting with a knife.
However, there are still too many thieves in the camp.
After fighting with the soldiers in the first line for a while, the thieves finally drove the officers and soldiers away after nearly a hundred people died.
The dozens of remaining officers and soldiers fled crying and fleeing in retreat.
Then when they returned to the rear formation, they were stopped by their own team, who then picked out one-tenth of the survivors and killed them on the spot.
Anyone who retreats without a previous order will be dealt with according to military law.
And ten draws and one kill are the popular tactics in the army. It came into use at this time.
After ruthlessly killing a group of deserters, the second group of soldiers behind them all looked stern, and then, under the urging of the officers, they went to attack the camp as the second group.
Fighting on the battlefield has always been a matter of life and death. Even the soldiers within their own camp are fighting to the death.
This is true for the soldiers who first arrived at the camp, and even those who supervise the battle team.
If the soldiers who got to the camp first were all dead, the traitor camp would not have been breached yet. Then the ones who will come up at that time will be the supervising team.
No one can stay away until the enemy is defeated.
…
The army in front was fighting fiercely. Behind, on the high general's platform, Lu Yuan also put on his cloak and pressed his sword, looking at the battlefield in the distance.
"Master, according to the current progress, we can break through the small village by this afternoon." Beside him, a school captain looked at the battlefield for a while, and after roughly understanding the situation, he couldn't help but say.
This captain's name is Gu Wei, and he is one of Lu Yuan's registered disciples. His strength ranks among the top three in the world.
In fact, in the entire army, all the positions of captain and camp are basically held by Lu Yuan's registered disciples.
These relationships maintained by the title of master and apprentice are the foundation for him to ensure his control over the army.
Lu Yuan turned around, glanced at Gu Wei, nodded and said, "That's true. But after five days of fighting, those miscellaneous soldiers who first entered the army from the seventh battalion went to the third battalion, and more than half of them died. I'm afraid they won't be able to fight for more than a few battles." .
Moreover, the casualties were so serious that the soldiers who had entered the army first might not be able to bear it anymore and would mutiny. "
He knew what his disciple meant by mentioning these things at this time.
Because the entire seventh battalion of the First Deng Army was under the supervision of Gu Wei. After five days of fighting now, the advance army suffered heavy losses, with more than half of them dead or wounded.
But the results are also brilliant.
In five days, the First Ascension Army broke through eight outlying camps of the rebels, killing and injuring nearly 3,000 thieves, and almost emptied the outskirts of the Seven Star Gate rebel camp in one go.
According to Lu Yuan's past principle of reward for meritorious service, Gu Wei has made such a great contribution, and a reward is indispensable.
"Master, don't worry. Even if I join the army first and fight to the last man, I will not retreat from the battlefield." Seeing his master raising questions, Gu Wei immediately assured him.
To him, those who died were not his direct members, but some miscellaneous vigilante groups.
These miscellaneous soldiers, even if they are all eliminated, are not important to me.
On the contrary, if you can use the lives of these miscellaneous soldiers to get a share of credit for yourself, it will be a big profit.
This is a sure-profit business, and it is certainly positive to do it.
"Then I'll leave this matter to you. Within three days, give me another five camps to conquer."
Lu Yuan nodded, and then said: "But there is no need to force those who conquered the army first. You tell them that as long as five more camps are broken, those who survive will be included in the general's direct line. Waiver of first-in status.
They also rewarded each person with twenty taels of silver for their bravery. "
Having said this, he looked at Gu Wei again, pondered for a moment, and said: "After you finish defeating the five camps, you can go to your senior brother and receive the full set of Liuyun Palm techniques from him."
"Thank you, Master." When Gu Wei heard this, he was overjoyed and quickly prostrated.
"Get up, you and I, master and disciple, don't have to be so polite." Lu Yuan glanced at him and said calmly: "As long as you serve your master with your heart, I will not treat you disciples badly."
"Yes." Gu Wei stood up, then thinking about the reward, he immediately said: "The disciple will go to the front to supervise the battle. Master, don't worry, within three days, the disciple will destroy the five camps of the bandit army."
"Well, go ahead." Lu Yuan responded, waved his hand, watched the disciple retreat, then continued to turn his head and look at the battlefield ahead.
The battle ahead is still fierce, and now the fourth formation of soldiers has rushed forward.
After four rounds of fierce attacks, more than half of the bandit troops in the small village were killed or injured, and there were not even enough people standing on the wall of the village. Even the gate of the village began to collapse under the impact of the rushing car.
Breaking five camps in three days is still achievable for an army that ascends first.
"But if this is the case, after three days have passed and these rounds have been fought, those who survived the first attack will probably be less than a thousand people." Lu Yuan counted the casualties in these days and couldn't help but be speechless. .
From the original seven thousand people to the remaining one thousand, these horrific casualties are undoubtedly extremely terrifying.
It is even more cruel to those who invaded first.
If possible, Lu Yuan actually didn't want to force those who entered the army first. After all, even if they are miscellaneous, they can still be regarded as soldiers of the imperial court and belong to their own camp.
Moreover, each of the first soldiers was a living human life, so it would be cruel to bury them on the battlefield like this.
"But there's nothing I can do." Lu Yuan sighed.
The reason why this cruel decision was made was mainly because the rebel army on the opposite side was too timid.
Ever since he led his army to the battlefield, the rebels from the Seven Star Gate began to huddle in the camp and did not dare to come out to fight.
As for the entire Seven Star Sect army, even after experiencing the previous disastrous defeat, five thousand people were lost. But a rough count of the remaining troops shows that there are still 17,000 or 17,000 left.
With such a large army, there were more than 30 camps set up, stretching for several miles.
Coupled with the rebellion of Jianghu sects on the opposite side, there are many martial arts masters in the army, and the remaining strength cannot be underestimated.
With these powers, if he just insists on holding on and relies on the camp for defense, then Lu Yuan really doesn't have much to do against the opponent.
After all, he was asked to lead a master to attack the other side, but there were more masters from the Seven Star Sect than his own. If this kind of beheading tactic were to be implemented, it would not be certain who would kill whom?
Furthermore, it was impossible for Lu Yuan to take such a risk with his own life.
And the Seven Star Sect was invited to have a decisive battle, but the other party refused.
So after many choices, the only option is to attack by force.
That's why the advance army appeared, and they achieved the glorious record of breaking eight villages in five days and killing three thousand thieves.
"I don't believe it. The rebels on the other side are like a ragtag group. Even if they rely on the camp and have a defensive advantage, how long can they last under the huge casualties?"
Lu Yuan is currently struggling with the rebels from the Seven Star Sect.
Compete with the opponent to see who can't hold on first.
There is always a numerical value that the army can bear for casualties. With the casualty-bearing capacity of various armies today, they often collapse when the number of casualties exceeds 10% or 20%.
He can pass this value on by relying on the pressure on the advance army.
But on the rebel side, there is no one else who can attack the army first to pass the pressure.
Therefore, Lu Yuan's huge pressure of attacking one or two camps every day and killing hundreds of people was evenly distributed to the entire Seven Star Gate rebels as a whole.
Three thousand people are dead now. For the total number of 17,800 rebels, the casualties are only more than 10%, which may be bearable.
But if the killing lasted for three more days, five camps were destroyed, and two thousand people died, the casualty figure would reach more than 20%.
If the 5,000 people from the previous attack were also included, the casualties would be over 40%, nearly half.
Moreover, these 40% huge casualties were caused in just ten days.
"Nearly half of them died in the ten-day civil war. Even an iron army will collapse no matter what?"
Lu Yuan didn't believe it. Those thieves were still invincible and could fight him to the last man.
If the other party can really do it.
There was nothing more to say, so Lu Yuan resigned himself to defeat.
At that time, there is no need to continue fighting with the opponent and just lead the troops to retreat. What if Changning County is given to the opponent?
But can these Seven-Star Thieves rebels really do this?
He didn't believe it anyway.
This is a war that can be won by ninjas.
Whoever can endure greater casualties will win.
…
In fact, not only Lu Yuan didn't believe it, but even the Seven Star Gate rebels themselves didn't believe that they could survive to the last person.
Because at this time, they could no longer hold on.
"Master, those imperial officers and soldiers don't regard themselves as human beings at all, no, they are not afraid of death at all.
After one wave of attacks, another wave of people came in.
In just two hours, of the 500 men under my command, 300 were already killed or injured, and less than 200 were left. "
In the Seven Star Gate military camp, inside the central army tent, an elder of the Seven Star Gate wearing armor was kneeling on the ground, crying towards the leader in front of him.
A tough man would not even blink even if he was struck by a sword.
But now he was forced to do this.
But it’s no wonder this elder is like this, it’s really miserable.
In just half a day, not only three hundred of his subordinates died, but also three apprentices, a son, and several nephews of the same clan.
These are all his favorite juniors, but these young people with great prospects were consumed in just two hours on today's cruel battlefield.
This huge blow immediately made this elder, who was always known as a tough guy, collapse.
When other people in the tent saw this scene, they all felt sad and sad.
