While the sun was shining brightly in Houting County, Beifeng City was still shrouded in falling snow.
The howling of the wind and snow made the general's tent seem particularly quiet.
The tent of the general who had been temporarily set up was not very big. A dozen generals wearing the armor of the commander of the border army were sitting on both sides of the tent, and an old man with white hair and beard was sitting on the main seat.
None of them has a cultivation level lower than the third level, and they hold heavy troops. Each one of them is a big shot who can make the Northern Territory tremble with just a stamp of their feet.
But at this moment, a deathlike silence spread among this group of powerful figures in the sect.
A quarter of an hour ago,
They have learned through various channels that a Yunqi bomb was detonated in Houting County.
A few days ago, when the imperial court took out two Yunqi bombs and asked them to immediately go south to reinforce Beifeng City, there were still people who had evil thoughts about Yunqi bombs.
There is no way, Yunqitan is a good thing.
After seeing the effectiveness of the Yun Qi Bomb, this new weapon that could change the celestial phenomena immediately aroused their greed.
As long as they get a sample, their own formation master can try to reverse the research.
Lou Ji didn’t abandon them at all.
If they leave a word of love or not, the worst they can do is die together, which directly shatters their greed.
Beifeng City was lost, and the imperial court's 300,000 troops were trapped and died in the snowfield. For the imperial court, it was a great loss of vitality at best, but for these northern sects, it was a disaster.
Once their 300,000 elite men are lost, all kinds of large pharmaceutical fields, workshops, equipment factories, banks and other industries will directly face the barbarians' attack.
Apart from some core disciples of the inner sect, the only remaining recruits in their hometown were the eighth- and ninth-grade second-line recruits.
The core disciples have high cultivation levels, but they do not cultivate military formations. The new recruits have never seen blood and will easily collapse on the battlefield.
Forced to go south, but not wanting to risk his life, he made a deal with the Barbarian King.
From their perspective, it was impossible for the Barbarian King to disagree with their charity.
The barbarians dared to take a detour southward entirely because of the blizzard, which brought them an almost crushing advantage.
But when the Beifeng Army and the Black Scale Army went south to join forces with them, a cloud bomb dispersed the clouds, and 700,000 troops formed a military formation. Without the protection of the city defense formation, the wall would have collapsed.
And now,
The third Yunqi bomb was indeed detonated.
But there was a slight deviation from the position they expected.
Not in Beifeng, but in Houting.
Having fought in the north for decades, they certainly understand what this means.
in deathly silence,
The old man on the main seat,
The supreme elder of Lingshui Palace, Qian Shuisheng, finally spoke out:
"Everyone, please tell me what you think now."
But after he finished speaking, the silence remained.
For a long time,
A female general on the left suddenly stood up and cupped her hands towards the old man on the main seat.
The woman is slender and relatively short, but her appearance is not ordinary. Her skin is like snow, her eyebrows are like green feathers, and her voice is as sweet as a silver bell:
"General Qian, I thought this was a delaying strategy by Marquis Wu Cheng or that woman Lou Ji. Our Xuepo Valley contact point outside Houting County did not receive any news of Houting's fall."
Hearing the woman's voice, a man with a scar on his cheek raised his eyebrows, pondered for a moment, and then said:
"Qingfeng is right. The time doesn't match up at all. The Black Scale Army and the Beifeng Army are far away in Dali Mountain. Even if they use cavalry, it will take at least two to three days for them to reach the Houting area."
Qian Shuisheng, who had white beard and hair, smiled kindly when he heard this, stroked his white beard, and nodded slightly:
"It's definitely possible."
After a moment of pause, Qian Shuisheng's eyes that were slightly cloudy due to old age suddenly became sharp:
"But even if it is true as you two said, who will contact the Barbarian King? Who can make the Barbarian King believe in us?"
Saying,
His eyes scanned the generals in the tent:
"Haha. If you stood in the position of the Barbarian King, would you rashly send troops north? I think not? At the very least, a strong man with the army will be sent to confirm, but this may not be enough time."
The words fell silent.
Time difference.
The condition they offered to the barbarians was to give up the Houting County area and let them take over all the equipment and city defense formations there, thereby blocking the returning Black Scale Army and the Beifeng Army.
The key to this is the time difference.
Now that a Yunqi bomb has been exploded over there, even if they really haven't arrived, they can still buy time to arrive.
It is also obvious that he is telling the barbarians:
Those who beat you, stay out of my way.
Thinking deeper,
If you barbarians don't take action as soon as possible, the Beifeng Army and the Black Scale Army can come down with Yunqi Bomb at any time to find you.
Just asking are you afraid?
"Bastard thing!"
A burly man cursed in a low voice: "Wu Chenghou and Zong Qingsheng have such a good plan. They want us frontier troops to face these hundreds of thousands of barbarian troops alone!"
"Okay." Another middle-aged man with cheekbones sighed: "It's useless to talk more. The top priority now is to think about how to break the situation."
The burly man's eyes widened and he opened his mouth to curse, but he held it back and snorted and kept silent.
And at this time,
The beautiful female general spoke again: "Today I am in charge of guarding the camp. The scouts have detected many barbarian wolf cavalry roaming around our camp. It is impossible to determine the location of their main force. The army may be attacked by the barbarians at any time if it acts rashly."
Beifeng City was only about forty miles away from their camp, and they could reach it within two-quarters of an hour by marching normally. However, if they were attacked by barbarians through the wind and snow during the march, everyone would be finished together.
Forty miles away, we are close before our eyes, yet far away in the horizon.
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment and whispered:
"Nowadays, our camp's protective capabilities are almost non-existent. Anyone who has any inventory will take it out. We need to strengthen the camp. The formation masters accompanying the army will seize the time to engrave some simple defensive formations to prevent those barbarians from attacking the camp."
At this moment, the scarred man suddenly sneered and said:
"Reinforce the camp?"
The middle-aged man with the cheeks frowned when he heard this and stared at the scar-faced man:
"Why, General Hou doesn't think we should reinforce the camp?"
The scarred man shook his head leisurely and smiled:
"Of course Hou Mou has no objection. Our Huangyue Palace still has some materials for strengthening the camp. The ones left over from the previous repairs in Hou Ting County. If you and other sects provide some materials, they should be able to improve the protective capabilities of the camp by an order of magnitude."
Saying,
The scarred man stared at the bearded middle-aged man: "But the question is, how much food do we have?"
After hearing this, everyone in the main camp unanimously looked at the first Qian Shui Sheng.
Facing the gazes of the generals, Qian Shuisheng pondered for a moment and whispered:
"Previously, in order to allow the barbarians to go north, we provided one-third of the supplies to them. The current food and grass supplies are probably enough to supply our army for twenty years. Reducing the rations can last for about a month. If you are willing to slaughter the cavalry, beasts and horses, you should be able to Last longer.”
January
These words made some of the generals present start to think wrongly.
Compared with the vertically centralized command system of the Black Scale Guards or the Northern Feng Army, their side is more like a coalition force that was forced to unite due to external pressure.
It was quiet for a long time,
A gentle voice suddenly asked:
"What about the barbarians and the imperial court?"
Qian Shuisheng glanced at the person who made the noise. He was the only person present who was not from the Northern Sect.
A handsome young man with thin lips, peach blossom eyes, and a handsome face.
Wanyao Gate.
As long as there is war, they are basically there.
Come to do business.
They are responsible for healing injured soldiers. As long as you are willing to pay money, they can even regenerate the limbs of low-level soldiers.
certainly,
In addition to giving money to hire them, they occasionally need to capture some living barbarians for medical experiments.
Qian Shuisheng pondered for a moment and said truthfully:
"The barbarians should have a lot of food and grass. The corpses of the three ice beast giants plus the corpses of the soldiers in Beifeng City, as well as the corpses of their dead comrades, can last for at least a few months."
The barbarians who live in the extremely dark land and the desperate snowfield all year round have no moral values.
Survival is their only moral value.
The lower the bottom line, the more food and grass you have.
Just like the corpses of monster beasts are to the human race, the corpses of human cultivators are a great supplement to the barbarians.
Speaking of which,
Qian Shuisheng glanced at the north:
"According to our information, the original baggage at Marquis Wu Cheng can probably last for about a month, but Wu Yuan should have brought all the baggage that can be taken away from the city before leaving."
Hearing this, the handsome young man narrowed his eyes slightly and said with a smile:
"In other words, of the three sides in the north, our side has the least food and grass?"
Qian Shuisheng did not speak, but glanced at the dozen or so commanders of various sects below.
But as his gaze reached, everyone bowed their heads
Seeing this, the wrinkles on Qian Shuisheng's face shook and he sighed slightly.
When marching or fighting, who doesn't have a few Sumeru Rings in their hands?
As the saying goes, a dead Taoist friend will never die a poor Taoist. In fact, everyone has more or less some food in their hands, but they have to hand it over.
Haha, isn’t this the point where we are running out of ammunition and food?
When we really run out of food, if everyone keeps arguing, they may be able to sell it at a high price and seek compensation after the war.
Seeing the meaning of these commanders, Qian Shuisheng didn't say much.
Because it's useless.
He is a general in name only, and the war command must be discussed without discussion, without any distribution of benefits, or without compensation, and it is very likely that it will fall apart directly.
The handsome young man from Wanyaomen rubbed his brows and whispered:
"In other words, we can only spend it here now? Are we competing to see who has more food and grass?"
Qian Shuisheng exhaled, leaned back on the chair and asked:
"Our northern sect has sacrificed so much for the overall situation, but your sects in other places can't provide support?"
The handsome young man smiled slightly and said calmly:
"Elder Qian, haven't the details of the compensation been submitted to you? That much material is enough for you to restore your strength."
Once the imperial court launches an attack, the sects in the area where the disaster occurred will send people to help, and the sects in other places will provide materials to compensate for the incident.
When one party is in trouble, all parties support it, which is an unwritten tacit understanding among sects.
Qian Shuisheng took a deep look at the young man:
"I mean sending someone."
When the young man heard this, he smiled and said without thinking:
"Elder Qian, this is breaking the rules. What's more, the roads in the north are blocked by heavy snow. The imperial court has blocked the important official roads going north. Even if we want to reinforce the north, we can't come in."
The words have not yet fallen.
"Boom!! Boom!! Boom!! Boom!!"
A series of roars exploded over the border army's camp, causing the generals in the general's camp to frown slightly.
If before this, there was still a glimmer of hope in their hearts that the barbarians would take advantage of the road to go north, then this hope was completely wiped out at this moment.
The Yunqi bombs detonated over Houting County still made the barbarians choose to deal with the sect's border troops here first.
The powerful catapults that worked wonders threw countless rubbles and various types of ordnance towards the camp that stretched for several miles. The high-level cultivators accompanying the army flew to intercept them, but they were caught off guard and still had more than a dozen huge rocks thrown in the first round. And the rotten acid beast crashed to the ground, causing chaos.
However, these chaos were suppressed in an instant, and the commander-in-chief did not even need to come forward to organize discipline.
Although the sect is prone to internal strife, it does not affect their strong martial ethics.
Therefore, during the second round of barbarian volleys, not a single rubble or rotten beast could fall into the camp.
After a while,
Qian Shuisheng suddenly stood up from the main seat, cupped his hands towards everyone, and said:
"Now because of the inaction of the imperial court, we can only wait and see how the situation will change for the time being. Please organize military formations to be ready to meet the barbarians' attack at any time."
Saying,
He suddenly looked sideways at the scar-faced General Hou:
"General Hou, I have troubled you Huangyue Palace by reinforcing the camp. I will definitely compensate you twice as much afterwards."
The scar-faced man grinned when he heard this:
"Elder Qian, don't worry, this is the responsibility of my Huangyue Palace."
"Report!"
A loud shout suddenly sounded outside the camp, attracting everyone's attention.
Qian Shuisheng's eyes were filled with surprise and he said:
"Enter."
A man wearing a captain's armor quickly entered the camp, knelt on one knee, and said directly:
"Elder Qian, there is someone outside the camp who wants to see you and the commanders."
"Meet me?" Qian Shuisheng frowned: "Who is it?"
"A person sent by the Prime Minister's Mansion." The captain lowered his eyes and reported truthfully: "He said he wanted to negotiate a business deal with you."
After hearing this, everyone showed a strange expression.
Qian Shuisheng reacted the fastest, exhaled, and said with a chuckle:
"What are you doing in a daze? Invite that gentleman in."
"Yes." The captain responded and left the camp in an instant.
After counting the interest,
A middle-aged man with an unshaven beard walked into the general's camp under the leadership of the captain.
Looking at the room of powerful men in the tent, Zhou Chen felt his heart skip a beat.
There are a total of seventeen people. Apart from the seven great masters, the cultivation of the rest is unfathomable.
Damn, if I had known better, I wouldn't have pretended to be dead.
I pretended to be dead at first, but now I am doing meritorious service and committing evil.
Cursing in his heart, Zhou Chen said with a smile on his face:
"Hey, hello everyone."
Qian Shuisheng stared at the visitor with calm eyes and smiled slightly:
"Mr. Zhou, the military situation is urgent now. If you have anything to say, why don't you just say it?"
"Elder Qian is really impatient."
Zhou Chen's smile did not change, he cupped his hands and said with a smile: "Then Zhou won't show off any more, my master will come and make a deal with you."
"What deal?" Qian Shuisheng's expression remained unchanged.
Zhou Chen looked around and said slowly:
"My lord knows that Elder Qian and you are in a difficult situation now. Let me ask you if you have any need to buy Yunqi bombs?"
