Daqin Zhentiansi

Chapter 1127 Dilemma

However, his forces numbered less than 12,000, and he had to send troops to guard the camp.

Facing hundreds of thousands of monsters head-on, charging straight in would be suicide.

The only way is to act quickly, rush in before the monsters can react, rescue the person, and then run back.

“We’re not sending reinforcements.” Zhang Yuan drew a circle on the map with his finger. “The monsters are waiting for us to send reinforcements. There are at least 100,000 monsters amassed at Beigukou. Going there would be suicide.”

"General Shi Yan can hold things together for now. What we can do is prevent the other hunting teams from being wiped out first."

He moved his finger away from the entrance of the valley and pointed to three locations: the east, south, and southwest.

“We will rescue these besieged hunting teams. Within three days, we will bring back everyone who can still be saved.”

Yan He frowned: "Divide our forces into three routes? We already don't have enough troops—"

"Don't divide your forces," Zhang Yuan interrupted him. "Rescue them one by one. Today we'll rescue the east, tomorrow the south, and the day after the southwest. We'll fight only one line at a time, and then withdraw once we've finished."

"Each battalion will take turns attacking, and the wounded will rotate to rest and recuperate. We will trade speed for numbers."

Tuoba Tie slammed his heavy axe on the ground and said, "I'll go."

Ayan stood up and clasped his hands in a fist salute: "The right flank can move at any time."

Amu was waxing the bowstring without looking up: "The archer battalion has been replenished with forty arrows, that's enough."

Zhang Yuan did not respond to their request to join the fight.

He stared at the flashing dots on the map and remained silent for a while.

Then he tapped lightly with his finger at the location of the Flowing Cloud Village hunting team to the east.

"Let's go pick them up today."

……

Preparations for the attack will be completed within half an hour.

Tuoba Tie led the vanguard of the left wing out of the camp, and the "品" formation was deployed in the valley.

The archer battalion followed behind the infantry, arrows clinking softly in their quivers.

The hoofbeats of the Iron-Spine Bull echoed through the valley, startling the carrion birds perched on the mountainside on both sides.

The demonic energy in the wasteland is even stronger than yesterday.

The purplish-black mist flowed along the ground, and stepping on it felt like stepping into cold water.

Zhang Yuan rode his warhorse in the middle of the column, his eyes fixed on the eastern horizon.

Behind him stood three thousand warriors of the White Frost Clan.

Behind them were the remnants of Liuyun Village and Shilei Fort, which had just been incorporated into the various battalions.

These remaining soldiers set off with the main force. Although the weapons they held were crude, their eyes were different from the day before.

The day before yesterday, they were waiting to die.

Today, they are saving lives.

Yan Qing followed in the middle of the line, holding the newly sharpened bone knife in her hand.

Walking beside him were several old hunters from Liuyun Village, all of whom had been rescued the day before yesterday.

The oldest one among them was Yan Laoshuan, who was fifty-nine years old this year. His left leg had been bitten by a wolf, and he still walked with a limp, but he still managed to keep up.

Yan He originally didn't want him to go into battle, but instead wanted him to stay in the logistics battalion to help out.

Yan Laoshuan didn't say anything, but simply showed Yan He his knife.

The blade was gleaming, cleaner than his own face.

Yan He glanced at him but didn't stop him.

Old Man Yan walked beside Yan Qing, a blade of grass between his teeth. He chewed it a couple of times and said, "Kid, how old are you this year?"

"Seventeen."

"Seventeen is great. When I was seventeen, I chased an Iron-Spine Bull all by myself on the Canglang Plain."

Yan Qing turned her head to look at him: "Did you catch up?"

“We caught up.” Old Yan took the grass stem out of his mouth. “We chased it for three days and three nights. In the end, it collapsed from exhaustion, and so did I. We lay on the ground staring at each other for a long time, neither of us able to move.”

"Later, it got up and walked away first, but I couldn't get up either. Hehe."

Yan Qing didn't know whether she should believe it or not.

But looking at Yan Laoshuan's wrinkled face, he felt that what the old man said might be true.

“If a fight breaks out today,” Old Man Yan patted Yan Qing on the shoulder, “stay close to me. Don’t rush too far ahead, but don’t fall too far behind either. If you stay close, this old man will guarantee your safety.”

Yan Qing nodded. The group traveled for an hour, and the terrain ahead began to become steeper.

The wasteland is cut off by a cliff here.

The cliff is several tens of feet high, running east to west, like a huge scar across the Canglang Plain.

The cliff face is made of grayish-white limestone.

Its surface is eroded by the wind, creating countless holes that make it look like a giant honeycomb from a distance.

To the east, the Liuyun Village hunting party was trapped on this cliff.

Han Zheng's scouts had already gathered information about the situation beforehand.

The cliff is surrounded by steep cliffs on three sides, with only one gentle slope for going up and down.

The gentle slopes have been blocked by countless monsters.

The hunting party held their ground at the top of the cliff, barely managing to hold on thanks to the terrain.

"Spread out the vanguard." Zhang Yuan raised his hand on horseback. "Tuoba Tie, hold down the left flank. Amu, set up archers on the right flank hillside. Change the triangular formation to an arrowhead and go straight through."

The words "pass through" were spoken very softly, as if they were simply saying that one was passing through a door.

Tuoba Tie slung the heavy axe over his shoulder and grinned.

----------------

The wind was very strong on the cliff.

Yan Ping held the last broken spear in his hand for a long time.

The crack in the spear shaft cut his hand, and blood flowed down the shaft, seeping drop by drop into the gravel beneath his feet.

He did not let go.

He pulled the spear from the neck of an Ironback Bull. The spearhead was broken in half, the shaft was cracked in three places, and the animal sinew wrapped around it had long since loosened, requiring it to be rewound every time he stabbed it.

But he still held onto it.

As long as he holds onto it, he remains a hunter.

If you let go of it, it will be nothing.

Two days and one night.

They stayed on the cliff for two days and one night.

Yan Ping had lost count of how many times he had repelled the monsters' charges.

It happened four times yesterday morning, three times in the afternoon, and didn't stop all night.

The wolf sneaked up under cover of darkness, but they threw stones at it and sent it flying back.

The sound of stones rolling down the cliff and hitting the wolves was muffled, like the beating of drums.

"Thump, thump, thump—"

With each stone that crashed down, a scream echoed from the bottom of the cliff.

As dawn approached, the wolves launched another attack.

That time, the wound was almost torn open, but several seriously injured old hunters got up from the ground and used their bodies to push it back.

Those people didn't make it to dawn.

This morning, Yan Ping dragged them to the innermost part of the cliff and covered them with charred tent cloth; there were seven bodies in total.

Seven people were helping him sharpen his arrows yesterday.

Of the two thousand hunters, less than eight hundred are still standing.

The arrows were all used up, the bowstring broke, the spear bent, and the knife dulled.

They picked up stones and threw them down the cliff. The stones rolled down with a series of muffled thuds and bounced back and forth on the cliff face.

"Thump, thump, thump—"

The stones are almost gone.

The cliff was originally covered with rubble, but after two days, they threw away all the movable stones, leaving only large rocks embedded in the cliff face that they couldn't move.

Some people started dismantling their leather armor, breaking off their breastplates and throwing them as stones, and removing their shoulder armor to use as shields.

Yan Ping looked on without saying a word.

He had also removed his own armor; the armor on his left shoulder was gone, and there was a claw mark left on his shoulder from yesterday, the blood of which had dried and congealed into a dark brown scab.

Below the cliff swarmed countless magical beasts. (End of Chapter)