Chapter 291: On the march, the furious Hou Hu

"Faster! We haven't even covered a kilometer in half an hour. Too slow!"

"Those pulling the carts, put all the military supplies on the carts and pick up the pace."

…………

On the southern border of Changning, the Cloud Dragon Army, escorting ten empty carts and over two hundred captives, formed a long line and was advancing southward.

Although Liu Yuan and the battalion captains of the Ninth Battalion kept urging them on from the side, the overall marching speed remained shockingly slow.

Xia Chuan, Yuwentao, and four other Cold-Resisting Realm experts were escorting the three captured Cold-Resisting Realm experts, Zhou Yuan and the others, trailing at the very back of the formation.

Watching the snail-like pace of the formation, not only Xia Chuan but also Yuwentao and the others beside him wore deeply furrowed brows.

This marching speed was truly too slow.

Covering barely a kilometer in half an hour—let alone comparing it to walking the Xia Straight Road, even compared to a normal march within the Wu Shuang territory, it was strangely slow.

"Although the carts are empty, the military supplies on our backs are too heavy. Everyone is carrying two sets of battle armor and weapons; the load is at least ten thousand jin. It's impossible to be fast."

"During the battle just now, all the wooden crates on the carts were destroyed. We can only put a portion of the weapons and armor on the carts, which doesn't help much with speed and actually wastes time. We have no choice but to keep pushing on."

"There's no other way. We aren't familiar with the road conditions within Changning and Songyuan, and this route was surveyed and planned on the fly. We can't go fast."

"This won't do. We're still six kilometers from Songyuan. At this rate, it will take at least another two hours. It's too slow."

………………

"Cough, cough, cough... Ptooey... Hahaha…………"

Hearing the worried words of Yuwentao and the others, the captive Zhou Yuan couldn't help but burst into loud laughter. He even pulled at his wounds from laughing too violently, spat out a mouthful of blood, and then spoke slowly:

"It seems you intend to head south through Songyuan territory before returning to Wu Shuang.

Dragging so many military supplies, you won't be able to escape.

Longshan must have received the news by now. The main army surely departed from Longshan long ago and is heading through Songyuan to block you. Hou Hu, not seeing the convoy, must have sent people to investigate Changbai Gully long ago. You didn't even cover the corpses on the ground; the Blood Guard Army will surely follow your marching route and pursue you south from Bai Yuan quickly..."

Because his injuries were not light, Zhou Yuan's aura was very weak, but seeing Xia Chuan and the others in a predicament, he was clearly very relieved and continued with a hateful tone:

"Zhaoyang has defected to Longshan; there is no longer a place for Great Xia in Longyou. Originally, as long as Great Xia accepted its fate and withdrew from the Longyou lands, it would have been fine. But today, you took the initiative to strike at Longshan. From now on…………"

"Do you think I didn't send people to dispose of the corpses because I was afraid of Hou Hu's pursuit and was in a hurry to escape?"

Before Zhou Yuan could finish speaking, he was interrupted by Xia Chuan's counter-question.

He was stunned, looked up at Xia Chuan, and a look of confusion appeared on his face.

If not, then what?

"Heh…………"

Xia Chuan suddenly chuckled, then stared calmly at Zhou Yuan and shook his head slightly: "You can be considered a loyal person, but unfortunately, you are too simple..."

Zhou Yuan did not wait for the rest, because the group of Great Xia Cold-Resisting Realm experts clearly sensed something and all looked up toward the east.

He also followed the gazes of Xia Chuan and the others, only to discover a black figure on the east side of the army, galloping toward them from the snowfield.

The speed at which the black-clad person moved across the snowfield was extremely fast; it took less than ten breaths to cover several hundred meters.

"This speed!"

Just the speed displayed by the black-clad person made Zhou Yuan's pupils constrict, his face full of shock, not to mention Li Yuanqing and Cheng He, whose strength was weaker than his.

"Greetings, Leader!"

Before Xia Chuan led Yuwentao and the others to salute the black-clad person, Zhou Yuan had already recognized the newcomer; it was the Great Xia leader Xia Hong, whom he had met once before at Gourd Valley.

"Longshan just sent people to Bai Yuan. Hou Hu should already know what happened at Changbai Gully. The Blood Guard Army is pursuing south..."

Xia Hong had clearly rushed over from Bai Yuan, and he was slightly out of breath as he spoke.

"So fast?"

"It's only been half an hour!"

"Directly sending the Blood Guard Army? Does Hou Hu dare to be so arrogant?"

…………

Hearing the crowd's words, Xia Hong shook his head with a smile: "800 sets of hundred-forged battle armor and weapons—who wouldn't feel the pain? Those two Cold-Resisting Realm experts from Longshan should have arrived home by now. Li Ying Xuan Ling probably knows by this moment."

Xia Chuan immediately replied: "It's useless even if Li Ying Xuan Ling knows. All three thousand Longyou troops are in the Longshan base; it's too late to set out now. At most, she will send people from the Songyuan outpost to harass us, which is better than nothing!"

Hearing this, the crowd's expressions immediately relaxed a lot.

The Cloud Dragon Army's return route must pass through Songyuan. If Longshan wants to catch up, they can only send people from the Songyuan outpost. The problem is that there are no Longyou troops stationed in the Songyuan outpost. Sending a group of ordinary Earth-Digging Realm experts to intercept the Cloud Dragon Army is naturally impossible; at most, they can only serve as a nuisance, which is indeed better than nothing.

"Lin Kai, go to the south and see where the transport team is. Tell them to speed up so the two armies can meet quickly. I anticipate Li Ying Xuan Ling and Hou Hu will come to find the army's location ahead of time. The military supplies must be offloaded quickly."

"Subordinate obeys!"

Lin Kai quickly bypassed the flank of the formation and galloped toward the south.

Xia Hong watched Lin Kai leave, then turned his head to look at Xia Chuan and asked:

"The location has been chosen, right?"

Xia Chuan's expression brightened, and he nodded: "It was chosen long ago. It's a place called Ningyuan Hill, right at the border of Songyuan and Changning, about six kilometers from here."

"Good, urge the army to speed up. I'll keep watch from the back!"

After Xia Hong said this, he suddenly lowered his head to look at Zhou Yuan not far away.

Zhou Yuan had probably figured something out; his face was currently in a state of uncertainty, and his eyes were fixed motionlessly on Xia Hong.

"You didn't clean up the corpses at Changbai Gully on purpose, with the goal of luring Hou Hu's main army to pursue, and then setting an ambush halfway?"

Hearing Zhou Yuan's words, a faint smile appeared on Xia Hong's face. He didn't explain anything, just nodded lightly.

Zhou Yuan's expression froze, but he immediately sneered twice and continued: "Hou Hu is not that stupid. Without confirming the location of your main army, how could he blindly pursue and advance? Zhaoyang also has quite a few Cold-Resisting Realm experts. Don't think that only your Great Xia knows how to scout enemy intelligence in advance."

"You'll know soon enough!"

Xia Hong had no intention of explaining to him, just waved his hand, signaling Yuwentao and the others to escort them to continue speeding forward, while he himself swept toward the north side.

"Alright, let's go quickly!"

Urged by Yuwentao and the others, Zhou Yuan could only continue forward, but looking back at Xia Hong's figure disappearing on the snowfield, his brows became even more furrowed.

From the moment Xia Hong appeared, he understood that Xia Chuan could at most be considered a person who leads armies in battle; he was not the planner of this great war.

The battle at Changbai Gully was indeed beautifully fought by Great Xia, killing over sixty percent of the Longshan soldiers and capturing nearly thirty percent, with their own casualties estimated at around ten percent. If it weren't for him fighting with his life on the line, Song Ning, Li Yuankai, and those dozens of Longyou soldiers probably wouldn't have been able to escape either.

The problem is that ten percent casualties are still casualties.

When he was captured, he observed carefully; Great Xia's current combat-ready soldiers are estimated to be less than nine hundred, and they are dragging so many military supplies. How can they ambush Hou Hu's one thousand Blood Guard Army?

The key is...

"The combat power of Zhaoyang's Blood Guard Army is comparable to an equal number of Longyou troops; they are not on the same level as this one thousand new troops. Moreover, Hou Hu is extremely cautious and cannot be ambushed so easily. Great Xia will definitely suffer a huge loss next!"

Zhou Yuan was full of resentment at this moment and was naturally happy to see Great Xia suffer a disastrous defeat.

The four Longyou armies, which had just been established for a month, were buried by his own hands; he no longer had the face to return to Longshan, and he had long since harbored a desire for death.

His only remaining thought now was to see Great Xia suffer.

"The transport team, I see the transport team."

"We've arrived, finally arrived."

…………

An hour passed quickly, and the Cloud Dragon Army also braved the snowy night and walked four or five kilometers south. Following a few exclamations from the front, the soldiers looked up and discovered that there was also a long line of troops on the south side, rushing toward them.

That team also had about a thousand people, but unlike the Cloud Dragon Army, where only seventy percent of the people wore light golden armor, those thousand people on the other side were all wearing light golden armor.

Just from the visual effect, that so-called transport team looked much more spectacular than the Cloud Dragon Army, as if they were the more regular army.

"Great Xia, there is another army! This, how is this possible..."

At the first sight of the transport team, Zhou Yuan was stunned, his face full of horror. But as the two teams approached, and when they were only two or three hundred meters apart, he looked carefully at the people in the transport team, and the expression on his face gradually relaxed.

"It's just that the armor and weapons are the same, but the basic strength is only around fifteen thousand, and the higher ones are only twenty thousand. It's not an army; it should just be a transport team composed of Great Xia's ordinary Earth-Digging Realm experts."

One thousand Cloud Dragon Army soldiers had already exceeded Longshan's understanding of Great Xia; if they could still produce an army stronger than the Cloud Dragon Army, he would really have to give up.

Zhou Yuan's mind stirred slightly, and after picking a dozen people from the transport team and observing them carefully for a while, he made a new discovery.

"No, no, the weapons and armor are also different; they are just the same color. The armor and weapons used by these people are all only ten-forged grade. No wonder they are called a transport team; they are specifically here to transport military supplies."

Seeing the quality of the transport team, Zhou Yuan sneered a few times.

So what if there are specialized people to transport military supplies? The strength of the Blood Guard Army is there. Even without the burden of military supplies, Great Xia's chances of winning are slim.

"Alright, we're only a few hundred meters away. Cloud Dragon Army, drop the military supplies and immediately follow Liu Yuan to the back of the snow hill on the east side. Quick, quick, quick!"

At Xia Chuan's order, all ten battalions of the Cloud Dragon Army dropped their military supplies and followed behind Liu Yuan, climbing toward a snow hill forty or fifty meters high on the east side.

Once the Cloud Dragon Army left, the snowfield immediately became empty, leaving only ten empty carts, weapons and armor all over the ground, and more than two hundred Longshan captives.

Zhou Yuan was also one of the captives.

He turned his head to the right and found that a portion of the transport team had separated to clean up the traces of the Cloud Dragon Army climbing the snow hill, and he immediately realized that this snow hill, which was no more than forty meters high, was the position used by the Cloud Dragon Army to hide and ambush Hou Hu's Blood Guard Army.

"This is calculated? The Blood Guard Army will follow the snow path they stepped on and pursue all the way to this position, and then they will suddenly appear from behind the snow hill and charge at the Blood Guard Army from a high position?"

After seeing Great Xia's intention, Zhou Yuan's expression was a bit strange.

To save pursuit time, the Blood Guard Army will not open a new path and will follow the snow path stepped on by Great Xia; there will basically be no surprises there.

The problem is, before Hou Hu left, did he not know to send people to scout the snow hill first?

Most of Longyou is a plain area, and there are very few places to hide troops for an ambush. This snow hill is so conspicuous; how could Hou Hu ignore it?

"It's too naive, hmph..."

Just now, Xia Chuan only ordered Liu Yuan to take the Cloud Dragon Army up the snow hill; he himself, including Yuwentao and the group of Cold-Resisting Realm experts, had not moved yet.

So he heard Zhou Yuan's sarcasm and ridicule very clearly.

The corners of Xia Chuan's mouth curled into a smile, and he ignored Zhou Yuan.

It wasn't until the transport personnel had loaded all the armor and weapons onto the carts, then divided into ten small teams, and had all the captives under control, with everything ready, that he waved his hand:

"Continue to set out south. Now, we can walk a bit slower!"

Hearing Xia Chuan's last sentence, Zhou Yuan's expression was first stunned, then he suddenly raised his head, looked at the army formation setting out south, and the group of captives behind him, as if he had realized something, and his expression changed suddenly.

He understood what Great Xia was going to do!

"It seems you are not stupid yet."

Xia Chuan teased lightly. Just at this time, the Great Xia transport personnel took out strips of cloth from their bodies and stuffed the mouths of all the captives.

The horror in Zhou Yuan's heart had not yet disappeared when Yuwentao walked in front of him, took out a strip of cloth, and stuffed the mouths of him, Li Yuanqing, and Cheng He all together.

"Yuwentao, Chen Yingba, Wu Tianxing, you three stay here."

"Subordinate obeys!"

After the three bowed, they immediately climbed the snow hill.

The speed of the newly set-out formation was more than twice as slow as the Cloud Dragon Army.

But Xia Chuan, Chen Yingyuan, Peng Bo, and Lin Kai—the four of them—did not look anxious at all; instead, they turned their heads to look behind them from time to time, their faces full of anticipation.

Unlike the four, Zhou Yuan, whose mouth was stuffed with a cloth strip, had pupils full of worry, cold sweat constantly seeping from his forehead, looking extremely anxious.

The speed of the newly set-out formation was slower than the Cloud Dragon Army, which certainly had the reason of Xia Chuan's specific instructions, but more of it was actually limited by strength.

The basic strength of these thousand people in the transport team was between ten thousand and twenty thousand, which was much lower than the Cloud Dragon Army. Dragging so many military supplies, even if they wanted to be fast, they couldn't be fast at all.

They walked south for an hour and barely covered less than four kilometers.

Just at this time, Xia Hong rushed back from the north.

"Hou Hu has brought people over ahead of time. Get ready!"

After returning to the team, he did not walk with the formation but first gave a hint to Xia Chuan and the others, then turned to face the north side, assuming a posture of waiting quietly.

"Lin Kai, you take people and continue to walk at this speed."

Xia Chuan's expression tightened slightly. After giving the order to Lin Kai, he stopped with Chen Yingyuan and Peng Bo, stood behind Xia Hong, and waited with him.

The four of them waited for less than a hundred breaths.

On the northern snowfield, nine figures appeared one after another.

All nine were wearing blood-colored flowing light battle armor, their steps were very hurried, and they were rushing toward this side along the marching route.

There was no cover on the snowfield; Xia Hong could see the figures of these nine people, which naturally meant that the four of them were also seen by the other side.

The other side did not slow down until they were two or three hundred meters away from the four of them, and then they slowly walked toward them.

"Leader Xia Hong, looting my Zhaoyang supplies without cause, isn't that going too far?"

Unsurprisingly, the people who came were from the Zhaoyang camp.

Although Hou Hu had lowered his voice, the anger contained in that final counter-question was still very obvious. His face was furious, staring at Xia Hong's face, which was both strange and familiar, without hiding the killing intent in his eyes at all.

Xia Hong did not rush to answer him, but scanned the eight people on his left and right, then looked at Hou Hu and chuckled: "Without cause? Brother Hou's memory is probably not very good. It's been less than three months since the Gourd Valley incident. If you really forgot, why not let Hou Tong behind you tell you again."

Hou Tong, standing behind Hou Hu, had a frozen expression.

Although he didn't make a move at the time when Xia Hong was hunted down by the Longyou army led by Li Ying Xuan Ling at Hanqiong Gourd Valley, he could be considered one of the participants.

Hou Hu's expression sank. The scheme at Gourd Valley to kill Xia Hong was something he instructed Hou Tong to do after Li Ying Xuan Ling told him Xia Hong's true identity; he naturally knew it clearly.

"Xia Hong, think clearly. My Zhaoyang has already formed an alliance with Longshan. Leader Li's original intention was just to let Great Xia withdraw from Longyou. If you really loot this batch of supplies today, you are taking the initiative to declare war on both of us!"

Zhaoyang has formed an alliance with Longshan...

Xia Hong ignored the words behind it at all, just focused on this sentence spoken by Hou Hu, his eyes full of curiosity and confusion.

At the April alliance, Hou Hu almost died at the hands of Li Tiancheng. Subsequently, Zhaoyang and Longshan were also sharpening their weapons and almost really went to war. If it weren't for Great Xia intervening, the two families would have been fighting fiercely long ago.

These two families, which were like fire and water, actually formed an alliance.

Just to deal with Great Xia?

Xia Hong's brows were tightly locked. It wasn't that he feared the alliance between the two families, but the transformation of these two families from fire and water to alliance was really too fast; the speed was almost a bit eerie.

A faint light flashed across his left eye, and he looked at Hou Hu and the nine people again.

The surroundings of the nine people's bodies were normal, without a trace of fire-red substance.

But Xia Hong did not let down his guard because of this. He remembered very clearly that the Dew Plague could be hidden inside the human body.

"It seems I have to try it myself!"

…………

Hou Hu's side, which had not received a reply from Xia Hong for a long time, was not idle either.

"Leader, it's just as Longshan said just now: light golden armor, ten large carts, and eight hundred sets of hundred-forged battle armor and weapons are all on them. This should be that Great Xia army."

"Zhou Yuan, Li Yuanqing, and Cheng He have all had their shoulder blades pierced, and the ones locked with iron chains behind them should be Longshan captives. It must be them."

…………

"Hou Quan, go back and notify the main army to speed up the march and rush here. They are dragging military supplies and can't walk fast. Looking at the speed, it is estimated that we can catch up in two hours."

"Yes, I'll go right now!"

Hou Hu didn't think that he could make Xia Hong hand over that batch of supplies by relying on threats. He first gave instructions to Hou Quan, then turned to look at Xia Hong and said sternly:

"Xia Hong, your Great Xia no longer even has the qualification to retreat from Longyou safely. Your main army cannot walk out of Songyuan territory, let alone return to Wu Shuang!"

"Heh..."

After waiting for a long time, he only waited for this threat from Hou Hu. Seeing that the other side still didn't dare to approach his side, Xia Hong suddenly couldn't help but chuckle.

He drew the Long Que Dao from behind him and slowly walked toward Hou Hu and the eight people.

"Don't worry, the main army is in a hurry to rush back; I won't let them make a move."

Xia Hong comforted Hou Hu while walking. If this sentence was just slightly teasing, then his next sentence was completely contemptuous, making the faces of Hou Hu and the eight people instantly flush red, and they all drew their weapons one after another.

"Xia Chuan, don't intervene; I can do it alone!"

Not to mention Hou Hu and the eight people, they were furious after hearing this.

Even Xia Chuan and the three were instantly stunned after hearing this.

One against eight, isn't that too exaggerated?

The key is that there is also Hou Hu!

Out of natural trust in Xia Hong, Xia Chuan was the first to retreat to the side.

Chen Yingyuan and Peng Bo were slightly hesitant, but seeing Xia Chuan retreat first, they also quickly followed and retreated together.

The three looked at Xia Hong's back, their expressions full of anticipation.

Finally, they could witness the leader's true strength!

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 292 =====