Chapter 286: Guerrilla Warfare

While Meng Dayong and the others were recovering their cultivation, Meng Yifan was thinking about the next offensive plan.

Hu Dameng wanted to preserve his strength and wait for Lang Batian to arrive before engaging in a decisive battle with Meng Yifan.

Meng Yifan certainly could not sit and wait for death; he had to take the initiative to attack, striving to finish off Hu Dameng, Zhu Meimei, and She Qingqing before Lang Batian arrived, so that he could then concentrate his forces to deal with the Level 5 Demon Beast, Lang Batian.

The Demon Race army was very powerful; even without a Level 5 Demon Beast like Lang Batian, Hu Dameng, She Qingqing, Zhu Meimei, and the over one hundred thousand strong Demon Race army already constituted a very formidable force, enough to sweep across the entire Dongchuan Prefecture.

Hu Dameng and She Qingqing were both Level 4 High-Grade Demon Beasts, while Zhu Meimei was a Level 4 Intermediate Grade Demon Beast; if Hu Dameng and the others disregarded everything and launched their army directly into a decisive battle with Meng Yifan.

Meng Yifan might not necessarily win, and even if he barely won, the soldiers of Luolong County would suffer heavy casualties.

However, the Demon Race was also divided into various clans, and there was competition among them; the Tiger clan and the Wolf clan had long-standing grievances and had even fought each other in the past over hunting territories, leaving both sides with deep blood feuds.

It was only now, in order to compete with humans for territory, that the various clans of the Demon Race had reluctantly formed an allied army to jointly attack human cities.

The Flying Tiger Demon clan represented by Hu Dameng was unwilling to fight Meng Yifan to the death without regard for casualties for the sake of Lang Jiao, which gave Meng Yifan an opportunity to exploit.

Meng Yifan wanted to weaken the strength of the Demon Race army as much as possible while Hu Dameng was fighting passively, accumulate Experience Value, improve his own strength, and strive to raise his cultivation to the Fifth Grade before Lang Batian arrived, so that he could calmly deal with Lang Batian when the time came.

"How should I fight to eliminate as many Demon Beasts as possible with the minimum cost?" Meng Yifan pondered deeply.

This was different from playing games in front of a computer screen on Earth; these subordinates of Meng Yifan were living, breathing people with flesh, blood, feelings, and families, not a cold string of data in a game world.

Many of these hot-blooded men were the pillars of their families; if they died on the battlefield, their loved ones would be devastated, and Meng Yifan did not feel good about it either.

Therefore, Meng Yifan had to eliminate the enemy while keeping his own side's casualty rate to a minimum, which was a great test of a commander's battlefield command ability.

Undoubtedly, after suffering such a great loss, the Demon Beast army would certainly be on guard against Meng Yifan launching another sneak attack.

Therefore, this sortie was extremely dangerous; a slight carelessness could lead to the total annihilation of his entire force.

It was even possible that Hu Dameng and the others had set up traps within the Monster Clan Camp, just waiting for Meng Yifan and his men to dive right in so they could wipe them all out in one fell swoop.

Meng Yifan thought for a long time, racking his brains, when suddenly he had a flash of inspiration and thought of the war tactics used by the Great Ancestor to defeat the strong with the weak back in the day.

Meng Yifan said, "The general policy for our sneak attack later is: the enemy advances, we retreat; the enemy camps, we harass; the enemy tires, we attack; the enemy retreats, we pursue."

When these sixteen characters of Guerrilla Warfare were spoken, Liu Dengke slapped the table in admiration, stroked his beard, and laughed, "What a brilliant statement! This deserves a large cup of wine. Lord Meng's sixteen-character policy is truly beyond words; this old man shall carve these sixteen characters onto a pillar and read them carefully ten times every day."

"This isn't something I came up with; I saw it in a book on military strategy." No matter how thick-skinned Meng Yifan was, he felt embarrassed to claim the Great Ancestor's sixteen-character policy as his own.

"Eh! Strange, this old man has lived for more than half a lifetime, and the books I have read could be described as filling a house, but how have I never heard of this sixteen-character policy? I wonder which military strategy book Lord Meng saw it in, and if you could lend it to this old man to read," Liu Dengke asked.

"I've forgotten which book it was. Master Liu should have understood; I wonder if you, Shen Dahu, and the others understand what I mean?" Meng Yifan asked.

Meng Dayong and Shen Dahu were both looking blank; they understood the sixteen characters individually, but when put together, they couldn't make sense of them.

Most of them were rough men; some didn't even know the character 'one' if a carrying pole were laid on the ground. Their cultural level was limited, and they didn't understand what Meng Yifan's combat policy meant.

Meng Yifan shook his head and had no choice but to break the sixteen characters down and explain them to them thoroughly.

"When we leave the city later, we won't go near the Monster Clan Camp, nor will we engage the Demon Race army in a head-on battle. We will use the Shenwu Great General Cannon, Rockets, and AK47s to bombard the Monster Clan Camp from a distance."

"If small groups of Demon Beasts come out, we will concentrate our forces to wipe them out; if large groups of Demon Beasts come out, we will fight while retreating and lure them into the Thunder zone."

"If the enemy doesn't come out, that's even better; we will use artillery fire to cover their camp and blow them all into pieces."

Explained this way, Zhang Shagen, Shen Dahu, and the others all understood. Their eyes lit up, and they looked at Meng Yifan with admiration; they hadn't expected that Lord Meng was not only powerful but also understood military strategy—he was truly amazing.

Meng Yifan felt a bit embarrassed by their gazes and said, "It will be very dangerous when we go out to fight later. You must remember: follow orders in all actions. When I tell you to fight, you fight with your lives; when I tell you to retreat, you must retreat immediately. Do you all understand?"

Zhang Shagen, Shen Dahu, and the others nodded one after another. Kong Sanqiang and the other vampires, as well as Meng Shuangdao and the other Zombies, were even more obedient to Meng Yifan's words and would absolutely not fail at a critical moment.

"Good, let's set off and go have some fun with the Demon Beast army." At Meng Yifan's command, the hundred-plus men once again left Luolong County silently and charged toward the Demon Beast army's camp.

On the other side, Hu Dameng, She Qingqing, and Zhu Meimei gathered together. Zhu Ganglie being beheaded by Meng Yifan had sounded an alarm for the three of them.

Meng Yifan was able to gather all his strength to quickly behead Zhu Ganglie, and it was possible he could do the same to behead Zhu Meimei.

Hu Dameng and She Qingqing were both Level 4 High-Grade Demon Beasts; their strength was much greater than that of Zhu Meimei and Zhu Ganglie.

"Meimei, you must be careful. Meng Yifan and his men are very likely to target you and kill you too. During this time, you must stay with us; no matter what happens, do not separate," Hu Dameng said.

Zhu Meimei nodded and said, "Brother Hu, when have we of the Demon Race ever been afraid of these humans? Why don't we mobilize the army now, launch a general offensive, and wipe out Meng Yifan and his group in one go?"

"Wait a little longer. I have already received information that Lang Batian will arrive tomorrow morning. Meng Yifan's strength is very high; there is no need for us to risk our lives against Meng Yifan for the sake of Lang Jiao. Let's leave this tough nut, Meng Yifan, for Lang Batian to crack," Hu Dameng said.

"Hiss! Hiss!" She Qingqing flicked her forked tongue a few times and said, "Being passively beaten like this is not a solution."