Chapter 1297

"Pass the order down, prepare to assault Congzheng Sect!"

"Yes!"

Given the scale of Fort Colin, a forced assault would inevitably cause the Nightfall Legion massive casualties without large siege engines.

As a veteran who had fought across battlefields for over a decade, Lord Xuan Wuji had no intention of launching a forced assault at all—going with the flow and adapting to circumstances was the eternal, unchanging theme of the battlefield!

Before long, the Third Imperial Prince led thirty thousand soldiers, detouring around from the side to the direct front of the grain convoy, and chose a valley with higher terrain to prepare an ambush.

To everyone's pleasant surprise, just at this moment a soldier came to report that about one hundred refugees from the kingdom had been spotted nearby. Upon hearing this, the Third Imperial Prince immediately sent people to negotiate with them. The refugees, learning that this was a support army from the Tianwu Empire, gradually let down their guard.

The Third Imperial Prince hoped the refugees could help them, promising to give them sufficient grain as payment afterward. The refugees, hearing this, all excitedly nodded and agreed. What the refugees had to do was simply act—three hundred soldiers would be sent to disguise themselves as refugees and mix in among them, while the real refugees only needed to put on a show, standing in the middle of the road together with the disguised soldiers.

Once the battle began, they didn't need to fight either; they could immediately flee to a safe place.

Only after this explanation, combined with the Third Imperial Prince's repeated assurances after proving his identity, did these refugees finally agree.

The refugees and the soldiers disguised as refugees stood unarmed in the very middle of the road. All they had to do was act, waiting for the grain carts to arrive. Originally, the Third Imperial Prince had still been worried—since the refugees were all men, they might be suspected by the other side. Now, with women, the elderly, and children added in, once these genuine refugees joined, on the surface it looked far more authentic.

Very soon, the convoy escorting the grain was about to reach the road at the bottom of the valley.

"General, a large number of refugees have appeared ahead. Looks like these people of the Chirperi Kingdom still won't give up…" a soldier escorting the grain reported swiftly to the general at the head.

The general burst into mocking laughter.

"Hahaha, let these fellows see how formidable our Taji Kingdom is! A bunch of refugees trying to seize our grain carts? They're dreaming!"

"Yes, General."

The soldier swiftly departed, simultaneously shouting at the top of his voice to prepare for battle.

Very soon, that soldier had mustered nearly half the troops to prepare for battle. Compared to the unarmed kingdom refugees, every soldier of the Taji Kingdom was fully armed, gripping blade and sword, walking toward the refugees at the other end of the road with savage smiles on their faces.

For a moment, the genuine refugees inevitably shrank back in panic and fear, but the soldiers disguised as refugees rushed to stand in front of them, blocking them behind their bodies, while reaching behind to their companions—those behind held weapons, while those in front used their bodies as a shield, so the Taji Kingdom soldiers noticed nothing.

"Prepare for battle."

The Third Imperial Prince's subordinate, Xiong Ba, was the commander of this operation. He softly ordered everyone to get ready. When the enemy had closed to within only a dozen or so meters, Xiong Ba drew his weapon from behind and charged straight at the enemy.

Kill!

In an instant, all the soldiers one by one drew weapons from behind and charged at the Taji Kingdom soldiers.

Xiong Ba led the charge—in just a few steps he was already before the enemy. His battle saber swung, and with one slash he cleaved a Taji Kingdom soldier clean in two, blood splashing across his body and face. A glint of bloodlust flickered in Xiong Ba's eyes.

"Kill them!"

Facing the encirclement of four Taji soldiers around him, Xiong Ba advanced instead of retreating, sweeping his battle saber sideways with the momentum.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

Four metallic clashes rang out, followed by the blades and swords in the four soldiers' hands being directly severed by the tremendous force of Xiong Ba's saber. Not only that, the saber's qi sent the four men flying backward from the impact.

Seeing this, the soldiers behind surged in morale all the more—even without armor to protect them, they could still cut the enemy down to the ground.

The leading Xiong Ba was simply too powerful. For a time, the Taji soldiers retreated step by step, and the enemy general's face gradually darkened.

"Damn… so these refugees came prepared."

Such formidable fellows might really be able to cut off our grain.

"Someone, fire the signal flare!"

"Yes!"

The anxious general immediately dispatched a relief force. The grain carts had only just left the fortress when they encountered such an urgent emergency—an emergency red smoke flare, (qian de de) signifying that the grain convoy had come under attack, an attack by an irresistible force.

If it were only ordinary refugees or bandits attacking, there would be no problem at all, but now the fortress-defending general suddenly began to feel some worry.

The fortress at the Sky-Rift Canyon—nothing must have happened there.

Reliable intelligence had come from the kingdom: the Tianwu Empire had secretly dispatched troops to come support the Chirperi Kingdom, ordering strict vigilance everywhere—especially Fort Colin, which was the sole retreat route for both the Taji Kingdom and the Lei Dun Kingdom! New reinforcements would arrive within days.

Although there were currently only ten thousand men, relying on the solidity of Fort Colin, as long as there were no large siege engines, holding off ten times the enemy was still possible.