Chapter 333: The Battlefield Before the Bandit Lair — Fierce Fighting at the Position and Forcing the Bandits to Retreat

The Militia camp is not too far from the Bandit lair, but the road leading there is entirely uphill, which is quite physically demanding.

The Bandits were not idle yesterday; they truly seem determined to resist to the end, having set up many obstacles outside the Shandong entrance to block crossbow fire.

Knight Kela had the Militia stop outside the range of the Bandits' thrown weapons. Because the terrain is unfavorable and there is not much room for the Militia to deploy, Knight Kela ordered the Spear Militia, in squads of twenty, to launch their attacks in waves.

Every member of the Militia carries two pouches of fifteen crossbow bolts each, totaling thirty, a sufficient quantity to launch a wave-like barrage of crossbow fire.

Jier followed Knight Kela to the very front, while the Militia behind them were either chopping down trees on the ridge, clearing the accumulated snow from the road, or simply waiting for their turn to go up.

The first wave of Militia spread out, standing at a distance and firing casually from below at those above, preventing the Bandits hiding behind the obstacles from launching an attack.

Immediately after, the quick-moving clerk and his assistants in the Yingdi sent over the first large Mudu.

With this thing to help, the Militia on the front line no longer needed to hide in safe spots with poor firing angles; they could place these large Mudu with supports in the middle of the slope leading to the Bandit lair, and the Militia hiding behind the Mudu could safely reload and fire, greatly expanding the possibilities for firing on the frontal battlefield.

As time passed, more large Mudu were provided from the Yingdi in the rear, basically allowing an entire squad of twenty Spear Militia to hide behind the Mudu and fire.

"Jier, you go to the front. The Bandits probably can't stand being on the receiving end like this anymore; they will likely send people to charge the Mudu and engage the Militia in close combat." Knight Kela instructed Jier to go and support the Militia in close combat.

"Besides, the first squad of Militia is running low on crossbow bolts. They've been firing for most of the morning; although they haven't managed to kill one or two, they have at least stabilized the front line."

Jier shouldered his Long Spear and ran to the front line. At the same time, Knight Kela's order rang out clearly and loudly: "First squad, withdraw one by one from the left. Second squad, you've been waiting long enough, it's your turn to go up."

The first squad of Militia, who had been firing nervously all morning, ran back quickly, while the second squad of Militia, who had been waiting for a long time, crossed paths with the first squad.

The Bandits, hiding behind the obstacles that were densely stuck with crossbow bolts everywhere, immediately seized the opportunity and charged out, howling with excitement.

The leading Bandit naturally saw the opportunity during the Militia's rotation; as long as they moved or burned these large Mudu that provided defensive cover for the Militia's shooting, they could make the Militia's entire morning of work go to waste.

Moreover, engaging the Militia in close combat was the only way the Bandits believed they could defeat these numerous Militia. When it came to killing, these Bandits did not find it difficult at all.

Jier, who had arrived at the front line a step earlier, prepared for battle. As long as he could delay the Bandits, the Militia arriving shortly would be able to stabilize the position and shoot down these charging Bandits one by one.

But the ones who achieved the first results were not the second squad of Militia who were just arriving.

"Third squad, cross our Mudu and fire at will!" Knight Kela had been prepared; the third squad of Militia was further away, and the entire squad of twenty stood in a neat line, firing their crossbow bolts roughly in the direction of the Bandits.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

Bolt after bolt tore through the air, flying over Jier's head, scaring him into a half-crouch; he did not want to be hit in the back by his own side's crossbow bolts.

"Damn it!"

"Ah!"

Some of the Bandits who rushed out of the obstacles were hit; after all, it was a volley of twenty people, and there were always unlucky Bandits and lucky Militia showing their worth.

After a wave of arrow rain, the Bandits closed the distance and hid on the other side of the large Mudu. Jier flashed out, and with a Heavy Cleave of the Double-edged Spear in his hand, he cleaved into the shoulder and neck of the Bandit hiding on the other side of the Mudu.

Jier stepped back two paces, using the Gun-blade to increase the damage to the Bandit while pulling out his weapon. Then, without waiting for another Bandit hiding behind the Mudu to charge, he dodged the opponent's weapon and thrust his spear into the Bandit's stomach.

He took a hit on his back, but Jier felt no pain, only a slight jolt to his body.

He released the spear handle with his right hand, reached for the Long Sword at his left waist, turned around, and drew it. Clang! He clashed with a Bandit who had attacked from behind.

The Bandit had not expected his sneak attack to be useless, and now he had to fight with real blades.

But before he could be excited for long, Jier glanced toward the second squad of Militia coming from the right, tucked his Long Spear under his arm with one hand, and then retreated a few steps while swinging his Long Sword.

Immediately after, the Bandit who had just wanted to kill the retreating Jier was shot into a honeycomb by the Militia who had run halfway and were now half-crouching on the ground, raising their crossbows.

The crossbow bolts pierced through the Bandit's leather coat with a *puchi puchi* sound, pinning his arm and torso together through flesh and blood.

Jier shook off the Bandit impaled on his Long Spear, quickly sheathed his sword with his right hand, and thrust his spear out again, killing the wounded Bandit.

Several Militia ran to the side of the large Mudu behind Jier, put down their Long Spears, and picked up their loaded crossbows to start firing.

"A few of you, come with me!" Jier roared.

Four Militia raised their Long Spears and came to his side. The five of them stood in a tight row, leveled their Long Spears and Gun-blade, and charged diagonally toward the Bandits who were about to push the large Mudu down the ridge.

Jier's Long Spear was much shorter than the Militia's Long Spears, so it was the Militia who thrust toward the Bandits first. However, their charge speed was not fast, and the Bandits with some combat experience either dodged or swung their weapons to deflect the tips of the Militia's Long Spears.

But Jier had anticipated this. He was a step faster than the Militia, aiming his Long Spear directly at a Bandit who wanted to charge over, and swept it upward along the ground, tearing open one of the Bandit's legs.

Beside him, the Militia's Long Spear charges were ineffective, so they raised and lowered their respective Long Spears, using the sharp tips to repeatedly attack and force back the Bandits trying to get close.

Moreover, these heavy Long Spears also delivered a significant blow when they were raised and dropped.

Jier wounded a Bandit and immediately raised and dropped his Long Spear as well. Compared to the small amount of metal on the tips of the Militia's Long Spears, Jier's Double-edged Spear had a sharp, long, and wide blade.

As he raised and dropped it, Jier accurately manipulated the Gun-blade to cleave open the leather cap on the Bandit's head, shattering the Bandit's skull.

He did not know if this Bandit was dead, but seeing the Bandit roll his eyes and collapse to the ground, Jier stopped caring about him, roared, and swung his Long Spear left and right, forcing back three Bandits who were trying to get close.

Immediately after, the Militia's previous training took effect. The four Militia retreated two steps, and then the four of them specifically roared and attacked the same Bandit together. All four sharp Long Spear tips pierced that Bandit, directly stabbing four large holes into the Bandit's body. As the Militia shouted again and retreated, a large amount of blood continuously flowed out from the wounds on the Bandit's body.

The remaining two Bandits saw this and immediately turned to run, but one was shot down by five or six Militia behind the large Mudu using crossbows, and the other took an arrow in the leg, hopping on one foot and wailing as he fled back behind the Bandits' obstacles.

Jier and his group of five took this large Mudu, and immediately the second squad of Militia came over and set up the large Mudu that the Bandits had pushed over and damaged.

The wooden pole supporting this large Mudu had been cut by the Bandits, so one Militia had to squat down himself to prop up the large Mudu.

Taking his men, Jier immediately charged toward another large Mudu that had caught fire.

The Bandits had brought a bottle of strong liquor from who knows where, poured it onto the large Mudu, and lit a fire; the flames immediately blazed fiercely.

Jier and his five men arrived and aimed their thrusts at the Bandits trying to escape.

This time, the four Militia had a little experience; they no longer tried to attack all the Bandits separately, but instead, two people aimed at one person, thrusting toward the Bandit at the same time. If the Bandit wanted to parry one Militia's Long Spear, the other Long Spear would pierce him, so this time, the few Militia achieved some results.

Jier caught up afterward, thrusting his spear into a Bandit's face, killing him instantly, and then swung his Long Spear to drive away the other Bandits.

The remaining Bandits at this spot saw that they had already ignited the large Mudu and saw Jier and his men coming to drive them away, so they gave up the idea of supporting the other Bandits and turned to run back to where they came from.

The Militia who had already seized the firing positions tried to shoot at these few Bandits, but were forced back by weapons thrown by other Bandits hiding behind cover, and had to shrink behind the large Mudu to defend themselves.

Jier and the Militia dodged the weapons thrown at them and ignored the ignited large Mudu, charging directly to the next spot to try and kill or wound more Bandits.

The Bandits at the last two large Mudu were kept from damaging the Mudu by other Militia firing crossbows from afar, so after Jier brought his men over, they immediately slipped back to their original positions.

In this way, the Militia firing from the rear caught up, occupied the large Mudu, and maintained the state from before the squad rotation.

Seeing the front line stabilized, Jier was summoned by Knight Kela and returned to his side.

"Well done," Knight Kela praised Jier.

"Sorry, I still let the Bandits burn one large Mudu." Jier took out a piece of coarse cloth to wipe the blood, hair, and other things stained on the blade of his Long Spear.

"It's fine, quite the contrary. Thanks to the hard fighting of you and the Militia, we only lost one large Mudu that can be quickly replaced, while the Bandits lost several men. Haha. Advancing the front line another fifty meters this afternoon will be no problem." Knight Kela was quite satisfied with the Militia's performance, and Jier's performance was entirely within his expectations.

Just now, Jier had defeated several Bandits single-handedly, but this was also because the Bandits did not yet know much about his activity. Once the Bandits were on guard against him later, it would be very difficult for Jier to have such an outstanding performance again.

But it didn't matter. To Knight Kela, if the battle did not involve warriors of the Knight Rank, then on the battlefield, the bravery of one or two people was not very important.

Soon, the camp behind sent over a newly made large Mudu, which made everything the Bandits had just done seem ridiculous. Even from here, Jier could hear the frustrated curses of the Bandits when they saw the newly delivered Mudu.

"Jier, look, isn't all of this very interesting? Battle is actually quite meaningful—the enemy's curses and pleas, the fleeting false victories and desperate defeats. All of this is hard to see anywhere else but on the battlefield. If you want to become a brave Warrior, then you must learn to understand battle and enjoy battle." Knight Kela patted Jier's Helmet and said.

Jier nodded. He tried to understand some of the pleasures of fighting between people; otherwise, the battlefield would truly be too dull.

Unlike the battles in most people's imaginations, the progress of the battle Jier saw did not seem very fast. It was basically a stalemate of both sides going back and forth with slow advances, followed by suddenly erupting, intense close-quarters combat.

He could barely tell that Knight Kela had been avoiding large-scale close-quarters combat between the Militia and the Bandits. The reason was clear once thought about: compared to the Militia, the Bandits had the advantage of brutal experience in traditional close-quarters combat, so the Militia must avoid close combat with the Bandits on a large scale.

But small-scale close combat was fine. For one, the Militia had the numerical advantage. Although the battlefield was not wide enough to deploy two teams of Spear Militia, by repeatedly rotating the Militia teams on the front line, Knight Kela could ensure that the front-line combatants on their side always maintained the best fighting condition.

The Bandits, on the other hand, seemed inexperienced. Their team composition was based on individual Bandit Leaders. The number of men under the Bandit Leader at the front was limited; unless he retreated and let other leaders bring their men over, the ones fighting Jier and the others were always those same Bandits.

From the moment the sun rose in the morning, those Bandits had been holding the front line of the battlefield. Now that it was afternoon, the prolonged fighting and tension made these Bandits not only exhausted but also mentally very fragile.

Not only did their combat technique decline rapidly, but their will to fight was also nearly gone.

The second point was that Knight Kela boldly let Jier fight on the front line. He was like a firefighter; whenever any Bandits tried to charge over, Jier would be the first to rush up, using his armor and Long Spear to obstruct or block the charging Bandit groups. Then, another team behind the front line would cross the front, providing covering fire at the rear of the fighting Bandits, cutting off the Bandits charging next and those trying to retreat.

And the Militia behind the large Mudu arranged in rows would shoot at the unprotected Bandits past Jier, striving to inflict as many casualties on the Bandits as possible.

In this way, the Bandits' many small-scale close-quarters combat attempts were neutralized by Knight Kela.

And there were one or two times, when Jier did not realize it, that the Bandits wanted to charge at the Militia in a swarm, but Knight Kela, with his rich battlefield experience, saw through the Bandits' intentions first. He would immediately adjust the next few waves of Militia teams, having them move forward and densely arrange their loaded Crossbows.

If the Bandits dared to swarm down, he would dare to let these Bandits lose nearly half their men on the way. This way, he would lose at most half a team of Spear Militia, while the Bandits would have to bear the casualties caused by dense Crossbow fire during their charge and retreat.

No Bandit would want to be shot to death by Crossbow bolts in vain on the road while charging. Bandits were not Militia; they could accept being killed in close combat because their skills were inferior, but they could absolutely not accept being forced by a leader to charge and then dying in vain halfway there.

Knight Kela saw through the limitations of the Bandit Group's identity, so twice forcing the Bandits to retreat from their attempted large-scale charges caused the Bandits' morale to be completely crushed.

The Militia's advance continued.

Once a row of large Mudu was set up, another row of staggered large Mudu behind it would be lifted by the Militia and then carried forward bit by bit. At first, the Bandits still wanted to throw Torches to burn these large Mudu, but if they huddled behind obstacles, they couldn't throw accurately. If they poked their bodies out to throw Torches, they would be shot dead by the Militia who had been waiting for a long time with Crossbows.

Just like that, it was the Militia who instead used Torches first to burn the cover where the Bandits were hiding.

Knight Kela first saw that the number of large Mudu had reached eight, then called a halt to the work of making more large Mudu at the camp, turning instead to having them start making Torches.

With eight large Shields on the front line, the Militia's advance was much faster, and soon they reached the distance from which they could throw Torches at the Bandits' cover from a low position.

Then, behind the first row of Shields on the front line, the Militia stopped using Crossbows and instead started throwing Torches, attempting to burn the cover the Bandits were using to hide from the Crossbows.

Once any Bandit wanted to attack the Militia who poked their bodies out to throw Torches, the Crossbow-wielding Militia behind the rear Shields would fire in unison, shooting that person into a sieve.

Soon, as dozens of Torches were thrown, the various Wooden Boxes and cover the Bandits were hiding behind were all set ablaze. The heat and smoke made the Bandits unable to stay, forcing them to abandon this defensive line and turn to flee toward a defensive line higher up in the back.

Seeing the Bandits retreat, Knight Kela immediately dispatched the Refining Qi Melee Militia led by Jier to quickly rush up and extinguish the burning cover.

It wasn't that this cover was of any use; it was mainly because these covers were densely studded with the Crossbow bolts the Militia had fired throughout the day.

These wooden-shafted, iron-tipped thin Crossbow bolts could not be manufactured by the Militia camp and could only be repaired in small quantities, so recovering these fired Crossbow bolts was a very important matter.

Jier and the others each held a large pile of cold snow, and as soon as they received the Knight's order, they sprinted over, sprinkling the snow onto the Torches and the various burning Wooden Box covers.

Then the Militia behind, carrying the large Mudu, quickly moved forward to occupy this area.

Upon reaching here, Knight Kela looked at the sky. It was already afternoon, and it got dark quickly in the mountains, so today's battle came to an end. Next was the time to consolidate the progress.

The idle Militia had previously cut down many trees blocking the way nearby. At this time, these trees were made into campfires, filling the front line of the battlefield, and would be lit when it got dark.

For one, it could provide night illumination, allowing the Militia to see the Bandits' movements clearly. For another, it could form a fire barrier to obstruct the Bandits' night raids.

If they didn't set it up this way, the Bandits would definitely try to launch a large-scale raid on them after nightfall to retake the positions lost during the day.

But Knight Kela could have used this to set a trap, causing heavy losses to the Bandits and accelerating the progress of the battle. However, considering that this clearing of the Bandit nest also served to train the Militia's experience and ability in attacking fortified positions, he gave up the idea of setting an ambush at night.

He directly had the Militia prepare two continuous lines of campfires. Once night fell, they would light these campfires, completely blocking the not-very-wide front of the battlefield, dispelling any thoughts the Bandits had of fighting at night.

Of course, if the front was impassable, other places with dangerous terrain could also be traversed, but at night, it was impossible for many people to act in unison. A few people could come out along the steep slopes, but these few people couldn't do anything.

They could escape themselves, but it was unlikely they could cause trouble for the Militia.

And Knight Kela had long since set up an encirclement; those Bandits who fled at night would not really be able to escape, but would only die under his arrangements.