Chapter 2456: Rising in the Chaos

Wisps of black smoke rose from Rongsha Fortress, and flames shrouded the city walls. Screams came from inside the fortress—these were the civilians living in the fortress.

Rongsha Fortress was more fragile than Su Xiao had imagined. Twenty minutes later, squads of Shayan soldiers rushed out of the cracks in the city walls toward the outside of the fortress.

It was time. Any later, and the soldiers would be killed off. This state of collapse was exactly what Su Xiao wanted.

"Aus, take people to intercept those fleeing soldiers."

"Should I drive them back to hold the line?"

"Intercept them."

Su Xiao looked at Aus with a smile, and Aus suddenly felt a chill down his spine.

"Subordinate understands."

Aus took 3,000 soldiers and began to intercept the fleeing soldiers in the surrounding area, stopping these people under the name of a supervisory team. It wasn't just intimidation; Aus was also pacifying these soldiers, calling their retreat a strategic one.

These fleeing soldiers were actually very desperate. They knew they were finished. Even if they could survive, they would face very tragic punishments—at worst, execution; at best, becoming forced laborers. Fleeing soldiers in wartime had no good end, unless their direct military officer ordered a retreat.

Rongsha Fortress could not be lost. The military guard commander guarding here didn't dare to order a retreat. The reason this fortress was breached was too shameful. If that military guard commander dared to order the soldiers to retreat, as long as he didn't die in the war, Grand Commander Nieposuo would peel his skin alive.

The number of soldiers led by Aus increased at an extremely fast speed. Before long, he had intercepted over 5,000 defeated troops. Morale was a strange thing; after these 5,000 defeated troops mixed into their ranks, their morale actually increased slightly. Because they hadn't been annexed, they couldn't receive the War Lord's bonus.

After Aus circled around Rongsha Fortress a few more times, the soldiers behind him exceeded 10,000.

When the number of intercepted soldiers exceeded 13,000, Su Xiao immediately ordered Aus to retreat.

Su Xiao's move had an imaginable impact on Rongsha Fortress. Not only was the military guard commander on their side who learned of this news stunned, but even the enemy's dwarf commander was confused. He didn't order people to rush out of the city immediately because he felt that Su Xiao might be a traitor of Shayan, that is, an ally of Peru.

Because a large number of fleeing soldiers were swept away, the defenders inside Rongsha Fortress were almost beaten to the point of shitting themselves, and they also began to flee.

One hour later, the fighting inside Rongsha Fortress subsided. Dwarf soldiers stood on the city walls, looking at the Shayan soldiers behind the slope outside the city. The enemy had actually handed over the fortress on a silver platter.

Boom!

A flash of fire burst in mid-air, the fire forming the shape of a sharp sword. This represented the successful capture of the fortress.

The enemy defenders inside the fortress were very vigilant. Just when they thought the soldiers outside the city were going to counterattack, Su Xiao ordered the entire army to retreat.

Watching Su Xiao's troops march into the distance, the dwarf commander on the city wall patted his helmet. He was completely dumbfounded. The enemy just retreated like this? This was simply courting death. Even if they could retreat from this battlefield, Shayan's military law would have more than half of these people executed for losing the fortress and fleeing—it was a capital crime.

Su Xiao was in a very good mood at this moment. He just had people walk around Rongsha Fortress a few times and intercepted over 14,000 soldiers. Counting what he had before, the number of soldiers under his command reached 26,000.

The 14,000+ newly acquired soldiers needed to have their organization disrupted first, and new squad leaders appointed for each squad. Only then could they be considered soldiers under Su Xiao.

Su Xiao led over 26,000 soldiers and began to retreat from the battlefield. He didn't retreat for long before encountering a group of defeated troops from their side, about 1,000 people, who had been scattered by the dwarf troops.

Seeing this scene, Su Xiao knew that the surprise attack on Rongsha Fortress was a plan the Kingdom of Peru had been preparing for a long time.

This actually represented a very terrifying thing: the Kingdom of Peru had already accumulated enough power, ready to break a hole in Shayan's defense line, and then use Rongsha Fortress as a starting point to continuously invade the interior of the Shayan Kingdom, eventually reaching the Sand Capital.

This wasn't Su Xiao's speculation. Layton Red Beard, whom he had encountered before, was the vanguard of this war plan.

Layton Red Beard's broken-horn unit charged Shayan's defense line from the other side. At the same time, the main dwarf force attacked Rongsha Fortress, cooperating with the traitors inside the fortress to breach Rongsha Fortress in a short time, using Rongsha Fortress as a starting point to continuously expand this breakthrough, eventually tearing Shayan Kingdom's defense line apart completely.

Thinking of these, Su Xiao ordered the soldiers to change direction and began to circle around Rongsha Fortress. At this time, there were two layers of encirclement around Rongsha Fortress: the inner layer was the surrounded Shayan Kingdom soldiers, and the outer layer was the Kingdom of Peru's soldiers. The previous formation was just reversed.

And at the border of the Shayan Kingdom was another Grand Commander's army. To avoid the defense line being completely breached, this army wouldn't move. The reason was that Peru had also sent another legion.

The battlefield formed an 'i⊙i' shape. The center point of the circle was Rongsha Fortress. Su Xiao's position was between ○ and ·. ○ was the encirclement of Shayan soldiers and dwarf soldiers. The i on both sides were the defensive troops of both sides. The defensive troops wouldn't easily join the battlefield to avoid the other side's troops rushing into their own country.

At this moment, Su Xiao's position was simply a heaven-sent opportunity. All the fleeing soldiers on their side would flee toward the vicinity of Rongsha Fortress.

Su Xiao divided the soldiers under his command into three groups, 2,000 per group. These were his original soldiers. As long as these soldiers didn't stay too far from him, they could receive the blessing of 【War Lord】.

The rest were defeated troops. These defeated troops were temporarily not very useful, but after reorganization and leading them to win a battle, once their morale was up, they would all be brave warriors. It wasn't that they were incompetent, but that there were traitors at the high level.

Three groups of soldiers: Caesar led one, Aus led one, and the last group was led by Baha and Bubu Wang. Baha could speak, and the soldiers all knew Baha was Su Xiao's confidant. Besides, Baha's combat power was enough to convince the crowd.

The three units separated, searching for defeated troops everywhere in the surrounding area. The dwarf troops' offensive was too fierce. Originally, their high-level officials all thought this was a surprise attack, but that wasn't the case. The Kingdom of Peru had sent six elite units: Male Sheep, Steel Horn, Storm Hammer, etc. All six enemy elite units arrived one after another.

It was fortunate that Grand Commander Nieposuo was famous for being good at fighting. If it had been replaced by another Grand Commander, he would definitely have been beaten into a daze by now.

Grand Commander Nieposuo was beaten black and blue, while the number of soldiers on Su Xiao's side climbed sharply. As long as Grand Commander Nieposuo could hold on, Su Xiao wouldn't ignore the situation here, but before that, he needed soldiers, more soldiers.

Four hours later, Caesar, Aus, and Baha returned with their men, followed by dense crowds of defeated troops.

Preliminary estimation: Su Xiao felt that the total number of these soldiers definitely exceeded 50,000. Seeing this, Su Xiao didn't hesitate and led these defeated troops to retreat.

With the original 12,000 soldiers as the vanguard, after Su Xiao gave an order, they began to charge outward. After high-speed marching, the defense line formed by their own troops appeared ahead.

"Soldiers, follow me and charge."

Aus roared. Although he was a bit fat, his eyes were full of bloodshot veins. He hadn't experienced such a major battle for a long time.

"Charge!"

The soldiers under Su Xiao had one characteristic: they were a bit chaotic when charging, but their speed was fast, and their momentum was soul-shaking.

Seeing this unit, the military guard commander who was directing the defense line was greatly shocked. Their strong reinforcements had arrived. Although they looked chaotic, he could feel the momentum from far away.

Boom, boom, boom!

Armor and blunt weapons collided. The soldiers under Su Xiao made one charge, and the dwarf troops blocking the perimeter fell in large numbers. This unit wasn't elite; the gap in individual combat power was too obvious.

The 12,000+ soldiers Su Xiao originally had were like a sharp sword, piercing directly into the enemy's formation. The defeated troops behind also gained some morale and began to charge and kill following the elites in front.

The charge didn't stop. When the vanguard slowed down, they had already carved out a bloody path.

"Good!"

The military guard commander watching from afar slapped the armrest of his iron chair and stood up. As long as these strong reinforcements killed their way back, they would inevitably form a huge breakthrough.

Then, before the military guard commander could be happy for a few seconds, his expression froze, and his face turned from iron-blue to pale, because that elite unit of their side took several tens of thousands of defeated troops and retreated.

Su Xiao naturally had to retreat. He had to return to the station first, disrupt the organization of these defeated troops, and use his original 12,000 soldiers to serve as squad leaders, centurions, thousand-man commanders, etc. After completing the annexation, he would lead over 50,000 soldiers to fight back.

At that time, these 50,000 soldiers would receive a buff effect of all real attributes +8 (no luck attribute) and morale increased by 60 points.

If morale reached 100 points, it could also trigger the 'Bloody Battle' effect: when attacking in cold-weapon melee, there was a chance to absorb the enemy's life force to heal oneself. With a full 50,000 soldiers receiving this bonus, the combat power that would erupt could be imagined.

At that time, Su Xiao would return to the battlefield near 'Rongsha Fortress' to meet the elite units of the Kingdom of Peru.

As for the threat from the rule-breakers, sorry, Su Xiao had already half-developed. If that rule-breaker came looking now, what would face him would be a surging sea of people. ===== CHAPTER 2457 =====