Chapter 371

Sir, congratulations, sir, congratulations, sir!

After leaving the commander's big tent, Wu Tie, knowing the ropes, arrived at the campsite where his small force was stationed.

Just as he reached the camp gate, his personal guard captain Lin Huo brought a few guards out to greet him joyfully; it was obvious that Huo Xiong had been promoted and had received Jiang Hu's reward, and the news had spread.

Lin Huo shook with excitement all over, his face flushed red—this is what it means to have a revitalized appearance.

With his commander promoted, as the commander's personal guard captain, he naturally rose with the tide.

What's more, Wu Tie was granted the Nine Turns Elemental Skill; with just a little practice, his combat power would surely soar. In such a perilous place as the Three Kingdoms battlefield, following a Seventh-Rank Colonel who has cultivated the Nine Turns Elemental Skill gives one's survival odds more than ten times higher than those of Commandants who have only cultivated the Three Turns or Six Turns Elemental Skill.

Only by staying alive can one hope to get promoted and make a fortune!

Lin Huo and the few guards had simple wishes: they wholeheartedly followed Wu Tie, hoping to survive on the Three Kingdoms battlefield, then achieve merit and establish a career, accumulate military achievements, and seek a brighter future for themselves and their families.

"En." Huo Xiong's nature is introverted; he usually has an iceberg face and doesn't speak much. Wu Tie, embodying Huo Xiong's expected demeanor, nodded at Lin Huo and the guards, waved his hand, and said: "No need for idle talk—prepare for the autumn offensive; there's work to be done."

Lin Huo and the others suppressed their excitement, straightened their bodies one by one, and their expressions turned solemn.

Wu Tie began to get busy.

He first went to his direct superior, the commander of the C-Unit Third Battalion of the Right Camp of the Divine Martial Army's Vanguard, Fourth-Rank Commandant Jiang Zheng, to file a report, clarifying the chain of command; then he went to the logistics officer of the C-Unit Third Battalion to receive the equipment and supplies for his subordinates.

Promoted one rank, from Eighth-Rank Colonel to Seventh-Rank Colonel, Wu Tie's storage bracer was replaced with a large one measuring twenty zhang in length, width, and height, increasing its volume eightfold.

Soon after, Wu Tie returned to his quarters, and not long later, the troops newly assigned to him arrived to report for duty.

According to the Divine Martial Army's organization, as a Seventh-Rank Colonel, Wu Tie has under him an Eighth-Rank Colonel serving as adjutant, commanding a fifty-strong military law unit and an auxiliary force of three hundred. This Eighth-Rank Colonel himself also has twenty personal guards, so he commands nearly four hundred troops in total.

Besides the adjutant, Wu Tie will also have three Ninth-Rank Colonels, each commanding a hundred combat troops, ten personal guards, and twenty to thirty auxiliary troops; the three Ninth-Rank Colonels together command about four hundred troops.

As a Seventh-Rank Colonel, Wu Tie directly commands six hundred combat troops, fifty personal guards, and can mobilize up to one hundred auxiliary troops; thus a Seventh-Rank Colonel of the Divine Martial Army, if his forces are fully organized, would have about sixteen hundred troops, of which the elite combat troops, including the military law unit, would number around one thousand.

With sixteen hundred troops, each of the five colonels has a storage bracer, and all supplies are carried in them, so no dedicated transport unit is needed; on long marches, the standard equipment is a fifty-five-zhang-long, six-zhang-wide at its widest, ten-zhang-high tower ship to transport the soldiers.

This tower ship is standardly crewed by one hundred twenty sailors, with one Ninth-Rank Colonel in charge; if operating independently, that Ninth-Rank Colonel and the one hundred twenty sailors also fall under Wu Tie's command.

The Eighth-Rank Colonel who reported to Wu Tie, Niu Mang, likewise came from a veteran military household, over three hundred years old, but with limited aptitude and poor luck, he remains only at the half-step Life Pond Realm. Still, he has spent over two hundred years in the Divine Martial Army, having survived dozens of life-and-death battles on the Three Kingdoms battlefield, giving him extremely rich combat experience.

Among the three Ninth-Rank Colonels, one is Niu Mang's junior clansman Niu Shan, possessing high-level strength in the Chonglou Realm; he has been in the Divine Martial Army for less than ten years, so his seniority is somewhat shallow.

The other two are Liu Hao and Zhao Li; both possess strength nearing the peak of the Chonglou Realm, have served in the military for several decades, and have seniority comparable to Huo Xiong's, but their luck is slightly worse, leaving them stuck in the Chonglou Realm unable to break through.

As for the tower ship Colonel Xia Luo, his strength is the lowest among the reporting colonels, only at the twenty-third heaven of the Chonglou Realm.

However, tower ship soldiers generally do not engage in frontline battlefield slaughter; when they do see combat, it is mostly by using the tower ship's main cannon for long-range bombardment, so Xia Luo's cultivation is considered average among tower ship colonels—neither high nor low.

All subordinates have reported for duty, all troops that should be mobilized have gathered, and all supplies and armaments have been properly distributed.

Wu Tie had a few roasted oxen prepared at his camp and entertained Niu Mang, Niu Shan, Liu Hao, Zhao Li, Xia Luo, Lin Huo, and the others; these men are Wu Tie's future core on the Three Kingdoms battlefield, partners who will live and die together.

In the Divine Martial Army, scheming and infighting among comrades are extremely rare.

Because in that damned place of the Three Kingdoms battlefield, if you dare to scheme and fight among yourselves, you will all die together—there is absolutely no room for luck.

Only there, where everyone works together with all their heart, can there be a chance to survive.

Whoever dares to act recklessly on the Three Kingdoms battlefield will be the first to die.

In the Divine Martial Army, alcohol is not prohibited; everyone is a cultivator with inner power, especially those at the Chonglou Realm, and many are body cultivators with strong physiques—downing several jars of ordinary alcohol feels like nothing, and as long as you don't get drunk and cause trouble, no one will bother you.

Wu Tie and his newly arrived subordinates ate and drank heartily, happily chatting for a while about what they had seen and heard on the Three Kingdoms battlefield, then talked about some romantic affairs; the men in the army are straightforward, and their camaraderie grew considerably.

Especially Niu Shan, the youngest, with a somewhat unrestrained personality, kept spouting risqué jokes one after another, making Niu Mang glare angrily time and again, causing the others to burst into laughter; for a while, drinking and eating meat was extremely enjoyable.

Wu Tie only felt a bit dazed.

The Fuxi Divine Kingdom says the Great Jin Divine Kingdom is all demons.

The Great Jin Divine Kingdom also says the Fuxi Divine Kingdom is all demons.

Yet in the Fuxi Divine Kingdom, there are Wu Tie's relatives and friends; Wu Tie has never felt that they are demons.

But after arriving in the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, he has not been here long and knows few people; however, from his contacts, while some of these people are not good, many are just as hot-blooded as the relatives and friends he had in the Fuxi Divine Kingdom.

"Different standings make us mortal enemies." Old Tie's voice echoed faintly in Wu Tie's mind: "Who can be blamed? Those who deserve to die…"

A long string of vulgar profanity spewed from Old Tie's mouth, reverberating in Wu Tie's mind.

Wu Tie lifted a wine bowl the size of a human head, and with a 'gulping' sound drank the liquor dry.

He recalled the task assigned to him by Xi Bubai… Looking at the men before him, their faces flushed from drink, Wu Tie only hoped that in future battles they would not become enemies.

He also hoped that the people he would meet in the Great Jin Divine Kingdom would not, in the future, encounter his relatives and friends from the Fuxi Divine Kingdom on the battlefield.

"Everyone, drink freely." Wu Tie poured himself a full cup of strong liquor, raised his wine bowl, and said in a deep voice: "The Three Kingdoms battlefield is extremely perilous, yet also full of endless opportunities… To achieve merit and establish a career, to prosper the family business, we must take it from swords and spears!"

Niu Mang, Niu Shan, Liu Hao, Zhao Li, Xia Luo, Lin Huo, and the others all stood up, each lifting their wine bowls, and loudly toasted Wu Tie: "We, your subordinates, offer our respect!"

Wu Tie and his subordinates drank heartily, then began urgent drills to coordinate.

Huo Xiong's old core from before was completely wiped out in the previous major battle on the Three Kingdoms battlefield; his current subordinates are mostly new recruits, including the troops under Niu Mang, Niu Shan, Liu Hao, Zhao Li, and others, who had never previously fought together.

The Divine Martial Army's main camp occupies an exaggerated area, with tens of thousands of li in radius of mountains, rivers, plains, and hills—all the garrison of the Vanguard's Right Camp. Tens of millions of soldiers from the Vanguard's Right Camp, under their respective commanders, streamed out of the camp to train and drill fervently across various terrains.

Wu Tie drilled his troops harshly every day; every two days he conducted joint exercises with other Seventh-Rank Colonels of equal rank, and every five days he led his men to participate in the large-scale maneuvers of the C-Unit Third Battalion organized by Jiang Zheng.

After one and a half months like this, at the sound of an order, the heads of the five major camps in the front, rear, left, right, and center of the Divine Martial Army's Vanguard simultaneously opened fire.

With five thousand-zhang giant warships as the core, countless tower ships of various sizes formed neat rows and majestically sailed into a spatial gate ten thousand zhang in diameter ahead in the high sky.

The vast forces of the Divine Martial Army's Vanguard passed through one spatial gate after another, each crossing unknown hundreds of thousands of li of territory; after traversing hundreds of such gates, the front suddenly lit up, revealing an extraordinarily vast expanse of bright mountains and waters before everyone's eyes.

This was no illusion; rather, the boundless expanse of mountains and waters ahead truly had mountains more spiritually exquisite and verdant than those inland of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, and the flora on those mountains were all especially tender and spirited.

The water there was brimming with spiritual energy, with great rivers and rivers winding like dragons, exuding a unique, melodious, lush charm found nowhere else.

On the surfaces of those rivers, lakes, and ponds, a layer of white spiritual mist, thick as a meter, could actually be seen rolling with the naked eye.

The heavenly and earthly elemental energy in those waters had become concentrated to an exaggerated degree; a fresh breeze would cause the white spiritual mist on those waters to surge forth in great waves into the surrounding forests, nourishing the woods to become exceptionally fertile in soil and water.

This splendid landscape of mountains and waters hardly seems like something the human world should possess; it gives one the feeling that if one were to scoop up a handful, the entire vista could drip with rich jade essence and spiritual ointment.

This is the Three Kingdoms battlefield.

The junction of the Great Jin, Great Wei, and Great Wu Divine Kingdoms is also a feng shui treasure land that all three states vie to monopolize.

No one knows when it started, but the three states have been fighting each other here; every spring and autumn, fixed small-scale wars break out, and each spring and autumn offensive sees a huge number of lives lost.

Regular attacks in spring and autumn, sporadic explosive assaults every few years, and after several decades or even centuries, everyone's accumulated power erupts in an all‑out chaotic war across the Three Kingdoms……

In short, on the Three Kingdoms battlefield there is never a day without deaths, never a day without fighting; only the scale of battle and the number of dead vary.

On this Three Kingdoms battlefield, even the royal families of the three kingdoms often fall; for example, the former crown prince of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom, who eight hundred years ago came to the Three Kingdoms battlefield under a divine emperor's edict to supervise the war, after a fierce battle the Great Wei and Great Wu suddenly joined forces, utterly scattering the crown prince's personal imperial guard, and the crown prince himself had his cultivation foundation destroyed, falling from the peak of the Fetal Storage Realm to a cripple.

After that battle, the former crown prince of the Great Jin Divine Kingdom was personally slain by the Great Jin Divine Emperor; the three clans of all the soldiers of the imperial guard tasked with protecting the crown prince were exterminated, and the Great Jin Divine Emperor himself led the great army into the Three Kingdoms battlefield, stirring up a bloody storm.

That war lasted three years.

The losses of troops among Great Jin, Great Wei, and Great Wu numbered in the hundreds of millions; the divine emperors of the Three Kingdoms all suffered grave wounds, and the weakest, the Great Wu Divine Emperor, nearly fell. In the end, Great Wei and Great Wu compensated the Great Jin Divine Emperor with a huge sum of heavenly treasures and earthly riches, and only then did the heavily damaged Three Great Divine Kingdoms withdraw their forces.

In short, the Three Kingdoms battlefield is again called a slaughterhouse by the low‑ranking soldiers of the three kingdoms; here, dangers are countless.

Apart from dealing with enemy troops, in this seemingly fairy‑like blessed land, all kinds of inconceivable dangers can be seen everywhere. In the mountains and forests here, a hundred‑foot‑long giant python might have the strength to slay a heavenly dragon, while a thumb‑sized strange snake might possess a strength a hundred times that of the giant python.

Here, a seemingly inconspicuous vine, if it goes berserk, can instantly turn a ten‑thousand‑strong troop into white bones.

Here, a tiny mountain leech could very well drain the entire essence‑blood of a cultivator at the peak of the Fetal Storage Realm.

Here, who knows what strange oddities might be hidden?

Anyway, the Three Kingdoms have been locked in war for who knows how many years; the core region of this Three Kingdoms battlefield remains unexplored, with an area of roughly ten million li square deemed a forbidden zone. The divine emperors of past generations of the Three Kingdoms once joined forces to explore it, but returned empty‑handed, and even several divine emperors fell there.

Perilous, beyond description perilous—here, a moment's carelessness and anyone could die!

Wu Tie and the others' massive flotilla swept through the spatial gate and headed toward that beautiful landscape of mountains and waters.

Amid the low blare of horns, the huge flotilla spread out in all directions and slowly descended toward the towering, murderous‑spirit‑filled cities ahead in the mountains.

Wu Tie's decked ship closely followed the flagship of Jiang Zheng's 3rd Battalion, Ding designation, flying onward for over a thousand li before coming to a stop beside a great river.

Here the great river, a hundred li wide, makes a bend, and a tributary several li wide flows into it.

At the junction of the great river and its tributary stands a city about twice the size of Flower Insect City, called White River City, now garrisoned by the Rear Right Wing, 3rd Battalion, Ding designation of the Divine Martial Army.

Wu Tie's Front Right Wing, 3rd Battalion, Ding designation is to relieve the Rear Right Wing, 3rd Battalion, Ding designation, take over White River City, and then launch the autumn offensive.

The flotilla hovered above White River City.

On the great river outside the city, over a thousand soldiers are locked in combat, and from time to time a soldier covered in spurting blood falls into the river.

Upon seeing Wu Tie's flotilla arrive, a sharp whistle rang out on the river; hundreds of soldiers in ochre heavy armor quickly broke from the fight and retreated to a city at the foot of a large mountain, over a hundred li across the river on the opposite bank.

Wu Tie's keen eyes saw the flag of the Great Wei Divine Kingdom fluttering above the city across the river, and the sign above its gate bore the characters "Black Mountain City" in bold script.

Here the Great Jin's military city is called White River, while over there the Great Wei's city is called Black Mountain.

Black Mountain and White River—this is a clear‑cut showdown.

Just seeing the names of these two cities, Wu Tie felt the atmosphere of the Three Kingdoms battlefield.

Sharp opposition, deep‑seated hatred, no room for reconciliation.