Chapter 510: First Volume_Chapter 510: Xiongying Brigade Infantry

First Volume_Chapter 510: Xiongying Brigade Infantry

It didn't take long for the situation to be ascertained; a messenger rushed up to him.

"General, some comrades lost their footing and fell into a spike trap."

Chen Ping's gaze darkened. He immediately gave the order to slow the advance and watch their step.

Chen Ping had long anticipated that traps would be set in the mountain, so his mood didn't waver much.

But with the two thousand men of the Xiongying Brigade assigned to the vanguard, plus the five thousand main force behind them, a total of seven thousand poured into Qingyu Mountain.

The troops ahead had stopped, but it took time for the order to reach the rear, so the main force didn't slow down, and the gap between vanguard and main force grew shorter and shorter.

Eventually, the two groups of soldiers crowded together, less than Fifty Steps apart.

Seeing the dense mass of troops behind him, Chen Ping couldn't help but knit his brows: "Bring the messenger here!"

When the messenger arrived, Chen Ping drew his blade without a word and barked in a low, harsh voice: "Do you know what crime it is to delay a Military Command?"

The messenger turned pale with fright, his face full of grievance: "General, the six of us messengers passed the order down together—there was no delay at all. When you summoned Shu Xi, I had almost reached the rear formation. It wasn't Shu Xi who delayed the Military Command, it's… these damned garrison soldiers who simply won't obey orders!"

Hearing this, Chen Ping closed his eyes and took a deep breath, silently sheathed his blade, sent the messenger away, and called Ma Ning to his side.

"These so-called Search and Exterminate Army are even more useless than I imagined. They're used to defending a City and can't handle an Open Field Battle at all—in fact, they're even more useless than the Liang Kingdom garrison by a good measure!

"Once the two forces mingle together, the Enemy Army will surely seize the chance to launch a Stealth attack.

"To keep these useless troops from getting in the way, you stay here with the main force. I'll lead the vanguard forward. If the attack goes badly, I'll naturally send men down to call for reinforcements."

Though Ma Ning disdained fighting alongside these rotten County City garrison troops, to prevent these useless soldiers from bungling the assault and getting in the way, he could only obey Chen Ping's order.

Leaving the entire main force to hold position at the lower third of the MountainWaist, Chen Ping no longer hesitated. He led the vanguard to continue pushing upward, but the pace of the Advance was greatly reduced—keeping watch on all sides, probing for Traps, and guarding against Crossbeams that might drop from overhead at any moment.

There was no way to speed up.

When the vanguard reached the upper two-thirds of the MountainWaist, the spike traps on the ground had not decreased at all—in fact, there were more!

Because they were now close to the MountainWaist, the ground had grown much harder, mostly Stone, making it extremely difficult to dig spike traps.

Precisely because of this, these traps were crudely made—almost all of them just pried open the Stone on the ground to expose some irregular holes, then stuck a few sharpened wooden stakes in the bottom and called it done.

As for concealing the traps, it was even more laughable!

The ground was all Stone, yet the traps were covered with Tree Branches. As long as you weren't blind, you could spot the trap's location at a glance.

Chen Ping couldn't even be bothered to systematically locate and destroy these crude traps. He simply had the vanguard skirt around them and continue pushing upward.

After advancing about ThirtySteps, the traps grew even denser—almost one every five or six steps.

Chen Ping couldn't help but feel a nagging doubt—could these things really hinder an attack?

Had the Tianji Camp Guards lost their minds, resorting to desperate, random measures?

"No! Absolutely not! These Tianji Camp Guards are a headache even for His Majesty."

Just as Chen Ping was quietly pondering the purpose of these crude traps, a sharp whistle rang out.

The sound was extremely piercing!

Chen Ping looked up and saw an Arrow Whistle tracing an Arc Trajectory through the air, drifting lazily downward.

Before Chen Ping could react, the Tianji Camp Guards hidden at the MountainWaist suddenly popped up and unleashed a furious volley at the vanguard under Chen Ping's command.

"Beidi War Response!"

Chen Ping roared, dropped into a crouch, drew his Bow and Arrow from his shoulder, and fired back at the distant Tianji Camp Guards.

At the same time, the soldiers beside him raised their Shields, while another vanguard of five hundred men directly raised their polearms and charged the Tianji Camp Guards.

But very quickly, Chen Ping sensed something was wrong.

Though he led a thousand Infantry in a frantic exchange of Arrow fire with the Tianji Camp Guards, the distance was too great—over a hundred bolts apart—and the Terrain was lower, forcing them to shoot upward, while the Tianji Camp Guards were all hidden behind Stones, exposing only half their bodies.

After the exchange, his own side was racked with Scream after Scream, while the enemy showed no reaction at all.

At the same time, the five-hundred-man vanguard had only taken a few steps before the dense crude traps on the ground threw their formation into complete disarray.

The soldiers charging ahead had to stop to avoid the traps, only to be crashed into by the soldiers behind who didn't know they were there.

These were clearly "obvious-at-a-glance" traps that should have had no effect whatsoever, yet soldier after soldier kept stepping into them.

The deepest traps only reached up to the knee, but the sharpened stakes inside were just as lethally sharp—one step down and your foot would be torn to shreds!

At the same time, Ning Hu was firing furiously at the five-hundred-man vanguard, doing everything he could to slow their charge.

After firing more than ten Arrows, Ning Hu finally realized that only a scattered few of the enemy's Arrows had hit the Stone he was hiding behind; the rest had almost all landed some seven or eight steps away from the Stone.

Realizing the enemy Arrows couldn't threaten him, a hint of excitement crossed Ning Hu's face, and he fired even more eagerly.

Just then, a deep, muffled "boom boom boom" of drums came from overhead.

Ning Hu glanced toward the Watchtower, judged from the length of the drumbeats the Military Order Qin Feng had issued, and immediately roared at the guards beside him: "Forget the enemy's Bow Infantry! All soldiers heed the order—focus your Arrows on blocking the enemy vanguard!"

The hundred guards hidden behind the Stones all aimed their Yan Tou at the enemy vanguard.

Because it was a FreeShootingOrder, and constrained by the Terrain, even with only a hundred men the density of the ArrowRain remained quite high.

The vanguard wielding polearms had virtually no Defense against the ArrowRain pouring down on them; in the span of a few breaths they lost several dozen men.

The vanguard struggled on, and finally one by one people broke free of the trap zone and began charging toward the Stronghold held by the Tianji Camp Guards.

At that moment, the drums sounded again.

Ning Hu dropped his Bow and Arrow and bellowed: "Yi Zu, throw the stones!"

The hundred guards were divided into two squads of fifty each.

Er Zu kept firing at the enemy vanguard, while Yi Zu, led by Ning Hu, picked up the Stone Block stockpiled at the Stronghold in advance and shoved them out of the Stronghold with all their might.

The Terrain at the MountainWaist was already extremely steep.

The stones rolled downward along the curve of the mountainside, heading straight for the enemy vanguard.

The several dozen vanguard soldiers who had just escaped the traps had to dodge left and right to avoid the Massive Rocks, but the vanguard soldiers behind them were in far worse shape—hemmed in by the dense spike traps all around, they had no room to maneuver. Facing the Massive Rocks tumbling down without stop, those crushed to death on the spot were beyond count.

Seeing the vanguard suffer heavy casualties, Chen Ping decisively ordered: "Bow Infantry, push forward!"