Chapter 598

First Volume, Chapter 598: Ruthless Overwhelming

The crane-beak hoe and short ge inflict greater damage, directly "punching" through thick armor—each strike leaves a bloody hole.

In just a few breaths, over ten Imperial Guards lay motionless on the ground.

In contrast, on the Imperial Guard side, not even the front-line soldiers—every single one of the hundred—were equipped with close-combat breakthrough weapons.

It wasn't that the Imperial Guards were careless; they simply believed no battlefield confrontation could ever occur at an execution ground.

Dealing with some petty thieves and rascals, using the spear and bow in hand, is more than sufficient.

Even if facing possible "armored warriors," they could form formations and stab with their long spears.

This tactical mindset was correct—but it carried the suspicion of theoretical armchair strategy.

The Imperial Guards, lacking real combat experience, simply could not imagine the sheer force generated when two lines of heavily armored warriors charged head-on.

The front-line soldiers armed with long spears could not form any formation; whether facing charging enemies or being shoved from behind by their own comrades, they were forced to crash straight into the enemy's embrace.

In battles involving several hundred men, chaos was almost always the norm.

Especially in combat between heavily armored warriors—tactics and formations were utterly useless.

It was pure brute force: whoever could knock the other down gained the upper hand.

When it rains, it pours…

Just as the Imperial Guards struggled to hold their ground, an even more desperate scene unfolded.

On the Beixi Soldiers' side, aside from the front-line troops who had pre-equipped close-combat breakthrough weapons, only half of the rear troops held long spears.

The other half, astonishingly, wielded long-handled axes and wolf tooth clubs!

Unlike the long spear's thrusting advantage, the long-handled axe and wolf tooth club could not pierce—but could slash and crush.

As both sides pressed tightly together, the thrusting motions of the long spears became useless—this is when the advantage of the long-handled axes and wolf tooth clubs emerged.

After rapid, dense troop rotations, the second-row soldiers armed with long spears fell back.

The soldiers wielding long-handled axes and wolf tooth clubs moved forward into the second row.

Protected by the front-line troops, they unleashed wild swings and crushing blows upon the Imperial Guards.

The Imperial Guards, fully equipped with ShanZiWenPenLingArmor, had long grown accustomed to dominating with their armor advantage.

Whether facing petty thieves or lightly armored traitors, they could easily crush them.

But facing Beixi Soldiers who had survived bloody battlefields, the Imperial Guards were filled with despair.

Even their prized Pen-collar Armor, when confronted by swinging long-handled axes, proved shockingly fragile.

Each time the long-handled axe fell, its immense force could directly split open the thick armor.

But the long-handled axe, primarily designed for chopping, still had limited lethality due to the armor's resistance.

The Imperial Guards facing the wolf tooth clubs finally understood the fragility of life.

The massive wolf tooth club, when it struck, could deform any armor regardless of where it hit.

Through the armor, it could shatter arms and rupture internal organs.

If unlucky enough to be struck directly on the head—even through the helmet—it would crush skulls and splatter brains.

This battle was chaotic, yet swift.

Facing the Beixi Soldiers' ferocious assault, in just a few breaths, the Imperial Guards collapsed, abandoning over thirty corpses as they scattered in panic.

Once they scattered, it became like the end of the world.

The tightly packed Beixi Soldiers advanced relentlessly, cutting down isolated Imperial Guards as if slicing melons and vegetables.

Even the most elite, strongest Imperial Guards, if they failed to flee quickly enough and became surrounded by large groups of Beixi Soldiers, faced seven or eight—or even ten plus—Beixi Soldiers attacking at once.

Gold maces, short ge, long-handled axes, wolf tooth clubs, long spears—

All rained down from every direction; no Imperial Guard could survive even a single breath before being beaten to death by mob assault.

The Minister of Justice, who had moments ago been arrogant, stared in stunned disbelief as the so-called elite Imperial Guards were slaughtered, stripped of armor, and thrown into utter chaos.

"This… how is this possible?"

"The Imperial Guards! These are the Imperial Guards!"

"The elite among the capital's elite—armor and weapons, the finest in all the armies."

"Even their training intensity outpaces other garrison troops by miles."

"Why, against Qin Feng's men, are they so utterly powerless?"

As the Minister of Justice stood in shock, a voice came from beside him—the Dali Temple Chief.

The Dali Temple Chief was equally stunned, stammering: "Th-this… these are just ordinary Beixi Soldiers."

At these words, the Minister of Justice felt as if struck by five thunderbolts, his legs buckling beneath him.

That's right!

These were merely ordinary Beixi Soldiers.

The Tianji Camp Guards—the famed elite of Beixi—had not even appeared yet.

Xie Yun'er and Xie Bi were also stunned, their backs prickling with cold.

Xie Yun'er's eyes widened, her voice hollow: "Th-this… this is the combat effectiveness of Beixi Troops?"

In his youth, Xie Bi had once fought on the First Line, with spear and horse.

He had even clashed with the Northern Di armies, and knew better than anyone the vast gap in combat effectiveness between frontline troops and rear garrisons.

Since the founding of Shedynasty, the Northern Border Troops had continuously waged war against the Northern Di armies—their combat experience surpassed all other garrison forces in Shedynasty.

And the Beixi Soldiers before them clearly were fiercer and more formidable than ordinary Northern Border Troops.

At this moment, Xie Bi finally understood why Beixi County had so few troops.

Even at its peak, it numbered no more than twenty thousand, yet it terrified the Northern Di—so much that even Commandant Chen Si had to devote most of his energy solely to dealing with Beixi County.

"Feng'er… you've trained a pack of tigers and wolves!"

The commoners who had been watching earlier had not run far.

Watching the excitement was human nature; the dense crowd of commoners hid in the distance, craning their necks, gazing at the battle unfolding on the Execution Ground.

Watching the Imperial Guard being crushed by the Beixi Soldiers, cries of astonishment rose one after another.

"Heavens! These are the Imperial Guard, yet facing the Beixi Soldiers they crumble like paper, pierced through with a single thrust."

"No surprise. Among all the armies under Heaven, the Northern Border stands first, and within the Northern Border, the soldiers of Beixi County are the fiercest of all."

"Back then, Marquis Qin led just a hundred men and fought his way in and out of the Northern Di's territory."

"The Imperial Guard may have fine equipment and thorough training, but they've never been tempered on the Battlefield."

"Exactly. Put bluntly, the Imperial Guard is nothing but a bunch of pampered, soft gentleman-soldiers."

"Hahaha, I told you — Marquis Qin would never play the coward. Back then, to rescue the Tianji Camp Guards, he dared charge straight into enemy territory."

"Now that his father-in-law and his bride-to-be have been dragged to the execution ground, he won't stop until he's turned the whole of Jingdu upside down."

"Heh, father-in-law? Wife? Have you all forgotten — when even a little maidservant by his side was harmed, Marquis Qin went mad and took revenge on the Northern Di. So how much more so when it's the Xie Family's father and daughter?"

"When it comes to shielding his own, our Marquis Qin is truly the finest in all the Shedynasty!"