Chapter 988 – Battle at the Northern Border (25)
“That’s not it, it’s the enemy—” Wu Libai strained to identify, his voice hoarse, “Prepare the bows and arrows—”
Wu Libai was absolutely certain that this flood was not a natural disaster but rather a .
Thinking of this, he felt a chill all over; in just two or three hours, his hair had turned completely white, looking haggard and disheveled.
The Third Prince was utterly terrified—an enemy? How could that be?
This flood came so suddenly, with almost no warning; how could they have possibly prepared so many rafts ahead of time?
“The Liu Xi army?” The Third Prince almost lost his footing, his legs going numb. “How could they possibly have predicted this?”
If they hadn’t known in advance about the impending flood, who in their right mind would prepare to supply nearly a hundred thousand troops with makeshift rafts?
This was the Northern Border, not the river-crossed southern lands.
The Eldest Prince was equally regretful; he initially intended to lead the army and supplies to seize military power, only to end up losing everything.
He had bided his time for years, thinking he could emerge as the ultimate victor, only to find his younger brothers were as fierce as tigers.
The Fourth Prince eliminated seven brothers in one go, only to be interrupted by the Ninth Prince, who ended his killing spree.
As if that weren’t exciting enough, the Ninth Prince unexpectedly got a “sudden wind” moment, ending up with the gains of the formerly defeated Third Prince.
Hearing that the Third Prince was getting trampled by Jiang Pengji and starving to death, he pulled together all his possessions to take advantage.
But what happened then?
He did not catch anything in the wind, but instead, a sudden flood nearly wiped out his entire army.
Could it be that even heaven didn’t want him to be comfortable?
The Eldest Prince retorted, “Heh, General Wu Libai, be careful with your words. Does Liu Xi really have the ability to orchestrate this natural disaster?”
Even if it were truly Jiang Pengji’s plot, where did she get the surplus manpower?
With that thought, the Eldest Prince’s expression froze.
First, let’s sort this out: Jiang Pengji led thirty thousand vanguard troops to arrive first, anticipating that the Northern Border would launch a night raid while the main forces had not yet arrived, and thus set a trap, resulting in Wu Libai’s complete defeat. Afterward, Jiang Pengji manipulated the demoralized Northern Border troops into retreat, disrupting their formation, coordinating with the second wave of arriving main forces to encircle the Northern Border base, forcing them to retreat in disarray to the Main Army position. From then on, Jiang Pengji’s camp stayed put, escorting the Northern Border captives to Dongqing.
In other words, the current Liu Clan camp only had two groups of people.
The first group was the thirty thousand vanguards, and the second group, the main forces arriving, was about sixty thousand, totaling roughly one hundred thousand.
However, Jiang Pengji initially waved the flag of one hundred fifty thousand. Where did the extra fifty thousand go?
Could it be that these people quietly maneuvered past everyone’s eyes and went to the extreme north of the Northern Border, causing trouble upstream at the river?
No, no—
You can’t count battles like that. In order to showcase military strength, it’s common to inflate the numbers by several thousand, just as the Northern Border boasted an army of one hundred eighty thousand as five hundred thousand.
The Eldest Prince scratched his head, unable to figure out the truth.
Wu Libai didn’t want to get entangled with the Eldest Prince; everyone was in the same boat now and arguing would just benefit the enemy.
“Whether it’s a natural disaster or , the Liu Thief comes with ill intent. The urgent task is to find a way to repel the enemy—”
After saying this, he felt his mouth dry and his tongue ached.
Wu Libai, a sage of the Northern Border, who had spent half his life in glory, never imagined he would end up in such a dismal state.
If they couldn’t drive back the enemy this time, they would undoubtedly fall into their hands.
Wu Libai knew very well the fate that awaited him if he became a captive.
The Northern Border army’s retreat wasn’t late, but neither was it early; they preserved most of their manpower, yet their weapons and supplies were barely touched.
After a few waves of sparse arrows, they had no other options to stop the enemy’s advance.
Wu Libai’s face darkened as he suddenly drew out the dagger at his waist.
It was a habit for every Northern Border man to carry a dagger, as it was handy for handling prey in the wild.
But this is a battlefield—an inch longer means more power, an inch shorter means danger; what use is a short dagger here?
Fortunately, the enemy wasn’t able to form a proper array and advance step by step.
“Land—kill—”
Fu Wang commanded from the central army, while Li Yun led the vanguard. Their leader, Jiang Pengji, had been put in the “little black room.”
What a joke; this is a water-based melee, not the usual kind.
If the leader accidentally fell into the water and drowned or got swept away by the flood, they wouldn’t even have time to save her.
As for Jiang Pengji, she could only “heh heh” to relieve her own frustration.
Her night vision was extremely strong; even in the dim light, she could clearly see the front lines from a distance.
The army didn’t force a landing but instead ordered the archers to shoot wildly at the hiding places of the Northern Border troops.
Some were struck dead by stray arrows, some trampled by panicking comrades, and some accidentally fell into the water and drowned…
Wu Libai spat and ordered people to collect the arrows shot at them to return them in kind.
They had almost lost all their weapons and supplies, and the number of soldiers carrying bows and arrows was extremely low, but better than nothing.
The Northern Border army couldn’t remain standing as live targets, of course; they had to utilize every possible condition to struggle desperately.
“Ugh—this bunch from the Northern Border is pretty resilient—”
Li Yun noticed the enemy counterattacking and immediately thought of the source of their arrows. He used the water army commands compiled by Qi Kuang to dodge as much of the enemy’s arrows as possible. You could say he, a general skilled in land battles, was forced into being a hapless water army commander—what a mixed bag!
But as he tested it—
He found commanding the navy didn’t seem as difficult as he imagined.
Had Qi Kuang been here, he’d probably roll his eyes at Li Yun.
If commanding the navy were this easy, why bother training so hard for so many years?
Training naval combatants takes far more effort and cost than training ordinary land soldiers.
If Li Yun’s opponents weren’t deprived of even a single arrow, according to his method of command, he would definitely have suffered a huge blow.
But the reality was that casualties on the Northern Border side were increasing while Li Yun directed his troops with increasing ease.
Half an hour passed, and the soldiers in the low-lying terrain were now completely wiped out. Jiang Pengji’s army began to force a landing.
Wu Libai and the other generals could only lead their troops to resist, but their frontlines continued to retreat, making it nearly impossible to form an effective blockade.
Seeing the army on the verge of defeat, a glimmer of resolve flashed in Wu Libai’s eyes.
“Dai Wang, Eldest Princess, you two should retreat quickly… I’ll hold them off for you.”
Although Wu Libai’s value was far greater than that of the two princes combined, he could not abandon them to save himself.
“Teacher—if you’re leaving, let’s go together—”
The Third Prince trembled all over, with two arrows stuck in his arms, accidentally hit by stray arrows but fortunately not seriously injured.
It wasn’t that he revered this master; rather, he knew that without Wu Libai, he wouldn’t last much longer either.
