Chapter 570

Chapter 570: A Thousand Miles of Warfare

Tai’an City

An army of 50,000 soldiers from Yun State entered Taizhou State. Over 10,000 were scattered around, while more than 30,000 were in Taizhou State. Lin Jiang had over 20,000 prisoners in his hands, and the rest either got killed or escaped.

Lin Jiang ordered to kill the prisoners and they were taken care of within half a day.

Afterwards, Lin Jiang let Fang Rui lead a team to the north, while he stayed with a hundred men temporarily. He had sent people to gather farmer soldiers from various towns and villages, and distributed the enemy’s weapons and equipment to the surviving people in the city.

After a day of busy work, Lin Jiang led the team to leave and caught up with Fang Rui and the others.

The army continued to dash forward. Lin Jiang took the horses of the Yun State soldiers, each person having three or four horses. They traveled day and night without stopping and could cover a thousand miles in a day.

The three thousand soldiers didn’t stop halfway for a break. They ate, drank water, and used the restroom while on horseback. If it weren’t for their internal strength as martial artists, they wouldn’t have been able to endure it.

Five days later, Lin Jiang arrived outside Linjiang Prefecture. The soldiers from Tai State and Fenzhou State, totaling over 100,000 men, were still attacking Linjiang Prefecture but had not captured it yet, though it was close.

"The soldiers will rest for a night and attack again tomorrow."

After observing the enemy for a while, Lin Jiang ordered to rest. The soldiers could endure, but the horses couldn’t. Along the way, they had already run to death several thousand horses, and many people were left with only one steed.

The next day, early in the morning, after a hearty meal, the soldiers started to line up neatly. Then, they slowly advanced towards the large armies of the two states. To prevent being discovered by enemy scouts, they were still more than ten miles away from the enemy troops. This distance was too far to charge, so they needed to save their horses’ energy.

When Lin Jiang and his friends were about three miles away from the battlefield, the enemy spotted them. Thinking they were reinforcements from another area, the enemy didn’t take them seriously and only sent over ten thousand troops, including three to four thousand cavalry, to intercept them.

"Charge in and break through them in one go."

Lin Jiang ordered to speed up the horses. From a distance of hundreds of meters, Lin Jiang started to bend his bow and shoot arrows continuously. Twenty arrows were shot, causing thirty to forty enemies in front to fall off their horses. Many were taken down with a single arrow.

The two cavalry forces clashed head-on, and soon the enemy was defeated. In just one round, Lin Jiang and Fang Rui, two Martial Saints, didn’t know how many men they killed. Their bodies were covered in blood, like gods or demons in the world.

After breaking through the enemy’s cavalry, Lin Jiang charged alone into the enemy’s infantry camp, going in and out seven times, killing thousands of enemy soldiers on horseback.

"Drive away the fleeing troops and charge the enemy formation."

Seeing the enemy in chaos, Lin Jiang ordered the horses to slow down and kept pushing the fleeing troops forward without directly charging at them.

News of Wolong’s appearance had reached the enemy’s camp. King Tai, upon hearing this, was frightened and wanted to flee again, but he was stopped by Tai State’s great general. Knowing the military tactics, he understood that if he ran now, they would collapse.

General from the Tai State decisively stopped the attack on the city, sent a troop to monitor Linjiang Prefecture, and turned the army towards Lin Jiang’s direction.

"Shoot arrows, make the fleeing soldiers run to the sides."

The General from the Tai State decisively ordered a volley of arrows that killed hundreds of fleeing soldiers. The fleeing soldiers then realized Lin Jiang’s attempt to drive them towards the enemy failed, and they stopped a few hundred meters away from the enemy.

Lin Jiang took out two pills to replenish his strength and swallowed them, patrolling the battlefield. The troops behind him gradually gathered, leaving only around two thousand five hundred of the initial three thousand soldiers.

"General, we can’t charge anymore."

Fang Rui knew Lin Jiang was eager to charge back into the enemy formation, so he quickly stopped him. The enemy’s formation was steady, with several tens of thousands of troops split into multiple battle formations that were impregnable.

"Someone, go contact the Zhenguo Army."

Lin Jiang nodded. He might still be able to charge forward himself, but those under his command couldn’t move. He sent messengers to rally the troops. With eighty thousand troops entering Taizhou State and the addition of captured soldiers, their numbers had already exceeded a hundred thousand.

Lin Jiang didn’t dare to charge the enemy formation, and the enemy hesitated to attack as well. Most of their cavalry had been wiped out, making it impossible to encircle and annihilate Lin Jiang’s remaining two thousand cavalry – that’s the advantage of cavalry.

After staying put for a whole day, Lin Jiang sent some skilled people who are good at light footwork to sneak into Linjiang Prefecture. They made a plan with Zhenguo Army inside Linjiang Prefecture to attack together when Lin Jiang charges, surrounding the enemy.

On the second day, more Zhenguo Army troops from other places arrived one after another. By evening, there were over six thousand Zhenguo Army soldiers by Lin Jiang’s side. Meanwhile, the enemy had retreated back to their fortress and were on defense.

"No more waiting, we attack tomorrow morning. Tonight, everyone will be divided into three teams. We will pretend to attack, don’t let them sleep."

Lin Jiang decided not to wait any longer. After dealing with the troops from Yun State, the situation in Taizhou State had stabilized. However, the situation in Feng State was very dangerous. Although there were more Zhenguo Army soldiers from Feng State, they lacked a great general and only had Martial Arts Masters without a Grand Master of Martial Arts. If the enemy were ruthless enough to use Martial Saints as their vanguard, Feng State would be in great danger.

That night was very lively. Every now and then, Lin Jiang’s troops would act as if they were launching a night attack, but they would stop just before reaching the enemy’s camp.

The enemy knew that Lin Jiang’s actions were just a feint and a way to tire them out, but they were helpless. Unless they were willing to fight a night battle outside their camp, which was terrifying for armies at that time and only the most elite soldiers dared to do so, it was clear that the coalition forces were not willing to take that risk.

"General, are you going to charge into battle alone again? There are at least seventy to eighty thousand soldiers divided into several forts."

Fang Rui was really worried when he saw Lin Jiang preparing to charge alone. He had placed his bet on Lin Jiang and didn’t want him to take unnecessary risks. Even if Lin Jiang was ten times stronger than other Martial Saints, he wouldn’t be able to break through those several forts with seventy to eighty thousand soldiers.

"We only have six thousand soldiers. If we charge directly, it would be suicidal. The best way is for me to lead the charge and scatter the enemy as much as possible. While I engage, you all should pretend to attack and not follow me. Wait until I truly disrupt the enemy before charging in. If you move too soon, the over five thousand people from Linjiang Prefecture will also join the fight. In this battle, our chances of winning are one hundred percent."

Lin Jiang said, "The dog’s winning rate is one hundred percent, but Lin Jiang doesn’t even have fifty percent winning rate in his mind.

He dares to do this because he has assurance of his safety. As long as he still has inner strength, no one can stop him. So Lin Jiang has already decided that if his inner strength drops to only twenty percent or hasn’t reached his goal, he will run away.

The soldiers of the Zhenguo Army are already used to Lin Jiang leading them into battle. This is also one of the sources of the Zhenguo Army’s strong combat power. If the commander is fighting in the front, how can you not fight?

Alone and on horseback, Lin Jiang slowly approached the enemy’s main camp. On the walls of the military camp, there were two Martial Saints watching.

"Brother Nie, could this Rebel Wolong really be planning to attack our main camp alone?"

"Don’t you know Rebel Wolong’s style yet? Since he captured Feng State, it has always been like this."

"This is too reckless. Even a Martial Saint’s inner strength will eventually run out."

"He’s asking for trouble. Let’s go, we retreat and let the soldiers wear out his inner strength."

The two Martial Saints sneered and quickly left. They wanted to see how much inner strength Rebel Wolong really had, and whether it was endless.

Approaching five hundred meters, the enemy’s ballista was deployed, but their aim was poor. Lin Jiang didn’t even lift his eyelids, he continued forward.

When he reached one hundred and fifty meters, warrior archers started shooting arrows at Lin Jiang. His horse was gone, so Lin Jiang took out his bow and arrows and shot back at them. Facing hundreds of archers alone, only Lin Jiang could do it.

The enemy archers were skilled too. As Lin Jiang got closer to a hundred meters, he was hit by at least twenty or thirty arrows. However, these arrows couldn’t penetrate his armor. Lin Jiang managed to take down fifty archers even though he only had fifty arrows with him.

Using his light footwork, Lin Jiang swiftly arrived at the first camp. Drawing his sword, he charged forward. Inside the camp were well-armored soldiers, forming a formation with shield bearers in the front, followed by sword and shield infantry and long spear wielders. There were also archers attempting to ambush from a distance.

The shield bearers tried to surround Lin Jiang, but he fought back, cutting down both shields and soldiers. Despite killing a group of them, more soldiers kept coming, surrounding him densely.

"Bang"

Finally, Lin Jiang reached a brazier and kicked it over. The charcoal inside flew into a tent, setting it on fire.

"Quick, put out the fire!"

A enemy general realized Lin Jiang’s plan and ordered to extinguish the flames.

But they were no match for Lin Jiang, who swiftly grabbed the burning tent and with a strong pull, managed to bring down the entire tent before the fire could spread.

The word "rise"

Lin Jiang shouted loudly, stomped his feet, and leaped into the air. The tent in his hands caught on fire and exploded into pieces, flying into the other tents.

After Lin Jiang landed, he killed another group of soldiers. When a big fire broke out, he tore down a burning tent, then used his amazing acrobatic skills to leap over the camp wall and move to a different camp, where he threw out the tent.

Lin Jiang is brave, not foolish. How could he charge into the enemy camps one by one and try to kill tens of thousands of people by himself? He just wanted to create chaos among the enemy troops.