Chapter 1 The Precious Medicinal Soup

Xue San used precious medicinal herbs to make a high-grade soup, forcibly sustaining the Sword Saint's life.

Some of these medicinal herbs were picked from the Heavenly Fracture Mountain Range. As the saying goes, one relies on the mountain if one lives near it, and one relies on the water if one lives near it. Originally, the trade of Sheng Le was extremely profitable with demon beasts, but some of the rare specialties of the Heavenly Fracture Mountain Range also accounted for a large share, especially some rare medicinal herbs.

Some of the herbs were ones that even Xue San hadn't seen before, unique to this world. So he tried them himself, confirming their medicinal properties.

In addition, when they went south to attack the Qian Kingdom and ransacked the Jin Kingdom's palace, they also harvested a lot of these precious herbs. Selling them would be painful, so they simply kept them for their own use.

Back then, the "Great Nourishment Soup Bath" that Xue San prepared for his lord also incorporated many precious medicinal herbs.

This time, it was impossible not to bring these things with them. To put it coldly, if ordinary soldiers had problems, they didn't make it, they didn't make it. But if a few demon kings, including the lord, had problems, they would naturally have to be rescued at all costs.

Not to mention in this world, even in later generations, whenever an epidemic occurred, those with money and power could get tested and treated first.

That's reality.

And the Sword Saint fit the "reality" standard very well.

After Xue San finished busying himself, Zheng Fan immediately asked:

"How is the situation?"

Xue San's expression was grave as he said:

"The problem is very serious. The meridians in his body are broken and cracked. I feel that even if he survives this time, he'll be a cripple. He'll have trouble taking care of himself."

"That serious?"

General Zheng's heart was bleeding.

"Uh, but we still have to save him," Xue San said.

"I understand that," Zheng Fan nodded.

The Sword Saint had to be saved. Even if he became a cripple, his understanding of the sword was unmatched in this world.

Not to mention that there was a natural sword prodigy in Sheng Le City, and if the Sword Saint continued to train her, Zheng Fan might have another female Sword Saint in his ranks in ten years.

Let's just talk about the feat of forcibly breaking through to the second rank.

Originally, even Liang Cheng thought that the Sword Saint would definitely die.

But,

damn it,

who knew!

Zheng Fan suddenly realized that in this world, Chen Daxia was one, and the Sword Saint was another, both with protagonist-level fates.

As a former comic creator, he naturally knew what this fate meant. It meant that even if he was miserable, fallen, and unbearable at this time, he might suddenly rise again in a few years.

Logically speaking, the Sword Saint was now crippled, and the probability of his resurgence was almost negligible, but Zheng Fan didn't mind waiting, and was willing to wait. Anyway, the Sword Saint's expenses weren't high before, and after he was crippled, his expenses would naturally be even lower.

It was just that the war merits of those thousand heads, converted into silver, really hurt a little.

But you still had to give it. No matter how stingy General Zheng was, he wouldn't be so stingy as to delay his soldiers' pay.

Delaying the wages of the laborers only required guarding against them causing trouble, but delaying the pay of these soldiers, they had knives in their hands!

"Send two of your trusted men to take good care of him."

"Don't worry, Lord. I understand."

"Alright, I'm going to rest."

"Good night, Lord."

Today, Zheng Fan didn't do anything but run, but he was scared into a sweat.

He didn't have the luxury of taking a bath, so he just washed his face, and lay down next to the brazier and fell asleep.

Zheng Fan fell asleep quickly because he felt much more at ease.

Now that the wild men had lost that Grimm, let's see how they would attack the city.

………

Sure enough, the next three days were uneventful.

The wild men lost their commander and their general who knew how to fight sieges. Both morale and tactics were severely affected.

During these three days, Liang Cheng took the time to train those Jin slaves, and had the veterans pass on some experience. It could only be said that they should try to become slightly more qualified cannon fodder as soon as possible.

In the north, small groups of wild men cavalry occasionally came from the snowy plains to check the situation. They were probably some nearby tribes who discovered that Snow Sea Pass had been closed and the Black Dragon Flag of Yan had been raised. They had come specifically to inquire about the situation. However, there were no organized wild men forces.

Finally,

on the fourth day, the wild men army in the south began to attack the city.

Grimm was dead,

the commander was dead,

the "professional" siege commander was lost,

all of this,

could not stop the wild men's determination to attack Snow Sea Pass.

Because they had no other choice. They had to take this Snow Sea Pass.

Zheng Fan went up to the city wall early. Fan Li stood on Zheng Fan's right side with a shield, and A'ming stood on Zheng Fan's left side.

Outside the city, the wild men army was already in formation.

It could be seen that they had also built a lot of siege equipment these days, mostly ladders, and also battering rams, but this battering ram looked a little strange, as if wheels had been forcibly added to them.

The number of wild men was quite large, and the visual effect was indeed very oppressive.

However, the wild men probably didn't make any mobile towers or slightly more high-end siege equipment. First, time was tight, second, there was a lack of suitable craftsmen, and third, the nearby forests had been "cleared," so they had to go further to cut down trees, which greatly limited their efficiency.

Inside Snow Sea Pass, five trebuchets were ready, and the armored soldiers on the city wall were also waiting in formation.

Because Snow Sea Pass had been looted by the wild men, Zheng Fan did not receive sufficient equipment replenishment here. Fortunately, General Zheng had always been willing to spend a lot of money on building up his troops, especially before the dispatch of troops, there was a period of waiting. At that time, all the workshops inside and outside Sheng Le were shut down, concentrating their strength to replenish the Sheng Le army's equipment.

Moreover, because the siege of Fengxin City was successful due to the successful seizure of the gate, the equipment consumption was not only minimal, but also yielded a lot of spoils. Therefore, Snow Sea Pass was not short of equipment for the time being.

Arrows should be sufficient for the time being, but according to Liang Cheng's calculations, if the war lasted for a long time, agile soldiers would still need to go down at night to collect the arrows.

In addition, although Snow Sea Pass was a pass, it was actually a city. Before the rise of the wild men, because the Si Tu family's power had already pushed to the snowy plains, Snow Sea Pass had not seen war for a long time. In addition, trade was developed, so there were many original buildings and people in this pass.

The natives must have been looted away when the pass was first broken, but the houses and other things in the city were dismantled and unloaded, and everything useful was piled forward.

In this process, some underground cellars and warehouses were also discovered. The wild men were careless, and may have been very "simple" when they first broke through Snow Sea Pass. They did not understand the Jin people's habit of hiding things in cellars, so they did not "clean" here, which allowed Zheng Fan to obtain a lot of food supplements.

In summary, the various materials in the city were not abundant, but they were still sufficient. Come on, let's start fighting!

Zheng Fan silently took out a cigarette. Every time he went on an expedition, Blindman would make him a few extra boxes of cigarettes to take with him.

And he didn't know why, when he was writing manuscripts in his previous life, two packs of cigarettes a day were not enough, but after waking up in this world and having cigarettes, he might only smoke one a day, and only think of lighting one when something happened.

This side of the city wall had an outwardly protruding "mouth," and the purpose of this construction was that when the enemy attacked the city, you could have two more walls to strike the enemy.

At this time, Zheng Fan was standing at the forefront of this "mouth."

He looked up at the sky, and Zheng Fan silently smoked his cigarette.

After he finished smoking a cigarette,

the wild men also had new actions. Batches of refugees were driven to the front, carrying very simple ladders. Most of them only had wooden spears, and only a few had knives in their hands.

They were driven towards the city wall in batches. There was naturally no moat on the south side of Snow Sea Pass, and Liang Cheng did not waste any effort to dig any trenches in the winter, but he still left some spikes and caltrops on the ground.

Many Jin refugees did not even have shoes, and stepped on them barefoot. The taste was quite something, and in this era of lack of medicine and medicine, with such extreme weather conditions and severe external injuries, the mortality rate was quite high.

When those refugees were about to approach the city wall, Liang Cheng did not hesitate to order them to be shot.

They could not be allowed to attach themselves to the city wall, otherwise it would affect the city wall guards' attack on the subsequent wild men.

Most of the soldiers in this Sheng Le army were Jin people, but you also had to see where the Jin people were from.

The pattern of the three families dividing Jin had been formed for more than a Jiazi (sixty years), and although they were collectively called Jin people by the outside world, they had actually been divided for a long time.

Most of Zheng Fan's subordinates were descended from the He Lian family and the Wen Ren family, or were originally surrendered soldiers from the Jing Ji area. In short, they had no sympathy for the Si Tu family, that is, the Jin people in the territory of Cheng.

Therefore,

they resolutely carried out Liang Cheng's order and began to mercilessly shoot the refugees under the city wall.

The organizational discipline of the refugees was very poor. They were generally used as cannon fodder. If the city they were attacking had a moat or trench, they would be asked to carry soil to fill the pit. If the soil was not enough, their corpses would be used to fill the pit. It was the same.

But after being attacked, the Yan army was mercilessly shooting arrows at them from above, and the wild men were watching covetously from behind. Most of these refugees were crouching on the ground, covering their heads and crying loudly, waiting for death.

Liang Cheng ordered again to stop shooting arrows.

The arrows stopped;

the refugees looked around blankly, somewhat dazed. No one dared to carry the ladder and continue trying to climb the wall, but they did not dare to go back. They just instinctively gathered in the corner of the city wall.

No matter how the wild men in the distance shouted, cursed, and waved their knives, the refugees just stood there blankly, because the distance was still far away.

They were not stupid. They knew that if they had any abnormal actions or intentions, they would definitely be shot again from above. People wanted to survive, even if the hope was very slim, even if it was just to die a little later, most people would still choose to do so.

To survive for a moment longer, even if they lived like zombies.

Zheng Fan carefully stretched out his head and looked down. He even saw a female refugee curled up in the corner, breastfeeding her child.

He did not know if she could still squeeze out milk after being caught and driven so far by the wild men.

However, Zheng Fan also knew that this was not the time to be softhearted. The Sword Saint was lying there resting. If he were here, he would probably try to go downstairs and rescue the child.

Alas,

the righteous hothead couldn't move,

which saved him a lot of trouble.

Over there,

seeing that the Jin people they had worked so hard to catch were actually squatting down, the wild men began to divide their forces to attack the city.

However, although they were called wild men, they were actually Jin people's faces, but they were wearing armor, and their weapons were not bad. The soldiers in the front row were holding shields, the back row was carrying ladders, and then the ones behind were pushing battering rams.

Then the battering ram walked halfway, and the Sheng Le army on the city wall had not shot arrows yet, and the wheels had already scattered on their own. In the end, they could only rely on two rows of people to carry that big round log forward.

If they had known it would be like this, why bother taking off their pants to fart? (idiom: making unnecessary effort)

"Lord, the wild men's siege has already shown two absurdities. One is that there is no moat outside my south wall, and they are forcibly driving these slaves they have worked so hard to catch to attack the city. In fact, it is of no use at all. Consuming these few arrows is actually negligible.

If I were on the opposite side, since these slaves were so hard to catch, I would have them be responsible for the logistics of the military camps, logging, construction, etc., everywhere needs people.

Now, putting the slaves under the city gate and city wall will cause great trouble for their subsequent main force attack, after all, the space under the city wall is so small."

In ancient times, the number of laborers was more than twice that of the regular army, which was common. Therefore, often those armies that claimed to have four hundred thousand or eight hundred thousand troops basically included the logistics laborers.

"Actually..." Liang Cheng hesitated for a moment, and continued: "They are used to driving cattle and sheep herds to march and fight, and to make war supplies. But obviously, after entering the pass this time, they only focused on looting and transferring things to their homes, and all their needs were plundered from Jin.

Moreover, from the wild men entering the pass to the war sweeping most of Cheng, the spring plowing and autumn harvest in these places have basically been delayed. Therefore, even if the wild men want to loot at this time, it is difficult to obtain enough supplies from the nearby areas.

Snow Sea Pass is, after all, the place where they first entered, and also the place where they searched the most severely. The wild men should also be short of food."

"So, what you mean is, these slaves, can be... eaten?"

Liang Cheng defaulted.

"Do you have to be so hardcore?"

Knowing that you are from the zombie clan, knowing that you and A'ming are good brothers, and you drink red wine together to cultivate your emotions, but you don't have to say it so directly.

"This subordinate was wrong."

"You continue to talk, I'm listening."

General Zheng treated it as catching up on lessons.

"The second mistake the wild men made is that, Lord, you see, their main attack direction is actually the wall we are currently on."

That is, the upper half of this "凸" (protruding) character.

"However, in a real siege war, the success rate of directly attacking the city gate and trying to break through from here is very low, because any defending party will carry out the most strict defense of the city gate."

"But I don't see much deployment under this city gate..."

Zheng Fan understood, nodded, and said:

"You deliberately want them to break through this city gate?"

"It's not deliberate, it can only be said that if we can defend it, we will defend it. If we can't defend it, we will let them break through the first door."

There were no stairs leading to the city wall in the upper half of the "凸" (protruding) character area, so if the wild men broke through the city gate here and rushed in happily, they would find that what awaited them would be another more solid city gate. At the same time, the Sheng Le army soldiers on the four sides of the city wall would shoot them from the inside without any blind spots, and the wild men who rushed in could only squeeze together and passively wait to die.

"This is really like an old sow wearing a bra, one set after another."

General Zheng couldn't help but sigh.

"Lord, this subordinate just discovered the third mistake. Now the wild men have started attacking the city. This subordinate will escort Lord back to the rear city wall first. We will talk as we walk."

"Okay."

General Zheng followed suit.

When the two retreated to the rear city wall and left the front line,

Liang Cheng continued:

"Lord, I see that the appearance of this first wave of attacking wild men army looks no different from the Jin people. This subordinate guesses that they should be the troops under Grimm.

Since Grimm was born in Jin, it is only natural that his subordinates are mainly Jin surrendered soldiers.

Now that Grimm is dead, those wild ten thousand households will directly let Grimm's original troops be the main force in the first attack on the city, which should have been correct. Someone always has to set an example first.

But that was when Grimm himself was still there. Now Grimm has been dead for a long time. Driving them so blatantly to be the first batch of attacking consumables will easily cause the rebellious emotions of these Jin surrendered soldiers. Not only will their morale be greatly reduced when attacking the city, but after that, if we plan to launch another night attack, we can break through from the Jin surrendered soldiers' camp to open it."

"Ready, release!"

Xue San was directing his subordinates to release stone eggs.

In fact, the lethality of this thing was also limited, after all, it was difficult to make a flowering bomb. Originally, the purpose of the defending side to make a trebuchet was to smash the attacking side's towers or to smash the attacking side's trebuchets, but the wild men on the opposite side did not have them.

However, having to worry about "meteorites" falling from the top of their heads from time to time while attacking the city was already a great blow to the morale of the attacking side.

"So, it seems that there is basically no problem in defending this city?"

"Thanks to the Sword Saint killing Grimm that day."

With one less Grimm, the wild men lacked a commander with the greatest prestige. After all, although Grimm was a Jin person, he was the first direct descendant to bet all his wealth on following the wild men king, and he was also the most skilled at attacking cities among the wild men.

In fact, what Zheng Fan and Liang Cheng did not know was that the wild men had previously broken through two cities of the Si Tu family on the snowy plains in succession, and finally broke through Snow Sea Pass. Although there were reasons for the Si Tu Yi brothers to act as guides and insiders, Grimm's command put great pressure on the defending Cheng army on the front line, especially in the siege battle, which created an opportunity for the Si Tu Yi brothers to cooperate from the inside and outside.

At the same time, this Jin army under Grimm, which was the most knowledgeable in siege warfare, also fell into low morale.

"Basically, there is no big problem, unless the wild men king dispatches another general and a direct line of elite from the front line to integrate here and re-attack the city."

Hearing this "unless," Zheng Fan smiled.

Obviously,

even the "cautious" General Zheng,

didn't care much about this "unless."

The one who was fighting against the wild men king on the Wang Jiang line was not the former First Prince, but the Jing Nan Marquis!

Go ahead, continue to draw back generals and elites to attack the city. Do you dare to face the Jing Nan Marquis?

As the "high apprentice" of the Jing Nan Marquis,

Zheng Fan had great confidence in the Jing Nan Marquis's ability to use troops. In addition, at the moment, the Jing Nan Marquis had a total of more than 80,000 Jing Nan army and Zhen Bei army under his command, not counting the armies of other places in Yan and Cheng.

General Zheng really dared to use the combined skills of One Finger Zen and Lion's Roar to arrogantly shout at the wild men king:

Come here, come here!

After escorting Zheng Fan back to the rear wall, Liang Cheng looked at the situation in front of him and said:

"It seems that it is also very difficult for the wild men to break through our front door."

In his words,

there seemed to be some regret that his design could not be realized.

Zheng Fan leaned against the battlements of the wall and stretched,

said:

"That is to say, we are done here. Next, it depends on how the Jing Nan Marquis breaks the wild men on the front, right?"

Losing a Sword Saint,

plus my hundred or so pounds and the great raid of 10,000 Sheng Le troops,

Snow Sea Pass,

can be considered nailed down.

Next, Tian Wu Jing,

it's time to give you the pen.

……

Two flowers bloom, each on one branch;

The two sides of Wang Jiang have been very lively recently.

The Yan army has repeatedly divided and made a posture of attacking in several locations;

The wild men responded accordingly and deployed accordingly.

However, the Yan people only arranged formations and changed defenses. After so many days, they have not tried a single decent attack.

The Wang Jiang River is clearly frozen, but the Yan people do not seem to be thinking about seizing the time to use the blessings brought by this change in the weather.

The wild men have always maintained their previous style, that is, how you Yan army mobilize, I will greet you accordingly, but at the same time, I have always been preparing to retreat if the situation is not good. As for whether I am really retreating, and I don't dare to fight with you, you can try it?

Therefore, with Wang Jiang as the dividing line, hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides are like two folk "masters" sparring, circling around, constantly posing in various poses,

one is doing white crane spreading wings, and the other is doing praying mantis boxing,

one is in the shape of black tiger digging heart, and the other is with eagle claws grinning,

In short,

they just don't make a move, they just circle around, whetting the appetite of the audience.

……

Inside the wild men's commander's tent,

the wild men king looked at the latest intelligence from the rear,

Grimm,

is dead,

killed by the Jin Kingdom Sword Saint.

The wild men king wanted to laugh,

he thought this was the funniest joke he had heard this year!

This is a battle between two armies, and you Grimm was actually killed by the expert sent by the other side in front of the battle!

Fortunately,

the wild men king did not go crazy, nor did he laugh out loud,

he just glanced at A'lai, who had just handed him the military intelligence,

and asked:

"The messenger..."

A'lai immediately said:

"King, I have executed him."

The news of the fall of Snow Sea Pass in the rear must not be spread in the army. If everyone knows that the road home is blocked by the Yan people, no matter how big and brilliant the stars are, they will not be able to stabilize this turbulent military morale.

"King, do you want to send someone back again..."

The wild men king shook his head and said:

"The one facing us is that Yan Marquis of the South."

This is a real opponent.

"King, our cavalry has blocked all channels from the east. The Yan Marquis of the South on the opposite side should not know that Snow Sea Pass has..."

The wild men king reached out, stroked his forehead,

and sighed:

"I know."

"Huh?"

A'lai didn't understand.

"I said, I know."

"This..."

Of course I know that you know, King.

"Unless I don't know, but I actually knew the news of the fall of Snow Sea Pass a long time ago, so I deliberately pretended to the Yan army on the opposite side that Snow Sea Pass was safe."

"Yes, King, so why..."

The wild men king bit his teeth,

"Because I know, all my responses after that are disguised, trying to deceive the Yan Marquis of the South on the opposite side, that nothing is wrong with my rear, and that we are ready to retreat back to the snowy plains at any time, it depends on whether you dare to cross the river and try it!

But………

The Yan Marquis of the South has been constantly mobilizing troops on the other side recently, and I have to follow suit and mobilize troops.

This is like the smartest lie, if you tell it too many times, it will always show flaws.

When I knew the news of the fall of Snow Sea Pass, all my responses actually had a layer of deliberateness on them.

Others, may not see anything.

But that Yan Marquis of the South..."

"He, he will see it?"

The wild men king rubbed his face hard with both hands,

took a deep breath,

and shook his head,

said:

"I don't know."

……

On the other side,

the commander's tent of the Eastern Expedition Army.

Li Fu Sheng lifted the curtain and walked in,

kneeling on one knee to the Jing Nan Marquis and saluting:

"This subordinate pays his respects to the Marquis. I don't know why the Marquis summoned this subordinate..."

"Did you feel it?"

"Huh?"

Li Fu Sheng didn't understand.

Damn it, this question is too broad.

Li Fu Sheng missed that kid with the surname Zheng a little. That kid could talk and knew how to figure out people's hearts. If that kid was here, he should be able to answer this question.

"Did you feel it?"

The Jing Nan Marquis asked again.

Li Fu Sheng, who enjoyed killing, could only grit his teeth and answer at this time:

"This subordinate is dull. May I ask the Marquis, what did you feel?"

The Jing Nan Marquis reached out,

pointed to the east,

said:

"Something should have happened to the wild men's rear."

"Huh?"

How did you feel that?

Marquis, can you tell fortunes?

However, Li Fu Sheng did not dare to ask this question. In front of this white-haired Marquis, this Zhen Bei army commander, who loved killing, really did not dare to be disrespectful in the slightest.

Although, he had heard that the Jing Nan Marquis's uncle seemed to be a Xuan cultivator, so it was reasonable for the Jing Nan Marquis to have a little Xuan cultivation skill, wasn't it?

But as a veteran of the battlefield, Li Fu Sheng would never believe that the Jing Nan Marquis in front of him would use fortune-telling to fight a war. Isn't this nonsense?

The Jing Nan Marquis did not seem to intend to explain,

he just silently stood up,

said:

"Beat the drums to gather the generals."

————

Thanks to Xiang Lingyou for becoming the 90th Alliance Master of The Descent of Magic.