With the heavy crossbows inflicting significant damage on the Heavenly Cavalry Legion, the human archer and crossbow formations also began to unleash their might. The three armies, comprising 3 million soldiers, unleashed a barrage of arrows at the Heavenly Cavalry Legion at the fastest possible speed.
Instantly, a sky-covering storm of arrows descended upon the formations of the Heavenly Cavalry Legion.
The Feathered Forest Army was a combined-arms legion, with a full complement of 11.5 million soldiers.
This included two armies of archers, totaling 2 million; one army of repeating crossbowmen, totaling 1 million.
Two armies of Great Halberdiers, totaling 2 million; one army of spearmen, totaling 1 million.
Three armies of swordsmen and shieldbearers, totaling 3 million; one army of heavy axemen, totaling 1 million.
Additionally, there were the elite special forces directly under Wei Qing, the Blade Captains, composed entirely of human quasi-kings, numbering 500,000, and a military equipment operation corps of 1 million soldiers. These soldiers operated war machines like blade armor vehicles and the heavy repeating crossbows mounted on them.
Seeing the Heavenly Cavalry Legion's formation thrown into disarray and suffering over half its casualties, Wei Qing quickly issued orders:
"Relay the order: Great Halberdiers advance to pressure the Heavenly Cavalry Legion into melee combat. Repeating crossbowmen and archers move forward two units. If any other Heavenly race units are detected providing support, engage in long-range suppression immediately."
"Relay the order: Heavy axemen and spearmen advance to relieve the Great Halberdier line, preparing to engage enemy infantry. Repeating crossbowmen are to maintain rapid fire at all times, responsible for intercepting enemy light infantry assaults."
"Relay the order: Blade Captains sortie, with the primary objective being the elimination of the Heavenly Cavalry Legion."
As military horns sounded, the Feathered Forest Army reformed, a sight that made the First Legion Commander of the Underworld Army beside him eyes filled with envy.
"This is not warfare, this is art."
"Whether it's the war machines or the coordinated operations of multiple arms, these are deficiencies we lack."
"The human race has developed warfare into an art filled with violent aesthetics. General Wei, your troops are not only enviable, but also terrifying."
Wei Qing looked at the First Legion Commander with curiosity.
"Good heavens, this must be one of the few intellectuals in the Underworld. I never expected to encounter him."
"It's as the saying goes, miracles often appear right beside you."
However, upon further reflection, it made sense. Judging by how the First Legion Commander handled the emergency situation earlier, he was clearly a decisive and intelligent person.
Otherwise, judging by the demeanor of other generals in the Underworld, they would have already drawn their blades and charged forward to share life and death with their soldiers.
"First Legion Commander..." Wei Qing was about to speak when he was interrupted by a gesture.
"General Wei, my name is Ming Yu. I am the eighth-generation descendant of Old Ancestor Ming Ling. You may as well call me by my name, it will be more friendly," the First Legion Commander quickly said.
Wei Qing nodded. No wonder he was one of the few intelligent people; it turned out his ancestors had sharp minds.
"General Ming, you don't need to be envious. Multi-arms coordination has its advantages, and single-arms combat also has its advantages."
"Just like our Marshal's direct First Front Army, the Feathered Forest Army led by me and the Xuan Jia Army led by General Li Jing are both multi-arms coordinated forces."
"However, there is also General Li Siyi's Mo Dao Army, and General Wu Qi's Wei Wu Zu, and General Huo Qubing's Han Dynasty Cavalry. These are all legions composed of single arms."
"Yet, in many instances, these single-arms legions achieve far greater results than ours."
"Take the Heavenly Cavalry Legion for example. A full complement must have over 10 million soldiers. Yet, General Li Siyi's 5 million Mo Dao soldiers, in just a few hours, killed nearly half of the Heavenly Cavalry Legion. Otherwise, facing a full Heavenly Cavalry Legion would not have been so easy for us."
Ming Yu nodded subconsciously and said, "I have seen Marshal Lin's Mo Dao Army. Not only are they powerful, but their equipment is also the best. Furthermore, their cultivation techniques seem to be different from those of normal armies. Each of their bodies has been greatly strengthened." Su Dan Novel Network
Wei Qing smiled slightly and said, "General Ming is correct. The investment in the Mo Dao Army is more than double that of the Feathered Forest Army, yet their personnel is only half of ours. It can be said that the resource investment per soldier in the Mo Dao Army is more than five times that of a Feathered Forest Army soldier of the same rank. But do you know the casualties of the Mo Dao Army in this battle against the Heavenly Cavalry Legion?"
Seeing Ming Yu shake his head, Wei Qing continued, "Less than 200,000, and most of them were injuries, not fatalities. If we only count the fallen soldiers, it might not even be 30,000."
Ming Yu was stunned and said with surprise, "Thirty thousand? That's over 4 million Heavenly Cavalry Legion soldiers killed for real. That's one of the ten elite units of the Heavenly race. This is too terrifying. If all of Marshal Lin's direct troops are like this, then the entire heavens wouldn't be enough for him to conquer."
Wei Qing said with a wry smile, "The consumption I mentioned earlier is just the normal consumption of the Mo Dao Army, which is five times that of our troops. Once combat begins, the consumption of the Mo Dao Army is more than ten times that of our normal armies."
"Let's not talk about anything else, just the food. All members of the Mo Dao Army are at the quasi-king intermediate stage or above. During wartime, their food consists only of meat of the same level, supplemented by medicinal wine and elixirs from the Shen Nong tribe."
"As for our main combat legions, the resources needed to support one Mo Dao Army could support twenty main combat legions. This is why, despite our Marshal's wealth, apart from a few special combat units, the entire human race only has 5 million Mo Dao soldiers. They truly cannot afford more."
(Historically, during the Tang Dynasty's peak prosperity, the full strength of the Mo Dao Army was only 5,000 men. In peacetime, the Mo Dao Army had only 3,000 men. However, the entire Mo Dao Army unit numbered around 30,000, which included archers, spearmen, and a small number of cavalry. The elite troops who actually wielded the Mo Dao were formed around the sixth year of Emperor Xuanzong of Tang's Tianbao era, when Li Siyi and Zhonglang General Tian Zhen served as Left and Right Mo Dao Generals, and a complete Mo Dao Army was established around that time. This does not count towards word count, just for your amusement.)
He had originally planned to learn from them and study the method of forming the Mo Dao Army to build his own army of Mo Dao soldiers. But now, it seemed that even building 10,000 Mo Dao soldiers was beyond him. As the Legion Commander, he would have to sell his assets and might not even be able to afford pants in the future.
Ming Yu sighed helplessly and shook his head. "Alas, I should think about more practical matters. General Wei, your archery and crossbow formations are trained very well. Can you teach me as well?"
Wei Qing looked at Ming Yu, utterly bewildered, and thought to himself.
"The Mo Dao Army is expensive, but do you think enchanted powerful bows and crossbows are cheap? In just this short while, I've already fired tens of millions of enchanted armor-piercing arrows made of high-grade alloy.
"I think there's something wrong with you, kid. Why must you insist on learning whatever is most expensive?"