Chapter 48

Military forces two times as strong as before had now besieged the allied army of Lingyan Town, the free players in the army growing timid at once. Local soldiers also accounted for an army after all, and they had strength in numbers, their numerous swarms giving people goosebumps all over.

“Apart from the batch of feudal lords ranked among the top in the Eastern Han, no one can organize an army of a thousand…”

“Chairman, what do we do now?”

The members of Lingyan Guild looked over at Li Er from the Great Tang unanimously. They were now in a precarious situation, wedged between the guards of Shangbi Village and the allied forces of Xia Town, teetering on the edge of perishing.

“80% of them are local soldiers, so we might not necessarily lose. As long as we can defeat their small main troop, these local soldiers will crumble before they even get a chance to fight!”

Li Er from the Great Tang was also a feudal lord who had developed his Level 1 village all the way up to a Level 1 town. He knew that local soldiers were great at fighting favorable battles, their morale easily fluctuating and collapsing as circumstances changed.

“But they have strength in numbers. Our brothers will inevitably suffer a loss. God knows what punishment will follow after death?”

The players of Lingyan Guild cherished their lives; they wouldn’t simply go headfirst into the battlefield.

“What are you afraid of? Perhaps we could return to the real world after death.”

“But we could die for real too.”

The players of Lingyan Guild still didn’t have the guts to go forward, the inability to be revived in the game making them place an even greater importance on their own lives.

Chu Tian ordered a light cavalryman to step forward and deliver his message.

“You initiated an attack on our territory, so you have two choices now. The first is to surrender; the second is to fight against us!”

The members of the Lingyan Allied Army became more frenzied upon hearing the cavalryman’s words.

Apparently, the opponent intended to make them captives.

“How about we surrender?”

“We cannot surrender! My town still has quite a number of local soldiers, and our guild has many feudal lords with villages. As long as we can return to Lingyan Town to reinforce our troops, organize a few dozen feudal lords, and have every feudal lord dispatch a hundred local soldiers, we can form an allied army of several thousand! We have the capacity to turn the odds around! Don’t forget, in this world, we might have a chance to become rulers!”

Obviously, Li Er from the Great Tang was reluctant to surrender.

The allied forces he had brought from Lingyan Town weren’t the whole capacity of Lingyan Guild. In order to have the Level 3 gold quarry all for Lingyan Town, he did not summon the other feudal lords in the guild, but only the free players, who could be dismissed by just a small sum of money.

Most importantly, he never expected the feudal lord who had conquered Shangbi Village to own an army of nearly a thousand professional soldiers and local soldiers. If he had known the opponent’s capacity in advance, he wouldn’t have come to assault Shangbi Village with only 500 people. He might even have given up on the thought of conquering Shangbi Village.

“Could they be allied forces from other guilds of Langya Nation? It could be an alliance formed by the armies of several big feudal lords in their guild.”

“Not likely. Their efficiency wouldn’t have been so great if several big feudal lords joined forces, and they wouldn’t all happen to be nearby!”

“You have 15 minutes’ time to consider. Once the time is up, we will be launching our attack! All free players who surrender will be forgiven!”

While the people of Lingyan Guild were hesitating, Chu Tian sent them his final notice.

In the future, conflicts among feudal lords would only escalate. Chu Tian had to adopt a firm attitude, otherwise he would be restrained in many ways.

He had also given the free players an option for retreat.

“Our auxiliary forces have arrived!”

In comparison to the panic of the Lingyan Allied Army, the morale of the soldiers of Shangbi Village skyrocketed. They secured the village entrance firmly, ready to attack the troops from Lingyan Town alongside the auxiliary troops.

There was not much time left for the Lingyan Allied Army.

A catastrophe was looming over the players of Lingyan Guild. Internal disputes had arisen among them, dividing them into a party for war and a party for surrender, both caught up in a deadlock.

“Leave if you want to! You are no longer members of our Lingyan Pavilion from now on!” Li Er from the Great Tang was enraged, his eyes turning ferocious as he declared, “The rest of you, follow me to break through the siege! As long as we return safely to Lingyan Town, we can launch a counterattack!”

Li Er from the Great Tang still refused to give up on his lordship.

“My lord, some of them seem unwilling to surrender.”

Liu Sandao was observing the moves of the Lingyan Allied Army. He saw a small troop of cavalrymen gathering together, and he knew the Lingyan Allied Army certainly wasn’t convinced of the outcome.

“Listen to my command! Archers, get ready to shoot! Infantry, form a spear formation to hinder their route of retreat, and cavalry, pursue them and attack!”

Chu Tian gritted his teeth. Once the war began, he would be embroiled in strife with other feudal lords, and his survival would become an uncertainty. In some prefectures and districts, feudal lords had turned against each other because everyone wanted to devour one another, reaching for greater heights.

Li Er from the Great Tang had the light cavalry and local soldiers of Lingyan Town serving as cannon fodder first, while the light cavalry and the pro-war players were gearing up at the back. If Xia Town fought with the cannon fodder of Lingyan Town, they could launch an attack with warhorses and easily break through the siege of the Xia Allied Army.

Li Er from the Great Tang had such a great idea, but he didn’t know that the archers of Xia Town were of Grade 3 army, and they even had Liu Sandao, a golden-level commander of the archers’ line.

[Army type]: Xu archers

[Status]: Grade 3 archers

[Number]: 40

[Average rank]: Level 25

[Attack power]: 13+1 (longbow reinforcement) +2 (army characteristic reinforcement) +1 (Liu Sandao reinforcement) = 17

[Defense power]: 5+1 (leather armor reinforcement) +1 (army characteristic reinforcement) +1 (Liu Sandao reinforcement) +0.5 (Hua Mulan’s friendly troop reinforcement) = 8.5

[Speed]: 6+1 (Liu Sandao reinforcement) [Morale]: 85/100

[Skills]: Mid-grade accuracy, mid-grade armor penetration, mid-rade rain of arrows

[Characteristics]: When the wind blows, the horn bows cry (Level D characteristic, when a hero of the archers’ line takes command, attack +2, defense +1)

Chu Tian took a brief glance at the attributes of Liu Sandao’s troop. As a player commander, an advantage was being able to see the panels of all his branch troops. However, being able to see the panels was one thing. Knowing exactly how to give commands was another.

An excellent commander could maximize the usage of his troops, whereas a terrible commander could lose the battle even if he was given the best troops. For example, the Wei Martial Army had very outstanding attributes, but in the hands of Wu Qi and Pang Juan, they were not an army that had reached their full potential.

Chu Tian took another brief glance at Hua Mulan’s light cavalry. The light cavalry led by Hua Mulan had an attack power of 14.5 (10+1+1+2.5), and a defense power of 8.25 (5+1+1+1.25).

Hua Mulan was merely leading a Grade 1 light cavalry, but its attributes could almost rival the Grade 3 archers.

The Grade 2 elite light infantry led by Chu Tian himself had an attack power of 10 (9+1) and a defense power of 7 (6+1), with attributes lower than Hua Mulan’s Grade 1 light cavalry.

Just as expected, a good commander was of the utmost importance. The Qin general, Zhang Han, had defeated the insurgent armies of the late Qin by leading the criminals of Li Mountain and killing the Chu general, Xiang Liang.

“Archers, release your arrows!”

40 Xu archers released their arrows all at once and Lingyan Town’s frontmost local soldiers collapsed.

Grade 1 local soldiers could safeguard citizens, but in the face of the Xu archers led by Liu Sandao, they were nothing more than cannon fodder.

Even the light cavalrymen collapsed onto the ground upon being shot by arrows.

Li Er from the Great Tang felt his heart bleeding as he witnessed the defeat and deaths of the Lingyan soldiers under the attack of the archers. That was the troop he had painstakingly raised, and the most important labor forces of Lingyan Town, but they had collapsed in such a pointless battle. It was a huge blow to the spirits of Lingyan Town.

“Brothers, kill your way out!”

Li Er from the Great Tang led 50 light cavalrymen and several dozen free players and launched their attack from the back, leaving behind the pro-surrender players standing motionless in their spots.

In order to reduce his own losses, Li Er from the Great Tang made the light cavalry stand at the frontmost position.

The light cavalry was now faced with the longspear formation of Xia Town. The longspear formation formed by the Grade 2 elite light infantry could result in extra reinforcement, which threw the light cavalrymen of the opponent off of their horses.

The light cavalry led by Hua Mulan had yet to launch an attack. After resisting against the opponent’s light cavalry behind the longspear formation, she launched an attack from the side alongside her cavalry, killing their way toward the free players.

In her eyes, foreign people were no different from the rest of the soldiers, so she would have no mercy.

The silver-level commander of Lingyan Town had quite a high degree of loyalty. In this time of crisis, he tried to fend off the on-charging Hua Mulan.

The red-tasseled spear pierced towards Hua Mulan’s direction. She grasped the red-tasseled spear with a bare hand, dragging the silver-level commander directly off of his horse.

The silver-level commander fell from his horse before he could even make sense of the situation!

“Please stop! I surrender, we surrender!”

The pro-war players had reached the limits of their psychological endurance. At least a hundred professional soldiers and local soldiers of Lingyan Town had died, while Xia Town still had about a thousand soldiers that were yet to even engage in the battle.

This was a thoroughly unfair competition, a one-sided massacre!