Chapter 1616 - 509: The Battle Begins at Baimu City
Chapter 1616: Chapter 509: The Battle Begins at Baimu City
Woo! Woo! Ooh!
The cold wind howled, and the horns clashed.
With a command from Xia Chuan inside the main tent, the generals and officers of each camp received the order and exited the tent. In the entire Xia Army’s camp area, all the soldiers began to move.
The Dongchuan Alliance originally had only thirty thousand, but at the start of the war, Xia Chuan temporarily recruited another thirty thousand Cold Resistance Level troops in East River City, making a total of sixty thousand troops. He left ten thousand to guard East River City, left another ten thousand to guard the newly acquired Dongchuan Camp, and divided another ten thousand for Mu Longhe to attack Zhongyang. So when the troops actually approached Baimu City, there were only just over thirty thousand troops left.
Describing a thirty-thousand-strong army with the word ’only’ is obviously inaccurate; ’a full’ would be more appropriate.
"Cloud Dragon Army, assemble!"
"Left Army First Camp, assemble!"
"Second Camp, assemble!"
"Third Camp, assemble!"
"Fourth Camp, assemble!"
"Fifth Camp, assemble!"
"Dragon Forbidden Captain, assemble!"
Liu Yuan, Yue Feng, Zhou Yuan, Meng Yi, Zhao Long, Hou Tong, six generals of the Alliance, plus the Dragon Forbidden Captain Commander Tie Xinchuan, seven commands were issued. Outside the main tent, the thirty black tents, with the heavily armored Xia Army soldiers, surged out like a tide and quickly formed a formation on the south side of the camp.
The Cloud Dragon Army stood among the seven armies, with all soldiers wearing Lei Kui Golden Armor, their momentum clearly surpassing the other six armies by a significant margin; the left side’s three armies were the First to Third Camps of the Left Army; the right side’s three armies consisted of a thousand Dragon Forbidden Captains, and the Fourth and Fifth Camps of the Left Army.
The Great Xia had a total of nine Numbered Armies stationed in East River City. The Yellow Armor, Red Sun, and Xiao Mountain armies were assigned to a part of Mu Longhe’s division, while Xia Chuan brought six Numbered Armies with him: Cloud Dragon, Mountain River, Longyuan, Xiong Wu, Falcon Hunting, and Beizhao.
According to the Great Xia military system, a full eighth-level legion consists of five thousand people, precisely aligning with the composition of an alliance’s camp. Thus, among the six armies, only the Cloud Dragon formed a single army, while the remaining five armies, totaling ten thousand people, were divided into the First and Second Camps of the Left Army.
Woo...
The originally urgent horn sound suddenly became elongated. Below, six of the seven armies were fully assembled, with only the Dragon Forbidden Captains on the right side of the Cloud Dragon Army lagging a step behind. It took over a dozen breaths after the horn sound ended for them to barely reach the level of the other six armies.
Tie Xinchuan, the Commander of the Dragon Forbidden Captains, observing the performance of his army, his already unsightly face became even gloomier. He stepped forward slightly and angrily shouted at his soldiers: "A major battle is imminent, and you can’t even get the formation right. You bunch of useless people dare call yourselves the Lord’s personal guard? Wearing that Profound Scale Silver Armor on you is a waste..."
Tie Xinchuan’s shout naturally attracted the attention of many generals and soldiers from the surrounding six armies. The entire Dragon Forbidden Captains, from Zhou Yalong, Yuan Bai, Lu Yang, Luo An, and other Colonels to ordinary soldiers, all had red faces, then clenched their fists fiercely, filled with shame and self-reproach.
The events in Xia City two days ago were fresh in their minds. Now, they joined the Northern Expedition’s Left Army with guilt.
People like Lu Yang, Luo An, Yuan Bai, and other new generation members of Great Xia, since joining the Dragon Forbidden Captains, viewed themselves as the elite among the elite of Great Xia. At most, they looked up slightly to the Cloud Jiao and Dragon Martial armies, but they always held contempt for the remaining 28 Numbered Armies.
However, before the battle even started, during the pre-battle assembly, they already saw signs.
Losing to the Cloud Dragon Army was understandable, the First and Second Camps of the Left Army were composed of the elite Numbered Armies of Great Xia, losing to them was barely justifiable, after all, the Dragon Forbidden Captains were newly formed.
But not even matching the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Camps of the Left Army was inexcusable.
The fifteen thousand in those three camps were not elite Numbered Armies, and even their formation time was not long, just within the past two years. Not even matching them could only highlight the Dragon Forbidden Captains’ serious lack of training in military formations. On the battlefield, not to mention combat effectiveness, even in terms of military discipline and appearance, they were somewhat inferior to ordinary Defensive Armies.
Zhou Yalong, Lu Yang, Luo An, Yuan Bai, Zou Ping, and others, this batch of the most outstanding new generation members of Great Xia, all realized this at this moment. Only then did they understand how ridiculous their previous pride and conceit were.
They all lowered their heads simultaneously, faces full of shame.
Phew...
Seeing the response of his soldiers, though Tie Xinchuan’s face was gloomy, he couldn’t help but let out a deep breath inside.
"Knowing shame means there’s still hope!"
Unlike Yuan Bai’s group, Tie Xinchuan had spent over a year in Xu Ning’s Black Arrow Army and even held the position of a Scout Colonel, which is why he was appointed as the Commander of the Dragon Forbidden Captains.
He had an understanding of the military situation, and from the very formation of the Dragon Forbidden Captains, he was well aware of what the biggest problem facing this army was.
The new generation members of the Dragon Forbidden Captains had two most important characteristics.
One was their excessively high background, and the other was their excessively strong talents.
Imagine, in the cultivation of Ice Abyss, the importance of resources and talent is almost equal. To stand out from millions in Great Xia, none were simple characters.
Either like Luo An and Lu Yang, with astonishingly high backgrounds; or like Yuan Bai and Zhou Yalong, with outrageously high talent. These two characteristics resulted in the Dragon Forbidden Captains being almost universally arrogant, looking down on everyone, disregarding anyone, openly defying military orders was unlikely, but paying lip service and opposing in secret happened often.
Since the army was founded in March this year, Tie Xinchuan had been troubled about how to tame this group. He tried soft approaches, he tried hard approaches, none had any effect, leading him to consider resigning from his position as the Commander of the Dragon Forbidden Captains.