Longzang

Chapter 390 is only enough for one demonstration (thanks to the Golden Alliance).

Beyond the heavens, the mighty will remained silent for a moment. The other mighty wills withdrew their gaze and turned their attention elsewhere.

By this time, the Qingming troops had completed their assembly and were heading southwest. After Wei Yuan flew to join the troops, the entire army sped up and headed towards Mount Emei.

Mount Emei is over ten thousand li away from Qingming, located at the border between the mountain people and the witch tribe. Of the twenty thousand men Wei Yuan had assembled, five thousand were Dragon Wings, who were regular cavalry; the rest were mounted infantry. With the added advantage of the vast land, the army marched at an extremely fast pace, covering thousands of li in a day, and arrived at the outskirts of Mount Emei in three days.

Mount Emei is a small, relatively flat mountain range. Li Zhi was besieged on one of these hills and had been holding out for several days. Fortunately, the area was rainy and densely forested, so there was no shortage of water or building materials. Li Zhi built fortifications and held his ground, managing to hold out for a while.

This was Wei Yuan's first time facing the mountain people, so he deployed all his elite troops and dared not be careless. When they were about a hundred miles from Mount Emei, Wei Yuan slowed down his march, spread out his troops, and sent out scouts on both flanks to begin searching ahead.

Perhaps Wei Yuan arrived too quickly, or perhaps the mountain people were mainly on guard against reinforcements from the Zhenshan Boundary and the Zhao Kingdom, and there were no ambushes in Wei Yuan's direction, allowing Wei Yuan to advance his army straight to the mountain people's camp.

The sudden appearance of Wei Yuan's army caused panic among the mountain people. Sharp whistles rang out from the camp, and then large numbers of mountain people rushed out and formed ranks outside the camp.

Wei Yuan stood in the center of the army, gazing into the distance. At this moment, a light mist permeated the undulating slopes, and the gray-green aura above the mountain people's camp surrounded a small mountain in the center, eroding the military spirit on the mountain.

The hill was not high, and a simple fortification had been built on it. Despite being besieged for many days, the military spirit remained strong and unwavering, reaching a height of several tens of feet. Li Zhi's military spirit was a bright golden yellow, the aura of a true king, and its extraordinary nature was immediately apparent.

Looking at Li Zhi's military bearing, Wei Yuan was honestly a little envious, mainly because it was so dazzling and eye-catching. However, Li Zhi was of royal blood from the Southern Qi dynasty and was being groomed by the Four Saints Academy as the next generation of emperor. In the future, he would at least be a prince with a fiefdom, so he was of impeccable lineage and it was no problem for him to have the aura of a king.

If Wei Yuan dared to display this bright yellow aura of a king, the Prince of Jin would probably be the first to send troops to annihilate him.

Having observed the military's morale and knowing that Li Zhi was not worried for the time being, Wei Yuan then looked at the mountain people in front of the battle lines.

The mountain people are slightly shorter than humans, averaging only up to their shoulders, but they are strong and have incredibly long arms, allowing them to traverse mountains and valleys as if walking on flat ground. They generally wear leather armor adorned with steel plates and wield various high-quality steel weapons, including a large number of powerful crossbows. Their weaponry is in no way inferior to that of humans.

Wei Yuan had already reviewed the information about the mountain people before this trip. The mountain people are skilled in iron smelting and hunting, and they also raise and breed a variety of spirit beasts. In addition, there are mountain giants; a castrated version of a mountain giant once utterly defeated a group of new students from the Taichu Palace.

At this moment, the mountain people kept letting out howling battle cries, and several large brown bears covered in heavy armor appeared in the formation.

Wei Yuan immediately ordered a change of formation. The Longxiang Army was in front, with heavy shields erected, while the regular infantry were positioned on both flanks, and the Longyi cavalry seized the high ground next to them.

A scream erupted from the mountain people's ranks, and a large number of them charged forward, howling. The brown-furred war bear roared like thunder and quickly reached the forefront of the column. Behind it, the mountain people continuously fired arrows, showering wave after wave of arrows upon Wei Yuan's position.

Fortunately, these elite infantrymen were equipped with large shields and breastplates. The mountain people's crossbows were inferior to those of the Liao people, making it difficult for them to penetrate the one-piece breastplates. Even if they did, it wouldn't be fatal. A volley of arrows didn't cause Wei Yuan many casualties.

At this moment, the largest brown-furred war bear charging at the forefront had already reached within a hundred feet. Suddenly, a burst of gunfire rang out from Wei Yuan's army formation, and the giant bear abruptly halted its charge, blood blooming continuously on its body. It suddenly stood up, only to be repeatedly shot in the chest and abdomen, the blood almost staining its entire body red.

The brown creature possessed extremely tenacious vitality, continuing its charge forward despite the hail of bullets, before finally collapsing after charging for dozens of feet.

The fate of the other giant bears was similar; the furthest they charged in this deadly distance was only sixty zhang (approximately 33 meters). The charging mountain people were frequently knocked backward, some even blasted in two!

At close range, Qingming's bullets, equipped with new gunpowder, are more powerful than those of bows and crossbows; a single shot can often take away a mountain dweller's entire body.

The first rank of the Longxiang Army stood with their shields raised to repel the enemy, while the soldiers in the rear fired continuously through the gaps in the shields, their rate of fire reaching one shot per second. Meanwhile, Captain Daoji had completely replaced his rifles with new magazine-fed guns, which had an even faster rate of fire and extremely fierce firepower.

Within a mere hundred paces, the mountain people were slaughtered, their bodies strewn across the ground, suffering heavy casualties. The war bears were all killed. After paying such a heavy price, the remaining mountain people charged to the front lines and began hand-to-hand combat, only to discover that their opponents had fitted their muskets with bayonets. The long muskets, combined with the two-foot-long bayonets, made for a powerful thrust. The mountain people, already short and wielding curved swords, suffered heavy losses in the very first round.

As the two sides began to fight, Wei Yuan conjured up a vast landscape with a thought, which boosted the warriors' strength significantly. The casualties among the mountain people in the battle increased markedly, with many being stabbed to death.

Wei Yuan immediately scanned the area with his divine sense and discovered the location of the mountain people's central army. It wasn't difficult to find at all; apart from the banners, there were only two Dharma Images there.

Wei Yuan pointed to the sky, and Jade Mountain fell from the sky, crashing directly towards the two Dharma Aspects with incomparably fierce force!
The mountain people unleashed several spells on Jade Mountain, but they could not stop it in the slightest. At the last moment, they could only flee to both sides, watching helplessly as Jade Mountain crashed to the ground, creating a shallow crater a hundred feet in diameter, which killed all the thousands of mountain people within the crater.

Wei Yuan waved his hand and the Dragon Wing Cavalry began their charge, their spearhead cutting through the already dead-end central army and heading straight for the mountain people's camp!

At this moment, the morale of the Minghuang army on the hill also rose. When Li Zhi saw that reinforcements were coming, he also led his troops to attack.

With the support of the vast land and rivers, the five thousand Dragon Wing Iron Cavalry were invincible. Under the combined attack of Li Zhi from both inside and outside, the mountain people were defeated and abandoned their camp, fleeing to the mountains on both sides.

After breaking through the mountain people's camp, Wei Yuan and Li Zhi joined forces.

Li Zhi looked ashamed and said, "I was careless this time and fell into an ambush. Fortunately, you arrived quickly, otherwise, who knows when the Zhao reinforcements would have arrived, and the consequences would have been unimaginable."

Wei Yuan asked curiously, "With Brother Li's abilities, you couldn't even get reinforcements from Zhao?"

Li Zhi sighed, "I am of Southern Qi blood. Although I obtained this territory in exchange, the Prince of Zhao is certainly wary of me. Moreover, Empress Dowager Xiao does not intend to let me off so easily. She has already sent people to bribe the border generals. I'm already grateful that those generals don't interfere. How could I dare to expect them to send troops to my aid?"

Wei Yuan pointed forward and said, "We'll talk about these things later. Right now, the mountain people haven't been completely defeated yet. Let's wipe them out first."

At this moment, the fleeing mountain people all ran towards another large camp. The mountain warriors in the camp came out and formed ranks, and brought out dozens of brown-furred war bears to reinforce the ranks. As they advanced in formation, they gathered up the defeated troops. The two Dharma Images that Wei Yuan had driven away with a Jade Mountain Smash also reappeared and joined the Dharma Images in this large camp, making a total of five Dharma Images.

Li Zhi was also protected by two Dharma Aspect cultivators. Although the Dharma Aspects of ordinary mountain people were weaker than those of human Dharma Aspects, the difference in numbers between the two sides was too great, which is why Li Zhi was forced to hold his ground and wait for reinforcements.

Wei Yuan carefully observed the spirit of the mountain people's army and already had a clear understanding of the situation.

Li Zhi frowned slightly and said, "There are quite a few mountain people now, and we no longer have the advantage of surprise attack. My soldiers are also very tired. Why don't we retreat first?"

At this time, Li Zhi had only about four thousand soldiers left, almost all of them wounded. The continuous defense over the past few days had left them exhausted. Although their morale was still high, Wei Yuan could tell that it was only because Li Zhi's Dao Foundation had been forcibly raised by one level, and they did not actually have that much combat power.

When Li Zhi proposed to retreat, the two Dharma Ministers and several generals and officers behind him all breathed a sigh of relief, having lost all will to fight.

Wei Yuan replied, "The fact that the other side doesn't have any giants participating in the battle is a significant weakness. I've just thought about it carefully and I think defeating them shouldn't be too difficult. So, Brother Li, you lead your troops here to support me, and I'll demonstrate how to deal with the mountain people. The mountain people will be your main enemy in the future, so this might be of some help to you."

Li Zhi looked worried and said, "Then let my two guards lend you a hand."

The opposing mountain tribesmen had five Dharma Aspect cultivators, while Wei Yuan's army didn't even have one. Although Li Zhi knew that Wei Yuan's own strength was enough to defeat ordinary Dharma Aspect cultivators, the opposing side didn't have just one, but five. Therefore, Li Zhi planned to have two of his Dharma Aspect cultivators accompany Wei Yuan to protect him and resist the powerful cultivators on the other side.

Wei Yuan replied, "It's alright! The mountain people's Dharma forms are not strong enough to withstand a fight; a mere five can be ignored. Just watch closely; there are only seventy or eighty thousand troops on the other side, which is probably only enough for me to demonstrate once."

(End of this chapter)