Great Zhou Wensheng

Chapter 146 [Iron Horses and Icy Rivers Enter My Dreams]! Mingzhou Summons War Poems!
Ao Li lurked atop the waves of the demon army, his dragon eyes narrowing to needles.

It clearly saw—

On the desolate embankment, in front of the commander's camp, only the figure of the young man in the blue robe stood alone.

The night wind lifted the hem of his clothes, making him appear so frail in the face of the towering, monstrous waves.

A hundred feet behind Jiang Xingzhou, the moonlight swept across the dark part of the dike, where countless armors gleamed coldly, seemingly tens of thousands of naval forces like lurking ferocious beasts, yet they remained motionless.

Upon seeing this, Ao Li immediately understood—

Jiang Xingzhou was using himself as bait to set up layers of ambushes at Taipu Gate.

"Jiang Xingzhou!

You're so arrogant!
Using yourself as bait, do you really think my army can't break through this thousand feet? We can't kill you!
It's only a mere thousand feet!

Even if you have tens of thousands of naval troops behind you, they can't save you!

Ao Li's whiskers bristled, and his roar shattered several wave crests:
The lake surface exploded with a hundred-foot-long spray of water, and dozens of demon generals led the vanguard, charging forward another hundred feet!
Their scales and claws tore through the air, leaving a trail of dark shadows behind them.

Just need to push another seven or eight hundred feet—

This arrogant human youth, the number one genius scholar in Jiangnan, will be turned into mincemeat under the claws of their demon generals!

"The demon army has landed! Aren't we going to make a move?"

Lu Ming stared intently at the demon army surging onto the embankment, his knuckles clenched so tightly they turned white, barely able to suppress the surging fighting spirit within him.

"crossbow!"

"Armor shields and halberds, prepare!"

In the shadows of the dam, the suppressed growls of countless naval soldiers rolled like muffled thunder.

Hundreds of naval commanders had bloodshot eyes, their swords already drawn three inches from their sheaths, the cold light reflecting off their tense faces.

But the governor stopped them by raising his hand.

"wait!

Awaiting Jiang Lang's command, the banner flies high!

Wei Guanlan remained motionless, only a drop of cold sweat quietly dripped from his temple into his nail.

This decisive battle
Whether Jiang Xingzhou can lure the 40,000 demon troops of the Taihu Demon Court ashore depends entirely on this one move, and he can achieve his goal in one battle.

We must wait for them to come ashore!
Having entrusted Jiang Xingzhou with the command of the army's attack, he would never overstep his bounds!
Wei Guanlan saw—

"Ao Li!"

Jiang Xingzhou smiled faintly, and instead of retreating, he took a step forward, his green robe suddenly fluttering without any wind.

"Tonight, I will let you know..."
What does it mean to be able to hold off ten thousand demons?

—[The Stormy Night]!

The young man unfurled a scroll with a flick of his sleeve, his brush suddenly turning, a glimmer of starlight appearing, instantly illuminating the thousand-foot embankment, each word like a sword, each sound like thunder.

The moment the last word was uttered, Taihu Lake suddenly froze!
Jiang Xingzhou's pen moved like lightning, and two lines of poetry fell from the scroll. Before the ink was even dry, heaven and earth seemed to respond!
"[Lying stiffly in a lonely village, I do not grieve for myself,]"

He still longed to defend the frontier for his country.

In an instant,
"boom--!"

The clear sky suddenly cracked.

A bolt of lightning pierced the heavens!
in an instant,
Dark clouds loomed over the city, a fierce wind howled, and torrential rain poured down like a celestial river.

For dozens of miles around, the sky and earth were shrouded in a gloomy, leaden darkness. Thunder snakes danced wildly, and lightning tore through the night, turning the entire Taihu Lake a ghastly white.

A sense of tragedy, sorrow, and desolation swept through the wind and rain, each word like a knife, etched into the very marrow of everyone.

"[Lying stiffly in a lonely village, I do not grieve for myself!]"

He still longed to defend the frontier for his country!

The 100,000-strong navy of Jiangnan Province gripped their long spears tightly, while tens of thousands of students from the ten prefectures of Jiangnan clutched their books. They recited poems and essays, gazing at the lone boat sailing on the riverbank, their eyes filled with tears that mingled with the rain.

"Brother Jiang, what a broad and open-minded heart you have! You have given your all to the country and your family!"

"Only someone as courageous as Brother Jiang would dare to use himself as bait to face Ao Li's 40,000-strong demon army of Taihu Lake!"

These fourteen characters fully express the resolute determination to rush to the battlefield and die on the battlefield, and vividly depict the lone courage to defend the country at the frontier!

A pale white lightning bolt struck down.
It illuminated Jiang Xingzhou's cold and iron-like face.

His blue robe fluttered in the wind, his hand holding the pen was as steady as a rock, but his eyes burned with a raging fire.

The poem is half finished.
The heaven and earth shook!

"not good!"

The demon king Ao Li sensed something was wrong; his dragon scales stood on end, and he looked up in horror.
Such terrifying wind and rain are difficult for even the dragon clan to trigger!
It stared at the churning thunderclouds and roared, "This is a war poem of wind and rain!"
Kill the entire army for me!

Whoever takes the head of Jiang Xingzhou will be rewarded with three drops of dragon blood! He will be bestowed the title of Demon General or Demon Commander!

It knew that Jiang Xingzhou's poems would surely make him famous throughout the region.
How powerful is a poem or prose piece of the [Mingzhou] level? Even a traitor like Fei Wuxin, the Palace Master of Wuxin Palace, couldn't withstand its power!
Ao Li roared, and with a wave of his dragon claw, tens of thousands of demon soldiers and generals rushed towards the dam seven hundred feet away like madmen.

"kill--!"

"Kill Jiang Xingzhou and appoint him as the Demon General!"

Ao Li's bounty was like blood food thrown into a wolf pack, and the Taihu demon army instantly boiled over!

The shrimp soldiers' red eyes bulged out, and their segmented limbs scraped sparks off the embankment.
The crab opened and closed its giant claws, and demonic energy condensed into blood-red patterns on its shell.
The turtle demon, carrying a heavy carapace, ran wildly on all fours, letting out a dying beast's roar.

Three drops of dragon's true blood!

This is enough to transform a lowly demon soldier into a general overnight, and allow an ordinary demon general to rise to the position of commander!
Countless aquatic demon soldiers have fought for centuries, devouring the corpses of their own kind to cultivate, yet they may not be able to achieve such a fortune.

Now, the path to heaven rests on the shoulders of that young scholar who wields his pen!

"Roar--"

A blue-armored crab was the first to break through the rain, its claws carrying a fishy smell, and rushed to a point 600 feet away from Jiang Xingzhou.

It seemed to already see itself donning the demon general's scales and armor, commanding a horde of demons in its majestic glory.

Jiang Xingzhou glanced indifferently at the demon army that had already rushed onto the embankment and were 600 feet away. He took a deep breath and wielded his brush with lightning speed.

"[Lying awake at night, I listen to the wind and rain]"
Iron horses and icy rivers come to me in my dreams.

Instant,

The strokes of the pen startled wind and rain!
The poem is complete!

—[Mingzhou]-level War Call to Arms!

The scroll of poems about the war in Mingzhou in Jiang Xingzhou's hand has transformed into a precious literary treasure, shining brightly!
"Boom--!"

Dark clouds rolled in, and a torrential downpour began!

"Crack——!"

Frost cracked and spread beneath Jiang Xingzhou's feet, and a blue icy river roared forward.

Wherever it passed, the river froze, the waves beneath the surface turned into floating ice, and even the churning mist was frozen into frost. It was like an ancient glacial river!

"Ice rain!"

The torrential rain falling from the sky suddenly stopped, and every drop of water froze into sharp icicles in mid-air.

"Crackling"

It hit the glacier.

A thousand-foot-deep icy river cuts across the dam, and the battle situation changes drastically!

The demon soldiers and generals rushing towards Jiang Xingzhou at full speed turned pale with horror.

To their horror, they discovered that the dam beneath their feet had turned into a thousand-foot-deep glacier, the ground was frozen solid, and smooth ice blocks were everywhere.

The smooth, mirror-like ice surface reflected a chilling light, making the countless distorted, demonic faces appear even more ferocious.

The problem is, they are water sprites!

It's not an ice demon!

The thousands of shrimp soldiers and crab generals charging at the forefront of the icy river suddenly lost their speed—

"Chiliu——"

A green-shelled shrimp soldier thrashed about with its six legs, leaving messy marks on the slippery ice, before finally crashing "bang" into its companion's hard shell. The eight-legged crab's proud sideways gait became its fatal flaw; its eight legs acted independently, leaping and clawing haphazardly across the ice in a comical death throes.

The worst off were the turtle demons. Their heavy shells became a burden, causing them to spin and slide across the ice. The demon soldiers behind them crashed into them, causing them to fall over.

The icy rain was like cones!

"Crack!"

A several-foot-long icicle fell from the sky, stringing together a stack of shrimp soldiers like candied hawthorns.

More ice cones followed, blooming into crimson ice flowers on the glacier.

Countless ice spikes fell like divine punishment, pinning the weakest demon soldiers who were charging desperately to the icy river.

One of the blue-armored crab soldiers was still in the posture of waving its claws, but its throat had been sealed by a foot of ice, and its bulging compound eyes were still frozen with unbelievable terror.

Ao Li's bounty still echoed, but those frenzied roars had now all turned into sobs beneath the glacier.

The surging demon army was now only five hundred feet away from Jiang Xingzhou.

However, the originally wave-like, well-organized demon army formation...
Like collapsing city walls, they collided with each other, creating chaos on the icy river. Countless shrimp soldiers and crab generals, claws and teeth flailing wildly, slid wherever they could on the ice!

The demon soldiers and generals in the second and third rows behind were still desperately charging forward, crashing into the demon soldiers in the front row!
"Woo——"

On the frozen river, the sound of iron hooves suddenly rang out!
But then, a thousand riders in black armor, as dark as ink, emerged from the icy mist of the frozen river, treading on the ice.

Warhorses, clad in armor, their iron hooves shattering ice crystals;
The knight held a spear, his mask concealing a chilling intent.

—Ice River Cavalry!
Summoned by the war poems of Mingzhou!

The entire glacial cavalry was completely silent, except for the cracking sound of ice breaking under their iron hooves, like the sound of death sharpening its blade.

They lined up on the frozen river in front of Jiang Xingzhou, facing death as if it were life.

"kill--!"

The general's mask suddenly lit up with two crimson dots, and his long spear pointed directly at the demon formation.

"Boom!"

A thousand cavalrymen moved out in unison!

The glacier trembled, and the iron hooves thundered.

The black-armored torrent swept across the ice surface, shattering ice crystals wherever it passed, and sending waves of icy air surging forth.

Before the demon soldiers, still struggling on the ice, could even stand firm, death was already upon them—the general swung his halberd across their throats.

"boom!"

The moment the two armies clashed, the glacier exploded into a hundred-foot-high cloud of icy mist!

The iron cavalry charged with overwhelming force, and wherever their long spears pointed, the shrimp soldiers and crab generals fell like waves of wheat.

The icicle-like blades easily pierced through the demon armor, and the iron hooves crushed the tortoise shell into pieces.

The frozen blue-armored crab soldier, along with the solid ice that bound it, was crushed by a rider and turned into a pile of ice shards!
"boom--!"

The moment the two armies clashed was like the ultimate showdown between a cold tide and a raging torrent!
A thousand riders in black armor, like wedges, fiercely pierced the vanguard of the forty thousand demon army's formation.

The glacier cavalry sped across the smooth, mirror-like surface of the river, each rider seemingly one with the ice, their long spears sweeping across the water and creating whirlwinds of ice crystals.

Meanwhile, tens of thousands of shrimp soldiers and crab generals on the opposite side could hardly move an inch in this frigid battlefield—

The shrimp soldiers at the very front were in complete chaos, their slender limbs constantly slipping on the ice, resembling overturned stick insects.

Ao Li, amidst the demon army, watched with eyes wide with rage—his 40,000 demon troops were being held back on the dam by this icy river and a thousand armored cavalry!

In the shadows of the embankment, ten thousand students on Jiangnan Road held their breath, their eyes reflecting the icy iron cavalry that had swept away the demon army.

Their faces were excited and their expressions were high.

Holding the sword, Tang Yanqing was completely absorbed, only murmuring, "Using poetry as weapons, and wind and rain as battle formations. This is the true [Mingzhou] level, the poetry of wind, rain, ice, and war!"

"more than!"

Zhu Hezhi's fingertips trembled as he traced the still-dissipating battle poem runes in the void: "'Iron horses and icy rivers enter my dreams' This line can actually transform talent into real weapons, this is a summoning poem!"

"Look at those cavalry—they're all elite soldiers, each possessing the talent of a Mingzhou-level general! They're worth ten men each, truly top-tier elites!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw black-armored knights charging forward.

On the ice surface trampled by the iron cavalry, faint golden lines of poetry appeared, each character deeply embedded in the ice layer as if carved by a knife and axe.

"The poem, once completed, will resonate throughout the state!"

Tang Yanqing's Adam's apple bobbed, unable to contain his excitement, "Such a magnificent vision is something we can hardly hope to achieve in our entire lives!"

"kill!"

Seeing that the demon army was in chaos, Jiang Xingzhou stood on the embankment and immediately waved his command flag, which suddenly fell to the ground!

On both sides of the Taipu Sluice, Prefect Wei Guanlan suddenly drew his sword and roared, "Demon-Slaying Crossbow—Fire!"

Fifty thousand naval soldiers, who had been lying in ambush here, raised their crossbows and fired from the arrow towers on both banks.

"—Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!"

A rain of arrows wove together into a net!

in an instant,
A rain of arrows swept across the icy river, pinning the demon army struggling in disarray on the banks and dikes like pincushions.

Countless arrows fell into the demon horde, exploding into blood lotuses that reflected on the ice surface like blood jade.

"Come on!"

Tens of thousands of armored soldiers, armed with swords, shields, and spears, who had been lying in ambush in the dark of the dike, charged toward the demon army.

“Boom! Boom! Boom—!”

The war drums shook the heavens.

At the same time, 50,000 naval warships raised their battle flags and attacked the demon army from behind—to prevent the demon army that had rushed ashore from escaping back to Taihu Lake.

The heavy crossbows on the eight hundred warships hummed and tightened, their arrows gleaming coldly as they aimed directly at the flanks of the demon army.
Thousands of warships cleaved through the waves, their prows gleaming with a chilling blue light.

"what--!"

A fierce, roaring dragon shattered the clouds, its golden eyes reflecting the utterly routed demon army—

On the dam, a thousand glacial cavalrymen crushed the demon formation like a meat grinder, while fifty thousand naval troops rained down arrows.
Tens of thousands of naval soldiers, densely packed together, began to fight the demon army.

In the middle of Taihu Lake, 50,000 naval warships were arrayed like a wall, and crossbow bolts rained down from behind.

Its 40,000 demon troops were now like trapped beasts, unable to advance or retreat at the Taipu Sluice Gate dam!

"Jiang Xingzhou! I swear I will kill you!!"

With a deafening roar, Ao Li's entire body was covered in dragon scales, each scale emitting a blinding blood-red light.

Just as it was about to swoop down and attack Jiang Xingzhou in his desperate moment—

"You wicked dragon, prepare to die!"

A streak of azure light pierced through the sky!

Governor Wei Guanlan stepped on his sword in mid-air, his official robes fluttering like the wings of an eagle. The three-foot-long green sword in his hand suddenly transformed into a hundred-foot-long sword beam, and he slashed down with one sword!
"Pfft!"

Dragon blood spills across the sky!

Ao Li's half-severed dragon arm snapped off with a thud. It roared in pain as it twisted its hundred-foot-long body, its shattered scales falling in a shower of blood.

"Brother Ao, let's go quickly!"
Escape back to the Dragon Palace of the East Sea!

As long as the green hills remain, there's no worry about running out of firewood!

Bai E Hou transformed into a streak of silver light and soared into the sky, his tiger claw demon blade taking the brunt of Wei Guanlan's second sword strike, scattering sparks everywhere.

"go!"

The Royal Fish Demon General flicked its tail fin, creating a hundred-foot-high turbid wave that obscured the view.

They allowed hundreds of demon generals, tens of thousands of demon soldiers, and 100,000 human naval troops to fight each other.

The Taihu Lake demon army suffered a complete rout.

The Taihu Demon Court is finished. All the demon soldiers and generals they have accumulated over decades have been lost in this battle!
"Whoosh—!"

Deep in Taihu Lake, only a few blood-red shadows remained. Under the protection of Demon Lord Bai'e Hou, Huangyu Demon Commander, and others, Demon King Ao Li broke through the weak point of the encirclement of 100,000 naval troops and fled in panic towards the East Sea. The blood of the dragons he spilled along the way stained the lake water scarlet.

(End of this chapter)