In chaotic times, skill points are added: from hunter to martial saint, only killing and no mercy!

After the battle plan was finalized, everyone received their respective tasks, and the entire Yanmen Pass camp was immediately thrown into a flurry of activity.

At this time, only a few high-ranking military officers, including General Guan, Li Yi, and Song Jie, were present in the central army camp.

"I have planted an inside agent in the Qing Kingdom's army. We may also have our own inside agents sent by the Qing Kingdom."

General Guan looked at everyone and said, "The most crucial plan for this campaign is known only to you yourselves. You must ensure its secrecy!"

Soon, the group reached a general understanding of the battle strategy, while some detailed plans were confirmed by General Guan in individual conversations with the corresponding generals.

After a long while, Li Yi returned to his own camp from the central army camp with his mission assignment.

According to General Guan's plan, today is the day the Qing Kingdom's army runs out of food, and tomorrow the army will launch a full-scale attack the day after tomorrow.

At that time, the Qing Kingdom army, which had been without food for two or three days, would be in the most awkward situation.

Upon returning to the main camp, Li Yi summoned his officers and gave them instructions according to the tasks assigned by General Guan.

Now, Li Yi commands two battalions of elite troops, and including himself, he has four True Qi Realm martial artists. This force, placed on the battlefield of Yanmen Pass, is a decisive force that can influence the outcome of the battle!

Therefore, Li Yi's task is very important.

The somber atmosphere in the Yanmen Pass camp affected the entire Yanmen Pass region, and even the city of Yanmen Pass fell into silence.

The once bustling markets, with their caravans coming and going, now remain silently at home, awaiting the end of the war.

Although they were unaware of the Qing Kingdom's food shortage, they keenly sensed that a major battle was about to break out.

The next morning, Li Yi led five thousand soldiers and quietly left the Yanmen Pass area.

Since the Qing Kingdom reinforced its troops, the Chen Kingdom has also dispatched a considerable number of troops to support Yanmen Pass.

Normally, a large number of troops would come and go from the Yanmen Pass camp, so Li Yi and his men's departure did not attract any attention.

squeak~

A flash of snow-white light appeared, and the snow fox Lingxue emerged from a valley. After a few leaps, she landed on the neck of Red Hare, turned her head to look at Li Yi, and squeaked.

With the help of the [Demon Control] skill, Li Yi quickly understood Ling Xue's meaning.

There are traces of the Qing Kingdom's army in this valley.

Upon seeing this, Li Yi immediately ordered the entire army to change direction and avoid the scouts of the Qing Kingdom army.

With Lingxue's reconnaissance along the way, Li Yi led five thousand soldiers, avoiding the Qing Kingdom scouts scattered outside Yanmen Pass, and headed north.

When the moon was high in the sky, the group arrived near a vast canyon.

This area is a hilly region scattered with boulders, making it difficult to traverse and a natural military no-go zone for both Qing and Chen.

After all, no general would be foolish enough to lead a large army across desert hills.

But as the saying goes, yin cannot produce anything when it is isolated.

In this vast desert hilly area, there is an extremely wide canyon.

This canyon spans the desert, connecting the Qing Kingdom and the Chen Kingdom, which can greatly shorten the journey and eliminate the need to spend a lot of time bypassing the desert.

According to the scouts sent by General Guan, the elite troops of Qing Kingdom who had quietly withdrawn were taking this shortcut through the canyon to quickly return to Qing Kingdom.

Li Yi's mission was to lead 5,000 troops to hide in the side and wait for the Qing Kingdom's elite forces to withdraw before coordinating with the rest of the troops to surround and annihilate the Qing Kingdom's army in the canyon.

"According to intelligence, 15,000 elite Qing Kingdom troops will be withdrawing from here early tomorrow morning."

Li Yi looked at everyone, gave them some instructions, and then told them to hide in a valley three miles outside the canyon and wait for the right opportunity.

Upon receiving Li Yi's order, everyone lay down fully clothed to quickly recover the strength depleted from a day of rapid marching.

Time passed second by second, and when Li Yi awoke from his cultivation, a ray of dawn had already appeared on the horizon.

Officers Liu Ye and Han Jia had already arranged for the soldiers to eat dry rations and inspect their weapons.

"Lingxue, go ahead and gather intelligence on the military situation."

Li Yi woke up the snow fox that was resting in his military robe and ordered it to go and find out the whereabouts of the Qing Kingdom's army.

Ever since the evil cultivators of the Black Wind Sect spread the Spirit Transformation Powder, the entire Yanmen Pass area has long been overrun with demonic beasts.

Even if the Qing Kingdom's army discovered Ling Xue's whereabouts, they wouldn't think much of it, simply assuming he was a mindless monster being induced by the Spirit Transformation Powder and searching for prey to slaughter in the desert.

Moreover, Lingxue possesses the bloodline of a nine-tailed fox, making her not only adept at tracking and concealment but also possessing some talent for illusion. Unless a powerful martial artist intervenes, it would be difficult to detect Lingxue's presence.

Watching Lingxue disappear into the distance, Li Yi nodded slightly.

The monster was not mistakenly captured; it did indeed provide a great deal of assistance.

With that in mind, Li Yi turned his attention to Red Hare.

Now I have Red Hare for battle and Snow Fox Spirit Snow for intelligence gathering, but I'm still missing a demon beast.

Suddenly, Li Yi thought of a sentence.

With a yellow dog on the left and a falcon on the right, adorned in brocade hats and sable furs, a thousand horsemen swept across the plain.

The snow fox spirit can barely be considered "yellow," so it seems I need to contract another "blue" one!

In that instant, Li Yi thought of a powerful bird native to Yanmen Pass: the eagle!

Eagles are birds of prey in the sky, possessing not only aerial superiority but also formidable combat prowess!

It seems I need to be careful in the future, to find out where there are eagles at the demon beast realm.

As Li Yi was lost in thought, five thousand soldiers had already assembled, fully armed and awaiting Li Yi's orders.

Soon, Lingxue returned from afar and told Li Yi all the information she had gathered.

"The Qing Kingdom's army is currently two miles away. Let's set off!"

With the help of Lingxue's abilities and Li Yi's skills, the five thousand people advanced rapidly through the desert.

Before long, Li Yi saw the Qing Kingdom soldiers in the distance.

This Qing Kingdom army was well-equipped and rode strong warhorses, clearly a powerful force.

More importantly, according to the intelligence gathered by Lingxue, the number of troops in this army was exactly around 15,000, which was the same as the intelligence obtained by General Guan.

Seeing that the intelligence was accurate, Li Yi led his soldiers quietly to the outside of the canyon.

At this moment, 15,000 Qing Kingdom soldiers had already formed a long snake and entered the canyon, retreating towards the Qing Kingdom to the north.

"Sir, we've made contact with the troops lying in ambush on the other side!"

Li Tao, the captain of the personal guard, quietly approached Li Yi and told him the newly obtained intelligence.

Seeing that all the friendly forces participating in the battle had reached their designated positions, Li Yi felt reassured and silently stared at the Qing Kingdom soldiers below.

"Go tell them to move in fifteen minutes!"

As a senior general with 5,000 elite troops under his command, Li Yi was the highest-ranking commander present when General Guan was absent.

As a True Qi Realm martial artist, Li Tao possesses exceptional speed and strength, making it difficult for ordinary martial artists to detect his presence. Therefore, he is the most suitable person to act as a messenger at this time.

Chapter 10

As time goes by, a quarter of an hour passes in the blink of an eye.

Seeing that the time had come, Li Yi roared, stood up, drew his bow and nocked an arrow. Five arrows flew out of the bowstring in an instant, heading straight for the Qing Kingdom army in the canyon.

pat!

pat!

With a few soft sounds, several Qing Kingdom centurions on horseback were shot dead by Li Yi.

As Li Yi took action, his two thousand archers immediately drew their bows and unleashed wave after wave of arrows, slaughtering the Qing Kingdom soldiers in the valley below.

"Raise your shields! Defend!"

Caught off guard by this sudden attack, the Qing Kingdom army, which was marching in the canyon below, disregarded everything else and, under the command of their officers, raised their shields above their heads to defend against the rain of arrows falling from above.

However, the two thousand archers of the Wind Tiger Camp were elites personally trained and trained by Li Yi. They were full of sharpshooters, each with remarkable skills in archery.

Combined with the advantage of distance and angle, the rain of arrows fired by two thousand archers from above the canyon easily tore through the shield formation of the Qing Kingdom army.

With two or three waves of arrows raining down, two or three thousand Qing Kingdom soldiers lost their lives.

Thousands more soldiers were wounded by iron arrows, more or less.

"Hurry! Everyone up ahead, speed up!"

"Archers, return fire!"

"Swordsmen and shieldmen, keep your formation intact!"

Several Qing Kingdom commanders rode their warhorses through the canyon, directing their soldiers to deal with Li Yi's surprise attack.

Just as Li Yi's Wind Tiger Battalion archers launched a surprise attack, another unit emerged from the hillside opposite the canyon, responding to Li Yi's call.

Seeing this, Li Yi temporarily handed over command to Liu Ye, while he himself drew his bow and shot arrows, taking down the Qing Kingdom's centurion who was commanding in the canyon from a distance.

At the same time, the sound of horses' hooves could be heard in the distance.

Upon hearing this, Li Yi immediately understood that Song Jie was leading four thousand heavy cavalry to block the exit of the canyon.

Seeing this, Li Yi no longer hesitated and shouted directly:

"Han Jia, charge!"

Upon receiving Li Yi's order, Han Jia, clad in heavy armor, slightly twisted his neck, then picked up his nine-ringed broadsword and headed straight for the entrance to the canyon.

Behind him, two thousand elite infantrymen of the Polu Camp roared and waved their weapons, following closely behind Han Jia's steps, blocking the exit of the canyon.

In an instant, the entire canyon was blocked by Li Yi and the Chen army, forming a pocket.

What was in his pocket were the 15,000 elite troops that the Qing Kingdom had withdrawn from.

According to intelligence, these 15,000 Qing soldiers were the elite of the Qing Kingdom and far more important than ordinary soldiers.

In order to annihilate it, General Guan personally took command and appointed Song Jie, Li Yi, and others to completely defeat it.

Li Yi's 5,000 troops, Song Jie's 4,000 heavy cavalry, plus the 5,000 Guan-character battalion personally led by General Guan, and several thousand combat soldiers.

In this ambush, General Guan dispatched 20,000 elite troops.

As for the rest of the Yanmen Pass army, they were following General Guan's instructions to attack and kill Qing Kingdom soldiers in various places, thus diverting the attention of the Qing Kingdom's commander.

"Kill one person, and you'll be rewarded with five taels of silver!"

Li Yi continuously encouraged his soldiers, shouting out the order to bestow rewards upon them.

The already high-spirited army, upon hearing these words, became even more energized, unleashing arrow after arrow that reaped the terrified Qing Kingdom army.

On both sides of the canyon, the battle was even more one-sided.

Han Jia brandished his broadsword, cleaving through the shields of Qing soldiers with each strike. Behind him, the soldiers unleashed the [Zhenqiang Breaking Mountain Spear], completely suppressing the Qing army's counterattack.

As time went by, Qing soldiers died one after another, and their ranks shrank. Meanwhile, Han Jia and his men had already led their troops into the canyon.

"I never expected that these Qing Kingdom troops would be so easily defeated."

"It seems that the food shortage in Qing Kingdom is more serious than we thought. Even the elite troops are so hungry that they have lost their fighting ability."

Looking at the shrinking Qing Kingdom army beneath him, Liu Ye was momentarily at a loss for words.

As a core general under Li Yi, he often led cavalry to pursue the Qing Kingdom's army and was very familiar with the elite fighting force of the Qing Kingdom's army.

In the canyon, apart from the crazed Han Jia, Song Jie had already led his heavy cavalry battalion into the canyon, while the Guan battalion on the opposite side, under General Guan's command, also rushed into the canyon through the side gate.

"Sir, shouldn't we go in too?"

The State of Chen practiced a merit-based military system, and the proof of these merits was the heads of enemy soldiers.

If they arrive late, and the other units steal too many heads and take away most of the credit, then the Wind Tiger Battalion will suffer a loss.

Moreover, these Qing Kingdom soldiers are elite, and their armor and weapons are worth a lot of money. The sooner we go into the canyon, the more loot we can grab.

Hearing his subordinates' advice, Li Yi frowned.

"Didn't you notice anything wrong?"

Hearing Li Yi's question, Liu Ye was slightly taken aback.

"Something's not right? I haven't noticed anything amiss."

Looking at the elite Wind Tiger Battalion behind him, eager to rush into the canyon to divide the spoils and military merits, Li Yi suddenly had a flash of inspiration and immediately realized that something was wrong.

"Combat strength!"

"These elite Qing Kingdom troops are not up to par!"

"No matter how severe the food shortage, as an elite unit, its combat effectiveness couldn't have dropped this quickly!"

To be fair, if Li Yi were the commander of the Qing Kingdom, he would have prioritized supplying provisions to the elite troops under these circumstances to ensure their combat effectiveness.

As for ordinary soldiers and auxiliary troops, they can starve to death if they want; as long as the elite troops can be preserved, it's not a loss.

General Guan shared the same idea as Li Yi, which is why he dispatched all his elite troops and even personally led the attack, aiming to annihilate the retreating elite forces of the Qing Kingdom.

However, in less than a quarter of an hour, these 15,000 elite Qing Kingdom troops were routed, with most of them killed in battle!

Upon thinking of this, a terrifying idea suddenly popped into Li Yi's mind.

This is a trap!

These 15,000 soldiers were bait sent by the Qing Kingdom!

"Quickly, quickly! Issue the order for Han Jia, Song Jie, and the others to retreat immediately. Don't stay in the canyon any longer!"

"Wind Tiger Battalion, immediately go on alert and provide support to friendly forces!"

Sensing something was wrong, Li Yi quickly reminded General Guan and Song Jie, and also instructed Liu Ye to lead the cavalry to prepare for any possible enemy attack.

On the opposite side of the canyon, the Guanzi Battalion, which was rushing into the canyon, had already seen the flag signal sent by Li Yi.

"This is bait! Danger!"

General Guan, having already sensed something was amiss upon seeing the flag signals sent by Li Yi, instantly understood the key point and immediately ordered the Guan Battalion to withdraw.

In the rush, the Guan Battalion was swept up by the other soldiers and briefly fell into chaos.

Meanwhile, in the canyon, Han Jia, who was engrossed in the battle, noticed Li Yi's order after being reminded by his guards.

"Brother Yi has ordered the troops to withdraw!"

Han Jia had always obeyed Li Yi's orders, and now that Li Yi had given the order, he quickly led the Polu Camp soldiers to prepare to withdraw from the canyon.

On the other side, Song Jie also noticed Li Yi's reminder.

Starting from Blackstone Town, Song Jie watched Li Yi repeatedly achieve military merits and climb step by step to his current position.

Therefore, he also highly recognized Li Yi's keen sense of war.

In fact, it was Song Jie who first coined the nickname "God of Slaughter Li"!

"Withdraw! Withdraw! Withdraw!"

Song Jie quickly turned his horse around, preparing to lead the heavy cavalry out of the canyon.

In an instant, the Chen army, which had been roaring and brandishing its swords at the Qing soldiers, suddenly reversed its formation and retreated out of the canyon.

However, just as all the troops turned to retreat at Li Yi's reminder, they saw soldiers suddenly rushing out from the Qing Kingdom army that was being suppressed and slaughtered, rushing towards Han Jia and his retreating group.

"roll!"

Seeing this, Han Jia roared and slashed out with his nine-ringed broadsword, preparing to kill the Qing Kingdom soldier who was charging forward.

when!

A crisp sound startled Han Jia slightly.

To his surprise, the Qing soldiers in front of him actually blocked his attack!

For a moment, Han Jia was completely taken aback.

You must know that he is a True Qi Realm martial artist with innate superhuman strength. Even a casual strike from him is something that these ordinary Qing Kingdom soldiers, who are being used as bait, cannot withstand.

Before Han Jia could react, the soldiers who rushed out from the Qing Kingdom army brandished their weapons and entangled Han Jia and his men who were about to retreat.

Standing on the canyon, Li Yi saw this scene and his eyes narrowed instinctively.

"This is the fighting force that the elite troops of the Qing Kingdom should have!"

These elite Qing soldiers, hidden among ordinary soldiers, were there to delay the Chen army that had entered the canyon after the trap was discovered!

Entangled by these Qing Kingdom troops, Han Jia and his group were unable to escape and were firmly trapped in the canyon.

Having taken in all the details, Li Yi scanned the surroundings of the canyon and quickly shouted:

"Archers, target outside the canyon!"

"But if anything is amiss, fire directly!"

On the other side of the canyon, General Guan also realized this and was directing the Guan Battalion and the remaining soldiers, who were still outside the canyon, to turn around and form a military formation facing the desert outside the canyon.

In a short while, troops from the Qing Kingdom rushed out from all directions and surrounded Li Yi and his group.

At a glance, the number of these Qing Kingdom troops who rushed out was as high as 25,000!

Including the Qing Kingdom army in the canyon, there are more than 30,000 Qing Kingdom soldiers here who still retain their fighting strength!

On Li Yi's side, however, there were only 20,000 men, more than half of whom were entangled in the canyon.

With the arrival of these 25,000 Qing Kingdom troops, a completely new encirclement was formed.

Among the Qing Kingdom's army, a banner bearing the character "Shen" stood prominently in the center.

"Haha! General Guan, what are you going to do now?"

A middle-aged general rode out from the army and threw a severed head towards General Guan.

General Guan, who was being protected in the middle by the Guan Battalion, looked down and his eyes narrowed instantly.

Shen Bai, the commander of the Qing Kingdom, looked at General Guan, whose expression had changed drastically, and sneered:

"You don't actually think that by planting an informant by my side, you can wipe me out, do you?"

"To be honest, from the very first day this kid joined my Shen family, I knew he was someone you planted!"

"For the past ten years, I've been nurturing him, providing him with all sorts of resources, and making him a cavalry captain—all to lull you into a false sense of security!"

"This is the day we've been waiting for!!"

After entering the True Qi Realm, a martial artist's physical attributes will be greatly enhanced.

Therefore, even from hundreds of meters away, Li Yi recognized at a glance that the head thrown out by Shen Bai, the commander of the Qing Kingdom, was Shen Xinghui!

This man was once a Qing Kingdom cavalry captain who, together with Li Yi, annihilated three thousand Xiongnu vanguard troops outside Yanmen Pass.

It was thanks to the intelligence provided by Shen Xinghui that Li Yi was able to uproot the Wang and Zhao families, and even turn the Zhao family's land into the Fenghu Village of today!

Looking at Shen Xinghui's head, Li Yi sighed slightly. Some of the questions he had been wondering about before were now completely answered.

It was precisely because Shen Xinghui was an inside agent sent by General Guan that he was willing to help him several times.

Perhaps because his plan had achieved its intended effect, or perhaps because he saw his old rival, with whom he had fought for many years, surrounded by him, Shen Bai became more talkative, his tone full of smugness.

"Don't blame me for being ruthless. Here's what we'll do: surrender and let your soldiers give up resistance."

"I can put in a good word for you with His Majesty, and you'll be granted a high-ranking position and generous salary in my Qing Kingdom's court!"

Shen Bai laughed triumphantly and directly tried to persuade General Guan to surrender.

For a moment, the hearts of all the Chen soldiers near the canyon sank, and they subconsciously looked at General Guan.

Faced with Shen Bai's offer of recruitment, General Guan snorted coldly and looked disdainfully at a black-robed man beside Shen Bai.

"The Black Wind Sect spread Spirit Transformation Powder in the Yanmen Pass area, causing the people to suffer from attacks by strange beasts and committing endless killings."

"I, Guan, may not consider myself a gentleman or saint, but I disdain associating with such a depraved person!"

"If you want military merit, then do it yourself!"

The verbal battle between General Guan and Shen Bai quickly made Li Yi understand the cause and effect.

It turned out that after the Qing Kingdom's camp was attacked by the beast tide and all its food supplies were destroyed, Shen Bai, realizing that the situation was hopeless, took advantage of the situation and used General Guan's inside man, Shen Xinghui, to spread the message that he would secretly send the elite troops back to the Qing Kingdom.

He had anticipated that General Guan would lead a raid on the retreating troops, so he disguised 10,000 auxiliary soldiers as elite troops and, led by 5,000 combat soldiers, sent them to this canyon to act as bait.

He himself led his true elite troops, cooperating with the evil cultivators of the Black Wind Sect, and used the Black Wind Sect's many secret techniques to hide 25,000 elite troops in the desert, waiting for General Guan to walk into the trap.

Seeing that General Guan had rejected his offer to surrender, Shen Bai was not angry.

Now that he had successfully turned the tables and set up an ambush, General Guan was trapped like a turtle in a jar. Once he defeated the 20,000 elite troops of the Chen Kingdom, the entire Yanmen Pass would be completely in his hands.

With the replenishment of grain and fodder from Yanmen Pass, not only will we not have to retreat, but we can also use Yanmen Pass as a base to continue our advance into the territory of Chen!

Upon thinking of this, Shen Bai, the commander of the Qing Kingdom, was extremely excited.

"Elder Tian, ​​since General Guan is unwilling to accept the goodwill of our Qing Kingdom, let's teach him a lesson!"

Shen Bai spoke to one of the evil cultivators from the Black Wind Sect beside him.

Upon hearing this, Elder Tian of the Black Wind Sect nodded slightly.

Immediately, 25,000 elite Qing Kingdom troops launched an offensive, while the Black Wind Sect evil cultivators hidden within the Qing Kingdom army also used various methods to suppress the Chen Kingdom army.