Chapter 348: A Brilliant Feat
Fang Zhengzhi had experienced walking along and finding some coins on the floor. However, walking along and finding an empty settlement...
Wasn’t this a little extreme?
Fang Zhengzhi felt that the world in front of him was filled with spinning question marks.
Is there something wrong with the intelligence given by the Thunder Light Settlement Chief?
That isn’t very possible. The settlement had seen my Cyan Stone Token. He had even admitted his own identity, wasn’t giving him false information a little too unethical?
Fang Zhengzhi felt that this possibility wasn’t very big. However, the Thunderous Lion Settlement in front of him was indeed an empty settlement. Furthermore, there wasn’t even a guard at the settlement gate in sight.
Could this be the legendary Stratagem of the Empty City?
That didn’t make sense.
He didn’t even plan to attack the settlement, what was the point of employing the Stratagem of the Empty City?
Fang Zhengzhi was very puzzled. Picking up something so beneficial to him for no reason caused him to feel a faint sense of sadness. There was completely no sense of achievement.
As the largest settlement among the six main settlements in the Southern Mountain Range other than the Sagely Mountain City, the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement wasn’t something those small settlements like the Thunder Light Settlement could compare to.
The geography of the Southern Mountain Range was extremely unique.
It was filled with dense forests, tall mountains and fearsome beasts, resulting in a huge danger - the safety of humans.
What were the consequences of a world without a sense of safety?
Naturally it would be panic and crime. However, this didn’t happen in the Southern Mountain Range. Because, the Southern Mountain Range had seven safe havens.
That was the six main settlements and the Sagely Mountain City.
These were locations that generations of Southern Mountain City kings had painstakingly built up and established, locations where the citizens of the Southern Mountain Range pinned their hopes upon.
It was because of these seven locations that the citizens of the Southern Mountain Range would be willing to live in such a densely forested and mountainous area, multiplying and thriving across generations.
If the architecture of the Thunder Light Settlement was like a small mountain village in the forests.
Then, the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement was like a humongous war fortress leaning against a towering cliff with huge chasms dug around it on the other three sides. Five meters high of green stone filled the entire area behind the chasms, with thorns sticking out everywhere on the green stones. The bottom of this formation was all stones, while on top, there were even small holes for shooting arrows.
The use of these holes naturally doesn’t require much explanation, specially designed for the archers to shoot. There were a total of three layers.
When Fang Zhengzhi saw the Thunderous Lion Settlement for the first time, he only had one thought. How was this any similar to the small mountain village he had seen. This was simply a huge metal bucket.
When he realised that he had been thinking whether to personally lead the five hundred Silver Horned Wolf Cavalries to forcefully attack the city and occupy a main settlement for the fun of it.
He felt somewhat ashamed and embarrassed.
If the five hundred Silver Horned Wolf Cavalries were used to launch an ambush in the dense forests, or charge out in a quick attack, these were definitely not a problem. Even attacking a small settlement could be accomplished with ease.
However, if it was used to attack this "huge metal bucket", the loss would definitely be tremendous.
The Southern Mountain Range...
Fang Zhengzhi looked at the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement and suddenly felt a slight curiosity about the King’s Capital, Sagely Mountain City, for the first time. If the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement could be constructed as such, then what would the Sagely Mountain City look like?
The rest of the matter was simple.
First, Fang Zhengzhi called Teng Shisheng to enter the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement with him, then, asked Teng Shisheng to locate the main settlement chief of the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement, finding out intelligence after flashing the Cyan Stone Token.
"Sending his troops to block off Wu Feng’s two paths flanking?" After Fang Zhengzhi heard the main settlement chief’s explanation, a faint smile formed on his lips.
Not bad!
Familiar with military tactics!
If he had led the army himself, there was a fifty percent chance that he would use the same tactic. As the saying went, seeking richness and honor required dangers and risks. How could one obtain first in the combat examination without taking any risks?
A good general must have a crafty heart.
If one only waited passively and set up a formation waiting for others to attack, or one chose to attack others, then one would never be able to achieve much success in this path.
A good general subdues an enemy without fighting.
Even though this Chen Feiyu wasn’t craft enough, but, he seemed to know very well how to use vigour in battle. You dare attack me?
No problem, let me attack you first.
That was vigour!
Chen Feiyu dared to abandon this war fortress to face against an enemy attack, hence his army would definitely be highly motivated. Because, they weren’t scared, hence, they didn’t fear.
However, there was another saying on the battlefield. That was things underwent myriads of changes in the blink of an eye.
It might be that one had seen a definite advantage fifteen minutes ago, stand on the peak of the mountain and looking down at the common people below, while the next moment you were completely defeated and turning into a captive prisoner.
Chen Feiyu had neglected the biggest problem.
That was allowing others to pick up an empty settlement.
This was an error in his intelligence. Of course, this didn’t mean Chen Feiyu didn’t attach importance to intelligence. Instead, it could only be said that Fang Zhengzhi’s appearance was initially already a black hole in the intelligence reports.
With the strength of twelve thousand soldiers, this meant that Chen Feiyu had also perfect control over the examinees around the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement. As for Chen Hao in the Thunder Light Settlement.
The possibility of him daring to attack the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement was almost zero.
Chen Feiyu was very confident.
Fang Zhengzhi was also very confident. Hence, he led his army into the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement without the slightest bit of hesitation, accepting this present given to him by Heaven.
...
The battle between Wu Feng and Chen Feiyu was unexpectedly tragic.
Chen Feiyu’s boldness and strategy of splitting up his army was indeed effective at the beginning. His two thousand soldiers and multiple army camps had delayed Wu Feng’s main force in its attack.
However, the total time taken wasn’t five days. It was instead four days.
Because, after realising that Chen Feiyu was dragging time on purpose, Wu Feng really became crazy. It was a wild craziness. Ten thousand troops advanced as if they had gone crazy.
Wu Feng used the craziest, and most unreasonable form of fighting.
Splitting ten thousand troops into four teams, each team consisting of two thousand five hundred people. Then, using the military strength of four teams to take turns breaking down the battalion all day and all night.
The poor general would never expect himself to be battling against a crazy person like Wu Feng...
This was simply a desperate fight.
Two thousand troops indeed faced great difficulty in trying to delay a madman. Not mentioning that his military strength had been greatly deteriorated, he wasn’t even able to complete setting up the last pass before facing the powerful offense of Wu Feng’s army.
In order to complete Chen Feiyu’s task, the poor general ultimately had to order the entire army to put up a desperate fight. However, that only gave him one extra day at most.
The two thousand troops were finally completely captured. But, they didn’t manage to complete the delay for five days.
The time of one day for a person who only bathed, slept and ate was just another day.
However, in a battlement, it was always an important turning point.
Chen Feiyu’s ambush on Wu Feng’s second group of soldiers were smoother than expected, the six thousand soldiers had been almost completely demolished by him.
Yet...
Just as he was singing songs of victory and prepared to engage in the task of incorporating the captured troops into his own forces, an army of soldiers with bloodshot eyes suddenly charged out from his back.
"Wu Feng?!" Chen Feiyu looked at the Wu Feng, who was leading the soldiers and holding a jade flute in his hands. The shock he had received was so great that he almost fell off his horse.
He had naturally thought that Wu Feng might come faster than what he planned.
Hence, after his successful ambush, he had been rushing his orders to attack.
However, that was ultimately still the strength of six thousand soldiers.
Ten thousand against six thousand, even though the ambush was successful, to take down all of them in one fell swoop wasn’t a simple task.
Chen Feiyu felt that he was already very fast. However, he had never expected Wu Feng to be even faster.
Yet, things had already reached this point. Chen Feiyu ultimately managed to think calmly.
As the commander in chief of the battle, staying calm was the most fundamental job he had to carry out. He had always been doing this job very well. Hence, in the time of two minutes, he made a wise choice.
Give up a rook to save the king!
Leave one thousand troops to forcefully attack Wu Feng from the back. Then, leading the main force to retreat into the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement overnight.
After calculating, Chen Feiyu’s battle was still considered successful.
Losing one thousand on top of two thousand troops to take down six thousand of Wu Feng’s troops. It was still worth it, and could be considered as a classic victorious situation where he exchanged one soldier for two.
Standing at the city entrance of the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement, Chen Feiyu raised his head slightly with an evident smile on his face. After this battle, his military strength had increased instead of dropping.
After all, everybody knew that in a combat examination, people wouldn’t risk their lives and kill others. Hence, the six thousand soldiers in the battle were almost all still alive. Only slightly over three hundred people had died. Hence, Chen Feiyu was able to recruit five thousand and seven hundred people.
This had caused his total military strength to reach fourteen thousand and seven hundred people, almost fifteen thousand.
While Wu Feng’s total military strength had decreased by three thousand.
Turning from twenty thousand to seventeen thousand. Furthermore, he had left four thousand people in the main cities of the two main settlements. Hence, the amount of people he was currently left with was fourteen thousand.
Fifteen thousand against fourteen thousand, along with the advantage of the settlement. What did Chen Feiyu have to fear about Wu Feng?
Any ordinary person would definitely shout loudly at this moment. "Come, if you dare to to come, I will make you wet your pants in terror!"
However...
Chen Feiyu didn’t shout this.
The direct descendent of the thirteen constabularies had already remained silent for such a long time. How could his brilliant feat only have one part to it?
Chen Feiyu’s plan was to be completed in one fell swoop. He had indeed abandoned his rook to save the king. However, this plan concealed another plot behind it.
Usually, the one thousand soldiers were considered lost. However, Chen Feiyu didn’t think this way.
After leaving one thousand soldiers, he had left another two thousand troops. Furthermore, these two thousand troops used the technique of moving around to harass Wu Feng continuously.
The point of this naturally wasn’t to pursue a retreating enemy.
Instead, it was a lure!
He wanted to lure Wu Feng to attack the city. For that, he had already made his plans and preparations.
After consolidating his military strength, Chen Feiyu led the fifteen thousand-strong army and entered the war fortress of the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement in a grandiose manner.
After which, he similarly didn’t relax.
Instantly urging the task of setting up defences, deploying three thousand soldiers to guard the city gates, leaving the remaining twelve thousand to rest and reorganise.
After all, it still took some time to reorganize after swallowing six thousand troops at one go.
After Chen Feiyu had finished settling all these matters, it was already sunset. The sky gradually began to darken, as a powerful sense of fatigue caused this victorious returning general to finally feel somewhat sleepy.
After settling the tasks of patrolling, the finally stepped back into the comfortable stone house that the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement Chief had specially prepared for him. Gazing at the bed he was so familiar with, as well as the beautiful paintings he had brought from the Great Xia Dynasty, Chen Feiyu exhaled heavily as he removed the armour from his body.
"So what if he is Wu Feng? Number three in the Rising Dragon Roll? Your fate... had already been determined!" At this moment, Chen Feiyu’s sense of success was so full that it was about to burst.
After so many years of silence.
He had never had the same feeling as this moment.
Even though he was fatigued, he was fatigued in a happy, delighted and excited manner. Such emotions caused him to be unable to fall asleep immediately. Instead, he took out the wine bottle and poured himself another full cup.
He could already see the Wu Feng’s expression when he arrived to attack the Thunderous Lion Main Settlement. Faced with his well-guarded war fortress, he could already imagine Wu Feng’s dejected and crestfallen expression.
Yet...
Chen Feiyu’s plan wasn’t as simple as just luring Wu Feng to attack the city.
All along, he had purposely concealed the fact that he had attained Supernatural State. This point was the true origin of his plan.
He prepared to take the initiative to challenge Wu Feng to a one-to-one battle after Wu Feng was unable to get past his defences.
The third in the Rising Dragon Roll against the twelfth. Whoever lost would be eliminated and give up all his military force.
What a perfect idiotic move!
Chen Feiyu was absolutely sure that that was how Wu Feng would think.
Things would be simple from then on.
Stepping on Wu Feng beneath his feet in front of thousands of soldiers, amazing the world with a single brilliant feat using the power of the Supernatural State to shock the entire Southern Mountain Range and even the Great Xia Dynasty.
Becoming a person who truly attracted the attention of others.
When he thought of this, the edges of Chen Feiyu’s lips began to twitch uncontrollably. It was too exciting, too perfect. Only in this manner would his name truly be spread across the world.
Defeating Wu Feng in a muddled warfare?
How boring.
Challenging Wu Feng on an arena?
That was just as boring!
Using his unexpected power to step on Wu Feng beneath his feet in front of thousands of soldiers, that was the real counterattack. A perfect counterattack!
"It is too perfect! I must celebrate my success beforehand!" Chen Feiyu was restraining himself. He had to temporarily restrain himself to ensure that his powers wouldn’t be revealed in advance.
Only in this way would his success shocking enough.
Hence...
He could only drink alone, celebrate alone and wait alone.
"Isn’t it not very good to drink a celebratory wine alone?"
Just as Chen Feiyu prepared to raise his cup to himself, a voice came from outside the stone house. Immediately after, a figure appeared at the door of the stone house.
It was a person dressed in leopard print and wearing a animal skin hat, with a slight smile on his face. The classic attire of a newly rich person of the Southern Mountain Range. However, if this was in addition to his fair facial features and lanky build, it was somewhat inappropriate for a person of the Southern Mountain Range.
It seemed slightly comical.
However, Chen Feiyu’s expression very evidently froze for a while, almost dropping the cup in his hand. Because, he felt that this was the time he should be standing on the peak alone, waiting for the moment his name became famous.
However, a Fang Zhengzhi suddenly appeared.
What the heck is this about?