"Mama, is this a real battlefield?"
Above the clouds at a thousand meters, Najenda and Esdeath, along with Lin, were on the head of a Wind God Winged Dragon. From above, they looked down at two armies on the ground, approaching each other like surging ant colonies. Or rather, a perfectly aligned black formation, clearly less than half the size, was charging fiercely towards a colorful expanse!
Just before dusk today, Lin received a report from aerial reconnaissance: the last Northern Region Tribe was about to converge with the main force of the Northern Nomads. Lin immediately ordered a full-scale attack, directly leading the Seventh Expeditionary Force's one hundred thousand cavalry to launch a frontal assault on the Northern Nomads' camp of two hundred thirty thousand troops.
"I had expected my all-around, strongest general in the Empire's thousand-year history, my big sister, to come up with some brilliant, ingenious battle plan. But it turns out to be a frontal, crushing assault. You've really disappointed me."
To Suzaku, who was complaining while holding her helmet, ready to depart, Lin responded with a confident smile:
"Saying that shows that you haven't fully grasped the art of war, Suzaku. Remember, Suzaku, when you have an absolute advantage in strength, any stratagem is irresponsible to your soldiers. A frontal charge is the best strategy!"
After leaving the city, the one hundred thousand cavalry of the Seventh Expeditionary Force galloped their warhorses all the way, rushing like a whirlwind towards the Northern Nomads' camp stationed a hundred li away.
The military formation spread out, with each cavalryman spaced more than five meters from those in front, behind, left, and right. The square formation spread horizontally for several kilometers. The earth-shaking sound of hooves was absorbed by the snow on the plain, which was deeper than their calves. With such large distances, mutual communication between the soldiers became impossible, but it also allowed every warrior to fully unleash their strength without hindrance.
"The Northern Nomads only number around two hundred thirty thousand. Each of you won't even get three kills. If anyone dares to die without killing a single person, or without killing two, you must apologize at the Bridge of Helplessness to the condemned prisoners and Danger Beasts who were eaten and killed to train and nurture you, because you would have wasted all their nourishment."
The movement of a hundred thousand troops could never be concealed. On the unobstructed snowy plain, the Seventh Expeditionary Force, pressing forward like a black torrent, was discovered by patrolling Foreign People scouts when they were still thirty kilometers from the Foreign People camp. The scouts were instantly terrified, galloping non-stop to report to the Great Leader of the Northern Nomads, who was in charge of organizing this invasion of the Empire.
"Bang!" 卩
"What did you say?!"
The Great Leader of the Northern Nomads, who was drinking strong liquor with a hundred gathered tribal chiefs, preparing for a bonfire party and swearing a blood oath to jointly attack the Empire soon and enjoy countless treasures and women, slammed his bone goblet onto the stone table in front of him. His rough "bear paw," as wide as a cattail fan, heavily struck the tabletop. His imposing figure, over three meters tall, suddenly stood up and roared at the kneeling scout in front of him.
"Say it again!"
The Foreign People scout, under duress, trembled all over. This Great Leader was famously cruel throughout the Northern Nomads. With the slightest anger, whether it was his own tribe or Danger Beasts, they would be torn to shreds by him. It was said that once, when he was drunk, he tore his wife and children apart alive. After sobering up, he looked at the tragedy he had caused without changing his expression, ordered it cleaned up, and fed them to his trained Danger Beasts.
The former Legion Commander of the Empire's Seventh Legion four years ago was killed by him, his head cut off and made into a goblet that he carried with him, though it had just been smashed by him.
"Re-report, Great Leader, a troop of the Empire's black-armored cavalry is charging towards our camp! The number is probably seventy or eighty... almost a hundred thousand!"
The terrified scout shouted loudly but stammered towards the Great Leader. On one hand, he was scared by his own Great Leader; on the other hand, the Empire's cavalry was truly fast, or rather, incredibly fast! If they didn't act soon, it would be too late!
"Nonsense! How could those cowards from the Empire, who only cower in their turtle shells, dare to come out and confront our Northern Region warriors head-on!"
In the millennia of conflict between the Empire and the Northern Nomads, the Empire had always relied on the advantages of city walls and elite weaponry to resist the Northern Nomads' attacks. While the defending side certainly had the advantage of terrain and city defenses, the initiative for when to start battles and launch attacks completely fell into the hands of the Northern Nomads. Therefore, over the millennia, a fixed impression formed in the minds of the Northern Nomads: the Empire's cowardly soldiers dared not confront the Northern Region's warriors head-on, and could only rely on their equipment to defend on the city walls, waiting for their attacks... In some respects, this statement was not wrong at all. The Empire had never engaged in frontal combat with the Northern Nomads. After all, any adult male among the Northern Nomads was physically stronger than an ordinary Imperial soldier, and at least possessed rich hunting experience, so there were no novices who couldn't adapt to bloodshed. Therefore, the Empire had always been the passive party in terms of initiative.
Consequently, the Northern Nomads had never established regulations or mechanisms for emergency response in their camps, because they had never imagined that they would be subjected to surprise attacks or active frontal assaults from the Empire.
And when the Great Leader, in the huge chieftain's tent, accompanied by the equally dismissive chatter of hundreds of tribal chiefs, swung his blade and directly beheaded the scout who delivered the urgent report, summoning someone to drag the body out and feed it to the wolves, in his mind, saying that the Imperial people would come out to have a frontal showdown with the warriors of my Northern Snow Region was the greatest insult to the people of the Northern Region Snowfield, an unforgivable crime!
Just as the Great Leader of the Northern Nomads was about to sit back down, get another cup, and continue discussing the alliance with the tribal chiefs on behalf of the Northern Region Royal Family, to jointly attack the Empire—
"Boom!!!"
An enormous ice star, trailing a long, ice-blue tail flame and over five hundred meters in diameter, vertically slammed into the central chieftain's tent of the Foreign People's camp from a thousand meters in the sky!
"Oh my, oh my, he didn't die even with that, as expected of the big bastard leading over two hundred thousand Northern Region bastards to cause trouble in the Empire. Why didn't he just die like that? Wouldn't it be better to be written as my military achievement in the meritorious service record?"
Just as the Great Leader of the Northern Nomads, whose sixth sense for danger, honed from years of living on the brink of life and death, reacted sharply, he slashed open the tent fabric behind him with his blood-stained hunting knife. In his unconscious high-speed movement, he dodged the direct impact of the ice meteorite. Was he thrown away by the invisible impact force after the giant ice sphere landed, thus saving his life?!
On the giant ice sphere, the majestic young girl looked down at the Great Leader of the Northern Nomads, who had just crawled out of the demolished tent, with the gaze of a demon king looking down on ants, and mocked disdainfully.
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