Chapter Seven First Battle

  When the sunset rose slowly, Meng Li's men and horses had already begun to climb up Qing Mountain.

  Drenched in sweat, Meng Li continued to climb, as a pampered prince he usually only learned martial arts from the Six Arts of a Gentleman and had never undergone rigorous training.

  "Your Highness, why don't you take a rest?" Xiao Ruo, dressed in a green robe and wearing a scholar's hat, pulled out her own handkerchief to wipe the sweat from Meng Li's face. In fact, since they started climbing the mountain and got off their horses, she had been walking for half a day and was also exhausted, but in order to follow the team and Meng Li, she tightly followed Meng Li's footsteps.

  He took his sleeve and gently wiped the sweat from Xiao Ruo's forehead, looking at him with great emotion. "Xiao Ruo, we're running for our lives here. Let's hold on a bit longer, according to the military advisor's plan, when we near the foot of the mountain, we'll take a short break to wait for the 'brothers' waiting outside. After we've rested and passed noon, we'll make our move in one swift motion. Then, the subsequent plans can be carried out smoothly." Although he pitied this little loli's loyalty and hard work, he hoped that they wouldn't lose their advantage just to rest for a short while.

  "Hmm~" Xiao Ruo bit her teeth firmly and struggled to lift her legs, continuing to climb with Meng Li.

  ……

  On the other side of Mount Shangqing, at the foot of the mountain in a plain, a small forest hid a group of people and horses dressed in black, with muzzled horses and silent men. The quietness of the forest seemed unusual.

  "General, it's already past noon, why haven't the nine princes' troops appeared yet?" asked a deputy general who was genuinely anxious to the person in charge of this operation.

  "It's indeed, the third prince sent a message via carrier pigeon saying that the ninth prince left the capital at 9am today and headed straight to Mount Qing. Logically speaking, since they knew they were fleeing for their lives, they should have been in a hurry and already descended the mountain by now. Why haven't we seen them yet?" The general was also frowning with suspicion, but if he said that the ninth prince took a detour, it would be absolutely impossible. After descending Mount Qing, they must pass through this plain. Otherwise, they would have to return via the original route, which would be even more foolish. With their awareness at dawn when they left, they shouldn't have turned back."

  "Alas, let's wait a bit longer. The order from the third prince is that we can only ambush and kill here. If there's no movement by tonight, we'll withdraw our troops and have an explanation to give. The general, who was also very annoyed, had chosen 2,000 elite soldiers and 400 elite cavalrymen from the moment he received the imperial edict, and they had been hiding here for more than three hours without eating or drinking. If it weren't for the elite soldiers, they would have already revealed their presence. In the general's opinion, even he himself could barely hold on, let alone the soldiers under him."

  "General! General!" The deputy general who had gone to observe the situation suddenly ran back and shouted at the general.

  "Huh? Has it arrived?" The general was still leaning lazily against a crooked neck tree, showing no intention of moving.

  "Yes, General, you see, those convoys. It should be the supplies of the Ninth Prince." He pulled up the general and pointed at the disorganized and disorderly convoy that had just come out of the forest.

  "Damn it, I've almost waited to death. Brothers, stretch your muscles and get ready for action." A general who had turned around and saw the deputy commander pointing at the fleet of cars, shouted in a low voice to the troops.

  ……

  "Heh, I don't know if these people are self-righteous or declaring war on us. Birds in the forest won't nest, do they not know?" Meng Li said to Xu Shu beside him at the foot of the mountain. This basic military knowledge is something anyone should know, can it be that the military knowledge of this continent has fallen behind to such an extent?

  "Heh heh, it seems I overestimated them. If we had known it would be like this, we wouldn't have needed to rest for a whole hour, half an hour would have been enough." Xu Shu said confidently to Meng Li, trusting Meng Li, trusting Chen Qingzi, and most of all, trusting himself. Therefore, he firmly believed that he wouldn't lose!

  "Zi Yun, are you and your horse ready?" he asked Chen Qing, who was standing tall with an air of confidence on the other side.

  "Reporting to the general, 100 war horses are now ready for use, and the 500 cavalrymen I selected have been trained to their peak. However, they haven't seen blood yet, which is a problem, but after this battle, they will be ready for use." Chen Qingzi, who was dissatisfied with his soldiers, also felt somewhat helpless at this time. After all, even if he were an extremely capable general, without a cavalry that could charge forward and break through the enemy lines on the battlefield, he would still be useless. He wasn't a heroic general who fought alone.

  Alas, Yuanzhao, when can you be a little nicer to me, just a bit will do!

  "Third brother, we'd better retreat to the back and hide for a while. It'll be easier to run away later." A timid-looking Yin family guard said this to another guard with a similar appearance, who was standing next to him, because they were not capable enough and were sent out to "lure monsters". What they feared most at this moment was that the enemy would ignore the carts of silver grain and rush straight towards them. That way, it would be "giving away" instead of "selling".

  The people and horses hiding in the forest are now waiting for these convoys with a slow and painful wait, like years passing by.

  "Damn it, this Ninth Prince seems to have no talent at all. With such a slow marching speed, how far can his troops go? It's as if they're used to going out for a stroll! They don't know that this time, fleeing for their lives is like rushing to a funeral, and even that's too slow!" The general spat on the ground in disgust, and if he hadn't yet seen the Ninth Prince's figure, he would have already rushed up to teach them with his large knife what it means to go out for fun and what it means to flee for one's life!

  "General, a horseman has come out!" The deputy general's cry of surprise was all the general needed to hear before he immediately gave orders without even bothering to confirm.

  "Brothers, kill!"

  In the general's view, even if the ninth prince hid in the deep mountains, it would be no big deal to just send a few hundred soldiers to blockade him for a few days. He didn't want to delay for a moment now.

  The general, who was still a decent horseman, wielded his large blade and galloped wildly, eager to let his weapon, which had not been stained with blood since he was transferred from the border, taste fresh blood again. People who often kill have a disease - they love fresh blood, and this general was no exception.

  "Ah~, there's a bandit robbing on the road, run quickly."

  "Ah~, spare our lives, good fellow! We are the bodyguards of the Ninth Prince's mansion. The money and grain are all here...good fellow..."

  "Ah~" The words had barely left his mouth when he saw that his body was still kneeling in the same spot, but his head was nowhere to be seen.

  Those who could run all spread their legs and sprinted towards the forest behind them at a speed that would make Liu Xiang and Bolt possessive. Those who couldn't ran knelt on the ground and begged loudly for mercy.

  "Haha. Refreshing, you all deserve to die, haha." The murderous general, who had contracted a killing disease, chased after the fleeing 'defeated soldiers' and went straight ahead, while the guards who were begging for mercy on both sides of the road were all killed by his large knife covered in fresh blood.

  "General, General, this cart is full of silver, so much silver!" The general, who was still thinking of continuing the pursuit, came back to his senses at the vice-general's shout and walked towards the cart where the vice-general was.

  "Alas! What are these carts?" The disbelieving general's eyes were red and fixed intently on the cart full of silver ingots.

  "Yes indeed, General! There's another cart of gold here!" The school lieutenant who was unloading the boxes on the other side also shouted to the general.

  "This old master, is wealthy but not benevolent! Even if I were a general at the border for my whole life, I wouldn't be able to earn this much! The rabbits' bodies are all dripping with fat oil!" In the Azure Continent, it's always been the rule that military officials are poorly paid, and the generals at the border can't even dare to deduct a bit of food allowance from their soldiers, so they suffer the most but earn the least. They can only hope for a big victory to plunder the enemy army and enrich themselves.

  The soldiers were busy collecting their belongings, and they did not notice the figures lurking in the woods at the foot of the mountain.

  Looking at these soldiers who thought they were 'sneaking', Chen Qing really wanted to have a feeling of scolding his mother, one general was incompetent and exhausted three armies. In his opinion, now it is the three armies that are incompetent and suffocating one general, fortunately, the people on the opposite side are all seeing money and not their lives in collecting, otherwise they would have been discovered long ago.

  "Kill!" Chen Qing shouted loudly and charged out alone with his spear, aiming straight for the general.

  "Kill!" The sound of the word "kill" echoed across the entire plain, accompanied by countless loud shouts. Our strength may not be enough, but our momentum is sufficient! Now it's up to General Chen to cut down the enemy general and seize their flag.

  The soldiers who were still stuffing their pockets with silver and the generals who were loudly shouting to seal the boxes with seals were all stunned at this moment. The soldiers, who had stuffed their pockets with a lifetime's worth of silver, didn't stop to obey orders and fled desperately.

  "Damn it!" The general, who was charging towards him with a white robe and a pale face, was extremely annoyed at this moment. In his opinion, this little girl was provoking him. How could he tolerate it? He mounted his horse and charged forward as well. The cavalry clashed in an instant, and all that could be heard were the sounds of "clang clang" and the sudden "ahh" that echoed in the ears of the soldiers who had not yet retreated. In the eyes of the soldiers, their bloodthirsty general fell at the moment when the two horses intersected.

  "Run!" Regardless of whether it was the deputy general, the school lieutenant, or the soldiers, they all knew their general's true abilities. But unexpectedly, under the hands of this white-robed young general, they couldn't even last one round. The strength of this white-robed young general was no longer something they could measure.

  With a burst of shouting and pleading, Xu Shu accompanied Meng Li out of the mountain forest. Looking at this great victory in their first battle, both of them were very excited, after all, this was their debut match and they had won easily, which slightly alleviated their fear of this world.

  "Report, my lord. In this battle, we have lost 23 men and over 100 wounded. We have annihilated over 200 enemy soldiers, captured over 2,000, and seized over 200 war horses. The rest were allowed to flee. Here is the head of the enemy general!" Chen Qing reported back to Meng Li with great satisfaction after tallying up the results of the battle. In his view, such a weak army achieving such a result was already a major victory.

  "Ah, let General Meng continue to instruct them." Meng Li slightly turned his head away from the bloody head and said to Xu Shu.

  "Alright, so according to plan, Yin Wu will lead 100 guards to escort these soldiers directly to the foot of Yusan City tonight, letting them be unclear about what's real and what's not, and not daring to make any rash moves. This is 3000 taels of silver, and tomorrow morning you can all disperse and go your separate ways. 'Abandoning' is also an essential skill for a strategist, and being good at abandoning can even allow one to use the small to defeat the large, and the weak to defeat the strong."

  "Yes!" After receiving the silver, the 100 men escorted the captives, slowly raising the large flag as they approached Yusan City.

  "Then let's continue. Next, we'll cross the Chui River. General Zi Yun, please lead the cavalry to gather boats and cross the river first to stabilize the camp and wait for the follow-up."

  "Ah-huh."

  Alas, looking at Chen Qing's diligent efforts like an old yellow cow, Meng Li turned his head and gazed at Xushu with a hint of resentment. Can't you just be a bit nicer to me?