Chapter 166: The Military Killing Formation Appears, and the Martial Arts Dharma Appears in Power At three quarters past noon, the sun was three points high. It is a sunny day today, with only a slight north wind blowing across your face, making you feel refreshed. “Bang Bang!”… The newly formed bugle and drum band, with dozens of big drums carefully made by skilled craftsmen, was struck vigorously in unison by dozens of strong young soldiers! This war drum made of third-grade iron-armored cowhide and special third-grade spiritual wood, when struck, is much louder than any drum Li Dingguo had ever seen in his previous life. The rumbling sound of the war drums startled all kinds of bird flocks within a radius of ten miles. They all flew high into the sky, some circling and chirping, and some flew away from this area in panic. Surrounding the big dock, all the naval soldiers and treasure ships of the Restoration Army have gathered. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on the shore all gathered around this huge bluestone dock. The place was bustling with people talking and horses neighing. Battalion after battalion of warriors, leading their spirit beasts and horses, began to board the ship in an orderly manner under the orders and commands of the generals. Today's first battle is not a sweep northward along the Jialu River, but a long-distance raid.
In order not to alarm the Tatar tribes along the way, all the soldiers who are going on this long-distance raid will travel on treasure ships. After completing the major reorganization, the soldiers of each battalion of the Fuxing Army have actually acquired the ability to fight independently. Except for the Xuanwu Battalion which has changed its business and turned into the navy, the rest of the battalions have 3,000 elite cavalry. Although each person is only equipped with one spirit beast warhorse, the soldiers of each battalion can be regarded as a formidable army if they are pulled out individually. More than half a month ago, the Tartar army that was ambushed by Li Dingguo and the four battalions of the Fuxing Army consisted of only two thousand warriors. From this battle onwards, each combat battalion will start a rotation training mode unless it is necessary, and will be divided into two groups and take turns to attack. There are many benefits to doing this: on the one hand, it can ensure the subsequent continuous battles, launch continuous rotation attacks, and speed up the capture of the Jialu River section outside the pass. On the other hand, it can allow all the soldiers of the Restoration Army to have sufficient time to rest and recuperate, so as to avoid a vicious cycle of fatigue and cause various adverse consequences. In the future, the scale of the five divine beasts' battle camps will continue to expand, and the rotation battle mode will become even more important. This means that half of the soldiers of the Renaissance Army will always be in a peak state of readiness for battle and can easily deal with various emergencies. Always maintaining a fresh force ready to go is of great significance to the Renaissance Army, which has been expanding and fighting for a long time. Five major military camps were dispatched together for this expedition. Each camp left behind a thousand people and stationed them in the temporary military and civilian settlement at the big wharf, responsible for guarding the camp. When the next attack comes, it will be the turn of the soldiers who remain in the old camp to take charge of the attack. This cycle repeats itself over and over again, and anyone can take their turn to take on a combat mission. This will undoubtedly solve the problem that the entire battalion of soldiers attacked while the remaining combat battalion could only watch, which naturally accumulated some complaints. The treasure ships owned by the navy officers and soldiers nowadays are enough to easily accommodate all the soldiers, as well as the spiritual beasts and war horses they bring with them, and can even carry all kinds of logistical supplies. The current Renaissance Army has laid a good foundation for advancing by water or land, and launching long-distance raids, and can do all of this with ease. Especially in long-distance raids launched by water, both the soldiers and horses can get a good rest. Once you arrive at the destination, you will be able to fight at your best. "Great Commander!"
Hongmei, the general leader of the expeditionary army, flew over from a distance and reported to Li Dingguo, "All the soldiers and spirit beasts and horses that are going to the expedition have boarded the ships." "All kinds of logistical supplies were loaded onto the ship last night." "The soldiers are ready to set off." A complete plan for this long-distance raid and battle had been drawn up last night, and we just had to execute it according to the plan. "Well, let's go!" Li Dingguo stood on the deck of the Xuanwu No. 1 treasure ship, waved his hand and gave the order. "Dong dong..." Following Li Dingguo's order, all the treasure ships began to untie their ropes amid the rumbling sound of war drums, with Xuanwu No. 2 in the lead and Xuanwu No. 1 in the middle. All nearly twenty treasure ships left the big dock one after another, and after moving away from the river bank, they formed two columns and began to sail northward. As hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians on the shore watched, the treasure ship's speed became faster and faster. In less than a quarter of an hour, it had disappeared at the northern end of the vast Jialu River. …… About 2,500 miles north of the original Fanjia Wharf along the Jialu River is the settlement of the descendants of the Jiehu led by Shi An. In a towering temple filled with the smoke of incense, the main hall, which is nine feet square, is brightly lit. There were several pairs of burning sheep-fat candles, each as thick as an arm, and the burning flames made crackling sounds from time to time. The flickering candlelight shone on Shi An's gloomy face, which was red and looked very strange. He looked at the large bronze tripod with incense and candles on the altar, his face gloomy and uncertain. This huge bronze tripod with mysterious patterns, three feet high and nine feet wide, was looted by his ancestor Shi Hu from the Central Plains ten thousand years ago. Shi Hu left behind ancestral teachings that for future generations, as long as someone can make this ancient magic weapon recognize its master, they will be able to reproduce the glory of the Jiehu tribe like a hidden dragon emerging from the sea or a flying dragon ascending to the sky! The Jiehu were once glorious, and even dominated most of the Central Plains region ten thousand years ago, becoming one of the three dominant forces at the time. The fundamental reason was that Shi Hu accidentally obtained this magical weapon when he was robbing a thousand-year-old Han family. However, Shi Hu tried every possible way but still failed to make this extremely mysterious magical weapon, the huge cauldron, recognize its master. Later, Shi Hu's luck flourished and he unexpectedly inherited an ancient magic skill. He used the inherited Blood Demon Formation to slaughter 100,000 Han people and forced a blood sacrifice on the bronze cauldron. Only then could he barely activate a trace of its power and use it temporarily. With this magical cauldron, Shi Hu was able to suppress the destiny of his tribe and himself, which enabled the Jiehu to develop and expand rapidly and become one of the overlords of the time. If Shi Hu had not been killed by the great hero Ran Min, he might have been able to unify the Central Plains. Unfortunately, Shi Hu never figured out the secret of this huge magical weapon until his death, let alone making it recognize its master. Shi Hu's ancestral teachings have been passed down from generation to generation by the remnants of the Jie Hu people. Shi An, the leader of the Jiehu tribe of this generation, is a demon with great ambition. After he breaks through to the early stage of Qi Refining, he tries every means to uncover the secret of this mysterious cauldron and lead the Jiehu tribe to rise again. For this reason, half a year ago, he even personally led his people to imitate his ancestor Shi Hu and slaughtered a grassland tribe of 100,000 people, using the Blood Demon Formation to sacrifice to the cauldron, but gained nothing. He simply could not, like his ancestor Shi Hu, force the cauldron to be sacrificed for his own use, hoping to stimulate a trace of its power to suppress the tribe and his own destiny.
This abnormal situation made Shi Ansi think about it over and over again, and he was also very puzzled. He clearly used the same blood sacrifice method as his ancestor Shi Hu, but it had completely different consequences. Shi An couldn't figure out the reason. "The current chaos in the Central Plains is a great opportunity for my Jie tribe to rise. Unfortunately, I still cannot make this cauldron recognize its master. What is the reason?" He was very irritable and scratched his head in distress. Suddenly he thought of something and his face changed. "Could it be..." "Could it be that my ancestors and I used the Blood Demon Formation to sacrifice to this mysterious cauldron, but used the wrong human race for blood sacrifice?" "I finally understand. This cauldron is extremely mysterious. I must use the Han people to set up the Blood Demon Formation for sacrifice in order to stimulate a trace of its power and use it for my own benefit!" "Hahaha……" He suddenly figured out the problem and laughed out loud with his head thrown back in excitement! "Next spring, I will lead my tribe's warriors to plunder the south. While raiding the valleys, I will also capture 100,000 Han people!" "Once the blood sacrifice of 100,000 Han people is successful and the power of this cauldron is activated, it will be the time for our Jie tribe to regain its glory." "Although this goes against the ancestral teachings of our ancestors: this great tripod must be recognized as the master before the Jie tribe can officially come out of the mountains." "But the Central Plains region is in chaos now. How similar is it to the environment our ancestors lived in back then?" "There's no reason why I, Shi An, can't do what our ancestor Shi Hu could do." Having made up his mind, Shi An couldn't wait any longer. Just when Shi An was feeling full of confidence, suddenly, deafening shouts and screams came from outside the temple! With Shi An's martial arts cultivation reaching the peak of the early fourth level and his extraordinary mental strength, he could clearly sense that these screams were coming from his own people! "how is this possible?" "Where did such a powerful enemy come from in this 3,000-mile-wide grassland? And they launched a strong attack on my tribe in broad daylight?" Shi An was horrified and stood up suddenly, thinking about many things in his mind. If the tiger doesn't show its power, it will really regard itself and the Jie tribe as a sick cat! "who is it!" "You actually came here to act so presumptuous!" "I will grind them to dust! I will also find their tribe and eat all the women!" Shi An, who was extremely furious, cursed loudly, picked up a top-grade spiritual spear placed nearby, flashed out of the temple gate, and leaped straight towards the place where the shouting and killing were the most intense! The long spear in his hand is no simple weapon; it is a clan treasure passed down by his ancestors. They, the descendants of the Jie Hu, have inherited many treasures from their ancestor Shi Hu, and this top-grade spiritual spear is one of them. …… Just at dusk, the large fleet of treasure ships, sailing at full speed, arrived at the destination of this long-distance raid. Li Dingguo jumped off the Dabao ship and ordered his soldiers to follow the raid plan and use each combat battalion as a unit to launch a horizontal and fierce attack on the remnant Jiehu tribe which covered an area of one hundred miles! The soldiers who had just got off the boat and formed their battle array quickly formed five military killing formations.
This is also the first time that the Renaissance Army has used a military killing formation against the enemy since its formal establishment. However, there are only three sets of real military killing formations. The other two groups of killing formations were just for show because they did not have a main formation of a Qi Refining Realm master, and were only slightly stronger than ordinary military formations. The five major battle camps now are all regular cavalry riding spirit beast war horses. Even if they form a military killing formation that is only for show and launch a charge towards the enemy's garrison, the power they exert should not be underestimated. Under no circumstances should the army of warriors riding on spirit beasts and war horses charging in groups be underestimated. As long as there is no organized enemy force to block us, a scattered enemy, even if there are tens of thousands of them, will not be able to resist at all. The cavalry formation, composed entirely of warrior cavalry, has the reputation of "mowing the grass" when charging in groups. After a large number of cavalry soldiers charged forward, it was basically like mowing the grass, and wherever they passed, it was a horrible sight. When the enemy was completely unprepared, the five combat battalions of the Renaissance Army advanced in unison, from the river bank where the enemy was least expected, and pushed all the way towards the enemy's base, causing a bloody storm wherever they passed! The remnant Jiehu tribe could never have imagined that such a large-scale cavalry would attack from the river bank where their defense was the laxest. Without any psychological preparation, all the Jiehu soldiers and civilians who encountered the surprise attack were killed like grass being mowed! The main reason for such a one-sided battle as soon as the war started was that these prairie tribes had never encountered a large cavalry attack from the water. None of their tribe's visible or covert sentinels were stationed along the riverbank. With the speed of the Renaissance Army, after the large fleet arrived quickly, the soldiers led their spirit beasts and horses in an orderly manner and quickly got off the boats and formed a battle array. The whole process took no more than a quarter of an hour. By the time the enemy discovered that the soldiers of the Restoration Army were approaching, the various combat battalions had already launched a group charge, which naturally led to the current situation that was like a crushing defeat. "kill!" "All the remnants of the Jiehu will be killed!" "Soldiers of the Suzaku Camp, follow me and kill our way through this Jiehu tribe!" For the first time, Li Dingguo led an elite cavalry army and formed a military formation to charge at the enemy. The energy in his body surged, and with the help of the magic of the military killing formation, he instantly connected with the energy and blood power stimulated by the soldiers through his own spiritual power, and stimulated a huge energy and blood wolf smoke, covering all the soldiers. At the same time, the true energy and blood power in his body burst out with all his strength, and the phantom of the martial arts image in his sea of consciousness suddenly flashed above his head! As the Seven Star Bagua Formation operated, there was a continuous stream of blood and energy that quickly gathered into his martial arts form. In an instant, the figures of the soldiers who were wrapped in the blood and wolf smoke disappeared instantly, and only a dark yellow bell with a radius of one hundred feet remained in its place! "Whoosh!" This mysterious yellow-colored magical bell is the virtual image of Li Dingguo's original form, which has been magnified countless times by the power of the formation. Today, this natal Dharma image has become real under the huge amplification of the military killing formation. "kill!" Li Dingguo, who was in charge of the military killing formation, shouted loudly, and the phantom of the huge bell rose into the air with a whoosh, nine feet off the ground, and shot towards the Jiehu tribe in front like a stream of light! "Dong dong..." This dark yellow bell rushed forward all the way, and the sound of the bell continued to ring, covering an area of three miles in radius! All the Hu people encountered on the ground had their souls shattered on the spot! Batch after batch of the Jiehu remnants who were fleeing in panic were like being swept by a lawn mower. They instantly lost all breath of life and fell to the ground in unison! Wherever this dark yellow bell passed, everything was clean and smooth... (End of this chapter)