Chapter 465: Chapter 234: Fleeing Upon Hearing the News_3
Translator: 549690339
Hearing these harsh words, not a few of the Qiang soldiers nearby had their faces turn sour.
It was difficult for many of them to accept that their Qiang king was being insulted this way.
But the things the Zhou People were saying were all true.
Given Li Xiong’s behavior over the past few days, not only the Zhou people, but even the low-ranking Qiang soldiers wanted to swear at him.
The only reasons they didn’t were they had to save face and their inherent fear of the naturally privileged prevented them from voicing it out.
They weren’t brave enough to speak up, but actually enjoyed hearing the Zhou People scolding their king now.
However, after all the cursing, the morale of the entire United Army visibly dipped.
The bandits were about to launch a fierce attack, and by the looks of their armed and armored troops, it was clear they were elite soldiers and strong generals, led by Lu Yuan, the god of war.
On their side, the only one who could resist the enemy was their commander Li Xiong, who was too cowardly to fight.
Under such circumstances, they didn’t know what they could use to fight back.
Was it even meaningful to keep resisting like this?
These were the doubts many had in their hearts.
As the Zhou and Qiang soldiers were lost in confusion, Lu Yuan outside the city shouted his challenge twice again.
Upon seeing that there was still no response, he stopped challenging and gave the order for the army to attack the camp.
He himself immediately spurred his horse forward, leading the charge into the camp.
Seeing the enemy’s war drums and horns sounding and thousands of enemies rushing in, the soldiers guarding the camp instinctively drew their bows and started to fight back, no longer lost in thoughts about life.
But how could mere arrows harm Lu Yuan?
He charged forward, fiery flames appearing around him, incinerating anything nearing him, and nothing could get close.
The distance of a hundred steps was covered in the blink of an eye.
A few breaths later, the strong fortifications in front of him were burnt open by the fiery flames, and Lu Yuan jumped forward with his horse, plunging directly into the heart of the enemy’s camp.
Dozens of enemy soldiers turned into ashes within a radius of tens of yards.
After that, Lu Yuan moved to the left and to the right, killing quickly, and in a short time, more than two hundred enemy soldiers fell.
Seeing this, the remaining enemy around, whose morale was already extremely low, lost all courage to resist and began to flee.
Then, this atmosphere of retreat spread rapidly.
The United Army soldiers, who had been dissatisfied with Li Xiong for a long time, didn’t want to risk their lives for him anymore. Seeing that the fight had become hopeless, they all chose to run for their lives.
Some even directly dropped their weapons and surrendered to the Southsea Army.
Except for a few loyal tribal warriors of Qiang origin, no one else was willing to continue fighting.
As for these stubborn elements, they naturally became the target of Lu Yuan.
After several encounters on the battlefield, the remaining thousand Qiang soldiers were quickly eliminated by him.
Then, without stopping, Lu Yuan sprinted straight for the enemy’s central tent, to search for Li Xiong, the enemy commander who had remained out of sight since the start of the battle.
However, when he arrived at the central tent, Lu Yuan found that the place was deserted and there was no sign of Li Xiong.
He caught a few fleeing soldiers nearby and questioned them, only to find out that when Lu Yuan had challenged him, Li Xiong had already used the pretext of a camp patrol to leave with some of his confidants without anyone knowing where they went.
“Did he run away?”
Lu Yuan was somewhat incredulous at this result.
He never expected that Li Xiong, who was once a mighty ruler and even dominated Xichuan, had now fallen to such a state. Not only was he avoiding battle, but he also ran away at the sight of danger.
The mere sound of his challenge had scared Li Xiong enough to make him run away with his men.
This made him feel both amused and angry, but also surprised, stirring up some unusual emotions in his heart.
“Could it be that my prestige has reached such a level that it can scare off an Inborn Grandmaster without a fight?”
At this moment, Lu Yuan could almost confirm that for more than half of this month, Li Xiong has been out of sight out of fear of him.
This discovery naturally made him feel proud and slightly puzzled.
Could I, Lu, really be that awesome?
That’s an Inborn Grandmaster we’re talking about.
To be able to scare off an Inborn Grandmaster just by his reputation, Lu Yuan could only think of one example in his memory.
That was when Yin Huixuan of the Liuyang Sect went south to Lingnan, Yan Wangqiu, out of fear for his reputation, preemptively left the Nanhai Sect before Yin Huixuan’s arrival, dare not to face him.
But under those circumstances, Yin Huixuan was a top-ranked Inborn Second-level master, essentially the number one in Yue Country’s martial arts world.
Secondly, Yan Wangqiu was old and weak, already in his twilight years, simply not capable of fighting anymore.
In such a situation, it was understandable why he fled in fear. Those who knew the inside story would not have much to say.
But now, Lu Yuan was just at the initial Inborn Level, and even his time breaking through Innate was shorter than Li Xiong’s, making him his junior.
However, Li Xiong, this senior, when facing Lu Yuan the junior, didn’t even dare to fight, he just fled.
Even with Lu Yuan’s fine record of many previous victories, once this matter spreads, Li Xiong will undoubtedly be laughed at and despised by many Inborn Grandmasters, disgraced and unwilling to be on par with him.
Upon thinking deeply about this puzzle in his heart, Lu Yuan took a deep breath, suppressing his surprise and excitement, finally confirming one thing.
That is, after his own successful streak of defeating two Inborn Grandmasters, the reputation he has amassed now far exceeds his previous expectations.
This intimidation is big enough to influence the course of a battle.
Li Xiong’s fleeing at the wind was a clear indication of this.
Even considering this man’s contributions, the mere fact of frightening off an Inborn Grandmaster by his reputation alone speaks volumes. It can be imagined that once this gets out, Lu Yuan’s reputation will only further increase.
“Overall, this is quite a good development for me.”
Having figured this out, Lu Yuan glanced at the kneeling prisoners around him, his heart filled with delight.
He was not only happy because of his victory but also because of his increasing combat achievements and growing reputation.
In the eighth year of Hongdao era, on the sixteenth of March, King Changsha, Lu Yuan, with an army of a hundred thousand, fought against the Zhou-Shu United Army in the city of Yuzhong Prefecture, achieving a significant victory.
During the battle, thirty thousand were beheaded, and twenty thousand were captured. Enemy General, Shu King Li Xiong, abandoned his troops and fled, his whereabouts unknown.
Following the great victory, King Changsha took the opportunity to advance his troops eastward and successfully recaptured Linjiang Mansion.
On the twentieth of March, the army arrived at Wushan Prefecture, took over the prefecture city, stood at the gate of Wushan Pass, surrounding the remaining thirty thousand Zhou soldiers inside the pass.
Commander of the Zhou army inside the pass, Yuwen Chong, upon receiving the news, feared being besieged and killed by Lu Yuan, Shangguan Ming and the other three Inborn Grandmasters, chose to tread on the path of Gui Lianyun and Zhang Chanyi.
Just like Li Xiong, he abandoned his troops and fled that very night.
Therefore, on the second day, when the Zhou army within the pass found out that their commander had run away, the army’s spirit was greatly shaken.
After a period of chaos, a few temporarily selected decision-makers consulted and unanimously concluded that there was no need to continue fighting.
Therefore, they unanimously decided to surrender by opening the city gate.
On the twenty-third day of the third month of the eighth year of Hongdao, thirty thousand Zhou soldiers at Wushan Pass surrendered, Lu Yuan and Shangguan Ming led the troops into the city, and Wushan Pass was taken.
With this, since Lu Yuan led the surprise attack, it took two months to finally achieve the target.
Not only were all the lost territories of Xichuan restored, but also the one hundred thousand Zhou-Shu United Army entrenched within Wushan Pass has been completely wiped out.
The United Army achieved the second great victory since the Northern Expedition.