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Otherworld Advance Team-Chapter 1781 - 1774: The Sorrow Beyond the Frontier
Chapter 1781: Chapter 1774: The Sorrow Beyond the Frontier
Fifteen years ago that night, Ichuan Fei just thinking about it would involuntarily shudder. The snowy plains outside the pass north of Snow Boundary Pass, the white snow had already been stained red with blood, tens of thousands fell forever on foreign land, the ground was littered with corpses lying in disarray.
Ichuan Fei awoke from the cold, the battle had continued from yesterday morning till nightfall, and when he woke, it was already early dawn of the next day. The once pristine snowfield had now turned muddy and filthy, blood and filth comprised the main colors of the battlefield.
The battlefield was strewn with bodies, Eastern Barbarians held knives gathering spoils and searching for surviving Dongsheng soldiers. The leading officer rode a tall horse initially meant only for Dongsheng officers, directing his subordinates to search for any living, and they indeed found several survivors, who were tied together with ropes, their helmets removed, looking quite distressed.
Why did it come to this?
Ichuan Fei took a deep breath of cold air, his mind finally cleared from its previous daze. They had walked into an ambush, Beichang army had set an ambush circle here, and the Dongsheng army he was part of, unfortunately walked right into it.
Though the Dongsheng army, under the officers’ command, bravely resisted, ultimately, they could not match the formidable Beichang forces. After several breaches in their lines, the encircled Dongsheng army finally lost its footing, welcoming their fate of slaughter.
Before the expedition, Ichuan Fei and others thought the Eastern Barbarians were no more than a threat of sorts. Only upon contact did they realize the Beichang army’s Eastern Barbarians were overwhelmingly formidable, catching them off guard.
This was the Wen Family’s first time sidelining the generals, leading a large-scale military operation solely under the command of its leader. Since the autumn conscription, they had spent a month beyond Snow Boundary Pass, looking for Beichang army’s main force, attempting a decisive battle, and solving the problem of Beichang’s Pretender’s Regime once and for all.
Yet, the Wen Family underestimated the strength of Beichang army, neglecting the objectively existing cultivation system.
How can the power of mortals compare with cultivators?
Three months into the expedition, Dongsheng army unsurprisingly met with disastrous defeat, Wen Family’s pride Heavenly Army defeated, and those Nobility following the army suffered heavy casualties.
Those Eastern Barbarians were searching for surviving Nobility’s children, hoping to use them for ransom, making a fortune from the war.
Ichuan Fei lay in the snow, trying to move his stiff limbs, his fingers already numb from the cold, yet he still endured the chill while feeling around in the snow.
No one noticed him, the Eastern Barbarians searching the battlefield focused entirely on those kneeling captured Nobility disciples, only two lower-ranked Eastern Barbarian soldiers were still searching around.
Ichuan Fei knew that if this dragged on, either they would capture him, or he’d freeze to death in this snowy hell, after contemplating, he decided to launch a counterattack.
He carefully removed the armor that had become damp and hardened on him, in the muddy snow he crawled, enduring the pungent bloody smell, searching for weapons he could use.
Luckily, he found several infantry crossbows and three muskets in a overturned supply cart.
These weren’t ordinary muskets, but three fine Flintlock guns, their technology originating from the Demon Clan in West Outer Heaven. Of course, as primitive flintlocks, they certainly weren’t as good as later firearms, let alone Flintlocks improved by the High-peak people.
In this expedition, Dongsheng army was equipped with a large number of firearms, primarily matchlock guns, supplemented with crossbows and a few Flintlocks.
The Wen Family’s Imperial Court thought, if the army could rely on these weapons to defeat Beichang forces, not saying achieving significant results, as long as they could defeat Beichang army once, they would have the confidence to divide with the Wu Family, reform the army’s status, completely remove generals.
Simultaneously fully introduce the firearm technology from West Outer Heaven, reorganize Dongsheng army into a modernized firearm and melee weapon mixed force.
However, reality gave the Wen Family’s Imperial Court a huge slap, the firearm-equipped Dongsheng army couldn’t hold even a day against Beichang army’s siege, and the whole army was obliterated.
After finding weapons, Ichuan Fei carefully checked the three muskets’ condition, made sure they were loaded, then opened the powder tray, dumped the damp gunpowder, refilled dry powder from the horn.
The preparations lasted over an hour, Ichuan Fei used the cover of bodies and supply materials to complete the shooting preparations for the muskets, also fully drew crossbows ready to fire, completed all shooting preparations.
During this over one hour, those Eastern Barbarian soldiers were either cursing captives or gathered around a fire roasting, even the two searching soldiers squatted near another fire source, slacking off, paying no attention to Ichuan Fei’s moves.
Soaked and almost frozen Ichuan Fei found a fire source, after ten minutes of heat, he finally regained body temperature for free movement. Ignoring the steam still emitting from his body, he began tackling the current predicament.
Around those Eastern Barbarian soldiers, Ichuan Fei arranged the shooting position. A single person confronting several is certainly exhausting for him, but not entirely unmanageable.
Among these Eastern Barbarian soldiers, only the officer was a cultivator, regardless if he cultivated the Royal Dao or Ba Path, as long as he’s dealt with, the others would be manageable.
Decision made, Ichuan Fei entered the shooting position, raised the prepared Flintlock gun, aimed at the Eastern Barbarian officer on horseback facing away.
With a loud boom, the white smoke was exceptionally conspicuous in mid-air. The Eastern Barbarian officer fell off the horse, without even a chance to struggle, Ichuan Fei shot and blew off the felt hat-wearing head.
The gunshot startled these Eastern Barbarian soldiers, also intimidating them. Ichuan Fei didn’t wait for them to react, immediately dropped the Flintlock gun and began repositioning.
Soon he reached enemy’s flank, raised another prepared musket, aimed at a soldier and pulled the trigger.
After a short delay, sparks ignited by the flint lit the powder in the tray, another loud noise and smoke, an Eastern Barbarian soldier was shot in the side, cried out miserably and collapsed in the muddy snow.
Ichuan Fei quickly shifted position nonstop, arriving another side, raised the last musket. Meanwhile the Eastern Barbarian soldiers had noticed his trace, one soldier who had heads hung on his waist swung a scimitar, yelling, charged at him.
Without thinking, Ichuan Fei pulled the trigger directly. But the shot missed, bullet scraped the Eastern Barbarian soldier’s scalp, causing a blood trail, but the soldier endured, yelling, charged at him.
Without thinking further, Ichuan Fei reverse grabbed the still-hot barrel, swung it directly at the Eastern Barbarian soldier.
The Eastern Barbarian soldier, already confused by the musket shots, didn’t even think to block, was directly hit on the head with the butt of the musket by Ichuan Fei, staggered two steps back before falling, losing consciousness.
Ichuan Fei didn’t expect the three muskets could work wonders, knocking down three men in an instant. But his good fortune stopped there, the remaining Eastern Barbarian soldiers knowing he couldn’t fire bullets anymore, raised knives and charged at him.
One soldier halted and drew a bow, firing an arrow straight at him. Ichuan Fei couldn’t dodge in time, his left arm took an arrow, immediately collapsing in pain.
Seeing Ichuan Fei’s bravery, the Dongsheng officers tied together couldn’t remain kneeling, the nearest to the bowman shouted, while hands tied rushed at the soldier, knocked him off his second arrow.
Seeing this, the soldier’s rage surged, directly drew a dagger from his waist, stabbed into the unguarded neck.
But this officer’s action equally inspired others, they all rushed as one, directly overwhelming this soldier.
Before he could resist and rise, one seemingly weak but fierce-looking Dongsheng officer bit on the soldier’s neck, then savagely tore, ripping off a bloody chunk from his throat.
The soldier tried to pull out his pinned-down arm, covering his bleeding throat. But these officers did not let him succeed, firmly pressing him down, the Eastern Barbarian soldier fiercely struggled for a while, eventually weakening, ceasing movement.
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