"I would like to express my highest respect to Mr. Luo Minghai, President of the Family Headquarters:

Our army arrived at Chishuitan, Yun Province on September 15th.

Acting Commander-in-Chief of the Central Military Forces Sterling"

Chishuitan in Yun Province is not a military location nor a strategic fortress, but Commander Sterling, who is busy with military affairs (he does not know that he is already the official commander yet), made an exception and took the time to write a battle report to the commander's office, indicating that this place was once again occupied by the family.

What a great historical significance it is to be controlled by the army. In the empire in 779

In the summer of 2016, this place that was too small to be marked on the map brought nightmare-like and painful memories to the Zichuan family. A month ago, the family's 300,000-strong Far Eastern Army fought with the five-member family on this narrow plain divided by river hills.

One hundred thousand rebels and 150,000 Leihong rebels launched an unprecedented scale battle involving one million people.

Tang Chuan, a family history scholar, once commented on Chishuitan: "It was here that the Zichuan family lost 230,000 loyal and combat-savvy soldiers. The Zichuan family's two-hundred-year rule over the Far East was the glory and dream of seven generations.

, the qualification to dominate the Xichuan Continent lies in Leihong’s army

The moment he appeared on the Chishuitan plain, he was mercilessly crushed by the hoofs of horses. The defeat in Chishuitan led to the weakening of the Zichuan family's strength, which was also the reason for the family's subsequent series of disasters. Chishuitan can be called the stronghold of the Zichuan family.

It was a turning point in fate.”

※※※

Sterling was shocked by the Shura place in front of him.

In the vast plain at the foot of the mountain, as far as the eye can see, there are corpses with broken armors everywhere. The Far East armored cavalry that the family is most proud of ended up being exposed in the wilderness. I don’t know whether it was out of hatred or to show off, but the victory of the Battle of Chishuitan

The survivors were not so kind as to bury the remains of the losers. A few kilometers away, the strong smell of rotting corpses in the air was unbearable.

Densely packed ruins of broken guns spread to the horizon. In the distance, a broken flag stood slantingly in the sunset. The evening wind "Hunting" rolled up the flag, and the words "Far East ## Cavalry# Army" were faintly visible - the flag was still there.

Here, the soldier holding the flag had already turned into bones.

Large groups of carnivorous vultures swarmed the sky, rising and falling one after another, screaming strangely as if to celebrate their good luck.

Sterling burst into unknown rage, took out an arrow and shot down a vulture that screamed strangely, sighing sadly.

The senior officers behind him looked at the usually steady and calm young commander uneasily, wondering why he was so irritable.

"The advance has been stopped to bury the remains of friendly troops. They died fighting for the country, and we cannot let them expose themselves to the wilderness like this."

There was a commotion among the officers. Ma Yuan, the commander of the 3rd Cavalry Division, said: "Sir, this will delay a lot of time. We will not be able to catch up with the rebels."

Sterling said coldly: "Can we catch up now?"

※※※

Ten days ago, Sterling led 20,000 Central Army cavalry to pursue the main force of the rebels into Yun Province.

Since the pursuit entered Yun Province, the rebels were as agile as a fish in water. This is their territory, their hometown, and they are as familiar with the terrain here as they are familiar with their own room. On the contrary, the steep mountains of Yun Province

and rugged mountain roads made the pursuers

The human cavalry struggled to move forward, and the terrain was unfamiliar. It often happened that the entire army set off in the morning under the clouds, and worked hard all day on the rugged and winding mountain road until dusk fell, and everyone found themselves back to the day before yesterday.

Sleeping in front of the anointing fire at night.

The only guide they had was a book written twenty years ago - a big river appeared where the road was marked, and where there were bridges there were only a few wooden piles left. It also said that a certain place had "beautiful scenery and pleasant environment."

, most suitable for camping in the wild!" As a result, if he hadn't run fast that night, the 20,000-strong army would have been buried alive by the mudslide! - Sterling discovered bitterly: This atlas full of errors and omissions was a pirated version!

Sterling also considered hiring a local aboriginal guide, but no matter how much he paid, the villagers just looked at him coldly like an idiot (or as if they were an idiot), and their dull eyes were annoying.

His heart was numb. Finally, an old orc man "volunteered" to lead the army, but he led a squadron of cavalry into the swamp and was swallowed up - so Sterling had to give up the idea of ​​hiring a local guide, and watched

The enemy's rout was getting further and further away from me, and finally disappeared from sight...

Another important reason for the slow advance of the army was the hostility of the local people towards the family. The Far East Rebellion was initiated in Shaluo Province, but it achieved its greatest development in Yun Province: as soon as the news of the uprising came, the entire Yun Province

They responded quickly as if they were united as one person. The young and middle-aged men immediately picked up crude weapons and rushed towards the local garrison. Then they besieged the provincial capital and massacred all the hundreds of thousands of human soldiers and civilians who were besieged. The red-clothed flag book of the provincial governor

Yang Li surrendered when the city was breached, but was tortured by the rebels for three full days before finally killing him. It can be said that the entire province was either rebels or their families.

Although Sterling had been mentally prepared in advance, he still did not expect that the residents of Yun Province would welcome their arrival so "warmly" - within twelve hours, the forward scout team encountered hundreds of attacks, sneak attacks, and traps.

, the scale ranges from a large team of thousands of people to a suicide attack by one or two people. As the team advances, sometimes a cold arrow is shot from the grass, sometimes a javelin flies out of the woods; when the army stops to camp, the surroundings are even more noisy.

There was a moment of peace; when sentries were sent to check, either nothing could be found, or none of the people sent out returned. When Sterling looked at the prisoners of war, he was deeply shocked: almost all of them were civilians, old, young, women, and children.

, there is no young and middle-aged man. What have their men done? The answer is obvious.

Only then did Sterling understand why Luo Bo's cunning, coupled with Lin Bing's courage, and the bravery of the soldiers of the Far East Army, led to the defeat of Chishuitan - when a race had made up its desperate determination to resist.

, the destructive power they unleashed was astonishing.

Sterling once thought: "What is the reason why, two hundred years after the Zichuan family performed "benevolence" on this land, every living creature on the land tried their best to oppose us? Where did we go wrong?

?" But he consciously stopped himself from continuing to search for the answer: soldiers should not interfere in politics. If the army has ideas, it is a harbinger of national destruction.

※※※

Ma Yuan shut up immediately. The officers exchanged glances and understood that Sir Sterling was in a bad mood today, and warned themselves not to get into trouble. However, everyone was a little unclear about Sterling's plan: neither to pursue the enemy.

, are you preparing to retreat?

The officers had long wanted to retreat. Such a lone and weak brigade consisting entirely of cavalry advanced too far, leaving all the infantry and supplies thousands of kilometers behind. Within a thousand kilometers, there were only rebels.

, countless rebels, all kinds of rebels: rude orcs, insidious snakes, dwarves who like to shoot cold arrows, cruel demons, roaring dragons...

The only driving force that supported the army's continued advance was Sterling's firm will. As the commander of the Central Army, he shared the same clothes and food with the soldiers, gnawing on unpalatable wild vegetables and rolling in the muddy grass, just like

He fights like an ordinary soldier, working tirelessly at night, checking posts and taking turns in every task. He is the last one to fall asleep every night, and he is also the first one to get up every day. The soldiers love Sterling, support him wholeheartedly, and carry out the execution with all their heart.

Every command he gave.

The middle-level officers felt the danger: no matter how high the morale of the troops was, the army could not fight based on morale alone. Officers kept coming to persuade Sterling: "Sir, it's time to withdraw!" "We have made a decision.

They have achieved great military exploits and defeated hundreds of thousands of rebels. The credit is great enough!" "Sir, let the army rest for a while. They have been fighting for nearly fifty days and traveled five thousand miles!" -

—Every time someone comes, Sterling always listens carefully, and from time to time he agrees with "Yeah!" "That's it!" I have the same idea as you. But when it comes to tomorrow's action arrangements.

, he always said in an understatement: "The original plan remains unchanged."

So the officers complained. Some thought Sterling was too mean, and some thought Sterling was using the lives of soldiers as bargaining chips for meritorious service and promotion. Even the commander-in-chief Luo Minghai wrote to him every three days to warn him: "Your official position

What's the matter!? I'm determined to get ahead with all my ambitions. If there's anything like Chishuitan that I can't bear to say, the three-foot military iceberg is just for you!"

Faced with misunderstandings from his subordinates and accusations from the command, Sterling defended himself without saying a word. In his mind, personal honor and disgrace were insignificant. What bothered him was why he had won so many battles and defeated all the people along the way.

There is another rebellion, but the situation has not improved at all. The Far East is still full of wars, and rebellions are still coming and going. As Di Lin said in his letter: "A hundred victories are not enough to turn things around, and a defeat will cause disaster." He said

The current situation is really like walking on thin ice. With a meager force to contain and deter hundreds of thousands of rebels (and millions of Far Eastern people who want to become rebels), we can only win, not lose! Although hundreds of thousands of rebels have been defeated

The army, but Sterling knew that this made no sense: the rebels were like a nine-headed dragon. If you kill one, several more will grow! They fall easily, but as soon as there is a disturbance, they can gather quickly. What is decisive in the end

Where is the battlefield?

So he firmly believes that the only way to quell the rebellion is to go straight to the source of the rebellion, fight to the death with the rebels, and eliminate the root of the rebellion in one fell swoop! Although the rebels are now very weak in defeat, Sterling knows that the rebels are still strong

Strong, they were just stunned by Sterling's lightning-fast attack! When they come to their senses, the family will have to pay a hundred times the price in blood if they want to quell the rebellion.

At this time, the only person who understood Sterling was Zichuan Chief Zichuan Shenxing. He wrote a letter to Sterling with only one sentence: "I worry about your explanation, and I know your heart." - When reading the letter, Sterling

I couldn't help but burst into tears: Although I paid without asking for anything in return, my hard work for the family was finally understood by the president. In life, you only need a close friend, the hardships of fierce battles on the battlefield, the tragedy of working hard, day and night.

The hard work at night, the pain of not being understood, now it seems that it was all in vain.

After hesitating for a while, Wen He, the commander of the 1st Cavalry Division, asked the question that everyone was most concerned about: "Sir, then we..."

Sterling did not answer. He turned and looked at the dark soldiers behind him: the soldiers were hungry, lean, tired, and in ragged clothes. Their straight gold-trimmed uniforms had been torn into strips. They walked like ghosts and not like people.

, trembling hands

They could only barely hold a spear, and were as thin as a team of armored knights and skeletons riding skeleton horses-compared to the day when they set off from the imperial capital with high-spirited armor and bright armor, this troop has become very different:

How small it has become!

But even so, they are still considered the most elite troops! Every time they hear the sound of the horn, these half-dead soldiers immediately become more energetic, their faces miraculously glow red, their eyes sparkle with lightning, and they shout loudly to kill. No matter how powerful the enemy is, they dare to

They strode forward and refused to retreat. Even though supplies had been cut off for more than ten days, the soldiers still had no complaints. As long as they heard Sterling's first call, they were willing to fight with him to the ends of the earth and to the devil.

fort.

Looking at the young and haggard faces and the determined eyes, I thought that there are more young and determined young men who have been sleeping in a land far away from their relatives and lovers, from the walls of Wallen Fortress to Yun Province.

On the more than 3,000 miles of Chishuitan, on average, there is a cross erected by a descendant of the imperial capital every fifty meters.

Sterling suddenly felt panic:

What right does he have to make these children pay with their lives for his stubbornness?

Is it a sin to take advantage of the soldiers' love for you and lead them to their death?

For the strong and unified family, for the early restoration of peace in the Far East, and turning swords into plowshares, have the sacrifices made by the Central Army already been too great?

Is my judgment accurate? Is there really a decisive battle that can change the situation in the entire Far East?

Can such an army survive a battle?

Turning around to face the entire army, Sterling's hoarse and deep voice clearly reached the ears of every soldier.

"Soldiers, those who are sleeping in front of us are our comrades from the Far East Army. They fought bravely and sacrificed their lives for the country. What we have to do now is to bury their bodies, and then-" Sterling closed his eyes and looked at each other.

Hot tears rolled down slowly: "We withdraw our troops."
To be continued...