A Tangled Mystery

After He Qichang showed an annoyed expression. "What is this! I just decided to participate in this war and experience the meaning of killing, and they want to drive me away? Imprisoning me and releasing me just like that, do they really think we are criminals? Anyway, I won't be able to go back in time for the New Year, so I'm not leaving!"

Murong Qing said enthusiastically, "I want to stay. I have a feeling this will be a battle that will be recorded in history. If I miss it, it will be a great loss in my life."

Liu Qingqing flipped through "The Heavenly Firmament Arrow Formation Technique," reading the martial arts content while referring to the annotations left by Boyan in the blank spaces on both sides. She casually said, "Then I'll stay too. It's no fun going back alone."

By the next day, only Old Wang decided to leave. He was an old boatman, and the northern lands of Li State were not unfamiliar to him. Besides, snakes have their paths and rats have their ways, so he knew who to ferry him back.

Si Ming and the others set off with the Mu Family Army. The soldiers no longer had to travel empty-handed. They had looted a large amount of supplies from Qianjin City. Although the food was distributed to the people, there were also weapons, equipment, horses, transport carts, and other tools. At first glance, it seemed that the army had grown much larger.

Qianjin City is the gateway from Hao Capital to the sea. The two are not far apart, so it only took the group a day to arrive at the city and set up an encirclement.

Yes, it was indeed an encirclement. Although a large city like Hao Capital would require at least 100,000 troops to form an encirclement, Mu Wu alone made up for the shortfall. Their goal was not to completely occupy or destroy the city, but to use it as bait to shake the morale of the frontline Barbarian Hu, or to lure the Barbarian Hu out of the city and then kill them.

Si Ming was worried that the Heavenly Lion King was not in Hao Capital, because a few days ago there was news that the Grand Tutor of the Li State had come to Heavenly Lake in the North. After learning this, the Heavenly Lion King left behind a group of tribal leaders who had just become kings and went to Heavenly Lake alone.

This act of a marshal abandoning his troops and headquarters to meet the enemy alone is extremely foolish from the perspective of Earthlings, but it is not uncommon in the Sea Continent. After all, the leaders often possess powerful cultivation, and it is even more common among the Barbarian Hu who admire strength.

When two grassland tribes go to war, each side sends out its strongest warriors. The victorious side will gain a large number of livestock and slaves, and may even annex the other side.

In Haojing City, the only Spirit Transformation experts are Silver Wolf King, a trusted advisor of the Heavenly Lion King, and Vulture King Boyan, who was recently severely injured and fled. Even if the latter were in full condition, he and Silver Wolf King together would not be able to defeat Mu Wu, so their chances of winning are now even slimmer.

On the other hand, the Mu Family Army, with only three or four thousand men, had absolutely no chance of taking down Haojing City. Mu Wu had never thought of attacking the city; he had only made a show of besieging it and then spread rumors around.

Meanwhile, to make the news spread faster, he would occasionally leap into the air and unleash a devastating attack on the city wall, wiping out the guards on the wall before running away, leaving them no chance to intercept him.

After ten rounds of sweeping, no soldier dared to stand on the city wall anymore, fearing that they would be killed by the golden light that fell from the sky.

The Silver Wolf King was helpless against this almost shameless tactic. Even with the addition of Boyan, they could only defend two sides of the city wall, leaving two other sides unprotected. Mu Wu dared not enter the city, and they dared not leave.

The two sides remained deadlocked until the day before Mu Wu decided to withdraw, when the situation changed.

Chapter 188 Mysterious and Unpredictable

Although Si Ming and He Qichang both stayed to watch the battle under the pretext of experiencing war, with the latter even planning to infiltrate the Mu Family Army and fight against the Barbarian Hu, Mu Wu clearly had no intention of confronting his opponents head-on. For several days, only he actually went into battle, while everyone else became spectators, including his Mu Family Army, which only put on an attack formation to intimidate the enemy every day.

This often led He Qichang to complain in an irritated tone, "I should have just left with Old Wang that day."

As an outsider, he couldn't tell Mu Wu, "I want to participate in the war, you should go and fight the enemy." Even if he was extremely unsatisfied, he could only suppress his desires.

The stalemate continued until Mu Family Army received a battle report from the front lines via radio.

The Barbarian Hu army could not withstand the pressure and finally retreated!

Even if a general in the field is not bound by the emperor's orders, knowing that the capital is surrounded and in danger of falling at any moment, he still stays at the front line and does not return to provide reinforcements. If the commander of the Barbarian Hu dares to do this, he will surely face the suspicion and wrath of the Heavenly Lion King when he returns.

Although with the strength of the Heavenly Lion King, even if the Mu Family Army came together, they couldn't do anything to him, reason is one thing, feeling is another.

A mere subject who doesn't care about the life or death of his monarch is like a pet dog that doesn't care about its owner's safety; nobody wants such a dog.

The most important thing when raising a dog is loyalty; ability is secondary.

Unless the Heavenly Lion King personally orders that the front-line army need not return to reinforce and can focus on fighting the enemy, then the commander can remain in the position without any worries.

At this moment Heavenly Lion King Tian Shi was "chatting" with Grand Tutor Li State Guo at Heavenly Lake and was too busy to issue an edict—this step was also part of Mu Wu's plan.

Moreover, besides being mindful of the Heavenly Lion King's thoughts, the families and descendants of those tribal leaders were also in Haojing City. They could not stand idly by and watch the capital fall. Upon hearing the news, they urged their commander to withdraw troops and return to reinforce the capital every day.

With the situation having developed to this point, no matter how prestigious the commander is, he cannot go against the will of the people. Otherwise, even if he defeats the army of the Li State, he will eventually become the target of public criticism. Being imprisoned would be the least of his worries; it is not impossible that the entire tribe could be implicated.

"Send a telegram to Marshal Xue that our army will withdraw tomorrow, so there is no need to worry about safety. Just focus on dealing with the Barbarian Hu coalition. I wish him a great victory."

The special forces soldiers in the communications team immediately began fiddling with the transmitter. One of them activated his Internal Cultivation, creating an electric current between his palms to charge the machine—he cultivated an electric-attribute Internal Cultivation.

Before long, they sent out the Morse code and received a reply.

"General, Marshal Xue replied that they discovered that the Single-Winged Eagle King of the Barbarian Hu Allied Forces left the camp several days ago, speculating that he might be coming to relieve the crisis in Hao Capital. He reminded our army to be on guard and not to be surrounded."

"Is it only the Single-Winged Eagle King?"

Mu Wu pondered for a moment. He had fought the Single-Winged Eagle King before and knew its strengths and weaknesses. Even if the Eagle King joined forces with the Silver Wolf King, he was confident that he would not be at a disadvantage. As for the injured Vulture King, he could leave it to Liu Yongzhan and the others to deal with. If they really couldn't hold it off, he could ask that young hero from the Mohist School to take action. The Heavenly Firmament Arrow Formation Technique emphasizes breadth over strength, and the external martial arts training is exactly its nemesis. Moreover, the Vulture King had lost an arm, which greatly damaged its cultivation. It was unlikely that it could break through that young hero's Dharma Body with just one hand.

As the offensive specialist among the "Two Commanders," Mu Wu had fought against almost all of Barbarian Hu's Spirit Transformation experts, with a record of nine wins, three draws, and one loss. That one loss was against three Spirit Transformation experts working together. In a one-on-one situation, no one could defeat him.

Even looking at the entire Sea Continent, Mu Wu is among the top level of Spirit Transformation cultivators. Moreover, he grew up in a chaotic world, is experienced in battle, and is especially skilled in actual combat.

Speaking of which, the Eagle King's arm was also severed by him half a year ago. Although Spirit Transformation cultivator has the ability to regenerate severed limbs, it takes time. It only takes a few days to grow a finger, but to grow an arm, it would take at least a year. Now the Vulture King has also become a one-armed bird. Both of the two bird kings had their wings broken by him, so they must have something in common to talk about.

The Barbarian Hu coalition only sent one Eagle King back to reinforce, which was unavoidable. On the one hand, the Eagle King was skilled in lightness skills, Barbarian Hu could surpass him. On the other hand, they had too few Spirit Transformation experts, only fifteen in total. Among them, the Silver Wolf King and the Vulture King were stationed in the rear, and the rest went to the front line. On the other hand, the Li State sent twenty Spirit Transformation experts to the front line.

If the Barbarian Hu allied forces send too many Spirit Transformation experts back, they might not even need to retreat; they would be routed on the front lines.

Population has always been Barbarian Hu weakness for the Manhu people. Even though they imported a large number of martial arts manuals from the Su State, enabling the entire tribe to cultivate orthodox Xuanmen martial arts, resulting in a continuous stream of talented individuals who surpassed the achievements of their ancestors and entered a golden age, the population base was still there. It was fifty times smaller than the population of the Li State. Even with a high success rate, the number of Spirit Transformation experts was still far too small.

Watching the group carefully disassemble the transmitter and pack it into a specially prepared box, Mu Wu couldn't help but say, "This thing is truly amazing. It looks so plain and inconspicuous, yet it allows us to communicate with people hundreds of miles away. I wonder what the principle behind it is? The Mohist School's science and technology are indeed the best in the world."

The telegraph operator explained, "The transmitter uses a key to control the oscillation of a low-frequency signal generator, which is then modulated by a high-frequency carrier signal. After power amplification, it is transmitted through an antenna. Its operating frequency is set in the shortwave band. At the receiving end, the presence or absence of the low-frequency signal can be detected to obtain the arrangement information."

"This is giving me a headache. I don't understand what you're talking about at all. Anyway, it's related to power waves, right? If we created a martial art that could artificially generate signal waves, wouldn't we be able to communicate with people a hundred miles away without needing a transmitter?"

The radio operator said helplessly, "This idea is theoretically feasible, but in practice it would likely cause many problems. At least I've never heard of such a skill."

After the radio transmitters were all packed up, Liu Yongzhan, who was standing beside him, asked, "General, what if the Silver Wolf King gets wind of this and leads his troops out of the city, hindering our army's movements from the rear?"

Mu Wu, "He won't lead his troops out of the city. Quality over quantity is key, especially in open field battles. It's common for three thousand to defeat thirty thousand. The Barbarian Hu's elite troops have all gone to the front lines; those left behind are mostly the old, weak, and disabled. Don't be fooled by the fifty thousand troops guarding Haojing City. They might be fine for defending the city, but if they dare to come out and pursue us, we'll make sure they don't return!"

In this world where martial arts exist, the gap in individual strength can be very large. Therefore, the saying "quality over quantity" is very true and is a common sense in military strategy. It is not difficult for an elite soldier to defeat ten times the number of ordinary soldiers, because even if you take one elite soldier out of the group, he is enough to take on ten ordinary soldiers by himself.

Ji Da laughed and said, "The commander is right. If those barbarians don't pursue us, fine. But if they dare to chase us out, we'll not only make sure they don't return, but we'll also take Hao Capital and avenge the loss of the capital back then!"