Taking the Fight to the Enemy
Victor decided to award prizes for this operation after he returned to Two Rivers Territory.
The next step was to clear the battlefield and allow the troops to rest, as the Two Rivers Territory was not yet capable of occupying the area for an extended period.
Victor simply ordered the camp to be destroyed to prevent it from being occupied by other steppe tribes and causing unnecessary trouble.
As for why this place wasn't handed over to the Horseshoe Tribe, even if it were, the Horseshoe Tribe wouldn't dare accept it. The location here is too far from the Two Rivers Territory, and if anything happens, the Two Rivers Territory simply won't be able to provide support in time.
Jell strongly rejected this offer, knowing full well the capabilities of the Horseshoe Tribe.
Most importantly, even if the Two Rivers Territory reoccupies this place in the future, it will definitely have to rebuild the city. The walls and buildings originally built by the Blazing Fire Tribe do not meet the architectural standards of the Two Rivers Territory.
Although Victor temporarily abandoned this place, he still gave it a name. Because there was a large lake in the center of the grassland where the Blazing Fire Tribe's camp was located, he simply named the lake Slay Barbarian Lake. Since Slay Barbarian Lake looked like a huge emerald from afar, Victor simply named this oasis grassland Green Lake Plain.
Thus, over the next three days, the Two Rivers Territory organized slaves to transport the spoils and supplies back to Number Four Supply Station, from where they were eventually sent back to the Two Rivers Territory by boat. On the other hand, these slaves also had to destroy the original Blazing Fire Tribe camp, dismantling the walls and all the buildings.
Under Victor's orders, the troops took turns resting to ensure they were fully recovered before the next battle.
At the same time, Victor also instructed the Intelligence Department to make contact with the reconnaissance team responsible for tracking the remaining main force of the Blazing Fire Tribe as soon as possible, and to make sure to grasp the movements of the last military force of the Blazing Fire Tribe.
Victor was not willing to lose this piece of meat. According to the intelligence brought back by the reconnaissance team, the Blazing Fire Tribe's troops had also gained a lot in the battle to annihilate the Iron Palm Tribe: tens of thousands of livestock, nearly two thousand female slaves, and the wealth accumulated by the Iron Palm Tribe. Victor was extremely envious of these things.
Fortunately, the reconnaissance team kept reporting their location to the main force, and on the third day, the two sides finally made contact.
The Blazing Fire Tribe's army marched quite fast. After all, they had no shortage of horses after destroying the Iron Palm Tribe, and even the slaves were brought back tied to the horses. They were now less than 100 kilometers away from Green Lake Plain, with less than five days to go.
After confirming the enemy's location, Victor did not wait and immediately ordered the entire army to move out. With such a clear difference in strength, there was no need to use any tricks; the troops of the Two Rivers Territory could easily annihilate them by fighting head-on.
This can be considered a final conclusion to this training exercise, and a proper, head-on battle.
With their intentions carefully laid out, the Two Rivers Territory's troops, taking advantage of the battlefield's cover, located the last army of the Blazing Fire Tribe three days later and surrounded them under the cover of night.
By the time the Blazing Fire Tribe's army realized they were surrounded, it was too late.
"What's going on? How come there are troops from the south here? It's only a three-day journey from here to the old camp!" Huo Qing exclaimed, clutching his head.
Volcano's face turned ashen; he had a premonition that this time things were likely to turn bad.
The Two Rivers Territory army released dozens of prisoners, all of whom were nobles from the three major clans of the Blazing Fire Tribe, having survived the interrogation by the Intelligence Department.
They informed Chief Volcano and the five Legion Commander that the Blazing Fire Tribe's base had been captured.
Upon learning of the raid on their home, everyone was filled with righteous indignation, especially after discovering that their loved ones had either died in battle or been captured and enslaved. They all cried out to the Volcano, demanding revenge.
However, the Volcano remained unmoved and instead sent a messenger to Victor, offering to give up all the spoils of the Iron Palm Tribe in exchange for sparing the last remaining strength of the Blazing Fire Tribe.
But Victor remained unmoved and drove the messenger back.
With their last hope dashed, Volcano understood the resolute determination of the Two Rivers Territory to annihilate them, so he abandoned any illusions and focused on preparing for the battle against the Two Rivers Territory.
The next day at noon, in mid-July on the grassland, the heat was intense, and Victor's metal mask gleamed with a cold, bluish-gray light in the heat.
The diamond-shaped military formation of Two Rivers Territory unfolded like a steel machine, and the scale armor of the Heavy Cavalry reflected the sunlight like a school of fish. Three thousand four hundred remnants of the Fiery Army were trapped in a gentle slope area with a radius of five miles.
Victor's command flag on the observation vehicle emitted three short and one long signals, and seventy-two steel crossbows were simultaneously cocked behind the vehicle formation, the quenched steel arrowheads rubbing against the bowstrings and emitting a hissing sound like a viper spitting its tongue.
Eight hundred Light Cavalry on the left flank of the Blazing Fire Tribe launched a suicidal charge, with bundles of burning hay tied to the sides of their saddles, attempting to disrupt the crossbow formation with their fiery horses.
But the Pikemen at the Two Rivers Territory suddenly split to the sides, revealing three layers of interlocking barricades behind them. The charging Fiery Warhorses began to rear up in panic twenty paces away, throwing their riders into the dense forest of spears.
The Heavy Cavalry on the right flank launched their attack, three hundred warhorses covered in scales advancing with a distinctive rhythm. These beasts, trained for charging, could maintain a precise distance of one zhang (approximately 3.3 meters).
The right-wing Legion Commander of the Blazing Fire Tribe attempted to counter with a lasso tactic, but the neck armor of the Two Rivers Territory Heavy Cavalry extended to the base of their ears, and the bronze chains, after sparking against the scale armor, slipped off without resistance. As the Heavy Cavalry's wedge formation pierced through the enemy lines, the Light Cavalry in the rear immediately cut into the gap, their scimitars specifically targeting the unarmored waist and abdomen joints.
The midday sun turned the battlefield into a furnace. Victor ordered the standard-bearer to raise the banner. This was the signal for the general offensive. 1,200 crossbowmen fired in three waves, and specially made Armor-Piercing Arrows pierced the leather shields of the Fire Warriors, pinning them to the ground along with the three hundred-man squads supervising the rear.
Chief Volcano Fire Chief, personally led Huo Qing and his Thousand-man squad in a desperate charge.
These elite warriors of the Blazing Fire Tribe were clad in bronze chainmail, but the spear formation of the Two Rivers Territory suddenly changed its formation—the first three rows of spearmen knelt and held their four-meter-long spears at an angle, while the last three rows rested their spear shafts on the specially designed grooves in the shoulder armor of the front row, forming a six-layered forest of deadly spears.
The Volcano's scimitar cleaved two spearheads in two, but his mount was pierced through the neck by the fourth row of spears. Using corpses as shields as the Volcano rolled down, he killed three spearmen before being stabbed to death by a combined force of spearmen. This cunning Fire Chieftain ultimately perished on the battlefield.
The final battle took place in a pool of blood with a radius of thirty paces. Five personal guards attempted to use their bodies as a human shield to help the Legion Commander Huo Qing break through the encirclement, but they were pierced through the body by crossbowmen's triangular arrows.
When Huo Qing was trapped under the iron net, all the other Legion Commander had already been killed in battle. After losing all their high-ranking officers, the remaining Fire Warriors lost their will to fight and surrendered one after another.