Outside the Western City military camp, Ye Zhen rode a tall horned horse. To his left stood Commandery Governor Qiao Hong and the many officials of the Commandery Governor's Mansion; to his right were Heavenly Patrol General Feng Jiumo, Gu Tieqi, Liu Feng, and their trusted men.
Ye Zhen was staring grimly at the repeating crossbow Kong Geli had raised atop the camp wall.
Great Zhou had always pursued a policy of weakening the branches and strengthening the trunk. It provided virtually no military support to its enfeoffed provinces, commanderies, and fiefdoms, leaving them to build their own forces.
The commandery soldiers of North Sea Commandery now held the lowest-grade Fire Repeating Crossbows of Great Zhou, the kind that fired three bolts at once. They were at least three grades below the Peak Fire Repeating Crossbows standardly equipped by the Great Zhou Imperial Guard, which fired twelve bolts at once.
Yet the red glimmers flashing from those bolts showed that, though the Fire Repeating Crossbows were the lowest grade of repeating crossbow, their bolts had been blessed by priests and were by no means weak.
Naturally, barrages on the scale of ten or a hundred shots could not harm Ye Zhen. But the camp opposite held two armies and a Guard Camp, nearly eighty thousand men in all.
Let alone a barrage from the entire army—even if they drew out ten thousand men to rain bolts down upon Ye Zhen's party, few of those at Ye Zhen's side would likely survive.
Under such circumstances, the calves of some of the more timid Commandery Governor's Mansion officials began to cramp and tremble. Even some Heavenly Patrol Divine Hunters began muttering inwardly: what if they were hit by a blanket volley?
"Commandery Governor Qiao!" Seeing no response from the camp, Ye Zhen