The Bearfolk's Annihilation and the Blueprints
The Treant gave a detailed account of the Bearman's location and general situation.
According to current intelligence, those creatures mostly live on a sloping mountain about 8 kilometers away.
The location was quite unique; the terrain resembled a mountain that had been flattened at its waist, revealing a sloping platform at the top. The platform stretched from south to north for nearly 6 kilometers and was about 2 kilometers wide on the east and west sides. On the left side, it faced a river, while on the right side lay a bottomless Abyss.
Most of the Bearman's houses were built on this platform.
"In other words, if we split our forces into two groups and attack the center from the north and south, we can completely annihilate the entire Bearman race in the middle?"
Hearing the Treant's words, Ye Qian began to consider tactics.
In fact, encirclement is extremely difficult. Firstly, one's own army is not large, lacking the number of warriors of the Bearman. Secondly, such encirclement tactics often force the enemy into a corner, creating a desperate situation where they have no choice but to fight.
"We need to survey the terrain first."
Seeing that Ye Qian was thinking, Chen Ning took the initiative to speak.
"Please go." The two enormous Treant slowly parted to the sides, making way for a path.
Chen Ning nodded to Ye Qian and led more than 20 soldiers away from there.
Half an hour later, Chen Ning returned. Based on his description and by observing the minimap, Ye Qian finally decided on the tactics.
"We will launch a general offensive from the south to the north. This is the home of the Bearman, and they will definitely choose to hold their ground when suddenly attacked. They will only retreat when they can no longer hold their ground. Once they are tired of running, I will send in the ambushing troops. At that time, I will also ask the Treant people to join in the attack."
After Ye Qian finished explaining the tactics, the Treant leader in front of him seemed quite shocked.
"So this is the tactic humans use? I see, it sounds pretty impressive."
Ye Qian: "..."
What makes him so impressive? Why do you admire him so much?
Perhaps it was the tone of voice, but for some reason, these big trees gave Ye Qian a particularly simple and honest feeling.
She took a few deep breaths and said with a smile, "Well then, without further ado, let's all head to the designated location and prepare for action. Mr. Treant, how much manpower are you willing to contribute?"
Ye Qian still valued the Treant highly because with an average height of over 20 meters and such an exaggerated size, she felt that these Treant must be insanely powerful in combat.
According to them, the Treant are primarily afraid of fire, which is understandable. Trees are indeed more flammable than human skin, and in the face of intense heat, even the greatest strength would be rendered useless.
Ye Qian whistled, and several Green Slime mixed in with the group jumped out.
"I wonder if the slime's healing liquid would be helpful to you Treant?"
Upon hearing this, the leader of the Treant was immediately surprised.
"The slime race is actually willing to help you? Unbelievable. If... these little ones are indeed willing to use healing fluid to treat our wounds, then the effect must be significant."
"Alright, I'll assign 20 Green Slime to you all. Let's move together."
The main force began to set off.
Not long after, the main force arrived at the location where the attack was planned.
Standing on the high mountain, Ye Qian didn't need any tools like binoculars; she could see the scenery below the mountain at a glance.
Numerous makeshift camps were in sight, with many Bearman coming and going, creating quite a lively scene.
"20,000 Bearman crammed into this area?"
According to the Treant's intelligence, there are over 10,000 adult individuals among the Bearman who can be forced to participate in combat, a proportion much higher than that of humans.
After a quick assessment, she immediately ordered the archers to form long rectangular formations and disperse throughout the mountains and forests.
Meanwhile, the Elite Black Shield Heavy Infantry quickly moved to the front and began to slowly advance downwards.
Calculating the distance, it's about 400 meters to the camp.
The force responsible for this attack consisted of 2,000 archers, 1,000 black shield infantry, and 1,000 Skeleton.
"Put!"
At Ye Qian's command, a series of fire magic arrows, radiating intense heat, shot from the warriors' bows.
The firepower of these elite units was no joke. In an instant, like a scene from a movie, countless fire arrows traced parabolic arcs and then rained down on the ground like a dense shower.
Several of the Bearman were the first to notice the change in the sky and stared blankly as they looked up.
One of the faster-reacting ones immediately realized what was happening and roared, "Enemy attack!"
Puff puff puff!
Arrows rained down.
The ground was instantly covered with scattered sparks, and the Bearman screamed in agony as their massive bodies were pierced by sharp Iron Arrow as easily as tofu.
For players, high-quality Iron Arrow are not expensive; they can be forged on a large scale as long as there is a blacksmith shop. Ye Qian's arrows were clearly partly forged by the novice blacksmiths she had trained, and to quickly increase their quantity, most arrows only used iron for the tip, leaving the end still made of wood.
Although its power has been reduced, the cost has also been significantly reduced.
The first wave of attacks mainly used wooden-bodied, iron-tipped arrows.
Seeing that the results were satisfactory, Ye Qian was in no hurry to change the equipment, but instead had the soldiers continue to suppress the enemy.
"Third squad, switch to pure Iron Arrow and use Wind Magic to suppress the enemy on the west side."
Italin quickly noticed a group of Bearman who had gathered together.
These Bearman were clearly warriors, much stronger than ordinary individuals. Some of them even reacted very quickly, splitting the magically accelerated arrows in two with a single axe blow.
Such strength was undoubtedly worthy of Ye Qian's attention. After switching some of the warriors to pure iron arrows, the fire enchantment was removed, and wind magic arrows with increased firing speed were replaced. In an instant, countless black arrows replaced the fire arrows and rained down, launching a fierce attack on the barely gathered Bearman.
Such suppressive fire landed on the enemy's camp, and in an instant, the area below was engulfed in flames. Many tents could not withstand such an attack and were pierced by arrows.
After three or four minutes of chaos, a portion of the main force of the Bearman Clan finally regrouped and began to advance towards Ye Qian.
"Kill these invaders."
The Bearman leader, his eyes Yazi fury, raised his sword and roared at the strong and brave warriors.
It never expected that these damned humans would cross the wasteland and launch a direct attack on its tribe.
Without a doubt, on average, the Bearman is far stronger than the human. Therefore, even when it saw so many human warriors, it was not afraid, but rather furious.
"Kill!"
A large group of Bearman, carrying shields and covered in brown fur, charged forward despite the rain of arrows.
Body after body fell along the way. Some Bearman were pierced by multiple Iron Arrow, but they still endured the pain and charged for several hundred meters, joining the main force to charge towards the human legion occupying the high ground ahead.
The black armor gleamed coldly on the opposite mountain peak. These Bearman needed to rush across a valley, a distance that had claimed the lives of at least several hundred men.
Before long, the powerful Bearman legion crashed into the group of human soldiers who were clearly not to be trifled with.
Bang!
After a dull, heart-stopping impact, the scene the Bearman had been anticipating did not occur. The human warriors, whose average weight was significantly less than that of the Bearman, did not retreat an inch, standing like an impenetrable wall, firmly resisting the crossing of the finish line.
The two sides engaged in a fierce battle around this hilltop.
A dense swarm of brown-furred creatures surged up from behind, and arrows rained down upon them, reaping their lives.
It must be admitted that, tactically, the Bearman are far inferior to humans. Using simple melee and ranged coordination, Ye Qian found that her side achieved a very good exchange ratio.
While there are indeed elite units among the Bearman, they are outnumbered by Ye Qian's elite forces.
The individuals charging at the front felt a deep sense of despair, especially when the black-shielded infantry in the front row also raised their broadswords to fight them. They were horrified to discover that these humans completely overwhelmed them in both strength and skill.
After five or six minutes of close combat, the Bearman chieftain, who still felt the front-line human soldiers were unmoved, blew a long horn.
Beep beep~~~
After a loud roar, the Bearman who were fighting simultaneously began to retreat, and the two lines of battle separated in a short time, revealing the corpses lying on the ground.
Standing at the back, Ye Qian immediately saw the large number of elite Black Shield infantrymen who had fallen in the front row.
Correspondingly, the number of Bearman corpses was seven or eight times greater than theirs, and coupled with the rain of arrows fired by archers, the morale of these Bearman was completely devastated.
To the north, in the rear of the battlefield, the towering Treant leader stood atop a hill, witnessing the scene unfold in the distance.
The performance of these human warriors led the creature to behave in an unexpected and predictable manner.
"Where on earth did these humans come from?"
The Treant initially thought they were a human army from across the southern wasteland, but now it increasingly seemed unlikely.
They are simply too strong, both in terms of individual strength and fighting morale. This is not a legion that should exist in this era.
"These people are all in extremely high spirits, which is unmatched by ordinary human armies."
At this moment, Lan Xinyu, who was standing beside these Treant and preparing to organize the army to launch an attack after the Bearman retreated, confidently raised her head. "Of course, this is Ye Qian. As long as they are her subordinates, none of them will be disloyal."
The leader of the Treant couldn't help but ponder deeply.
It could be seen that the girl was speaking from the heart, and it seemed that these humans were very willing to dedicate themselves to that girl.
Therefore, it couldn't help but look at the girl with even higher regard.
Ye Qian began ordering her melee units to advance. A portion of the Skeleton were deployed to the flanks to prevent the enemy from flanking them.
Meanwhile, the archers behind them fired Iron Arrow from time to time to suppress the Bearman.
To protect the vulnerable elderly and children, the Bearman urgently evacuated them and then sent more combat troops to the front.
In the previous brutal battles, as many as 2,000 Bearman warriors and 1,000 Bearman civilians had died. Correspondingly, the number of Black Shield Heavy Infantry killed in the end was probably only a little over 100.
Such an exaggerated casualty ratio caused the Bearman chieftain's heart to bleed.
Despite the seemingly small number of human soldiers, they were able to bring such a terrible disaster to their side.
Faced with this reality, it had to consider the possibility of retreat.
"Quickly, get ready to leave here."
Large numbers of Bearman began to retreat northward, and under the watchful eyes of the soldiers, Bearman began to converge in the north.
Meanwhile, to the south, Ye Qian's black-shield infantry began to advance, and the magic-armored archers, protected by melee soldiers, also ran down the mountain and began to shoot arrows at the Bearman individuals further away.
Bearman kept falling, and the fastest group of Skeleton rushed into the camp and began slaughtering the Bearman civilians who had no time to retreat.
One after another, Gray Wolf spat out fireballs, and various Skeleton creatures used their skills from their previous lives to continuously turn the surviving Bearman into corpses.
Just over 20 minutes later, the Bearman began a large-scale retreat, while Ye Qian's main force chose to advance steadily.
To buy time for the retreat, the most elite group of Bearman formed a shield wall and held firm in front.
The fiercest battle broke out between the two sides. Almost all the strongest members of the Bearman gathered on this side, so much so that in just a few minutes, more than 150 of Ye Qian's Black Shield Heavy Infantry were killed.
Keep in mind that there were quite a few Green Slime following behind, and in such a short time they only managed to save 30 people, which was simply not enough to prevent so many soldiers from dying.
Although relatively speaking, more enemies were killed, Ye Qian was still somewhat surprised.
"Ye Qian, the archers may not have many arrows left."
At this moment, the blonde commander Italin ran over and knelt down in front of Ye Qian.
"What about the spares? Let's send some to them first." Ye Qian looked back at the quiver guarded by 200 Skeleton behind her and had them carry the arrows over.
This batch of quivers contains 500 quivers, each with 20 Iron Arrow, totaling 10,000 arrows.
For a battle, this number is actually not very large.
Because of the strength of the Bearman, sometimes even a few arrows might not be enough to kill one. In addition, there is the possibility that the enemy might dodge the arrows or that some arrows might miss, so the final losses would be quite staggering.
After the last batch of arrows was fired, the enemy's rearguard was finally breached.
The Black Shield Heavy Infantry, having suffered 450 casualties, began their advance, leading the archers behind them in pursuit of the enemy.
Meanwhile, most of the Bearman had already withdrawn from the flattened hilltop and were slowly approaching Ye Qian's army, which was lying in ambush behind them.
Chapter 120 The Demise of the Bearman and the Blueprints
"It's our turn to make a move."
The Treant couldn't wait any longer and immediately broke free from their static disguise.
Suddenly, towering trees sprang up from the ground in the once quiet jungle, like giants taking heavy steps.