The War Approaches

"Houting County?"

Unexpectedly, Li Qingyan was not pleasantly surprised. Her delicate eyebrows furrowed slightly. "You want the sect to send reinforcements from below?"

Xu Yuan gently stroked the hilt of the standard-issue sword hanging at his waist and nodded:

"You want to defend Beifeng City, don't you? I'll help you."

As he spoke,

Xu Yuan said slowly and deliberately in a low voice:

"Jiang He said that the Cloud Qi Bomb can disperse the Cloud Qi within a radius of two hundred miles. Judging from the weather in the Northern Border, the Cloud Qi from this blizzard will re-condense within a day, but that's enough for them to reach a distance of one hundred miles Beifeng City. Then, they can detonate one more bomb, and the siege of Beifeng will be lifted, right?"

Li Qingyan stared intently at Xu Yuan, her grip on the hilt of the knife tightening slightly.

"Xu Changtian, the current situation is both a crisis and an opportunity. I want to defend Beifeng City, but I want even more to completely trap these barbarians here."

Xu Yuan spread his hands and said:

"Once the 300,000 elite troops from the Northern Border arrive, won't the Barbarian Tribe be trapped here and die?"

Li Qingyan's voice was very low and husky.

"You don't understand sects at all."

A perfectly timed look of surprise crossed Xu Yuan's face:

"Your Highness, do you mean that even if these elite sects arrive, they will only tolerate these barbarians sneaking into the depths of the Northern Border right under their noses?"

Li Qingyan exhaled a puff of white mist:

"Otherwise, why do you think I haven't asked you for the Cloud Qi Bomb?"

Amidst this blizzard disaster, the Barbarian Tribe and the Great Yan are waging an asymmetrical war.

The Barbarian Tribe side essentially had access to the entire map, moving freely, while the other side had complete darkness and dared not make a move.

The Cloud Qi Bomb is the biggest trump card prepared by the Prime Minister's Estate and the royal family against the Barbarian Tribe.

There are eight in total.

From the very beginning, if they had just detonated two or three bombs near Beifeng City to disperse the blizzard, the 300,000 elite troops from the sects around Houting County could have marched south.

After a moment's pause, Li Qingyan seemed genuinely angry, his voice barely concealed as if squeezed out from between his teeth:

"If you detonate the Cloud Qi Bomb now, the Barbarian Tribe Alien King will receive the news within half a day."

"If their own survival is threatened, the sect will indeed take action to wipe out the Barbarian Tribe. However, if the pressure to survive is not immediate, they will never attack the Barbarian Tribe! To wipe out the Barbarian Tribe, we only need to wait for Uncle Mu and Mr. Zong to head south. But the high-level cultivators I sent may not have arrived at their camp near Dali Mountain yet!"

The sect releasing the Barbarian Tribe was both unexpected and reasonable.

Because this is the choice that best serves their interests.

Thinking of this, Xu Yuan opened his mouth at just the right moment and said:

"Shall we continue the operation today?"

Li Qingyan took a deep breath and uttered two words:

"Continue."

First, the Black Scale Army disobeyed orders and left the city, and now there was a Yunqi bomb. The dude in front of her had largely destroyed her plan in the north.

She paused, then narrowed her phoenix eyes, staring intently at Xu Yuan:

"But you will accompany me."

"."

Xu Yuan opened his mouth, his eyes subconsciously glancing at Zhou Chen beside him.

Zhou Chen's lips twitched. He glanced at the murderous aura emanating from him and tentatively offered a cupped-hand salute.

"Your Highness, my Third Young Master's cultivation level is low."

Before he could finish speaking...

Boom!

Zhou Chen was suddenly forced to the ground by an inexplicable force, and a large figure appeared on the thick snow.

But even so,

Zhou Chen gritted his teeth and struggled to lift his head:

"Mr. Zhou is willing to go in his place."

Having said that,

He pretended to be dead and fainted.

Seeing this, Xu Yuan looked at Li Qingyan and remained silent.

You think you're so great just because you have big fists?

Li Qingyan exhaled, calmed herself, and glanced at Zhou Chen on the ground:

"Your guard is quite loyal."

"Mr. Zhou has been with me since Jingjiang Prefecture," Xu Yuan said with an awkward smile.

"Since he is willing to go in your place, arrange for him to go to the south of the city to assist the Black Scale Army in defending the city."

"And what about me?"

"You?"

Li Qingyan sighed, looking at Xu Yuan with a hint of helplessness in her phoenix eyes. "Swords have no eyes. If anything happens to my consort, I will have to live a life of widowhood. You can just watch over me from the East City Tower."

Xu Yuan breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this:

"That's good. Princess, please have someone take Mr. Zhou to the South City."

"." Zhou Chen.

Xu Yuan did not take a carriage on the way to the east of the city, because he thought it would affect the morale of the troops to some extent.

In a military society, martial prowess is highly valued, and a commander who rides in a carriage and appears weak and delicate would not be well-liked.

Fortunately, Xu Yuan had occasionally gone horseback riding with some cronies in his previous life, so he didn't make a fool of himself and rode a horse alongside Li Qingyan's deputy.

As the commander-in-chief, it is unlikely that Li Qingyan would ride a horse with a man in the army.

As Xu Yuan approached the eastern East City, he discovered that all the buildings near the wall had been demolished.

The market and residences within two miles of the city wall were all demolished.

Seeing the empty area, riding his Demon Beast steed, Xu Yuan casually asked Li Qingyan beside him:

"This is."

Li Qingyan didn't answer, but the Deputy General Cang, who was also riding a horse, replied with a smile:

"My lord, you may not know this, but demolishing those markets and residences, which offer a wide view, serves two purposes: first, to prevent spies from attacking the city walls from within; and second, because the buildings would interfere with the deployment of military formations. Moreover, in the event that the city falls, if the Barbarian Tribe want to invade, they will not only be attacked by the military formations, but also have to withstand the City Protection Array overhead."

Xu Yuan understood what he meant and said nothing more.

The horses crunched and smacked as they walked on the icy mud on the road; these horses in the Northern Border generally have non-slip hooves.

After walking for half an hour, Xu Yuan saw rows of the Yulin Army, dressed in neat uniforms and displaying strict military discipline.

The sets of red armor with gold trim were decorated and fit well, but they weren't particularly beautiful because they made the wearer look a bit bulky.

The standard armor worn by the elite troops of various forces within the Great Yan territory is basically heavy armor.

To be aesthetically pleasing, one must cultivate one's physique; to cultivate one's physique, one must sacrifice a certain degree of defensiveness. On the battlefield, aesthetics are the most useless thing.

However, the standard armor of their Black Scale Guard is somewhat different.

As the final boss of the numerous timelines in Cangyuan, the Prime Minister's Estate once featured a character illustration in the Black Scale Guard's standard armor.

This is probably why the Black Scale Guard ' standard armor retains the look from the game's character art.

The black scales are interlocked like snake scales, paired with a large ringed sword, giving him a slender, domineering, and majestic appearance at first glance.

In Wu Zigen's words, the military armor was so valiant and handsome that it was largely possible to retain the martial arts students trained by the Tian'an Martial Hall in the Black Scale Army.

Zong Qingsheng agreed, so he asked his father to allocate funds to Hua Hong and have the Institute of Investigation solve the problem of the Black Scale Guard armor.

And as it turns out, it is indeed effective.

Many young members of the Black Scale Guard today stay only for the Black Scale armor.

Less than a quarter of an hour after Xu Yuan was led up to the city gate tower,

The war has begun.