Bombardment! Deployment! Losing Their Nerve!

The air force was the cream of the Xia Dynasty's elite, its members handpicked from the finest troops.

After nearly twenty years of training, they were all elites of the Xia Dynasty. Losing even one pained Ji.

The Aerial Combat Force kept dropping like dumplings into boiling water, kindling every warrior's fury.

They had long been ready. At Ji's command, every Human Race air force warrior began dropping bombs.

Each Quetzalcoatlus carried eleven warriors. Aside from the one Beast Control handler, they worked in pairs, one carrying the bombs and the other throwing them.

Nearly eight hundred Quetzalcoatlus unleashed their firepower at once, sending more than four thousand Copper-Cased Bombs plummeting from the sky in an instant.

"Boom, boom, boom!"

"Boom, boom, boom!"

They fell like rain among the dwarf army, blasting it into utter chaos.

With disaster upon them, every dwarf ran for their own life. Postwar statistics showed that far more dwarves had died in the stampede than had been killed directly by the bombs.

The Aerial Combat Force kept the dwarves' Steam Airships pinned down like fighter planes.

Some Human Race warriors leaped straight onto the Steam Airships and hacked at them with their swords.

The Steam Airships swayed precariously before falling, erupting into fireballs and taking the warriors down with them.

The exploding Steam Airships instantly blasted the surrounding dwarf troops away.

Half an hour passed like this. Every bomber's hands were aching and numb.

They mechanically repeated the same motion until the last Copper-Cased Bomb had been thrown.

After a while, Ji gave himself a shake, put on his leather clothing, and said to the dumbstruck warriors around him, "It's a great shame that I couldn't drop any bombs. Dropping a little holy water was enough to satisfy me, though. Tell everyone to withdraw in an orderly fashion."

As the air force withdrew, Nodin said through gritted teeth, "Hold steady! Our god is watching us from behind. Victory will surely be ours."

Through his perception, Zhang Yang could tell that this wave had wiped out another hundred thousand troops or more. Few had actually been killed by the explosions; most had died in the stampede.

With the dwarf army looking exhausted, a large-scale head-on clash would come next.

For the Human Race, a defensive battle was the most foolish way to fight. The right approach should have been-

"Good, very good." Chiyou slapped the table, then ordered, "Have Ji replenish his ammunition and get ready. Next, it'll be our turn to take the field."

"Order the entire army to assemble immediately!"

At General Chiyou's command, the entire elite Human Race army swiftly began assembling.

Following Xuanyuan Huangdi's orders, Chiyou knew they had to press their advantage. Fighting a defensive battle would inflict enormous casualties on the humans and might even cost them the war.

Most of the enemy's weapons were firearms and artillery. They even had Multi-Barrel Steam Gatlings-true machines of war.

A day later, the army finished assembling and marched toward the Mamba Plains in a mighty procession.

Large numbers of wounded dwarves were carried to the rear. They could no longer fight, and each needed at least one person to look after them.

The dwarf troops in the rear were filled with sorrow at the sight of so many wounded. They had suffered such losses after only a few days of fighting in this other world.

They listened to the wounded explain that they still had not figured out the enemy's race, but its weapons were advanced too.

They had an air force that flew overhead and dropped bombs.

They were ferocious. Not a single prisoner had been taken; the enemy faced death as though returning home.

They were terrifying. The enemy drove monsters over ten meters tall to charge the dwarf army.

Lying on the ground, they could not even see the beasts' entire bodies.

Could we really win?

A sense of despair spread through the dwarf army.

Bo'er, the Dwarf God, saw everything clearly from his god's-eye view. He had calculated the dwarves' chances of victory at 3.14%.

The other race's air force had already finished assembling again, and basket after basket of ammunition was being loaded onto those evil flying monsters.

More than a hundred thousand troops of the other race had assembled behind the forest, with dozens of different kinds of giant beasts standing before their soldiers.

Many warriors sat on the beasts that had charged earlier-the exceptionally nimble ones with agile movements.

There were also the beasts that had swept dozens of dwarf warriors away with a single lash of their tails, crunching down one dwarf per bite.

There were many varieties he had never seen before, too, and none looked like anything to trifle with.

Those soft-bodied creatures dozens of meters long looked particularly evil, with their fangs and long tongues, coiled in heaps on the ground.

The warriors of the other race stroked the beasts affectionately, as though they were friends.

Bo'er, the Dwarf God, swallowed, still clinging to a sliver of hope. The other race's ability should be Beast Taming. What if their own combat strength is weak?!

I still have a million troops. Once the forest fire dies out, I'll fight one more battle. If I lose, I'll surrender immediately.

The victor of a Star War had the right to decide the loser's fate.

He could be absorbed as energy points, which would mean his utter destruction. That was the outcome he least wanted to see.

Better to scrape by alive than die a fine death.

He could also choose to submit and become the other side's subordinate race. He had some confidence in that option.

If I can't beat them, I'll join them. I'll submit.

He had not committed any provocative acts, nor had he wantonly devastated the other side's civilization and people.

To be honest, he had lost his nerve as soon as he saw the species that made up the other side's civilization.

But his pride as a god demanded that he put up a fight. What if he won?

As for the dwarf race's casualties, he did not care.

Waging war also displayed the dwarf race's strength, letting the other side know that the dwarves were no pushovers.

The dwarf race had a technology tree. With him around, he could continually guide the dwarves in unlocking it and help the other race develop!

After giving himself a hundred and eight thousand more reassuring reminders that he was important and must not be destroyed even if he lost, he issued an order:

"The other race has already assembled its army and laid an ambush behind the forest. All troops, stay alert and prepare for battle. The dwarf race will prevail!"

"We will prevail! We will prevail! We will prevail!"

The dwarf army's morale rose once more, and they prepared for battle.

Large numbers of infantry stood at the front of the ranks in battle formation, with musketeers deployed behind them.

Every few rows, there was also a Steam Gatling or a Smoothbore Cannon.

Several hundred Steam Airships remained overhead, brought in from the rear.

The vanguard's Steam Airships had all been destroyed by the other race, leaving the dwarves heartsick.

Watching the fire burning ahead, the dwarves felt a tangle of emotions.

One dwarf shook his completely empty gourd, looking dejected. He could go without food, but he had to have liquor.

Just then, an officer ordered him to carry ammunition. He argued furiously and nearly came to blows.

Such scenes were common throughout the dwarf army. His companions, long accustomed to them, joined in the grumbling. Those useless bastards in logistics needed to hurry up and bring the liquor.

Watching this scene, Zhang Yang grew thoughtful.

A major reason for the dwarf race's restless social atmosphere was that they loved liquor as dearly as life itself, yet could not produce enough.

Very, very few plants could be used to brew liquor, and fights over it often broke out among the Dwarf Race.

As they watched the fire burning ahead, the dwarf troops gradually fell asleep.

The Human Race had liquor and produced it in great quantities, but not many of them liked drinking or brewing it yet. Only after the Xia Dynasty's founding had their lives gradually become stable.

Before the Xia Dynasty, they had lived in tribes that split and reunited, struggling for food every day.

Liquor had been invented quite by accident after the Xia Dynasty's founding by a man named Du Kang.

Once, Du Kang had placed some leftover grain in a hollow mulberry tree and forgotten about it.

As the days passed, the grain began fermenting naturally, giving off a fragrant scent and releasing a liquid.

Du Kang drank the liquid down and found it sweet and delicious. He presented it to Xuanyuan Huangdi and asked him to bestow a name upon it.

As it happened, Xuanyuan Huangdi was discussing the Human Race's defenses with Zhang Yang at the time. Upon hearing about this, he took a sip, was thoroughly pleased, and asked Father God to bestow a name.

With a touch of interest, Zhang Yang said, "Liquor?"

The Yellow Emperor combined this with his own name and finally called it "yellow liquor."

From then on, the Human Race had liquor.

As time passed, more and more people began drinking. Different brewing methods produced different flavors.

Elsewhere.

Xuanyuan Huangdi listened to Father God's orders, somewhat dumbstruck...