The World Online Chapter 192-195

Chapter 192: Operation Wildfire (1 / 3) 

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nova

Lin Yi's proposed plan was officially given the code name Operation 'Wildfire'. This was because the operation would lead to the destruction of the savanna. It would lighten the flames of war and burn the grassland into ashes.

The operation's success was directly linked to Shanhai City's future governing policy toward the nomadic tribes as well as the future of Shanhai's cavalries. Therefore, its importance did not need to be repeated twice.

Military Affairs Department and Lin Yi would discuss the plan. They would forge it into a perfect plan in order to be as foolproof as possible.

Right after Ouyang Shuo returned from Friendship City, he once again dived into the sea of governing affairs.

……

July 20th, they completed the establishment of Qiushui City's cavalry unit. Lai Kai was officially promoted to the rank of major, and he led the cavalry unit. The class change fees were of course taken from the profits made in the first half month of July.

Three days ago, Ouyang Shuo and the Chui Chamber of Commerce from Dali signed off their first deal on the trading platform.

Northern Saltworks had produced 2.5 million units of consumable salts in the first half month of July. According to the market price of 20 copper per unit of salts, Chui Chamber of Commerce would have to pay 5,000 gold. After the 10% system tax deduction, Ouyang Shuo was left with 4,500 gold. After the further reducing the cost of salt production, the amount that handed to Shuo was actually 4,100 gold.

After the system update, the taxes were halved, so the Northern Saltworks could save a thousand gold every month from the taxes alone.

As for Langshan mining field, they turned over 4,000 gold without fail.

Since he stationed the mineral expert from the professional group in the mining field, they were taught to further enhance the production line and mine with more logical and scientific techniques. In the preliminary estimates for August, the production efficiency would increase by 10%. A mineral expert's technical advice could help generate at least an additional 800 gold for Shanhai City. This was exactly where the value of an expert laid. Their contribution to the territory was an overall enhancement.

The initial 8,100 gold from first the half month, after the deduction of the cavalry unit class change fees of 750 gold and Four Sea Bank's payment for teleportation formation fees of 4,400 gold, there was only 2,950 gold leftover.

Through the teleportation formation, the cost to recruit a player was immensely high. Including the player and the family, it would cost an average of 5 gold for teleportation fees.

This didn't include the cost of the basic accommodations for the players.

For the likes of Di Chen and others, they had previously recruited new players from the real-world and arranged for them to directly spawn in the territory. Only those from the rich and powerful family or clans could have the resources to do so.

However, after the interplanetary immigration, they would have lost their resources and could only pay the teleportation fees like Ouyang Shuo. This would in turn be a large expense and a burden to them.

According to Feng Qiuhuang, before the immigration, they had already recruited a large batch of new players in their territories. As for the precise amount of players, only they knew themselves.

The 2,950 golds didn't last long in Ouyang Shuo's hands. Through the Chui Chamber of Commerce, he bought 2.95 million units of food.

Hence, for the next half of the year, Shanhai would be free from the risk of food shortage. The price was nearly a total of 9,000 gold spent solely on food.

Ouyang Shuo couldn't imagine the price that the other lords would have to pay when the food prices soared high in the future. After all, the other territories weren't like Shanhai. They didn't have 40,000 acres of fertile farmland to provide grains, so they would have to purchase more food.

Probably the only thing worthy of rejoice was that the other territories didn't have such a big population like Shanhai City or Shanhai's high refugee spawn rate.

If Ouyang Shuo had enough funds, he would even consider purchasing more food and profit by reselling it when the price went up.

As for his assumptions about the prices of food, Ouyang Shuo had informed his allies, including Song Wen. However, it was up to them whether they had sufficient funds to hoard enough food. It was not something Ouyang Shuo could help.

Shanhai City was strong, but it was not strong enough to provide financial aid to five or six lord territories.

Moreover, they were allies and only allies. Ouyang Shuo was not a philanthropist. Any territory that required Shanhai's financial aid would have to allow Four Seas Bank to establish a branch in their territory with no exceptions.

Whereas for Mulan Town, Ouyang Shuo was waiting for the end of the month. When the profits for the next half month came, he would add more funds to the Four Seas Bank branch in Mulan Town.

As for the acquisition of grains from the farmers, Yingyu's idea was to utilize the funds from Four Seas Bank and acquire the grains. The acquisition would not be a one-off deal. Instead, they would be traded in batches. They would sell them off before acquiring another batch of grains. Otherwise, to complete the deal in one blow would require tens of thousands of gold, which was literally a waste of funds.

On average, a farmer could plow and manage 10 mu of land. A mu can grow 350 units of grains. Hence, it would produce 3,500 units of grains. They had to turn over 117 units to the lord. After they stored half a year of grains, there would still be 3,200 units of grains available for sale, which would be three gold 20 silver. After the tax deduction, it would still be three gold and 10 silver. A year had two farming seasons, minus the cost, the final annual income for a farmer would be around five golds.

If one decided to be more hardworking and raise some poultry or even a pig, he could earn tens of silver more for that year. This hard work would contribute a little more to the family livelihood.

Therefore, in actual fact, a farmer's income was considerably high. Their income was almost the same as a rank 5 veteran soldier. The only difference was that the military took care of a soldier's livelihood, and their pay could be increased further.

These only happened because of three reasons. Firstly, the farmers had enough farmland to plow, and those lands were fertile farmlands. Secondly, Shanhai had the lowest tax rates in the history. Lastly, Ouyang Shuo did not intentionally oppress and exploit their hard work, and he did not purchase grains from them for a low price and sell it high.

All these factors added up to create Shanhai farmers' high annual income.

……

For the past half a month, Mulan Town was developing rapidly under the help of Four Seas Bank.

Utilizing the loans from Four Seas Bank, Mu Guiying successfully established Mulan Town's city defense unit. The brave general led this city defense unit to cleanse the territory and destroyed every single raider in sight.

Exterminating the raiders were not only meant to train the soldiers, but also to ensure the territory's safety. Furthermore, the rewards they plundered could contribute populations, materials, and funds to the territory, which would further develop their hometown.

Other than that, Mulan Town had also finished the construction of stone walls, which enhanced their defense. Territory privatization was also fully completed, so it was not the usual same semi-finished product anymore. The territory's economy began to sprout. It slowly accumulated, as it waited for the day to explode and bloom gracefully.

Mulan Town's rapid development now was exactly like the former Shanhai Town.

Just a week ago, Mulan Town was successfully upgraded to grade 3 township. After the upgrade, the miners of Mulan Town found a silver mine within the territory. Hence, another source of wealth. Although a silver mine couldn't be compared to a gold mine, if it was excavated with maximum effort, there would still be at least 200 gold monthly.

Now, the only thing that stopped Mulan Town from its next upgrade was Mulan Yue's rank title.

During the Battle of Zhoulu, Mulan Yue was rewarded with 2,500 merit points. With these points, she leveled her title to the rank of 'First-class Viscount'. In addition, the extermination of raiders had rewarded her some merit points, and she now had 5,000 merit points. Currently, she was 1,400 merit points away from Third-class Earl.

Fortunately, Mulan Town was just upgraded into a grade 3 township. Time was still needed to reach the total population of 1,000. Perhaps, during the following Battle of Zhennan Pass, she could earn the merit points needed.

In any case, she might have to participate in another battlefield warfare during this period of time. If she earned the merit points needed, the problem would be solved.

Gong Chengshi was envious of Mulan Town's rapid development. Within the Shanhai Alliance, only he remained as the lord of a grade 2 township. Lack of funds restrained his move of recruiting more players, and he couldn't afford the high price of teleportation fees.

Left with no other choice, he stopped persisting and invited Ouyang Shuo over to establish a branch of the Four Seas Bank in his territory.

Naturally, Ouyang Shuo had no reason to decline, as the financial situation in Shanhai was getting better. Langshan mining field and Northern Saltworks alone could provide him with a fund of nearly 2,000 golds monthly. These additional funds emboldened Ouyang Shuo to establish a Four Seas Bank branch in Black Lion Town.

Ouyang Shuo replied to Gong Chengshi's call. He told Gong Chengshi to wait until the end of the month. When the funds of Shanhai came together, he would send his men to Black Lion Town for the establishment of the Four Seas Bank branch. He urged Gong Chengshi to prepare for it.

Ouyang Shuo's wild hope was to establish a branch in every territory. Even if the Four Seas Bank wouldn't be the only bank in the territories, it needed to be at least one of the main bank.

In order to do so, the first step was to open the branches in his allies' territories. Now, Mulan Town and Black Lion Town had both accepted, and it was only time before the Xunlong Town submitted.

As for Consonance City and Fallen Phoenix City, it wouldn't be that easy. Only with luck and fate could he manage to infiltrate their territories. Especially Fallen Phoenix City, there stood a powerful family behind Feng Qiuhuang. Even if she agreed to it, they wouldn't allow it to happen.

As for Consonance City, it could sustain with the help of only Dali Qingfeng Pavilion. Qingfeng Pavilion's gold farmers were quietly supporting them from behind.

Consonance City had now achieved a symbiotic relationship with Qingfeng Pavilion, much like the cooperative relationship between Shanhai City and Snow-War Rose mercenary group.

The only difference was that Consonance didn't have such a well-developed military industry.

It wasn't Ouyang Shuo acting mean or contemptible, taking advantage of his allies' difficulties. The deal was mutually-beneficial in the first place. It even could further pull the alliance together.

After all, what kind of alliance is better and stronger than an economically integrated alliance?

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Chapter 193: Operation Wildfire (2 / 3)

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nova

7th month  24th, night.

The vanguard unit sneaked out of City North Camp, while two units from the mixed regiment took over their place.

First light tomorrow morning, the mixed regiment's two units would start their usual morning training in the camp, while disguised as the vanguard unit. Tian Feng scouts couldn't come too close to the camp. Hence, they wouldn't know that the troops had all been replaced.

Vanguard 1st unit left their Qingfu warhorses and Mingguang armors behind in the camp. Then, they wore and mounted their alternate equipment and horses. The four cavalry units all dressed themselves as raiders—the clothes plundered from the raider captives.

That's right, for this operation, they had disguised themselves as raiders.

Their destination was far from the border, so they had to venture deep into the savanna. Hence, in order to reduce risk and avoid being spotted, the four cavalry units would travel their own paths, as they rode their ways toward Tian Qi tribe ZhenXi camp. The units used their specially-trained hummingbirds to communicate through the intelligence team.

At the same time, the five squadrons from every unit would also spread out two kilometers from each other.

ZhenXi camp was situated 160 kilometers away from the Friendship River. Traveling alone would take three days if the journey was smooth and steady without mishaps.

Because it was savanna—an open field grassland—there was simply nowhere to hide. Therefore, the cavalries would not hide by day and come out by night. Instead, they would march at a steady pace and eliminate every nomad they encountered to cover their existence.

Lei Xun led Military intelligence team two. They had finished their preparation work, the pathways they chose for the four cavalry units were all routed away from the tribal camps.

Ouyang Shuo personally followed the expedition force, and he would ride between the vanguard first unit second squadron and the third squadron. The newly established lord's guards rode beside him. As for Lin Yi, he led the cavalry first squadron at the forefront.

July 25th, morning 5 a.m. dawn.

With the help of the Beihai navy, the expedition force crossed the Friendship River. From here onward, the force would separate and ride their own paths. They would only gather together when they reach their final destination.

On the first day, everything went well because they crossed the site of the Tian Lian tribe that had been wiped off. Although the Tian Feng tribe had taken over the area, they had not arranged any pastoralists. Tin Feng tribe had only taken this area as a ranch to use.

Therefore, on this day, the overall progress of the expedition forces was relatively rapid. In addition, without infantry dragging them down, they could travel a full 60 kilometers. At seven o'clock in the evening, the scattered squadrons regrouped to rest on the spot.

Military tents and military grain pills, these two logistics weapons, began to show their importance.

In the morning, each soldier took one military grain pill. For the rest of the day, they would not need to eat anymore. Without the need to create fire for a meal, they had minimized the risk of exposure. As for drinking water, they had long since stored enough water in their backpacks for three days. In addition, in Ouyang Shuo's storage bag, there was still a quantity of drinking water.

Tomorrow, the troops would have to cross the site of a medium-sized tribe, and the risk factor would greatly increase.

Five o'clock the next day, the squadrons departed. They kept a two kilometer distance from each other and took advantage of the early morning when there were fewer people to travel some distance.

At noon, Ouyang Shuo was riding Black Tornado, while his guards rode beside him. Just then, a group of herdsmen appeared in front of them. There were about seven or eight people, driving and grazing the flock.

"My lord?" Guard Captain Wang Feng immediately rushed in front of Ouyang Shuo.

Ouyang Shuo naturally understood Wang Feng's intentions and nodded.

Then, Wang Feng made a gesture toward the rear. As a result, half of the guards immediately left the ranks like a group of hungry wolves and rushed toward the pastoralists.

When the pastoralists saw the guards, they thought they were raiders. They panicked and immediately fled.

The horses that served as the mounts of the pastoralists were naturally not Qingfu horse. Even in the nomadic tribes, Qingfu horses were somewhat rare. It wasn't so common that the ordinary grazing pastoralists could ride them.

The guards' attacks were very tactical. Instead of directly hurling toward them, they first flanked them on both sides to form an encirclement that surrounded the herders. This action prevented them from slipping through.

The guards surrounded the pastoralists, who panicked. Their mouths grumbled with unintelligible words, and it was estimated that they were begging for mercy. While talking, they pointed their fingers to the flock not far away. These gestures denoted that the flocks could be taken away in exchange for their pitiful lives.

Sadly, what they met was not the bandits who robbed money, but the officers and men of Shanhai City.

The lord's guards were soldiers of life and death, so their hearts were as cold as ice and hard as stone. They held an emotionless poker face, as they rode on their horsebacks. They raised their bows and released a volley of deadly arrows that shot their victims down from their horses.

According to Ouyang Shuo's original intentions, he was naturally reluctant to harm the innocents, especially civilians.

However, this operation was so important that it could not tolerate any accidents. The blood and tears of others had long since covered his hands.

Those pastoralists looked at the arrows in their chest with shock.

They could not understand why these raiders were not like the rumors, who only took money instead of lives. Instead, these raiders took away their most precious lives away from them. Even being taken away to the raiders camp as captives was still a better ending than this.

They guards paid little attention to the flocks, as they rode to the corpses. They pulled out their Tang swords and slashed the corpses to ensure no loose ends. After that, they removed the shovel prepared in advance from the backpacks and dug a large pit to bury the dead bodies. Then, they covered the dead with a layer of weeds as a simple disguise.

When the night arrives, the relatives of the dead pastoralists became aware that they were missing and did not come home. Coupled with the time required to search for them, it was estimated that it would take one or two days before they could find the land where the dead bodies were buried. Even so, it would be nothing more than an incident identified as a raider attack that simply could not attract the attention of the tribal leaders.

This was but only a small incident that happened on the way. Similar things also took place in the four cavalry units. The Military Affairs Department had formulated this set of handling measures in advance, and they had given detailed explanations to every soldier. This was the function and value of the Military Affairs Department. They were responsible for the development of a very detailed war plan. A variety of small details, as far as possible, were taken into account.

At night, the team stopped again. Tomorrow, they were about to enter the territory of the Tian Qi tribe. The camp of ZhenXi was located on the western edge of the Tian Qi tribe, which made it a full 50 kilometers away from the Khan tent beside the Shen Juan Lake.

After they entered the territory of Tian Qi tribe, the number of pastoralists around the area increased. Occasionally, they would meet with tribal warriors that patroled the border. At times like this, they would try to avoid them, but if a fight was inevitable, they could only eliminate the warriors.

However, when the night fell, and the ZhenXi patrols returned to their home base, they would realize that their fellow warriors were missing. It would raise their alarms. But this was not something Ouyang Shuo could control. It was inevitable, as it was not that easy for an army to sneak into their enemy's hinterland.

At three o'clock in the afternoon, the cavalry units stopped 10 kilometers away from the ZhenXi camp. If they headed further, they would step foot in the core area of the camp. Moving into the camp recklessly during the day would be tantamount to suicide.

In order to hide their whereabouts, they once again spread out and hid in the pastoralists' homes. As for the original owners of pastoralists' home, their fate could be imagined. Just like a monster, the two thousand troops secretly lurked outside of the ZhenXi camp, as they eyed their prey.

In the evening, after the centurion in the ZhenXi camp routinely counted the patrols, they noticed that some of the warriors who were on patrol duty on the frontier had not returned on time.

The abnormal situation was immediately reported to the captain, and the captain again reported to the camp commander Lhakhshen. After hearing the report from the captain, Lhakhshen frowned and asked, "Have you sent anyone to check?"

"General, I have sent a hundred men to the border to investigate. I find the situation rather odd, and that is why I have specifically come to report." The captain was not negligent.

The town had not experienced any war for many years, and matters like this seldom happened.

Thinking of the exhortations from the Khan, Lhakhshen did not dare to take this matter lightly.

"Give my orders. Tonight, the camp shall maintain a full alert, and we will increase the patrols on duty." Lhakhshen decided to take cautious measures.

For some unknown reason, he had felt a little restless during these two days. It was as though a ruthless beast was eyeing him in the dark, yet he still couldn't see any traces of the beast. This made Lhakhshen very uneasy, and the disappearance of the patrollers further aggravated this uneasy sentiment.

However, in front of his subordinates, Lhakhshen remained as calm as usual.

"Understood!"

……

10 kilometers away from the camp, there was a very humble pastoral tent.

At six o'clock in the afternoon, Lei Xun, who had disguised himself as a pastoralist, opened the tent and walked in. Then, he respectfully said, "My lord, as expected, the camp was alerted."

It turned out that Ouyang Shuo had settled here.

Ouyang Shuo nodded. The reaction of the enemy did not go beyond his expectations.

According to the report, the town commander Lhakhshen was not a simple person to deal with, "Contact the units. Tonight, we will act according to the plan."

"Understood!"

Seven o'clock in the evening, Ouyang Shuo exited the tent and rode Black Tornado. He took advantage of the night, and under Lei Xun's guidance, Ouyang Shuo visited the units one by one. Every time he reached a unit camp, Ouyang Shuo would remove a barrel of alchemical fire oil from the storage bag and pass it to the soldiers.

In the savanna of July. The starry night sky and the cool monsoon breeze that blew waves of green grass. Under the starlights, the cavalries walked out of the tents one by one, as they carried the barrel of oils and tied it on the horse's saddlebags. These saddlebags had been specially modified, so each side of the saddle could contain two barrels of alchemical fire oil.

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Chapter 194: Operation Wildfire (3 / 3)

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nova

The Shanhai cavalries mounted their horses. Step-by-step, they began to sneak into the camp.

When the cavalries departed, it was already around 9 to 10 at night. The night was dark, and the weeds were high. Even with the help of the faint starlights, it was difficult to distinguish between the silhouette of humans and other things.

As the investigation team came back with nothing, the commander of ZhenXi camp ordered martial law again. The patrol warriors had twice received the instructions from the commander that asked them to raise their vigilance. However, through the whole night, even a ghostly shadow could not be seen, so they could not help but relax and lay down. One by one, they yawned in boredom.

Furthermore, there weren't any wars in the recent years. The Tian Qi tribe claimed itself as the king of savanna, so the warriors grew lazier and started to slack. They took the disappearance incident during the day as nothing more than just an accident.

Maybe those missing patrols had secretly sneaked into some girl's tents and had stayed there. The patrols were chatting and talking to pass the time.

"Hey, do you think that the commander is too cautious? Just a few missing patrols, and yet he makes such a big fuss. Depriving our night and making us suffer in the cold," a soldier complained.

"Brat, don't you dare say a bad word about the commander. Do you want to die?" the centurion leading the team rebuked. Lhakhshen had a high prestige within the camp, so one must be careful when they spoke about him.

The soldier also knew that his words were impulsive, and he had said something wrong. Fortunately, the centurion was a good friend of his, so he laughed and said, "Leader, I know. I am at fault, so please do not report me."

The military regulations of the savanna were harsh and cruel. If anyone seriously handled this matter, then the soldier would not end well. At least, he would be whipped.

"Do not worry!" The Centurion did not want to make a fuss of it either.

During July, the mosquitoes in the savanna were many and large, so it was hard for one to endure. Thanks to the dedication of the warriors, although they mouths complained, they didn't neglect their duties.

A short distance away, the cavalries dismounted and held the reins in their hands. Like ghosts, they slowly moved toward the camp patrols.

After they entered the effective range, they squatted down on the ground and hid their whereabouts. Quietly, they stealth shot the patrols to death one-by-one.

The vanguards were all elite soldiers proficient at shooting. As for melee-combat, it was almost impossible in the grassland.

Ouyang Shuo's men slowly picked off the patrols.

Slowly and steadily, they reached five kilometers away from the camp. As it was closer to the camp, the vigilance level was raised. Any signs or sounds of combat could immediately alert the camp.

Therefore, Shanhai cavalry stopped moving forward.

Ouyang Shuo mounted his horse and gazed at the distant camp.

Because it was a settlement camp, the camp wasn't like the Tian Lian tribe. It was just an encirclement of tents that formed a defense circle.

The camp was no different from the camps on the Central Plains. Tall wooden walls erected above the ground surrounded the camp and arrow towers stood at the four corners. There was only a main gate open in the south.

It was impossible to take down such a camp with only 2,000 cavalries, so their only choice was field combat.

However, field combat was precisely the nomadic warriors' best combat mode. According to the Military Intelligence Department intelligence investigation, the camp had 5,000 horseback warriors. Among them, they had 1,000 heavy cavalries, and the remaining 4,000 were light cavalries.

The horseback warriors often took the lead in sending light cavalry to lure enemies. Then, they round out the two wings of the enemy for outflanking. At this critical moment, heavy cavalries would charge forward and clear their enemies in one killing blow to decide the outcome of the war.

The Shanhai cavalries dismounted. They began to layout and prepared the fire array. This was Lin Yi's tactic. They would lure the enemies out of their camp and use the fire array to stop the enemies.

When they finished setting up the fire array, they all evacuated.

……

July 28th, 6 a.m.

The vanguard 1st unit was tasked with luring the enemy forces. Under the leadership of Lin Yi, they rode toward the camp. Along the way, they indiscriminately shot down the patrols.

For the whole night, Lhakhshen did not sleep well. Hence, he got up early. Before he could do anything else, a warrior came rushing in and said, "Reporting to the commander, a band of raiders has appeared to the south of the camp. They have around five hundred people, and they are coming for the camp."

This report shocked Lhakhshen as it was simply unbelievable, "You are talking about raiders? Only five hundred people, who gave them the courage to attack our camp?"

The warrior answered, "Yes, commander, five hundred raiders."

"Let's go!" Lhakhshen decided to personally check the situation.

Lhakhshen climbed the arrow tower. When he looked ahead, he only saw the distant troops dressed in raider attire wantonly clearing the warrior guards stationed in the outer area. At the same time, they also continually whistled. Their attitudes were extremely wild and ill.

Faced with such naked provocation, Lhakhshen simply could not tolerate it. He ordered a light cavalry captain to lead his troops and teach the raiders a lesson.

Captain Hu'he excitedly received the order. In his opinion, it was easy to defeat these raiders, so this was a merit-based war effort. It seems that the commander still had high hopes in him.

A thousand cavalry rushed out of the camp like an arrow.

Who would have known that those raiders were a bunch of useless soft eggs. When they saw the cavalries, they panicked and turned and fled like a flock of sheep.

Relying on the advantages of the Qingfu warhorse, Hu'he did not give up. He led his warriors and continued to pursue the raiders.

At the camp arrow tower, the gradually disappearing warriors puzzled the strategist— Er'risi—he turned and said to Lhakhshen, "Commander, the situation seems to be somewhat wrong. These strange raiders came out of nowhere and fled so suddenly. Will there be some trickeries going on?"

Lhakhshen nodded, "Indeed, something is unusual. Order the rest of the troops to be on standby. With Hu'he's ability, even if the raiders are truly fraudulent, he can still retreat safely."

"Understood!"

On the other hand, Hu'he led his troops and chased the raiders for more than 10 kilometers, and he was about to catch up. Suddenly, more raiders emerged from the two sides. They immediately surrounded Hu'he and his men.

"Sh*t, a trap!" Hu'he was finally alerted, and he knew he had fallen into a trap.

Unfortunately, his troops were pressing forward too harshly at the moment, and they couldn't immediately stop the inertia. The raiders from the sides pierced his troops like sharp knives.

In the face of the nomad warriors, Ouyang Shuo did not stupidly choose to fight with the arts of archer ridings. Instead, he engaged the warriors in close combat and took advantage of the Tang swords and armor, as he fought them at their weaknesses.

The horseback warriors were almost defenseless, as they only wore simple leather armors. In the face of tang sword, this was fatal.

The sharp blade of Tang sword could easily slice through the enemy's leather armor and straight into their flesh. They only left behind death or injuries.

The battle had started.

Finally, Hu'he and his troops had begun to gather together and stabilize. They were ready for a round of tough battle. Right at this moment, Lin Yi and his vanguard 1st unit had already turned back and encircled Hu'he.

Immediately Hu'he realized that they were powerless, so he decisively ordered the troops to retreat.

However, Ouyang Shuo did not give him the opportunity to leave. 2,000 Shanhai City cavalry pursued Hu'he. The blood stained the savanna, and the sad neigh of horses resounded through the sky.

After nearly an hour of mad slaughter, less than two hundred warriors of Hu'he troops survived. They herded Hu'he in the middle, and they hastily escaped the encirclement. Then, they headed toward ZhenXi camp. Shanhai cavalries chased and relentlessly pursued them.

Due to the limitations of their horses, the distance between the two sides grew farther and farther. Eventually, Hu'he escaped.

However, little did he know. His success was only because Ouyang Shuo intended to let him escape. By doing so, Shuo could completely provoke Lhakhshen and cause him to lead the warriors out of the camp.

Ouyang Shuo chased after the fleeing party. Shortly, they arrived before the camp.

Sure enough, Lhakhshen could not help but become furious when he witnessed his warriors panicking and fleeing, while the raiders pursued them. He snapped and said, "Courageous!"

As he finished his word, he ran down the tower and mounted his Qingfu warhorse leader. Then, he shouted, "Everyone with me. Rescue Hu'he and exterminate the raiders."

"Kill!" Four thousand horseback warriors gushed out of the camp.

The sight of reinforcements made Hu'he overjoyed. He patted his Qingfu horse and headed straight to the camp. Ouyang Shuo, on the other hand, stopped uniformly. Then, he turned to leave.

Before he left, Lin Yi used his internal force and shouted, "Lhakhshen you brat. Today I am here to teach you a lesson. The next time I come back, I will take that head of yours." Then, he laughed loudly in an extremely rampant manner.

No one had ever humiliated Lhakhshen like this before. Without a word, he led the troops and chased after them. Although Hu'he had just recounted his experiences, Lhakhshen did not believe that the raiders could mount another troop ambush. Even if they could, he did not need to fear, as he had his 4,000 elite warriors.

The savanna was once again the stage of an escape-pursuit scene. However, the two parties had switched places.

At this time, the strength and speed advantage of the Qingfu warhorse was evident. In less than 10 minutes, Lhakhshen and his troops were catching up, which brought their enemy into their shooting range.

Lhakhshen watched, as he closed in on to the fleeing enemy. His face was a deadpan; emotionless and cold, as if he was looking at a group of dead men.

Unfortunately, Lhakhshen did not know that he had just led his troops straight into Shanhai City's well-established trap. Lin Yi took out a special arrow and lit it on fire. Then, he turned his body on the horseback and released the fire arrow.

The fire arrow flew across the sky like a shooting star, and it accurately fell in Lhakhshen's proximity.

In the blink of an eye, the fire arrow lit the oil that Ouyang Shou's troops had poured on the grassland beforehand. The layout of the raging fire array was not a long strip like before. Instead, it covered the entire area. The raging flames, with the help of gales and weeds, submerged Lhakhshen in a sea of fire.

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Chapter 195: Evacuation

Translator: TeamTWO

Editor: Nora

The fierce fire left the soldiers helpless, as they cried for help. Fiery flames consumed their bodies. One-by-one, they fell down from their horses and landed on the ground. The sea of fire burned and toasted them into coke.

The grassland burned and smoke billowed. It was capable of suffocating anyone in it.

Despite the Qingfu warhorses' bravery, they still panicked after the double blow of flames and smoke. They ran around the field like headless flies without a sense of direction. With the warriors in the formation, it was easy for them to bang on each other, and it would often mean a lose-lose situation.

The moment the flame soars high, Lhakhshen's face turned pale. He could tell instantly that the enemies before their eyes were not petty raiders. A big conspiracy was shadowing the skies of the whole Tian Qi tribe.

At this critical moment, he had to assume responsibility. He would have to bring his men out of the flames and bring them back to the tribal stronghold.

Lhakhshen's mount was a lord-level Qingfu horse, a platinum-level steed, so it was like a legendary animal. The Qingfu warhorse gave out a neighing sound and was the first to leap out of the flames.

The other Qingfu warhorses tracked their leader's sounds. They followed behind and went out together.

Yet, the moment Lhakhshen rode out of the flames of hell, he slipped into another despair.

The cunning of his enemy had almost reached a point beyond his imagination.

Outside the flames, two thousand enemy cavalry were standing-by. At this moment, their faces were no longer rampant and insolent like before. Instead, their faces were solemn and emotionless.

It struck him. Lhakhshen could tell that his enemies were just like them. They were originally regular military forces.

Right at the moment they spotted him coming out of the flames, they welcomed him with a burst of arrows. Intensive arrows ruthlessly harvested the lives of the lucky ones that survived the fire array.

The horseback warriors thought they would be safe the moment they came out from that flaming hell, yet they were actually coming out of one to step into another.

These successive hits crushed every single ounce of the tribal warriors' morale and courage.

The lucky warriors that survived the rain of arrows did not dare to have any second thoughts; they ran and quickly fled. Even mounted on a Qingfu warhorse leader, Lhakhshen did not dare to gather his troops and organize a counterattack. He rode his horse and rushed toward Shen Juan Lake.

Shanhai City cavalry did not pursue the last of the lucky ones. As the saying goes, one should not pursue broken foes and not press on desperate beasts. In order to survive, these lucky survivors would do anything. They would unleash an unimaginable power when they were in a plight.

Even though Ouyang Shuo was the winning party, he did not want to purse these desperate warriors and increase his losses.

Eventually, of the 5,000 tribal warriors, only less than a thousand people escaped alive.

Ouyang Shuo paid little attention to the burning fire array. He led his troops, routed away from the burning flames and rode toward ZhenXi camp to harvest their spoils of war.

By this time, the remnants of the camp guards had fled.

Hordes of elite cavalry usually owned three horses, two warhorses and a workhorse. The workhorse purpose was to carry things, while the calvary would alternate between the two warhorses to enhance their mobility.

Warhorses would get exhausted and lose weight very easily when carrying weights, which meant they had to be treasured and valued. In general, warhorses could travel 20-kilometers before it had to rest. At times like this, if there are two warhorses in rotation, they could naturally achieve a sustained rapid march.

Since Shanhai City had not engaged in a super long-distance warfare, the cavalries only had a single horse in general. At most, the vanguard 1st unit had Qingfu warhorses, along with the class change system gift horse as workhorses.

Cavalries from the mixed regiment were originally raiders. Even if they were not equipped with Qingfu warhorses, they also had their own two horses. While the newly established vanguard 2nd unit and Qiushui cavalry unit only had the system gifted horses.

Overall, compared to the nomadic tribes, Shanhai City cavalry seemed a little too shabby.

Strictly speaking, a cavalry needed at least two auxiliary soldier followers. One to carry his belongings and another to taking charge of his horse.

However, in order to simplify the game, the system made the cavalry not require auxiliary soldiers. Instead, the cavalry did it all himself.

The trophies Ouyang Shuo plundered from the battle were the horses in ZhenXi camp. Sure enough, in the stables stood 5,000 Qingfu horses and 5,000 ordinary horses.

In addition, they salvaged 1,000 Qingfu horses from the battlefield. Overall, they seized a total of six thousand Qinfu horses, so it was simply a sum of big wealth.

Calculated in accordance with five gold per a Qingfu horse, it would come to a sum of 30,000 golds. In addition to the workhorses, they seized the equivalent of over 40,000 gold. Most importantly, these Qingfu horses although have a price, but there was no market, no one would sell such valuable items.

Furthermore, in the camp arsenal, Shuo also plundered 5,000 composite bows. With these bow, Shanhai City military would be fully equipped with bows.

After this expedition, it would greatly reduce the need for warhorses in Shanhai City, with the price of 150 cavalry killed. Due to the long distance raid, Shuo had ordered his soldiers to bury the dead on-site.

Tian Qi ZhenXi camp had now became a dangerous place, it would not be wise to stay for long.

The troops mounted the Qingfu horses and drove the rest of the horses toward the west.

The had pre-arranged the direction of the evacuation. The troops could not leave for the south, as that would easily expose the position of Shanhai City; They could not go north either. Otherwise, they would bring trouble to Mulan Town. East was the worst because Tian Qi ZhenDong camp was located there. Hence, the only option was to head west.

The mighty hordes simply could not hide their whereabouts. They could only take advantage of the swift speed of the Qingfu horses to hurry out of the grassland before the tribes realized.

Because each horse cavalry had two Qingfu horses in rotation, the troops traveled more than 80-kilometers before it got dark. Their speed had greatly increased compared to the time they came.

The next day, five o'clock, the troops departed again. After a full day of forced march, they traveled directly over 100-kilometers. They completely left the grassland area the nomads occupied and ventured into the wilderness.

This time, Ouyang Shuo was finally at ease. During their day march, they had come across a team of nomad patrols. Quickly and swiftly, the cavalry eliminated them.

However, this exposed their position, just as the nomads wanted.

On the third day, the troops diverted south. Finally, before the night falls, they arrived in the river upstream of Friendship River. Here, the Beihai navy fleet had long awaited for them.

As for how the Beihai navy fleet was able to grasp the troops' whereabouts, the key lies in the hummingbirds from the Military Intelligence Division. These little birds the Xuanniao tribe offered may look little and insignificant, but they had greatly help Shanhai.

With the help of the Beihai navy fleet, they sailed through Friendship river. This time, they would be completely safe. There had yet to appear any power that could threaten them at the south of Friendship river.

Whatever the size of the raider's camp, in the face of Shanhai City cavalry, they would stand no chance at all. As for those lord player's territory, it was already a blessing that Ouyang Shuo did not provoke them and look for trouble. How could they have the courage to provoke Ouyang Shuo instead?

After crossing the river, the Beihai navy fleet rested next to the banks for the night. Tomorrow morning at first light, they would depart down the river and sail back to the Beihai port premises. Recently, Pei Donglai was stepping up the training of troops, as he was planning for a counterattack on Moon Island.

They traveled another two days. Finally, on the 2nd of August 5:30 PM, they returned to Shanhai City. From the day the expedition team left until they return, Operation Wildfire took a week's time. It was definitely not easy to travel so far.

After coming back, before the vanguard unit could rest, Ouyang Shuo sent them back to their duty positions in the City North Camp. Ouyang Shuo was worried about the City North Camp. He did not know what consequences could occur in the savanna due to the Operation Wildfire.

When the vanguard unit left, they did not take along any of the seized Qingfu horses.

Of the 6,000 Qingfu horses, 500 would be given to the mixed regiment cavalry unit and another 500 to the Qiushui cavalry unit. Of the remaining 5,000, they would temporarily stock 3,000 in the ranch of the City West, while he would send the last 2,000 to Jifeng Valley Pasture.

Ouyang Shuo didn't have the luxury to equip a cavalry with two Qingfu warhorses. In his current plan, Qingfu horses would only be mainly used as battlefield warhorses, while at times of peace, they would just ride ordinary horses.

As for the 5,000 workhorses, he was ready to hand them to the Transportation Division. Carriages were already produced, but they would be in vain if there weren't any workhorses. The Secretary of Transportation Division Zheng Shanpao had discussed this matter countless times with Ouyang Shuo.

Well now, Ouyang Shuo would settle the matter all at once.

As the city now expanded, there was a full 5-kilometers from the manor to the North Gate. It would take an hour to walk. Therefore, it was necessary to form and establish a city transportation system. With these workhorses, the Transportation Division could consider providing vehicle transportation services in the city, solving the problems.

After he returned, Ouyang Shuo first arrived at the arsenal and deposited 5,000 composite bows into it. As for the distribution of the bows, it would be the responsibility of the Military Affairs Department, so he did not need to worry about it.

Back to the manor, it was already six in the evening. Hence, Ouyang Shuo went straight to the backyard rather than his usual office.

"Big brother, you're back!"

The sharp-eyed Bing'er instantly saw Ouyang Shuo and ran over, so that he could hold her.

In recent years, this might be the longest period of time that Ouyang Shuo had left Bing'er alone. The little girl naturally missed him a lot. Every day she would be talking and asking, When will brother come back?

After a week of travel and battle, dust and blood dirtied his body. Although the blood had dried out, the smell retained. In such a state, Ouyang Shuo did not dare to hold Bing'er. He quickly stopped her and said, "Baby, brother is dirty. Let brother clean and freshen up. Then, I will accompany you for dinner, okay?"

Bing'er came forward and sniffed. Sure enough, there was a peculiar smell, so she said, "Smelly smelly."

Ouyang Shuo smiled. Suddenly, he reached out with his hand and pinched down on her soft white face, leaving a dirty stain. Immediately before Bing'er could react, he turned and ran away.

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