Realm of Power

In the direction of Kaishan, the Long family army had not yet felt the danger from the empire. The cold wind of winter night destroyed the dead grass on the mountain, blowing these poor vegetation layer by layer into the sky. The Long family soldiers all entered the tent in the second half of the night. , only a few sentries still stick to their posts, and the dots of firelight have been extinguished. Several lighting wind lanterns are hung on the outer sentry towers and several piles of bonfire pots.

"Attention, we're back to camp." There was a noise in the camp, and the closed wooden gate suddenly opened. The sound of horse hooves rumbled from far to near. More than a hundred Southwest Long family cavalry entered from outside the camp, rolling up a cloud of smoke and dust, and the mountain fog Heavy, even if you do nothing, you will still be covered with water vapor even if you walk around outside. The night patrol cavalry returning from outside Even more so, the clothes under the armor were soaked by the mist of the cold night. When the mountain wind blew, it was bitingly cold. The Southwest Long Family Army were all typical southerners. They belonged to a nation in a warm climate and were not adapted to that. It is a tradition of the northern nomads to eat and drink on horseback, so late at night, the night patrol cavalry will return to camp.

"Thank God, I'm finally back. I thought I would have to wait until dawn tonight?"

The figures squatting by the fire near the camp gate quickly stood up and ran towards the cavalry who were about to stop. They were wearing clothes with fire horns and no armor. These were the logistics soldiers of the Long Family Army. Strictly speaking, they are not regular soldiers of the Long family, but miscellaneous personnel recruited by the Long family from the refugees.

There is no need to go forward to fight, so naturally there is no need to wear armor, and they don't even have weapons. Their duty is to assist the army with logistics matters.

An officer from the Long family stopped the horse first, jumped off the horse with a stern expression, and handed the reins of the horse to a logistics veteran he knew who was running towards him, and said, "Old money man, this time But you have to be more careful. You are out in the mountains these days. It takes a lot of time to turn the horses, and the horses have lost a lot of fat, and the shoes are probably worn out a lot. Feed them well and let Blacksmith Wang punch a new pair of horseshoes and nail them on overnight. Otherwise, the Lord will give an order tomorrow and the horses will go out. If you don’t leave the camp, you will be killed under military orders!”

"Don't worry, sir, I won't let you do anything wrong."

It was an older logistics soldier with a smile on his face. He was about fifty years old and his hair was white. He accepted the reins of the war horse with a full promise. He had seen someone beheaded for delay a few days ago. The veteran also knew that the officer had good intentions, so he was not dissatisfied at all with the reprimand of the young Long family officer.

The army is not outside, not to mention that it is still wartime. It is common to kill people every minute under military orders. There are not a few of these temporarily recruited logistics soldiers who have been punished for making mistakes, but none of them choose to escape.

"Then go quickly!"

The officer waved his hand impatiently. It was lucky for these people to be recruited by the Long family.

Although the remuneration given by the Long family is pitiful, the treatment of the Long family army is good. A Long family soldier can receive half a catty of rations a day, and these logistics soldiers can also receive three taels of rations every day. Family members also receive You can also receive another three taels of grain as reward. This But real food is not the depreciated money after discounting the food. How expensive is the food now? It has long been priced at the price limited by the Long family. If it is discounted according to the limited price, it will be a big loss. And in many cases, even if it is Even if you have money, you may not be able to buy food.

Only the Long family army has such real treatment. As long as it saves a little bit, at least the young and old at home can get a mouthful of gruel and soup to drink. More than a million refugees are still blocked at the southwest gate. In addition, more than a million people have starved to death in the northwest. If they are recruited by the Long family, at least they will not starve to death. As long as they survive this period, they may not be unable to find a way out when spring starts tomorrow.

The old logistics soldier known as Lao Qiantou quickly led the war horse to the stable at the back. The manger had already been covered with a thick layer of grass, and there were ground bean cakes mixed in. Such treatment, The old money man couldn't help swallowing his saliva and murmured in a low voice.

"What kind of world is this? Even horses eat better than people. These expensive war horses purchased from the Western Continent consume enough to feed tens of thousands of people every day."

Old Qiantou sighed, with mixed emotions in his eyes, and a bitter taste in his mouth. His name was Qian Ke. Strictly speaking, he was still a small nobleman from an eighth-grade family who lived near Linhang. Although they had no worries about food and clothing, Linhang was conquered by the grassland army in one fell swoop, and the nearby areas were turned into ashes by chaotic fighting.

It was also the Battle of Linhang that the old man who had lived in the south saw for the first time what a prairie people were doing. The horseshoes were raging and killing people. In order to avoid the war, the old man took his relatives on a bumpy journey and almost ran into bandits along the way. Finally, It was only when I found an in-law in the southwest that I finally settled down.

But the situation in the southwest is not as good as outsiders think.

Qian Ke originally thought that the Southwest has been prosperous in the past two years. The Long family's army has terrorized the world. He hid in the Southwest and there was no need to fear the prairie people. But the actual situation is that the head of the Long family died in the battle in Yanzhou. , tens of thousands of elites were killed and injured, and their vitality was severely damaged.

In order to recover his strength in the shortest time, the new head of the family, Long Po, immediately broke the limit of the Long Family's Western Army of no more than 300,000 troops and began to expand the army on a large scale.

At its peak, the Southwest Long Family Army had a population of more than 10 million, and at most it could only support a Western Army of 170,000 to 80,000 people. With some regional auxiliary troops, the total number did not exceed 300,000. Long Po became the new The head of the family continues to take the initiative externally and recruits internally. The total population of the southwest is still around 10 million.

Now, the number of Long family troops marching north from Guang Linchuan has exceeded 300,000. Adding in the auxiliary troops registered and recruited from various places, the total has reached more than 600,000.

There is nothing that can be done about it. The whole of Zhongbia only sees how invincible the Long family is, but few people see that the elite Western Army that the Long family has forged over the past decades has been almost exhausted in several wars. It has no influence on the grassland. Human action fighting, although the prairie people lost their armor and armor, the dragon The family itself suffered thousands and tens of thousands of battle losses. The infantry fighting cavalry originally used human lives to make up for it. There were only so many elite troops and they could not withstand the consumption several times. So later, the Long family already used the elite troops as commandos. Recruit civilian soldiers on a large scale to fill the gap in combat power

In the past, the Long family's criteria for recruiting soldiers were over 16 years old and under 50 years old, and they also needed to be physically strong young adults.

Now, all men under the age of seventy are registered as auxiliary soldiers of the Western Army, and all men under the age of forty are recruited and incorporated into the various armies of the Western Army. Even women are responsible for the transportation and preparation of the army. Old people of Qian Ke's age also need to be recruited as front-line logistics soldiers, and they also need to advance and retreat with the front-line combat troops.

The shortage of soldiers in the southwest region is unsolvable. Unless the southwest opens its door completely and allows refugees from the Central and Biadian regions to pour in, the result will inevitably be that the entire southwest will fall into turmoil. Long Po chose to lead the main force northward, hoping to get from the northwest. Unexpected troop recruitment

Otherwise, if the consumption continues like this, even the Long family themselves don’t know how long Southwest can hold on. The current Long family is like a carriage that has been forced on. It can only move forward crazily. Once the brakes are applied, the result may be that it rushes off the cliff. He fell to pieces!

In the deep night, no one noticed that a group of black cavalry stopped their horses two miles away from the Kaishan Longjia military camp. Mulihe's bloodshot eyes swept across the dots of fire in the wilderness of the mountains and valleys ahead, and raised his head With his hand, countless black cavalry teams began to gather towards his location.

The last quarter moon in the second half of the night is like a bright sickle, illuminating the almost bare ground in front of it. The horseshoes of the war horse are stepping hard on the small stones in the mountain. In the shadowy night, the imperial cavalry in black armor stood Under the water-like moonlight, the sharp spears began to lay flat, and the wind blew in the face, mixed with the cold fog at night. No one spoke, only the wind blew the military flags and the billowing mist was pushed by the war horses. There is a huge impact that is staggering.

The rumble of horse hooves immediately attracted the attention of the police sentry outside the camp. A police sentry opened his eyes and looked forward. The excitement before killing was completely out of biological instinct. The imperial cavalry chose to tighten their bodies and roll forward. The impact queue started with more than a hundred people at first, and gradually became thousands or tens of thousands of people, densely covering the earth, as if the entire earth was rolling forward, like a rushing torrent, suddenly appearing in this name In front of the Long Family military police post, the enemy is attacking! "A shrill cry rang out,

The Long family soldiers ran out of the tent in panic and saw that the gate of the camp was smashed open by strong war horses. Countless cavalrymen with spikes on the fronts of their horses swooped in from the front like an avalanche. The entire camp was like an avalanche. The sieve was pierced by countless arrow clusters, and countless cavalry smashed against the fence outside the camp. Like a ball of spinning spiked flails, it hit the thin piece of armor heavily, and fragments of the wooden fence flew away. It was originally a makeshift camp, let alone a counterattack one day. The fence outside the camp was A piece of decoration immediately heard a crackling sound, and was directly crushed by countless black-armored cavalry.

"Enemy. Enemy!"

Old Qiantou was frightened by the scene in front of him. He fell down on the meadow of the stable. He saw countless black cavalry passing by like lightning. The weapons of these intruders were like flashes in the morning light. The light was so sharp that it pierced through the armor of the Long Family night watch soldiers as if it had pierced a layer of tissue paper.

"Ah" a tragic cry, mixed with the collision of metal and flesh

Almost as soon as they met, a night watch team in the camp was overwhelmed. Swords and swords were flashing, and blood and flesh were flying everywhere. The battle was so brutal that Old Qiantou's face was as pale as paper. Many Long family soldiers were directly killed before they even got up from their tents. The galloping war horses were involved and turned into a ball of flesh on the ground. Some Long family soldiers who had not yet reacted were shocked to see a series of The black shadow rushed out of the white mist, and the sharp imperial spear of the opponent was like lightning. It stabbed through their bodies with the power of the horse. Poof, a Long family soldier who had not had time to react was stabbed on the spot. The blood mixed with the internal organs gushed out from the incision, and the body was hit hard by the war horse and flew out, hitting the wooden pillar of the nearby tent.

"Pah!" The wooden pillar was broken in the middle, and the entire tent collapsed. You could see people struggling inside.

"Sir, we are under attack!" The anxious voice of a Long family officer woke up Long Xueshan, who had been drinking the night before. Long Xueshan opened his eyes full of bloodshot eyes, jumped out of bed, and lifted the The sword on the bedside goes out,

"Why are you so anxious? Could a mere night attack break the courage of our Long family?"

Long Xueshan had not yet realized the seriousness of the situation. After all, it was a camp for tens of thousands of troops. Looking around, who could have the courage to do so? It was probably Lanzhi City's deliberate harassment, but when he made an angry move Opening the curtain of the tent, the scene in front of him almost made him stupid

The sound of horse hooves, like the thunder of heaven and earth, has completely covered up all the sounds in the world. Rows of cold black armor, the dark red reflected by the scattered bonfires in the camp, are like rows of leaping and lapping seashores. The steel tide hit the camp in pieces,

The camp was full of people running, most of them were still wearing single clothes and ran out of the tent without even taking their weapons. The soldiers of the Long family were squeezed by the black armored cavalry who rushed forward in an almost straight line. No matter how far you go, you will either be hacked to death or trampled to death. The reddish-brown human blood has dyed the ground of the military camp red.

For the Long family soldiers who were suddenly awakened, the scene in front of them was like a nightmare. The black cavalry and fine war horses weighed more than half a ton. When a heavy object of this tonnage exceeds fifty yards, Gao Feizhi collided, the only knot of flesh and blood The result was that he was knocked away like a toy, the wind howled above his head, the sound of horse hoofs neighed in his ears, the light of the sword rolled, and the human limbs flew away, like a furious black cavalry crushing all the living creatures in front of him, in an instant The shining sword light turned into blood light,

"Pfft" blood exploded like mist, and half of the body was cut off by the crazy cavalry. He flew out with a stunned expression on his face, and his lower body was already involved in the hoofs of the armored war horse.

If they are the real elites of the Long family, they may organize resistance, but most of these soldiers are recruited civilian soldiers. They have never really faced such a scene. They just want to run as far as possible, let alone form a formation. Even if I resisted, even the weapons would feel too heavy and I would lose a lot of them.

"Attack, crush them!" The attacking black-armored cavalry shouted in the distance. It was obviously the language of a foreign race, which made Long Xueshan shudder, "Empire!" It's the Imperial Cavalry! There is no need for any explanation. The cavalry rushes into formation like a flood. Except for the prairie people, it is the empire. (To be continued.) 8