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墨書 Inktalez
“Lord Li, according to the map and the mountain scenery, we should be very close to Arcadia now.”
Li Chunbo put away the map and walked behind Li Li to report.
Li Li smiled lightly and handed the monocular telescope to Li Chunbo. Understanding the cue, Li Chunbo extended the telescope and clearly saw the rooftops of buildings faintly appearing beyond the mountain ahead.
Arcadia was the capital of the Dragon Clan Royal Court and one of the few dragon cities, located in the northwest of the Tang Empire. Since leading the Heavy Cavalry, Li Li had been racing all the way to Jiayuguan to meet up with the vanguard, then swiftly advancing toward dragon territory.
Dragons were not humans, so most of their clans did not live in those crowded, massive cities; vast open spaces were their ideal homes.
This also facilitated Li Li and his men’s rapid march. With fewer than a dozen dragon cities scattered across a wide area, they didn’t have to worry about being intercepted by enemy forces. They charged directly across land, moving so quickly that it was likely Arcadia hadn’t even received news of their approach.
Watching the enemy's royal city so close at hand, Li Chunbo felt his blood boil. He immediately ordered the generals, “Relay orders to the entire army: leave behind reserve horses and carry only combat gear. Prepare for battle!”
The generals were momentarily stunned by his words. After a long time in uninhabited lands, they had started to grow numb. But upon hearing preparations for battle, they quickly realized they had reached their destination—the enemy’s stronghold, Arcadia.
The Heavy Cavalry had a somewhat free-spirited approach to action, but their execution was undoubtedly the strongest among human armies. In less than a minute, twenty thousand heavy cavalry soldiers were fully prepared, bows in hand.
Li Li addressed the twenty thousand soldiers, “Remember, our mission is to turn the enemy royal city upside down! Don’t worry about any civilians; this race has no civilians! If you see anything that resembles a living creature with two arms and two legs, kill it! Understood?”
The heavy cavalry soldiers shouted in unison as their steeds began to grow restless; the entire army was just waiting for Li Li’s command to charge.
“Now! All troops advance!”
The twenty thousand Heavy Cavalry immediately spread out and charged forward with great momentum, making such a noise that even those inside Arcadia could hear them. However, this was exactly what they wanted; a simple slaughter without resistance would be far too dull.
The city of the dragons was vastly different from that of humans, with the most significant difference being the walls. The so-called walls of the dragon city were merely for show. To facilitate the free movement of dragons, the height of these walls was less than ten feet, even lower than the walls of the smallest county in the Tang Dynasty, and there were no gates at all. Such low walls were practically useless against the iron hooves of the Tang army.
As the Heavy Cavalry charged forward, Li Li immediately instructed Li Chunbo and Zhuo Rohan to prepare for an attack. At this moment, around three hundred soldiers remained on standby, and besides each having a spare warhorse, there were nearly a hundred large carts loaded with supplies.
Li Chunbo nodded and quickly ordered Zhuo Rohan to have the three hundred soldiers tie their warhorses to the front of the carts. What was originally a cart meant for two horses became a luxurious vehicle pulled by eight horses, significantly increasing its mobility.
"Advance in the T-shaped formation as rehearsed!"
Li Chunbo stood atop the lead cart, leading the entire team toward Dragon Court's royal city, Arcadia.
The commotion caused by the Heavy Cavalry naturally attracted the attention of the dragons. When they saw humans in black armor appearing outside the city, most of them were stunned.
Shouldn't the Tang be surrounded by their kin at this moment? Why was their most elite force here? Had our army been completely annihilated?
Restlessness and anxiety began to spread among them, and for a moment, no dragon dared to step forward to challenge them!
A Royal Dragon mocked them with a roar, spreading its massive wings and flying toward the Tang cavalry. Its scales gave it immense confidence; after all, these humans had traveled thousands of miles to reach this place—how could they possibly carry so many iron arrows?
This dragon was not entirely mistaken; the Tang Heavy Cavalry had not brought any iron arrows because they were too heavy and difficult to recover. Wooden Feathered Arrows were far more convenient.
"Fire the arrows!"
With a command from the leading general, nearly ten thousand soldiers drew Feathered Arrows from their quivers and readied them on their bows. The sight of thousands of arrows being launched simultaneously was truly spectacular.
"Hmph." The Royal Dragon snorted coldly and continued its reckless flight toward the enemy forces, showing no concern for the Feathered Arrows flying toward it or behind it.
"B!B!"
The moment the Feathered Arrows made contact with the dragon's body, a violent explosion erupted, forcefully knocking the dragon from the sky to the ground. The injured beast was left powerless in the aftermath of the blast.
The remaining Feathered Arrows fell into the city, triggering a series of explosions that shook the very foundations of the crumbling walls.
"Fire the arrows!" The general commanded once more, and nearly ten thousand Feathered Arrows soared toward the city, this time aiming deeper and closer to Arcadia.
Another wave of intense explosions followed, with countless dragons screaming in agony amidst the chaos. Yet, nothing could halt the advance of the Tang cavalry. The Heavy Cavalry charged into Arcadia, flames engulfing them as they pressed forward.
At that moment, Li Chunbo led a hundred carts that had just arrived at the cavalry's full-speed charge position. Seeing that the Heavy Cavalry had already entered Arcadia, he immediately ordered his troops.
"Accelerate! Prepare all catapults!"
The carts opened up, revealing a row of miniature catapults inside, while boxes nearby were filled with brown spheres bound together with rope nets.
"Maximum range, begin launching!"
With Li Chunbo's command, teams of three atop each cart began loading, securing, and igniting their projectiles. In an instant, dozens of flaming black spheres were hurled at high speed toward Arcadia.
Upon striking Arcadia's towering buildings, the fiery brown spheres exploded, igniting massive fires that spread throughout the city. Some fireballs detonated mid-flight, sending burning debris raining down and igniting several of the few remaining houses within.
In less than half a minute, the Heavy Cavalry charged out of the city again. However, their speed was noticeably slower than when they had entered, and some dragons were now encircled within their ranks.
The army halted outside Arcadia. The hundreds of dragons surrounded by soldiers appeared terrified; after all, they had never witnessed such a scene before. They could not understand why fireballs belonging to the noble fire spirits could be wielded by ordinary humans—and in such numbers!
The Heavy Cavalry Commander rushed to Li Li's side, his expression betraying an uncontainable joy.
"Reporting to the Chancellor! We have annihilated the royal family of Arcadia, breached their royal city, and captured seven hundred ordinary dragons."
Li Li did not appear shocked; after all, everything was proceeding smoothly according to his plan. However, he had not anticipated the complete destruction of the enemy royal family. It seemed that the power of gunpowder indeed provided an overwhelming advantage in warfare.
"What should we do now?" Li Chunbo asked, his gaze lingering on the seven hundred dragons with a hint of anger. They had advanced westward and had faced numerous battles against the Dragon Court Army, not to mention the brutal scenes at the three national gates.
On the surface, it appeared that the Three Races Alliance was being forced into a passive position by the united efforts of the Tang People from various states. In reality, however, the casualties of the Three Races Alliance were far lower than those of the Tang. Even when accounting for combat strength, the Tang still found themselves suffering heavy losses.
In essence, the Three Races Alliance simply did not want to waste too many troops beforehand in order to maintain their strength for a decisive assault on Yongan City.
"What are you thinking? Although we are attacking dragon territory, we are not invaders; after all, it was the dragons who declared war without warning. We are merely defending ourselves through offense!"
Li Li shamelessly made this audacious statement under the disdainful gazes of those around him.
Li Chunbo could only smile wryly. You’ve attacked their royal city and slaughtered all their Royal Dragons who were not part of the expedition; how is that not invasion? Yet, despite his thoughts, no one dared to embarrass Li Li. After all, he held more than eighty percent of the credit for this successful campaign.
"So, what about these dragons?" Zhenxi General asked as he looked at the seven hundred captured dragons, feeling somewhat troubled.
If they simply released these dragons, it would undoubtedly affect their subsequent actions. After all, no matter how slow a dragon might be in flight, they would still be faster than Heavy Cavalry. The dragons would surely alert all other dragon cities, making it impossible to launch a surprise attack on any city as easily as they had just done.
"Let them go!" Li Li said calmly.
"All of them?"
The crowd asked in unison, as this kind of situation brought them no benefits at all; in fact, one wrong move could lead to endless trouble.
"Yes." Li Li nodded slowly and walked toward the more than seven hundred dragons that were heavily surrounded.
"Chancellor! This is too dangerous!" The General hurriedly stopped Li Li, warning him.
Li Li smiled slightly and patted his shoulder.
"You must trust your soldiers!"
With that, Li Li had already reached the innermost part of the encirclement, standing right in front of the dragon horde.
The dragons realized that this must be a high-ranking official from the human race. If they could kill him, it would be revenge for their kin who had perished under the bombardment.
"I know that with your intelligence, you can understand my words! I will tell you that there are two paths you can choose! One, attempt to kill me, and regardless of success or failure, you will all die; two, leave this place and inform your army far away in the Tang Dynasty about our conquest of Arcadia."
Li Li coldly laughed. "If I do not receive news from Eternal Peace, the army I lead will trample every inch of dragon territory and flatten every city of the dragon race. We do not like war, but we are not afraid of it!"
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