Chapter 572 - Both Sides Rendezvous
Chapter 572: Both Sides Rendezvous
Translator: DavidT Editor: DavidT, Rock
As Ling Jian heard those words, he couldn't help but chuckle, "Alright! I can say for sure that even if that brat doesn't pee his pants after seeing me, his legs will definitely turn to jelly!"
"Hahaha…" Ling Tian burst out laughing, "You truly tortured Ling Seventeen badly back then. No wonder this fellow is like a mouse seeing a cat whenever he meets you. There was once when Ling Seventeen had diarrhea and you insisted that he had to train his swordplay. However, he couldn't hold it in and wanted to relieve himself, but you refused to let him and forced him to hold it in for a full day. In the end, his whole pants were soiled and Ling Chi and the rest gave him the nickname 'yellow gold'. Am I right?"
Mentioning this event, Ling Jian also laughed happily. "Yep, it is this brat indeed. This nickname of his is still in use and is just like Ling Chi's 'dog egg'. Whenever someone mentions it he will definitely erupt in anger, and even I don't dare to mention it!"
"Haha, you still say that you do not know how to brag? Aren't you bragging beautifully? Let's go. If we go late, this brat may start his operation and we wouldn't be able to watch a good show." Ling Tian called out and the four hundred elites sprinted away leaving a cloud of dust behind them.
Ling Tian originally brought 500 men, but after the previous battle, he lost about 40 to 50 men despite having the absolute advantage and initiative. Besides that, Ling Tian left another 20 men behind to guard the mountain pass and he was left with 400 men. Despite there being only 400 men left, even if they were to face an army with a couple of thousand soldiers they may not necessarily be on the losing end! All of these soldiers were the elites of the elites! Of the 400 present, 60 were trained by Ling Jian to be backup assassins of the First Pavilion and 25 used to be Blood Iron Warriors. The rest of them were the absolute elites chosen from the tens of thousands of soldiers in the Courtyard and their battle prowess was not to be underestimated either.
Ling Tian led his burly and ruffian-like subordinates silently past the mountain and went deep behind the Xiao Family's army.
……
The Xiao Family tent.
The Grand Marshal of the Xiao Family, Xiao FengYang, was seated in the military tent while holding onto an ancient looking book and reading it attentively. He had the demeanor of a wise sage reading a book in spring, solemn and dignified while flipping through the pages with a twinkle of wisdom in his eyes.
At this moment, Second Master Xiao was definitely not as calm as he looked and he was worried because of a single thing: Money! They had already set off for 20 days and the amount of money that they had spent during this period could only be described as astronomical! Despite the amount of money being an astronomical sum, the Xiao Family could definitely afford to drag out the battle. The name of being the number one financial magnate was not a lie. If they were to fight a war of wealth, the Xiao Family was confident that no one would be a match for them! The wealth that they had accumulated over a thousand years was not to be underestimated. Even the Yu or Shui Families wouldn't be a match for the Xiao Family in terms of wealth. This is something which the Xiao Family had always been extremely confident about!
According to reliable information, Southern Zheng was already in dire straits after making preparations for war. While not a single soldier had been lost, Southern Zheng's finances were incapable of enduring such a large consumption of resources. With both the Ling and Xiao Families sending out their troops to Southern Zheng at the same time but not taking action, the civilians of Southern Zheng were becoming anxious and were on the verge of collapse. The only thing that was lacking was a trigger point to incite chaos.
The Ling Family was openly ambitious and everyone was aware of their ambitions, but the Xiao Family was two-faced obviously with the intention to kill two birds with one stone.
Currently, Southern Zheng had exhausted a large amount of resources and was already in a precarious situation. At the same time, it was also a large meat pie that was placed in the middle of the two families' troops with both the families eyeing it covetously. Everyone knew that this meat pie no longer belonged to Southern Zheng, but the final ownership of the pie was still undetermined. It was this feeling of knowing that their deaths were inevitable but yet they had no choice but to await their deaths that made one feel hopelessness and craziness.
The only problem for the Xiao Family now was the fact that the Ling Family's resources could still hold up. Furthermore, the news that Xiao FengYang had received and analyzed had shockingly revealed that the Ling Family did not look like they were struggling at all. This was something that made Xiao FengYang extremely puzzled and was also the reason for him to speed up the execution of his plan.
Since when did the Ling Family's wealth become so formidable? Holding up three fronts of battle but looking as though they were still at ease? During this period of time, even with the Xiao Family's immense wealth, even if they were able to endure the drain of resources, it definitely wasn't an easy task for them. What was the Ling Family relying on?!
"In the near future, the Ling Family will definitely be my Xiao Family's greatest enemy! The threat that they pose to us will probably be even greater than the Yu Family!" Xiao FengYang placed the book in his hands down and let out a long sigh of regret, "Big brother, not swallowing up the Ling Family a decade ago is probably the biggest mistake of our Xiao Family!"
"Reporting to Second Master, everything has been prepared and we are awaiting your orders." A general clad in black armor walked into the tent and reported respectfully.
"Mmm, you may take your leave. The arranged time is two hours later and our army will set off at that time. We must attract the attention of the whole continent to us." Xiao FengYang nodded his head calmly. Today was the time limit that he agreed on with Meng RuoYun and Meng RuoYun who should already be in Sky Bearing by now. As long as his army sets off at the agreed time, Meng RuoYun would launch his attack four hours later. Meng RuoYun would first attack the slightly weaker Ling Residence before attacking the Ling Family Courtyard. They must take down these two establishments that house the upper echelons of the Ling Family! The Ling Family would then be facing internal and external struggle and would not be able to make a comeback after this!
As he went over the plan in his heart, Xiao FengYan felt that there was a 70% chance for the plan to succeed. The moment that the Ling Family was wiped out, Southern Zheng would be within their reach. Furthermore, Eastern Zhao is also in a period of internal struggle with the new DongFang Family Head, DongFang JingLei, staging a rebellion. Currently, both parties were engaged in an intense battle and with their strengths being similar, both parties would end up being heavily injured. After they take care of matters here, half of the continent would fall into the Xiao Family's hands with the fall of the Ling Family!
If not for this huge goal of theirs, why would Xiao FengYang send out more than 400,000 troops? In the world today, was there really an enemy worthy of the Xiao Family sending out all of their forces? Even the Yu Family did not have such rights. Just to deal with a Ling Family?! Haha, what a joke!
After sending out this order, Xiao FengYang stood up and looked towards the mountains in the distance as though he was facing his nemesis.
"Yu ManLou, the time for both our families to fight over the world will come soon! Do you know that I have been waiting for this battle for a very long time?! It is time for us to see who is the number one military commander!" At this moment, Xiao FengYang's gaze was filled with the loneliness of someone standing at the peak.
Ever since he started leading his troops into battle for the first time, he had always emerged victorious in every battle and there was nothing capable of stopping him. After experiencing victory after victory, Xiao FengYang felt a sense of loneliness. At the same time, he also looked forward to having a face-off with the other military commander who had no records of loss: Yu ManLou! No other individual was able to enter the sights of this Second Master Xiao!
A thousand victories were easy but a single defeat was difficult!
Imagining the scene of him facing Yu ManLou in the battlefield and battling it out with their wits, Xiao FengYang's eyes turned damp and he felt his blood boil. If he was truly able to face Yu ManLou in battle, it would be the dream of a hot-blooded general and he wouldn't have any regrets for the rest of his life…
The horns sounded!
Xiao FengYang's eyes glowed and outside the tent, orderly marching could be heard all across the camp. Apart from the neighing war horses and shouts of the commanders, not another sound could be heard in the camp.
The army was about to set off!
Such disciplined troops that were as tough as steel, who else other than I, Xiao FengYang, would be able to train them?
……
Ling Seventeen scampered around anxiously. Ever since the Xiao Family began their operation, he had surveyed the mountains carefully to find any possible geographical element that he could exploit, such as the terrain, water source, etc. However, it was a pity that the Xiao Family's commander truly lived up to the reputation of being the number one strategist in the Xiao Family. The arrangements that he had made along the way were truly without a flaw for others to take advantage of!
This made the stubble on Ling Seventeen's chin become even denser. In just a few days time, the short stubble became even longer and he no longer looked like a seventeen-year-old teen.
Ever since he received the orders from Ling Chen to destroy the Xiao Family's food resupply route at all costs, Ling Seventeen had truly gone crazy. Ling Seventeen himself also wanted to destroy the resupply route at all costs, sacrificing his own life together with his more than a thousand brothers.
However, the problem was that after a few days of investigation, there was no weakness in the food resupply route for him to exploit. It was an easy thing to sacrifice himself, but even if he wanted to sacrifice himself, he must sacrifice himself meaningfully. If he were to sacrifice all of his thousand brothers without accomplishing anything, it would only be a pointless sacrifice.
Even if he were to die, he must die at the appropriate moment and use the final moment of his life to give the enemy a heavy blow!
Even if he had the heart to fight with his life on the line, it was completely meaningless. Even if he were to sacrifice all of his thousand brothers, he would not be able to even delay the Xiao Family's resupply route!
Seeing the Xiao Family's carriages slowly passing by, Ling Seventeen truly wanted to let out a curse.
Along the way, there was a lookout station every couple of miles and all the lookout stations faced each other so they would be able to aid each other. Despite there not being many people in each lookout station, all of these lookout stations were constructed on extremely open areas. It was extremely difficult to take out all the soldiers in the lookout station without alerting anyone! As long as a single lookout station broke out in battle, reinforcements would arrive swiftly and they might not even be able to escape.
According to Ling Seventeen's estimation, he would have to destroy at least twenty lookout stations and destroy the road in the middle before he would be able to complete the task given to him to delay the Xiao Family's food supply for three days!
However, he only had 1200 subordinates and even though all of these subordinates were experts at robbery, when it came to destroying the road, they had no better ideas other than to set things on fire. Thus, they were all unable to find a solution!
Regardless of the damage they dealt, the Xiao Family would be able to fix it in half a day!
Ling Seventeen was enraged!
He had already lost his temper more than a hundred times over the past seven to eight days! All of his subordinates avoided him like the plague, afraid that they would suffer a beating from their fuming leader. There were already a few who were carried away after being whipped by their leader…
Ling Seventeen stood high up on the rocks and borrowing the cover of the trees he used his spyglass to study the enemies' movement beneath the mountain. The more he studied them, the angrier he got and he couldn't help but let out a series of curses. Although Ling Seventeen could see from his peripheral vision that his subordinates received someone who was walking towards him, the insensitive him did not think much about it until an extremely irritating mocking voice sounded…
"Eh, yellow gold. What's wrong? Why is your face so red? Hehe, look at how you are squatting on top the rock, you really look as though you are constipated. Err… are you going to create yellow gold again?"
"F**k your grandmother!" Ling Seventeen who had nowhere to vent his frustrations exploded and he turned around with a blazing gaze, "Which darn b*st*rd…" Before he could finish his words, his mouth hung wide open and his previously red face turned green. Then, his legs buckled and gave way as he crashed onto the ground as though he had seen a ghost.
In front of him was his boss, the king of assassins, Ling Jian. As for the person standing by the side looking at him with a mischievous smile, it was 'dog egg' Ling Chi who had just teased him.
As such, the bandits who were watching from afar witnessed an unbelievable scene. Their leader crawled forward with tears welling up in his eyes before jumping up with ecstasy. Just when he was about to give the other party a big hug, he was mercilessly stomped onto the ground. Just when all of them were about to brandish their swords to take revenge for their boss, their boss was not frustrated or angry in the slightest. Instead, he crawled forward with a look of flattery as though he had not been stomped on enough…
Was this still their cold-blooded and uptight boss who would rather die than submit? All of their jaws dropped in complete incredulity. Are we dreaming?! Their eyes were wide opened and it was as though their eyeballs would drop out at any moment…