Daqin Zhentiansi

Chapter 1122 Did you see today's battle?

Although the light cavalry suffered more than half its losses, the remaining riders were highly experienced.

They didn't confront the lizard head-on.

The lizard's front is protected by bony plates, so a knife can only leave a white mark when it is cut.

They circled around to the side, and the scimitar swung out from the side, striking the lizard's leg precisely.

A lizard had its left foreleg severed, and its massive body lost its balance, crashing to the ground.

It struggled to get up, but its remaining three legs were too weak to support it, and it pawed at the ground in vain.

The crossbowman caught up and shot an arrow through its eye socket.

The other lizard had its two hind legs cut off. It lay on the ground, dragging its hind half forward, leaving a long trail of blood on the gravel path behind it.

The light cavalry caught up from behind and slashed it across the back of the neck.

All three hundred ironback lizards were wiped out.

Not a single one escaped.

After the battle, the logistics team had piled up a small mountain of bone plates that they had peeled off the lizards' backs.

The bone plates are harder than the leg bones of the Blackmane Beast, but lighter in texture.

Zhang Yuan had Tuoba Gu carve power-gathering and wind-controlling patterns on the bone plates to reinforce the shields and armor of each camp.

Tuoba Gu and his six apprentices worked non-stop, the charcoal furnace burning red-hot, the carving knives being sharpened and dulled repeatedly.

They spent the entire night replacing all the shields of the left and right camps with those reinforced with ironback lizard bone plates.

The shield is harder, but lighter.

The soldiers tested the new shields on the drill ground and all gave them a thumbs up.

The lizard's tail was also removed and sharpened to be used as a ram.

These rams were assigned to the right battalion specifically to deal with the charges of large magical beasts.

For dinner, we had roasted lizard meat.

Lizard meat is coarser than python meat, but it comes in larger quantities.

Everyone received a full bowl of meat soup, which contained wild onions and ginger picked from the hillside. The fishy smell was mostly removed, and drinking it made you feel warm all over.

Yan Qing sat by the campfire, holding a bowl of hot soup in her hands, and took a sip.

Ayan sat opposite him, eating meat in large mouthfuls.

"Did you see the battle today?" Ayan asked, chewing on his meat.

Yan Qing nodded: "I saw it."

What did you learn?

Yan Qing thought for a moment and said, "The shield formation cannot be disrupted. If it is, we cannot hold it."

Ayan laughed: "Not bad, you even know to look at this."

Yan Qing lowered his head, looking at the soup in the bowl. After a long while, he said, "I still didn't manage to cut anything today."

Ayan waved his hand: "There will be a chance tomorrow."

By the third day, the frequency of the monster horde's attacks had noticeably increased.

Four waves arrived in one day.

They fought from dawn till dusk.

At dawn, the first wave of attacks arrived before the sky was fully light.

A swarm of poisonous frogs arrived.

A swarm of green frogs, numbering about five hundred, surged in from the direction of the swamp. The largest was as big as a washbasin, and the smallest was the size of a watermelon.

Their backs are covered with huge, translucent venom sacs filled with yellowish-green venom, which sway back and forth as the frogs leap.

"Croak—croak—croak—"

The croaking of frogs came from afar, so loud it hurt my ears.

The sound was muffled and loud, like someone breaking a gong in a valley, the echoes crashing back and forth between the valley walls, making one's head ache.

The poisonous frog's attack method is disgusting. Instead of rushing up to bite, it stops when it is still a dozen feet away from people, inflates the poison sacs on its back, and then suddenly shrinks back.

"puff--"

A stream of yellowish-green venom shot out from the venom sac, arcing through the air before landing on the shields of the heavily armed soldiers in the front ranks.

"Zzzzzzz—"

The venom landed on the iron shield, immediately producing a puff of white smoke.

The sheet metal was corroded into a pit the size of a thumb, with bubbles still rising from the edges.

The shield-bearing soldier was startled and instinctively tried to shake off the venom from his shield, but the venom was sticky and wouldn't come off. "Raise your shields! Protect your faces!"

Tuoba Tie's voice boomed through the ranks.

The soldiers quickly raised their shields above their heads, interlocking the edges to form a sloping shield wall.

The venom landed on the shield, slid down the slope, and dripped onto the ground.

The pebbles on the ground were splashed with venom, hissing and emitting white smoke, leaving behind small, charred pits.

Zhang Yuan could see it clearly from his vantage point.

"Left battalion archers, three waves of arrows in five breaths. Suppress them."

Amu accepted the order.

The archer battalion quickly adjusted their formation, with the front row kneeling and the back row standing upright, and all three hundred sandalwood bows were drawn to their full extent at the same time.

The battle markings on the bow arm shone brightly in the morning light.

"put!"

"stretch--"

The first wave of arrows rose into the air.

Three hundred armor-piercing arrows traced dense arcs in the morning light, their tips gleaming with faint starlight.

"Puff puff puff puff—"

The sound of arrows piercing a frog's back was as dense as a torrential downpour hitting mud.

The first few dozen poisonous frogs were nailed to the ground.

Yellowish-green venom flowed from the ruptured venom sac and pooled on the ground.

The archer battalion did not stop.

Within five breaths, three waves of arrows rained down.

Nine hundred arrows turned the area covered by the frogs into a hedgehog-like landscape.

The ground was covered with the corpses of poisonous frogs.

Some were still convulsing, while others had been riddled with bullets.

The venom that flowed out after the venom sac ruptured accumulated in puddles of yellowish-green liquid on the ground.

When the logistics team went to retrieve the bodies, they all wore thick leather gloves.

They carefully used a long stick to pry open the frog carcass, removed the intact venom sac, and sealed it in an animal skin bag.

Zhang Yuan said these things would be useful to keep.

……

In the morning, two packs of gray-maned wolves attacked simultaneously from the east and west.

The wolf pack numbered no less than eight hundred, making it the largest attack in three days.

The gray-maned wolf was a whole size larger than an ordinary wolf, reaching up to its waist at the shoulders, with fangs peeking out from the corners of its mouth, gleaming with a ghostly white light.

Their fur was grayish-brown and covered with dried bloodstains.

Some of it was their own blood, and some was from previous attacks on other camps.

Their tactics were clearly orchestrated.

The wolf pack from the east launched the attack first.

Approximately four hundred wolves charged down the eastern hillside. The vanguard was extremely fast, their hooves pounding the gravel with a dense, clattering sound.

As they charged, they emitted low whimpers, the sound carried by the wind, like something weeping.

Tuoba Tie led the left wing to meet the enemy head-on.

Heavy infantry were in front, spearmen were behind, and archers provided support on both flanks.

The moment the wolf pack crashed into the shield formation, blood and flesh flew everywhere.

The first few wolves had their bellies pierced by spears and were still struggling, hanging from the spear tips, their mouths opening and closing as if trying to bite someone.

But more wolves bypassed the front of the shield formation and attempted to invade from the side.

The left flank was tied down.

Just then, another gray wave surged out from the western hillside.

The wolf pack in the west launched their surprise attack only after the fighting began in the east.

They had been lying in wait in the western forests for this very moment. (End of Chapter)