Emperor Huangli, February 1074, 2.

Late at night that day, a strong wind blew up on the flat ground, blowing the trees to the ground and causing heavy snow to fly.

Chu Zhongxing led 367 cavalrymen of the new army of Yancheng, 141 cavalrymen of the Yancheng Town North Army, as well as Zhang Chengjun and seven others, the great scholar Su Mu, and Xu Zhiyuan, the official of Xu Ji, and slowly drove out of Yancheng under the cover of night.

In this team of 519 people, there are two very special ones.

One was the coach Li Yulun, who was dragging a sleeping person on the "Wuzui" horse he was riding.

After drinking Yin Yin's calming soup, Yancheng's chief general Guo Xiaoding fell into a deep sleep and was dragged by coach Li Yulun on horseback.

The other one was He Ao, the only one who did not ride a war horse but drove a carriage.

On the carriage was equipped with the Mohist mechanical device made by He Ao. The principle and spiritual array patterns of this Mohist mechanical device were very simple. It was a Mohist mechanical device with only one flaw.

"Let's go!"

As Chu Zhongxing set out for the exit, five hundred riders headed south. They galloped quickly along the predetermined route, braving the severe cold and snow.

Although the northern border in February has passed the coldest stage, there is still no trace of barbarians in the entire vast northern border.

Not to mention the barbarians, even some [monsters] and [beasts] have all hidden themselves and gone into hibernation.

Marching in the Northern Frontier is extremely boring and uninteresting. Fortunately, Yancheng's Zhenbei Army has become accustomed to it. This is their 84th year in the Northern Frontier, and they have long since integrated themselves into the Northern Frontier.

As for the players
Every time they take a break, they will quit the game, enter the forum, and chat in the group.

"The day after leaving Yancheng: Damn, I'm really bored. Actually, it's not good for the game to be too realistic. The Northern Frontier is so big, and if it's too realistic, you can't skip itineraries. All your time is wasted on the road."

"Actually, it's okay to waste it, but it's damn boring. The last time I went south with Brother Niu, it was quite interesting. We could kill some small animals for fun on the way, and we were all players, so we could chat and talk nonsense at will.

But I don’t believe it when talking to the NPCs. They are all serious hipsters and can only march, rest, march, and rest the whole time.

And the food is rubbish, all pickled meat, I almost vomited!"

"To be honest, it's ok to eat pickled meat, but there's no water. When I'm thirsty, I can only grab the snow on the ground and stuff it into my mouth."

"You're probably a fool, you want to eat snow? This is a fantasy world. Just wrap the snow with your spiritual energy and melt it.

If that doesn't work, you can learn some Taoist magic, and still be short of water?"

"Oh, I'm so envious. I'm so envious of you guys who are going on the expedition. You guys, more than 300 players, are going on the expedition to the south, leaving more than 1,000 of us players in Yancheng!"

"Damn, that's right, that's right, Yancheng is too boring, especially the herbs are scarce, big guys, you guys should quickly plunder the barbarians and bring back some herbs for job transformation!"

"I feel like this game discriminates against new players too much. Old players follow the NPCs south to new maps and new dungeons, but we still have to stay in Yancheng and do repetitive daily tasks."

“In fact, it’s not discrimination against new players. The background of this game is set in the northern border, and the enemies are barbarians, so there must be a limited number of recruits who can fight and have strong combat effectiveness.

If the game was set in the Imperial Dynasty, it would probably be a completely different scene."

"I think it's not the right time for everyone to come in now. If you come in earlier, you can play the Oasis dungeon. If you come in later, you can play the Beiting and Shicheng dungeons.

It's a very cold time to come here. The barbarians are all hiding in the city. We can only do our daily tasks."

"I don't understand why you are so bored and lonely. You all seem to have plenty of money. There are wealthy players buying up large quantities of [casting] now. Why don't you take advantage of this time to do more daily tasks, move more bricks, and make more money? Instead of complaining about how boring it is,

Are you all college students who have never entered society? Or high school students? Junior high school students?
Besides, you all live on Douyin, and you look down on an income of tens of thousands of yuan a month?"

"I earn over 10,000 a month. I'm so addicted to this game. You guys can continue chatting. I'm going to work and make some money. I also need to go to the [Book Collection Pavilion] to study the Taoist outline!"

"9494!"

"Brother above, are you stupid? The forum has sign-in tasks and active tasks. People must be making money by posting on the forum after being kicked out of the game. Do you really think they are bored? They are playing in the game and on the forum!"

"Fuck, I'm an idiot!"

"It's so funny. Why do I feel like when you were in school, you were all the kind of people who said oh I didn't do well on the test, but when the test papers came out, you all got close to full marks!"

"The truth is out!"

There were 1081 players left in Yancheng. After Chu Zhongxing led all the NPCs to leave Yancheng, these players were a little uncomfortable at first.

Fortunately, there was no problem with the task system. Chu Zhongxing had the ability to create an avatar, which could replace Chu Zhongxing and assign tasks and settle accounts for players.

Since the NPC left, players can now receive tasks directly on the task panel, and will automatically receive game currency rewards after completing the task.

With the task system, the [Book Collection], the [Treasure Pavilion], and discussion activities, players have main tasks and daily tasks.

The main task is to refer to the general outline in the [Book Collection] and complete the job change.

With [Babao Pavilion], players can exchange game coins [cast] into RMB and obtain rich benefits.

There are discussion activities where players can PK and compete with each other to increase the fun of the game.

At the same time, Yancheng also has professions such as [Civilian], [Blister], and [Craftsman], so players will not encounter any problems in a short period of time.

Because those players who join professions such as [Civilian] and [Blister] will replace the role of NPC to a certain extent.

The new army of Yancheng followed the NPCs to march south, leaving 1081 players behind in Yancheng.

In the beginning, players complained about this kind of thing on the forum, but after they found out that there were no NPCs in Yancheng and it did not hinder their ability to make money and complete tasks, they stopped caring about it.

NPCs are not important to most players.

As long as you can receive tasks and obtain task rewards normally, it doesn't matter if there are no NPCs.

With only players left in Yan City, it still looks vibrant. Countless players are thrown into the incinerator every day, contributing to the warmth of Yan City.

Forced march, three days later.

As a member of the military power faction, Chu Zhongxing has mastered the most common magical power of the military power faction, [Forced March].

A group of military power in the Self-cultivation Realm can command a thousand soldiers. Chu Zhongxing is now commanding more than 500 people under his command. He uses his magical power of rapid march and in just three days, he can see the majestic and magnificent Beiting from afar.

A light white ripple enveloped Beiting. Although there was heavy snow falling all over the sky at the moment, the snowflakes fell on the light white ripples and instantly melted into mist.

Chu Zhongxing reined in his horse and ordered the troops to stop. He turned his head and looked at Guo Xiaoding with a questioning look in his eyes.

Guo Xiaoding was knocked unconscious by Yin Yin's love potion. When he woke up, Chu Zhongxing and Yancheng Town's northern army were about to arrive at Beiting.

Faced with Chu Zhongxing's dirty trick, Guo Xiaoding was not angry at all after waking up, nor did he say much. Instead, he asked Chu Zhongxing to give him a pair of war horses and let him ride them.

Guo Xiaoding's eyes were calm, as if he had known that Chu Zhongxing would have such a trick. Chu Zhongxing was now very embarrassed. He had prepared many explanations and back-up plans, but in the end, none of them were used.

"This is a totem protection formation, an imitation of the Taoist mountain protection formation, and it has a good defensive effect."

"Good defensive effect?"

Chu Zhongxing continued to look at Guo Xiaoding. He didn't quite understand to what extent Guo Xiaoding meant by "not bad".

“It can withstand sieges by ordinary cavalry and infantry, but it cannot withstand siege engines.

If the soldiers and yin and yang were deployed early to attract the heaven and earth to attack, this totem protection array would be as fragile as paper. "

"Oh, then it can only be described as a good defensive formation."

Chu Zhongxing nodded slightly. This totem protective formation could not stop siege equipment, nor could it stop the water and fire attacks of the soldiers. It could only serve as infantry and cavalry. What was its use?

Infantry and cavalry are not good at sieges, so when the soldiers of the Imperial Shang Dynasty attack a city, they will definitely use siege equipment!

Looking at the magnificent city in the distance, Chu Zhongxing took out a map from his arms. This map was drawn with the lives of players. It recorded the garrisons in Beiting and Shicheng, as well as the distribution of troops in the first line of defense.

Ever since the Yancheng Town Northern Army lost Guizi in the northern border twenty years ago, Guo Xiaoding led more than a thousand defeated soldiers to retreat to Yancheng and began to retreat.

Twenty years have passed in a flash, and the number of casualties in Yancheng Town's Beibei Army has dropped from more than a thousand to only 142.

The barbarians from the two tribes, Quanrong and Guifang, who were responsible for cutting off the retreat of the Zhenbei Army, had almost forgotten this mission.

The reason why the two barbarians, the Quanrong who occupied Beiting and the Guifang who occupied Shicheng, set up several defense lines outside the Shanhan Corridor was not to defend against the Yancheng Zhenbei Army, but to defend against the Yongzhou border army of the Shang Dynasty and other barbarian tribes in the northern border.

Now that the Imperial Shang Dynasty is ruled by nine kings, the border troops of Yongzhou have moved into Zhongzhou. The troops of the Quanrong and Guifang tribes are no longer as attentive as before in arranging their defenses.

At this time, the northern border was in extreme cold, and the defenses of the Quanrong and Guifang tribes were weak. It was the best time for Chu Zhongxing and his men to break out.

"Niu Bo!"

"The general is here!"

As a centurion, it was not quite appropriate for Niu Bu to call himself a "minister general". The main reason was that He Ao called himself a "minister" from time to time, which irritated other players. So Niu Bu simply changed his title to "minister general", indicating that he was the general of the new army of Yancheng.

As for what kind of general he is, don't ask. Asking is just a provocation to me.

"You know something about Beiting. Lead a hundred cavalrymen to entangle Beiting's reinforcements and stop them completely."

"If they want to break through your defenses, they have to step over your dead bodies, understand?"

"The general will obey the order!"

"Elei meow!"

"The general is here!"

"Like Niu Bu, you lead a hundred cavalrymen to stop the support from Shicheng and buy time for us to break out."

"The general will obey the order!"

"Su Shan!"

"The general is here!"

"I order you to be the vanguard and lead the remaining soldiers to the first line of defense and fight to carve out a bloody path for us." "I obey your order!"

After seeing the three players under his command taking orders, Chu Zhongxing nodded slightly to Guo Xiaoding.

Players are used as cannon fodder and as suicide squads.

The 367 players were divided into three parts by Chu Zhongxing. Among them, the part led by Su Shan was responsible for charging into battle and serving as the vanguard for the Yancheng Town Beijun.

The group led by Niu Bu was responsible for blocking the reinforcements from Beiting, and the group led by Yile Miao was responsible for blocking the reinforcements from Shicheng.

Yi Lei Miao is the third player in Yan City to be promoted from a general to a centurion. After inheriting the power of her ancestors, Yi Lei Miao's personal strength has been greatly improved. She exchanged all her [Weapons] for [Orders], and combined with the [Orders] she had accumulated before, she was able to be promoted to a centurion.

As the second on both lists of "Bai Jia Zhu Dao", Yi Lei Miao has now officially become a centurion, and together with Niu Bu and Su Shan, she has become one of the three leaders of the new army.

More than 500 cavalrymen immediately divided into three groups and continued to march southward in the extreme cold and darkness. Yileimiao led a hundred cavalrymen to gallop eastward, while Niu Bu and Su Shan led a hundred cavalrymen to circle Beiting and head south.

After Niu Bu ambushed in the middle of the first line of defense set up by Beiting and the Manyi, Chu Zhongxing led the northern army of Yancheng Town, Su Mu, Xu Zhiyuan and others to the south.

It’s extremely cold in the northern border, and the night covers the sky.

The actions of Chu Zhongxing and his group did not attract the attention of the barbarians in Beiting and Shicheng. At this moment, all the barbarians in Beiting and Shicheng were hiding inside the city, and even the lookout towers in the city had no soldiers on duty.

Seeing the barbarians in the northern border being so lazy, Guo Xiaoding's eyes were full of murderous intent.

Only when the country is peaceful and the people are at peace will the soldiers be so lazy.

In Guo Xiaoding's view, the laziness of the barbarians in the northern border was a mockery of the cowardice and lack of people of the Shang Dynasty.

"Let's go, General Guo!"

"Let the barbarians in the northern border live comfortably for a while. When we return to Di Shang, we will definitely teach them a lesson!"

Feeling Guo Xiaoding's murderous intent, Chu Zhongxing said softly that he was now personally leading his troops to break through and kill back to Di Shang together with the Yancheng Town Beijun. If Guo Xiaoding was confused at this time, Chu Zhongxing would not mind abandoning Guo Xiaoding and others and escaping far away.

returning a Favour many times more.

But this is based on Chu Zhongxing's own safety. If he is in danger and in dire straits, he will definitely give priority to his own safety.

Chu Zhongxing would never risk his life just because of the stupidity of Guo Xiaoding and the others.

Guo Xiaoding was just full of murderous intent but did not take any actual action. The group circled Beiting and fled away quietly.

The first line of defense set up by the barbarians in the northern border was the Stone Array Pass, which was located more than 100 kilometers south of the central axis of Beiting and Shicheng. Because the pass was built with rubble and there were chevaux de frise stakes all over the outside of the pass, it was called the cavalry's grave.

The Stonehenge Pass has a wall no more than five meters high, no moat, and is made of rubble, making it very unstable.

If there were siege equipment or Mohist mechanical technology, the stone formation pass could be destroyed very easily.

Or maybe a general who controls the border of Yin and Yang could cause the water from the sky to flow back again, flooding the rock formation and easily break through this first line of defense.

But unfortunately, Chu Zhongxing had no siege equipment, nor any soldiers or generals to govern the country. The only mechanical technique he had, the Mohist mechanical technique, could not be used so early.

"Dismount, charge, and carve out a way out with your flesh and blood!"

There are countless chevaux de frise outside the stone formation. If the cavalry charges, it will definitely cause huge losses. Chu Zhongxing lets the players dismount and rush forward as infantry to help the northern army of Yancheng town fight their way out.

"promise!"

More than 160 players dismounted and groped their way towards the Stone Pass under the cover of night.

Su Shan, who was transferred to the military power faction, used his magical power [Step by Step]. With every step forward taken by the players under his command, their momentum would increase.

"Master Chu, let us go too!"

Seeing the players marching cautiously towards the Stone Formation Pass, the veteran general of Yancheng Town's Northern Army stepped forward and requested to go into battle. Chu Zhongxing waved his hand to stop the white-haired soldier from going to the battlefield.

Players are consumables.

If you die, you die. It doesn’t matter. You can be resurrected anyway.

Moreover, Chu Zhongxing has mastered the ability to build a nest, so he can rebuild a resurrection pool nearby, allowing players to resurrect nearby instead of having to resurrect in Yancheng.

The reason why Chu Zhongxing led his troops to fight in person was because the ability to build a nest had a range.

Chu Zhongxing couldn't build a resurrection pool near the Stone Formation Pass thousands of kilometers away in Yancheng.

In the color of night, 160 players approached the Stone Formation Pass step by step. The strong atmosphere of solemnity added a hint of chill to the place.

In the watchtower of the Stonehenge Pass, three barbarian soldiers huddled inside the watchtower, gambling.

Knocking at the God of Heaven is a form of gambling played by the barbarians. Three barbarians were having a lot of fun playing in the watchtower. They had no idea that death had already befallen them.

“Hurry, go, go!!”

"Be quiet, don't make too much noise!"

This time, Chu Zhongxing did not have any siege equipment, but the player had a flying hook made by He Ao.

They threw the flying hook onto the wall of the Stonehenge Pass. After hooking something unknown, the player climbed up quickly and reached the top easily in just a few breaths.

"That's it? That's it? You also call this a pass?"

"The barbarians have no sense of vigilance at all!"

"Damn, I didn't expect my one-handed rock climbing skills to be so strong. If this were on Earth, I would definitely be the world's number one rock climber!"

"Fuck, we're all students, but you're so proud of rock climbing. I'm speechless!"

"Don't talk, don't alarm them!"

The players who easily climbed to the top of the city wall were greatly surprised, especially those who had participated in the Iltsk Oasis dungeon, who found it a little unbelievable.

What’s going on? Wasn’t it said that the difficulty of this dungeon was extremely high? How come I managed to climb up the city wall so easily?
The old players who already have masochistic delusions are not used to climbing the wall so easily. On the contrary, the new players think that this is the difficulty of the game. After they climb up, they rush directly to the watchtower on the wall with weapons in hand.

The chaotic footsteps startled the barbarians who were playing the game of knocking the gods in the watchtower. Although they were puzzled as to why there were footsteps at this time, they still had some manners. They quickly took out their weapons and looked towards the city wall from the watchtower.

Dozens of enemies were running towards them with weapons in hand. The barbarians who saw this scene were immediately terrified.

"Enemy attack, enemy attack!"

"Quick, tell the leader, there is an enemy attack!"

"Ring the bell, ring the bell!"

Dang Dang Dang~~~
The three barbarians reacted very quickly. When the player rushed to the watchtower, a loud bell suddenly rang, waking up the sleeping barbarians.

"Alarm bell, such a rapid alarm bell, the enemy has already reached the city wall!"

The leader was awakened from his sleep and heard the urgent alarm bell. He suddenly turned over and got up from the bed. He did not bother to put on his armor, but quickly opened a box and took out a horn from it.

Holding the horn, the barbarian leader came outside the house and blew the horn with all his strength.

Buzz~buzz~buzz~
It sounded like the whimpering of an injured animal, or like a threatening sound coming from deep in its throat when an invading animal was spotted on its territory.

As the horn sounded, a simple-looking brown bear suddenly appeared above the stone formation pass.

"It's a call for help from the barbarians."

Seeing the honest brown bear above the stone formation, Guo Xiaoding explained to Chu Zhongxing softly: "The range of the call for help can reach up to 300 kilometers. At this moment, the stone formation pass has sent out a call for help, and the barbarians far away in Beiting and Fangcheng will lead their troops to support us!"

"In that case, we don't have much time!"

Chu Zhongxing ordered: "Zhenbei Army, listen to my orders!"

"promise!"

"Cooperate with the new army and fight your way out. We don't have much time. We must quickly break through the first line of defense, break through the Shanhan Pass, and enter the Shanhan Corridor."

"promise!"

As Chu Zhongxing finished speaking, the Zhenbei Army, which had been prepared for a long time, rushed out like a tiger. This group of Zhenbei Army, composed of a dozen people in the Qijia realm and more than a hundred people in the Xiushen realm, was much more powerful than the Yancheng New Army. With their joining, the sound of the horn stopped abruptly in just an incense stick of time.

"Report to General Chu, the leader of the Stone Formation Pass has been killed!"

"Open the city gates and let the new troops sweep any enemies that may be alive in the pass!"

"Yes!"

In this operation, Chu Zhongxing did not intend to leave any survivors. With a loud rumbling sound, Chu Zhongxing, Guo Xiaoding, Su Mu and others rode side by side into the Stone Formation Pass.

Buzz~buzz~buzz~
The sound of the horn passed through Niu Bu and others and reached Beiting.

A stick of incense later, the south gate of Beiting opened with a bang. With the ground constantly shaking, a column of cavalry drove out of Beiting and rushed towards the stone formation pass.

Just as they were about to rush into Niu Bu's attack range, the general in the front suddenly raised his hand and stopped the cavalry's charge.

"There is an enemy ambush ahead!"

This general was a man of great talent and courage. He rode his warhorse forward two steps and shouted in a deep voice to Niu Bu and the others:

"Who are you? Not only do you dare to attack the Stone Formation Pass, but you also dare to ambush us here."

"Which tribe in the Northern Frontier dares to break the agreement and do such a heinous thing?"

Seeing that the ambush was discovered, Niu Bu appeared on his warhorse. He looked at the general in the distance and an intriguing smile appeared on his face.

"Old man, we meet again!" (End of this chapter)