Chapter 1 Fuxin Courtyard Becomes the Center of Attack

Fuxin Courtyard truly became the focal point of the enemy's assault.

Liu Yong was locked in a one-on-one battle with Mo Leng, preventing anyone else from intervening. Bi Xiaoqing had already led her team back to Fuxin Courtyard, desperately trying to block those who wanted to break into it. Each guard faced an opponent, and they could only do their best to eliminate them as quickly as possible to avoid being surrounded.

Inside the main hall of Fuxin Courtyard, Ye Tao put on his armor and picked up his long-unused stone hammer, ready to face any enemy who might break into the hall. Wang Shi and Wang An were sent to a side room with Chen Kai, protected by two experts from the manor and three guards. Feng Zi placed a crossbow beside him, ready to fight alongside Ye Tao.

The guards were indeed formidable. For the first fifteen minutes, despite the loud shouts of battle all around, not a single enemy managed to break into the courtyard in front of the main hall, threatening the most important buildings in the courtyard and the important figures being protected. However, the guards were outnumbered. When one or two were injured in the fighting, the gap gradually widened. Finally, the enemy broke into the courtyard.

The front and back gates had become battlefields. Enemies continuously scaled the ridge into the manor. Guarding the gates only prevented the trickle from turning into an unstoppable flood, and the guards themselves were constantly attacked from the front, sides, and rear. Zhe Luo ordered the last two fire oil bombs to be used to burn the light crossbow cannons. Then, the guards charged into the enemy, intending to fight their way back to Fuxin Courtyard. However, even the short distance of a few hundred steps from the manor gate to Fuxin Courtyard proved difficult.

At the foot of the mountain, Xu Yao anxiously watched the top of Mount Huandai. The firelight from the manor grew brighter, and enemies holding torches swarmed onto the summit. It was clear that Ye Tao's situation was not good. But he hesitated. The fighting strength of his hundred or so cavalrymen was unquestionable, but they could only exert their greatest power on horseback. Therefore, after Fu Chong's troops and the Jin Jie Gang's members retreated into the manor, he decisively ordered the attack to cease, turned around, and waited for an opportunity on the side of the mountain. He believed that if he gave the order, his men would fight bravely, but they might be overwhelmed by the enemy and dragged off their horses to be killed one by one. These hundred or so elite soldiers might take down at least three hundred enemies or more, but could they change the course of the battle? After gritting his teeth, Xu Yao ordered, "Prepare to attack."

"Wait!" A voice rang out not far away.

"Who is it?" The cavalry, now gathered together, had not sent out scouts and hadn't noticed someone had gotten so close.

A person wearing night-fighting gear jumped out of the woods and reported, "General Xu, I'm from the Special Operations Battalion. Commander Zhou asked me to find you and deliver a message."

In this place, anyone who knew about the Special Operations Battalion wouldn't be an outsider. Xu Yao didn't doubt him and immediately took the document that was handed over, looking at it under the light of a torch held by one of his men.

"Zhou Rui moved so fast? He's already gone up the mountain?" Xu Yao exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, Commander Zhou led more than a hundred men up the mountain and should have made contact with General Ye. There shouldn't be any danger for the moment," the messenger said with certainty.

"Good, then I'll act according to the plan. Lead the way," Xu Yao said, slightly relieved.

When Zhou Rui originally infiltrated the manor, he had already ordered the Special Operations Battalion to continue forward. When he heard Ye Tao's order and snuck out again, the Special Operations Battalion had already rushed to a village at the foot of the mountain and lay hidden in a place surrounded by enemies. The Jin Jie Gang's members' attention was all on the mountain, so the well-trained Special Operations Battalion snuck up without them noticing. After Zhou Rui returned to the Special Operations Battalion, he immediately cleared a path according to Ye Tao's orders. But realizing that the enemy was of mixed quality and had poor overall combat ability, he didn't leave too many people to guard the passage. Instead, he had another idea. There were only two key points: protect Ye Tao and eliminate the enemy. With that in mind, he personally led the team to solve the first problem, and passed his ideas to Xu Yao through his soldiers. In his opinion, since the opponent had adopted a strong offensive posture and launched an attack mainly with regular troops, then eliminating the enemy was naturally a matter for Xu Yao's cavalry, which was more professional than anyone could imagine.

Zhou Rui set the tone, and he himself led people to sneak up the mountain. But he had already arranged everything that needed to be arranged. He had his soldiers open a section of the outer wall at the controlled passage, clearing a small path that the cavalry could completely pass through on horseback, allowing Xu Yao to bring his men directly into the manor and organize an attack from inside the manor against the enemy in the wide courtyard inside the manor gate. If they were lucky, they might be able to wipe out the gang leader Gui Weilian and General Fu Chong, who was practically a traitor. Even if they were unlucky, they could at least kill a large number of enemies. Afterwards, Xu Yao could decide whether to break out of the manor gate again to find opportunities in the outer perimeter, or enter the second gate along the road to greatly strengthen the inner manor's forces and search for and kill the enemies who had entered the inner manor. Zhou Rui even came up with a method of communication for this idea. Although it was impossible to rely on messengers to go up and down the mountain to exchange information, Zhou Rui left two soldiers on the side ridge with a flag unique to the Special Operations Battalion, smeared with phosphorescent dye. To convey information, they only needed to tie a note to an arrow shaft and have their sharpshooters shoot it up. Zhou Rui was also very clear that Xu Yao's vision had been broadened by being the deputy commander of the Jingyun Cavalry, and his subordinates were all skilled archers. Even if their archery skills were not as good as monsters like Zhe Luo, they were probably not far off.

Xu Yao accepted Zhou Rui's suggestion without hesitation, not caring that Zhou Rui was only a battalion commander in terms of rank, while he was the deputy commander of the Jingyun Cavalry. And while he quietly infiltrated the manor to launch an offensive, Zhou Rui had already led nearly a hundred elite soldiers to strongly support Fuxin Courtyard. The Special Operations Battalion was originally formed by mixing elites from the army and good fighters from the martial world, and then training them. This time, they brought the team led by Zhang Wei, which included several quasi-first-class fighters from the martial world whose martial arts were not much worse than Zhou Rui's. Moreover, the Special Operations Battalion's coordination and cover during attacks, the skillful use of various weapons in their hands, and the full use of the terrain made the local garrison and the Jianghu gangs, who lacked this experience, look bad and almost collapse at the first touch.

Zhou Rui and the Special Operations Battalion's arrival at Fuxin Courtyard immediately changed the slightly tense situation there. When Zhou Rui entered Fuxin Courtyard, he was surprised to see that Ye Tao was already preparing to fight with his hammer, while Liu Yong was single-handedly fighting Mo Leng, the Master of the Eagle Hall whom Zhou Rui had the honor of seeing before, and two of his men. Although Liu Yong was indeed a martial arts expert, it was difficult for him to withstand the attacks of three people while sustaining a long fight, and he was indeed a little overwhelmed.

"Heh," Zhou Rui sneered and called on Zhang Wei, the captain of Team A, to attack Mo Leng first.

Mo Leng was also secretly complaining. He originally dared to launch a surprise attack with only a few people because he wanted to fish in troubled waters, hoping to create chaos and maybe get the Hidden Dragon Box. As for what happened to Chen Kai, he didn't care much. However, Liu Yong's skill was much higher than he had expected. It would be an understatement to call him one of the strongest people in the world. At least Mo Leng, who was also considered one of the strongest people in the world, would not be able to hold out until his subordinates came to attack Liu Yong unless he fought with all his strength. And the impact on Fuxin Courtyard that he had painstakingly gathered with a group of skilled people did not cause Fuxin Courtyard's defense to collapse, but only compressed the guards' defensive circle into the inner courtyard. The reason for this situation was that Ye Tao's guards were actually unwilling to suffer too many casualties. If a person was injured and fell, two people would definitely rush up to pull him away and replace him. After going back and forth like this, although seven or eight guards were seriously injured, it only reduced the defensive circle a little, giving those steadfast or not-so-steadfast believers who were desperately attacking a glimmer of hope.

Mo Leng never expected that Ye Tao would dare to put on armor and stand at the door of the main hall with a weapon. Indeed, he didn't need to go into battle now, but his readiness gave his guards great courage. Even the entire Ye Tao's team was not lacking in this kind of courage to fight. Just now, when a Jin Jie Gang leader and a guard were entangled in a corridor, a door was suddenly opened, and a guy in low-level civil official's uniform rushed out and pulled out a fire-breathing stick at the leader, instantly igniting him. Behind the doors and windows, the people being protected were watching the situation without fear. What kind of team was this?

When Zhou Rui and Zhang Wei rushed up and attacked Mo Leng from the left and right, Mo Leng was distracted for a moment and was struck by Liu Yong's palm, flying backwards. Fortunately, two of his subordinates fought to the death to hold off the two, and Liu Yong, after a long battle and seeing the tense situation, rushed back to Ye Tao's side to protect him, not even thinking about chasing Mo Leng. That allowed Mo Leng to be rescued by a few capable subordinates. But this injury would take three to five months to heal.

At this time, Xu Yao also launched his attack. Launching a cavalry charge at such close range, combined with the standard formation of two archers and one crossbow archer that had become almost a conditioned reflex, immediately created a massacre inside the manor gate. Xu Yao commanded the cavalry to charge out from one side, plowing through the entire small square, and then turning around and plowing through it again before killing all the way up the mountain road. Seeing Xu Yao's surprise attack, Huo Dong was overjoyed. After being reminded by several of Ye Tao's guards that they were on the same side, he seized the opportunity to launch a counterattack, welcoming this powerful cavalry unit that had stunned him. Xu Yao didn't rest for even a second, and didn't even have time to politely dismount and greet Huo Dong before immediately directing the cavalry, under the guidance of Zhe Luo and others, to begin purging the enemies who had already entered the inner manor.