High in the sky, birds soared, and the shadows of clouds flowed across the land. On the northwestern ground, a vast army rapidly moved from east to west. Search: \(¨Complete¨ Book¨ Divine¨ Station¨) for free access to quality literature.

Sunlight occasionally pierced through the gaps in the sky, cascading down like a river of light. Columns of smoke from signal fires rose, and the rushing soldiers occasionally intersected and collided, scattering like waves, leaving behind the remnants of corpses, and fleeing deserters.

For everyone involved, it was a moment where every second counted.

There are times when war doesn't give a warning.

When the warning signal from the signal fires reached Yanzhou City, it was already past mid-Si hour (around 10 am). This was the fastest means of communication during wartime, but it wasn't accurate. Ji La Sese, the senior Xia general stationed here, quickly summoned his officers, awaiting further reports. Meanwhile, the main force in the city began to assemble.

At Wu hour (around noon), the first message arrived with a swift horse into Yanzhou City. A force of approximately eight hundred men had emerged from the mountains to the east, extremely fierce, and the Shuishezhuang line was breached in an instant. Their flag was black with the Chen star.

This first message came from General Kui Hong, who had already died an hour ago, thirty miles away. As the second Xia commander to initially engage the Black Flag Army, he had decisively chosen to flee when he witnessed his men collapsing at an astonishing rate. However, a platoon led by Luo Ye relentlessly pursued him for five miles, cutting him down. In the message transmitted before the formation collapsed, he exaggerated the number of incoming enemies, inflating two hundred men to eight hundred. But of course, this exaggeration of several hundred men did not change the overall situation.

In Xia's original prediction, the most likely enemy to attack during the grain collection period was the Zhe family, who were currently in Fuzhou. Ji La Sese was confused for a long time before a staff member reminded him that the black flag with the Chen star was suspected to be the banner of the bandits in the mountains. However, at this point, it couldn't be completely confirmed whether it was a conspiracy by the Zhe family.

More battle reports came one after another, arriving faster than one could handle.

After Shuishezhuang, an encounter occurred at Gushankou! Our side was defeated! An encounter occurred at Dachuan! Our side was defeated! The Basong tribe was attacked and defeated, with a large enemy force approaching! An encounter occurred at Sanghe, resulting in defeat! Within half an hour of the arrival of the first battle report, the Xia army in Yanzhou City almost exploded. Eight or nine defeat reports flew before Ji La Sese and his generals. According to these military reports placed on the map, after a large army leaped out of the mountains, it was now deploying a five-mile-wide formation, sweeping across like a destructive force, heading straight for Yanzhou City along the direction of the signal fires!

Xueshizhuang was a checkpoint on the eastern approach to Yanzhou City. General Pu Da led two thousand men to guard it. At noon, news of his battle and defeat arrived almost simultaneously. This was certainly related to the speed and urgency of the messengers, but their simultaneous arrival proved the speed of the enemy's attack, which was astonishing.

Just as the horse reporting the battle had left, Pu Da led two thousand men to form a line on the Xueshizhuang side. According to the defeat report, the enemy quickly rushed out of the mountains and adopted a posture to bypass the checkpoint. In the moment when Pu Da adjusted his formation, the enemy directly attacked Xueshizhuang. After a short time, the entire military formation of Xueshizhuang was pierced, and the enemy continued to rush towards Yanzhou without stopping!

Ji La Sese's generals were in an uproar! Regardless of who the enemy was, this fast-paced strategy was aimed directly at the current situation in Yanzhou.

At the beginning of Xia's southward advance, the entire army was around 100,000 strong. After taking several cities in succession and the Xia army was defeated, more soldiers were dispatched. Ji La Sese was a general of the Gansu Military Division, commanding over 50,000 men. Now, more than 40,000 of them had been transferred to the Yanzhou area to strengthen the defense.

To guard the wheat fields, Ji La Sese had sent more than 20,000 Xia soldiers outside Yanzhou City. Another 20,000 elite troops were stationed inside the city. At this time, it was the wheat harvest, and much of the wheat was still being loaded onto carts and transported to Yanzhou. With the war breaking out at this moment, the enemy was rapidly approaching Yanzhou City, and over 20,000 Xia soldiers would be blocked on the road with their grain.

This grain was already within Xia's grasp. The enemy's intrusion into Yanzhou, whether it was the bandits or the Zhe family army, was a case of the barefoot not being afraid of shoes. How to respond was the top priority in this sudden situation.

At the same time, the main force of the Black Flag Army from Xiaocang River in the southwest direction of Yanzhou City was divided into three groups, sweeping across the area, with the distance shortened to within ten miles!

The three armies consisted of the First Regiment led by He Zhicheng and the Fourth Regiment led by Sun Ye on the left flank. This was the largest force, with approximately 4,500 men. The Third Regiment led by Li Yi with 1,800 men on the right flank, protecting Pang Liuan's Second Regiment and Liu Chengzong's Special Regiment, totaling over 3,500 men.

These over 9,000 men hadn't stopped since leaving the mountains. Of course, covering over twenty miles in half a day wasn't the fastest possible forced march, but considering the enemy's unpreparedness, the combination of killing and rushing, and crossing the mountains, was an astonishing speed. Along the way, seeing the signal fires rising, the Xia army stationed nearby appeared from time to time. These grain escort teams gathered in groups, occasionally charging towards the army with the black flag, only to be scattered by a few detachments, their bodies strewn across the mountains, and deserters scattered everywhere. If the high-ranking officers of the Black Flag Army hadn't issued orders not to engage in prolonged battles, the number of deaths in the past two or three hours would have likely doubled.

It wasn't entirely the fault of these Xia soldiers. They came here as conquerors. The Zhong family army had been defeated, the Wu Dynasty was weak, and even if there were some rebellions by mountain bandits and villagers, the army would sweep them away. In this situation, they naturally had high morale. These grain escort teams, composed of hundreds of men, would gather one or two thousand men if they linked up, and they wouldn't be afraid to harass a force of several thousand men.

The fact that the enemy dared to send out small groups to charge made them even more laughable. Only when the battle lines met, the front lines collapsed at an astonishing speed, and the enemy rushed into the crowd with steel knives like cutting melons and vegetables, could everyone feel the somewhat absurd terror.

The attacking army narrowed the distance with Yanzhou City, and repeated reports of defeat flew like snowflakes. Due to the changes in distance and time differences, the frequency of battle seemed more urgent than it actually was. On the road of the Black Flag Army's advance, waves of Xia soldiers came in an organized manner, teasing, probing, or resolutely blocking the way, only to scatter in all directions. The routed soldiers fled everywhere in the nearby mountains and fields.

On the road of advance, many civilians who had been forced to collect grain saw the army rushing and colliding on the front line. After the astonishing fight, the wounded soldiers would be left behind and entrusted to these people to take care of.

Besides that, no one greeted them.

Until approaching the area outside Yanzhou City, less than a quarter of the Black Flag Army had actually engaged in combat with the Xia army. In Qin Shaoqian's orders, the army generals chose to use several fixed battalions and companies as vanguard teams against Xia, and the rest of the troops would quickly march while maintaining their strength. Even if people in the ranks couldn't bear it and volunteered to fight, they were not allowed. As a result, by Wei hour (around 2 pm), most of these fighting troops in the army were covered in blood. In the direction they came from, thousands of Xia soldiers were fleeing in disarray.

From setting out from Shuishezhuang around 10 am to past 2 pm, this army crossed a distance of twenty-five miles in a straight line, and about forty miles on foot, crushed several checkpoints, and approached Yanzhou City. At the same time, the Xia army of 19,000 men, led by Ji La Sese, launched an attack, leaving 5,000 men to guard the city. They first encountered the 3,000-strong central army.

For the Xia people, this was actually the most correct choice. When in a position of advantage, no one would tolerate the enemy coming and going arbitrarily on their own territory. Although the Black Flag Army's advance speed was fast, Ji La Sese had also roughly determined the number of this army, each force being several thousand, totaling no more than ten thousand. Killing into a disorganized group would naturally be devastating, but why would they be afraid of it?

In any case, Yanzhou City would not tolerate being blocked by an army of less than ten thousand men at this time.

The sunlight, which had been slightly blazing at noon, had now disappeared behind the clouds again. Strange spheres floated in the sky.

On a cloudy day, the two seemingly equally somber teams confronted each other for a moment. The Third Regiment of the Black Flag Army, led by Li Yi, appeared on the hillside. They numbered 1,800 in total, and over 1,200 of them had not yet participated in the battle. These men lined up on the hillside, drew their swords, and breathed silently. Everyone's heart was racing, and blood roared in their veins.

In the Xia army formation of nearly 20,000 men, soldiers and generals also proudly watched the two attacking teams. Then, the fierce generals Cha Yan Gaibian and Xi Wang Ge Lai requested to fight. Ji La Sese watched for a moment and waved his hand in approval.

This was also a command that was almost frustratingly correct. This was not a battle against the Zhong family army in the Northwest. If 20,000 men were afraid to fight against five or six thousand men, there was no need for morale in his army.

On the opposite side, the one-eyed general on horseback was speaking. He pointed towards this side, indicating the location of the commander's flag in the Xia army. Two formations were separated from the Xia army and began to move forward. Several thousand men on this side were silently changing formations. Cavalry appeared, but a large part of the cavalry went to the rear – some of their horses carried boxes on their backs, using them as beasts of burden, and they didn't seem to intend to participate fully in the battle. On the hillside, the vanguard of over a thousand men raised their shields and began to advance. Their steps were steady and silent. Ahead of them were the four thousand Xia soldiers led by Xi Wang.

The pace got faster and faster.

Within bowshot –

"Charge—!"

The thunderous sound of footsteps suddenly erupted on the ground! With countless hysterical shouts, these two small teams rushed into the embrace of the Xia army like roaring sea tides! In this frontal charge, strategy and tactics had lost their meaning in the short term. Ji La Sese felt uneasy, but when the charging parties suddenly collided, he cursed, "Stupid."

After a cup of tea's time, two armies, each composed of four to five thousand Xia soldiers, like giant rocks, were forcibly breached and collapsed. Blood and corpses were pushed aside like a river, and the defeated soldiers tried to escape towards their main formation, some running around.

Ji La Sese saw the soldiers who were frantically slashing and hacking to break through the obstacles were shouting and raising their shields, but their pace under their feet did not stop at all. They were rushing towards their main formation –

With a deafening roar, on this day, the monstrous waves on the sea crashed against the huge rocks.

In Yanzhou City, the residents had long noticed the strangeness of this day. They saw the Xia soldiers gathering, imposing martial law, and then the army set out. Only an hour after the army set out, defeated soldiers flooded into the city like a tide, covered in blood, disheveled and panicked...

In the mountains.

In the desolate valleys mixed with earth and rocks, camps were pitched, and bonfires were lit.

As the sun set, Xu Qiang and several of his companions were eating. Around them were people with swords and sabers, in groups of three or five, either preparing dinner, talking to each other, or even sparring. Some people's matches attracted many onlookers, who either commented or showed off their skills.

During these few days, Xu Qiang had seen many martial arts heroes he had long admired. After meeting them, he sparred with them and gained a lot. This was a good atmosphere he had never seen in the greenwood, and many people were no longer stingy with the few unique skills they had, exchanging them with each other to increase their mutual strength. He had heard of the grand occasion when Grandmaster Zhou Tong led dozens of greenwood experts to assassinate Zong Wang. Before the assassination, Grandmaster Zhou would do the same every night, generously giving advice to his companions.

Now, Zhou Tong's heroic act of assassinating Nianhan had become an immortal legend in the greenwood. Xu Qiang believed that the righteous actions of his group would also be recorded in history and praised by future generations!

Looking around, among these people were young and outstanding greenwood talents, as well as famous greenwood heroes: "Broken Gate Saber" Li Yan, who was once invincible in the Jiangzhe area, "Knight Thief" He Longqian, "White Fang Spear" Yu Lie, Fan Zhong, the chief constable of the Ministry of Justice, known as "Golden Eye Thousand Feathers," and the former Liangshan heroes "Big Saber" Guan Sheng, "Thunderbolt Fire" Qin Ming, "Winged Tiger" Lei Heng, "Mixed River Dragon" Li Jun, "Well Wood Lynx" Hao Siwen... All of these heroes had once impressed him. And now, he was also one of them. He remembered this scene in his heart, and couldn't help but stand up, his chest heaving, full of heroic aspirations.

Tomorrow, all of them would go straight into Xiaocang River to eliminate the rebellious demons for this world! All of them had put life and death aside!

That's what he thought that evening.

The next day, at the foot of the mountain outside Xiaocang River, when a loud bang rang out, Xu Qiang's feet trembled violently, and everyone saw half of "White Fang Spear" Yu Lie's body flying up. The flying lower body passed over Xu Qiang's head, dyeing half of his body red with blood.

On June 18th of Jingping Year 2, even many years later, the legend of greenwood people's impact on Xiaocang River, the legend of the Heart Demon slaughtering the martial arts world, began in a tragic form.

At the same time, Li Pin led dozens of people, walking in the distant dwarf forest. At this moment, he had truly put life and death aside.

East of Yanzhou City, three giant balloons flew into the sky. The Black Flag Army formed a line, facing the ancient city walls. Ji La Sese stood on the city wall, his face pale after being injured, looking at this terrible army he had almost never seen before.

In Xiaocang River, Ning Yi and Zuo Duanyou sat in the courtyard on the hillside, chatting while waiting for the mountain breeze to bring all the messages. At this moment, the sun was shining brightly, and the sound of explosions came, like distant thunder in the sky.
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