As ammunition slowly beca exhausted, the sound of gunfire from the mountain grew sparse. This gave Yipa soldiers the confidence to attack; they braced their shields and began a reckless charge toward the mountain top.
Without ammunition supplies, the well-equipped Dongsheng army on the mountain struggled to replicate the previous day’s success. The casualties of the attacking Yipa soldiers quickly dropped, and they soon reached Dongsheng’s first defensive line.
However, these Yipa soldiers, eager for battle, seed to overlook a detail: although the Dongsheng army relied on firearms, it didn’t an they only had guns at their disposal.
This was a General’s guard, with most mbers being officers, and many were cultivators, with an armor rate exceeding one hundred percent. They were fully equipped with bows, crossbows, swords, and knives, aning that even in close combat with the Yipa army, they would not be at a disadvantage.
The charging Yipa soldiers quickly tasted defeat, as the Dongsheng troops deployed at the first defensive line remained unperturbed in the face of the fierce charge.
So gripped bayonetted guns tightly, others drew their waist knives, while cultivators began channeling their inner magic, ready to unleash it in battle.
When both sides clashed, the Yipa army’s casualties imdiately multiplied. They were horrified to find that their opponents’ weapons and equipnt were far superior, leaving the Yipa soldiers at a complete disadvantage against the Dongsheng army.
Moreover, because they were backed into a corner, the fighting spirit of the Dongsheng officers was exceptionally high. Before the Yipa soldiers even reached them, they launched a counter-charge.
The two forces collided like lightning, and the roars of the Dongsheng army instantly drowned out the Yipa soldiers’ shouts and the subsequent screams.
The first defensive line of the Dongsheng army miraculously held against the charge of the Yipa army, which was several tis their size. The Yipa troops, with lower armor rates compared to the Dongsheng forces, were utterly shattered, halting their montum.
As ntioned earlier, this high-ground terrain, while presenting supply challenges and other issues, made it exceedingly difficult for attackers to launch assaults.
The best way to deal with such enemies trapped on the mountain was to encircle rather than attack, slowly starving the mountain’s occupants alive.
However, it was evident that the Yipa army didn’t have this luxury, as they had limited ti for their offensive.
Within at most two days, the Dongsheng aerial fleet would inevitably return, searching for the lost General. When the Dongsheng reinforcents arrived, it wouldn’t be a question of whether they could conquer the mountain, but rather if they themselves could survive.
Thus, they launched wave upon wave of attacks without regard to casualties, aiming to eliminate the small group of enemies atop the mountain before the Dongsheng army could return.
So, although Jiuyun Shuang seed to be in a dangerous situation on the mountain, the more anxious ones were actually the Yipa army below.
The battle for the first defensive line lasted for almost two hours, with both sides repeatedly clashing. The Yipa army was repelled ti and again, but kept surging back like the tide. After suffering over one hundred and fifty casualties, they finally broke through the first line consisting of only about a dozen Dongsheng soldiers, advancing to the second defensive line.
Jiuyun Shuang knew he was racing against ti, and seeing the first line breached made him tense up imdiately.
At this rate of attack, the entire mountain would be conquered by tonight at the latest. Without reinforcents, how could he possibly resist such a staggering number of Yipa troops?
The resistance at the second defensive line was even fiercer, with more numbers involved. These Dongsheng officers knew all too well that behind them was their supre commander; if this line were breached, the General’s life would be in danger.
The officers at the second line roared as they launched an attack, montarily pushing the battle line back to the first, only to be forced back by the overwhelming enemy soon after.
The tug-of-war at the second defensive line was especially brutal, with nurous bayonets bent, and waist knives chipped and battered.
The Yipa army launched several charges, only to be repelled repeatedly. After brief adjustnts, they would attack once more. Both sides fought with such intensity that they lost sight of everything else, seeing only each other.
These Dongsheng officers were covered in blood, and during brief monts of respite, they barely managed to consu food to stave off hunger, quenching their thirst by drinking the enemy’s blood, creating a highly visual impact.
Jiuyun Shuang continuously reinforced the second defensive line, but his resources were already stretched thin. Once the rear forces were completely exhausted, he had no choice but to join the fray himself, fighting alongside his comrades.
One of the Dongsheng army’s reforms was to prevent commanding officers from engaging in combat whenever possible. The belief was that officers served best by commanding armies, not by charging into battle.
Therefore, even though Jiuyun Shuang was a cultivator, he had to adhere to the reform rules, avoiding combat whenever possible.
But now, with no soldiers to command, he had no choice but to enter the fight himself.
As the cultivators increasingly joined the fray, Yipa army’s casualties grew heavier. By the ti Jiuyun Shuang entered the battle, Yipa’s total casualties had exceeded two hundred and fifty.
The mountaintop was nearly piled with corpses and injured soldiers; subsequent Yipa troops had to drag their comrades’ bodies down the mountain before mounting further attacks. So even resorted to pushing bodies off cliffs for convenience.
The battle raged for nearly five hours, exhausting both sides, but the Yipa army still had a considerable reserve force ready to join the fray at any ti.
During these five hours, Yipa’s casualties climbed to more than four hundred, while the Dongsheng army was in no better shape; Jiuyun Shuang had fewer than ten followers left. The outco seed foreseeable.
The Yipa army, now stable, no longer launched reckless assaults, instead employing archers to provide cover. During their offensive lulls, they would shoot more arrows to harass the Dongsheng troops.
Faced with incoming arrows, the Dongsheng officers had to pick up abandoned enemy shields to block these deadly projectiles.
Cultivators could indeed use magic to block attacks, but their magic employed a reserving thod, with finite reserves, preventing sustained magic output.
Fortunately, the Yipa army had few cultivators, unable to match the quality, relying on sheer numbers instead.
In reality, the Yipa people, like the Kyushu people, could practice cultivation. However, unlike Kyushu’s abundance of cultivators, Yipa’s were scarce.
The most direct reason for this was Yipa’s inability to steadily acquire the large resources needed for cultivation, making it impossible for them to catch up with Kyushu’s cultivation system.
Cultivation resources mainly consist of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, with magic crystals being the most crucial.
The Kyushu cultivation system ant that to advance their levels, they required consuming vast amounts of Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, constantly breaking through and solidifying their levels.
Cultivators could indeed absorb the world’s ambient magic, but they lacked the ability to widely channel atmospheric magic - a capability of the Western Continent’s magic system. Thus, they relied on the most convenient ans: directly absorbing mineral magic power from magic crystals.
Therefore, swift access to Heavenly Materials and Earthly Treasures, especially magic crystals, determined the level of cultivators in each region.
The Yipa people couldn’t acquire rich resources like the Kyushu people, resulting in very few Yipa cultivators.
Yet as a nomadic grassland people, they were still Kyushu Empire’s most challenging foes. On the vast grasslands, even a cultivator might not defeat the highly mobile Yipa cavalry.
The battle entered a fever pitch, with Jiuyun Shuang’s officers continuously falling. At that mont, he finally sensed the despair of being cornered.
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