Qianye set up three consecutive mock battles for a hundred, a thousand, and ten thousand men respectively. For this exercise, special bullets would be used, containing a dye that was difficult to wash off.
The exercise was naturally expensive, but this was nothing to the great supporter that was the Summit of Peaks. William promised to take on the entire cost with a wave of his hand.
The Summit of Peaks won the hundred-man battle; there was no suspense at all. A single charge brought them past the defensive line where they started a massacre.
But things were harder to distinguish in the thousand-man battle. Qianye’s combination of werewolf warriors and human sharpshooters managed to mow down a third of the enemy along the way.
Despite being protected by their wolverine comrades, the human warriors also displayed great tenacity in melee battles. The fight went on for an entire hour before Qianye’s mixed squad was defeated.
Finally, it was the ten-thousand-man battle. The battleground was a hilly region with complex terrain, an environment that was advantageous to the werewolves.
The mixed army contained quite a few aristocratic troops, under the command of Xu Jingxuan and Caroline overseeing the field. The Summit of Peaks also dispatched a glorious marquis.
Once the battle began, Xu Jingxuan rushed for an advantageous terrain and began building fortifications there. Only the framework had been completed when scouts from the Summit of Peaks found the mixed army’s traces.
Xu Jingxuan had to prepare for a sudden fight. Hurried but not confused, he pulled his troops into the newly-built defensive structure and made orderly arrangements.
When the werewolves from the Summit of Peaks began their charge, a hail of bullets dyed large swathes of them.
Many of the werewolves were startled to find themselves “fallen.” They glanced around in confusion only to see that their comrades were also dyed in red.
The great werewolf army “fell” in droves, and the sharp rise in casualties caused the marquis’ eyelids to twitch. He hadn’t imagined that there would be such a qualitative change when there were enough human sharpshooters. The barrage of bullets inflicted great damage over a large area.
Individual martial prowess was rendered negligible within the range of sufficiently dense firepower. Only experts who were more powerful than their rank could withstand the onslaught.
Born fearless warriors, the werewolves’ morale wasn’t shaken by the grave losses; it even excited their ferocity instead. Roaring loudly, they began to charge the defensive line, but the enemy did not collapse like before.
By the time the defensive line was within a hundred meters, the werewolves charging at the front began to feel puzzled. When did the humans become so fearless? They seemed perfectly calm even as the enemy was about to charge into their defensive line.
In the blink of an eye, row after row of tall figures appeared behind the lines. These werewolves were armed to the teeth, not at all inferior to the warriors from the Summit of Peaks in terms of strength and gear. The summit’s soldiers possessed better combat techniques, but this did nothing to help the massive gap in numbers.
Two-thirds of the charging soldiers had “fallen” by this point.
The elite werewolves of the Summit realized they had fallen into an impasse. They would surely lose if they were to keep charging, but they would also become easy targets should they stop. Many more turned to “corpses” during this moment of hesitation.
Seeing the miserable situation, some of the dissatisfied soldiers wanted to creep up and continue the charge. It was just that the red marks on their bodies were too eye-catching; even the overseeing marquis couldn’t put up with that.
“What the hell are you guys gazing for? Charge! Even if we die, we must die while charging!”
Afterward, the marquis added, “The dead ones better lie down! It’s embarrassing enough already.”
The soldiers lay back down with embarrassed expressions.
The leader’s roar woke up the army. The werewolves let out furious howls as they charged the defense and were duly surrounded in the melee fight.
The close-quarters fight was beyond fierce. The warriors of the Summit fought desperately for their dignity, but the werewolves from the mixed army held the absolute advantage. The mercenaries and aristocratic elites would launch pinpoint attacks whenever there was an opening, drawing blood with each strike.
The soldiers from the Summit of Peaks dwindled until, finally, the last sword-wielding soldier roared as his body was covered in dye.
Although the Summit had claimed victory in the hundred and thousand-man battles, the final results made it impossible for them to smile. Even the optimistic William looked somewhat unsightly.
Everyone’s impression of the werewolves was that they were primitive and lacked strategy. The top Evernight nobles, however, understood that the wolves would never have become part of the four major races if they were that backward.
The werewolf race as a whole was influenced by their inheritance and tradition, but in terms of top elites, the difference between the four races wasn’t evident at all. That was also why the outcome of today’s mock battle set William back even more.
The mixed-army had sacrificed just a third of their forces to wipe out the Summit of Peaks. Over half of the Summit’s forces had fallen during the charge despite the terrain being advantageous for werewolves.
With their werewolf comrades forming a wall of iron in front, the human mercenaries and private soldiers were able to fire calmly. They didn’t seem frantic at all even during the last phase of the fight, dealing the attacking werewolves a heavy blow.
The survivors of the charge burst into the enemy formation only to find opponents that were similar to them—tall, strong, and fully-armed werewolf elites. Naturally, the side with greater numbers would win such a fight.
The results of the mock battle might’ve been unexpected for the Summit of Peaks, but Qianye had long since expected it. He had seen too many examples of mixed-race formations in the neutral lands.
Every race possessed different characteristics, so a mixed formation would allow each race to cover for the other’s shortcomings. The most powerful mercenary bands in the neutral lands were made up of a mixed lineup.
The Summit of Peaks might not be as extreme as the ancestral faction, but there were quite a few among them who supported orthodox traditions.
They looked down on the other races and weren’t willing to work with them on the battlefield. Their impression was that the humans would crumble as long as they could charge into the defensive line. In the same scenario, the arachne would fight back hurriedly, while the demonkin and vampires were more difficult to predict. These two races were rather crafty, so they might just retreat first.
They had never witnessed humans who could fire without shaky hands even when they had charged into the defensive line.
In truth, this problem wasn’t limited to just the werewolves; the entire Evernight faction was more or less the same. One could easily tell from the battles that had broken out between the Empire and the council.
The only problem that had risen from the mock battle was that some of the warriors failed to hold back in the mock battle, resulting in the death of several dozen soldiers. The werewolves believed that dying in battle was an incomparable honor, so this little setback wasn’t enough to hurt relations.
William and the higher-ups of the Summit fell into contemplation after seeing the results.
The marquis in charge of the army came to Qianye, saying, “We thank you for pointing out our shortcomings and narrow=mindedness. We had never expected such a result. Going forward, I think we should seriously discuss how we can cooperate better.”
Qianye wouldn’t refuse this proposal, of course.
The two parties engaged in discussion for an entire day. In the end, it was decided that the Summit of Peaks would outfit fifty thousand of Qianye’s best warriors. At the same time, they would also build a training ground on Fort Continent at their expense.”
Qianye was quite experienced in mixed-race army formations, but he was surely inferior when it came to training the werewolves themselves. This kind of cooperation would allow both sides to train the best elite forces.
William offered himself as a guarantee that these trained troops would not be used against the Empire. This raised the self-evident issue of who these troops were going to fight.
The strange origin power seeping out from the new world also brought changes to the environment in Fort Continent. The origin power from both places contained degenerative properties, but it just so happened that they were polar opposites in attribute.
Fort Continent leaned toward the Evernight side, while the new world was closer to Daybreak. Mixing the two together served to improve the areas around the door, including the Jade Sea and Cerulean Wave City. At the very least, the werewolves from the Summit of Peaks found that they could cultivate without concern because of the purity of origin power.
The land around the Fort Continent door became a paradise for cultivation. The experts from other lands could now live here for prolonged periods without worry.
The alliance with the Summit of Peak forced the other powers with untoward intentions to give up entirely. They instead focused their attention on trade and found that their gains were just as good. There was no need for any fighting, either.
Just like that, war raged on between the Empire and Evernight in the continent’s central region, while Fort Continent was thriving amidst song and dance.
It was at this time that Eunuch Liu came to visit late at night, appearing outside Qianye’s window once again. The latter was reading when he saw the visitor and quickly invited him inside. “What brings you here?”
Eunuch Liu said with a smile, “Something good, of course.”
Qianye became spirited. The last time the Eunuch came to visit, he had given Qianye Dragonsgrave and helped him scare off Sousa. There weren’t a lot of things that the old man would consider “good.”
“Please explain.”
Eunuch Liu said, “It’s nothing too complicated. The military has thought it through and decided to resume trade with you. The war tax will be set at one-fourth. What do you think?”
This levy wasn’t small at all, but it could be considered reasonable seeing as they were exporting military supplies in times of war.
Qianye was in no rush to give his answer. “Is the war not going well?”
If things were going well, the Empire would have no reason to compromise. Qianye couldn’t just export holy tree sap to the Evernight faction, either. Now that the Empire was proactively seeking reconciliation, it was more likely that they’d been suffering great pressure in the new world.
The commanders there were Song Zining and Zhao Jundu, so Qianye wouldn’t want anything to happen to them.
Fortunately, Eunuch Liu replied, “The war is going quite well. The enemy faction has lost eight generals to Song Zining and Zhao Jundu. The casualty ratio has always been three-to-one.”
Qianye nodded. “We’re bleeding the dark races.”
“That’s the plan. It’s just that a ratio of three-to-one is still not enough. The dark races keep adding more troops, while the Empire is hard-pressed to keep up. The battle will end in defeat no matter who leads the army.”
“I’m sure there are people in court who don’t want to see the trade continue.”
“The matter has been decided. Zining sent threats of mutiny from the frontline, and the Emperor beheaded some people from that faction in his anger.”
Qianye was surprised and couldn’t help but feel worried. He would have never imagined someone like Song Zining would push things so far.
