Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
In this sort of combat, the searing sounds of the arrows were like the howls of death!
The students under Yan Liqiang’s lead were like a pack of wild wolves. They surrounded the Shatu people and encircled them. Arrows kept shooting towards the Shatu people and the guards of the merchant convoy. The students of the archery academy always kept a certain distance with the merchant convoy guards and strictly followed the war rules that Yan Liqiang had set for them. The instructions were to never get in close range to fight with the enemy unless there was no space to maneuver and to never use their sword if they could use their bow.
The difference in numbers wasn’t too great, but the difference in weapons and tactics soon decided the eventual outcome.
My attacks can reach you, but your attacks can’t reach me. The two separate groups of people were like pincers that attacked the Shatu guards in unison. Such a battle was destined to be a slaughter.
One must admit that the Shatu guards were very brave. During the battle, the guards kept their swords raised and roared furiously as they charged towards the archery academy students with their lives, wanting to hack the students down from their steeds. However, in such a battle, the bravery of an individual couldn’t draw the distance between the two parties closer. Both sides were riding rhinodrake steeds but the students were well prepared. Their steeds were also stronger than the Shatu people’s steeds. When the Shatu people charged over, the students maneuvered their steeds to always keep a 50 to 100-meter distance. This distance was like an uncrossable ravine of death for the Shatu people.
The last remaining Shatu person on the battlefield was very powerful. He smashed many waves of arrows with his scimitar. As he saw his companions falling one by one until he was the only one left, that Shatu man suddenly roared and pierced his scimitar into the rhinodrake steed’s bum. The painful steed was infuriated and whined before its hooves traversed with unprecedented speed towards Yan Liqiang and them. However, that Shatu person suddenly turned and hid underneath the belly of the steed, using it as a shield to keep charging…
That steed actually broke through to a 30-meter distance before it fell to the arrows.
The instant that the steed fell, the Shatu person roared in fury. A red light flashed from his body as he sprung up from the ground and sped over like a horse with his sword.
Yan Liqiang just looked calmly at this Shatu person and didn’t draw his bow.
“Woosh…”
A heavy sound breezed past Yan Liqiang. When that Shatu broke the ten-meter radius, more than a hundred shining flying axes tore through the air like a dense net towards that man.
He waved his sword and hacked down more than ten axes, but more flying axes cut into his thigh and slashed across his shoulder. When that Shatu person paused for a brief moment, there was the sound of bowstrings being released and more than 100 arrows pierced that Shatu’s body, turning him into an echidna.
Even the most powerful master would eventually die in this situation unless his body couldn’t be penetrated by weapons.
That Shatu’s eyes opened in fury before he fell to the ground heavily and bounced up the dust from the ground…
Finally, not a single Shatu was left standing — only ownerless rhinodrake steeds wandered around.
During the battle, the students were just fighting habitually in accordance with the training they received in the archery academy. But now when they saw that not a single enemy stood before them, they thought to themselves, ‘Where was the enemy?’
‘There was no enemy, we won…’
The battle from start to finish only lasted a few minutes. The Shatu people were completely annihilated while only a few were injured on Yan Liqiang’s side. The death ratio was 500 to 0. Those few archers in the Shatu guards were locked on by the students whose archery cultivation had reached the first two levels in the first round of firing. They could only shoot one arrow each and yet the Shatu were completely annihilated. The remaining Shatu people never even reached the students.
Other than Yan Liqiang, everyone was dazed, including Shi Changfeng. They didn’t dare to believe such an outcome. They didn’t dare to believe they were this strong. This was a living miracle!
“Ten minutes to clean up the battlefield…” Yan Liqiang’s voice woke everyone up from the shock. Then, the students started to hustle and cleaned up the battlefield.
Other people might not understand ten minutes, but the archery academy students were used to this time unit because of Yan Liqiang. There were twelve earthly branches in a day, each earthly branch was two hours. Every hour had sixty minutes. This one minute of time was equivalent to most students’ hearts beating fifty to sixty times…
Yan Liqiang called over Xiong Gungun, the captain of his guards, and pointed at the location of the merchant convoy. “I shot someone off his horse over there. He’s lost mobility but he’s probably not dead. Bring him over!”
“Yes!” The tall, robust Xiong Gungun answered and brought two people to ride over into the distance.
Shi Changfeng rode his steed over to Yan Liqiang and stared closely at him. After hesitating for two seconds, he asked in disbelief, “You… long knew this would be the outcome?”
During the battle, Shi Changfeng found that Yan Liqiang only led the team. Yan Liqiang only shot a few arrows at the start of the battle. During the chase, Yan Liqiang didn’t touch his bow at all and he was very calm about the outcome of the battle.
Yan Liqiang smiled to Shi Changfeng, “There’s nothing to be bewildered of. It would be strange if this wasn’t the outcome. All the training they did in the archery academy, all the hardship, every detail, everything was in preparation for today…” Speaking of this, Yan Liqiang pointed at the organized students who were rapidly cleaning up the battlefield and said with an adamant tone, “Look. Soon they will be the ones to dominate this era. They will crush all enemies ahead of them into dust…”
In Yan Liqiang’s previous life, the secret to the Mongolian Iron Calvary sweeping across the entire world was the appearance of mounted archers. The concentrated use of mounted archers was a revolutionary change in the military. It was a huge leap in military ideals and tactics. A few hundred years after the Mongolian empire perished, a german called Heinz Guderian picked up the essence of the Mongolian military idea. He grouped the previously scattered tanks and armored vehicles. Then he created the blitzkrieg and swept across Europe. He just changed mounted archers into tanks and armored vehicles.
Regardless of whether it was cold steel weapons or firearms, all physical instruments of war focused on two aspects in the end. One was the mobility and stealth brought by speed. The second was the damage output of ranged attacks. Whoever could move faster and shoot further could dominate the battlefield and become king. Simply put, if I hit you but you can’t hit me on the battlefield, the final victor would definitely be me. Those jets, tanks, cannons, submarines, and carrier ships might seem sophisticated, but they ultimately just throw bombs from a long distance.
Speed and ranged offensive capability were the direction tools of war developed in history.
In addition, mounted archers were the combination of speed and ranged offensive capability in this world. Those things were world’s tanks and armored vehicles.
The production cost of bows and cavalry limited people’s understanding of war in this world. It limited the large scale use of mounted archers. But these three problems weren’t problems to Yan LIqiang. The traditional method of bow production was costly and timely, yet Yan Liqiang knew how to streamline that process as well as the art of producing the spring. It greatly lowered the cost of large scale production of bows.
The Gulang Plains would produce an abundance of wool in the future and at the same time, it was also the largest natural farm of Great Han Empire’s western region.
Every student in the archery academy was like a seed and speck of fire. If spread across Pingxi Prefecture, Gan Province, or even the entire northwestern region, it would ignite the plains.
Yan Liqiang didn’t need to speak of his great vision.
Today was the first formal battle and it was only a test of these young archers. Yet, the demons had already invaded the territory.
In a short while, Xiong Gungun pushed someone on the steed and charged in front of Yan Liqiang. He threw the person below Yan Liqiang’s feet.
“Lord, this guy really didn’t die!”
Yan Liqiang’s arrow blew apart the Shatu person’s feet, but he was only injured.
With his face covered in blood, the Shatu said, “Who are you guys? The Shatu Seven Tribes won’t let you go!”
