Hyper-Dimensional Player

Chapter 789 - 64: The Myth Returns! Celestial Soldiers and Generals (7)

South Sea County.

In the territory likely to be modern-day Foshan, Duncan's elite forces personally led an encounter with the main forces of South Han, wherein Liu Chang appointed the eunuch Gong Chengshu as the Wanhua Palace Envoy and the Grand Cavalry General to personally command a hundred thousand troops and soldiers to suppress the uprising Rebel Army.

Originally, Duncan had slowed his offensive due to the spring plowing, while Gong Chengshu, wary of the skillful masters within the Rebel Army, dared not make rash moves.

Duncan was currently in a snowballing phase, in just over a month, his forces had increased to over ten or twenty thousand. As long as the rear gradually stabilized over this period, Duncan would have truly established a foothold and a solid base in this world.

Thus, the Rebel Army gradually adopted a strategy of transitioning from attack to defense, leveraging the West River to set up lines and planned to launch the next wave of offensive after spring plowing.

Seeing the Rebel Army's offensive slow down, Gong Chengshu believed their momentum had been hampered, and suddenly he became spirited.

He mobilized armies from all directions, attempting to encircle the vanguard forces of the Red Army from three directions. Additionally, counting the elite Forbidden Army of the Prince's Residence, there were a full hundred thousand people; this was almost the full national military power. South Han's registered population was just over two million, and mobilizing this many troops was nearly equivalent to conscripting men from every household.

With the large numbers and superior force, Gong Chengshu, holding a hundred thousand strong, was instantly emboldened. Upon seeing the Rebel Army transition from attack to defense, he immediately became eager to suppress this rebellion before the New Year.

Coincidently, two incidents that occurred days prior encouraged him to take proactive measures.

The first event involved the female sorcerer Fan Huzi. After the Red Army's uprising, Fan Huzi mysteriously disappeared for a period; when she returned, she was accompanied by several Taoist masters, proficient in thunder techniques, even personally demonstrating her ability to summon lightning before Liu Chang—an impressive spectacle.

Three days ago, Fan Huzi sent several carts of beans to the army, intending to demonstrate Divine Power, transforming beans into soldiers; these soldiers, fierce and fearless, could directly defeat the Demon Soldiers of the Red Army and break their demon techniques.

During this time, in the entire South Han court, those so-called Demon Soldiers of the Red Army were renowned. It was said they felt no pain, were bold and fearless, and some were immune to blades and guns, often breaking through thousands of their troops with just hundreds of men.

Fan Huzi claimed these were all dark spells of the Ming Sect, and that breaking their demon technique would eradicate these Demon Soldiers.

However, the beans delivered by Fan Huzi a few days prior were already moldy and sprouting due to the rain.

The second event was related to a major victory.

Since the Red Army uprising began, South Han's forces rarely achieved victories; even when dispatching demon sect experts to gather intelligence, there was no news at all, as if people vanished into thin air.

But just two days ago, South Han's troops secured a major victory, suffering almost no casualties, easily crushing thousands of enemy soldiers. The army achieving this overwhelming victory was exactly South Han's armored Elephant Army, acquired at high costs from Jiaozhi (now Vietnam), Dali, and other countries, featuring Asian elephants.

The Elephant Army of South Han was the most distinctive troop in the entire Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms and had even shocked the Northern Song army that attacked South Han in original history.

These elephants numbered in the dozens, each equipped with 10-20 fully armed soldiers, clad in iron armor, with long spears at their tusks, and arrow shields set upon their backs, equipped with elite archers. The moment they launched an attack, it was a landslide-style charge tactic, combining psychological intimidation with physical impact, leaving even the top elite troops instantly fleeing.

This major victory was pure overwhelming.

Against rabble forces, the destructive power of the Elephant Army was equally as devastating as in the game "Total War," using armored war elephants to charge at peasant militia groups, causing them to wave white flags and surrender before contact combat even began.

"With this group of war elephants, we are certain to crush these rebels who are mere a mob!"

Gong Chengshu was overjoyed upon hearing the battle report, and with masters aiding him, he instantly felt full of confidence.

Meanwhile.

Duncan also received reports from the front lines. The 1,200 militia he transferred from the other side of the West River were directly shattered by the Elephant Army of South Han.

Gong Chengshu's battle report claimed effortlessly crushing thousands, while Duncan's report noted the defeat of 1,200, with fewer than 600 returning; the rest were either trampled by elephants or captured by South Han's army.

In this world, although the upper limits of power were high, it was concentrated at the top layers; ordinary martial artists had a mere martial arts novel level of skill.

These 1,200 militiamen came from south of Guizhou, led by the renown Thunder Hand Cheng Tai in a joint uprising response. Initially, they intended to head to the front lines for support, not expecting to directly encounter South Han's top elite Elephant Army. Cheng Tai himself was a famed master in the martial world and palm struck the war elephant as if like thunder, forcefully making one kneel with its forelimbs. He used his skill to leap onto the elephant's back, killing over ten men. Then he gathered all his True Qi to strike the elephant's head with Thunder Palm, True Qi penetrated the iron armor, directly killing one armored war elephant.

Unfortunately, in such a group battle, he exhausted his True Qi in just a quarter hour.

Moreover, faced with a larger enemy force, he was wounded by several arrows, forced to retreat in panic, and this battle report reached Gong Chengshu's hands, stating that South Han's troops were unharmed, and the enemy instantly collapsed upon contact.