Chapter 157: The Art of Command on the Battlefield

“This rain is coming at the worst time. The fire hadn’t even started yet.”

“That’s right. Say, San’er, did you get anything good this time over there?”

“Not a thing. Everyone was a poor beggar.”

“These damn Lords around here are so poor. The poorest doesn’t even have ten Silver Coins. Why are we running back and forth like this?”

“Shh, keep it down. Don’t let the two Chiefs in front hear us.”

Under the heavy rain, nearly a thousand scattered Water Bandits rushed down the mountain path toward Daye Marsh. The storm had completely ruined their plan to raid the nearby Lords.

However, these lowly bandits didn’t mind at all. Right now, they just wanted to get back to the base camp and sleep well. After all, working hard every day running around doing jobs with no profit at all, anyone would be unhappy.

At the front of this group of soldiers, two middle-aged gang leaders rode side by side on horses, occasionally urging the Water Bandits behind them to hurry up.

“Damn it, why do we have such bad luck the moment we step out?”

The leader on the left cursed, then gradually turned his gaze toward the distance. He originally wanted to see how far the shore was, but the rain fell so heavily and the wind was against him. It was hard to even open his eyes; he could barely see a hundred paces at most.

“When will days like this ever end? Move it, everyone! Don’t you want to go back to sleep?”

The two men shouted loudly to lead the troops forward, but they failed to notice that a Battle Formation was quietly set up less than two li ahead.

“Archers, prepare!”

In the storm, Li Ji did not rush to give the final attack command.

He watched the faint outlines of heads appearing in the distance, approaching from a mile away.

One hundred zhang.

Eighty zhang.

Fifty zhang.

Thirty zhang.

When Li Ji saw the leading Water Bandits close to within a hundred paces, he suddenly shouted a command in a booming voice:

“Fire!”

“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh~”

The sound of arrows slicing through the air spread out at this moment.

Although the rain caused some obstruction, it was fortunately a tailwind, and the wind was very strong.

For the hundred flying arrows speeding past, a distance of a hundred paces was nothing more than two or three breaths.

The silver light at the arrowheads only appeared when the arrows flew directly over the Water Bandits.

At this moment, shouting “Ambush!” was already too late.

“Archers, launch the second volley of volleys!”

“Fire!”

Li Ji didn’t bother to see exactly how many casualties the first volley had caused. He cleanly and efficiently issued another order.

After the second volley was fired, he continued to command:

“Heavy Halberd Soldiers, attack!”

“Roar!”

The fierce soldiers from Hebei, clad in heavy armor and wielding great halberds, charged forward with roars from their mouths.

They too needed to prove their worth!

They were not defeated soldiers; they were still the undefeated elite soldiers of Hebei from the past.

“Ambush!”

“It’s the Imperial Army’s ambush!”

“They’re coming! Quick, form a Defense formation!”

The sudden enemy attack made the two gang leaders look completely stunned. In the previous moment, they were urging their men to hurry, and in the next moment, their battlehorses were shot into porcupines.

If they hadn’t been fast enough to dodge, the two would already be lying dead on the ground.

“Where did the Imperial Army come from? How did they know who we are?”

“Didn’t the Young Master say the Imperial Army wouldn’t come out of the city to fight us?”

“Why believe the Young Master now? We are done for. Look ahead, those are soldiers in heavy armor.”

At this moment, the two gang leaders’ faces turned pale, but before the surrounding Water Bandits could form a Battle Formation, the Heavy Halberd Soldiers from Daming Village, who had charged at the front, had already reached the Water Bandits.

“Cut!”

The Heavy Halberd Soldiers had been trained by Zhang He. Every elite soldier under his command was a brave and blooded man from Yan and Zhao. When they swung their long halberds, every attack brought a spray of blood.

The rough weapons in the Water Bandits’ hands were fine for attacking Players in Territorial lands with little Defense, but trying to cut through the Heavy Halberd Soldiers was too unlikely to succeed.

Even Mo Xiaobai, watching from afar, could see that the Water Bandits’ counterattacks could not penetrate the armor at all.

“Spearman, surround and strangle from the left and right!”

“Rattan Armor Soldiers in the forest, cut them off from the rear!”

Two consecutive orders were issued. The first to move was the Spearman who had not attacked until now. Over a hundred Village Soldiers from the countryside rushed forward with their spears. The sight of the Heavy Halberd Soldiers harvesting the Water Bandits had already made their blood boil.

When the Spearman joined the battlefield from the two flanks, the one hundred Rattan Armor Soldiers, who had been calmly staying in the small forest, also received their orders. Soldiers jumped out one by one, forcing back the Water Bandits who wanted to retreat, and in doing so, collected dozens of heads.

In an instant, the hundreds of Water Bandits were like dumplings thrown into a boiling pot. Besides flapping up and down, they could not create any great waves.

“The Imperial Army is too powerful. We can’t fight them. We must retreat.”

“But what can we do? There are Imperial Army all around us.”

“Break out to the east! Follow me and charge. Once we get out, we’ll have a way to live!”

One gang leader shouted loudly, immediately leading nearly two hundred men around him to charge the Spearman formation on their left.

Compared to the Heavy Halberd Soldiers in the front and the Rattan Armor Soldiers behind on the right, the few dozen Spearman on the left were indeed the weakest link.

But these two Water Bandit leaders had clearly underestimated Li Ji. Seeing the main strength of the Water Bandits gathering toward the right flank, Li Ji immediately waved his hand: “Please, My Lord, lead the Archers to hold this position, while I take the rest of the Rattan Armor Soldiers to destroy the Water Bandits.”

“In this battle, we must annihilate the enemy bandits completely!”

When Li Ji led the last two hundred Rattan Armor Soldiers into the battlefield, the Water Bandits whose morale had just slightly risen were immediately hit with a severe blow.

Li Ji had not even joined the fight himself, yet his Rattan Armor Soldiers had already pushed back the Water Bandits who were about to breach the right flank defense line.

At this moment, the three War Generals on the battlefield, who had not yet exerted their full strength, began to truly display their prowess as War Generals.

A blade, a halberd, and a sword became talismans of death in the eyes of the Water Bandits at this moment.

One move!

No Water Bandit could survive even a single move!

“The command style of Maogong is truly unique and artistic,” Mo Xiaobai said, stroking his chin as he watched the three generals surround and kill the Water Bandits from afar.

Although he had fifteen years of gaming experience from a previous life, battlefield command had always been something Mo Xiaobai had not touched.

Seeing Li Ji command now, the attack rhythm, link by link, was like an artistic performance on the battlefield.

What made Mo Xiaobai even more relieved was that even though the opponent was just a group of unknown Water Bandits, Li Ji remained careless, instead using every single soldier in the most suitable position.

A Famous General from the Martial Temple should indeed have such an attitude.

“As for these Water Bandits, hehe, meeting us is just bad luck for you.”

“Anyway, you are not good people yourself. Who knows which NPC family faction’s claws you are. Let’s chop off the claws that stick out first. Maybe there will be an unexpected surprise for Daming Village.”

Watching the killing shouts in the distance grow calmer and calmer, Mo Xiaobai waved his arm, signaling the Archers to follow him forward.

When Mo Xiaobai rode his horse to the front of the battle circle, the two Water Bandit leaders were just being escorted by Li Guang to his front. They “plop”ed down and knelt on the ground.

One of the mountain bandits looked up, saw Mo Xiaobai, and immediately said urgently: “We are not Water Bandits. I am a Retainer of the Wei Family in Qing Province. The Young Master sent us to Daye Marsh. My Lord, tell me what you want to know, I will say anything. I just beg for my life.”