Dragon Canon

The three thousand soldiers were all in the muscle-tempering stage, each one tall and burly. They marched in neat formation and moved as swiftly as the wind. It was because their Dao Foundation stage squad leaders—dozens in total—were encircling the formation and reinforcing the troops with speed-enhancing Dao spells.

With the aid of these spells, the army advanced at a remarkable pace of 50 li per hour. The march followed a strict regimen as well: they would march for two hours, rest for one ke, then march for another two hours.

The target of this raid lay 800 li away from the realm of Qingming. They would not arrive until the following day, so they would need to camp along the way. They would also be penetrating the fortified defense lines Yuan Qingyan had painstakingly set up.

Sitting atop his horse and watching the marching troops from afar, Wei Yuan found himself missing Fang Hetong quite a bit.

Bao Yun’s Seven Wonders Exquisite Treasure Tree also boasted a secret technique that enabled an army to travel at incredible speed. Unfortunately, Wei Yuan did not have anyone like that under his command, nor was he wealthy enough to provide every soldier with a warhorse. At the moment, only Dao Foundation stage cultivators owned warhorses.

The army kept advancing. Early morning the next day, a military fort came into view in the distance.

There was a flat expanse about 100 li wide between two mountains. The military fort was built right in the center of this expanse, forming a chokepoint. Any large force wishing to pass through would have to do so right under its watchful eye.

Bugles sounded from within the stronghold the moment the army came into view, causing it to burst into activity. Moments later, a staff general accompanied by several commandants climbed onto the ramparts. The staff general sucked in a sharp breath when he saw the army marching in their direction in perfect unison.

Such military discipline could not possibly belong to a rabble. At first, the staff general feared that the Shamans were attacking and turned as pale as a sheet. Fortunately, his fears were proven wrong when the army drew close enough to reveal that they were all humans. He breathed a sigh of relief.

As long as it’s not the Shamans, anything’s manageable! He thought to himself. He was just beginning to relax when suddenly, a thought struck him: They come from the west, and they’re not the Shamans. It could only be them, right?

The color that had barely crept back to his face fled instantly.

Meanwhile, Wei Yuan was sitting atop his horse and gazing at the stronghold tens of li away from his army. From this distance, he could make out every figure on the ramparts exactly. The defense general of this fort was called Liu Yang. He was a local general dispatched by Western Jin to guard this land.

His unit neither belonged to Yue Jinshan’s northern frontier army, nor did it count as part of Yuan Qingyuan’s core forces. That was why Yuan Qingyan had purposely stationed him all the way out here.

Four of the six strongholds stretching from north to sound were heavily garrisoned—all traps set by Yue Jinshan. This military fort was one of the two that wasn’t a trap.

Truthfully, the location of this stronghold was of great strategic importance, but Yue Jinshan had deliberately chosen not to set a trap here. He was a master who fully grasped the essence of the military strategy: “Appear weak when you are strong, and strong when you are weak.”

Alas, Wei Yuan was a master strategist himself; one who fully mastered the essence of the military strategy: “Supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy’s resistance without fighting[1].” He had set Yue Jinshan’s backyard ablaze and persuaded his nephew into betraying the entire defensive plan, thereby allowing Wei Yuan to bypass the strongest forces and strike directly at the heart of his enemy.

On the ramparts, a squad leader asked, “General Liu, the enemy has entered the range of the bed crossbow. Should we attack?”

Staff General Liu’s face darkened. “They’re clearly still two li away. How could we possibly hit them?”

The squad leader paused as if he hadn’t expected such an answer. He then replied, “If we raise the front of the bed crossbow by just two chi and three inches, we can extend the range by exactly two li. If precision isn’t a concern, stacking five big lime bricks underneath the bed crossbow would also do the trick.”

It was clear that the squad leader was well-versed in military matters, capable of quoting reasonably accurate figures on the fly. However, Staff General Liu’s face only grew even uglier.

It was at this moment a commandant behind his back spoke up. “Isn’t the bed crossbow broken? I just inspected it this morning; it’s inoperable now.”

“What do you mean it’s broken? I maintained it myself!” The squad leader retorted, his face flushing with indignation.

Staff General Liu suddenly leaned in close to the squad leader, sniffing sharply. He then said coldly, “How dare you drink alcohol in the army and climb the ramparts while drunk! Guards, take him away and lock him up for three days!”

Caught completely off guard, the squad leader cried out in protest, “I drank that wine the day before yesterday during my time off!”

Staff General Liu had no interest in hearing his explanation. He gestured with his eyes, and the commandants present personally bound and gagged the guy. It was only then that they finally got rid of the squad leader.

Seemingly noticing their activity—or rather, inactivity—the army of several thousand marched on without slowing down in the slightest. They hadn’t even dispatched a detachment to scout out the stronghold. They just kept coming.

One commandant could not hold back any longer and cursed, “They’re looking down on us too much! If I lead two hundred cavalry in a charge and attack them from the rear right now, I bet I could wipe them all out! Wanna give it a go, General Liu?”

Staff General Liu glared at him and barked, “What do you know? This is a ploy to lure out the enemy; they must have a follow-up move! Hmph, he may be able to deceive others, but he can’t fool this general!”

The commandants secretly rolled their eyes. They knew full well what kind of man Staff General Liu was. Bluntly speaking, he was anything but a great general. His only notable skill was his lightning-fast retreats, which had allowed him to escape death from desperate situations on multiple occasions.

But of course, his commandants were all shrewd men. None of them called him out on it.

Seeing that all the troops had passed through the stronghold safely, Wei Yuan raised his hand and made a little wave. Nearly a hundred masked riders emerged in a single file and stopped concealing their auras completely. Their warhorses trotted steadily as they crossed the valley in front of the military fort.

The military officers on the walls all gasped in shock. The masked riders were all Dao Foundation-stage cultivators! Their stronghold, from top to bottom, only had a total of 12 Dao Foundation-stage cultivators—not even half of half[2] the number on the other side!

Immediately, one commandant began counting the masked riders. “Fifty, sixty... eighty-seven. It’s the Fifty Bandits of Heaven Fighting alright!”

Another commandant asked in confusion, “Aren’t they the Fifty Bandits? That’s almost a hundred!”

Staff General Liu had turned ashen with fear at this point. In the distance, the rider wearing a jade-colored mask suddenly turned his head and cast him a look. Immediately, the staff general felt as if he had been doused with a bucket of ice water, freezing in place!

Fortunately, the only thing the rider did was cast him a glance. He rode off after that, flanked by his entourage.

Silence descended on the ramparts for a few moments. Then, one commandant cursed all of a sudden, “I knew that surname Yuan was scheming something! Making us guard this place—he’s practically sending us to our deaths!”

Another, more seasoned commandant remarked, “Your foresight is truly remarkable, General Liu.”

Only then did the rest of the commandants come to their senses and offer their compliments as well. This time, their flattery was wholly sincere.

Unfortunately, Staff General Liiu’s hands and feet were still icy cold. He wasn’t in the mood to enjoy their bootlicking, so he said, “This general is feeling somewhat weak. I shall return to my tent to rest for a while. Wake me when they return. Remember, under no circumstances are any of you allowed to act rashly! Whoever dares to shoot the first arrow will be beheaded!”

After giving these instructions, he finally descended from the ramparts to rest.

Evening had just fallen when the army returned.

This time, they were pulling hundreds of large carts fully loaded with grains and supplies. They were also escorting several hundred dejected-looking royal soldiers. Once again, they were marching past the stronghold in a massive procession, except this time, they were even more brazen—they were barely two li away from the military fort.

Upon receiving the news, Staff General Liu hurriedly left his tent and scaled the ramparts. When he saw the sheer amount of supplies the army was escorting, he gasped in shock. They could only have plundered the large granaries behind them!

Just then, a soldier on the rampart drew his bow and aimed at a masked rider below. Staff General Liu acted with lightning speed, delivering a flying kick that sent the soldier tumbling off the wall. He would lie there on the ground, spitting blood and unable to rise.

Cold sweat broke out on Staff General Liu’s brow. When he looked down again, he caught sight of the jade-faced rider once more.

The jade-faced rider seemed to recall something and casually summoned a large cart to his side. He then thrust his spear into one of the many sacks piled on top of it, causing white rice to spill out from the tear. After that, he halted his horse, held his spear horizontally, and just gazed up at the ramparts, unmoving.

Cold sweat poured down Staff General Liu’s face in waves. At this critical moment, the skill he had honed over many years—the skill of discerning a superior’s intention—sparked to life, and a flash of inspiration struck him. He immediately shouted, “Bring out all the grain from the granaries, load them onto the carts, and send them outside! Quickly, quickly! Get it done now, all of you! Do not leave a single grain behind!”

A commandant looked at him in astonishment, asking, “But... what if the higher-ups look into this?”

Staff General Liu gave him a furious look. “How the hell do you not know something so basic when you’ve been in the army for over a decade? Burn the granaries tonight!”

1. If you couldn’t tell, both are from The Art of War by Sun Tzu. ☜

2. Again, not a mistake. ☜