Chapter 570: Chapter 570. A Futile Campaign
"What happened to Princess Huang Er’s force?" Amon asked.
"The ploy to utilize the secret passage into Cinder Ash Town had backfired. The enemies somehow knew of this secret passage," Jiang Tong answered.
"They were ambushed," Liu Xun added. "They suffered massive casualties to the infiltration team, which consisted of soldiers with high cultivation. Luckily, Princess Huang Er decided not to join this infiltration team, so she was fine. Anyway, this happened a few days ago. Since then, Huang Er was forced to return to standard siege procedure with little result."
"To make matters worse, Farghous had sent reinforcement," Jiang Tong informed. "The army inside Cinder Ash Town joined this reinforcement and clashed with Huang Er’s army yesterday. Their numbers were equally matched. The clash yesterday ended in a stalemate. It doesn’t seem the war in the East will end anytime soon. So, you can understand the urgency for the king to send me there to aid the battle."
"It is surprising that the king didn’t give you the order to move East as well," Liu Xun told Amon.
"Our enemies are not only Farghous," Amon said. "If we move all our forces to the East, it will just leave an opening for Khode to strike back."
"I know. That’s why the king let you proceed with this crazy campaign of invading Khode," Jiang Tong said. "The way I see it, Khode will be busy dealing with you on their turf rather than returning here to cause trouble to us. Even so, I need to leave a small force in this city now that we don’t have a border army to guard the border to Khode. You can understand now why I can’t spare you half of my current army?"
"I am not happy with the arrangement, but I will take what I can get," Amon said.
"Nobody gives a damn whether you are happy or not. This is for the good of the kingdom," Liu Xun rebuked.
Amon didn’t respond to the rebuke. He turned to Jiang Tong and asked, "General, when you chase Khode’s retreating army. Did you get a sense of their number?"
"Well, I was not exactly counting, but I would say their number was not less than six thousand but not more than ten thousand," Jiang Tong answered.
"Mm..."
"What are your thoughts?" Jiang Tong asked after seeing Amon’s pondering expression.
"I caught a few enemy soldiers when we retook this city," Amon said. "I’ve interrogated them these past few days. I’ve learned that they could wipe out our border army without anyone alerting us because they created a giant field barrier that trapped everyone inside this barrier and prevented any transfer of messages via message talismans."
"A giant barrier...?" Jiang Tong mused. He remembered the field barrier Xuang Feng had erected during their battle, except that barrier had prevented him and his followers from entering. What Amon described was a barrier preventing the people inside from going out. Then again, if Khode could create the first type of barrier, it should not come as a surprise for them to also have the latter type.
Amon continued, "However, the soldiers I interrogated were just lowly foot soldiers. They didn’t truly have a sense of how big their army was. What I could get from them was that they wiped out our border army in only a few hours. To achieve that feat, the army assaulting the border army would have to be many times its size. The Khode army we repelled from this city didn’t show enough force to pull that feat."
"Are you telling us there are still other Khode forces hiding inside Echos?" Liu Xun asked.
"I don’t think it is likely," Amon said. "I don’t see the reason they continued to waste their time lingering in the shadows, especially when they could have helped their comrades when we arrived here to retake this city. No, if they are still inside Echos, they should have made their moves. I think it is more likely that the excess force returned to Khode after wiping out our border army and Bright Rock City’s defenders. They left only a portion of their force to secure this city while working on producing the human puppet army to face us."
"Seems like such a wasted move for an invasion," Liu Xun remarked.
"From what we have seen so far, they never intended to do a full-scale invasion deep into our kingdom. My suspicion is they only try to maintain control of a foothold near the border for as long as possible."
"What is the point for them to do that?" Jiang Tong asked.
Amon shook his head. "The soldiers I questioned didn’t provide any enlightenment on this question. They were not privy to sensitive information. Once I invade Khode, I believe I can learn more."
"Just so you know, don’t expect reinforcement. We can’t throw more troops into a futile campaign," Jiang Tong said.
Amon smiled. "You don’t have much faith in me, do you, General?"
"I don’t," Jiang Tong answered matter-of-factly. "You will receive your seven thousand soldiers by tomorrow morning. You can immediately leave for your futile campaign, for all I care. I myself will depart for Cinder Ash Town in the afternoon."
"Very well. I guess this ends our cooperation for now," Amon said.
"For now," Jiang Tong agreed.
Amon returned to his camp. As he walked past the ruined city, noticing the grieving citizens, he made a mental note to send a message to Gao Lan to have someone from the Demon Gang open a branch here. Developing or rebuilding settlements was always a prime target for underworld organizations. They should seize this opportunity before other forces take the initiative.
*
The next morning, the troops promised by Jiang Tong were delivered as promised. Amon did a quick inspection of the delivered troops. After reviewing the soldiers, he found a good portion of Mystic Stage soldiers and a few Spirit Stage ones. Some were wounded from the previous battle, but not critically.
Amon was glad that at least Jiang Tong didn’t put in the effort to give him the worst of his batch, or maybe he didn’t have the time to manage that with everything going so fast. He counted his blessings and told his regiment commanders to integrate these additional troops into the First Demon Army.
The First Demon Army now had around twenty-seven thousand soldiers. Amon also had fifteen thousand operational battle puppets inside his black space ring. It was a considerable force, but many would say it was awfully lacking for a force with the intention of invading a country. Nevertheless, this didn’t deter Amon.
It took them half a day to reorganize. In the end, they departed at the same time as Jiang Tong’s army in the afternoon.
The two generals exchanged quite glances before they issued the order for their respective armies to march. One army headed to the East, while the other headed West.
*
The First Demon Legion arrived at the border in two days. They were, however, at a different part of the border from where the Khode Army invaded and fled.
Amon was standing on a small hill with Zhong Yuan and Xin Wuming by his side. Behind them, the troops were preparing to camp.
The two were looking at a vast expanse of desert. While the desert seemed empty, it was only an illusion. Before them was the first defense line laid out by Khode experts to protect their border. The desert was the product of a massive, enchanted formation. Those who ventured blindly into it would be lost in a never-ending desert. One would need to be a knowledgeable formation sage or extremely lucky to escape the illusion.
"Are you sure you can bypass this illusion?" Amon asked.
"I crossed this place before, didn’t I?" Zhong Yuan returned. "Now that I mentioned it, can’t I just help you remotely? I’m not keen on returning there."
"I need an expert and a local. You will stay with me," Amon replied.
"Tch!" Zhong Yuan uttered. He took out a small compass-like device.
"Do they also plant Faxien Radars here?" Amon asked. He had seen Zhong Yuan use the same device to locate Faxien radars when they prepared to breach Bright Rock City.
"The outer shell is the same, but its inner tool is different," Zhong Yuan said about the device in his hand.
Amon took a closer look at the device. Inside was something that looked like a liquid. Floating inside this liquid was a long needle.
Zhong Yuan explained, "This needle will show the direction we should head to in that desert."
"So, we don’t need to break the formation?" Amon asked.
"It will take too long to do that," Zhong Yuan replied. "Unless you have many expert-level formation sages I can command, this is the fastest way. The troops must ensure they keep close to each other, though. If one is separate from the group, they will easily lose sight of each other."
Amon nodded. He turned to Xin Wuming and instructed, "Have everyone rest for the remainder of the day, and relay to everyone what Zhong Yuan said. We will depart early tomorrow morning. We will have everyone tie a rope to each other and to the carts. We will move as one."