150: Chapter 150 Tears of the Times

Beside him were three thousand soldiers of the Tiger Guard Battalion, long since poised for action!

Each of them was clad in three-layered profound iron heavy armor, newly crafted by the Hundred Crafts Institute, and clutched in their hands were over-ten-foot-long horse-slaying Modao blades and impregnable tower shields.

They were like silent steel statues, their entire bodies exuding a suffocating, terrifying Killing Intent!

This was the ace unit specifically formed by Gao Feng to deal with the Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry—the Heavy Armored Modao Battalion!

On the other side of the canyon, thousands of elite Panshi Army soldiers, armed with long spears and powerful crossbows, were also lying in ambush.

The entrance and exit of the canyon had long been tightly blocked by massive rolling stones and thick logs.

A net of justice aimed at this lone, deep-penetrating Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry had already been quietly unfurled!

"Pass on my order!"

Du Wei watched the Heavenly Wolf Army, which had completely entered the ambush zone, and slowly raised the command flag in his hand.

"Beat the drums!"

"Boom—!!!"

A dull yet resounding war drum sound exploded like a thunderclap on flat ground!

It instantly shattered the deathly silence of the canyon!

"Not good! It's an ambush!"

Batu, with nickname Blood Axe's face changed drastically, and he suddenly looked up towards the canyon walls on both sides!

He saw countless dark figures appearing on the mountain walls, as if they had emerged from underground!

Following this was a sky-covering rain of arrows and rolling stones and logs falling like hail!

"Rumble!"

"Ah—!!!"

Screams and the mournful cries of warhorses instantly echoed throughout the entire canyon!

Under this sudden attack, the Heavenly Wolf Army was instantly thrown into chaos, with men and horses toppling over and their formation in total disarray!

"Steady! Everyone, stay steady!"

Batu, with nickname Blood Axe's eyes were splitting with rage; he frantically swung the giant axe in his hand, splitting a boulder hurtling towards him in half, roaring at the top of his lungs.

"Archers! Counterattack! Give them Hell and counterattack!"

However, how could their arrows possibly reach the Panshi Army positions that held the high ground?

Their counterattack appeared so pale and powerless.

Just as they were being dazed by this attack descending from the heavens.

"Kill—!!!"

A battle cry even more earth-shattering came from the front of the canyon!

They saw that the canyon passage, which had originally been blocked by rocks, had somehow been cleared to create a narrow path.

Three thousand steel behemoths clad in heavy armor and wielding Modao blades, arranged in a neat and menacing phalanx, were steadily and unwaveringly crushing towards them!

Their footsteps were uniform, and every step caused the entire canyon to tremble!

The forest of gleaming Modao blades reflected a chilling, menacing cold light in the dim canyon!

"This... what are these monsters?!"

Batu, with nickname Blood Axe looked at the terrifying phalanx before him, which resembled a moving steel city wall, and for the first time, an emotion called "fear" appeared in his eyes.

He had traversed the grasslands for decades and had never seen such terrifying heavy infantry!

"Charge! Charge through for me!"

However, the instinct for survival still overcame fear.

Batu, with nickname Blood Axe knew that their only path to survival was to break through this damned infantry phalanx before them!

He roared, took the lead, and led his subordinates—who had also fallen into a frenzy—in a desperate charge towards that steel wall!

Hooves thundered!

The earth trembled!

Thousands of Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry converged into an unstoppable black torrent, slamming fiercely into the seemingly thin Modao phalanx!

This was the natural counter of cavalry against infantry!

This was the ultimate collision of speed and power!

In the imagination of all the Heavenly Wolf cavalry, the infantry phalanx before them should have been torn apart instantly, as if it were made of paper!

However, reality dealt them the cruelest slap in the face!

"Clang—!!!"

When the hundreds of Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry at the very front slammed fiercely into the first line of defense composed of sturdy tower shields, the sound produced was not the shattering of flesh and blood, but a teeth-grinding sound of metal clashing against metal!

The terrifying impact force, sufficient to smash through city walls, was actually forcibly blocked by that seemingly thin shield wall!

Although the soldiers of the Modao Battalion in the first row were knocked back, spitting blood, their comrades behind them immediately stepped up to fill the gaps!

The entire phalanx was like an impregnable rock, unmoving!

"How is this possible?!"

Batu, with nickname Blood Axe's eyes were about to pop out of their sockets!

And at this very moment of his shock, a cold and ruthless voice rang out from within the ranks of the Panshi Army.

"Modao! Strike!"

Following Du Wei's order, the forest of gleaming blades, which had long been raised high, brought with it the terrifying power to tear through everything as it crashed down!

"Squelch!"

"Squelch!"

There was no technique involved, only the purest and most extreme power!

The sharp Modao blades, like cutting through tofu, easily cleaved the Heavenly Wolf cavalry at the front, along with their horses, directly into two halves!

Scalding blood, mixed with shattered internal organs, rained down across the entire battlefield!

That tragic and bloody scene made all the surviving Heavenly Wolf cavalry feel a trembling from the depths of their Soul!

Their pride and their faith were ruthlessly crushed to pieces before this terrifying forest of blades, which acted like a meat grinder!

"Devils! They are devils!"

A young Heavenly Wolf cavalryman watched his comrade beside him cleaved in two by a single blade, and his spirit instantly collapsed!

He let out a shrill scream, turned his horse's head, and wanted to flee!

However, where could he escape to?

The entire canyon had already become a closed cage of death!

"Kill!"

Du Wei took the lead, and every swing of the giant axe in his hand brought with it a storm of blood!

He was like a god of slaughter from Hell, and no one could stop him wherever he passed!

The morale of the Panshi Army soldiers soared!

They took firm steps, advancing forward step by step!

Modao blades rose!

Modao blades fell!

Every rise and fall took away dozens of living lives!

The Heavenly Wolf Army had completely collapsed!

They were trapped in this narrow canyon, with no way forward and no path for retreat!

They could only watch helplessly as that moving steel city wall ground them into meat paste bit by bit!

Batu, with nickname Blood Axe also fell into despair.

He frantically swung the giant axe in his hand, wanting to carve out a bloody path.

But he was soon surrounded by several Advanced experts of the Panshi Army.

In the end, he was exhausted and captured.

...

An hour later, the battle ended.

The entire Three-Forked Crossing had become a veritable river of flesh and blood.

Of the five thousand elite Heavenly Wolf Army soldiers, except for Batu, with nickname Blood Axe and a few other Advanced generals who were captured alive, the rest were completely annihilated!

Not a single one survived!

A great victory at the Three-Forked Crossing!

This news, as if it had grown wings, spread rapidly throughout the entire Panshi Land!

The entire army was invigorated!

The hearts of the people were boiling with excitement!

This was the first true great victory achieved by the Daqian army since the Heavenly Wolf entered the pass!

And it was a satisfying, complete annihilation battle!

This greatly boosted the morale of all the soldiers and civilians shrouded in the shadow of war!

They seemed to see the hope of defeating this pack of prairie wolves!

However, just when everyone was immersed in the joy of victory, Gao Feng was alone in his study, looking at the casualty report that had just been compiled, lost in deep thought.

In the Battle of the Three-Forked Crossing, the Panshi Army set an ambush with three times the enemy's strength, and ultimately annihilated the five thousand Heavenly Wolf elites at the cost of over 1,200 casualties.

If this casualty ratio were placed on any other Daqian army, it would be enough to be called a glorious miracle worthy of being recorded in history!

But for Gao Feng, this number was still too heavy.

More than 1,200 elite Panshi Army soldiers!

Each one of them was a precious gem he had spent countless efforts and resources to cultivate!

Just like that, they remained forever in that cold canyon.

He couldn't afford it.

He simply couldn't afford a second annihilation battle of this scale!

The Heavenly Wolf Army had one hundred thousand cavalry!

Even if he could achieve a casualty ratio of one to five every time, it would mean he would need to sacrifice the lives of twenty thousand Panshi Army soldiers to completely eliminate the enemy!

And how many troops did he have in total?

Moreover, this was a result achieved while he possessed the advantages of timing, location, and unity of the people.

If he were to truly clash head-on on the plains, the casualties would only be even more disastrous!

"No... this way of fighting won't do..."

Gao Feng slowly shook his head, a glimmer of contemplation flashing in his eyes.

"I must find a more efficient way of fighting with a lower cost!"

He cast his gaze back towards the huge sand table.

His brain was racing, running through all the tactics and battle examples he knew from his past life.

From the Roman legion phalanxes to the Mongol cavalry tactics, from Napoleon's artillery theory to modern special operations.

Countless inspirations collided and intertwined in his mind.

Finally, his gaze fixed on the small model on the sand table representing the Hundred Crafts Institute.

"I understand now... since human strength is limited, then I will use the power of technology to make up for it!"

"Since the casualties in cold weapon duels are too high, then I will let this era enter the era of hot weapons ahead of schedule!"

He wanted to use weapons that surpassed this era to carry out a dimensionality-reduction strike against the Heavenly Wolf Iron Cavalry!

He wanted to let those prairie barbarians, who were still immersed in the beautiful dream of cavalry invincibility, personally taste what it meant to be the tears of an era!

"Someone, come here!"

He slammed the table and shouted loudly towards the door.

"Immediately summon Gongshu Ban and Gong Qianxue to see me! I have important matters to discuss!"

Gao Feng's voice echoed in the spacious study, carrying a hint of unquestionable urgency and excitement.

Soon, two figures, one old and one young, hurried into the study.

The old one was Gongshu Ban, the head of the Hundred Crafts Institute; he was still wearing his artisan's clothes stained with oil and iron filings, his hair messy, but his eyes flashed with the fanatical gleam that only a tech fanatic would possess.

The young one was Gong Qianxue, the commander of the Divine Mechanism Battalion; she wore a tight-fitting black outfit that perfectly outlined her exquisite figure, her long black hair tied high, making her look heroic, and her cold, stunningly beautiful face carried a hint of calmness and focus from years of working with bows and crossbows.

"My Lord, you summoned us?" Gongshu Ban asked impatiently as soon as he entered; he seemed to have guessed Gao Feng's intention, his face showing an uncontrollable excitement.

"Mr. Gongshu, Qianxue, you are here." Gao Feng gestured for them to sit down and said straightforwardly, "Although we won the Battle of the Three-Forked Crossing, the victory was too tragic."

"I need a new type of weapon, a weapon that can allow us to cause maximum damage with minimal cost! A weapon that can completely change the nature of this war!"

Upon hearing this, Gongshu Ban and Gong Qianxue exchanged a glance, both seeing a hint of knowing amusement in each other's eyes.

My Lord, I have brought you the things you requested.

Gongshu Ban smiled mysteriously, took a heavy black wooden box from the hands of his attendant, and placed it carefully on the ground.

Then, under the curious and expectant gaze of Gao Feng, he slowly opened the lid of the box.

Inside the box lay two strangely shaped iron lumps.

One was a flat, disc-shaped object, pitch black, with an inconspicuous protrusion on top.

The other was a round, watermelon-sized black iron ball, its surface covered with deep, grid-like grooves.

My Lord, please look.

Like a child showing off a beloved toy to a parent, Gongshu Ban pointed triumphantly at the disc-shaped object and introduced it:

This is the latest result I have painstakingly developed based on the 'pressure-trigger mechanism' concept you provided earlier!

It is filled with our newly formulated high-energy black powder, which is more than ten times more powerful than ordinary gunpowder! Once a weight of over a hundred jin steps on this pressure trigger...

A glimmer of madness flashed in his eyes.

Within a radius of ten zhang, both men and horses will be shattered!

I have named it—

Ground-Stepping Mine!

Ground-Stepping Mine!

Gao Feng's heart skipped a beat!

Although he had long proposed the concept of something similar to a landmine to Gongshu Ban, he never expected that Gongshu Ban would actually make it a reality in such a short time!

This was simply an epoch-making invention!

And what about this one? Gao Feng asked, forcing down the excitement in his heart and pointing at the watermelon-sized black iron ball.

Hehe, this one is even more formidable! Gongshu Ban laughed like a cat that had stolen a fish. This object is called an Explosive Shell!

Its casing is also cast from the hardest black iron, and inside, it is not only filled with high-energy black powder but also mixed with hundreds of steel beads and iron shards quenched in deadly poison!

As long as you light this special fuse on it and throw it out...

After a thunderous explosion, the scattered shrapnel is enough to cover a radius of thirty zhang! Any enemy hit by the shrapnel will either die or be maimed! Even if they are lucky enough to survive, the deadly poison quenched on the shrapnel is enough to make them die slowly in painful wails!

This is simply a mobile, small-scale killing array!

After hearing Gongshu Ban's introduction, the entire study fell into a dead silence.

Both Gao Feng and Gong Qianxue, who was usually unflappable even if Mount Tai collapsed before her, were completely shocked by these two diabolical weapons of mass destruction!

The form of war was about to be completely changed!

Gao Feng said excitedly: Good! Excellent!

Mr. Gongshu! You are truly the greatest contributor to Panshi Land!

He patted Gongshu Ban on the shoulder excitedly and praised him loudly.

With these two divine objects! Why worry about not destroying the Heavenly Wolf Army!

Immediately! At once!

He turned around abruptly and shouted to the outside of the door.

Order all craftsmen in the Hundred Crafts Institute to work day and night to produce Ground-Stepping Mine and Explosive Shell at full capacity! I want to see thousands of these weapons of mass destruction in the shortest possible time!

Order Du Wei to immediately form a special engineer battalion! Have Mr. Gongshu personally instruct them on how to lay minefields!

I want to make every step the Heavenly Wolf Army takes from now on tread on the edge of death!

I want to turn this scorched earth into a massive graveyard that truly buries them all!

...

Three days later, a force of twenty thousand cavalry led personally by the Left Worthy King of the Heavenly Wolf Army encountered a terrifying scene they would never forget on a seemingly flat wilderness.

Boom!!!

A sudden, earth-shattering roar exploded at the very front of the marching column!

A dazzling ball of fire soared into the sky!

The Heavenly Wolf Centurion charging at the very front, along with his magnificent warhorse, did not even have time to scream before they were torn into a sky full of flesh and blood fragments in that terrifying explosion!

The powerful shockwave blew dozens of Heavenly Wolf cavalrymen around him into the air, causing men and horses to tumble and leaving a trail of death and injury!

What's going on?!

What happened?!

Is the Heavenly God angry?!

The entire Heavenly Wolf Army column instantly fell into massive chaos and panic.

They looked blankly at the huge crater blasted in front of them and the severed limbs scattered all over the ground, their faces filled with unbelievable horror.

They had no idea where the attack came from!

Steady! Everyone, stay steady!

The Left Worthy King forced down the horror in his heart and roared hoarsely.

However, before his voice had even faded.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!!!

More intense explosions rang out one after another from all directions of the column!

It was as if countless man-eating demons from Hell were lurking beneath this land!

Each explosion claimed several, or even dozens, of living lives!

Warhorses neighed in terror, bolting in all directions.

Soldiers wailed in despair, fleeing in panic.

The entire battlefield had completely turned into a living Hell!

This invisible, intangible, yet omnipresent threat of death brought a psychological deterrence far more terrifying than swords and blades!

Retreat! Retreat quickly! Leave this damned place!

The Left Worthy King finally collapsed!

He let out a terrified scream, turned his horse around, and fled frantically along the path they had come!

However, the path they had come from was also already covered with dense Ground-Stepping Mines.

All that awaited them was an even denser barrage of deadly explosions!

On this day, the Heavenly Wolf Army tasted the Ground-Stepping Mine for the first time.

They paid a heavy price of nearly three thousand men and horses before they managed to flee, in a disheveled state, from the minefield they called the Land of Demons.

From then on, the marching speed of the Heavenly Wolf Army was forced to slow down significantly.

For every step forward, they had to send out a large number of slaves and prisoners of war to use their own flesh and blood to test for potentially existing death traps.

Every step was taken with fear and trepidation, as if walking on thin ice.

The mobility they were once so proud of was gone in the face of these omnipresent mines!

While the external war was raging, the internal purge in Suzhou Province was also continuing silently.

Xu Changqing's Sky Net was like a Sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of all the scheming Youzhou gentry.

Utilizing the massive chaos brought by the war and the intelligence network that had long been riddled with holes, they ferreted out the gentry and powerful clans who were still harboring rebellious intentions and secretly colluding with the Heavenly Wolf Army, one by one.

Gao Feng showed no mercy to these people.

He couldn't even be bothered to send Du Wei's law enforcement team to conduct so-called forced conscription; instead, he directly leaked the evidence of their collusion with the enemy inadvertently through the channels of the Sky Net to those Heavenly Wolf Army scouts who had already been driven into a killing frenzy.

Borrowing a knife to kill!

Using the enemy's knife to clear out the pus in his own internal sores!

This move was nothing if not vicious!

Soon, one after another, the thousand-year-old clans that had once held sway in Youzhou were reduced to the dust of history under the bloody slaughter of the Heavenly Wolf Army.

Before they died, they could not figure out why those brutal Heavenly Wolf cavalrymen were able to find their secret manors hidden deep in the mountains and forests with such precision.

And after these gentry were cleared out, Gao Feng would immediately send troops to clean up the battlefield in the name of eliminating harm for the people and confiscating rebel assets.

Legally channeling their vast wealth and massive resources, accumulated over hundreds of years, into his own treasury.

For a time, all of Youzhou was on edge, with everyone fearing for their own safety.

All the old forces that still harbored illusions were completely terrified by Gao Feng's bloody and efficient iron-fisted methods.

They no longer dared to have any petty thoughts and could only obediently dedicate everything they had to this endless war.

Gao Feng's rule became increasingly stable in this baptism of blood and fire.

Although his territory was constantly shrinking under the strategy of scorched earth resistance, his actual strength was expanding rapidly at an almost terrifying speed!

The massive amount of supplies requested from the imperial court were transported continuously from the south.

The enormous family fortunes confiscated from the gentry who had been cleared out filled every one of his secret warehouses.

And the hundreds of thousands of refugees and scattered routed soldiers fleeing from Suzhou Province and the western part of Youzhou provided him with an endless supply of high-quality soldiers!

He incorporated all these young, able-bodied men who were filled with deep-seated hatred for the Heavenly Wolf Army and organized them into a new army.

The size of his army did not decrease; instead, it increased!

His logistical supplies were also becoming increasingly abundant!

He was like a massive war vortex, transforming all the resources drawn into it into his own ever-growing power!

This war, which was a catastrophe for others, had become an unprecedented feast of development for him!

Time passed quietly in this tug-of-war of blood and fire, and in the blink of an eye, it was late autumn.

The first cold wind of the northern territory, mixed with icy snow pellets, whistled in from a distant, unknown region.

It swept across this vast land, already stained dark red by blood and scorched earth, and brought with it the breath of death.

For the Heavenly Wolf Army, whose supply lines were stretched too thin and who could not obtain any local supplies, this would be a fatal test.

Their warhorses began to become emaciated due to a lack of sufficient forage.

Their soldiers, lacking cold-weather clothing and warm shelter, began to fall ill in droves during the increasingly cold nights.

And those omnipresent Ground-Stepping Mines and elusive guerrilla squads were like a group of tireless vampires, constantly consuming their vital strength and their already dwindling morale.

Panic, like the most terrible plague, spread wildly throughout the entire Heavenly Wolf camp.