Chapter 79: Recruitment
Normally, an army should approach the nearest stronghold upon returning to the human realm. In this case, Staff General Liao’s stronghold was only tens of li from their current position, and they could make that distance in almost no time at all. Despite this, Lee Zhi did not change his order. The squad was still retreating toward Quyang as per Wei Yuan’s suggestion.
The battle continued for a while longer when suddenly, huge dust clouds rose from the direction of Quyang County, accompanied by a faint tremor in the ground. The shaking was remarkably rhythmic, clearly indicating an elite force advancing in perfect step. Otherwise, the vibrations could not have reached them from such a great distance.
The arrival of the reinforcements greatly lifted Lee Zhi and his guard’s morale. They began shooting their mystic artifact arrows like they were free and forced the Northern Liao cavalrymen to pull back a little.
Meanwhile, a forest of spears was beginning to peek through the distant dust clouds. The reinforcements coming to their rescue had arranged themselves into a square formation and were striding toward them in an orderly fashion. Literally, every step they took were perfectly uniform. It was like a literal forest was coming to their rescue; a literal mountain was about to bear down on their enemy!
The dust clouds were obscuring the exact size of the reinforcements, but looking at the length of the square formation, there had to be at least a thousand men. When Great Tang fought against the Northern Liao, the elite foot soldiers used long spears to keep the enemy cavalry at bay, and strong bows or crossbows to shoot them down. There were cultivators sniping the enemy from long range as well. This was why they did not fear engaging the Northern Liao cavalry in an open field. This particular group of reinforcements was especially large, orderly, and brimming with morale as well. Forget two centuries of Liao cavalrymen, even seven centuries would have to walk around them.
They were in the human realm, and powerful reinforcements had come to their quarry’s rescue. Unwilling to continue the battle, the two centurions raised their hands and brought their troops to a halt. After putting some distance between the humans and themselves, they turned around and withdrew back to the Liao realm.
When the group finally met up with the human reinforcements, Lee Zhi was surprised to find that it wasn’t an elite border army who had come to their rescue. No, their reinforcements were just a bunch of peasants in rags.
The peasants had arranged themselves into a hollow square formation, and only those on the front row were carrying long spears. Everyone else in the back was carrying sharpened wooden poles. Leading them was Fang Hetong, clad in a half-length scholar’s robe. He was holding up a long sword and swinging it rhythmically. Every time he swung his sword, the farmers would advance a step.
The dust clouds had covered up the formation. Looking from a distance and judging from their appearance alone, all anyone could see was an unmatched army of elites. The Liao barbarians could never have imagined that the powerful reinforcements they feared were really just a bunch of peasants.