Chapter 1030.1: Dying in the North - Part 1
The line of passes centered around Pine Pavilion Pass was, to the entire Northern Frontier, much like the eldest son who had shouldered the family's burdens from an early age. Above him were aging parents, behind him younger siblings not yet grown. Though he gave the most for the family, he still had to bear the greatest grievances.
This time, the demon army's southward advance was undoubtedly the quietest one in decades. The scouts sent out by the two foremost passes discovered that thirty thousand demon cavalry were lying in ambush around Cloud Gorge. After receiving the report, the commanders of the two passes deliberated only briefly before reaching the same conclusion - these thirty thousand cavalry were the demons' reserve force. Later, the demons would certainly feign defeat and lure them into Cloud Gorge to wipe them out in one stroke.
Holding this belief, the two commanders quickly came up with another idea. If they struck first and directly surrounded and annihilated those thirty thousand cavalry, then the demons' supposed plan of luring them out of the passes would become a complete joke.
Thus, in their eyes, those thirty thousand cavalry were nothing less than an enormous opportunity. As long as they seized it, with that military merit in hand, climbing the ranks of the frontier army would become effortless.
It could be said that the two commanders had been blinded by the promise of military merit. So after the frontier troops of the two passes marched out, they did indeed annihilate the Green Ape Clan's thirty thousand cavalry at Cloud Gorge. But when the army turned back, the Great Liang banner atop the passes had already fallen to the ground.
The demon cavalry had broken through the passes and completely wiped out the defending forces.
After occupying those two passes, the demon army barely paused before continuing south. It was only when the demon army was less than eighty miles from the third pass, Scenic Mountain Pass, that the news barely reached the pass.
The commander of Scenic Mountain Pass, Song Ming, came from a family of distinguished frontier officers. Although none of his ancestors had ever become a Great General, one of them had once risen to the position of deputy cavalry commander. Song Ming held the second-highest official rank among the current generation of the Song Family. He also had a cousin serving as a lieutenant general in the General's Office.
Now over forty years old, Song Ming was not particularly tall, but he possessed unusually long arms. Blessed with such natural advantages, his spear art ranked among the top in the Northern Frontier. However, because his martial talent was merely ordinary, he had only reached the Bitter Sea Realm even now, making it impossible for him to become a peerless general capable of matching someone like Li Changling.