At dawn, the twinkling lights of fire had gradually gone out, leaving only wisps of smoke. As the east gradually brightened, the stars in the sky gradually disappeared. The Starry Lake, which had been noisy all night, finally calmed down at this time. Only sporadic screams and the collision of weapons could be heard occasionally.
At this season, the dawn of Gulang Grassland has unknowingly brought with it an autumn chill, and in this chill, at Xingxing Lake, no matter from which direction the wind blows, it carries with it an indissoluble smell of blood.
That night, at Star Lake, many people stayed awake, and many people slept forever.
Surrounded by a group of guards, Yan Liqiang walked on the grass in the core area of Xingxing Lake with a stern face. It didn't rain last night, so there was no water on the grass. There was only a little dew on the grass leaves, but where the boots stepped on, there would be the kind of "puff", "puff", "puff" sounds that would only be made if you stepped into a wet puddle. The soles of the boots were bright red. It was not water, but blood. The blood soaked the land and made the grass muddy. On a grass slope not far away, there were hundreds of Shatu corpses. The sky was getting brighter. Some Shatu people who had managed to hide by chance last night were being searched out one by one, arrested, forced to kneel on the ground, and their heads chopped off...
"Please spare my life..."
"Please spare my life..."
"I didn't do anything. It was them who killed the Han people. I didn't kill anyone..."
A Shatu man in his forties or fifties was searched out from the bushes. He screamed in fear and began to beg for mercy in fluent Chinese. But before he could say a few words, the sergeant who searched out him stabbed a spear directly into his mouth. The bloody tip of the spear popped out from the back of his head. At the moment the spear was pulled out, another sergeant next to him chopped off his head with a knife. To these soldiers, only dead Shatu people were good Shatu people. In the blink of an eye, large amounts of donated blood flowed onto the grass again.
Yan Liqiang watched all this coldly, his heart calm. The people he brought were not executioners, but strong warriors. All this was because the people of the Seven Shatu Tribes deserved to die. The story of the Seven Shatu Tribes began and ended at Xingxing Lake. This was reincarnation and also the way of heaven.
"There's someone in the lake..." A group of Ganzhou Army soldiers who were searching the bushes shouted, and then many people gathered around them. "Damn it, there's hollow grass growing in the center of the lake. Do you really think I'm blind..." A flag officer cursed and called to the two Ganzhou Army soldiers who were carrying bows on their backs, "Aim at the position below the hollow grass and shoot him to death..."
The arrow flew over the water surface of dozens of meters and hit the middle of the lake. The first two arrows were still a little floating, but when the third arrow hit the water, a large pool of blood had already appeared in the water. In the blink of an eye, a Shatu man with an arrow in his back floated up from the water.
"Pass the order down, pay attention to search the water surface. There must be Shatu people hiding in the water during the chaos last night. Let everyone pay attention..." Yan Liqiang said directly to a messenger beside him. The messenger responded and immediately ran away to pass the order down.
Li Hongtu and Ji Xiaoyao were not with Yan Liqiang at this time. Last night, they heard that several masters from the Seventh Division of Shatu had broken through and ran to the west, so Li Hongtu and Ji Xiaoyao went to chase them. Before leaving, Li Hongtu made a bet with Ji Xiaoyao to see who could chop off more heads and bring them back.
Seeing his two masters taking action, and that there were a large number of ranger masters outside Xingxing Lake, Yan Liqiang no longer worried about anything. He knew that with the abilities of his two masters, the masters of the Seven Shatu Tribes who could really escape from their hands might not have been born yet.
Less than half a minute after the messenger left, Shi Dafeng, covered in blood, ran up to Yan Liqiang and said, "Boss, we found a place over there where many Shatu people are desperately defending it. Our people have surrounded that place..."
"Hasn't it been taken down yet?" Yan Liqiang asked with a little surprise. He didn't expect that there were still Shatu people who could resist at this time.
"Those Shatu people were guarding there, desperately trying to save their lives. The Ganzhou army discovered it first, but failed to take it down after two attacks, and lost some men. I heard the news and took my archers there, and finally managed to control the situation. Boss, do you want to go and take a look?" Shi Dafeng pointed to a small hill not far away, "It's right there. I feel that place seems a little special. It should be an important place of the Seven Shatu tribes!"
"Well, over there..." Yan Liqiang looked at the small hill. It was less than a kilometer away from here and looked inconspicuous. He didn't expect that there were Shatu people there making their last struggle. "Okay, let's go over and take a look..."
After a while, Yan Liqiang and Shi Dafeng arrived at the hill. There were corpses everywhere around the hill. Most of them were from Shatu people. More than 2,000 Ganzhou soldiers and more than 500 archers and cavalrymen surrounded the place. The battle here was not over yet.
Just on the back of the hill, that is, on the west side, there is an extremely unusual building. In a place like the Gulang grassland where there are not many building materials, the building is built very grandly and is made entirely of stone. There is also a stone staircase from the top of the hill to the bottom. The stone staircase is straight and steep, and not wide. At this moment, there are still thousands of Shatu people resisting on the stone steps. The stone steps are covered with the corpses of the soldiers on both sides. The two sides are fighting for each step.
The Shatu people who were resisting were well-equipped and powerful. They stood on the top of the stone steps and completely blocked the passage of the stone steps with just four huge fine steel shields. Dense spears pierced out from the gaps in the shields, blocking the Ganzhou soldiers who were rushing up. The Shatu people also had large and small shields on their heads to block the arrows shot by the archers. From a distance, the Shatu people who were resisting were like iron turtles with spikes, very difficult to deal with...
Zhao Dachuan was directing the battle here. When he saw Yan Liqiang and Shi Dafeng coming, Zhao Dachuan wiped the blood off his face and walked over. "Greetings, sir!"
"What's going on? Hasn't this been taken down yet?" Yan Liqiang glanced at something not far away.
"We have cleared all other places, but I didn't expect to hit a snag here. Please rest assured, sir. Give me another quarter of an hour, and I will personally lead people up there. We will definitely be able to take this place down. Damn it, I don't know what's in that stone house on the mountain that made these Shatu people fight so desperately. Moreover, the Shatu people guarding here have practiced their spear and shield formations in a very methodical way. I have never seen this on Shatu people before. It's really weird..."
"This is the temple of the Flame God Cult of the Shatu people, so the Shatu people are defending it desperately!" Yan Liqiang had already seen the pattern on the door of the temple on the hill clearly, which was the symbol of the Flame God Cult. As for the shield formation of the Shatu people guarding the steps at this moment, it was indeed a bit beyond Yan Liqiang's expectations. That kind of defensive formation reminded Yan Liqiang of the Roman phalanx. This kind of tactic of using shields and spears together was indeed not the style of the Shatu people. Yan Liqiang only watched for a few seconds and gave an order to Zhao Dachuan, "Let the brothers above withdraw first, don't make unnecessary sacrifices..."
“Sir, what are you doing…” Zhao Dachuan was stunned.
"I'm a little itchy," Yan Liqiang smiled and said nothing. He just stretched out his hand and told Xiong Gungun next to him, "Bring me my Dragon-Shaking Bow..."
Zhao Dachuan understood immediately and ordered the people around him to withdraw the Ganzhou army brothers who were fighting hard on the steps...
Yan Liqiang walked to the foot of the stone steps on the hill, took the 100-stone Shaking Dragon Bow in his hand, and put on a newly made black iron heavy arrow based on the shape of the Shaking Dragon Arrow. Looking at the Ganzhou Army soldiers who had just retreated from the stone steps, Yan Liqiang, who was standing under the hill, took a deep breath. In just a moment, he pulled the Shaking Dragon Bow to its full length and aimed at the shield formation of the Shatu people on the stone steps from the front...
"Boom..."
Under the watchful eyes of thousands of soldiers, a heavy black iron arrow was shot out from the horn python bow in Yan Liqiang's hand like a hundred-meter-long blood-red python. In the blink of an eye, it hit a large shield of the Shatu people. The black iron heavy arrow incarnated into a python's energy and directly blasted through the entire Shatu formation, from the front of the formation to the back in an instant. The tall steel shield blocking the front was instantly shattered into countless fragments, flying backwards at high speed, cutting through countless bodies and bringing up countless blood flowers.
With just one arrow, the Shatu people's formation was shattered in an instant like a watermelon shot by a sniper rifle, and there were screams and wails on the stone steps...
Thousands of soldiers under the hill were stunned. This arrow was simply not something that could be shot by a human...
Yan Liqiang threw the Dragon-Shaking Bow to Xiong Gungun, grabbed the dragon-spine steel spear with one hand, and with a flash of his body, he leaped onto the stone steps and rushed towards the defeated Shatu people.
"Everyone follow me and kill..." Zhao Dachuan roared, holding the big knife in his hand, and rushed forward closely following Yan Liqiang. The rest of the archers and soldiers of the Ganzhou Army also shouted and rushed forward at once...
(End of this chapter)