Chapter Thirty-Five: The First Battle

  "Report!" A urgent voice sounded outside Zhang Huaming's stone house.

  "Your subordinate has arrived to see you, General. He requests your presence at the main gate."

  "Alright, I know. You can go now!" Zhang Huaming waved his hand and took Karyn to the main gate of the city wall in a flash, arriving at the top of the wall in less than three breaths.

  "Little brother, you're here." Qin Xiao Tian's face was stern as he gazed out at the city walls.

  "Are we going to start fighting?" Zhang Huaming's eyes scanned the dense enemy army outside the city wall, and although he had long known the phrase "thousands of troops and horses", when thousands of troops and horses were really piled up, even he, who had reached the level of a martial arts king, was shocked for a moment. The scene was indeed majestic enough.

  "I estimate that Winter Nation will still use the old method, with Skull Squad as the vanguard, and the most elite army of Winter Nation will follow closely behind." Qin Xiao Tian said.

  "Kill!" A thousand-man squad emerged from the Winter State army, dashing towards the high city wall of Longhua City. Each soldier was extremely agile, and in less than ten breaths, the squad had climbed up onto the city wall. Every soldier held two daggers in their hands, alternately inserting them into the small gaps in the city wall to climb up.

  "Prepare for battle." With Qin Xiao Tian's order, the vanguard troops of Qin Xiao Tian and Zhang Hua Ming's Wolf Fang Squad drew their weapons.

  Swish, swish, swish! In less than five breaths' time, the skeleton squad of Dongguo had climbed up onto the city wall. Before they could even steady their footing, the defending Imperial Guards made their move. In an instant, the top of the city wall was a flurry of sword and shadow, with metallic crashing sounds ringing out one after another.

  The general of the Winter Country seemed to have great confidence in his own troops, and did not immediately issue a general attack order. Qin Xiao Tian's side was even more stable, as if both sides were waiting for the end of the battle between the two thousand-man armies.

  The skull squad of the Winter Country was indeed famous for nothing, as ordinary swords and knives hitting their bodies would produce a series of crisp metallic collision sounds. Even with Wu Yuan's sword added to the mix, it was still the same, the only difference being that Wu Yuan's sword would cause these soldiers to retreat several steps back.

  The scene suddenly became chaotic, the city wall of Longhua City was in a melee, and in less than 100 breaths, Qin Xiao Tian's Imperial Guard began to gain the upper hand. The only ones who were able to hold their own against them were Zhang Hua Ming's Imperial Guard Wolf Fang Squad.

  Geng Qiu, being surrounded by the four nations, became a killing god. Would he be just an ordinary man? Obviously not. Earlier, he had not launched a general attack because the situation on the city wall was not chaotic enough. Now that the situation on the city wall of Longhua City was starting to get chaotic, would he miss such a great opportunity? With a wave of his hand, he ordered: "Attack."

  "Attack! Attack! Attack!!!!!" As Geng Qiu's orders were passed down, in an instant, the Dongguo soldiers outside Longhua City surged towards Longhua City from all sides like a tide.

  Zhang Huaming saw this scene, his expression changed slightly, and he shouted loudly: "Everyone listen, the fate of these people is in their eyebrows, fight quickly and settle it quickly."

  "What?" Geng Qiu, a mile outside Longhua City, heard Zhang Huaming's shout and immediately changed his expression. He shouted: "Skull squad, withdraw."

  Geng Qi had intended to preserve the Winter Country's invincible team, but at this moment, wanting to retreat, Qin Xiao Tian would not easily let this small team leave.

  "Surround and kill!" Qin Xiao Tian immediately gave the order to annihilate, and instantly the soldiers on the second line of defense behind the city wall rushed towards the Skull Squad.

  "Brush, brush, brush!" After Zhang Huaming said the password of this small team, the Skull Team, which was originally like a god, suddenly suffered heavy casualties on the internet. The most deaths among the Skull Teams were those killed by the Wolf Fang Team, after all, the members of the Wolf Fang Team were extremely obedient to Zhang Huaming's orders, and the military bayonet used by the Wolf Fang Team was one of the best weapons for attacking the eyebrows.

  "Zhang Huaming, you and I are irreconcilable!" Geng Qiu shouted in a rage as he saw his carefully trained skull squad completely annihilated.

  Qin Xiao Tian saw that the enemy army was completely defeated, and he suddenly became overjoyed. With a wave of his hand, he said: "The second line of defense, prepare to move forward and fight."

  Swish swish swish! The Imperial Guard retreated to the second line of defense, and about 8,000 men and horses quickly moved forward, all drawing their bows and arrows.

  "Indiscriminate firing!"

  "Swish swish swish swish swish!" Outside Longhua City, a "rain of arrows" suddenly fell from the sky. In an instant, the Winter State soldiers who were advancing below let out cries of agony.

  "Fire, fire, fire!" Qin Xiao Tian waved his hand again.

  Geng Qiu's face was iron-green as he stared at the soldiers falling down one after another in the attack, his heart filled with raging anger, but he still maintained a certain degree of rationality.

  The soldiers of the winter country finally rushed to the foot of the city wall, and one after another began to climb up with ladders. The defenders naturally used everything they had, shooting arrows and throwing large stones. You know that the city walls of Longhua City are as high as four or five zhang, and casually throwing a large stone down can at least crush two or three people!

  Half an hour later, a small number of soldiers from Dongguo finally climbed up the city wall via the cloud ladder, but before they could even catch their breath, the second line of defense had already raised their weapons to "welcome" them.

  "Senior." Ma Tianyuan, standing beside Geng Qiu, couldn't help but exclaim at the current situation.

  Geng Qiu heard Ma Tianyuan's shout, his eyebrows slightly furrowed, looked at the setting sun and waved his hand: "Withdraw troops."

  "Yes, senior." Ma Tianyuan responded quickly, and the next moment, a series of mournful horn sounds came from the headquarters.

  "Withdraw, withdraw, withdraw!" The soldiers of Dongguo received the retreat horn from their headquarters and instantly retreated to their headquarters like a receding tide, leaving behind a dense array of corpses on the ground.

  "Oh! Oh! Oh!" The Dragon City's Brave Tiger Squad saw the enemy army defeated and retreated, each one raised their weapons and cheered.

  Zhang Huaming didn't feel any happiness at all, instead his eyebrows furrowed, the reason was because of a sentence from Karyn who followed him.

  "Brother! I sense that three martial arts masters have appeared over there."

  Qin Xiao Tian's face was filled with joy as he said, "This time, being able to annihilate Dongguo's ace team, Skull Team, is a huge delight for me." However, he knew that the credit for this achievement belonged to Zhang Hua Ming. So when he wanted to thank Zhang Hua Ming, he found that the other was frowning tightly, and couldn't help but ask: "Zhang, what's wrong? Why are you frowning?"

  Zhang Huaming did not immediately respond to Qin Xiao Tian's words, but instead carefully observed the enemy's main camp outside the city for a moment before his eyes suddenly lit up and he said: "Qin big brother, where is that old Zhang guy?"

  "Good grief!" Qin Xiao Tian heard Zhang Hua Ming's words and was taken aback for a moment, then smiled wryly: "Zhang younger brother, it's not that I'm criticizing you, but as the descendant of the Zhang family, how can you refer to your own ancestor like that?"

  "He is him, I am me, and I have nothing to do with the Zhang family." Zhang Huaming responded coldly.

  "Alright, alright, Zhang is holding down the fort in the main camp. After all, the other side hasn't sent out any top-notch experts, and we can't break this unspoken rule either."

  "Go tell that old fellow to take good care of himself and be prepared to make his move tonight. Also, Qin, tell the soldiers not to let their guard down for a moment."

  Qin Xiao Tian was taken aback by Zhang Hua Ming's words, and the next moment his face turned stern. His gaze immediately shifted to observe the enemy's main camp outside the city. Half a beat later, he looked at Zhang Hua Ming with a respectful expression and said: "Zhang brother, thank you."

  "Haha! Qin big brother, you and I are brothers."

  "Haha! That's right! You and I are brothers, no need to be polite."

  "Good heavens!"

  "Belonging to the lower class."

  "Pass on my order: all troops belonging to the Flying Tigers must not dismount tonight and strengthen patrols by one shift."

  "Yes, General."

  Qin Xiao Tian's expression turned serious after Hu Tian left, and he asked: "Younger brother, tell me the truth, how did you know that the Dongguo people would make a move at night? And why did you say that Zhang Qianbei would take action tonight? Could it be that Geng Qi will make a move tonight? Doesn't he fear being surrounded by you and Zhang Qianbei?"

  Zhang Huaming glanced at Qin Xiao Tian and smiled as he looked out at the enemy's main camp outside the city: "What if they have three Martial Kings?"

  "Three people?" Qin Xiao Tian's expression changed greatly as soon as he heard this sentence: "Impossible."

  "Haha!" Zhang Huaming smiled and left the city wall, leaving behind Qin Xiao Tian with a serious expression.