Dawn of the Empire

Chapter 25: Interception

The cat-beastman Guli stared at the scene before him in astonishment. At the exit of the forest ahead, roughly a hundred humans were forming a battle formation in the snow. Presumably because they came from different tribes, these humans had organized themselves into three relatively independent small squads, each consisting of about thirty people. The first squad faced him directly from the front, while the other two stood slightly further back; taken as a whole, they formed a triangle pointing straight at him. Could it really be that someone dared to intercept him here, less than 10 li from the village where the Prince resided? “After all this time, the prince still hasn’t cleared the area within a five-kilometer radius?” A rather treasonous thought suddenly popped into the cat-beastman’s mind: “Has something happened to the prince?” Unlike Guli, who was filled with alarm and uncertainty, the jackal-man Yegu’s pitifully small brain was already brimming with excitement and anticipation of the impending bloodshed. The moment he spotted the humans arrayed opposite him, he let out a loud howl, ordering the pig-headed man and the green-skinned Goblin to get off the sleds and help the war wolves unfasten the harnesses. The caravan consisted of thirteen sets of sleds, each pulled by six war wolves, with two additional war wolves on standby—a total of one hundred and four wolves. Based on past experience, under the jackal-man’s command, these wolves alone would be more than enough to wipe out a hundred or so warriors from the Great Forest’s indigenous tribes. But Guli still felt deeply uneasy; this round trip had already taken more than three months. It was impossible for the lions to have failed to clear out even such a nearby area in such a long time. So, could this group of clearly hostile interceptors be from the “Silk Empire” in the East? “Don’t kill them all!” the cat-beastman shouted from behind Yegu. “Leave a few alive! I want to ask them about the situation!” The jackal-man shook his head in slight displeasure, then turned to Guli with a grin that bared his fangs. “I can’t guarantee any will survive. Of all these wolves, less than half are mine.” Jackal-men love to train war wolves; they serve as vital pack animals, hunting partners, weapons, and comrades-in-arms. Prince Oks “Gale” “Claw” commands three jackal-men, two of whom remain by his side. Only Yegu accompanies the caravan, along with one hundred and four war wolves—more than half of which belong to the two jackal-men who are not present. In truth, the sleds pulled by the warwolves don’t require drivers. The pig-headed men and Goblins serve as both guards and the caravan’s laborers. The few minotaurs are a new local auxiliary force the Prince is actively training—having accompanied the caravan back to the Oak Empire last time, where they received a harsh lesson, they are now returning to the Prince’s side to await his orders. What the warwolves need is a master who can keep them in line—one is enough. Without werewolves to keep them in check, the giant wolves would easily turn on their own kind within the caravan, which is why Yegu was appointed captain of the caravan’s guards. Guli also knew that Yegu could make the giant wolves pull the carts properly and command them into battle, but he certainly couldn’t stop their bloodlust once the giant wolves—which weren’t his own—tasted blood. The cat-beast felt a wave of helplessness. His status within the caravan stemmed purely from the Lion Prince’s endorsement of authority; at the end of the day, it was merely a case of “borrowing the tiger’s might.” Once battle commenced, never mind the jackal-men—even those lowly pig-headed men and goblins wouldn’t obey his orders. In the Oak Empire, might makes right; these brainless fools obey the Lion’s orders, not those of this fat cat here. The jackal-man, who had seen his share of battles, quickly devised a simple battle plan. The soldiers from his main force and all forty of his own war wolves would launch a direct frontal assault—the agile war wolves would charge first to disrupt the enemy’s formation, followed by the soldiers closing in for the kill. The sixty-plus war wolves belonging to the other two jackal-men would split into two groups to flank the enemy from the left and right. He did not hold back any reserves but committed his entire force to the attack. This was mainly because he looked down on the poorly equipped local human natives. Furthermore, he was genuinely worried that the Prince would punish him for delaying the journey, so he hoped to wipe out these people as quickly as possible. Yegu, wielding a pair of mace-like weapons, growled at the eager orcs: “Don’t waste time—charge straight through!” With that, he threw back his head and let out a long howl: “Ah!!! Woo!!!” His voice cut through the air with piercing clarity, and over a hundred war wolves began running and howling. The jackal-man led thirty-five soldiers, following in short strides ten paces behind the wolves. Over a hundred war wolves raced forward in two straight lines, kicking up a cloud of snow. After the pack had run more than thirty paces, the jackal-man issued another command with a piercing wolf howl, simultaneously spreading his arms wide and pointing to either side. Led by the alpha wolf, the charging pack immediately split into three groups, with the wolves on the flanks moving sideways. From a distance, it looked like a monster crawling at breakneck speed through the snow, arms outstretched, closing in on the Yi people from both flanks. The snow mist created by the pack’s rapid run gradually obscured the enemy’s line of sight, and the jackal-man led his troops in accelerating from a hundred paces away. But soon, a volley of sharp-tipped light arrows pierced through the snow mist and rained down from above, immediately triggering a wave of screams among the beastmen soldiers. The Jackal-Man was somewhat taken aback; based on past experience, the soft-bow bone arrows of the Great Forest’s indigenous people were only lethal at a range of about twenty paces. Charging at this distance should have been perfectly safe. But now that the battle had begun, he couldn’t very well stop just by saying “sorry.” The jackal-man glanced left and right. Most of his soldiers were clad in leather armor, so the light arrows fired from a distance hadn’t caused significant casualties. Aside from one unlucky minotaur who’d been struck squarely in the forehead, the others had only sustained minor injuries. But the second volley of arrows soon struck. Perhaps because the distance was a bit closer, or perhaps because the enemy had adjusted their aim, this round of fire inflicted greater losses—a goblin was struck by three arrows and collapsed face-first into the snow, unable to get back up. Another pig-headed man was hit in the long snout by an arrow that struck at an angle; he dropped his weapon, clutched his face, and rolled around on the ground in pain. This was immediately followed by a third volley, then a fourth, then a fifth… It was Wukeshan who was directing the archers’ volleys. Although Tong Zhongjian was both a commoner and the designated commander of the Paijia, he knew full well that when it came to archery—whether in judging distance to the target or in accuracy—he was far inferior to this old friend, who was still a slave. Tong Zhongjian knew well enough to leave professional matters to the professionals. After five volleys of light arrows had been fired, the Yi soldiers could now clearly make out the fangs of the ferocious wolves charging at the very front. Wukeshan let out a furious roar, and all fifteen archers of the 8th Unit drew their heavy arrows and fired a volley at the pack of wolves directly in front of them. At this range, it was virtually impossible for these veteran hunters to miss. The combination of the one-shi warbows and the heavy feathered arrows proved immensely powerful; nearly all of the dozen or so war wolves charging the fastest fell to the ground without a sound. After the soldiers completed their final volley, with no time to assess the results, Tong Zhongjian immediately took command of the 8th Company and loudly ordered the soldiers to turn and retreat. A passageway at least five men wide had been left in the center of the small square formation formed by the 1st Company and the 1,000-man Headquarters behind them, and the soldiers of the 8th Company quickly retreated behind their comrades to regroup. Yang Gudai had put considerable thought into his battle formation to achieve maximum results with minimal casualties. The soldiers of the 8th Company were equipped with many powerful bows, allowing them to lead the front line and unleash their full firepower. However, their numbers were small, and once they had fired their arrows, they might not have time to rearm, so they needed to move to the rear ranks first to regroup. The Yi people’s formation rapidly shifted from a standard “pin” formation—with one end pointing upward—to an inverted “pin” formation. By this point, the War Wolves on the front line had charged to within ten paces. They howled as they leaped toward the formation, their gaping, blood-stained jaws snarling as they lunged forward. At Yang Gudai’s command, the front row of soldiers in the Thousand-Man Headquarters and the First Company squatted immediately, pulling 3. 5-meter-long wooden spears from the thick snow at their feet and thrusting them upward at an angle. These spears were sharpened at one end and heat-treated; though they lacked iron tips, they were still highly effective. The giant wolves that couldn’t dodge in midair crashed into the wooden spears with agonized howls, impaled right through their bodies. Most of the war wolves hung stiffly on the spears; after a couple of struggles, they went still, looking as if small flags had been hung on the spears. A few of the strongest and most cunning wolves in the center managed to evade the thrusts. Instead of leaping into the air to become easy targets, they crouched low, darted beneath the formation of wooden spears, and pounced directly on the crouching Yi spearmen. The second row of Yi soldiers immediately stepped forward. Standing alongside the spearmen, they raised their long axes and brought them down in a downward strike. Several giant wolves were decapitated, and blood splattered across the ground. The remaining giant wolves finally felt fear; they tucked their tails between their legs and fled whimpering to either side. The pack of wolves that had charged head-on had been completely wiped out.