Endless Winter: My Camp Upgrades Infinitely

Chapter 1605: Chapter 505: Assault on the Fortress and Initial Clash

Woooooo………

As the sound of the horn came to an end, the eight thousand troops of Great Xia, fully armed and ready, had all already stepped out beyond the camp boundary.

With eight thousand people marching together, their steps naturally weren’t all perfectly in unison.

But every one of them was clad in Thousand Forged Level war armor; armor plus a full set of weapons, the weight of a single man’s equipment was at least over thirty thousand jin.

Let alone people—even if it were an ordinary object weighing thirty thousand jin moving, the momentum would be utterly astonishing. Fortunately, it was the Ice Abyss environment that made this possible, otherwise this high slope where the Zhongyang Camp was located would have been stomped flat and collapsed by eight thousand fully armed Xia Army soldiers.

Clang clang clang……

Whether their steps were neat or not was already secondary. The eight thousand Xia Army soldiers, even if they were only walking normally, the sound of the armor on their bodies knocking against each other alone was enough to shake the soul, let alone that at this moment every one of them was holding up their longbows, bowstrings fully drawn, advancing step by step with tight formation.

Zhongyang had not built a city, so naturally there was no talk of city gates, but to call it merely a village would also be inappropriate. The most fitting description should be: a giant fortress-camp built on a hillside more than a hundred meters high.

The south, west, and north sides of the camp were surrounded by fences made of iron poles. Those fences all extended to the cliffside area, about twenty meters high, and every iron pole was covered in countless sharp spikes, clearly meant to guard against enemy charges.

The entire camp had only one gate left on the east side; the gate was cast entirely of iron, eight meters high, five meters wide, covered densely with silver forging patterns—at a rough estimate there were no fewer than ten thousand of them.

“Gulp……”

Directly above the village gate, an armored soldier looked at the Great Xia battle formation continually closing in from the east. It was probably his first time seeing such a grand scene; his heart was overly shaken, and he couldn’t help swallowing a mouthful of saliva, instantly drawing the gaze of quite a few soldiers around him.

“We’re conserving strength and waiting, just defending a fortress—what are you panicking about? Watch how many lives the Xia Army has to throw away here. Front ranks raise shields, middle and rear ranks ready bows—prepare!”

Yang Qin hovered in midair, his brows suddenly furrowing. He first turned and glared at that soldier, then faced the crowd and shouted harshly.

Clang……

At his command, the two thousand men of the front ranks deployed closest to the gate raised their iron shields with a clang. The three thousand of the middle ranks and the one thousand of the rear ranks all, just like the Xia Army, drew their strong bows to full, aiming at the sky.

For those with cultivation below Xianyang Level, if they want to maintain the power of their shots, the distance generally cannot exceed two hundred meters—but that applies to ordinary wild hunting.

When two armies face off, it’s a completely different situation. Thousands of arrows fly forth at the same time; accuracy has already lost all meaning. The foremost priority is to shoot the arrows out smoothly and have them land in the area where the enemy formation is.

The Zhongyang Village Gate was only five meters wide, and its thickness was no more than about three meters. It was naturally impossible to accommodate all two thousand of the front ranks above it; at least over eighty percent of the front-rank soldiers were split to stand behind the iron-pole fences on both sides of the gate.

The middle and rear ranks are another matter—they were at least a hundred meters away from the gate.

“Halt!”

When the army was about to enter the two-hundred-meter range of the gate, Mu Longhe, hovering in midair, suddenly waved for them to stop. Then, gathering his blood and qi in his throat, he spoke in a deep voice toward the gate on the western side: “Yang Qin, this old man acknowledges you as a junior—abandon the gate and surrender. With this rabble of over ten thousand you have, thinking to block the edge of my Great Xia Army’s blade, you’re dreaming.”

“If Xia Chuan himself were here to issue the challenge today, Yang might still show him a measure of respect. Mu Longhe, you mangy cur, treacherous wretch who betrayed your lord to join the enemy—do you even deserve to bear the title of uncle before me?”

Yang Qin’s face was full of a cold grin. Two hundred meters away, he wasn’t worried that Mu Longhe would fail to see the expression on his face; his eyes were full of mockery as he continued: “You old thing, hiding behind another’s might—if you’ve got the guts, then…”

“Loose!”

“Already can’t hold your temper, huh? Hmph… Loose!”

Yang Qin hadn’t expected that at Mu Longhe’s age, his skill at maintaining composure would be so poor. Hearing the other side give the order to loose arrows, his reaction was naturally quick; he immediately followed up with his own order.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh swoosh………

The arrow formations of both armies shot forth at the same instant like horizontal sheets of rain from within the battle arrays, sweeping toward the other side like a sky-covering storm.

Thud thud thud……

When two armies clash head-on, the first exchange is inevitably of crossbow arrows—this is beyond doubt. But to speak only of the crossbow arrows is still a bit shallow; at a deeper level, it should be seen as a comparison of the two garrisons behind the armies, of their resources and forging level.

Just like Yang Qin, Mu Longhe had long since ordered the front ranks to raise their iron shields. Those arrows dense as raindrops, let alone piercing the shields, didn’t even manage to cause the front battle line to waver in the slightest.

Thump… thump… thud…

In contrast, on the Zhongyang Camp’s side, the two thousand men of the front ranks raising shields did block the vast majority of the crossbow arrows, but in less than three waves of arrow rain, their formation began to slowly retreat. There were even a very small number whose strength was too weak and had already started to topple backward; if not for the tightness of the formation and men behind them catching them in time, it would have dragged several others down in a chain reaction.

Whoosh……

When the arrow rain first swept in, Yang Qin did not remain hovering in midair, but directly landed atop the gate. He stared at the arrow rain, suddenly noticed something, his brows flickered, and he swiftly stretched out his hand to snatch a stray arrow. Looking down to examine it, his expression changed drastically, and he immediately turned his head and shouted harshly:

“Lower your bows and raise shields, focus on defense—don’t trade shots with them!”

Both sides were Cold Resistance Level armies, so the iron arrows they used were all of Thousand Forging Level. The surface area of the arrowheads was small to begin with, and the thousands of silvery forging patterns densely attached to them looked exactly the same color as silver.

When the two armies’ arrow formations were launched, Yang Qin had taken it for granted that the Xia Army used the same arrows as they did, all forged from Thousand Forged Iron.