Chapter 812 - On the Qui Vive (1/2)

Chapter 812 - On the Qui Vive

“Ready, and charge!”

Lucen raised his sword high above his head. Blood was splattered across his face. “I will kill every single last one of you dogs. My conviction will never waver!”

I raised my Dragon Reservoir Sword and coldly replied, “A conviction that threatens the lives of peaceful villagers living alongside the War God’s River, ignoring the massacres of bystanders, and allowing such rampant behavior is no conviction at all!”

Lucen stiffened and clenched his teeth, “Kneeling to the winner, is that not the way of the world? I never would have thought that the Royal Army would strengthen itself to this point. Youngster, what is your name?”

I raised my arm and said, “What point is there in telling you? A cold-blooded slaughterer like you doesn’t deserve to know! Royal Army men, raise your bows and target their eyes!”

All of the soldiers behind me pulled out their bows. “Thunk!” One after another, a storm of arrows fell upon the enemy troops. Even Lucen and his personal guard took several arrows. With a howl, he knelt to the ground with blood pooling underneath him. Xiao Lie led a unit of soldiers and charged ahead. Seeing his body still jerking, they charged forward to deal the final blow.

Han Yuan also led a group of his men forward and said, “General, we’ve captured a total of a hundred of their soldiers. How should we deal with them? Execution?”

I shook my head, “No need, they were once men of the empire’s military after all. Imprison them all. Afterwards, we’ll interrogate all of them. We need to find out the details of their relationship with the Dragonling Army. Additionally, we need to find out just when the next shipment is.”

Han Yuan smiled and nodded, “Understood. General, don’t worry, we’ll find out very soon!”

…

I followed Han Yuan over to see how he was planning on interrogating these men. I saw the enemy soldiers tied up and kneeling in a row on the ground. Han Yuan shouldered his long blade and said, “Now squeal, when are the Dragonling men coming?”

A soldier around fifty years old was furious and spat at Han Yuan, “Don’t know. I won’t answer to a dog of the empire!”

I walked up with a cold smile, “So we’re dogs of the empire, but at the very least we don’t kill civilians. What about you guys? You helped the Dragonling Army kill innocent villagers. What does that make you?”

The old man was forced into silence by my accusations.

Han Yuan narrowed his eyes at one of the other prisoners and roared, “Well, are you going to spill or not? Otherwise, I’ll slash you down in one strike!”

The young soldier was around twenty years old and he was paralyzed by fear. He must have been one of the newer soldiers recruited from a nearby village. Ashen, he replied, “I…. I don’t know anything…”

Han Yuan licked his lips, “Is that so? Well, does he know?”

He pointed at the old soldier from before. Han Yuan whipped out his blade, and in a quick slice, the old man’s head rolled to the ground. I furrowed my brow. Han Yuan had struck too quickly. I didn’t even have the chance to stop him. Besides, the old man probably hadn’t directly participated in the massacres. At the very least, it was clear he had his own set of morals and values. It was a pity for him to have died.

With the death of the old soldier, the young man’s face turned green and he stuttered, “I’ll tell you, but will you spare me?”

Han Yuan nodded, “We will!”

The new recruit trembled, “The men from the Dragonling Army… they just came this morning and told us to prepare weapons and provisions. Tomorrow, they were planning on raiding one of the Xia Yu Army warehouses…”

Han Yuan was stunned, “What? What kind of steel balls do these guys have to actually dare to touch one of their warehouses…”

“Really… it’s true. At least that’s what they said…”

With my Zhen Yue Blade in hand, I leaned in close to the new recruit and smiled, “Do you know which warehouse? The Xia Yue Army has dozens of them, and they’ve even got a few towns full of soldiers.”

The little soldier shook his head fiercely, “That… I really don’t know. They never mentioned specifically which one. I only found that much out when one of the officers started spouting nonsense after drinking too much…”

Han Yuan asked, “Then did they say how many people they were going to use for this operation?”

The soldier shook his head, “I really don’t know…”

I looked over at Xiao Lie and asked, “Give a report on the Xia Yu Army warehouses.”

Han Yuan replied, “The Xia Yu Army has a total of fourteen warehouses in town centers. Each town is built out of stone. In addition, there are the three towns with armed forces. Each of them holds around ten thousand or so civilians. Lord Commander, I believe that if they want to attack one of the two thousand man warehouse towns, then they would have to use at least two or three times their numbers. In other words, to attack just one of the warehouses, the entire Dragonling Army would have to be mobilized.”

I nodded with a smile, “Alright, I was waiting for an opportunity like this!”

Han Yuan wryly smiled, “Kid, did that Dragonling Army man not say why they were planning on ambushing a Xia Yu Army warehouse?”

The soldier trembled even harder. He glanced back at the headless corpse and said, “They, they said that recently a meddlesome Royal Army appeared, wrecking the agreement they had with the Violent Thunder Army. Not to mention that they took a few of their boats to set up a dock and a garrison on the eastern banks. The risk was too great for them to continue operations on that side. As such, the Dragonling Army’s commander, Dragon Scale, decided to launch an ambush. The best target was the Xia Yu Army warehouse. They were going to fill seventy ships with the rations from that. That way they would have enough so they wouldn’t have to land on either of the War God’s River banks for another three years.”