182 Heading Back South for Food! (2/2)
”Walk through the vast snow; Step on the thick frost. All day looking southward.”
”Walk through the vast snow; Step on the thick frost. No longer looking southward.”
”I go first, and you come after me.”
”I fight first, and you come after me.”
”I die first, and you come after me.”
”The homeward journey is near; the homeward journey is far. It's on my way.”
”I have gone, and you ought to come soon.”
”I have fought, and you ought to come soon.”
”I have died, and you ought to come soon.”
”I have died, and you ought to come soon.”
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”I have died, and you ought to come soon.” The last two sentences were sung repeatedly and desolately. Several young soldiers from Desolate Man looked at that direction in silence. Their eyes, accompanied with the elder's singing, emitted a kind of grand yet not sad atmosphere on the grassland.
Most of the soldiers from Desolate Man kept silent. They just had mutton and drank smelly oil soup. They seized every second to replenish their strength during the short break, because no one knew when the next battle would begin.
The ancestors of the Desolate Man were once called 'inborn soldiers' by people in Central Plains. Now, the Desolate Man had experienced the suffering of severe living environment for one thousand years. The word 'fighting' had already been engraved in their vessels and bones, even the death of their partners wouldn't touch them at all. Even if the song, which had been handed down for one thousand years, could slightly resonate within their deep heart, it still failed to interfere with their preparation for fighting.
Then at that moment, the horn calling for battle rang again.
The grassland trembled slightly as an unknown number of cavalries of Left-Tent rushed towards them.
The Desolate Man soldiers weren't alarmed at all. After putting down the mutton and spoon and rubbing their oily faces with their sleeves, they picked up their heavy but seriously-damaged weapons beside them and slowly walked southward. They even remembered to put out the fire of stoves before they left.
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They walked slowly, trotted, sped up, and sprinted.
The way the Desolate Man soldiers entered the battlefield was very similar to the way the grassland cavalries did, except that what they had was just two legs, rather than a horse. To everyone's amazement, however, these Desolate Man soldiers in furred clothes and blades and hatchets, who didn't look very tall or strong, could run at a incredibly fast speed if they sprinted.
A low humming started. The grassland cavalries, who were good at riding and shooting, pulled their bowstring of short bow at a long distance. Countless arrows flew over the sky and rushed at thousands of Desolate Man soldiers like raindrops.
With a whizzing sound, a Desolate Man soldier running at high speed was right hit by a sharp arrow. The arrow, after shooting through leather armor, stayed in his chest, as if taking root. The soldier's blood quickly flowed out and reddened his leather armor. However, this soldier still rushed at the crowds of cavalries with his blades and hatchets, as if he didn't notice his wound at all. Obviously, that arrow was blocked by his steel-like skin and flesh, so it didn't hurt any organs.
There wasn't any military order or flag signal. What the Desolate Man relied on during a war were instinct and their mutual trust that was developed from fighting together for nearly one thousand years. When crowds of grassland cavalries were just at about ten paces distance, all soldiers who hadn't been defeated by the cavalries' arrows drew out sharp hatchets at their waist with one accord, and then threw them out with all their strength!
Those sharp hatchets spun at high speed, cutting through the air on the battlefield. The bright light on the hatchets reflected sunlight as many lines of snow-white shadow on the green grassland, looking very beautiful yet extremely horrific.
By virtue of strong defense, the Desolate Man soldiers managed to survive from the first round of shooting by the grassland cavalries. They kept sprinting as they entered into the effective damage range of hatchets and managed to quickly throw out their hatchets before the cavalries conducted their second round of shooting!
While the arrow rain failed to kill many Desolate Man soldiers, the storm formed by nearly one thousand sharp hatchets brought the cruelest attack to the grassland cavalries. The heavy hatchets, with the force and spinning by the Desolate Man soldiers easily lacerated the light armor of the cavalries. The hatchet could make them fracture and spit blood should they just touch the calvery!