Chapter 244 Chasing Zou Jing (2/2)

”Second uncle, I want you to take all blue troops back to Zhongshan.”

”What? Are we not sieging Ji City? Why are we retreating?”

Tong shook his head, ”You misunderstood me. I have a feeling that they are baiting us. I want both of you to go back and fortify Zhongshan. I'll take 5,000 men and chase after Zou Jing. Bo Cai and 5,000 men will continue cutting the path to making a road as planned.”

Though Zhang Bao was confused, he accepted Tong's suggestion and arranged his men to return.

…

February 19th.

Zhang Bao withdrew with 10,000 soldiers while Bo Cai and his 5,000 soldiers were clearing the forest. Both of them did not know why Tong wanted to pave a road to Ji City in this time of war, but they did it anyway.

This road project was Tong's idea as he had studied about merchant trade routes and main roads between cities.

Currently, no road connected between Ji and Zhongshan. To travel from Zhongshan to Ji or the other way around, they had to pass Nanpi City, which was controlled by Yuan Shao.

Since Yuan Shao was a strong foe that Tong had no confidence that he could capture his headquarter city in a year or two, he decided to capture Ji City first before he could target the Yuan Clan.

Once he controlled Ji, he could amass his troops from this border city and pincer Nanpi with armies from four cities, Ji, Julu, Zhongshan, and Ye. No matter how talented Yuan Shao's generals, otherworlders, or strategists were, they would not have enough personals to handle four major armies.

”Serving Karma, one asshole at a time.”

It was the phrase that Tong told Jia Xu about his future plan, which was approved.

Tong and his men force-marched through the forest to catch Zou Jing. They formed two columns instead of the usual ten columns during the march as Tong was wary of small traps, such as bear-traps, tree-traps, or a pitfall.

The path was rough and bumpy as obstacles, such as bushes, swamps, mud, and tree roots were blocking their way. However, the rough passage lasted only five kilometers.

As soon as they got through the unclear forest, they reached the burnt camp.

”Ignore the camp! Keep moving forward. The scouts already checked this area, there's nothing to see here! Bo Cai unit will come to clean this place later.”

After this camp, the road was easier to get through as Zou Jing had cleared the forest when he had gotten here as well. It seemed he also wanted a path between Ji and Zhongshan.

Because of the cleared road, the marching pace quickened as they began jogging instead of walking. An hour later, their front troopers could see another camp ahead of them.

Tong's scouts had already explored the areas. Zou Jing had left several scarecrows, dressed as soldiers, inside the camp.

'Did he want to scare my scouts and me?' Tong was baffled by Zou Jing's logic.

'It might have worked if I'm paranoid enough.'

Tong ignored this camp and pointed his finger toward the north.

”We continue! But we'll slow the pace. Save your strength and keep your eyes open!”

Four hours later, they traveled another ten kilometers and saw another camp. This time, living soldiers were garrisoning the interior of the camp.

”Form ranks! Wait for the logistic troops. I'll handle this myself.”

Not bothering using his soldiers to attack, Tong took out his broken bow and tried to lock on the soldiers inside the camp.

>

Listening to the system warning, Tong frowned. The other night, he had used his sense to feel the surrounding and acquired the targets, but he had yet to expand his sense today. In addition, Liu Yan soldiers were too far away that Tong could only see small dots from a distance.

'Right, I forgot. Sunday has that [Hawk Eyes], so her vision is better than mine.'

Tong exerted more mental strength and spread his sense. Spiritual vision about the surrounding appeared within his mind.

He opened his eyes to lock on the targets. However, he could see that the red cross-hairs were moving around the bodies of the targets.

'Huh? I can pinpoint the lock on location?'

Tong smacked his forehead as he forgot that he had a clan chat system. He texted Hua Shi to ask her about the skill.

”You have to see the targets first to lock on. Then, you can specify the body part that you want the arrow to hit. If you lock on the target roughly, the cross-hair will randomly pick a body part for you. Try to manual control it if you can.”

The comment of his wife made Tong facepalmed again.

'I wasted too many shots the other night! I should have aimed for the head like the Great Thanos said!'

Enlightened by Hua Shi, Tong moved closer to the camp to get a good visual on the soldiers inside.

[Homing Arrow] activated.

After Tong maxed his skill, he could lock-on 40 targets at once. Ten sets of 40 light arrows chased after the head of garrison troops without mercy.

However

'It's too quiet. I fired probing shots, but they did not sound an alarm or mobilize their army.'

The camp was still quiet after 400 light arrows killed the targets.

”Get me a hundred men. Go search the camp! Scout teams, I want you to double check the surrounding areas. Report to me if you see anything in the range of 5 li.”

A hundred men rushed into the camp, and the scouts galloped away. Tong did not stay idle, he used his sense to search for a living being signature in the woods or inside the camp.

At dusk, Tong got his reports which answered his suspicion.