398 The Valley (2/2)

Not too far from where they stood was the core of the army of the Great Snowmountain - the thousand or so veterans.

The thousands of slave soldiers from the Land of Fragrance were divided into three sections: the vanguard unit, the left flank, and the right flank.

Out of the hundreds of noble soldiers, half of them remained near to Dragon King, while the other half joined the vanguard unit.

Led by a hundred veterans, the vanguard unit of the Great Snowmountain army were less than a thousand soldiers. The opposing force sent out by the Wushan tribes was even smaller in comparison; only slightly more than 700 soldiers.

There was not enough flat ground in the mountains for a large scale battle. As such, both sides could only send out these few soldiers.

The spot chosen for the decisive battle was a slightly larger valley. The vanguard units from each army would charge down from a gentle slope and engage at the bottom of the valley.

Other than examining the combat power and loyalty of the new soldiers, there was not much purpose to this battle.

Initially, Gu Shenwei had no intention to fight this battle. Upon entering Wushan, he sent out a few soldiers to each tribe to express goodwill. However, not only was there no reply from them, none of his soldiers returned as well.

It was all within Gu Shenwei's expectations. He hoped that through this battle, the Wushan tribes would acknowledge the strength of the Great Snowmountain, and even if they were not willing to ally themselves with him, he hoped that they would remain neutral and not lean toward Golden Roc Fort.

The tribal chiefs on the opposing side were stirring their soldiers up with loud words of encouragement. He could not hear them clearlyand could see that the effects were effective; the 700 or so enemy soldiers brandished their various weapons roared toward the skies. Their voices reverberated throughout the valley. All in all, they were pretty impressive.

On the side of the Great Snowmountain, the vanguard formed largely by thousands of slaves and nobles weas much worse off. Even before the battle started, many of them were trembling and the weapons they held seemed less like tools in battle and mroe like burdens they carried. If the veterans had not been there to hold down the fort, some of them would very likely have discarded their weapons on the spot.

For the first time in their lives, many of them realised that there was a bigger world out there, and there were many other countries outside the borders of the Land of Fragrance. Furthermore, these people were the first in many generations of their families to have ventured more than 50 kilometers away from the capital.

The new soldiers were not only afraid of war and death but of the unfamiliar people and surroundings, not to mention their uncertain futures.

Gu Shenwei drew his Five Peaks Saber and glanced at his sides before taking the lead by marching forward, squeezing his way through the group of veterans.

A total of 20 men followed him; they were made up of swordsmen and machetemen with the best Kung Fu, including the three chiefs of the Great Snowmountain.

These people had all been handpicked by Gu Shenwei.

Now that he had let his new soldiers have a taste of the atmosphere of battle, it was time to lead them to victory.

The Dragon King and his 20 followers stood at the forefront of the formation.

He turned to look at the new soldiers who were standing in a state of shock. Most of them did not understand Central Plains Chinese and it was useless to encourage them with words. As such, he brandished the Five Peaks Saber high up in the air and swept his gaze across their faces before turning around to face the enemy, blowing the rawhide horn from the Great Snowmountain.

Not only were the new soldiers surprised, they could not believe what they had just seen. Even though the title of 'slaves' and 'nobles' had been abolished, they still had trouble changing their old views and naturally treated the veterans from the Great Snowmountain as their masters. To them, Dragon King was the master of their masters.

According to the centuries-old tradition of their native land, masters would never fight along with their slaves.

More deep sounding horn blasts rang out. The sounds merged together as they swept through the entire valley, engulfing the shouts of the opposing tribal soldiers entirely.

The residents of the Land of Fragrance, regardless of status, were extremely fearful of the horn blasts. Just two months ago, they had been shocked out of their wits by the blasts and as a result, surrendered to Dragon King.

But today, the blasts stirred up a surge of emotions in them. Suddenly, the blasts no longer sounded like the howls of beasts who came from the depths of hell but had become the growls of a holy dragon coming from the heavens itself.

A source of power, which the new soldiers neither experienced nor imagined before, flowed through their bodies, giving them an uncontrollable desire to charge forward.

Thus, the battle began.

The shouts of the combatants and the roars of encouragement from the spectators shook the entire valley into pieces.

As quickly as it began, the battle was over.

Both sides only wished to test each other's strength and after a brief engagement, they quickly retreated back to their formations, taking their own dead with them. Each had dozens of casualties and it was hard to tell which side had won from the numbers.

In the eyes of the veterans, it was a battle not worth mentioning, but to the new soldiers, it was an experience they would never forget. Their hands which held their weapons had never felt as steady as they had now.

Gu Shenwei certainly felt that the Great Snowmountain was victorious as the new conscripts were turning into true soldiers.

He ordered half of the vanguard unit to fall out and replaced them with 500 of the new soldiers from his left flank. Since it was a training exercise for them, he wanted as many of them to participate as possible.

As the two waves of soldiers shifted, the opposing army also changed.

An unknown army had suddenly appeared from the mountaintop behind them and was charging toward the dozens of tribes which were preparing for the second round of battle.

The soldiers from the Great Snowmountain looked in surprise at the opposite side of the valley. Many of them even believed that it was an ambush planned by the Dragon King, but Gu Shenwei knew that he had absolutely nothing to do with it.