Chapter 21: Victory
Su Xiao lay in the bedroom, the sounds of chaotic running footsteps and horn blasts coming from outside. The Empire's army was assembling.
This war was doomed from the start before it even began. The Empire was certain to win.
Not to mention that the leader of the Northern Army was already dead; Esdeath's Imperial Armament, "Demon's Extract," was something the Northern Army simply couldn't withstand.
Imperial Armaments were a very mysterious thing. They could help the user control ice, water currents, and so on. Some Imperial Armaments were simply weapons with special abilities attached, such as instant kill, exceptional sharpness, etc.
An Imperial Armament could be a ring, a sword, a blade, armor, etc.
Not everyone could use an Imperial Armament. An Imperial Armament would choose a master with compatible affinity. After the master died, the Imperial Armament's abilities still existed, waiting for the next master.
Imperial Armaments could generally be divided into several major categories.
The first type was consumable Imperial Armaments like "Demon's Extract," which could only be used once. The abilities of this type of Imperial Armament were generally very strong.
The second type was weapon-type Imperial Armaments. These were varied, including swords, spears, blades, halberds, and all kinds of others, with a wide range of abilities.
The third type was quite peculiar: biological-type Imperial Armaments. This type of Imperial Armament could be a humanoid creature, a dog, a bear, etc.
Each of the three types had its own advantages and disadvantages. Overall, the one-time-use Imperial Armaments were somewhat more powerful.
Su Xiao recalled the appearances and abilities of various Imperial Armaments in his mind. He would be facing Imperial Armament users in the future.
As he was thinking about the information on Imperial Armaments, the horn for assembly sounded from outside the fortress.
"Finally time to send out the troops, huh. I wonder what the situation in the Imperial Capital is like now."
Thinking about this was still too early. Rest was the most important thing. Within five minutes, Su Xiao had fallen into a deep sleep. Once he returned to the Imperial Capital, things wouldn't be so comfortable; he was essentially deep in enemy territory.
...
The next day, early morning. The cold wind howled past.
Inside Dongdongta Fortress.
The current "Dongdongta Fortress" was completely different from the previous night. Large patches of ice appeared within the fortress, houses were frozen solid, and corpses of Northerners frozen to death were everywhere on the ground. The entire fortress had become a world of ice.
An Imperial soldier quickly ran out of the fortress. When he passed a patch of snow, his heart seized up.
The scene on the snowfield could only be described as too horrible to look at. A large number of prisoners of war were impaled on wooden stakes, the stakes standing upright in the snow.
Looking into the distance, there were at least several thousand of these stakes skewering humans. The scene behind the stakes was even more brutal.
After the battle began last night, the Northern Army collapsed at the first clash. Without a leader to command them, and with Esdeath's powerful ice abilities turning the battlefield into a slaughterhouse, the outcome was sealed.
The battle started at 2:30 AM, and the Northern Army surrendered at 5:00 AM.
Dongdongta Fortress had stationed thirty thousand troops and seventy to eighty thousand civilians. Don't underestimate those seventy to eighty thousand civilians; in a critical moment, they were also soldiers.
After all these people surrendered, Esdeath issued an order.
Kill them all, leave no one alive! And kill them in a brutal way, using the blood of the Northern Army to intimidate the other restless foreign tribes around the Empire.
The massacre started at 6:00 AM and ended before 7:00 AM.
Nearly one hundred thousand people were slaughtered in less than an hour. Some of their corpses were piled up, some were made into "snowmen," and some were skewered on wooden stakes.
The news reached the other scattered small units of the Northern Army around the area at 9:00 AM. The various units of the Northern Army began to flee, escaping deeper into the colder reaches of the far north.
Around 11:00 AM that day, not a single Northerner could be seen within several kilometers of the Northern Fortress. These people were scared out of their wits.
Around 12:00 PM, the Imperial army withdrew back to the Northern Fortress. Around 1:00 PM, over three hundred thousand sick soldiers were the first to return to the Empire.
Around 2:00 PM, the remaining over one hundred thousand non-sick Imperial soldiers also began to evacuate. Only less than fifty thousand men were left in the Northern Fortress.
The reason for this hasty retreat was that military campaigns required a huge amount of money. The daily food rations for five hundred thousand troops were a terrifying number. Moreover, these rations were all transported in, making the cost even higher. There were also other expenses: medical care, medicine, weapon wear and tear, compensation for casualties, etc.
If five hundred thousand men were stationed to guard the fortress, with the current savings of the Imperial treasury, there would be arrears in military pay within half a year. Within a year, the Empire's economy would decline drastically.
Fifty thousand men were enough to guard the fortress. In the past, the Northern Fortress only had a few thousand men.
Transporting supplies to the far north was too difficult. The Empire had been continuously reducing the number of border guards.
No wonder the Empire eventually fell. Reducing the number of border guards was just a fancy way of courting death.
The current Empire was like a big tree rotten to the core, just waiting for someone brave enough to give it a kick.
...
On the return journey of the Imperial army, most of the soldiers were on foot, which made the overall marching speed not very fast.
Su Xiao sat on a jolting horse. He had never ridden a horse before, nor did he expect this four-legged mode of transport to be so difficult to master.
But how could a member of the Dark Division not know how to ride a horse? So, even if he didn't know how, he had to learn.
Su Xiao forced himself to ride using the strength of his waist and lower body. The first horse he rode collapsed after thirty minutes, foaming at the mouth, its abdomen twitching non-stop. That was because he had been clamping down on it with brute force. That poor horse had suffered.
The fate of the second horse was much better. It hadn't shown any signs of foaming at the mouth yet.
This horse was fine, but Su Xiao himself was in a bad state. Forcing himself to ride was a very tiring thing. His butt hurt now, and the area below his chest was aching all over.
"General, how much longer until we return to the Imperial Capital?"
Su Xiao rarely took the initiative to speak to Esdeath.
"Hm?"
Esdeath was quite surprised.
"About two days or so."
Su Xiao's expression wasn't very good.
"You don't know how to ride a horse, do you."
He had been found out. Su Xiao was helpless about this.
"Yeah."
"Why?"
"I despise this hairy beast. It makes me very uncomfortable."
Esdeath was astonished. She probably never thought that the "cold-faced" Su Xiao would hate something.
"Didn't your previous organization teach you how to ride?"
"They did, but I killed the horse."
This time, Esdeath was truly taken aback.
"You killed the horse? And the consequences?"
"I was hung up and whipped two hundred times. I almost died."
Esdeath chuckled lightly, looking at Su Xiao with a mixture of surprise and amusement.
"How was that matter finally handled?"
"I practiced running. In the end, I could run faster than a horse, and my stamina was no worse than a horse's."
Esdeath chuckled again, and the other nearby officers also laughed.
"Faster than a horse? Just what kind of subordinate have I taken in? Since you dislike riding horses so much, why are you riding one now?"
Su Xiao knew he couldn't avoid this question. He gave an unexpected answer.
"Being in the assassination unit and not knowing how to ride a horse would raise suspicion."
If every sentence was a lie, it would eventually be seen through. But if a few sentences within ten were true, then the lies would also be taken as truth.
"Don't force yourself. Go sit on the supply cart in the back. Your horse is foaming at the mouth again."
The warhorse beneath Su Xiao turned its head, its innocent gaze seeming to accuse Su Xiao.
"Thank you, General."
Jumping off the warhorse, Su Xiao limped towards the supply cart. He was finally free and had successfully bluffed his way through.