My Cultivation Starting from Archery

"I just got the information, the Great Sheng Dynasty has already dispatched one hundred seventy thousand troops to Ming State! And you are still in the mood to drink!"

Dong An pointed at the sand table, "We must annihilate the entire Liangzhou Army within Ming State before the Sheng Dynasty's army arrives, and then focus all our efforts on the foreign enemy, we absolutely cannot allow a knife to remain behind us!"

These forty thousand Liangzhou soldiers cannot be left behind, no matter what.

These are forty thousand elite soldiers!

Even for the vast and rich Sheng Dynasty, this would be an extremely painful loss.

Not to mention, among them are five with the Body of Martial Saint, including an Imperial Grandson.

As long as they die, the Northern Territory will lack successors for the next fifty years, capturing the Northern Territory will then be just a matter of time.

"Pass down my commander's orders!"

Dong An had become the supreme commander, he pointed at the sand table with his long sword, "They have only one way to retreat now, which is to Yangchun Prefecture. Call over all the forces from Sword Gate Canyon, and those from the east bank of Hongze River, and surround them completely. Xiang Tian, come with me personally!"

The troops from West Qi Kingdom still need to defend the entrance from Yan State to Ming State, they cannot be called over entirely, but they have enough forces at their disposal, about one hundred twenty thousand men.

As long as we consume these twenty thousand men, victory is assured!

"Yes!"

Xiang Tian took his leave to pass down the orders.

"Is your surname Jia?"

Dong An looked at Mr. Jia. "Mr. Liang from your family commands well, he has the makings of a general."
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"That's for sure!"

Mr. Jia said, "Our Commander is a strange man chosen by the immortals."

"I hope he is also a man of his word," Dong An said gravely. "Don't forget what you have promised me."

"Mr. Dong, rest assured! Naturally, we wouldn't dare forget, even if we went back on our word, West Qi Kingdom would not agree to it."

...

Two hundred miles outside of Yangchun Prefecture, in the wilds, the troops split up.

Chen Sansi brought over the map.

Yu Song and others gathered around him.

Only Xu Wencai, a big soldier, was also there.

Lu Shuhua and Xie Sishu felt even more unreliable.

"General Chen, have you gone mad! Life and death are at stake, how can you involve an old scholar!"

"He is a friend of General Fang!"

Chen Sansi cited his backer and said, "General Fang once had a deep conversation with Xu Wencai for three days and three nights, do you think he is of no use?"

That settled the objections from the others.

"Xu Wencai, you first!"

Chen Sansi gave the chance to speak to the other party.

"Lord Xie!"

Xu Wencai bowed respectfully, then confidently picked up a feather fan and began to explain, "After splitting our forces here, I predict that within seven days, General Sha and his men will be able to take Yangchun Prefecture which lacks defending forces. The food and feed gathered along the way should also be enough for them to hold out for a while."

"But!"

"Soon, at least fifty thousand soldiers and two to three Martial Artists of the Profound Image Realm will go to attack the city; even if they can't take it right away, the daily loss will be grievous. Therefore, the only way to survive is for the lord to lead us away."

"Next, what we need to do is take advantage of the enemy's entire force concentrated in Yangchun Prefecture, cross Hongze River to the east, and seize Qingbo, Jiankou, and other four counties in one fell swoop to serve as temporary rest points, and then look for an opportunity to head south."

"Only by being able to head south into the Great Wilderness will Ming State not dispatch too many pursuers, and naturally, we will be able to live anew. Perhaps we may even encounter the Capital's army from the Great Sheng Court in the Great Wilderness, and then turn back to completely obliterate the enemy troops!"

Having finished outlining the general plan.

No one objected, but no one praised it either.

In their eyes, it was just a desperate flight, with no telling when they might be completely caught in a net.

"Hmm, let's do it this way," Yu Song finally decided. "These counties, at most the highest cultivation inspector would not exceed Refining Internal, taking them should definitely not be a problem. As for whether or not we can successfully head south, that's another story!"

"Depart, depart!"

"Quick, keep up!"

Three days later.

The group had not encountered any enemy troops along the way and arrived smoothly at the shore of Hongze River.

But soon, a serious problem lay before them.

How to cross the river!

There were no large ships here, and the number of small boats was very limited; they could only pass using the original pontoon bridges, but what to do with their warhorses then?

Now, the remnants of their left flank added up to over three thousand eight hundred men.

Among them, there were as many as two thousand five hundred horses.

These horses could not cross the pontoon bridge.

"What about the warhorses?!"

Xie Sishu asked, "These pontoons are crudely made by the common folk, one has to be careful even walking on them, they simply cannot bear the weight of warhorses. If we stay behind to rebuild a sturdy pontoon bridge, we simply don't have the time! Previously it was fine, but in a day or two at most, the enemy will discover our movements and come chasing after us!"

Chen Sansi offered a two-word answer: "Let go!"

"Let go? You're messing around!"

"General Chen, do you know how precious these warhorses are?!"

"Moreover, they are key to our ability to move quickly. You are undermining the foundation of everyone's survival!"

"This 'foundation' is undermining the path to survival! Release them, release them all! Everyone cross the river on foot!"

Chen Sansi paused for a moment: "In the future, if we need to, there might be a way to get them back!"

"General Chen, what do you mean by that?" Yu Song was puzzled, "These horses can't possibly just wait in place for us."

"Qian Xun!"

Chen Sansi called out loudly.

"Hiss—"

Qian Xun let out a piercing neigh.

The rest of the soldiers' horses, one after the other, responded, even disregarding their riders' commands, and gathered towards the White Horse.

"This..."

Everyone was astonished.

Was this White Horse some Exotic Beast, able to control their warhorses?