I rode and slashed unparalleled in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 1006 An Ominous Thought

"What?! The Han army only has half a day's journey left?!"

"How could it be so fast? Don't they ever sleep?!"

Prince Bo Diao was greatly alarmed, and the scout captain Amir's expression also changed drastically: "Your Highness, this is likely the demon general personally leading his army in pursuit!"

Indeed, they clearly hadn't expected Su Yao's army to have started a non-stop forced march.

Princess Samira gripped her brother's arm tightly: "Brother, hurry! It'll be too late if we don't leave now!"

"No, we can't just leave like this!"

The mentor, Fathe, urgently advised:

"The Han army's light cavalry will launch a surprise attack; no matter how fast we are, we can't outrun them."

"The only option now is to leave a rearguard to ambush them using the mountain terrain as cover!"

Prince Bo Diao agreed that this was indeed the case.

Their army of 50,000 was a mixed formation of infantry, cavalry, and elephants, and they also carried carts full of supplies. They couldn't win a race against them.

Rather than fleeing in panic, it would be better to deploy some slow-moving infantry to ambush in the mountains, taking advantage of the terrain and their equipment and supplies.

If they could win another minor victory, their withdrawal would be even safer.

Prince Bodiao had thought of this, and General Bahar, who was also a veteran of many battles, clearly had as well.

He stepped forward and slammed his fist on his chest: "Prince! Leave the rearguard duty to me!"

"Give me an army, and I will protect you and the princess with my life. As long as I live, I will never let the Han people cross this land!"

Prince Bodhi gazed at his childhood friend, a flicker of reluctance crossing his eyes, but in the end, he patted Bahar heavily on the shoulder:

"Good brother, I entrust my back to you, but I won't let you die. Just do your best to delay."

Bahar grinned, glanced at the stunned princess beside him, and replied, "Your Highness, rest assured, I know what I'm doing."

"Wait, is this Prince Bobo really that cowardly?"

"How did it run away again???"

Half a day later, north of Pengikent.

Looking at the burning city before him and the distraught people kneeling and weeping outside the walls, Su Yao said with a displeased expression.

To be honest, after reading the information, Su Yao discovered that this prince had the potential to become an emperor, and he was really looking forward to having a good fight with him and wiping him out in one fell swoop.

Therefore, Su Yao dispatched two armies simultaneously, aiming to trap him on the grasslands of Kangju.

To everyone's surprise, the prince, who had fought countless battles and won every single one of them, didn't even bother to fight him. After the war started, he just kept fleeing and left him with a burning city.

This is going to be a big problem.

If he continued walking, his map became useless; all that lay ahead was a fog of war, making it impossible to see where his enemy was.

However, if we stop here and make a big fuss, although we may have accomplished the task of subjugating Dayuan and Kangju, the result would only be the killing of a Kushan general, which would feel like something is missing.

Especially now that he has broken through his limits, Su Yao feels that in addition to gaining powerful strength, his need for experience points has also increased.

That's right, even in his normal state, he now needs to consume experience to maintain it, which is simply outrageous!
Instinctively, Su Yao felt that he was still missing something.

Su Yao gradually realized that the experience values ​​marked on the system were essentially a kind of energy. Therefore, under the rule of conservation of mass, he would naturally need more energy to exert his powerful strength.

Therefore, Su Yao would put himself into an energy-saving state unless necessary, in order to conserve energy.

However, simply cutting costs is not enough.

Especially after these past two days of relentless pursuit, he had consumed a great deal of energy and urgently needed to replenish it to alleviate the immediate crisis. At the same time, Su Yao also had a feeling that he needed to learn a more scientific or even more profound way to control the flow of energy within his body.

Ideally, it would be like the internal cultivation techniques learned by cultivators in fantasy novels, which improve energy utilization efficiency.

Otherwise, relying solely on brute force is ultimately not a long-term solution.

To this end, Su Yao even sent people to consult ancient books and collect training methods to see if there was anything he could learn from.

But that's all for later. The most pressing issue right now is to do a good job with open source and accumulate some experience points to calm our nerves.

"Kill them. Kill all of them."

In an instant, a thought flashed through Su Yao's mind, startling him.

Is this my opinion?

No, although killing people does indeed provide a lot of experience, but... killing unarmed civilians who have just lost their homes?
Even if they are of a different race, that's still too beastly.
"Your Highness? Are you alright?"

Zhang Liao suddenly spoke up. He frowned, glanced at Su Yao's expression, and slowly said, "You don't look too good. Why don't you rest for a bit?"

Su Yao shook his head, dispelling the jumbled thoughts that had been swirling in his mind, and gave the order:

"No need. Order the entire army to leave 3,000 men to rest and await further orders, and the rest of you to immediately fight the fire and rescue the people in the city!"

Although the tactical map was unusable, fortunately Su Yao still had a group of surrendered Kushan generals under his command.

These people were from the south and were unfamiliar with the northern terrain, so they were not qualified to serve as guides in the system. However, they were still able to explain the basic geography to him.

This city was an important stronghold for the southward advance, and Su Yao could not allow it to be destroyed by fire. So he immediately ordered the fire to be put out, and at the same time, he sent the surrendered soldiers and generals to comfort the frightened people.

Thanks to the dry climate of Central Asia, the houses here are not mostly made of wood like those in the Central Plains. After half a day of burning, most of the flammable materials had been burned away. In addition, the city is located next to a river.

With the concerted efforts of thousands of homeless residents and more than 5,000 Han soldiers, the fire in the city was finally extinguished by nightfall, leaving only a few scattered sparks.

"Your Highness, the fire is basically under control, but most of the houses in the city have been destroyed, and the granaries have long been burned to the ground." Zhang Liao walked over quickly and reported the situation to Su Yao.

Standing atop the city wall, Su Yao gazed at the devastated city and shook his head slightly: "What is the situation regarding casualties?"

"According to preliminary statistics, Pengikent had a population of 12,000, of which nearly 4,000 have died in the fire and under the swords of the Kushan army," Zhang Liao said with a heavy expression. "And these survivors are basically all homeless, and their food has naturally been stolen or burned by the Kushans."

"That's it."

Su Yao nodded slowly.

Naturally, all they got was a ruin and more than 8,000 starving people.

"How much military rations do we have left?" Su Yao asked.

“Your Highness,” Lu Su stepped forward and said, “we have two days’ worth of rations left.”

"Then let's distribute them to them, figure out the rations, and get through tonight first."

Looking at the shimmering river under the moonlight, Su Yao slowly said:

"Wait until tomorrow, then mobilize the people to fish and hunt, and hold out until our rear guard arrives."

"How...how can this be allowed?!"

Before Lu Su and Zhang Liao could speak, the general Gui Shuangjiang, who had understood Su Yao's meaning, was stunned.

"We changed course halfway and traveled day and night. The rear guard will still need four days to arrive. If we distribute these rations, our own soldiers will go hungry."

"Moreover, Prince Botiao fled in haste, and the burning of the city was an attempt to make us stop here!"

"Your Majesty, the Heavenly God, are benevolent and love your people. We are sincerely convinced of your kindness, but we must not fall into his treacherous scheme and miss this opportunity!"

(End of this chapter)