Endless Winter: My Camp Infinite Upgrades

Chapter 557 Caiqiu's defeat, what kind of rebel army is this?
On the third day of the first month of the 300th year of the Caiqiu calendar, in the first half of the night...
"Faster, faster, even faster! Don't dawdle!"

"Speed ​​up the march! Those behind, catch up quickly! Hurry, hurry, hurry!"

"Dump all the supplies you're carrying and speed up!"

………………

On the north side of the Bone-Eroding Path, about twenty kilometers from the exit, more than a hundred Xianyang-class soldiers from Caiqiu were hovering in mid-air, constantly shouting and urging the soldiers below to speed up their march.

A closer look reveals that the army below was actually marching quite fast, but the generals in the sky were still dissatisfied, urging them on with loud shouts and obvious signs of impatience.

"The Xia army has caught up. One hundred thousand troops, judging from their armor, they are the most elite soldiers from the previous battle. They are only twenty kilometers away from here. We must speed up. Once they catch up, our one hundred and fifty thousand troops will be in danger!"

Above the army, Cai Qiuhu turned his head to look behind him. Recalling the messages that had just been sent back by several groups of scouts, his face turned extremely grim.

"Defeated! Defeated! Two hundred and thirty thousand Xia troops actually managed to stop the advance of my Caiqiu army? How is this possible..."

Recalling the nearly three-hour battle, Cai Qiuhu was still unable to calm down, and his mind was still somewhat dazed.

How could a mere town-level camp possibly contend with the army of a powerful warlord?
The strength of the Great Xia has already defied expectations!
Why are there only four vassal states and no town-level camps in the entire Mo'aochuan region?

Because if a town-level camp had no geographical boundaries, it would have no chance of survival if it appeared in front of a regional military governor.

The minimum population requirement for a town-level camp is 100,000, while that for a vassal state is 10 million. A town-level camp only needs a Manifestation Yang level expert to be in charge, while a vassal state needs a Tribulation Body level expert, and top-tier vassal states even have Venerable Minister level experts!
"Where did the problem lie? The fourteen Beast King-level puppets? No, those fourteen Beast King-level puppets didn't have much impact on the battle between the two armies; the ban on trickery means neither army can use it, so that's not it either; ultimately, it's the strength of the Great Xia army that's enough to rival my Cai Qiu army. Their weapons, bows and crossbows, armor, and elixirs are in no way inferior to ours, their morale is even higher than ours, and their battle formations and tactics can almost crush our army..."

Cai Qiuhu quickly figured out the reasons for his failure, his pupils filled with gloom.

His early appointment as a junior regional governor by his father, Cai Qianshan, was certainly commendable. Cai Qiu's defeat in the south had certainly thrown him into disarray, but the die was cast, and there was no point in dwelling on it. The most crucial thing was to analyze the reasons for the failure and prepare for the next confrontation with the Great Xia.

"Your subordinate greets Young Master Fang. More than 80,000 rebel troops have already gathered at the north exit. According to reports from scouts, there is still a steady stream of rebels gathering in this direction from Changqing Valley. The situation is dire!"

As Cai Qiuhu was reflecting on his situation, a figure suddenly sped over from the north. The person looked very anxious. Upon seeing him, the person bowed and immediately began to speak.

Upon hearing the news, Cai Qiuhu's cheeks flushed crimson, and his emotions, which had just calmed down, began to fluctuate violently again.

"What is Cai Yunzhou good for? Useless, useless, useless! How has he managed Evergreen Valley? Frostfire will rebel! Rebel! I will definitely remove him from his position as city lord! Useless, this useless piece of trash..."

Cai Yunzhou, the city lord of Qinghua City, is a third-generation member of the Cai family. According to seniority, he is Cai Qiuhu's nephew. The fact that he could curse so vehemently shows how angry Cai Qiuhu is at this moment.

"Young Master Fang, a few rebels, they should be fine..."

"Are you alright?"

Upon hearing the words of advice from one of his subordinates on the flank, Cai Qiuhu sneered and retorted, then continued angrily, "How many people at the Cold Resistance level can Changqing Valley, a place that can't even sustain a supply of beast meat, possibly have? How could they possibly have the ability to rebel on their own?"

Upon hearing this, several people around were slightly taken aback, and after pondering for a moment, their expressions changed.

"Does Uncle Fang mean that the Frost Ashes Society headquarters in Chencang is secretly plotting something?"

"There is a very high probability that as soon as we start a war with the Great Xia, Chen Tianyang will immediately send troops from Heyang to attack Linchu County. The people of Changqing Valley, why did they have to rebel now? Think about it with your toes, how could they do it without the support of foreign vassals?"

Everyone fell silent, and their expressions gradually turned grim.

The Frost Ashes Society was essentially a product of the resistance of all the lower-level members of the four domains of Mo'ao River, but the direct cause of its formation was the internal strife in Chencang, which is also the core reason why this organization arose from Chencang.

The biggest backer of the Frost Ashes Society is Chen Liwu, the Commander of Chencang. The reason why the Society has been able to grow and thrive in Chencang over the years and has never been wiped out by Chu Longteng is because of the existence of Chen Liwu, its powerful backer.

The rebellion in Changqing Valley was carried out under the banner of the Frost Ash Society, so it's quite normal for Cai Qiuhu to attribute the rebellion to Chen Cang's secret machinations.

After the major defeat at the southern entrance of the Bone-Eating Path, Fangbo Cai Qianshan originally returned with the army, but they had not traveled far north when an urgent request for reinforcements from Linchu County arrived.

It turned out that while they were engaged in fierce fighting with the Xia army, Chen Tianyang, the lord of Pingyang City in Chencang, personally led an army of 150,000 men eastward from Heyang. In less than three hours, they captured seven camps in Yanling County and their advance was directly threatening the county seat.

It was then that they saw panic on Fangbo Cai Qianshan's face for the first time in their lives. He only ordered Cai Qiuhu to lead the army back north quickly, and then he took Lin Chu County Prefect Cai Qiuyang and five other Tribulation Realm experts and flew directly towards Lin Chu County City.

At that moment, everyone could understand the panic on Fang Bo's face.

After all, it was an operation in foreign lands. For Cai Qiu, the defeat in the battle against the Great Xia was more of a loss of face. Apart from losing some soldiers, the actual losses were not significant.

But when the Chencang army arrived, the situation changed completely.

Not to mention that Chencang has already captured seven large camps in Linchu County, and now the army has even besieged the county seat, the mere mention of Chencang puts pressure on Caiqiu that is completely incomparable to that of the Great Xia.

Who among the Three Feudatories didn't know Chen Cang's ambitions?
It wouldn't be a problem if it were just ambition, but the key is that Chen Cang also has the strength!

Especially in recent decades, Chencang's military strength has grown stronger, Chu Longteng has made fewer and fewer moves, and his strength has become increasingly unpredictable. This has made the Three Feudatories more and more wary of Chencang.

No matter how strong the Great Xia is, it is still separated by Mount Mo'ao. Moreover, with the current strength of the Great Xia, it does not even have the qualifications to make Chen Cang feel threatened.

Therefore, when Fang Bo Cai Qianshan heard that the Chencang army was coming, he only showed a moment of panic on his face, but Cai Qiuhu and the others were genuinely shaken.

The key issue is that they can't figure out whether Chen Cang is here to make a quick profit or to wage a full-scale war against Cai Qiu.

If a full-scale war were to be planned, Cai Qiu would immediately seek aid from the two vassal states of Weibo and Hezang. This is the real reason why Fangbo Cai Qianshan was in such a hurry to go to Linchu County.

"There's another guess..."

Just as everyone's minds were racing, Cai Qiuhu spoke again.

He turned his head and glanced behind him, his face grim. "If the rebellion in Changqing Valley wasn't caused by Chen Cang, but by the Great Xia, then we're in big trouble!"

"how is this possible?"

"Great Xia, could they really cause something this big?"

"impossible!"

………………

As soon as he finished speaking, several people around him immediately exclaimed that it was impossible.

"I told you, it's just a guess! If this guess is true, and Great Xia can wage war against us while simultaneously creating such a huge disturbance in the rear, then it proves that Great Xia's infiltration of Caiqiu began a long time ago, and we were completely unaware of it!"

Hearing this, everyone's expressions remained full of disbelief. To be honest, although they had a preliminary understanding of the Xia army's combat strength, in the minds of many present, the Great Xia still did not hold a very important position. At least compared to Chencang, the Great Xia was nothing.

"Young Master Fang is overthinking it. Xia Hong was seriously injured in his battle with you, and he should be unable to fight now. If our army's morale hadn't been so low, we could have easily wiped out the 100,000 Xia troops by now. Why should we worry about this mere rebel force from Changqing Valley?"

"It will only take us half an hour to leave the valley. The rebels currently number only over 80,000, most of whom are at the Earth Digging Realm. Even if their numbers double to 160,000 in half an hour, they will be nothing more than chickens and dogs to our 150,000-strong army, and can be defeated in an instant."

"The scouts just said that Xia Jun has brought supplies. It will take them at least half an hour to catch up after we leave the Bone-Eating Path. Those rebels can't possibly hold us off for half an hour!"

........................

That's right!

The best news right now is probably what my father and uncle Cai Qianshan said when they left: Xia Hong was seriously injured when he fought him and will not be able to fight again for a while.

Cai Qiuhu let out a slight sigh of relief and nodded, saying, "Then urge the army to continue to speed up. Our army has just suffered a defeat and it is not advisable to fight the Xia army again in the short term. We should march quickly to the north exit of the Bone-Eating Road, clear out the rebels first, and then turn back to block the Xia army."

One major reason why Caiqiu suffered such a crushing defeat in the previous battle at the southern exit was that they were the attackers. The Xia army started with 23 defenders, and by the time Caiqiu broke through the valley for the sixth time, they had added 15 more Earth-Digging Realm cultivators. Regardless of cultivation level, the total strength of the Xia army as the defenders had reached 38.

Previously, Cai Qiuhu had analyzed so many reasons, but he had not mentioned the difference in troop strength between the two sides. The reason was that he disdained it. In his view, it was normal for Da Xia to have a numerical advantage in troops when fighting against Cai Qiu with the strength of a town-level camp.

If Cai Qiu were willing to send 38 troops to fight, even if the Great Xia had extraordinary abilities, it would undoubtedly lose!
"Speed ​​up the march, reach the north exit within fifteen minutes..."

Cai Qiuhu roused himself slightly and gave orders to his generals in a stern voice.

Upon hearing the sound, the generals immediately landed near the army and continued to urge the soldiers to march.

........................

Just as Cai Qiu's army accelerated its march.

The northern exit of the Bone-Eating Path was already overflowing with people.

The valley entrance, which is only a hundred meters wide, is now crowded with tens of thousands of laborers, three layers deep. Most of them are unarmored, and all they carry are iron chisels and shovels. If you look closely, you will find that almost nine out of ten of them have a look of bewilderment on their faces, clearly not knowing why they have gathered here.

Behind the laborers' procession, in a simple tent, Su Jing strode in with a somber expression. Upon seeing his younger sister, Su Xing'er, at the head of the group, he immediately said in a deep voice, "Currently, only 12 people have arrived in total, and less than 3000 of them are at the Cold Resistance level. The rest of the people are arriving sporadically, and it is estimated that at most only about 3 people will arrive in half an hour."

Upon hearing this, Su Xing'er's expression immediately darkened.

She wasn't the only one in the tent; there were more than a dozen other people. They all looked very young, the oldest appearing to be under thirty, and the youngest only in their early twenties.

"The strength of Changqing Valley is indeed a bit weak. 15 people, which is comparable to the remnants of Cai Qiu's army, but there are at most 3000 Yuhan-level soldiers, while we don't even have a single Xianyang-level soldier. How can we fight them?"

Among the dozen or so people standing on the flank, a sharp-looking young man stepped forward and spoke. Seeing everyone's gaze fixed on him, he made no attempt to hide the gloom between his brows and continued, "Don't look at me. We really can't fight. You've all seen the strength of the rebel forces that have gathered from various places. Let's not even talk about weapons, bows and arrows, armor, elixirs, and other external means. There's no talk of military formations or battlefield discipline. Even the commanders of each army were temporarily selected. Expecting them to obey orders is out of the question. With these 15 men, let alone blocking the exit, I'm afraid we can't even stop a single charge from the remnants of Cai Qiu's army..."

The young man who spoke was none other than Chen Ping, the eldest son of Chen Ying, the commander of the Iron Eagle Army. The dozen or so young men around him were all from Xia, including Xiang Liang, Chen Shang, Qin Zhan, Qin Feng, Liu Ming, Xiahou Ning, Qin Wuxin, Liu Yu, Murong Qian, He Qiufeng, Jiang Yifan, and others.

At this moment, Chen Ping felt a little regretful.

He was originally a captain of the Ninth Battalion of the Iron Eagle Army. During this Northern Expedition, the Iron Eagle Army, led by his father Chen Ying, was assigned to Yuwen Tao's Right Route Army. He was originally supposed to join the army in the campaign.

Before the battle, Commander-in-Chief Yuwen Tao began planning to cause trouble behind Caiqiu. He had a group of men transferred from the army to Changqing Valley in advance to cooperate with the Frost Ash Society, namely Su Xing'er and her three companions, to plan the uprising.

A total of thirty people were sent, including Chen Ping.

Since leaving Jinyang, the right wing army had not fought any major battles and had taken half of Jinshan's territory without bloodshed. It was for this reason that Chen Ping was worried that he would not be able to gain any military merits after this battle, so he volunteered to come to Changqing Valley.

As night fell, a Xia scout came and told them the latest news from the south: Yuwen Tao's right wing army had won two brilliant battles at the pass and the city of Jinyang, and with the Caiqiu army suffering a crushing defeat at the southern exit at dawn, the situation on the southern slopes had become completely clear.

Chen Ping had just heard the news yesterday when he began to regret it.

If he hadn't come here, he would have been able to participate in the three major battles at the pass, Jinyang, and the southern entrance.

Hearing that the three leaders were all present, how could he not regret missing such a rare opportunity to perform?
This is only one aspect; the bigger problem right now is even more unsolvable.

With the cooperation of these people, the people of Changqing Valley successfully revolted, and Su Xing'er actually raised a rebel army of up to 200,000 people.

Chen Ping was in charge of the uprising on one section of the road south of Changqing Valley. The rebel army he led numbered more than 10,000. When he saw that there were only more than 300 cold-weather wardens in the civilian labor force, he realized that something was wrong. However, he thought that it was only because the area he was in charge of was too weak, and that the rebel armies in other places should be stronger.

But when night fell, he led his troops to the north exit and joined up with the rebel forces that others had gathered, and he was immediately dumbfounded.

Of the 200,000 rebels, 120,000 have arrived so far. Among them, the number of those at the Cold Protection level is less than 3000. The rest are mainly at the Lumberjacking level, with the Digging level making up about 20% to 30%.

What kind of anti-military behavior is this?
According to the scout, Cai Qiu's army is extremely powerful, and if they were to engage in a direct battle, they would most likely be stronger than the Xia army.

Even though they had just suffered a defeat, they still had a full 150,000 remnants of their army. It was wishful thinking to think that these 150,000 laborers with shovels and chisels could block Cai Qiu's army in the Bone-Eating Pass.

How can this be?

"Why are you panicking? No matter how strong Cai Qiu is, what we are facing right now is just a remnant army that has just suffered a defeat. Didn't Xiao Heng say before that Yuwen Sizheng's army is following behind? We don't need to block them for long. We just need to hold out for a while until the Xia army arrives from the rear!"

Chen Ping was scolded, and he instinctively wanted to argue back, but when he looked up and saw the person who was scolding him, he immediately shut his mouth.

It's Xiang Liang!
Of the more than 30 people Yuwen Tao sent to Changqing Valley this time, Xiang Liang was the leader, and the rest of them had to obey his orders.

The Xia army scout who came to deliver the message last night was Xiao Heng.

According to him, Yuwen Sizheng has already led 100,000 troops to pursue the remnants of Cai Qiu's army. If the Xia army can arrive in time, defeating Cai Qiu's 150,000 remnants will not be difficult.

The question is, how long will it take for Xia Jun to arrive?
Can these 150,000 laborers hold out until the Xia army arrives?
Not only Chen Ping, but everyone else in the tent, whether from the Great Xia or Su Xing'er and her three siblings, clearly did not look optimistic.

"Miss Su, don't worry. Cai Qiu's army has just suffered a defeat, and their 150,000 men are already like frightened birds. We don't need to fight them head-on; we just need to find a way to hold them off!"

Only Xiang Liang, who had just reprimanded Chen Ping, still had a fighting spirit on his face.

Upon hearing this, the others immediately regarded him as their pillar of support, turning to look at him, and a fighting spirit rose slightly in their hearts.

"Half an hour is enough for us to plan. First, we need to get the rebels in order. We need to gather all the armor and distribute it to the stronger men. The laborers have chisels and shovels, right? Have them start digging several deep trenches at the mouth of the valley right now. We need to find a way to bring water from the surrounding areas. If there's no water, we need to pile up coal, rocks, and dry branches in the trenches. In short, we must stop this remnant army at all costs..."

(End of this chapter)