If I made you cannon fodder, how did you manage to achieve your goal of conquering the wolf's l

A fierce wind howled, carrying with it a flurry of snowflakes that ravaged the desert.

Fifty Daqian "cavalrymen" drove over a hundred captured, ownerless warhorses, galloping across the snowfield like a black torrent.

Horse hooves pounded the frozen snow, kicking up plumes of white snow mist.

Several miles behind them, the Black Wolf tribe's front-line camp had been transformed into a towering sea of ​​fire, the dazzling flames even turning half the night sky a dark red.

However, the barbarians reacted faster than expected.

"Centurion! A tail is biting us!" Hou San, who was in charge of bringing up the rear, straightened up on his horse and shouted a warning against the cold wind.

Xu Qingshan turned his head slightly and glanced behind him.

Through the heavy snow and wind, one could vaguely see more than a hundred dark figures breaking away from the edge of the sea of ​​fire, chasing after the chaotic hoofprints left by the horses.

Although these barbarian soldiers had lost their commander, the sight of their home being burned had ignited a bloodlust in their eyes, and they were determined to tear the raiding Daqian people to shreds.

"The distance is still closing. Their horses aren't carrying anything, so they're running faster than us." Old Zhou gripped his long steel sword tightly, his tone grave.

Tonight was the first time the soldiers of the Great Qian Dynasty were riding these grassland warhorses, and with the added distraction of driving the herd, their speed was naturally greatly reduced.

If this momentum continues, they will only be able to run another five miles at most before being overtaken by the barbarian cavalry behind them.

Being caught up by hundreds of enraged barbarian cavalrymen on the plains was nothing short of a one-sided massacre for these fifty inexperienced recruits.

Xu Qingshan remained calm, showing no sign of panic.

He turned to look at Aman, who was leading the way at the very front of the group.

"Aman, lead the way to the underground river!"

Aman nodded, pressed his body tightly against the horse's back, and pulled on the reins with both hands.

The horse caravan, which was originally fleeing due south, was led by her to make a sharp turn on the snowfield and head towards a low-lying area in the southeast.

Seeing this, the barbarian pursuers behind them did not hesitate to change direction and continue to relentlessly pursue them.

The distance between the two sides was constantly decreasing, and occasionally a few stray arrows were shot from behind, landing in the snow around the group.

"Raise your crossbows! Fire back!"

At Xu Qingshan's command, Hou San and ten other crossbowmen immediately turned around on their horses and leveled their repeating crossbows.

collapse!collapse!collapse!

A volley of steel short arrows pierced the air, and the three barbarian soldiers at the forefront fell from their horses. However, this minor casualty did not stop the barbarian soldiers' advance; instead, it aroused their even greater ferocity.

In a chase, the two teams resembled a pack of wolves running wildly across a snowy plain.

Before long, a vast, seemingly flat and open snowfield appeared ahead, its surface completely covered with snow, indistinguishable from the surrounding wilderness.

Ah Man suddenly slowed down his horse and made a hand gesture to the rear.

"Slow down! Follow Ah Man's hoofprints, don't deviate even a step!" Xu Qingshan's voice, delivered clearly by his dantian, reached the ears of every soldier.

The Daqian army immediately regrouped. Fifty cavalrymen and the herd of unclaimed warhorses, led by Aman, carefully traversed the edge of a slightly protruding rock on the right, following the edge of the flat snowfield.

The hundred or so barbarian soldiers pursuing them saw the Daqian army slow down and assumed that the enemy was running out of steam, so they let out excited howls.

Unaware of anything amiss, and in order to shorten the distance as quickly as possible, the barbarian soldiers did not choose to take a detour, but instead rode straight into the flat and open snowfield.

Hundreds of warhorses galloped at the same time, their enormous weight pressing down on the seemingly solid snow.

next interest.

Snap—click-click-click!

A series of crisp cracking sounds rang out beneath the hooves of the barbarian cavalry, a sound that sent chills down the spine across the desolate wasteland.

That wasn't a flat snowfield at all, but a wide underground river with a frozen surface and covered with snow!

The ice surface, which was originally able to withstand the movement of a single person, finally exceeded its limit under the trampling of more than a hundred fully armed warhorses, and large areas of the ice began to crack and collapse.

"A glacier! It's a glacier!"

The barbarian soldiers at the forefront cried out in despair, desperately trying to pull on the reins. But the warhorses, propelled by inertia, were unable to stop and stumbled into the air.

With a huge splash and the sound of ice shattering, dozens of barbarian soldiers in the front row, along with their horses, fell into the icy, dark river.

Immediately afterwards, the cavalry behind them had no time to dodge and crashed into them one after another, plunging the entire pursuing force into catastrophic chaos.

The underground river's current is not rapid, but in the dead of winter, the water temperature is enough to steal a person's body temperature in an instant.

The barbarian soldiers who fell into the icy river thrashed violently in the water, but their heavy leather armor became incredibly heavy after absorbing water, dragging them straight to the bottom.

The neighing of warhorses and the cries for help from those who had fallen into the water mingled together.

The few dozen barbarian soldiers who had managed to stop at the edge of the icy river were terrified when they saw the collapsed ice hole in front of them. They lost all thought of pursuing the enemy and hurriedly turned their horses around and retreated.

A deadly pursuit was thus averted by a hidden terrain feature.

On the snow-covered hill, Xu Qingshan reined in his horse, turned back to look at the enemy soldiers struggling in the dark river, his eyes indifferent.

"Well done, Ah Man." Xu Qingshan nodded approvingly.

Without the grassland girl leading the way, it would have been extremely difficult for these fifty people to escape unscathed tonight.

"Keep going, don't stop." Xu Qingshan did not linger there and led the team back into the snowstorm.

Having escaped danger, the team's pace gradually stabilized.

The gale gradually subsided, and the swirling snowflakes gradually turned into scattered snowflakes. At the horizon, a faint gray-white hue appeared before dawn.

Just then, a series of long-lost, crisp notification sounds rang out in Xu Qingshan's mind.

[Ding! Successfully raided the enemy's supply camp at night, burning a large amount of grain and supplies, significantly weakening the enemy's combat power.]

[Military merit settlement complete, Military merit +80.]

[One heavily armored barbarian lieutenant general has been killed.]

[Military merit settlement complete, Military merit +30.]

[One hundred and twenty excellent warhorses from the grasslands were captured.]

[Military merit settlement complete, Military merit +40.]

[Current accumulated military merits: 155 points.]

Looking at the long string of numbers flashing on the panel, Xu Qingshan's heart beat slightly faster.

One hundred and fifty-five military merits!

This was an unprecedented windfall. In this border region where human life was as cheap as grass, military merit was equivalent to strength and the means to survive.

Without any hesitation, Xu Qingshan opened the system's exchange interface directly from horseback.

Having experienced tonight's raid, he knew all too well the terrifying dominance of barbarian cavalry in open terrain. With these warhorses in hand, Blackrock Fortress's biggest need was how to train these foot soldiers, who only knew how to fight on foot, into a true cavalry force.

His eyes swept across the redemption list, and he quickly locked onto his target.

[Exchange: "Elite Cavalry Combat Guide". Requires 40 Military Merit Points.]

[Exchange: Intermediate Physique Enhancement. Requires 80 Military Merits.]

"exchange."

As the order was issued, 120 military merit points were deducted.

The next moment, a vast and complex flood of memories rushed into Xu Qingshan's mind like a tidal wave.

Regarding the breeding of warhorses, the essentials of mounted archery, the charging and flanking maneuvers of cavalry phalanxes, and how to use repeating crossbows for suppressive fire from horseback...

All the knowledge merged into one in an instant, as if he were born a seasoned cavalry commander.

With this outline and Xiao Hongluan's training methods, he was confident that he could build a highly lethal light cavalry force in the shortest possible time.

Immediately following this was an even more dramatic change.

A surge of scorching warmth suddenly appeared in Xu Qingshan's dantian.

This warm current was far greater than any before. It traveled along his meridians throughout his body, constantly nourishing and tempering his bones, muscles, and internal organs.

Xu Qingshan felt a series of slight cracking sounds from his joints, and the fatigue he had accumulated from the repeated battles was swept away.

His breathing became longer and deeper, and each heartbeat seemed to contain the powerful force of a war drum.

At this moment, the cold wind blowing outside no longer made me feel the slightest bit cold.

A physical transformation, transcending the mundane.

Xu Qingshan clenched his fist, feeling the thunderous power in his palm.

If he was merely an elite soldier with exceptional fighting skills before, now, after undergoing the baptism of intermediate physical enhancement, he has officially stepped into the threshold of a martial artist, possessing the ability to slay generals and seize flags amidst a vast army.

The soldiers around him did not notice the astonishing transformation that had taken place on the centurion's back. They only felt that the upright figure in front of him seemed to have become more composed and more unshakable.

The sky was bright.

The long snowstorm finally stopped, and a pale winter sun rose from the horizon.

At the edge of the horizon, the dilapidated yet still resilient outline of Blackstone Castle appeared on the vast white snowfield.

"Centurion, we're home!" Tie Niu pointed to the city wall ahead, grinned, his tired face filled with relief and pride at surviving the ordeal.

Fifty men, without a single casualty, burned the enemy camp, killed the enemy general, and brought back one hundred and twenty warhorses.

This was a near-perfect night raid.

"Let's go into the castle."

Xu Qingshan pulled on the reins, and the warhorse neighed loudly, quickening its pace.

He knew that bringing back these warhorses would be the turning point for Blackrock Fortress's true rise.

However, the Black Wolf tribe will not swallow this insult, and a real storm is about to break.

Meanwhile, in Bailangji, sixty miles away, Su Jinniang's caravan was about to face a bloodless and dangerous confrontation.

Everything is just beginning.