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

"dismount!"

Ashina's roar echoed across the wilderness.

More than 1,700 Black Wolf cavalrymen reined in their horses.

The rumble of horses' hooves on the ground gradually subsided, replaced by the sounds of armor plates clashing and weapons being drawn.

Outside Luoyan Valley, the dense crowd quickly dispersed.

The barbarian soldiers in the front row removed their round shields from their horses, while dozens of soldiers rushed towards the wagons that accompanied the army, dismantling the wagon boards, box lids, and even the wooden barrels containing grain.

In a short while, rows of simple wooden shields were erected in front of the group.

Standing behind the barricades, Tie Niu saw this scene from afar, and his excitement diminished somewhat.

"Centurion, these barbarians have learned their lesson."

Xu Qingshan stood halfway up the mountain, his gaze fixed on Ashina.

"Three hundred people have died. If we still can't learn this, the Black Wolf Tribe won't have survived to this day."

"What should we do then?"

"Keep killing."

Tie Niu grinned widely, and his words reassured everyone.

Outside the valley, Ashina rode on his black horse, his face grim as he looked into the valley.

The valley was filled with the corpses of three hundred vanguard soldiers.

The fallen warhorses pressed down on the barbarian soldiers, some still breathing and groaning in pain in the mud.

Behind the corpse were pits and trenches.

Further ahead lies the barricade set up by Xu Qingshan.

Ashina stared at the pits for a moment, then said coldly, "Drag the corpses over here."

The lieutenant was slightly taken aback.

"leader?"

"I said, drag the body over here and fill in the ditch in front."

The lieutenant's expression changed.

Those were all warriors from the Black Wolf tribe.

According to the customs of the grasslands, the fallen warriors should be brought back to their tribe for burial, so that their souls may return to the embrace of the Eternal Heaven.

Filling ditches with corpses prevents the dead from resting in peace and chills the hearts of the living.

Ashina turned his head and looked at him with a cold gaze.

"Can't understand?"

The lieutenant shivered and quickly lowered his head.

"I understand."

The order was quickly passed down.

Hundreds of barbarian soldiers entered the valley entrance, dragging corpses and dead horses from the ground, and headed towards the pit ahead.

Some of the bodies were people they knew.

A young barbarian soldier, dragging his elder brother by the legs, his eyes red-rimmed, tried to stop several times.

The centurion next to him kicked him in the back.

"hurry up!"

The young barbarian soldier gritted his teeth and continued forward.

boom!

The body was thrown into the pit.

Then, another horse died.

Blood seeped from the pit, turning the surrounding snow a dark red.

Halfway up the mountain, Hou San's lips twitched as he watched.

"That Ashina is really ruthless; he just throws away the corpses of his own people like that."

Tie Niu snorted.

"Barbarians don't even care about the living, so why would they care about the dead?"

Xiao Hongluan stood behind the barricades, coldly watching the valley entrance.

"He wanted to pave a path with corpses, then have the infantry advance with shields. Ballistae are too slow to reload. As long as they can get to the barricades, their numbers will overwhelm them."

Tie Niu turned his head to look at the mountainside.

"Centurion, shall we shoot or not?"

Xu Qingshan shook his head.

"Let them fill it out first."

Tie Niu was taken aback.

"Are you really going to let them fill it in?"

"If we don't fill it in, how will they all get in?"

Hou San understood and chuckled twice.

"The centurion is still the worst."

Xu Qingshan glanced at him.

"Can't you speak properly?"

"I'm complimenting you."

"That doesn't sound like it."

The barbarian soldiers at the valley entrance continued to carry away the corpses.

The bodies were thrown into the pit, and then wooden planks and frozen soil were laid on top.

The valley, which was originally full of traps, gradually revealed a crooked path of blood.

Ashina kept his eyes fixed on the rock walls on both sides.

He didn't raise his scimitar until the first pit was almost filled in.

"Shield formation, advance!"

woo-

A somber horn sounded.

Three hundred barbarian soldiers raised round shields and wooden planks, forming a thick shield wall at the mouth of the valley.

The archers behind them drew their bows and aimed at the hillsides on both sides through the gaps in the shield wall.

Hundreds of pairs of animal hide boots sank into the bloody mud.

The infantry began to move forward slowly.

Boom!

Boom!

Boom!

The footsteps were synchronized, and the valley floor seemed to tremble slightly in response.

As the shield formation drew ever closer, Tie Niu gripped his heavy axe tighter.

"These barbarians are marching in pretty good formation."

Zhou Laoqi stood to the side and said irritably, "You'd better be just as energetic when we start chopping later."

Iron Bull straightened his chest.

"When have I ever lacked energy?"

"The last time I got drunk, I clung to a horse's leg and cried for my mother."

Tie Niu's face darkened.

"That's from when the horse kicked me; it hurt!"

Several soldiers around him almost burst out laughing.

Xiao Hongluan turned around and gave her a cold glance.

"Shut up, prepare to fight."

The valley floor fell silent immediately.

As the shield formation entered the range of the ballistae, Ashina suddenly swung his sword.

"Archers, hold down the hillside!"

hum!

Hundreds of arrows were launched into the air simultaneously.

A dense rain of arrows swept over the shield formation and fell towards the mountainside on both sides.

"Get down!"

Xu Qingshan shouted loudly.

The soldiers beside the ballistae quickly shrank behind the rocks and wooden shields.

The arrows struck the stone wall, making a dense clanging sound.

Arrows also slipped through the gaps, and a soldier responsible for cranking the winch was hit in the shoulder and fell backward.

The people next to him quickly pulled him away.

Qin Yuenu rushed over with two women and cut open the clothes on his shoulders.

"The arrow isn't in very deep, hold him down!"

The wounded soldier gritted his teeth, cold sweat quickly beading on his forehead.

Xu Qingshan glanced at it, then turned his attention back to the bottom of the valley.

We can't afford to feel sorry for them now; if the shield array gets close, even more people will get hurt.

He raised his right hand, his voice drowning out the footsteps in the valley.

"The first ballista, the centurion holding the flag on the left front."

"The second one, the one in the middle of the shield formation wearing a wolf helmet."

"Third position, bugler in the back row."

The soldiers responsible for calibrating the direction quickly adjusted the ballistae.

The iron winch slowly tightened.

The crossbow arm made a "squeaking" sound.

At the bottom of the valley, a barbarian centurion held up a black wolf banner and kept urging the shield formation to move forward.

"Hold on! The Daqian people's ballistae reload slowly. Once they get to the wooden wall, they're all dead!"

The voice just fell.

A loud shout came from halfway up the mountain.

"put!"

boom! boom! boom!

Three heavy arrows whistled down.

The crossbow bolt on the far left shattered two wooden shields, pierced the chest of the barbarian soldier behind, and slammed into the centurion.

Before the centurion could even scream, he was thrown several steps and pinned to the valley wall along with the black wolf flag.

The second heavy arrow pierced the center of the shield formation.

The wooden shields along the way instantly shattered, sending splinters of wood flying everywhere.

The centurion wearing the wolf helmet had just raised his head when a thick crossbow bolt pierced his chest, exited through his back, and knocked down several other men in succession.

The third crossbow bolt landed in the ranks of archers behind them.

The horn's upper body was torn apart on the spot.

The horn rolled into the bloody mud, making a dull thud.

The once orderly shield formation suddenly fell into disarray.

"The centurion is dead!"

"Hold on! Keep moving forward!"

"Fill the gap!"

The shouts of the barbarian soldiers rang out in unison.

Xu Qingshan looked at the swaying shield wall and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

"A large shield can block arrows, but I'd like to see if it can block people's hearts."

Hou San asked, "Continue shooting?"

"Load arrows, specifically for shooting armor-piercing heavy arrows."

"What about the ordinary barbarian soldiers?"

"Leave it to the people below."

At the bottom of the valley, Xiao Hongluan heard the order and drew her long sword from her waist.

"Archers, prepare!"

Twenty soldiers armed with repeating crossbows mounted the crossbows on the chevaux-de-frise.

The barbarian shield formation ahead is getting closer and closer.

Fifty steps.

Forty steps.

Thirty steps.

Arrows rained down in waves.

The wooden shields were riddled with arrows, and the soldiers behind the barricades began to suffer casualties.

A young soldier was shot in the chest with an arrow and fell heavily to the ground.

His comrade reached out to pull him away, but the young soldier held onto his wrist tightly.

"Don't worry about me, hold the pass!"

After saying that, he released his grip.

His companion's eyes reddened, and he gritted his teeth, raising his spear once more.

Xiao Hongluan saw it, but said nothing.

Death is common on the battlefield; all the survivors can do is kill the enemies in front of them.

"Twenty steps!"

Zhou Laoqi roared.

Behind the shield formation, dozens of barbarian soldiers carried makeshift battering rams and charged toward the first barricade.

Ashina had already seen through Xu Qingshan's plan.

Ballistae can kill people, and so can repeating crossbows.

However, once the barricades are breached, the narrow valley passage will actually restrict the Daqian defenders.

When the time comes, more than a thousand people will press forward, and if each of them steps on Xu Qingshan's men, they will be able to crush them into the mud.

Ashina rode outside the valley, staring intently ahead.

"Damn two-legged sheep, you can outmaneuver three hundred people? I'd like to see if you can hold off seventeen hundred!"

The impact wood rushed within ten paces.

Xiao Hongluan finally swung her long sword.

"shoot!"

Whoosh whoosh—

A barrage of short crossbow bolts unleashed a dense rain of arrows.

The barbarian soldiers at the front raised their shields to block, and the short arrows struck the wooden shields, producing a series of muffled thuds.

The makeshift wooden shields were quickly pierced by arrows.

Arrows pierced the barbarian soldier's arm and chest, and blood flowed continuously down the wooden plank.

But this time, they did not back down.

The people in the back row stepped on the bodies of the wounded in front and continued forward.

"Collide!"

Dozens of barbarian soldiers roared at the same time.

The thick battering ram slammed into the barricade.

boom!

The entire wooden wall shook violently.

The wooden stakes securing the chevaux-de-frise in the frozen soil made a crisp sound.

Tie Niu gripped a horizontal barricade with both hands, forcefully holding back the swaying barricade.

"Hold on, all of you!"

Spears thrust out continuously from the gaps.

Just as a barbarian soldier raised his scimitar, his throat was pierced by a spear.

The people behind pushed his body aside and raised the battering ram again.

boom!

The second impact caused it to fall.

A wooden stake was pulled out of the frozen ground.

The barricade tilted back half a foot.

Xiao Hongluan severed a hand that had slipped through the gap with a single stroke, and shouted sharply, "First row, continue attacking! Second row, prepare to fill in!"

The archers of the Black Wolf tribe were also firing arrows continuously.

Arrows rained down from above.

A soldier holding a spear was shot in the eye and fell backward into the snow.

Another person immediately took his place.

The ballistae on the mountainside roared once again.

Three barbarian officers who were directing the charge were pierced by heavy arrows.

Despite Ashina's pressure, the barbarian soldiers behind him continued to advance.

When one dies, two more are brought in to replace him.

After ten people were injured, another twenty were added.

Between the valley entrance and the barricade, the number of corpses increased.

Blood flowed into the trench, completely staining the snow at the bottom of the pit red.

The third battering rod was pushed to the front.

Dozens of elite Black Wolf warriors trampled over the corpses and simultaneously crashed into the barricades.

Boom!

A loud bang.

The thick wooden beam in the center of the first row of barricades finally gave way and snapped in the middle.

The broken wooden wall collapsed to both sides.

A gap large enough for several people to pass through appeared before the barbarian soldiers.

Ashina's eyes flashed with wild joy as he raised his scimitar and roared.

"The wooden wall is broken!"

"Charge in and kill them all!"

Hundreds of barbarian soldiers trampled over the corpses of their comrades and swarmed toward the breach.

Tie Niu gripped his heavy axe and stood at the forefront.

Xiao Hongluan suddenly raised her hand and pressed down on his shoulder.

"retreat."

Tie Niu was stunned.

"What?"

Xiao Hongluan looked at the barbarian soldiers who had already charged forward, her eyes showing no sign of panic.

"The centurion has given the order."

"Give them the first line of defense."