69novels Chapter 1186 Once the fight begins, it's not going to stop so easily.
Chapter 1186 Once the fight begins, it's not going to stop so easily.
Meanwhile, in the Northern Qi army's camp,
"Report!" A messenger rushed into the tent. "The Southern Qing army is assembling and looks like they're preparing to launch an attack at dawn!"
Yuwen Tuo sighed deeply: "Send the order down to the entire army to be on high alert. This battle is unavoidable."
Dawn broke again, but the sunlight today seemed tinged with blood. Driven by their rage at the destruction of their supplies, the Southern Qing army launched an attack. The Northern Qi army, fueled by a burning desire for revenge for their vanguard, charged forward head-on.
The battle was even more brutal than yesterday. The soldiers, devoid of reason, fought like wild beasts, hatred turning each into a killing machine. Li Wei led the remnants of his forces in the charge, while Yuwen Tuo personally commanded the central army. These two veteran generals fought with their utmost in this battle that should never have happened.
Gao Yao stood atop a distant hill, gazing at the blood-soaked battlefield. No one could discern his expression beneath the mask. His plan had succeeded; the border troops of the two great powers were now fighting amongst themselves, weakening each other. But was this truly what he wanted? The fallen soldiers, the shattered families…
"Sir, the plan is progressing smoothly," a henchman reported. "The two armies are locked in a deadly battle, and it's impossible for them to stop anytime soon."
Gao Yao nodded, then suddenly asked, "Tell me, what are these soldiers fighting for?"
The assassin paused for a moment: "For...for the country? For honor?"
“No,” Gao Yao slowly shook his head, “they fight for lies, for conspiracies, for enemies they don’t even know exist.”
In the distance, a Nanqing soldier was pierced through the chest by a spear, but before falling, he plunged his knife into the enemy's abdomen. The two men fell to the ground simultaneously, their blood mingling, indistinguishable from one another.
“But this is war,” Gao Yao turned away, no longer looking at the bloody battlefield, “and it’s the path we must take. Pass down the order to prepare for the second phase of the plan.”
"Yes!"
On the battlefield, Li Wei's warhorse was shot down, and he fell to the ground, a sharp pain shooting through his right leg. A Northern Qi soldier raised his sword to strike, which Li Wei barely managed to parry. In the instant their blades clashed, Li Wei saw the same fear and confusion in the other soldier's eyes.
“Why…” Li Wei asked hoarsely.
The Northern Qi soldier hesitated for a moment, his sword thrust slowing slightly. Just then, a stray arrow pierced his throat. The soldier fell, his final expression one of relief.
Li Wei struggled to his feet and looked around. The battlefield was littered with corpses, and the surviving soldiers mechanically brandished their weapons, their eyes devoid of humanity. He suddenly thought of his young son at home and his wife's tearful words of advice before he left.
"Stop!" he shouted with all his might, "Stop fighting!"
But his voice was drowned out by the clamor of the battlefield. A stray arrow struck his shoulder, and he staggered backward, only to be caught by his personal guards.
"General, you're wounded! Retreat immediately!"
Li Wei shook his head, pushed aside his personal guards, raised his sword and shouted, "Southern Qing Army, listen to my command! Cease the attack! Retreat fifty paces!"
This time, the nearby soldiers heard the order. Although confused, their long training made them instinctively obey. The Southern Qing army began to retreat, and the Northern Qi army, seeing this, also stopped their pursuit, and the two sides were once again in a stalemate.
Yuwen Tuo, observing this scene from within the formation, seemed lost in thought. He then ordered, "Sound the retreat, withdraw the troops."
Another ceasefire was declared, but this time it was a tacit agreement between the two sides. On the battlefield, the surviving soldiers began to aid the wounded, indiscriminately treating friend and foe alike. Li Wei and Yuwen Tuo walked towards the center of the battlefield almost simultaneously, meeting amidst the mountains of corpses and seas of blood.
“The timing needs to be right, just as fine wine needs time,” Gao Yao murmured to himself, his fingertips lightly tracing the seemingly ordinary longsword at his waist. He had to stop for a while—neither side's generals were fools, and too many “accidents” would inevitably arouse suspicion.
The feud between the Southern Qing and the Northern Qi can be traced back to the time when the three kingdoms were divided fifty years ago. The border between the two dynasties stretches for three thousand miles, from deserts to snow-capped mountains, from grasslands to canyons, and conflicts of all sizes break out almost every year.
This conflict had become as natural as breathing: in spring, the Southern Qing would often venture north to explore new farmland; in summer, the Northern Qi would raid south to seize water sources; in autumn, they would fight for grain and fodder; and in winter, they would fight for supplies to survive the winter. This year-after-year tug-of-war had become a ladder for the promotion of generals in both dynasties and a way for soldiers to gain military merit.
“The reason we were able to succeed so quickly this time,” Gao Yao said, turning to his follower in the shadows, “is precisely because we took advantage of these constant frictions over the years. The Southern Border gained the upper hand, and the Northern Qi was bound to retaliate; the Northern Qi gained the upper hand, and the Southern Qing was bound to be unwilling to accept it. This was a never-ending dance, and I simply gave it a gentle push at the right moment.”
The real trigger for this large-scale conflict was the emergence of a new Grandmaster. In this world, Grandmasters represent the pinnacle of individual martial prowess, each capable of influencing national strategy. This Grandmaster, who suddenly rose to prominence within the territory of Northern Qi, shattered the delicate balance maintained by the original four Grandmasters.
To prevent the Southern Qing from launching an attack while the Grandmaster's position was still unstable, the Northern Qi royal family urgently reinforced the border with 50,000 troops. Upon the movement of the border army, the Southern Qing naturally dared not be negligent and immediately dispatched 70,000 elite troops northward to confront them.
It was at this tense moment that Gao Yao made his move.
He did not choose to directly attack the main force of either side—that would be too obvious and easily seen as a provocation by a third party. Instead, he chose two seemingly insignificant targets that were enough to ignite tensions between the two sides: the vanguard reconnaissance battalion of Northern Qi and a medium-sized granary of Southern Qing.
The attack occurred at dawn shrouded in thick fog. The annihilation of the Northern Qi vanguard ignited the Northern Qi's fury, leading them to frame the Southern Qing. The Northern Qi was bound to retaliate, and almost simultaneously, an "accidental" fire broke out in the Southern Qing granary a hundred miles away. The fire spread strangely and rapidly, and the guards claimed to have seen the distinctive signal arrows of the Northern Qi "Wolf Guards."
“The losses weren’t too great, but they weren’t too small either.” Gao Yao stood on the cliff and recalled the operation that night, a cold smile curving his lips. “The losses of the vanguard battalion were still within the acceptable range for Northern Qi, but the death of the commander-in-chief’s beloved generals made the generals furious; the loss of the granaries would not affect the overall supply of Southern Qing, but it was enough to make the frontline generals feel humiliated.”
These two incidents were like sparks thrown into boiling oil, instantly igniting a long-simmering powder keg. Northern Qi generals believed Southern Qing was pushing its luck, daring to provoke them even after the initial threat of a Grandmaster; Southern Qing generals, on the other hand, believed Northern Qi was using the new Grandmaster's power to test their limits. Without receiving clear instructions from their respective courts, the border generals arbitrarily ordered retaliatory attacks.
Once the gears of war begin to turn, they are difficult to stop.