The war has finally begun again.
The entire Great Xia was shaken.
Many previously retired soldiers began to appear on the streets, with many even clamoring to go to the battlefield. Although they were unaware of the current personnel shortage, many had begun to organize themselves spontaneously.
The public had already been in an uproar following this news, and with its release, all sorts of rumors were flying.
It was as if, for a time, the entire nation was mobilizing for war.
Given the nature of the Glory Hall, such news would never have been released in the past, nor would it have been posted through official accounts. However, everything that was happening now was a consequence of the establishment of the Martial Arts Association.
Had it not been for the formation of the Martial Arts Association back then, Great Xia would not be facing a shortage of soldiers.
It was known that Great Xia had the largest number of active personnel globally. If all reserve and retired personnel were to be mobilized, the front lines would likely have been finished, and troops would already be returning home before the last person was even accounted for.
If that were the case, even people named Zhang Wei could probably form a reinforced division on their own.
The prefectural leaders of various cities were dispatched by Great Xia to appease many of the old generals. It was during this time that the prefectural leaders realized that in their respective territories, there were indeed a few retired, low-profile old generals.
After a day of appeasement, a victory report came from the east in the early hours of the morning.
King Loulan led the army, with the soldiers of the Dragon Pavilion as the main force, breaking through the enemy with 13,000 casualties, capturing the enemy's deputy general, and advancing the front line by ten kilometers.
King Loulan, as a trusted subordinate of Lin Langsheng, naturally possessed the ability to lead troops in battle. This battle was considered a vindication for him.
Concurrently, the Glory Hall released biographical information about King Loulan, detailing his many battles, including achievements that had been recorded in textbooks.
It was considered a good start.
However, defeat reports followed consecutively from the north, south, and west.
Xuan Niao led the left-wing army in an encirclement of the battlefield, but a heavy armored unit in the center of the battlefield dispersed the left-wing army. Ba Shen Tian appeared and engaged Xuan Niao, whose fate remained unknown.
The mission of encirclement was precisely to disrupt the enemy formation and create opportunities for their own side. However, the enemy was already aware of the Dragon Pavilion's tactics and had made arrangements. Under these arrangements, Xuan Niao's whereabouts were unknown, and many Dragon Pavilion soldiers were killed.
The situation was similar at the southern national gate. It began like King Loulan's campaign, but because the front line was pushed too far forward, the rear support could not keep up, resulting in them being surrounded.
The west was even more disastrous. Twenty thousand soldiers were reported missing, and in one battle, more than half of them were lost.
Among the four front lines, only King Loulan maintained the lowest casualties, followed by the north, then the south, and finally the west in last place.
Finally, on the eighth day of the war, King Loulan also met his fate. King Loulan died heroically on the eastern battlefield, his head severed by the enemy and displayed outside the main camp.
Subsequently, his deputy, King Anlan, took over command of the army. That night, the Dragon Pavilion launched a surprise attack and recovered King Loulan's body.
On the tenth day, King Dingping, who led the western front line, was forced to retreat further and further, confining himself within the city. To ensure the safety of his elite troops and minimize casualties, he ordered the Dragon Pavilion soldiers to open a path for his withdrawal to the second city in the west. He also boasted that if the Dragon Pavilion could not achieve this, they should either surrender or be cowards and watch King Dingping break out.
The Dragon Pavilion soldiers had never fought such a frustrating war. They directly accepted the task, and Qing Luan, a general under Xuan Niao, led fifty thousand soldiers to resist. Three hours later, King Dingping's elite troops broke through the encirclement and escaped to the second city, under the guise of a "tactical retreat."
However, King Dingping, upon reaching the second city, did not provide support to Qing Luan, allowing Qing Luan and the enemy to continue their fierce battle.
Casualties doubled.
After reorganization the next day, Qing Luan led fifty thousand Dragon Pavilion soldiers, killing eleven thousand enemy soldiers, with thirty thousand Dragon Pavilion soldiers lost.
At noon, this news reached the Glory Hall. King Dingping took credit for this victory, but was exposed by Qin Luan's plea for help the previous night.
In the end, King Dingping offered a dismissive explanation, stating that the battlefield was unpredictable, and no one could foresee the enemy's next move. He claimed he was merely preserving his fighting strength.
At the same time, he mourned the fallen Dragon Pavilion soldiers, stating that it was their honor to sacrifice for their country.
Upon hearing the news, Yuan Gang was so enraged that he openly declared that he would settle accounts with King Dingping upon their return to the capital.
The deaths of the Dragon Pavilion soldiers would all be attributed to him.
However, King Dingping scoffed, instead mocking that the Dragon Pavilion had no capable people and only dared to engage in verbal disputes.
Qin Luan, feeling wronged, wanted to leave, but this was the battlefield, not a place for her to act petulantly. She could only endure.
But this endurance led to a major incident.
On the eleventh day, Qin Luan was ordered to pursue a small group of retreating soldiers. Adhering to the principle of not pursuing a cornered enemy, she did not want to chase, but had no choice as she was under orders.
This pursuit led them into an ambush. Qin Luan died in battle, and the remaining twenty thousand Dragon Pavilion soldiers were all annihilated.
The blood stained the Moray River red.
Xuan Niao, fighting on the northern battlefield, was furious upon hearing the news. If Yuan Gang had not held her back, King Dingping would have been killed by Xuan Niao by now!
Of the Dragon Pavilion, only two women were present: Xuan Niao and Qing Luan.
Qing Luan was her most trusted subordinate. Now that she had been so brutally ambushed and killed on the battlefield, how could Xuan Niao stand for it?
That night, King Dingping achieved a great victory.
He publicly declared that without the Dragon Pavilion soldiers, this battle would have been impossible to win. The west was pacified, and they were waiting for the results from the other three fronts!
Of course, he could understand the attitude of the Dragon Pavilion. However, was the ultimate goal not victory? Now that victory had been achieved, why were they still barking?
In any case, this was the gist of King Dingping's sentiment.
This further enraged countless Dragon Pavilion soldiers.
At this moment, in a guesthouse in Wuzhen, Ye Longlin stared at the newspaper before him, his expression dark and his eyes filled with coldness, a faint killing intent lingering around him.
Mu Hanqi had just woken up and leaned against his back habitually. Suddenly, she felt a pervasive killing intent, and her small face turned pale with fear.
Ye Longlin sat on the edge of the bed, his face ashen. The killing intent emanating from him made Mu Hanqi tremble.
"W-what's wrong?"
Mu Hanqi asked tremblingly. Since getting together with Ye Longlin, such a thing had never happened before. For a moment, she had no idea what had transpired.
"I'm going to smoke a cigarette."
Ye Longlin opened the door and lit a cigarette at the doorway. A newspaper lay on the bed.
Mu Hanqi read it word by word, then suddenly looked up, her pupils constricting.
She knew about the war, but she never expected the Dragon Pavilion to…
On the battlefield, life and death were common occurrences. However, deaths should be meaningful, not the sacrifice of fifty thousand Dragon Pavilion soldiers and ten thousand of King Dingping's soldiers in exchange for the deaths of two hundred thousand enemy soldiers, nor fifteen thousand soldiers for a great victory over two hundred thousand!
"Our Dragon Pavilion soldiers should not have died like this. I owe you all glory!"