Zhou Weiqing had been right indeed. In the world, only profit and gain was a constant. With sufficient draw, he was able to bind the Peerless Battalion soldiers to him. Feelings and emotions had to be fostered, and at the same time, once these men got into a habit of listening to his orders, they would also gain feelings for this organization called the Peerless Battalion.
Towards his own people, Zhou Weiqing was never a stingy person, perhaps even overly generous. With his soldiers training so hard, pushing themselves to the limit and beyond every day, he got Lin TianAo to get some doctors to prescribe some medicines to brew some nourishing and regenerative medicines, adding them to their usual food and drinks.
In such a way, the Peerless Battalion soldiers were all nourished into tall, large, energetic fellows, and their improvement was at a tremendous pace indeed. In the end, even Shangguan Fei’er couldn’t bear to purposely withhold the pace of the medicines, and slowly from ten men, the quota was increased to twenty… thirty… and finally fifty.
Of course, it was not just the increase in personal strength, even their equipment was improving by leaps and bounds. Yun Li and Little Miss Muddle were constantly churning out Consolidating Equipment Scrolls, and the custom made armour that Lin TianAo had ordered was also being completed and shipped in week after week. By now, the strongest of the Peerless Battalion were already all equipped with Spatial Objects. The entire Battalion grew in strength, their overall power going up through all aspects. Let alone the others, even the Heavenly Bow Unit masters were all secretly shocked by the sheer amount of improvement in the Peerless Battalion.
However, they were also clear this strength had not come without a cost, and the sheer amount of gold that had been sunk into building such an armed force was definitely an astronomical figure. Still, Zhou Weiqing had previously told them about how he had won a hundred million gold coins in the Heavenly Jewel Tournament, so they were not too surprised.
In truth, as the time had passed, the hundred million gold coins that Zhou Weiqing had won was already pretty much spent. However, with the Spatial Sack of the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor, the value of the Heavenly Cores within were astronomical, and no matter how much they spent, he would not have any financial problems within the next ten years.
…
Time passed day after day, and before long, ,another three months had passed. The weather of the northern border also grew slightly warmer; no one would actually call it hot, but without question this was the best season of the north. Summer had come.
With the arrival of summer, the peace of the northern border was now disrupted. The annual raids of the WanShou Empire was starting, as the weather was finally not too cold and more suitable for fighting, and their main goal was to gain enough food stores to get through the winter. As such, the start of the summer was the time for them to scout and harass the border.
WanShou Empire. Swift Wolf Regiment Command Tent.
A massive man about forty years of age was seated on the Commander’s seat, and there were eight others seated before him respectfully.
*PENG* A loud clash, as the large and solid table was totally shattered by a blow from that massive commander’s palm. “Bastards! You useless bunch, what can you all do?! Do you mean to tell me that we sent out three Companies of men, and not only did we not gain anything, none of them actually returned?!”
Butler was the Regiment Commander of the Swift Wolf Regiment, and he had ten thousand wolf cavalry soldiers under his command. To the WanShou Empire, this was already considered one of the more valuable elite units of the army.
Ten thousand wolf cavalry troops, charging in a vast plains, that was an imposing sight that would even cloud the sky. With just his Regiment alone, he had once taken down an entire Legion of ZhongTian ordinary troops.
In the Wolfman Tribe, Butler was the current Wolfman Tribe Leader, Bathuru’s eldest son, and was also the heir to the Tribe Leader position. Furthermore, he was a power Heavenly Jewel Master at the nine Jeweled stage. He could be considered one of the top elites amongst the younger generation in the WanShou Empire. On the left part of his chest, there was a white, triangle shaped insignia, showing that he had once ascended the Heavenly Snow Mountain, to undergo the baptism ceremony there as well as teachings. Towards any WanShou Empire soldier, that was an ultimate honour, and as a result, Butler was highly respected and had much status in the entire army.
However, today Butler was extremely angry. In the last half a month, ,he had dispatched three Companies of his elite wolfman cavalry soldiers to the ZhongTian Empire border to scout and patrol. This was a customary annual tradition, yet this year, a very different result had occurred, as out of the three companies of Wolfman Cavalry soldiers, not a single one had lived to return.
Such a situation had never happened before. After all, that was three hundred wolfman cavalry soldiers! Each and every wolfman cavalry was chosen from the elites amongst their tribesmen, rearing and teaching their war wolf mounts from a young age, before stepping onto the battlefield when they were adult. How could his heart not ache at such a huge loss? Ordinarily, just these three hundred wolfman cavalry soldiers would be enough to rout an enemy force of several Battalions of ordinary ZhongTian cavalry soldiers, let alone their infantry soldiers. As for the ZhongTian Heavy Cavalry, they would not be able to catch up to their speedy war wolf mounts to actually fight them. In terms of speed, the war wolves were afraid of no one.
One of the Wolfmen on the left, slightly shorter but well built, spoke in a solemn tone: “Sir, how about we dispatch more troops to have a look. It looks like this year the ZhongTian Empire has prepared well for us. Our men must have met with an ambush from a large number of troops, otherwise they could not possibly have been totally wiped out, with not even a single one managing to escape to report back.”
Butler gave a cold humph, before saying: “Send more men? How many do you plan to send?”
The short wolfman said boldly: “Sir, I am willing to lead a Battalion of Wolfman Cavalry soldiers to slay all those ambushing enemies, to take revenge for our brothers.”
“A Battalion? We have already lost three hundred men, are you trying to make me lose another Battalion? Since the ZhongTian Empire dared to take action against us, they naturally know how much we number. They must be seizing this opportunity that we always send a smaller number of troops at the start of the summer, and purposely set a trap to wait for us. Well, since they have set a trap for us, I’ll personally crush those traps and their ambushers. So… we will not do as they expect… sending just a mere Battalion, but our entire Legion. I do not believe that the ZhongTian Empire will actually send that huge an army to ambush us. Send out the orders, ask the Eagle Tribe brothers to help scout and see if they have constructed any fortifications on the borders or if there are any signs of overly large numbers of enemies. If not, we will set out in three days time.”
“Sir, should we report it up the command structure first?” One of the other Wolfman Tribe commanders couldn’t help but ask.
Butler said angrily: “Report up? Will reporting up let my three hundred brothers come back to life? As the humans say, sometimes a field commander has to decide against even the king’s orders. Let me first wipe out those humans who dare ambush us before we make our report. Alright, enough, you all go and prepare for the fight; we will wait for news from the Eagle Tribe before I make the final decision.”
Although he was currently in a rage, he was still able to hold on to some reasoning, and would not just send troops out just like that. If an entire Legion was set as an ambushing party, he would not just strike out like that. However, if it wasn’t a large number of enemies, Butler had absolute confidence that his ten thousand strong wolf cavalry soldiers could sweep in and out of the border areas quickly, and take swift revenge upon those who had slain his three hundred tribesmen.
…
At one side, Butler was in a rage, but on the other side of the border, Zhou Weiqing was extremely excited.
By this time, it had already been a total of four months since he had separated from his teacher, the Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor. His training in the Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts was also proceeding nicely, and he was getting much more skillful in it. It had to be said that Zhou Weiqing truly had talent in this area of controlling, and added to the fact that he had spent two years learning the fine control of archery, mastering the control of his own physical body, that had also helped in the matter. As such, though he was only starting on this Six Ultimate Skill Manipulation Arts, he already had some mastery of it. What followed next would just be continuous practice to mature in his understanding and usage of it.
The Six Ultimate Heavenly Emperor Long Shiya had not returned to look for him, but Zhou Weiqing was not worried or urgent. After all, if Long Shiya did not know where his friend was currently at, to look for a person in the entire massive continent, that was no easy feat.
Zhou Weiqing had just returned from the Seventh Legion Headquarters. He had just brought Shen Ji a large gift, three hundred wolfman tribesmen and war wolf corpses.
After all, ever since Shen Ji had learned that Shangguan Fei’er and himself were from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace, and had it verified with Zhan LingTian, he treated the Peerless Battalion extremely well. As long as they had any requests, they were usually met, no matter food, equipment or other supplies necessary, even sending his own Seventh Legion men to escort the supplies to them to ensure their safety.
Naturally, the three Companies of Butler’s Swift Wolf Regiment had been taken down by the Peerless Battalion. Previously, the seven masters of the Heavenly Bow Unit had taken down an entire Company by themselves, let alone the current Peerless Battalion who had undergone almost half a year of intense training, and were all at an stimulated excitement, ready to test the fruits of their labour.
When the three Companies of Wolf Cavalry soldiers met over a thousand archers with Consolidated Equipment Bows, their fates were already sealed. Before they had charged within a distance of three hundred yards, all of them had already died, with not a single survivor. As for the Peerless Battalion, it was without question that not a single one of them was injured, let alone dead. The true benefits of long ranged attacks was shown to their fullest potential here. Such a military achievement was of inestimable value to the confidence of the Peerless Battalion soldiers.
When Zhou Weiqing had sent the combat spoils to the Seventh Legion, everyone was shocked. Those were three hundred wolf cavalry soldiers! To be able to slaw so many wolf cavalry soldiers was definitely a great merit of service, and to any Battalion Commander, it was already more than enough to grant him a rank of Vice Legion Commander.
However, Zhou Weiqing declined any promotions that Shen Ji was offering, instead asking to change it into monetary rewards. In truth, Shen Ji was probably the only one who was not even surprised that the Peerless Battalion was able to slay so many Wolfman Cavalry soldiers. After all, in his eyes, Zhou Weiqing and Shangguan Fei’er were from the Heaven’s Expanse Palace. Though the Wolfman Cavalry soldiers were indeed powerful, they were no match for powerhouses from the Great Saint Lands. Furthermore, he had personally seen their power with his own eyes, and he did not have any suspicions about the truth about the killings.
Besides the monetary reward, Zhou Weiqing also asked Shen Ji for another favour; that was that he hoped to incorporate the Ruffian Battalions from the other three Legions into his own Ruffian Battalion. Although he already have one thousand five hundred men in his Peerless Battalion, it was still far from the number and power in his heart. He would rather not have any promotions, rank or prestige, preferring to bolster his numbers with more ruffians.
The fact of the matter had already proven itself in his hands. The ruffian soldiers truly had a greater potential than most ordinary soldiers, just by virtue of the fact they were able to survive as ruffians. Furthermore, since they were exiled from all the various different sources in the respective Legions, it should not be a big problem taking in all those men.
Shen Ji immediately agreed that he would send up the request on Zhou Weiqing’s behalf; after all he was only in charge of the Seventh Legion and did not have control of the other Ruffian Battalions, and could not guarantee success.
Of course, to the Main Northern Army Command, those few Ruffian Battalions were nothing in their eyes, and giving those men to Zhou Weiqing was no big deal.