“In truth, to invade such a small city who are not even prepared for us, do we really need any strategy? Let me ask you… can their arrows penetrate our defenses? It is most likely a resounding no. Furthermore, the city gates will soon be open from within… besides charging as fast as we can, what else can we do?”
Under Zhou Weiqing’s command, the Peerless Regiment soldiers entered their formation. The Gold Crow and Berserker Tribe Heavy Cavalry soldiers were in front, and the four hundred and fifty Peerless Cavalry behind. Zhou Weiqing and the classmates that he had brought from the Fei Li City remained behind the main troop. For this particular fight, they would not even be needed to join in. Zhou Weiqing wanted to let them familiarize themselves with how the Peerless Regiment soldiers fought, at the same time displaying to them the sheer power of their Peerless Regiment.
…
Crescent City. City Walls.
A group of patrolling soldiers strolled about lazily on the city walls. Technically, they were supposed to be on shift for eight hours before the guard would change, but in truth, it was already considered very good when there were three or four Companies in total on guard1. Most of the Kalise soldiers were complacently resting in their barracks.
The Crescent City was a prosperous city with good positioning, and thus there were many visitors, especially traveling merchants, and it was without doubt that income was good. Taxes aside, which had to be sent back to the Kalise Empire, just the soldiers charging for entrance fee was already a rather large sum of gold and income for them.
“Eh? Did you all hear something?” One of the soldiers with sharper ears suddenly asked.
“I think so as well, rolling sounds of thunder… is it going to rain?” Another soldier said, even looking up into the skies. However, it was currently mid afternoon, and the skies were clear, bright and sunny with not even a cloud in sight. The weather was definitely good… what rain was there?”
The Kalise soldiers were all puzzled, as the sound of rolling thunder grew more and more obvious.
All of a sudden, one of the soldiers’ expression changed. “Could it be… cavalry soldiers?!”
As he spoke those words, in the distance, a brilliant glint of reflected sunlight flashed into their eyes.
It was the titanium mail of the Peerless Regiment Cavalry soldiers, reflecting light as they charged! More so, the two hundred Heavy Cavalry soldiers right in front were like majestic beasts charging forth.
The speed of the Unicorn Heavenly Beasts were far superior than any ordinary warhorses, even if they were carrying the thousand jin Gold Crow and Berserker Tribe warriors.
“Enemies…! We are under attack!!” Screams and shouts began to rang out from the city walls, and the alarms soon began to ring as well.
For a time, chaos reigned upon the city walls. Ever since they had invaded and conquered the Heavenly Bow Empire, these Kalise soldiers had enjoyed peace and quiet in the Crescent City for too long. This sudden surprise attack from these unknown cavalry soldiers caused them to fall into a panic, the city walls thrown into confusion.
One of the Company Leaders was relatively calm. “Do not panic, hurry up, remember your training! Prepare the ballista, archers get into position! Hurry, hurry! You there, get the brothers below to shut the city gates immediately!”
Just as he was shouting out a flurry of commands, all of a sudden, a soldier beside him stared wildly into the skies, point as he yelled: “Wha… What is that?!”
A few dozen figures had somehow floated in the skies. They had wings behind their backs, and in that instant, a shower of death rained down from the skies.
In just a single salvo of arrows, all the soldiers around the eight ballista lined up along the city walls fell down. Some of the Kalise Empire soldiers with quicker reactions raised their bows returned fire.
Alas, shooting arrows down from a vantage position was different from firing it upwards at such a distance. Let alone with most of their range was insufficient to reach the flying figures, even if their arrows could reach them, how could they possibly break through the titanium mail of the Peerless Regiment soldiers?
For the sake of stability and safety, to prevent the ballista from causing any potential problems, Zhou Weiqing had specially arranged for another fifty Peerless Regiment soldiers to fly into the air to give the soldiers on the city wall a heavy blow. Furthermore, it would also be a good distraction for Lei Zi’s force inside.
Almost at the exact same time, the city gates below was also in a mess. At this moment, Lei Zi was leading his fifty Peerless Regiment soldiers, clearing away the Kalise Empire soldiers guarding it like they were cutting melons and cabbages2. Fifty Jewel Masters, what kind of notion was that? That was already the sum of the Heavenly Bow Empire’s total number of Jewel Masters in the past! Towards ordinary soldiers, it was akin to wasting talents on trivial tasks, with not the least bit of suspense at all towards the completion of the task.
Zhou Weiqing’s voice suddenly rang out in all the Peerless Regiment soldiers’ ears. “All of you better listen carefully. Once we enter the city, besides the Kalise soldiers, you are not to kill anyone or rob anyone. Otherwise, you will be strictly dealt with in our military code. It is not that Your Father, I, am unreasonable, but this is my homeland. Once we revive my homeland, and it is time to counterattack and invade the Kalise Empire, or even the Bai Da Empire, there will be chance for you to loot and plunder all you wish. Now, charge with all your might! Those who attempt to stop you, slaughter them all!”
Suppression from the air, control of the city gates… In the end, the Peerless Regiment soldiers’ charge did not meet with much resistance at all. The arrows from the few Kalise archers who actually managed to shoot at them were just like a mere joke, so much so that the Heavy Cavalry soldiers in front did not even bother swinging their weapons at the arrows, allowing the arrows to bounce off their armour.
By the time the garrisoned troops in the Crescent City had begun to react, the Peerless Regiment had already charged into through the open city gates. What followed next was just a pure one-sided slaughterfest.
Towards these Kalise Empire soldiers who were occupying his homeland, Zhou Weiqing did not hold any thoughts of being lenient. If one came, he would kill one. If two arrived, he would slay the pair.
Even the powerful WanShou Empire armies and their terrifying combat prowess had failed against the Peerless Regiment, let alone these ordinary soldiers from the Kalise Empire. Within a short period of a mere hour, more than a thousand of the garrisoned Kalise Empire soldiers had died, with the remaining surrendered.
For Kou Rui, Yan Zhexi, these classmates that had followed Zhou Weiqing from the Fei Li Military Academy, they were all staring at the sight before them with their mouths agape, totally dumbfounded. This battle had totally overturned the military knowledge they had learned in the past few years!
Just like Zhou Weiqing had told Tian’er, this was a battle which needed no strategy. Simple, direct, a headon clash. Yet, the result was a complete victory, perhaps ‘crushing’ victory would even be more apt. As the saying goes, what you hear may be false, but what you see is true… Zhou Weiqing had used actions to prove to them that following this big bro was definitely a right choice.
After taking care of all the defending troops, Zhou Weiqing immediately issued a series of fresh commands. “Close all the city gates, and I want fifty men each stationed on all four walls. Do not let anyone leave the city at all. Lei Zi, lead a squad of brothers to the Governor’s Abode. Bring all the officials of the Crescent City to see me. All of you, when you are acting on these orders, shout out this slogan as you do so. As loud as you can. ‘Princess Difuya has returned, along with the Heavenly Bow Empire’s Peerless Regiment to revive our homeland! Heavenly Bow has returned!’”
Previously, even when he had first set up the Peerless Battalion, Zhou Weiqing had already started to prepare for the future, of possible avenues of attacks for reviving the Heavenly Bow Empire. Indeed, though the Heavenly Bow Empire was considered small, they still had quite a number of cities. This Crescent City had been specially chosen by Zhou Weiqing to be his first target. Of course, the caveat for that was that he needed to gain the support of the Fei Li Empire first. In this way, the Crescent City would have the Fei Li Empire to its back, and supply lines ensured, leaving it a good place to be a primary base.
Although the Peerless Regiment was extremely powerful and seemingly glorious all around, they definitely had their own weak points as well. The most glaring one was that they did not have their own logistics and supply team. In the ZhongTian Empire’s Northwest Army camp, that point was an issue as they had the full support of the Northwest Army. However, now that it was a full campaign to revive the Heavenly Bow Empire on their own, it was not possible to hope that the ZhongTian Empire would continue to send them supplies, and they could only depend on themselves. Everything else aside, even having their daily meals would be a problem.
As such, Zhou Weiqing’s first plan was to set up a stable base and foundation for them to take care of any supplies and logistic issues. At the same time, it would serve to begin announcing themselves to the Heavenly Bow Empire borders, to recruit the warriors and fighters of the Heavenly Bow Empire who were scattered throughout. Gradually, as their foundation stabilized and they grew, they could continue with further plans and follow-up actions.
As for the orders he had just issued, it could be said to be rather simple but ingenious. Firstly, not allowing anyone to leave the city would delay the arrival of any enemy troops. As for the slogan he had his men yell out, it was naturally to calm the populace down, and to sow the seeds of his recruitment plans. After all, he currently only had seven hundred men, and if he had to use them to maintain law and order, it was rather insufficient for an entire city. He couldn’t possibly use the Gold Crow and Berserker Tribe members as a policing force either, their size and stature would give most ordinary people a scare. As such, shouting out such a slogan was a relatively effective method. In the first place, the Kalise Empire’s occupation of the Heavenly Bow Empire was not that long yet, and the Heavenly Bow Empire had always treated its citizens well. Zhou Weiqing believed that the overall sentiment of the people would still be slightly inclined towards the Heavenly Bow Empire.
Breaching and occupying a single city could be said to be very simple for the current Peerless Regiment soldiers. However, the continued control and maintenance of said city was a very different matter, especially to use it as a stable base; that was truly not an easy task. However, Zhou Weiqing was not in a rush at all. All he needed to do with his seven hundred men was to fortify their defenses and spread the news that Princess Difuya had returned together with him, leading a strong army to revive the Heavenly Bow Empire. At the same time, he would have to establish supply lines with the Fei Li Empire. Once all of that was arranged, only then could he begin the actual fighting to revive their homeland.
With the city coming under attack so suddenly, citizens would usually learn of such news later. Most of them only realised the Crescent City had been under attack when they heard the shouts of the slogan.
Princess Difuya of the Heavenly Bow Empire had returned with an army? They were looking to revive the Empire? Very quickly, the news spread in a short time over the entire Crescent City.
The effect was even better than Zhou Weiqing had expected. Before long, the entire city had calmed down, and there were no disturbances at all. However, the traffic in the city had almost disappeared, all the houses with closed doors and sealed windows, as if afraid that they might be caught up any fighting or battles.
With Zhou Weiqing’s strict orders in mind, the Peerless Regiment soldiers only guarded the city gates and walls, and did not violate any of the people’s interests. Of course, the exception were the three thousand Kalise Empire soldiers. Besides their arms and weaponry, all of their gold was also seized. Zhou Weiqing did not keep anything, splitting everything between his men.
The Peerless Regiment had after all come from the Ruffian Battalions, and though their loyalty to him was already extremely high, and he no longer needed to use wealth as a binding tool, he did not remove any good treatments to them.
Very soon, the Governor of the Crescent City and the other officials were brought in front of Zhou Weiqing. After some questioning, Zhou Weiqing quickly understood the current status and situation that the Crescent City was in, and he ordered for these officials to be kept under guard for now. At the same time, he got some official notices to be made and posted throughout the city.
The notices were very simple, listing all the officials of the Crescent City. He had men stationed at the notices, allowing the citizens to make reports on how good or bad these officials were. At the end, he could use that information to decide who he could continue using, or if any were traitors or did too many ill deeds, he would kill them. It was as simple as that.
In terms of governing and maintaining a city, Zhou Weiqing did not know anything about doing so. However, many of the current officials in the were not from the Kalise Empire, and many of the middle to lower officials were originally from the Heavenly Bow Empire. As such, he would only need to remove some of the Kalise officers in the upper echelons, as well as weeding out some of the other rotten ones. What Zhou Weiqing needed was for the entire city to resume its usual operations perfectly, and not just a simple occupation. At the same time, he also sent news that under their new command, the taxes in the entire city would be waived for a year.