Chapter 299: Surrounded on All Sides

Translator: DavidT Editor: DavidT , Rock

Thinking about his torturous training in the past and the brutal training methods of Instructor Ling Jian, those memories seemed incomparably sweet. Those memories were probably the ones he valued the most.

In the fifty brothers, apart from a few of them, the rest of them were named Ling One to Ling Fifty! Three years ago, they were dispersed in all directions in a single night. No one knew where their other brothers went. At this moment, the only brothers Ling Nineteen could see were the few sleeping in the tent behind him: Ling Twenty, Ling Twenty-one, and Ling Twenty-two. Under the orders of the young noble, they had entered the army to secretly protect General Ling!

I wonder where my other brothers are. Are they still fine?

From the past few battles, Ling Nineteen could vaguely sense that something was wrong. Their battles were just too easy! The moment Ling Xiao arrived, both sides fought a few tough battles and had a fairly large number of casualties. However, both armies were still in a fairly healthy condition.

Despite that, the Northern Wei had suffered from many lost battles and even showed signs of retreating! There were just too many unnatural signs!

How could the 200,000 strong army of the Northern Wei be so easily defeated? While Ling Xiao was extremely aggressive, he was an experienced general with keen eyesight! Originally, he only wanted to fight a steady battle and would be satisfied if he could protect Nine Swallow City. However, the few newly promoted generals who were close aides of the emperor suggested sending out their troops and expanding the war! In frustration, Ling Xiao could only allow them to send out their personal troops. He thought that as long as they met with some difficulties, they would stop suggesting an expansion of the war.

However, things didn't go as Ling Xiao had planned, and the new generals were actually victorious in their battles. They had successfully pushed Northern Wei back by a hundred miles which further increased the morale of their troops.

Now that they were on a winning streak, the other generals could no longer sit still. After all, the chance for them to perform a merit was right in their faces. As long as they could defeat the Northern Wei army, noble titles would definitely be within their reach and their future would be bright. Who wouldn't be tempted by that? Even a few wise and experienced generals began to grow restless.

After repeatedly sending out his spies, Ling Xiao couldn't find anything amiss. He could only give in to the majority opinion and lead his army northwards!

Their battles along the way were smooth, and they won every confrontation with the Northern Wei army! Even a few meticulously planned ambushes were easily foiled by their army with the Northern Wei army running miserably for their lives. The battles of the Sky Bearing army went on smoothly with victories one after another! After so many consecutive victories, everyone was in an excited mood with sky-high confidence. They almost felt as though they would be able to take down the imperial palace of the Northern Wei capital and return victorious. After chasing their enemies for 200 miles, they were already within the Northern Wei territory.

Such a scenario made the four Lings feel a strong sense of unease. The war had proceeded far too smoothly, and they were successful to the point that it was strange and suspicious. The four of them had already tried sending a report to the Ling Family Courtyard three times but never received a reply from their young noble! Just this point alone made them feel even more anxious. Due to the need for secrecy, they didn't bring their best messenger falcons and used the traditional pigeons to send their letters.

As long as their young noble received news about their circumstances, it was impossible for him to ignore his father! However, why didn't he give a reply after such a long time? Perhaps there was only a single explanation!

Behind him, ruffling sounds could be heard and someone came out from the tent, seating beside him. "Brother Nineteen." Ling Nineteen turned around and could see a pair of sharp eyes looking at him in the darkness.

"Little brother, why aren't you sleeping? We have a huge battle awaiting us tomorrow." Ling Nineteen frowned. The one who had come out was the youngest of the four, Ling Twenty-two.

"Brother Nineteen, I feel that something is wrong." Ling Twenty-two said with a frown. While Ling Nineteen was the highest ranking one here, they were used to addressing each other like they had in the courtyard. When they addressed each other like this, they would they feel a deep sense of pride welling up in their hearts! They belonged to the young noble and were the young noble's trusted aides!

"Mmm, something is indeed wrong," Ling Nineteen lowered his head, wiped his blade again, and continued, "I keep having a bad feeling. It seems as though this is the calm before the storm."

"I'm not just talking about this," Ling Twenty-two said with a solemn expression, "I strongly suspect that our army has already entered a huge trap. Brother Nineteen, do you realize that we have already sent out three messenger pigeons to the young noble? There shouldn't be any reason not to have a reply after sending three of them out! I suspect that our messenger pigeons have been captured! If that's the case, there is most certainly a trap!"

"That's probably the case." Ling Nineteen was still calm as he kept polishing his blade. Stroking it twice with love, he said, "Thankfully, our messages were sent with young noble's secret code. There isn't a chance for the contents to be leaked. If not, things would be bad."

"Even if that's the case, I believe the young noble will be extremely anxious if he doesn't receive news from us." Ling Twenty-two said, "Brother Nineteen, we are being far too passive. If our opponent can intercept our messenger pigeons, there will definitely be an ambush along the way! If young noble were to rush here out of anxiousness and send reinforcements to us, he may be ambushed by our enemy! If we were to cause young noble to be ambushed because we didn't send him news, even if young noble is unafraid of his enemies because of his strength, what face would we have to continue living in this world? Should we send someone to deliver news to young noble?"

Ling Nineteen fell into deep thought. After a long while, he shook his head and said, "The mission that the young noble gave us was to protect General Ling! This mission should be our number one priority no matter what. We are obviously in a dangerous situation already, and it would be unwise for us to thin out our strength! We can only try to find a way to contact brother Liu. It would be the best for them to settle this matter."

Ling Twenty-two then stood up anxiously, "What if young noble chooses to come…?"

Ling Nineteen then replied with a confident smile, "Little brother, do you think anyone in the world would be able to successfully ambush young noble?"

Ling Twenty-two was stunned as he laughed out loud, "That's true! With young noble's incredible abilities, how would he be fooled by these little tricks?"

Just when Ling Nineteen wanted to reply, his expression tensed up as he stood up in full alert, "What is that sound?" Ling Twenty-two's expression changed as well as he got down on the ground and felt it trembling.

"Enemy attack!" Ling Twenty-two jumped up with an ugly expression, "Enemies in all directions!"

"Alert the camp!"

"Yes!"

Another two figures darted out from the tent with two 'swoosh' sounds. The four of them looked at each other without saying a thing and sprinted off in four different directions. Then, a loud gong sounded and all the soldiers woke up from their dreams! They were all in a daze!

"Enemy attack! Prepare for battle!" A crisp sound could be heard in the camp as everyone woke up with their expressions heavy.

The sound of galloping horses could be heard from all directions as they charged over like a tsunami eating up the city! An earth-shattering battle cry sounded from all directions!

Ling Nineteen quickly climbed up the flagpole to gain a bird's eye view, only to see enemies in all directions. They were densely packed like sardines with a long trail of soldiers still approaching from behind them. As Ling Nineteen witnessed that, he could not help but take in a breath of cold air!

Didn't the intelligence say that there were only 200,000 enemy troops? Why did it seem like there were more than 400,000 troops present? Where did they get all their troops from? Did they fall from the sky?! Even if they fell from the sky, there should have been a sign at the very least! After all, it wasn't twenty people but 200,000 people!

Ling Xiao walked out from his tent calmly with his armor fully on. This was his habit when he was in the army: even if it was peaceful, he would wear his armor to sleep. While it was not as comfortable, time would not be delayed. With eyes like a tiger, he shouted, "What are you guys panicking about? They have finally appeared after such a long wait and we just need to kill them all!" For some odd reason, all the troops immediately calmed down after Ling Xiao said those words! Looking at their burly commander and sharp gaze, Ling Xiao's personal troops let out a shout, "Kill them all!"

Their voices spread out far and wide with echoes sounding incessantly, "Kill them all! Kill them all! Kill! Kill! Kill!"

All of a sudden, the panicking army camp completely calmed down. Every single soldier present had been through many battles and were all veterans. While they were flustered at the start, they quickly regained their composure.

Ling Xiao then got onto his horse with his broad shoulders held high up on his horse. With a loud shout, he said, "I am Ling Xiao! Listen to my command and kill the enemy! We must not retreat! D*mmit, kill them all! Our army will be victorious for sure! We are invincible!" His voice was filled with an awe-inspiring confidence and majesty!

"Roger! Our army will be victorious! We are invincible!" A thunderous roar echoed after Ling Xiao and the morale of the troops reached the peak! The battle intent and composure of their general had influenced them all! The enemy was already near! The nearest one was already within the range of their arrows!

Ling Nineteen and the other three surrounded Ling Xiao and let out a sigh of relief. As long as their troops could maintain their morale, they would remain a formidable force! While it was impossible for them to emerge victorious, it wouldn't be too difficult for them to protect Ling Xiao and break out of this encirclement!

Right at this moment, something happened!

"The enemies are here! Escape!"

A commotion sounded at the front from the troops in charge of the outpost and both flanks of the army. There were a full 30,000 troops, subordinates of the trusted aide of Long Xiang. After the commotion had begun, they immediately began retreating in two different directions and escaped for their lives at such a critical moment!

Because of this, Ling Xiao's army was completely exposed to the attacks of the enemy!

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