Otherworld Advance Team -
Chapter 1335 - 1328: Strategic Victory
Chapter 1335: Chapter 1328: Strategic Victory
The Dongsheng army’s charge finally exposed its fragile underbelly, and upon seeing this, the Demon Clan cavalry immediately spurred their horses into a charge, aiming to cut the Dongsheng army in half and completely annihilate them on this battlefield.
Meanwhile, after completing their close-range shooting, the Demon Clan line infantry immediately launched a countercharge. The two forces collided once again, as ferocious as flint striking steel, and for a time, the shouts and cries of battle were deafening.
Although lacking the support of artillery and pikemen, the line infantry displayed vigorous combat strength. Wearing only leather armor, they dared to rush toward the Dongsheng army clad in full armor amid the smoke of gunfire.
The scale of battle tipped in the moment of contact, and the Dongsheng army was immediately overwhelmed. To make matters worse, the Demon Clan light cavalry also chose this moment to strike, cutting directly into the Dongsheng army’s flanks.
The confrontation devolved into a catastrophic rout. Seeing the dire situation, the Dongsheng commander turned his horse and fled. With the commander’s escape, the Dongsheng forces eventually lost the courage to resist and, casting aside their helmets and armor, scattered in a disgraceful retreat.
The battle raged on into the night until the Demon Clan’s army ceased their pursuit and secured their position in the area. Due to nightfall, their spoils were limited as a considerable number of the Dongsheng soldiers managed to escape, evading capture or death.
At dawn the next day, the Demon Clan’s army tallied the spoils of war. They had killed or wounded over a thousand enemy soldiers, captured more than a hundred, and the rest had all fled without a trace.
After a brief organization of the spoils, the Demon Clan army began an orderly withdrawal. Each soldier had gained some spoils of war, and the light cavalry’s horses were laden with heads as symbols of their martial achievements.
Without reinforcements, the Demon Clan army abandoned the idea of further pursuit. Venturing deeper might invite the impact of Dongsheng’s cavalry — mostly heavy cavalry — and their charges were no laughing matter.
The battle for Wufeng City concluded in a grand victory for the Demon Clan. In this battle, Abisien not only recaptured Wufeng City but also seized a significant amount of spoils of war.
Following this defeat, the Dongsheng army retreated frantically, stabilizing only after retreating over a hundred kilometers to their deep rear positions, ceding the entire plain back to Abisien.
Before launching their counterattack, no one believed they could take Wufeng City so easily. The leaders of Abisien had even prepared for a costly victory.
But the tactics and strategies trained by the High-peak people far exceeded their expectations. The Demon Folk practically seized Wufeng City without a fight, this strategic pass from the southern West Outer Heaven to the northern West Outer Heaven.
Indeed, as Luo’er and others had predicted, once the Dongsheng army lost its numerical advantage with their generals, the quality of their regular forces was not even a match for the Demon Clan’s army. One was an army from the age of cold weapons, while the other had evolved into an army of the firearm era. It was clear who was more advanced.
However, in the Magic World, the abilities demonstrated by Cultivators far exceeded the leap in capability brought by technological progress, causing the Demon Clan’s forces to be at a disadvantage in their prolonged struggles.
Following the successful recapture of Wufeng City, those from the Beast-Ear Race who hid in the deep mountains of the North West Outer Heaven finally gathered the courage to return to their homeland. Yet, they soon faced the situation of their homes and lands occupied by foreign peoples, causing great disdain from the Demon Folk towards these Kyushu farmers who had survived the war.
The Demon Clan’s army thought it best to avoid the annoyance by simply executing them all, but Luo’er and the Demon Clan leaders dismissed this notion.
The leaders of the Demon Clan believed that these people could serve as slaves to help the Demon Folk labor and develop the fertile lands surrounding Wufeng City, gathering strength for the next counteroffensive.
Luo’er, on the other hand, felt they should be treated equally and attempted to assimilate them into the Demon Folk’s systems. However, his proposal did not win the approval of the Demon Clan leaders, and even Zisu, who usually had good relations with Luo’er, raised objections.
The reasons for their opposition were simple: the people of Kyushu could never willingly submit to the Demon Clan. As long as they had the chance to cultivate, they would try every possible means to escape from West Outer Heaven, refusing to allow their offspring to be tainted by the Demon Clan’s genes.
This was a deeply rooted belief among the Kyushu people and not something that could be resolved through conciliatory policies. Thus, as previously agreed upon, those unwilling to submit to the Demon Clan were all regarded as slaves, while those willing to submit could not expect to be equals and instead became sons-in-law.
Luo’er and his companions understood this term all too well, especially since the women of the Beast-Ear Race were in charge. These Kyushu men, having become sons-in-law, were much like concubines of ancient feudal times: although part of the family, they had little status and were burdened with heavy labor every day.
Wufeng City, with its vast areas of fertile land surrounded by various minerals sufficient to meet the Demon Clan army’s counterattack needs, was significant. For the Dongsheng Empire to lose Wufeng City would represent a major strategic failure.
However, Luo’er, who understood the internal situation, was well aware that the Dongsheng Empire’s leadership actually desired such a strategic failure. To some extent, the Demon Clan army’s ease in taking Wufeng City could even be attributed to the Dongsheng army deliberately throwing the battle.
Considering their previous encounters with Xuan, within the Dongsheng Empire, it was mainly the Cultivator faction that benefited from the West Outer Heaven war, while the war itself was orchestrated by the Civil Official faction.
The series of failures demonstrated that the Civil Officials of the Dongsheng Empire had grown tired of the war and were eager to disentangle themselves from the conflict in West Outer Heaven.
Clearly, the Cultivators had no intention of halting their military campaign, so the Civil Officials simply betrayed them, using defeat after defeat to force the Cultivators to face reality and withdraw from the war in West Outer Heaven.
Originally, as the Dongsheng army advanced, the Civil Officials had little opportunity for interference. However, with the arrival of the Advance Team from the Western Continent, particularly after the costly failure to take Lingyuan City, they saw a chance to halt progress.
With the fall of all pro-war commanders, the peace-seeking commander Xuan took control of the Dongsheng army’s direction, thus initiating various brazen maneuvers that turned the Dongsheng Empire’s failures into a massive strategic rout.
Often, the defeat comes not from the enemy but from within. In this series of wars, it cannot be said that the Demon Clan had no contribution, but Luo’er had to recognize that internal divisions within the Dongsheng Empire led to its military failures.
Therefore, Luo’er could almost foresee that in the coming conflicts, the Demon Clan army would fight with increasing ease, eventually recapturing all of the territories and cities occupied by the Dongsheng forces.
Once the Demon Clan army started confronting troops sent by the Noble families of the Dongsheng Empire for colonization, the Dongsheng forces could withdraw from West Outer Heaven with dignity, thereby ending a war of no significance to the Civil Officials.
Nonetheless, before this could happen, Luo’er still had to focus on the tasks at hand, particularly the interactions between the Demon Clan and the people of Kyushu.
At this stage, he felt that any action was futile, for the Demon Clan would not forgive or trust the Kyushu people without reason. As the saying goes, "The economic foundation determines the superstructure," with the root of all conflicts lying in the economy. Provided the economy was well-managed, most problems could be alleviated or even resolved.
Consequently, Luo’er no longer emphasized the equality between the Demon Clan and the Kyushu people but instead launched propaganda to encourage production and construction, aiming to restore the economic foundations of the Demon Clan within a year.
As the northern advance base for the Dongsheng Empire, the Dongsheng army had relocated numerous farmers and also brought many craftsmen responsible for forging the necessary war machinery. These people had also been captured by the Demon Clan army.
The Demon Clan’s attitude towards these captives was noticeably better, treating them without unnecessary harshness. The Demon Clan needed them to make weapons for their military, particularly the flintlock guns, which were the primary armament for the line infantry.
According to the Demon Clan’s organization, the line infantry would consist of at least six thousand troops, with an additional reserve of three thousand to ensure the normal operation and combat readiness of the army.
However, the current number of flintlock guns the Demon Clan had barely met the equipment needs of three thousand soldiers, and most of these were heavily modified from old and bulky matchlocks, not suited for modern tactics. Thus, the Demon Clan army required a complete rearmament with new standard flintlock guns to meet the demands of war.
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