Chapter 220 “bottom line” (part one)

Standing atop of the city gate, Du Wei peers down at the 20,000 strong enemy regiment. With flags flying everywhere, his hand inherently squeezed tighter against the wall despite having a poker face.

This is provocation, a blatant provocation!!

Since the day he stepped into the Northwest, he already knew he had to grow and one of the things he learned is the different formations used by the army.

With only one look, he can already tell the enemy is blatantly putting up an attack formations for a city siege!

“Dadaneier.” Du Wei suddenly utters this name out.

Dadaneier is standing just behind Du Wei because he is the commander in chief of the city defense garrison. As a former warrior of the Lister Household, how can he restrain the anger swelling up inside his heart? With a face full of anger, he immediately replied with a whisper when he heard Du Wei’s call: “Your honor.”

“Have someone raise the flag and see what they want!” Du Wei coldly snickers.

Not long after the signal was raised, one of the deputy commanders under Dadaneier was already back to make a report: “My Lord, they want us to open the gate and hand over a part of the city wall so they can use it for their training exercise…..”

Without even finishing his words, the messenger found himself unable to speak after seeing how livid Du Wei was.

Du Wei sneers in a “Hey Hey” manner:  “Hand over a part of my wall for their exercise? Humph, good! They must want to tear down my wall in the process. What a good army!”

“My Lord … … How should we reply?” The Deputy Commander quietly asks.

With a deadpan face, Du Wei coldly said: “Don’t bother with any crap, just raise the flag and tell them: NO!”

With that, Du Wei left his attendants behind to climb the wall tower.

Northwest Army, do you really think master here is so easily bullied?

Du Wei sneers inside.

You wanted money and food before, fine, I pay. Yet these bastards dare poor salt on my back! If the Northwest Army didn’t let those prairie wolves in, how can a thousand strong cavalry unit reach Cow Tongue village?

Testing my bottom line? Fine, I will show you what is called a “bottom line”!

Once inside the defense tower, Du Wei did not show any humility and sat directly in the middle of this quiet meeting room: “Dadaneiers, how much soldiers do we have inside the city?” Du Wei asks  Dadaneiers that was sitting across from him.

“A regiment of 4,000 people … … Their combat capabilities? The majority of this regiment is made up of the people you freed from Sin City so their capabilities aren’t a problem. As for cavalry’s…… General Longbottom’s regiment is well trained but their numbers were never filled with only 2,000 people. But…….” Dadaneier seems to see through Du Wei’s inner temper, so he inherently whispered his next words: “Your honor, if you really want to start a battle, cavalry riders aren’t any use in a siege battle. Also, the enemy riders vastly outnumber our own. Even though General Longbottom’s warriors are strong, but 2,000 people cannot fend off such numbers…..”

These words may be a bit disrespectful to Longbottom, but this general 250 isn’t unreasonable. Despite being in the room the entire time, he managed to keep his silence up till now: “The Northwestern Army may be strong and hard to deal with…. Unfortunately, their numbers aren’t little either, but if you give me 2,000 more people, I can bring my people out to raid them before they gain a proper foothold outside. After such a long trip from their stronghold, their combat strength is still unstable, so now is the perfect time to strike….. Sir, if you we wait any longer, the battle ahead will become even harder.”

Du Wei suddenly smiles as he looked at Longbottom: “My General … … I’m just asking. Who said we must fight? They are after all an army of the empire. From what I see, they can’t afford to actually fight and are only here to threaten us. Other than giving us a hard time, I’m certain they are using this chance to test my bottom line.”

Longbottom bellows out a laugh at Du Wei’s explanation: “This is only natural … … But this time around the Northwest army really went all in. From what I can tell, this 20,000 strong regiment is likely the elite units inside their ranks…… With no reason to be here, they must have another objective!”

This time, Du Wei’s current Chief of staff, Philip spoke up instead from the side.

After a year of baptism in this barren landscape, this youngster has now shed away his juvenile temperament from his handsome face and became steadier than before:

“My Lord, I’ve thought up a possibility.”

“Say it!”

“I’ve heard the Northwestern Army’s general Rugaard is a loyal admirer of Marquise Lister…… Just a few days ago, our relationship with the them is still fine, but after your honor’s coming of age ceremony, their attitude immediately changed towards us.”

The moment this came out, everyone in the room went dead silent. Even though they may laugh and joke during their meetings, but this subject is after all Du Wei’s personal matter.

Narrowing his eyes, Du Wei sighs: “Philip, there’s a point in what you said. Heh heh … … Marquise Lister, you really brought me quite the trouble!”

“This is just one reason.” Philip rolls up his sleeves: “My lord, I may not be fluent in military tactics, but even I can see the other party is trying to encircle the city. I’m afraid they won’t actually fight. After all, the Northwest Army has no intention of really rebelling against the empire for now, but….. If they can keep us here for a certain amount of time, then it will be a great embarrassment for us! If word spread you were locked inside your own city for ten days, everyone will call you a coward that can only hide like a turtle!”

The moment his words ended, Dadaneier suddenly cried out in anger: “Philip! Who is a coward?! As a aid to his excellency, you dare verbally insult his lordship!”

Instead of getting angry like Dadaneier, Du We only waived a hand to settle his friend : “Dadaneier, Philip is only making a metaphor, but he does have a point. I highly doubt the Northwestern Army will really besiege us, but if they really do lock us inside our own home for ten days then I really will lose a lot of face if word spread!” Pausing, he looked at Philip: “Dadaneier is not aiming at you so both of you shouldn’t take things to heart.”

Calm and steady, Philip took one step back and politely replied: “Yes.”

After waving the refusal flag to the Northwester Army, the enemy showed no movements for the next hour. Nevertheless, their ill intent was obvious to everyone.

Although the other party did not directly attack, but soldiers under the Tulip House did not show the slightest sign of letting up!

Despite the Northwest army’s arrogance, all rational indicates they won’t actually rebel. After all, they’ve been good for all these years, so why would they suddenly change out of nowhere? Moreover, the timing isn’t right.

However, the enemy is still outside their gates, so they can’t just overlook such a large force at their doorstep.

As time pass by, all Tulip soldiers were standing by ready for order atop of the city wall. Surprisingly, the only one not keeping busy is Du Wei. Sitting atop of the city gate, he coldly stares down at the enemy army not too far outside his capital.

This Cavalry Regiment truly deserves their reputation of being elites. Despite their large numbers, they showed no signs of being disorderly as they quietly confronted Du Wei’s force outside the city grounds.

As the sun reached over the western part of the sky, Old Smoke that was behind Du Wei suddenly turned pale. When this loyal follower wanted to warn his lord, Du Wei was already up from his chair looking out at the far off landscape…….

Over the horizon, a thin continuous black line was dominating the scene. With a thick “clacking” sound, it is the noise of armor scraping against each other.

With large shieldmen in front, Pikeman’s in the back, the main infantry soldiers of the Northwestern Army are following further behind. Then at the very end of this large force is a unit of longbowmen’s numbering around a thousand strong…….

As the old saying goes, once an army is over ten thousand strong, even the sky will be covered in their might. This lineup is literally the main five elite regiments under the General Ruugard of the Northwestern Army!!

Seeing the arrival of more allies, the already idling by cavalry riders outside Loulan City suddenly bellowed out an earth rumbling cheer. Waiving their flags and lances in the air, their voices continuously chanted the slogan: “Long live the Northwestern Army!”

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