Chapter 285: Chapter 285: Lion Flame, An Isolated Island
The soldiers of Sky Cliff and Liyan slowly looked up. At Lu Chao’s words, they raised the weapons in their hands.
It was as if they had just come to their senses. In every respect, they should have been far inferior to Leopard Flame in this battle...
And yet, they had achieved a resounding victory.
Many, including Senior Sister Sky Cliff and the Liyan Commander, had assumed this battle would be just as easy as their victory over Fox Flame. But the brutal fighting had been a harsh dose of reality.
Just as Lu Chao said...
The word ’easy’ has no place on the battlefield; to think otherwise is to be complacent.
The complacent will surely perish!
The reality was that they had achieved victory under Lu Chao’s leadership, and all the surviving soldiers of Sky Cliff and Liyan had undergone a great baptism by fire.
Their gazes grew resolute!
"We have won! We have slain the Leopard Flame Commander! Now, follow me! We march on the Lion Flame Royal Capital!"
Lu Chao’s voice rang out again. He then ordered everyone to secure the battlefield.
Afterward, he led the troops of the two kingdoms, advancing toward the Lion Flame Royal Capital.
Suddenly, Lu Chao reined in his warhorse.
"I have good news for all of you."
"I just received a message. Elder Dongfang has rescued all the hostages held by the Leopard Flame Kingdom. Therefore, we no longer need to exchange our Leopard Flame prisoners for them."
"We don’t have to worry that wiping out the Leopard Flame army will bring harm to our families."
At these words, the soldiers of both kingdoms stared wide-eyed with overjoyed surprise.
Lu Chao continued, "Next, we will exchange our Fox Flame prisoners for the hostages held by the Fox Flame King. After that, we only need to breach the Lion Flame Royal Capital to rescue most of the remaining hostages. We are very, very close to final victory."
With that, Lu Chao wheeled his horse around. "Move out!"
A sharp glint lit up the eyes of every soldier. Forgetting the brutal battle they had just endured, they marched excitedly toward the Lion Flame Royal Capital.
A short while later, Senior Sister Sky Cliff approached him. "General Lu Chao," she asked, "could we have done better in that last battle?"
’That battle shouldn’t have been so brutal,’ she thought.
Hearing her, Lu Chao shook his head, his gaze somber.
"After the battle with Fox Flame, our soldiers grew too complacent. It caused everyone to expose glaring weaknesses."
"Weaknesses that the Leopard Flame Commander spotted almost instantly."
To put it plainly, their disguise as Fox Flame soldiers wasn’t convincing enough, which made the Leopard Flame Commander instantly suspicious.
This was an extremely fatal error. Lu Chao had no choice but to order the archers to fire ahead of schedule. However, their failure to kill the Leopard Flame Commander in that volley made the ensuing battle incredibly difficult.
If their disguises had been more convincing, the situation would have been much better.
At Lu Chao’s words, Senior Sister Sky Cliff unconsciously lowered her head. "It’s my fault. I got too carried away as well."
’If my disguise had been better, this wouldn’t have happened. So many people wouldn’t have died.’
Lu Chao shook his head again. "In war, there is no right or wrong—only victory and defeat."
"Besides, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. A general, no matter how brilliant, is still just one person. Orders must be executed by the soldiers. After a lesson like this, our future battles will go much more smoothly."
"If we had won this battle easily as well, it would only have led to a catastrophic mistake down the line."
"Then it wouldn’t just be a ’brutal’ battle. The result of continued complacency would be the annihilation of our entire army."
"Lion Flame will surely have received news of this battle by now..."
"The battle for the Lion Flame Royal Capital will erupt at any moment. We must get there as quickly as possible."
No longer dwelling on the battle, Lu Chao quickly penned several letters and sent them off by carrier pigeon.
He sent missives to Dragon Flame Academy, to the armies of the other small kingdoms, and to the Dragon Flame Kingdom itself. He was arranging the next phase of the war, and the plan was, in essence, quite simple...
With Fox Flame and Leopard Flame neutralized, all forces were to converge on the Lion Flame Royal Capital.
Meanwhile, Dragon Flame Academy’s role was to stall for time and, most importantly, to protect the lives of the hostages captured by Lion Flame.
Watching the carrier pigeons fly away, Senior Sister Sky Cliff once again found herself staring blankly at Lu Chao’s back. Just then, the Liyan Commander approached her. "General Chi Yun, what’s on your mind?"
Chi Yun was, in fact, Senior Sister Sky Cliff’s name.
Snapping back to reality, she looked at the Liyan Commander and replied softly, "I was just wondering... in the battle against Leopard Flame, if we hadn’t had General Lu Chao, how many exchanges do you think we would have lasted?"
At her words, a tremor ran through the Liyan Commander’s entire body as he recalled the recent battle.
Lu Chao’s strategic deployments, and his uncanny ability to rally their scattered and breaking forces back into a cohesive unit, had been the key to annihilating Leopard Flame. Otherwise, they would have been finished within a few exchanges.
Chi Yun spoke again, "Our troops were inferior to Leopard Flame’s in every way—numbers, Weapons, even our soldiers’ Martial Arts Realms. The only area where we held an advantage was our commander. And his advantage was immense."
The Liyan Commander nodded emphatically at this. The bitterness he felt over their heavy losses had vanished.
And Chi Yun continued...
"Now that the commanders of Lion Flame, Leopard Flame, and Fox Flame are all dead, we just have to breach Lion Flame City... Then the Three Great Flame Countries will be within our grasp. Eighty percent of us small kingdoms from the Beast Flame Outer Courtyard will no longer be constrained by the threat of hostages."
Of the small kingdoms that had followed Dragon Flame Kingdom and formed the Beast Flame Outer Courtyard, eighty percent were located geographically closer to the Dragon Flame Kingdom.
In other words, as long as Lu Chao could also crush Lion Flame, the Beast Flame Outer Courtyard would truly be established.
"Furthermore, in the future, it won’t be the Three Great Flame Countries controlling these dozens of small kingdoms. Instead, the small kingdoms will unite with the Dragon Flame Kingdom to suppress the Three Great Flame Countries. The political landscape of this half of the Hundred Countries will be completely overturned."
"After that, the battlefield for the struggle between the three academies will be between Great Wu and the Hundred Countries."
"Our dozens of small kingdoms will follow Lu Chao and then march against the Three Great Flame Countries that lie in the direction of the Great Wu Empire."
"If we succeed, it will mean Lu Chao has swept across the Hundred Countries."
As Sky Cliff Chi Yun spoke, the Liyan Commander unknowingly clenched his fists.
He too stared intently at Lu Chao’s figure up ahead, a strange excitement stirring in his heart. For forty years, ever since the Azure Flame Sect was destroyed, the small kingdoms had been controlled by the Six Great Flame Countries. Even their kings had been forced to live like dogs.
And while the Dragon Flame Kingdom was powerful, it had largely ignored the affairs of the Hundred Countries, focusing instead on dealing with the Southern Dynasty Imperial Court.
But now, the tables were about to turn.
...
「Lion Flame Royal Capital」
After a standoff of several days, the situation remained unchanged. Both sides were waiting for reinforcements to arrive.
Just then, Sun Shijin received a message from Lu Chao by carrier pigeon.
He stared at the letter’s contents, his fists clenched in excitement. He announced to everyone, "In two days, Lu Chao will arrive with the armies of the Sky Cliff and Liyan kingdoms! Following them, troops from various other small kingdoms will also be here..."
"The Lion Flame Royal Capital is now an isolated island!"
"But, Lu Chao warns in his letter, the Lion Flame King will not simply sit back and await his doom. They will surely launch a frenzied counterattack within these next two days. We must be prepared to fight to the death. There can be absolutely no mistakes!"
