"Leave it to me!" Fan Chou, seeing Duan Wei's right arm with the elbow nearly only connected by a piece of flesh, about to lose his right arm like Zasali, was furious and led his troops in pursuit of the enemy. Sadly, he did not have a heavy crossbow with great power, otherwise, he would seize the advantage instantly.
Fuward, seeing his adjutant lose an arm and observing the situation, realized that his entire force was becoming disadvantaged and knew he could not continue further. Additionally, he feared being encircled by Fan Chou and others who were free to act, so he hesitated no longer!
"Retreat!" Fuward pushed back Li Jue with a spear, swiftly retreating into the personal army, while concurrently forming a new defensive line as they withdrew.
The camel riders entangled with the Xiliang Iron Cavalry, following Fuward's command, burst forth with a powerful attack forcing the Xiliang Iron Cavalry to retreat, as if their power had been pushed to its limit.
Without further hesitation, they turned and fled directly. However, the Iron Cavalry pursued without a second thought but hadn't gone far before Fuward's soldiers covering the rear blocked the advancing Xiliang Iron Cavalry and Fuward personally covered the retreat, fighting while withdrawing, gradually distancing themselves from the Iron Cavalry.
Of course, there was a major issue here—Li Jue himself was close to exhaustion. Without his legion talent, chasing and continuing the fight would sharply increase the mortality rate, and in cavalry warfare, falling from the horse essentially equates to a death sentence.
Even under Inner Qi Manifestation, if suppressed by Cloud Qi and trampled by war horses repeatedly, they'd probably end up like minced meat.
"Regroup!" Guo Si ordered, while Li Jue and Fan Chou were worriedly looking at Duan Wei's right arm, which was basically crippled, connected by a sliver of flesh.
While ordering scout cavalry to verify the situation with Kushan Camel Cavalry, Guo Si commanded the soldiers to clean the battlefield. After finishing these tasks, Guo Si rode over and immediately saw Duan Wei's arm.
"Zhongming, what happened?" Seeing this scene, Guo Si felt a headache coming on.
"Looking back, it was foolish, but exchanging it for an arm manifesting Inner Qi seems worth it." Duan Wei said with a conflicted face because he was within the Military Spirit Legion and hadn't expected such a situation to arise.
"What to do now?" Fan Chou poked Duan Wei's thoroughly severed arm with a finger, "Quite strange indeed, why isn't it bleeding, and you don't seem to be in pain."
"You could slash my neck, and I could keep fighting." Duan Wei looked at his arm helplessly, "Although Military Spirit Will is powerful, what now?
"Perhaps wrap it up and see if it can grow back." Li Jue suggested wildly, leaving everyone speechless.
"Forget it, let's find a professional. I remember General Hua secretly brought a physician over. I heard that Physician Hua and Dr. Zhang, at that level, can stitch a person back up after gutting them. I think this should be easy for him," Duan Wei said helplessly as he realized he could still control his fingers despite his arm's state.
Since Duan Wei was confident he was fine, Li Jue felt somewhat relieved. "Aduo, what is our situation?"
"We took advantage, losing over two hundred, with about two thousand injured. The enemy lost over seventeen hundred. Mainly because the battle duration was short—if it continued, once your legion talent expired, our losses would escalate immediately." Guo Si spoke, first excited, then feeling helpless.
"Ah, nothing I can do," Li Jue said helplessly. If his legion talent could last all day like others, he would have chased and struck the enemy by now, no need for this?
"Clean up and bring those dead camels back; hump meat tastes quite good, let's have it for supper." Fan Chou commanded, "I think we need to treat our injuries promptly to avoid any issues."
Meanwhile, Zasali was in agony having his bone reset. Fortunately, he was under Inner Qi Manifestation and found the severed arm; without that, given their current skills, the arm would be unsavable.
"Han Empire!" Zasali gritted his teeth and spat.
"Indeed, a formidable empire—just a regiment stationed here has such strength." Fuward was not angry but admired the Han Army, being a worshipper of war, respecting all strong entities.
"What should we do?" Zasali asked grimly.
"First report to His Majesty, then regroup and train anew. If they can become that formidable, we surely can too." Fuward replied calmly. "Before doing so, however, we must pray, empower the soldiers once more—many veterans died."
"There's definitely something amiss—their defense is unbelievably strong." Zasali, though angry, did not let rage cloud his judgment.
"Thinking now, it must be our command's error. Later, I'll recruit troops from elsewhere to probe them—I believe they shouldn't be this strong. By my estimation, their combat loss ratio to ours is one to seven." Fuward said, frowning deeply.
"That high?" Zasali said in disbelief.
"Mm, I'm afraid it's at a one-to-seven. Even a legion inherited from the Empire couldn't have hit us this hard," Fuward said with a hint of silence. "Our legion, after all, is already incredibly strong."
Fuward wasn't a fool. At his level, he had a very accurate grasp of his legion's strength. Even a Military Spirit Legion, logically, shouldn't result in more than a one-to-five loss ratio unless countered, and the opponent managed a one-to-seven ratio!
This has already surpassed the battle standard of a Military Spirit Legion. It means the other side is either a Military Spirit Legion themselves or they've completely restrained us. Given his legion's configuration, theoretically, it's impossible to be fully countered.
After all, his legion's coordination is first-class. Close combat, mid-range, long-range, none is too weak. Every aspect of his legion is very balanced, having no weaknesses. Yet, they ended up with a one-to-seven loss ratio against the opponent!
"The opponent can't be a Military Spirit Legion, but their defense and close combat capabilities totally overwhelm us. Moreover, our long-range attacks are fully neutralized by their defenses. Most light weapons have no effect on them. How can we fight them?" Zasali had calmed down but was equally troubled.
"I have a few speculations, but they're uncertain," Fuward said after a moment of silence.
"I have a few suspicions too," Zasali also glanced at Fuward.
"There is a gap between the Legacy Legion and the Dual Talent Super Elite," Fuward said after a moment of silence.
"I'm afraid of that too, but it should be impossible. For so many years, nothing closer to the Legacy Legion has appeared. The opponents likely have a time limit," Zasali slowly voiced his suspicion.
"I suspect that too. If it were indeed the former case, they should be chasing us down to annihilate us," Fuward nodded, "There's also the possibility that their Chief General has issues, different from ours."
"Yes, I've never seen ordinary people face us without fear!" Zasali said icily, "Fan Chou, and that one called Duan Wei!"
While Fuward and Zasali were speculating, Fan Chou and others had returned to their self-built small city, carrying plenty of looted supplies. As for what they couldn't consume, they threw it into the snow cover for freezing. This place has permanent ice at a certain altitude!
"General Duan, need treatment?" Hua Fei coldly looked at Duan Wei and said. He really wanted to say Hua Xiong had guts, not knowing who he was, yet stuffing him in a sack for Guo Si to take to the Western Regions. Speaking of which, Hua Xiong seemed to have done that to Qu Qi too, and it appears his luck is pretty good.
"Can my arm be saved?" Duan Wei frowned, looking at his arm.
"It's been less than an hour since it broke, and you've been using Inner Qi to keep it active consistently. After reattachment, keep using Inner Qi to ease it, and it will be fine in a month," Hua Fei glanced at Duan Wei's right arm. "I've reattached a fallen thigh for someone before, yours is simple."
"Then hurry up and fix it!" Duan Wei shouted frantically. Although he spoke optimistically before, he was actually worried about being crippled. If it weren't for the constant flow of Inner Qi and the Military Spirit proving he could barely move a finger, Duan Wei wouldn't have made it back calmly. Didn't you see he became reticent?
"Haven't you seen I'm sterilizing? I'm Hua Fei. Do you want Powder for Anesthesia?" Hua Fei said expressionlessly to Duan Wei, somehow feeling his face twitching when mentioning Powder for Anesthesia.
"Are you sure you can save it?" Duan Wei looked at Hua Fei boiling equipment.
"Of those who can treat such injuries, in the whole world, there are just seven or eight people. Marquis Chen brought my senior brother and me to the military encampment to deal with such injuries," Hua Fei said expressionlessly. "Then I got Hua Zijian to sack him here. If you don't want your arm reattached, you can refuse my help, but Inner Qi and Military Spirit won't support it for long."
Duan Wei looked grim. At first, he could control his right hand, but now it could barely twitch twice.
"Fix it, fix it," Duan Wei hurriedly said. "But I don't want Powder for Anesthesia, just fix it, no matter how much it hurts, I can endure it."
"That works, Military Spirit Legion, not afraid of pain." Hua Fei casually took out tools and started the limb reimplantation surgery on Duan Wei. It's fortunate that this world has Inner Qi, otherwise, reattaching tendons and other parts wouldn't be easy.
Hua Fei has done this surgery several times after all. Though lacking others' assistance made him a bit rusty, it's such a high-difficulty surgery few can perform, and Duan Wei couldn't tell anyway!
Ah ah ah, come see the official version at Qidian, this book first publishes there, only costs about two cents a chapter, support us if you can at Qidian…

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