Eternal Empire

Chapter 12 - It's Still Early

Shen Leng drew out his knife. He killed at a faster speed.

The group of water bandits, who were akin to a pack of wolves earlier, had finally stopped acting high and mighty after five or six of them were killed. There was no ferocity - only fear.

"You should leave!" yelled an elder with a sobbing tone.

Shen Leng's eyes went red. He stopped swinging his knife midway in the air. The water bandit that narrowly escaped death ran for his life. Shen Leng looked at the elder, who slowly got down on his knees. "Aren't we all just trying to make a living?"

The corner of Shen Leng's mouth twitched. "What about the innocent peddlers you killed?"

The elder trembled, and did not utter a single word after.

The water bandits started to flee in a disorderly manner. They no longer had the courage to continue fighting. Even though they knew clearly that their opponent was just a young man, none of them dared to provoke him.

All men, women, elderly and children ran towards the pier at the same time. There was a warship there. As long as they still had their ship, in the eyes of the water bandits, it was sufficient for them to continue on with their lives.

Shen Leng was unable to give chase. He could kill a few more people at most, but he did not have the ability to stop a few hundred people from escaping. Moreover, he was already exhausted.

His forehead was filled with sweat, and his clothes were already soaked with blood and sweat. He stood there watching the group of people escaping, as he gasped for air.

However, all of a sudden, the warship started to sink gradually, as it tilted to one side. The water bandits panicked even more.

The water bandits' battleship was not very big - it was approximately slightly over ten meters long. It was originally a fishing boat that was remodeled. Not long after it started tilting, the bottom part of the ship was entirely submerged in the water. The people who were on the ship started to jump out of it.

Toot..

Suddenly, a bugle horn was heard coming from the reed marshland. It sounded like a grim reaper brandishing his sickle as he took a soul. In the eyes of these water bandits, nothing sounded scarier than that.

Great Ning's Navy troops, decked in dark blue armor, came out of the reed marshland. They might seem to be disorganized, but to a discerning person, he would be able to tell that they had been maintaining a battle formation consisting of teams of five from start to end.

"Crossbow!" yelled the leading military officer.

The troops around him started to hit their shields with their knife. Clank, clank, clank.

The front row of troops lifted up their repeating crossbows. They arched their backs as they walked forward, while at the same time pulling the trigger. Arrows shot out at the same time, akin to a rainstorm, and knocked out a bunch of frenzied water bandits and their families.

Within the range of the repeating crossbow, there was no weapon that had a stronger destructive power than it. After the densely packed arrows were shot out, and a layer of corpses laid fell to the ground, and the wails of the casualties could be heard.

After that, Great Ning's troops were twenty meters away from the water bandits.

"Javelin!" instructed the military officer once again.

The troops hit their knives against their shields once again..clank clank clank!

The troops who were advancing in an orderly fashion hung their repeating crossbows back on their waist at nearly the same time, before drawing their javelins that were tied to their backs. At the range of twenty meters, the javelin was more powerful than the crossbow!

A row of javelins got tossed out; each of them was half a meter long, made from pure iron. A heavy javelin weight up to 22 pounds. A sea of black javelins' flight path made a perfect arc in the sky, after which more corpses fell to the ground.

One of the javelins pierced a water bandit right through his back and out of his chest. He fell forward, and before he had the time to stand back up, a second javelin landed straight on his head. The entire scene was akin to an iron rod stabbing a watermelon - his skull ruptured and the javelin pierced out of his eye socket, nailing him to the ground.

The coordinate sequence of attacks of Great Ning's troops that Shen Leng had seen in his mind came to life before him. Seeing the perfectly matched up troops with his own eyes was more useful than reading books.

He was stunned. Extremely stunned.

Great Ning's troops' method of killing was extremely violent. This was the result of the experience gained from countless battles over hundreds of years. It was immediate and effective. Even the elite troops of the neighboring countries did not stand a chance against the attacks of Great Ning's troops, let alone these mobs.

Repeating crossbows had killed off a bunch of them and so did the javelins. The total number of remaining water bandits and their family members was less than a hundred.

When soldiers killed, as long as it was on the battlefield, they would not care if the enemy was a man or a woman, or if he or she was old or young.

Under strict military commands, every single one of Great Ning's soldiers had been trained to become unfeeling killing machines. As they advanced, anything in their way would be destroyed, regardless of what it was.

Shen Leng turned around and entered the house. He saw that Shen Cha Yan was frightened to the point she went pale. "Frightened? Let's go."

Shen Leng did not expect Great Ning's Navy troops to appear at that moment. He also did not know why he was unwilling to let them see him. He grabbed Shen Cha Yan and jumped out of the back window.

Shen Cha Yan's hands were ice cold, and her palms were sweaty,

When Shen Leng was killing the water bandits, she was a little afraid, but she was more nervous than afraid. When she saw Great Ning's troops sweeping across, she was only left with fear. Their method and speed of killing made one tremble with fear.

"I'll carry you."

Shen Leng did not care about her response - he carried her on his back and walked off.

Shen Cha Yan did not resist. Strangely, she did not curse at him either. After she leaned against his back for a while, her hand was trembling as she extended it. She used the handkerchief to wipe the sweat on his forehead. Her actions were rather robot-like and awkward.

Hence, it made Shen Leng laugh. His laughter was exceptionally gleeful.

At the side where the water bandits' camp was, the Navy just got done with what they were doing.

The water bandits, who were already scared out of their wits earlier by Shen Leng, did not dare to resist at all; they only wanted to flee for their lives. However, what Great Ning's troops like the most is when their enemies reveal their backs to them.

"Knife!" yelled the Navy officer.

Once again, the troops hit their shields.

Clank, clank, clank!

All the soldiers loved drawing their standard issue knives and pursuing their enemies, attacking them from the back, and cutting their heads down one by one. Their achievements were calculated by the number of heads that they cut off. Hence, when the enemies saw two to three heads hanging on the waist of the soldiers, there was nothing else they could do but feel scared.

Great Ning had a military strategy named, 'Rolling Up Beaded Curtain'. To put it simply, they stuck close to the back of the fleeing troops, attacking them from the back. This would cause the troops right at the back to charge right into their counterparts in the front rows, leading to greater chaos.

The battle today was a small-scaled one, hence they did not actually fully executed said military strategy.

The military officer had a cold look on his face as he mounted the pier. He looked all around and observed his subordinates seizing the injured water bandits, slashing them down one by one.

"Too slow!"

The bugle horn was heard once again. The soldiers quickly fell into formation. The military officer sent two ten-people teams to inspect the camp of the bandits. They entered the reed marshland and conducted a search. The remaining people started to move the things that the water bandits had plundered. In truth, only eighty Navy soldiers had been sent there for today's operation - more than it seemed.

On the other side of the reed marshland, there was a slanted old locust tree. The leaves were densely packed together. Mr. Shen stood on the tree and placed his field glasses down. He heaved a long sigh.

He jumped down from the tree, and tidied up his clothes before he started walking back.

"Hand him over to me."

A voice was heard from behind Mr. Shen.

Mr. Shen turned his head around, "It's still early."

An elegant middle-aged man dressed in a scholar's robe walked out of the reed marshland. He looked extremely refined and cultured, like a scholar who read the Book of Songs intensively. He exuded a scholarly air. And yet the sword on his waist made him appear to be more valiant.

"Then why did you want me to see him?"

The middle-aged man shook his head, "Can't bear to part with him?"

Mr. Shen said the same thing once more, 'It's still early."

The middle-aged man nodded, "Alright then, when you think the timing is right, send him over to me. His Majesty holds the Navy in high regard. It's easier for him to excel in the Navy, as compared to the Four Borders.

"Zhuang Yong."

Mr. Shen laughed, "Don't forget to come by my Daoist temple and complete the game of chess that we have not finished."

The middle-aged man, who was addressed as 'Zhuang Yong', was the commander of Jiangnan Weaving Repository's Navy, a four pin general. He was a well-known general who excelled academically. Hence, for a person of his caliber to be only a four pin general, he was clearly overqualified. Unfortunately, he was the king's counselor. His Majesty had always been strict with his own people. If it were someone else with the same abilities and military achievements, he would have already become a three pin general.

That year, when they were in the Daoist temple just outside of Yunxiao city, Zhuang Yong and Mr. Shen were playing a game of chess. Before they could finish it, a married woman carried a baby with her and entered the Daoist temple. Zhuang Yong had no choice back to leave through the back door.

In truth, he did not know what that woman was doing, and neither did he know what she instructed Mr. Shen to do. He asked Mr. Shen afterwards - did not reveal anything. He only said that if he were to tell him, his life would shortly come to an end.

After Mr. Shen removed his Daoist robes and went home, they had cut off contact.

Zhuang Yong said earnestly, "I had won that round of chess."

Mr. Shen said, "It was clearly not finished."

Zhuang Yong replied, "Why are you still so shameless?"

Mr. Shen shrugged. "Was I well-known back in Yunxiao city?"

Zhuang Yong did not understand why he asked that. He nodded, "Very."

"Back then, I was a Daoist devotee. If I wasn't shameless enough, how would I be able to become that well-known....so, do not call me shameless ever again. That is my profession."

After he said that, Mr. Shen walked away.

Zhuang Yong stared blankly for quite a while and laughed, "He is indeed shameless."

Naturally, he came over because he was notified by Mr. Shen, whose goal was not to finish off the mere group of water bandits. Instead, he wanted him to see Shen Leng for himself. Mr. Shen said that this child could conquer mountains and rivers. After Zhuang Yong had seen him, he felt that Mr. Shen had exaggerated. He probably cannot conquer mountains and rivers, but he's capable of achieving great things.

Like a tiger.

He had led the troops for several years and yet he had never seen a fifteen year old who could be that calm and decisive. Especially when he cut off Song Taisheng's head in front of all the water bandits and their families. He was truly impressive. Extremely impressive. He did not have any wine with him, but if he did, he would yell the word 'good' out loud before downing a huge gulp of wine.

The Navy troops started to head back, and Shen Leng had already left the reed marshland with Shen Cha Yan on his back. As for Mr. Shen who was walking alone, for some reason he continued keeping a smile on his face. He felt that he must be looking like an i***t at this moment, but he was simply very pleased.

He thought about the young man named Meng Changan. People said that he was an irresistible force, and that he had the makings of a great general.

"So what?"

Mr. Shen walked as he muttered to himself, "He might be an irresistible force, but he's not as powerful as our Leng."

In another direction, Shen Leng realized that Shen Cha Yan had finally stopped trembling. He smiled and said, "Wipe my sweat."

Shen Cha Yan, who had just calmed down, was slightly in a daze. She realized that she had subconsciously wiped Shen Leng's sweat for him multiple times. Immediately, she felt embarrassed and struggled to get off his back. She kicked Shen Leng in the butt. "Wipe my a*s!"

Shen Leng dashed forward and wiggled his butt. "It's not impossible, but I'd feel embarrassed and awkward."

Shen Cha Yan's eyes were filled with killing intent. She broke a branch and chased him. Shen Leng scampered off. As he ran, he would turn around and make funny faces at her.

"Wait!" yelled Shen Cha Yan.

"Only a fool would wait for you," retorted Shen Leng, as he turned to look at her.

When Shen Leng turned his head back to the front, a thud was heard..he had knocked into a tree.

Shen Cha Yan walked over to him with an expressionless face. She grabbed him by the collar and continued walking forward, "Didn't I tell you to wait? When will you change your knocking-into-tree ways? I can't possibly tie a pillow to every tree I see."

Shen Leng thought to himself: Weren't you the one who always threw me into a tree?