World-Ending Demon Emperor
Chapter 676: Three Three Six: Zhi Wei Doomsday! The final strangulation!

Chapter 676: Three Three Six: Zhi Wei Doomsday! The final strangulation!

Three days before the grand battle, Zhi Wei suffered a tragic defeat, vomiting blood and losing consciousness. Upon waking, he immediately decided to remain at his position, continuing the siege of the Wind Thunder Fortress Defense Line and tying down Suo Lun’s main forces.

Having recuperated for three days, he was already able to get out of bed and walk.

That night, he was once again shocked by terrible news, and this time it was two-fold.

First came the news that all the bridges over the Tianshui River, behind them, had been destroyed, and the army guarding the river had been annihilated. Their supply lines had been cut.

Then, the army’s supplies were burned to the ground in an air raid by Suo Lun’s griffin beasts.

Stimulated by these two pieces of bad news, Zhi Wei could not bear it any longer, and once again spewed out a mouthful of fresh blood, fainting away!

In truth, the burning of the supply depots was serious, but not as serious as it could be.

Though Duke Zhi Wei had not recovered in health and was lacking in energy these past few days, he still had many competent officials and military generals under him. Having foreseen and simulated the potential burning of supplies, they had already distributed parts of the supplies to various army encampments.

Moreover, they dispatched thousands of soldiers to dig tunnels and hide the supplies within them.

So, even though most of the supplies were burned, the army now only numbered a little over sixty thousand soldiers, the dispersed supplies could suffice for about ten days, barely enough to hold out until the Tuling Tuo Army arrived.

These elite officials managed to distribute supplies in advance, ensuring that the army would not starve. However, they failed to gauge the sentiments of the people, unable to predict the massive blow to the army’s morale caused by the burning of the supplies.

That very night, upon learning that their path of retreat was cut off and their supplies burned, Zhi Wei’s army was thrown into panic, and rumors spread wildly and preposterously.

Even small-scale mutinies broke out, with one group of a few thousand soldiers disregarding their superior’s orders, determined to flee across the river.

Of course, this minor mutiny was eventually suppressed by the experienced officers. After all, the squad had been with Zhi Wei for many years and remained united, preventing serious consequences.

But no matter how the middle and high-ranking officers tried to reassure and debunk rumors that there were enough supplies, the surviving sixty thousand soldiers were still in a state of chaos, with morale at an all-time low.

...

The day after Zhi Wei’s army’s supplies were burned.

At that time, Duke Turing Tuo’s army of two hundred thousand was still fourteen hundred miles away from Tianshui City and would only arrive after about eleven days.

Night had fallen deeply, and Zhi Wei’s sixty thousand soldiers were immersed in sleep.

Dozens of dragon archers stared intently at the sky. Several thousand soldiers patrolled everywhere, filled with the utmost vigilance.

And right then!

"Swish, swish, swish, swish..."

Suo Lun’s griffin air assault descended upon them once more!

This time it was not four or five, but fourteen!

Just a few days prior, Suo Lun had sent a secret criosphinx message to Gao Yin, requesting more griffin beasts.

Today, ten griffin beasts supplied by Gao Yin had already reached the Wind Thunder Fortress Defense Line.

The entire Rage Wave Kingdom had only about twenty griffins, and now he had summoned the majority of them.

Thus, this wave of aerial assault on Zhi Wei’s camp involved a total of fourteen griffin beasts.

"They’re dropping explosive packages from the sky again!"

The dozens of dragon archers in Zhi Wei’s army were going mad, for they were capable marksmen, striking targets hundreds of miles away.

But it was deep into the night, pitch-black where one couldn’t see their own hands. Moreover, shooting arrows upward into the sky meant that, due to gravity, the arrows would lose their momentum after about four hundred meters and be utterly powerless.

These damnable griffin beasts were flying at an altitude of around four or five hundred meters.

At this height, the Gryphon Knights conducting the bombardment didn’t expect to hit anything in particular. They merely tossed their explosive packages down randomly.

"Swish, swish, swish, swish..."

Explosions erupted all over Zhi Wei’s sixty thousand-strong encampment, one after another, shaking the heavens and the earth.

Everywhere was in pandemonium.

Moreover, most devastatingly, these griffins specifically targeted the cavalry encampments.

Originally, Zhi Wei’s army of a hundred and fifty thousand included twenty thousand cavalry.

After the grand battle a few days ago, only a little over sixty thousand remained, but the nearly untouched twenty thousand cavalry were still Zhi Wei’s army’s greatest combat force.

The twenty thousand cavalry’s camp spanned several miles. With twenty or thirty thousand warhorses gathered together, there was no need for precision. The explosive packages simply needed to be thrown downward.

Warhorses are the most easily spooked, and after a series of bombings, thousands of warhorses were frightened and ran wild.

The appearance of tens of thousands of startled warhorses was staggering, like tumultuous waves crashing wildly.

The entirety of Zhi Wei’s camp was thrown into disarray by the stampede.

No one knew how many soldiers died under the thundering hooves.

Sixty thousand soldiers had a sleepless night, desperately avoiding the frantically running warhorses. They also had to be on edge for fear that an unlucky explosion from an explosive package nearby would spell their doom.

This bombardment lasted for a full four hours, only stopping as dawn was about to break.

Then, several thousand cavalrymen spent several hours bringing the startled warhorses back to the encampment and calming them down.

...

The next morning, the awakened Zhi Wei discussed how to deal with Suo Lun’s nocturnal aerial harassment.

The army deputy commander said, "Duke, last night’s aerial assault by Suo Lun resulted in about six hundred direct casualties. However, more than three thousand soldiers were trampled to death by the warhorses, and nearly two thousand horses were lost!"

Hearing this loss, Duke Zhi Wei’s heart twitched in pain.

Zhi Wei furrowed his brow and said, "Tonight, Suo Lun will surely launch another air raid. How should we respond to this situation? If tens of thousands of warhorses are scared again, the entire camp will once more be destroyed."

The officers below fell silent for a moment.