Chapter 007: Redcliffe

As George finished speaking, dense star combat energy began to spread from his hands. With more and more light combat energy accumulating in his palms, he kept swinging his arms, sending streams of star combat energy in various directions toward the city walls.
When George’s star combat energy reached the city walls, it mysteriously disappeared dozens of meters away from them. After firing over fifty beams of energy, several sharp cracking sounds came from inside the walls.
“The magic array that activates the protective shield has been destroyed,” George said. “Now, we only need to deal with the physical defenses of the walls.”
“Naixiu, shoot another arrow—no forbidden techniques, just the Dragon Snake strike,” Du Fan said to her again.
Soon, the Dragon Snake strike slammed into the city wall, creating a huge crater!
However, the walls of Xiaohan Pass were extremely tall and thick! When Naixiu’s attack hit the walls, it was like hitting a small mountain. Although a large crater appeared, it had little impact on the walls as a whole.
Even so, the soldiers guarding Xiaohan Pass were shocked!
In their eyes, although Du Fan’s Northern Legion had arrived, breaking through the city walls would likely not be easy!
During the construction of Xiaohan Pass, that protective shield was designed to withstand attacks from god-tier experts! Moreover, the magic stones that powered the shield had accumulated to an astonishing amount over hundreds of years!
But what these people never expected was that, under Old Green’s arrangement, the magic array that activated the shield had already been tampered with. Once damaged, it would take at least half a month to repair it!
Seeing their city walls suddenly lose the protection of the magical shield, the soldiers panicked immediately!
Soon, amid the chaos, a general appeared on top of the wall.
“Du Fan, you traitors! How dare you attack Xiaohan Pass? Are you so impatient to live?” the general shouted loudly from the wall.
Du Fan recognized this person as Redcliffe, the deputy commander of the Imperial City Guard. After the chaos in the capital, he had been promoted to commander of the Imperial City Guard!

Redcliffe is one of Fish’s men. After Fish came to power, it was a very easy task for him to promote an assistant to the position of leader. The former commander could simply assign him some nominal, useless position before promoting Redcliffe—it was quite simple.
“Redcliffe! Fish has colluded with the Holy Church to assassinate my father! On the day of my wedding, he even turned the eight magic cannons against us, reducing the entire Northern Royal Palace to ashes!”
“Such a tyrant! Such a foolish ruler! Why do you still follow him? Think of my father! He made great contributions to the empire, establishing the entire Frozen Alliance! Fish even conspired with outsiders to assassinate him! Redcliffe, tell me—why should I continue to support such a foolish and tyrannical ruler?”
“Think of me, Du Fan! I recovered the four southern provinces for the empire! How has the empire treated me?”
“Redcliffe, if you could wake up sooner and join my side, maybe you could have a peaceful second half of your life. But following that fool and tyrant? You’ll likely end up with your family destroyed!”
“Du Fan, stop talking. How could I, the commander of the Imperial City Guard, listen to your nonsense and side with you?”
“What if I side with you instead?” As soon as Redcliffe said this, Du Fan rushed to speak before he could finish.
“Redcliffe, how about this: I’ll join you, and together we’ll march on the imperial capital and cut off that tyrant Fish’s head!” Du Fan used an amplification magic spell, spreading his voice across the entire battlefield.
As a result, those at the gates of Xiaohan Pass might think that Du Fan and Redcliffe were discussing how to get rid of Fish if they suddenly appeared and heard Du Fan’s words.
Looking back at the hundreds of thousands of troops inside Xiaohan Pass, who were staring at him with strange expressions, Redcliffe’s face broke out in profuse sweat.
“Open the gates! The first rebel army, advance!” By this point, Redcliffe didn’t dare say much more. He drew his long sword from his waist and pointed outside the gates.
Instantly, the huge, heavy iron gates of Xiaohan Pass were slowly raised.
A colorful army slowly marched out.
To make command easier, Redcliffe divided the 400,000 local troops into four groups, forming the first, second, third, and fourth rebel armies.

These four groups of rebel forces were composed of many local troops, whose uniforms were entirely determined by the preferences of those lords. As a result, when these rebel forces marched forward, they presented a colorful array!
Seeing these first group of rebel forces, Du Fan smirked coldly. Such a mix of miscellaneous troops—were they not sent here purely to die?
“Retreat two kilometers!” Du Fan waved his hand and issued an order.
He wanted to wait until these first group of rebel forces were fully assembled before launching an attack!
“Third brother, be careful. There are many traps on the walls of Xiaohan Pass, and the walls are so high that the archers standing on them can shoot arrows from much greater distances!” George suddenly remembered something and immediately spoke to Du Fan.
“Okay, I understand,” Du Fan replied.
The reason for retreating two kilometers was that Du Fan had already taken George’s warning into account.
Soon, the first group of rebel forces gathered below Xiaohan Pass.
“Beat the drums! Blow the horns! Order them to charge!” Redcliffe shouted loudly.
As soon as Redcliffe gave the order, the walls of Xiaohan Pass were filled with the intense sound of war drums, accompanied by the mournful sounds of horns!
The drums, horns, along with the faint blood-red hue created by the countless evil energies accumulated at Xiaohan Pass, made the entire scene extremely grim!
The only thing out of place was the colorful uniforms of the first group of rebel forces!
Such a mix of uniforms gave off an impression of being unorganized.
“Commander, look—sending these first group of rebel forces to fight against those mad dog-like troops from the Northern Legion might not be a good idea,” said a general beside Redcliffe.
“Dare you question my tactics?” Hearing the general’s question, Redcliffe narrowed his eyes and demanded fiercely.
“Of course, I wouldn’t dare question your tactics, Commander. It’s just that I believe the first group of rebel forces has limited combat strength and is likely no match for the Northern Legion. I urge you to prepare in advance,” the general said, sweating profusely after hearing Redcliffe’s fierce outburst.
“How could you possibly understand my intentions?” Redcliffe snorted heavily and ignored the general’s opinion further.

“There are so many local generals here; how can I speak openly to you? Sigh, I sent the first rebel suppression force over, treating them completely as cannon fodder!” Redcliffe thought to himself repeatedly. “Besides, our Prince Fischer already gave orders to take this opportunity to weaken the local forces!”
“Facing the Northern Legion, these people are clearly going to their deaths. How could I not know? But since all these dead troops are from local forces, such losses mean nothing to our Imperial City Guard!” Redcliffe kept thinking to himself.
Driven by the sound of war drums and horns, the first rebel suppression force charged wildly at the Northern Legion.
Seeing those utterly untrained troops charging at him so bravely, Du Fan showed a look of astonishment!
Suddenly, a phrase popped into Du Fan’s mind: The ignorant are fearless!
These local troops had never been to a proper battlefield before! Usually, they only oppressed the local people and committed crimes!
Now, suddenly thrown into battle, these troops, who had never fought before, seemed excited! They charged at the Northern Legion together, fearlessly!
Soon, the weaknesses of this force became obvious to the soldiers of the Northern Legion!
There was no coordination among them at all!
Moreover, many unrelated troops were mixed together, not only failing to cooperate but also hindering each other.
Watching this chaotic army approaching, the soldiers of the Northern Legion showed a hint of mockery!
Drawing their weapons, they rushed like tigers down the mountain, fiercely attacking the first rebel suppression force!
As Du Fan had expected, as soon as the two armies clashed, the first rebel suppression force was defeated in one strike!
Under the fierce assault of the Northern Legion, these utterly untrained troops quickly retreated! Soon, the entire battlefield was filled with the cries of those local troops!
Watching the massacre before him, Du Fan shook his head.
“Commander, send reinforcements quickly!” a general said, sweating profusely.
This general was the leader of an army sent by a marquis, whose five thousand private troops were being brutally slaughtered by the soldiers of the Northern Legion below!

The local general could easily imagine what kind of punishment the marquis would impose on him if he learned that his five thousand troops, under his command, had been completely annihilated!
“My lord, the situation on the battlefield changes in an instant! Allow me to take a closer look,” said Redcliffe with a kind smile.
“Then hurry up and take a look, my lord! The sooner you see it, the sooner you can make a decision!” Hearing Redcliffe’s words, the local general dared not say anything more.
Lord Redcliffe was well-known throughout the country as a favorite of His Majesty Fisher. Moreover, he was the commander-in-chief of this war. If he became angry, he could have absolute power over the general’s life and death!
He could easily invent a charge of disobedience to execute the general on the spot. Even if the general were killed, it was likely that his superior, the marquis, wouldn’t dare say anything.
The first army sent to suppress the rebellion on the battlefield was in extreme distress! They were no match at all against the northern army. When they tried to retreat into the city, they found a large number of fierce soldiers stationed at the city gates!
As soon as anyone tried to retreat inside the city walls, these soldiers would immediately cut off their heads.