Chapter 600

Chapter 600: Holding One’s Breath Steady

On the tense battlefield, the armies were gathering.

An assault on the city was about to begin.

Standing atop the city wall, Huo Qiguang was clearly anxious.

After the first major clash, his pride and joy, the cavalry force, had been utterly crushed by the enemy’s camel troops.

From that moment on, this battle had become extremely difficult for him.

He had been locked in a brutal fight with those Arabs for 8 straight days.

By now, 2 of his cities had already fallen into enemy hands.

If reinforcements did not arrive soon, his third city would likely fall as well.

Just at that moment…

[System notification: Your ally “Luo Ji” has accepted your request for aid. Reinforcements are arriving at the battlefield…]

This sudden system notification was like heavenly music to Huo Qiguang’s ears.

At the same time, on the other side.

The Arabs who also received the system notification were far less pleased.

After his expression darkened, the Arab commander decisively issued an order to temporarily withdraw back into the city.

The strength of the enemy reinforcements was still unclear.

At a time like this, retreating first was the safer choice.

If the enemy came to attack the city, he would gain the advantage of the city walls.

If they did not attack and both sides remained in a stalemate, occupying 2 cities was already an impressive achievement.

No matter how this invasion was calculated, he was still winning.

Either way, it was a profit with no losses.

It had to be said that players who had been on the world battlefield for a long time generally developed a habit of playing it safe.

As for those who liked to gamble recklessly, the grass on their graves was at least 3 meters tall by now.

After receiving Huo Qiguang’s message.

Luo Ji first accepted the other party’s thanks with pleasure.

Then, upon learning that the Arabs who had been preparing to assault the city had already withdrawn, he felt slightly surprised.

He had not expected the enemy to retreat the moment he arrived with reinforcements.

According to Huo Qiguang, the Arabs had occupied his cities and switched directly into a defensive stance.

Clearly, they had no intention of leaving the city easily.

If this continued, the two sides could remain locked in a stalemate for a full month.

When that time came, would Huo Qiguang really be able to pay him the promised Azure Cauldron blueprint as compensation?

If he could take the reward so easily, Luo Ji would not mind at all.

Unfortunately, during their brief exchange of messages, Huo Qiguang made his intention to counterattack very clear.

After all, if he did not counterattack and seize back the lost resources, his losses would be truly devastating.

Take the money, eliminate the disaster.

This Azure Cauldron blueprint really was not that easy to earn.

No matter what, they had to first link up with Huo Qiguang’s forces.

After both sides joined up, Huo Qiguang could not stop his eyelids from twitching as he looked at the ferocious beastman army behind Luo Ji.

Comparing this formation to the one Luo Ji had used when invading him back then.

It turned out that at the time, this guy truly had not gone all out.

The military power of a beastman civilization in the early stages was indeed overwhelmingly strong.

Thinking of this, Huo Qiguang could not help but feel grateful that he had chosen to pull Luo Ji in as an ally back then.

This move was clearly the right one.

With such a powerful beastman army backing him up, reclaiming the 2 fallen cities and heavily crippling the Arab forces, or even turning defeat into victory, was not impossible.

“What do you plan to do?”

After the two sides met up, Luo Ji directly threw this question to Huo Qiguang.

Of course, he was not asking about tactics for attacking the city.

He was asking when to attack.

Given the current situation, unless they wiped out the enemy completely, the fight would drag into a month-long stalemate.

Under that premise, waiting a few more days made no difference.

There was no need to rush.

Huo Qiguang had just gone through days of fierce fighting, so resting for 2 or 3 days first.

Then launching a single decisive push to reclaim the fallen cities was the best strategy.

As for the enemy calling in external reinforcements.

There was actually no need to worry too much about that.

At least for now, the enemy would not do so.

The reason was simple.

Unless two players shared a very deep relationship.

Calling in reinforcements was essentially a business transaction.

Just like Huo Qiguang paying a price to ask Luo Ji for support.

The other side was the same.

If they could hold the situation on their own, why spend extra resources?

Huo Qiguang had clearly thought of this as well.

After a moment of consideration, he made a cautious decision.

“Let me rest for a few days first and gather my forces.”

This crucial moment of holding one’s breath.

Sounded easy to say, but not everyone could truly remain that calm.

This rational decision made Luo Ji regard him even more highly.

During the days that Huo Qiguang rested, Luo Ji’s beastman army naturally also entered the city to recuperate.

They were temporarily stationed in the other party’s military camp.

Over the next 3 days, several infantry units arrived at the front lines one after another.

The forces under Huo Qiguang’s command were steadily gathering.

In the cold weapons era, as territory expanded, reduced support efficiency was unavoidable.

Highly mobile cavalry units were manageable.

But infantry units stationed far from the front line had to rely entirely on their own legs.

Sometimes, when unexpected situations occurred, they could not reach the front within 7 days at all.

That was why, in the later stages, how important a capable frontier general was became self-evident.

The current situation made Luo Ji think of his own Myriad Worlds Civilization.

When he had been settling cities before, he had tried to place them close together whenever possible.

The purpose was to allow rapid mutual support.

As things developed later on, at worst, he could simply merge several cities into one.

However, recently, the number of cities that required long-distance support had gradually increased.

There was no need to mention the cities on the grasslands, which had always been far away.

And now, an additional Yellow Sand City had appeared in the Central Plains region.

Huo Qiguang’s situation here served as a timely reminder to him.

After returning, it would be time to properly adjust his troop deployments.

Returning to the matter at hand, Huo Qiguang’s patience was indeed impressive.

He held back for a full 10 days.

Over these 10 days, by Luo Ji’s estimate, nearly 4,000 infantry had already assembled inside the city.

By the way, this time, the Arab commander had directly mobilized an army of 10,000 to attack the city.

This force even included war elephant units and camel troops, such distinctive unit types.

Over the previous 7 days, Huo Qiguang had already fought to the death against more than 4,000 enemy troops.

This made Luo Ji sigh inwardly.

“As expected of the Black Iron tier. Even a casual invasion battle involves an army of over 10,000.”

Later, after Huo Qiguang explained it, there was actually an element of national hatred involved as well.

To put it simply, on this world battlefield, players from different countries fought each other again and again.

As the fighting went on, whether there was hatred at the beginning or not, in the end, everyone basically ended up holding grudges…

Under such circumstances, when players attacked the civilizations of foreign players, the scale of their forces was generally larger.

After all, losing face to foreigners was something that made people even angrier.