Clan Rise: Starting as a Grandfather

Yang Zhenshan left Yemi City with extra grain, fearing that Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze might not have enough.

Following him, Yang Mingzhen said, "That's good. We've brought plenty of horses, two mounts per person, with an excess of twenty thousand!"

Yang Zhenshan had already seen the warhorses, "Whose stud farm did you rob?"

"It was the Huiba Tribe. They had a very large stud farm. Unfortunately, most of the good horses were taken to Beiyuan Town. The ones left were fairly ordinary," explained Yang Mingzhen.

Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze never lacked for horses, but when they took down the Huiba Tribe's stud farm, they still took all the warhorses with them.

First, they didn't want to leave anything for the Huiba Tribe; second, they were already preparing for the return journey.

Besides warhorses, they also acquired some wealth. Every soldier carried some gold and silver. Although it wasn't much, it was still a considerable gain.

As for other spoils, they didn't get too much.

In comparison, Yang Zhenshan took away a vast amount of gold, silver, and treasures, especially Elixirs and Treasure Medicines, valued at no less than three million taels of Silver. In addition, there was Gold, jade, gemstones, and the aforementioned items.

The total value was estimated to be around five million taels of Silver.

This number sounds large, but in fact, it only amounts to a few hundred taels of Silver per soldier.

Of course, the lion's share was taken by Yang Zhenshan, whose gains were the greatest this time.

Yang Zhenshan had already planned that after this battle, he would visit Star Moon Island. At that time, he would leave everything from the Spiritual Spring Space on Star Moon Island.

With these resources, the foundation of the Yang family on Star Moon Island would be no weaker than the Star Moon Sect.

For a force, heritage includes many things: Martial Arts Masters are a heritage, so are wealth, provisions, Cultivation Techniques, Spirit Fruits, Elixirs, medicinal materials, and everything related to cultivation is part of this heritage.

A powerful force necessarily has no weaknesses in any aspect of its heritage.

Take ores, for example: many metal ores are quite rare and sometimes cannot be bought even with gold and silver. A mighty Martial Arts Force must reserve a large amount of weapons and various scarce ores for unforeseen needs.

Previously, the Yang family could not even produce a decent spear. It was Zhou Lan who gave Yang Zhenshan a Gold-plated Flying Fish Spear, and after it was damaged, Luo Shang spent a great amount of Silver to acquire a Mystical Iron Spear for Yang Zhenshan.

Even now, the Yang family doesn't have a very profound heritage. While they are not lacking in various Treasure Medicines and Spirit Fruits, they are in short supply of ores and weapons.

Although over the years, Yang Zhenshan had accumulated some weapons, there were only about a dozen decent ones, mostly swords and knives.

After the two armies merged, they slowly began their retreat toward the snowy plains.

And the news that Yemi City was burned down by Yang Zhenshan quickly spread.

In the halls of Menghe Mountain, within East Que Pass, Tang Wuxi's expression turned peculiar as he listened to his subordinate's report.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked with disbelief.

"Banner Master, it's absolutely true. The news has reached the Keman Tribe, and the Banner Master Sharo personally told me. It is said Yemi City was burned to the ground by Chongshan Town's army, leaving nothing but the city walls," the subordinate affirmed.

Tang Wuxi drew a sharp breath. "So, you're saying the Royal Court no longer exists?"

Without Yemi City, did the Wuliang Royal Court still stand?

That seemed to be a question.

King Wuliang Wu Tuo was still alive, but Wu Tuo's palace was gone!

"As to that, I do not know, sir. But it is said that King Wuliang has already led his troops back."

Tang Wuxi fell silent, while his generals looked at each other in bewilderment.

After a long while, Tang Wuxi spoke again: "Any other news?"

"Yes, a lot of messages are coming from everywhere. Some say Chongshan Town's army approached the gates of Bayandelei City, others say they have ransacked many tribes, and there's a rumor that they nearly breached the territory of the Alaman Tribe. It's also said that the stud farm of the Huiba Tribe was looted by Chongshan Town's army, resulting in the loss of tens of thousands of warhorses!"

Currently, various rumors were flying across the Wuliang Grassland. Even though Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze had been causing chaos on the grassland for more than a month and had already merged with Yang Zhenshan to retreat, news spread took time, and right now was when all sorts of rumors were erupting.

Various messages were true and false, mixed with a lot of bizarre rumors.

Whether the news were true or not, those odd rumors claim this is the devil's doing, that the soldiers of Chongshan Town are devils, and there are even explanations leaning on divine intervention, suggesting this is a punishment from the gods.

Just like the severe drought in Liaodong back then, and the rampant rumors about the new emperor's loss of virtue among the people of Da Rong, the belief system of the Hu Clan, although mainly Buddhism, was also mixed with a lot of nature worship, such as heavenly gods, mountain gods, water gods, tree gods and so on.

In times of great disaster, there would certainly be deceptive rumors to bewilder the populace.

Of course, Tang Wuxi was not going to believe these nonsensical rumors, his mind now in complete disarray.

There was news about the army of Chongshan Town everywhere, but how many troops does Chongshan Town actually have?

He stared blankly towards the east, wasn't there an army of one hundred thousand at the East Que Pass? Why then were there so many armies from Chongshan Town attacking and ravaging the hinterlands of the Royal Court?

According to the reports, it seemed like there were hundreds of thousands of troops from Chongshan Town within the Royal Court's hinterlands.

That's just ridiculously absurd!

"How many troops are in the enemy camp?" Tang Wuxi asked.

In the hall, several leaders looked at each other, and Batur said, "Prince, there must be no less than one hundred thousand troops!"

"Do you believe that?" Tang Wuxi's eyes bore into Batur with a deep look.

Batur stiffened, "Are you implying that their camp is empty, Prince? Impossible, we see them building siege equipment every day."

Tang Wuxi morosely said, "But it's been nearly two months, and they haven't launched an attack!"

Batur's face turned ugly.

"Ah~" Tang Wuxi sighed deeply, "We've been played!"

Batur angrily said, "Prince, I will lead the troops now to storm their camp."

"Shut up!" Tang Wuxi glared at him, "What's the point of attacking their camp now? King City has fallen, the war is over. Even if we break their camp, it doesn't benefit us in any way."

"And do you truly think you can take it down?"

"Perhaps the camp is not Chongshan Town's main force, but they've built their camp extremely solid, and also constructed a large quantity of siege weaponry."

Batur stopped talking, and after calming down, he too understood that it was nearly impossible to break through the enemy's camp.

In these nearly two months, Tang Feihu and Niu Zhuang have not only been building siege equipment but also continuously reinforcing the camp.

Their camp now was no less formidable than the East Que Pass in front of them.

The walls of the camp were just for show, behind them were layers of earthen walls and trenches, these fortifications had already sealed off the exit of the pass.

Inside the camp, there were also many crossbows and catapults. If Tang Wuxi were really to mount an attack, he would suffer heavy losses and may find it difficult to capture the camp, unless he was willing to risk the entirety of his tribe's strength.

"Then, what should we do?" Batur said in frustration.

Tang Wuxi spoke with unparalleled calm, "Now we don't need to do anything, just wait quietly!"

The crowd was puzzled.

Tang Wuxi glanced at them and explained, "Wu Tuo is the one who should be anxious now, not us."

In this battle, their Chi Ci Tribe seemed to have been at the forefront, but even if their Chi Ci Tribe had almost no losses, initially they only lost a few insignificant medium and small-sized tribes.

The biggest losses were naturally borne by the Wuliang Tribe, followed by the Kerelie Tribe, Huiba Tribe, Alaman Tribe.

The Wanggu Tribe and the Chi Ci Tribe only lost a few medium and small-sized tribes; Tatar Tribe's settlements were not plundered by Yang Mingzhen and Yang Chengze.

Looking at it this way, it was natural for the Wuliang Tribe, that is, Wu Tuo, to be anxious.

The crowd got the point and agreed one after another, "The Banner Master has the clearest insights!"