Chapter 171: The Decisive Battle (Part Two)

The moment Song Jiang and the others advanced toward the Liao army, the Liao forces immediately sprang into action. The two sides clashed shortly after, yet the Liangshan forces seemed divinely aided, with every route's commanding general smoothly defeating their Liao counterparts. According to the advancing route of the Liangshan forces, their designated meeting point was Youzhou.

Inside the imperial palace of the Liao capital, the Liao Empress Dowager looked over the intelligence reports sent from various regions, her expression no more pleasant than that of the Liao Emperor before her.

"Useless, all useless! Can our Great Liao truly not produce even a single great general or a single elite army?" the Liao Empress Dowager roared loudly, causing the officials below to involuntarily lower their heads, not daring to meet her gaze.

"Reporting to the Empress Dowager, this subject possesses a formation capable of wiping out the Liangshan forces in one fell swoop. However, for this formation to succeed, two conditions must be met," a man stepped out from the ranks of military officials and said.

"What conditions?"

"First, twenty thousand troops. Second, the convergence of the nation's destiny and dragon veins to forge a military soul!"

Silence descended upon the grand hall, and the other officials stealthily cast glances at the man.

Wuyan Guang remained kneeling on one half-knee with an expressionless face, looking up at the Liao Empress Dowager.

"Do you know what you are saying!" the Liao Empress Dowager snapped coldly.

Gathering twenty thousand troops was not difficult, but using the dragon veins to forge a military soul concerned the very destiny of the Great Liao! If they lost, even if the Liao nation did not perish instantly, it would not endure for more than ten years.

Previously, she had been told that using national destiny to enhance the army's aura would be enough to defeat all the Liangshan forces, and she had believed it. And what was the result?

Jizhou City, Yutian County, Yijin Pass, Wen'an County, Dulu Mountain, and Qingshi Ravine.

In addition to those, three major cities—every single one of the pivotal fortress cities designated in the ministers' previous strategy—had been conquered one by one by the Liangshan army. Not only did it fail to weaken the Liangshan forces, but it actually made them grow stronger the longer they fought!

"Forgive us, Empress Dowager!" the crowd of ministers chorused together.

"Empress Dowager, I am certain I will defeat the Liangshan forces and capture Song Jiang and Lu Junyi alive!" Wuyan Guang stated firmly.

"What will you use as a guarantee?" the Liao Empress Dowager demanded.

"Everything this subject possesses! If the grand formation is broken, I shall personally find a way to severely cripple the Song dynasty's fortune!" Wuyan Guang replied.

"What formation is it?"

Wuyan Guang answered, "The Taiyi Chaotic Heaven Elephant Formation! The Liangshan forces claim to be fallen stellar deities; only by using a grand formation to disrupt the starlight can their fortune be suppressed and victory achieved!"

"Very well! It shall be as you say. Deploy this Taiyi Chaotic Heaven Elephant Formation to crush the Liangshan army and severely damage the Song dynasty's fortune!"

At the Liangshan grand camp, Song Jiang looked at the map. "How much longer until all the brothers have arrived?"

Wu Yong replied, "Only Huyan Zhuo and Guan Sheng's two detachments have yet to arrive, but messengers report that they will be here in two days at most."

"I have a bad feeling that the Liao army ahead will be our tribulation," Song Jiang said.

"What does Gongming brother mean by this?" Wu Yong knitted his brows. Everything was proceeding according to the initial plan, and everything was running smoothly. According to their strategy, the Liao forces ahead were beyond what they could easily handle. At this stage, they would have roughly fulfilled the imperial court's demands, and a brief battle would pave the way for the arrival of peace negotiators from both the imperial court and Liao.

"I cannot quite explain it, just a hunch," Song Jiang said as he walked out of the large tent and looked up at the night sky.

"The celestial phenomena have changed, and the starlight is dimming," Song Jiang sighed. "Right, send a message to brother Sun! We might not win this battle, so they must not come to rescue us under any circumstances."

Wu Yong was momentarily stunned, but still acknowledged the order.

Three days later, the Liangshan army pressed forward, entering the territory of Youzhou.

Meanwhile, under the command of Wuyan Guang, the Liao army began basic tactical drills in accordance with the coordinates of the grand formation.

It had to be said that under the amplification of the dragon soul, these Liao soldiers quickly memorized the operational commands of the formation. Once all the armor and banners were prepared, it would be the time for the decisive battle.

On the other side, Sun Meng descended from the sky.

Mu Xingye asked, "Is the Liao army still the same, with no intention of dispatching troops?" Over the past two days, they had noticed that the Liao army was making significant movements, yet showed no sign of sending out forces.

Given the current situation, the Liangshan forces were cutting through like a hot knife through butter. Even if the Liao army intended to annihilate the Liangshan forces in one stroke beneath the city walls, they wouldn't act like this! It was clearly evident that the enemy was conducting drills. Wasn't it a bit too late to be drilling at this juncture?

"Whether it's late or not, I cannot say, but one thing is clear: the Liao nation has not given up. In other words, what they are doing right now surely holds the potential to turn the tables," Mu Xingye remarked. "I think we should record this phenomenon first. It appears to be a formation, a large-scale military formation."

Sun Meng looked surprised. "You understand this stuff?" He had only vaguely discerned that it was some kind of formation; after all, there were too many troops, and since he could not fly too high at the moment, he could not get a comprehensive view.

"Otherwise, what did you think? That Pixis and I wasted our time researching the energy field fluctuations of destiny formations? Systems always grant all civilizations the same opportunities regardless of the time. We can also derive technologies suitable for our civilization from these different civilizational systems. Although it's still incomplete right now, I can sense that the grade of this formation definitely reaches the third tier." Confidence gleamed in Mu Xingye's eyes.

"If that's really the case, then Song Jiang and the others are in trouble!" Sun Meng furrowed his brow. If this Liao army truly defeated Song Jiang's faction, their mission would likely end in failure, let alone wiping out the Liao nation or subsequently eliminating those nomadic tribes on the grasslands.

Just as Sun Meng intended to convey this news to Song Jiang, the vigilant biochemical soldiers brought over a soldier from the Liangshan army.

"General Sun, this is a letter our leader asked me to deliver to you."

Sun Meng took the letter and opened it. Song Jiang sensed that something was amiss and feared they might suffer a heavy defeat at the hands of the Liao army. The letter stated that if they truly showed signs of defeat, Sun Meng and his companions should ignore them and not intervene.

Recalling Song Jiang's stellar destiny and his current third-tier strength, Sun Meng figured it was entirely possible for the man to sense shifts in destiny.

He looked toward Mu Xingye. "Can you describe the general outline of the formation you deduced?" He suspected that the formation he had seen the Liao troops practicing was most likely a fatal trump card specifically designed to counter the Liangshan forces.

"I can do that, but let me make it clear beforehand: this is merely an approximate result I deduced based on the direction of energy flow, so it might not be entirely accurate!" Mu Xingye cautioned.

"Song Jiang's subordinates understand this sort of thing better than you do. We're just giving them a heads-up so they can make some preparations. As long as they aren't wiped out in a single blow, there's still a chance." Although he was uncertain about the exact details of how the Liangshan forces originally defeated the Liao nation, the final outcome was certain—Liangshan ultimately won. In this world, under the aura recovery driven by the world's will, the Liangshan forces were the protagonists of destiny at this moment; they might encounter setbacks, but the eventual victors would still be them.

Mu Xingye could not understand why Sun Meng occasionally harbored such blind confidence, but since past events had proven Sun Meng right, he didn't dwell on it further.

He wrote down the general appearance of the formation and some of the operational methods he had observed, handing the paper to the Liangshan soldier. "Give this letter to your generals; they will know what to do."

Watching the soldier depart, Sun Meng felt a reassuring sense of relief.

At that moment, Song Jiang and his comrades, having just captured another city, were deliberating inside on their next course of action. Although this siege had cost no commanding generals' lives, the casualties among the ordinary soldiers were quite heavy. Even though they had recruited some troops within the city, it served as a warning: the subsequent Liao forces would only fight with greater desperation, and their losses would be even heavier.

"I wonder when brother Dai Zong will return," Song Jiang sighed as he looked out at the moonlight. Earlier, while they were besieging the cities, they had deliberately stalled for time, all to wait for the imperial court's emissaries to arrive and tell them to halt the fighting and prepare for peace talks. Yet there had only been an imperial eunuch delivering an edict, expressing the Emperor's commendation and announcing that a batch of supplies would soon be dispatched for them to continue fighting!

He had no idea where the Son of Heaven derived such confidence, but fortunately, there was no intention of replacing the commander, nor did the court directly interfere in strategic matters; otherwise, Song Jiang truly wouldn't dare to keep fighting.

"Brother, as for the upcoming locations, smaller towns are one thing, but the major cities are already prepared. If we attack them, I'm afraid it will be difficult to achieve much," Wu Yong said with a furrowed brow.

"Then let us rest and reorganize for a few days! At the very least, we must let the Han people in the surrounding area know that the Great Song has not abandoned them!"