The defense area where Song Hongchang, the leader of the “Furious Tide Sector”, was in charge was only one point on the prolonged defense line.
The reformists had long talked Zhang Guanglong, the deputy leader under his command, into surrender. They knew that the place was the weakest point on the defense line and therefore had deployed tremendous elite troops here.
The few rounds of charges just now were just disguises. At this moment, after Song Hongchang’s subordinates, particularly the disciples of the Furious Tide Sect, were swayed by the psychological attacks, and a lot of people were really having “battlefield uprisings” in their anger, the elites of the reformists leaped out, and launched the most determined assault!
The elites in the assault were mostly the pillars of the Deep Sea Fleet and the few veterans in the Imperial Guards, or the unaffiliated Immortal Cultivators who had bloody grudges against the four Kurfürst families. They were certainly incomparable for the rookie troops that attacked just now.
Like a burning wolf fang, they pierced through the defense line immediately.
The Kurfürsten’s army that had been penetrated through completely lost the fighting will. Collapses and chaos were spreading out like a chain reaction in a crystal bomb.
Under the leadership of the bottom-level officers, countless regular soldiers in the Kurfürsten’s army were really aiming their blades and barrels at the middle- and high-level commanders.
Song Hongchang, the highest commander in the defense area, immediately turned into a rat that everyone stomped on from a magnificent general a moment ago.
“Song Hongchang is caught! Song Hongchang is caught!”
Cheers that might or might not be true echoed on the battlefield. The flags of the four Kurfürst families’ old Imperium were shaking under the bombardment, only to be torn into shreds and burnt into ashes a moment later.
A new flag of the reformists’ Imperium replaced them and rose on the battlefield. On the flag, the furious flames were licking the sky and the earth!
Li Yao and his companions certainly would not let go of such a great opportunity. Mixed in the overwhelming “avalanche”, they marched in and passed through the defense area of the Kurfürsten’s army.
The whole defense line of the Kurfürsten’s army was almost a hundred kilometers long and dozens of kilometers thick. Song Hongchang was only responsible for one section on it. Even though it was collapsing, the process had not been completed yet.
In many trenches and fortresses, face-to-face shooting or melee combats were still going on, but the battle was apparently one-sided.
The reformists were pushing forward unstoppably, and the warriors were like invincible lunatics. The Kurfürsten’s army, on the other hand, had been devastated. Many troops were dispersing or kneeling to surrender the moment they were engaged with the enemy. Some of them even pointed their blades and weapons at their commander the moment they saw the flag of the reformists, having a “battlefield uprising”.
Moving forward quickly and observing the battle, Li Yao had a lot of mixed feelings.
The minor city battle in front of him was exactly the epitome of the big picture of the Imperium today.
In terms of comprehensive capability, the number of soldiers, and the average quality of soldiers, the Kurfürsten’s army was apparently higher than the reformists. The Imperial Guards, as the main force of the reformists, had never been through any bloody and fierce battles for hundreds of years. They did not have the combat abilities that deserved their equipment.
However, the biggest difference between the two parties was their “belief”.
Belief was something that everybody always talked about but might not be able to explain if pursued. It was just an intangible, philosophical concept.
In Li Yao’s eyes, the belief was very simple. It was just the ideology that one had full faith in.
Only when a trainer had belief could there be a direction for their strength to advance. In the meantime, an army made of countless trainers could only carry out 100% of their combat ability if they had a solid belief.
The Kurfürsten’s army, however strong on paper and however magnificent and splendid it looked, was essentially a traditional, underdeveloped, and corrupt army.
The leaders of the army were selfish, insatiable, and devoid of shame and morals. They could sell their country for their families, or sell their families for themselves. Belief, ideology, and faith were nothing but a skin they used to earn personal interests. Nobody took it seriously.
As for the underclass, they were either deceived by their “skin”, bought over with petty benefits and conspired with the upper class, or were coerced into working for the upper class by violence against their own wish.
In such an obsolete army, no matter how strong the experts were, how vast the territory was, and how many starships and soldiers they had, it was just a tray of loose sand where everybody was rejective of each other!
The reformists, on the other hand, were different.
No matter how Li Yao despised Blackstar the Great’s character and hated his schemes, Li Yao had to admit that Wuying Qi, Li Linghai, and all the other reformists had their beliefs and were devoted to them.
At least 50% of the reformists were not fighting for their personal interests but for something of a higher level, for the new Imperium that they believed in.
This was a new army with beliefs. When encountering an old army without beliefs like the Kurfürsten’s army, it was inevitable that they would crush the enemy like rolling wheels.
No matter what high level one person was at and however strong their combat ability was, there had to be something that they believed in.
The Kurfürsten’s army was absolutely no match for the reformists. Perhaps only the federal army that had beliefs, and possibly even more firm ones, was capable of competing with the “new army” under Wuying Qi’s command.
A defeated army was like a falling mountain. At this moment, the whole defense line was like a mountain that was having an avalanche. It was slowly retreating in deafening noises.
Countless soldiers in the Kurfürsten’s army had chosen to kneel and surrender or have a “battlefield uprising”, but many other people who owed bloody debts or who had tremendous interests in their familial territories chose to flee back to the downtown of Netherwind City, hoping to grip a slim chance of survival and escape with a starship.
The soldiers and the bottom-level officers of the two parties in the fierce battle were all equipped with the standard crystal suits of the Imperium, except that the breastplate of the reformists had an additional emblem. Li Yao and his companions took off the emblem in secret and altered the mode of the identification system. After they were mixed in the messy, crushed soldiers who were all busy running, none of them paid any attention to the strangers at all.
Half an hour later, they entered the downtown of Netherwind City successfully.
This place, however, was another living hell that was probably even more bloody and horrible.
The news of the collapse of the defense line had been delivered. The order in the city that had been maintained by the big nobles through tyranny completely fell out. Everybody ran toward the Netherwind Channel desperately.
Their eyes bloodshot, they cried and waved their hands crazily, like hybrids of zombies and animals, fighting for the last opportunity of survival.
A lot of people who were thin and knew that they could never cram in a starship gave up their hope. They wandered on the street or squatted, looking at the sky and the surroundings in confusion, as if they were too overwhelmed to know why they were here or even who they were.
Li Yao saw countless such persons with his own eyes. Most of them were graceful, gorgeous women in fancy clothes, and some were old men who were obviously in power but had lost most of their strength due to old age.
Xiaoming and Wenwen even recognized a few very famous superstars through facial scanning.
“The few persons standing next to the street like zombies are in fact very awesome culture-type Immortal Cultivators. They are the big stars that every household of the family knows!”
Xiaoming and Wenwen said, “We didn’t know that even they wouldn’t have access to the starships.”
“Culture-type, admin-type, research-type, and creation-type people can only play their roles when society is in order.”
Looking at the pale, desperate stars, Li Yao sighed. “When the order collapses and the society is back to the bloody, dog-eat-dog jungle, the simplest violence will be the only strength!”
As he said, some of the big stars or powerful admin-type Immortal Cultivators, through sexual temptations, bribery, or heartfelt begging, pleaded with the battle-type Immortal Cultivators to lead them forward to the Netherwind Channel.
But the Immortal Cultivators simply kicked them away without any mercy. No matter how the faces were in the past and how the hands used to sign the great contracts in the past, they were absolutely useless right now.
Some of the weaker battle-type Immortal Cultivators, knowing that they certainly would not have a chance to board on a starship to evacuate from the place, simply made up their minds and joined each other into a mob, raiding and burning the city down while they roared the slogans of the reformists.
Now that they had made up their minds to not leave, the superstars and the big bosses who carried tremendous wealth with them naturally became their best prey. Before the troops of the reformists really entered Netherwind City, the whole city was already on fire and enshrouded in smoke. Screams, laughter, and the sounds of flesh being torn apart were echoing nonstop.
“I finally understand why Wuying Qi has spared Netherwind City for such a long time.”
Li Yao and Long Yangjun slew a team of mobsters who were bold enough to rob them. He said, “It is partly to train the troops, and partly because he hoped that Netherwind City would fall into a mess on its own.
“The spontaneous chaos in Netherwind City foreshadows what will happen in the territories of the four Kurfürst families. When one big noble retreats from the place easily, ninety-nine middle and low-level Immortal Cultivators will be left behind. Those people who have been ‘abandoned’, stirred by intense jealousy and hatred, will join the arms of the reformists without any hesitation and become the most hardcore reformists.
“Furthermore, when everything that happens here is broadcast to the entire universe, especially the territories of the four Kurfürst families, by Wuying Qi and Li Linghai in various ways, what will the middle- and low-level Immortal Cultivators in the territory think?
“A team can barely be called a team without unity. Wuying Qi surrounded Netherwind City for a whole month without attack just in order to strike the ‘unity’ of the four Kurfürst families!”
“But right now, the city has been conquered.”
Long Yangjun turned around and looked at the defense line at the edge of the city that had been rippled with holes. “We have to speed up. Otherwise, if a lot of nobles are gathered in the Netherwind Channel, only to discover that the starships are far from enough, they may destroy the starships if they do not have any hope of leaving!”
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