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Chapter 196 - 196: 139: Invincible_3

All these new soldiers were provided with martial arts training herbs and techniques by him, and they began to practice their martial skills.

Having been practicing for more than a year, they basically all developed some inner strength. Although they hadn’t opened even a single meridian, they were already much stronger than ordinary people.

With these thousand personal guards around, Lu Yuan was confident that even two or three top experts would have to surrender obediently under his army’s formation.

As for the other ordinary soldiers, although Lu Yuan did not provide them with herbs, he did grant some of the brave warriors appropriate, but rudimentary martial arts skills.

Relying on the soldiers’ self-study, although their efficiency may not match that of the personal guards, their sheer number can’t be ignored.

After training thousands of soldiers, many of them were willing to spend money on practicing martial arts and also developed inner strength.

Therefore, in his 15,000-strong army, there were as many as 3,000 martial artists who had developed inner strength.

Regardless of the quality, the sheer quantity of these soldiers was enough to be astonishing.

It was precisely because of the large number of these soldiers who had developed rudimentary inner strength that Zhou Qing’s 3,000-strong vanguard was able to crush the Seven Star Sect’s rebel army with such an unstoppable momentum.

It couldn’t be helped; on one side, there were Jianghu martial artists with inner strength, and on the other side, there might be farmers who were still cultivating land not too long ago.

The outcome was obvious when the two sides clashed.

Especially since Zhou Qing personally led the charge, with several dozen elite warriors who had developed inner strength as his vanguard, specifically targeting the most stubborn enemy formations.

Those ragtag troops simply could not withstand such elite assaults.

After just one charge, if they weren’t killed, they were scattered.

At this point, the battle had been going on for less than half an hour, and more than half of the 5,000-strong bandit army had been defeated and started to flee.

Whew—

After charging out of another formation, Zhou Qing pulled back on the reins and turned to look at his knights behind him. Seeing that they were all panting and sweating profusely, with flushed faces, he couldn’t help but ask, “Gentlemen, can we still charge?”

By now, they had already charged through five formations since the start of the battle, defeating more than a thousand bandits in total.

“Of course we can.”

“That’s right, even if we charge a hundred times, we still have the strength.”

“Haha, those rebels are like soft eggs. When they see us coming, they don’t even dare to resist.”

“Refreshing! So refreshing!”

“General, let us continue to charge!”

The many knights responded loudly, their words full of boldness.

It was clear that the ineptitude of the Seven Star Sect’s rebels in this battle had given these knights great confidence.

Even though they were indeed tired at this point, and even the horses were somewhat exhausted, they didn’t want to leave the battlefield just yet. Instead, they hoped to kill a few more bandits and gain more merits.

Since Lu Yuan took control of the army, although he didn’t pay much attention to military affairs, he was generous with rewards to meritorious soldiers. Not to mention the money, he was never stingy with rewarding his soldiers, as he had plenty of it.

But what the soldiers really valued were the martial arts secret books he took out.

If the soldiers trained diligently and performed well in their daily routine, they would have the opportunity to be granted simple martial arts secret books.

And if they performed well on the battlefield, fought bravely, and risked their lives, they had an even better chance of being granted advanced secret books and being added to the personal guards.

As for those who achieved great merits and improved quickly in the personal guards, they even had the opportunity to be taken as Lu Yuan’s named disciples.

Before, Lu Yuan only had five named disciples. But after this year and a half, he had as many as eighteen.

The thirteen extra disciples were all accepted for their merits.

Once they became named disciples, they were rewarded with huge sums of silver, second-grade secret books, and the position of battalion commander. In terms of tangible benefits, background, and prospects, they had it all.

To be able to leap between social classes in one step, with such hefty rewards in sight, who could resist the temptation?

So, even if they were tired and struggling, and even if continuing to charge was dangerous, they dared to risk their lives just to seize that chance to break free of their humble origins.

“Alright, there’s one more formation ahead. Gentlemen, follow me for another charge and break through it.”

Zhou Qing knew what his men were thinking and laughed loudly.

Then, with a flick of his whip, he led the charge towards a rebel formation that was still resisting in the distance.

The knights followed closely, not one of them falling behind.

The enemy formation in front of them was not far away. In just two or three hundred meters, they arrived almost in the blink of an eye on galloping horses.

Seeing such a fierce group of knights charging towards them, the bandit soldiers inside the formation couldn’t help but become nervous and agitated.

But soon, several officers inside the formation were heard shouting and calming the soldiers down, directing the few archers they had to shoot arrows at them in an attempt to block them.

However, the sparse rain of arrows posed no threat to Zhou Qing and the others.

If they weren’t shot down, the arrows were deflected by a knight’s sword at the last minute.

Then, the knights counterattacked one after another.

They were all born as mountain hunters and were naturally skilled in archery. At this moment, they drew their bows and aimed at the spear-wielding soldiers at the front of the formation. With a loosening of fingers, the bowstring snapped and arrows flew, raining down on the rebel army in front of them.

Amid a series of screams, dozens of soldiers at the front of the formation were hit by arrows and ejected.

The originally tight formation suddenly left a large gap.

Zhou Qing seized the opportunity and jumped into the opening with his horse.

He then raised his long sword and began slashing at the panicked bandits. In an instant, screams echoed, and the rebels scattered in fear.

At this moment—

Just as Zhou Qing and his men were engaged in the battle, a thunderous roar sounded in the distance.

“Imperial dogs, cease your arrogance! That thief general, are you willing to fight me?”

The sound was like thunder, echoing throughout the area.

Zhou Qing’s heart leapt, and turning around, he saw a blue-robed man rushing toward him at an incredible speed.

Bearing the fleeting afterimages of his run, he was clearly a martial arts expert skilled in agility.

It was Ding Heng, the elder of the Seven Star Sect..