Chapter Nineteen: Sun Li's Decision

“Fire!” Amidst the crackling of rifle volleys, another swath of goblins bearing earthen sacks and sandbags fell beneath the city walls. As if dissatisfied with the slaughter, the surrounding cannons roared, sending yet more pitiful lives off to report to their beast god under showers of grapeshot. Yet, governed by brains stripped of will by bloodlust spells, tens of thousands of goblins marched forward without a hint of fear—no matter how fierce the firepower or how horrific the massacre, their resolve never wavered.

Through this relentless cycle of building up earthworks and dying, the goblin numbers dwindled at a pace visible to the naked eye. By the time Sama’s magic was exhausted and he paused to recover, only a few thousand lucky survivors out of tens of thousands could still draw breath!

It was only the second day, and already the mound of earth and corpses beneath the walls had visibly raised the foundation a layer higher. The goblins’ mass casualties had a striking effect.

This could not continue. No matter how concentrated the firepower, it only reduced the number of earth sacks and increased the pile of bodies; both served equally well as footholds for climbing the city walls. Amasga’s heart was heavy with frustration. At this rate, in less than ten days, the beastmen would be able to fight humans face to face!

Of course, Amasga had tried sending out militia during lulls in the battle to clear away the corpses and earth sacks. But whenever he dispatched men, the beastmen sent out hordes of half-beast archers, advancing in loose formations under the concentrated fire from the walls, sniping at the militia venturing outside. Even if the half-beast archers suffered more casualties than the militia, with over twenty thousand archers at his disposal, Savagehammer had plenty of manpower for the grim exchange.

Unsurprisingly, the human militia—more attached to their lives—became terrified. No matter what threats or promises Amasga made, they refused to leave the city. Amasga knew that if he pushed these “free citizens,” whom he saw as mere cannon fodder, any further, a rebellion would soon follow.

He had no choice but to abandon rescue measures, venting all his anger in the slaughter of goblins. However, for Savagehammer, with over eight hundred thousand goblin auxiliary troops, these losses were simply the necessary cost of conquering humanity; if more were needed, reinforcements could be summoned from the rear. The true strength of the beastman empire lay with the ten-odd main battle clans under his command—goblins were merely expendable labor.

While the orc emperor Savagehammer waged a protracted war of attrition, using cheap goblin fodder to deplete human ammunition and fill the city’s ramparts, Sun Li finally received word from scouts and spies that the beastman main force had left their stronghold. He saw this as a heaven-sent opportunity; he could concentrate his forces and strike at the beastman heartland, crippling their mobilization capacity. His only concern about the beastman empire was their staggering numbers.

“Xiaobai, what exactly are the conditions for destroying the beastman empire? Must we eliminate all beastmen?” The beastman population on the New Continent was conservatively estimated at several million, and even within the empire’s core territory, there were hundreds of thousands. To conquer them all would take an eternity.

“No need to go to such lengths. You just have to occupy their stronghold and seize or destroy all their workshops and production facilities. The heartland’s productivity is the essence of all beastman craftsmanship—if you wipe it out, the beastmen will regress from the age of cold weapons to the Stone Age, just like the Wolf Tribe you encountered, where even rocks become mainstream weapons. Occupy their stronghold, capture over a thousand beastmen as your subjects, and you’ll fulfill the requirements for your upgrade quest. Now that Savagehammer has taken away the main battle clans, there’s no better time to strike than this!” Xiaobai encouraged him.

After hearing this, Sun Li’s resolve to throw everything into a single gamble was solidified. He swiftly mobilized and prepared his troops for a full expedition. A day later, a force of over nine thousand—including the supply train—marched forth from Tiger Camp, advancing rapidly towards the beastman stronghold. With scouts having mapped the optimal route in advance, Sun Li’s army sped toward the beastman imperial capital.

In the Saint Taren region, Savagehammer had no inkling that his stronghold was in peril. The orc emperor was happily watching the ramp beneath the human city walls rise day by day. Savagehammer believed that once the walls were filled, his mighty warriors would teach the humans—whose ammunition supplies were being exhausted—a harsh lesson in close combat. Seeing two more cannons burst their barrels from prolonged firing, his mood grew even more cheerful.

In truth, Savagehammer was not entirely witless—he was a touch smarter than the average beastman. In his stronghold, his loyal minotaur general Bullhammer led a direct corps of minotaurs, a powerful force of ten thousand. The minotaurs, tall and strong, outmatched even the strongest orcs in combat prowess. Together with a handful of half-beast archers, wolf cavalry, and the ever-present goblin auxiliaries, the garrison numbered over a hundred thousand. Even without fortifications—since beastmen couldn’t build them, and goblins had no architectural sense—this force was more than enough to deter any petty threats. Moreover, Savagehammer had not stationed them to guard against Sun Li; he considered Sun Li long since banished beyond the horizon. The main purpose of the garrison was to prevent other beastmen from usurping power!

With the loyal Bullhammer in charge, Savagehammer was confident that not even the dimmest beastman would dare to challenge him at such a time. As Savagehammer felt secure at the rear and hopeful for victory at the front lines, Sun Li’s army finally approached the beastman stronghold. At the same time, the garrison commander Bullhammer noticed these humans, who clearly came with hostile intent. With a mind even duller than Savagehammer’s, Bullhammer never stopped to wonder why this human force had arrived. His simple brain held only one idea: the enemy is here, and the old bull can go on a killing spree again!

So it was that Bullhammer led his entire force of a hundred thousand out to meet this Sun Li, whose origins he could not fathom, intent on a glorious field battle and then, once victorious, to return to drinking and sleeping.

Half a day later, Bullhammer’s one hundred thousand beastmen came into contact with Sun Li’s army. Both sides immediately adjusted their formations, preparing for battle. Though Bullhammer’s intellect was limited, as a veteran commander of many campaigns, he understood the basics of warfare: that one must form ranks, that tight formations can crush loose ones, that wolf cavalry are faster and more powerful, and so on. Knowing these battlefield essentials, Bullhammer felt quite pleased with himself—he might not be a legendary general, but he was certainly a capable commander. With ten times the troop numbers, crushing the human cold-weapon army would be effortless.

And so, with the extreme confidence of both commanders, the battle was about to begin!