Beast Siege, Part Two
__
_Gaia 1st year 2nd month 1st day. Cloudy, a day for blessings, migrations, and making deals. An outing is discouraged._
At dawn, three horsemen rode away from the barracks, going straight to the outpost towers outside the village. The Construction Division had built three outposts in the outlying areas, each of them two kilometers away.
Because of limited manpower, only one soldier was assigned to each station. Their jobs were the same; watching the movement of the beast packs, and raising smokes to warn the village when they saw them.
At the same time, the first, third, and fifth squads of the cavalry, under the command of Lin Yi, rode away from the western gates, heading towards the mining field area at the southern edge of the territory, only 300 meters from the west end of the woods.
Because of Shanhai’s surrounding terrain, the beasts couldn’t come from the south, as the foot of the mountain was there. Likewise the east, where a wide river and the canyon were, would have so few animals it wasn’t worth considering.
Therefore, the main appearance of the packs would be from the west side of the woods and coming down from the north out of the wilderness, along the Friendship River. Of these two, the west side of the forest was the main focus of their defense. A lot of beasts lived inside those woods, and it was the main training place for the militia.
With this terrain, Ouyang Shuo was commanding the second squad of cavalry at the northern gate of Shanhai. General Shi was commanding the fourth squad at the western gate. As for the eastern gate, Ouyang Shuo had entrusted it to Lin Yi’s older brother. Master Lin was leading more than 20 avid martial arts students from his dojo in guarding that gate.
In order to strengthen the western gate, the construction division had built towers on both sides of the gate. Their last trump card, the fire array, was placed in front of the western gate in the open ground there.
The fire array was 100 square meters big. At its sides were 2 meter trenches, dug a couple hands deep. These trenches were filled with alchemical fire oil and water, then covered with wood, and the wood covered with hay. From above, you could not see the array itself.
The rest of the fire oil was placed in the open space in front of the North Gate. Because the northern gate was a more passive defensive strategy, there was only a single 200 meter long ditch, the same combination of oil on water, covered with wood, which was covered with hay.
The villagers and remaining crossbowmen were ordered not to leave the village. Outside of the village, the ferry, logging and mining fields, quarry, shipyard, wharf, and salt fields had all ceased operation. The incoming beastwave was going to attack Shanhai itself, being driven to destroy all villages out here in the wilderness. They wouldn’t care about industries outside the village.
Acting in accord with Gu Xiuwen’s proposal for the defense strategy, Ouyang Shuo had formed two huge militia reserve teams. All of the members of the reserve teams had been trained by the soldiers to be able to skillfully throw javelins.
Militia reserve Team A, a total of 120 people, was captained by the secretary of the Reclamation Division, Zhao Dexian, with quarry field manager Zheng Shanpao as temporary lieutenant. They were stationed at the western gate, and responsible for any needed defense of the west.
Militia Reserve Team B, a total of 100 people, had the deputy secretary of the Construction Division, Zhao Dewang, as captain, with mining field manager Yuan Shaoping as his lieutenant. They were stationed at the north gate, and responsible for any fighting in the north.
The rest of the people, in addition to the elderly, women, and children, were all in the wartime logistics department. This numbered close to two hundred people, and Cui Yingyu, the Material Reserves Division Secretary, was the interim director.
The Logistics department was divided into four groups. The first was the medical rescue group, led by Dr. Song, with his four apprentices and twenty women to help him, responsible for treatment of the wounded.
The second was the material handling group, sixty people headed by lumber field head Zhao Youfang, responsible for moving, resupply, and retrieving arrows and javelins.
The third was the collection group, headed by advanced tailor Mu Qingsi, responsible for the collection of beast corpses and fur.
The last group was the cooking group, twenty people headed by senior cook Gu Sanniang, responsible for everyone’s food and drinking water supply.
In this way, Shanhai’s human resources were being deployed to their limit. Ouyang Shuo’s inner idea was that this war would be fought and won with proper organization and logistics.
Establishing a sound and efficient organization and leadership system, coupled with a scientific and rational logistics system, would be the key to winning this battle.
It was 7:30 AM, and all the villagers of Shanhai took their breakfast, and under the leadership of their captains, went off to their respective posts.
Ouyang Shuo was standing on the left side of the north gate, next to the tower there. Next to him was the second team of the cavalry team, led by San Gouzi.
“Sire, when will the beastwave start?” San Gouzi asked, a bit edgy.
“Soon, no more than half an hour before they appear at the edge of the territory.”
At 8 AM, a system announcement burst out, right on time!
_“World Announcement: The Mandatory Global Territory Defense Quest - Siege of Beasts, has officially opened! Regional, national and global rankings are also opening at the same time! Best wishes to the Lords for victory!”_
_“World Announcement: The Mandatory Global Territory Defense Quest - Siege of Beasts, has officially opened! Regional, national and global rankings…."_
_“World Announcement: The Mandatory Global Territory Defense Quest - Siege of Beasts…."_
__
In less than a minute following the triple announcement, smoke was rising from the distant top of a sentry tower.
At the edge of the territory where Ouyang Shuo couldn’t see, thousands of wild dogs, under a wild dog king, were rushing out of the woods, heading down towards Shanhai Village to kill everyone.
Wild dogs were only level 3 beasts, but were also the most numerous of the wild beasts. The elite dogs were level 5, while the wild dog king was a Boss and level 8.
The aggressive group of wild dogs had just entered the territory of Shanhai Village, and smashed head on into the first ring of defense. Countless traps were stepped on by the reckless wild dogs. Each pit was three meters long, a meter wide, and a full three meters deep, with the bottom filled with sharp wooden stakes. In their tight and intense formation, the wild dogs got their bitter fill of the defense rings as each trap each claimed four or five of them.
From the edge of the village to the village, it was simply a road of blood and tears for the dogs. Every step along the way, another trap seemed to open up to claim a toll of flesh and blood.
By the time they could see the gates of Shanhai Village, the nearly two thousand wild dogs had been reduced to less than half of that. Fortunately, the dogs had no thoughts of escaping, showing how deep their resentment of the village and its lord ran.
Four hundred meters away from the village, the surviving wild dogs split into two packs, heading towards the north and west gates. Ouyang Shuo hadn’t expected this! The main force, under the wild dog king, headed straight for the western gate. The remaining three hundred or so, under the leadership of elite wild dogs, headed for the north gate.
Behind the fence of the northern gate, Militia Team Two’s people stood as a team under the leadership of Zhao Dewang, waiting for the command to attack. At the foot of each villager were javelins stuck in the ground, ready to be thrown.
Ouyang Shuo stood on the tower, watching the huge pack of wild dogs close in. When they reached 150 meters out, he didn’t hesitate to start shooting with his bow, directly hitting an elite wild dog. His move was the starting gun. The cavalry team lined up on both sides of the towers with drawn bows aimed at the elite dogs, and immediately shot as well.
After a round of shooting, the number of elite dogs remaining was almost none. After shooting his first arrow, Ouyang Shuo lowered his bow, staring at the dogs and calculating their range.
When the pack was only sixty meters away, he immediately waved his flag. Zhao Dewang, watching Ouyang Shuo closely and seeing him wave the flag, immediately turned and shouted, “Throw!”
The reserve team immediately hurled out the javelins waiting in their hands over the fence. Immediately they picked up a second javelin stuck in the ground next to them, and did not hesitate to throw another volley. With repeated volleys, the dogs, barely sixty meters away, suffered three rounds of javelin attacks, and were almost wiped out.
With this, the second team of the cavalry, led by San Gouzi, burst out of the north gate and went after the dogs in a burst of slaughter. In less then ten minutes, the entire northern pack of wild dogs was annihilated.
At this time, Ouyang Shuo could hear the sounds of the system announcement going off in his ears.
_“Regional Announcement: Liuzhou area Xiaogang Village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!”_
_…………..._
_“Regional Announcement: Lianzhou area Rich Village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!”_
_…………..._
_“Regional Announcement: Guilin area Green Water Village failed to resist the beast attack, its name is expunged!”_
_…………..._
__
This was only the first wave of the attacking packs. Many villages did not manage to resist and were destroyed by the packs, their territories removed. After these players resurrected, they could only choose to reincarnate in personal adventure mode to continue their game career, the option of being a lord completely removed from them.
Having no time to feel for the fate of luckless others, Ouyang Shuo told the logistics department to rush outside and collect as many of the javelins as possible so they could be thrown again. After that, he rushed alone to the west side to see the situation over there.
By the time he reached the western gate, the fighting was almost over. Although nearly 700 dogs attacked, they were quickly eliminated, mainly by the cavalry waiting in ambush by the mining field.
They had waited until receiving a signal from the sentinel in the tower, indicating when the dog pack had clustered around the western gate. Suddenly thirty cavalry led by Lin Yi hit the pack from behind, shooting and trampling the dogs as they surrounded the pack. Combined with the barrage from inside, the dogs were soon eliminated.
The wild dog king was personally beheaded by General Shi, dropping a booklet. Shou took it from him to look over, found it was a <Silkworm Breeding Technology> manual. It was a good thing, but unfortunately right now he had neither mulberry leaves nor silkworms, so it would be difficult to use in the short term.
After this wave of attacks, Ouyang Shuo’s level shot up like a rocket to 22. And that was with each level after 20 becoming more and more difficult to achieve.
Seeing the western gate intact, Ouyang Shuo’s heart eased. He rode over to the eastern door, finding that only thirty wild dogs had attacked there. With no pressure, the attack was easily solved.
His inspection finished, Ouyang Shuo did not delay and rode back to the north gate quickly. He was expecting the second tide of the beastwave to begin soon!
*[Long Taos]: side characters in Chinese operas who perform acrobatics and fight scenes
*[12.47 to 13.07]: don't ask me about the tree sap