Socially anxious people transmigrate to another world; living in seclusion is too difficult.

Chapter 272 Past Grudges

The demon's words seemed to plunge Qin Wei into memories, and he remained silent for a long time. After a while, he slowly said, "Give him a quick death."

Wang Hao and Lü Ji, following orders, had the demon dragged out of the tent and beheaded him with a single stroke. Zhu Ning's doubts reached their peak, and she couldn't help but ask, "General, what exactly happened? Was that man truly a spy from the Demon Kingdom? And what is his connection to Little Fox Mountain?"

Su Yang was also very curious; Qin Wei now seemed shrouded in mystery and full of stories in his eyes. Qin Wei glanced around at everyone in the tent, sighed, and said, "Everyone, it seems that following me this time will put your lives in danger." Then, Qin Wei slowly recounted what had happened back then.

More than a decade ago, Qin Wei had only been commanding the 50th Army for a year when he received his first high-difficulty order: to capture the Demon Kingdom's Bone City.

At that time, the current emperor, Chu Jingwu, had just ascended the throne. He was young and impetuous, and his attitude was very tough, both in foreign affairs and domestic affairs. Meanwhile, the internal affairs of the Tianyun Empire were relatively chaotic. The Demon Kingdom took this opportunity to send troops from the City of Dry Bones and constantly harass the western border of the empire.

At that time, the Demon Kingdom did not dare to directly attack cities and seize territory. Therefore, it only attacked some small villages on the border, robbing food and killing people. As a result, the Demon City sent urgent reports to Huaijing almost every day. At first, Chu Jingwu handed it over to the military. After the military sent troops to the border to garrison, the Demon Kingdom changed its strategy and only plundered villages when the border troops were resting. Therefore, the problem was not fundamentally solved.

Just then, the triennial joint conference was held to discuss the ownership of the islands in the next round. Logically, it should have been the turn of the Tianyun Empire. However, the other countries took advantage of Chu Jingwu's recent ascension to the throne and reached a consensus to kick the Tianyun Empire out of the competition. They attacked Chu Jingwu at the conference by taking advantage of the Demon Kingdom's harassment. Their aggressive approach left Chu Jingwu speechless, and he had no choice but to give up the struggle for the ownership of the islands.

Upon returning to China, Chu Jingwu immediately berated Wei Bin and then ordered that the matter be resolved thoroughly. He specifically commanded the 50th Army to be in charge, to invade the Demon Kingdom, and to conquer the City of Dry Bones as retaliation. Under these circumstances, Qin Wei accepted the order and set off.

Upon arriving at the border, Qin Wei first ordered demon soldiers within his army to infiltrate the Demon Kingdom and infiltrate the City of Dry Bones. They gathered intelligence on the city's garrison, defenses, and troop strength. At that time, Cai Ran, who commanded the Demon Blade Army, was the one who carried out the Demon Kingdom's harassment order.

Although Qin Wei and Cai Ran were about the same age, Cai Ran was no match for Qin Wei in military skills at that time. Qin Wei was also highly skilled and daring. After infiltrating the city of Dry Bones, he was not satisfied. In his plan, he was to seek an opportunity to annihilate the Demon Blade Army in one fell swoop so that the outcome could be decided in one battle. Therefore, many spies stayed in Dry Bones City to provide him with intelligence at all times.

After combining intelligence and terrain data, Qin Wei devised an excellent plan. One night, knowing that the Demon Kingdom was planning an attack, he did not take any precautions. Instead, he arranged for more than a dozen thousand-strong units to lie in ambush. After the Demon Kingdom successfully looted the area, he sent two hundred-strong squads to pursue and kill them.

Because of the darkness, the two thousand demon soldiers kept fleeing, but were constantly attacked by troops who had been lying in ambush along the way. Fortunately, there were no casualties, but under the constant attacks, their retreat route was eventually changed, and they were driven into the Dry Bone Ridge and completely surrounded.

Qin Wei's appetite was not satisfied with just two thousand men. So, during a breakout from the Demon Kingdom, he ordered several Demon Kingdom soldiers to be released and allowed to go and deliver messages. Based on the intelligence he had gathered, he knew that Cai Ran was a general who cherished his soldiers. Moreover, the Demon Kingdom was still in the recovery period at that time, and many people were engaged in domestic construction and land reclamation, so there were not many soldiers in the army.

Qin Wei had calculated that Cai Ran would definitely come to rescue the soldiers, which amounted to one-fifth of the Demon Blade Army. Therefore, he surrounded the enemy without killing them, creating the illusion that his own forces were insufficient and that the Demon Kingdom's rescue was likely. Although Cai Ran had doubts, he considered the special terrain of the Dry Bone Ridge. There were safe spots inside the ridge, while the surrounding army outside the ridge had no terrain to hide in. Therefore, he made up his mind to launch a counter-encirclement battle with the help of both inside and outside forces.

When Cai Ran led his troops out of the city, the intelligence had already reached Qin Wei, who was at the front line, halfway there. Qin Wei was overjoyed upon receiving the news and immediately ordered 5,000 troops to attack the City of Dry Bones, with the remaining troops coming to support them, preparing to annihilate Cai Ran's Demon Blade Army.

Unaware of the danger, Cai Ran led eight thousand men at breakneck speed and soon arrived near the Dry Bone Ridge before dawn. At this time, a scout reported that the Tianyun Empire soldiers had surrounded the ridge ahead. Cai Ran then ordered a shout and a charge to signal his brothers inside the ridge. Soon, the eight thousand men began a collective charge, and the shouts of battle reached inside the ridge. Two thousand soldiers responded and charged out of the ridge.

Unexpectedly, when the two armies clashed, Cai Ran suddenly realized something was wrong. The number of enemy soldiers seemed to be more than he had imagined. Although there was no natural defense outside the mountains, if the number of soldiers was too large, he would not be able to complete the encirclement and kill them. Just as he was hesitating whether to retreat, a battle cry rang out from behind. A charge and a counter-charge, a counter-encirclement within an encirclement, had begun.

Finally, Cai Ran led his men in a desperate breakout and escaped the encirclement. But when he looked back, he saw that almost all of his 10,000 generals had been killed or wounded. Helpless, he could only flee to the City of Dry Bones. Qin Wei was not in a hurry to see him escape. Instead, he led his generals to follow slowly and headed towards the City of Dry Bones.

Upon arriving at the city gate, Cai Ran, caught off guard, charged into the city first. However, he was tripped by a grappling hook at the gate and captured alive by soldiers who rushed out from both sides. He was tied up and hung upside down on the city gate. Qin Wei, on the other hand, rested well in the city and only rode slowly to the city gate after dawn.

Hearing the sound of hooves, Cai Ran opened his eyes to see who it was. Facing the blinding sunlight of the sunrise, he could only vaguely see Qin Wei's arms crossed over his chest, but he couldn't see his true face.

Qin Wei sat on his horse and looked at Cai Ran for a while, then said arrogantly, "Cai Ran, your Demon Blade Army has been completely annihilated by me, and the City of Dry Bones has also been conquered by me. And you, a crude person from the Demon Kingdom, dare to harass the border of my empire. Considering the difficulties your country has faced, I, the Emperor of Heavenly Fortune, have taken pity on you and will spare your life. Now get out of here."

After saying this, Qin Wei ordered Cai Ran to be released and even whipped him. Cai Ran, humiliated, walked forward in a daze. Qin Wei, seemingly still not satisfied, shouted from behind, "Don't forget, today it was General Qin Wei who released you. If you hear my name again in the future, remember to give this general a wide berth!"

Upon hearing this, all of Qin Wei's generals burst into laughter, except for Cai Ran, who gritted his teeth. In fact, Qin Wei also had reasons not to kill Cai Ran. He had already annihilated an army and captured a city, fulfilling Chu Jingwu's orders and teaching the Demon Kingdom a lesson. If he were to execute the commanding general and escalate the conflict, it would likely be a greater loss than gain.

Qin Wei never expected that his so-called act of prioritizing the overall situation back then would now seem to lead to disaster.