Starting with helping Zhao Kai ascend the throne in the snow

Just then, a thunderous shout suddenly came from the distance on the official road: "The Great Chu bandits are here in Jianghuai! The Guangling traitors, stop your rampage!"

Immediately afterwards, more than ten cavalrymen appeared in everyone's sight, and dust was flying on the official road in the distance, giving the impression that thousands of troops were coming.

"General Song, something terrible has happened! The enemy has reinforcements!" A Guangling Army captain immediately reported to Song Li as he saw dust billowing up on the distant official road.

"Damn it, we were almost there! Retreat!" Song Li looked at Xie Xichui and Sun Xiji, who were close at hand, and then glanced at the dusty cavalry charging towards them in the distance. With a face full of reluctance, he gave the order to retreat.

As soon as Song Li gave the order, the Guangling army immediately reined in their horses and abandoned the pursuit. They turned around and retreated towards Jiangxia City, disappearing from the official road in a short while.

"Old Xie, are you alright? What happened to you and you look so disheveled?" As soon as the Guangling army retreated, Kou Jianghuai, with an arrogant expression, led more than ten cavalrymen to Xie Xichui.

"I'm fine, I just carelessly fell into Song Li's trap. By the way, where did you get such a large cavalry force?" After Xie Xichui replied, he looked at Kou Jianghuai with a surprised expression, and then looked towards the dusty official road.

The saying goes, "Southern boats and northern horses." Historically, the southern regions have been relatively lacking in warhorses. In the entire Guangling Road, only Zhao Yi had raised more than 7000 cavalry (originally 10,000 cavalry, but 2,600 were defeated by the old swordsman with a single sword strike). However, with the outbreak of war, these cavalry have been reduced by more than half to less than 3,000.

The same applies to the Chu state; the high cost of cavalry is far beyond what a single family or clan can afford to support.

After the restoration of Western Chu, it could only muster three thousand cavalrymen at most, and with the depletion caused by the war, the number of cavalrymen remaining is now only two thousand or so.

Of these, a thousand men joined Xie Xichui's command, five hundred followed Cao Changqing, and another five hundred were under Kou Jianghuai's command.

As one of the two pillars of the Great Chu, Kou Jianghuai commanded tens of thousands of troops. His few cavalrymen were naturally scattered to serve as scouts, so there couldn't be too many cavalrymen left by his side, unlike the dusty official road now.

As the two were talking, the cavalrymen in the distance had already arrived in front of them. Dozens of cavalrymen had tree branches tied to the tails of their horses, clearly indicating that they had just used a feint.

"You're awesome." After seeing the truth, Xie Xichui had to give Kou Jianghuai a thumbs up. If it were him, he might not have been able to come up with such a solution in such a hurry.

"Old Xie, let's leave here first." Urged by Kou Jianghuai, Xie Xichui immediately gathered his cavalry and escorted Sun Xiji away. However, of the more than a thousand cavalrymen who had come, only less than five hundred remained.

On the other side, Song Li, sulking and with a grim expression, led his men in retreat. The duck that was almost in their grasp had flown away; how could he not be furious?

Two quarters of an hour passed in the blink of an eye. Just then, Song Li suddenly reined in his horse and stopped, exclaiming, "Something's not right. The ground vibrations are not normal."

"General, what's wrong?" The adjutant beside Song Li looked at him in bewilderment.

"Immediately send scouts back to investigate the situation," Song Li said to his deputy, his face grim.

Although the deputy general did not understand what was going on, he immediately dispatched a team of scouts to investigate. A moment later, the scouts returned and reported that they had found dozens of tree branches on the official road.

"Damn it, I've fallen for their trick!" As soon as Song Li heard the tree branch, he knew he hadn't guessed wrong; he had indeed fallen for their scheme.

Once the cavalry reaches a certain size, their charge will cause the earth to tremble violently.

On his way back, Song Li suddenly remembered that when the enemy reinforcements appeared, the ground did not seem to tremble strongly. This meant that either the enemy was not sending cavalry, or it was just a bluff. He was more inclined to believe the latter.

After all, his order to intercept and kill Sun Xiji today was a spur-of-the-moment decision, and the other side could not possibly have guessed it in advance, let alone sent infantry to intercept him.

"General, what should we do now? Should we continue the pursuit?" the lieutenant asked, looking at Song Li, whose face was flushed and pale.

"What's the point of chasing them? The enemy has already vanished without a trace," Song Li cursed angrily.

After a long while, his expression returned to calm, and he said to everyone, "No one can talk about what happened today. When we get back and the prince asks, we'll say that we were blocked by the enemy's reinforcements and that we were outmatched, which is why Sun Xiji was able to escape."

----

The world of One Piece, the New World.

A warship riddled with cracks stubbornly sailed on the sea, while Bondiwald, his body wrapped in bandages, stood on the deck with a grim expression.

He originally thought that after escaping Impel Down, he could still dominate the seas with the power of the Multiply Fruit, just like he did thirty years ago. But he never expected that in just thirty years, the seas would become completely unfamiliar to him.

After escaping Impel Down, he originally planned to capture a Shichibukai to establish his authority before seeking revenge against the Navy. However, he never expected that a mere Shichibukai would nearly cost him his life. Had he not been still sharp and capable, he likely would have perished before even regaining his reputation.

The world of One Piece is now teeming with powerful figures, far from the easy path it was thirty years ago. Even with a Devil Fruit that could increase the speed and size of objects a hundredfold, he was still defeated without a doubt.

"Damn it, I admit I was careless this time. Once I've figured out the situation on the sea again, I'll get my revenge on you. Straw Hat Luffy, Pirate Empress, you just wait." Bondiworld's face darkened as he thought of what had happened on Amazon Lily not long ago.

"Captain, a fleet without pirate flags has been spotted ahead." Just as Bondiworld was lost in his memories, a warning suddenly came from the watchtower.

"Hmph, I've been holding back my anger for a while now, so I'll use you guys to vent it first. I don't believe the world is full of monsters." Bondiwald said with a sinister smile when he heard the crew's warning.

He then used his Devil Fruit ability to enlarge a cannonball a hundred times and hurled it at the opposing fleet, intending to annihilate them in one fell swoop.

Bondiworld dared to make a move because the other party was not flying a pirate flag.

A pirate's flag represents their face and reputation. Powerful pirate crews all consider their pirate flags their glory, while only the weak dare not fly them. Therefore, Bondiworld was already confident in his opponent's abilities and planned to use him to vent his anger.

However, the next second, something shocking happened to Bondiwald: the cannonball he threw at 100 times the speed was blown apart by a sharp slash before it even got close to the enemy ship.

Immediately afterwards, the enemy ship turned around and charged towards his pirate ship.