Chapter 296: First Battle in the Wasteland

Northland stretches into unknown distances. After marching more than two hundred miles north from the city of Otopan, we entered the border of Parmesan State.

To the east lies the towering Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains. The moist easterly wind from the sea is blocked by the rolling mountains, the precipitation suddenly decreases, and the vegetation gradually becomes sparse. The earth slowly lost its freshness, leaving only traces of large areas of desolation. Soon, the blue plateau turned into a gray wasteland, with yucca and cacti dotted on the endless sand, looking extremely majestic and desolate.

As the coalition forces moved north, shrill war trumpets sounded in the wilderness. Bronze arrows and bone arrows went back and forth, piercing into the soft body; war sticks and stone spears clashed, leaving behind fallen bodies. The scout teams from both sides kept fighting. Once they met, they showed no mercy and used their lives to paint the wasteland with color.

A black vulture circled in the sky, croaking in death. It rolled its eyes, watching the two groups of gray-blue figures fighting each other, and looking forward to a delicious meal soon. Soon, the dry land was soaked in bright red, and there were more and more still corpses. It didn't take long for one party to turn around and flee, while the other party started to run in pursuit.

"Whoosh!"

Sharp bone arrows pierced the sky, and the running figure immediately fell to the ground without even having time to let out a miserable howl. Then, a red-haired warrior rushed over. He kicked the body that fell to the ground, looked at the arrow that hit his heart accurately, and nodded with satisfaction.

"Bah, let you run! Can you still outrun me?"

Iwekan kicked twice more, then stretched out his arms and wiped the sweat from his face with his cotton armor. More than a dozen canine scouts chased up from behind, also wearing the grey-blue cotton armor of the Otomi people. The scouts have been fighting for several months, and now they have changed their equipment and have sharp obsidian war clubs in their hands.

"Okay! After chasing this for a long time, I finally managed to keep all the Otomi dogs behind!"

Amosi glanced at the body and grinned.

"Iweikan, your shooting skills are so good! You can still hit a running person from dozens of steps away!"

"Ouch! He just runs forward in a straight line, so why can't he hit it? The really hard thing to shoot is that big black bird in the sky!"

As he spoke, Iwekan squinted his eyes, raised the long bow in his hand, and took a look at the sky.

Seeing this dangerous movement, the American vulture immediately spread its wings and climbed up to more than ten meters before stopping. It circled and flew while croaking, as if mocking the hunters on the ground. In the wasteland where food is scarce, if the big birds did not have this kind of vigilance, they would have been hunted down by the canine descendants who are good at shooting.

"Whoosh!"

A bone arrow soared rapidly, piercing the sky with force and grazing the wings of an American vulture. The big black bird was so frightened that its wings trembled, and it decisively gave up the food in front of it, turned around and flew away.

Ivican first sighed with regret, and then smiled with satisfaction. He couldn't put it down and groped over and over on the long bow, carefully feeling the texture of the wood, as if he was communicating with the divine weapon.

"Amosi, this big bow is really good! It's very strong and tight."

Amosi looked at Da Gong with envy in his eyes. A few days ago, two scout teams joined forces to ambush a group of scattered Otomi warriors. They captured this useful bow from the leading noble. The two had a quarrel over the ownership of this magical bow, and in the end, Iwekan, who was from a large tribe, got it.

"Iwekan, when are we going to grab a big bow again?"

"Let's see! There are very few native dogs who have big bows, and they usually stay in the army. The cactus scouts do have a lot of big bows, but they are always difficult to shoot, and you will lose yourself if you are not careful."

Hearing this, Amosi sighed and kicked the stones on the ground.

"The Otomi people are becoming more and more difficult to deal with! In today's battle, although we successfully ambush and killed twenty Otomi native dogs, we also killed seven tribal warriors!"

Hearing this, Iwekan put away his long bow. He looked at the scouts following him, with a rare expression of sadness on his face.

"Ouch! Today we shot almost half of the Otomi warriors to death, and then the morale of the local dogs collapsed and they turned around and ran for their lives. Damn it! In the past, they would have been defeated by just beating them. Now with the support of the tiger heads of the Cactus tribe, even the earth dogs Dogs can hang their tails and pretend to be wolves!”

"Yeah. Fortunately, no one escaped alive. Otherwise, we would be in trouble if we attracted the tiger head of the Cactus tribe!"

The two red-haired scouts shivered at the mention of the Mexica Jaguar warriors. These senior warriors who are good at tracking cannot escape at all. They are also skilled in various martial arts and can run extremely fast. They are the most dangerous enemies of the canine scouts.

The two red-haired warriors looked at the south and were stunned for a while, but Ivican spoke first.

"Amosi, the army in the south is too large, and the scouts are scattered everywhere. After ambushing this group of local dogs, we can't stay here. Where should we go next?"

"Iweikan, the coalition forces in the south have three large armies: the Otomi Dogs with bird flags on the east and west, and the cactus warriors with wolf flags in the middle. We have just scouted this one in the west, and there are probably more in the east. That's it. Now, we should go see the enemies in the middle so we can go back and explain to the chiefs and elders!"

Amosi thought for a while and then made up his mind. As long as we detect some useful information earlier, we can return to the tribe earlier to report back, and we can also leave the increasingly dangerous south earlier.

"Oh, that makes sense! The cactus warriors in the middle run the fastest, rushing to the front all the way. It is estimated that they are almost at the door of the Red Rat Tribe. It is a good time to go and see their battle formation! Amosi, my friend, although you are not as fast as me, you are always a little smarter than me. In my opinion, you might as well leave that small tribe early and join our Red Fox! I can guarantee that Chief Otuwa will definitely value you very much!"

Hearing the familiar persuasion, Amosi shook his head casually. Being ordered around in a big tribe is not as happy as being the leader of a small tribe! He squinted his eyes, looked at the direction of the sun, and headed east accurately.

The evening sun shone on the red-haired warriors, casting long slanted shadows, and soon disappeared in the deep twilight. The night on the plateau is long and quiet. The moonlight is faint, soaked with a bit of coldness.

In order to avoid being discovered, the scout teams on both sides did not light a bonfire, but just quietly accumulated physical strength. The dog scouts often hunt, and although they can barely see at night, they also lack the ability to fight at night. Nothing happened on the quiet night until the sun rose at dawn, and the fighting of the new day officially began.

In the bright sunlight, Toltec carried the commander's battle flag, held his head high, and looked at the hills not far away.

On the hill, there was a simple camp of the dog tribe. The camp was roughly surrounded by a circle of wooden fences, and a red agouti flag was inserted at the entrance of the camp. At this moment, hundreds of dog warriors holding short bows and stone spears were nervously watching the thousands of troops outside the camp.

"One hundred, two hundred. One thousand, fifteen hundred is less than two thousand people, at most five hundred warriors!"

Toltec was majestic, his eyes widened, and he counted the number of dog people in his heart. He bent his fingers and counted for a long time before finally estimating a rough number.

"What a fool! Facing the alliance's legion, what gave them the courage to stay here and resist?"

Black Wolf was a little confused. He looked behind him, three thousand longbow militia, two thousand barbarian throwing, one thousand temple crossbowmen, a full five thousand Mexica legions were deployed one after another, gradually surrounding the hill, leaving no gap. He looked down the hill again, a small river flowed slowly, and a large area of ​​cultivated farmland was lush and green. The corn in the farmland has bloomed and pollinated, and small corn cobs have been produced.

"Well, that's it! The harvest is not far away, but it's hard to wait."

Toltec muttered to himself in a low voice, and then his face was full of smiles. His knowledge has improved a lot! He laughed for a while, then took out the flag and waved it suddenly in the direction of the camp!

"Listen to my orders! Temple crossbowmen, be alert all around! Vanguard throwing, prepare the spear! Longbow militia, close in and shoot!"