When the entire small hill’s mudslide came crashing down, Charles’s army was passing through, and hearing the rumbling behind, Charles turned around to see, furious to the point of liver rending!

"Retreat!"

"Scatter!"

"Quick!"

The entire marching battalion was instantly split into two halves. The faster half luckily escaped the disaster, while the latter half was drenched thoroughly!

"Tch!"

"Puh—"

"Cough..."

The team was in chaos, and the mudslide on the hillside was still slowly spilling out, although the flow rate had slowed down. Charles clenched his fist tightly: "Team 1, Team 2, go around behind the hill, catch that bastard causing trouble behind us and tear him apart!"

Teams 1 and 2 quickly stepped out, urgently bypassing the mountain road blocked by the mudslide, and upon reaching behind the hill, they found a large area of sunken ground. At that moment, there was a simple transportation device continuously pouring mudslide into several inverted boxes on the ground. When the boxes were full, they automatically poured the contents downward—

This!

Seeing these, the people in the two squads were incensed and were about to catch the enemy behind, but found the place deserted, presumably fleeing after the crime. In the pitch-black environment, it was impossible to find anyone, and they had no choice but to dismantle the energy from this simple circulation system on site. Without energy, the mudslide in the inverted boxes quickly solidified into ice blocks, stopping the mudslide from continuously pouring down the hill.

After hearing the report, Charles was even more explosive!

Damn it!

He hated it!

"Commander, what do we do now?" someone in the team asked. Half of them had already been drenched, but fortunately, the temperature was extremely low, quickly solidifying into ice. Everyone gathered together, patting the ice shards off each other’s bodies, and upon hearing someone ask, everyone turned to Charles.

Charles’s face was as black as coal; he knew that he had fallen into a trap.

Careless!

Initially, when he thought the enemy forces infiltrated camp 6 with the target being Lou’s troops, he thought his chance had come!

With both sides fighting, he could act as a fisherman taking advantage. Unexpectedly—

They should have joined forces with Lou at that time to annihilate the enemy.

But!

Joining forces with Lou meant admitting defeat, and the crisis of lacking clothing and food still hadn’t been resolved. It was better to shift all the contradictions of lacking clothing and food onto Lou.

This time, Charles successfully persuaded the main force of the team to lead the army in attacking the enemy’s camp by redirecting the team’s main conflict toward Lou, making everyone unanimously believe that everything was Lou’s doing. So when the enemy’s artillery was aimed at Lou, everyone easily believed Charles’s words, which were essentially—

Let Lou bear the brunt of the enemy’s artillery, while everyone circled around to attack the enemy from behind with a surprise fatal blow.

Charles’s plan was implemented smoothly because of this.

If it weren’t for the enemy being too cunning, digging a pit behind as well—

Charles’s face was as black as the bottom of a pot, and he clenched his fist, saying: "Investigative squad, all step out."

The next second, dozens of people stepped forward.

Charles said: "Spread out, quickly identify and clarify the situation ahead."

All the investigators said: "Yes."

Charles said: "The entire team, continue advancing—"

"Yes."

The team slowly advanced.

Charles felt the speed of the march, frowning involuntarily, especially those drenched by the mudslide, covered with ice shards, cold invading their bodies constantly. Charles said: "Keep running, don’t stop."

"Speed!"

"Yes."

The marching battalion responded loudly, but since many had been attacked by the mudslide, their bodies were cold, hungry, and weary. It was evident from their response that their energy and spirit had decreased significantly.

A hint of hidden worry flashed across Charles’s mind, and he even had the thought of retreating. But once the bow is drawn, there is no turning back. Having reached this point, the only option was to invade the enemy’s interior and seize their food and warm supplies as the best fallback plan. Thus, Charles could only demand the main force continue.

The army continued advancing towards the destination, but this time Charles was more cautious, more prudent, preferring to slow down rather than advance recklessly.

...

Li Shanshui listened to the report from the front, and he couldn’t help but feel regretful: "Couldn’t manage to splash onto the enemy commander." According to his design, if it had splashed on Charles and the key personnel, this battle could have ended prematurely.

What a pity.

Then.

The report continued: "Captain, before the mudslide was activated, the energy reserve was roughly 50%, but our energy was taken by the enemy."

"Still so much left?" Li Shanshui furrowed his brow. He anticipated the energy being taken by the enemy but didn’t expect this much to remain.

The energy for the mudslide dumping equipment accounted for one-third of the entire camp 5’s energy reserve, with the other two-thirds allocated to signal towers and various bases. The remaining sparse amount was used for lighting fires and cooking, thus camp 5 had no other energy sources. Li Shanshui had exerted much effort to obtain this from Ji You, the stingy commander.

Splashed on half the enemy?

Well, it’s slightly better than the original plan.

Li Shanshui said: "Frontline personnel, all retreat."

The squads closely monitoring the enemy camp were a bit surprised: "All retreat back?"

Li Shanshui actually felt a bit unsteady about this, but it was Ji You’s command, her exact words were—[Don’t bother with them anymore; everyone return to the Commander Camp, eat if you can, drink if you can, sleep if you can, regather in 1 hour—]

In other words, the army entering the enemy camp will have Ji You’s command to return within 1 hour.

Several investigative teams were still waiting for Li Shanshui’s response; Li Shanshui said: "All retreat, no need for surveillance, to avoid unnecessary sacrifices."

"Yes."

After Li Shanshui finished speaking, he felt relieved, then quickly walked into the stone house where acting commander Cheng Haoyue was located. Cheng Haoyue was stationed in the observation room at the watchtower, never daring to leave. At this moment, as he kept himself alert, he suddenly felt drowsy, his head bobbing like a chicken pecking rice, then he heard footsteps, immediately straightening his body instinctively: "Are the enemies coming?"

Upon seeing Li Shanshui, Cheng Haoyue said: "Why are you here? Why aren’t you overseeing the situation with the traps?"

Li Shanshui said: "The commander ordered us to retreat, don’t bother with it."

Cheng Haoyue: "...Then why are you here?"

"Cough cough..." Li Shanshui’s refined face showed slight embarrassment and then he said earnestly: "Idleness makes you sleepy easily, I came to the watchtower to see if there’s anything to do."

Cheng Haoyue said: "The enemies aren’t coming, I’m idle too, there’s nothing for you to do." Didn’t he see him nodding off?