Chapter 84: The Mysterious Formation of Grace and Authority

  Shi Jin drew his bow to its fullest, the arrowheads gleaming with a cold light, densely packed on the city tower, while the brothers from Shao Huashan held their breath in anticipation.

  At this critical moment, the vanguard of the government army also underwent a change in its formation. The shield bearers raised their shields to chest height and charged forward, forming a crescent-shaped arc every thirty paces with dozens of people. The archers who were originally hidden behind the shield bearers now moved into position, each one drawing their bows and nocking arrows behind the fortress-like crescent shield formation, poking their arrowheads out through the small gaps between the shields to aim outward.

  Shi Jin suddenly glanced up at the city tower, and that crescent-shaped shield array really did have a few similarities to the hedgehogs he used to tease in the fields when he was young. Although the power of this formation had not been explored yet, Meng Du's tricks were quite numerous.

  But this momentum change is not over yet, the officials and soldiers under the city are coming and going, the torches are flowing endlessly, and the situation is becoming more unpredictable.

  After the archers were in position, the long spearmen behind them also began to change formation. They formed a dense phalanx with their sharp spearheads lined up in a row, compressing the distance between the five rows of men. The rear ranks placed the long handles of their spears on the shoulders of the front rank, forming a rectangular formation of long spears, with each unit consisting of about 100-200 men. Between every two units, the inner sides were connected like a pair of flying wings, arrayed beside the crescent moon shield wall.

  Shi Jin saw the first wave of changes in the military formation and was quite curious. It turned out that what his master, Wang Jin, had said was true - on this battlefield, apart from the fearless hand-to-hand combat, there was also a strategic aspect to consider. Although Shi Jin didn't know the name of this formation, with his intelligence, he could roughly make out some superficial aspects by looking down from a high vantage point at the positions of each type of soldier. The small formations within the larger one were like tiger mouths and iron palms closing in on them. Shi Jin felt that this vast and complex formation was made up of these smaller ones linked together, with long-range attacks and close combat having their own strengths. However, Wang Jin had only explained a simple formation to help Shi Jin understand what a formation was, and hadn't taught him anything else. At the moment, Shi Jin only knew that this was a formation, perhaps a powerful one, but he couldn't see through the intricacies of how each position changed, how different parts worked together, or how many layers and variations there were within the formation.

  Just as Shi Jin was watching this formation with a worried expression, another unexpected change occurred. After the continuous array, the silver helmet and armor cavalry arranged a large square array with eight gates, each with a colored flag in the east, west, south, and north. The cavalry held their sabers on the outside, while inside the array were hidden hundreds of thousands of seven-star hooks and poisonous crossbow shooters.

  Shi Jin gazed intently from the city wall at the large formation that had evolved from the official soldiers, with torches continuously linked together, outlining a green dragon. Following the flow of light, Shi Jin clearly saw eight branches flowing within the formation, constantly surging and blending together, with soldiers led by various colored flags seemingly disorderly but as Shi Jin stared for a long time, he discerned an aura that was ever-changing yet had its own rhythm and pattern.

  What made Shi Jin and the others even more astonished was that Meng Dujiang waved his hand again, and dozens of burly men, in pairs, carried several dozen thick horizontal logs, walking straight towards the front of the formation.

  As they walked closer, Shi Jin finally understood that under the thick horizontal wooden beams, three or four iron chains were suspended in mid-air, holding a large, black and shiny cauldron. At this time, between the small arrays where Shi Jin had just felt like a tiger's mouth, several large pot racks had been added, and those burly men had steadily placed the huge cauldrons on the pot racks one by one.

  At that time, those two pairs of eyes turned around in his eyes, but in the end, he still shook his head slightly and leaned close to Shi Jin's ear, saying: "Brother, you said tonight is quite strange, setting up such a complicated thing without saying, and also setting up so many big pots. I don't think they are so kind as to invite us to dinner and watch the dance, or are they going to play some trickery and cook us brothers in this soup?"

  Shi Jin was also unclear what kind of trick Meng Du Jian, this old fox, was playing at the moment, and could only slightly shake his head and say: "The array they set up below is a changeable and unpredictable big formation."

  "No matter how fancy he is, as long as he doesn't bring so many people to attack the city, we're not afraid."

  Shi Jin listened and felt that there was some truth to it, but after taking a few more glances at the formation, he still felt that there were some hidden tricks lurking within. Because Shi Jin knew that the things Meng Duzong came up with were generally not so simple. So Shi Jin watched the movements of the officials and soldiers below the city walls even more carefully.

  As expected, Shi Qian guessed half of it, those large pots were indeed used for cooking. The soldiers carried bundles of firewood over and lit fierce fires under the large pots. After that, they poured a full load of broth into the giant pot, waited for the water to boil, then added various spices in large quantities, along with all sorts of mushrooms and vegetables. In just the time it took to drink a cup of tea, the soup was boiling again, accompanied by gurgling sounds as the aroma wafted far and wide.

  Shi Jin smelled the delicious soup, and his stomach, which had not eaten for a day, began to rumble. At this moment, Shi Qian, who was standing beside him, like the other brothers of Shaohua Mountain, stared at the large pots with dead eyes, and involuntarily started smacking his lips.

  Shi Jin tightened the beast-faced waistband, making his somewhat flabby belly tight, so as not to appear sloppy and embarrassing. After tidying himself up, he looked over at the official army camp again, where the soldiers had already slaughtered a dozen or so fat cows and sheep in front of their formation. After a series of tedious procedures such as disemboweling and washing the entrails, they were chopped into eight pieces with large knives and axes, and then thrown into the fragrant broth. At this moment, besides the soldiers adding firewood to the cauldrons, several men in soft armor appeared beside each pot, holding huge ladles to stir the meat and soup evenly, and immediately a savory aroma rose up.

  Shi Jin looked at the commotion below, but his ears had already picked up the sound of Shi Qian and others slurping and sipping water. It had been two days since they had a decent meal, although they found rice in the city, it was divided equally among the citizens, leaving little for the brothers. When Shi Jin left Kong's dye shop, he told Jin Jiao to distribute more rice to the people, and tonight he would cook a pot of porridge for his brothers. At that time, Shi Jin was still feeling pleased with himself, thinking he could fill his brothers' bellies with a bowl of porridge. But when Meng's pot of meat soup appeared, Shi Jin realized what true poverty meant!