Chapter 276: Biting Cold Wind

Shuzhan has been in some trouble lately. Well, maybe not a small trouble, but a big trouble.

It was obvious that his appetite would not be satisfied so easily by swallowing up two provinces.

But if we want to continue moving forward, one place becomes an obstacle, a rather tricky obstacle.

After the Golden Province, there is a tough nut to crack between Lianyan Province and the province where Shu Zhan is currently stationed.

Three of the four provinces in this area are classified as grain-producing areas because of their suitable climate. Only the area in the middle has an extremely unsuitable climate, and is also a real problem.

The earth rises in this central area, raising a plateau that overlooks the surrounding areas.

Cold, harsh environment, poverty, and covetous enemies.

If they want to continue moving forward, then this plateau is something they cannot avoid in any way. After all, the human army on the plateau can easily cut off the logistics line of the Eastern Expeditionary Force.

It’s not that Rat War has never fought a surprise attack before. In fact, in the Second God War that established his position as the supreme commander of the ratmen, he launched a very aggressive surprise attack on the Lizardman Wetlands.

But the situation is different now. The scale of the Eastern Expeditionary Force has once again expanded to an extremely outrageous level.

Logistics have become a constraint.

This plateau became a hammered nail that was hard to ignore.

Of course, there is actually another option, which is to capture the Lianyan Province and then slowly deal with the humans on the plateau in a siege posture.

But Shuzhan is an arrogant guy, an extremely arrogant guy, and an overly impatient guy.

Those rat warlords rushed into Lianyan Province in unison as if they were fighting for carrion.

Will he become the dog that steals the food? No.

And it's just too slow.

His choice naturally became clear.

Under the waving black flags, countless ratmen began to climb towards the high-raised land.

This is not easy. After all, one of the most prominent features of the plateau is its height.

At the beginning, there was a path to climb upwards, but in the end, the road became steeper and steeper. At this time, the rat warriors had to put away their weapons and start moving forward using both hands and feet.

Along the way, the rats did not encounter any enemy attacks, no passes, no outposts, no fortresses, and not even a proper road.

It is not surprising. For a long time, it has always been this group of people on the plateau who have launched looting against the people below the plateau, but there are almost no opponents who can actually rush up to the dangerous plateau. Naturally, there are no outposts, fortresses, and passes, and these things are useless.

In the human empire, the most remote Golden Province is famous for its richness. However, there are two grain-producing provinces behind the Golden Province. They all belong to the same area and have similar environments. Why are gold and richness given to the most remote province?

Lianyan can be said to be too chaotic. The great nobles and the mountain people who rule the province are not harmonious and are constantly in conflict. But why doesn't the province that was easily captured by the Rat War get the reputation of gold and wealth? It is obvious that it is closer to the heart of the human empire.

The reason lies with the people of the plateau. They have been robbed every year and have become a little accustomed to it. The reason why Shu Zhan was able to take this province into his hands so easily was also due to the fact that the barbarians of the plateau had just left.

The great nobles who ruled the plateau were not polite to their neighbors and always robbed whenever they wanted. Even when the human empire was at its strongest, they did not have any particularly good ways to deal with the people of the plateau. Three expeditions only brought them verbal submission, not to mention the moment when this huge empire was becoming increasingly corrupt and on the eve of disintegration.

The rat people are now gradually realizing why the Human Empire has no way to deal with these highland barbarians.

As we went higher, a howling cold wind appeared. It was not an ordinary wind, but the biting elemental wind.

In fact, the challenge posed by the ratmen now is even more difficult than that of the human empire.

The sun no longer rises, and the moon disappears with it. Under such circumstances, the world should be heading towards deathly silence, and the wind and tides should gradually disappear.

It should have been like this, but due to the emergence of the elemental tide, a terrifyingly huge elemental torrent was bursting into the world every moment. This thing was much more powerful than the sun and the moon.

It replaced the missing laws of the sun and the moon and began to inject vitality into the world, and it was much more powerful than the sun and the moon.

Many things began to become a little chaotic. The tides and winds became more violent and began to be infected by magic.

This phenomenon was more intuitively demonstrated during the process of climbing the plateau. The howling wind was freezing cold. No, it was beyond simple cold. The cold wind tainted with magic could really penetrate into the bone marrow.

Countless ratmen fell off the cliffs and steep roads while climbing up the plateau because they could not bear the cold wind.

The higher we go, the colder it gets. Spring hasn't been here for too long, and the warm summer should be here soon, so why is it so cold?

Shu Zhan wrapped himself in a blanket, the soft leather wrapped around his body. He was a hairless mouse, and was particularly afraid of the cold. This arrogant guy was afraid of few things, but the biting cold wind was definitely one of them.

It's not that the rats don't have ways to deal with it. Every time they advance for a while, a simple cave will be dug out and they will hide in the cave. All the rats huddle together and curl up into a ball. This is the only way to temporarily drive away the ubiquitous cold.

But this also brought about a problem, which greatly slowed down the progress.

There was no way, because the commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Force, the dragon slayer, the rat-skinner, the god-favored one, the great ratman commander-in-chief, he could not bear it.

For example, at this moment, in the excavated cave, the bright flames were dancing, but they seemed unable to bring warmth. A guy wrapped tightly in white fur was still shivering, and he was unconsciously moving closer to the fire, and he didn't care that his white fur was burned black by the flames.

I just want to get closer to the fire, to feel warmer.

Well, it seems that even though Shu Zhan has received many blessings and become a hero, with power far exceeding that of ordinary mortals, he still finds it difficult to cope with the biting cold.

Who said he was a hairless mouse?

The commander-in-chief is in this state, and ordinary ratmen are naturally not much better. Even after climbing up for a while, they will dig a cave for a short rest. A large number of ratmen huddle together to barely resist the cold, but after each rest, those who did not occupy a good position and were pushed to the periphery of the rat group will most likely never wake up again.

Frozen stiff, abandoned in these caves that have been dug out here and there.

These frozen creatures have even lost their value for being eaten; they are so hard that even chewing them is difficult.

In this situation, the despised cave mushrooms actually shine.

In this situation, these dried mushrooms that have been dried and hardened by the sun have become food that is more suitable for consumption than blood mushrooms.

The dry and hard cave mushrooms became brittle in the cold, but the blood mushrooms were frozen hard.

Why is it so cold? Perhaps the answer can be found by looking up at the sky. The sun has gone out and the world is in darkness. Although the elemental tides have injected vitality into the world again, they have not brought back the lost light and warmth that the world has lost.

The Eastern Expeditionary Force remained quiet during this period.

Shu Zhan already felt a little regretful, but he had already climbed halfway up the plateau and it was too late to regret now. The Eastern Expeditionary Army was indeed large and threatening enough that they could even dye the steep cliffs into a large area of ​​gray-brown during the climbing process.

Countless ratmen climbed up with a groan, and then they were constantly frozen to death or fell to their deaths.

The loss reached an extremely terrifying level.

But even so, Shu Zhan was unwilling to give up.

Perhaps we can try another method, such as pausing briefly and waiting for the Big Claw Priest to arrive and repair the steep road, or simply dig a wide cave in the cliff that leads directly to the plateau.

This is too long to wait.

Perhaps this is the reason why Shu Zhan led the Eastern Expeditionary Force to climb up desperately. He was unwilling to accept a long wait.

Even if I was shivering in the cold, I was unwilling to give up.

The constant digging of caves on the cliffs slowed down the progress.

However, the speed of the Rat War was not slow, but the price was countless rats falling off the cliffs and countless rats freezing to death.

A very anxious one.

An impatient fellow.

He is also a very confident guy.

He was confident that even in such a harsh environment, he could defeat the humans entrenched on the plateau. As long as he could climb up, everything would be fine.

But is it really so?

It is unknown, at least Shu Zhan is still leading the Eastern Expeditionary Force to climb the mountain.

………….

Just as Shu Zhan was climbing up grunting, an army started moving and set out from the city that humans called the City of the Sun.

The prince did not break his promise. He really gathered the royal guards and began to sail downstream along the river.

The arrival of this army will bring many variables, but the prince chose a very good time. At least now, the ratmen are corrupt, but have not completely spread out of control. His arrival is generally welcomed.

(End of this chapter)