I pointed to Wusan City.
"Uh..." The chubby thing turned its head to look at the enemy camp by the river, as if it understood. "Immortal Venerable, I have a condition."
"You dare to bargain with me... Fine, tell me." I feigned impatience. The irritable Immortal Venerable persona was established, and I had to stick to it.
"This humble one only needs to devour forty-nine more people to complete his cultivation. I hope Immortal Venerable can grant this humble one the corpses of that number in battle."
"...That's it?" I pursed my lips. I thought it would be some difficult condition, but this was easy. War meant death, and in the underworld, corpses weren't disposed of. I could just throw forty-nine, no, a hundred, into the river and let it eat its fill.
"Immortal Venerable agrees?"
"No problem, but your physique isn't quite enough. You can only transport a few people at a time, right?" I frowned.
"That's easy!" The chubby little person retracted into the catfish's mouth. The catfish submerged, retreated, and when it resurfaced, its body had grown several times larger, feeling about the same size as the yacht we left in Hanguo.
The agreement was made, and the catfish no longer produced the little person for conversation. It swam to the shore on its own. I quickly told everyone to get on the 'boat'.
However, one boat wasn't enough. I first had the cavalry dispatched by the Wusan Sect return to inform the commandant, lest they mistake us for infiltrating enemies and shoot us.
Once the 'boat' was filled with people, the giant catfish began to accelerate, swimming towards the opposite bank. Upon reaching the other side, it traveled along the riverbank to a point opposite Wusan City, then turned back. This route would minimize enemy attacks.
Yet, they were still spotted. The enemy garrisons on both sides of the river saw a 'large ship' approaching from the opposite bank to provide support. They immediately hurled large stones and shot arrows at them. The giant catfish, by constantly adjusting its course and speed, easily evaded the attacks and successfully delivered them to the riverside gate of Wusan City.
After the troops disembarked, the giant catfish submerged. The distance was too great for me to sense its aura. I guessed it didn't return to the opposite bank but took a direct route back. The water was deep, so the enemy couldn't do anything to it. However, the enemy seemed to sense its intention and dispatched a cavalry unit to advance upstream along the riverbank. We were hidden among the rocks, difficult to spot, but during this time, the giant catfish poked its head out near the shore. This action made the enemy more certain that there was trouble upstream.
One of the cavalrymen released a falcon towards our position. The falcon was too fast, and we had no time to dodge. It spotted us from the air.
"Should we take it down?" the captain asked, lying on the ground and aiming at the falcon.
"No, save the bullets for the cavalry," I said. The approaching cavalry wasn't numerous, only about thirty, and they wore light armor, posing no threat to us.
"Listen to the master, brothers. Find advantageous shooting positions, form a crossfire from left and right, and prepare to fight!" This cavalry captain had some experience commanding spearmen.
"Then what do we do?" the remaining Wusan City cavalrymen asked.
"You..." I thought for a moment. "You will be decoys in front of the line. After we finish firing, if there are any enemies left alive, you will then go up and slay them."
I designated an area for them, a mountain hollow, to prevent them from being shot by their own people.
The falcon circled twice and returned to its master. Soon after, the enemy cavalry squad arrived. Seeing the decoy cavalry in the hollow, they charged directly towards them. When the distance between the two sides was still fifty meters, I gave the order to fire.
Ten people engaging thirty people exposed in the open was almost too easy. By the time the enemy reached the decoys, the decoys didn't even need to charge once, because in the enemy formation, let alone people, not even horses were standing.
"Carry the enemies to the riverbank, prepare to feed the fish!" I shouted to the decoys. They had to do some work too.