Chapter 154 The mission begins
The next day.
In the morning.
Qingming and a group of well-prepared Konoha jonin led hundreds of Konoha mid-level ninjas to the frontline stronghold against the Hidden Rock Village.
In addition to the people, there were also dozens of carts in the team, most of which were standard ninja tools such as kunai and shuriken.
Obviously, these were prepared by the headquarters for this counterattack.
However, to be honest, Qingming was not very optimistic about the result of this counterattack.
As for the reason,
it was very simple. After two years of war, Konoha's troops were already in serious shortage. Even if they took down some strongholds this time, they would probably not be able to hold them when the support of the Hidden Rock Village arrived.
As for destroying the enemy's living force.
This may be possible, but there are so many ninjas in the Hidden Rock Village that they don't care about the death of some cannon fodder ninjas.
In this way, after the exchange, Konoha will definitely suffer in the end.
However, it is not possible not to fight, because if it continues to delay, the Hidden Rock Village will transfer all the more than 10,000 ninjas who surrounded and killed the Third Raikage to the front line.
Although it is impossible to fight Konoha in full, even if one third of them are divided, it will be enough to put pressure on Konoha's front line.
By then, the situation will return to what it was before - the Hidden Rock Village will use its superior forces to erode Konoha's defense zone bit by bit.
Obviously, this is a slow death.
Orochimaru must have seen this, so he decided to take a gamble.
If he can take advantage of the emptiness of the Hidden Rock Village's front line this time and eliminate a large number of its living forces, then it doesn't matter even if they are pushed back later.
At least, the front line will be stabilized.
However, Qingming, who has the memory of his previous life, knows that things will definitely not go according to Orochimaru's idea.
Otherwise, Konoha would not be pushed to the doorstep in a few months.
Thinking of this, Qingming couldn't help but secretly warn himself in his heart that he must be careful on the battlefield this time, and must always be vigilant against unexpected events. Maybe the Hidden Rock Village has prepared some secret weapons.
If he died on the battlefield, he would regret it to death.
The wheels were rolling, and a group of Konoha ninjas were like ghosts, tightly surrounding the cart and moving forward silently.
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The sun rose and set.
In the blink of an eye, two days passed.
The march of a large army is different from that of a single person. Qingming only needs about a day to return from the front line.
And according to the plan, they will take about three days to go this time.
Even so, it is because everyone is a ninja and can support high-intensity marching. If it is an army composed of ordinary people, it will take less than ten days and half a month to arrive.
Qingming glanced at the surrounding environment and estimated that it would take another half a day to reach the target base.
At that time, after resting for two days, the attack will be launched immediately. The time is very tight.
Fortunately, there have been no harassment incidents in the past two days, otherwise it may not be possible to recover in two days.
Half a day passed quickly.
Before Qingming and others arrived at the base, the people there had received the news and sent people to contact them.
However, this has little to do with Qingming, as this aspect is mainly handled by a senior ninja from the Nara clan.
At the same time, the other party is also the commander-in-chief of this mission.
After the two finished communicating, everyone set off again.
About ten minutes later, Qingming and others arrived at the target base.
This is a small village. Hundreds of people rushed in and instantly filled the entire village, making it inconvenient to rest.
However, no one complained, or there was no time to complain.
The attack will be launched in two days, and they must take the time to rest.
After settling everyone, the senior ninja from the Nara clan convened a senior ninja meeting to arrange the work of each senior ninja.
Qingming was assigned to the combat group, and his main task was to deal with high-risk targets of the enemy, which was actually to deal with enemy senior ninjas.
Obviously, compared with other abilities, the senior ninjas of the Nara clan believed more in his positive combat power.
Qingming had no objection to this, because he also needed some "equally matched" battles to hone his "swordsmanship".
‘Swordsmanship’ is ultimately used to kill people. Although simple practice can also increase proficiency, it is much worse than progress in battle.
Just like during the time in the Land of Earth, although he did not have extra time to practice swordsmanship, after several battles, his proficiency was still rising.
Of course, this was also due to the help of the shadow clone, but it is undeniable that fighting can indeed accelerate the growth of ‘swordsmanship’.
Coincidentally, after the three-magatama Sharingan evolved to the limit, ordinary ninjas were no longer his opponents.
And without any worries, Qingming can completely use fighting to hone his ‘swordsmanship’, which is a win-win choice.
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In a flash, time came two days later.
That evening.
After Qingming and others finished dinner, they began to check their equipment.
During this period, no one spoke, only the sound of “ding-dong-dong” ninja tools colliding.
For a while, the whole base was filled with a depressing atmosphere.
Ten minutes later, everyone finished their inspection, and the Nara clan's jonin announced that the team was going to set off.
The Konoha ninjas were divided into four teams, and under the leadership of more than twenty jonins, they ran towards the base of the Hidden Rock Village in a fan-shaped formation.
According to the plan, they would officially launch the attack at 8 o'clock in the evening, so they had to set off in advance.
The reason for this time limit is that this time, it is not just their base that is being attacked. All bases on this front line that are facing the Hidden Rock Village will launch attacks at the same time.
However, those bases are mostly feint attacks, and only their base is the main force.
After they have achieved clear results, the other bases will follow up according to the situation, thus forming a comprehensive suppression of the Hidden Rock Village.
It can be said that they are the "spear" of the entire front line. Only when they break through the defense line of the Hidden Rock Village on the opposite side can the subsequent large-scale counterattack plan be carried out smoothly.
From this, we can know how heavy their mission is.
Taking advantage of the cover of night, Qingming and his party came to a position less than five kilometers away from the Hidden Rock Village base.
According to the intelligence that has been explored in the past few days, the Hidden Rock Village base ahead will actively shrink the defense circle every night.
As for the reason, it seems that because the base is empty, the opposite side dare not spread people too far at night, and can only concentrate on defense.
In this way, they only need to get rid of the sentries along the way, and they can get within one kilometer.
At that time, a full-scale attack can be launched.
Time passed by minute by minute.
The four teams of Konoha ninjas advanced in unison, without making any noise along the way.
The secret sentries of the Iwagakure Village were discovered in advance by the Byakugan, and then the special jonin who were good at assassination took action to deal with them, just like an assembly line operation, simple and efficient.
About half an hour later, everyone finally reached the one-kilometer defense circle of the Iwagakure stronghold.
At this time, it was no longer easy to approach quietly.
As expected, just a few minutes later, a team of people exposed their whereabouts.
