Upon returning to his magnificently grand camp, all strength seemed to have drained completely from Zhili’s body. He lay upon his lavish bed.
Staring blankly at the ornate tent canopy overhead!
When he had arrived, he had been truly filled with ambition, his spirit swallowing ten thousand li like a tiger. At that time, he was not yet king, yet he was more king than a king.
And yet, on merely the first day of battle, he had suffered such a crushing defeat!
“Fifty-seven thousand killed in action on the first day, four thousand wounded.” The chief secretary of the Young Lord’s residence read aloud.
Zhili said, “The first wave of siege troops that died numbered only fifty thousand. Why does the total casualty count exceed sixty thousand?”
The chief secretary said, “We too were extremely puzzled, but when we later tallied the figures, we discovered that Soron’s giant iron tubes had inflicted over ten thousand casualties during long-range attacks.”
These so-called giant iron tubes were cannons.
Zhili was greatly shocked. He remembered that after the first wave of siege troops had been completely annihilated, the two sides had engaged in long-range mutual bombardment.
Every time Soron’s several hundred cannons fired several hundred iron balls, if one looked at the details, it was indeed bloody and terrifying. Those struck invariably had their bones broken and bodies shattered.
But when zoomed out to the entire battlefield, several hundred iron balls crashing into a position spanning several li was completely insignificant. It was like a few stones thrown into a pond. How could it cause such massive casualties?
“Over two hours of artillery fire, causing over ten thousand casualties.” The chief secretary said, “Our army was simply too densely packed.”
Four hundred and fifty thousand troops, with sixty thousand casualties!
Roughly fifteen percent or so!
There is a saying that when an army’s casualties exceed thirty percent, it loses its combat effectiveness.
This is both true and untrue!
For example, if a thousand-man army is committed to battle, once casualties exceed three to four hundred, it is very likely to lose combat effectiveness and directly rout.
But if a hundred-thousand-man army has thirty thousand committed to battle completely annihilated, yet the remaining seventy thousand are intact formations with a very comprehensive command system, then its morale will be damaged, yet its combat effectiveness still remains.
Therefore, Zhili’s remaining nearly four hundred thousand troops still possessed combat effectiveness.
But whether in terms of morale or the hearts of men, the only word that applied was low.
Just at this moment, the sound of a griffin suddenly rang out from the air.
“Screech…”
Zhili hastily sat up with a jolt.
Not long ago, he had dispatched griffin knights to the northern battlefield and the southern Sky Wolf Pass battlefield respectively.
Now, less than an hour had passed. It was certainly the griffin warrior sent to the northern battlefield returning.
A eunuch expert entered the camp and knelt before Zhili.
“Speak quickly, how is the northern Nu River battlefield? How many of Count Tuye’s troops have crossed the river?” Zhili’s voice was anxious yet excited, filled with hope.
His emotions were complex.
Originally, he had wanted to personally lead the central army to be the first to charge into Tianshui City and destroy the Soron clan.
Therefore, he had hoped that Tuye on the northern battlefield and Jianze on the southern battlefield would have some awareness, and not steal the limelight from him, the crown prince.
But now that his central army had suffered setbacks, he placed his hopes upon the northern battlefield.
In Zhili’s view, the northern battlefield was the easiest to break through. Count Tuye had previously been irresistible, reclaiming the entire Linhai City in less than three days.
And Linhai City and Tianshui City were separated by merely a single Nu River, with no city walls or defensive lines whatsoever. Breaking through would be effortless.
Moreover, at this time, all of Soron’s main forces were at the Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line and Sky Wolf Pass. The northern defensive line would not have many troops.
As long as Tuye’s army broke through the Nu River and entered the hinterland of Tianshui City, then Soron was as good as dead!
“I’m asking you a question?” Zhili said furiously.
That eunuch warrior said, “Count Tuye has not had a single soldier or horse cross the Nu River!”
Instantly, Zhili was dumbstruck, then flew into a rage, “Is he eating shit? He stationed at Nanlin Fortress, set out last night after midnight, a mere several dozen li. He should have reached the northern bank of the Nu River by morning and begun crossing. Why has not a single soldier crossed by evening?”
The eunuch warrior said, “Count Tuye’s army reached the northern bank of the Nu River last night and established positions, and had prepared sufficient bamboo rafts and wooden floats. This morning, they began forcing a crossing of the Nu River! However, under the unexpected strike of Soron’s new weapons, the river crossing troops were nearly completely annihilated, and the northern bank positions also suffered heavy losses. After a day of fierce fighting, casualties exceeded twenty-six thousand, and they have retreated to Nanlin Fortress to regroup!”
Once again, a roaring sound began in Zhili’s ears.
As if he could hear nothing at all, the surrounding sounds seemed to come from beyond the Ninth Heaven.
Central army crushingly defeated, left flank crushingly defeated!
In a single day, casualties of eighty to ninety thousand!
Even the northern battlefield had lost so miserably, so the southern Sky Wolf Pass battlefield was even less worth hoping for!
Jianze was the younger brother of Marquis Jianyong. Although he had become commander of the Southwestern Legion with Zhili’s support, many officers of the Southwestern Legion were Tulingtuo’s disciples. To this day, Jianze had been unable to fully control the Southwestern Legion.
Therefore, in Zhili’s view, the southern battlefield was certainly extremely pessimistic.
An hour and a half later!
The griffin warrior Zhili had dispatched to the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield returned with a report!
“Count Jianze, leading the right flank army to attack Sky Wolf Pass, suffered defeat on the first day, with casualties exceeding fifty-nine thousand!”
Hearing this report, Zhili’s head felt as if it would explode!
For heaven’s sake, the central army attacking the Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line had casualties of just over sixty thousand, yet your Sky Wolf Pass actually had fifty-nine thousand casualties?
The Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line was over four li long! Your Sky Wolf Pass city walls are at best one li long!
Are you, Jianze, a pig?
Attacking a city pass one li long, in a single short day you can suffer fifty-nine thousand casualties?
Even if a pig were to command, it couldn’t lose this miserably!
However, after listening to the eunuch warrior’s report, Zhili was completely stunned!
Jianze was not a pig at all. Rather, he was a fierce tiger!
“Count Jianze’s right flank army charged onto Sky Wolf Pass three times, and at one point completely broke through Sky Wolf Pass, occupying the outer walls and charging into the hinterland of Sky Wolf Pass. But in the end, they were defeated by Yan Chuoer and Yan Yan leading the Rock Pirate Legion, and Sky Wolf Pass was retaken!”
After listening, Zhili abruptly stood up!
This, this Jianze looks very ordinary? Why is he so fierce and valiant?
The central army’s Wind and Thunder Fortress battlefield, the northern Nu River battlefield fought so miserably, yet the southern Sky Wolf Pass battlefield was actually fought so ferociously?
…
Inside the Wind and Thunder Fortress, Soron received the latest battle report. Cold sweat continuously emerged from his back, waves of lingering fear.
He had not expected that the northern defensive line he had thought most vulnerable would produce the most beautiful result, beating Tuye so badly he had almost no power to fight back, with negligible casualties.
And the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield he had thought very solid and strategically positioned had actually been fraught with peril!
The commanders of the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield were the combination of Yan Chuoer and Yan Yan.
On the battlefield, neither of them had made mistakes, yet Jianze still charged onto the Sky Wolf Pass walls three times.
The final time, even the outer perimeter of Sky Wolf Pass was lost, forcing a retreat to the rear fortress. Only after mobilising twenty thousand Rock Pirate Legion troops were they able to defeat Jianze’s army that had charged into Sky Wolf Pass, and retake Sky Wolf Pass!
In the battlefield reports, both Yan Yan and Yan Chuoer noted that Sky Wolf Pass was simply too narrow, and the walls lacked firing slits. Therefore, the number of cannons and trebuchets that could be emplaced was too limited, unable to maximise firepower.
Moreover, at medium range, cannons were less powerful than giant trebuchets. And in order to place more cannons, Soron had drastically reduced the number of trebuchets.
Most critically, when large forces pressed beneath the walls, because the cannons were positioned too high, the several dozen metres below the walls became a blind spot. Canister shot could not be used to massacre troops on the walls on a large scale.
The most critical error was that the walls were too narrow. The soldiers manning the cannons and transporting ammunition made up the vast majority. The soldiers available for close-quarters combat were severely insufficient, ultimately leading to the walls being breached.
As for how Jianze managed to storm Sky Wolf Pass?
Very simple. Human lives were thrown up without regard for cost!
Like moths to a flame, charging frantically at the walls in an unending stream, not coming in waves, but surging upward continuously.
These soldiers could only charge forward, because anyone daring to retreat a single step would be shot without hesitation by the twenty thousand enforcement troops behind them.
Those who dared retreat would die!
Zhili had been unwilling to use fireproof cloaks on the first day, yet Jianze sent twenty thousand warriors wearing fireproof cloaks into battle on the very first day.
In short, under Jianze’s nearly insane, all-or-nothing assault.
The Sky Wolf Pass defensive line, which had been thought secure, was very nearly breached. Or rather, it had been breached at one point.
Many officers of the Southwestern Legion were Tulingtuo’s disciples. Jianze had been unable to fully control the Southwestern Legion even after several years.
Perhaps precisely because of this, Jianze dispatched his troops to attack the city so recklessly, without regard for cost. Unlike Count Tuye, who treated the Northern Legion as his own territory, grieving for every soldier lost.
And the Southwestern Legion shared Tulingtuo’s will, which was to completely destroy Soron. Therefore, they would not slack off or fight half-heartedly on the battlefield.
Thus, on the first day at the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield, such a result had actually been produced.
The troops Soron had available to deploy numbered only one hundred and seventy thousand!
The Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line had ninety thousand troops, the northern Nu River defensive line had fewer than fifty thousand, and the troops left for the Sky Wolf Pass defensive line numbered merely thirty thousand or so!
Yan Chuoer’s battle report did not mention much, but in Yan Yan’s battle report, he expressed the highest respect and admiration for the Rock Pirate Legion in the strongest terms.
And repeatedly emphasised that if not for the existence of the Rock Pirate Legion, Sky Wolf Pass would have been completely broken long ago!
At that time, tens of thousands of Jianze’s troops had flooded into Sky Wolf Pass. After the over ten thousand defenders of Sky Wolf Pass’s outer perimeter suffered thirty percent casualties, they began to rout.
At the critical moment, it was Queen Yan Chuoer leading twenty thousand Rock Pirate Legion troops, fighting fiercely inside Sky Wolf Pass against twice their number of enemies!
These Rock Pirate Legion troops truly fought like beasts on the battlefield. Wherever it was dangerous, they went. Wherever there were many enemies, they went. After being stabbed by an enemy, they would grin savagely as they chopped off the opponent’s head, and even slash themselves across the chest for good measure.
Facing such a beast-like army, Jianze’s army, which had been riding high on momentum, retreated step by step, and were killed out of Sky Wolf Pass.
In the end, during the first day of fighting, both sides fought fiercely for over ten hours. Sky Wolf Pass defenders suffered over ten thousand casualties, while Jianze’s army suffered nearly sixty thousand!
Reading both battle reports again and again, Soron’s hands trembled somewhat.
He discovered that he had truly been a believer in weapons alone, truly too contemptuous of his enemy.
Especially after the naval battle against Yan Mo, where he had won a great victory because of cannons, he had felt cannons were omnipotent.
Therefore, after placing over one hundred cannons at Sky Wolf Pass, he had felt he could rest easy. Across the entire Sky Wolf Pass battlefield, he had dispatched only thirty thousand or so troops, while facing enemies numbering two hundred thousand.
In the end, due to Sky Wolf Pass’s special geographical environment, plus the primitive and backward construction of Sky Wolf Pass’s walls, the power of the cannons was far less than imagined.
This ultimately led to the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield being fraught with peril, very nearly breached.
If not for the Rock Pirate Legion being excessively fierce and formidable, Sky Wolf Pass would have fallen long ago, and Jianze’s hundred thousand or more troops would have charged into the hinterland of Tianshui City.
Of course, it was also fortunate that Sky Wolf Pass was narrow, preventing Jianze’s army from flooding more troops into the city pass. Otherwise, even if the twenty thousand Rock Pirate Legion troops were more ferocious, they would have difficulty resisting four or five times their number of enemies.
Present-day Tianshui City was like a shell that was extremely hard, extremely powerful.
But once this layer of shell was breached, the interior of Tianshui City had no defensive strength whatsoever.
Once Jianze’s hundred thousand or more troops charged into the hinterland of Tianshui City? The consequences were unimaginable.
Tianshui main city had no defences whatsoever, and could be easily breached.
Soron had placed cannons on all three battlefields. Only Tianshui main city had merely seven or eight cannons placed symbolically, and they were substandard defective products at that.
And most terrifying of all, once Jianze led his hundred thousand or more troops to attack the Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line from behind, pincering with Zhili’s army.
At that time, truly even gods could not save Soron!
Soron closed his eyes and began deep reflection.
Indeed, cannons were magnificent, especially in naval warfare, where they were completely revolutionary, capable of beating other navies so badly they had no power to fight back.
Even on land battlefields, whether in long-range bombardment or close-range canister shot, they possessed astonishing killing power.
But cannons were not omnipotent. Especially in some special geographical environments, their performance would be wanting.
Before high explosives were invented, cannons still fell somewhat short of the title “God of War.”
Princess Zhiyan stepped forward, gently massaging Soron’s temples, kissing him on the lips, and said softly, “Husband, now there are only twenty thousand or so troops on the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield, and the Silver Wolf Legion has suffered too many casualties, their morale is low.”
In the day’s battle, the Silver Wolf Legion on the Sky Wolf Pass battlefield suffered over forty percent casualties. This army composed of mercenaries would surely suffer massive trauma to morale.
“Should we dispatch ten thousand troops to reinforce Sky Wolf Pass?” Princess Zhiyan asked.
Because of the Luan Yang vengeance army’s joining, the defenders at the Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line had increased by ten thousand. Therefore, Zhiyan asked whether they should dispatch ten thousand troops to reinforce Sky Wolf Pass.
This was an extremely difficult decision. Soron’s military strength was truly stretched thin.
On the surface, the Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line had fought so beautifully today, annihilating over sixty thousand of Zhili’s troops with very small casualties. Moreover, the Wind and Thunder Fortress defenders seemed not to have played too great a role, with practically no close-quarters combat at all!
Most enemy casualties were caused by cannons, trebuchets, and burning oil. Therefore, dispatching ten thousand troops to reinforce Sky Wolf Pass should be completely fine.
But what Soron thought of was tomorrow’s, the day after tomorrow’s battles!
Jianze’s record of nearly capturing Sky Wolf Pass would strongly stimulate Zhili, and he would adopt the same tactics.
That was to go all in, desperately piling up human lives, launching several hundred thousand troops at once to madly attack the Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line.
At this moment, Zhili was like a cornered beast. The only path before him was to place himself in a position of certain death and then survive!
Going all in, fighting to the bloody end! This was Zhili’s only choice.
“No, no need to reinforce Sky Wolf Pass.” Soron shook his head. “The most dangerous moment for Sky Wolf Pass has already passed. One burst of energy, then it weakens, and by the third it is exhausted. Today’s battle will make Jianze’s army feel that even if they breach Sky Wolf Pass, it’s useless, because they would still have to face the beast-like Rock Pirate army. And I am certain that Jianze will be unable to organise such a frenzied attack tomorrow. Today’s casualties have already caused the Southwestern Legion to suffer fundamental damage.”
Princess Zhiyan nodded. She had noticed that in Yan Yan and Yan Chuoer’s battle reports, they only reviewed the mistakes of today’s combat, without mentioning reinforcements.
Soron said, “Rather, our Wind and Thunder Fortress defensive line may next face an extremely bloody and bitter battle.”
And just at this moment, outside, Zhuang Zhixuan’s voice suddenly rang out, “Master, an emissary from Tulingtuo requests an audience.”
Soron could not help but be startled. Tulingtuo had actually sent someone?
…
Very quickly, Tulingtuo’s emissary appeared before Soron. Lifting the black cloak and removing the mask revealed his handsome face.
It was actually… Tulingchen!
“Greetings, Your Highness Princess. Greetings, Lord Soron.” Tulingchen performed his salute with meticulous precision!
Soron said in surprise, “Tulingchen, what have you come for?”
Tulingchen said, “To negotiate!”
Soron said, “Negotiate what?”
Tulingchen said, “Much can be negotiated, such as the Tuling family’s allegiance to Her Highness Zhiyan.”
The moment these words were spoken, Soron was completely stunned!
Regarding Tulingtuo’s double-dealing, Soron of course knew. But when it truly happened, he still felt reality was too cold.
Soron said, “That is to say, betraying Zhili?”
“Yes!” Tulingchen said, “Betraying Zhili, supporting Princess Zhiyan’s ascension to the throne!”