Chapter 1265 - 313: Truly a Dog_2

Chapter 1265: Chapter 313: Truly a Dog_2

Indeed, he achieved this; under his leadership, a dozen Yan Army soldiers followed him and opened up a situation.

However, due to their excessive aggression, they failed to synchronize their rhythm with the ensuing troops. Although they succeeded in gaining position on the city wall, they couldn’t wait for timely support from fellow soldiers to tear open this side, leaving them in a state of being outnumbered on the wall.

In the end, that captain was struck by several blades and arrows and died fighting on the city wall.

Helplessly, Li Fusheng could only order another round of trebuchet fire before retreating.

It wasn’t impossible to continue fighting, because the Yan Army was strong and the wild people were weak. Even if the wild people momentarily gained momentum, if the Yan Army continued pressing down, the wild people would eventually collapse, repeating the scene on the west city wall.

But the more Li Fusheng commanded, the more his head hurt. At the same time, he understood that fighting recklessly could indeed earn him face, but might cause greater injury. Causing unnecessary harm to his subordinates because of his own reputation was not worth it.

However, this retreat order didn’t matter—nearly a hundred soldiers under the slain captain surprisingly didn’t retreat following the withdrawal signal sent from the rear, instead continuing to climb the ladders and fight onward.

The reason was that the Town North Army adhered to extremely strict military discipline.

If defeated, if the main general dies but the regiment survives, death without pardon!

This has always been the iron rule followed by the Town North Army, and clearly, after the death of the aggressive captain, his soldiers went mad because instinctively they believed returning would mean death, and instead of being killed by their own people, they preferred to charge into the wild people.

From point to area, these people’s actions caused hesitation among other various Yan Army paths supposed to retreat. Leaving fellow soldiers behind and continuing to retreat felt dishonorable, but not retreating went against issued orders.

Hence, a scene completely different from the orderly retreat previously ordered by Lord Zheng unfolded. During Li Fusheng’s withdrawal of the Yan Army, there was complete disarray front to back.

Archers were still thinking about responding to fellow soldiers while shield bearers had already retreated behind the archers.

One misstep in coordination leads to further missteps.

In the end, with Li Fusheng gritting his teeth continuing to order troops to retreat, and deploying his personal guard to proactively offer support, losing quite a few more men and horses, he finally managed to conclude this chaotic siege exercise.

At this point, standing beside Zheng Fan, Liang Cheng spoke:

"Actually, Li Fusheng himself has big problems; maybe he’s truly unfamiliar with commanding siege warfare, in addition to previously seeing us do well, thus instinctively wanting to follow our rhythm.

But actually, when that captain mounted the tower, Li Fusheng could have completely ordered the front line to attack fiercely, sweeping away this section of the wall wouldn’t have been an issue, yet he adhered to routine.

As for the subsequent chaos caused by the withdrawal order, it remains with Li Fusheng’s troops, already accustomed to field combat tactics, not yet switching their mindset to siege tactics; accurately speaking, they don’t have this awareness yet."

Zheng Fan nodded and said, "This should be Tian Wujing’s headache; speaking of which, do you think Tian Wujing is capable of siege warfare?"

Liang Cheng fell silent.

"Hmm, what’s the matter? Speak honestly, don’t hold back because of him."

"My lord, this subordinate believes that Lord Jingnan’s military habits are actually more suited to siege warfare than field cavalry confrontations."

"Oh."

Lord Zheng understood,

said:

"So you’re sparing me embarrassment earlier?"

Because I asked a terribly foolish question in the view of military strategists like you.

"This subordinate dares not."

"Anyway, it doesn’t matter, we’ll practice here; when attacking Chu, surely there’ll be more practice. I heard that Nian Yao from Chu, when guarding Town South Pass and playing against Tian Wujing, was quite cowardly."

According to intelligence and Lord Zheng’s own observations near Town South Pass,

that Nian Yao, the general who once captured quite a few princes amid Chu’s rebellion with great fame, at Town South Pass, has cultivated the turtle shrinking tactic to the extreme.

When Yan people provoked, he fortified the city;

When Yan people taunted, he fortified the city;

Good weather, he fortified the city;

Bad weather, he forcibly continued to fortify the city.

So, under his term, he not only built two heavily fortified camps on the east and west of Town South Pass, but also imitated Anhuh City and Tadie City near Snow Sea Pass, building two castles north of Town South Pass.

At the beginning of the year, the reason Tian Wujing amassed troops was partly to support Lord Zheng in Chu State’s unknown yet definite operations;

On the other hand, it was discovered this Chu State general actually intended to continue expanding outwards!

Therefore, the Yan Army mobilized, compressing Town South Pass’s sphere of influence, breaking Nian Yao’s plan to continue building outside; reportedly, two places were already laying foundations.

Therefore,

Attacking Chu not only means battling one Town South Pass, but similar to smaller-scale castles like Anhuh City need to be conquered.

Old Tian surely knows what his Yan Army is good or not good at; thus, similar training exercises will certainly continue during the Chu campaign.

If not proficient in something, learn it in the meat grinder battlefield; in this environment, learning is surely fast.

Just like the later college entrance exams, if failing would mean being shot, it’s not certain to rank top scholar, but surely better than not being shot—it’s the same principle.