Chapter 1343 - 329: A Father’s Love Is Like a Mountain

Chapter 1343: Chapter 329: A Father’s Love Is Like a Mountain

The wolf smoke belonging to the Yan Army rose, indicating that Yangshan Village had been breached.

The scouts and mounted messengers of the Yan Army quickly spread the news to all units. Since Yangshan Village had been broken, those who needed to disengage did so, those who needed to withdraw did so.

The main forces moved back, but the small units originally used during wartime as outer alert forces were not recalled. Instead, as arranged before the battle, they were all sent out to reinforce the already advantageous scout forces south of Town South Pass.

The role of breaching Yangshan Village was firstly to sever the operational links between the fortresses of the Chu people, and secondly to completely bring the area before Town South Pass under the control of the Yan people’s war rhythm, turning the forts painstakingly built by the Chu people into isolated islands.

If you dispatch your main army, the Yan army immediately reacts and confronts you. If you send out small forces, they might leave but won’t return.

The root cause of this phenomenon is not merely the loss of Yangshan Village, but the original pattern of Yan attacking and Chu defending. Since the Chu people are the defenders, it is inevitable they will lose the control of the situation either actively or passively.

Of course, the battle report will certainly sing high praises;

Lord Pingye led the Snow Sea cavalry to swiftly break through Yangshan Village, completely setting the tone for the war against Chu, laying a solid foundation for breaking through the Chu’s defensive formations, accelerating the military campaign against Chu, and so forth;

Indeed, it was hitting the mark.

In the following two days, apart from the scouts being more active than usual, all units were preparing accordingly.

Prince Jingnan did not convene another military meeting because the arrangements for this battle were decided in the last military meeting, and there was no need to gather everyone just to celebrate Lord Pingye’s success.

This great battle, after all, had just begun.

Yes,

It had indeed just begun.

Returning to the camp, Lord Zheng first took a comfortable hot bath.

The bathtub was set up behind the command tent, with a door between two tents—a front office area and a living area.

This is the benefit of the battlefield being close to his hometown. Lord Zheng had never had such treatment during previous battles.

After bathing, he had a good night’s sleep.

Fully refreshed, as he emerged from the command tent, he saw a bustling scene.

Following the breach of Yangshan Village, various troops were divided into several fronts and began siege operations. Naturally, not all forces would be used for the siege, some remained as reserves, but those arrangements were made by Tian Wujing.

In front of Lord Zheng, the target to conquer was the Chu’s East Mountain Fortress.

A fortress of considerable size.

In previous days, a march of Chu troops moved in to reinforce, but in order to aid others, they moved out again, clashing several times with Gong Wang’s forces, causing mutual losses.

But after Gong Wang received news of Yangshan Village’s fall, he stopped the obstruction, reorganized his troops, and blocked the Chu soldiers’ return to East Mountain Fortress.

Truly a veteran of the battlefield, recognized by Situ Lei, even under Yan people’s rule he can handle matters independently; his ability is unquestionable.

Moreover, his style is much appreciated by Lord Zheng.

The imperial guards, you may go anywhere, but returning to East Mountain Fortress is impossible, because they are the ones attacking East Mountain Fortress in the upcoming battle.

Actually, this tactic is quite nefarious because unless you eliminate this Chu army, this large Chu imperial guard, if unable to return to East Mountain Fortress, will head to other fortresses, ultimately posing a significant obstacle to the Yan army assigned to attack those fortresses.

Yet, this spirit of sacrificing the greater good for the smaller good,

deeply touches Lord Zheng’s heart.

And now, amidst this lively scene, assembled trebuchets, battering rams, arrow towers, siege crossbows, and other military tools began to be transported forward;

seeing this, Lord Zheng,

felt his eyes grow moist.

Known in the Yan army for their expertise in siege equipment manufacturing, the Snow Sea forces now finally had the chance to use such equipment practically for a siege.

Having waited so long, hoped so long, finally the day had arrived.

As for the previous sieges on the snowfields, could those even be called sieges?

There was just one thing now puzzling Lord Zheng: logically, San’er should have returned by now.

Though his army had members of the Tianji Pavilion to fill Xue Three’s role, San’er surely must have known about the long-publicized campaign against Chu even while in Liang State.

However, before Lord Zheng could spend more time "missing" San’er, who was whereabouts unknown, the blind man approached and reported:

"My lord, Gong Wang and Gongsun Zhi have arrived."

Their visit here was not surprising, as the Eastern Division comprised these three forces, and Tian Wujing had appointed him as the figurehead for this front. Their visit to pay respects was proper.

"Instruct He Chunlai to prepare a feast for them," Lord Zheng said, chuckling wryly, "I always wish to maintain good relations, everyone gets along peacefully, but Old Tian tends to put me in a difficult position, ugh, it’s uncomfortable."

In the last military meeting, Tian Wujing made him gather a lot of resentment from colleagues. Ironically, he had just been bowing to everyone outside the King’s Tent earlier, and the contrast between arrogance and humble could not have been clearer.