Chapter 2727: Anshi City III

“How many of them are there?”

The city defense officer bowed his head and said, “Estimated to be nearly ten thousand.”

General Gao felt a wave of darkness before his eyes and dismounted to go directly up to the city tower for a look.

From the high vantage, he observed the opposing army arrayed in a square formation, led by Qibi Heli, and couldn’t help but swallow.

He turned to his deputy and said, “Quickly report to the Second Prince that the Jin army is attacking the North City Gate.”

Second Prince Gao: …

He was taken aback, “Is the Jin army really so numerous? They can even divide their troops into two fronts?”

The supervisor sighed and said, “Prince, when Yan Shou’s reinforcements were fifteen thousand, the Jin army surrendered even though they only had thirty thousand.”

Meanwhile, at the West City Gate, General Ashina led the men to fend off wave after wave of attacks. The other side kept receiving reinforcements; the twenty zhang we pushed out were lost again. Not only that, we retreated fifty zhang, only due to being within range of the city tower. The soldiers on the tower constantly showered arrows down, which finally managed to repel one of their waves of attack.

The deputy thought this wasn’t a feasible plan and said to General Ashina, “General, they have too many men. This isn’t working.”

Xue Gui had a different perspective and said, “The key is how you use your troops, not having many of them.”

General Ashina glanced at him and asked, “How do you think the troops should be used?”

Xue Gui pondered for a moment and said, “General, you are using the troops well now, rotating defenders. The street is narrow; no matter how many men they have, only so many can come up each time.”

General Ashina shook his head and said, “But our men have been fighting continuously for a day and night. Even with rotated breaks, their energy and strength can’t keep up, while the enemy has endless reinforcements. Over time, although the city gate is easy to defend and hard to attack, they might still manage to capture it.”

It’s just that the cost might be high for them.

General Ashina said, “We can’t hold out much longer. Send someone to urge the reinforcements.”

The deputy and Xue Gui responded in agreement and withdrew.

General Ashina gazed deeply at Anshi City.

Manbao came up and stood on the city wall with him, looking forward.

Ashina looked at her in surprise, “Why did Lord Zhou come up here?”

Manbao said, “All the wounded have been treated, so we are taking a break.”

Even doctors get tired, so of course it’s time to rest.

Ashina withdrew his gaze and continued watching the soldiers fighting ahead, asking Zhou Man, “Does Lord Zhou have any good ideas?”

“No,” Manbao replied gloomily, “The disparity in numbers is too great. Unless they lose their will to fight, we can only grind on like this.”

“This is a battle of life and death. Even if they were frightened, they must hold fast, and sometimes fear and bravery are but a hair’s breadth apart.”

Manbao said, “As long as you aren’t shouting that you’ll slaughter the city and kill prisoners after breaching the walls, fear shouldn’t turn into bravery.”

General Ashina was taken aback for a moment and then said, “Why would we be so foolish?”

He said, “We are a righteous army. We aim to capture Goguryeo because it once belonged to the Central Plains; secondly, because Goguryeo’s royal house was disrespectful to His Majesty, neglecting the court; thirdly, they constantly harassed the borders; and fourthly, because under their rule, the common people’s lives were hard, with luxury at the top and corrupt officials below.”

In short, they came to assimilate them into one, not seeing the Emperor releasing as many captives as possible?

The Liaodong region even employed local tribal leaders as officials, so how could we possibly sack the city?

Manbao said, “Then let’s announce these reasons and persuade those soldiers. Being a soldier for Goguryeo is the same as for Great Jin. Our military pay is higher, our meals are better, and if they don’t want to be soldiers, they can go home. It’s very generous.”

General Ashina thought about it and felt that although this plan was a bit far-fetched, he indeed had no reinforcements at the moment. Besides, during the inevitable ceasefire, they might as well have talks.

So he sent word down.

The Goguryeo army made another assault, and half an hour later, everyone gradually stopped, each side retreating a few steps. Scattered fortifications were in the way, so they advanced a dozen more steps.

Because these dozen steps were hard-won, they wouldn’t retreat much, and the Jin army naturally wouldn’t either — what if the enemy took the opportunity to charge forward?

Hence, they held their spears, cautiously guarding against each other. People from both sides moved forward to check and soon dragged their wounded back to the rear for treatment.

The Jin army occasionally found injured Goguryeo soldiers but didn’t take any extra actions, just pushed them back over.

The Goguryeo side similarly tossed Jin army wounded back to them.

They silently exchanged wounded soldiers before each sat down to rest.

Yuan Yi had also learned a lesson and realized that constantly changing the vanguard was ineffective. Therefore, after each attack, he slightly rotated the soldiers following behind instead of replacing them entirely, so they too needed a break here.

A squad leader pulled out some rations to gnaw on, hands slightly trembling, not from fear but exhaustion. He had been in continuous battle since yesterday morning, able to rest half an hour every half-hour from midnight until now, but couldn’t really sleep.

Perhaps from using too much strength, his hands trembled a bit.

He took a bite of the rations, looked toward the nearby Goguryeo soldiers, and sighed, asking, “Don’t you guys eat rations?”

The Goguryeo soldiers glanced at him without replying.

The squad leader switched languages, “You’re not Han people? Then are you Buyeo?”

Still ignored, he said, “Can’t be, isn’t this Goguryeo language? Then do you speak Buyeo? Surely you’re not the Mo people?”

He awkwardly switched to another language, though inexperienced, they were still swears, “Your mother, your mother.”

The Goguryeo soldiers silently watched him as he muttered all sorts of dialect curses like “your mother, your mother.” Manbao came up to bring them salty water to prevent heatstroke and quietly switch out those too fatigued, unfathomably joining in, and asked, “What does that mean?”

Finally, a Goguryeo soldier couldn’t help but answer, especially since Zhou Man obviously looked like a woman. It had been daylight for a while, everyone knew Jin had a pretty lady doctor treating their wounded.

They felt complicated, especially when she came up to offer them water, causing one to unconsciously reply in Han, “Your mother.”

Manbao wasn’t pleased, “Why are you cursing?”

But the squad leader was excited, “You’re Han! Brother, where are you from?”

Then he turned to Zhou Man, “Lord Zhou, he’s not cursing you. Those words just mean ‘your mother.'”

Manbao: “…Why did you learn that phrase? Shouldn’t learning dialects start with ‘Have you eaten?’

The squad leader was momentarily puzzled, “I don’t know either, our company commander taught us.”

The captain next to him, who had been resting in a daze: …