Chapter 1980

He Lingchuan said sternly, "Your armies have already been reorganized, and with so many elite troops newly added, plus the seven or eight powerful tribes like Luodian and Longye who don't need collective training and can go straight into battle, the speed of assaulting tough positions and capturing strongholds should be thirty percent faster than now!"

"Zhongli Zheng besieged Juxia City a month ago, taking twenty-three days to capture it, and that was only because the stones for the city walls ran out; otherwise, while you were attacking, they were frantically rebuilding, and you might still not have taken it even now." He Lingchuan pointed at the sand table and casually explained the Juxia campaign, "Where's the problem? On the fifth day of the siege, you actually let the Juxia troops go out and successfully harvest the autumn grain! Before that, they were panicked all day, nearly ready to surrender; after that, they began to think the Black Armor Army would also be careless and make mistakes, as if it were no big deal, and that they could still hold out. On the battlefield, offense and defense can reverse, victory and defeat can flip—perhaps all in an instant. Missing this turning point means you'll have to pay with more time and more lives!"

Zhongli Zheng's head was nearly drooping onto the table.

The other generals also listened silently, not daring to breathe loudly.

Actually, He Lingchuan also knew where the crux lay. As the saying goes, it's easy to get thousands of troops, but hard to find a good general; compared to a strong army, a strong commander is even rarer!

In this grand Dragon God War, amid the tempering of the battlefield, rising talents have continuously emerged. But it's not enough; compared to the scale of the war, the number of capable commanders is still far too few!

Once we reach the stage of attacking tough fortifications, this shortcoming becomes especially prominent. If He Lingchuan himself had directed the battle for Juxia City, he would be confident of taking it within two days.

But he cannot be in multiple places at once, and this war is not his alone to fight.

He also briefly analyzed the targets that two units were about to attack, and the generals hurriedly lowered their heads to take notes, more attentively than students listening to Master Sun's lecture.

After finishing, he picked up his cup and took a sip of water, then asked, "Regarding the major issue of slow progress during the transitional phase, do any of you have countermeasures? Speaking of which, even if the grand drills end and the second phase begins, this problem will still persist."

Everyone fell silent.

The root cause remains, so the problem is hard to resolve, right?

But after just a few breaths, someone spoke up: "Perhaps we need a comprehensive or symbolic great victory."

Everyone turned their heads and saw that the speaker was Qu Ruhai.

He and some Luodian people had been merged into Lu Yaofei's main force, and throughout this campaign they had also achieved remarkable merits.

He Lingchuan tapped his fingers twice on the table: "Comprehensive? How so?"

"In the first phase of the Dragon God War, our advance was like splitting bamboo, faster than expected, because many forces surrendered without resistance. This was partly due to awe of the Dragon God's majesty, and partly because the first phase featured a symbolic great victory, which made them hear the news and feel hopeless, so they surrendered at the first sign of wind."

The "symbolic" great victory of the first phase? He Lingchuan's mouth corners twitched slightly, knowing Qu Ruhai was referring to his personal campaigns against the Luodian state.

In less than a month, Luodian was destroyed. This news indeed shocked the Jinshin Plains fiercely, and also caused many tribes around Luodian to surrender at the mere news, no longer able to muster the will to resist.

Qu Ruhai truly deserves his title as former Left Zongzhang of Luodian—he sees far from a high position, not only rich in combat experience, but also possesses strategic thinking about war.

He Lingchuan interlaced his ten fingers and placed them on the table: "Go on."

"In the transitional phase of the Dragon God War, our shortcomings might similarly be covered up by this method." Qu Ruhai pointed at the sand table, "In the Jinshin Plains, there are only two places we have not touched at all: one is where Qianyao is located, and the other is here——"

On that spot of the sand table, there was indeed not a single flag.

"——the allied territory."

"The Sovereign did not include allied territory in the attack range for his own reasons." Tao Ran shook his head, "Besides, our own territory is filled with beacon fires everywhere, we're still busy suppressing enemies, so why would we instead go attack allies who haven't provoked us?"

"Beating those little fish and shrimps—who would know our abilities? Effort without reward!" Qu Ruhai said gruffly, "If we're going to fight, we should fight a big one to establish prestige!"

He continued, "Right now, everyone in the Jinshin Plains is watching the Dragon God Army's moves! The allied territory is not small in size, not small in reputation, not small in influence, yet we detour around it. The Jinshin people don't care about our difficulties; they only think the Dragon God Army dares not move because it lacks confidence in swallowing the allied territory."

Qu Ruhai understands the nature of the Jinshin people better than anyone—here, they only believe in the law of the jungle.

If you don't strike them, it's only because you're not strong enough.

"If we could still, like in the first phase of the war, take down the allied territory with the speed of thunder before one can cover their ears, then the other forces still stubbornly resisting would realize they're just doing useless work!" The allied forces led by the Boss Situ family are also quite formidable in the central and western parts of Jinshin, after all, being a union of many nations and forces.

Other regional forces are all inferior to it.

Qu Ruhai's eyes gleamed: "The key is, with our strength, taking down the allied territory would be easy and relaxed—why not do it?"

Jiuyou Dadi attacking multiple other forces might be stretched thin, but attacking the allied territory presents no problem for the main assault.

This approach is playing to our strengths and avoiding our weaknesses.

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He Lingchuan felt somewhat relieved in his heart: "Well said. Then what do you think, how should we take down the allied territory?"

Qu Ruhai replied without hesitation: "First attack Boss Situ He, capture this allied leader, scatter the alliance, then pick them off one by one."

Lu Yaofei disagreed: "The allied forces themselves are very friendly toward the Shangshan Merchant Guild, and Shangshan has good relations with the local people. After the news of the Dragon God Army sweeping through Jinshin spread, Boss Situ He overruled all objections and refused to harm the Shangshan people within the territory, acting with integrity. If we suddenly attack the allied forces, I'm afraid——"

"I'm afraid there would be some moral deficiency."

After all, the allied forces differ from other regional forces in that they have consistently maintained a benign interaction with Shangshan.

Qu Ruhai said bluntly: "War is about winning. To win, we can only weigh trade-offs! To decide victory in one blow, to produce an earth-shattering effect on the Jinshin Plains, we must either defeat Bai Tan or destroy the allied forces; otherwise, with our current pace, we will soon sink into the mire of war, growing ever slower."

He has considerable experience in warfare: "Once war slows down, all kinds of strange and bizarre problems will come out—what you can think of and what you cannot. If you don't believe me, just look at the current state of the allied forces—you'll see it's because they failed to start well, and then the longer they fight, the worse and slower they get."

The allied forces' war against Chixia has already lasted two years, internal contradictions are like trying to stop a gourd from leaking while another pops up, and Boss Situ He maintaining this mess is utterly exhausted, mentally and physically drained.

The Dragon God Army is more than ten times the size of the allied forces, so troubles and contradictions should naturally be more than ten times as well. If the war progressed as smoothly as the first phase, even more contradictions could be temporarily suppressed.

If not……