Chapter 518

"Let us give half an hour, to let those in the city who are willing to surrender come out?"

"Is this Yang Zun crazy?"

"He's just dragging out time, waiting for the people from Chen Cang to come, right?"

"We cannot agree to Yang Zun. Who knows what kind of people will be released? What if they stab us in the back when we attack the city?"

Under Xia Hong's signal, the negotiation document sent by Yang Zun was quickly read by all the generals on the field, instantly stirring up a thousand waves. The vast majority of armored generals directly expressed their opposition, saying they could not agree to Yang Zun.

Only Xia Chuan and Xu Ning in the front row, as well as Lu Yang and Mu Longhe who had just arrived behind Xiao Kangcheng, did not speak.

"If we don't agree, then breaking through Beishuocheng will take a lot of effort..."

Lu Yang said slowly, and the crowd fell silent upon hearing this.

They weren't stupid; they naturally understood the meaning of these words.

Not even giving a chance to surrender is forcing the people in Beishuocheng into a dead end. Setting aside the ordinary people, the defensive will of the Cold-Resistant level experts who can participate in the war will inevitably become firm, and the difficulty of our attacking the city will inevitably multiply.

An army in mourning will win—that's not a joke.

Paying a huge price and finally breaking the city would be fine, but the fear is that the attack on the city will be frustrated and we won't be able to break the city in a short time; then the consequences will be serious.

"We understand Lord Lu's meaning! But following Yang Zun's meaning, aren't we being led by the nose by him?"

Hou Tong, the general of the five allied battalions and the commander of the Beizhao Army, took the lead in speaking. Seeing everyone's gazes looking at him, he paused and continued: "Yang Zun is clearly buying people's hearts. That group in the city who are truly loyal to him will probably fight to the death to defend the city now.

If we agree to him, firstly, it happens to help him purge the fence-sitters in the city. Those who remain in the city will all be firm defenders, and the spies we have planted in the city probably won't be able to stir up any waves either;

Secondly, right now there is only more than an hour until daybreak. Those people won't be able to go far after leaving the city. Even if we confiscate their weapons, they are still a disaster. Once they turn back to impact the rear of our military formation, it will inevitably affect our attack on the city. Our forces for attacking the city are already limited; it's impossible to divide a batch of people to specifically watch them."

After Hou Tong finished these words, the group of generals who had just spoken in opposition nodded one after another, and the meaning was self-evident.

They weren't stupid; how could they not see Yang Zun's intention?

But thinking of Lu Yang's words, everyone's eyebrows sank slightly again.

Not agreeing is forcing the Beishuo people in the city into a dead end, which will also greatly increase the difficulty of attacking the city.

Yang Zun's proposal is an out-and-out open conspiracy. Agreeing or not agreeing will cause great obstacles to the Xia army's attack on the city.

The crowd couldn't think of an idea for a while and fell into silence.

"What, no ideas?"

From the time the crowd looked at the negotiation document to Lu Yang and Hou Tong expressing their opinions, Xia Hong had not spoken at all, just listening quietly. Seeing that everyone had fallen into silence and couldn't make up their minds, he smiled and spoke, casting his gaze toward Xia Chuan and the others in the front row.

Xia Chuan was not troubled at all. Seeing Xia Hong's gaze, he knew his eldest brother intended to test him. He stepped forward a few steps and smiled: "Simple. Commander Hou's words just now were not bad. Agreeing to Yang Zun would mean being led by the nose by him, so we definitely cannot agree.

But not leaving a path for the people in the city is also inappropriate. Once it spreads, it will affect our subsequent attacks on the three town cities of Yangqu, Jin Shan, and Wu Chuan. My idea is..."

Speaking of this, his tone paused. He walked to a shelf on the flank below the main seat, where a map was hanging—it was the full map of Beishuocheng.

He pointed to the main gates in the east, south, and north directions of Beishuocheng respectively and continued: "Since Yang Zun wants to show kindness, then we will fulfill this kindness for him. We will directly go into the city to declare that we will only attack from these three directions and will not move the Ximen at all."

"In this way, those in the city who are unwilling to resist will have a way out. And we will make a public announcement; even if Yang Zun wants to block it, he can't. Even if they do something to the Ximen, it would be harming their own people, which will only make the people in the city increasingly alienated from them..."

"Leaving the Ximen is not enough. We should directly tell the people in the city that as long as they don't help defend the city and hide in their homes, we will let bygones be bygones after breaking the city!"

Clearly, Xia Chuan was not the only one with a draft. Xu Ning, Lu Yang, Watching Yue Feng, and others spoke one after another after him, clearly having had ideas for a long time.

Xia Hong at the head of the hall had already had his eyes light up after hearing Xia Chuan's words. Waiting until he heard the subsequent words of Xu Ning and the others, he looked at the crowd below without hiding the appreciation in his eyes at all.

The principle of besieging an army and leaving a gap, besieging three and leaving one—in his previous life, anyone who had a little understanding of Sun Tzu's Art of War basically understood it.

But here, this is the Frozen Abyss!

In the three-plus years he had been away, not only Xia Chuan, but Xu Ning, Lu Yang, Watching Yue Feng, and all these people clearly had had astonishing growth.

Of course, besides those in front of him, Yu Wen Tao, Yuan Cheng, Luo Yuan, who were currently leading an army each, as well as all the numbered army commanders under them, likely were the same.

The purpose of the test had been achieved. While gratified, Xia Hong didn't waste any more time. He stood up directly from the chair and said in a deep voice: "Since you have a countermeasure, then I won't interfere. Xia Chuan will personally handle the next matters. One hour later, officially start attacking the city!"

Dragging it out for a while, there was only one hour left until daybreak.

"Subordinate obeys!"

Xia Chuan and the more than one hundred generals below, hearing Xia Hong's final instruction, all bowed and answered in unison.

"Xu Ning, Lu Yang, Mu Longhe, Watching Yue Feng, Liu Yuan, you five follow me to Beishuocheng. The others lead their own armies, count the military supplies, and prepare to break the city!"

Xia Chuan didn't talk nonsense either. He pointed to the five, including Xu Ning, and directly flew up from the front of the military formation, sweeping toward the sky above Beishuocheng.

"Cloud Dragon Army, everyone prepare!"

"Mountain and River Army, prepare."

"Longyuan Army, prepare."

"Falcon Army, prepare!"

"Yellow Armor Army, prepare."

"Long Jinwei, prepare!"

As Xia Chuan and the six flew away, the remaining generals also began to disperse to the front row of the military formation, starting to signal their subordinates to prepare.

Ten angry shouts from the generals rang out one after another. The blood energy of the soldiers in the already battle-ready army suddenly climbed, and a majestic blood-colored heat wave instantly rose above the entire military formation. The temperature of the surrounding space rose significantly again.

"Cloud Dragon Army, Long Jinwei, plus eight numbered armies, a total of twenty-two thousand people—this is almost the strongest lineup Great Xia can bring out right now. The difficulty of attacking in the Frozen Abyss shouldn't be worse than in my previous life..."

Xia Hong looked at the Xia Army's strong lineup, his heart inevitably surging a bit. ===== CHAPTER 519 =====