Chapter 113: The Prey Has Been Netted

When Zhu Youzhen arrived at the front with his personal guards, the battle had already essentially ended.

The morning mist had long been stained gray‑black by gunpowder smoke; Zhu Youzhen held the reins tight, his warhorse pawing anxiously, its breath reeking of blood. The guards behind him also halted, the light clank of armor striking each other echoing sharply across the death‑silent battlefield.

What he saw was a scene as if from hell.

Outside Yangzhou, corpses lay everywhere, blood flowing like a river. Countless Liang army soldiers lay on the ground, moaning in pain. Burned ladders, broken weapons, and debris were scattered all around.

The air was thick with a strong mingling of blood and gunpowder smell, enough to make anyone gag.

Meanwhile, the Wang Family troops had already withdrawn into the city, sealing the gates as if nothing had happened. Only the huge "Wang" Xuan Niao banner on the wall flapped in the wind, seemingly mocking him mercilessly.

"Your Majesty… we… we have been defeated…" Wang Yanzhang, bloodied all over, armor scarred, knelt on one knee before Zhu Youzhen's horse, his voice hoarse, full of pain and resentment.

More than half of his personal troops were dead or wounded. He himself, during the retreat, was cut on the arm by a shrapnel fragment.

"Defeated?" Zhu Youzhen's eyes instantly turned blood‑red, staring fixedly at the chaotic battlefield ahead.

The next instant, he jerked his hand up, "whoosh" drawing the treasured sword from his waist; a cold gleam slid down the blade, making his face grow ever more feral.

He staggered forward two steps, arm raised high, the sword tip pointing straight at Wang Yanzhang standing aside, his knuckles whitening from the strain.

"Useless!" a roar burst from his throat, shaking the surrounding guards enough to make them flinch their necks.

"You lot of useless dogs! I gave you the best troops, the best weapons, and sent you to assault a tiny Yangzhou city—so what happened?!"

His voice rose higher, laced with hysterical fury, spit flying with the roar, "You didn't even touch the city gate, yet you were so badly defeated! All of you are useless!"

"One hundred fifty thousand troops defeated like this? How did you even fight!"

"Your Majesty!" Wang Yanzhang lifted his head, eyes full of grief and anger, "Wang Family weapons are too bizarre! No human force can match them! Their fixed large artillery can blast our formation from hundreds of steps away!

Even the handheld small firearms can pierce our armor within a hundred steps! Our soldiers cannot get close at all!"

"Enough!" Zhu Youzhen abruptly cut off Wang Yanzhang, his voice seething with unyielding rage. He swung his treasured sword hard at the broken spear beside him, "crack"—the wooden spear snapped, splinters flying.

"I don't want to hear this!" His blood‑red eyes fixed on Wang Yanzhang, his tone dripping with contempt and anger, "In my eyes, every word you say is an excuse!"

He stepped forward, the sword tip nearly pressing against Wang Yanzhang's throat, "Clearly it's your poor command that couldn't even take a ruined city! Perhaps you were cowardly, deliberately sending the soldiers to die in vain!"

The surrounding guards dared not breathe; everyone could see that Zhu Youzhen's mind had been clouded by the fury of defeat, and any explanation to him was merely a pretext to cover incompetence.

Wang Yanzhang opened his mouth, but the hostile glare in Zhu Youzhen's eyes forced him to swallow his words—any further speech now would only pour oil on the fire.

"I don't believe in any sorcery!" Zhu Youzhen slammed the treasured sword into the ground, the blade sinking three inches into stone, shards of rock scattering onto the guards' armor with a crisp clink.

His chest heaved violently, his gaze sharp as a blade, sweeping the crowd below: "I only trust that many troops and numerous commanders make the brave invincible! I brought a hundred thousand army here—how could we still fail to take a Yangzhou city?!"

Having said that, he spun around abruptly, scanning the surroundings. Wherever his eyes fell, the commanders bowed their heads, unwilling to meet his gaze, their armor still stained with blood and dust;

The soldiers were even more dejected, slumped on the ground, weapons discarded beside them, faces full of terror and despondency, looking like a pack of bereaved dogs.

Seeing this sight, the fire of Zhu Youzhen's anger was stoked even hotter, as if oil had been poured on it.

He grabbed a nearby foot soldier by the collar, his voice trembling with rage: "Where is your courage? Where is your bloodlust?! I raised you not to act like cowards here!"

The soldier trembled in terror, unable to utter a word, and his cowardly demeanor made Zhu Youzhen's fury nearly burst from his chest.

"Deliver my decree!" he shouted, "Those who retreat, behead! Those who fear battle, behead! Anyone who even speaks of defeat, have their entire clan beheaded!"

"I give you one day to recuperate! Tomorrow, tomorrow I will personally oversee the battle! I will use lives to fill and level this city wall!"

"I simply don't believe that the Wang Family's weapons are endless!"

Zhu Youzhen's madness sent a chill through all the commanders present.

They knew the emperor had gone mad.

He intended to use everyone's lives to fill his ridiculous pride.

Jing Xiang, in the rear camp, heard the news, let out a long sigh, a mouthful of fresh blood spewed out, and he collapsed on the spot; he knew Liang was finished.

The next day, an even more frantic siege began.

Zhu Youzhen truly stationed himself at the front, gathering all the oversight squads, which formed a human wall behind him.

"Charge! Charge for me! Anyone who dares step back will be slain without mercy!"

Under the pressure of death, Liang soldiers could only charge like madmen, wave after wave, launching suicidal assaults toward Yangzhou city.

They used lives to expend the Wang Family army's ammunition.

They used corpses to fill the ditches outside the city.

The battle conditions were horrifically extreme.

Beneath Yangzhou, corpses piled like mountains.

Wang Po (Wang Xiu) stood on the city tower, watching it all coldly.

He knew that if this continued, the Wang Family army could win, but its own losses would certainly not be small.

This was not the outcome Wang Xiu desired.

His goal was to annihilate the Liang main force at the smallest possible cost.

"He thinks I only have the city of Yangzhou?" Wang Po (Wang Xiu) let a mocking smile curl at his mouth.

Zhu Youzhen's tactics hit his sweet spot. He longed for Zhu Youzhen to concentrate all forces beneath Yangzhou.

Because the real killing move was not here at all.

While Zhu Youzhen was frantically using lives to fill the city, his supply line, already fragile and stretching hundreds of miles, suffered a catastrophic collapse.

The Wang Family navy emerged from the extensive river network.

They deployed nimble swift boats carrying the Divine Machine Battalion's soldiers and firearms, launching a deadly strike against Liang's supply fleet.

"Boom!"

A Liang army cargo ship, loaded with provisions, was struck by a rocket, instantly igniting a raging blaze. The Liang soldiers on board screamed and leapt into the river, only to be picked off one by one by the Divine Machine Battalion's firearms on the shore.

Such scenes played out along every stretch of the canal.

Liang's supply convoys could not mount any effective resistance. Their soldiers, harassed by the Wang Family navy's agile raids, were exhausted.

In just three days, Liang's logistical supply line was completely severed!

When the news reached Zhu Youzhen's ears, he was still overseeing the battle.

"What? The supply route has been cut off?" He grabbed the collar of the messenger officer, "Impossible! Didn't I leave thirty thousand troops to protect the supply route?"

"Your Majesty..." the officer almost cried, "The Wang Family's navy appears and disappears without trace! They... they have cannons! Our ships can't even get close! The thirty-thousand-strong army has been divided and surrounded by them, trapped at various points along the river, unable to even defend itself!"

"Trash!" Zhu Youzhen kicked him away with one foot, his face, for the first time, turning deathly pale.

He finally realized what a foolish mistake he had made.

Without provisions, the 150,000-strong army is nothing but 150,000 mouths waiting to be fed!

The army's morale began to waver.

The soldiers had been hungry for two days, and the intensity of the siege attack had noticeably weakened.

"Your Majesty, retreat! If we don't retreat now, once morale collapses, it's all over!" Wang Yanzhang knelt before him again.

"Retreat?" Zhu Youzhen looked dazedly at the still-impregnable Yangzhou city, "I... I personally led the campaign, and just withdraw in disgrace? Where can I put my face?"

"Your Majesty! As long as the green mountains remain, we need not fear running out of firewood!"

Just as Zhu Youzhen hesitated.

A worse piece of news arrived.

"Report! Your Majesty! The main force of the Wang Family from Xuan Prefecture, about fifty thousand, personally led by Wang Po, has already crossed the Yangtze River and is now moving to flank our rear!"

What?!

Zhu Youzhen staggered as if struck by lightning.

Wang Po's main force isn't at Yangzhou?

He finally understood.

From the very beginning, Yangzhou was nothing but a bait.

Wang Po's true aim was to wait until his supplies were cut off and his army's morale wavered, then strike a fatal blow from behind with his main force!

"Well... well done, Wang Po! What a vicious scheme!" Zhu Youzhen ground out between clenched teeth.

He knew he had lost.

He lost utterly.

The prey has entered the net. Now is the time to close it.

"Retreat... entire army... retreat..." He summoned all his strength to issue this command that filled him with utter humiliation.

However, Wang Po (Wang Xiu), will he give him this chance?

Just as the Liang army began to turn around, preparing to retreat northward,

On the horizon behind them, a black line appeared.

That line drew nearer and grew clearer.

It was cavalry!

It was the Wang Family's "Iron Control Pagoda" heavy armored cavalry!

Three thousand men and horses, clad in heavy plate armor like steel monsters, formed a massive wedge formation and began to slowly accelerate.

The earth began to tremble beneath their iron hooves.

That suffocating sense of oppression made all the Liang army soldiers halt their steps, staring in terror at the steel torrent charging toward them.

Wang Po (Wang Xiu) rode atop an equally divine warhorse, positioned at the very front of the Iron Control Pagoda formation.

He drew the saber at his waist, the blade pointing straight at the chaotic Liang army ahead.

"Iron Control Pagoda!"

"Follow me, charge!"