Chapter 1123: Changing Tactics

Puyan is good with words and also good at stirring up trouble.

The speed of surrender was sufficient, the sycophant's aura was also strong, and what he said truly moved Chen Baojia.

With Puyan's son leading the way, his subsequent journey might indeed proceed much more smoothly.

But there is a serious problem: doing so would contradict the lord's command.

Their vanguard, even if encountering enemy troops, would utterly annihilate them rather than absorb them.

This battle, however, was defined by the lord as a shock and awe battle.

Chen Baojia hesitated whether to disregard the lord's order while away.

He often does this, but this time, if he disobeys orders, the impact would not merely affect one of his units, but would cause all subsequent troops to alter their original tactics.

Chen Baojia thus grew concerned, fearing something might go wrong.

After drinking nearly a whole jug of wine, Chen Baojia finally had an idea.

Change!

This tactic would be more advantageous for the entire battlefield.

"Prepare pen and ink." Chen Baojia said coldly.

Puyan Daqian immediately shouted loudly for his subordinates to bring pen and ink.

"Why are you called Puyan Daqian?" Chen Baojia suddenly asked.

Puyan Daqian felt somewhat embarrassed, "General, speaking of this is somewhat embarrassing."

"When my mother gave birth to me, she had a difficult labor, and at that time my father seemed to still want to be an honest official. Our family was relatively poor, so to ensure my mother's safe delivery, my father hired several renowned physicians in the city, spent most of our savings, and gave me this humble name."

"I have disliked this name since childhood, but... I cannot defy my father, so I have always used it. My father always believed it was because I caused him to fall from being an honest official of integrity into a corrupt one, and thus I must carry this name to the coffin, not allowing me to change it."

"Regardless, because of this, my father looks at me with displeasure, though not quite hatred, but from childhood to adulthood, he has seen my nose as not a nose, my eyes as not eyes. If I did not still have some ability, I might now be in the countryside managing family property."

Puyan Daqian spoke while stealing glances at Chen Baojia's expression.

He felt quite uneasy saying this.

He worried that saying too little would displease him, and saying too much would annoy him.

At that moment, servants brought brush, ink, paper, and inkstone, carrying a desk hurriedly out.

Puyan Daqian quickly stopped talking and helped Chen Baojia grind ink.

"Your father is also a petty, narrow-minded thing—did your mother survive?" Chen Baojia asked.

Puyan Daqian's expression brightened, and he hurriedly replied: "Reporting to General, my mother is unharmed, and my later good life is also thanks to her. My father at the time firmly chose to save the mother over the child. If my mother had truly suffered because of me, even if I survived, he would surely have beaten me to death."

"Is your father a sentimentalist?"

"He is not; mainly... my maternal uncle has some influence."

Chen Baojia instantly lost interest in continuing the questioning.

He waved his hand, letting Puyan Daqian stand aside, then picked up his brush to begin writing a memorial to Ji Buyi.

In the memorial, he detailed the situation of today's battle and his subsequent plans.

"Summon!" Chen Baojia sealed the memorial, applied the seal.

"General!"

"Eight-hundred-li express, deliver to the central army!"

"Affirmation!"

Chen Baojia lifted his eyes and glanced at Puyan Daqian, "Prepare food, in one hour's time I will depart with the army!"

"Affirmation!"

Puyan Daqian rejoiced greatly, immediately began directing food preparations in Chen Baojia's presence.

"General, there are six thousand able troops in the city, four thousand are the elite I personally brought, and one thousand warhorses. I do not know how these should be arranged," Puyan Daqian asked cautiously.

"All shall follow the army!" Chen Baojia said.

"Affirmation!"

……

One hour later, Chen Baojia led his army out of Wuxi City.

He left behind one thousand troops to temporarily garrison Wuxi City, awaiting the arrival of subsequent forces.

Puyan Daqian led the sole thousand cavalry following Chen Baojia's army, while the remaining troops of Wuxi City were placed under the command of a brigade commander under Chen Baojia's authority and followed behind, serving both as leadership and as oversight.

Infantry cannot keep pace with cavalry, so this must be done.

Puyan Daqian, having escaped disaster, was filled with fighting spirit, his whole person exuding the air of a dog clinging to a powerful thigh.

Gazing at the fierce aura of the cavalry beside him, his eyes nearly sank into his sockets.

This aura—this is what cavalry should possess!

Even during ordinary marching, it gives people the sense of a god slaying gods and Buddha slaying Buddhas.

After leaving the city, Puyan Daqian finally understood how this cavalry had breached Wuxi City before he could react, even though these events had just occurred, he still felt somewhat like a tale from the Arabian Nights.

Yet he also felt more deeply the terror of this cavalry.

Thousands of martial artists leapt into the air, and in one sweep they destroyed his city wall defenses—no wonder he noticed nothing.

When did martial artists become so luxurious as to reach this extent?

Are those jianghu forces not all arrogantly proud, utterly unwilling to eat the food of formation troops?

How could there be so many martial artists in a cavalry unit?!

At the start of the march, Puyan Daqian led his so-called elite troops, still steadily following behind Chen Baojia.

But as the journey progressed, Chen Baojia's cavalry maintained their speed, yet they could barely endure it.

Men were exhausted, warhorses were exhausted!

Puyan Daqian wanted to show off slightly before Chen Baojia, so he gritted his teeth and stubbornly persisted.

But as he ran, soldiers kept falling from their horses on his side, and warhorses twitched and collapsed to the ground, their numbers growing ever greater.

Pei Daqian finally could not hold on, hastily urging his horse to catch up with Chen Baojia, "General, speed……can you slow down a bit? My worthless troops, some can't keep up."

Chen Baojia glanced back and said only two words: "Catch up!"

"But……" Pei Daqian wore an embarrassed expression.

Now the trouble is just not being able to keep up, ah, if he could keep up, he wouldn't want to say this.

"My troops have no worthless material who can't even endure a march!" Chen Baojia said coldly.

Pei Daqian's expression tightened, and he dared not speak further.

Still able what to do?

He could only grit his teeth and follow; whatever number remained at the end would count, there was no other way!

He was wondering, how exactly had Chen Wuji trained his troops?

His thousand men were dropping left and right, yet this cavalry of over twenty thousand remained fully clad in iron armor, such high-intensity marching not a single one falling out.

If the men weren't tired, that would be understandable for a moment.

How could it be possible that even the warhorses' endurance was this good?

Even if each of them had two horses, after such a forced march for half a day, they should have reached the point of collapse.

Could it be that what they rode were not horses, but divine beasts?

Pei Daqian found it hard to understand.

Actually, the breed of the warhorse is the foundation, followed by diet and training, which can also enhance the warhorse's endurance.

Chen Wuji has placed extreme importance on cavalry since raising his troops.

These warhorses are well-fed, and their training is top-notch.

Humans have potential, and so do warhorses; it has never been fixed and unchanging.