Chapter 242: Belated Intelligence

"Bang, bang, bang..."

Unlike previous battles, in this great war, Li Mu did not show off his tactical maneuvers.

After approaching the rebel camp, he first used artillery to clear the path, followed immediately by volleys of fire from muskets, and then the army formation steadily pressed forward.

After a single exchange of fire, the rebels, who had taken the initiative to attack, were pushed back by the sheer firepower.

This retreat was the beginning of a disaster.

The rebel soldiers continuously gathering from the rear collided with the retreating troops in front, and the camp instantly fell into chaos.

Without the protection of armor and having lost all order, the retreating soldiers were nothing more than living targets.

Those hit directly in vital areas were the lucky ones who died instantly.

More of the unfortunate ones were shot in the body and could only howl and roll on the ground in pain.

At this moment, everyone was busy fleeing for their lives and could not spare a thought for the wounded on the ground.

"No retreating!"

"Supervisory team, give me..."

Before the young general could finish his sentence, he was knocked over by a flying cannonball.

He was the first rebel general to die in battle, and he would certainly not be the last.

The chaos in the forward camp immediately drew the attention of the Regional Commander.

"Why have you all gone mute? Where are your strategies to defeat the enemy!"

Qi Qi Datou could not help but roar in anger.

In the blink of an eye, the enemy army had already slaughtered its way into his camp.

The world was filled with the sounds of battle, and the most pathetic part was that they still hadn't figured out the identity of the enemy army.

"My Lord, the enemy's attack is so sharp; they broke our army in almost a single charge.

There are very few armies in this world with such combat effectiveness.

Those who can appear here must be the Yangzhou Battalion under Li Mu's command.

However, the Yangzhou Battalion only has the establishment of one guard; even if they are all elites, their numbers cannot be too high.

Entangle them at all costs. As long as we survive this wave of attacks, the subsequent battles will be easier to fight!"

The middle-aged advisor replied, bracing himself.

Being struck by lightning for showing off is an eternal truth.

He prided himself on being well-versed in military books and proficient in both civil and military strategies, but now was the time for the backlash.

The problem was that he had only been bluffing during his job interview, and no one expected the "boss" above to take it seriously.

Every time they encountered a major battle, they would come to him for advice.

In the past, the enemies they faced were a bunch of rookies, so he was naturally free to perform.

The situation now was different; the enemy before them was a famous undefeated general of the Great Great Dayu.

At the beginning, it could be called an accident, but in the subsequent battles, the Bai Lian Holy Kingdom had truly invested heavily.

The result was that no matter who went up, they were ultimately just throwing their lives away.

The Bai Lian Holy Emperor clearly possessed a multi-fold advantage in troop numbers, yet he was stubbornly besieged by the enemy in Yongzhou, not daring to leave the city for a decisive battle.

Now that the enemy army had slaughtered its way into their own camp, even if Sima Yi were reborn, he probably wouldn't be able to turn the tide.

He had no confidence in his heart, but he had to keep up the facade on the surface.

The man before him was not one to treat subordinates with courtesy; being an advisor to Qi Qi Datou was a high-risk job within the Bai Lian Holy Kingdom.

In just the few months since he had defected, three colleagues had been brutally murdered, and five had been caned.

If Qi Qi Datou discovered he was useless, his own head might not be safe at any moment.

"The gentleman is right. I have an army of one hundred thousand; how many troops does that thief Li Mu have?

At worst, I'll use human lives to wear him down. I want to see how many people he can kill today!

Pass the order down: command all units to fight back bravely, and have the personal guard battalion form a supervisory team.

If one person retreats, the entire squad is executed.

If one squad retreats, the entire platoon is executed.

If one platoon retreats..."

Qi Qi Datou slapped his thigh and issued the strictest collective punishment order.

This was his trump card; every time he encountered troublesome imperial troops, he had relied on harsh military orders to defeat the enemy.

To Qi Qi Datou, the heavy casualties of the soldiers were not important at all.

As long as victory could be won, no matter how great the loss, it was worth it.

On the river, Li Mu held a telescope and gazed at the battlefield, a faint smile on his lips.

The rebels' resistance was much stronger than he had anticipated.

After suffering a rout, they did not collapse completely and soon organized a second round of counterattacks.

It didn't take long before a third round of counterattacks followed.

Li Mu couldn't even tell what was going on in the enemy commander's mind.

Organizing a counterattack was fine, but at the very least, one had to employ technique.

Knowing full well that the enemy was using volley-fire tactics, they should have at least dispersed their troops during the charge.

Forming battle formations for a head-on attack was fine when encountering old-fashioned armies.

But encountering a large-scale firearm unit was a sure way to throw one's life away.

It was true that muskets required time to reload, but the problem was that the Among Guangxi troops were divided into five distinct batches.

After the first team finished firing three rounds, the second team immediately filled in, rotating in succession.

By the time one round of firing was complete, the first team had already finished reloading their ammunition.

"My lord, the rebel general on the other side must have fought against other imperial troops many times.

Commanding the battle based on experience, he has no idea that we have changed our tactics.

He is delusional, thinking that after exhausting our ammunition, he can rely on his numerical advantage to engage in close-quarters combat!"

Lan Lan Linjie commented.

In fact, if it really came down to close-quarters combat, there would still be a huge gap between the two sides.

Not to mention the gap in daily training, just looking at the ratio of armor between the two armies revealed the difference.

Of the twenty thousand troops Li Mu brought, not to mention everyone being armored, at least half of the soldiers wore armor.

For the rebels on the other side, being able to scrape together two thousand sets of armor would be a miracle; they might not even be able to gather one thousand.

"The enemy is at the end of their rope. Send a signal to the city and let them join the battle as well!"

Li Mu ordered calmly.

Before the decisive battle broke out, the enemy had already been fiercely attacking Hengyang for several days, and casualties of three to five thousand were inevitable.

In the few rounds of "throwing lives away" just now, they had also lost five or six thousand troops.

Adding the two together, that was ten thousand gone.

In the era of cold weapons, a combat attrition rate of one-tenth was already a very dangerous number.

Adding another spark would force the rebels to their breaking point.

In fact, the battle before them was not ideal.

Limited by the small size of the ships, they could not withstand the recoil of the artillery.

Otherwise, providing fire support from the river and coordinating with the army's movements would have made the battle proceed even more smoothly.

"Haha..."

"The Commander has issued the attack signal. Brother Wei, it's finally our turn.

Pass the order down: open the city gates and have the entire army attack!"

As he spoke, Zhu Zhu Jingyu drew his sharp sword and issued the attack signal.

As the sound fell, the city gates slowly opened.

Countless garrison soldiers rushed directly out of the city gates and launched an attack on the rebel camp.

"Commander, you and I have been entrusted with such an important task; naturally, we cannot let him down.

Brother Zhu, let's part ways here. Let's have a competition to see who kills more enemies today!"

As he spoke, Wei Su Haoyu also drew his precious sword and turned to join the ranks.

As a Rank Three military officer, he had already crossed the threshold into the ranks of high-level generals, so he naturally didn't need to personally engage in slaughter, but he still had to command with the army.

A decisive battle between large army groups was the ultimate test of a general's command ability.

Not only did the Regional Commander need to be strong enough, but there were also very high requirements for the generals responsible for specific execution.

"Kill!"

The addition of the garrison troops brought the great battle to its climax.

The two sides, with over one hundred thousand troops, engaged in fierce slaughter outside Hengyang City.

For a time, corpses piled up across the earth, and blood flowed into the Xiang River along the land, even changing the color of the river water.

"Hold the line, everyone hold the line for me!"

Qi Qi Datou roared in anger.

The war had not developed as he had anticipated; even after exhausting all his tricks, he still couldn't stop the enemy's military edge.

In a decisive battle between large army groups, elites were the sharpest blades.

As long as the blade tore a hole in the battle line, the rest of the army could quickly follow up and continuously expand the results of the battle along this hole.

The Holy Army was unlucky; they happened to encounter the sharpest sword, and their battle line was shattered.

Not only was their back pierced by the enemy, but their front was also torn open by the soldiers who had slaughtered their way out of the city.

Before the enemy army, the camp was like paper; it didn't serve any purpose at all.

This was his own fault; he had been too arrogant earlier and had never thought that the enemy army would dare to slaughter their way over.

The Regional Commander hadn't given specific orders, the generals in the army hadn't paid attention, and the camp's defense had become a shoddy project.

Whether the soldiers below were lazy or if spies from the imperial army had infiltrated the camp was no longer important.

There were retreating soldiers in all directions, and the battle was getting closer and closer to the command tent.

The advisors Qi Qi Datou trusted most had already run away completely the moment he went to the restroom.

"It's on fire!"

Hearing this sound, Qi Qi Datou looked toward where the fire was spreading; it was precisely where the army's granary was located.

Overcome with rage, he spat out a mouthful of fresh blood and immediately fainted.

The granary catching fire and the commander fainting was truly a case of misfortunes never coming singly.

After seeing this scene, the already chaotic rebel camp became even more chaotic.

"Take the Marquis and go!"

The captain of the personal guards decided decisively.

With the war having progressed to this point, whoever came to command would be unable to turn the tide.

With the granary burned, even if they were lucky enough to block the rebels, they could not escape the fate of destruction.

Following the departure of the group, the rebel camp, now leaderless, completely lost the desire to resist.

Everyone scrambled to flee for their lives, fearing that if they reacted too slowly, they would become ghosts under the imperial army's guns.

"The thief army's camp suddenly caught fire; is it a coincidence, or is someone helping us?"

Li Mu wondered to himself.

The battle proceeding so smoothly was slightly beyond his expectations.

It was already late in the day, and according to the normal rhythm, the rebels should have struggled a bit more.

Even if they wanted to run, they should have dragged it out until after dark, so the probability of escaping alive would be greater.

The sudden fire in the granary instantly shattered the final psychological defense of the rebel soldiers.

The rebel soldiers were originally at the bottom of society, struggling on the line of life and death, and they were most sensitive to food.

Most soldiers joined the Bai Lian Sect rebellion just to get a full meal.

Now that the food was gone, the meaning of their fighting also disappeared.

"Pass the order down: those who surrender will not be killed!

Notify the cavalry unit; it's their turn to sweep up the remnants.

Ordinary rebel soldiers are not important, but the rebel leaders must be left for me.

Especially those scumbags who surrendered to the rebels; they must not be allowed to slip through the net!"

Li Mu ordered coldly.

A general's success is built on ten thousand bones.

He didn't know when it started, but he had gradually become numb to human life.

Whether it was one thousand or ten thousand, to him, they were just a string of cold numbers on paper.

"Sigh!"

After sighing to himself, Li Mu quickly adjusted his state of mind.

He was no longer an ordinary military officer, but a Regional Commander who commanded tens of thousands of troops and could influence the fate of the empire.

Having reached this position, he needed to put away his compassion and keep himself rational at all times.

The slaughter before him was just a beginning; as the great battle to suppress the rebellion continued, there were more wars waiting for him.

Yongzhou City.

"What? The main force of the imperial army outside the city left secretly?"

Shi Shi Rongxuan asked in disbelief.

During the day, the pseudo-dynasty's great army had even launched an attack on the city.

The firepower was the same as before, as strong as ever, steadily suppressing the garrison.

Now they suddenly told him that the main force of the imperial army had already left, and had been gone for several days.

Such news was simply too stimulating.

"Holy Emperor, although the tents and campfires in the imperial army's camp have not decreased.

But according to our scouts, the density of soldiers in the enemy camp is much lower than before.

At first, we thought it was an accident.

But after observing for several consecutive days, there was still no change.

It can basically be determined that the enemy army has withdrawn a unit."

Shi Shi Qichuan said with a nervous expression.

Having suffered a great loss at Li Mu's hands, he had always maintained a cautious attitude regarding intelligence involving Li Mu.

When he first discovered that the enemy camp was not right, his first reaction was not that the imperial army had split its forces and left.

Instead, he suspected that Li Mu was digging a pit for them, deliberately inducing them to leave the city.

In order to verify the truth of the news, he sent out a large number of scouts, and after sacrificing dozens of people, he finally obtained accurate intelligence.

It was just that after such a toss, time had already passed.

"When did the enemy leave?"

Shi Shi Rongxuan questioned sternly.

The mobilization of tens of thousands of troops was not a few people leaving quietly; it was impossible not to leave traces.

Under normal circumstances, they should have known when the enemy took action.

Unfortunately, the imperial army's counter-reconnaissance ability was too strong, and the scouts they sent out each time were on a mission of nine deaths and one life.

The soldiers were not stupid; knowing it was a mission to die, they naturally prioritized saving their own lives.

Many times when they went out to scout, they just found a place to hide, and when the time was about right, they would come back and report that everything was normal.

Against this background, discovering intelligence was an accident, and everything being normal was the norm.

"Reporting to the Holy Emperor, the enemy hid too deeply, and we have not yet ascertained the specific time of the enemy's departure."

Shi Shi Qichuan replied bitterly.

He had long had the answer to the enemy's departure time, but he couldn't say it now.

If everyone knew that he had known the enemy army had left several days ago.

And that he had dragged it out until now to verify the truth of the news, he would definitely be in big trouble.

"Trash!"

"You can't even handle such a small matter; what use is the Holy Kingdom in raising you?"

Shi Shi Rongxuan couldn't help but curse in anger.

After venting, his brows furrowed even tighter.

Based on his understanding of Li Mu, such a major operation would certainly not be a futile effort.

Glancing at the map hanging on the wall, Shi Shi Rongxuan's expression suddenly changed, and he couldn't help but exclaim:

"Terrible, that thief Li Mu is aiming for Hengyang; he wants to besiege the point to strike the reinforcements again!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 243 =====