Chapter 320

"General, you keep ordering the cannons to fire, it's exceeded..."

Upon hearing the artillery captain's reply, Min Wuliu's expression instantly turned gloomy.

After all this trouble, the culprit turned out to be himself.

"Why didn't you remind me?"

Min Wuliu questioned angrily.

It wasn't that he was deliberately finding fault; it was purely that his subordinate lacked common sense and actually dared to shift the blame onto him.

It was true that he had given the order, but as the Regional Commander, he also needed to save face.

In such a situation, making up any excuse to brush it off would have been more reliable than this answer.

Without a doubt, the artillery captain before him did not possess such high emotional intelligence.

"General, I reminded you earlier.

You told us to carry out the order, and for that, I even took a lash..."

"Serves you right!

You brat deserve a beating; I think the one you got earlier wasn't enough!"

Min Wuliu couldn't help but scold angrily.

If it weren't for the fact that artillery was a technical branch and he had no one else to use, he would have replaced this idiot immediately.

It would kill him to give his superior some face; he had hinted so obviously, yet this guy still foolishly explained it.

He only needed a way out, not to trace the truth.

"Boom—"

As they spoke, another loud noise came, and a section of the originally sturdy city wall suddenly collapsed.

"Order the Left Army Captain to take men and plug the gap immediately; we must not let the enemy charge in!"

The sudden turn of events caused Min Wuliu's heart to sink to the bottom, and he could only rush to issue orders to cope.

The city wall collapsed too quickly, just like tofu dregs; it hadn't provided the defensive strength it should have.

"Boom—"

Just as the garrison was anxious to plug the gap, another part of the city wall collapsed.

Then, gaps of various sizes appeared one after another on the city wall.

If one observed carefully, one could see that these sections of the wall had all been patched up on the original foundation.

Allied camp, observation tower.

Li Mu, who was watching the battle, revealed a satisfied smile.

The places currently being blasted by the artillery were basically the old wounds left over from the previous great war.

After recovering Yongzhou, the court had ordered the city walls to be rebuilt.

Regrettably, it was only an order, and no sufficient funds were allocated.

However, this could not stump the experienced Great Dayu officials; there were plans for the rich and methods for the poor.

The Prefect of Yongzhou, who was thrown into the position, directly conscripted civilians and carried out a superficial project.

Anyway, as long as a major war didn't break out, the quality of the city wall wouldn't be exposed for a while.

The King-Saving War broke out, the main forces of the two Guang regions went north, and support for the Huguang battlefield stopped.

The rebel army launched a massive counterattack, and the imperial army lost cities and territory all the way.

There was no fighting at all in Yongzhou; the garrison simply fled to the two Guang and Yungui regions.

The tofu-dreg project was handed over to the rebel army without damage.

Reoccupying Yongzhou, there were a thousand things to do and a pile of messy affairs; no one had the time to pay attention to the city wall that looked intact.

Back then, there were many troops in the city, so even if artillery blasted open many gaps, the enemy could immediately fill them.

Now, the garrison in the city totaled only ten thousand, and among them were a large number of civilian conscripts.

While defending the city, having to plug multiple gaps was definitely not an easy task.

"Attack the city!"

Seeing that the timing was ripe, Li Mu decisively issued the order to attack the city.

This attack on Yongzhou was actually catching the rebel army off guard; the garrison in the city couldn't react in time.

Unlike the previous Yongzhou battle, the central government of the White Lotus Holy Kingdom was in the city and could play the game of besieging a point to strike reinforcements.

Now, there were only some ordinary garrison troops in the city, and within the newly born Great Chu regime, their weight was actually not high.

Whether the enemy would rescue them with all their might, no one could say for sure.

Against this background, rather than besieging the rebel army and dragging things out, it was better to take Yongzhou first, then march on Hengyang, and strike all the way into the hinterland of Huguang.

Unless the rebel army was willing to abandon Huguang, they would definitely have to send troops to obstruct. Once the enemy's main force moved, it would inevitably reveal flaws.

Nanchang Prefecture, Chu King Palace.

Wang Weihao, who had just changed his royal title, was worrying over the battle report in his hand.

The enemy's performance did not match the intelligence he had received earlier at all.

The two Guang armies had suffered heavy losses in the north, and only a few months had passed; it was the time to lick their wounds.

Any commander with a normal brain would not actively provoke a war when their own vitality was severely damaged.

Even if they really had to fight, it would be a defensive battle.

New recruits could still exert some combat effectiveness while defending a city.

Taking the initiative to attack and losing the protection of the city walls would expose all kinds of disadvantages.

Li Mu's troops had been able to defeat them many times, and Wang Weihao did not believe that such a strong enemy had a problem with their brain.

Reason told him that the enemy's advance at this time must have a conspiracy behind it.

"My lords, the situation seems a bit wrong!"

Wang Weihao said with a frown.

The unknown was the most headache-inducing.

If one couldn't figure out the enemy's purpose and foolishly sent troops to rescue, that would be irresponsible to the Chu State.

"Prince, perhaps the enemy is making a feint.

The rebel general Li Mu likes to take people by surprise when using troops.

The tactics adopted by this person are hard for outsiders to understand the true meaning of until the battle ends.

It doesn't matter if we can't figure out the enemy's true purpose.

They fight their battle, we fight ours. We can just follow the previous combat plan and march directly into the two Guang regions."

Minister of War Fang Kecheng was the first to express his position.

Letting the enemy lead one by the nose was a great taboo in military affairs.

Especially when encountering a strong enemy, losing strategic initiative was equivalent to losing the war in advance.

"Not appropriate!"

"Minister Fang, the Yongzhou garrison is only ten thousand strong and cannot stop the rebel general Li Mu at all.

I'm afraid that before we take Meiguan and pry open the gateway to Guangdong, the gateway to Huguang will have fallen into the hands of the pseudo-dynasty.

Huguang is the foundation of our Great Chu and must not be lost.

Our envoy arrived in Nanjing last month and is discussing land exchange with the Wu State; it's possible an agreement has already been reached.

If we let the rebel general Li Mu kill his way into the hinterland of Huguang at this time, then Great Chu will be in danger!"

General Wang Weihao immediately objected.

No one knew how powerful Li Mu was better than these "old men."

Back then on the two Guang battlefield, the Holy Kingdom's army was chased by the opponent.

Those who didn't believe in evil and stayed behind to fight the enemy either had grass growing on their graves or ended up in prisoner-of-war camps doing hard labor.

The predecessor of their unit was the Western Expedition Army of the White Lotus Holy Kingdom.

Although they weren't exactly singing and advancing on the battlefield, the front line was always pushing forward, and they were about to hit Kunming Prefecture when Li Mu destroyed their nest, forcing them to start a strategic retreat.

Don't look at the three kings shaking the world now; when they first started, the most powerful force was the Holy Emperor's troops.

Even now, Great Chu possessed a million-strong army, but there were still very few units that could catch up to the old camp's combat effectiveness.

Letting such an enemy kill their way into the hinterland was irresponsible to the foundation of the Chu State.

"Both of you have a point, but the most important thing right now is to figure out how much the enemy's strength has recovered.

Generally, if an elite unit loses more than half, it's hard to recover without a year or two.

But the enemy general Li Mu is not an ordinary person.

Since he debuted, he seems to have a power that turns decay into magic. No matter what army falls into his hands, it can quickly become elite.

The pseudo-dynasty's imperial army may not have the combat effectiveness of its peak period, but the number of troops has increased significantly.

The number of recruits in the two Guang regions is as many as seven garrisons. Adding the one garrison in Huguang, two in Fujian, and two in Zhejiang, the enemy's number of recruits alone exceeds one hundred thousand.

As long as these troops have half the combat effectiveness of the King-Saving Army, they are strong enemies of our Great Chu.

Besides that, the enemy also has hundreds of thousands of garrison troops. They might not be good at fighting, but they are qualified to serve as logistics troops."

Chancellor Chang Junyi said with a grave expression.

He would rather believe that the two Guang armies had recovered their vitality than believe that the opponent had not been hurt in the King-Saving War.

It wasn't that their intelligence capability was weak; it was mainly because the two Jinan battles were both infantry fighting cavalry, and they were fighting the Northern Tatar cavalry.

Being able to achieve a nearly 1-to-1 record was a miracle in itself. If it were other border troops, the infantry's losses would be more than three times higher than the cavalry's.

Even if they collected different information, they would default to it being a smoke bomb released by the enemy, wanting to bluff and scare them.

"The Chancellor is right; we must strengthen intelligence gathering.

However, time waits for no one on the battlefield, and the situation on the front line does not allow us to delay.

Moreover, the army has already completed assembly and consumes a large amount of money and grain every day; dragging it out without moving is not a solution.

Anyway, Jiangxi and Huguang are close to each other; let's take Meiguan according to the original plan and open up the passage to Guangdong.

It's possible the enemy won't be able to withstand the pressure and will withdraw their troops to reinforce on their own.

No matter how powerful that rebel Li Mu is, he is just a military general of the pseudo-dynasty and must be restrained by the pseudo-dynasty's high command.

Deploy agents to spread rumors in the two Guang regions. As long as the pressure is great enough, the stupid civil officials of the pseudo-dynasty will help us complete the plan!"

Wang Weihao's decision made the group of civil officials very hurt.

Although their own Prince was scolding the pseudo-dynasty's civil officials, to them, it was almost the same as scolding themselves.

Many of the civil officials present had come from the Great Dayu side. Even if they hadn't been officials in Great Dayu, they had still passed the exams and eaten Great Dayu's salary.

To put it nicely, this was called abandoning darkness for light.

To put it another way, that was "two-faced officials."

Against the social background of advocating loyalty, no one liked "two-faced officials."

While Wang Weihao used them, he was also guarding against them at all times, and they were far less trusted than that group of crude warriors.

After being angry, they were just angry for a moment.

Taking this step, there was no turning back.

Great Dayu could accept anyone's surrender, but only they, these "two-faced officials," did not have such an opportunity.

Once they fell into the hands of the imperial army, losing their heads would be considered lucky. Lingchi, waist-chopping, five-horse dismemberment... a group of tragic death methods would definitely be arranged for them.

Before dying, they would likely have to enjoy a series of living-torture packages.

The roaring artillery fire, mixed with the shouts of soldiers, told the sky and the earth about the cruelty of war.

The soldiers in front fell, and the soldiers behind immediately filled in. The two armies unfolded a fierce struggle around the gaps in the city wall.

"Hold on!"

"Everyone hold on for me!"

Min Wuliu roared angrily.

Unfortunately, war does not shift according to human will; the destruction brought by the tofu-dreg project was far more than just the collapse of the city wall, but also the collapse of the garrison's confidence.

Ordinary soldiers had no time to care about engineering quality; they only saw the city wall they had pinned their hopes on being easily blasted open by the enemy's shells.

Before they could think, the enemy army immediately killed their way over.

Facing the imperial army in full armor, these people in plain clothes could only use their flesh and blood to resist.

The two armies collided, and the gap was instantly reflected.

Ordinary swords and blades slashed at the enemy's armor, emitting a burst of metallic clashing sounds, and then it was over.

But when it landed on these people in plain clothes, even if they didn't die, they were seriously injured.

To break armor, one must use blunt weapons.

However, blunt weapons were too heavy, and they were basically short weapons, requiring close-quarters combat to be effective.

In battlefield confrontation, every inch of length is an inch of strength.

The imperial army's long spears could lift people away from several meters away, and they were playing with cooperative tactics.

The garrison soldiers holding blunt weapons, most of the time, didn't even have time to rush in front of them before they were shot into sieves by muskets first.

It looked like a battle between two armies, but in reality, it was more like a one-sided massacre.

Except for a few elites who could resist a little, the remaining soldiers were just sending heads to the imperial army.

After the imperial army charged onto the city wall, the battle lasted less than the time it takes to burn a stick of incense, and the garrison collapsed across the board.

No organization was needed; the desire to survive made them spontaneously choose to flee.

It's better to live a lowly life than to die well.

Li Mu's love for capturing prisoners was also famous among the rebel armies. Since suppressing the White Lotus Sect rebellion, the number of captured rebel soldiers had reached hundreds of thousands.

Since there was no need to die, there was no need to fight for one's life.

Hiding in the city, maybe if one was lucky, one could escape the pursuit.

Even if discovered by the imperial army, one could surrender; it wasn't worth being buried with a city destined to fall.

"General, the army is collapsing like a mountain, and the situation in Yongzhou is beyond saving.

As long as the green hills remain, there's no need to worry about firewood.

Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy hasn't blocked the North Gate yet, it's still not too late to retreat!"

The personal guard captain persuaded with all his might.

Compared to the soldiers fleeing in all directions, the personal guard unit still maintained order.

Everyone came from the same village, and there was more or less some blood relationship between them.

An army full of clan characteristics could often exert combat effectiveness far exceeding that of ordinary soldiers in troubled times.

"Escape?"

"Where else can we go?"

"The Chu State has just been established, and we have lost cities and territory; this is slapping the Prince's face.

Even if we luckily escape the enemy's pursuit, we won't be able to avoid being held accountable.

Since death is inevitable, it's better to die on the battlefield.

Failing to bring you titles and honors is due to bad luck. You all flee for your lives; there's no need to stay and be buried with me!"

Min Wuliu said with a look of despair.

It wasn't that he hadn't fought lost battles; in the process of starting the rebel army, losing battles was the norm.

The tolerance for lost battles was far higher than that of the imperial army. Most of the time, after losing a battle, there would just be a symbolic punishment, at worst a round of military sticks.

But the timing now was wrong; the Chu State had just been established and was in need of victory to stabilize people's hearts.

"General, we can't survive here with the Western King, but we can still go to defect to the Eastern King or the Southern King; it's far from the time to give up.

We all came out of the Holy Kingdom, so it doesn't count as betrayal. You have made great contributions to the Western King, which can be considered worthy of him.

There's no need to throw your life away for one defeat.

You once said that as long as one is still alive, then everything has hope!"

After speaking, seeing that Min Wuliu did not explicitly refuse.

The clever personal guard captain reacted instantly, knowing that his general was moved, but just couldn't get over his pride.

"Everyone, don't just stand there, hurry up and escort the General away. I will bear all the blame myself!"

(End of chapter)