Chapter 163

To be fair.

Over the decades, the Jie tribe that rose in the North Border, though brutal and ferocious, was truly worthy of being the North Border hegemon; its troops' combat power was astonishing.

Especially under the leadership of the deceased Jie King Nu Chi, the Jie tribe's endurance and capacity for suffering were brought to a certain extreme.

In the Great Zhou Dynasty, a certain deceased Northern Territory famous general had once summarized the Jie tribe army's strengths.

"The Jie tribe has four strengths: first, endurance; second, cavalry; third, heavy armor; fourth, bow and arrow."

"A saying circulates in the Jie army: 'If one cannot charge the formation for over a hundred rounds, how can one be called cavalry!'"

And the Jie army's military law was even strictly harsh to the extreme: "If a five-man squad leader dies in battle, all four men are beheaded; if a ten-man squad leader dies in battle, the five-man squad leaders are all beheaded; if a hundred-man commander dies in battle, the ten-man squad leaders are all beheaded..."

It was precisely under this kind of army nature that the Jie tribe developed from a small clan in a bitter cold land, gradually growing stronger, repeatedly winning with fewer against more, fighting several great victories with terrifying casualty ratios.

Finally, they grew into the large clan of seventy to eighty thousand they are today.

In the end, a saying spread in the North Border these years: "Jie people not full ten thousand, full ten thousand cannot be opposed."

And this was also one of the sources of confidence for how the Jie tribe acted arrogantly and domineeringly within the Great Zhou Dynasty!

Coupled with the Sima clan's incompetence as the current power holders and their internal oppression, often a thousand-man Jie tribe unit could run rampant before cities garrisoned by the North Border army, wantonly plundering border people.

Over time, this even formed a certain mental set in the minds of many people, or what could be called "fear of Jie syndrome."

This point was also reflected in this expedition of the great army to sweep away the Jie tribe.

Many civil officials under the Northern Border Governor still adhered to a conservative defensive strategic mindset, strongly advising Gu Xuan, this Zhou King His Majesty, not to lightly initiate war, lest they suffer a crushing defeat.

Even among the border army soldiers, some soldiers harbored fear, not daring to face the Jie tribe as enemies.

It can be said, if not for Gu Xuan having previously led troops out to strike, killing the Jie King Nu Chi and other elites, this great army expedition would have been fundamentally impossible to carry out.

Undoubtedly speaking.

If the Great Zhou Dynasty continues to decline under the Sima clan's rule like this, before long, this fertile land of the North Border will inevitably fall into the Jie tribe's hands.

And the Jie tribe possessing the North Border will inevitably further integrate all forces, and will certainly not let go of that Great Iron Mine within the North Border.

If so, this ferocious alien race will once again gain terrifying growth in military strength, and not only that, population, economy, and other aspects will be the same.

And thus, the Jie tribe will inevitably become a terrifying calamity-like existence for the Great Zhou human race, even for all living beings on this land.

Lighter: more living beings will tragically be slaughtered.

Heavier: it is possible the entire Great Zhou Dynasty could be destroyed by them, and the human race reduced to slaves.

And of course.

For Gu Xuan, the so-called "Jie people not full ten thousand, full ten thousand cannot be opposed" is undoubtedly absurd!

Everyone is a living being; stabbed by swords they all hurt, pierced in a vital point they all die.

And for Gu Xuan, what secrets could there be to cold weapon warfare on this land?

For an army, it is nothing more than fair reward and punishment, sufficient logistics, proper equipment, sufficient depth, suitable terrain... then courage, training, discipline, and so on.

There is nothing mysterious; everyone's hard conditions differ slightly, yet are basically the same.

In the absence of a generational gap in weapons, whoever can achieve the above can become a generation's hegemon on this land!

And in fact.

Gu Xuan's these views, at the military conference, also gained the agreement of Jiang Bu Shi, the Northern Border Governor, and other true elites.

These two, as the Great Zhou Dynasty's true insiders in the North Border, in the long-term opposition against the Jie tribe, had long vaguely formed some views.

It was just that for a time, they had not formed Gu Xuan's this kind of nearly systematic thinking, and their combat records had long been suppressed by the Sima clan, unable to develop further.

However.

When Gu Xuan truly put forth these opinions, it was just like speaking to their hearts.

This was naturally a penetrating insight, and gained the agreement of the majority attending the military conference, including the vast majority of high-level border army generals, the civil officials responsible for baggage logistics, and the core advisory group, etc.

Precisely because of this, Gu Xuan was able to persuade the North Border's many civil officials and generals, pushing forward this expedition.

Of course, if not for his iron-bloodedness and peerless martial power as this Zhou King, the North Border high-ups, even knowing these principles, would absolutely never have taken the initiative to attack.

Returning to the battlefield.

The new Jie King Dai Shang stood on the not-high Chanshan City wall, watching the front's orderly and murderous human army, his gaze cold as ice.

And to speak of it, once numbers exceed ten thousand, it will be a densely packed scene.

This expedition's human army, when converging at Chanshan City, including auxiliary soldiers and civilian laborers, numbered at least forty to fifty thousand.

Moreover.

According to Jie tribe scouts' reports, behind Chanshan City, an unknown unit had also appeared.

And that unit behind, though its numbers were clearly not many, had combat power so high it was terrifying!

To ascertain this small unit's numbers and other details, the Jie tribe side paid the lives of at least twenty elite scouts.

That fundamentally isn't called some small unit; it's simply a small black hole!

No matter how many probing troops approached, they would only be killed with a single arrow; the accuracy, the momentum, large and heavy to a frightening degree!

Finally.

Under the Jie tribe's reckless probing, they finally barely estimated this small unit's approximate numbers, which should be around three to four thousand people, not too many.

However.

Such a small unit, yet displayed the kind of prestige and oppression of the former "Jie people not full ten thousand, full ten thousand cannot be opposed," causing many Jie tribe including Dai Shang to inevitably feel some fear!

Times change, and now the Jie tribe has finally also experienced the heavy oppression before death.

In fact.

Before this, in the Jie tribe's internal grand council, they had not failed to mention retreating three she before this human army.

That is, disperse into small groups, each scattering into some small units, escaping into the North Border's bitter cold mountains and forests.

In former years, when the Great Zhou Dynasty was at its peak, it had also not failed to sweep away the Jie tribe's ancestors.

In those years, their ancestors evaded the Human Army's attacks in this very way.

Several times even, relying on their advantage as deep-mountain hunters, they continuously harassed and assassinated, routing the Human armies that came to conquer them, even causing those armies to be slaughtered in turn.

This happened again and again, until later generations, the Great Zhou Dynasty was forced to abandon its thorough sweep of the Jie Tribe.

However.

Such a proposal has now been rejected.

The reason is only one point: that extremely elite small unit behind Chanshan City is the Jie Tribe's natural enemy!

According to the Jie Scouts' probing these days, the so-called dispersing into small groups and scattered harassment is completely useless; it would only make them prey for that small unit.

This point has already been verified on the corpses of numerous scouts, and scouts are already the elite among elites of the Jie Tribe.

Therefore.

After learning all this intelligence, the Jie New Generation High-level led by Dai Shang ultimately rejected the original tactics.

The situation is no longer the same; they can only combine their forces in one place to condense the greatest power, perhaps having a chance to win this Battle.

Otherwise, if they still repeat old tricks, the Human Army ahead will sweep the entire Jie territory with orthodox momentum, while the small unit behind will pursue the fleeing and chase the routed.

What awaits the Jie Tribe is only being defeated piecemeal, unable to escape the result of race extinction.

"Damn it, how could such a powerful army also appear among the Humans?!"

This is the resentful, unwilling inner voice in the hearts of the Jie Tribe's many high-ranking officials.

However, complaints are complaints; they still have to steel themselves to face this severe test — failure means only death.

Moreover, the Jie Tribe has always been accustomed to fighting offensive wars and does not value city defense very much.

Therefore, even though Chanshan City is the second largest city after the Jie King City, it is merely a crude and rough battlement building.

Its highest wall face is only about three meters high.

In the past, this naturally was not any big problem; basically no other army could possibly attack.

But now, this has become one of the Jie Tribe's pain points.

This Moment.

With one order from Dai Shang, six or seven hundred Human women and children were pressed up onto the Chanshan City South Gate.

These women and children were obviously all captured by the Jie Tribe from within Great Zhou territory in recent years, and even included commoner women from the recent Western Capital Luocheng.

Even across the distant distance, the Great Zhou soldiers could see that every single one of these women and children had suffered ravaging and torture, looking extremely miserable.

Obviously, in the hands of the cruel and ferocious Jie Tribe, they had endured who knows how much humiliation.

And with their appearance, the Jie Tribe also sent out several soldiers with extremely loud voices, speaking with a somewhat strange accent, shouting at the Human Army below.

The gist was nothing more than: willing to use these hostages as reason, requesting the Human Army to withdraw, otherwise kill without mercy.

This is obviously not sincere words.

Because both sides know all too clearly that since the war has already developed to this extent, it is absolutely impossible to cease war just because of this matter.

And the Jie Tribe's actual intention is also very clear.

That is to use such an action to boost their own army's morale!

In this process.

Those Jie soldiers escorting several hundred Human women and children on the wall almost all looked down at the Humans below with mocking and disdainful eyes.

This is the high and mighty attitude they have cultivated over many years toward the Humans of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

Jie not ten thousand, ten thousand cannot resist; in the past their hundreds of cavalry were enough to run rampant and unopposed within Great Zhou territory.

And not only that.

These Jie soldiers were all groping the Human women and children in their hands, going to extremes of insult and indecency, and letting out various booming laughs and jeers.

One must say, the action of Dai Shang and the others still achieved an obvious effect.

Because in this process, the Jie soldiers' morale was significantly raised; the original panic, unease and other negative emotions from the Human Army's active attack were largely dispelled.

With a great battle imminent, the importance of soldier morale naturally needs no further mention!

But this action is tantamount to a humiliation of the Humans!

Such a scene naturally made the Human officers and soldiers led by Jiang Bu Shi extremely resentful.

Among them were the army's sharpshooters, who angrily drew bows and nocked arrows, but ultimately gave up dejectedly, because at such a distance they would certainly not reach the wall before falling, and would only make the Jie Tribe even more smug and mocking.

However.

Right at this time, as Jiang Bu Shi waved his right hand.

The front three ranks of the vanguard spread out slightly, and from the fourth rank several bed crossbow tips quietly extended, all carefully disguised and covered.

Such movement was not very large, looking just like some natural, spontaneous formation adjustment.

However, on the wall, there were still sharp-eyed Jie who discovered this point.

But just as they realized something was wrong and wanted to shout a warning.

Only heard, a hum—!

From the bed crossbows, over a dozen bolts like javelins shot out, nailing twenty-odd Jie on the wall to the wall planks behind them, dead beyond dead!

Accompanied by several miserable screams, on the wall, the Jie soldiers' blood and viscera scattered all over the ground, the scene desperate and bloody beyond compare.

Instantly, the air between the two armies was filled with a thick bloody stench.

These several bed crossbows are naturally one of the sharp weapons Jiang Bu Shi brought this time, and also one of the few generational-gap weapons of the Great Zhou Dynasty against the Jie Tribe.

Of course, no matter how good a sharp weapon, it still needs someone to employ it properly; when the Sima Clan and Cheng Luo were in power, these could never be deployed on the battlefield, at most fixed defense in their own cities, even locked in the treasury.

The Jie side, suffering this attack, also panicked greatly; many soldiers instinctively hid away, not daring to expose themselves beyond the battlements again.

Some who lost relatives and friends had eyes all red; they swung knives and chopped, beheading the Human women and children in their charge to vent their own anger.

This action instantly triggered imitation by some Jie, actually showing intent to kill these women and children as a sacrifice to raise the banner.

However, this situation was still stopped by higher-ranking officers after slight chaos — not because they were kind, but because the established strategy was to keep these women and children as possible future rations.

Because no one knew how long this siege battle would last.

All of these could only be considered an episode.

Accompanied by the Flag Order, the great battle that would determine the final Owner of the North Border finally erupted!

Generally speaking, the defending side naturally holds the relative advantage.

But for the Jie Tribe, for dozens of years up to a hundred, they simply did not know how to defend cities, and had always attacked the enemy!

This defense, for them, could be said to be the first time in so long.

Moreover, Chanshan City was mostly just a gathering place for them to store winter supplies, and actually could not compare to the cities on the Great Zhou Dynasty's side.

Therefore.

As several city gates opened, the Heavy Cavalry the Jie Tribe prided themselves on mobilized.

Fully divided into three routes, each route a Heavy Cavalry Corps of over five thousand, such prestige could be called shaking heaven and moving earth!

These cavalry did not charge the formation, but instead closely approached the Jin Ren army corps in a circular guerrilla maneuver, firing dense volleys.

The Jie Heavy Arrow, crowning the North Border, like short spears one by one, pierced the shields raised by the Jin Ren soldiers densely, like a hedgehog, instantly causing hundreds of casualties.

This is precisely one of the secrets by which the Jie Tribe has dominated one side these years: called Jie Endurance, called Jie Cavalry Skill, called Jie Heavy Armor, called Jie Bow and Arrow, and now their power reappeared!

But the Jin Ren side, naturally, had also long been prepared!

(Chapter End)