Chapter 743: The Shocking Carter

"Clean up the battlefield; we march toward Rang City tomorrow."

The battle ended, and Chang Wei inspected the battlefield once.

In this battle, the strength of the Eastern Earth Allied Forces' vanguard was not much different from that of the Prince's Personal Army's forward unit.

One was eighty thousand, the other was sixty thousand.

What's more, this included thirty thousand Shizu Army troops.

Once the ambush began, the soldiers of the Shizu Army surrendered in large numbers.

After all, they knew how the Prince's Personal Army treated captives.

Surrender still offered a way to live; otherwise, there was only a dead end.

As for the remaining Dongying Army, they showed no mercy at all.

However, compared to the Shizu Army, the Dongying Army indeed had higher morale.

After all, Dongying had long hoped to occupy Gaoli.

But the Shizu soldiers were mostly there to bolster the numbers; they had no interest in fighting in Gaoli.

Therefore, most of the Dongying soldiers were annihilated, and only over eight thousand Dongying soldiers chose to surrender.

After giving these orders, Chang Wei had someone head to Ancheng to deliver the battle report to Yan Wang.

At the same time, he arranged to rendezvous with Yan Wang in Lin County, Dongchang Commandery, Gaoli.

Gaoli has a total of six commanderies; due to the narrow land, they are basically cut across along the territory from south to north.

Therefore, both the north and south sides of each commandery face the sea.

This Lin County is on the southern coast, no more than half a day's sea voyage from Ancheng.

They rested for one night.

Chang Wei dispatched two thousand soldiers to escort the captives to the west bank of Qingbo Bridge and hand them over to Yang Zhen.

He himself led the remaining troops toward Lin County.

The vanguard of the Eastern Earth Allied Forces was eager to pursue and did not leave large numbers of troops to garrison the commanderies they had captured.

Setting out from Fengming Mountain, the Prince's Personal Army quickly recovered Dongchang Commandery.

During this period, Chang Wei's battle report also arrived in Ancheng.

Zhao Xu traveled by warship and arrived in Lin County with the King of Gaoli and Yin Boming.

"General Chang is mighty indeed; to annihilate eighty thousand of the Eastern Earth Allied Forces in one stroke is truly admirable." He entered Lincheng following Yan Wang.

Seeing that every one of Yan Wang's soldiers wore dark green uniforms, stood tall and straight, and were physically strong, appearing exceptionally mighty, the King of Gaoli could not help but feel a head shorter.

Looking again at the rifled muskets with bayonets in the hands of Yan Wang's soldiers, he felt a sense of fear from the bottom of his heart.

Upon seeing Chang Wei, he could not help but bow and offer a string of compliments.

Chang Wei glanced sideways at the King of Gaoli and ignored him entirely.

This time they entered Gaoli to fight for the interests of Da Song, not for his Gaoli.

The King of Gaoli was no longer the King of Gaoli; he was merely managing Gaoli on behalf of their Da Song.

Seeing this, the King of Gaoli coughed awkwardly, but he dared not get angry; he just stood to the side like a servant waiting on them.

"How is the situation in Rang City?" Zhao Xu asked at this moment.

This ambush was fought beautifully,

which was expected.

Rifled muskets and hand grenades were superior to the Dongying Army by more than one grade in every aspect.

If they had messed it up, he would have kicked Chang Wei's butt.

Therefore, this matter was not worth his praise at all.

"Reporting to Your Highness, the Eastern Earth Allied Forces are digging trenches on the outskirts of Rang City; it seems they want to use the method from Yang City to deal with us," Chang Wei said.

Although the ambush was a great victory, a small number of soldiers still escaped back.

The commanders of the Eastern Earth Allied Forces inside Rang City were likely already aware of the news that they had entered Gaoli to fight.

Hearing this, Zhao Xu sneered, "Then let them taste the flavor of the howitzers."

The emergence of trench warfare did indeed cause trouble for the attacking side.

However, weapons targeting trenches soon appeared, namely howitzers and hand grenades.

Therefore, the Battle of Yang City was not because the Prince's Personal Army could not take the trenches dug under the command of the Western Lands generals.

He simply wanted to unify Jiangbei in the first step and did not wish to pay unnecessary casualties under Yang City.

After all, in his view, the Shizu inside Yang City would definitely have to cross the Jiujiang River to Jiangnan.

Compared to taking Yang City without losing a single soldier, why should he let his soldiers sacrifice themselves?

Furthermore, at that time, he was worried that the Eastern Land Alliance would blockade the Jiujiang River to stop him from moving south.

In fact, his judgment was correct.

Given the situation at the time, there was even less need to rush to take Yang City.

Even if they had taken it after a bloody battle, they would not have been able to cross the river for the time being.

Rang City.

Yamada Haruno, Carter, and Xie An were supervising the soldiers as they dug trenches.

The vanguard troops encountering an ambush at Fengming Mountain had left them extremely shocked.

"Damn it, this Yan Wang is truly a madman; his thoughts are completely impossible to fathom." Carter kicked the sandbags stacked on the trench hard.

Yamada Haruno's face was as dark as ink; fifty thousand Dongying troops were gone just like that, which made his heart ache as if it were being cut by a knife, and the fire of hatred in his heart surged straight to his brain.

Before sending troops, they had considered Yan Wang, but they immediately dismissed the possibility of Yan Wang sending troops to Gaoli.

After all, Gaoli is within the sphere of influence of the Northern Di, so it is fundamentally contrary to common sense for Yan Wang to go and save Gaoli.

But now, the iron-clad facts have slapped them hard in the face.

Yan Wang has indeed dispatched troops!

"It is said that this Yan Wang once suffered from a brain ailment; he is truly different from ordinary people. From now on, we cannot use the thinking of ordinary people to measure him," Yamada Haruno said with hatred. "However, since he dares to intervene in Gaoli, this time we will let him get bogged down in the quagmire of the Gaoli war."

After a pause, he continued: "We must also leak this news to the Northern Di. The Northern Di may not be willing to send troops to save Gaoli, but they certainly do not want to see Yan Wang occupy Gaoli."

Carter nodded upon hearing this; if the Northern Di sent troops, it would inevitably divert Yan Wang's energy, and perhaps they could even defeat Yan Wang.

But before that, they must hold Rang City.

Xie An's face was full of worry, but within the Eastern Earth Allied Forces, his words carried no weight at all.

In his view, the best course of action now was to withdraw from Gaoli.

Compared to the Dongying and the Westerners, they understood Yan Wang's temperament better.

As long as Yan Wang decided on a matter, he would inevitably carry it through to the end.

Moreover, Ningjin Dusi is adjacent to Gaoli, and the Yanzhou Fleet could reach the coast of Gaoli at any time.

If Yan Wang had not intervened in Gaoli, that would be one thing, but since he has intervened, if they don't run, are they just waiting to die?

But he could only say these words to himself in his heart.

Then, he lamented his own bad luck, being ordered to come to this damned place.

Three days passed.

The digging of the trenches outside Rang City was completed.

At this moment, they finally saw the troops of Yan Wang.

On the city wall, Carter saw the soldiers of Yan Wang wearing uniform military attire through his Telescope.

His heart sank.

Just by taking one look, one could see that this army was well-trained.

At the same time, the style of the muskets carried by the soldiers was in no way inferior to the current equipment of the Western armies.

Moreover, he also saw the horse-drawn Field Artillery, as well as the Howitzers.

"God, they are actually so well-equipped." Carter's heart suddenly constricted, shocked beyond measure.

Last time in Yang City, they had only witnessed the muskets of Yan Wang's soldiers.

This was his first time seeing Field Artillery and Howitzers.

He swore that compared to the Field Artillery and Howitzers in the Western armies, the two types of Artillery of the Yan King Army were not inferior in the slightest in terms of appearance.

The only thing not yet certain was whether these Field Artillery and Howitzers had sufficient power.

He touched the Conical Bullet in his mouth.

At this moment, he even suspected that Yan Wang's firearms might even have surpassed the Western Lands in some aspects.