In Su Yi's tent outside Linhai City, Xu Shu gathered his generals.
"We've been besieging Linhai for three days, but we haven't made any progress in the siege. Instead, we've lost 20,000 men.”Xu Shu said.
"General, it is normal for us to suffer heavy losses in the siege. The enemy also lost 20,000 men.”Deng Zhi said. In Deng Zhi's eyes, they had the upper hand.
Su Yi had never expected that a portion of the people he had summoned had already arrived at Xu Shu's side. Among them were the generals Xu Sheng, Li Yan, Dong Xi, Zhu Zhi, Zhu Ji, Zhu Yi, Ma Zhong, and Ma Su, and the civil officials Fa Zheng, Ma Liang, Jiang Wan, Dong Yun, Jian Yong, and Gu Yong.
The generals were all here. Other than Fa Zheng, the civil officials were all temporarily sent by Xu Shu to manage the city. The generals were temporarily left behind as guards and would be brought back when they returned to the military ling valley. Xu Shu did not make the decision to appoint them.
"Ever since the Lord raised his army, the total number of casualties is not as great as the losses we suffered in this siege. Although the Lord has an army of more than 500,000, the loss of 20,000 people in one go is too great.”Xu Shu was quite dissatisfied. His side had the absolute strength to suppress them, and there were only two imperial generals in the city.
"General, the enemy has a lot of weapons on the city walls. There are many catapults and ballistae, as well as a lot of defensive resources. At least two-thirds of our soldiers died in this place.”Xu Sheng said. He had discovered the strengths of the defenders when they attacked the city.
"That's right. Although our army attacked for three days and consumed more than half of the garrison's resources, we can't use the lives of our soldiers to fill the gap.”Xu Shu said worriedly, but Xu Sheng's attentiveness made Xu Shu think highly of him.
"General, there are about 30,000 soldiers in the city, and many civilians are helping to defend. Our army lacks siege weapons, which makes our siege very passive.”Fa Zheng said," Our army has surrounded the three watchtowers and one city, but the enemy has not broken out. I reckon that they have already received news that the other cities have fallen.”
"General, the siege weapons from all over have arrived, but there are too few of them. Five medium-sized siege vehicles, ten small-sized siege vehicles, ten small-sized charge vehicles, thirty medium-sized ladder vehicles, fifty small-sized ladder vehicles, one hundred medium-sized catapults, two hundred small-sized catapults, two hundred medium-sized ballistae, and three hundred small-sized ballistae.”Shen Qiu said.
As Xu Shu's advancement was too fast, the siege weapons were not transported up so Xu Shu let Shen Qiu be in charge of transporting the weapons. Of course, this many weapons were gathered from various cities. There were so many in two counties.
"We will launch a general attack tomorrow and take down Seaside City in one fell swoop.”Xu Shu said.
"General, Sheng Yuan will be the vanguard and open up a path for our army to enter the city.”Xu Sheng immediately requested to fight.
Xu Shu looked at everyone and said,""Alright, tomorrow Xu Sheng will lead the 3rd, 4th and 5th guards of the Divine Martial Army to attack the west gate. All the siege vehicles will be concentrated at the west gate and the other weapons will be allocated to the west gate. Shen Qiu, your subordinates will be in charge of operating and supporting.”
"I accept your orders!" Xu Sheng and Shen Qiu agreed.
"In this case, General Feng will lead the two guards of the Vanguard Selection Army to attack the east gate, Li Yan will lead the seventh guard to attack the south gate, Dong Xi will lead the eighth guard to attack the north gate, and the rest of the generals will follow my orders to support in all directions.”Xu Shu ordered.
Cavalry were not good at attacking cities, so Xu Shu could only wait until the city gates were breached before sending his cavalry out.
This time in order to conquer Linhai, Xu Shu also spent a lot of effort and transferred four guards from the Vanguard Selection Army stationed in various places. Shen Qiu transferred two guards and adding on the nine guards of the Divine Martial Army, the total military strength reached one hundred and fifty thousand.
In the previous three days of siege, the Divine Martial Army had lost four guards, so Xu Shu had no choice but to split them up into two temporary guards to be used for now, disbanding them when there were more soldiers. As such, the Divine Martial Army only had nine guards left.
"Deng Xuan, Deng Lin, Deng Hong, Deng Ye, today, you will lead the troops to feign an attack. You cannot let the enemy have any time to rest, understand?”Xu Shu said.
"We understand!" The four of them answered in unison. They knew that this mission was also very important.
"Alright, go and prepare!" Xu Shu said. The outcome would depend on the battle tomorrow.
Of course, it wasn't that Xu Shu didn't want to launch a general attack today. Those machines had just arrived and hadn't been assembled yet. They couldn't be used at all. They could only wait until tomorrow.
The battle cries outside Linhai City continued as the 40,000 Divine Martial Army soldiers continued to feign attacks. Shieldbearers slowly advanced with their shields, while archers continued to shoot arrows at the city walls under the protection of the shieldbearers.
Some soldiers carried a few small ladder trucks and slowly approached the ten-meter-tall city wall of Seaside City. It seemed that they wanted to take Seaside City in one fell swoop.
The defenders on the city walls were not to be outdone either, and the archers and ballistae continued to counterattack.
The ladder trucks of the Divine Martial Army seemed to be afraid of being destroyed and did not dare to move forward. The defenders were even more arrogant and their morale was not low.
Obviously, these soldiers didn't know that the other parts of the neighboring country had fallen. They were still waiting for the so-called reinforcements, but the higher-ups must have already known. They were making a final resistance.
It was impossible to have reinforcements from the neighboring country. The armies in other parts of the neighboring country were either destroyed or captured and incorporated. The Sea Kingdom, the ally of the neighboring country, was currently facing the threat of Ling Kingdom. Two hundred thousand troops were stationed at the border, and it seemed that they were about to attack.
In this way, even if the Sea Kingdom wanted to send troops, it would be impossible. Their own country was in danger, so who would dare to send troops to help?
However, Su Yi's side did not know that Su Yi wanted to end the war as soon as possible, while Ling Nation wanted to take care of the Sea Nation first before sending their 200,000 strong army south to attack Su Yi.
This time, Ling Nation's plan to unify Lingchuan had gathered a million soldiers, 500,000 regular soldiers, 500,000 garrison soldiers, and private soldiers of the aristocratic families. They had also gathered a million civilians to transport war resources.
Although there were treasures like the military pouch and military ring, there were so few of them and their levels were not high. How many resources could they bring?
At this moment, the Divine Martial Army and the neighboring country's garrison were engaged in a heated battle. From the looks of it, the garrison had the upper hand, but the two sides did not lose much.
The Divine Martial Army's feint was very realistic. The ladder trucks were already on the city wall, and the soldiers almost climbed up the city wall. However, they were chased down in the end, and the ladder trucks were destroyed.
The feint attack continued. The Divine Martial Army's goal was naturally to drag down the defending army. The defending army did not know what was going on and continued to resist tenaciously. The ratio of casualties was about one to one, but it seemed that the Divine Martial Army had suffered greater losses.
In a small courtyard in Linhai City, a portion of the civil officials and generals that Su Yi had summoned lived there.
Amongst them were Guo Jia, Tian Feng, Zhou Tai, Yu Fan, Liu Feng, Meng Da, Zhou Fang, and Chen Wu. The remaining twenty people were followers, and most of them were below special-class. None of them were recorded in history.
They weren't originally on the same path, but they met when they went out to the tavern. After a conversation, they were quite congenial, so they got together. In the end, they found out that everyone was going to rely on Su Yi, so they lived together.
"Brother Yuan Hao, did you hear that the Divine Martial Army is attacking the city again?”Guo Jia picked up the wine glass, sniffed it, and drank it with a frown.
"Indeed, it's already the fourth day. According to the news I sent out, the Divine Martial Army lost about 20,000 men, and the neighboring country's garrison lost 30,000 men.”Tian Feng also frowned.
"Brother Yuan Hao, why are you frowning like me?”Guo Jia poured another glass into his own glass and drank it with a frown. This wine was really tasteless.
"Fengxiao, if this continues, the Divine Martial Army will have no way of conquering Linhai City.”Tian Feng said. If they had attacked forcefully, they would have taken the city long ago, but they would have lost more than 50,000 soldiers.
"Brother Yuan Hao, this wine is too awful!”Guo Jia said unhappily.
"Then drink less." Tian Feng said.
"This won't do. Without wine, my brain has nothing. I can't think of any good ideas.”Guo Jia was worried that there would be no wine to drink at Su Yi's place.
"Fengxiao, I'm talking to you about the war outside!”Tian Feng was furious.
"Brother Yuan Hao, the Divine Martial Army is definitely only feigning an attack today.”Guo Jia said confidently.
"Could it be that Xu Shu wants to use a feint attack to consume the defensive resources of the defenders?”Tian Feng asked.
"Brother Yuan Hao, think further ahead!" Guo Jia felt that the wine was too disgusting, so he put down the glass.
"The Divine Martial Army has reinforcements." Tian Feng said with his eyes wide open.
"That's right. I estimate that the total number of soldiers surrounding the city is about 150,000, and there are also a large number of siege weapons.”Guo Jia said with a smile.
"You are saying that Xu Shu had transferred the Vanguard Selection Army and Shen Qiu over and that he, Xu Shu, was not afraid of Ling and Hai Country attacking the borders.”Tian Feng couldn't believe it.
" No, Xu Shu wouldn't dare. When I came from Ling Kingdom, I received news that Ling Kingdom is preparing to wage war against Gan Kingdom, Chuan Kingdom, Hai Kingdom, and Lin Kingdom. Hai Kingdom is facing Ling Kingdom's army, so where would they find the time to do so?"”Guo Jia smiled and said," Moreover, Xu Shu can mobilize quite a number of soldiers now. He has incorporated quite a number of City Defense Army and private soldiers.”
"I've also heard about the fire at the borders of Ling Nation. After the destruction of the neighboring nation, the pressure on Ling Nation has lessened.”Tian Feng said.
"No, to be more precise, the pressure on Ling Nation has increased. Duke Ling Ping has underestimated Su Yi's strength.”Guo Jia shook his head in disagreement." Could it be that Brother Yuan Hao thinks that Su Yi has very few troops under him?”
"No matter what, it should be 300,000 yuan!”Tian Feng thought for a moment and said.
"Brother Yuan Hao, you've underestimated Su Yi's strength. A conservative estimate is that Su Yi has at least 600,000 soldiers under him!”
"That's not possible." Tian Feng shook his head. 600,000 soldiers, this was the number one strength in Lingchuan.
"Brother Yuan Hao, you don't even understand Su Yi, why do you still want to join him?”Guo Jia suddenly asked.
"I heard that Su Yi recovered the ling grains. This is something that the neighboring country couldn't do in a hundred years.”Tian Feng said," What about you, Fengxiao?”
"I'm used to drinking the wine from my hometown, so I want to change the taste.”Guo Jia smiled like a playboy.
If Tian Feng hadn't learned that Guo Jia had a million soldiers through their conversations over the past few days, he would have thought that Guo Jia was just trying to get by.
"Brother Yuan Hao, who do you think this Hero Altar is prepared for?”Guo Jia asked with a smile.
"Of course it's a virtuous person!" Tian Feng said. It was strange that Guo Jia would ask such a question.
"No, this is prepared for descenders. Only descenders can open the altar treasure chest.”Guo Jia said seriously.
"Really?" Tian Feng said in disbelief. This was different from what he had seen in the books.
"To be precise, the altar is prepared for those with strength, and the altar treasure chest is prepared for descenders. This was calculated by my master. After saying that, he faced the tribulation!”Guo Jia's expression was calm, and no one could tell whether he was happy or sad.
This time, Tian Feng had no choice but to believe it. He had never seen anyone open those altar treasure chests before. Also, the Hero Altar would be hidden tomorrow morning, so it would be difficult to find it.
"Brother Yuan Hao, I'm going to sleep first. When I wake up tomorrow, the Divine Martial Army will enter the city.”Guo Jia ignored everyone and went straight to his room.
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