Chapter 12: Borrowing a Tiger's Might

  Yelü Zhaochang led his troops out of the south gate and rushed all the way. From Yan State to Ke State, it was only a hundred and thirty miles away, and the cavalry could arrive in just over two hours. At this time, the sky had already brightened up. Along the way, several wretched He Xi soldiers could be seen on the official road from time to time. This situation made Yelü Zhaochang both happy and worried. He was worried that looking at these soldiers' appearance, he knew that the army of Jinliang River would surely be outnumbered, but he was happy that since they were only a few scattered troops, Ke State should still be in their hands.

  It wasn't until he rushed to the city of K that he discovered it had already been occupied by the other side. The city walls were lined with spirited Qingfeng soldiers, and the flag fluttering on the city tower was also the Qingfeng Empire's eternal wind flag of the Zhongzhou continent.

  Seeing Mandan's army arrive, a loud shout suddenly came from the city tower: "General, why have you come now? Dingzhou Huangtian has been waiting for a long time."

  "Dingzhou Haotian? I've never heard of him!" Yelü Zhaochang, with his impressive physique, could clearly see the handsome and spirited young man on the city wall from a distance. He spoke without showing any weakness. His deep and resonant voice sounded even more majestic in the empty space outside the city gate, startling Haotian on the city wall.

  Yelu Zhaochang's sharp words didn't faze Huang Tian in the slightest. He simply laughed and said, "Someone was originally a nobody, so it's normal that General hasn't heard of him before. But I wonder what General thinks when facing the city of Kuzhou guarded by Huang?"

  Yelü Zhaochang's eyes narrowed slightly, facing the well-prepared Kuzhou City. He had only 15,000 cavalrymen under his command, and unless they were nomadic archers, there was nothing he could do. He cursed Jin Suo loudly, and Yelü Zhaochang didn't bother to care about his dignity either. With a wave of his hand, the army slowly retreated. What he worried about now was whether there would be an ambush on the way back. Since the enemy had anticipated that he would rush to Kuzhou's aid, it was impossible for them not to make preparations. It seemed that he had miscalculated from the start.

  Perhaps it was due to the powerful cavalry of Mandan, but Dingzhou did not pursue them out of the city. Yelü Zhaochang was able to adjust his troops and return to Yanzhou. The army marched on with unusual ease, which made Yelü Zhaochang very suspicious. As a veteran general who had fought many battles, he was destined to dislike quietness. Because quiet often means a bigger storm. Thinking of this, his brow furrowed: "Friedrich, why didn't that Haotian intercept us halfway? We had already calculated that he should have 20,000 remaining troops. This man, who can quietly take two cities, must be skilled in using troops and cannot let go of any available power."

  "General says it's right. For a tired army like us, anyone who has been on the battlefield will not ignore it. But all along the way, we really didn't see the enemy's ambush. Are they really badly damaged and can't compete with us in the wild?"

  "It shouldn't be." Yelü Zhaochang shook his head: "The city of Kezhou doesn't have any obvious signs of battle scars, which means the enemy took it by strategy. Since that's the case, their losses must not be great. The reason they let our army go is probably because they still need to use these troops somewhere else."

  As soon as the words fell, the faces of the two people changed, and they looked at each other, their mouths simultaneously uttering two words: "Yanzhou!"

  "General, are we overthinking this? We have 15,000 elite infantrymen in Yan Prefecture, and with the Sikhs holding down the fort, even if the enemy has 20,000 men, taking down a well-prepared Yan Prefecture would be as difficult as climbing to heaven." Fred said, somewhat incredulous.

  Yelü Zhaochang's face was gloomy: "The enemy army rushed thousands of miles, and can only use cavalry. Using cavalry to attack the city, except for nomadic tribes, the only way is to respond from inside and outside. At first, this commander always thought that the object of the other party's internal and external response should be the 200,000 civilians in Yan State City and those more than 30,000 prisoners of war. Huh, didn't expect to miscalculate again."

  "What does this mean?" Fred asked, though he had already guessed what Yelü Zhaochang was going to say.

  "That Khitan soldier who came to report! It was that Khitan soldier and those defeated generals, they were the ones who were in cahoots with each other." Yelü Zhaochang said coldly.

  "But there are only about a hundred of them, while the number of men under Grayson's command at the South Gate is as many as one thousand." Fred couldn't help but say.

  Yelü Zhaochang's face was filled with regret as he said, "Have you forgotten that we had them help us take in those scattered Hesi soldiers? They could have used this order to let the enemy disguise themselves as fugitive soldiers and sneak into the city. Then, while our attention is focused on the civilians and prisoners within the city, they would use a clever plan to kill Grey Empty Sky and then lead their main army into the city. What a great strategy! I didn't think there were such capable people in the enemy's army."

  "General, what should we do now?" Fred asked with a worried face.

  Yelü Zhongchang halted the warhorses and ordered the entire army to rest before saying, "At this point, Yan State should have also fallen. If we hastily rush back to Yan State now, our only role would be to add another stroke of brilliance to their glorious military achievements. If things go as I expect, they must have already set up an ambush in Yan State, waiting for us to fall into it."

  "Why don't we turn the tables on them? The enemy's forces are evenly matched with ours, and as long as we deploy properly, even if we can't retake Yan Prefecture, we'll definitely make them pay a heavy price." Fred said.

  Yelü Zhaochang shook his head: "No, the enemy army was initially equivalent to ours in strength. At that time, as long as they could enter the city, not to mention the ordinary people in the city, but the tens of thousands of prisoners of war in the prisoner-of-war camp, would have increased their strength by several times. Moreover, the enemy's morale is high, and our morale is low, and there is no stable logistical guarantee, this battle can be said to be defeated before it starts."

  When he said this, Yelü Zhaochang regretted again, if only those prisoners of war were quickly sent back to their home country at that time, how could there be today's defeat? On that day, the six-clan coalition army, after defeating Qingfeng's Northern Expedition Army, except for the three major families' direct military teams, the remaining 300,000 soldiers, except for a small number of deaths and escapes, had more than 200,000 soldiers captured.

  Facing this huge wealth, the six tribes outside the pass could not help but be moved. After haggling, the six tribes finally divided the prisoners of war according to their contributions in this war. However, due to the urgency of time, they did not have time to negotiate with the Qingfeng court about the ransom price for these prisoners of war, so they were all still detained in their respective territories.

  As a result, every time the enemy occupied a city, they rescued the prisoners of war once, and their strength increased by tens of thousands. Although he ordered Xike to eliminate these prisoners of war when necessary, since the enemy had planned ahead, it was possible that Xike had already been eliminated by these prisoners of war.

  Yelu Zhaochang no longer hesitated, turned around and said to Fred: "Fred, pass on the commander's order, the whole army will immediately adjust its direction, advance northeast to Anzhou, and join forces with the garrison of Baijing."

  Fred was shocked and couldn't help but say, "General, are we just going to give up on Yan State like this? And aren't Baijing and us always at odds? Will they take advantage of our misfortune?"

  "No. Although Shen Jie is arrogant, he understands the principle of interdependence. Our three northeastern states have always been closely related, and even if he's dissatisfied with us, he can't just ignore us. The Iron Eagle of Shi State is our sworn enemy, and the road conditions in Ji State are too poor for our army to advance, so we might as well go to An State first to avoid the storm."

  Yelü Zhaochang was right, his army had just left when the main force of Hu Tian had already sneaked to the south gate of Yan State. With the help of Hai Xi's soldier Guan Ying, hundreds of elite cavalrymen disguised themselves as Hai Xi's defeated soldiers and swaggered into the city of Yan State. The general in charge of the south gate of Yan State, Hui Kongming, did not suspect anything, plus Yelü Zhaochang's order at the beginning, so he didn't put too much thought into it. When the number of entering soldiers reached a thousand, Feng Jing, who had led the army to sneak in, finally launched the attack.

  After killing Hui Kong, Feng Jing immediately led his army to the prisoner-of-war camp in the city. His experience told him that if he wanted to give these foreign tribes a surprise, the best way was to release these prisoners of war. The impatient Lie Xue and Blood Kill outside the city rushed in without hesitation after receiving Feng Jing's signal. Suddenly, the sound of horseshoes echoed, and Yan State City fell into chaos.

  At this time, Xi Ke was sitting in the city guard mansion. Since Yelü Zhaochang had handed over the entire Yan state to him, he naturally did not dare to slack off. On the one hand, he sent people to tighten their patrols, and on the other hand, he ordered his subordinates to keep a close eye on the prisoner-of-war camp, while he himself led 5,000 elite soldiers to sit in the city guard mansion as the final reserve team.

  "What? The South Gate has fallen?" Upon receiving the report from his personal guard, Xike immediately broke out in a cold sweat. The greatest reliance for defending Yan State was the city walls of Yan State, and now that the South Gate had fallen into enemy hands, they would surely be unguarded. And he only had 5,000 infantrymen at hand, while the rest of the soldiers were either patrolling on the city walls or guarding the prisoner-of-war camp, and the Grand General's cavalry had already rushed to Ke State. What was he to do now?

  After pacing back and forth restlessly for several rounds, Xike gritted his teeth and ordered: "Pass on the order, all soldiers in Yangzhou City immediately abandon their current tasks and concentrate at the city defense command. Then dispatch multiple messengers to report to the general immediately and ask him to return to provide reinforcements."

  The Mandan dynasty was indeed the most powerful military kingdom in the north, and the quality of their soldiers was first-rate. Although at a disadvantage, they did not panic, but under the command of their superiors, they occupied the advantageous terrain of the city guard's mansion, preparing to fight to the death with the enemy army that had entered the city. The city guard's mansion was originally small, and its walls were high and thick, making it a miniature fortress. With nearly 10,000 soldiers deployed, the entire city guard's mansion suddenly became a turtle shell covered in thorns, leaving the enraged and furious commander who had organized several attacks to retreat in vain.

  "What's going on here?" After completing the mission to rescue the prisoners of war, Feng Jing immediately led his troops to come and support the city guard mansion, while Xue Sha, who had already cleared out the remaining enemies, also arrived here.

  Xin Ke rubbed his head, looking somewhat embarrassed, and said: "The defense works of this city guard are particularly strong, and the soldiers inside don't seem to be as weak as the ones we've encountered before. The military strength is also quite substantial. I've launched several attacks, but still can't break in."

  He looked at the heavily guarded city guard and nodded, saying: "It seems that this person in charge really has some skills, and can build such a perfect defense project in such a short time. The first strong country outside the pass is indeed not in vain."

  "He completely gave up the counterattack and retreated inside. As long as we drag this out, no matter how much time it takes, we'll starve them to death."

  Feng Jing furrowed his brow: "But Yelü Zhaochang's army is now rushing to and fro, vying for every second. If we can't clear out all the resistance forces in Yan State City in time, we'll suffer heavy losses under the pincer attack."

  Xue Sha's lips curled into a faint smile, and before this, Feng Jing and the others had never seen him smile. In the flickering light of the torches, his smile was surprisingly cruel and bloody. Feng Jing and the others could even feel a strong aura of death emanating from his smile: "Their only reliance is also this high wall. As long as we are willing to pay the price, annihilating them is not a difficult task."

  Feng Jing was also a clever person, and he immediately understood his meaning. He asked tentatively: "Do you mean to attack with fire?" Neither Feng Jing nor Xin Ke were particularly fond of Tian Yi, who had acknowledged him as his adoptive father. However, due to their relationship with Tian Yi, the two of them had to maintain a necessary level of respect in front of him, so every time they addressed him, they would vaguely say "you".

  Xue Sha nodded: "Not bad. The City Guard Mansion is an independent building, even if a big fire breaks out, it won't spread to other places. It's just that such a beautiful and magnificent City Guard Mansion is going to be destroyed like this, which is a bit of a pity."

  Feng Jing nodded in agreement, but secretly thought to himself: You're not really regretful. However, he also understood that this was the best way to resolve the issue, so he waved his hand and let his soldiers go prepare.

  When the raging fire broke out in the city's defense headquarters, Xike already understood that the situation was hopeless. However, he did not expect his opponent to be so ruthless, as a large fire not only reduced the entire defense headquarters to ashes but also buried nearly 10,000 soldiers under his command.

  Unlike his subordinates who fought to the death, Xike quietly sat in the grand hall of the defense headquarters and ended his life with a gentle knife. In the raging flames, the grand hall along with Xike's body was burned to charcoal, leaving only the gleaming command knife in front of him as proof of his extraordinary life.

  The plan to ambush Yelü Zhaochang also fell through. No one expected that Yelü Zhaochang would be so cunning, and as soon as he sensed something was off, he immediately abandoned his soldiers and fled. This couldn't help but make Xue Sha and the others feel regretful. However, their troops lying in wait outside the city were not without gain. By almost noon, Huan Tianying, Xi Yuanyan, and Luo Xiang, who were originally still in Dingzhou and Kezhou, all arrived at Yan Prefecture.

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