Chapter 184 Battle of Liyang - Part 14

Chapter 184 – Battle of Liyang - Part 14

The face of Zhu Jun turned red from anger. Desecrating the dead was a taboo that the native of this country despised. He coughed as he had a headache at the back of his head. He took a deep breath to calm down.

"I'll go and see it myself."

"M-My Lord, you should not!" One of the lieutenants jumped in front of Zhu Jun to stop him.

"Why are you stopping me?"

"M-My Lord, the corpses … are rotting. You will get sick again! Please remain here!"

The heads that Tong had his men threw over already emitted a rotting smell. These heads had been left alone for many days outside of Liyang City after the soldiers gathered them onto wagons and carts. Maggots and flies swarmed them like they were the feast.

Moreover, the southwest wind blew the odor of the decaying corpses toward Zhu Jun's men who stationed at further south, bringing germs and bacterias with by the air.

Zhu Jun subordinates were worried about this matter as they had enough basic knowledge to realize that the rebels were using a worm tactic. They wanted the Imperial Army to get sick!

Seeing the hysterical reaction of his men, Zhu Jun did not go against it.

"I see what those rebels are trying to do. Gather and burn all the corpses. Make sure that we boil our water supplies before we distribute them to our men."

After Zhu Jun declared that he would not go to the frontline, his subordinates were relieved. They returned to their platoons.

Even though Zhu Jun promised that he would not exert himself, he did not stop thinking about how he could cross the river. He exhaled out cold air from his lung from the desperation.

He saw the vapor of his breath. New inspiration struck him.

'If I fight using my logic, I will probably fail again since the enemies did not use logic, but sorcery.'

'Since it has come to this, we'll hit them with brute force! It's a dangerous gamble, but we have the number advantage. Let's see how you'll fare against my trained soldiers!'

'I'll force you to camp out here with us! If we suffer from the winter, you will suffer, too!'

…

…

Tong watched the reaction of the other side with a deep frown. He used the immoral practice in this war, the bio-weapon of germs and dead bodies, to taunt Zhu Jun and make his men sick. He was expecting Zhu Jun to appear on the frontline again, so he could tempt Zhu Jun into making a rash move so that Tong could wither down the Imperial force more.

However, Zhu Jun did not show up. His men collected the rotten heads and burnt them as if nothing had happened.

'Is it bad timing? Is Zhu Jun always immune to taunts?'

He looked back at the trebuchets. Tong had ordered everyone to burn the pouches, wagons, and the carts that used in this operation as germs and bacteria gathered on these items.

The soldiers also finished constructing spike barricades along the river. They set up catapults and ballistae behind the fences to shoot down any boat or raft that got into their range.

Because of the massive scale of this battle, the defensive shoreline was over a kilometer long. All 50,000 soldiers stationed on the first frontline without exception.

"Sir, they've burned all the corpses. What should we do?"

Xu Huang, who was transferred over as Tong's coordinate messenger, asked with worry. Aside from the prolonged war tactic, he did not understand what Tong tried to do.

Tong gave him a bitter smile and answered, "We defense the shoreline. Nothing else."

In reality, Tong also did not know what he should do next as Zhu Jun did not make any move. That general only had his men gathered woods to build ships, rafts, and other wooden crafts.

'Is he making a bridge or something? Why is he taking his time?'

'At this rate, he will suffer from the winter soon.'

'Heck, we'll also suffer from it. We're still on the shoreline like Zhu Jun!'

'Are they aiming for this?'

…

…

October 16th. Noon.

Zhu Jun did not make a move today as well. The Imperial army continued to craft more rafts and wooden shields.

The temperature outside dropped down to 10 degrees Celsius. Within Liyang County, the average temperature last month was 15 degrees to 20 degrees, which was warmer than the current weather condition.

Tong was expecting the temperature to decrease further in November. It should reach somewhere between 0 to 5 degrees at this location as the global warming effect had never happened here in this world. It would get worse in December to late January, as the last year, Tong and Hua Shi measured that it was minus 10 degrees around Julu during the months.

Tong spent today's quota of his [Create Food] to create more hot oils. However, he did not plan to use it on Zhu Jun's men. He saved them for his men to keep themselves warm.

He poured it onto several small stones and rocks around the camp to make them natural heaters for his men. Tong relieved the cold weather problems for his men for now as the "Cold War" between Zhu Jun and Tong continued.

…

October 20th.

The temperature got down by 2 degrees after the four days of the staring contest.

Zhu Jun Army still did not make any other progress other than collecting logs and woods. However, the result of the corpse tactic the other day started to display its result. The imperial soldiers, who touched the corpses, began coughing and sneezing. Over a thousand of them had a fever, but none of them rested as they thought that it was a simple cold because of the weather.

The Imperial Army was not the only one who suffered from the bioweapon, Tong Army also took a blow from it as they also came into contact with the rotten corpses.

Fortunately, he had sent messages to Hua Shi since the day he ordered the civilians executed. Because she had not been affected by the major nerf yet, she created over 100,000 anti-biotic tablets with her [Medical Gift] and sent them to Liyang City with the supply convoys.

The convoys arrived yesterday, which was a life saver for Tong and his men. They might not be completely cured of the infection yet, but they should fare better than Zhu Jun's men who took the blunt without a medicine.

...

Meanwhile, Tong got annoyed by Zhu Jun's idleness as he could have built another stone and mud wall if he had spent these four days minecrafting. Because of Tong's wariness of Zhu Jun, he monitored his radar map all day for the past few days without blinking his eyes.

'He's collecting more woods again. What is he thinking?'

While Tong was confused by Zhu Jun's action, Xu Huang came in to report.

"Sir, a messenger from Ye City has come to deliver you a letter. He said it was from Jia Xu."

Xu Huang passed Tong the letter. He read it right away.

[This is Jia Xu. I've learned about the results of your tactic and your current situation. I can only say, not too shabby for sir [Immortal].

Killing everyone in Liyang is good. It doesn't matter if your reputation (if you have any) gets worsened because of the slaughtering. Securing a strategic location is more important.

The retreat of Dong Zhuo is expected. About the deal you did with him, I've already told Ju Shou what to do even before he left, so you don't have to worry about it.

Unfortunately, I'm not sending you this letter to kiss your butt. You've made one mistake.

You're not supposed to block Zhu Jun's advancement alongside the river. You must withdraw to Liyang City when you can right now! From the looks of it, Zhu Jun plans to launch an all-out assault on your troops the moment he completed his bridges!

Get your ass back into the city when you can, or the moment you read this letter!

Remember, if you show up in Ye City again with your sorry ass and tell me you lost 55,000 men because you didn't listen to me, I'll quit my job!]

A smiling face of Tong darkened, and black lines appeared on his face. Jia Xu's tone was always insulting and crude. His savagery was also unnecessary on the part he mentioned about Tong's reputation.

'I'm wondering what will happen if he's my father. Will he scold me to death?'

'But why did he want me to retreat? We have the advantage position.'

'The weather is getting colder each day. I can camp here and freeze the enemies to death. I won't even surprise if the river suddenly turns into ice. When it snows, I bet it should be Zhu Jun who will lose his patience … wait.'

'Ice river?'

'...'

'FUDGE!'

Tong connected Jia Xu's advice with Zhu Jun's recent actions. The pieces of puzzles were put together, and he gained enlightenment. Tong knew what Zhu Jun was aiming for now.

He overlooked one fact about the temperature. It would not be surprising if the Yellow River were frozen in the winter. Zhu Jun was waiting for the river to freeze, so his men could use this chance to sneak onto the other side of the river from any location.

Furthermore, the wooden planks, sleds, and rafts Zhu Jun's men had made would become bridges for his soldiers to cross the river.

Zhu Jun made rafts and collected woods for a reason. Had the river frozen and Zhu Jun deployed the rafts and other wooden crafts to make bridges, Tong army would have been forced to fight an all-out war with Zhu Jun in an open field!

Besides, with the entire large scale of the battlefield, Tong could not command all his platoons as he did with his 5,000 cavalries. Many of Tong's men would have to improvise against these elites, which Tong's subordinates would lose.

'Then what if I use the boiling oil when they cross the river?'

Tong facepalmed. The idea was bad.

Tong might be able to kill some of Zhu Jun's troops with this method. Alas, he was the only one who could spray the oil from his inventory to the attacking soldiers. If he distributed the boiling oil to his soldiers, they could not splash at the incoming enemies as none of them could lift the heavy burning pots and splash its content onto the Imperial soldiers. Thus, there would be parts of the battlefields which his power could not reach, and the soldiers had to rely on their skills.

This plan guaranteed heavy casualties on both sides. It was a gamble that Tong did not want to take.

The fire arrows would not lit these woods easily as the weather was humid and cold. Had Tong dissolved the frozen river with his boiled oil, the river still would not have caught fire. The wooden rafts and bridges would have been soaked with hot water, yet they would not burn.

'But what if I boil the river before they cross so that I can ignite the fire?'

Tong smacked his forehead again. It was still a bad idea. Since the wind still blew southwest, the hot vapor would benefit Zhu Jun's men instead. Even if the bridge plan were to fail, they would not mind staying there until February. More warlords from other provinces would start deploying at this month and would attack Tong's cities while he was busy with Zhu Jun.

It turned out that it was Tong who was running out of times.

'I forgot another thing. Jia Xu said to annihilate the Imperial force, not dragging this war. I've misinterpreted it!'

'I have to finish this fight soon.'