Chapter 185 Battle of Liyang - Part 15

Chapter 185 – Battle of Liyang - Part 15

Tong snapped out of his thought and looked at Xu Huang.

"Go and tell everyone. Prepare to retreat to Liyang City. They should begin retreating tonight. As for the weaponry, I'll transport them to the city myself."

Xu Huang looked at Tong in confusion. They had the advantage here, why would his lord order a retreat?

"I know what you're thinking. Do what I said."

"Y-Yes, sir!"

...

That night, Tong's troops withdrew back to garrison inside Liyang City. Tong took the duty as the cleaner as he stored all weaponry into his [Inventory], such as catapults, ballistae, trebuchets, spike barricades, and ammunition.

The retreat decision made the soldiers questioned Tong's judgment as they had the advantage on the battlefield, yet Tong went against it.

"Is our commander inept?"

"We had the better ground, right?"

Xu Huang kept his mouth shut. He did not gossip with his friends as the others did. However, because of his position as Tong's personal messenger, his friends bothered him a lot.

"Do you know anything?"

"You were with him all the time. Has he discovered something?"

Xu Huang was helpless. After an hour of nonstop interrogating from his friends, he blurted out by accident.

"There's a messenger from Ye City. The Lord read the letter and ordered the retreat after that."

The leaked intel spread throughout the footmen in an instant. More gossips and rumors also appeared.

"Something happens in Ye City. The Lord might order a full retreat."

"Someone attacked Ye City, so the Lord plans a retreat."

Many false rumors also appeared, which caught the ears of Tong in the same night which he ordered the retreat. Tong shook his head as he was amazed by the imagination of his men.

'Managing a real army is more difficult than I thought. Just one slip, the morale of my troops sinks to the ground again.'

'But it's fine this way. Once all of them crossed the river, I can use that grease fire tactic without worries.'

Tong did not dare to use the grease fire tactic he did with Huangfu Song and Zhu Jun camp during their first encounter. The flame and the impact of grease fire might cause another forest fire and spread southward toward Puyang region. He did not want to implicate the ordinary citizens or peasants because of this battle again.

However, if Zhu Jun moved his camp to the north bank, Tong could burn everything on the northern shore at his heart content as the flame would not spread to the other side of the river.

…

…

October 21st.

Zhu Jun woke up with a burning fever. He had diarrhea a couple of days ago because his men accidentally replaced his water jar with raw water from the river, and he began having a fever since then. His body was sluggish as he could not force himself to get up from his bed. Thus, he decided to rest.

His peaceful rest did not last long. A messenger rushed into his tent to give Zhu Jun an urgent report.

"Report! There's a movement on the opposite shore! The enemies have retreated!"

"What!?"

Zhu Jun sat up in disbelieved. The enemies had the advantage location. Why did they retreat?

"Have they gone yet?" Asked Zhu Jun.

"Yes, my lord. They seemed to have retreated last night."

Zhu Jun rushed out of his tent to the frontline. He could not believe this news until he saw it with his own eyes.

When he got to the riverside, he was stunned. All barricades, weaponry, flags, and all trace about the rebel army disappeared like a dream.

Zhu Jun's heart was beating three times a second because of the excitement. The enemies had made a major mistake!

Before Zhu Jun could open his mouth and gave his order to cross the river, he recalled the defeat he had the other day. His brain and his logic, which Zhu Jun gave up, came back. He suspected that this might also be a ploy of the rebels.

"Send a thousand men *Cough* to the other side! Scout the areas and report back to me when it's done! *Cough*"

…

Later that day.

The one thousand scouts surveyed the areas and returned with the reports. The rebels indeed withdrew back to Liyang City.

Zhu Jun was delighted, yet puzzled. He still could not come up with a theory why his enemies returned to the city. Then he thought about Liu Ping Army.

'Could it be that … Liu Ping changed his destination from Julu to Ye City?'

'There's a road from Shangdang to Ye. It is possible! If Liu Ping shows up at the border of Ye City, it's obvious that this army has to return to defend the city!'

The general clenched his fists. The time for the revenge was nigh.

"All troops! We cross the river today!"

…

…

October 22nd. Liyang City.

8 AM.

Tong watched his radar map in a bitter mood. He did his best to guard the river for half a month, but he had to retreat because he did not want to gamble in an all-out fight with Zhu Jun. Furthermore, Zhu Jun's cautiousness gave Tong a headache.

The reports from his scouts said it all. Zhu Jun had built several wide bridges, made of a thousand wooden rafts connected together.

The bridges still connected both sides of the river as Zhu Jun did not move his camp onto the northern bank. The only thing he did on this side was a fortification of a dozen outposts. The majority of his men crossed the river, but they could retreat to the other side any time they wanted to.

Zhu Jun learned his lesson. He did not want to be raided at night by a fire attack again. Therefore, he kept his camps at their original location. Set up several outposts on this shoreline as checkpoints to ward off skirmishers.

'Smart.' Tong praised Zhu Jun in his mind. 'But you also gave me many days. I have more boiling oil to spray on all of you!'

Tong abused the system again.

The system goddess said he could not cast [Create Food] as a weapon to kill the natives directly. However, she did not tell Tong that he could not kill the locals with his [Inventory].

Tong had also tested this loophole of Lilith's words with Zhu Jun's men on the day that Tong flushed the Imperial troops down the river. With this loophole, Tong decided to use [Create Food] to stock the boiling cooking grease in his [Inventory] for future use.

Furthermore, the barricades around the outer wall were more condensed. The spike fences were transported to the outer wall and were placed around the city. The catapults and other weaponry had been installed on the top of the wall and behind the wall.

In addition, Tong dug a line of a moat around the city using his Minecraft [Inventory] style. The stones and mud from the excavated soils were placed on top of the wall as extra boulders from his men to use.

Lastly, Tong had another trump card he had never used, but it would be the most effective "Sorcery" that he could use to crush Zhu Jun in this siege battle.

He averted his eyes from the radar map to a lamp in front of him.

'It's getting colder every day, so I'll do you a favor.'

'I'll warm you to death!'

…

Meanwhile, Zhu Jun got several reports, said that his men got a high fever recently. Some of them had severe diarrhea and vomiting. A few of them had red dots under their skins.

The general himself also had red dots "rash" all over his body. Because he did not feel any itch or pain from the rash, Zhu Jun ignored it. He only drank herbal tea and chew wild herbs to ease his fever.

Because of the spreading sickness in the camp, the Imperial Army to take it easy and rested. They took another three days to craft more siege weapons, siege towers, and siege ladders.

...

October 25th.

The preparation was ready, and Zhu Jun's fever got better today. He ordered the troops to lay siege on Liyang City today.

Hundreds of siege towers and weaponry were pushed forward. The one hundred thousand men slowly surround the city from three directions, south, east, and west.

They left the north gate alone as Zhu Jun did not mind if Tong were to flee the city to the north. As long as he pushed the rebel army back to Ye City, he could complete his primary objective. However, if he could kill the rebel leader, it would be better.

Moreover, Zhu Jun played another mind game by using Sun Tzu's tactic. There was a saying in Sun Tzu's record text, "When you surround an army, leave an outlet free. Do not press a desperate foe too hard."

He was afraid that if he were to push to rebel army to a corner, they would fight against his army to the death and would cause more casualties. However, if he left an opening, it would feed the rebel soldiers a thought that they could leave this army or abandon their posts to save their skins.

The Imperial first detached force of 35,000 men moved to the east, while the other 35,000 men moved to the west. Zhu Jun took charge sieging the south gate with the remaining 43,000 men.

On top of the Liyang City walls, Tong and his 15,000 men stationed at the south gate. Xu Huang, who was forced into the assistant commander position, was in charge of the east gate with 20,000 men. As for the west, a no-name assistant commander took 20,000 men to protect the wall.

The general gazed toward the gate and the barricades in solemn.

There was obstruction everywhere. There was a line of the moat on the front of all barricade lines, which blocked the path of Zhu Jun's siege ladders and siege towers.

'It won't be easy. But it won't be too hard. I've dealt with these types of barricades before, so nothing to worry about.' Zhu Jun thought.

…

Noon.

The preparation on Zhu Jun's side was completed. Siege towers and siege ladders were in place.

The siege ladders were a tower of protected ladders. The soldiers could climb the ladder safely from the inside. The top of the siege ladders was a mechanic large wooden plank that could latch onto the top of the wall to create a bridge for the soldiers inside the tower to go through.

The siege towers worked differently. They were high towers for archer units so that they could shoot down the troops on top of the wall.

Zhu Jun's knowledge and experience were much more superior to all generals that Tong had fought in the past.

"Blow the horns. Signal the assault."

Zhu Jun did not bother sending a messenger, rally his troops, or trying to taunt the enemy's general. A rare chance to fight back had appeared, and he wanted to grasp it.

First lines of five thousand shield bearers moved forward with their shields cover their front. Before the shieldsmen, several wagons with soils were pushed forward as they had to cover the trenches and the moat.