Chapter 78 The conflict (1)
Li Youde had just staggered and didn’t fall on his stomach. If it was otherwise, Chen Hui felt that he might’ve killed everyone present. The swaying of his small body was nothing at all in front of the upcoming battle. After being stabilized by Chen Hui who was close to him, he just glanced at her with lingering fear. Then, he sped up and continued to walk forward.
Chen Hui glanced back once. Those enemies from the Xi tribe had already been blocked out of her line of sight by the wall, but the impression of those people was still left in her mind. She couldn’t see what was from afar but there were many details on the nearby corpses. The members of the Xi tribe were obviously not farmers. Almost all of them were sturdy and they wore fur clothing. Some wore a body armor, but they were not many. And those horses were fairly tall and robust.
Confronting the defense of a city with flesh and blood was really almost the same as sending yourself to death.
Li Youde returned to his temporary residence but the anxiety on his face didn’t fade for a moment. From time to time, he sent people to go inquire about the situation and report the situation to him. Chen Hui received a bit of advantage through contact with Li Youde and was able to hear a lot.
Seven to eight thousand Xi people attacked the city this time, but the offense was not fierce. The original city defense would be more than enough, not to mention that there are more reinforcements now. Moreover, the besiege of the city by the Xi tribe was only focused in one direction. It saved the soldiers from allocating to other places of the city to defend it. It would be fine as long as they monitor the movements of the remaining city gates.
At first, Chen Hui waited for each report with a bit of excitement, but she felt tired soon and sat there waiting for the end of the battle. The mood of the people on the battlefield at this moment was definitely different from hers, but she could see that this offense might be overcome without even the slightest surprise. So over time, the previous excitement slowly turned into fatigue.
About four hours later, the last wave of the report said that the Xi people had retreated temporarily and Jianbei City had been defended.
Li Youde’s original worried face suddenly glowed with a rare brilliance like a dead tree in the spring. After he said very well, he got up and walked out.
Chen Hui immediately followed.
The group returned to the battlefield where they had fled from before. The soldiers in the city were cleaning the battlefield. To prevent the enemy from coming back, they also seized the time when they went out of the city to collect the corpses of their own soldiers. The corpses of the Xi fighters were stacked as before. Presumably, they wouldn’t be able to clean up completely until the end of the war.
Li Youde was very careful when he stepped on the wall of the city. He first looked into the distance and saw that he could no longer see any shadow of the Xi clan. Only then was he completely relieved and looked around. Seeing that deputy general Gong was nearby, he beckoned for him to come over and asked, “How many people went to pursue?”
Deputy general Gong was dumbstruck and said, “Answering lord, no one went to pursue.”
Li Youde was surprised, “Just let people run away like that?”
“As the saying goes, don’t chase the cornered enemy. Sir Lang thinks that there may be an ambush…,” Deputy general Gong said.
“Ambush? Aside from don’t chase the cornered enemy, there is also a saying that said taking advantage of a victory to pursue the attack. If we don’t take the initiative to fight, how long are we going to fight this battle?” Li Youde’s face turned cold and he was obviously dissatisfied.
“This…,” Deputy general Gong didn’t want to argue with Li Youde. He replied, “Lord Li, this is sir Lang’s order…He is having a meeting over there now. So, why don’t you go over and talk to him?”
“Humph,” Li Youde knew that it was useless to talk to a small deputy general Gong. He went down the wall of the city.
Lang Yu’s and his group’s position were well within grasp. They were in a small room a few hundred meters away from the city wall. No one dared to stop Li Youde when he walked in. Chen Hui walked behind him without a word and went in. She was already mentally prepared. Li Youde was sure to cause trouble this time. She must be watching at a side!
Seeing Li Youde come in, Lang Yu and the others stopped the discussion and looked over.
Lang Yu’s bearing was calm, but the rest of the people more or less had contempt for Li Youde. He fled the battlefield. They saw that. They originally just treated him as someone who was not a man nor a woman and didn’t have many expectations for him. They also didn’t feel that surprised that he ran away.
The moment Li Youde came, he said, “Sir Lang, the strength of the Xi people is not strong. Why not take advantage of the victory this time?”
Lang Yu raised his hands slightly to restrain a few generals who were beginning to get stirred up. He said gently, “Lord Li, when the Xi people retreated, their formation was scattered and not disorderly. They didn’t flee from defeat. Instead, it was a planned retreat. If we pursue the attack now, we would fall into their ambush. Our army has few cavalries. When we reach an expansive area and their cavalries assaulted us, it would be sufficient to mess up the formation of our side.”
Perhaps, it was because he was afraid that Li Youde would insist on making trouble without understanding the situation, Lang Yu explained clearly that Li Youde was not on the scene and didn’t see whether the enemy was fleeing or retreating. Naturally, Li Youde could only listen to Lang Yu, but it was impossible for him to leave the matter at that. He said, “Even so, did sir Lang never think about taking the initiative to attack?”
“I just said that our army is at a disadvantage when fighting the enemy on flat ground. If we rush the fight, the life of our best people would only be sacrificed!” Lang Yu still spoke in a calm and unhurried manner.
Li Youde sneered, “Didn’t sir Lang already read a lot of books about the art of war? Can’t you think of a better idea at this time? If you delay like this, one more day that you delay would be one more day of army provision. The money of the national treasure would be wasted in vain. If the emperor got to know about this, he will only think that sir Lang is incompetent!”
“You…,” Deputy general Xue was the first one who couldn’t stand it, but was restrained by a pull from deputy general Chu beside him.
Looking at Li Youde, Lang Yu said neither soft nor hard, “What wise idea does Lord Li have?”
“I don’t dare to say that it is a wise idea, but it is not like there is no other way,” The arc at the corner of Li Youde’s mouth showed a bit of complacency, “Didn’t lord Lang say that the horses of the Xi people are powerful? It is so simple, send someone to sneak into the Xi people’s camp and release the horses. What more tricks could they play by then?”
When Chen Hui heard Li Youde’s method, she remembered a set of manhuas about Japanese girls who had time-traveled that she had read. During a war, the heroine of the manhua pretended to be a prostitute and sneaked into the enemy’s military camp with a group of prostitutes. The woman went in and freed the horses with her friends, but they were unfortunately caught by the enemy’s soldiers while freeing the horses and were almost raped.
Chen Hui looked at Li Youde’s confident appearance and felt that his military tactics on paper were indeed strong. However, the reality was too far from the ideal. For example, how do they sneak in? Is the Xi military camp such an easy place to sneak into? If it was so easy to enter, wouldn’t it be better to leave the horses alone and instead burn the army provisions or poison the food and drinking water?
Seeing the contempt that the others revealed because of Li Youde’s words, Chen Hui who was laughing at Li Youde’s plan, was unhappy in her heart.
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