Liu Kaide stood on the city wall and looked at the army outside the city. Although the army came from afar, their formation was still in chaos. Moreover, when they arrived, they immediately set up camp and stood guard. Everything was done in an orderly manner. Even if the enemy wanted to sneak attack, they wouldn't be able to do so.
Liu Kaide sighed, then he said, "Can we be sure that the flood was caused by Zhao Hai?"
Standing beside Liu Kaide was Chai Lingde. Chai Lingde nodded and said, "Right, we can be sure that it was caused by Zhao Hai. I sent people to investigate after the flood. There were a lot of stones and giant trees in the flood. Moreover, these things had traces of being processed. In other words, these things must have something to do with the flood." Chai Lingde's voice was filled with hatred. He really hated Zhao Hai. He didn't think that Zhao Hai would be this ruthless. The flood caused hundreds of thousands of soldiers to disappear. Now, they only had less than a hundred thousand soldiers left. And this number was made up from all over the place.
Liu Kaide nodded, then he pointed to the army outside the city and said, "There's no need to talk about anything else. From the way the army set up camp, we can see that Zhao Hai is a person who understands his troops. This time, we've met our match."
Chai Lingde coldly said, "Sooner or later, I will cut off Zhao Hai's head. I will."
Liu Kaide looked at Chai Lingde and didn't say anything. At this time, Chai Lingde's mind was filled with anger. Whatever Liu Kaide said to Chai Lingde, Chai Lingde wouldn't listen. For a military commander, this wasn't a good thing.
Liu Kaide didn't have much confidence in defeating Zhao Hai. From what happened before, it can be seen that Zhao Hai was a very difficult opponent to deal with. Liu Kaide didn't have a lot of troops in his hands. Although he had the geographical advantage, it was almost impossible for him to block Zhao Hai's army. Moreover, Liu Kaide also discovered that Zhao Hai rarely fought head-on. He would always think of ways to turn unfavorable situations to his advantage. When fighting against such an enemy, it was best not to have any tricks up your sleeves. Because of this, the best way to deal with such an enemy was to make yourself stronger.
But now, they were at a disadvantage. Whether it was in terms of numbers, equipment, or even morale, they were at a disadvantage. And this low morale wasn't formed in a day or two. After two big defeats, the morale slowly declined. Liu Kaide didn't have any good way to improve this situation in a short time.
In fact, Liu Kaide also knew that the best way to improve morale was to win a few battles. This way, the morale would slowly recover. However, Liu Kaide was very clear that he couldn't be anxious. If he was in a hurry to win the battle and attack, then it would only backfire. He might be used by the enemy. When that time comes, not to mention winning the battle, defeat would be certain.
And if he was defeated at this time, then it would be over. Morale would be even lower, and there might even be a danger of losing control of the army. Therefore, Liu Kaide didn't want to take any risks at this time. He just wanted to hold the current line of defense.
Liu Kaide's current position was very special. Although this was the hinterland of Nanhui City, it could also be regarded as a line of defense. There were a total of five cities here. These five cities weren't very big, but they could be regarded as strong cities. Each city only had about 20 thousand defenders. However, the city had enough provisions. Moreover, there were transmission formations as well as wells in the city. Moreover, the five cities were divided into two rows. The front row had three cities while the back row had two cities. If you want to bypass these five cities, then the people in the five cities might come out and attack your rear.
If you want to attack these five cities, then the transmission formations of these five cities wouldn't be much different from a city-state. If you attack one city, then the other four cities would come to support you. If you attack all five cities, then your army would be scattered. Although the number of defenders in each city was small, the city walls were very strong. There were also a lot of defensive equipment. Therefore, it wouldn't be easy to break through this line of defense.
At this time, Zhao Hai was also sitting in the command tent, listening to Liu Hong's report. At the same time, the sand table that Liu Hong made was also present. The number of their army was less than 600 thousand. This was because Zhao Hai left 50 thousand people to deal with the matters in Huan River City. If Huan River City wasn't dealt with, then more people would die.
When Liu Hong finished talking about the five cities, Zhao Hai couldn't help but say, "Good, it's really good. The person who arranged this line of defense has some ability. Five city-states, one line of defense. Very good. What do you think?"
Everyone knew Zhao Hai's habits. When Zhao Hai asked for their opinion, it meant that he wanted to listen to them. If they were right, then Zhao Hai would certainly take action.
One of the generals said, "Although these five cities aren't very big, they're very sturdy. It won't be easy to deal with them. If we bypass them, then we'll be leaving a sword in our back. Who knows when they'll come and kill us. This will only make things more troublesome."
Everyone nodded. They also thought that this matter wouldn't be easy to deal with. The five cities weren't far from each other. Whether it was through the transmission formation, sending reinforcements to the city, or directly going out of the city to cooperate with the battle, all of these were possible. This would only make things more difficult for Zhao Hai.
Zhao Hai nodded as well. Then he said, "These five cities are very good. Moreover, I heard that the ordinary residents have been driven out of the city. Moreover, all of them have fled. These five cities have become the military strongholds of the Five Prefectures. Because of this, it would be very difficult to capture them."
Everyone nodded, then Zhao Hai looked at them and said, "Moreover, we can't waste too much time here. Although we have achieved two victories and destroyed nearly a million troops of the Holy Courtyard, the Holy Courtyard still has several dozen city-states under their control. Moreover, some of them are large city-states. In this case, it wouldn't be difficult for the Holy Courtyard to organize an army. Perhaps they would be able to organize an army of several hundred thousand. For us, this isn't good news. What do you think?" Zhao Hai nodded, then he looked at them and said, "Also, we can't delay here for too long.
What do you think? "Chen Yonghe said," We must break through this defensive line in the shortest time possible. If there's no other way, then we can only disregard the casualties and attack. "
When everyone heard Chen Yonghe, they couldn't help but stare. They have been following Zhao Hai for some time. They knew that Zhao Hai liked to use the least casualties to achieve the greatest results. Now that Chen Yonghe said that they would attack regardless of casualties, they were surprised. At the same time, they were also worried that Chen Yonghe would be blamed by Zhao Hai for this proposal.
But what they didn't expect was that Zhao Hai didn't get angry after hearing about this barrier. Instead, he nodded and said, "Speed is the most important thing in war. Sometimes, in order to achieve a quick victory, casualties are necessary."
Everyone stared for a moment, then they couldn't help but nod. Zhao Hai looked at them and said, "Our opponent this time isn't simple. This defensive line is very well arranged. If we delay here for too long, then the Holy Academy would just gather more troops. This isn't a good thing for us. Therefore, we need to capture this defensive line as soon as possible." Zhao Hai nodded and said, "Alright.
Everyone didn't speak. No general would like to fight head-on in a siege. This was equal to using the lives of one's soldiers in exchange for victory. No successful general would want to do this.
Zhao Hai looked at them, then he smiled faintly and said, "Everyone doesn't need to worry about casualties. In fact, our lightning formation hasn't been exposed yet. Even if the enemy knows about our lightning formation, they wouldn't know much about it. Most importantly, we still have our barrier formation. With the ballistas, catapults, and the lightning formation, sieging the city wouldn't be too difficult." Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, "Everyone, you don't need to worry about casualties.
Upon hearing Zhao Hai, everyone couldn't help but stare. Then their expressions changed before they couldn't help but laugh. Just like what Zhao Hai said, they had a lot of good things in their hands. If they use them to attack a city, then the enemy wouldn't be able to stop them.
Zhao Hai replied, "We can't fall into the enemy's trap, we can't divide our forces. If we divide our forces, it wouldn't be easy for us to capture a city. Although it seems that we have five times the number of the enemy, there's still a difference between dividing our forces and concentrating our forces. If we divide our forces, it would be equivalent to using 100 thousand people to attack a city defended by 20 thousand people. Although it looks good, the enemy only needs to send 10 thousand people to defend the city while the other 10 thousand can rest. On the other hand, every time we attack a city, we would need to send at least 50 thousand people. Even so, the number of people we have isn't enough. This way, the enemy can take turns to rest while we don't have enough people to attack the city. It would be very difficult for us to capture a city like this."
At this point, Zhao paused for a moment, then continued, "If we concentrate our forces, then we can put in a hundred thousand people in one attack. And because the enemy is in the city, they won't be able to put in a lot of troops, at most ten to twenty thousand people. This will give us a big advantage. So we must concentrate our forces and attack one city. Then the enemies in other cities will send reinforcements, or they will send troops to harass us. This way, we might be able to achieve the effect of besieging the enemy and beating the reinforcements. This is what we want." Zhao nodded, then continued, "But if we concentrate our forces on attacking the city, then the enemy will send reinforcements to harass us.
That's what we want. "Everyone nodded. They didn't have any objections to Zhao Hai's decision. Zhao Hai looked at everyone and said," This time, we'll be attacking Nanyu City! "Then he pointed to one of the five cities on the left side of the frontline.
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