Chapter 566: Descend on Guangning and Confront Yu Wen Tao |
"The two major battles at Bone-Erosion Path—Caiqiu's army of two hundred thousand, over half of them were Garrison Guard soldiers, all with strength above ten zong. That's the core reason why the losses were so heavy in the first battle on the southern side!"
Hou Bing was currently working together with Yuwen Yong to deal with Cai Yunzhou. The famously titled Sword Saint of Caiqiu was truly extraordinary in strength. If the two of them didn't join forces to contain him and allowed Cai Yunzhou to charge into the army formations below, while it wouldn't be enough to reverse the current battle situation, causing heavy casualties among the Xia troops' soldiers would be effortless.
Of course, his and Yuwen Yong's goal was only containment; killing him was definitely impossible.
So, while containing Cai Yunzhou, Hou Bing had been constantly using his peripheral vision to observe the battle situation below. Seeing the twenty thousand Xia troops on the northern side advancing triumphantly all the way, killing deep into the heart of the Caiqiu army formation, his expression immediately relaxed.
At the same time, he also figured out the reason why the losses of the Xia troops in the southern side battle at Bone-Erosion Path two nights ago far exceeded previous ones.
The Garrison Guard soldiers of the Four Feudatories all had strength above ten zong. Currently, in Great Xia, only the two designated armies, Cloud Python and Dragon Slayer, plus the Dragon Garrison Captain unit had this level of strength. As for the rest, even top-ranked forces like Dragon Slayer and Tiger Leopard had average soldier strength only above six zong.
It must be known that in the southern side battle, over half of Caiqiu's two hundred thousand strong army were Garrison Guard soldiers, surpassing Great Xia by far in individual soldier strength alone.
Fortunately, Great Xia was the defending side, plus Yuwen Tao had urgently transferred over a hundred thousand Digging Realm cultivators for support. Moreover, the Lord Leader was present, and the fourteen Beast Emperor puppets were also there. Otherwise, whether they could have held that night was truly uncertain.
As for the seventy thousand strong army garrisoned at Guangningshan, previously he hadn't dared to send scouts for close observation. Now that they had fought their way in, a general perception revealed that the soldiers' strength was mostly above six zong, with a small portion even below six zong.
"They are absolutely cobbled together! The level of their battle formations is far inferior to the Caiqiu armies that participated in the two major battles at Bone-Erosion Path! Heaven itself is helping us, hahahaha..."
Like Hou Bing, Yuwen Yong was also observing the battle situation below. Seeing the Caiqiu army being pushed back step by step, his own forces having cut through the camp from the northern side and already converging with Hou Bing's eastern forces, while the over ninety thousand rebels on both flanks had completely scattered the Caiqiu army, he couldn't help but let out an excited, hearty laugh.
Yuwen Yong's laughter instantly pierced through the entire battlefield.
Caiqiu had at least over twenty Sun Manifestation Level experts, but facing tens of thousands, after fighting for a while, they could only ascend to the sky to evade.
Even ascending wasn't necessarily safe, because from the rear, the Xia troops' Divine Machine Crossbows had been quietly set up and were continuously firing rapidly at them.
"Hahahaha..."
To Cai Yunzhou, Yuwen Yong's laughter sounded extremely grating. His face flushed red, and he executed his Restraining Heaven Sword Art to its utmost limit. His killing intent towards Yuwen Yong and Hou Bing had already surged to its peak.
Clang...
Unfortunately, despite his sword edge hitting Yuwen Yong and the other countless times, even destroying their armor until it was almost gone, no matter what, he just couldn't break through the skin membrane beneath their armor, let alone the flesh, blood, and bones further down.
"This Cai Yunzhou's strength is at least above twenty-eight jun. If not for the Dragon Molt soft armor, even joining forces, we probably wouldn't be his match!"
Yuwen Yong glanced at the Dragon Molt soft armor beneath his damaged armor, his brow slightly furrowed.
His base strength was only seven jun. Even counting his Sacred Mark and Martial Arts, he could at most unleash around twelve jun of power. Hou Bing was even weaker, with a base strength of only five jun.
In a direct confrontation, even with the Dragon Molt soft armor, he and Hou Bing combined were no match for Cai Yunzhou. But at this moment, the Xia troops were advancing with irresistible force. The two only sought to contain Cai Yunzhou and naturally wouldn't engage him head-on. Instead, they positioned themselves in the low-altitude area, using the giant crossbow bolts fired by the Divine Machine Crossbows and the assistance of low-altitude soldiers to constantly harass Cai Yunzhou, preventing him from affecting the battle situation below.
Naturally, Great Xia had mobilized more than just the two of them at the Sun Manifestation Level for this battle. Lu Yin, Hou Ying, Zhang Qingyuan, Meng Yi, Hong Guang, and others were all present. Like them, these people also didn't go all out to fight Caiqiu's Sun Manifestation Level experts, merely interfering with them to deny them the chance to enter the main battlefield below.
Originally, a camp raid should seek a quick victory.
But the current situation was precisely the opposite.
Caiqiu, being certain that Great Xia wouldn't continue northward, simply hadn't dispatched any more troops. So, these seventy thousand troops garrisoned at Guangningshan had absolutely no external reinforcements.
Great Xia, however, was different. All Xia troop soldiers knew that the main Xia forces were currently stationed at Valley Village, fifteen kilometers to the south. So, the longer the fight dragged on, the more advantageous it was for them.
The Lord Leader had probably already received the news and was watching from the sky right now.
Thinking of this, the Xia troop soldiers naturally fought with even greater fervor.
In contrast, the Caiqiu soldiers, on one hand, saw their army formations collapsing wildly; on the other hand, they also knew the Xia main forces were nearby. So, as time slowly passed, their hearts grew increasingly desperate, their fighting spirit dissipating at a nearly visible rate.
"Guangningshan is also going to be lost..."
Despair now dominated Cai Yunzhou's heart as well. Watching the miserable state of the Caiqiu army, a grayish-white flash appeared in his pupils, as if he could already see the scene of his uncle, Cai Qiuhu, flying into a rage.
……………
"What is the crime for dispatching troops without the Commander-in-Chief's order?"
While the battle below raged like a blazing fire, no one noticed that high in the sky above Guangningshan, over a dozen figures had already quietly arrived.
Xia Hong looked down at the greatly victorious Xia troops below, yet little joy could be seen on his face. Even frowning slightly, he turned his head and softly asked Yuwen Tao behind him a question.
Hearing this question, Yuwen Tao's heart immediately skipped a beat. After a moment of thought, he clasped his hands and replied, "Reporting to the Lord Leader, this subordinate assigned Hou Bing twenty thousand troops. The order given to him was to guard the Caiqiu prisoners of war. Before dispatching troops for this battle, he sent someone to report to me, saying he wanted to lead ten thousand troops to clear the area around the prisoner camp.
As for Yuwen Yong, the twenty thousand troops under his command were assigned to him by me after the battle at the northern side of the valley mouth ended the night before last. At that time, the order I gave him was to mop up the Caiqiu routed troops after the battle. Before attacking Guangningshan, he also sent an envoy to report, saying the routed troops had fled to the Guangningshan area, and he wanted to lead troops to pursue and eliminate them.
This subordinate never expected these two to be so bold, daring to attack the Guangningshan camp with only thirty thousand troops. The fault does not lie with these two; it is truly this subordinate's negligence. I beg the Lord Leader to punish me!"
Yuwen Tao was genuinely a bit bewildered at this moment.
He truly hadn't expected that Hou Bing, eager for merit, would play word games with him, but he never thought his elder brother Yuwen Yong would also deceive him.
Who could have imagined that these two, leading thirty thousand troops and coordinating with over ninety thousand rebels, would dare to attack Guangningshan without authorization.
Of course, the result now was good.
Guangningshan had already been taken, and judging by the battle situation below, the losses were definitely within acceptable limits. So, there were two ways to interpret the culpability of these two.
One was to handle it strictly by the book, ignoring their military achievements, and punish them for disobeying military orders, which would be quite severe.
The other was to handle it lightly. Hou Bing only allocated ten thousand troops to attack Guangningshan, leaving ten thousand to guard the prisoner camp, and indeed no issues arose there. Yuwen Yong had informed him before the battle that he was coming to clear out the routed troops around Guangningshan. So strictly speaking, neither had disobeyed military orders.
Since they hadn't disobeyed orders and had achieved such a great merit, they naturally deserved rewards for their achievements.
Of course, which interpretation prevailed mainly depended on the Lord Leader's attitude.
'What is the crime for dispatching troops without the Commander-in-Chief's order?'
Xia Hong's question seemed to have already indicated his attitude. But Yuwen Tao keenly sensed that although Xia Hong's expression was stern, his tone didn't carry much anger.
So, he chose to gamble, taking the blame upon himself to speak a few words on behalf of Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong. However, not knowing exactly what Xia Hong's attitude was, his heart was naturally extremely uneasy.
As for Xia Hong, after hearing Yuwen Tao's words, his eyebrows raised slightly. Looking down at the fierce battle nearing its end below, his originally stern expression gradually relaxed.
Hou Bing aside, there was still Yuwen Yong down there. It was inevitable that Yuwen Tao would actively speak up for these two.
Xia Hong had already figured out Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong's motives for initiating the battle during his flight from Valley Village.
Great Xia's current scale was too large.
The internal factional divisions and proliferation of power blocs had become much more severe compared to a few years ago. While he certainly didn't welcome such a situation, he clearly understood it was unavoidable.
Since it couldn't be avoided, he could only accept it.
How to balance these different factions, keeping them in a state of mutual competition while better serving Great Xia, was what he needed to consider.
Hou Bing was only the Commander-in-Chief of the Feipeng Army. Yuwen Yong was only the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Dragon Slayer Army, additionally holding the concurrent position of five-battalion general of the Jinyang allied army. With their authority levels, they couldn't fully command their respective twenty thousand troops.
Great Xia's military regulations stipulated that soldiers must act according to the Commander-in-Chief's orders. So unless under special circumstances, orders were typically relayed down through the chain of command to reach every soldier's ears.
In other words, the thirty thousand Xia troops currently attacking Guangningshan actually knew what they were doing.
In other words, they were willingly following Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong in gambling on this.
"The soldiers all desire to earn merit, but the war with Caiqiu is about to end. Worried they'll be sidelined, that there won't be such large-scale battles later, so even under the pressure of possibly being reprimanded by me, they dared to fight this battle..."
After mentally reconstructing the soldiers' mindset, Xia Hong revealed a slight smile. Then, looking at Yuwen Tao, he slowly said, "So that's how it is. Since the two did not disobey military orders and successfully captured Guangningshan, they naturally have merit and no crime. However..."
Given Yuwen Tao's character, he definitely wouldn't lie to him to shield these two. So this incident was most likely Hou Bing instigating Yuwen Yong to jointly play a trick on Yuwen Tao.
With things having developed to this point, Yuwen Tao, as the Department Head of the Military Department overseeing Great Xia's military affairs, naturally had to strongly protect his two subordinates. If he, as the Lord Leader, disregarded Yuwen Tao's position, Yuwen Tao's authority as Department Head would likely be difficult to maintain in the future when governing the military.
However, saying nothing at all wouldn't do either.
Yuwen Yong and Hou Bing this time seized upon Caiqiu's assumption that Xia troops wouldn't continue fighting, launching this surprise attack. They gambled correctly. If not reprimanded, in the future, other generals, greedy for merit, might start blindly imitating them. They couldn't possibly gamble correctly every time, right?
The battlefield situation changes in the blink of an eye. Expecting commanders to follow orders to the letter, acting strictly according to commands, was certainly unrealistic. Yet military affairs were matters of great importance to the state. Gambling casually meant treating soldiers' lives as a joke, which would absolutely bring no benefit to Great Xia's future.
The key was to find a balance between looseness and strictness!
Having decided on reprimanding, Xia Hong's tone naturally began to lower again as he continued, "However, although Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong are not guilty, you, as the Commander-in-Chief of the Left Route Army, were completely unaware of your subordinates' movements. If not for the scouts' report, you'd probably still be in the dark about the situation at Guangningshan.
'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.' If you can't even manage your own subordinates properly, you will suffer great losses in the future.
This crime must be punished. You are hereby punished to oversee the construction of Guangning City. This year, you will garrison here, fully responsible for defending against Caiqiu!"
Hearing this, a bitter expression immediately appeared on Yuwen Tao's face.
This punishment wasn't severe, but its impact on him was not small.
First, since Xia Hong had defined him as guilty, his Year-End Evaluation this year would definitely be affected. The Year-End Evaluation for the Department Head level, with different grades of awards, often differed by millions of Contribution Points. Even he cared deeply about that.
Second, garrisoning here for a year meant he would definitely have no part in the war with Chencang. In other words, his opportunity to earn merit in this round of major battles basically ended here.
Xia Hong originally intended to cease hostilities with Caiqiu. Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong rushing to capture Guangningshan had clearly made Xia Hong somewhat unhappy. So for many years to come, he probably wouldn't go to war with Caiqiu.
Also, not being able to return to Xia City for a year meant he would definitely lose his spot for the Martial Arts Pavilion. For someone at his stage, missing even one session at the Martial Arts Pavilion was a loss.
As for the final point, he sensed a strong tone of reprimand in Xia Hong's words.
The little schemes of Hou Bing and Yuwen Yong couldn't even fool him, let alone the Lord Leader. These factional struggles had clearly made the Lord Leader somewhat unhappy, hence using this opportunity to reprimand him.
"After this matter concludes, I must have a good talk with elder brother. He can't recklessly yield to others' instigation anymore. Hou Bing gambled because the Longbei Faction lost power, but my Mirror Valley Faction simply has no such need. Yuan Cheng and others wanting to persuade the Department Chancellor to have Xu Ning replace me as the Military Department Head is simply overestimating themselves. I didn't attain this position relying on the Department Chancellor!"
Yuwen Tao thought very clearly. Whether he could hold onto the position of Military Department Head depended entirely on Xia Hong's attitude. Its connection with Xia Chuan was actually not significant at all.
He and Xia Chuan were in competition. Although Xia Chuan, as the Department Chancellor, was nominally the leader of the eight department chiefs, deep down, he had never truly submitted to him.
So, even knowing Yuan Cheng and others were targeting him, wanting Xu Ning to replace him, he had never panicked.
As long as the Lord Leader still trusted him and recognized his abilities, he wouldn't lose his position as Military Department Head.
But now, Xia Hong's reprimand served as a warning to him.
He could vaguely sense a bit of crisis.
"The war with the two feudatories should soon be nearing its end. The camp's scale will suddenly increase, and power will inevitably undergo a reshuffle. At this critical juncture, no mishaps can occur. Elder brother, and everyone else in the Mirror Valley Faction, must start to be strictly restrained!"