Chapter 195
One hundred and fifty thousand soldiers were trampled to death on the narrow mountain road, and the scene was very tragic.
Wang Lang lay on the side, protected by his confidant. He watched everything happening in front of him with red eyes.
Looking at the scene of the soldiers fleeing, the confidant had only one thought in his mind: it's over. With such a disorganization, even if they were to gather together, I don't know if even half of them would be left intact.
The trusted subordinates looked at their military advisor with admiration. Fortunately, their advisor had been foresighted and split the 300,000-man army into two upon departure, placing the two armies ten miles apart to support each other. If he hadn't given the order to separate them, the consequences would have been disastrous. Imagine if 300,000 men were caught in this ambush, trampling on each other, and how many would remain. At least for now, half the force was saved.
Wang Lang did not feel relieved at this time. He just felt like vomiting blood. Half of the 150,000-strong army was gone in an instant. He was heartbroken.
The whole person murmured, "How cruel..."
In a secret place in the mountains, Pan Buyi, who was checking the results of the battle, was secretly regretting that Wang Lang suddenly divided the 300,000 troops into two groups after setting out, preventing them from achieving their goal in one battle.
After noticing that the mountains on both sides had finally stopped rolling down rocks, mud, sand, tree stumps, and other objects, Wang Lang pushed away his confidant who was protecting him and said, "I'm fine!"
Thanks to the efforts of the generals, the remaining troops were finally organized. A rough estimate of the casualties showed over 10,000 dead, 20,000 seriously injured or even unable to move, and 30,000 slightly wounded or with injuries. Of the 150,000 troops, only half remained intact.
The expedition was unsuccessful and the soldiers were all dejected.
Wang Lang looked up at the place where the explosion had just occurred. He planned to have his scouts climb up there to see if they could find anything. He didn't believe in the rumors that the mountain god had appeared and was angry.
"General Pan, are we still going to carry out our second plan?" the young general next to Pan Buyi asked quietly.
"What do you think?"
For this second plan, they invested countless manpower and resources to fill the reservoir, and even used up almost all the explosives in the Tianzi No. 1 warehouse. If they didn't proceed, what would happen if they kept the water in the reservoir for bathing?
Wang Lang felt something was amiss. If the landslide was indeed caused by the Yichun Legion, as he suspected, then a general skilled in military strategy would have taken advantage of the Yichun Legion's disarray to launch a counterattack, maximizing the outcome. Why didn't the other side do that?
Could it be that they were afraid of the 150,000-man army ten miles away? Wang Lang soon found out the reason.
Awooo——
A cry of an ape.
Rumble—the loud noise came again!
Wang Lang, who had just experienced a tragedy, looked towards the source of the sound. Not only him, but all the soldiers followed his gaze, looking towards the hilltop like frightened birds, their eyes full of panic.
Wang Lang didn't know a saying: Don't stay in a place where disaster has occurred for long.
In the blink of an eye, when they looked over, they saw a wave rushing down from a high place.
“It’s a flash flood!”
"Flash floods are coming, run!"
"Mom, help!"
“Woo woo—”
"It's too difficult. They are too difficult."
"Run to the high places on both sides, quickly!" Wang Lang shouted loudly as he ran.
The scene was very chaotic. Not many people heard Wang Lang's words, and even those who heard them could not react quickly.
Anyway, everyone at the scene was crying for their parents.
The road they took to go on the expedition was next to the Liao River.
Many of these imperial soldiers were swept directly into the Liao River by the water from the reservoir.
Wang Lang, clinging to a big tree, watched helplessly as countless soldiers were washed away by the waves.
After the waves passed, the road in the mountain stream was deserted, with only a few soldiers on both sides shivering like drowned rats after being washed by the waves.
Wang Lang's face turned grim. In just half an hour, 150,000 soldiers were wiped out? Even if it was just 150,000 pigs, it would take time for the other side to kill them, right?
In fact, the 150,000 troops were not completely wiped out. Instead, there were still a few thousand left, those on the highlands on both sides.
After all, the water in the reservoir is limited and cannot be flushed indefinitely. At the reminder of Wang Lang and others, some soldiers quickly ran to the high ground on both sides, and then hugged or grabbed the woods around them to withstand this wave of water, and then they stayed successfully.
At this time, Wang Lang didn't care about anything. After the water level obviously decreased, he quickly ran forward.
On the Liao River at that time, there were large ships, small boats, fishing boats, and even bamboo rafts. Several large flags were hung on the sails, with the characters "Yi", "Xing", "Pan", and "You" fluttering in the wind.
As Wang Lang rushed out, he heard the general on the ship standing on the deck loudly ask, "Daliang soldiers in the water, will you surrender?!"
The imperial soldiers, swept into the Liao River by the waves of the reservoir, were struggling in the water. When they heard the Youzhou general's question, they quickly replied, "Surrender! I am willing to surrender!"
"Hurry up and save me, I surrender!"
The sounds of surrender came one after another.
Satisfied, the captain on the ship heard the men in the water express their willingness to surrender one by one, and ordered the men to throw down a large amount of driftwood. After all, rescuing people takes time, and it's not like everyone can be rescued with a wave of the hand. Having a piece of driftwood to hang on to would also help keep these soldiers alive.
Sure enough, the imperial soldiers hurriedly crawled onto the nearest driftwood.
Next, the surrendered soldiers were quickly rescued by the enemy using bamboo poles, ropes and other items, and then tied up.
The court soldiers did not dare to object. Compared to being drowned, everything else was a minor problem.
Just like picking up fish, the Yichun soldiers picked up the imperial soldiers in the water one by one and put them on the boat. Once the boat was full, they sailed back to the shore, threw the people in, and then went to rescue others.
Wang Lang nearly vomited three liters of blood watching this scene. What else could he say? This was all a conspiracy and ambush by Yichun. He just didn't know if they had ambushed them on both the road to Houcheng and the road to Suihua, or just the one they were taking?
After setting out, he continuously sent out scouts to explore the route. If Yichun was going to build a large number of fortifications during this period, his scouts would not have failed to notice it. Unless, before he sent out waves of scouts, the enemy had already built the main fortifications.
Another point is that Yichun had ambushed two waves of troops here, and the fortifications must have been complex. The period from the court's decision to send troops to Youzhou again to his departure was not long enough for Yichun to build such complex fortifications on two roads at the same time.
If his speculation was correct, then it also meant that the enemy had anticipated his decision to attack Houcheng! That's why they were ambushing him there! The thought of this possibility filled him with utter horror. But was it even possible? He had only decided to attack Houcheng before the expedition. Could anyone really predict his decision?
Just when Wang Lang was feeling confused and uncertain, the leader of another team, General He Jing, arrived with a small group of troops.
The two armies were actually seven or eight kilometers apart. When the mountain in front exploded, He Jing realized something was wrong and quickly rushed over with a small team. The army behind them also ordered a rapid march.
But when he got here, what did he see? He Jing looked at the scene on the Liao River in disbelief.
When he learned the truth from the remaining soldiers, he had only one thought in his mind: it was all over. These imperial soldiers who fell into the water became prisoners of Yichun. There was even a possibility that they would be converted into soldiers of their army in the future.
But what could they do? He Jing and Wang Lang, like each other, could only watch helplessly. Who would have thought that they would need to bring their own navy to go on a campaign? The key point was, they had no navy.
Youzhou
"Good news, good news!"
"The imperial army was ambushed by our army, suffering 150,000 casualties!"
When the good news reached Youzhou, the people of the entire city rejoiced.
The Yichun people were truly formidable. Being a citizen of the Yichun City Lord's Mansion was a real honor. Back when they were citizens of Daliang, they had never felt so cheerful or proud. The officials of the Yichun City Lord's Mansion and the generals of the Yichun Legion had never once let them down.
Capital
The news that the army suffered heavy losses in an ambush was also reported back to the court, causing an uproar.
"What does Wang Lang do for a living?"
"Yeah, how did Wang Lang lead the troops?!"
"Dismissal, Wang Lang must be dismissed!"
The new emperor remained silent. He had read the full report and knew what had happened. To be honest, Wang Lang had divided the 300,000 troops into two groups, and at least half of them had been saved. If it had been someone else, the losses would probably have been even greater.
After the ministers had finished cursing for a while, the new emperor said, "Changing generals in the middle of a battle is a major taboo in military strategy."
"I am reporting this matter simply to ask you, my lords, where can we draw 150,000 troops to supply Wang Lang?"
Hearing this, many ministers cursed in their hearts, "Supplies? What the hell are you talking about? Wang Lang is a prodigal son. He lost 150,000 soldiers in one go. Even if he had mines at home, it wouldn't be enough for him to lose so much."
"Your Majesty, let alone 150,000, even if it's 100,000, no, even 70,000 or 80,000, we can't spare any of them."
Wang Lang's 300,000-strong army was truly the wealth of Daliang, and was squeezed out to him by the imperial court at the cost of selling everything it had.
Before Prince Ruyin and Xing Changfeng rebelled, their court had an army of more than 1.2 million.
The rebellion of Prince Ruyin, Xing Changfeng, Prince Annan and others caused the imperial court to lose 200,000 troops.
You have to know that the Huo family army, the Yichun camp and Xing Changfeng's army all belonged to the imperial court, and this part probably had about 200,000 people.
Later, in order to suppress the rebellion, the court gradually lost 200,000 to 300,000 soldiers and horses. When Ganhuacheng faced Yichun, the 100,000 soldiers he led were directly wiped out. When fighting against the King of Ruyin and the King of Annan, a total of more than 100,000 soldiers and horses were lost.
Fortunately, due to the compulsory conscription during this period, the imperial court’s military force was maintained at one million.
Before Wang Lang's expedition, the imperial court still had a million-strong army. However, among this million-strong army, nearly 300,000 were new recruits who had never seen the battlefield. One can imagine their fighting capacity.
Considering the difficulty of Yichun, only a quarter of the 300,000 troops sent to Wang Lang were new recruits. Now, half of the imperial army has been lost before they even met the enemy!
From what the Emperor said, he was planning to send more troops to Wang Lang? What was there to increase? Regardless of the current outcome, whether it was Wang Lang's incompetence or the Yichun Legion being too strong, it was obvious that sending more troops would be like throwing meat buns at a dog.
Furthermore, they really couldn't spare any more troops. The remaining 700,000 troops, compared to Yichun and Xuzhou, were still one of the forces with the largest number of troops, but for an imperial court, it was really not much.
Of these 700,000 troops, 100,000 were stationed in Yizhou, 30,000 in Jingzhou, 100,000 in Yangzhou, and the remaining 500,000 were stationed in Yuzhou, Yanzhou, Jizhou, Liangzhou, etc. to protect the imperial city of Sili. They also had to guard against the King of Ruyin. Where could they spare any more troops?
The imperial court sent an army of 300,000 to conquer Youzhou, but failed. They encountered an ambush in Yichun on the way and lost 150,000 soldiers in one fell swoop. When the news spread, not only the imperial court was in an uproar, but the people were also in an uproar. Foreign tribes such as the Western Rong and the Southern Barbarians found it unbelievable.
That’s it?
No, I’ve taken off my pants. Wang Lang, are you just showing me this?
Once they got complete intelligence from somewhere else, they all shut up.
I then pondered how Yichun had managed to anger the mountain god, causing the mountain to collapse and the reservoir water to flow back into the area. You have to remember that it was June or July, and there were no natural water sources available. The reservoir wasn't full, though; half full was considered good.
No matter how hard they racked their brains, they couldn't figure out how Yichun had done it. Ultimately, they had only one feeling: Yichun was too strong, and his methods were unpredictable. They couldn't help but pay even more attention to the upcoming battle.
Ordinary people also sighed at this news.
"Do you remember? When the imperial court insisted on sending troops, didn't the Yichun City Lord's Mansion warn them that if they insisted on going their own way, they would have to bear the consequences?"
"Well, I also said at that time, don't say I didn't warn you."
"This time you really have to bear the consequences at your own risk."
"Wang Lang is quite incompetent. Yichun was clearly about to unleash his ultimate move, so why didn't he take precautions?"
Wang Lang: Who can defend against this? Come on, defend one and show me how?
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