After the morning training session, Xie Shaoling announced that the daily training in the Shenwei Army was canceled and that they would enter a state of combat readiness starting today.
The atmosphere in the military camp immediately became tense.
After breakfast, Xie Shaoling invited Ye Jingchen to inspect the fortifications of the checkpoint together.
The Great Abyss has the natural barrier of the Tianxing Mountains, which prevents the Northern Barbarian cavalry from crossing most of the area. However, there are still some areas with gentle slopes or low terrain that could become the breakthrough points for the Northern Barbarian cavalry.
The Divine Might Army and the Border Defense Army were stationed in these places, digging trenches and using the sand and stones dug out of the trenches to build walls, castles, beacon towers, and fortifications to form defensive works to resist the Northern Barbarian Army.
There are seven border passes, resembling the Big Dipper constellation, hence they are named after the Big Dipper. The Divine Might Army is responsible for guarding five passes: Tianji, Tianquan, Yuheng, Kaiyang, and Yaoguang, while the Border Defense Army only needs to guard two passes: Tianshu and Tianxuan.
Of the five passes under the jurisdiction of the Divine Might Army, Yuheng Pass is in the center and has the flattest terrain, so it has always been the place where the most frequent and fierce battles have taken place.
The Shenwei Army was also stationed near Yuheng Pass.
Yuheng Pass is not geographically advantageous, so for decades, the Shenwei Army has built the city walls of the pass to be particularly strong, and the watchtower is also the tallest. Outside Yuheng Pass, there is a moat that is ten feet deep and fifteen feet wide. It is thanks to this moat that the pressure of the Northern Barbarian cavalry attacking the city has been greatly relieved.
The soldiers were busy transporting ballistae, arrows, giant logs, stones, and even ashes to the city walls.
Snow was still falling from the sky, but the soldiers were all drenched in sweat.
"In siege warfare, stones and giant logs are actually more lethal than arrows. Giant logs are the most useful; when thrown down, they can knock down a group of people and horses, and they can also serve as obstacles. Unfortunately, the northern frontier is barren and trees are scarce, let alone such giant logs. Some of them were even cut down and transported from deep mountains hundreds of miles away." Xie Shaoling explained the various siege defensive tools to Ye Jingchen and the others while checking whether the fortifications were solid.
Standing on the city wall and looking into the distance, beyond the pass was an endless wasteland with only scattered small mounds, not even mountains.
Over the past three years, the Duke of Zhenguo has taught them most about how to defend the city.
Whether it's the quantity and quality of warhorses or the physique and strength of individual soldiers, Dayuan is inferior to the Northern Barbarians. In a head-on confrontation, Dayuan simply cannot compete with the Northern Barbarians.
The only thing we can rely on is the level.
The war between Dayuan and the Northern Barbarians had always been a very passive one. They built defensive fortifications and passively waited for the Northern Barbarian cavalry to attack.
Ye Jingchen disliked this passive attitude; he preferred to be in control.
"General Xie, based on your experience, how many people will the Northern Barbarians send this time?" he asked, looking at the flat wasteland.
Like Plants vs. Zombies, this wasteland shouldn't be so barren. There should be something to stop the Northern Barbarian cavalry, even if it's just a slight obstacle.
However, what he could think of, the Duke of Zhenguo and Xie Shaoling could certainly think of as well. The Northern Barbarians were not stupid either; if they could not take the enemy by surprise, it would be difficult for them to be effective.
"Judging from their mobilization, they must have at least 100,000 troops," Xie Shaoling said.
"They only have 100,000, while we have 400,000, four times the strength. And it's a siege. Do we really have no chance of fighting?" Ye Jingchen raised his doubts.
Xie Shaoling was silent for a moment, then said, "If the 200,000 border troops had the fighting strength of the Divine Might Army, perhaps we could give it a try, but the current border troops are not capable; they cannot cut off the retreat of the Northern Barbarian cavalry."
Ye Jingchen suddenly regretted not bringing Ye Jinghe along. It's never too late to make trouble for the guard battalion, but reorganizing the border defense battalion is urgent!
On this day, in addition to Yuheng Pass, Xie Shaoling also inspected Kaiyang Pass.
The mountains around Kaiyang Pass are steeper than those around Yuheng Pass, and the city walls are built on the mountainside. Here, the northern barbarian cavalry would be less restricted, thus reducing the pressure on them.
However, in the past, there have often been instances where the Northern Barbarians would feign an attack on Yuheng Pass to draw away the main force of the Divine Might Army, while actually launching a major attack on the other six passes. Therefore, no pass can be neglected.
After inspecting the two checkpoints, it was already dark.
Back at the military camp, after dinner, Xie Shaoling summoned the generals to discuss the defense of the pass.
Two hundred thousand Shenwei troops were to be divided to guard five passes, with Yuheng Pass in the center and the most important. Xie Shaoling personally led one hundred thousand Shenwei troops to guard it, which would also facilitate support from the center.
Xu Jingjing led 20,000 men to garrison Tianquan, while Xie Shaoling's other deputy general, surnamed Zhang, also led 20,000 men to garrison Kaiyang.
The general stationed in Tianji was surnamed Xie, and he was a cousin of Xie Shaoling, sharing the same great-grandfather lineage. When the Duke of Zhenguo was still in the northern frontier, he had already held this nephew in high regard.
The Xie family has many generals in the Divine Might Army, but currently, apart from Xie Shaoling, he is the only one who holds a high position.
The other members of the Xie family were not lacking in ability, but rather, to avoid suspicion, they could only serve as mid-level officers such as captains.
During the meeting in the barracks, there were many members of the Xie family, but in Xie Chang'an's previous life, almost all of them died in battle when he was six years old.
Xie Chang'an had only known their names, not what they looked like. In the past two days, he had finally gotten to know them all, gaining many uncles and elders for no reason.
The general in charge of guarding Yaoguang was named Chen Jie. He was one of the emperor's men and the only one among those sent by the emperor to hold a high position.
Xie Shaoling assigned 30,000 men to guard both the Tianji and Yaoguang passes.
Tomorrow morning, the generals will lead their soldiers to various checkpoints.
After the personnel were arranged, the generals left, while Ye Jingchen and Xie Chang'an stayed behind.
"Uncle Xie, I hope to go to Tianji Pass," Ye Jingchen said to Xie Shaoling.
Of the seven passes, Tianji Pass is actually the closest to Beiping County, separated only by a mountain. However, this mountain is quite steep and difficult to cross, but it is not impossible.
Therefore, Tianji Pass was built to prevent the northern barbarians from secretly entering the northern frontier from here.
Tianji Pass is closest to the two passes guarded by the border defense battalion. If he goes to Tianji Pass, the border defense battalion will also focus its forces on the vicinity of Tianji Pass in order to protect him.
If the Northern Barbarians are targeting him as the crown prince, having him draw their fire at Tianji Pass would not only relieve the pressure on Yuheng Pass, but also give the Divine Might Army greater mobility, preventing them from being as passive as before.
Of course, his decision was not so friendly to the border defense battalion. He could only hope that Marquis Wu'an had trained his troops well in the border defense battalion over the past few years.
Xie Shaoling immediately understood Ye Jingchen's meaning. He did not refuse, but simply said, "Then I will allocate another 20,000 troops to you."
"No need!" Ye Jingchen smiled and showed Xie Shaoling the tiger tally of the border defense camp. "I have this. If General Xie's 30,000 troops can't hold out, I can transfer troops from the nearby border defense army."
Xie Shaoling's expression was complicated when he saw the tiger tally of the border defense battalion, but he didn't say anything more.
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