Chapter 484 Lan Clan City
Lanshi City is a pearl on the Silk Road and one of the gathering points of wealth between the East and the West.
But now this once prosperous city has lost its former glory. The fear of war shrouds the entire city, and an atmosphere of despair continues to spread throughout it.
"Boom... boom boom."
When the familiar rumble of thunder sounded, the soldiers and civilians of Lan City knew that they would have to prepare door panels and stones to block the breaches again. The once proud and sturdy city walls would collapse one large gap after another in the face of the new weapons of the Great Xia people.
"Your Highness, the people from the Imperial Observatory say that there will be continuous heavy rain in the next few days. If we cannot break through the city today... we will have no choice but to retreat."
"I understand. Go and tell the Xu Ri Army and the Wei Yue Army that if what happened yesterday happens again today... don't blame me for disciplining them."
"...Your Highness, the Military Supervisor Wang said...we cannot apply military law to the Imperial Guards!"
"A general in the field may disobey orders from others!"
King Anle, Qin Jian, was also furious. He led four armies of the Royal Guard to attack Lan City, and things were going quite smoothly at first, but when they arrived at the city walls, they encountered fierce resistance.
Inside the city, a high shaman of the orc race was stationed, holding back King Chang Le. The tens of thousands of orc warriors were also exceptionally elite. Although the Great Xia army used cannons to open breaches in the city walls several times, unexpected things happened during the process of attacking the city.
Several Royal Guard units even argued over the order of attack, and even the usually iron-blooded and proud Royal Guard units were blaming each other and shirking responsibility to avoid battle.
Yesterday, Qin Jian assembled most of the Shenji Battalion's artillery to blast two large breaches in the north wall of Lan Clan City. He then personally engaged the enemy's Grand Shaman. However, the vanguard forces, the Xu Ri Army and the Wei Yue Army, which were originally designated as the vanguard, launched a feint attack, allowing the city's defenders to block the breaches and squandering a golden opportunity.
Afterwards, Qin Jian questioned the two army commanders about why this had happened. Both of them said that several of their captains had disobeyed orders and demanded to be replaced on the spot.
"Disobeying orders? Anyone who takes all the credit for themselves like you would have no one to obey them! If I could replace the commanders of the Imperial Guard, I would replace you first!"
Qin Jian immediately launched into a tirade. After the Great Xia Army's great victory at Luanshi Village, east of Lanshi City, a few days ago, there had been considerable turmoil in the distribution of military merits among the Imperial Guards, with the Xu Ri Army and Wei Yue Army being particularly notorious for it.
Because their two armies were new, unlike the Doujin and Doumu armies which were veterans of the Beihai Campaign, their officers and soldiers had high seniority and prestige and were difficult to replace.
Half a year ago, the armies of Xu Ri and Wei Yue had replaced too many mid- to high-ranking generals, with half of the captains and colonels being newly appointed nobles temporarily placed in by Emperor Zhaowu. These new nobles were eager to gain military merit to elevate their own ranks, so they transferred the military achievements of their subordinates to themselves. This was also a common occurrence in some imperial guards, but they underestimated the fighting spirit of the soldiers in the Imperial Guard.
From its inception, the Imperial Guard was known for its clear system of rewards and punishments. Wang Yushi also established a "transparent system of rewards and punishments based on Qin Mo's suggestion," and the list of meritorious personnel was made public after each battle.
For years, the Imperial Guards had fought bravely and been invincible, which was directly related to their fair reward and punishment system. No officer had ever dared to embezzle the military merits of ordinary soldiers. But this time, the behavior of these new elites was so ugly that it immediately aroused great indignation among the lower-ranking officers and soldiers.
"Someone, summon the commanders of the four armies of Doujin, Doumu, Anwu, and Ansheng to come see me!"
Qin Jian was also very troubled by the sudden chaos that had appeared in the Imperial Guard. After thinking about it, he decided to find the commanders of the other four Imperial Guard units and the Imperial Guards and ask them to lend a hand.
"Your Highness, it's not that we're unwilling to fight, it's just that our brothers have complaints!" Sun Jianhe, the commander of the Anwu Army, was the first to complain.
"Commander Sun is right! My military supervisor is a complete scoundrel. It's one thing for him to embezzle military funds, but he also dares to covet military merits. I reprimanded him a few times, and that scheming man surnamed Wang actually dared to petition His Majesty to remove me as commander. How can I, a member of the dignified Great Xia royal family, put up with the arrogance of a eunuch? Tell me, how am I supposed to lead my troops?"
Qin Yuanzhi, the commander of Doujin Army, was even angrier. He was the second son of the Prince of Luyang, so he did not need to lead the private army of the Prince of Luyang's mansion into battle. Otherwise, his position as commander would have been taken by the new nobles.
As a result, Emperor Zhaowu sent a group of eunuchs to the Imperial Guard as supervisors, in charge of military supplies and the exchange of military merits. These eunuchs, suddenly promoted, became arrogant and colluded with the newly arrived nobles to embezzle and steal credit, which was incompatible with the original fair atmosphere of the Imperial Guard.
"Gentlemen, this western expedition is of great importance. His Majesty has sent people from the Imperial Astronomical Bureau to accompany the army to assist. They have observed that there will be continuous heavy rain in the coming days. I don't need to tell you what will happen to your cannons and rifles when they encounter heavy rain!"
Qin Jian stopped the four commanders from complaining, glanced at everyone with an authoritative look, and continued, "Today, I have concentrated all the cannons to bombard the north and south city walls simultaneously. When the Xu Ri Army and Wei Yue Army attack the city from the north, you will attack from the south. Do you have any objections?"
"Your Highness, how will the military merits be distributed after we enter the city? The armies of Xuri and Weiyue have taken the best weapons from the Imperial Workshop, and the military merits of Luanshi City have also been taken by others. We can't keep doing the work for others!"
"I will speak with Steward Wang about this matter. I doubt that a eunuch like him would dare to show me any disrespect!"
"Your Highness, he certainly wouldn't dare to show you any disrespect, but it's a different story with us. Our Doujin Army didn't agree to give the military merits of Luanshi City to Deputy Commander Hao of the Weiyue Army, and as a result, they haven't paid out the military merits to us yet!"
"After this battle, I will settle all scores with him, both old and new. If he does not give the soldiers a fair explanation, I will... execute him."
The group exchanged glances and finally nodded in agreement with no choice.
The four armies of Doujin, Doumu, Anwu, and Ansheng each selected 10,000 elite troops, drew lots to determine the order of attack, and then watched as the Shenji Battalion bombarded the south city wall of Lanshi City.
Just after noon, deafening shouts came from the north city wall, indicating that the wall had been breached and the attack had begun.
"The shouts of battle are really loud, but I don't know if we can get into the city!"
"The veterans in the two northern armies are now watching the new generals. If they can't lead by example and can't be fair in their rewards and punishments, who will be willing to risk their lives for them?"
“Let’s discuss this first. After entering the city, we’ll use the east-west main road as the boundary. We’ll only attack the south side of the city. As for the north side, let them gnaw on whatever they want, no matter how good or bad it is! Otherwise, we won’t be able to win the argument with Steward Wang later.”
"Commander Qin's words are reasonable, let's do it that way!"
The four commanders were determined not to make contact with the armies of Xu Ri and Wei Yue this time. In their eyes, those two guards could no longer be considered guards; they had lost the arrogance and pride of the guards.
At this moment, a long breach was finally made in the southern city wall, and the elite riflemen of the Doumu Army charged forward in order, followed closely by the rest of the three armies.
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