Xi Heng turned around and gave the order:
"Form a neat formation and return to Qiming City with the sacrificed soldiers."
The Great Zhao army also suffered many casualties in this battle, most of whom fell during the first wave of enemy cavalry charge, and some were killed by enemy generals.
Although the result was still a victory, it still filled half the trailer.
Because of the large number of corpses, the service soldiers felt depressed on their way back.
After walking slowly and silently for a long time, I finally arrived at the open Qiming City.
Smoke has already been lit, and each department is preparing for today's celebration banquet.
When the residents of the city heard that the battle had been won, they came out of their homes and celebrated with the soldiers.
The lively atmosphere immediately became quiet until she brought in a cartload of corpses.
However, Xi Heng didn't care about these corpses. There would always be casualties in war, and as long as she was safe, it was fine.
The orderly went to the cemetery to explain the matters. Xi Heng handed over the following troublesome chores to the deputy general who led the orderly and relieved himself of his duties.
She did not return to her residence to rest, but went straight to the general's mansion and came to General He's office. She took out her Yiwei doctor's card from her waist and slammed it on the table to alert the other party.
"Your Highness, do you have any instructions?" The old general asked after letting out a breath.
As one of the three great generals in the north, few people dared to meet him with such an attitude.
But Xi Heng is the princess of the Great Zhao Dynasty, and she has made great contributions in the battle just now, so she is fully qualified.
"Give me five hundred elite soldiers." Xi Heng spoke directly, full of confidence.
If it weren't for her, the battle just now would never have been won so easily.
Even if reinforcements arrive from the surrounding areas and show their might, the enemy will certainly persevere and continue to fight.
With the two armies in such a stalemate, there will inevitably be heavy casualties on both sides. Even if they can win in the end by virtue of their numerical advantage, the final casualties will most likely be unacceptable.
Yan Meng's army was very resilient, and it would take a huge effort and cost to defeat them.
Xi Heng, with his own strength, penetrated deep into the enemy's camp and created conditions for the friendly forces outside to gain an advantage. Even though this contribution is difficult to estimate, it is probably necessary for the emperor of the time to personally bestow a golden saddle and a golden belt on him.
But she didn't ask for much, just for the general to fulfill his promise.
"..." Jiedushi He was silent for a moment, and no one knew what he was thinking.
After a few seconds, he nodded steadily and said:
"Tomorrow afternoon, I will arrange for elite soldiers and generals to be incorporated into the Imperial Princess's command, mainly the dozens of vanguard cavalrymen you rescued when you came to Qiming City."
"Okay." Xi Heng achieved his goal, picked up the badge and left.
He Yuanze, the governor of Hejian in the northern border, looked at the place where she left and hesitated for a moment.
After more than ten meters, he let out a sigh.
"I have been away from the capital for fifteen years, living in the north, not caring about politics, just wanting to live in peace for the rest of my life... but now I am involved in it again."
He had a complicated look in his eyes. He put down the paper and pen in his hand, no longer looking at the desk on the table, but slowly walked to the large table with a map on it in the center of the room.
The rough finger fell on the picture, first touching the battlefield in the northern border, and then as the gaze slowly moved downward, the index finger pointed at the capital city.
"But the court is now full of treacherous officials and villains, framing loyal officials, rebellions everywhere, and people's livelihood in chaos. It seems that the country is about to perish... Recently, I have calculated a few hexagrams, and it is a sign of breaking the old and establishing the new, and the golden scales turning into dragons."
"Perhaps I should join the game." He stared at the map carefully and whispered, "Zhao Wanli, I will accompany you for the last time."
……
The next day.
Xi Heng had a simple meal at the celebration banquet last night, returned home to wash off the blood stains on his body, changed back into his previous light and tight clothes, and after lunch went to the general's mansion to lead his own military department.
The blood stain on the tight-fitting clothes was difficult to wash off, and dots of red seemed to fall on the surface of the clothes like embroidered plum blossoms.
I stepped into the general's residence humming a song. Before I reached the general's office, I heard a middle-aged general who looked a little less weathered addressing her as "Your Highness the Princess".
Xi Heng turned his head and saw that the deputy general was bowing and salutation in a neat and proper manner, as if he came from a prominent family.
"Your Highness, the elite soldiers prepared for you are already in the palace. Please follow me."
"It was arranged very quickly, good." The girl followed the other party along the corridor around the mansion and went to the training ground in the backyard.
Looking up, I saw hundreds of lightly armored cavalrymen, each leading their horses, forming a line in an orderly manner.
A quick glance at the long and narrow queue showed that there were exactly five hundred people.
A deputy general in full armor stepped out from the front and said respectfully, "Your Highness, the five hundred guards are ready and ready to take orders at any time!"
This man was the cavalry vanguard captain she met when she came to the northern border, and now he has truly become her subordinate.
Xi Heng nodded and glanced at each of his soldiers. He could see that their postures and movements were basically all using the Ming Jin technique.
Among them, only a dozen or so have mastered the Ming Jin, and one deputy general has just started to master the An Jin.
According to the strength distribution of the mainland military of Da Zhao, if a person with great achievements in Ming Jin can be counted as a captain of a thousand men, the team in front of them can indeed be considered elite.
Most of them carried guns and had knives on their waists, and half of the soldiers carried bows and arrows. They were divided into several types of soldiers.
The deputy general of this group of cavalry was the previous vanguard commander and had rich battlefield experience.
Xi Heng was quite satisfied. He then greeted his soldiers and introduced himself. He then asked his deputy general to explain the functions of each branch of the army and asked about various things that he should pay attention to when leading the troops.
After understanding it, she asked the middle-aged general who brought her here:
"What is General He's strategic direction going forward? Are there any missions?"
The other party said: "Now that the siege of Qiming has been lifted, the general will naturally send reinforcements to the other two cities, and is making plans to rescue the closer Kezhou."
"Tell Jiedushi He that I have applied to leave the city in the next two days to harass and raid the enemy near Kezhou." Xi Heng said directly, and turned back to face his soldiers:
"Everyone, go back to camp and have a good rest for a day. Prepare your supplies for the outing. The military will assemble at noon tomorrow."
Just obey the order.
Xi Heng just responded and clapped his hands: "Let's go today."
After taking over the military headquarters in just over ten minutes, she left the general's mansion and returned to her residence to rest.
The murderous intent from yesterday's battle still remained in her heart and had not retreated. She still wanted to stay in the peaceful daily life for a while longer.
Whenever he sat under the mulberry tree in the courtyard of his residence and drank tea, listening to the rustling sound of the breeze blowing through the leaves, Xi Heng would always think of the time when he and his senior sister often sat under the tree and drank afternoon tea in the Hongxian Sword Academy.
At that time, they often sat beside the stone table under the mulberry tree, looking at the sword-wielding figures of the little sisters in the training ground not far away.
Those days were quite comfortable and relaxed.
My senior sister often jokes and her attitude is natural and casual.
This is quite different from the senior sister who often shows tenderness after being with Xi Heng.
In both periods, there are places she likes...
"Where is senior sister now? Has she found the path to enlightenment that she wanted?" Xi Heng said to himself.
"And how are the sisters in the Sword Academy doing?"
"Come to think of it, Junior Sister Yan Hongji, who is now in the capital, seemed to have said that she would wait for me?"
"If you go to the capital later, why don't you go and see her?"
However, Xi Heng always felt that he was going to the capital in this life, and might have entered as a rebel king.
There would surely be chaos by then, and my junior sister might have known the news and escaped.
"Maybe there's no need to be so radical..."
The soft lips touched the warm tea, and the breeze blew through the loose hair.
A mulberry leaf fell, and was caught by her two hands, then gently flicked away.
……
The next day, Xi Heng got permission to go to war and received a military token from Jiedushi He.
She took the military order and led the army out of Qiming City.
Several enemy camps have been marked on the map, and Xi Heng marked them on his own map.
The patrol soldiers have already discovered the locations of enemy camps of all sizes around Kezhou City, and she plans to defeat them one by one.
After calculating the direction, Xi Heng led five hundred elite soldiers forward.
There were large hills outside the city, and there were also many woodlands that needed to be crossed along the way, which would slow down the team's progress from time to time.
Even though it was a cavalry team, it took her seven days to reach the vicinity of Kezhou.
Xi Heng first sent scouts to investigate the nearest camp, and began to discuss plans for a surprise attack with his deputy general.
Everything has just been finalized and we are waiting for the right opportunity to launch a surprise attack.
The scouts who went out to investigate returned with unexpected information - there were not many Yan Meng country soldiers left in the camp at this moment, and at most there were only some logistics soldiers coming and going.
No one knew where the main force stationed there had gone.
Xi Heng led his troops closer and found that just as the scouts had said, the military headquarters had already left the camp.
She was planning to lead her troops to capture this poorly defended camp and capture the enemy troops for interrogation.
The next moment, one could hear explosions being heard from the city wall a thousand meters away.
Yan Meng’s army is already attacking the city.
……
Chapter 107: Moving Forward
At the top of a rolling hill.
The heavy horse hooves stepped on the tips of the grass that had turned slightly yellow in autumn. Xi Heng sat sideways on the grass and looked at the siege battlefield in the distance that was covered by a layer of smoke and fog.
As a garrison fortress behind the Northern Frontier Pass, although Kezhou City is not as strategically located as the most important Qiming City, it also has high and thick walls, making it easy to defend and difficult to attack.
As a nomadic country on the grassland, although Yan Meng had been fighting with Zhao for nearly a hundred years, it had rarely actually conquered any city or fortress.
Therefore, many generals and soldiers of the Great Zhao were not afraid of the Yan Meng people attacking the city.
After all, the only few engineers in Yan Meng's army had defected from the Great Zhao Kingdom more than ten years ago. The rams they built were all old models, and there were no skilled craftsmen in Yan Meng's country, so even such old siege equipment could not be built properly.
The last time Yan Mengguo pulled out the catapult, the stones were thrown so high that they couldn't even get over the city wall. It would collapse after loading and releasing the bullets ten times, causing the soldiers of the Great Zhao to laugh at it.
As for other siege weapons, they basically need to be placed close to the city wall and can be burned by just fire, making them useless.
If Yan Meng's army is compared with the Tianliang rebels who once existed in the Great Zhao Kingdom, in terms of military strength and combat effectiveness, Yan Meng's army is more than three times that of Tianliang.
But when it comes to siege capabilities, the situation will be reversed immediately.
The generals of the Great Zhao, who were good at defending the city, only needed to guard against the powerful enemy warriors who tried to force their way into the city, and they did not need to worry about Yan Mengguo's offensive.
At least... that's how it should be.
But now, Xi Heng only saw the defenders on the distant city wall facing bombardment by thick fog.
Yan Mengguo's crude catapult did not throw stones to smash the wall, but instead threw out many black circles of different sizes, which fell on the top of the city wall like rain.
When the black ammunition hit the ground, it first exploded with fire, and then produced a thick black flame, obscuring the defenders' vision. At the same time, the military headquarters below also set up heavy ladders on the wall.
The defenders had difficulty in defending themselves due to poor visibility, and vanguard Yan Meng had already climbed up the ladder.
"It seems a little bad..." Xi Heng said softly while looking at the wall of Kezhou city in the distance.
Although the Zhao defenders on the city wall reacted reluctantly and ordered the warriors to swing their swords and guns to disperse the thick smoke, as soon as the smoke dissipated, the next black ammunition would fall, creating another black fog that blocked the view and choked people's hearts and lungs.
Although Yan Meng's trolley outside the city could not throw boulders weighing more than 200 kilograms like the Zhao's trolley, it even operated quite slowly, with a long interval between each throw.
But it is quite suitable for projecting black fog bombs of various sizes.
Waves of black smoke enveloped the city wall that Yan Meng was attacking. Due to insufficient frequency of projection, it failed to cover all the walls, and the defenders on other walls could still shoot arrows and kill the enemy.
But these people can only provide long-range support and cannot directly resist the enemy's attack.
If there had not been the choking black fog, the defenders would have surely poured down kerosene or rained down falling rocks, spiked boards, rolling logs, and so on.
With just a few strikes, all the enemies climbing up the ladders could be knocked down, crushed or stabbed to death.
But now the vision is poor, even if the defenders close their eyes and throw kerosene bottles downwards, they cannot hit the specific target.
