Fortunately, they were taking a smooth official road. If this Beijing army had marched in the mountains, it would probably have been dispersed within a few days.
It would be fine if the 20,000 soldiers behind him were an extremely well-disciplined and victorious army on the northern frontier battlefield.
However, the discipline of these Beijing troops was poor, and even if they were just marching, various troubles would arise, which would slow down the marching efficiency.
They had to stop for a long time every day to eat and rest, and it took a long time to regroup and march again.
The voice of the herald continued to echo in the camp, urging the troops to reorganize and set off after their rest.
Moreover, there were some people who were simply unwilling to march north and deliberately delayed.
If someone is obviously pretending, he will be kicked out of the military and asked to return to the capital to be punished.
In fact, every time she encountered this kind of thing, she wanted to just draw her sword and kill it, but she was afraid of hurting the already low morale, so she used some rules.
After dealing with the troublemakers in the rear, Xi Heng returned to the front and asked the deputy general to hand him the map.
Unfolding the scroll, his eyes moved back and forth between the two large cities that were being attacked.
"The two cities of Yan'an and Dongping, one in the northeast and the other in the southwest..." the girl said to herself.
Just by looking at the map, even people who have never seen these two cities can easily see that Yan'an is more important than Dongping City.
Not only is the city larger in scale, it is also well connected. It is close to waterways and has many land routes extending in all directions. On the map, it looks like the center of a spider web.
Yan'an was the capital of the former Wu Dynasty. Although it has declined now and its population is only one-fifth of that of the capital, the specific scale of the city is only one or two points smaller than that of the capital.
Precisely because it was the capital of the previous dynasty, the city walls are tall and wide, with both inner and outer layers.
Xi Heng no longer had any hope in the defense of the outer city walls. The number of defenders in the city was simply not enough to protect the outer city, but the inner city walls were wider, thicker, and taller, so they should be able to be defended.
She nodded gently: "It would be better to take the longer side road and go directly to the more important Yan'an for rescue, without having to go through Dongping first."
"As long as we can hold Yan'an firmly, we can have more control over the waters and surround the enemy troops in Dongping."
"If we can protect Yan'an, our chances of winning will be much greater."
After thinking it over, he discussed it with several deputy generals around him.
The generals of the Beijing army, who had hardly ever fought a real major war in the surrounding areas, were naturally led by Xi Heng, and no one objected.
It's just that some generals are more cautious:
"It is said that Yan Meng's army is extremely brave, while our troops in the capital have rarely fought in major battles and lack experience. Can they win?"
Xi Heng knew the answer was no, but he only said:
"Yan Meng's army is made of flesh and blood, not iron monsters. Why should we be afraid of them? I have killed thousands of them."
"Your Highness is mighty." The surrounding soldiers agreed.
Although she said so, she had no hope at all that these 20,000 Beijing troops would win the battle.
Xi Heng's hope was only placed on the Great Zhao Northern Frontier Ever-Victorious Army, which was said to have come south to provide support.
As long as the Ever-Victorious Army has arrived, she can bring in another 20,000 troops from the capital to make a show of force, and the enemy may retreat.
If the Ever-Victorious Army has not arrived yet, she can use the Beijing Army to contain the enemy's siege forces first, reducing the pressure on the Yan'an defenders until the Northern Frontier Army arrives to seal the victory.
As for the Beijing troops under her command, who had some military experience but had only received one year of real training, she had no hope at all.
It was already very good that we were not defeated by Yan Meng's heavy cavalry.
However, we still have to teach them some techniques to deal with Yan Meng's army along the way, so that the soldiers can think they can fight with Yan Meng's army and boost their morale a little.
Therefore, every night during meals and rest time, she would ask various armies to send some soldiers to surround her and tell and demonstrate some methods summarized by the Northern Frontier Army to deal with Yan Meng's various arms.
For example, if they encountered heavy cavalry, they would chop the horses' legs with axes; if they encountered a cavalry formation charging, they would block it with a giant shield, then shoot and injure people and horses with crossbows, or use giant spears four or five meters long to form a conflicting formation, etc.
On the seventh day, Xi Heng led his troops to a fork in the official road and headed to the right, a road that was farther away but led directly to Yan'an City.
The army continued to move forward and backward as usual.
Gradually, we reached the halfway point.
The sky was dark and there was a dense drizzle. Although it did not delay the march, it always made people feel annoyed.
The fine autumn raindrops, like hair, fell on the girl's face, making her skin even softer.
Xi Heng felt a little uneasy along the way, and had a vague premonition that something bad was going to happen.
Another day passed.
The long drizzle turned the dust on the ground into mud, which stuck to the fur boots of the marching people.
In the dark and cloudy sky, 20,000 soldiers wearing wet clothes were marching in the continuous rain.
Gray clouds rolled slowly in the sky, and there was a faint sound of cold wind blowing across the sky like the roar of a wild beast.
As if her bad premonition was in line with hers, at noon, the scouts sent a few miles ahead brought back news: a large number of figures were slowly approaching in the distance.
After hearing this, the girl walked forward for a while, then raised her hand to ask the soldiers behind her to stop.
As the heralds around shouted loudly, 20,000 soldiers stopped from the front to the back, as if scales were fluttering.
Xi Heng was sitting on the horse and could already see those dense figures from afar.
I don't know why, but I feel like I've experienced this before.
Back then, on the northern battlefield, we were going to support a fortress called Xingzhou.
On the way, they encountered a defeated friendly army coming from Xingzhou City.
Now, although the figures in the distance are shrouded in rain and fog and are difficult to see clearly, the flags in front of them drooping motionlessly in the drizzle always remind her of the past.
Xi Heng subconsciously swung the reins in his hand to speed up the horse.
Soon after, you can see more and more figures appearing in the distance.
The figures filled almost the entire official road within the field of vision, and it was roughly estimated that there were several thousand people.
As the distance shortened, she saw cracks in the armor of the soldiers at the front and their morale was low.
Faintly, one could hear a few cries of pain and sighs.
"Sure enough, we've been defeated again." Xi Heng held his forehead and rode his red-maned horse slowly to the defeated army.
The dark red armor with gold edges was not too conspicuous under the gloomy sky.
The horses' pace slowed down, and the leading soldiers of the opposing army also looked towards her.
"But the Yan'an Army?" Xi Heng asked: "Has Yan'an been lost?"
The general in front with a worse look on his face nodded and said yes.
Under the sound of the soft rain, the other party's voice was really not loud, and did not sound like a leader at all.
"Don't be discouraged. Even the Northern Frontier Army has been defeated in succession. You and your fellow defenders are innocent for the defeat."
She shook her head and skillfully invited the other party to bring his troops to join her own army.
These troops who had just escaped from the city after the city was breached obviously still had some fighting spirit. Xi Heng had just said her name and displayed her official badge of the Grand Marshal with a gold seal and purple ribbon, and then the soldiers in front of her responded and led the army to join her.
This highest-ranking military badge of the Grand Marshal was given to her by Zhao Chuxiao after she wiped out the four major bandits in the capital.
The Grand Marshal is nominally the highest military commander in the country, but due to the gradual decline in the rank of warriors in recent decades, his actual control over military power has gradually weakened, and there is even a tendency for the position to become a mere qualification for promotion, without any actual purpose.
However, since this official position is already in Xi Heng's hands, it means he has the highest power to control all military and political affairs in the world.
After taking in the 6,700 remnant soldiers from the fall of Yan'an City, Xi Heng naturally no longer went to Yan'an, but led his troops to Dongping City for support.
On the way, Xi Heng asked the generals of Yan'an Army why the city was breached.
"There are many martial arts masters among the enemy army. They lead elite soldiers to climb onto the city wall at night with flying claws. They launch a surprise attack when our defenders are tired and difficult to resist." The other party said.
"Flying claw..." Xi Heng remembered that Yan Mengguo had never used this trick when attacking the city before.
I heard that Yanmeng Kingdom has now formed an alliance with Baekje Kingdom in the east. This flying claw hook might be a technique brought from that peninsula country.
Before leaving the capital, she had read some books and records about Baekje. Baekje was just a small country, with a territory that could not be compared with Yan Meng's Great Zhao. It lived by the sea and made its living from the sea. Most of its people were fishermen and fishermen. They had commercial exchanges with Great Zhao and often purchased grain...
It is said that Baekje had a large navy, but because it was separated from Zhao by a vast ocean and by a huge Yanmeng Kingdom on land, not much information was circulated and it was impossible to tell whether it was true or false.
Now it seems that Baekje has a lot of large ships and naval forces.
As a result, Yan Meng's army could be transported directly to the southern part of Da Zhao.
It is not known how many of Yan Meng's troops came. According to the report, "there were countless of them all over the mountains and plains, at least tens of thousands if you look around." No exact number was given.
Perhaps all of Yan Meng's 100,000-strong army had been transported here, or perhaps a few troops were left in the north to continue the attack and to tie down the northern border military of the Great Zhao.
"How many enemy troops did Yan'an City encounter?" she asked again.
"I don't know how many there are. I just remember that you can't kill them all, and you can't see the end of them." The other party shook his head.
"Yan'an is an important city, and the enemy troops attacking it should be much larger than those in Dongping." Xi Heng said, "Now that we have more than 27,000 people heading to Dongping, it should be enough to defeat the enemy troops attacking the city. We can then use Dongping as a base to stabilize the situation temporarily, and then we can try to attack Yan'an."
She asked the deputy general on the other side to hand over the map, and then said: "In addition, we need to destroy the enemy's troop transport ships, otherwise Yan Meng's army can still use the waterway to travel."
Yan'an, a military stronghold, has been breached. Although other cities also have river ports, they do not have defensive positions along the river banks like Yan'an.
The enemy's concerns have been reduced. If they really want to fight to the death, they may be able to transport heavy troops to deeper parts of the south by large ships.
"Although the court has also sent a navy, it has not been in action for a long time. If it goes into battle without training, it is likely to suffer a major defeat. The most direct approach is for us to destroy the ships." Xi Heng said, and turned his gaze from the map to the direction of Dongping City:
"There should be many enemy ships at the ports around Dongping City. We must destroy them."
Then, she discussed with other generals around her the offensive steps after arriving at Jinping City, and ordered her soldiers to make some preparations.
After finishing these necessary tasks, she suddenly remembered something while walking and asked the defeated general:
"How many people are there in Yan'an City?"
"Reporting to Princess Diji, there are more than 170,000 civilians in the city, including the garrison troops."
"Seventeen thousand..." Xi Heng seemed to be thinking:
"Yan Meng is cruel and may have carried out massacres while stationed in Yan'an. After taking over Dongping City, we must gather forces as soon as possible to counterattack Yan'an."
"Your Highness is absolutely right." The defeated general was also very worried about the people of Yan'an.
……
Five days later, at nightfall.
Xi Heng led his army gradually approaching Dongping City which was being besieged by Yan Meng's enemy troops.
Deep inside the enemy's location, hundreds of scouts have been sent out over a few dozen miles, and have already explored the large area that the army will be approaching.
Xi Heng carefully ordered the army to form up their battle formation and slowly climb up the slope of a hill in front of them.
When you step onto a high place, you can hear the noise coming from afar.
In front of Dongping City, blazing flames were raging and huge rocks were thrown out by catapults and smashed into the city.
The city walls were surrounded by smoke on all sides, but whenever the smoke appeared, it would be blown away after a while. It was obvious that the Great Zhao Army also had a countermeasure for the smoke bombs.
Farther away on the river, a dozen large ships could be vaguely seen swaying slightly.
Xi Heng then reorganized the troops according to the plan that had been made on the way.
Because there were too many troops, it took nearly half an hour to reorganize them.
When the army was ready, each of them had two unlit torches hanging on his body.
These thick wooden sticks were specially collected during the march, wrapped in cloth and dipped in oil, ready to be ignited.
Xi Heng handed over the command of the formation to several deputy generals around him, and led two hundred elite soldiers in the formation. Holding torches and oil bottles, they drew magical fire patterns on the back of their hands and formed a burning army.
She is quite skilled at this.
By the way, he drew two or three magic patterns on his body, then led the elite troops and quickly ran to the rear of the enemy.
Suddenly, a firework flew high from the military headquarters several thousand meters away, and violent shouts of killing were faintly heard in the distance. The large army had already pressed forward and attracted the attention of the enemy.
After waiting for a while, Xi Heng started to act with his elite soldiers.
He drew his bow and shot out rockets, which landed on the surface of the ships.
Fireballs rose up and smashed the surface of the ship.
Xi Heng drew his sword and stepped forward to deal with the surrounding guards.
In the direction of the distant army, there were constant sounds of fierce war drums and shouts of killing.
"Kill the enemy! Kill the enemy——"
The shouts of killing were continuous and shook the earth.
