Chapter 464: 234: Fleeing Upon Hearing the News_2
Chapter 464: 234: Fleeing Upon Hearing the News_2
On the fourth day, more than 20,000 newly recruited militiamen of Lu Yuan’s rear bolstered his forces. At this point, the first group of more than 10,000 people finally arrived in Fu City’s Yuzhong Prefecture around the clock. The number of defenders in the city subsequently increased to 30,000.
Upon observing the arrival of reinforcements while also realizing that the morale of the army was low and they were already unfit for combat.
Li Xiong did not continue the siege, but instead entrenched himself in the camp erected at the foot of the mountain and adopted a defensive strategy.
On the sixth day, several nearby factions of the righteous army, leading more than 7,000 men, arrived in Yuzhong Prefecture of Fu City.
On the seventh day, the remaining tens of thousands of militiamen arrived in Yuzhong.
On the eighth and the ninth day, the armies of the Righteous Army like Tongchuan Liu Ming and others from various places, arrived successively.
By the fifteenth day, after eliminating two disobedient factions of the righteous army in the rear, Zhou Qing led another 10,000 freshly recruited brave men, along with the 10,000 soldiers he already commanded, and hastily arrived at Fu City in Yuzhong Prefecture.
By this point, the total number of soldiers under Lu Yuan’s command, both inside and outside Yuzhong Prefecture in Fu City, had increased to nearly one hundred thousand. Their morale was in a high state.
The army was strong and morale was high.
So, on the sixteenth day, Lu Yuan changed his tactics, opened the gates and formed a battle formation, assembled the righteous army that had gathered, and asked them to start intensively attacking the camp at the foot of the mountain.
The righteous army had about thirty thousand people, Lu Yuan ordered them to take turns on the battlefield, ceaselessly attacking the enemy camp.
Several rebellions occurred due to severe casualties. In the end, it was only after killing more than a thousand people that they finally suppressed the rebellions.
After three days of heavy onslaught and breaking the outer perimeter of the enemy camp, Lu Yuan started to withdraw the righteous army which now consisted of less than ten thousand people, who had been fighting for several days.
Then he assembled his newly recruited militiaman, a total of more than forty thousand people, leading them in person to continue the offensive against the enemy camp.
After two days, more than half of the Zhou Shu Coalition’s camp had been captured. Even counting the losses from a few days prior, the enemy forces had lost more than twenty thousand troops.
But during this time, Li Xiong still hadn’t shown his face.
The Zhou Shu United Army’s resistance was also gradually weakening.
Time passed and it was the twenty-first day.
That early morning.
Cornet sounded continuously in Yuzhong City, a large number of elites assembled and began to head out of the city.
Lu Yuan stood on the city tower, looking down at the foot of the mountain from a height, overlooking the enemy camp that had already shrunk, he turned his head and addressed his disciple Zhou Qing, “The war has been dragging on for almost a month. The enemy and I have been fighting continually, but their commander has not made a move yet.
According to the captured soldiers, the commander of the enemy forces outside the city is reportedly Li Xiong, the Pseudo-Shu King.
Even though he has an Inborn body, he just sits idly by while I slaughter his subordinates mercilessly.
Although I don’t know why he is acting like this, after fighting for so many days, the enemy’s troops have been halved, leaving less than 30,000 soldiers, and morale is at an extreme low.
Under these circumstances, it’s the perfect opportunity to defeat the enemy.
I will brave the arrows and personally lead the elite soldiers to break their formation. You should command the army from the rear and follow up quickly.
Today, I will break through the enemy’s lines in one fell swoop.”
Zhou Qing looked at his spirited Master, seemed inspired, and said loudly, “Master, just stride forward as you please and kill. I will lead the troops closely behind you, we will never fall behind.”
Lu Yuan laughed, “Good, today let’s father and disciple break this bandit together.”
Having said that, with one leap, he jumped off the city tower and landed on a prepared horse at the gate.
“Off we go!”
He whipped his horse, it began to gallop, and he went forward.
A few dozen knights followed closely behind him.
Seeing this, Zhou Qing also descended from the city tower and started to take action.
Lu Yuan had already begun the assault on the camp, so he needed to arrange his troops as soon as possible to follow the suit, and not let his Master get caught in the enemy encampments.
The drumbeat roared, the flags fluttered.
In front of the enemy camp, more than ten thousand soldiers had already assembled, while more were rushing down from the mountain.
Lu Yuan, riding a fine horse, raced to within a hundred steps of the enemy camp. Then, using his True pneuma, he shouted loudly, “Lu Yuan is here, Li Xiong, you rat! Dare you come out and fight me one on one?”
His voice was thunderous and instantly reverberated across the vast open field.
Not only could the soldiers lined up on the outside hear him, but even those inside the enemy encampments could also hear.
Yet, in response to this challenge, the guards on the walls of the enemy camp looked out for a while, glancing backwards every now and then, waiting for something or someone.
But no matter how long they waited, the person they were expecting to see never showed up.
At this point, it became clear that their commander was showing cowardice in the face of battle.
Although many understood that it was normal for their commander to fear engaging with the King of Changsha, this kind of display by the commander in the midst of war, in everyone’s eyes, was incompetence.
Thus, some of the Zhou soldiers started to curse aloud.
“What kind of Shu King is this, he fears the enemy so much that he doesn’t dare show his face. This kind of courage makes him a Rat King, not the Shu King.”
“We brothers have been bitterly fighting for several days, facing the bandit’s Inborn master, we are determined to fight fiercely. Li Xiong, the bandit, also an Inborn, doesn’t dare show his face, he just watches us ordinary people go to our deaths. To die for him is truly a cruel fate for all of us.”
“The bandits outside the city are assembling the elite soldiers, and Lu Yuan has appeared again, it seems that he is prepared to take a personal action again, this time another thousand will die, alas, truly miserable. Who knows, who will die this time?”
“Damn it, I don’t want to fight anymore. Seeing Li Xiong in this state, it’s no wonder he lost the land of Xi Shu.”
The above were the comments of the more rational Zhou soldiers.
The rest, who were crude and uneducated, began to curse all the kin and descendants of Li Xiong, including his ancestors.