Chapter 638
Chapter 638
Zhu Lin was truly in despair. If the capital of the State of Nanguo fell, then Si City and Luoye City would have no chance of holding back the enemy. If the King's army captured this city, their morale would soar to the heavens. The look in his father's eyes and the expectant face of the Crown Prince flashed through Zhu Lin's mind.
*If this city truly falls, how can I, Zhu Lin, ever face returning to the capital? It would be better to die in this battle!*
But it seemed fate had not decreed for Zhu Lin's life to end here. To the north and east, clouds of dust rose as the ground began to shake. Princess Yingluo and Nangong Ao had arrived with their armies to provide aid. Three days prior, they had mobilized their forces immediately upon receiving the call for reinforcements. The two had brought only twenty-five thousand reinforcements, not a large number, but it was enough to change the tide of the battle. The King's army was forced to divert twenty thousand of its besieging soldiers to confront the forces of Nangong Ao and Princess Yingluo, drastically reducing the manpower committed to the assault.
With the arrival of reinforcements, the morale of Zhu Lin's defending troops surged. After sacrificing countless soldiers' lives, Zhu Lin's army succeeded in pushing the Shaman Tribe's forces from the city walls once more, finally securing the western wall of the Nanguo capital. In the process, General Zhu Lin nearly collapsed from exhaustion. Nangong Ao and Princess Yingluo's twenty-five thousand troops fought a fierce battle with the King's army on the open field for an hour, with both sides suffering heavy casualties. Though the casualties on the side of Princess Yingluo and Nangong Ao were far greater, the King's army also seemed to have exhausted its last ounce of strength.
As the sun set in the west, both sides ceased fighting, and Nangong Ao and Princess Yingluo entered the Nanguo capital. Although the battle had been fraught with one crisis after another, they had ultimately managed to defend the city. However, the overall state of the war had changed. Originally, three generals defended the three cities of Nanguo, while Governor Zhu Rong was stationed in the rear, in Tiannan Province, to support them. But the King's army was so formidable that all three generals had ended up converging on the Nanguo capital. This unforeseen situation triggered a domino effect. With Nangong Ao and Princess Yingluo now in the capital, the King's army would surely take this opportunity to divide its forces and launch a surprise attack on the other two now-vulnerable cities. So, what was to be done? They had no choice but to draw soldiers from the second front—the defensive line in Tiannan Province—and move them south. But doing so would leave the rear forces severely depleted.
***
Inside the Governor's Residence of Nanguo.
Zhu Lin, Nangong Ao, and Princess Yingluo sat in silence. The day's battle had been terrifyingly perilous; the city had come dangerously close to falling. Zhu Lin raised his cup.
"They say that when a debt is too great, words of gratitude are insufficient. Today, the two of you turned the tide of a great crisis."
The three drank. It was a light fruit wine, not strong enough to cause intoxication. Afterward, the three fell silent once more. They should have been celebrating their defense of the city, but they felt no joy. Despite fighting the enemy with equal numbers, they had nearly been defeated.
Zhu Lin sighed and spoke first.
"The King's Shaman Tribe army is too strong. Fighting such a force is nothing short of a nightmare. Their soldiers are like beasts, fearing no death. In fact, they seem to willingly embrace it. It wasn't like this even when the Nanguo army rebelled before. Those rebels were Shaman Tribe soldiers too, but..."
Princess Yingluo said.
"The people of Nanguo have been civilized to some extent, becoming more like the people of Yue. But the army the King has brought this time consists of the purest Shaman Tribe warriors. They begin hunting in the jungle at the age of five or six. To them, life is an endless trial, and death is merely a return to a resting place."
Zhu Lin sighed.
"They seem truly mad. Such a people should not exist in this world."
Princess Yingluo continued.
"It is said that out of ten Shaman Tribe members, at most three live to the age of thirty. In an environment so steeped in the aura of death, anyone would turn into a beast. Before, these beasts were scattered throughout the wilderness, but now the King has brought them out. And he has united them."
Nangong Ao asked.
"General Zhu Lin, what were our casualties over the past few days of fighting?"
"Thirty-seven thousand!"
"So many?"
He could hardly believe Zhu Lin's words. How could the defending side suffer so many casualties?
"Indeed. It is a devastating outcome. The Shaman Tribe warriors are vicious and cunning with their bows. Their two assaults on the walls resulted in staggering losses."
"Then what about the King's army's casualties?"
"Likely around forty thousand."
This meant the casualty ratio between the besiegers and the defenders was nearly one-to-one. It was unbelievable to be fighting such a battle against the Shaman Tribe. Zhu Lin had given a conservative estimate; in truth, the King's army's casualties exceeded forty thousand. In any normal army, suffering over fifty percent casualties would have shattered their morale long ago. But the Shaman Tribe's army remained as imposing as ever.
"We must request more troops!"
At General Zhu Lin's words, Princess Yingluo and Nangong Ao fell silent.
*Request more troops? That would mean abandoning the defensive line in Tiannan Province. But nothing is more important than the Nanguo capital right now.*
The three then jointly wrote a letter to Governor Zhu Rong and drafted a memorial to the King requesting reinforcements.
***
When Governor Zhu Rong received the first dispatch, he felt as if the sky had fallen and the earth had split open. But four hours later, upon receiving another dispatch, he breathed a sigh of relief. It was news that, thanks to the reinforcements from Nangong Ao and Princess Yingluo, the Nanguo capital had been saved. By then, he had already ordered thirty thousand troops to march south as reinforcements. A day later, he received the confidential letter jointly written by Princess Yingluo, Nangong Ao, and Zhu Lin, requesting more troops. Governor Zhu Rong gritted his teeth and sent another forty thousand troops south.
This left only thirty thousand troops at the defensive line in Tiannan Province. In other words, the second front was now virtually empty. But the second front existed to serve the first. If the first front fell, the second front would be meaningless and indefensible. Strictly speaking, continually sending reinforcements to Nanguo required the King's approval. However, sending reinforcements was like putting out a fire; there was no time to wait. Fortunately, the Zhu Clan had exhausted all its efforts, even paying a political price, to gather an army of one hundred thousand. Otherwise, this battle would have been truly precarious.
The might of the King's great army had far surpassed everyone's expectations, and as the battle began, its prowess was shaking the world.
***
A few days later, the seventy thousand troops from Tiannan Province entered the Nanguo theater of war. Fifty thousand of them entered the Nanguo capital, while the remaining twenty thousand were split, with ten thousand going to Si City and ten thousand to Luoye City. With this, the defending army of Yue stationed in the Nanguo capital grew to one hundred and thirty thousand, and the total number of Yue's troops in the entire Nanguo theater reached a staggering one hundred and eighty thousand. In comparison, the King's Shaman Tribe army now numbered less than sixty thousand. With the troop ratio now at roughly three-to-one, the war once again entered a stalemate.
The King's army launched several small-scale assaults on the city, but due to the overwhelming disparity in numbers, all attempts failed, and both sides suffered casualties. On the fifteenth of the eleventh month, the King's army suddenly left the battlefield, changed direction, and began to march north. Their intention was to attack Si City. This would put Si City in grave danger.
To counter this, Governor Zhu Rong, who had been in Tiannan Province, bravely took command of twenty thousand troops and stationed them in Si City, bringing the total number of defenders there to over forty-five thousand. The King's army, having marched north, launched a fierce assault on Si City. The Nanguo capital had nearly been taken by them; what chance did the smaller Si City have? But Governor Zhu Rong, a civil official, proved to be more formidable than expected. As if betting everything on a single throw, he committed all forty-five thousand of his troops without holding any in reserve, fighting a pitched battle that lasted for eight long hours. Governor Zhu Rong personally led his household retainers into battle on the city walls, and both sides suffered immense casualties.
Though this battle was shorter in duration, it was even more brutal than the one at the Nanguo capital. One crisis followed another, and once again, the city was on the verge of falling. The Shaman Tribe's army was overwhelmingly powerful, and Governor Zhu Rong felt as if he were suffering the torments of hell with each passing moment. He even began a silent countdown in his mind.
*Reinforcements, hurry. If you don't get here soon, Si City will fall.*
And just then, Nangong Ao finally arrived, leading his cavalry north to cut down the enemy. He and Governor Zhu Rong launched a pincer attack from both inside and outside the city. At last, the King's valiant and invincible corps of Shaman Tribe warriors suffered a crushing defeat. With over twenty thousand casualties out of their sixty-thousand-strong army, the King's forces, now numbering less than forty thousand, retreated. They withdrew sixty li in a single stretch, falling back to Blackwater Fortress to regroup. Thus, the first phase of the Nanguo war came to an end, with the State of Yue securing a temporary victory. The King's army had thrown themselves against the walls of the Nanguo capital and Si City, suffering grievous losses. To put it plainly, they had completely lost the initiative to attack.
***
Inside the Governor's Residence of Nanguo.
*We won.*
Zhu Lin, Nangong Ao, and Princess Yingluo's eyes grew hot with tears. Now, they could finally drink to their hearts' content. It had been a hard-won victory. The campaign had lasted only a month, but it had been so brutal and fraught with peril that the Nanguo capital had nearly fallen. Fortunately, the generals had made swift decisions to come to their aid, and even Governor Zhu Rong, a civil official, had personally joined the fray, saving Si City from being captured.
Faced with the seemingly invincible army of the King, they couldn't even imagine the consequences had he managed to take even a single city. The second battle, in particular, lasted for more than six hours and inflicted nearly thirty thousand casualties on the army of Yue. Over the course of a month, the King's army of one hundred thousand had suffered over sixty thousand casualties, while Yue's army of two hundred and fifty thousand had lost over eighty thousand. Now, over one hundred and sixty thousand of Yue's troops remained in the Nanguo theater, whereas the King's army had just over thirty thousand, creating a massive disparity in their forces.
"They say the King's army is unstoppable, but a siege must be won in the first rush of momentum. A second attempt weakens the spirit, and a third exhausts it completely. Once they lose their momentum, they can never take the city."
"Well said, well said!"
"No matter how formidable the Shaman Tribe warriors are, they have only brute strength, no strategy. It's no wonder they failed. The King seems adept at political maneuvering, but his grasp of military strategy appears to be lacking!"
"Let's send a victory report to the capital! Let's announce our victory to all of Yue!"
At that moment, General Zhu Lin spoke.
"I believe it is time for His Highness the Crown Prince to come south."
Hearing this, Princess Yingluo fell silent for a moment before nodding. General Zhu Lin's gaze turned to Nangong Ao.
*It is time for you to declare your stance as well.*