Chapter 317: Chapter 184: Losing the Territory Again _2
Translator: 549690339
As long as we follow the general, we are sure to achieve victory this time.
Isn’t it just the Miao People?
Even if we march for three days straight, we’ll beat them without any hesitation.
This is the spirit of elite soldiers, their pride.
What has created this is the strong confidence brought by Lu Yuan leading them, dozens of times, to severely beat the Miao people and the rebel army in the past.
“Master, after contacting Prefect Jiang, Hengyang Prefecture has already urgently conscripted 20,000 civilian workers.
According to Prefect Jiang, only three days are needed to send 10,000 civilian workers ahead to Jiuyi Prefecture.
Five days later, the remaining 10,000 can also be assembled.
At the same time, the food and fodder needed for the army will also be transported with them.”
Among the troops, a disciple rode a horse from a distance and reported to Lu Yuan the results of this communication with the Hengyang Prefecture government.
After listening, Lu Yuan nodded with satisfaction: “Good. This time, we only brought 10,000 elite soldiers on our surprise attack on Jiuyi Prefecture. This small number of people, distributed throughout the entire prefecture’s ten counties, averages less than a thousand people per city.
My use of troops this time is to cut off the Miao People’s supply routes in the two counties of the resource and Suining, as well as the two routes that have now invaded Fu City.
There are 50,000 Miao soldiers in each of these two places.
If we can cut off their supply lines and eliminate them, without these 100,000 Miao soldiers, Jiuyi, Lingling, and Yangshan Prefectures can be easily pacified.
In this way, the south of Dongting will be completely stabilized.”
Surprise attack is all about efficiency and speed.
Lu Yuan cannot afford to waste troops on city defense and city attacks.
However, he also cannot leave his rear completely exposed, recklessly charging through enemy territory.
That would be too dangerous.
Therefore, it is necessary to conscript some civilian workers from Hengyang Prefecture to help defend the city, maintain the rear, and transport the food and fodder.
Although this would mean conscripting another 20,000 men for Hengyang Prefecture, which has already conscripted 60,000 men, it would be equivalent to drafting all the men over the age of fifteen in the entire prefecture.
Especially during this time of spring planting, such a large-scale drafting of strong labor will undoubtedly affect the summer harvest and make the lives of the people in Hengyang Prefecture extremely difficult.
But isn’t this the time for the people to suffer a little?
After suffering this year, once the Miao people in the southern three prefectures have been wiped out, and there are no more rebels causing chaos, the local area will naturally be peaceful.
And when the local area is peaceful, the lives of the people will naturally gradually improve.
By then, with no wars to fight, the people of Hengyang Prefecture will no longer have to worry year after year about when the rebels will attack.
They will also not have to be conscripted and sent off to fight in other prefectures and counties every year, risking their lives on the battlefield.
That’s what it means to suffer before reaping the sweet rewards.
The army marched on, quickly approaching within ten miles of Dali County City.
“General, after scouting the city, we found that there are very few Miao soldiers in the city, just over a thousand. They have weak defenses and have not yet discovered that our army has arrived.”
At this time, the scouts sent out earlier returned to report.
“Over a thousand people?”
Upon hearing the number of defenders, Lu Yuan nodded slightly.
According to the intelligence he had gathered earlier, after deploying 50,000 Miao soldiers to Shaoyang Prefecture and Fu City, the remaining Miao soldiers in the three occupied Jiuyi prefectures numbered less than 10,000.
The fact that there were over a thousand people in Dali County was probably because this county was a key point guarding the northern part of Jiuyi Prefecture and bordering Hengyang Prefecture, serving as the region’s barrier.
In other counties of the prefecture, except for Fu City, having one or two hundred people would be considered pretty good.
It was precisely because Lu Yuan saw this that he devised this surprise attack strategy.
With such weak defenses in the three Jiuyi prefectures, it would be a shame not to take this opportunity to strike.
“The Miao people’s defense is so weak, this is a heaven-sent opportunity. Give the order for the vanguard to prepare; I will personally lead the charge on the city, and we will spend the night in the city tonight.”
Lu Yuan issued the order and then turned to Yan Wangqiu: “Grandmaster, I may have to trouble you to take action later.”
Of course, the old lord willingly agreed: “Rest assured, General, if necessary, I will take action.”
“Then I’ll rely on the Grandmaster.” Lu Yuan smiled and nodded.
He always did things with great care and seriousness.
Although the scout had already said that Dali County’s defenses were weak and that the defenders had not yet discovered their arrival,
It was still safer to bring an Inborn Grandmaster as a backup, just in case.
In this way, even if the defenders find out that a large army is approaching, at that time, with the power of an Inborn Master, the defenders at the city gate would probably be killed clean in just a few moves.
Previously, Lan Cai’er was able to slaughter hundreds of Lu Yuan’s followers among the thousands of troops without breaking a sweat, an effortless feat as if she was in an uninhabited land.
Now, with Yan Wangqiu’s help, it should be just as easy to kill the over one thousand Miao soldiers in the city.
When dealing with ordinary soldiers at the bottom, an Inborn Grandmaster like him can do it with ease and pleasure.
As long as it doesn’t reach a certain scale, an Inborn Grandmaster can slaughter ordinary soldiers at will.
Why else would they say that Inborn Grandmasters are pillars of the state, capable of determining a nation’s rise and fall?
That’s the reason.
If you don’t have an Inborn Grandmaster to rely on, others can kill hundreds of you today, a thousand tomorrow, and even your million-strong armies can be wiped out over a year and a half.
But you can’t do anything about it.
What’s the point of having your country stand?
Just let it fall apart sooner rather than later.
Once the orders were given, more than a thousand vanguards quickly armored up and gathered their weapons.
Lu Yuan checked the number of men, and then led them towards Dali County city, not far away, where the inhabitants had no idea what was about to happen.
