Chapter 968 National War (4)

Before nightfall, the Savage Army launched another attack, and the Chu army still withstood the pressure.

In the end,

leaving behind corpses,

the surviving soldiers on both sides, dragging their exhausted bodies soaked by the heavy rain, began to retreat, gradually disengaging.

Gou Moli sat on horseback. This was the first time he had come to the "front line to observe the battle" since the breakout battle began.

It was called observing the battle because the command was still left to the generals below. He did not participate.

Even after being repelled again, Gou Moli's expression didn't change much. The Savage King, who used to be best at boosting morale, seemed to have suddenly become detached.

Closing his eyes, taking a deep breath, and slowly exhaling, Gou Moli patted his helmet with his hand, turned his horse, and returned to camp.

The morale in the military camp was very low. Gou Moli sat on horseback, gathering the gazes of many soldiers on both sides. In their opinion, only their commander could give them strength at this time.

But the commander just silently rode his horse to the front of the command tent, dismounted, and walked in.

There was no brazier in the command tent, but firewood was burning. Having dry firewood to burn was already a rare luxury at this time.

Gou Moli took off his armor, sat down by the pile of firewood, spread out his hands, and warmed himself by the fire.

The Sword Saint sat in the corner of the command tent, not opening his eyes, as if he were already asleep.

The rare dry firewood crackled in the fire, and sparks flew up from time to time.

At this moment, there was a sudden commotion outside.

Gou Moli remained unmoved.

Soon, the sound disappeared. After a while, the personal guard came in and reported that a mutiny of some Chu prisoner-soldiers in the military camp had been suppressed.

After Gou Moli heard this,

he smiled and said,

"Fools."

As he said this, he reached out to the Sword Saint. Just as he grabbed the fried noodle bag hanging from the Sword Saint's waist, he saw the Sword Saint open his eyes and stare at him.

Gou Moli's hand did not retract,

but instead, he said with a grin:

"Just one bite, just one bite."

…

"Please have a bite, General."

"I'm not hungry, give it to the injured brothers."

"General…"

"Obey the order."

"Yes."

Xie Yulou placed his saber beside him and leaned against a rock. He was very tired now, very tired, but once a person was exhausted to a certain limit, he could no longer perceive simple tiredness, leaving only a feeling called numbness.

Diagonally in front of him, many soldiers were curled up together, as if this could make them feel warmer.

Xie Yulou pursed his lips.

Just as the Savage Army was surprised by the firm fighting power of this Chu army, Xie Yulou was also surprised by the... fighting power presented by this army that seemed to be Yan soldiers but was actually mostly composed of Savages.

In short, it was completely different from the Savages he had expected.

Although they had been gritting their teeth and persevering, the problems they were encountering were actually no different from those of the Savage Army on the opposite side.

Morale was low,

visibly low.

The only good thing was that everyone knew that their own army had surrounded this Savage Army in front of them, and the victory of this battle was in sight. Perhaps, it was because of this that everyone was able to persevere.

However, some people had already begun to curse, asking why the friendly forces had not launched a joint attack on the Savage Army in the encirclement, but instead allowed the Savage Army to charge at them again and again.

A trapped beast's struggle is the most terrifying, and they were on the front line facing a trapped beast's struggle.

This was the most difficult and arduous task. During the meeting in the command tent, no chief general was willing to ask the commander for this task. This was using the lives of his subordinates to fight and consume.

But Xie Yulou had no choice, because unlike Xie Yi, Xie Yi was just a nephew, while he was Xie Zhuyang's adopted son, so his name had the character "Yu" (玉).

In this era, "righteousness" was very important. The so-called "adopted son" was actually the same as the "adopted children" who graduated from the Jindong Academy every year. Whether they followed their own hearts or the moral standards of the time, they had to sacrifice themselves without hesitation when the time came.

Xie Yulou reached out and touched the wound on his leg. The wound was not serious at first. He should have been able to close the wound with his own qi and blood, but in the midst of battle, how could he use his precious qi and blood in this place? Therefore, with constant pulling, the injury had already deteriorated.

The most ridiculous thing was that it was already showing signs of festering.

Food was already in short supply. They had made a surprise attack around the back, traveling light. Apart from the necessary rations, it was impossible to carry too much food. Fortunately, they had intercepted a grain transport team from Fancheng, otherwise they would have run out of food long ago.

But even so, the food reserves were very tight, because the grain transported by that grain transport team did not account for the majority. Instead, it was mainly herbs, tents, and some important parts used to build siege equipment.

The team also set fire to some of it when facing the Chu army.

Heh…

How unlucky.

"General, should this subordinate help you treat this wound?"

"No need."

Xie Yulou refused the good intentions of his personal guard. Cleaning the wound required digging out the rotten flesh. If that were the case, he would not be able to personally command the next battle.

He was very afraid, afraid that if he did not command, those Savage people who were like crazy, would directly tear through their own defense line and rush out.

However,

a voice often echoed in Xie Yulou's mind:

Perhaps, letting the Savages rush out was not impossible.

This was not fear, nor was it greed for life and fear of death, nor was it passively avoiding battle to preserve strength.

Everything Xie's family had belonged to the family head and the young master. What did it have to do with him, Xie Yulou?

The real reason was that,

unlike the soldiers who had thoughts and felt that the dawn of victory by annihilating this Yan army was just around the corner,

Xie Yulou clearly remembered what he had seen and heard when he pulled the troops out of Guyue City.

He always felt… something was wrong, really wrong.

"What exactly… is wrong?"

…

"Nothing is wrong."

Xie Zhuyang said this to the several generals who came to report to him, his eyelids drooping heavily due to days of fatigue.

After speaking,

the Xie family head even closed his eyes.

Under this posture of his, the Xie generals looked at each other, no one dared to speak again, and they all got up, saluted, and withdrew from the command tent.

After the command tent was empty, Xie Zhuyang opened his eyes again. He was very tired, but not to this extent.

As the war progressed, the soldiers below were fine, looking forward to a victory in an annihilation battle, but the real general class had already smelled something was wrong.

Their own troops now belonged to the southern outflanking force. The Savage Army was fiercely attacking the north, attempting to break through the road back, but the east and west sides had been making a lot of noise with little action. They had clearly completed the encirclement, but they had not launched a substantive attack on the Savage Army.

Even now, he himself was not taking advantage of this opportunity to attack the Savage Army from the north and south, purely letting the brothers blocking in the north bear the brunt of the Savage's offensive.

"You look very tired."

The voice of the girl sounded from within the command tent, and then, her figure also appeared here.

"Fighting a war, how can you not be tired?"

Over this period of time, Xie Zhuyang had gradually become accustomed to speaking and interacting with these two women, one big and one small.

They were not his subordinates, but he clearly sensed that they belonged to his side.

"Will it really be so tiring?" the girl asked.

"You can try it."

The girl smiled and pointed to her head:

"If I had this brain, I wouldn't have embarked on the path of cultivation back then. How can anyone in this world be proficient in everything?"

"There is one though," Xie Zhuyang said.

"That Prince Jingnan of Yan?" the girl asked, "I have repeatedly seen him in the books and the letters you gave me, in that past time period.

Is he dead now?"

"He's gone."

"Gone, does that mean dead?"

"I don't know, but I can sense that he won't be back. When he's about to die, he'll come back."

"Have you met?"

"I'm still sitting here."

"What does that mean?"

"That means I haven't met him."

"Oh, so you're still alive, is this what they call heroes cherish heroes?"

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, if he were in the Yan army now, I would feel hopeless."

"But the Regent's limelight should have overshadowed him."

"It's different. Tian Wujing gives people, especially when facing each other on the battlefield, a sense of powerlessness, but this Regent is not Tian Wujing."

"What I want to ask is, when this war is over, will your son come back?"

"Don't rush, don't rush," Xie Zhuyang shook his head, "This is just the prelude."

"Report!!!!!!"

"Report!!!!!!"

The messenger galloped over on horseback,

the scene of urgent military situation landing on the face of the Savage Army commander, was re-enacted in front of the Chu Army command tent.

"Yan cavalry appeared at the Wind Intake!"

"Yan cavalry appeared at Shui Ze Bay!"

"Traces of Yan troops appeared in Shanshui Town!"

"………"

One military report after another was like a huge stone,砸落(zá luò: smashed down) into this pond that was already extremely suppressed.

If the battlefield situation in this area were simply compared to a long strip, then the traces of the Yan army had appeared in the entire eastern part of the battlefield, from the location of the Savage Army to the location where Xie Zhuyang was now, and even near Guyue City.

This meant that,

a large-scale Yan army had completed a strategic encirclement of the entire battlefield.

The turtle was not in the jar, but the Yan people directly built a jar near the turtle.

How many Yan troops would it take to complete such a battlefield coverage? Their appetite was really frighteningly large. They were going to swallow this battlefield in one bite!

"Family Head!"

"Family Head!"

One Xie clan general after another was impatient to come in to seek an audience, but they were all stopped by Xie Zhuyang's personal guards.

A black figure appeared beside Xie Zhuyang.

"Shadow, go tell the young master, his father, is heavily surrounded."

"Yes, Master."

The Shadow took a deep look at the girl still standing in the command tent, and his figure began to dissipate.

The girl then took a few steps forward, looked at Xie Zhuyang, and asked:

"Aren't you afraid?"

"Hahahahahaha!"

Xie Zhuyang suddenly burst into laughter,

and then wiped the tears from his laughter with the back of his hand,

and said:

"I'm really scared to death."

——

There's more tonight.