Chapter 965 National War (I)

The "meeting" across the canyon came to an end.

What also ended was the tacit understanding that both sides had, more or less, been aware of during this period.

That night,

Gou Moli issued a military order, ordering the entire army to prepare overnight. At the same time, after eating "food thrown as charity" for so many days, the supply line from Fancheng finally began to transport grain to this side.

The next morning, more than 30,000 savage soldiers served as the main force of the central army, plus more than 10,000 miscellaneous soldiers composed of various forces from Chu, either forced or bought over long ago. At most, there were only 50,000, but they claimed to be an army of 100,000. After resting in place for a month, they began to set off again, heading towards Guyue City.

Finally,

Five days later,

Fancheng's vanguard scouts appeared twenty miles north of Guyue City, but the defenders of Guyue City did not just stick to their defenses. On the contrary, they took the initiative to engage in small-scale skirmishes with the scouts from Fancheng.

The combat effectiveness of the private soldiers under the real Chu nobles was beyond doubt.

Whether it was the Qingluan Army or the Dugu Army back then, they were all top-notch elites when singled out, and so was the Xie Clan Army.

Therefore, Fancheng did not gain any advantage in the scouting battles. Even more, the Xie Clan scouts not only broke through the Fancheng army's scouting defense line but also went further north, appearing within the sight of Fancheng's central army.

This was a great humiliation!

For the Yan army, it had become a common practice to use the advantage of cavalry to suppress opponents. Generally speaking, unless it was specific terrain, whoever had stronger cavalry often controlled the battlefield's vision advantage.

Now, they were being suppressed by others.

Although this was a savage army, it was precisely because they were the most savage component in the Jidong Army system that they were more eager to prove themselves to gain more recognition and a higher status.

Gou Moli, the commander of the Fancheng army, personally whipped three scouting captains, directly stripping them of their official positions and kicking them into the trap camp, which was the dare-to-die camp.

In the early years, the Yan army's systematic military towns inevitably had this camp configuration, and the Jidong Army also inherited this standard.

Subsequently,

Gou Moli successively ordered many of his generals to lead troops to spread out forward, strongly demanding to control the battlefield in this area.

But the Chu army showed a completely different reaction this time. Not only did they refuse to give an inch in the previous small-scale skirmishes, but after the battlefield scale was upgraded, they also took corresponding measures. A large number of Chu troops were also divided into multiple groups and began to compete and confront the savage army in this area.

In three days, there were no less than ten encounters with a scale of more than two hundred people on both sides.

If the situation continued to escalate, it would be the outbreak of a large-scale battle. In this way, the savage army would not need to attack Guyue City at all, and could completely complete the strategic decisive battle in this area with the Chu army in advance.

...

Inside the commander's tent, subordinates kept coming to report the military situation that had just occurred. Gou Moli sat on the commander's seat with his legs crossed, listening and shaking his legs, looking calm and composed.

The Sword Saint did not go back to report, but stayed here. This was actually Zheng Fan's order.

Being able to make the always-afraid-of-death Regent willing to send out the strongest sword by his side was enough to illustrate the importance of Gou Moli here for the entire national war.

Because he had been sitting in the commander's tent all the time, even though the Sword Saint often dozed off, he could still hear about the front-line battlefield situation.

In addition, after accompanying that Zheng on many expeditions these years, his knowledge of military affairs had naturally improved.

Even the Sword Saint could see the strangeness of the front-line battle.

Since the end of the Three Kingdoms War, the situation of Yan being strong and Chu being weak had become a certainty. After five years of recuperation, the current Dayan was coming with overwhelming force.

The most sensible thing for the Chu people to do was to shrink their defenses. In fact, the Chu people were doing just that.

South of the Wei River, the main force of the entire Jidong Army was stationed there, while the main force of the Chu imperial guards was completely in a defensive state.

But in this smaller battlefield in the west, the Chu people showed an unusual spirit of aggressiveness, not giving an inch and not wanting to lose the limelight.

After listening to another report, Gou Moli opened his eyes, glanced at the Sword Saint sitting there, and suddenly thought of something, and smiled:

"Old brother, do you remember the situation when I was locked in the Snow Sea Pass dungeon? At that time, you often came to see me, and that was one of the few times I could see the sun again."

"That Zheng said that if a person suddenly likes to recall the past, it proves that he is about to die."

"It's also very interesting. Our King has always given me the feeling that he is not afraid of anything, and that ghosts, gods, imperial power, and everything are bullshit, but sometimes, the King always has many strange... taboos.

He is not afraid of jackals, wolves, tigers, and leopards, but he is afraid of cockroaches jumping around. Maybe, this is life."

Gou Moli quickly ended his emotion and continued; "I remember I told you at the time that I had a dream. In that dream, you and I were standing together, facing thousands of troops. Do you remember?"

The Sword Saint did not speak.

"Do you believe it? Actually, some things are destined long ago. The reason why I dared to report my identity when I was mixed in with the savage prisoners of war was because I had already seen the shadow of the future."

"You also started to believe in the stars?"

"No, no; because I could see that the then-General Shengle had a very high spirit, and the path he took was completely different.

When I told him that I was the Savage King, and he didn't kill me immediately, I knew that I would have this day of sitting back on the commander's seat.

And at that time, you were recuperating from your injuries, and you were so bored that you pulled my cage out to talk to me, hahaha, I knew you hated me to the bone at the time, and wanted to see my misery for fun;

But do you know,

Sitting in the cage at that time, I guessed that one day, you would stand with me, and you would have to use your sword to protect my safety.

I'm not showing off, and I'm not trying to provoke you, I'm just stating a fact."

From the last sentence, it seemed that Gou Moli was still afraid of the Sword Saint. He was afraid that he would speak too presumptuously, and then the Sword Saint would directly give him a quick death with a sword qi;

If the Sword Saint made a move, the two lying under his blanket would not be able to withstand it at all.

Moreover, what Gou Moli knew even more was that the Sword Saint might have been with the "Lord" for a long time, and his temperament had inevitably been affected. People who dared to show off in front of the Lord would be smiled at first, and then killed at all costs.

"What exactly do you want to say?" the Sword Saint asked.

"The road can actually be seen early, but even if you see it, you still have to keep walking on it. You know you will change, and I know I will change.

But in the end, whether you know it or not, you still have to walk from the beginning of the village to the end.

The two of us are like this,

The opposite side,

is actually the same.

This is the comfortable part of this battle."

"Comfortable?"

"Yes, it will be very comfortable."

Gou Moli shouted:

"Someone come."

Two personal soldiers entered the commander's tent.

"Pass the order down, the central army will advance thirty miles!"

The central army advancing thirty miles meant directly touching Guyue City, which was also forcing Chu to make a decision, either shrink back into the city, or fight a decisive battle!

The entire camp moved because of the commander's order.

Gou Moli and the Sword Saint walked out of the commander's tent together and looked up at the sky. The sun was just right.

"Remember the King once said that on the Taiping Sea, a butterfly flapping its wings might cause a blizzard in the snowy field in a year or two.

Although, I have never understood which sea the Taiping Sea is."

The Sword Saint said: "When he conquers the Qian Kingdom in the future, he can just change the name of the East China Sea. That's how Mount Tai came to be."

"Hahahaha, so our King has a deep strategy in his chest and a far-reaching layout.

However, I can understand the meaning of this sentence.

To our south is Guyue City. Taking it down or bypassing it can cut off the channel for the Qian people to transfuse blood to Chu.

It is important, but it is not particularly important.

Because even if we break into it, even if we enter what the Chu people call... Southern Chu, which is the old land of the Shanyue, my troops can only keep circling in those mountains and swamps, and cannot make any waves at all.

Therefore, the real battlefield is still on our King's side. That is the main battlefield of the national war, the decisive battle that determines the fate of the two countries.

But,

I, Gou Moli, am now a small butterfly. I am flapping my wings here, and maybe a storm will be stirred up over there."

At this time, the guards had already begun to pack up the commander's tent and prepare to move it.

Gou Moli saw a guard carrying the small purple box he had brought and quickly reminded him: "Be careful with that one."

"Yes, Commander."

"What is it that's so precious?"

"Curious?" Gou Moli clapped his hands, motioned for the personal soldier to bring the small box over, took the box, opened it, and inside was a doll.

Gou Moli picked it up and found that there was another identical doll inside, only smaller. He picked it up again, and there was an even smaller one. He took out quite a few in a row. In short, there was an even smaller one at the bottom.

"The princess's favorite toy." Gou Moli put the porcelain dolls back in order according to their size. "It's quite interesting."

...

When the savage army made a posture of pressing the central army forward, the Chu army finally stopped resisting hard and began to retreat. As soon as they retreated, the savage army quickly filled in and took control of the battlefield.

The next day,

The army re-established camp, during which the Chu army tried to raid, but they were all blocked.

Two more days passed, and the situation finally became clear.

The savage army entered a "preparing to attack the city" posture, and the Chu people finally shrank their forces into the city. The attacking and defending sides finally took their positions, and the general trend smoothed out all the noise.

However, the Chu people built many military villages outside the city wall of Guyue City as a supplement, forming a complete set of defense systems, everything seemed to be the same as what Nian Yao did north of Zhennan Pass back then.

Therefore, in the following days, the savage army began to focus on attacking the military villages outside Guyue City.

The war was not progressing very smoothly, but it was not very difficult either. Both sides were paying casualties that both sides could accept. Both the attacking and defending sides could accept the speed of their attack and loss.

In short, the atmosphere of this battlefield was a bit too... matter-of-fact.

So matter-of-fact that people ignored the names of the commanders on both sides.

One was the Savage King who was once famous in the Three Jins;

One was the only remaining Pillar of the Great Chu in the world;

Just like two masters of Go, when they started playing, the wonderful duel and divine move that the surrounding people had originally expected did not appear at all. Instead, it was like two beginners, starting to play a dull game according to the description on the chess manual.

This time,

Another half a month passed.

The savage army had cleared a small half of the military villages outside Guyue City.

At the same time, they began to build some siege equipment, preparing to attack the city after clearing the periphery;

The Chu army in Guyue City seemed to have started high-frequency mobilization;

Obviously, the Chu army did not believe that the savage army would really plan to attack the city next. What they were worried about was that the savage army would feint and suddenly break through south around Guyue City.

...

Xie Zhuyang was sitting on the city wall drinking tea at this time, with one large and one small woman standing beside him.

"Are you two going to stay here all the time?" Xie Zhuyang asked with a smile.

The girl asked back: "Then should I leave?"

"Aren't you two always looking for my son? You can completely go to him. With you two around, I, as a father, can rest assured a lot."

"What if after we go, he asks us to come back to protect his old father? What should we do then?"

Xie Zhuyang smiled kindly,

and said;

"Don't worry, my son is not that filial."

"We want to stay and see." the girl said.

"Okay." Xie Zhuyang naturally didn't care.

"You, should be from the same sect, right?"

"Probably."

"There should be many experts in the sect, right?"

"Probably."

Xie Zhuyang nodded and said: "Unfortunately, the general trend of the world cannot ultimately be determined by a small group of experts."

The girl did not refute and nodded:

"Probably."

The woman reached out and checked the girl's mouth.

The girl dodged and said, "My mouth isn't stiff."

At this time, Xie Zhuyang poured out a cup of tea in his hand,

and said slowly:

"That's enough."

...

Inside the savage army's commander's tent, Gou Moli had just lined up a row of porcelain dolls that were decreasing in size one by one.

"I think, if he knew you were collecting his daughter's toys, your end would be very miserable."

The Sword Saint still remembered Gou Moli's morbid state when he was holding that embroidered shoe back then.

"Hey." Gou Moli smiled, "This was given to me by the King, it wasn't something I secretly collected."

Just then,

A series of emergency military reports came, like a pot of water, boiling instantly!

"Report!!!!!!!!"

"Commander, a report from the rear, our army's supplies have been intercepted!"

"Report!!!!!!!!"

"Commander, traces of Chu troops have appeared in the due east direction!"

"Commander, traces of Chu troops have appeared in the due west direction!"

"Report!!!........."

One emergency military situation after another came like a blanket,

But Gou Moli seemed to have not heard anything, and did not have any emotional reaction at all.

However,

for every military situation that came, he would put a porcelain doll back.

By the time night fell,

all the dolls had been put away, but the military situation outside was still like fire.

Gou Moli put the whole set of porcelain dolls on top of his head, trying to maintain balance;

Then,

he clapped his hands,

"Pa!"

and smiled:

"Fun."