Chapter 1 Li Fusheng's Bewilderment

Li Fusheng's head was spinning a bit, because Zheng Boye's previous words had left him somewhat unable to process them for a moment.

Frankly, Li Fusheng was not a good person, and of course, he had never claimed to be one.

In his own words, he had committed too many killings in his life and never expected to die peacefully in bed.

He enjoyed killing, he loved the feeling of warm blood covering his body layer by layer, which gave him a great sense of satisfaction.

Long ago, the Blind Man had said that Li Fusheng had a psychological problem.

Li Fusheng himself was aware of this, so when he first met Zheng Fan, he specifically instructed Zheng Fan to remind him to restrain his impulses when necessary.

However,

Li Fusheng had always thought he was on the second level, but he never imagined that his former protégé, whom he had promoted and had high hopes for, had quietly reached the fifth level and required him to look up.

He still remembered that under Jade Plate City, when Zheng Fan conveyed the order to kill the prisoners, he was clearly forcing himself to do so, which meant that Zheng Fan's heart was extremely resistant at the time.

Li Fusheng didn't understand terms like "rationality" and "sensibility," but he could tell that Zheng Fan was unwilling to issue that order at the time.

But how long had it been,

The little brother from back then,

Could now calmly tell him to use the lives of those tens of thousands of wildlings to practice siege warfare.

And this was by no means a sudden whim, but a plan that came to him immediately after he saw him, or rather, after he saw himself and learned that he had brought so many troops.

There was no rehearsal, no deliberation, because the Snow Sea Pass troops were fine for skirmishes and ambushes, but if they wanted to drive these tens of thousands of wildlings to an area near those two cities like herding sheep, even if Snow Sea Pass left not a single soldier to defend the pass and mobilized everyone, they wouldn't be able to do it.

So, this really was a spur-of-the-moment decision.

What does spur-of-the-moment mean?

It's like suddenly feeling like chewing on a few mint leaves or adding a plate of pig's head meat to dinner.

And the lives of these tens of thousands of wildlings, in the eyes of his little brother, were just two mint leaves, a plate of pig's head meat.

Li Fusheng himself craved killing; he enjoyed it. Zheng Fan, on the other hand, displayed a disregard for life.

Perhaps,

This was because Li Fusheng hadn't seen Zheng Fan much in recent years. Those who were with Zheng Fan every day might not feel it as deeply. Even Zheng Boye himself might not have noticed the changes in his own state of mind.

Zheng Boye looked at Li Fusheng and waved his hand in front of him.

Li Fusheng then snapped out of it, smiling sheepishly at his earlier distraction.

At this moment,

He Chunlai and his men carried over a table and a reclining chair, and then placed fresh melons and fruits on the table. On either side of the reclining chair, they planted the Black Dragon flag of Great Yan and the Zheng character flag.

Chen Daole placed the drawing board upright diagonally opposite, the drawing paper was already laid out, and the paints were already mixed.

"This is………"

Li Fusheng obviously didn't understand the situation in front of him. Was this a battle or a spring outing?

Zheng Boye walked to the reclining chair, sat down, put his legs on the table, and began to eat the melon with his other hand.

On the other side,

Chen Daole began to paint.

Li Fusheng walked over. Although he was a rough man, he knew that he shouldn't step into the "painting" at this time, but he couldn't help but ask:

"Zheng, Old Brother, what is this?"

"Leaving a souvenir." Zheng Boye smiled and invited Li Fusheng to come and eat melon together.

Li Fusheng shook his head.

In fact, he could understand this habit of painting. Back when they were a group of provincial commanders in the Zhenbei Marquis's mansion, each of them had been painted by the painters invited by the Zhenbei Marquis in two poses, one in armor and one in casual clothes, but undoubtedly the poses were extremely serious and rigid. How could they be like Zheng Fan's?

Zheng Boye didn't have time to explain to Li Fusheng what "propaganda" was. As a "god" in a deification campaign, this was the responsibility that Zheng Boye had to bear.

Chen Daole would paint one first, and this one would be collected by Zheng Boye himself. He could also copy a few more to give away.

After that, Chen Daole would also design and carve a template to facilitate printing. The printed version would naturally not be as refined, but one could still clearly see Zheng Boye eating melon in the foreground while a battle was raging in the distance.

During the New Year, Zheng Boye's New Year paintings would be sold in the shops of Snow Sea Pass, and the soldiers and civilians would buy them and take them home, some to use as door gods, and some to enshrine in the main hall of their homes.

Fortunately, Chen Daole only made an outline and composition, and Zheng Boye didn't have to continue posing.

Li Fusheng didn't wait long before he and Zheng Fan arrived at the front line together.

Ahead, there was a castle.

This castle had been renamed many times in history, because each change of the Situ family head would result in a renaming, which had become a rule.

Because building a city in the snowfield was a glorious thing in itself, which meant that the Jin people not only completely expelled the wildlings from the Three Jin lands, but could also arbitrarily knead them on the snowfield.

After these two cities fell, the Wildling King had renamed them, one called Anhu and the other called T疊 (T疊, pinyin: Tà dié).

In the Wildling language, it meant beginning and end.

The Wildling King's original intention was probably to announce that the history of the wildlings being oppressed by the Jin people had ended, and the bright future of the wildlings had begun.

Dreams are still very full, but reality is too skinny to be comfortable.

At this time, the city in front of Zheng Boye and Li Fusheng was Anhu City.

The city walls were not particularly high, and could not be compared with Zhennan Pass, let alone Snow Sea Pass.

But although the sparrow is small, it has all the vital organs. If the Yan people's talent lies in weapon smelting and forging, then the Jin people's talent lies in city construction.

Tiannan Pass, Zhennan Pass, Snow Sea Pass, and other such majestic passes and strongholds are all benchmark works of the Jin people, but it's a pity:

The majestic pass is still there, but the Jin Emperor is nowhere to be seen.

According to Zheng Boye's instructions, the Yan army was divided into three parts.

The main force of the Central Army was under Anhu City.

One part, led by Jin Shuke and Ke Yan Dongge, had already begun to plunder the pastures and headquarters of these tribes.

The warriors in their tribes had basically been driven and trapped here, and the tribes would inevitably be extremely empty, so it would not be difficult to break their pastures and headquarters.

The other part continued to stare at T疊 City, and would immediately force back any wildling troops there that tried to break through.

With enough troops under his command, he could do things much more easily.

"Big Brother, please."

Zheng Boye invited Li Fusheng to climb a watchtower with him.

If they were really at war with Chu, Zheng Boye would not have run up here, because after the siege began, the catapults on both sides would keep bombarding each other, and the main targets of the catapults in the city and the giant crossbows on the city walls would be the siege party's watchtowers.

But now the wildlings had just been driven in, and there was no way they could have such a thing.

After reaching the watchtower, the field of vision was much better.

Li Fusheng reached out and stroked the iron sheet on the enemy side of the watchtower, sighing:

"Zheng, Old Brother, I have also seen the craftsmen in Yingdu and Fengxin building siege equipment, but yours are obviously much more refined and sophisticated."

Zheng Fan responded: "They were initially trained by my people."

Back then, during the Second Wangjiang Battle, the Jingnan Marquis was the commander-in-chief, and Zheng Fan was still General Shengle, leading his troops to accept orders. At that time, he thought he was going to attack Jade Plate City, so Xue San led a group of craftsmen to build some equipment. That time, Tian Wujing noticed it, which is why Tian Wujing later handed the people of Tianji Pavilion to him.

"Zheng, Old Brother, I don't know what to say to you. I always thought you were a talent, but I never thought that there would be someone like you in this world.

Fortunately, you are a Yan person. If you were born in the Qian or Chu countries, then my Great Yan would really have a headache."

Zheng Fan smiled when he heard this:

"If I were born in the Qian country, why would I join the army? I would have taken the imperial examination long ago. Announcing one's name at the Donghua Gate is the mark of a fine young man, isn't it?"

"Hahahaha, that's the truth, that's the truth."

The battlefield had already begun to unfold.

The army pressed forward, and the watchtowers and catapults were also assembled, but it was still early for the real siege. First, the laborers and auxiliary soldiers began to exert their strength, digging trenches and setting up camps.

In order to defend, the defenders in the city would often set up traps in advance and dredge the moat, but the besiegers also needed to make full preparations to prevent the defenders from rushing out and launching a counterattack.

In fact, the current preparations were mainly carried out by the troops of Snow Sea Pass. The troops brought by Li Fusheng were watching from the sidelines.

Seeing this, Li Fusheng immediately ordered:

"Order all the generals above the rank of captain in my unit who are not on perimeter alert duty here to gather and observe."

After giving the order,

Li Fusheng subconsciously reached out and rubbed the railing of the watchtower,

Sighing:

"Zheng, Old Brother, looking at the orderly scene below, you really have learned the true teachings of our Prince."

Tian Wujing's use of troops was most focused on details and rigor, and the most direct manifestation of this was the orderly cooperation of various arms and units.

In Li Fusheng's view, Zheng Fan was Tian Wujing's direct disciple, and the similarity in the art of war was a very normal thing.

But what Li Fusheng didn't know was that the training of these troops was all handled by Liang Cheng.

It can only be said that Liang Cheng and Tian Wujing are the same, or rather, a truly powerful army must pay attention to tactical discipline.

But Zheng Boye had long been accustomed to taking credit for the achievements of the demon kings,

At the moment,

He just nodded lightly,

Pointed forward,

And said:

"Big Brother, look, the first round of catapult fire is about to begin."

The catapults began to fire, but the effect of the first round of firing was not satisfactory. In addition to a few hitting the city walls, most of them actually landed outside the city walls, and a small portion smashed into the city walls.

In short, it didn't have a very good effect.

"This is a test shot," Zheng Fan explained to Li Fusheng.

Li Fusheng nodded. Although he had no city to attack in the desert, as a commanding general, he had seen it done before.

However, although the first round of test firing did not achieve very good results from the perspective of Zheng Fan and Li Fusheng, the wildlings in Anhu City in front were frightened by the sound of the stones falling.

After all, Anhu City was just a castle, and after a large number of wildlings squeezed into it, it seemed quite crowded, so those stones that smashed into the city walls caused great damage. The targets were too dense, and as long as they hit, they would likely get something.

As soon as the first round of test firing ended, four or five wildling knights in Anhu City, waving white flags made of cloth that they didn't know where they had pulled from, came towards the Yan army outside the city.

The wildlings surrendered, because for the wildlings, this battle was impossible to fight.

From the moment they collapsed and were swept away after being surrounded by Yan cavalry, they had actually lost the ability to resist in this war.

Even if they were driven into the city now, Anhu City and T疊 City had been abandoned for a long time. Except for some herdsmen who occasionally relied on the corners of the walls to escape the wind and snow, no one else would come here at other times because it was too close to Snow Sea Pass.

There was no food in the city, and there were no siege weapons. How could this city be defended?

Most importantly, unless the Wildling King suddenly came back to life and decided to save them without regard to past grievances, they would not even have reinforcements. The other tribes who did not participate in this matter were too far away, and secondly, they would not send troops to fight the Yan people to the death to save them.

However, before those wildling knights who wanted to surrender could come over, the archers and crossbowmen in the front row of the army had already drawn their bows and nocked their arrows. After a round of volley, the wildlings who wanted to surrender, along with their mounts, were shot into hedgehogs.

The real siege had not yet begun, how could Zheng Boye allow the other side to surrender in advance?

This scene was naturally noticed by the wildlings in the city. Finally, groups of wildling figures began to appear on the city walls.

Obviously, after the surrender was directly rejected, the wildling leaders in the city began to fight, even if this resistance was destined to be futile.

On this side, the Yan army was continuing its "drill." Although the wildlings in the city should be very "brittle," the Yan army cherished this hard-won training opportunity, so it was completely in the spirit of using a sledgehammer to crack a nut.

Finally, everything was ready.

Along with the second round of catapult fire, the west wall of Anhu City was hit hard by the stones. For a time, the wildlings who had been arranged on the city wall were smashed into pieces, screaming miserably.

Below, the shield-bearers lined up and advanced, with the watchtowers behind them, pushed forward, and finally, the battering ram.

"I have to say, the Jin people's city-building craftsmanship is really good," Li Fusheng praised.

The second round of catapult fire was quite accurate, but it did not cause too obvious structural damage to the walls of Anhu City.

This meant that this city was not a shoddy project, and it should be known that this city was to defend against the wildlings. In the previous years, where would the wildlings besiege a city? And where could they get catapults?

But the Jin people just built the city walls so well in such a rigid way.

It can be imagined that if the Wildling King had successfully retreated back to the snowfield, even these two small castles would have required the pursuing troops to spend so much effort to attack.

Wildlings began to shoot arrows down from the city walls, sporadically. Obviously, the first wave of casualties was too fast, and the second batch had not been arranged yet.

And the wildlings had no other siege weapons available except for bows and arrows.

When the distance was sufficient, the Yan army archers on the watchtowers began to shoot. Because the height difference was leveled by the watchtowers, the damage and effect of the arrows were much better than shooting upwards from below.

Below, there were also ground archers hiding behind shield-bearers to provide cover.

For a time, the arrows of the Yan army attacking the city completely suppressed the arrows of the wildlings on the city walls.

The battering ram began to press forward. No matter how stupid the wildlings were, they knew what this thing was for, but unfortunately, they had no way to solve it and could only watch this big guy come to the city gate.

"Thump!"

"Thump!"

"Thump!"

After three strikes,

The city gate,

Was directly knocked open.

The soldiers pushing the battering ram were stunned for a moment, feeling a little unreal.

On the watchtower in the distance, Li Fusheng's Adam's apple moved, and he said: "This, Zheng, Old Brother, could it be that those pushing the battering ram are all military experts?"

Zheng Fan said: "Wildlings came out of the city earlier to surrender, and they came out through this gate. They shouldn't have blocked anything behind the city gate, right?"

"Oh, is that so."

In fact, there was something Zheng Boye didn't know. After the Wildling King led his army to capture Anhu City and T疊 City, the wildlings who had not yet entered the pass were extremely excited, because they were really poor and had looted all the things left by the Jin people in the city, even the city gates were dismantled and taken away, because there were iron nails and iron sheets on the city gates.

In the end, the Wildling King found out and was furious. He immediately reprimanded them and ordered them to take anything else, but they had to put the city gates back on!

Forced by the Wildling King's prestige, the wildlings still put the city gates back on in a regular manner.

But after such a dismantling and installation, this city gate had actually become a city gate in name only.

At this moment, the third round of catapult fire began. The third round of projectiles were coated with grease, so what was fired was a fireball.

This time the firing distance was slightly increased, that is, deliberately smashed behind the city walls. Terrible screams immediately came from inside the city again.

Immediately afterwards,

The shield-bearers made way, and the Yan soldiers carrying the siege ladders rushed up, set up the ladders on the city walls, and began to climb. The watchtowers, which had been pulled to a sufficient distance, did not choose to dismantle the parts below to make the watchtowers fall to the city walls, because the resistance from the city walls was too weak. Instead, they directly dismantled a long strip of baffle from above and used it as a bridge.

The archers inside directly drew their weapons and rushed onto the city walls, stepping on this bridge.

The scattered wildlings on the city walls were quickly cleared, and the Yan army easily occupied the west city wall.

Li Fusheng smacked his lips and said with some regret: "It's good, but it's too fast. I haven't tasted it yet."

Zheng Fan listened,

And smiled:

"That's easy."

Immediately,

Zheng Boye instructed a guard behind him:

"Sound the gong to withdraw the troops and change to another city wall to attack."

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