Chapter 1 As An Ancient Zombie

As an ancient zombie, Liang Cheng once said a sentence: Humans are the most adaptable beings in this world.

This sentence is perfectly exemplified by Zheng Boye.

Remember back in Hutou City, Zheng Boye was selected into the corvée camp, Xue San helped him carry his armor, and Liang Cheng helped him carry his saber.

That night,

Liang Cheng and Xue San pinned a barbarian knight in front of Zheng Boye,

Zheng Boye struck with his blade,

Killing him!

A man of two lives, that was the first time Zheng Boye had felt the taste of blood rushing towards him so closely and clearly, and it caused serious physiological discomfort.

Several years have passed,

And now, Zheng Boye

Can calmly order a retreat during a siege and then attack again.

As if regarding Anhu City in front of him and the wild men inside as experienced sisters in a red tent, he lightly patted them:

Come on, let's change positions and continue.

In Zheng Boye's view, it was his experiences and trials in this world that changed him and made him like this.

But in the eyes of the devils, it was the "freedom" of this world that allowed their lord to restore his inner nature.

In short,

Under the command of the Earl of Pingye, the Yan army, which had already completely stormed the west city wall, began to withdraw.

Ladders were carried down, and arrow towers were pushed back.

The battering ram, which had worked so well, quietly moved back after smashing open the city gate.

Troops from all sides were retreating in an orderly manner.

Li Fusheng narrowed his eyes and praised,

"Brother, I admire Zheng's method of training soldiers. When the Marquis led us to fight, he taught us that it's not difficult to be as fierce as a tiger when attacking, but to retreat in an orderly manner is the mark of a true elite."

Although this was a retreat after a successful siege, the fact that everything could be done so meticulously showed that this army was no less than the Jingnan and Zhenbei armies.

Even if there were differences, it might only be some differences in the individual qualities of the soldiers, which stemmed from some restrictions when Zheng Fan received recruits.

But this was just a minor flaw, and more importantly, Li Fusheng himself knew that after several years of battles, many of the veterans under his command had either died in battle or been wounded and left the army. After new recruits were added, although there seemed to be no significant decline in combat effectiveness, he, as the general, could detect the true, deep-seated changes.

After a hundred battles, the old soldiers withered.

In addition to withering, there was also corruption.

The Zhenbei Army used to eat sand in Beifeng County. After being transferred to the capital, Li Fusheng clearly felt the transformation of his troops. When they entered Jin and garrisoned one side, this transformation became even more obvious.

Life had become better, and they had seen the real world. What they looked at was no longer the big-boned, thick-waisted old sisters in the red tents of Beifeng County, but the delicate women in brothels.

Therefore, Li Fusheng firmly supported the campaign against Chu. Unlike what the Yan Emperor saw on a grand scale, Li Fusheng was worried that the sharpness of his troops, forged in Beifeng County, would be worn away after a few more years.

The best way to solve this problem was to not rest, not stop, continue fighting, keep fighting, and constantly instill murderous intent into his troops, letting them experience the baptism of blood and fire.

In the end, after destroying the Qian and Chu countries, it wouldn't matter too much if they became decadent again.

Li Fusheng's thoughts were that simple.

Next, the south city wall was chosen for the attack.

And the attacking troops were changed to a unit under Li Fusheng's command.

At the same time,

In order to prevent the previous situation from happening again, where the wild men didn't put in effort and were lazy, resulting in a greatly reduced training effect, Zheng Boye found two prisoners and had them bring a message into the city.

The message was simple:

The Yan army can accept your surrender, but all nobles and chieftains must be executed!

Therefore, the effect of the next round of siege, even though Li Fusheng personally commanded it, was much worse than the first time.

If the Xuehai Pass soldiers under Zheng Boye's command had flowed like water when they attacked the city, then Li Fusheng's troops were truly stumbling.

And even though Zheng Boye sent people to relay the "spiced" message to them, they still didn't take it seriously.

The Zhenbei Army was indeed an army of proud soldiers.

Even in the first defeat at Wangjiang, it was the left army that was defeated. Li Bao's Zhenbei Army unit covered the retreat of the First Prince, and they actually fought very well, impeccably so.

Therefore, they were truly too proud.

After seeing how easily the west city wall had been attacked earlier, their attack this time was truly too careless.

Being careless was one thing, but they didn't even do the basic siege operations that they had done before.

After the trebuchets hurled two rounds, hearing the screams of the wild men on the city wall, a captain, eager to make a contribution, perhaps seeing that the Earl of Pingye was also here, wanted to show off as a captain. So, without waiting for the shield bearers and the suppression from the rear arrow towers and siege crossbows, he directly led his men to carry the ladders up.

But this time, the fighting will of the wild men was truly strong. The arrows suddenly increased, and the wild men on the city wall began to constantly replenish from below.

The ladder attack was immediately blocked. The captain was a good man himself, donning his armor and taking the lead, trying to create a breakthrough point on the city wall.

He did succeed. Under his leadership, a dozen Yan soldiers followed him and opened up a situation.

But because they were too aggressive, they were not in sync with the subsequent troops. They successfully occupied a position on the city wall, but did not receive timely assistance from their comrades to tear open this side, so they were constantly outnumbered on the city wall.

In the end, the captain was hit by several blades and arrows, and died on the city wall.

Under duress, Li Fusheng had no choice but to order the trebuchets to fire another round before calling off the attack.

It wasn't that they couldn't continue fighting, because the Yan army was strong and the wild men were weak. Even if the wild men temporarily gained momentum, the Yan army could continue to press on, and the wild men would collapse sooner or later, repeating the previous scene on the west city wall.

But the more Li Fusheng commanded, the more his head ached. At the same time, he knew that recklessly fighting on could earn him face, but it could also cause greater damage. It wasn't worth causing unnecessary damage to his subordinates for the sake of his own face.

But this withdrawal was a problem. The remaining nearly a hundred soldiers under the captain's command did not retreat according to the retreat horns from the rear, but continued to climb the ladders and kill their way up.

The reason was that the Zhenbei Army had extremely strict military laws.

If defeated, those whose commanding general dies in battle but whose troops survive will be killed without pardon!

This was the iron law that the Zhenbei Army had always followed, and it was clear that when the aggressive captain died in battle, his soldiers had gone mad, because they instinctively believed that retreating was also death. Rather than being killed by their own people, they might as well charge towards the wild men.

From a single point to a wider area, the actions of these people temporarily made the other Yan troops who were supposed to retreat hesitate. It wasn't right to abandon their comrades and continue to retreat, but the order to retreat had already been issued.

Therefore, a scene completely different from the orderly retreat ordered by Zheng Boye earlier appeared. The retreat of Li Fusheng's Yan army was completely disjointed.

The archers were still thinking about supporting their comrades, but the shield bearers had already retreated behind the archers.

One step out of order, and every step was out of order.

In the end, while gritting his teeth and continuing to order the retreat, Li Fusheng sent his own personal soldiers to actively meet them, and after losing many more men, he finally managed to end this chaotic siege drill.

At this time, Liang Cheng, who was already standing next to Zheng Fan, said,

"In fact, Li Fusheng himself also has a big problem. He may not really be familiar with the command of siege warfare, and seeing that we did so well before, he instinctively wanted to follow our rhythm.

But in fact, when the captain boarded the city wall, Li Fusheng could have ordered the front line to completely suppress and kill. It wouldn't have been a problem to clear this section of the city wall, but he was still following the rules step by step.

As for the mess that came out of the subsequent order to retreat, it was still because Li Fusheng's troops were used to the tactics of field battles. Their thinking habits had not yet been switched to the aspect of siege warfare. To be precise, they didn't even have this awareness yet."

Zheng Fan nodded and said, "This should be a problem for Tian Wujing to worry about. Speaking of which, do you think Tian Wujing knows how to siege?"

Liang Cheng was silent.

"Well, what's wrong? Just tell the truth. Don't spare his face."

"My lord, I think the Marquis of Jingnan's habits of using troops are actually more suitable for siege warfare than for cavalry battles in the field."

"Oh."

Zheng Boye understood.

Said:

"So you were giving me face just now?"

Because I asked a question that, in the eyes of you military strategists, was very stupid.

"Your subordinate wouldn't dare."

"Anyway, it doesn't matter. We'll practice here, and there will definitely be more to practice when we attack Chu. I heard that when that Nian Yao of Great Chu was guarding Zhennanguan and playing chess with Tian Wujing, he was quite cowardly."

According to intelligence and what Zheng Boye had personally seen and heard near Zhennanguan,

That General Nian Yao, who had captured several princes alive during the chaos among the princes of Great Chu and was infinitely glorious, could be said to have cultivated the art of shrinking his head to the extreme in Zhennanguan.

When the Yan people provoked him, he was repairing the city;

When the Yan people clamored, he was repairing the city;

When the weather was good, he was repairing the city;

When the weather was bad, he was also forcibly continuing to repair the city.

Therefore, during his tenure, he not only built two heavily guarded military camps on the east and west sides of Zhennanguan, but also built two castles on the north side of Zhennanguan, imitating Anhu City and Tatedie City beyond Xuehai Pass.

The reason why Tian Wujing brought a large army to the border at the beginning of the year was to coordinate with Zheng Boye, who was doing something in Chu, but definitely doing something;

On the other hand, he also discovered that this Chu general actually wanted to continue building cities outside!

Therefore, the Yan army moved out and compressed the sphere of influence of Zhennanguan, foiling Nian Yao's plan to continue building cities in the periphery. It was reported that two places were already laying the foundations at that time.

Therefore,

Attacking Chu is not only about attacking Zhennanguan. Similar castles of not very large scale like Anhu City in front of them also need to be conquered.

Old Tian couldn't possibly not know what his Yan army was good at and what they were not good at. Therefore, similar teaching exercises will inevitably continue in the attack on Chu.

If they are not good at something, they can learn in the meat grinder. In this environment, learning things will definitely be fast.

It's like the college entrance examination in later generations. If you are going to be shot if you don't do well, you may not be able to pass the top scholar, but you will definitely do better than if you are not going to be shot.

At this time,

Li Fusheng, who had completed the withdrawal of troops, walked over with a dark face.

He was really angry, so angry that he was about to explode.

Shameful,

So shameful!

Soldiers, in fact, want face the most. Even if they don't say it, they are actually competing with each other overtly and covertly.

This time, Li Fusheng had completely given a negative demonstration of the opposite side to the previous drill by Zheng Fan's Xuehai Army.

When Li Fusheng came to Zheng Fan,

Zheng Fan directly said:

"Brother, when you had already boarded the city wall earlier, you shouldn't have been bound by formalities. You should have directly ordered the front line to suppress and kill..."

Li Fusheng patiently listened to Zheng Fan's words, and his face slowly returned to calmness.

Liang Cheng nodded slightly beside him. In terms of interpersonal communication, he found that the distance between himself and his lord's level was getting bigger and bigger.

In the eyes of ordinary people, it is very rude and offensive to analyze the mistakes that the other party has just made in person.

But what people like Li Fusheng need most is not false comfort.

He is a very pragmatic general. Therefore, the best way to alleviate the embarrassment is for the lord to directly help him analyze the previous problems now.

Learning, learning.

Liang Cheng sighed in his heart.

As for the fact that what the lord said to Li Fusheng now seemed to be 99.9% similar to what he had said earlier, he didn't care about such small things.

After listening to Zheng Fan's words,

Li Fusheng nodded heavily,

Said:

"Yes, from myself to the bottom, there are really many problems. Fortunately, this time we are not attacking the city of the Chu people. Otherwise, like just now, our losses would have been many times greater."

"Just treat it as paying tuition fees, oh no, it's a token of respect for the teacher."

"Yes, yes, that's well said, very reasonable. Alas, Brother Zheng, I really find that I am so many years older than you for nothing."

"Brother, there's no need to say these words between you and me. Order the cooking of food and summon the generals to make a summary."

"Okay, I'll listen to you. In this way, I can't ask you to come, so send me one of your subordinates who you think is best at siege warfare and let him talk to us again. I'll listen too."

Zheng Fan pointed to Liang Cheng, who was standing beside him,

Said:

"Let it be him. He can be considered to have gotten a lot of my true teachings."

…

After nightfall,

Zheng Boye came to the wild man king's tent.

Zheng Boye didn't rush in. Instead, he asked He Chunlai to go in and take a look first. After learning that Sang Hu was not in the tent, Zheng Boye walked in.

Immediately,

Dozens of personal guards stood guard outside the tent with knives.

The wild man king was still sitting there, but the chains in his hands were untied, and he was eating something.

Fan Li's cooking, a big hodgepodge.

Seeing Zheng Fan coming, the wild man king smiled and said, "Has the Earl eaten yet?"

"I have."

Zheng Fan sat down on the ground.

"The Earl worked hard today." Gou Moli smiled, "But your subordinate has a small suggestion, can you give Sang Hu a chance to let him try his hand at practicing siege warfare with his men?

As you know, my Snow Plains people have only seen three cities in their lives:

Anhu City, Tatedie City, and Xuehai Pass."

The wild man king knew what Zheng Fan was doing today. He was using the lives of the wild men to sharpen the swords of the Yan army.

But the wild man king was not angry at all, and even wanted to actively join in.

"This is not urgent. There will be plenty of opportunities in the future," Zheng Fan said.

"What the Earl said is true. There will indeed be plenty of opportunities in the future." Gou Moli smiled.

Siege warfare lacks everything, except for dead people.

Moreover, even the dead bodies are useful.

The corpses of the dead can be used to refine grease as fire oil, or they can simply be thrown into the city with trebuchets to cause a plague in the city.

"Is the Earl's relationship with this General Li Fusheng very good?"

"Gou Moli."

"Your subordinate is here."

"Do you know what has impressed me the most since I joined the Yan army for so long?"

"Please enlighten me, Earl."

"It's that although there are different factions in the Yan army, they can entrust their backs to their comrades when fighting."

"This is indeed very rare, but, Earl..."

"Speak."

"That's also because you met a nobleman from the beginning, so you don't have to care about those trivial matters. In addition, later on, you gained the favor of the Marquis of Jingnan, so naturally no one will try to stop you in this regard.

Water that is too clear has no fish. There is nothing new under the sun."

Hearing this, Zheng Fan frowned slightly.

After thinking carefully,

Zheng Boye really recalled an incident in the Yan army where he had personally experienced a friendly army watching him die without helping.

That was when Vice General Deng Ziliang was raided and killed by Zhong Tianlang of the Qian Kingdom.

However, in that incident, it was Zheng Boye's Cuiliu Fort who saw the friendly army die without helping and deliberately preserved his strength.

Because of this incident, Zheng Boye was also reprimanded by the Marquis of Jingnan.

Therefore,

It's not that Zheng Boye hasn't encountered comrades who stabbed him in the back, but that the person who would stab him in the back was himself.

When you find that everything around you is white, it is very likely that the black spot is you.

But this example, this dark history, Zheng Boye would not bring it up himself. It was meaningless.

"Earl, this time the army goes out of the fortress, the gains will definitely be not small, but I think the army will not stay here for too long. Therefore, I think that after removing the pastures of some tribes and taking away their livestock and population, we can take advantage of this power and directly apportion other tribes, so that they will take the initiative to send cattle, sheep, and young adults.

They are used to bullying the weak and fearing the strong. If you beat a gong, they will immediately weaken. Your subordinate can prepare a list for the Earl."

"Okay, you can handle this."

"Thank you, Earl. Your subordinate will never let the Earl down."

"When the real attack on Chu begins, I will unlock all the chains on you."

"The Earl's great kindness and virtue, your subordinate will be a cow and a horse in the next life..."

"Wouldn't it be more convenient for me to send you to the next life directly?"

"..." Gou Moli.

…

The next day,

The Yan army attacked the city again in the morning and withdrew at noon; they attacked the city again in the afternoon and withdrew at dusk.

On the third day, the Jin camp troops attacked the city;

On the fourth day, they continued to attack the city;

On the fifth day,

They couldn't continue attacking the city,

Because there was no food in the city,

And this way of playing by the Yan army was too terrible for the spiritual torture of the wild men in the city, it was simply demonic!

The Yan people occupied the city walls again and again, and retreated again and again, and then attacked again and again. It was not something that people could do!

In the end,

The wild men in Anhu City rioted, killed all their chieftains and nobles, and took the initiative to leave the city and kneel in the wilderness, completely giving up resistance.

"Tsk tsk tsk, no more fun."

Li Fusheng said with some regret. He had just found the feeling of commanding a siege.

Immediately,

Li Fusheng looked at Zheng Boye beside him,

Said:

"Let's change to the next city, it's called Tatedie City, right?"

"Well, but don't worry."

"Don't worry? What do you want to do?"

Zheng Boye smiled,

Said:

"First send some food to Tatedie City, so that they will have the strength to defend the city after they eat something."