Chapter 276- Regaining What Was Lost
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Jun
Zhao Kuo's orders were basically declaring the death of Wang Ling camp.
When the generals received the order, their faces were ashen white. They foresaw the ending that awaited them. However, they didn't hate Zhao Kuo, but the guile of the Qin army.
"Brothers, fight to the death!" The guts of the Zhao army were never worse off than that of the Qin army.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The scene from where Wang Ling's remaining forces jumped out of the moat and fought to their deaths were played once again. The same place, the same situation, the only difference was that this time it was the Zhao army.
Fate. Sometimes it was just so coincidental and so cruel.
The courage of the Zhao army was turned against them by Meng Ao. His calm eyes suddenly wavered and facing such an opponent, what he could do was to try his best and send them on their way.
Deafening roars sounded out inside and outside of the camp. The charge of the Zhao army provoked the thirst for blood in the Qin soldiers, and both sides fought to the death.
The intense battle lasted all the way into the afternoon. When they were tired, the Zhao army had their meals in the moat, not even having the time to return to camp. If they backed off, the enemy Qin army would charge forward.
As the sun shined onto the Wang Ling camp, it seemed exceptionally cold. The repaired camp was now once again in tatters, walls broken and smoke billowing from within.
As Meng Ao led the troops, he had a calm demeanour. The Zhao army's resilience was far more than he had expected. The moat looked like a dead zone which they could take over at anytime. But when the Qin forces rushed forward, there would be bodies that ‘revived’, taking the crescent knives in their hand and fighting against the Qin army.
Because of the battles time after time, the moat didn't exist anymore, covered by bodies and blood. Be it siege weapons or defense tools, they were all broken and no one bothered to go and fix them.
At the end of the battle, there were only soldiers taking knives and spears, and engaging in close combat. There was no skill and no tactics. This was the cold weapons era, the most bloody but the most eye catching moment.
Soldiers weren’t wheat that would grow back quickly after being cut.
The Zhao army, be it in combat strength or mental strength, were equal to the Qin army; however, there were twice the number of enemies in front. In the end, they lost. Like the Wang Ling forces, none of them surrendered and everyone fought to the death.
In this battle, after a whole day of intense fighting, Meng Ao's troops seemed to have lost as many men before being able to take down the Wang Ling camp before nightfall.
They had regained what they lost, only that the price seemed too much to pay.
The after battle report showed that the player infantry forces led by Chen Tang had nearly all been killed, with around 1000 remaining. The terrible state of the player force was the best description of the battle.
Taking down Wang Ling camp, Wang Ao followed Baiqi's instructions and led 70 thousand troops to guard it. To pay remembrance to Wang Ling, the name of the place wasn't changed.
Seeing Wang Ling camp taken over once again, Zhao Zhuang was furious and wanted to have a fight to the death with the Qin army. Luckily, Zhao Kuo's warning made him keep a clear head and order his troops to retreat to the foot of the Gu Pass.
The combined forces of Huan He and Young Bao dealt with Zhao Zhuang for an entire day and were exhausted. They retreated back towards Guanglang City to rest up. Both generals knew that the more crucial battle was about to happen.
As for the 100 thousand troops sent to disturb the Gu Pass, they were taken out from Wang He's camp. Wang He was given the secret mission before Huan He and Ying Zhao went to attack the Wei Army to go toward Gu Pass.
A few days ago when the Meng Ao Army was bluffing their attack on the Wang Ling Camp, the entire main camp of the Qin army only had 50 thousand men, like an empty city. The Zhao Army had 200-300 thousand free troops but they didn't use them. If Zhao Kuo took the risk and attacked, the battle would be totally different right now.
Unfortunately, there were no ifs in war.
In the morning, Zhao Zhang started to shift out all the old chariots and useful things out and spent five days forming the chariot circle formation at the foot of Gu Pass.
The formation had five layers: the outermost one was a walled trench, the second was composed of chariots and sword shield soldiers. The chariots were connected together, and behind the chariots were the sword shield soldiers; thirdly were infantry soldiers spaced out in a defensive formation; the 4th was the military tent used to switch out the defending soldiers and treat the wounded; the 5h was the golden drum tower with a giant ‘Zhao’ flag and this was where the commander would command all the troops.
When the formation was set up, it astonished the Qin army. The Qin army pointed from afar and looked in awe. When Baiqi got the report, he looked down from the highest point of Lang Mountain. From afar, it was a 5 kilometer burning circle, flags placed around, drums sounding out, and it looked really dangerous.
Baiqi looked at his generals and asked, "You have all been through hundreds of battles, can anyone tell me the history of this formation? What are its strengths and weaknesses, and how should we break it?"
At this point, Meng Ao was north of the stone wall to command the 100 thousand troops there. Meng Ao was in the Wang Ling Camp and was in charge of monitoring the movements of the Zhao Army in the Gu Pass.
Besides Baiqi were only Wang He and Huam He. Wang He had 50 thousand odd men were in Laoma Ridge. Huan He had taken over Ying Bao's forces and had a total of 80 thousand cavalry situated in Guanglang City, taking over Meng Ao's role.
Apart from the two generals, there was the player representative Qiyue Wuyi and Qianshou.
Wang He laughed. "Who cares what formation it is? We have 50 thousand cavalry. We can charge through it and destroy it!"
"Fifty thousand cavalry destroy that? They will all die and you still wouldn't know what happened. As a general, you are an important member of the country. Doing things rashly, how will you win the war?" Although Baiqi wasn't intense, he had a indescribable prestige and honor which made the generals respect and fear him.
Most importantly was that the whole army had utmost faith in Baiqi. Baiqi, who worked his way up from a soldier, was a terrifying swordsman when he was a soldier and was familiar with all sorts of warfare and weapons. If he walked around in the training school, he could point out the mistakes of everyone.
As the general was so good, the soldiers would naturally trust him. That wasn't all. His tactics were precise and his use of troops was sublime, his courage and ruthlessness, all this played a part. In the past 30 years, as long as Baiqi led them, in whatever battle, the Qin Army would win.
All in all, Baiqi was like a war god sent from the heavens.
Even given such respect, Baiqi didn't become arrogant and rash. He was always that calm and clear, and he was forever the guy whose goal was to destroy the enemy.
Apart for calling him a god, there was no other way to describe him.
Being scolded by Baiqi, Wang He was embarrassed, his face turning red instantly.
Baiqi knew Wang He's personality and didn't think about it much, taking the chance to ask the generals about the formation. Suddenly, a slow but firm voice spread out from behind. "If I'm not wrong, this is the chariot circle formation."
Baiqi was shocked. He turned his head only to see an old man, dressed up like a scholar, standing behind Qiyue Wuyi. The scholar looked at Baiqi and bowed.
Ouyang Shuo introduced. "Baiqi, this is the advisor of the player force, Qianshou."
Baiqi nodded. He wasn't angry because he got interrupted and instead praised, "I didn't expect there would be such a smart person amongst the players. Please explain." It wasn't that Baiqi was trying to make things difficult for Qianshou, it's just that once the formation was recognized, one could naturally say it's pros and cons.
Qianshou didn't hesitate and said, "The formation was thought of by Sun Bin, but wasn't used in battle before. He only left the blueprints of the 10 formations. As for how to use them he didn't explain. This formation is the one that made use of moats, chariots and infantry: the chariot circle formation."
"The strength of his formation was that the army could rotate in a circle like water to adapt to the situation; if we attack from one point, the troops will rotate and attack us from behind; if we surround them and attack, we would need to stretch out our troops and thus our strength would be weak and would not be able to siege."
"Pa pa pa!" Baiqi clapped and laughed. "Mister is a genius!"
"Thank you for your praise."
Baiqi waved him off, his expression turning serious once again.
Based on Baiqi's plan, the next step would be to coordinate with Ying Bao's troops to pincer Gu Pass. However this formation made the south impenetrable.
The Wang Ling Camp that Meng Ao used so much to gain was now also useless.
Not only that, Zhao Kuo could also coordinate with the Hukou Pass soldiers to surround Ying Bao. The situation instantly changed because of one formation.
Baiqi was impressed. Zhao Kuo had started to show signs of becoming a star general.
"To destroy the Zhao army, we need to first destroy the chariot circle formation!" Baiqi said resolutely.