Chapter 396- Leizhou Ruler
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
However, this confidence did not last for long.
In less than half an hour, a messenger ran over in a panic. His face was ashen white, as he said, "General, it’s bad. The enemy reinforcements are in the city!"
"What?"
Caogui freaked out; his body trembled, and he nearly lost his footing.
He instantly dashed up and grabbed the collar of the messenger. He scolded, "Bullsh*t. The city gate has two thousand troops defending it, how could it fall so fast? I’ll kill you for faking military intel!" As he spoke, he wanted to pull out the sword at his waist.
Caogui’s actions left the poor messenger petrified. His neck was restrained, so he could not breathe. He felt a shiver run down his spine; this time, he was dead.
"General, general!"
Luckily, a guard rushed over and saved the messenger.
These words alerted Caogui, and he came to his senses. He tried to calm himself down. With a slightly shivering voice, he asked, "How was the city gate broken?"
The messenger took two quick gulps of air, and his red face slowly returned to normal. He looked guiltily at Caogui. Then, he carefully said, "The enemy hid a small force that the defence force could not adapt to. Under the attack of both forces, inside and outside, the gate quickly fell.”
The one that hid inside the city were naturally Zhaoyan and the five hundred elites.
Last night, Zhaoyan had led his troops to infiltrate the civilians near the city gate. The moment Luo Shixin's forces arrived, they immediately charged out.
"Hidden troops?"
Caogui was really smart; he managed to figure out what had happened.
"We were careless!"
Caogui did not expect the enemy to still hide a unit in such a desperate situation. This battle, Caogui had lost; he had totally lost.
A huge sense of failure overwhelmed him; he felt like his soul had left his body.
"General, what should we do now?"
"How?" Caogui muttered.
After a long while, he finally managed to force out the words—let's surrender.
Caogui did not want the soldiers to die for nothing. Fighting on no longer held any meaning.
There was a moment of silence.
Like jumping from heaven and right into hell, this kind of feeling was really uncomfortable.
"Let's surrender!"
Caogui repeated his words once more. This time, his tone was a lot more resolute.
Lord, I've failed you.
In his eyes, a desire for death flashed out.
The rumbling of horses sounded out on the streets. It was a total nightmare for the alliance army that were attacking.
The iron cavalry charged in from afar, knocking people from the back and sending them flying forward.
In just a moment, the alliance army suffered heavy casualties.
Luckily. this nightmare arrived fast and ended fast too.
In less than ten minutes, white flags hung from the city wall. The alliance army soldiers immediately threw down the weapons in their hand. They were afraid of being slaughtered by accident.
Compared to the sad and terrible state of the alliance army, the south side troops were naturally celebrating.
They had accomplished it. They had held on under the attacks of fifty thousand men.
As expected of the 1st division of the Tiger Legion.
After celebrating, a huge sense of tiredness and lethargy overcame them. In order to prevent night assaults from the enemy, the soldiers had not experience a good night sleep for a full two days.
Some of them did not care about the blood and gore on the battlefield. They just directly fell asleep.
The soldiers used the corpses on the battlefield as pillows.
When Luo Shixin led his troops and arrived, this weird scene greeted him.
As the alliance army had surrendered, the battle of Tanmu County ended in Shanhai City’s complete victory.
Fan Lihua stood on the broken battlefield; her face lacked even a tinge of happiness.
This victory was simply too hard fought.
During this battle, the 1st division of the Tiger Legion had lost three thousand soldiers, including one colonel and six majors. If you added in the injured, they had a casualty count of close to a third.
This was the time since the formation of the Shanhai City army that a colonel died.
The list was heavy.
The dead colonel was the 1st division cavalry regiment colonel, Li Mingliang.
Li Mingliang was also a long serving general. Since the establishment of Shanhai Village, Ouyang Shuo had utillized him, all the way from sergeant to captain to major, and now, to colonel.
No one expected him to fall in the battle of Tanmu County.
The atmosphere of the battlefield was really depressing.
When she saw the situation, Luo Shixin led the troops to lock up the prisoners.
Of the fifty thousand alliance army men, only thirty thousand were left. Amongst them, some were injured and needed to retire. In the final parts of the battle, the monitoring squad had executed thousands.
This battle was simply too brutal.
Fan Lihua was a very resolute female general. After feeling affected for a while, she quickly recovered.
Round up the prisoners, heal the wounded, clear the battlefield.
Apart from that, they had to complete the occupation of Tanmu County, restore its order, and apply military rule to the county.
Post war work was simply too complex.
Po Zuozi, the lord of Tanmu County, had already escaped when Luo Shixin and his troops attacked.
Out of all the prisoners, the one with the highest profile was still Caogui.
When she had time, Fan Lihua specially paid him a visit.
On the city wall, Caogui had tried to kill himself, but the Guards stopped him.
When Fan Lihua received the news, she immediately sent men to monitor Caogui to prevent him from killing himself. It was not easy to capture him. If she let him die, Fan Lihua did not know how she would have the face to see the lord.
When all the lords received the battle report, there was absolute silence.
Everyone was clear that the mid-south region of Leizhou was lost, and there was no way to recover it.
Some of the lords did not wait for the Shanhai City army to arrive. They just took all their assets and left.
The entire mid-south region of Leizhou was thrown into chaos.
Some raiders even took the chance to raid the territories.
Leizhou desperately needed a lord to restore order.
That afternoon, the 1st Guards regiment arrived outside Yanluo County.
The lord, Yanhuo Yaonie, had already received the news of the alliance army’s defeat.
In contrast to the other lords that surrendered, Yanhuo Yaonie's method was a bit weird. He directly exited the city to surrender.
When the 1st regiment saw his actions, they felt a little hesitant. They were afraid of a trap.
The lesson that the south side forces learned was still clear in their minds. The ones who were responsible for that event were right in front of them.
When Yanhuo Yaonie saw the the 1st regiment not move forward, he did make any astonishing move. He simply brought out Bao Shuda and carried the lord's stamp to surrender.
Upon seeing that, the 1st regiment finally put aside their worries and entered the city.
Weirdly enough, he did not leave. Instead, he moved into a mansion beside the Lord's Manor with his man, Bao Shuda.
The 1st regiment colonel did not make any decisions. After occupying the county, he reported everything that had happened to the main camp and waited for further instructions.
This wait was a big half a month.
As the Battle of Tanmu County had ended, Baiqi was also busy. A battle report was handed over to him almost every hour.
There were some asking about logistics, some about prisoners, some about the next steps, and the like.
However, Baiqi could not leave the reports alone; he had to personally approve them. At such a time, how could he bother about such small matters? The battle reports had stacked up on his desk and no one had asked about it.
As the alliance army fell, Luo Shixin continued up north to help the north troops. As for the mid-south region, Fan Lihua would clear up all the loose ends.
Under the lead of Fan Lihua, the 1st division of the Tiger Legion charged forward at the speed of one city a day. They used just a week to sweep up the mid-south region.
All the raiders ran away in all directions.
The chaotic mid-south region instantly quietened down.
The various officers and officials who took over the cities complained to their superiors about how busy they were.
The four directors did not have any time to listen to their complaints. The directors were far busier than them.
Investigating scholars, appointing officials, dealing with prisoners, calming down the masses….
They were so busy that they did not even have time to eat themselves. They could only eat while listening to reports. They would also give instructions at the same time.
Fan Zhongyan was busy, but Du Ruhui was frightened.
The entire 1st division was busy clearing raiders and territories. They had taken over sixty to seventy thousand prisoners, but they only had one regiment looking after them.
When he thought about this matter, Du Ruhui was so worried that he could not fall asleep.
His officials were so busy in Leizhou. Meanwhile, Ouyang Shuo, as the lord, was lazing around in Shanhai City. He had no intentions of helping out.
As Luo Shixin's troops proceeded north, the battles there were simple and easy.
They easily helped the Guards division wipe out the middle of Leizhou.
Following which, both forces went further up north.
When the troops reached the north side army, the entire north region was already cleared out.
Only then did the north alliance regret not listening to Yanhuo Yaonie’s suggestion. They had all lost as a result.
The loss of the Tanmu County alliance army was like the push of the first domino. After which, the entire Leizhou region battle situation collapsed.
Although Weizhang was a great general, he could only surrender when up against three divisions.
The battle lasted till almost the end of the sixth month before Leizhou was completely taken down.
Leizhou was about to welcome a new ruler!