knife

Chapter 782: Fighting a tough battle

Kang Zhen walked up the watchtower, which was several meters high, and looked at the majestic city of Liyang in the distance.

He had a detailed construction map of Liyang County, and he was quite familiar with the place. As a barrier and key city for Danyang City, the city was built to be extremely tall and sturdy.

However, what is currently causing Kang Zhen more trouble is not the county city itself, but the ground defense system that is several miles wide and surrounds the city on three sides.

Na Wei was quite skilled at fighting.

This defense system drew inspiration from the naturally formed barriers they had encountered in the southwest, but here it was constructed by human labor, creating a complex defense system that combined military strength with natural factors.

The trenches crisscrossed and connected one another, some extremely deep, others extremely shallow, some filled with water, some with countless sharpened wooden stakes driven into the ground, and others used to hide soldiers.

Some seemingly flat areas actually conceal hidden traps. Beneath a layer of loose soil lies a layer of mud, a mechanism specifically designed to ambush cavalry.

If cavalrymen think that there is flat ground ahead and they can launch a charge, the fast horses will immediately get stuck in the mud and be unable to move an inch when they reach this place. At the same time, the arrow towers on both sides of the trap will mercilessly end the lives of the cavalrymen with crossbows.

This setup was modeled after the swamps of the southwest, making it extremely treacherous. To be honest, Kang Zhen didn't initially discover these hidden traps. It was only by sheer chance that his scout saw a wild dog running wildly across the battlefield and accidentally getting caught in this artificial swamp that he realized what was going on.

The crisscrossing and mutually covering watchtowers, the small hills formed by the mud and rocks dug from the trenches, and these trenches that made one's scalp tingle all frowned.

"How do we fight?" Ke Wuji asked Kang Zhen.

Old Ke was an expert in rebellion. In the past, he was basically the type to charge in with a bang, fight if he could win, and run if he couldn't. He spent most of his life being chased by government troops. He could perform guerrilla tactics to the fullest. But when it came to a direct confrontation between two armies, soldiers against soldiers and generals against generals, he was a bit lost.

"This kind of setup, haha!" Kang Zhen shook his head: "Since the enemy has fortified their camp, we can only fight a drawn-out battle. We can just push through!"

"Then the casualties will probably be significant!" Ke Wuji said with some concern.

"War inevitably involves casualties!" Kang Zhen scoffed. "Elder Ke, true war is actually dominated by battles like this. Whether it was our battles against He Zudao a couple of years ago, or the battles in Xiangyang and Nanyang, they were all extremely coincidental, or rather, Protector Li and the Empress Dowager exploited the weaknesses of human nature to the fullest extent, which allowed us to win some easy and opportunistic battles. But these battles all had very demanding preconditions. The battles we are fighting now are the true face of war. It is filled with human lives and watered with blood. Every step we take will leave our feet stained with blood."

"I understand, but I feel a little reluctant. Look at our spirited young men, once the war starts, some of them might disappear tomorrow!" Ke Wuji said with emotion.

Kang Zhen chuckled dryly twice.

"It's not that difficult, actually. Na Wei's defensive system is extremely well-designed! But he still made a big mistake!" "What mistake? Why didn't I see it?"

Kang Zhen rolled his eyes, thinking to himself, "You used to be an expert in rebellion, how could you possibly understand the tricks of this?"
“The system is good, but it depends on who implements it!” Kang Zhen explained, “If Wei Ken puts half of his troops in this system outside the city, it will definitely cause us great damage! The cost might even make me hesitate to launch a forced attack. I know the fighting strength of the Southwest Wolf Soldiers. These people come from impoverished backgrounds, and war is their only chance to change their fate. Therefore, they are extremely resilient and extremely ferocious. In addition, now that they are far from their homeland, they are even more united, and their fighting strength will be even higher. So if half of the Southwest Wolf Soldiers are outside this system, I would suggest that we attack other places first!”

Ke Wuji shaded his eyes with his hand, looked carefully, and suddenly realized: "It seems that the Southwest Wolf Soldiers are all hiding on those watchtowers operating crossbows. Those people who are showing up in many places are just some young and strong men!"

“Exactly!” Kang Zhen laughed heartily. “Na Wei still can’t bear to put his Southwest Wolf Soldiers out in this meat grinder. At this point, he’s ready to fight to the death, but he’s also hesitant and overthinking. He’s definitely not the kind of guy who can accomplish anything great.”

"He only had this much capital when he was in trouble, so every little loss is a small loss. If it were me, I'm afraid I would have done the same!" Ke Wuji rarely said a good word for Na Wei.

"Therefore, his defeat was inevitable!" Kang Zhen said, "Men, beat the drums, gather the generals, and within three days, we will wipe out his outer defenses completely!"

Tao Silang cowered and hid in the trench.

After being captured, he was made to dig ditches, build hills, construct towers, and carry water to irrigate some ditches, etc. He didn't know exactly what he was doing, but he knew that if he slacked off even slightly, those vicious soldiers would beat him mercilessly with whips.

They thought that once these things were built, the soldiers would let them go, but to their surprise, after the construction was completed, one of the soldiers gave them some knives and guns, and arranged them in groups of fifty in the trenches they had just built.

Now they finally understood that when the war broke out, the first enemy they would face would not be the fully armed officers and soldiers, but rather them, the young men and women dressed in tattered clothes.

It wasn't that no one resisted.

Tao Silang witnessed a group of people, who must have come from the same village, with a leader. After a conflict with the government soldiers, the entire group of fifty people was slaughtered by just ten armored government soldiers.

That conflict also made them realize how big the gap was between them and these soldiers.

Tao Silang hugged the big yellow dog tightly in his arms. He felt he didn't have much time left to live, and the only thing that could give him some comfort was this dog. He didn't know how the dog had found its way here, found him. But seeing how thin and bony the dog was, it must have suffered a lot along the way.

He hugged Dahuang tightly, took out a cornbread from his pocket, broke it in half and fed it to Dahuang's mouth, "Brother, eat up, we probably don't have many more days to live."

Just then, the sound of drums suddenly rang out. Tao Silang poked his head out and saw the army slowly gathering opposite him, along with rows of towering catapults and other equipment. He sighed, "We might not survive today either. Let's eat more and die well-fed!"

(End of this chapter)