Do You Know?: I, the Little Cabinet Elder, Regent of the World.

Chapter 86 Oath-taking Ceremony, Feigned Encirclement!
At the break of dawn.

Xizhou, the new military training ground.

"Woo——"

The bugle sounded mournfully, echoing throughout heaven and earth.

Twenty thousand armored soldiers stood in formation, their spears pointing to the sky, exuding an aura of fierce battle.

Occasionally, a north wind would blow, causing his battle robes to flutter loudly.

After six months of training, the new army has been fully trained and formed.

Smoke curls from the chimneys, and torches burn brightly.

Jiang Zhao, clad in a phoenix-winged helmet with long red tassels, held a sharp blade and walked step by step onto the command platform.

Suddenly, he drew his sword and slashed fiercely at the corner of the three-foot-long log.

Wood chips flew everywhere, broken logs tumbled down with a crash, and the atmosphere of death grew stronger.

In one corner of the drill ground, the war drums sounded like muffled thunder, shaking everyone's spirits and making their breathing rapid.

"Soldiers!"

A long roar echoed across the training ground.

"Since Gusiluo came to power, the Tibetan cavalry has invaded Xizhou seven times. The Mengjiaoluo and Moershuiba tribes have plundered nine thousand of my people and burned down dozens of villages!"

The sound waves shook the ground, and the banners fluttered in the wind.

"The enemy has repeatedly invaded our territory, burning, killing, looting, and committing heinous atrocities!"

"This grudge—"

Jiang Zhao drew his sword and plunged it into the wooden table, the red tassel on the hilt fluttering in the wind.

"We shall repay you tenfold!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Gu Tingye raised his long sword and roared, "This grudge shall be repaid tenfold!"

The drums beat loudly, the roars echoed, and the mention of the frontier stirred the blood of the people.

Encouraged, the soldiers thrust their spears skyward and roared:
"This grudge should be repaid tenfold!"

"This grudge should be repaid tenfold!"

"This grudge should be repaid tenfold!"

The roar echoed through the sky, filled with a chilling intent.

Jiang Zhao pressed his hand down, and the roar suddenly weakened. In less than ten breaths, the training ground was completely silent.

"How dare the barbarian lands of Tibet invade the territory of the Great Zhou!"

"This grudge must be avenged!"

As he spoke, Jiang Zhao glared angrily, pulled out a torch soaked in pine resin, and waved it fiercely: "Anyone who beheads one enemy will be rewarded with ten strings of cash and five bolts of silk; anyone who beheads three enemies will be granted twenty mu of land; anyone who captures the enemy chieftain will be promoted to general and their descendants will be exempt from corvée labor! If this battle is won and the territory is expanded, I will definitely report to the Emperor and bestow generous rewards!"

Before the words were even finished, the soldiers all knelt on one knee:
"I am willing to follow the Commander of the Western Regions in sweeping away the enemy's dens!"

"I am willing to follow the Commander of the Western Regions in sweeping away the enemy's dens!"

"I am willing to follow the Commander of the Western Regions in sweeping away the enemy's dens!"

"kill!"

Jiang Zhao drew his sword and rose up, his expression filled with murderous intent.

"kill!"

"kill!"

"kill!"

The 20,000 soldiers were in high spirits and their killing intent was terrifying.

The cheers of the rallies resounded for a long time.

Hezhou, Taoshui.

This place is also the natural boundary between the Mengjiaoluo and Moershuiba tribes.

North of the Tao River, the area was controlled by the Mengjiaoluo tribe, whose influence extended to the Jishi Mountains. The area was suitable for grazing but not for farming.

South of the Tao River, the area was controlled by the Moershuiba tribe, whose influence extended to Jishi Gorge, thus controlling the Tao River Valley and developing a semi-agricultural and semi-pastoral economy.

Among them, the Moershuiba tribe controlled the largest territory in Hezhou, while the Mengjiaoluo tribe controlled less than one-tenth of the territory in Hezhou.

In the middle reaches of the Tao River, there is Dingqiang City.

The bugle sounded loudly, and the army led by Gu Tingye, consisting of 2,500 men, was arrayed in a tight formation at the front and gradually looser at the back, with towering flagpoles and flowing ribbons, creating a magnificent spectacle.

At a glance, the formation consisted of at least five thousand people.

About two miles from Dingqiang City, the army of five thousand men stopped and set up camp.

In a daze, one could see weapons being continuously hauled into the camp: catapults, trebuchets, battering rams, and trench bridges.
Without exception, they were all common items used in sieges and fortifications. Many soldiers struggled to move stones, clearly to coordinate with the catapults in the siege.

"What's going on?" Da Song, the garrison commander of Dingqiang City, hurriedly walked up to the city wall, his eyes wide with anger, and he forced himself to stay alert.

“Maben”.

This means "general" in Tibetan.

A young general in charge of defending the city rushed over and said anxiously, "The banner has the character 'Zhou' on it. This is the army of the Great Zhou."

"The Great Zhou?" The garrison commander, Dasong, changed his expression slightly.

As one of the high-ranking members of the Mengjiaoluo tribe, he knew a lot of inside information.

At least, the Great Zhou Dynasty has already resolved the issue of establishing an heir.

He knew a thing or two about this.

In contrast, the Tibetan Empire was undoubtedly in complete chaos.

It is only natural that the people of the Great Zhou would take the opportunity to expand their territory.

"How far is the nearest army from Dingqiang City?" Dasong asked.

The Mengjiaoluo tribe did not have many soldiers, but the area it governed spanned four prefectures, with at least ten thousand soldiers residing in the core residence of the tribal chief.

The remaining 10,000 were distributed across four states, with each state receiving very little.

When they land in a city, they become even rarer.

Dingqiang City is located close to the frontier, and its garrison is relatively large, only about a thousand troops. Facing an attack by five or six thousand people, it will certainly try to hold on.

But people get tired. If reinforcements aren't timely, and the soldiers become exhausted, it's not impossible for the city to be captured by a sudden attack.

"It will take at least ten days," the young man estimated before replying.

To break the siege, their numbers must be at least as large as the Great Zhou army.

Such a number of soldiers could only be drawn from the commander's residence.

The two states are quite far apart, and the time it would take for the messenger to get there must also be considered.

"Then hurry up and send someone to report the news." Dasong didn't even have time to verify the authenticity of the siege, and hurriedly sent someone to request reinforcements: "If too much time passes, the Great Zhou army will realize what's happening, and they may not even have a chance to send a message."

Theoretically speaking, an attacking army needs to be three to five times larger than the defending army to have a chance of breaking through a city.

This is only a chance.

Some skilled generals can even withstand ten times the number of troops.

Theoretically speaking, with five or six thousand men attacking a city and one thousand men defending it, Dasong might not be unable to hold it.

Unfortunately, he didn't dare to gamble.

Your life is your own!

"Remember to guard the city gates well, and make sure the soldiers are reliable," Dasong instructed.

High-level siege warfare is often simple and unpretentious.

In the past, there have been many instances of traitors opening the city gates and allowing the enemy to advance unimpeded.

"Yes!" The young officer nodded repeatedly and ran off to make the arrangements.

Before long, the camp was set up, and soldiers from the Great Zhou army continued to emerge from the camp and gradually advanced.

When they were less than a mile apart, the soldiers began digging in the soil, as if they were digging a tunnel.

A soft sound reached Dingqiang City.

"Dig well, everyone. When the army arrives, Envoy Jiang will lead 20,000 troops and will surely annihilate the Mengjiaoluo tribe."

The soft words made the people of Dingqiang City even more uneasy.

The garrison commander, Dasong, observed carefully for a while, his face grim.

Soldiers were constantly moving about; there were probably two or three thousand soldiers digging the earth alone, and if you included the camp guards, there were easily five or six thousand.

"I'm afraid the leader's soldiers will arrive too late."

Dasong gritted his teeth and looked at a trusted confidant on the city wall: "The border town of the Moershuiba tribe also has more than a thousand soldiers stationed there. Send someone to ask for help and ask the garrison commander to lend me five hundred men for emergency relief."

The distance between Quechang City and Dingqiang City is only about 100 li.

Five hundred soldiers could travel at an accelerated pace and arrive in no more than two days.

The significance of a city being defended by 1,000 people is completely different from that of a city being defended by 1,500 people.

The Great Zhou army numbered 6,000, and the number of soldiers defending the city increased by 500, which immediately reduced the ratio of attack to defense from 6 to 1 to 4 to 1, greatly reducing the difficulty.

"Yes!"

(End of this chapter)