The Six Arts of the Gentleman in the Bright Moon of Qin Dynasty

Chapter 791 Tired Soldiers [Subscribe*Monthly Tickets]

The Central Army Shogunate revised its tactics again. Originally, they planned to focus their attack on the prisoner camp in Shouchun, because according to intelligence assessment, this camp had the lowest combat effectiveness, and the worst personnel quality and equipment.

However, after three consecutive days of attack, they found out that the combat capability of the Prisoner Battalion was still stronger than that of most of the Chu Army's camps defending the city, so they made some repairs.

If they had attacked the city according to the intelligence from the beginning, they would most likely have suffered losses.

The observation group also saw this very clearly and was reminded of this.

Intelligence may not always be true and valid, and real intelligence still needs to be produced.

"Is the Thunder Leopard Corps hiding its capabilities, or has its combat effectiveness really dropped sharply?" Li Ren frowned.

He had fought against the Thunder Leopard Corps before, and knew that although the Thunder Leopard Corps was somewhat weak, it was not as weak as the intelligence reported during the three-day siege.

Therefore, Li Ren had to suspect that the Thunder Leopard Corps was hiding its capabilities.

"It's unlikely that he is hiding his abilities. There's not much point in hiding his abilities!" Li Xin shook his head, but he was also wary.

They want to win quickly and decisively and don't want to suffer too much loss in Shouchun, so they have to take every possibility into consideration.

"All the capable officers and soldiers of the Thunder Leopard Corps are here thanks to my efforts!" Xiong Qi smiled and pointed at the few retainers and staff behind him.

“???” Yan Yan, Li Ren, Wei Ju, Meng Yi and others all looked behind Xiong Qi.

"When I returned to Shouchun, Shouchun was in the process of a massive purge, with the Thunder Leopard Corps being the first to be hit. Then I took advantage of the situation and brought these talented people who were being purged under my command!" Xiong Qi said with a smile.

He has been silent for too many years, and most of his former followers have dispersed, and there are not many people he can trust.

So, taking advantage of the major reshuffle in Shouchun, he screened and recruited those talented people one by one to form his own new team.

After all, after this battle, when he returns to Qin, he will, if nothing unexpected happens, take over from Wei Zhuang as the new right prime minister of Qin. It would be hard to convince people without a team.

"Then he recommended some dudes to replace the captains of the Thunder Leopard Corps." Xiong Qi continued.

Li Ren nodded. No wonder the Thunder Leopard Corps’ combat effectiveness suddenly became so poor.

At that time, the Thunder Leopard Legion led by Bambu was able to fight against the Bingzhou Blood Cavalry without being dispersed.

The current Thunder Leopard Corps has poor command, slow actions, and its combat effectiveness is declining by leaps and bounds.

"I just don't know if Shouchun will re-employ Commander Bambu!" The captains of the Thunder Leopard Corps suddenly spoke up.

Li Xin and others looked at the captains of the original Thunder Leopard Corps.

"It's like this. The Thunder Leopard Corps was formed by General Bambu. Although the captains and centurions of each battalion have been replaced, there have not been many changes to the centurions and lower-level officers. If General Bambu takes charge of the Thunder Leopard Corps again, it is entirely possible that these captains and centurions will be sidelined!" explained the former deputy commander of the Thunder Leopard Corps.

Li Xin, Meng Yi and others nodded.

Intelligence from the three forces showed that Bambu might not be able to command an army of over 100,000, but he could command a Thunder Leopard Corps of tens of thousands of people with ease.

Ji Bu and Bambu are also the two people they care about the most.

However, judging from the current intelligence, for some unknown reason, Bambu did not take over the Thunder Leopard Corps again.

After renegotiating the siege plan, the enlarged meeting of the central army also dispersed.

Everyone was also waiting for the Vanguard Battalion and the Death Battalion to be repaired and completed.

Shouchun also enjoyed two days of peace.

But everyone knows that the peace of the past two days is just the calm before the storm.

On the third day, the Qin Army's vanguard camp was repaired, and the entire Qin Army camp began to move. They surrounded Shouchun from all sides, and more than ten camps and 30,000 people were dispatched at one time to launch a fierce attack on Shouchun. "There is no possibility of tricks in siege warfare. It depends on who can hold on to the end. The only thing we can do is to press more and more elite troops against the enemy's weakest point!" Li Xin explained to the officers and soldiers of the observation group how to fight a siege.

There is no such thing as hiding one's shortcomings.

Neither the navy nor the Bingzhou Blood Cavalry hid their weaknesses on the battlefield, and they were all taught hand in hand what they were good at.

Therefore, Li Xin felt embarrassed to hide his shortcomings and not teach.

Yan Yan, Li Ren and Wei Ju all nodded. They were indeed not good at siege warfare and could only launch a fierce attack.

Just by watching the Qin army's siege, they learned a lot, such as the specific use of some engineering equipment, and where to deploy elite and large troops. These are all worth learning.

If they had known the method of attacking the city earlier, the losses would have been much lower when they attacked Ruyin and Xiacai.

The battle lasted until dusk and was extremely brutal.

The Qin army suffered heavy losses, with no less than 3,000 casualties in just one day of siege. Of course, the Chu army also suffered heavy casualties.

But this is a siege, and as the art of war says, attack with ten times the force!
A casualty ratio in a siege battle within 10:1 is acceptable.

The next day, the fierce attack continued.

However, after the third day, the intensity of the fierce attacks slowed down and turned into harassment.

They continued to attack fiercely during the day, but at night each camp pulled out the war drums that carried orders, placed them under the city and kept beating them, and small groups of troops kept pretending to launch surprise attacks on the city, forcing the defenders to be unable to sleep.

"The method of tiring out the enemy."

Li Xin explained with a smile.

"After three days of fighting, if we fail to break through the city gate, the morale of the Chu army will be boosted, so we can't let their morale rise again."

"A sneak attack and harassment with drums will make them overwhelmed. Once one side relaxes, the sneak attack will turn into a violent attack!"

Yan Yan and others also understood the strategy of tiring out the enemy.

In the end, the war is about who has stronger morale.

Three days later, it was visibly clear that the Shouchun defenders were in low spirits, and were shaky as they stood on the city walls. It was obvious that their mental state had reached its limit.

"Almost done!" Li Xin inspected Shouchun and returned to the central army's banner.

"All troops attack!" Li Xin drew the sword from his waist and pointed it diagonally in the direction of Shouchun.

The sound of war drums continued to sound, spreading from the center of the army to both sides, and soon the entire Shouchun was enveloped by the sound of drums.

"The Qin army is attacking with all its might again!" Ji Bu's face was not looking good either.

Li Xin and Meng Yi still had time to rest and get enough sleep, but he couldn't. He had to check for omissions and patrol the city defenses day and night.

The soldier's mental state was stretched to the limit, and he was not much better.

He thought about asking King Fu Chu of Chu to climb to the top of the city wall to boost morale, but unfortunately both Fu Chu and Li Yuan were cowardly, especially when they knew Yan Yan was just outside the venue, they dared not show up on the city wall.

Who in the world doesn't know that Emperor Xuanwu was famous for his archery skills before he became famous? Daring to show up in front of Emperor Xuanwu, does that mean you think you can't die quickly enough?

Ji Bu had no choice but to give up. Shouchun was beyond saving. He had no other choice but to continue.

(End of this chapter)