Chapter 1259 – We Aren’t Weak!

Tibet Plateau, sunny and windy.

Under the blue sky and white clouds, a battle of life or death was underway. Two hours had passed since Wang Ben gave the order to attack. Both sides had suffered heavy casualties and fresh blood stained the land.

With the climate of the high plains, two hours of consecutive fighting was a huge test.

Wang Ben looked up at the sky. When he saw that the sun was about to set and Anduo city still had not fallen, his face turned really ugly, and he said, “Send down my orders, no reserve forces are to be left, all of you charge with me!”

“Yes, general!”

With that, the 20 thousand reserve troops pushed onto the front lines.

Wang Ben had made the right decision. In truth, the Ashoka Dynasty army was on the verge of collapse, and the 20 thousand new blood immediately gave them a fatal blow.

Furthermore, with Wang Ben leading the troops himself, the Qin army morale soared, and they were unstoppable.

In less than half an hour, a huge breach appeared in the city wall. Wang Ben took the lead to charge onto the city wall to fight the enemies. Corpses were like dumplings, falling off the city walls and forming a thick layer on the ground.

The Ashoka Dynasty army was also really amazing, choosing death over retreating.

The two sides engaged in a tug of war around the city wall, and every inch of land was defended with their bodies. Neither side wanted to give in. The casualties were increasing at a visible rate.

Corpses piled up against the city wall, and the soldiers could only fight while stepping on the corpses.

When Wang Ben saw that, although he respected the enemy, he was furious. If he could not take down Anduo City under such circumstances, it would be a huge humiliation.

“Kill!”

Maybe because they were influenced by Baiqi, but the Qin army used heavy swords instead of sword shield soldiers.

Heavy swordsman focused on attack and less on defense. Once they struck out, one side would have to fall. Under Wang Ben’s motivation, the Qin army went all out, gambling with their lives.

This time, the Ashoka army was finally afraid. Seeing their brothers fall down row by row like malt and the city wall being lost, the army’s fighting spirit started to die.

“Retreat!”

The city defending official gave the order to retreat; he was ready to take the fight to within the city.

When Wang Ben saw that, he hollered, “Chase! Do not give the enemy a chance to set up formation within the city!”

The Qin army were like parasites, clinging onto the enemy from the city wall to within the city, from one street to the next.

Even in the dead of night, as candles and lights were lit up, killing shouts continued to spread all over.

At this stage, the armies of both sides had already been split up. They fought in units and even in squadrons around the streets and houses, turning Anduo City upside down.

The natives could only shiver in fear.

When night arrived, Wang Ben personally led his Personal Guards and walked into the city lord manor. He did not need to personally lead the troops to fight. Instead, he controlled the situation and used the troops to kill off the remaining enemy troops.

This was a massacre without war prisoners; the loser had to die.

The killings at various parts of the city started to calm down. Of the 40 thousand enemy troops, most were already wiped out – only some escaped or hid away. Wang Ben did not care about rest and called his father on the communication compass to report the result.

In the video, Wang Jian did not praise him. He only nodded his head and ordered, “Tomorrow morning, send out troops to clear out the nearby villages and await the main army.”

“Yes!”

Wang Ben was used to this.

In both of their eyes, taking down Anduo City was not something worthy of praise.

Even so, through this battle, Wang Ben had gained a new understanding of the enemy’s strength. Through this battle, close to 30 thousand Qin troops had died, which was pretty much the same as the enemy.

Such a result was really ugly.

Although the Ashoka Dynasty’s army was strong, the 500 thousand Qin army’s lack of combat experience was more important. Strictly speaking, this was their first real battle.

“Those who had not seen blood before are really useless.” Wang Ben was unsatisfied.

…

The next day, news of the right wing taking just half a day to take down Anduo City spread swiftly to the four armies.

This time, the other three armies felt really ashamed. The vanguard general of the three armies all gave the same order, “Stop at nothing to take down the target city!”

Although the Qin army took the crown, they could not be the last, right?

The four armies were competing with one another in the dark. At this moment, their competition welcomed its peak.

Unsurprisingly, the second to take down a city was the left wing led by Tian Dan. After all, the Zhou army was the most experienced out of the four armies.

Next was the middle protector army – the Song army. They had some experience. On the other hand, the Tang army was the last. They only took down the target city on the 9th month, 5th day.

The moment this news spread out, the Tang army felt really ashamed.

News had it that usually calm and level-headed middle army commander Li Shiji was so furious that he directly demoted the vanguard general to the lowest soldier level.

“We lost to even the Song army; what a humiliation!” Li Shiji cursed out.

Cheng Yaojin and Yuchi Gong were also filled with resentment. They were unhappy that Li Shiji did not send them out to fight. Otherwise, the Qin army might not have been the first to take down their target city.

……

Chengdu, northwest command center.

The Tang Dynasty taking last place made even Li Jing feel a loss of face. When he arranged the Tang army as the main force, he had taken into account their past relationship. Who would have known that the outcome would turn like that.

“Really…”

Li Jing shook his head and did not know what to say.

Just at this moment, advisor Xun Yu walked in and said, “Commander, the battle loses have been tabulated. Please take a look.”

Li Jing kept his emotions and took a look. Only after a short while did he say, “Nothing surprising.”

The Qin army losing 30 thousand men while taking down Anduo was considered good out of the three armies. The worse was the Song army that lost 50 thousand men, losing more troops than the enemy.

Li Jing, who had fought the Ashoka Dynasty army previously, naturally knew how amazing this enemy was. Especially the troops that they placed at the border, which were all experienced elite troops.

Li Jing was already quite satisfied with such results.

Xun Yu suggested, “Commander, the first battle was already so tough, should we change the strategy?”

Their plan was to have the four armies work together to form a long battle line from east to west and push out until they chased the Ashoka Dynasty army out of Tibet.

However, their casualties right at the start meant that they would definitely suffer heavy losses.

“Advisor, what plan do you have?” Li Jing asked expressionlessly.

Xun Yu replied, “I suggest that the right wing send a cavalry force to go around the House of Ogedai to sneak attack the backlines of Tibet and disturb their grain line; this will help to reduce the pressure on our front troops.”

When Li Jing heard that, he said, “Let’s leave this discuss for the future!”

“Commander!” Xun Yu said anxiously.

“Advisor, the heavy losses are because the army lacks experience. This is the best time to train them up, so let them fight a few more battles, and the battle situation will inevitably change. When that happens, it would not be too late to use your plan.”

When Xun Yu heard that, he looked at Li Jing with doubts. He did not retort and simply turned around and took his leave.

When Li Jing saw that, he sighed. Jia Xu’s meat grinder operation was something that even Xun Yu did not know about.

If one considered the situation from a normal battle standpoint, Xun Yu’s plan would be good. Unfortunately, right from the start, this seismic battle was destined to be unorthodox.

The goals were different, so their actions were naturally different.

To send troops to disturb the enemy grain path would probably cause Ashoka to back off and give up on Tibet. If that happened, the Imperial Court strategy would totally fail.

Someone might ask, even if the Ashoka Dynasty flees, Great Xia could still chase for the win and attack the Ashoka Dynasty itself, right? This would still achieve the goal of wearing down the enemy.

Things were not that simple.

Ashoka fighting in Tibet was an overseas battle. The Peacock and Gupta dynasties could sit on the fence, and no one would blame them.

However, if the Great Xia Army invaded, it would affect those two as well. The two dynasties and the tens of millions of India players would all swarm there and fight to the death with Great Xia.

If that happened, how could a mere two million troops handle the enemy?

Furthermore, before taking over Tibet and recovering its normal production, to go on an expedition to the Ashoka Dynasty would require them to double their grain line. The difficulty of that and the usage along the way would mean that the costs would increase by several times.

Even if Great Xia had deep foundations, it could not afford such wastage. Who knows, maybe after this battle, the funds and resources that Great Xia had stored up with much difficulty would all be used up.

Why would Ouyang Shuo do something so stupid?

Hence, it would be the best for the empire if the battle against the Ashoka Dynasty in Tibet continued on like this.

“Xun Yu, I cannot follow your plan!” Li Jing shook his head.