However, none of this could stop the fighting spirit of the reorganized Kaman soldiers. Braving raindrops of arrowheads, vehicles filled with sandbags and rocks were soon pushed to the edge of the moat by the charging soldiers. , cartloads of sandbags and stones were poured down, and then they retreated. Everything was in an orderly manner. When one fell, the other immediately took over. The oar shield soldiers also held high their huge oar shields and tried their best to cover the retreating soldiers and ensure that The formation is not chaotic.
At such a close range, the tragic situation can be imagined. Even the Mengcheng vehicle (Note 2) used for the first time could not withstand the continuous bombardment of boulders and collapsed. The tragic ending of being exposed in front of the enemy was simply unimaginable. Use words to describe it. Stepping on the limbs of their comrades, the soldiers moved forward one after another. The sand and stones were dumped into the river one after another, stirring up whirlpools. The bright red blood soaked into the dirty moat, swirled, spread out, and stained the water of the moat. It was slightly purple and looked indescribably weird.
The fierce battle lasted until the middle of the sun and then came to an end. As the trumpet sounded, the slightly tired Kaman soldiers immediately began to retreat from the front and rear, while the cavalry that had been eyeing the formation also began to rush forward. Immediately go forward to respond and prevent the troops in the city from taking advantage of their own retreat to cover up the enemy. Everything went on in an orderly manner, until the siege soldiers completely withdrew, and the cavalry still maintained their attack formation to prevent unexpected events.
Seeing the enemy troops steadily retreating in front of him, Barins couldn't help but sigh slightly. Facing such a powerful enemy, as a soldier, he naturally longs to encounter a powerful opponent who will live up to his own abilities, but as a general, he We also know that the stronger the enemy, the more difficult the fate of our side will be.
What the Kamans showed was not only their advanced siege weapons and equipment, but Barins also valued the extraordinary qualities, good psychological quality, tenacious style, and steel-like discipline of their soldiers. Everything made Barings sigh and worry about the fate of his country. Today was only the first battle and it was already so inextricable. Wouldn't the subsequent war be even more difficult? Barings couldn't help but feel slightly when he thought of this. sink.
On the wall, the logistics soldiers were cleaning the battlefield nervously, preparing for the afternoon battle. They glanced at the horrific corpses with some melancholy eyes. These were all trained with all their hard work, but they only experienced one morning. , they turned into cold corpses, bringing only endless sorrow to their relatives.
Barrins once again deeply realized the cruelty of war. It had been a long time since he had such a profound feeling, and this time it fell directly on him to shoulder the responsibility of guarding the royal capital. It can even be said that he shouldered the responsibility of the entire Jerok Principality. If the army falls before the reinforcements arrive, everything His Majesty has done in advance will be meaningless, and the sacrifice of Princess Anne will be worthless. All of this is like a heavy burden that makes him breathless.
Just as there was a trembling wind and heavy rain under Merington City, Li Wufeng, thousands of miles away in Qingyang City, was also intensively making final preparations before going out.
The Northwest Military and Political Affairs Bureau issued a martial law order, declaring that the Western Region countries and Sun Yuanhui's tribe at Ganlan Fortress in the north had made changes that were not conducive to the stability of the Northwest, and they needed to be more vigilant; the War Preparedness Department fully used the great power granted by the government under the state of emergency, In addition to using all the transportation capacity at the government's disposal, a large number of civilian transportation vehicles were also urgently recruited. Fortunately, when Wufeng intended to send troops to Jeroke, he secretly notified the combat readiness department, allowing the combat readiness department to gain an extremely valuable period of preparation time. A large number of war preparation materials were urgently shipped as soon as the order was received, and arrived at Guide and Lulong near the Jerok border within the specified time, filling the last gear of the war machine.
The Guards Division had already set off for Guide secretly ahead of the original Qingyang Guard Division, which was renamed the Independent Fourth Guard Division; the Independent Fourth Guard Division was also in the final mobilization and preparation before the battle, except for a very few officers who remained. In addition to forming a new garrison division together with some graduates of the Northwest Military Academy, the rest of the divisions are ready to go; the fifth division of the Northwest Army also left the partridge pass defense line overnight, penetrated into the dangerous Liupan Mountain area, and marched non-stop towards Lulong and the Northwest Independent First Cavalry Division, which was stationed between Guide and Yinchuan in advance, also began to prepare for the battle and quickly moved its station eastward so that it could enter the battle at any time.
Ling Tianfang, who received the letter from Wu Feng Xue Ge, also acted quickly. In addition to increasing the reconnaissance of the Kaman-occupied area in the west of the Jerok Principality, he also secretly contacted those loyal to the royal family of the Jerok Principality in the original occupied area. Local forces mobilize these local forces to collect spying intelligence for their own side, secretly prepare supplies, so that they can receive the best treatment when their own army enters, and actively make final preparations before the war. Following Wu Feng's order, the Third Corps of the Northwest Army and the Third Independent Guard Division were already fully prepared and were only waiting for the Fifth Division of the Northwest Army to come north to join forces to give the Kaman people a chance. A fatal blow.
The Lulong Guard Division will not participate in this expedition. Mi Feng, who is Lulong's acting city guard, has a lot of opinions on this matter. He thinks that Wufeng is underestimating the combat effectiveness of his troops, but Ling Tianfang can't say anything about it. After being comforted, he reluctantly accepted Ling Tianfang's words and gave up the idea of discussing the merits and demerits with Wu Feng in person.
The entire northwest seemed to have turned into a huge military camp in an instant. It seemed that the smoke of war could be smelled everywhere. Even ordinary people could vaguely feel the tense atmosphere, not to mention businessmen and gentry with keen sense of smell. .
The "Northwest Star" on April 18 first disclosed the naked intimidation and blackmail behavior of some countries in the Western Region and the Northern Heath Empire against the northwest ally Wusun Kingdom in the early stage, which immediately spread throughout the northwest and even neighboring regions. There was an uproar in the territories of Hesi Luo, Kaman, Luo Bei and even other nomadic peoples on the Tengger Grassland. This was seen as a harbinger of public opinion that the northwest would take tough military action against the Western Region and Hesi Luo.
On April 19, the "Northwestern Star" once again broke the news. The newspaper insinuated in the form of a front-page headline that the previous Yinchuan City Governor Sun Yuanliang expressed his hope to return to the empire when he was ill, but was rejected by his younger brother. Sun Yuanhui colluded with foreign forces and died of poisoning in his hospital bed. This news was like pouring cold water on a boiling pan of oil, causing a huge uproar. The people of Yinchuan Prefecture were furious, and a small-scale anti-Sisiluo demonstration took place in Yinchuan Prefecture. , representatives of the public continued to go to the northwest military and political envoys' office in Qingyang to petition, demanding severe punishment of the murderers and regaining the sovereignty of Ganlan Fortress.
On April 20, Wang Liao, the senior assistant in charge of foreign affairs at the Northwest Military and Political Jiedushi Office, was ordered to summon the diplomatic minister of the West Luo Empire in the northwest county of the Tanghe Empire, and solemnly warned the West Luo Empire to restrain Sun Yuanhui's garrison stationed in Ganlan Fortress. , there must be no action that stimulates public opinion in the northwest, otherwise all consequences will be borne by the Heathrow Empire. This is the strongest statement yet made by the Northwest towards its huge neighbor.
On April 21, North Luzon's largest private newspaper "North Luzon Express" published a news saying that on April 20, a caravan from Vito City was attacked by an unknown person while conducting trade in a small market town near the Loulan border. During the attack by armed bandits, only one person in the entire caravan of more than 20 people managed to escape. According to survivors, the bandits who attacked the caravan were wearing Loulan Border Guard Army uniforms, armed with Loulan Border Guard Army standard weapons, and their accents were also Loulan accents. They should have been committed by the Loulan Border Guard Army. This unconfirmed news aroused hatred against Loulan in Northern Luzon and the northwest. The angry people were soaring. Representatives of the gentry continued to go to the Northern Luzon Governor's Palace in Vito City to ask the left-behind officials to report to the governor in Qingyang. The Governor conveyed the wishes of the people.
On the night of April 22, patrol soldiers from a squadron of the Vito Guard Division had a small-scale armed conflict with the Loulan Border Guards in the border area. Both sides suffered casualties. On April 24, the Loulan Kingdom’s diplomatic attaché in Northwest County made an emergency meeting with Wang Liao, the senior assistant in charge of foreign affairs at the Northwest Military and Political Envoy’s Office and the Northern Luzon Governor’s Office. He asked both parties to exercise restraint and prevent further escalation of the situation, and suggested that both parties form a The joint investigation team investigates the attack on Vito's caravan in the border area on April 20.
For a time, the intelligence analysis departments of the surrounding neighboring countries were all guessing what kind of storm Li Wufeng, who had returned to the northwest for less than half a year, was preparing to cause, and who would be the target of this storm
The Heathrow? Unlikely, although the northwest military strength has been greatly improved, it is obviously still a little short of a challenge to an empire as huge as Heathrow. Loulan country? It is very likely that the northwest military has been brooding over the aftermath of the Wusun throne change incident. Although it was suppressed by Li Wufeng, the military's mood for war is still very strong. What's more, there is another opportunity this time. Senior diplomatic assistant Wang Liao is here. The ambiguous attitude towards the establishment of a joint investigation team deepened the suspicions of all parties.
The other biggest target is Ganlan Fortress located in the north of Yinchuan Fucheng. Originally, the entire Yinchuan Prefecture had always been a scar on the heart of the Tanghe Empire. Now it has finally returned to the empire, but Sun Yuanhui has occupied the dangerous location of Ganlan Fortress, which has flawed the original dream of a perfect return. The people of the northwest have always been unwilling to accept it. At this time, suspicions about Sisiluo and Sun Yuanhui in the death of Sun Yuanliang were raised, which made the people of Yinchuan even more angry. Will Northwest take this opportunity to provoke a battle to regain the Ganlan Fortress
While the neighboring countries were suspicious, none of this seemed to affect the rapidly operating war machine in the northwest.
In the northwest prefectures, especially on the roads leading to Yinchuan and Vito City in North Luzon, you can see large and small transport vehicles covered tightly with dark brown curtains anytime and anywhere on the roads leading from Qingyang to various places. In order to confuse people From the outside, the combat readiness department did not hesitate to use a large amount of transportation capacity to disguise, and adopted means of transferring transportation to various places to prevent the Kaman people from detecting their strategic intentions. The army also adopted targeted methods such as frequent transfers at night and during the day, more departures and less entry, and mid-way diversions to confuse the enemy. Spy, Wu Feng also greatly appreciated this cooperative operation between the security department, the military and the combat readiness department.
Later facts proved that this all-round and large-scale camouflage and confusion operation had indeed achieved quite good results, so much so that when the Northwest Army broke into the territory of Jerok, the Kaman intelligence agency always thought that the Northwest Army was preparing to use troops against the Western Region again.
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