Conquering Myriad Worlds from the Mythical Three Kingdoms

Zhou Fang really couldn't figure out how to win.

A 30% chance of winning was the best chance he could think of.

In reality, there's probably less than a 30% chance.

After all, although Hou Tu Legion was miraculous, Zhou Fang knew that it was called the Military Soul Legion. But no matter how powerful it was, the fact that 100,000 troops were stationed in Xiangyang was undeniable.

Sima Yi's side had a total of 70,000 men, nearly half of whom were new recruits.

Using 70,000 to fight 100,000, especially in a siege, Zhou Fang really didn't think it was a good idea.

Even in open field combat, Zhou Fang felt it would be difficult.

"Marshal, what should we do next?" Wei Yan asked, bowing.

Zhou Fang's doubts were also his doubts, but Wei Yan had heard about Sima Yi from Zhuge Liang many times, and he felt that since Sima Yi was so calm, he must have a way.

"You and your men will use the Fifth Lark's abilities to monitor the city gates around Xiangyang and ensure the enemy's movements are kept under surveillance!"

Sima Yi waved his hand, signaling Wei Yan to go and scout and supervise the Jin army.

"Yes!" Wei Yan was somewhat puzzled, but he still sent out his men. It was indeed an easy task for him, as a commander, to oversee the four city walls.

"Xu Gongming, lead the puppet soldiers to launch the first attack!"

"Ji Jian, go and build a few earthen mounds, and have the army craftsmen assemble siege equipment to put pressure on the enemy!"

"Zhou Fang, you will follow General Taishi Ci to reorganize the camp. General Taishi Ci is a veteran of the battlefield, so you should learn and observe from him!"

Sima Yi remained calm and composed, seemingly unconcerned about the disparity in troop strength.

What exactly are you planning to do?

"You should be able to see that Xiangyang is not easy to take, and if the battle drags on, the enemy will send reinforcements!"

After everyone had left, Pang Tong stroked his beard and asked Sima Yi.

"That's exactly what I've been waiting for!" Sima Yi glanced at Pang Tong and replied casually.

"You plan to lure them out?" Pang Tong immediately guessed Sima Yi's plan upon hearing this.

"Seventy thousand against one hundred and fifty thousand? You dare to dream of that!"

"Don't worry, the latest news is that Luoyang is planning to send us a batch of reinforcements, and they are all elite troops. We also have 100,000 men!"

"The Miracle Legion?" Pang Tong's eyes lit up. If the Miracle Legion existed, things would be much easier.

By setting up a formation to tie down the opponent's main force, the Miracle Legion can flank from behind and crush the opponent in one wave.

"of course not!"

Sima Yi glanced helplessly at Pang Tong. If they had the Miracle Legion, what would be the point of scheming? They could just wipe out the enemy in one fell swoop.

Moreover, with the arrival of the Miracle Legion, how can he claim all the military merits? Without military merits, how can he be crowned king?

"Who will come?" Pang Tong spread his hands. He was thinking of Sima Yi's sake; having strong reinforcements was a good thing.

"Ma Chao, Pang De, Xiahou Dun, Xiahou Yuan, and a Patuo armored regiment from the Kushan Empire!"

"Wow, they're all kings, you've got quite a bit of influence!" Pang Tong was a smart man, and he immediately understood the implications from the identities of these people.

It not only strengthened the connection between the central government and the feudal lords, but also promoted connections among the various feudal lords.

Ji Jian led the Houtu Legion to carry out civil engineering work, which was almost effortless for them.

Several mounds of earth were quickly piled up outside the city; it was such a simple thing.

The artisans accompanying the army also assembled siege equipment. These were all weapons developed by the Mohists, and Sima Yi sent people to negotiate with the Mohists.

The Mohists were quite willing to test their inventions in actual combat, and Sima Yi was even willing to pay them.

Although it's an IOU that can only be redeemed in the future, the Mohists aren't worried about it not being redeemable.

In just one day, several temporary siege platforms appeared outside the city. Hou Tu's army was extremely efficient at this kind of infrastructure work.

According to Sima Yi's calculations, with Hou Tu's army burning with military spirit, they might be able to build an earthen city overnight.

Those inside the city were determined to stop them, but Xu Huang led his men in a frontal assault, Wei Yan monitored the four city gates, and Taishi Ci led his troops on patrol in the middle.

As a result, the Jin army inside the city could only watch helplessly as the infrastructure was built outside the city, unable to stop it.

Seeing this situation, Zhou Fang was somewhat surprised. He put himself in Xiangyang's position and couldn't think of any way to stop Sima Yi.

Sima Yi preemptively blocked all counterattacks within the city, and then naturally pushed things forward.

The essence of war is preventing the other side from doing what they want to do.

Now Sima Yi can proceed with things according to his own ideas, which greatly increases his chances of winning.

The first thing they got done was the naval guns. Their structure was similar to those on ships, and the Mohists used this opportunity to test the power of their new naval guns.

However, this thing lacks a self-circulating system, and since it's not much different from a catapult, it's unlikely to be able to use it to blow down city walls.

Especially Xiangyang City, which was shrouded in clouds and had walls much thicker than normal city walls.

"Fire!" shouted the Mohist disciple in charge of the test.

A row of naval guns began to roar.

Huge rocks flew out of the new-style naval guns. This method of using the essence of heaven and earth for electromagnetic acceleration lacked a self-circulation system and could only draw on the essence of heaven and earth as a power source, resulting in a significant reduction in power.

Following the arc calculated by the Mohist disciples, several stone projectiles were launched at extremely high speeds, then flew over the city wall and landed inside the city, collapsing houses and knocking down the back wall along with the projectiles.

"What terrible power!"

The Mohist disciples were somewhat dissatisfied, as the lack of a self-circulating system meant they couldn't unleash the full power of the naval cannons.

"What's the rush!" Sima Yi waved his hand, ordering a group of new recruits to form a battle formation near the earthen hill.

New recruits also depend on how they are used. As long as they can be deployed to provide an effect, new recruits can be very useful.

Sima Yi's arrangement was a military formation that isolated the inside from the outside, the effect of which was to gather the essence of heaven and earth in a local area, thereby creating a high density of heaven and earth essence in that area.

While it's not as powerful as a self-circulating system that empties an entire area of ​​the fleet, it's still enough to significantly increase its power.

As expected, after the concentration of the essence of heaven and earth increased, the power of the ship's cannons instantly improved by a level.

After readjusting the trajectory, the ship's cannons fired again, and this time all the stone balls hit the city wall.

Several unlucky Jin soldiers were hit by the stone balls and were smashed into mincemeat.

The horrific scene caused the morale of the Jin soldiers on the city wall to plummet.

They had the courage to sacrifice themselves, but they were crushed to death from such a distance, and their deaths were so gruesome.

An uncontrollable fear welled up within them.

Sima Yi achieved his goal: to put pressure on the defending troops in the city.

It takes so much effort to kill just a few soldiers; from a cost-effectiveness perspective, it's a complete loss.

However, he intended to use these small incidents to gradually put pressure on the Jin soldiers, forcing the general in the city to make the wrong decision in the end.

This is also why Sima Yi considered transferring Du Yu as an initial condition.

This method can only deal with ordinary officers and soldiers. Once it crosses the line of command of the main army, these small tricks will not be able to really affect the situation.

This is something that can't be helped. Once you reach a certain level, ordinary schemes and tricks will only cause you trouble.

Sima Yi understood this very well from the other military geniuses.

"Make a big commotion, launch an attack every so often!"

After listening to Sima Yi's words, the Mohist disciples decisively switched to explosive shells, which could bombard an area like a long stream.

The shockwave spread directly to the surrounding area, increasing the attack range several times over. Even ordinary soldiers wearing armor would be killed by the shockwave.

However, this thing is useless against soldiers with defensive talents when there is no cloud, and its lethality is even lower when there is cloud, but it can definitely satisfy Sima Yi's requirement to make a bigger commotion.

In just one afternoon, every corner of the city wall was bombed, resulting in dozens of casualties and further demoralizing the soldiers inside the city.

But those inside the city didn't have a good solution either. Their catapults and ballistae couldn't reach the army outside the city, not to mention the high platforms built by Houtu's legion outside the city.

Hitting the opponent from a high position is always easier.

Not to mention, the Star Han Empire's war machines were far more advanced than those of Jin.

The siege equipment built on the high platform perfectly suppressed the defenders on the city wall.

However, due to the limited number of troops, Sima Yi could only extend this suppression to two city walls and could not cover all directions.

However, the suppression from these two city walls alone, along with the occasional charges by the puppet soldiers, was causing headaches for the soldiers inside Xiangyang.

In the end, they even had to voluntarily retreat from the city wall, establish a directional marker below the wall, and send skilled individuals as scouts to investigate from the wall.

Once the puppet soldiers had stormed the city wall, they climbed up themselves.

Otherwise, they'd just be standing there, being used as targets by the ship's guns.

The Jin army inside the city quickly devised a plan, setting up a defensive tactic that relied on the city's cloud-like energy reserves.

The protective shield kept the naval guns at bay, which made the Jin soldiers on the city wall cheer.

Sima Yi then placed a chess piece on the chessboard.

The situation was completely under his control.

The Mohist school's technological superiority made him acutely aware that the Jin army would definitely research secret techniques to counter it.

They certainly won't be able to develop any advanced technology anytime soon.

Therefore, most of the secret techniques developed in the end were defensive in nature, and they were all one-size-fits-all types.

The biggest drawback of this secret technique is that it completely isolates the inside from the outside.

While the naval guns outside couldn't penetrate the walls, the various long-range attack methods on the city walls were also unable to launch attacks from the outside.

Without ranged attacks, it is naturally the best opportunity to attack the city.

"The time is ripe. We're going to launch a strong attack today, starting with three rounds of artillery bombardment, followed by a full-scale assault on the city!"

"The naval guns never stopped firing until our soldiers reached the city walls."

Sima Yi coldly issued the order. He knew there would be casualties in this charge, but for victory, he had to commit his troops.

Only when their offensive is so fierce as to be exaggerated, putting unprecedented pressure on the city, can they bounce back like a spring after hitting rock bottom.

Taking advantage of the Jin army's high spirits, the army launched a surprise attack.

Sima Yi, with a cold laugh, used his spiritual talent to wipe out all the talents near Xiangyang City.

The originally solid defensive techniques were instantly broken, and the intense artillery fire sent the Jin army on the city wall fleeing in panic.

Under the cover of heavy artillery bombardment, the army charged directly to the foot of the city wall.

At this moment, Sima Yi also withdrew his spiritual talent, and his face suddenly turned pale.

The more precise his mental talent is, the greater the consumption; the more things are sealed, the greater the consumption.

If it were just the simplest method—seal off mental talents indiscriminately, regardless of friend or foe—Sima Yi could maintain this for a month.

However, even with such advanced techniques that could eliminate the opponent's defensive secrets without affecting his own side, Sima Yi couldn't withstand it for long.

Fortunately, the activation of such a large-scale secret technique takes time.

This period of time was sufficient to drive the Jin soldiers off the city wall and allow their own soldiers to storm the city wall.

A simple time difference allowed the army to occupy a section of the city wall.

The two sides engaged in a fierce battle on the city wall.

Sima Yi was prepared, but the Jin army was not entirely unprepared either.

The Jin army's spearmen completely suppressed the army's advance.

The Jin army's thrusting spearmen had nothing fancy about them; it was just the standard way of using long spearmen, and it was textbook-standard.

Concentrate your energy and spirit on the tip of the spear, and then launch a thrust forward.

Protected by the shield, these gunners do not need to worry about long-range attacks and can maximize their power.

These spearmen completely overwhelmed the puppet swordsmen and recruits.

The thrusting spear whistled as it pierced through all the armor; the armor of the Star Han regular army offered no protection whatsoever.

Even if Pang Tong used cloud chains to strengthen the soldiers on the city wall, it would be of no use.

Insufficient defense against such an extreme attack means certain death!

Sima Yi looked on expressionlessly.

He had anticipated this, so he specifically selected a group of heavily armored infantrymen with defensive talents to go up the city wall.

But it's meaningless. This kind of extreme attack is the same as the elite warrior, sacrificing everything in exchange for the ultimate attack power.

The heavy infantry he selected had insufficient armor and were easily pierced by a single shot, offering no resistance whatsoever.

"No matter the era or the country, this practice of sacrificing human lives for extremely high attack power will never stop!"

Sima Yi understood that their surprise attack had failed, and it was a major defeat.

Although this failure was within the strategic forecast, there was still a glimmer of hope for victory.

Once you've revealed your mental talent, it will be very difficult to catch someone off guard next time.

Fortunately, he had made two preparations, and he could make use of this failure.

It's okay to fail once, as long as you win in the end.

This was also the solution that Sima Yi finally came up with when facing geniuses like Zhuge Liang and Han Xin.

To achieve final victory by enduring endless failures.

This is the military strategy that Sima Yi ultimately chose, which can be summarized in one word: forbearance.

Endure to the end, and you will achieve victory.

It doesn't matter how ugly this victory is.

Victory is victory.

Everything is written by the victors. (End of Chapter)