The Moon in the Qin Dynasty

Chapter 274 How can we rule the State of Yan with this group of insects!
This battle must be won and defeat is not allowed!
When Pang Nuan was halfway through his march, he met Tian Dan. By some coincidence, Tian Dan had not received the message from King Zhao Daoxiang, but the same thing happened when he met Pang Nuan. Pang Nuan asked Tian Dan to be his deputy general and lead 10,000 cavalrymen to advance ahead to block the enemy and try to delay the Yan army. Tian Dan gladly led his troops there.

It has to be said that except for the unstoppable momentum in the beginning, the Yan army lost much will to fight after conquering most of the cities. Ju Xin, who had been away from the court and the army for many years, did not have a clear and profound understanding of this.

Of course, there is nothing we can do even if he is there.

He took over the army too hastily, and King Xi of Yan was even more hasty. He urged Ju Xin to march before he could reorganize the army. When the troops were sent out, Ju Xin had only been in charge of the army for less than two months. How could he reorganize the army?

But it is no wonder that King Xi of Yan is anxious. It is already autumn, and if it is delayed any longer, winter will come. In the State of Yan, if winter comes, it will be absolutely difficult to fight a major war. The severe cold is everyone's biggest enemy.

Ju Xin had to mobilize his troops in a hurry.

Even though the combat effectiveness of the Yan army had been underestimated as much as possible, unfortunately, Ju Xin still overestimated the Yan army.

This was no longer the reign of King Zhao of Yan, or even the reign of King Wucheng of Yan.

Today, the power of the aristocracy has become strong again. The middle and high-level military officers are all children of aristocrats. Military discipline is lax, and they are greedy for profit and survival. The lower-level soldiers have no chance of promotion. Military equipment and supplies are withheld, and all military merits are taken by their superiors. They are also arbitrarily bullied and assigned by their superiors, and have no will to fight.

The Yan army has always had a large number of people, but no matter how many people there are, they can only fight when they have the advantage. If they encounter a tough opponent or suffer the slightest damage, they will just scatter like birds and beasts.

Ju Xin still had some prestige in the State of Yan, but even so, he could only turn a blind eye as the commander of the army, and he did not have enough time to rectify military discipline.

Doing everything we can, we can only prevent the officers from being so presumptuous. At least the soldiers' rations cannot be withheld, so that the soldiers can fight with full stomachs. Even this is already a great improvement for the Yan army.

Damn it! If I had time, I would definitely deal with you bugs!
But what Ju Xin lacked most was time, and he had no choice.

After taking back the city and garrisoning the city, the garrison troops, away from the main force and without Ju Xin's supervision, immediately started to behave inhumanely.

Without core middle-level officers who have received long-term training, Ju Xin’s military discipline and military orders cannot be effectively implemented.

The Yan army is just a mob.

Military reform has always been a difficult task since ancient times. How can combat effectiveness be changed in a short period of time?

Ju Xin has discovered a big problem. After taking over twenty cities, the Yan army can no longer fight!

Speed ​​is the most important thing in this battle. Time is the key. All the captured cities need to be taken quickly to consolidate the defense line and withstand the subsequent counterattack of the Zhao army. As long as the situation becomes Zhao attacking Yan defending, and the Yan army and Zhao army fight a stalemate in defending the city, as long as it drags on for a while, Wei and Chu will inevitably intervene, and Zhao will have no choice but to accept the loss.

But now the Yan army can’t fight anymore!

Although they did not encounter any strong enemy or resistance, the Yan army had no will to fight and marched slowly.

This is totally inconsistent with the original advancement plan, and the tactical goals of the first step cannot be achieved!
To make matters worse, intelligence reports from spies indicated that the Zhao army had reacted quickly and had already dispatched troops, which would arrive in a few days.

Ju Xin was furious! He never expected that in just over 20 years, the quality of the Yan army had dropped to such a low level.

Now that the first step cannot be completed, how can we talk about the follow-up? At this time, there are only two options. One is to withdraw the troops directly, which is absolutely impossible. Doing so will make the entire Yan State and Ju Xin a joke. Not to mention the losses, the impact of the failure of the strategy is unimaginable.

Ju Xin made the second choice.

In a desperate situation, Ju Xin had to take a risk. He gathered the entire army, selected the best of the best, promised a generous reward, and led 20,000 cavalry plus 20,000 selected elite troops to march rapidly.

Before setting off, Ju Xin was worried about problems with logistics supplies and even killed several officers who violated military discipline in order to shock the morale of the troops.

Yan Chunjun was specifically instructed to ensure logistical supplies. Yan Chunjun naturally knew the seriousness of the matter and promised with confidence.

As for Yan Dan, his generous and pacifying measures were highly favored by Ju Xin, who ordered Yan Dan to lead a large army to take over the city captured by Ju Xin, to calm the people, consolidate the defense line, and make preparations for defense.

Yan Dan also knew that the situation had come to this point and it was extremely urgent and important, so he promised to do his utmost to speed up the advance and build up defenses.

He also instructed Yan Dan to spread rumors as soon as possible, saying that Pang Nuan was incompetent and old, and that it was easy to deal with him. If the King of Zhao let Pang Nuan lead the army, it would be annihilated. He would not even dare to fight against himself, and his slow advance was proof of that.

Ju Xin seriously instructed Yan Dan to spread the rumor as soon as possible, especially to let Pang Nuan hear it as soon as possible.

Although Yan Dan didn't understand the point of humiliating Pang Nuan in this way, he still obeyed the order. Yan Dan still had some execution ability.

With Ju Xin personally leading an army of 40,000, such a radical approach was indeed very effective. The cavalry charged forward to defeat the enemy, and the elite infantry attacked the cities. Some small cities were captured in a short time. Only a few guards were left in the cities to support the subsequent large troops, while the rest continued to advance.

They advanced unstoppably all the way until they reached Wusui, where they encountered a strong enemy. Wusui was a big city, and it was impossible for the soldiers without large siege equipment to capture it in a short time. Tian Dan had also arrived to provide support.

When enemies meet, they are extremely jealous of each other. They had fought to a bloody pulp decades ago. How could they not settle the new and old grudges now?

Tian Dan knew that he had few soldiers and did not dare to engage the enemy head-on, but the elite cavalry of Zhao State was no match for the cavalry of Yan Army.

The Zhao army's elite cavalry were skilled in riding and moving like the wind. Tian Dan led his troops to harass the Yan army. If Tian Dan only led the cavalry, it would be fine. However, the elite infantry he led for siege and occupation became his biggest weakness.

In order to advance quickly and with great speed, the soldiers were already exhausted, and the pressure on logistics and food was enormous. Even if they wanted to avoid being robbed of food, it was difficult to feed nearly 40,000 troops at this time as the Zhao army was fortifying its defenses and clearing the fields.

Tian Dan was a man of such great ability that he could not fail to seize such an obvious weakness. He continuously blocked the food supply route and attacked the Yan army. The elite cavalry of the Zhao army came and went like the wind, and the Yan army had no way to deal with them.

Under Tian Dan's harassment, it was difficult for Ju Xin to continue attacking the city, let alone keep his troops intact.

However, Ju Xin was also a great man of the time. He made a prompt decision and immediately ordered those who were good at riding to join the cavalry. The rest of the infantry were only allowed to retreat with three days of food and fodder to join the main force. He also ordered the generals to use any means and at any cost to delay Tian Dan for two days!

All the rest of the food and grass were handed over to the cavalry, and Ju Xin was to personally lead 20,000 elite cavalry to attack Huanglong directly.

Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to take the risk.

(End of this chapter)