Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 300, Bloodstained Handan

"so high!"

Tie Gen gazed at the distant city of Handan and sighed.

As he approached the city wall, he couldn't help but feel insignificant, especially when he thought that this was the very wall he would be attacking soon.

In fact, they had already fought against the Huaiyin Army.

Near Handan, the Huaiyin army set up many traps to block their advance in stages and wear down their strength.

This is a common tactic in military operations; it's not particularly sophisticated, but it's very practical.

Faced with these losses, Tian Tianrui's Holy Guard Army adopted the simplest and most basic tactics.

That means using human lives to fill the gap.

Thanks to having killed two teammates before, Tie Gen was considered an elite, so there was no need to waste time on this pointless battle.

Even so, seeing his former teammates fall one by one still cast a shadow over his heart.

Especially for this army with low morale, such sacrifices instilled even greater fear and a desire to retreat.

Inside the main tent, Tian Tianrui sat at the head of the table, with the supervising officer Gao Jing to his left, and six generals below him.

At the outset, Tian Tianrui delivered a lengthy and insightful speech.

"His Majesty has suffered a calamity... We, his subjects... shall punish the traitor..."

The generals below all agreed, vowing to do everything in their power to rescue His Majesty.

Tian Tianrui was very satisfied with everyone's attitude.

Although there were many twists and turns before, fortunately the final result was good.

He led hundreds of thousands of troops to the city gates and fought against the rebels.

Considering his unwavering loyalty and righteousness, even in defeat, he was still a worthy successor to Song Rui.

The specific details of the attack and battle were left to the generals to decide.

Tian Tianrui himself knew nothing about these things.

This is not due to a lack of personal ability on his part.

As early as the pre-Song Dynasty, the martial prowess of scholars was no longer valued. Apart from a very few exceptional talents, most scholars did not possess the ability to lead armies, fight battles, or conquer territories.

Tian Tianrui was a typical Confucian student, well-versed in the eight-legged essay, so it was perfectly normal that he didn't know how to fight.

Fortunately, while the other generals were greedy, they still possessed a certain level of professional competence in siege warfare.

They shouldn't be so clueless as to not even know what to do.

The first step was to fill in the moat.

An ancient saying goes: "Handan is surrounded by a moat, and the moat is protected by a weir."

This refers to the situation of the moat of Handan City.

Generally speaking, filling in the moat is an extremely dangerous task. Enemy troops will launch attacks during the filling process to stop the progress and cause heavy casualties.

How to fill the river more quickly while minimizing casualties was a challenge that every general had to face.

However, this problem did not arise in the Holy Guard.

Several generals agreed that since the Holy Army had a large number of soldiers, there was no need to reduce casualties; they should just fill the gaps!

This is indeed a major advantage for the Holy Army.

There are over 200,000, nearly 300,000 of them. With such a large number, even some casualties would be insignificant; if they were fully mobilized, the river could be filled quickly.

The battle soon began.

The army of over 200,000 began to move slowly.

The soldiers cut down trees, moved soil and stones, and pushed cartloads of sand and rocks into the moat.

The roar of cannons from the city walls halted the soldiers' progress in filling the river.

The soldiers were terrified of artillery, but under orders from their officers, they gritted their teeth and went forward to fill the river. Once the entire army of over 200,000 was fully mobilized, filling the river wouldn't be a difficult task.

Unfortunately, the generals under Tian Tianrui did not have the ability to fully mobilize these 200,000-plus troops.

There is a limit to the number of troops a general can command.

Even renowned generals can easily command thousands or tens of thousands of men in battle, but when commanding hundreds of thousands of troops, they become completely disorganized.

Han Xin's worth is not just a figure of speech.

That's really strong, very strong.

Currently, for the generals under Tian Tianrui, each of them can only command an army of about 10,000 to 20,000 men, and the total number of troops under the six of them would not exceed 120,000.

Now they have more than 200,000 troops under their command, and a large number of them are unable to be effectively commanded, resulting in very chaotic operations.

Several generals observed this situation and knew it was due to their own incompetence, but instead of trying to improve it, they took the opportunity to create many new industries within the army.

"Ten coins! Ten coins means you don't have to work a day!"

"Eight coins and a pound of sweet potatoes, enough to give you the energy to work!"

"Five coins, a talisman blessed by a high-ranking monk, capable of dodging artillery shells!"

……

Outside Handan city, on a battlefield amidst the raging gunfire, two soldiers pushed a sand cart toward the moat.

One of the soldiers was carrying a small string of copper coins, about a dozen or so, and he said as he walked:
“Those guys are so stupid. Ten coins to get a day's work done is less economical than buying two pounds of sweet potatoes. Hey, let's push it slowly, it won't take much effort to work a day…”

As they were talking, the two pushed the car to the edge of the moat, preparing to dump it inside.

Suddenly, a cannon fired!
"boom!"

The truck carrying the stones was instantly torn to pieces, and the man who had just been laughing and joking was shot in two by a shell before he could react.

His lower body was torn apart, with blood, flesh, and internal organs flying all over the ground.

He was still holding the string of copper coins and smiling.

"Ah...ahhh!"

The man's teammates were terrified and at a loss for what to do.

Although people often sacrificed their lives on the battlefield, none of them had ever been so vividly displayed before his eyes.

He stared at the scene before him, trembling all over, his pants already soaked without him even realizing it.

He suddenly ran back, but his legs were already weak. He took one step and fell to the ground. He struggled to get up and ran again, only to fall down again and get up again.

After running about ten steps, he suddenly remembered something, turned back, and took the string of copper coins.

"Sir, I... I'll be exempted for one day."

The cruelty of war far exceeds people's imagination.

Round after round of artillery fire roared, and soldiers were hit by the artillery fire and torn to pieces.

The thick crossbow bolts were like javelins; once fired, they silently claimed the lives of several soldiers.

Some soldiers were hit in two by artillery shells, their lower bodies floating in the moat while their upper bodies crawled on the ground.

Some soldiers were hit by ballistae, and two or three soldiers were strung together like candied hawthorns of human flesh, struggling and screaming together, bleeding profusely.

This hellish scene greatly agitated the soldiers.

Just a few days ago, they were able to barely maintain their position under the intimidation of the generals.

But as the death toll rose, the horrific scene loomed over everyone's mind.

Many of them were ordinary farmers who received almost no training after joining the army. Under such circumstances, facing such cruel conditions right from the start, a large number of soldiers suffered mental breakdowns.

Some fled, some were afraid of war, and some went mad.

This newly formed Holy Guardian Army seemed to have already suffered a major defeat before even touching the walls of Handan.

(End of this chapter)