It doesn't matter what the lord is.

This army was built on the foundation of the northern and southern border armies of Yunyang. To be fair, its combat power was not high compared to other territories. If it were to be deployed to fight, it would probably be crushed at the first touch when it encountered the armies of those powerful territories. However, this army was built by squeezing out the last of Yunyang's manpower, and it was all that the Yunyang lord could bring out.

The only drawback is that this army gives people a very empty feeling. They hold weapons in their hands, but have no reason to fight in their hearts. They just remember their duties under high-pressure training, but have no motivation to fulfill these duties. The Lord of Yunyang is also well aware of this. The reason why he wants to block the announcement issued by Yuxi City is because he knows that he is only nominally orthodox now, and the people of Yunyang are no longer on his side.

On the contrary, although the number of troops under Fang Shisan was obviously much smaller, everyone's eyes could see clear hope. This was the style of the army of Yuxi City. They were not fighting for someone, but for the people and their own future. Everyone was afraid of death, but as Lid said, there was something that was always beyond life and death. What they fought for could make them temporarily forget the fear of death.

The sun is shining brightly and the wind is blowing strongly.

Lord Yunyang once again saw Lid's figure among the crowd.

He never looked changed. Whether it was the single-handed meeting in Lingyun City, or the one who blocked Li Yi's retreat with a sword, or the glimpse of him on the wall of Xiaxin City, or the smiling face in the army, Lid always had the lazy and confident temperament. No matter whether the current situation was favorable to him or not, he never looked panicked. As long as he was there, the people around him would calm down involuntarily.

For a moment, Lord Yunyang actually wanted to ask Lid whether all this was part of his plan.

Being driven out of Yunyang, pretending to be a loser, all for today's revenge...

But the Lord of Yunyang didn't ask in the end, because it was meaningless. Just like he wouldn't ask Lid whether he was willing to give up everything and return to Yunyang, the two sides had already reached the point of a fight to the death, and no one could go back.

The leader of Yunyang spoke first, and in a deep voice, he gave orders to the generals around him:

"attack--"

The soldiers marched forward with drums beating and shouts of killing echoed everywhere.

The two armies, which had been ready for battle for a long time, collided head-on. There were countless flashes of swords and the sound of metal clashing.

Reed stood in the army formation, squinted his eyes, and watched everything quietly.

Countless people died every minute and every second, including soldiers from Lord Yunyang and soldiers from Yuxi City.

Alaiya placed her hand on the hilt of the sword, and watched the scene with her master. She felt that she had seen a similar scene a long time ago, but no matter how hard she tried to recall it, there was only a vague picture in her mind. Alaiya simply stopped thinking about it, and just then, Reed's voice came from beside her:

"Alaiya, what do you feel when you see this scene in front of you?"

Alayya replied calmly:

"I'm worried about the young master's safety. Maybe an assassin will take the opportunity to kill him."

Lid smiled and patted her head.

Alayya raised her head and asked:

"Where is the young master?"

Lid looked towards the place where the fighting was heaviest and said with a smile:

"I hope that fewer of our people will die, but that is impossible. War is a cruel thing, and cruelty means that it will not change because of someone's likes and dislikes. So I will think about the future. This war will put an end to our past, and it is also a new beginning. He Yue's dream, Fang Shisan's dream, Shuang and Yunye's dream... Yuxi City accommodates many people and carries the expectations of many people. Now we are turning everything into reality."

Lid put away the smile on his face and his tone became serious:

"Even if we have to pay a heavy price."

A steel knife fell from a distance, and a soldier from Yuxi City fell to the ground. The lower edge of the helmet did not protect his neck, and the knife directly cut his aorta, and blood splattered everywhere. The Yunyang soldier who knocked him to the ground did not have time to breathe, and was also hacked to death by the surrounding Yuxi City soldiers, and his body was not left.

The center of the battle was like a meat grinder, with both sides suffering huge losses in military strength.

The dead were all living people. They might have said goodbye to their families not long ago, or they might have been joking with each other the night before, or they might have been sitting in front of the campfire listening to Lid talk about the bright future last night. But just a few minutes after the war started, they had gone to another world, a world without pain, but also without light.

The living people silently recite their names and then follow the same path as them.

In the early stages of a war, the impact of numerical superiority was enormous. The army of Yunyang could surround the enemy, while the army of Yuxicheng was facing enemies on three sides. Even though Fang Shisan had arranged the best military formation for them and they had done their best, the number of casualties continued to rise.

Fang Shisan closed his eyes, clenched the armrests of the wheelchair with both hands, and felt the flow of power in the military formation.

The situation on the battlefield is changing rapidly, and she is still waiting for an opportunity to change the situation.

56. Tit for tat

There are many factors that determine the direction of a war.

On a larger scale, military supplies, armaments, military formations, morale, whether the rear is stable, etc., each of which can be a factor in determining the outcome; on a smaller scale, the generals' decisions, on-the-spot reactions, the occurrence of special circumstances, etc., can also have a crucial impact on the situation on the battlefield. Therefore, both generals and commanders are very rare, and there are only a few who can be mentioned in history, and there are almost no generals who always win.

However, there is one thing that everyone recognizes. No matter what kind of fighting style is adopted, no matter what genius ideas are there, the quality of the army itself must be sufficient, otherwise everything will be in vain. The battle of the previous generation of white-robed ministers with their backs to the king's capital and burning their boats has been widely circulated, so that many people think that when they cannot win, they can smash the pots and cut off the boats, and by cutting off the retreat, they can inspire all the fighting spirit of the soldiers, so that they can turn defeat into victory. However, most of the generals who thought so were tied up and surrendered by their subordinates as soon as they issued the order. Occasionally, there were those who successfully cut off their retreat, but they were mostly greeted with a more tragic defeat.

The losers paid a heavy price, but they will not leave the slightest trace in history. People still only remember the tragic and heroic spirit of breaking their cauldrons and sinking their boats, and they are full of yearning for the epic war. Therefore, those who only read military books will not become good generals. Fang Shisan knows this very well. Unless there is a huge change in the form of war in the future, in a war driven by manpower, the soldiers themselves will definitely influence the direction of the war.

There may be some clever strategies, but they are unstable.

Moreover, all the extraordinary strategies were based on the high quality of the soldiers. The more risky the military move, the more it required the people under your command to have sufficient execution ability, and every link could not go wrong.

Fang Shisan was not a person who advocated unusual strategies, because she often sought to win by surprise when she was at a disadvantage. The countless times she worked hard in Zhaochen made her very calm at a young age. From the deployment of troops to the choice of strategy, she made sure that nothing was leaking out, and she also took precautions against every move of the enemy during the attack.

Just like now, Fang Shisan was sitting in a wheelchair, but what he was thinking about in his mind was the entire map of Yunyang.

The army formation that Lord Yunyang deployed today was not conventional. The number of people in each square array was different and the arrangement was also very special. It was difficult to estimate the number of the enemy by visual inspection. We could only roughly judge that it was about two to three times that of our side. Why did this happen? Because Lord Yunyang did not pin all his hopes on this war. He must have kept a backup plan.

Although Lord Yunyang had clearly issued a letter to challenge the enemy, he did not put all his troops on the table. Some soldiers had gone elsewhere, so where would they go?

Maybe he is guarding Lingyun City, or maybe he is lying in ambush near the battlefield, but it is more likely that he has gone to the territory controlled by Yuxi City.

Taking advantage of the lack of defense there, he burned, killed and looted like bandits, spreading fear and panic, so that Fang Shisan could not benefit from the protection of the territory. The Lord of Yunyang did not expect to take much land from this opportunity. All he wanted to do was to cause chaos in the rear of Yuxi City, and then directly affect the combat effectiveness of Fang Shisan's army.

Who will go?

It takes a veteran to do this, so the Yunyang lord is likely to have transferred some of the border troops with strong combat effectiveness. Of the two border troops, the Yunyang lord does not trust the southern border army, Karpas, so the southern border army will definitely stay in the front battlefield. Otherwise, if this group of people go to Yuxi City, it would be a big loss if they are too weak. Taking advantage of the fact that there are many people on the front battlefield, Karpas dare not act rashly even if he has any ideas.

Therefore, it can be inferred that the northern border troops led by Asilante were not actually on the front line.

They would take a detour to the cities controlled by Yuxi City, killing and burning people along the way, creating the illusion that Yuxi City had been defeated and Yunyang had begun to counterattack, and then return and attack Yuxi City's army from the rear, catching Fang Shisan off guard. In the map in Fang Shisan's mind, several arrows extended from Yunyang to the cities under Yuxi City, and gradually expanded, and a complete route of action gradually took shape.

However, in fact, this arrow is not valid and is interrupted from a certain node.

Asilante should come back early because Fang Shisan had already calculated the possibility of an attack in the rear before the war started.

This is the biggest problem with the strange strategy. Facing a general like Fang Shisan who is known for his steadiness, the strange strategy is really hard to play a big role. When he was in Zhaochen, Fang Shisan had guessed the opponent's attack route seven times in a row and managed to defend an isolated city. This ability has not weakened at all after coming to Yuxi City, but has become more acute.

She had already arranged the defenses and ambushes in advance. If Asilante insisted on carrying out this sneak attack strategy to the end, then she should be prepared for more than half of her members to die on the spot.

To be honest, the lack of Asilante on the front battlefield has little impact. It is difficult for anyone to turn the tide of a war involving hundreds of thousands of people. Except for people like Qingyun who are at the tenth level and are qualified to change their fate, it is difficult for other ordinary masters to perform particularly well in such a place. Similarly, the northern border troops now only account for a small part of Yunyang's army. There is not much difference between having them or not, at least in the melee stage.

The premise is that this situation cannot collapse.

The melee stage did not require much technical skills, and the Lord of Yunyang chose this kind of open area. There were no mountains or hills around, no trees or bushes, and no big rivers. The army deployed in this area could maximize Yunyang's numerical advantage, while also lowering the upper limit of the operations of the generals of both sides.

In this stage, everyone was competing to see which army could hold out longer and which army would collapse more slowly. Both armies were new, and Fang Shisan couldn't ask his soldiers to fight desperately while implementing complex tactics, let alone Yunyang. Therefore, this battle that could determine the future of Yunyang was less fancy and more like a battle of basic skills.

There is a fine line between killing and being killed.

The rise and fall of morale is also a fine line.

Perhaps someone who kills a small leader of the other side will quickly drive his own army into a state of excitement and gain a brief advantage. Or perhaps someone will have an emotional breakdown, throw away his armor and want to escape, and the people around him will fall into a huge state of negativity.

These controllable and uncontrollable factors are also one of the factors that cause the ever-changing situation on the battlefield.

The commander of the Wangdong First Division, Juanbai, pierced a Yunyang soldier's chest with a gun, and a figure emerged involuntarily in his mind. If only Luger were here too, this kind of war was the favorite war of the Xuanjia Battalion at the beginning. Those lunatics were strong enough, brave enough, and cold-blooded enough to break the opponent's defense line under great pressure. Even in an invincible formation, they could tear a hole.

57. The road ahead is long and we must carry on with our burdens

Ming Qian, the battalion commander of Shao Yu Battalion, led a special force active on the battlefield. They had firearms in their hands, but they had not used them yet. Up to now, the Shen Ji Battalion had not yet entered the battlefield, and the Yun Yang Lord had not thrown the last of his masters into the battle. Both sides kept a trump card.

When Shao Yuying was just established, Fang Shisan hoped to train more qualified officers. Whether an army can dispatch quickly is not decided by the upper officers. The upper officers are responsible for making decisions, and someone needs to execute them. The middle and grassroots officers play such roles. Therefore, Yuxi City opened a military academy. It does not force many famous generals to be trained, but it must make up for the gaps in middle and grassroots officers.

From the actual situation, Shao Yuying did it. They graduated from military academies, received systematic training, and spent some time in the army, so they have sufficient experience. The reason why Yuxi City dared to expand the army to dozens of times the original size in one go was because the members of Shao Yuying had achieved some success, and they could be used as a framework to build a larger army.

So this time, the other armies have all had a huge improvement, only the number of people in Shao Yu Battalion has not changed much. Ming Qian, the battalion commander, could have been promoted to a higher position, but he voluntarily gave up the opportunity for promotion and chose to stay. In his words, Shao Yu Battalion should have a more special role, not just a transit station for training officers.

Ming Qian's order to the members of Shao Yuying was to attack the lower-level officers of Yunyang as much as possible and avoid fighting with those generals with some reputation. Although killing a general in battle would put a lot of pressure on the opponent, the cost was also very high. The biggest problem of Yuxi City at present is that there are not enough generals, so there is no need to attack the strengths of others with one's own weaknesses. On the contrary, in terms of effectiveness, attacking the grassroots generals of the opponent can directly hinder the spread of orders, turning a squad of people into headless flies, which is very cost-effective.

This is also one of the combination punches that Yu Xicheng often uses.

This set of tactics was already showing its edge when we fought against Li Yi. Heavy armor cleared the way, light armor swept, magic bombing, elves healed, villains attacked, Shao Yu killed, and the magic machine was the finale. However, the battle at that time was still at a small scale. Now that it has risen to a war of hundreds of thousands of people, although the idea of ​​this set of tactics is not a problem, the personnel configuration can not keep up.

For example, Fileta's magic can be quite effective in a battle of a thousand people, and can also be used as a means of deterrence and buying time in a battle of ten thousand people. However, in a battle of a hundred thousand people, the effect that can be achieved is minimal.

Delis was facing the same problem. She could easily cure the wounds of hundreds or thousands of people with a single healer, but in a battle of this scale, her healing and protection alone would not be enough. There was also the Evil Valley. In the past, the Evil Valley relied on Yuxi City. Yuxi City’s control area was limited, so naturally there were not many evil groups that came to join it, and even fewer were willing to go to the battlefield.

Therefore, this war was a hasty battle for Lord Yunyang, and for Yuxi City, it was actually a hasty battle during a period of development. Filita's realm cultivation was not enough, and the two siblings Yama and Yaqian could not go to the battlefield due to age issues. There was only one pure-blooded royal elf, Delis, and the Evil Valley had too few people and could only play the defensive card...

Even so, Fang Shisan still told Lid that he was 70% sure.

Because she is the kind of person who can take on the main responsibility. Fighting with multiple arms can certainly make her more calm, but if we put those aside and only compete on the quality of the soldiers, Fang Shisan is also confident that she will never lose. The protagonist of this war is not He Yue who sits firmly in the rear, not Alayya and Felita who were active on the battlefield before, not the Shenji Battalion and those invincible firearms, but Fang Shisan who has made no mistakes since the beginning of training and calculated every detail to the extreme.

One night before the war, Lide and Fang Shisan were alone in the room. Fang Shisan lay on the bed, holding the corners of the quilt with his hands, listening to Lide telling him all kinds of stories. When the story was finished, Fang Shisan, who still couldn't sleep, discussed his thoughts with Lide:

"The Shenji Battalion can show its might in this battle, but it is not necessary at the moment. A battle of this scale cannot be hidden from the eyes of other families. If we invest in large-scale firearms at this point in time, the secrets of the industrial base will be exposed. Even if we win, we will fall into a period of weakness afterwards. By then, the territories that covet this technology will come to us together... It will be very troublesome."

"Then if the Divine Machine Battalion is on standby, will the pressure on your side be great?"

"No. Lord Yunyang is not aware of our decision to give up using firearms. So he will gather the experts together to deal with possible emergencies. He will not make the same mistake as he did outside Xiaxin City again. Before he finds out the true nature of firearms, he will always put his own safety first."

"That is, if we give up one of our trump cards, we will force him to keep his strongest card in his hand. But given my father's personality, after he finds out that we are slow to use firearms, he will definitely guess that something has happened on our side, and then he will send all the experts he has worked so hard to gather into the battlefield."

"He won't have that chance anymore."

The moonlight was just right that day, and the silvery white moonlight shone on Fang Shisan's tightly closed eyes. She said in a very firm tone:

"Because Yunyang's army simply can't hold out for that long."

After a moment of silence, that night Lid put down the book in his hand, touched Fang Shisan's head, and said with a smile:

"Okay. Then I will leave my future to you, the future general of Tiance Mansion."

Fang Shisan responded by giving Reed a reassuring smile.

The battle to decide Yunyang's fate will be left to the people of both sides. If you want to fight for a better future, you need to sacrifice your life in the face of the current difficulties. Most of the soldiers in Yuxi City now come from Yunyang. Yuxi City has given them a better life. Now it depends on whether they can keep this life.

War is an epic made of blood and tears. Some people die here, and some people will continue to survive.

The arrival of a new era always requires the blood of countless people from the old era as its foundation.

The Yunyang army did not overwhelm the Yuxicheng army in the charge, and the three times the number of troops did not cause a fatal blow in the first place. On the Yuxicheng side, many people died in this round of offensive, but more people were still alive. They still chanted the names of their companions and rushed forward with red eyes.

It was like a sword that became sharper as it was polished and pierced into Yunyang's heart.

It often only takes a moment to destroy everything in its path.

58. Things that have never been said

There is often no clear turning point for an army to go from strong to defeated. Especially for an army like Yunyang that was hastily assembled, sometimes just a slight change in the situation can produce a domino effect.

This change may be the death of a beloved leader, or the failure of a few fragile soldiers to bear the pressure and start to flee, or there may not be any riot, but it is simply because the courage that was hard-won before the war was exhausted. Staying on the battlefield is a very difficult thing in itself. If you put anyone in a place where he may die at any time, he will feel desperate and want to escape, so the army needs a military spirit and faith to support these brave soldiers.

This belief may be a material reward, a religious belief, or a beautiful future as described by Yuxi City, but it must exist. The biggest problem of Yunyang's army is that they don't have this thing. Their courage is forced, and their state is closer to "thinking they can win so they fight" than "wanting to win", so once they encounter setbacks, they will be defeated quickly.

At first, a soldier from Yunyang fell to the ground wailing after being shot by an arrow. Normally, this kind of thing is common, but he cursed more and also cursed the young master of Yunyang who forced him to join the army in the first place. He also cursed the Lord of Yunyang and said that he would never work for them again in his next life.

After this man fell to the ground, no one came to kill him or save him. He cursed for a full half minute before he was trampled to death. This dissatisfaction spread like a plague among the soldiers of Yunyang. Three times the number of troops could not hurt the foundation of Yuxi City. Everyone was very irritated in this stalemate. The small leaders with dirty hands and feet began to beat and scold the soldiers who were not very motivated, and the soldiers' resentment was getting higher and higher.

Later, when a Yunyang soldier died, he suddenly remembered something and whispered:

"The stars shift..."

At that moment, everyone's heart sank.

The good thing that Lord Yunyang did was to block public opinion in time, so that his army was not affected too much. If they had seen what conditions Yuxi City offered to the soldiers, they would have exploded long ago. But this kind of public opinion blockade can only last after Lord Yunyang wakes up. In the chaotic period before he wakes up, Yuxi City still spread a lot of public opinion information.

This includes the simplest nursery rhymes.

"The stars change positions, Yunyang changes masters", these eight short words have an immeasurable power in this era. On that day, the bright and dark stars in the sky changed positions, and the Anbu organization of Yuxi City and the Propaganda Department of Shaoyu Camp did not hesitate to release this news, and it spread to the point where even the children on the street could sing it.

This prophecy-like curse has always remained in the hearts of every Yunyang soldier. When they are in the period of charging forward, they will temporarily forget these public opinions, but once the attack is frustrated and they fall into a period of confusion, these information linked to destiny will be infinitely magnified.

An abandoned child, a dilapidated and lonely city.

In just two years, they fought against a force three times their size...

If this isn’t destiny, then what is?

The soldiers of Yunyang naturally had no way of understanding what the scientific outlook on development was, nor the inevitability of history. From their current perspective, this was God's will for the lord of Yunyang to fail. Otherwise, why could the enemy's soldiers, covered in wounds, still stand firm? Why did Fang Shisan still have a relaxed smile on his face? Why were his hands already shaking with fear? Why did he not feel the slightest bit of security even though he was surrounded by thousands of soldiers?

The first person to notice that there was a problem with the army was Takis, the commander of Yunyang's southern border army.

Unlike the Lord of Yunyang, Takis watched the chaos in Yunyang develop bit by bit. He watched the fire from the other side of the river for the past few months, watching the flames burn more and more vigorously, and he admired the methods of Yuxi City. It was also for this reason that when the Yunyang army showed initial signs of collapse, Takis noticed it almost immediately. He realized that as the courage gradually ran out, the Yunyang army had lost the motivation to fight, and if it dragged on like this, there would be big problems.

Then, he hesitated for a moment, wondering whether to tell Lord Yunyang about this.

In other words, should he try to save Yunyang, which is already in ruins?

Yunye's words seemed to still echo in his ears:

——"General, will you be as loyal to Yunyang as Kalpas was?"

Takis touched the long sword at his waist and narrowed his eyes. He was loyal to Lord Yunyang, but this loyalty was now in great conflict with his personal future. Lord Yunyang obviously no longer trusted him. The two people who were sent to monitor him were keeping a close eye on him. The two lieutenants who had been at his disposal were arrested as soon as they arrived at Lingyun City, and not long ago they "committed suicide" in prison.