738 Chain Formation (1/2)
Chapter 738-Chain Formation
Translator: ryangohsf
Editor: Nora
Zhao Yan fulfilled his promise.
The 1st division lasted for the most arduous half an hour. They paid a heavy price; in the end, less than two thousand members were left out of the entire division. Ten thousand of the most elite soldiers died on the battlefield.
Major General Zhao Yan suffered heavy injuries and fell unconscious, and the Personal Guards carried him out of the battlefield.
Along with the 1st division retreating, the enemy officially broke the first defense line of the camp fortress. The Alliance Army paid the price of 40 thousand soldiers in total.
Corpses piled up against the wooden wall, making it hard to pass, and blood dyed the wooden walls with a fresh crimson color.
After taking down the wooden wall, the Alliance Army commander let out a sigh of relief.
Logically speaking, after the walls of the camp fell, the enemy would basically lose their defensive ability. Close quarters combat would follow, and they would win for sure with their numerical advantage.
The Alliance Army commander felt confident about taking the enemy down within a day.
Who knew that after heading past the walls, he would see this scene:
A second layer stood hundreds of meters away from the first wooden walls.
Between the two walls there was a five meter deep moat every five meters. There were paths connecting one moat to another, connecting all the moats into a complete defensive system.
Barricades, arrow towers, etc. were scattered everywhere. There was a three-bow arcubalista or a trebuchet at every crucial point.
The more terrifying part was the tens of thousands of archers hidden in the moats.
This was the second defense line of the camp fortress; it was defended by both the 2nd and 3rd divisions.
As there was a limited time to build the camp fortress, Fan Lihua did not design a squarish fortress but one that went from east to west, forming a narrow and long channel.
The entire fortress basically stopped the Alliance Army from heading down south.
The Alliance Army could not break this enclosure by going around it. They needed to break through all the defenses before they could pass.
To prevent this, Fan Lihua planned many soldiers on the frontlines while arranging the 5th division to protect the wings. The 4th division would defend the 2nd wooden walls, which were the last line of defense.
The north side of the camp fortress did not even have any walls as they did not have enough time to construct more.
Such an arrangement could be called the most efficient use of resources and the best way to arrange troops.
The three defensive lines complemented one another and formed a massive chain formation.
This was one of the reasons why a famed general was famous. No matter if it was logistic calculations, troop traveling arrangements, or camp arrangements, they were proficient at them all.
Of course, this had something to do with the logical army troop allocation of the Shanhai City Army. That was because its division had construction units, so they could miraculously build a camp fortress.
To the Alliance Army, this posed a huge problem.
”General, what should we do?” The deputy officer asked.
The commander's face was black as he solemnly declared, ”What else can we do? Attack!”
After a short rest, the Alliance Army launched their second wave of attacks.
From the start till now, their attacks had not been smooth.
The vast army crossed the wooden walls and entered the empty land, engaging in close quarters combat battle with the sword-shield soldiers. At the same time, they were also shot by the archers in the moat.
Under the cover of the moat, the archers were basically merciless grim reapers. They all became marksmen and accurately claimed life after life.
They also had arrow towers and arcuballsitas covering them.
Hence, the Alliance Army found it extremely hard to push forward.
Pretty much every moat layer was pushed through using human life. Even so, sometimes a moat that they spent a lot of effort in taking would be taken back by the enemy in the blink of an eye.
At the highest count so far, the two armies exchanged control of a moat four times.
Fan Lihua looked down from the second wooden wall and moved troops based on the situation of the battle. She ordered the archers in the moat to change their focus of fire to the toughest locations.
The secret of her commanding lied in the five-sided flag.
Each moat was separated into east, middle, and west.
Hence, each region had their specific code.
Through different flag combinations, Fan Lihua could send different orders, even some relatively complicated orders like ordering the second moat in the middle to assist the west side.
In the moats there were messengers who passed on the orders based on the flag colors.
With that, the commands were like a beautiful concert. Each note was like a killing machine; each melody was like a tune to take a life.
Although the music was beautiful, the scene was truly gruesome.
The countless Alliance Army soldiers could not do anything against such a formation, so they could not use their numerical advantage. The hundreds of thousands of cavalry soldiers were like decorations and manage to accomplish absolutely nothing.
Even by noon, the second defensive line still stood as stable as a rock.
The terrifying part was that another 20 thousand Alliance Army soldiers had fallen. In just a single noon, a fifth of the Alliance Army had died.
More than 70 percent had died from the archers.
Based on incomplete data, the 3rd legion had used up 150 thousand arrows during this morning. If it was not for the perfect combat logistics system of the Combat Logistics Department, this would be a difficult consumption to stomach.
If one was not personally fighting, one would not be able to imagine the cruelty of war.
On the backs of the 50 thousand fallen soldiers were 50 thousand families, a total of 200 thousand people. The population was similar to a Grade 3 County.