"A nation that is terminally ill always spends more time remembering its dead than caring for the living." - Gulaman proverb.
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Taking the fall of Emerald City on September 15 as a starting point, the vassal army launched a more violent attack on Wanzhou.
The superior strength and proactive offensive style made the subsequent battle between the feudal army and the Wanzhou army like a cat playing with a mouse - after exposing their trump cards and suffering setbacks, and all the cannon fodder troops were wiped out, although the feudal side's actions were still radical and rapid, but in the Tactically it is more flexible and changeable.
The moment they broke through the Emerald City, the remaining Wanzhou Army, which was still in chaos, faced a coordinated battle between infantry and cavalry.
The vassal warriors in bright red armor, with mother's clothes on their backs and red flags with a crescent moon drawn straight up into the sky, broke through the breach in the city wall with the greater maneuverability of their horses. The Wanzhou Army, which did not have time to follow Zhou Mu's retreat, lacked effective command due to casualties and was forced to retreat further.
After that, the ashigaru and walking samurai who rushed over immediately got into a fight with them.
After the forward was stabilized and the fall of Emerald City was a foregone conclusion, a force composed entirely of cavalry moved forward to pursue the fleeing Wanzhou defenders. However, Zhou Mu, who was focused on joining the reserve defense forces, had no intention of fighting and ordered the troops to flee to the next city at full speed.
But by the time they arrived and joined together, exhausted from the cavalry harassment, the vassal troops several times the size of the Wanzhou Army had already followed closely.
This small, unimportant city could hardly accommodate an army of ten thousand people. It was surrounded by farmland and the city wall was only three meters high. Supplies were limited and the city defense equipment was outdated and dilapidated.
With all this and what happened in the Emerald City before, Zhou Mu thought about it and made a decision that he thought was right——
Abandoning the city and going out, they carried out deep pulling operations in the countryside, trying their best to buy time until reinforcements from Xinjing arrived.
They know Wanzhou's geographical advantages. The greater depth has consumed the strength of the vassal army before. It is far more appropriate to continue to make good use of it and pull back and forth to buy time than to stick to a poorly defended city and be wiped out in one go. .
Zhou Mu also tried to mobilize local warriors from all over the country to voluntarily defend the territory. He imagined that as long as they made good use of Wanzhou's depth to contain the feudal army for as long as possible, they would still have the possibility of turning defeat into victory.
But the call was launched, but the consequences of the previous crop failure and the confrontation between the nobles and the common people were revealed at this time - there were very few civilians who responded, and when the Wanzhou Army tried to force the conquest, the villagers all fled into the mountains and forests with their families. among.
"The untouchables in Wanzhou are all cowards!" Zhou Mu, who was yelling like this, had no choice but to command his existing troops to deal with the attack from the vassal territory.
——But this is also where this cat-and-mouse game begins.
Due to confusion, flight and supplies, the Wanzhou Army actually lacked cavalry. There were only 600 horsemen in the 10,000-man army, and they could not be dispatched easily because there were no spare horses and lack of fodder.
The feudal army only consumed cannon fodder and ashigaru personnel at the beginning. Although the long-distance attack was quite tiring, the size of their cavalry troops was still astonishing.
Most of the Kazuto samurai are horse archers. This kind of troops may not have the same charging capabilities as Rigar's heavy knights, but they are good at attacking, harassing and chasing down deserters.
Nothing beats it.
Exhausted from running for their lives, this was the situation that the Wanzhou Army unexpectedly found itself in in the next few days.
The bow-wielding warriors in the domain were divided into several groups and took turns harassing them, attacking from all directions.
The Wanzhou Army, which was mostly composed of infantry, simply could not compete with the cavalry in short-distance mobility.
Can't escape.
But once the Wanzhou Army planned to fight to the death and set up an array on the spot, the feudal army, which clearly had the advantage, would give up.
They just harassed and fired cold arrows, but they had no intention of confronting them head-on.
Can't catch up.
The exhausted Wanzhou side did not understand the strategic intentions of the vassal army until the third day - their constant harassment and driving forced the Wanzhou side to divide their troops and go deeper, because Wanzhou's territory was wider and deeper than the northern territory of Xinyuezhou. It was also a hindrance to the local defenders of Wanzhou.
At first, they thought they were taking advantage of their depth and knowledge of local roads to avoid the feudal army and buy time. However, even if the scale was not as large as that of the feudal army, this army of ten thousand people still needed a considerable amount of supplies and logistics.
The Wanzhou Army, whose morale had been severely damaged in the battle of Emerald City, only knew how to escape, which was to give way to the feudal army, which had an absolute advantage in strength.
He gave away his city in vain.
The feudal army, which still had several times the strength of the Wanzhou Army, only needed to dispatch more mobile cavalry units to drive them away, while the remaining troops worked non-stop to capture the key cities in Wanzhou that lacked defense.
Bidige
When Wanzhou finally fell into the trap, they were already stretched too far in Wanzhou's huge deep zone and had no time to rush back to defend the city.
Although even if they rush back, there is very little they can do.
This battle was unfair from the beginning, and many factors made it more likely to fail no matter which option they had.
"Then add options and do things that others have never done. Because of the disadvantage, you have to attack when you are most prepared -" If our Mr. Sage is invited as a consultant, he must be I would suggest this to Zhou Mu.
"Although the Emerald City's defenses are strong, once it is breached, the enemy can march straight in. Therefore, we should not invest all our troops here to defend it to the death."
"Abandon it and use it as a choke point. The enemy troops will inevitably be slowed down when passing through. Even if there are 100,000 troops in total, when passing through the choke point, the troops will be out of touch due to various reasons such as deceleration, so it will be reversed It is our army with 30,000 troops and the advantage of ambushes that has the local advantage."
Defense sometimes does not mean blocking everything. Thick city walls and relatively narrow entrances and moats will inevitably cause a slowdown for an army of this size to pass through.
Zhou Mu's deep pulling tactic can be used, but you can't just run away blindly, and it's best when your own side is at its peak.
If the 30,000-strong army seizes the opportunity when the feudal army is slowed down and disengaged, even if it faces a force of about 10,000 people, it can be quickly defeated and evacuated. But with only 10,000 people and most of them were defeated soldiers, there was much less that could be done.
But this tactic would never be adopted by state pastors.
Not only because he was a stranger, but also because this was an unprecedented and unreasonable thing.
It is really unimaginable to hand over a fortress with strong and thick defenses to others.
For a samurai from a state directly under the central government who is considered excellent if he can do one thing well step by step and according to the rules, he breaks away from the constraints of "traditional" thinking and does some unconventional things to win.
Just like two or three months ago, you told a samurai from a noble family that one day farmers would commit crimes.
It's something like "just think about it, and everyone will laugh at you if you say it".
They never thought about how to win, they just thought about not losing and trying to gain as much time as possible.
【Good·let·other·people·come·win】
Therefore, it was just luck that the Emerald City was able to hold on at first, but when the city wall collapsed, the luck dissipated and the wind reversed.
It is a foregone conclusion that Wanzhou's defense will completely collapse.
Even if on paper they still have a fighting strength of 10,000 people, such a number might already be the strength of a whole country in a small country on the west coast of Rigal.
But the enemies they faced were also more powerful.
When the situation was over, Zhou Mu decided to commit suicide by committing seppuku in the early morning.
Compared with the offensive and defensive battle of Emerald City, which lasted for more than a week, it only took three days for the entire Wanzhou area to fall.
Just when Zhou Mu was about to commit suicide, a piece of news that had actually been delayed for more than several days was conveyed to his ears from the stumbling messenger who was covered in wounds.
"The emperor has passed away!"
The current emperor of the Kingdom of the Moon, who was sitting in Xinjing and looking down upon the world, passed away at such a critical moment, and Xinjing was naturally in chaos.
Who will succeed?
There have always been many princes, and the high-ranking Chinese factions behind them as in-laws naturally hope that the prince they support will ascend to the throne. The vacated Amyrlin Seat caused undercurrents in Xinjing's political circles - but what's even more troublesome is -
According to the tradition of the Moon Kingdom, when the emperor dies, the world must be in peace.
Wear hemp and wear mourning for 30 days. You are not allowed to travel far or have fun. You eat vegetarian food and pray for blessings for the death of the Son of God every day.
It's over.
When receiving the news, those two words that came to mind were not only Wanzhou Prefecture Mu, whose situation was over, but also Yanzhou, which was still not affected by the war despite being prepared.
What they all have in common is that they all read a message from this obituary:
Reinforcements from Xinjing will not come.
In the short term, for at least 30 days, all directly-governed prefectures, from state pastors to peasants, must eat fast day and night, pray and mourn the death of the emperor. They are not allowed to travel far and have no entertainment. Therefore, they are naturally not allowed to be transferred from the local area to come to aid. .
In the long run, the internal struggles among the major prince factions intensified due to the death of the emperor, which will most likely result in the inability to assemble a large enough force to deal with the vassal.
"Absurd——" Even though he was determined to commit suicide and die for his country, even though he was exhausted and confused for three consecutive days, Wanzhou Prefecture Mu still couldn't curse the word "absurd" that had reached his throat.
The emperor is the master of a country. When the emperor dies, everyone in the world should wear hemp cloth and show mourning. It is a matter of course.
This has always been the case.
Even if the vassal state conquered one directly administered state after another, this tradition must be followed.
Loyalty and filial piety are the foundation of Xinyuezhou and the country of the moon.
If they don't show their loyalty to the emperor and Xinjing, how can they be different from those rebels?
The whole territory of Wanzhou was stained with blood.
Like locusts crossing the border, the feudal army seized all the supplies they needed. Whether it is rations, livestock, or strong men who can serve as soldiers.
This time they did not stay for as long as they did in Jeju. After sorting out the situation as much as possible, they continued to march towards the front.
In other places that have not yet fallen, everyone from ignorant children to trembling old people are covered in coats made of coarse linen. Professional mourners hired by the government line up and cry loudly up and down the streets all day long, exaggerating the mournful atmosphere.
All commercial streets and flower streets were closed, and doors and windows were closed. Kazuto's diet, which was already lacking in oil and water, became more simple.
In places where festivals are still being celebrated, the lanterns are hung in funerary colors before they can be taken down.
This is the death that the leader of a human country expects and ideally wants.
When you are alive, you should have the ability to command the world, and when you die, the whole world should feel sad for it.
But they don't necessarily feel sad.
They just know they have to grieve.
As the sage and his party gradually left Wanzhou and approached the border of the territory called Pingzhou, all they saw were black and white, which represented death in the Crescent Continent culture.
And those who follow the rules and express their sorrow like puppets on a string.
The whole city was filled with this color, and even the ashigaru standing guard had to wear hemp clothes outside their armor.
"What's going on? How can a white matter be so big-" Narumi said this, his words were very clear, as if he was trying to deny the answer that had emerged in his heart.
"Emperor, have you died?" But after all, there was only one possibility.
They escaped into the mountains and forests much earlier than the people who fled Wanzhou. They tried their best to avoid idlers along the way, so they didn't know the news until they saw all this with their own eyes - and it was already September 21st.
Before the group of people hiding on the forest path could digest the news, civilians not wearing mourning clothes appeared on the road again. Their clothes were so different from those of Pingzhou people who wore sackcloth and filial piety that it instantly caused a commotion on the other side of the city gate.
"Wanzhou has fallen." Henry's tone remained calm, but it could not calm the shock in the hearts of others.
With such a large territory, as soon as they stepped out, their back legs were already controlled by the feudal territory.
Most of the mighty refugee troops were emaciated and sallow. Pingzhou troops wearing sackcloth and wearing filial piety surrounded them, waiting for instructions from the local Chinese.
"Multiple among the refugees?" Our white-haired girl, who was not emotionally affected too much, suggested that they need supplies, and the influx of a large number of refugees into Pingzhou can also be an opportunity.
"A small force. This place is closer to the inland than Minamata. I'm afraid there are not many Nanman people there, but it will be fine if we keep a low profile in this situation."
The mood of the people became noticeably lower, even though almost none of them had ever met the emperor.
Loyalty that is close to faith has supported them in their arduous journey and progress to this day. They can survive any hardships, just because they want to be loyal to Xinjing and the emperor. But just like any strong and single source of power, once something happens to it, it will have a profound impact on those who rely on it.
"Is our goal still meaningful?" The samurai leader who asked this sentence no longer had the confident and unhesitating look in his eyes when they first met. The sequelae of his injured arm in the battle caused it to tremble slightly. , and the other hand must therefore hold it tightly.
This awkward and uneasy posture was never shown even when he learned that the Qingtian family was destroyed. Yajiro looked at him from the side. Ogami, Narumi and Lao Qiao were the pillars of the Qingtian family's retainers, and the young master had hardly seen any wavering from Narumi.
"Yes, there will always be." The sage turned around and said to him.
"Nothing in this world is meaningless."
