Chapter 287
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Chapter 287: Advance and Retreat
3 days later, fifty emergency produced heavy crossbow bolts finally arrived at the front line.
This time, Luo Ji was clearly determined to breach Shangyuan City’s gate, directly deploying all five triple-bow bed crossbows he had brought!
Without further ado, Luo Ji waved his hand, and all five triple-bow bed crossbows fired simultaneously.
The first volley directly targeted the enemy’s bed crossbows positioned on the city wall.
A series of violent booming sounds directly struck Li Kuo’s heart, making him feel a surge of alarm.
Faced with this range suppression, their bed crossbows on Shangyuan’s wall became completely useless, unable to resist.
Powerful and ferocious attacks mercilessly destroyed the bed crossbows on their wall, striking down the morale of the defending soldiers.
After three rounds of firing, having destroyed all the enemy’s bed crossbows on the city wall, Luo Ji signaled the army to advance 100 meters, shifting their attack target to Shangyuan City’s gate.
With the reduced distance, the triple-bow bed crossbows showed a significant improvement in accuracy and power.
Just one round of attack caused noticeable damage to Shangyuan City’s gate.
As Luo Ji pondered what the enemy’s next move would be, holding his binoculars, he noticed that the defending soldiers on the opposite city wall were actually rapidly withdrawing.
He had originally thought the enemy intended to go out and fight them.
However, Shangyuan City’s tightly closed gate remained motionless for a long time.
Noticing the anomaly, a thoughtful look flashed in Luo Ji’s eyes.
He then signaled the triple-bow bed crossbows to cease fire.
After a while, he raised his hand and directly sent out a small scaling ladder unit to quickly approach and climb Shangyuan City’s wall to confirm the situation.
Finally, they discovered that the defending forces inside the city had actually destroyed the mechanisms of the East City Gate and withdrawn.
“Damn it! These cowards actually abandoned the city and fled? Not men at all!”
Upon hearing this news, Luo Yong, Guo Zhen, and Liu Meng were all depressed.
Among them, Liu Meng was probably the most depressed.
Luo Yong and Guo Zhen had at least earned merits, while he had just arrived at the front line and hadn’t even had a chance to earn any merit before the enemy fled.
Unlike the three depressed generals, Luo Ji clearly thought more deeply.
Shangyuan City was an important defensive line for the Great Zhou’s eastern territory.
How could Li Kuo, after realizing the destructive power of the triple-bow bed crossbows, retreat without even fighting?
This action was completely opposite to their previous desperate defense of the city.
Quickly organizing his thoughts, Luo Ji pondered for a moment, then asked Zhou Yi, who was most familiar with the Great Zhou’s situation.
“Zhou Yi, what are your thoughts?”
As a strategist, Zhou Yi had clearly noticed the unusual nature of Li Kuo’s action, so he had also been pondering this matter.
“Without Zhou Dongnan’s order, given Li Kuo’s character, he would never dare to abandon the city and flee like this.”
“But his retreat this time was so decisive, there’s a 90% chance he received a hint from Zhou Dongnan.”
Hearing this conclusion, Luo Ji rubbed his chin, then asked again.
“Behind Shangyuan City is the royal capital ‘Great Zhou,’ right?”
“Yes.”
Zhou Yi nodded.
“Do you think Zhou Dongnan might abandon the Great Zhou Royal City and retreat further?”
“Your subordinate believes it’s unlikely. Retreating further west would only leave two small cities with very weak defenses and garrisons. In comparison, the Great Zhou Royal City is the largest city in terms of population and scale in the entire Great Zhou territory. If even Great Zhou were abandoned, Zhou Dongnan would have no chance of turning the tide later.”
Luo Ji’s eyes flashed with understanding upon hearing this.
According to Zhou Yi, if Zhou Dongnan wanted to turn the tide, he absolutely could not abandon the Great Zhou Royal City.
Once abandoned, he would have no people, no resources, and what capital would he have to talk about turning the tide?
Thus, the meaning of the enemy’s move was easy to guess, they clearly wanted to preserve their forces and then engage him in a decisive battle outside the Great Zhou Royal City.
As this thought flashed through his mind, the two teams of men who had climbed into Shangyuan City via scaling ladders also exerted great effort and finally managed to open the East City Gate.
After the army entered the city, Luo Ji found Shangyuan City extraordinarily lively.
Looking around, he saw a sky ablaze with fire in the distance.
Considering various circumstances, Luo Ji decisively mobilized troops to help the city’s residents extinguish the fire.
After confirmation, the two burned buildings in the city were the granary and the armory.
Other surrounding houses and buildings were also affected to some extent, but fortunately, the fire was brought under control in time, preventing further losses.
Luo Ji basically had no opinion on Zhou Dongnan’s tactic.
In Zhou Dongnan’s and Li Kuo’s eyes, this move might have successfully prevented unportable grain and military equipment from falling into enemy hands.
But for Luo Ji, who currently had no shortage of grain and military equipment, it had little impact.
Instead, the people of Shangyuan City were left panicking and resentful by this fire, coupled with the previous forced conscription.
The extent of public discontent in Shangyuan City was now unimaginable.
The enemy’s cooperation provided Luo Ji with an excellent opportunity to win over the people.
He decisively ordered the distribution of porridge and grain, and had Zhou Yi and others assist in appeasing the city’s residents.
He could also conveniently boost the loyalty of the surrendered soldiers so why not?
Facts proved that Luo Ji’s move was successful.
When he shouted in the crowd, “Is there anyone who knows how to repair city gate mechanisms?,” several people immediately stepped forward, expressing their willingness to help them repair the city gate mechanisms.
Luo Ji even later asked a few citizens about the situation in various cities within the Great Zhou territory during this period.
The people were completely forthcoming, telling him everything they knew.
Undoubtedly, these people’s loyalty to the Great Zhou and Zhou Dongnan had already fallen below 60 points.
At this point, Luo Ji pondered in his heart whether to simply transfer all the people from these cities to his own territory after this total war was over.
Anyway, he had already gained popular support.
After these people surrendered, with the loyalty bonus from his ‘Ruler’ talent, it was estimated that they could easily reach over 75 points, which would perfectly supplement his civilization with a large wave of manpower.
Of course, this was only a thought for now.
Whether to actually do this, he still had to seriously consider.
So many people couldn’t just be accepted immediately, he also had to see if his territory had enough jobs and residential areas.
Not to mention, the current total war hadn’t even ended yet.
To avoid unnecessary delays, Luo Ji did not stay long in Shangyuan City.
After resting for one night, he left 100 troops in the city as a fallback, then the main army slowly exited the city and headed towards the decisive battleground of this total war!
