The World Online
chapter-1203

The 8th month was the hottest period of the year for the south. Even in the morning, a thin layer of clothing was able to defend against the cold. Such weather was unbearable for the heavy armored soldiers.

Usually, their entire body would be like they were dragged out from water after half a day of fighting in the drill field.

Hence, the Great Xia Army chose to attack Jiangnan Province early in the morning. The sun had just risen up, and the Tiger Legion Corps and Xiangjiang legion corps used the 10 warfighting legions to cover the entire Jiangnan border under the morning dew.

The Tiger Legion Corps struck out from the Minnan border while the Zhang Xutuo led Xiangjiang legion corps attacked from the Jiangchuan province border.

The entire formation line stretched for thousands of miles.

The 600 thousand troops formed an iron current like a black grim reaper line. They spread from the southwest border of Jiangnan Province and rumbled forward to swallow up the entire province.

Following behind the army was an even longer grain supply line.

Early in the morning, every path toward the border in the entire Jiangchuan and Minnan Province was occupied by groups of grain carts. The 'kachi kachi' noises gathered up to form a melody. It was impossible for one to see the end of the line.

The Imperial Court had won two successive battles, and their morale was soaring. When the civilians of the two lands saw the grain troops, they did not feel the fear that war brings. Instead, they happily discussed where the Imperial Court was going to expand to this time.

As they were transporting grain within the territory, the ones in charge of transporting gain were bailiffs that were gathered in an impromptu manner. Whichever prefecture or county was reached, the bailiffs from that prefecture or county would cover them. As such, they did not even need to send a large number of troops.

Who had the courage to come and steal grain within the borders of Great Xia?

As for the raiders in the wilderness, they had long disappeared and did not have a chance to rise up once more.

The grain carts set off from the prefecture and counties and were like streams gathering to form a river. They were like closely packed blood vessels as they gathered toward the frontlines and sent 'blood' to the frontline soldiers.

If it were not for the communication compasses, they would not be able to sustain such a long, and the troops could only be like blind men, fighting for themselves.

The appearance of the communication compass changed the way that wars were fought.

The party helping Great Zhou to defend Jiangnan Province was the God General Xu Da led 400 thousand Great Ming guards. Xu Da was undeniably skilled at using troops, taking it seriously ever since he took over from Great Zhou's King legion corps.

Even if the battle in the north stopped, looking at the situation, the Battle of China was about to stop too. However, only after the King legion corps returned to Jiangnan Province would the Ming army have succeeded in their mission. Before that, Xu Da had no intentions of relaxing.

In Xu Da's words, 'One day that I defend will be one day that I carry out my task.'

As the frontline between Great Xia and Great Zhou, the defense work at the Jiangnan Province border could only be described as unassailable. Within these two years, under the personal planning of Wuqi, the entire border used 15 cities as fortified points, building forts between them. Between the forts were sentries, which formed a layered, defensive steel line.

Apart from that, there was a beacon tower on the mountains and a watchtower on the plains. There was a water stronghold on the river and passes on the official path to form an airtight defensive net.

Not to mention an army attacking, but even if an enemy scout tried to enter, he would lose a layer of skin.

When Xu Da took over the defensive line, he was full of praise of Wuqi's toward generosity.

As a result, after learning that Great Xia had suddenly sent troops to attack Jiangnan Province, Xu Da was not really nervous. Although from the intel shared by Great Zhou showed that Great Xia was truly acting, Xu Da did not feel that Great Xia could use just 600 thousand troops to break through the 400 thousand Ming army defended defensive steel line.

'Unless Great Xia continues to add troops.'

The probability of this was not too high because the Guards Legion Corps, City Protection Legion Corps, and Eagle Legion Corps were already teleported back to their bases. If they were to reinforce the frontlines, they should have directly teleported to Xunlong City.

Great Xia would not waste money and not ignore the millions of gold teleportation would expend.

"Then, what are the enemy's intentions?"

As intel was limited, Xu Da did not understand. It was not possible that the Great Xia Army was bored. They would not move such a large scale army, tire the troops out, and spend money for no reason.

For a border exercise?

Any general with intellect would not make such a judgment.

As a pure-minded general, since Xu Da could not understand the twist and turns behind all of this, he decided not to think about it and put his focus on the impending battle instead.

"Let's use this chance to train the troops."

The 500 thousand Great Ming troops had never been truly thrown into the battlefield. Although Xu Da was confident and trained them really strictly, they still needed to be tested on the battlefield in the end.

Early in the morning, various big and small battles exploded at various parts of the border.

To attack into Jiangnan Province, the Great Xia Army needed to first remove the sentries, border checkpoints, and watchtowers. Otherwise, there would be many problems for them.

As the target was small and scattered, it did not seem feasible to use a large scale army to do so. They could only send out a unit worth of troops at a time, spreading out as a net to charge into the wilderness.

During just the first morning, the Great Xia Army sent out 100 'cleaning' squads.

In return, the Ming army's strategy was to defend what could be defended. If they could not defend, they would retreat. They did not fight to the death, but they did not easily give up either. In the end, they were using the border resources of Great Zhou to do a military exercise.

The bustling day quickly came to an end.

...

King City south outskirts, Ming Dynasty command headquarters, command tent.

Due to King City being too sensitive, the Ming army did not enter the city and just relied on the city to build a huge camp outside and set up the command center of the entire army.

God General Xu Da personally took charge of it.

The oil lamp lit the tent bright. When Xu Da looked at the battle report, his expression was not as relaxed as when the war had just began. After a day of fighting, the results were far from what he had been expecting.

Logically speaking, the many sentries of the defensive net that Great Zhou had set up were placed in really secretive spots. If one was not familiar with the landscape, it would take half a day for Great Xia to even locate them.

The truth was far from that.

In just a day, the Great Xia Army took down 300 points, getting off to a great start. Considering the time, this was pretty much an impossible matter. It was similar to them not spending much effort and managing to find their targets.

The extent to which Great Xia understood the defensive line of Great Zhou far exceeded Xu Da's expectations.

"Rumors have it that Great Xia has three intel organizations, and their spies are in every hole. However, this is a little too exaggerated. With Wuqi's ability, there's no way that he did not defend against these spies."

Xu Da was confused; this was the first time he felt that there were elements that were out of his control and did not understand behind this big battle. The normally calm him felt a little uneasy.

"The Tiger Legion Corps are often housed at the Jiangnan Province border, so their scouts must often cross over. It is not a surprise that the Great Xia Army knows where the sentries at the border are." The deputy general did not think too deeply about it.

During the defense of the Great Xia's south border, Zhu Yuanzhang appointed Xu Da as the main general and Chang Yuchun as the deputy. There were also generals Deng Yu and Feng Sheng following around, a really stellar formation.

Tang He, who became famous along with Xu Da, led troops to defend Jianye City.

Out of all their generals, apart from God General Xu Da, Chang Yuchun was the most famous. He was listed as one of the top 10 generals in history along with Shi Wanshui, Xue Rengui, Ran Min, and the like.

Of the two, one was famous for his strategy, while the other was famous for being a fearless general. The two of them worked with one another, and they were invincible. In terms of traditional wars, this combination could be considered the pinnacle of Chinese history.

After Zhu Yuanzhang's ascension, he started out by wiping out the nine generations of chancellor Hu Weiyong for plotting against him. At that time, left prime minister Li Shanchang, general Lan Yu, Li Wen Zhong, and the like were all killed.

Amongst which, Lan Yu was the brother-in-law of Chang Yuchun, and Li Wenzhong was the nephew of Zhu Yuanzhang.

Out of the 34 meritorious officials at the beginning of Ming, a few of them died because of illnesses, and the others rarely had a good death. Even Zhu Yuanzhang's in law, Xu Da, was sentenced to death.

For Chang Yuchun to have a good death was not because Zhu Yuanzhang was merciful. Rather, it was because Great Ming had not totally unified China before he died from a flu. When he died, he was only 40.

If not, with his exceptional ability and strategic mind, whether he would be pardoned or not was difficult to say.

Out of the nine emperors who entered the wilderness, the one that was the most awkward was Zhu Yuanzhang. Even Kangxi emperor, who killed Oboi, was more at ease than him. After all, Oboi deserved it.

Luckily, Zhu Yuanzhang was well versed in the Thick Black Theory, allowing him to maintain the Great Ming system.

Xu Da nodded his head in silence. Although he felt that Chang Yuchun's words made sense, he still felt uneasy in his heart. However, even if he felt uneasy, the war still had to continue.

"Send my orders, starting from tomorrow, your defenses must be more resolute. You must not easily give up the sentries. When needed, the defense troops can move out of the city to fight and suppress the enemy."

"Yes, general!"

Xu Da was trying to give the Great Xia Army some pressure. Otherwise, if they continued on like this the entire defensive line would be destroyed before the King legion corps even returned to Jiangnan Province.

At that time, the Ming army could naturally withdraw, but they would leave behind King City as a total mess.

Xu Da could not do something like that.

"Maybe the true goal of the Great Xia Army is to destroy the Jiangnan defense line and create a chance in the battle against King City?" A light flashed in Xu Da's mind, roughly finding a conjecture.

However, as he looked out at the generals in the tent, Xu Da did not voice his conjecture.

Following which, a tough battle awaited them.