Volume 3: The Land of Jingchu Chapter 322: Conquering Rong Ling
Before Huang Zhong was promoted to the Gold and Jade armor, he went into the mountains and killed a blood-red giant python. After killing the python, his body was stained with the python's blood and he was promoted to the Gold and Jade armor.
This makes Huang Zhong's gold and jade armor, while being mainly gold, also have some inconspicuous red lines.
This indirectly led to the appearance of the "instruction manual" of Huang Zhong's gold and jade armor, which was also the main practice method of Huang Zhong after he joined the army.
Huang Zhong did not tell anyone else the origin of this. After Emperor Gaozu of the Western Han Dynasty started the uprising by killing the white snake, and it would be bad if people mistakenly thought that he had some ulterior motive.
But sometimes, Huang Zhong also wondered whether Liu Bang’s white snake also played a similar role?
The Blood Cloud Sword awakened another fighting skill for Huang Zhong - Blood Cloud Strength.
The effect is to make the creatures within the range of the blood cloud have chaotic thoughts and regard themselves as the first target of attack. At the same time, within the range covered by the blood cloud, Huang Zhong's red laser-like blade light can increase the attack range.
However, compared to "The Art of Shooting the Sun", Huang Zhong's mastery of "Blood Cloud Sword" is much more superficial. He is unable to derive a special combat skill like "Fiery Bow" from "The Art of Shooting the Sun" to bless his own soldiers and greatly enhance the advantage in the battle.
Moreover, the effect of "Blood Cloud Shows Power" does not distinguish between friend and foe, which means it can only be used as a single man's courage. As the commander, Huang Zhong actually tried his best to avoid using this trick. It was only at this moment, when he saw a ladder was being used to expand the results of the battle, that he stepped forward to take charge.
…
The attacking and defending sides had been fighting for nearly four hours since the ladders were attached to the wall. Six ladders had fallen down, and the four spare ladders had already been attached to the wall, but they were also shaky at this time.
The main reason was that after Wei Yan was frightened away by Shamoke and wandered around on the battlefield, he recommended Huang Zhong to organize a death squad to directly rush into the ladders and set fire, which greatly increased the efficiency of destroying the ladders.
After all, it was only a short period of preparation, and the siege equipment was "rolled up". It was already good enough to have a certain ability to set fire and defend against arrows outside...
It is easy to destroy it from the inside. If you fail to defend the "entrance", you will be killed and suffer heavy damage from the defenders.
Wei Yan is a young man after all, and his reactions are quick. Otherwise, he might not be able to immediately make the judgment of the change of attack and defense, causing the originally defending party to change their thinking and start attacking!
"The weakness was discovered earlier than I expected..." Chen Gong muttered in disappointment, but still ordered a withdrawal.
In a siege, it is rare to be able to win in one go, and Chen Gong had not originally expected to be able to capture the city in one go.
The battle had been going on for half a day and the morale of both sides had become low. If it continued, it would actually be more beneficial for the defenders to restore their morale.
According to post-war statistics, the casualty ratio of both armies was almost one to one...
The Langqiao Cart and Lu Gong Cart narrowed the gap between the defenders and the attackers, while the equipment of the soldiers in the General's Mansion also wiped out the last advantage of the defenders.
After the great battle, both sides suffered more than 5,000 casualties - the "injuries" here include all those who are temporarily unable to go to the battlefield, including some minor injuries, not the final losses.
Moreover... the wounded soldiers in the General's Mansion have a military medical system, so it can be predicted that their recovery will be much better than that of the Rongling defenders.
According to the estimation of the military advisor, there are about two thousand wounded soldiers who can eventually recover, and the remaining hundreds can only be relieved of their pain.
Although most of the wounded who were able to be withdrawn were not seriously injured, otherwise they would not have had the opportunity to withdraw from the battlefield, but... this ratio is still very remarkable.
The Rongling defenders were also able to retreat with more than 2,000 wounded soldiers. After all, it was much easier for the defenders to retreat with their wounded than those for the attackers.
It was just because the recovery rate after casualties in the army at that time, whether it was the generals or the Ji-zao soldiers, was too low. Except for the army of the General's Mansion, the military medical system was almost non-existent - the basic military doctors with some ability were only enough to serve the middle and high-level generals. For the Ji-zao soldiers and the lower-level generals, the so-called wounded camp was just a "placebo".
Therefore, unlike the General's Mansion, the training program does not include "simple self-assessment of injuries" and "orderly evacuation and cover of wounded soldiers"...
Therefore, as the defenders, the number of wounded soldiers who retreated was similar to that of the attackers.
Moreover, most of the two thousand people in Rongling can only rely on fate and willpower. Without timely treatment, their injuries will gradually worsen. The number of people who can eventually recover will not exceed half of the people in the General's Mansion!
The estimate of the Chief Medical Advisor was even beyond Chen Gong's expectations, but Chen Gong still trusted the "Central Medical Advisor" who graduated from the medical school, that is, the chief medical officer of an army.
So he put aside his previous disapproval and set up a special field medical area for two hundred military doctors. Among these two hundred people, fifty were students from medical school. In fact, when it came to treating patients, they were not even as good as barefoot doctors. They just had quickly acquired the knowledge of trauma treatment.
After returning, not only will all tuition fees be waived, but you will also be able to leave a significant mark on your resume.
In addition, there are 150 special soldiers who are synthesized by extracting the manpower of people with corresponding skills.
It can not only provide recovery for injured Jizao soldiers, but also serve as an assistant for healing generals.
Some auxiliary personnel were dispatched from the ordinary army. Although it cannot be considered "complete", it can barely cope with this intensity of auxiliary treatment.
The defenders of Rongling only had about 10,000 people in total. If the two armies were fighting in the field today, with almost half of the casualties, the other side would have already collapsed!
Even when serving as a defending army, morale is easy to regroup and there is no way to collapse, but after Chen Gong retreats at the right time, when the enemy's "results" of the day gradually spread to the army, even if Huang Zhong can still organize a defense, before the next siege, the enemy's morale will drop sharply and become more unstable.
Therefore, generally speaking, when attacking a city, if you have the upper hand, there is no need to strive to achieve success in one battle. You can withdraw first to give the enemy time to react to their declining morale. Correspondingly...if the battle is not going well, you should try to make a concerted effort.
After the troops from the General's Mansion withdrew, the medical battalion treated the wounded in an orderly manner, while the engineering battalion continued to "pull" the ladders.
The Rongling defenders tried every possible means to boost morale and prevent the spread of unfavorable rumors, but the effect was limited - after all, Jingzhou was still within the scope of the original "Let Everyone Know" policy, and even if there was a rumor that the general's mansion would burn, kill and loot after entering the city, only 30% of people believed it.
And it was because of the Wuxi barbarians that they believed it!
Three days later, Wei Yan led his men to attack the soldiers who were cutting wood in the mountains, but the Xianzhen Camp had been lying in ambush nearby...
Wei Yan and Gao Shun fought to a draw, but Gao Shun was not a fierce general who was good at single combat, so he took a few steps back. Then a dozen soldiers from the Xianzhen Camp formed a formation and surrounded Wei Yan. In the end, Wei Yan retreated in embarrassment with heavy casualties.
In the evening, Rong Ling ordered the surrender of the city. The defenders in the city had already retreated when Wei Yan attacked the logging camp, leaving only some who were pretending to surrender...
