Chapter 1494: Chain Reaction

Chapter 1479: Chain Reaction

Xin Yi nodded, "I'll definitely seize the opportunity if it arises."

A strong wind swept through, howling and bending the vast reeds along the riverbank.

"The wind is picking up," He Lingchuan said, spreading his fingers as if combing the autumn breeze. "The wind direction has changed recently; it's been blowing from the opposite bank at night."

"Have you been observing this?"

He Lingchuan nodded, "We initially had all the advantages – the right timing, favorable terrain, and unity. Now, the timing is about to shift."

Once the timing changed, battle was inevitable.

He Lingchuan's intelligence proved accurate; the Beijia army indeed arrived at the front two days later. However, hidden problems within the Jintao Kingdom began to surface at the same time.

With twenty thousand Xiluo troops stationed at the front, supplies were almost entirely dependent on the Jintao Kingdom, which was already struggling financially. Fortunately, the autumn harvest had brought in grain, replenishing their reserves.

It was at this critical moment that Xin Yi burned the transit depot, and other teams dispatched by He Lingchuan also set fire to several major granaries within the Jintao Kingdom, incinerating approximately fifty thousand shi of grain.

To put it in perspective, He Chunhua once went to great lengths to gather twenty thousand shi of grain for the northern front of the Yuan Kingdom, enough to feed Zhao Pan's fifty thousand strong army for a month. He Lingchuan's recent fires directly destroyed several months' worth of rations for the enemy's frontline troops.

The Jintao Kingdom had not anticipated that, in addition to burning the frontline transit depot, he would also torch its major domestic granaries. Now, not only was supplying the Xiluo army difficult, but the Jintao Kingdom struggled to feed its own citizens.

Precisely at this time, the Beijia army arrived.

Having rushed their journey, they brought few provisions and immediately needed food and drink from the Jintao Kingdom upon arrival.

With twenty-three thousand Xiluo troops and fifteen thousand Beijia troops, their combined strength neared forty thousand. The Jintao Kingdom suddenly faced immense pressure.

The transit depot was gone, but the army could not go hungry for even a day. The Jintao Kingdom was forced to scrounge for more grain domestically to supply the front.

This immediately caused unrest among the common people.

Much of what the Jintao Kingdom officials seized was the people's emergency food supply or seeds. Taking even these meant a matter of life and death.

The civilians could not comprehend why the officials, with such ruthlessness, were snatching grain from their hands only to supply foreign armies and support their aggression against the Panlong territory!

This war had nothing to do with the Jintao Kingdom, so why were its people suffering?

The grain requisition became a widespread uproar, leading to conflicts between officials and civilians everywhere, and sparking civilian uprisings.

As the Jintao Kingdom found itself in a desperate situation, the Xiluo and Beijia armies at the front continued to demand supplies relentlessly.

However, both armies clearly understood that the Jintao Kingdom genuinely could no longer sustain them; eventually, they would have to find their own food and drink.

Where would they get it?

Naturally, both sides turned their attention to the Maohe Plain.

This autumn, the Maohe Plain once again yielded a bountiful harvest. Although Yuheng City had led farmers in a rush to gather crops, the land was vast and the grain abundant, making it impossible to harvest everything quickly.

If the Beijia and Xiluo forces wanted to eat their fill, they would have to raid the Maohe Plain!

However, He Lingchuan had anticipated this step long before setting the granaries ablaze. The Maohe Plain was now on high alert, heavily fortified and strictly guarded.

The two armies, confined to the Jintao Kingdom's border, had two options to enter the Maohe Plain: either break through Yuheng City's defenses, beyond which lay vast fertile lands ripe for plunder, or enter via Longchuan.

Yuheng City, under Wen Daolun's management for several years, was financially robust and willing to invest heavily in defense. It had already built a fortified camp, also serving as an auxiliary city, at each of the two original gaps in the border defenses, specifically for stationing troops. These three cities were arranged in a triangular formation, acting as mutual strongholds, watching over each other, and complemented by other fortifications. This strategic setup caused significant losses for the previously overconfident Xiluo army upon their arrival.

Charging Yuheng City head-on would be like trying to catch a spiked club with bare hands; even the Beijia army found the prospect daunting. Thus, they prioritized the second option: entering via Longchuan.

Unlike the previous guerrilla raids by the Xiluo army, the Beijia army now had to tear open a breach in the Maohe Plain's defenses and secure a foothold before they could plunder grain, kill, and advance within the plain.

Although Longchuan had been developed into a land of fish and rice, its terrain was extremely complex, also known as the 'Thousand Island Swampland.' Beijia General Fushanlie had been stationed in Longchuan for over a year, and upon his return, he had meticulously drawn maps and provided detailed annotations for the military, which served as crucial intelligence for this offensive on the Maohe Plain.

However, as the Beijia army attempted to enter Longchuan from the upstream river channels, they discovered that the terrain had drastically changed. Some islands had merged, large islands had been cut into smaller pieces, and the waterways and tides were completely different from before. Overall, the waterways had narrowed, only allowing four or five small boats to pass side-by-side, and the water depths at various points were a mystery, making it impossible for large ships to enter.

Without large ships, they couldn't transport large forces.

While there were indeed wide lake areas in the depths of Longchuan, these were riddled with water barriers set up by Yuheng City, and the underwater environment of Longchuan was inherently unsafe—

It was teeming with water demons.

After Fushanlie was driven out, all the aquatic demons in Longchuan were conscripted by Yuheng City. Those who refused to surrender either died or fled; none were allowed to remain. From the perspective of these demons, Beijia's reputation, no matter how grand, couldn't compare to Yuheng City, their immediate overseer.

These creatures were ubiquitous. While they didn't engage the army in direct combat, they could easily sabotage boats, ambush sentries, and relay information to Longchuan's military and civilians.

Although Beijia claimed to be a 'demon nation,' the journey from their homeland was too long for their aquatic and amphibious demons to cross.

The Beijia army made several attempts here, only to find it genuinely difficult to establish a foothold.

Longchuan was filled with outposts; some were remnants from former water bandits, others were added later by Yuheng City, dotting the waterways like nails. The Beijia army painstakingly managed to clear a few, getting their hands bloody in the process, only for the enemy to retake them within two days.

The Beijia army, despite their full might, could barely utilize one or two tenths of their power in this narrow, cramped, damp, and gloomy environment.

The Beijia army now experienced the same profound difficulties that Yuheng City had faced when attacking Fushanlie and the Longchuan water bandits years ago.

The Beijia army's commander, Baimoji, had been locked in a tactical struggle with Yuheng City in Longchuan for six or seven days and felt his patience wearing thin. He had brought his troops to cooperate with Beijia's 'concern' for Panlong City's northwest front. As long as the northwest front remained inactive, Beijia and Panlong City hadn't officially broken ties, meaning he couldn't launch a full-scale offensive here.

Therefore, all he could do for now were small-scale 'skirmishes,' which offered no advantage against Yuheng City. After all, the Beijia army was unfamiliar with the territory, and trying to suppress the local forces immediately after arriving would simply be creating unnecessary difficulty for themselves.

Baimoji also knew this fighting style was counterproductive, eroding Beijia's prestige.

Originally, the Beijia army swept through areas like an autumn wind scattering leaves or a sharp knife cutting through tangled hemp, thus commanding respect from outsiders. Yuheng City's military and civilians must have initially feared Beijia, but if they allowed them to win a few battles, their awe would plummet.

Psychological warfare had always been a major factor in the outcome of battles.

But Baimoji also had his own struggles. With nearly forty thousand combined Xiluo and Beijia troops, the Jintao Kingdom genuinely could not afford their daily needs. Baimoji knew he couldn't extract much more from the Jintao Kingdom, even if he metaphorically boiled its ruler.

Reducing food supplies in the army would severely damage morale. Beijia's troops were accustomed to moving unhindered wherever they went; how could they be unable to even eat at the Jintao front?

So Baimoji turned around and cut the Xiluo army's food rations. The Xiluo had more troops; if they ate a little less, wouldn't his own troops be able to eat a little more?

This immediately caused an uproar in the Xiluo army camp.

Originally, they had been unwilling to attack the Panlong City territory, having been forcibly conscripted by their monarch, thus lacking intrinsic motivation. After arriving, they were first badly beaten by the Yuheng army, then intimidated by Beijia's supervisors, casually ordered around by the neighboring Beijia army, and now they wouldn't even get food?

They wouldn't do it; they truly couldn't endure it anymore.

No sooner had the rumors of ration cuts spread, even before the order was issued, two battalions of Xiluo troops deserted.

They knew they couldn't defeat the Beijia army and had no intention of rebelling; they simply wanted to escape. The blades of the supervisory squad were blunted, yet they couldn't stop the soldiers' determination to flee. Several supervisory squad members were even dragged down and killed in retaliation.

Fortunately, the Jintao Kingdom and Yuheng City were separated by a river, which was now in its high-water season, making crossings difficult due to the surging currents. Otherwise, if the Yuheng army had seized the opportunity to charge across amidst the chaos, the Beijia army would surely have faced a major headache.

The newly appointed supervisor, Lu Wushuang, expended considerable effort to quell this disturbance, and then immediately sought out Baimoji to discuss solutions.

"General Bai, there are really only two solutions right now," she stated matter-of-factly. "Either request food and fodder provisions from Lingxu..."

Before she could finish, Baimoji frowned. "Requesting grain from home? Will you be asking for some for your Xiluo army too?"

"If we can obtain it, that would be ideal," Lu Wushuang smiled. "It would be best if one request covered everything."

Baimoji retorted impatiently, "You need to understand, the food shortage at the Jintao front is not my problem! My army hadn't even arrived yet when the provisions here were burned. Supervisor Lu, you're derelict in your duty!"

His army hadn't faced such harsh conditions in a long time, being unable to eat even before the war began.

Even during the War of Yuan, twenty years ago, which had struck fear across the nation, Beijia's army never went a single day hungry.

He wondered what connections Qinggong had in Lingxu City to send a female disciple with no military command experience here!

What was even unluckier was that he himself had to cooperate with Lu Wushuang.

Lu Wushuang knew that while the Beijia army had experience in long-distance campaigns, these were typically small-scale battles, and they hadn't encountered such a tough challenge in a long time.

She hadn't even engaged Yuheng City on the opposite bank directly, yet she knew their leader was formidable. Before her arrival, he had pushed the Xiluo army to the brink of collapse, and just as she reached the Jintao front and was still familiarizing herself with the work, he had set fire to several of the Jintao Kingdom's major granaries.

The fire at the transit depot had indeed caught her by surprise.

Upon her arrival, she immediately recognized the grain shortage issue and specifically reinforced control over the rear granaries. While she had no authority over other granaries within the Jintao Kingdom, the transit depot was ostensibly managed by the Xiluo army, but in reality, it was guarded by Qinggong disciples she had dispatched, whose cultivation and spiritual perception far surpassed ordinary soldiers, and it was further protected by hidden magical formations.

Despite these measures, five out of the seven large granaries were destroyed by fire, leaving only one intact.