As Wang Yuan was speaking, Li Xuan’s Tao-protecting Eyes had already noticed the movent of the vast corpse army on the opposite side.
About thirty-seven miles away, the 270,000 mbers of the ’Pishi Zombie Army’ were storming forward.
In addition, an even larger number of Evil Spirit Corpses and various Ox Demons and Snake Gods were being driven forward by them, reaching a total number of approximately 700,000.
The Karma of Yin contained in these strange beings even influenced the surrounding temperature, causing a thin layer of ice to form beneath their feet.
Wherever they passed, everything around beca bitterly cold and shadowy, the vegetation withered, and the breath of life was weak.
After scanning the area for a mont with his ’Tao-protecting Eyes’, Li Xuan calmly ordered: "There’s no need for a military discussion, everyone return to your own posts, and follow the battle plan previously set forth by ."
Hearing his words, the commanders of the Shenji right and left camp, led by Wang Yuan, did not hesitate to take their orders and leave.
The nurous army generals who had accompanied Li Xuan on this campaign showed signs of unease and hesitation, but under Li Xuan’s imposing gaze, they all plucked up their spirits and strode back to their respective posts.
These individuals were all officers personally selected and promoted by Li Xuan. They possessed the fundantal abilities required of an officer, and their personal character was also acceptable. Even if they held doubts about Li Xuan’s tactics, they would try their best to implent them, and no one would act against his orders surreptitiously.
Seeing this, Shang Hong couldn’t help but feel helpless: "Is the Marquis of Guanjun still determined to go all out and insist on his own views?"
Li Xuan let out a bitter laugh: "At this point, even if we wanted to retreat, we couldn’t. The arrow has to be shot once it’s on the bowstring, so what’s the point in convincing otherwise, Xueshi Shang? Instead of arguing with , you’d do better to focus on helping defeat the enemy."
Then he pointed his riding whip forward: "Don’t worry, Xueshi, I originally had only an eighty to ninety percent chance of winning, but now I have a hundred and twenty percent. I don’t know why they delayed for several days before sending their troops here, but this will surely lead them to their demise!"
The delay of the forr Empress of Liao and her Pishi Zombie Army until the twenty-sixth day was of great benefit to the Jin Army under his command.
Li Xuan took advantage of this ti to construct solid fortifications on the battlefield.
The fortress they were located in was one of these. It was situated between two hills, at the mouth of the mountains. With a width of 3.5 miles, it was defended by 8,000 soldiers from Yiwu.
In the past few days, Li Xuan had used Xue Yunrou’s ’Nine Heavens Ten Lands Pimo Divine Shuttle’ to transport twenty ’Might General Shenwei Wudi Cannons’, each weighing tens of thousands of pounds, from Jizhou City, along with 120 Hudun cannons, and placed them on the fortress walls.
The artillery units were directly pulled in from the Jizhou Town Weisuo Institute Army, all of them were veterans nurtured by The Court for many years.
It’s worth ntioning that twenty-two miles behind this fortress, in a valley, was where the Dragon Vein of Chengde had exploded.
Then there were the hills on the left and right, defended by more than 30,000 soldiers from the Shenji right and left camp, who were positioned at a height of thirty-five zhang (1 zhang=3.33m).
They ford one square formation per 300 soldiers, a total of ninety square formations, and 160 field artillery positions.
These formations were lined up front and back, each one separated by twenty zhang, stretching forward like wings on both sides of the fortress and forming a Heyi formation. This provided an extensive battle line nearly six miles wide and created a vast crossfire coverage over the large flat ground in front of the mountain pass.
Besides, these ’square formations’ were all surrounded by deep trenches, breastworks, and chevaux-de-frise.
Since the enemy had delayed their arrival for several days, Li Xuan would certainly not compete as if it were an open field. He would make use of all defense works and tactics that he could.
These ’corpse armies’ were still distinctly different from the living. They also possessed the emotion of ’fear’, but it was relatively weaker compared to the living.
The principle of the square formation was to utilize the fear of the knights and war horses, force the enemy to move along the channels on both sides of the square formation using bullets and bayonets, then use crossfire to annihilate these cavalry inside a at grinder.
However, the practical effect of this tactic upon the ’Pishi Zombie Army’ was difficult to judge accurately before the battle.
Therefore, Li Xuan did not stick rigidly to convention or impose it relentlessly.
Originally, he had spent a lot of money to get Leng Yurou to make large amounts of barbed wire for use in blocking the enemy from the front.
But now these barbed wire defences were unnecessary, as rows of chevaux-de-frise and breastworks could serve the sa purpose as the barbed wire.
On the two sides of the ’square formations’ were two large fortresses manned by 50,000 elite soldiers from the Weisuo Institute.
Their position was at a height of sixty zhang, and the setup similarly comprised deep trenches and strict defensive systems.
Inside the fortress walls were not only 16,000 elite archers, but also a large number of smoothbore shotguns, as well as hundreds of heavy cannons and Hudun cannons.
Their mission was to prevent the ’Pishi Zombie Army’ from flanking them, while also providing firepower support for the Heyi formation of ’square formations’ on both sides.
On top of the hills on both sides, there was also an elite cavalry division in each, totaling 9,000 n, serving as Li Xuan’s mobile troops.
"A hundred and twenty percent sure?"
Shang Hong wanted to laugh, but couldn’t. He didn’t know where Li Xuan’s confidence ca from, but at this point, Shang Hong knew he couldn’t stop it.
He then took out two talisman papers: "Here are two military orders I drafted, I need the Marquis of Guanjun to sign them and stamp them."
After taking a brief look at the two talisman papers in his hand, Li Xuan smirked: "It seems that Xueshi Shang has no confidence in this battle at all?"
One of these talisman papers was a request for reinforcents from ’General Zhenliao’ Liang Heng, commanding him to lead 50,000 cavalries to be stationed at Kaiping Guard, which was south of Xifeng Pass, in the Tangshan area.
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