"How is that possible? Even if we placed twenty thousand pigs there, it would take days to capture them!"
Hannibal, already agitated by Liang Xiao's multi-pronged tactics and cavalry harassment, flew into a rage upon hearing the news. He lashed out with a whip, the barbed end striking the messenger directly across the face, bursting his left eye.
The Tianri messenger, clutching his eye and wailing, cried, "It's true, ask the scouts!!"
Hannibal collected himself, his hand holding the whip trembling violently. "It must be Liang Xiao who dispatched cavalry on forced marches, taking a longer route to raid our provisions!"
He realized, for the first time in his life, he was truly flustered.
A portion of the Jiazhou allied forces' supplies was in the mountains, but it was only enough for seven days.
South of the Jiazhou encampment were a series of temporarily established supply and mobile stations, capable of continuously transporting grain there, alleviating the worry of it being burnt to ashes in the mountains due to fire.
But now, the Jiazhou encampment had been conquered?
Xiao Che was even more at a loss. "No matter what, we must reclaim the provisions! That is what our Jiazhou kingdom and your Peacock Dynasty have painstakingly accumulated over the years!!"
The grain in the Jiazhou encampment was enough to sustain over 350,000 troops for a year; its quantity was unimaginable.
To transport the grain, the Tianri people had enslaved millions of South Asian slaves, escorting them all the way.
The exhausted and dead slaves were brutally exploited by the Tianri overseers, who would extract marrow from their bones and then lure or coerce other innocent slaves into cannibalism to sustain them, before finally delivering the supplies to Jiazhou.
Otherwise, transporting a year's worth of grain for 350,000 people from the Peacock Dynasty to the front lines might have required tens of millions of slaves, enough to destroy the foundation of the Peacock Dynasty.
This was the Tianri people's "cannibal strategy," where they ate people and forced their slaves to eat people as well.
But now, the loss of the Jiazhou encampment was absolutely unacceptable.
"The Jiazhou encampment has fallen?!"
Xiao Chang rushed over from a distance, panicked and uneasy.
"No matter what, we must recapture the provisions before the enemy burns them to ashes!"
Hannibal's trembling hand waved the command flag.
"Notify the southern cavalry. At all costs, advance south and recapture the Jiazhou encampment!!"
Zhuo Ying, who was commanding the infantry, returned to Liang Xiao's side to report. "Marshal, the enemy casualties should have exceeded fifteen thousand. In just this short moment, our front lines have inflicted over ten thousand kills!"
Liang Xiao nodded with satisfaction. "Continue the advance!"
As the Great Gan army's shield wall advanced, all ranged weapons were pushed forward in tandem, forcing the enemy to passively enter their firing range.
The Tianri soldiers, who had previously adapted to the range of the Great Gan army's weapons, now faced the sudden advance. The whistling solid iron balls, the reoccupation cannonballs, and the trebuchet arrows, which were as thick as spears, began to fall in swathes.
"Even iron armor can't withstand these things! The Marshal lied to us!!"
Countless Tianri soldiers let out desperate cries before their deaths.
The soldiers of Great Gan, if not fighting with increasing fervor, at least maintained full alertness, solely focused on annihilating the enemy.
The Tianri forces, however, showed clear signs of exhaustion and could not hold on any longer.
They had to dodge both the nodachi swords and crossbows, as well as the heavy siege weapons, and their survival was a matter of sheer luck. The mental toll was unimaginable.
"Marshal! Our losses are heavy, and we are on the verge of collapse!" another messenger rushed in with an urgent report.
"Make them hold on! Under no circumstances can we allow the Great Gan army to march south around the mountains en masse! At all costs, recapture the provisions!"
Hannibal's orders were forced to be revised repeatedly. Over a dozen swift horses carried Hannibal's dispatches southward.
On the southern battlefield, the Tianri cavalry had suffered heavy blows from the Great Gan cavalry. However, as it was late, most people could not discern the situation clearly. Coupled with Hannibal's order to repel the enemy at all costs, they could only pray for a lucky victory and thus had to charge into battle with bated breath.
"The Marshal has ordered! The cavalry must immediately repel the enemy, split into two forces, with half to hold off the enemy and the other half to reinforce the Jiazhou encampment!"
Swift horses carrying Hannibal's concise dispatches arrived at the cavalry battlefield.
"This..."
The Tianri cavalry generals exchanged glances.
Even with their vast experience, they were unsure how to proceed now!
In their current situation, their strength was clearly inferior to that of the Great Gan cavalry.
Dealing with the current enemy was already so difficult; how could they split their forces?
"If the grain is burned to ashes, and the enemy then blocks our return route south, the consequences will be dire!" a Tianri cavalry general sighed.
Helpless, they could only increase the intensity of their cavalry sortie.
If they could not quickly repel the Great Gan cavalry, they planned to split their forces into two groups: one to contain the enemy here, and the other to rush south for reinforcement.
As for the northern mountain range, they could defend it from a strategic position for now!
"The situation at the front is dire! Our cavalry has lost at least fifteen thousand men!!"
Several more swift horses arrived with news, startling all the cavalry generals and nearly causing them to fall from their mounts.
A loss of fifteen thousand men was enough to trigger the rout of an entire army!
The reason it hadn't caused a full rout was likely because it was late at night, and not many people had realized the extent of the army's losses, especially since the battle line stretched over three li and was not densely packed...
The combat effectiveness of the Tianri cavalry was clearly inferior to that of the Great Gan cavalry. Now, with their forces split in two, the remaining contingent faced a devastating blow.
Previously, the Tianri cavalry could at least deter the Great Gan army, preventing them from being overly aggressive.
With the support of half their forces gone, an astonishing chain reaction occurred.
"Could it be that the enemy is raiding our grain?"
The longbowmen in the rear finally voiced the question on their minds.
"Don't ask!" The Tianri cavalry generals backhanded the speaker.
Before the cavalryman could protest, a rumbling sound echoed from afar.
"The heavy cavalry of Great Gan, charging with their army again??" The Tianri cavalry generals exchanged bewildered glances.
Before the front lines could report, the Great Gan cavalry had already broken through like a hot knife through butter, rapidly breaching the defense of the Tianri elite cavalry and advancing towards the center.
The Tianri, having lost half their forces, finally reaped even greater consequences.
"Does the Marshal even know we've suffered a defeat at the front?!" The Tianri cavalrymen were dejected.
The Tianri elite cavalry on the front lines continued to fall, never to rise again.
To the east of this battlefield, scouts dispatched by the Great Gan cavalry also arrived with their reports.
"The enemy is leading their troops south, possibly in two divisions!"
Nan Jiyun, both surprised and delighted, immediately assembled a Zhongzhou cavalry force of five thousand men and headed south to reinforce the White Robe soldiers and the Jiangnan Iron Cavalry, while the remaining forces advanced furiously.
The defeat was like a mountain collapsing!
After several rounds of crushing defeats, the Tianri soldiers, increasingly confused about their objective, finally saw their morale shatter!
On the battlefield east of the mountain range, Liang Xiao commanded the Great Gan army to bombard the city fort and the enemy troops with Shenwu cannons and reoccupation cannons.
"Marshal, the night is clearly disadvantageous to our army. Shall we retreat to our main camp first?" Finally, a Tianri general ran over to plead.
Hannibal roared, "Can we run now?! Do you want the Great Gan army to march south completely and cut off our supply lines? Where are the Jiazhou soldiers! Where are they! Tell them to attack the Great Gan army!"