Chapter 922 - Blowing Up The Mountains (1/2)

A journey of about a 1,000 kilometers would require the steppe nomads to travel for more than ten days, or even more than 20 days. Only then could they ensure that they had enough energy to fight when they arrived at the Central Plains.

When Yan Liuyuan headed south to the Central Plains this time, all of the tribes' elderly, women, and children remained behind on the steppe. Most of their livestock was also left there.

Of the women, only Xiaoyu went along with them. They did not even bring Tsetseg along.

Hassan suggested that his master bring Tsetseg along so there would be someone to take care of his daily needs on the journey. However, Yan Liuyuan rejected him. He knew many people would die in this war.

This time, Yan Liuyuan carefully counted the number of men the imperial court could send out to battle. There were only about 10,000 of them in total.

There were a lot more men initially. However, due to the internal strife on the grasslands over the years, and the deaths of a group of people led by Bulan Zir and Kirghiz Yan when they attacked Stronghold 176, the number of people he could send out seemed much fewer.

But that was not important. Their main fighting force this time was not the nomads but the wolves.

The Wolf King had already scouted ahead with the wolf pack as the advance guard. It was they who Yan Liuyuan truly relied upon.

As for the prewar mobilization, Yan Liuyuan also chose the most suitable way to rally the nomads. After the war was over, he would choose ten of the bravest warriors and bestow blood wine upon them.

This was the greatest encouragement for his believers. On one hand, they could obtain the power bestowed by the gods, and on the other hand, they could obtain the recognition of higher powers.

There was no proclamation of promises to protect whoever. Yan Liuyuan's method to control these nomads had always been simple and crude.

If it were too complicated, they might not understand it either.

Actually, the nomads had indirectly contributed to the war in the Central Plains. The nomads had launched the initial attack on Stronghold 176. After they took down the stronghold, they raided a portion of their food supplies and most of their small arms, such as pistols, automatic rifles, grenades, heavy machine guns, and so on.

Later, when the Wang Consortium took over operation of Stronghold 176, they did not seem to have any intention of defending it for the long term. They did not even replenish Stronghold 176's ammunition depot.

Then, when the expeditionary army attacked the stronghold, the Wang Consortium's troops received the order to retreat once the city was breached. When they left, they definitely had to take their firearms with them.

Therefore, the weapons the barbarians had obtained by the time they invaded the stronghold were not much at all. At most, they only managed to get their hands on some of the guns lying next to the corpses of the Wang Consortium troops. But even so, those weapons were almost out of ammo.

There was also some artillery left behind. But when the Wang Consortium's troops pulled out, they used explosives to blow up the cannon barrels. Actually, even if they did not blow up the barrels, the barbarians would not be able to find any artillery shells to use.

It was a very awkward situation. Therefore, the expeditionary army did not have as much firepower as the Pyro Company thought.

That was why P5092 had some doubts when he fought the barbarians. From the strategy that the barbarians used to lure the Pyro Company into advancing, the expeditionary army was prepared right from the start to use their elderly in place of their able-bodied troops on the battlefield to bait them in.

But since the expeditionary army had obtained firearms from Stronghold 176, why did they plan from early on to give up that forest as a ruse to lure them in? Wouldn't it have been better to just defend the forest?

P5092 vaguely felt that something was off, but he could not figure out what it was at that time.

But in fact, it was because the barbarians did not get their hands on that many firearms. The expeditionary army also knew full well that the firearms they had were not enough to give the Pyro Company a tough time. In the end, they would still have to rely on their own tactics.

Right from the beginning, the expeditionary army had never thought of using those firearms to achieve anything great.

It was not that they looked down on the use of firearms but that they despised the quantity of firearms they had.