Chapter 273 Quality of Officers (1/2)
Chapter 273 – Quality of Officers
At the burnt supply depot, Yuan Shao inspected the place with trembling legs.
He remembered that they had stored 30,000 tons of provision here, which could support his army for at least half a year.
Also, the food price skyrocketed in the past few months as the drought became apparent to the locals. If Yuan Shao wanted to buy food from the local merchants, he would have to fork a large amount of gold for it.
It was impossible for them to regain back the provision unless they plunder the merchants and the civilians, which was not a wise decision for Yuan Shao who aimed to ascend the throne.
Tian Feng and others caught with their lord an hour later. Despite the losses, Tian Feng did not appear nervous.
”My Lord, this loss is nothing. We've only lost a tiny bit of our food storage, but our main supply base is still intact.”
Tian Feng was speaking about their main provision base, which located in Guangchuan County, east of Anping County. At Guangchuan, Tian Feng had backed up with 200,000 tons of provision, just in case they had to attack other cities other than Julu.
Yuan Shao's face regained the color of blood.
”Right! I forgot! We prepared our spare foods. Losing this small base doesn't hurt us at all. HAHAHAHA!”
…
March 7th.
Because of the inconvenience and army morale issues, Yuan Shao ordered all troops to withdraw back to Guangchuan County to recuperate.
Tian Feng reorganized the army and read all the battle reports from yesterday, which he learned about the terror of the Yellow Turban Army.
Although the battle lasted only five hours, the casualties they suffered gave Tian Feng a chill running down his spine.
The fight took away 45,000 of their elites, leaving their army with 115,000 soldiers remaining.
Wen Chou and Yan Liang claimed that they could almost kill Lu Bu, but their injuries proved otherwise.
Qu Yi was captured. Chunyu Qiong and Sui Yuanjin were killed. Seven of their twelve elite 5000-man commanders were killed as well.
Yet, they failed to kill even one general of the Yellow Turban. There were reports that they had slain a few 1,000-man commanders, but those were insignificant compared to the discovery of Tong's talented generals in action.
Zhou Cang was a fierce fighter that took down two battalions by himself. He was like a mini-Lu Bu that dove into Tian Feng Army to mess with his rhythms.
Xu Huang was another dark-horse under Tong that gave Tian Feng a lot of troubles. His combat abilities alone took out six 5,000-man commanders, and Xu Huang could command both cavalries and infantries with proficient without the assistance of others. It was also him that knocked Qu Yi off his horse and captured him.
Lu Zhi was like an unmovable mountain that did not waver under pressure. All of his battalions countered all moves that Tian Feng sent to destroy Zhou Cang and Gao Shun. The combination of Jia Xu's command and Lu Zhi's execution caused Shen Pei and Guo Tu, who were commanding the assisting platoons, to vomit blood from anger.
Gao Shun also displayed how he was entitled with the nickname [Formation Crusher] as he destroyed all defensive formations of Gao Lan. Had it not because of their stolen repeating crossbows, Gao Shun would have destroyed their flank army.
Tian Feng bit his lower lips as he thought back of the events two years ago. If Feng Ji had not provoked Tong and his father, they would have been a powerful ally that could support the Yuan Family to the throne.
'I wonder if we can repair our relationship after this battle. Instead of making an enemy out of them, can we turn them into our ally? Since we haven't caused any major damage to Zhang Tong and his subordinates, I should prepare an exit plan to gain their favor.'
…
Meanwhile, Jia Xu also got his casualty reports. To his surprise, their loss was lower than his expectation.
10,000 Infantries and 5,000 heavy cavalries left their lives in the battle, compared to Jia Xu's estimation of 50,000 loss. However, over 30,000 soldiers were injured and required treatments.
After a thorough investigation, Jia Xu discovered the cause of their high survival rate. Among Jinyang horsemen, some of them wore chainmail under their thick armor. Though not all of them had this luxurious kind of armor, more than half of Jinyang units had it.
It was Li Feihong who invented the chainmail and implemented into their system. However, because of the limited number of blacksmiths and tinkerers, they could not forge enough armors for everybody in the army.
”You are a man of surprises, sir Li,” Praised Jia Xu. This battle result was majorly contributed by Li Feihong's skills.
”It's nothing compared to Tong's absurd [Create Food]. I envy him sometimes,” Laughed Li Feihong.
”True. As long as someone controls the food supply, that brat is pretty much holding all lives in his hands. Say, can you integrate those armor system with Julu? We need those armors, too.”
”The problem is our iron ore supplies. Our ore mines can't produce enough ores to satisfy the demand.”
”Can't we smelt the old unused iron instead?”
”We can, but it will take times. Let's go into the details after the war.”
”Sure.”
.
As Jia Xu and Li Feihong were chatting in their main tent, Lu Bu was being treated by physicians in the infirmary tent.