The Empress’s Gigolo

“Sir Ren, they have already withdrawn and are in the middle of their return journey.”

When Ren Baqian heard the sound from the walkie-talkie, he first looked toward the two big barracks and saw that there weren’t any Great Xia soldiers rushing out. Besides, on such a dark night, the aboriginals were able to better display their capabilities.

Furthermore, the two Great Xia barracks only now barely managed to quiet down. He reckoned that attending to their casualties, fighting fires, and assembling their disordered soldiers should keep them busy for quite some time.

“The task is complete, so withdraw.” Ren Baqian ordered people to carry the mortars, machine gun, and the ammunition boxes while slowly withdrawing. When they arrived back in the city, the gates were wide open and everyone entered one after another.

Shortly after everyone returned to the city commander’s residence, the casualties were also reported back as well.

There were only about a few hundred casualties. Of these, the winged cavalry were only slightly affected, but the casualty count for the Protectorate of the Center was about 400 soldiers. Half of them had lost their lives while the other half returned with heavy injuries.

The number of the casualties among the aboriginals was nothing compared to Great Xia.

The Great Xia army had lost at least 30,000 soldiers. In addition, a large amount of their rations had been burned.

However, something that the winged cavalry described seeing on their way back had caught Ren Baqian’s attention.

Toward the end of the night attack, when the aboriginals were attacking the Great Xia soldiers inside their barracks, they were also hit with bombs just as they managed to gather into troops. Furthermore, they couldn’t retaliate at all. As a result, the central barracks brought out a couple of cannons.

The winged cavalry warriors didn’t take these cannons seriously, but when countless nails shot out from the cannons, a few of the winged cavalry warriors took direct hits due to their carelessness and ended up dying on the spot.

There were more than 20 winged cavalry warriors that were injured by these Great Xia cannons.

In his hand, Ren Baqian sized up the nail that they had brought back. It was about 15 centimeters long and had the thickness of a pinky finger. The entire body was made out of pig iron, and its base was shaped like a slightly larger hexagon.

“What’s the firing range of this thing?” Ren Baqian asked.

“Approximately 200 paces. It’s deadly when someone is within the 100 pace range,” a captain from the winged cavalry replied.

“That means that those who got killed by this were idiots who didn’t know how to dodge when someone was aiming this at them from a distance of less than 100 steps?” Ren Baqian asked in a bad tone.

“The main point was that it was unexpected. Even though this thing couldn’t shoot far, it did a lot of damage at close range. Moreover, it was quite powerful too,” that winged cavalry captain replied as he scratched his head while feeling that those few subordinates of his had died a unworthy death.

“There are far more things that are unexpected. Are you going to dodge if I point this thing at you?” Ren Baqian immediately drew out a gun from his waist and pointed it at the officer’s head.

“Definitely!” that officer replied hurriedly. This Principal Ren had poisoned more than thousands of people to death, and today, he had brought out something that could attack the Great Xia army from a few kilometers away. Even though they weren’t entirely sure what it was, one thing they were sure about was that simply from the explosion, steel bearings would shoot out and make someone look like a sieve.

At present, the winged cavalry had already labelled Ren Baqian as someone to be wary of. Even though he looked weak and thin, the things he brought were truly deadly.

Nobody dared to belittle the things that he brought out.

“Whatever it is, today’s night attack was a total victory, and we owe it all to Sir Ren.” Li Qianqiu laughed at the side.

Even though they lost around 400 people, it was already sufficient to make them feel satisfied because Great Xia suffered a heavier loss.

Ren Baqian waved his hand as if honor and glory were like floating clouds in the sky.

“Even though we are not sure about how much of the rations the other party has lost, they definitely lost quite a bit. During the night attack, the winged cavalry and the soldiers from the Protector General of the Center saw that the places where they kept their rations had caught fire.”

This was something that Ren Baqian had intentionally ordered someone to take notice of.

“If the other party has suffered huge losses to their rations, they will definitely be more urgent in getting food supplies. In a while, dispatch a portion of the walkie-talkies, a walkie-talkie repeater, and a radio station. I suggest deploying a group of winged cavalry warriors with this equipment to go out there, disperse, and investigate. Kill the all Great Xia’s soldiers on sight, and if they run into a supply group, gather their team and destroy their supplies if the circumstances allow. If there are any rations remaining, contact the city through the radio station to send people over to assist.”

Both Li Qianqiu and the empress gently nodded. Cutting off the enemy’s rations was essential, so there wasn’t anything wrong with Ren Baqian’s suggestion.

“As for the rest of the Great Xia army here, there are two possible options. One option is to lower their military defences, with besieging them being the main focus. After all, this night attack should have probably hurt them quite a bit. However, I feel that the other option is also very viable, which is to drive them into desperation. If the other party’s rations are in too great of a deficit and the supplies take a very long to arrive, they will probably launch a large scale attack. They will exhaust their military strength and fight it out with us in attrition warfare.”

“What is attrition warfare?” Li Qianqiu immediately questioned.

“If they really lacked rations, for example, if they are only left with enough to feed 10,000 men for two days and their ration supplies will take seven days to arrive, what will they do? Their supplies won’t be enough even if their consumption was cut in half. We would then launch a full scale attack on them after they had been struck by hunger to the extent that they can’t even walk properly. They won’t even stand a chance fighting back.

“If this is the case, it’s better off for them to finish up the remaining rations and launch an attack. It would be best for them if they can breach the city. If not, at least they are able to expend all of their military strength and make their deaths worthwhile. As for their remaining soldiers, even if the rations aren’t sufficient, it will be enough to tide them through until their supplies arrives.

“It’s very likely that the enemy will do this if their rations are in too much of a deficit.

“Exchanging their lives for ours, that is attrition warfare,” Ren Baqian concluded.

Li Qianqiu frowned for quite some time and nodded slowly. “This is possible.”

By putting themselves in the other party’s leadership position, they would probably do this if they had no other choice.

It was already getting late after everyone had a brief moment of discussion, and they all went back to rest.

In a typical warfare setting, both parties would have scouts who would obtain an abundance of useful information. In this war between Dayao and Great Xia, however, neither party had any scouts. As a result, all insight had to rely on speculation.

…

Everyone in Dayao went back to rest, but the Great Xia camp was still brightly lit.

They were providing emergency care for their casualties, fighting fires, checking the deceased, and tabulating their losses all the way until sunrise.

Wu Shenghou sat in the big tent with an ashen face and was motionless like a statue.

He lifted his eyelids when he heard a set of hasty footsteps and looked at the scholar who hurriedly walked in.

“How is it?” he asked in a dull voice.

“The central barracks has 11,000 casualties and the east barracks has over 23,000 casualties. Out of 876 men from Wu Ying’s barracks, only 392 are left. As for the rations, the east barracks lost 75 percent of it and is left with only two days worth of rations for 60,000 men. The main barracks lost 60 percent of its rations and is left with 10 days worth for 17,000 men. The west barracks didn’t lose any of its rations at all.”

“How many more days can the rations last?” Wu Shenghou asked.

“The west barracks still has two worth days of rations for 60,000 soldiers. Adding on the remnants from the east barracks, there are still enough rations to feed 14,000 soldiers for one day. The amount of rations left in the central barracks can still sustain the soldiers for just over four days. All in all, there are still enough rations to last for 5 days. If the ration consumption is reduced by half, it can last ten days, but the soldiers won’t have enough strength to fight.”

“How much longer until the resupply of rations arrives?” Wu Shenghou asked.

“It will take another 10 days,” the scholar replied softly. “However, both General Wen Yuan and General Zhao Sheng should be able to bring some over. They are just at the border, and it will be more convenient to get rations from them.”

“Inform them!” Wu Shenghou said in a deep voice.

“Spread the word, let the soldiers fill their stomachs and then attack the city in four hours!”

“Sir?” The scholar was shocked. The soldiers hadn’t rested for almost the entire night, yet he was in such a hurry to attack?

“We can’t delay any longer!” Wu Shenghou looked ghastly. “You are aware of what sort of attack took place against Wu Ying’s barracks yesterday, aren’t you?”

The scholar nodded.

“In addition to that, the surprise attack targeted the rations last night and they had explosive items that they threw into the crowd. There’s no telling whether the other party has anymore tricks up their sleeves. We can’t afford to delay any longer. With a spurt of energy, no matter how great the casualties are, we must take down Liao City or force them to use their hidden trump card.”

Wu Shenghou was resolute and decisive. As a commander, he would definitely be able to find a way to counter it if the enemy were to reveal their trump card. Only the unknown was frightening. It could be possible that the other party would hit their head just when they thought that victory was near and would end up losing everything.

“I never expected that those barbarians had things like that.” The scholar gave a bitter smile.

“Neither did I.” Wu Shenghou sighed softly. He even felt that he was the barbarian now.

“Those things couldn’t possibly have belonged to Dayao. Someone must have given those to them. Capture that person or kill him.”

“Does the general know who it is?” the scholar asked, but in fact, he had somewhat guessed who it was.

“It should be that Poison Warrior. When Chen Shi and Wu Ying went out yesterday, they saw a person operating a weapon from afar. At present, the only one capable of this in Liao City should be him. Besides, I’ll rather kill the wrong person than to let him off,” Wu Shenghou said.

Ren Baqian merely speculated about the Great Xia army’s condition, so there were naturally many inconsistencies.

However, even though the underlying reasons differed, Wu Shenghou’s decision was rather similar to what Ren Baqian had guessed.

…

Ren Baqian accompanied the empress in the hall to have breakfast. There were rolled-up pastries, noodle soup, and a pot of meat that was the size of a laundry basin.

That pot of meat vanished at a speed perceivable by the naked eye.

After seeing that the pot was empty, Ren Baqian asked softly, “Is Your Majesty full?”

The empress pondered for a bit before replying, “Half full, but I have to take the lead in reducing food consumption. This way, the rations in the city will be able to last longer.”

Ren Baqian was speechless.

After a short conversation, someone came reporting from outside. Great Xia was attacking the city.

As two of them looked at each other, Ren Baqian pointed at himself and said, “After so much speculation, there has got to be something that a wise man would guess correctly!”

The empress lifted her head and pondered. There didn’t seem to be any problem, but something just didn’t feel right.

In the afternoon, Ren Baqian confirmed his previous speculation.

The other party’s attack was indeed much stronger than the previous time. There were Great Xia soldiers climbing up the wall at almost every moment as well as soldiers wailing and falling off at the same frequency.

After another day passed, Great Xia’s intensity of attack was still on the rise without a letup. Over 100,000 soldiers seemingly took turns to attack, and there was a slaughter all day long at all three sides of the city wall.

Ren Baqian saw Li Qianqiu giving out orders when he stepped into the small hall inside the city commander’s residence and waited for him to finish his words before asking, “Still able to withstand?”

“If they send another 100,000 soldiers, we would then be on par.” Li Qianqiu was not the least bit bothered.

Ren Baqian nodded and said, “If the pressure is too great, then make use of the remaining explosives.”

“Didn’t we use up all of it the night before?” Li Qianqiu asked doubtfully.

“I still have another box!” Ren Baqian replied. These 300 tubes of explosives filled up 2 boxes. He had brought out half of it when they blew up the catapults the other day and used up the rest of that box during the night attack. There was still one box remaining.

“Accompany me to search the place!” Upon hearing this, Li Qianqiu immediately stood up from behind the office table and took large strides toward the outside, shouting for people along the way.

Those who had used these explosives before knew what it was capable of. In any case, this was a treasure in the eyes of Li Qianqiu. He wanted to get ahold of it before deciding whether it would be utilized or not.