459: Chapter 459 Taking the Initiative

"Pingjian, what you say is not without merit." The King nodded thoughtfully. "The Alliance's army attacking the city this time does seem a bit strange. They know their army lacks the will to fight, yet they persist in attacking; there must be a reason behind this."

The King stared at the battlefield. He saw the Alliance soldiers being cut down and falling under the fierce attacks of his own men, yet the Alliance Army showed no sign of retreating.

"Could it be that the Alliance Army has truly been so heavily impacted by our various actions that they've reached a point where they have no choice but to launch this siege?" the King muttered to himself.

Pingjian chimed in from the side, "Your Majesty is absolutely right. Most likely, the Alliance Army is under immense pressure due to our series of actions, which is why they are launching this siege as a desperate gamble."

The King continued his analysis, "However, doing so will only cause their losses to become increasingly severe. Looking at today's Alliance Army, there are significantly fewer soldiers from the Benri Dynasty and the Ximei Dynasty. This seems to imply that these two dynasties are using the soldiers of other dynasties as cannon fodder. Such behavior will not only lead to mass casualties among the soldiers of other dynasties but will also seriously affect the unity within the Alliance Army."

Pingjian nodded in agreement. "Your Majesty's analysis is very precise. Such behavior will likely breed resentment toward the Benri Dynasty and the Ximei Dynasty in the other dynasties, leading to a split within the Alliance. Could it be that these two dynasties already possess enough strength to break through our capital's gates without needing Alliances with other dynasties?"

The King frowned slightly, falling into deep thought.

He felt that Pingjian's speculation was not without merit, but whether there were other hidden details still required further observation and analysis.

The King did not interrupt Di Pingjian, for he knew her character well and knew she surely had more to say.

Di Pingjian thought for a moment and then continued, "I speculate that these two dynasties might have mastered some kind of strategy or power capable of breaking through our city gates on their own. Of course, there is an even worse possibility."

Hearing this, the King turned his head with great interest, staring at Di Pingjian and pressing, "Oh? Pingjian, tell me in detail—exactly what strategy or power could they have to break through our gates? And what would that even worse possibility look like?"

The King paid such close attention because, in their previous plans and discussions, they had originally believed they could easily crush the incoming Alliance Army.

However, who could have expected those two great dynasties to be so unscrupulous? Not only did they send soldiers from other dynasties to their deaths to preserve their own armies, but the soldiers sent to besiege the city were also exceptionally annoying. They didn't launch a full assault on the gates but instead kept up constant harassment, which was truly infuriating.

Under these circumstances, it wasn't convenient for the King to easily order the defensive forces to launch a full-scale counterattack.

Di Pingjian nodded slightly, showing she understood the King's concerns. After a moment of reflection, she said slowly:

"Your Majesty is correct, but we cannot afford to be careless. Although these two dynasties suffered heavy losses in the previous battle for the city gates, they are, after all, great nations with deep foundations.

Perhaps they believe that as long as they can break through our city and seize its resources and wealth, they can compensate for the loss of their cavalry. Moreover, they might have other countermeasures, such as strengthening their border defenses or cooperating with other countries to jointly combat the Vicious Beasts."

Hearing Di Pingjian's analysis, the King's brow furrowed slightly, as if he still had some doubts.

He was silent for a while before saying, "Pingjian, your analysis makes some sense. But I still feel that these two dynasties wouldn't take such a risk so easily.

After all, the threat of Vicious Beasts always exists. If they send a large number of cavalry to besiege the city and their domestic defenses are left empty, the consequences would be unimaginable should the Vicious Beasts launch a beast tide."

Seeing this, Di Pingjian quickly said, "Your Majesty, your concerns are not without reason. However, we cannot entirely rule out this possibility.

After all, the intentions of these two dynasties are difficult for us to fathom. Therefore, I suggest we still make thorough preparations, strengthen the city's defenses, and closely monitor the movements of the Alliance Army to prevent them from launching a sudden attack."

The King nodded and said, "Yes, you're right. We cannot sit and wait for death; we must take action. Go and make arrangements to strengthen the city's defenses, and prepare more arrows and catapults.

Additionally, send some elite scouts to investigate the situation of the Alliance Army and see what they are really up to."

"Yes, Your Majesty, you are absolutely right!"

Di Pingjian nodded in deep agreement.

She then continued, "Therefore, this is merely one possibility. If this possibility comes true, then while the two dynasties are besieging our gates, a beast tide would not break out within their own dynasties.

Or, even if a beast tide does break out, they might plan to use a large number of soldiers to resist it first, and then have the cavalry that came to support them return to eliminate the beast tide."

Beast tides on this planet were actually not common, but every time they broke out, there was no pattern to follow, and the scale was extremely massive, with staggering numbers.

Therefore, once a beast tide broke out, it was undoubtedly a massive disaster for the soldiers defending a city.

For this reason, every human Dynasty needed to be equipped with a certain number of elite soldiers to resist these ferocious beast tides.

In fact, the Chaotian Dynasty's geographical location was uniquely advantageous; it was a mountainous Dynasty that was easy to defend and hard to attack.

The Dynasty was surrounded by numerous mountain ranges and ancient forests, which meant that even though the Alliance Army had as many as ten million soldiers, they couldn't fully utilize their numerical advantage when attacking the towers of Chaotian City.

Each time they besieged the city, they could only send a mere few hundred thousand soldiers into battle, which was an act of helplessness.

The reason today's siege appeared this way might be that the two powerful dynasties believed the armies of the other dynasties were relatively weak and wouldn't be very effective in a siege.

Therefore, they decided to let the soldiers of other dynasties act as the vanguard, charging toward the walls of the Chaotian Dynasty first to wear down the city's defenders.

However, for the generals of the other dynasties, such an arrangement might cause dissatisfaction.

After all, no one was willing to let their own soldiers take such a risk and become cannon fodder.

But since these small dynasties were relatively weak, the opposition of just one or two small dynasties wouldn't have much impact on the two great dynasties.

However, if the other dynasties all chose to stand united and jointly oppose or protest this unfair arrangement, then the two great dynasties would need to reconsider their strategy.

In such a case, the two great dynasties might come up with some minor schemes to cope, such as dividing the other dynasties or offering some small favors to appease them.

"Then what might the Alliance Army's strategy be?" the King asked thoughtfully, continuing to watch the fierce battle at the city towers.

Hearing this, Di Pingjian also turned to gaze at the battlefield, her brow furrowed slightly as if in deep thought.

After a moment, she answered somewhat hesitantly, "As for a strategy, the possibility isn't actually high. In my opinion, the Alliance Army might be trying to use some peculiar tactics to wear down the spirit and energy of our soldiers.

They might adopt some unexpected ways of fighting to keep our soldiers busy responding, thereby gradually eroding our army's will and morale."

Di Pingjian paused, then continued her analysis, "If this continues for a long time, the spirit and energy of our soldiers will inevitably be greatly affected.

Meanwhile, the Alliance Army hopes to use this to force us to make concessions, or to wait until our soldiers are exhausted to suddenly launch a fierce siege in an attempt to break through the city in one go."

He pondered for a moment and said, "Hmm, that is indeed a possibility. However, the Alliance Army has traveled a long distance, after all. Their military rations and other logistical resources should also find it difficult to support them in implementing such a tactic for a long time.

After all, to completely exhaust the spirit and energy of our soldiers would require a considerable amount of time and a large amount of resources."

The King's brow furrowed slightly; he truly found it hard to agree with the strategy Di Pingjian proposed.

In his understanding, military strategies were usually about the use of tactics, such as how to arrange troops or how to launch a surprise attack on the enemy.

However, the strategy Di Pingjian spoke of seemed somewhat bizarre, the kind of idea only those civil officials skilled in political maneuvering would come up with.

According to the currently available intelligence, there were no roles like military strategists in the Alliance Army, only commanders and generals responsible for leading the troops in battle.

These generals were warriors who had survived many battles; their way of thinking leaned toward direct combat strategies rather than such indirect and convoluted schemes.

The King himself had experienced combat on the front lines and knew the characteristics of these generals like the back of his hand.

Therefore, the King thought to himself that this so-called countermeasure was likely born entirely of Di Pingjian's overthinking and was simply not very likely.

He couldn't help but feel a hint of doubt toward Di Pingjian's ideas, thinking she might be overthinking things.

"Then what about the worse situation you mentioned?" the King continued to press with a grave expression.

Di Pingjian was silent for a moment, seemingly thinking about how to phrase it, before slowly saying:

"The worse situation is that the Alliance Army's siege this time is merely a feint, and their true purpose is something else. They are deliberately letting Your Majesty see their army looking vulnerable and easily repelled by our forces during the siege, creating a false impression that they are no longer able to contend with us."

She paused, then continued, "However, all of this might just be their conspiracy. After feigning defeat, the main force of the Alliance Army would quickly withdraw from the camp, making us mistakenly believe they have scattered and retreated. But in reality, they might have already laid an ambush in some hidden place outside the camp, waiting for us to take the bait."

Di Pingjian's voice was slightly low, revealing a trace of worry. "When our army sees the Alliance Army retreating in defeat, they will inevitably let their guard down and might even send out the main force to pursue them or attack other dynasties. At that moment, the Alliance Army would take advantage of our vulnerability to launch a sneak attack and surround us."

She sighed and continued, "With our army's current strength, although we have Martial Artists who can take on a hundred enemies alone, their numbers are limited—only five thousand people.

Even with another million soldiers, we are still at an absolute disadvantage against the Alliance's ten million troops.

Once surrounded by the Alliance Army, I fear our forces will find it difficult to resist for long and may eventually die of exhaustion, suffering a crushing defeat or even being completely annihilated!"

After hearing Di Pingjian's words, the King remained silent for a moment before speaking slowly:

"This plan of the Alliance Army is indeed sinister and crafty. If our army rashly sets out, we might fall into their ambush and suffer heavy losses. However, if we remain stationary for the next few years, wouldn't the Alliance Army's conspiracy fail to succeed? After all, they have a large number of people, and it's no easy task for them to stay stationed outside for a long time waiting for our army to come out."

The corners of Di Pingjian's mouth curled up, revealing a faint smile. She nodded slightly, agreeing with the King's view, and said, "Your Majesty is correct. Although this plan is venomous, as long as we hold our ground and do not go out, the Alliance Army will be helpless.

It's just that if we do this, the time for our external operations will necessarily be extended, and the process of unifying all the dynasties might also be delayed.

However, Your Majesty need not worry. In my humble opinion, the dynasties in the rear of the Alliance Army have already begun to experience unrest due to our previous efforts. Their internal conflicts are numerous, making it difficult for them to sustain this for long.

As such, even if the Alliance Army wants to feign retreat and set an ambush to wipe out our main force, they will likely find it hard to get their way."

A few days later, secret agents reported that the Alliance Army was indeed waiting for reinforcements.

Upon receiving this news, Di Pingjian and the King gathered the generals to discuss taking the initiative to attack. If they waited for the enemy's reinforcements to arrive and the Alliance Army launched another strong assault on the gates, the Alliance Army's morale would surely soar, and their combat effectiveness might even surpass that of the very first battle.

After all, this time the Alliance Army knew of the existence of the Chaotian Dynasty's powerful Martial Artist cavalry. The Alliance Army would surely send more cavalry to pin them down. At that time, the city gates might actually be broken by the Alliance Army. Therefore, only by taking the initiative to attack now was there a possibility of crushing the Alliance Army.

After a period of deep reflection and intense discussion, the King and Di Pingjian finally made up their minds and formulated a detailed operational plan.

They decided to disperse the five thousand battle-hardened and highly skilled Martial Artist cavalry, cleverly ambushing them along the path the enemy's reinforcements had to take.

This was because, according to intelligence, the enemy's reinforcements were most likely composed of cavalry as well, and only equally elite Martial Artist cavalry would be able to contend with and defeat them.

Meanwhile, another elite squad consisting of thirty thousand Shadow Kill Squad members also set out quietly.

Their mission was to sneak into the Alliance's logistics units undetected and destroy the enemy's military grain reserves in one fell swoop. This would deal a massive blow to the enemy's supply lines, leaving them in a predicament of insufficient food and fodder.

To ensure the smooth implementation of the entire plan, the city defense forces also showed no weakness, sending out an army of five hundred thousand, along with a powerful cavalry unit composed of over twenty thousand Shadow Kill Squad and Three-Life Squad members.

This massive army took the initiative to leave the city and face the battle, fearlessly charging toward the Alliance Army's siege teams to draw the enemy's attention and forces.

In this way, most of the enemy's attention would be drawn to the frontal battlefield, thereby creating an excellent opportunity for the other two teams performing special missions.

They could take the opportunity to complete their respective missions and deal an unexpected and heavy blow to the enemy.