Chapter 667: Millstone

Chapter 667: Chapter 667: Millstone

Early in the morning, Shen Hao was already standing on the parade ground of the camp, preparing to drill the battle array alongside the Personal Guard.

Ever since Shen Hao became a Xiaoqi years ago, he hadn’t practiced battle formations much. Although he remembered the basics, he found himself rusty during actual drills, far from achieving the level needed to go into battle. So he decided simply to practice with the Personal Guard.

Beside him was Captain Xu, who had once accompanied Shen Hao to Jianchuan and participated in its great victory. Now that Captain Xu had replenished his forces, he set up camp beside the Inspector’s quarters, always ready for orders. He often visited and brought his soldiers to drill with Shen Hao’s Personal Guard, offering guidance with real combat experience as well.

Beyond battle formations, Shen Hao took this opportunity to shore up some of his own weaknesses, such as horsemanship and a few of the fundamental concepts within military formations.

Compared to Zhang Qian and Gan Lin, Captain Xu clearly had far more patience, always approachable and willing to impart his knowledge. Whenever Shen Hao had questions about military affairs, Captain Xu answered with full effort, never showing impatience even if Shen Hao asked questions laughable to an outsider.

As such, Captain Xu made quite an impression on Shen Hao, giving him the sense he’d found a reliable instructor.

The reality bore this out. Over the course of more than a month, Shen Hao’s grasp of military affairs truly improved at a rapid pace. Calling him a greenhorn would no longer be accurate; he had essentially figured out the basics. Especially after combining this with intelligence reported back by the Military Inspectors, Shen Hao gradually felt he was seeing more clearly Marshal Zuo Yuliang’s deployments in Barbarian Territory.

For more than a month, the battle between the Jingjiu Dynasty and the Barbarian Race still centered on Jianchuan. Yet the frontline had shifted forward from the three camps at Jianchuan to the line between Shimen and the Camp Before the Door. Moreover, Jianchuan’s central and lower camps also began striking out frequently, mainly harassing and probing the opposing Barbarian forces across from Jianchuan.

This situation was the exact opposite of two months prior. Now Jingjiu Dynasty had seized the initiative, forcing the Barbarian Race onto the defensive.

However, according to Captain Xu, the terrain at Jianchuan prevented either side from building up momentum for a decisive battle. Both the Barbarian Race and the Dynasty could only grind away, or try to take cities by surprise. For true strategic victory, the enemy’s defensive lines would have to be fully broken through.

This echoed what Zhang Qian had told Shen Hao back at Shimen Camp—neither expected Jianchuan to settle the outcome or dramatically change the course of the war in the short term. The endless "grinding" alone could last who knows how long.

But don’t assume "grinding" means complacency on both sides. Quite the opposite—the word can be understood as a meat grinder. The level of ferocity Shen Hao experienced in attack-and-defense battles at Jianchuan’s upper camp still continued, only now the location had shifted to Shimen and the Camp Before the Door.

Ever since Shen Hao returned, he saw almost daily that entire main forces from the Four Major Armies, organized as Mixed Armies, passed through Wu Lake or set out after resting, with seventy percent heading to Jianchuan. Meanwhile, very few mixed troops withdrew from Jianchuan. Typically, an army of twenty to thirty thousand would deploy, and after a month, only half remained—including the wounded.

Shen Hao didn’t know the exact casualty figures since the start of war, but he estimated in his heart—it couldn’t be less than fifty thousand!

If the loss ratio was one to two, then casualties on the Barbarian side would be a terrifying one hundred thousand. And that number was likely even higher, given the Barbarian medical system’s crudeness compared with Jingjiu Dynasty’s. Their wounded often died, further increasing their death toll well beyond what Jingjiu Dynasty suffered.

So, from this perspective, the Barbarian Race was being worn away more severely. The reason was simple: setting aside the Cultivators, the Barbarian Race’s strong individual fighting prowess was at a clear disadvantage against Jingjiu Dynasty’s soldiers, who were better equipped and worked in superior battle arrays.

By these calculations, the Dynasty was winning—but measuring victory by fewer deaths doesn’t offer much comfort.

Credit should go to Shimen Camp for holding firm. They opened up the Ten Thousand Miles Bamboo Sea, creating a shorter route for supplies to reach the front line directly, almost eliminating worries about the Barbarian Race disrupting the supply chain. The dangers within the Bamboo Sea actually formed a shield for this new supply route.

Because of Shimen Camp and the passage through the Bamboo Sea, Jianchuan now had the confidence and courage to seize the initiative, deliberately grinding down the Barbarian Race’s living forces.

To the south of Jianchuan, White Head Gorge was also fiercely contested. After the great victory at Jianchuan, the level of violence there suddenly intensified; though not as wild as Jianchuan, it had doubled compared with the early days of standoff.

In contrast, the southernmost Hu Zhu Yuan could be called "idyllic." Both sides seemed to tacitly waste time, fighting only minor skirmishes, with not one decent attack-and-defense battle to date. So far, casualties at Hu Zhu Yuan were not even twenty percent of Jianchuan’s losses.

The difference between strong and weak was stark. Many newly arrived soldiers at Wu Lake turned pale at the mention of being sent to Hu Zhu Yuan, for who wants to miss the fiercest fights on their first trip to the front? The more intense the battle, the greater the chance for merit. Who wouldn’t want to earn their future with Barbarian heads? Hearing Hu Zhu Yuan was still in stalemate, they preferred Jianchuan, or at least White Head Gorge.

Only those soldiers rotated off the frontline kept silent as they rested. They voiced nothing, but in their hearts wished to be sent somewhere less intense next time. Now they understood—they weren’t heroes, nor immortal War Gods. Living was the most honest thought inside.

But that did not dampen the Dynasty’s sky-high morale. Even after experiencing life and death, when the orders arrived, duty prevailed without hesitation.

In the military there is no room for argument; this is a fixed rule understood by both the willing and unwilling.

Just past midday, the sun still overhead. At this time of year, Fengri City would surely be cold, but at Wu Lake, one thin garment sufficed for warmth, the temperature climbing daily at a rapid pace.

"Sir, Left General’s Order from the Central Army requests your presence at once. There’s a strategy meeting for you to attend."

Shen Hao was notified just after finishing his drills, sweat-soaked and with no time to change clothes. He checked the Order and, once verified, immediately strode out of camp toward the Central Army Tent.

After all this time, Shen Hao grasped some patterns. Marshal Zuo rarely summoned him for routine military strategy sessions; only for matters crucial to the overall campaign, or for full-army mobilization and consultation, would he call Shen Hao in.

Today was the first time since Shen Hao’s last return to Wu Lake that he was summoned to a strategy meeting. He wondered what Marshal Zuo Yuliang wished to discuss.