Chapter 474: To Each Their Own Clever Stratagem
The Steel Cavalry tried their utmost best to charge over and destroy what had been piled under the fort, but the Shadow Cavalry tried equally hard to stop them. They did not mind sending a bigger number of cavalrymen than the Steel Cavalry would be willing to in order to obstruct the latter. They did not mind fighting back by expending lives.
Qiu Jianhan sighed softly, "Retreat. Our initial target can't be achieved. Han Sanhe will never allow this to be destroyed. Insisting on doing so will only cause more Steel Cavalry casualties."
Fu Baoguo was taken aback upon hearing him.
However, before Fu Baoguo could deliver his command, the horn from the opposite side was blown again.
Dongxuan's troop moved like they had earlier, carrying all sorts of things and charging over; they piled them up and the fire soared once again.
A large gush of water cascaded down from the top of the fort.
Qiu Jianhan had ordered for the cold water to be poured before the other side shot flaming arrows but after repeating it twice, he gave up his efforts. Not only was it unbeneficial, it was actually harmful as the large gush of water would further shake the Fortress of Resilience's foundation.
On this day, Dongxuan's troop charged seven separate times. The gong to withdraw was only hit when the sky was turning dark.
Other than the Shadow Cavalry, all of Dongxuan's troop retreated.
Throughout the day, Qiu Jianhan's command for the Steel Cavalry to charge the bottom of the fort was almost impossible to be executed. Only one out of the dozens of advances was successful due to the Shadow Cavalry's desperate defensive manoeuvres; that single time barely did any damage to the pile of things by the wall under the fort.
As night fell and the weather turned colder, the items that were not entirely reduced to as eventually condensed and froze into a solid lump. There was no way to destroy them unless they could unleash a strong blow from an even stronger force. The Steel Cavalry's charge was practically useless and all that could be done was to sigh.
It was also then that Fu Baoguo was struck with a sudden realization. An indescribable fear gripped his heart.
The so-called divine trick of the century, the so-called invincible ice fortress, was only an illusion. Not only did it have a good number of potential risks, it could be borrowed to be used as the enemy's strength. More importantly, would the world's most indestructible fort cease to exist because of this war?
Looking at the charred lumps that stretched dozens of miles by the fort wall, Fu Baoguo felt chills running through him, yet all of his blood had surged to his head. The vertigo and stars that met his vision, as well as the insufficient rest from prolonged fatigue, caused him to stagger.
"Do you understand now? The invincible fortress of ice is only an emergency tactic that provided temporary relief!" Qiu Jianhan watched Fu Baoguo with a grim expression.
Fu Baoguo opened his mouth, wanting to speak, but felt as if a burning charcoal was lodged in his throat; the searing pain caused him to speak with great difficulty, "I understand..."
"This is Han Sanhe's stratagem, the strategy of the continent's top marshal!" Qiu Jianhan sighed, "The Fortress of Resilience is destined to fall. I just didn't expect that the first defeat of this fort would actually be in my hands... This eternal humiliation... I wonder if I can carry it..."
Chills coursed through Fu Baoguo, his mind was a chaos of thoughts, rendering him speechless.
Perhaps it was a curse, perhaps it was a nightmare, or maybe it was both. It any case, the seven days that followed saw Yutang and Dongxuan repeating the same rhythm over and over again.
The flames rose, the water was poured and the flames were extinguished.
The flames rose again and it was put out again.
Rinse and repeat.
The seven cycles on the first day were actually the least attacks that had been launched.
Practice makes perfect; the idiom was particularly suitable to the current situation.
The materials that did not burn in entirety under the fort grew in amount and size, piling up higher; they were already indestructible in such wintery weather. As the slope gradually took shape, it was slowly becoming a small ice hill.
Everyone in the fort understood the situation now, and everyone was shockingly grim. There was no one who did not understand what Han Sanhe was going to do and what his ultimate goal was.
Perhaps they did not need to wait until the weather turned warmer; the Fortress of Resilience would have fallen before a breach appeared, just from the repeated thawing and freezing. The ice hill formed by the accumulating items was enough to build a path to attack the fortress!
The lump had formed a passage between the Fortress of Resilience and the outside world.
The massive number of soldiers, the endless resources available from the surrounding mountains, and the icy weather itself had become Han Sanhe's tools in his current plan of attack.
If the Fortress of Resilience did not have that weak spot, the damned rock that protruded, Han Sanhe's method would be useless because Yutang would never have opted to fortify their fort with ice and destroy themselves in the process. However, everything had changed due to the presence of the weak spot.
You used ice to fortify your fort; I shall attack it with fire. When your entire fort has turned into ice and water, I will set everything alight and you would have to extinguish the fire to prevent your beloved fort from collapsing.
If this was the case, the siege would last for two or three months before the Fortress of Resilience crumbled from the warming weather.
However, Han Sanhe's scheme was obviously smarter. Using Yutang's water and Dongxuan's tossed long ladders, logs, rocks and debris, in addition to the weather, he had turned them into a lump of ice that rose up from the ground.
The constant attacks of flame and extinguishing of water would imminently expand and increase the height of this lump of ice. With time, the Fortress of Resilience' high wall would become level with the piled platform, turning it into a flat path for Dongxuan's Shadow Cavalry to attack.
The Shadow Cavalry did not need to do much work by then; they would be able to head up to the fort in their usual manner and kill the enemy at their leisure.
When the so-called indestructible fortress of the world became a flat plane of land, how would Yutang's eastern troops deploy their countermeasures?
In the almost irreversible impasse, Han Sanhe had executed this seemingly repetitive but subtle tactic that had turned the timing and geographical disadvantage to Dongxuan to their benefit! Even part of Yutang's manpower had partially made the current situation a success.
Timing, geography, and people were a deadly combination that worked out in their favor!
This was also the basic reason Han Sanhe was constantly requesting for additional troops from the country. Such a strategy would never be achieved if he did not have sufficient men.
Zhan Ge, who had witnessed all these, had been all the more impressed by his teacher. Yes, he was already impressed to the extreme by Han Sanhe, but currently, only the word 'more' could express his immense admiration. With a hand over his heart, he admitted that he would never have thought of Han Sanhe's method, even if he was being beaten to death.
"It is approximately thirty feet tall now.!"
Zhan Ge was ecstatic. "I believe we only need a few more days before we can reach the height of the fort's wall. No, we don't even need it to be as high. If we factor in the horses' jumping ability, we can save a day or two. I didn't expect that our casualties would be so low, based on teacher's command to attack the Fortress of Resilience. The indestructible fortress will fall very soon."
"How could it be that easy?" Han Sanhe shook his head slowly.
"Pardon? Why do you doubt, teacher? Victory is obviously before our eyes!" said Zhan Ge.
"The height of that hill outside the ice fort can only reach, at most, the bottom of the wall's initial weak spot. That will still leave more than forty feet of distance from the top of the fort; it can't go further up than that. I have thought of what Qiu Jianhan has thought of, how could Qiu Jianhan not have thought of what I have thought of? No, I should say that Qiu Jianhan has already thought of what I'm thinking, and has already made the necessary countermeasures ready," Han Sanhe said.
Zhan Ge thought about it in earnest and said with an uncomfortable certainty, "That's right. The situation now is clear. It's impossible that they'll let us continue piling things up to the day it becomes a flat plane."
Han Sanhe continued, "Qiu Jianhan must have prepared a great deal of kerosene, and when the appropriate time comes, the kerosene and flaming arrows will take the lives of at least tens of thousands of our elites away... Yet, if we really want to subdue the Fortress of Resilience, this is the sacrifice we must make!"
He pondered and added grimly, "Maybe... there will be even more sacrifice."
"By then, the casualties of that battle will be the worst of this lifetime!"
"Perhaps the number of casualties will be a rare number in the history of wars!"
...
Yutang was passively defending itself, trying their hardest to destroy Dongxuan's momentum, while Dongxuan continued to advance with all their troops and completing their set goals, bit by bit.
Yutang who had lost all three edges of time, location, and manpower, was at an unprecedented disadvantage as they watched the ice hill under their fort slowly increase in height.
It was also stretching out slowly all the way to Han Sanhe's base, forming a mild slope dozens of miles in width and length!
Behind it, the Dongxuan army was still moving. They began to layer the slope with sand to coat the snow and ice so that those who stepped on this path later would have more stable footing.
It was a terrifying sight to behold, sufficient to shatter the nerves of the defenders.
The Fortress of Resilience's geographical advantage was slowly being lost, as it became the end point of a long, wide path that was inexorably taking shape.