Chapter 655: Chapter 298: King Chu’s Death

Nanchong Prefecture City, outskirts.

“Is this the Nanzhao Army?”

On a small hillside, surrounded by dozens of personal guards, Lu Yuan stood on the hilltop, looking into the distance at the vast barracks on the plain ahead, and couldn’t help but smile: “There doesn’t seem to be as many people as I thought.”

Everyone’s eyes also followed, and they saw that in front of them, outside Nanchong Prefecture City to the north, west, and south, a series of camps had been set up in each direction.

In the southern city, the camps covered an area of about three square kilometers, divided into thirteen large and small fortresses, four major and nine minor ones.

According to everyone’s experience in organizing troops, small camps could accommodate up to 500 people, and large camps up to 2,000 people.

In the entire southern city area, the number of Nanzhao troops was at most around 12,000.

As for the western city, the scale of camps was almost twice as large as that of the southern city, and there should be more people, probably around 25,000.

It was somewhat difficult to see the full picture of the two northern camps because they were blocked by the city walls. However, the areas they covered were not very wide, roughly the same size as the camps in the southern city, with about 12,000 troops stationed in each.

Thus, the Nanzhao Army in the three directions totaled nearly 50,000 people.

Compared to the troops Lu Yuan brought this time, there wasn’t much difference in the number of people, and the degree of elite was even far inferior, which naturally made him look down upon them.

“Since April of early summer, the Crown Prince of Nanzhao, Zhao Changqing, has been leading 60,000 troops constantly attacking Nanchong Prefecture City.

According to the report received from Brother Ning, who was leading a forbidden army to assist in the defense of Nanchong Prefecture City, the Nanzhao Army had attacked the city more than twenty times in two months, and Zhao Changqing had climbed the city walls several times.

The battles here were extremely intense, and the forbidden army under Brother Ning’s command had already suffered more than 10,000 casualties.

Our army’s defense suffered such heavy casualties.

Even if it was due to Zhao Changqing’s Inborn strength causing a large number of casualties, the Nanzhao Army’s efforts to attack the city would have also resulted in a large number of deaths and injuries.

It is heard that when they are coming, they have a large army of nearly 70,000.

Now that they have been fiercely attacking for two months, there are still over 40,000 people left, which is already considered a small casualty rate for a siege battle.”

Next to him, Lu Yuan’s personal disciple and General Mo Nianfeng, upon hearing his Master’s words, explained, and then joined in the laughter: “But now that the Lonely King has come, with the prowess of our Chu Army and the prowess of the Lonely King, Zhao Changqing and the Nanzhao Army are naturally not worth mentioning; they can be crushed with just a wave of the hand.”

As for the Brother Ning in his words, he was referring to General Ning Jizhong, who had previously been appointed by Lu Yuan to lead a forbidden army to assist in the defense of Nanchong Prefecture City.

These two men had grown up in recent years – after Changsha changed its state title to Chu – among the many disciples and had accompanied Lu Yuan in his battles across the world for more than ten years, with each of their strengths reaching the peak level; they could be called the courageous generals of the Chu State.

Moreover, Mo Nianfeng, who had become accustomed to the elite style of the great countries of Zhou and Pre-Yue, honestly didn’t take the Nanzhao Army, a southwestern barbarian force, seriously.

These Yi people, who had always been in a small place and hadn’t seen battles for many years, were truly far inferior to the elite forces of the Nine Provinces’ great countries in terms of combat power.

The best evidence was the Da Changhe Army they first encountered in the beginning of the conquest of the Barbarians.

At that time, the Da Changhe Army had experienced years of war and been honed by the likes of Li Xiong, barely qualifying as a strong army that had gone through blood and fire.

However, even such a strong army in southwestern China, faced with the elites of Great Chu, was defeated and routed, even though they had nearly twice as many troops, and eventually fled to the west of the Lu River.

If the Da Changhe Army, already tempered by war, was like this, those Nanzhao troops, whose willpower and strength were even weaker due to the lack of war experience, would undoubtedly be even more inferior.

With the Da Changhe Army’s defeat as a precedent, it was challenging for these proud warriors of the Chu army to take the so-called three great barbarian kingdoms of the southwest seriously.

The only thing that made them cautious was the Inborn Grandmasters who seemed like gods and demons.

No one below Inborn level would not be in awe of and feel apprehensive about such terrifying martial prowess that transcended the mortal realm.

However, comparing an obscure Nanzhao Crown Prince to their very own king, who had already killed three Inborn enemies, Mo Nianfeng felt much more confident.

He believed that with their king’s intervention, even if the Crown Prince of Nanzhao were to escape by a fluke, it would be impossible for him to avoid a heavy injury and flee.

This supreme prestige belonged solely to the Invincible Military God and was accumulated by Lu Yuan from his undefeated battles over the past ten plus years.

Such prestige made people’s hearts unconsciously believe that as long as they followed this man, if he would be willing, there would be nothing impossible in the world.

If there were powerful enemies ahead, they would simply draw their swords and slay them, achieving victory.

It was just so natural, without reason or basis.

And coincidentally, the entire Chu Army, from top to bottom, thought the same way.

“Hahaha, you’re right, Nianfeng, a mere Nanzhao Army, is nothing but chickens and dogs in front of me.”

Hearing his disciple’s flattering words and seeing the admiring eyes from the personal guards around him, Lu Yuan couldn’t help but laugh out loud, then got on his horse, and said boldly, “All soldiers, follow this Lonely King, defeat the Nanzhao Army, and seize this victory.”

As the words fell, he waved his horsewhip, and the remaining steed leaped forward, heading toward the Nanzhao Army camp at the foot of the mountain in the distance.

At this time, at the foot of the mountain, the Chu Army vanguards, who had travelled a long way, were also arriving one after another in the wilderness south of Nanchong City, stopping at a position about three miles away from the Nanzhao Army.