Let Me Explain, Fairy
Chapter 342 - 244 Preparation

Chapter 342: Chapter 244 Preparation

"You... want to send troops out of the city?"

Xu Yuan’s eyes betrayed a hint of hesitation upon hearing this.

"Yes," Li Qingyan nodded.

"Isn’t that too risky?" Xu Yuan hesitated and asked softly, "The barbarian encampment is set up twenty miles outside of Northern Border City."

Twenty miles.

This was the lesson the barbarians had learned through a bloody experience.

The defensive armaments of Northern Border City were mostly formation-patterned crossbows with greater accuracy, shooting large and thick Source Crystal arrows.

They could hit targets more than ten miles away.

If the barbarians camped too close, they would become live targets, subjected to the "affections" of Northern Border City from a high position every day.

For this reason, the barbarians even specifically modified their siege weapons into beast-throwing catapults, which had no need for accuracy. After all, with the size of Northern Border City, it was just about hurling projectiles with great force, hoping they would miraculously reach inside the city walls.

However, the twenty-mile encampment distance posed another problem.

To attack the city, the barbarians had to first traverse twenty miles of plain to reach the city walls.

Nonetheless, for the barbarians, who had the advantage of time and terrain, this was not a concern.

Under the weather of the snow disaster, if the barbarians were to attack, it would typically be when they had stealthily approached within three to four miles of Northern Border City that the high-level cultivators on the city walls could detect them.

The Black Scale Guards’ raid on the camp yesterday had yielded some results entirely because the barbarians were equally affected by the snow disaster’s impact on visibility and were caught off guard in their unstable position.

Now that the snowstorm had subsided, to launch a raid from the city, visibility was no longer hindered, and the defenders within Northern Border City would have to rely on their legs to run those twenty miles out of the city.

Li Qingyan had, of course, considered this point and spoke with an indifferent tone:

"Prince Consort, although there are benefits to the destruction of the Sects’ storages within the city, it also leads to an imminent issue that must be resolved."

"Imminent?" Xu Yuan’s eyes flickered.

Viewed from the macro perspective of the entire Northern Frontier, the Sects indeed had a flaw: a lack of food.

Cultivating wasn’t a perpetual motion machine, high-ranked cultivators at the Integration Body stage and above needed to breathe in Origin Qi to survive without food or water, let alone the soldiers below them.

But the food and fodder were not an imminent issue right now, as the city could still rely on the Imperial Court’s storages for another half a month or so.

Li Qingyan looked at him with a somewhat helpless gaze, as if he were looking at an idiot:

"Military morale."

"......"

Xu Yuan was startled for a moment, then shut his mouth.

Standing in different positions, there were many things that he could not consider.

He had, indeed, forgotten about the morale of the army.

In past-life war games, without morale, forces would collapse, let alone in the real world.

Li Qingyan walked slowly to a sand table inside the barracks, looking at the terrain model which proportionally mimicked the area around Northern Border City, and spoke in a solemn, low voice:

"Right now, although we have Northern Border City’s Protective City Formation, and the generals and Colonel keep silent about the true situation, only revealing the good news and not the bad to the soldiers, the soldiers below are not fools."

Xu Yuan sighed, responding:

"The battle hasn’t even started yet, and the city gates were almost destroyed by an explosion that damaged the Formation. Last night, the storages were bombed as well. I guess the soldiers are probably already in an uproar, right?"

Li Qingyan nodded and said:

"Even among my own Feathered Forest Army, many have started discussing the likely fall of Northern Border City, let alone those Border Army soldiers from the Sects. If not for the barbarians’ view of our Great Yan’s inhabitants as mere sheep, these people might have already harbored other thoughts."

Xu Yuan’s gaze fell:

"You want a victory to stabilize the troops’ morale?"

Li Qingyan focused on the sand table:

"Not want, but must."

Upon hearing this, Xu Yuan immediately realized the seriousness of the problem.

After all, people are individual entities; when a large portion of the individuals’ minds within a group become uncontrollable, it’s the beginning of discord.

The barbarians do not accept surrender, and the situation of being encircled on three sides would cause those trying to find a way to flee towards Houting County.

After all,

What if they survive?

There was a moment of silence, then Xu Yuan tentatively asked:

"But if this expedition fails, then the morale of the troops inside the city will completely dissipate."

Hearing this, Li Qingyan fell silent for a few breaths, then suddenly turned with a smile. Once the decision was made, her face seemed to show no sign of the gravity of the situation; her armor highlighted her extraordinary beauty and valiant demeanor:

"Prince Consort, now Northern Border City has no choice but to stake everything on a single throw, in order to seize a glimmer of hope."

"......"

Xu Yuan looked into Li Qingyan’s smiling eyes and for a moment, he was lost for words.

It was only a matter of time before Northern Border City became a dead city; this was essentially an accepted scenario among the informed higher-ups.

That included Xu Yuan himself, who had even arranged for contingencies for when Northern Border City fell.

Li Qingyan could not possibly be blind to this state of affairs, yet she still wanted to defend Northern Border City.

Exhaling deeply, Xu Yuan asked seriously:

"Are you telling me all this because you want to make use of my Black Scale Army’s beast pens in the city?"

Li Qingyan shook her head with a slight smile:

"No, I want the Black Scale Army to hold fast at the destroyed South City gate. Once I take action in the east of the city, the Barbarian Strange King will surely mount a major attack on the south."

Although he didn’t understand warfare, Xu Yuan instantly grasped Li Qingyan’s intention.

It was indeed dangerous to mount a raid outside, but the South City would become even more dangerous.

As a lunatic, that Barbarian Strange King would not miss this opportunity. As long as he confirmed that the Feathered Forest Army went east, he might even deploy war beasts.

In such a situation, she dared not leave the defense of the South City to the Sects’ Border Army.

It wasn’t that she feared they would defect to the enemy, but rather she simply did not trust that these fools could hold it.

Although their numbers were about one hundred thousand, they were all second-tier troops of the Ninth Grade or so.

Such forces were considered elite in Shengshan County at the time, but in the context of national warfare in the Northern Frontier, they were basically not up to standard.

Xu Yuan stroked the smooth edges of the mahogany table with his hand, his voice steady:

"But right now, there’s just over one battalion (five thousand people) of the Black Scale Guards—it may not hold."

Li Qingyan replied immediately:

"Her Highness has arranged for thirty thousand of the Sects’ Border Army to assist in the defense."

"Won’t they... lead the Black Scale Army to a rout?"

"......."

Li Qingyan was also uncertain.

Xu Yuan fell silent for a while, then slowly exhaled and asked in a low voice:

"How much longer until your plan can be put into action, Your Highness?"

"Two quarters of an hour."

"....."

Xu Yuan, frowning in thought, tapped lightly on the mahogany table with his finger. Suddenly he rose to his feet and said:

"Do you have a Communication Crystal in this military camp?"

Li Qingyan’s eyes showed surprise, and the corners of her lips curved slightly:

"What, does the Prime Minister’s Mansion have another move to make within Northern Border City?"

Xu Yuan grinned:

"Yes, but it was just for my escape."

Li Qingyan huffed softly and called out to the tent entrance:

"Qi Fengjie, come in and take my trusted aide to the Communication Crystal."

The guard who was stationed outside immediately entered the tent, saluted, and said "Yes."

Half a quarter of an hour later,

When Xu Yuan emerged from the chamber containing the Communication Crystal, he immediately saw Li Qingyan standing at the doorway.

She was armed, in full martial armor:

"What have you done?"

Xu Yuan looked towards the north and smiled slightly:

"Lou Ji left two ’Cloud Qi Bombs’ in the vicinity of Houting County in advance, and I’ve just had one of them detonated there."