Preparations

"You want to dispatch troops outside the city?" Hearing this, Xu Yuan's eyes showed a trace of hesitation. "Yes." Li Qingyan nodded. "Isn't that too risky?" Xu Yuan asked in a hesitant, lowered voice. "The barbarian main camp is stationed twenty li outside Beifeng City." Twenty li. This was a hard-learned lesson the barbarians had paid for in blood. Most of the defensive siege engines in Beifeng City were high-precision, formation-inscribed ballistas that fired massive, thick Source Crystal arrows. They could strike targets more than a dozen li away. If the barbarians camped too close, they would be sitting ducks, subjected day after day to Beifeng City's condescending "affection" from above. To counter this, the barbarians had specifically modified their siege engines into beast trebuchets. They lacked any semblance of accuracy, but they did not need it either; Beifeng City was so massive that as long as brute force worked a miracle, any stone launched would hit somewhere inside the city. However, camping twenty li away created a problem of its own. If the barbarians wanted to assault the city, they had to sprint twenty li across the plains just to reach the base of the walls. Yet to the barbarians, who held both heaven's timing and earthly advantages, this was no obstacle at all. Amidst the howling blizzard calamity, whenever the barbarians launched an assault, high-level cultivators on the battlements would only spot them once they had sneaked to within three or four li of the walls. The Black Scale Guards had succeeded in their raid yesterday only because the blizzard catastrophe blinded the barbarians just as severely, and their camp was not yet firmly entrenched, catching them off guard. Now that the blizzard had temporarily subsided, attempting a sally to raid the camp meant their vision would no longer be obscured. The defenders would have to cross that twenty li entirely on foot. Li Qingyan had naturally considered this, her tone calm and detached. "Prince Consort, while the destruction of the sect warehouses inside the city brings certain benefits, it has also caused an urgent, pressing crisis that must be addressed immediately." "An urgent crisis?" Xu Yuan's eyes flickered. From a macro perspective of the Northern Border, the sects certainly had flaws—namely, their shortage of provisions. Cultivation was no perpetual-motion machine. Only high-rank cultivators at or above the Flesh Integration Realm could sustain themselves without food and water by cycling Source Qi, to say nothing of the common soldiers below them. Yet grain was not an immediate catastrophe. Supported by the imperial court's storehouses, the city could still hold out for well over half a month. Li Qingyan looked at him with exasperation, as if looking at a fool. "Troop morale." "..." Xu Yuan was stunned for a moment, then held his tongue. Standing in different positions, there were many things he had failed to take into account. He had completely forgotten about morale. Even in the war strategy games of his past life, armies routed when their morale broke, let alone in the real world. Li Qingyan paced slowly toward the terrain sandbox inside the command barracks. Looking down at the scaled-down relief map of the terrain surrounding Beifeng City, she said in a serious, quiet voice, "Although Beifeng City's city-protecting array still holds, and the commanding officers remain tight-lipped about the true situation, reporting only good news and hiding the bad, the common soldiers below are no fools." Xu Yuan let out a soft sigh and replied, "Before the fighting even properly began, the gate tower was nearly blown up, damaging the defensive array. Last night, the warehouses were detonated again. The soldiers below must already be rife with rumors and agitation, aren't they?" Li Qingyan nodded. "Even among my Yulin Guards, many have begun whispering that Beifeng City is doomed to fall, to say nothing of those sect border armies. If not for the fact that the barbarians treat our Great Yan people as mere two-legged sheep, those soldiers might have already begun harboring disloyal thoughts." Xu Yuan lowered his gaze. "You want a victory to stabilize morale?" Li Qingyan stared intently at the sandbox. "It isn't a want. It is a must." Hearing this, Xu Yuan immediately grasped the gravity of the situation. Humans were, after all, individuals. When the thoughts of the majority within a collective slipped out of control, it marked the beginning of a camp mutiny. The barbarians accepted no surrender, and their strategy of besieging three sides while leaving one open would tempt the defenders to try every possible means to flee toward Houting County. After all... What if they happened to survive? After a moment of silence, Xu Yuan ventured cautiously, "But if this sortie fails, the army's morale inside the city will shatter completely." At these words, Li Qingyan fell quiet for a few breaths. Then, she suddenly turned her head and smiled. Once the decision had been made, not a shred of solemnity lingered on her face; her polished suit of armor accentuated an exquisite, fair visage radiant with heroic resolve. "Prince Consort, in Beifeng City's current state, only by staking everything on a single throw can we win a slim chance of survival." "..." Looking at the smiling glint in Li Qingyan's eyes, Xu Yuan was temporarily at a loss for words. Beifeng becoming a dead city was only a matter of time. Among the informed higher-ups, this was an unspoken certainty. Including Xu Yuan himself—he had even prepared backup measures in advance for when Beifeng fell. Li Qingyan was far too sharp not to see through the situation, yet she still intended to hold Beifeng City at all costs. Exhaling softly, Xu Yuan asked seriously, "In telling me all this, do you wish to borrow my Black Scale Army's beast pens in the city?" Li Qingyan smiled faintly and shook her head. "No. I want the Black Scale Army to hold the destroyed south gate to the death. Once I make a move at the eastern wall, the Barbarian Heterodox King will inevitably launch a massive assault on the south." Though he knew little of military strategy, Xu Yuan instantly understood her intent. Going out to conduct a raid was dangerous, but the south gate would become far more perilous. Madman that he was, the Barbarian Heterodox King would never pass up such an opportunity. The moment he confirmed the Yulin Guards had moved to the east, he would even deploy his war behemoths directly. Under such circumstances, she did not dare entrust the southern defense to the sect border armies. It was not that she feared they would defect to the enemy; she simply had zero faith in those swine holding the line. Though they numbered around a hundred thousand, they were all second-rate troops of the eighth and ninth ranks. Such forces had been considered elite back in Shengshan County, but on a grand battlefield of national warfare like the Northern Border, they were entirely inadequate. Xu Yuan stroked the smooth, rounded edge of the mahogany table, his voice steady. "Yet the Black Scale Guards currently have barely over a single battalion of five thousand men. They might not be able to hold." Li Qingyan replied immediately, "I have arranged for thirty thousand sect border troops to assist in the defense." "Won't they... drag the Black Scale Army into a rout with them?" "..." Li Qingyan said nothing. On that point, she had no confidence either. Xu Yuan fell silent for a short while, slowly exhaled a breath, and asked in a low voice, "How much time remains before this plan of Your Highness's is set in motion?" "Two quarters of an hour." "..." Xu Yuan furrowed his brow in thought, his fingers tapping lightly against the mahogany table. An instant later, he rose and said, "Does your military encampment have a communication crystal?" Li Qingyan's eyes showed a hint of surprise, the corner of her lips curving slightly. "What? Does your Chancellor's Manor still have hidden cards inside Beifeng City?" Xu Yuan grinned. "Yes, though it was meant for my escape." Li Qingyan gave a soft hum and called out toward the entrance of the tent, "Qi Fengjie, get in here. Escort him to the communication crystal." At her call, the guard who had been watching the door entered the barracks immediately, saluting as he replied, "Understood!" Half a quarter of an hour later. When Xu Yuan stepped out of the secret chamber housing the communication crystal, he immediately saw Li Qingyan waiting by the doorway. Her hand rested on her saber, clad fully in heavy battle armor. "What did you do?" Xu Yuan looked northward and smiled faintly. "Lou Ji left two Cloud Qi Bombs in the Houting County region ahead of time. I just had someone detonate one of them there."