313 303. Gongsun Du Reaction

If you want to read 15 Chapters ahead and more, be sure to check out my Patreon!!!

Go to https://www.patreon.com/Tang12

___________________________

Lie Fan gave his promise and soon left the area, now Lie Fan needed to wait for Taishi Ci and the Zhuque army for their landing when he received the information from him then he could begin the assault as they needed to attack at almost the same time, so with that Lie Fan waited in the fishing village for 2.5 days before the letter form Bu Zhi arrived.

Bu Zhi described in the letter that when Lie Fan received the letter, Taishi Ci and the Zhuque Army had begun their assault on their target as time was of the essence on their side, to block off the news of the attack from going out to the land.

Lie Fan burned the letter and then called for Jia Xu, Xun You, and Chen Gong informing them that they would begin the attack on Xiangping County, and take it down at the fastest speed with the lowest casualties they could.

They received the order, and soon the order reached the generals under Lie Fan to prepare their men, and his army numbering 78,000 men began to leave the fishing village under Lie Fan's leadership.

First, under Lie Fan's order, they headed toward the nearest towns around the village and began to siege these towns, to take down and create a supply line for them when they continued to march upward.

Lie Fan personally participated in the battles, where he led the Tian Mao Battalion with Xu Rong and Zang Ba to mow through Gongsun Du's infantries after they managed to break through the gates of the towns.

At this time, Chao Bo was excited as he finally showcased the power of his Chu-Ko-Nu units that were finally introduced to the world, its piercing power was more powerful compared to normal bows, managing to strike down many infant ties especially some heavy armored ones they encounter.

Chao Bo and his unit also receive the chance to shoot cavalries when being put on the frontline that comes upon Lie Fan's Army, leaving the safety of their town walls to try to inflict some damage.

Unfortunately for them, Chao Bo led the Chu-Ko-Nu units to destroy the cavalries, reducing their number and momentum so when they collided with the Infantries behind the d Chu-Ko-Nu unit, they didn't inflict much damage both in casualties and morale.

The Chu-Ko-Nu unit also received some casualties but only a very small percentage, so its combat capability wasn't affected, and from this Chao, Bo could see that his unit had a very big weakness.

It was their reload time, at that time his unit would be very vulnerable so he was thinking of having his unit have experience in melee combat so that they could change from using their Chu-Ko-Nu to their sword or spears in case they needed to do close combat.

Lie Fan on the other hand after seeing the skirmish between the Chu-Ko-Nu unit and the enemy cavalry, also notices the weakness that Chao Bo noticed. Lie Fan remembered that in medieval Europe, pikemen units were used to combat cavalry.

Its weapon called the pike has similarities with Halberd, the pike is a simple point at the end of the shaft to thrust at enemies, infantry, or cavalry. Halberd is when other bits are added on. It has the pokey point, an axe blade, and something on the back, usually a hook to pull cavalries off their horses.

Cavalries in this era were very expensive to train and equip, the horses especially which were rare commodities as the good breed of war horses come from the North and Northwest.

If he introduced a unit that it's main purpose was to combat cavalries, he wouldn't know if those warlords would cry tears of blood as they saw their money and time being drained to the ground.

On Lie Fan's front the battle was going well, they slowly pushed upward with several towns and villages falling onto his hand, while on Taishi Ci's front after their landing and resting for a day, Bu Zhi instructed Taishi Ci for them to take down the towns and villages on the border.

After that they could push to the east while leaving some soldiers to guard the border, Bu Zhi's plan proved to be effective as the borders had the most soldiers Gongsun Du put to guard against Yuan Shao, so when they were attacked by the rear they were taken by surprise.

When they reacted Taishi Ci and the Zhuque Army had already breakthrough the gate of the town they guard, where 50% of the time they choose to surrender to Taishi Ci and The Zhuque Army.

As for Zhang Liao and half of the Qilin Army, they joined the attack on Gongsun Du after they landed a week and a half after Taishi Ci and Lie Fan, Gao Shun was put as a momentary advisor to Zhang Liao and together the duo head East first before joining Lie Fan.

The coordinated attack on Gongsun Du proved to be effective, with the support of Gan Ning and the Navy under him alongside the Oriole the news of their attack for now managed to be blocked from going out.

In Liaodong Gongsun Du's Capital, the news of the attack reached Gongsun Du and his council ears a month passed by after the initial attack from Lie Fan, which terrified them after recycling the news.

Gongsun Du and his council never expected Lie Fan would suddenly attack them, what's more, surprising is that Lie Fan right now fighting against Liu Biao, and attacking Gongsun Du means he stretched his battlefront into two opposing areas with a large distance.

Gongsun Du declared an emergency council meeting, gathering all of his able generals and advisors in Liaodong to discuss Lie Fan's attack and compose a plan of defense or even a counterattack.

Gongsun Du: "Bastard! That bastard Lie Fan truly attacked me! Doesn't all of you swear that he wouldn't attack me?! Look now, not only did he attack but even managed to hide it from us for so long!"

Gongsun Gong: "Calm down Father, I'm sure that no one expected Lie Fan to do such maneuver. He dared to attack us while battling Liu Biao means there is something up on his sleeve, or maybe time is of the essence with him blocking the news of his attack to us."

Gongsun Du: "Calm down?! You told me to calm down?! My years of hard work expanded my domain to such an extent outside of the mainland, am on the brink of a cliff! I don't want you to calm me down, give me a solution, a plan, a strategy to counter Lie Fan!"

Gongsun Kang: "Father, what younger brother said is correct we have to be calm so that we can think of a plan, I have a plan that I would like to suggest which is to call back all of our expeditionary forces to Liaodong and while waiting for them, we use all the soldiers we have to halt Lie Fan's army progress as on gas we could."

General 1: "First Young Lord, you mean we will abandon the other areas other than Xiangping?! That will only fasten their conquest of other areas, and then regrouping to focus on us!"

Gongsun Kang: "Yes we have to do that, it was a price we had to pay because if we attack Lie Fan's three armies with whatever soldiers we have right now, we will surely be defeated in no time, I'm sure the General has heard the might of Lie Fan's army, especially his generals and Lie Fan himself."

Advisor 1: "I think the First Young Master has a sensible plan, one that I think we need to enact immediately. With the news reporting that Lie Fan himself participated in this battle, the combat power of his army will surely be much more powerful than it was usually."

Advisor 2: "I think we should also release the news to other Warlords as fast as we can, with Lie Fan fighting on two fronts I'm sure that his territory lacked enough men to defend it, that's why he blocked the news from reaching us as long as he could!"

Gongsun Du: "I agree with both of the plans! Gong'er you wrote the letters to our expeditionary forces ordering them to return to Liaodong as fast as they could, Kang'er you organized the remaining soldiers we have right now to halt the Lie Fan's attack on our south while the rest stationed on the West border of Xiangping County!"

After Gongsun Du's word fell, Gongsun Gong and Gongsun Kang cupped their hand toward Gongsun Du received the order, and left the hall to carry out the task they had just received.

Unbeknownst to them, The Oriole members who were assigned to monitor their movements reported the content of their meeting to Jia Xu, who then forwarded it to Lie Fan.

Lie Fan receiving this news this face scowled for a moment, he asked Jia Xu the number of soldiers Gongsun Du had right now and the number of soldiers on each expeditionary force Gongsun Du had under him.

Jia Xu then told Lie Fan the number he received from Oriole, currently the number of soldiers Gongsun Du had on hand was around 50,000 men, and he had 2 expeditionary forces both numbering 100,000 men.

So in total Gongsun Du had around 250,000 men, which was a bit bigger than the total number of Lie Fan's army, which was around 235,000 men but of course their combat power is average or below average in this case as the fight against Lie Fan's Army with better equipment and generals.

Alongside the presence of Jia Xu, Xun You, and Chen Gong these three Think Tanks, Lie Fan felt that they could take on the entirety of Gongsun Du's Army but what he wants is to end the battle with Gongsun Du as fast as possible.

Time is of the essence for him, as his domain lacked the soldiers to defend his domain, especially Xu Province and Yu Province which bordered Cao Cao at Yan Province who would definitely attack him if he knew about the emptiness in both of the provinces since Cao Cao had ended his battle at Tong Pass.

Lie Fan asked Jia Xu if should they continue at the pace that they had right now, or fasten their paces, especially Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci who led their respective army in the West currently.

Jia Xu replied by saying that Lie Fan and his army, they need to continue at the planned pace, while Zhang Liao and Taishi Ci their pace needed to be fastened so that they could reach Xiangping County as fast as possible, so that get could regroup into one big army to face off against Gongsun Du at Liaodong, which will become the battle to decide who's the victor and who's the loser of this war.

____________________

Name: Lie Fan

Title: Three Heroes Who Defeat Lu Bu

Age: 29 (196 AD)

Level: 16

Next Level: 2,462,000

Renown: 725

Cultivation: Yin Yang Separation (level 9)

SP: 1,071,700

ATTRIBUTE POINTS

STR: 936 (+20)

VIT: 598 (+20)

AGI: 583 (+10)

INT: 587

CHR: 93

WIS: 509

WILL: 397

ATR Points: 0