Mythical Three Kingdoms-Chapter 1749 - 1648: Retreat Unscathed (Part 2)
Even the nearly 200,000 miscellaneous Huns are a bother to them. If truly pushed to the edge, the Northern Huns will invest their own forces alongside the miscellaneous Huns regardless of losses, which will be a problem for the Han Army. Fighting a war without value truly carries no meaning.
"So, are you suggesting we retreat now?" Zhou Yu didn’t have much to say about Chen Xi’s proposal. He also hesitated about taking action. He saw very clearly that, from the perspective of national warfare, this battle held little meaning and value; however, from his standpoint, it was different.
"If not retreat now, should we make a bold statement before leaving? Don’t say you don’t know our reinforcements are arriving. The Northern Huns will surely have reinforcements too; the only difference is they may not run as fast as we do. However, once fighting begins, with reinforcements arriving, changes in morale can easily turn the tide of battle." Chen Xi rolled his eyes and said.
"Hmm, you make a valid point." Zhou Yu nodded in agreement.
Honestly, according to Zhou Yu’s estimation, within a quarter to half an hour, the Huns’ reinforcements would surely arrive. Previously, Zhao Yun’s towering beam was enough to make the enemy abandon half their forces, rushing over only with legion talent coverage. The previously accumulated distance would take about one or two quarters of an hour to cover.
This is also where the two percent failure possibility and the one percent victory chance comes from, but the more reason he proposes a big battle here is to test Chen Xi’s sensitivity.
Truth be told, the strength displayed by Liu Bei’s Army is placing significant pressure on Zhou Yu, and now is an opportunity. No need to say more, with some maneuvering, it’s easy to inflict heavy losses on the Military Spirit Legion and White Horse Soldiers.
After all, the current batch of people, apart from the loss of the Elite of Danyang which is somewhat regrettable, other soldiers from Eastern Wu could be recruited again in no time.
While Chen Xi’s reply may not have been the standard answer Zhou Yu anticipated for him to retreat, in essence, it indeed severed Zhou Yu’s intentions.
But this is just a notion, truly doing such a thing in a national war, Zhou Yu might be able to rationale it, but Sun Ce over there would absolutely not approve. If Sun Ce knew Zhou Yu acted this way, even with them being brothers, a big dispute wouldn’t be avoidable.
Zhou Yu can even imagine Sun Ce bringing him to apologize to Liu Bei; whether you call Sun Ce straightforward or foolish, he cannot stand such matters. An internal battle is one thing, but manipulating national warfare for victory, Sun Ce would rather choose defeat!
"Should we retreat then?" Zhou Yu pondered and asked.
"Let’s retreat; there’s no point in confronting the Northern Huns hard. It’s entirely unclear where the meaning lies. Moreover, our estimates have deviated." Chen Xi helplessly turned his head towards Sun Ce and then spoke, "Who’s that, oh, Li Tiao, go inform them we’re preparing to retreat."
"No fighting, strategist?" Li Tiao inquired, now considered a high-ranking general, with decent combat power and war experience, even able to mix into the ranks of military officers.
"No need; our strategic intent has already been achieved, staying longer holds no meaning." Chen Xi shook his head saying, continuing the fight, with low chances of victory and a high probability of draw and defeat, it’s better to wait for Cao Cao and Liu Bei to arrive before taking action; it would surely be super luxurious.
Li Tiao, though not fully understanding, did not refuse. He spurred his horse forward, stopped at an arrow’s distance facing the opposite side, "Cease battle today, fight again another day!"
After speaking, Li Tiao disregarded the reaction from the Hun people opposite, directly turning his horse around and leaving. Hua Xiong, upon hearing, furrowed his brow slightly, gestured a throat-slashing motion towards Kun Wan’s direction, and immediately turned to leave as well. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖
Hua Xiong was no fool. Having experienced many battles, he knew very well under which circumstances a fight was favorable and which circumstances were unfavorable, and currently, it belonged to the latter.
Though the current Dingling people and Hun people opposite had been thrown into chaos due to Zhao Yun’s celestial god-like threat, allowing Chen Xi and Zhou Yu to easily escape unharmed, truly stating the morale had been greatly affected might not be the case. Facing Zhao Yun’s divine aggression indeed bruised morale, but withstanding such terrifying attacks injected confidence into the Hun people and Dingling people.
At the least, while morale was declining, their confidence saw significant rises. Under such confidence, any trigger would be enough to abruptly restore morale, making it genuinely difficult to consume the Northern Huns.
This is where Zhou Yu and Chen Xi were most hesitant; the current situation is that Northern Hun soldiers have declining morale but resilient hearts; truly fighting, Zhou Yu and Chen Xi weren’t very confident.
Similarly, though the Northern Huns might appear arduously lined up, truly engaging the Han Army, both Kun Wan and Tujin Rongluo weren’t very confident either.
Neither Northern Hun nor Dingling People generals could guarantee their soldiers’ states post-battle; perhaps they hit a stroke of luck, invigorated confidence post-fight leads them to fight valiantly. Or perhaps, post-engagement, previous fears are triggered, plummeting morale to a freezing point.
Both scenarios have a certain likelihood; neither Tujin Rongluo nor Kun Wan found their hearts remarkably calm once arrangements for a formation were drawn.
Especially with Hua Xiong rapidly replenishing troops afterward, Kun Wan didn’t even bother concealing his hesitations. Nevertheless, unlike the Han Army, Kun Wan’s motto was to avenge his people. If he vocalizes pursuit abandonment in such uncertain circumstances, he wouldn’t secure the Right Virtuous King’s position.
And now, given a courtesy step by Li Tiao, Kun Wan naturally did not respond, but his silence in such circumstances had already tacitly agreed.
Zhou Yu and Chen Xi exchanged a glance and began organizing a retreat without the slightest disorder, while Kun Wan remained in place, watching Zhou Yu retreat slowly without launching attacks. After retreating a little over one mile, Zhou Yu and Chen Xi immediately turned around and headed southwest.
"Why are we retreating southwest?" Sun Ce asked Zhou Yu as they retreated.
"If we retreat directly south, we’ll encounter Hun reinforcements within a quarter of an hour. Then we wouldn’t have retreated out of their observation range, and Hun reinforcements only need a sword flash to establish connection. If we’re retreating, we should avoid these troubles." Chen Xi answered in Zhou Yu’s stead.
Sun Ce raised an eyebrow, glancing at Zhou Yu, who silently nodded, indicating it was indeed so. Sun Ce then asked, "With so many of us, activating Legion Talent should instantly decide victory, shouldn’t it? Moreover, both you and Gongjin possess the capability to create Legion Talent, along with my Monarch Talent; all the soldiers would be equivalent to Three Talents."
"That is indeed true; however, just now after Gongjin had you activate Monarch Talent, he and I attempted it together and found that ordinary soldiers suffer excessive depletion using such augmentation." Chen Xi smiled bitterly and said helplessly.
Zhou Yu also nodded at the side. Previously he had Sun Ce activate Monarch Talent, then discovered this issue. After augmenting individual talent by thirty percent, depletion wasn’t large, but with an added two, consumption increased massively.
Unlike Wei Yan whose unified-source Legion Talent depletes its duration, Sun Ce’s Monarch Talent excites latent potential in soldiers. Otherwise, Sun Ce’s Monarch Talent wouldn’t universally apply to everyone.
"Gongjin, with your grasp of battle opportunities, can you not achieve it?" Sun Ce queried immediately.
"I can, but there’s no necessity." Zhou Yu shook his head and said, "Your Monarch Talent needs to be activated after Legion Talent activation, directly augmenting all Legion Talents on the battlefield. Both my and his Legion Talents stir the emotions of the whole army; you understand what this translates to?"
Sun Ce shook his head, and Zhou Yu, with a knowing expression continued explaining, "Meaning, if your Legion Talent isn’t activated, others won’t have a thirty percent increase; once your Legion Talent is activated, we must cancel off the augmentations of our Legion Talents."
"Simply put, with the presence of the three of us, augmenting only us two or only you bears significance; augmenting all reversely incurs excessive depletion." Chen Xi supplemented.
"Why didn’t you just straightforwardly say, the three of us can’t utilize them simultaneously?" Sun Ce displayed a look that he was on the verge of being confounded, only grasping the conclusion.
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