Chapter 252: Deep Strike Behind Enemy Lines
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The cold northern wind howled atop the Cangzhou city walls, a sign that another harsh winter was coming soon.
Xiao Ming had chosen this time on purpose—right when the barbarians were between harvests and supplies were tight. A perfect opportunity to strike at their logistics.
With the plan to harass the barbarians finalized, Niu Ben and Lu Fei each led a thousand cavalry, splitting up to carry out deep raids across the grasslands. Meanwhile, Luo Xin remained behind in Cangzhou, tasked with defending the city from any retaliatory attacks and ensuring the new city wall could be completed without disruption.
Watching Niu Ben and the riders disappear into the horizon, Xiao Ming stood silent for a long moment. This was the true test—not only of Niu Ben and Lu Fei, but also of the soldiers under them. Whether they would return at all… was a question only time could answer.
“Zhan Xingchang, start digging the trench,” Xiao Ming ordered.
His entire plan had two parts. Part one was to use cavalry to wage guerrilla warfare, harassing the barbarian forces and keeping them too busy to interfere with the city.
Part two was to dig a deep trench outside the planned wall line and install catapults armed with gunpowder bombs, ready to blast apart any attackers.
Zhan Xingchang had brought over ten thousand trained slave laborers for the construction, and now Xiao Ming had also invested a large sum of silver to hire local peasants. In total, more than 30,000 workers were now participating in the construction of the new city wall.
The trained slaves would build the wall itself, while the peasants were assigned to tasks like material transport and digging trenches—jobs that didn’t require specialized skills.
Once the orders were given, Zhan Xingchang immediately organized the work crews. They began digging a continuous trench roughly 500 meters out from the wall.
The Cangzhou army had also prepared 200 catapults, placing them on pre-built platforms along the trench. When the time came, these would launch gunpowder bombs into the trench at enemy troops who tried to storm the wall.