Hearing Lord Chen's words, Di and Jiang both fell silent.
They could not simply muddle through this, which meant the coming offensive would only grow fiercer. Their earlier collapse at first contact had made them recognize the gap between the two sides. They also understood that if they kept fighting, their bargaining power would only diminish further.
And in truth, after this battle, their army of a hundred thousand had already fallen below that number. Though no count had been made, it was inevitable.
In the initial assault under the first wave of artillery cover alone, several thousand men had been killed or wounded.
Then there was the tremendous blow to morale and fighting spirit caused by the vast disparity in combat strength. During the subsequent panicked retreat, some had fallen behind by accident, some had "accidentally" fallen behind and run away on purpose, while others with a little ambition had talked their subordinates into fleeing in organized groups to become bandits.
These non-combat losses had outnumbered the casualties suffered in battle. Now, more than half a month later, under Wang Yan's ferocious advance, the two men had fewer than eighty thousand troops left. Their forces had been grievously weakened.
After all, with war having raged for so many years, the common people had grown crafty as well. They could not even round up people if they wanted to. Especially since Wang Yan had spent all these years spreading the word, and the people had all fled west, leaving the places where the fighting had taken place as empty cities.
Only the rear areas of Hunan-Hubei, which had not been greatly drawn into the war, still retained some vitality and relative stability. But that was where Lord Jiang and the others had recruited their soldiers...
Trying to raise more troops