"Report to the General, the Yuan army appears to be showing signs of withdrawing. Their grain shipments have dwindled lately, and some units have begun pulling back."
Inside the command tent, the messenger dutifully reported the intelligence gathered from the front-line reconnaissance.
The mounted scouts had it quite hard as well. Knowing how formidable Wang Yan's mounted scouts were, the Yuan army had set up numerous fifty-man patrols to prevent intelligence about their territory from being gathered. They might have been poor at fighting, but they could still weave a defensive net with few gaps. No matter how capable the mounted scouts were, they were ultimately teams of two or three and could not take on so many Yuan troops.
And once Wang Yan sent out corresponding forces—fifty-man squads or hundred-man squads—the Yuan army would produce five-hundred-man or thousand-man units. If Wang Yan increased his forces further, the enemy would begin relying on cities and supporting one another, striking here and there. The moment Wang Yan showed any sign of charging toward Gaoyi, their entire army would mobilize, forming units of over ten thousand men and launching encirclements from every direction.
It was an exceptionally disgusting tactic, and accordingly, gathering intelligence was extremely difficult for the mounted scouts. After all, it was winter, and there was a war on. Commoners did not even dare leave their homes, making it difficult to conceal one's tracks. Getting in was relatively easy; getting back out was the hard part.
After hearing the messenger's report, Wang Yan laughed.
Whether it was the Battle of Julu, the Battle of Xiaquyang, or the Battle of Shijiazhuang, the fiercest clashes had generally come in the early stages of the war. Both sides deployed troops and appointed generals, moving back and forth across hundreds of li of land.