"Ha ha! This old man and every soldier in the army await your arrival, Qishan Marquis!"
As the voices of the two Grand Academicians thundered through the sky, the army's morale soared to unprecedented heights.
The officers and soldiers threw everything into their defense, while the enemy was frightened. Many barbarians began easing off their attacks, ready to flee at any moment.
Half an hour later, the barbarians had no choice but to retreat.
The two Barbarian Kings left, cursing and grumbling.
Once the barbarians withdrew, the Qishan Marquis returned to Guangzhou City, while the Deer Gate Army made brief preparations before picking up the pace.
Fang Yun secretly listened to the soldiers' conversations and learned some troubling news. In this battle, the Deer Gate Army and the Jingnan Army had lost twenty thousand men, with over eighty thousand wounded. Of those, more than ten thousand had suffered severe, disabling injuries and could no longer fight, while another ten thousand or more would need over two months to recover.
Of the hundred and fifty thousand reinforcements, fewer than a hundred thousand were now fit to fight!
Fang Yun let out a long sigh. This was war.
The entire army marched without sleep or rest, finally reaching the outskirts of Guangzhou City in the early hours of the morning.
With so many wounded, the Deer Gate Marquis ordered three days of rest and recuperation.
On the first day, Qishan Marquis Gou Bao and some of Guangzhou City's scholars hosted a welcoming feast for the Deer Gate Marquis and the other commanders. They also held a "morale-boosting literary gathering," inviting the scholars present to compose poems about military life that would raise morale.
A literary assembly of this sort had nothing to fear from anyone's criticism or accusations.
Just as in Ganzhou,