Fang Yun stood in the Golden Throne Hall and quietly listened as General Li finished recounting what had happened.
The northwest, north, and northeast of the Jing Kingdom were collectively known as the Three Frontiers. The Jing soldiers stationed there were not only the kingdom's finest troops, but also ranked among the strongest in the entire human race.
The Three Frontiers had collapsed. Of an army a million strong, only a hundred thousand or so veterans had withdrawn to the Three-Linked War Fortresses to recuperate, while most of the soldiers in the fortresses were new recruits who had yet to see combat.
Those hundred thousand or so veterans were the Jing Kingdom's last elite troops, and its last embers of hope.
Since the previous day, the barbarians had surrounded the fortresses on three sides while leaving the fourth open, allowing an escape route to the south. It was a vicious stratagem. Not only could it shatter the recruits' morale and rob them of the will to defend the fortresses, it could even turn a siege into a pursuit, making it deadlier still.
Most insidiously, the barbarians intended to turn the Three-Linked War Fortresses into a bottomless pit and a meat grinder, drawing an endless stream of Jing reinforcements there and grinding down the kingdom's fighting strength. Afterward, they could easily breach Ning'an County and Jade Sun Pass, drive straight in, and bring their armies to the capital's gates.
At present, twenty million barbarians had gathered outside the Three-Linked War Fortresses alone. Six of the barbarians' ten most elite tribes were there, along with fifty-four Great Barbarian Kings and countless Barbarian Kings. Even if the Jing Kingdom committed everything it had, it could not contend with them. It could only flee or make a fight to the death behind the capital's