Xiao Chen personally led an army of two million to completely besiege Xilong City, and Galahad, who had escaped the siege of the Beichen Army several times in a row, became the only general in Xilong City, so Galahad had no choice but to face the Beichen Army again. In the siege and defense battle with the Beichen army, Galahad could be regarded as having endured all the hardships. Originally, I thought that the combat effectiveness of the Beichen Army was so average, after all, whoever wiped out the enemy's most elite cavalry by seventy or eighty thousand in a row would not take the enemy too seriously. This is true of the most elite cavalry, not to mention the infantry.

However, when Galahad faced the powerful siege force of the Beichen Army, he realized that it was all wrong. It turns out that the most powerful part of the Beichen Army is not the cavalry troops, but the infantry that is easy to ignore. The combat effectiveness of the infantry officers and soldiers of the Beichen Army has been fully demonstrated in the first wave of siege before. If it weren't for the catapult troops in the city who supported the city wall once regardless of casualties, maybe Xilong City would have been taken long ago. Of course, the price paid was also very large, with the loss of more than 200 catapults.

You must know that even when the 1,000 catapults in the city were bombarded against the more than 1,500 catapults of the Beichen Army, they only lost 300. The results achieved were even greater, destroying more than 700 catapults of the Beichen Army. However, in order to support the city wall, more than 200 planes were lost in a short time, which made Galahad very unhappy. Damn, this is against the Beichen Army, and the gap between pay and gain is not so big.

The catapult troops suffered a heavy loss, losing half of them, which made Galahad do his best not to use catapults in the subsequent defensive battles. More than 2,000 catapults of the Beichen Army were waiting outside the city, how could he let the remaining 500 catapults be exposed. In the face of the powerful offensive of the Beichen army, the defenders could only rely on the catapults in the city. At the most critical moment, it was useless for the infantry to go up, and the combat effectiveness of the soldiers on both sides was too different. Only the catapult can stop the Beichen army for a while, to ease the offensive of the Beichen army, so that the brothers on the city wall can breathe a sigh of relief and continue to resist the attack of the Beichen army.

The difficult defensive battle lasted for five or six days, and within a few days, the Beichen army suffered nearly 200,000 casualties. Among them, there are more than 100,000 people killed on the battlefield, but the momentum of the Beichen Army has not decreased much, and the defenders are still very difficult to resist the attack of the Beichen Army. This made Galahad get to know the Beichen Army anew, and the Beichen Army is not only strong in combat, but also very strong in toughness. In a few days of siege battles, the Beichen army suffered nearly 200,000 casualties, and the casualties of the defenders in the city were also not small.

About 70,000 or 80,000 have been killed in the battle, and there are tens of thousands of wounded soldiers, and the original 500,000 defenders are now less than 400,000. Such a casualty ratio made Galahad very helpless, compared with the Beichen army, the own side with the advantage of the city could only be compared to the attacker less than one to two casualties. This is simply a kind of shame for the defending troops, under normal circumstances, the casualties of the besieging side are at least five times more than ten times that of the defenders, even if they are not ten times that of the defenders. Fortunately, the casualty ratio is less than twice as high, which makes Galahad, as a god general, very entangled.

Of course, the main reason for this is also because the troops involved in the defense of the city are all recruits who have not been trained for a long time, and some garrisons. Their combat effectiveness is poor, and they are not comparable to the regular army in the country. More than 100,000 regular troops are now under the orders of Galahad, recuperating and ready to be used in the most difficult moments. Although the offensive strength of the Beichen Army is very strong now, in the eyes of Galahad, the Beichen Army has not yet used its full strength.

Galahad was also right, the current Beichen Army did not use all its strength. At least, the most elite 200,000 infantry has not been used, especially among the 200,000 elite soldiers, 80,000 are the original Guards soldiers. Their combat effectiveness is by no means comparable to that of the volunteers who rushed to the battlefield after only one month of training, and the key is that most of these volunteer officers and men have not participated in battles. The gap cannot be calculated by common sense.

During the first siege of the city, it was seen that as long as the Beichen army increased its strength, it would be able to take the city wall of Xilong City. However, Xiao Chen still used the officers and soldiers of the Volunteer Army who did not have much combat experience, or even did not have the slightest combat experience, to participate in the attack. The most elite 200,000 soldiers and horses still remained in the rear, and they were not killed, otherwise Xilong City would have been captured on the same day. Among them, as long as the reason is that Xiao Chen wants to train soldiers.

Take Xilong City, that's a very simple matter. After all, there are only 500,000 defenders, and there are only 100,000 elite troops left. Even the Sanshan Pass, which is garrisoned by millions of elite troops, can be taken by the Beichen Army, not to mention Xilong City. Therefore, Xiao Chen did not take Xilong City in his eyes. The purpose now is only to train the officers and men of the Volunteer Army, and in the near future, the disarmament of the Beichen Army is certain. Those who stayed were naturally the elite soldiers in the army, and those non-elite soldiers Liu attacked and couldn't keep the current territory of Beichen Kingdom at all.

Moreover, after the Beichen Army took the Xilong Territory, the next target was naturally the Els Territory. However, in the Els territory, the soldiers of the country where the sun never sets are as high as nearly five million, which is a little more than the three million troops on the southern road of the Beichen Army, of which there are about three million elite troops. This point cannot be ignored by Xiao Chen.

In the five years since the Beacon Continent began, there were a large number of elite soldiers in each of the existing countries. Although the elite level of these troops is not as good as that of the Guards and the Yulin Army, they are not much different from the standing army and the royal army. The 3 million elite troops are definitely much more powerful than the Beichen Army's existing 2.7 million volunteers and 300,000 elite troops. Even Xiao Chen didn't dare to casually try to have a decisive battle with the main force of the enemy, he really didn't know the bottom of his heart.

So now Xiao Chen plans to screen the volunteers well, although it is very cruel, but for the sake of the future of Beichen Kingdom, he can only do this. Only if there are more elites in the Beichen army, or even restore to the previous elite army of one million, then Xiao Chen is confident that he will defeat the millions of troops in the country where the sun never sets. As long as the main force of the Sun Never Sets Country is defeated, then the Beichen Kingdom will be able to have more land to feed the large population in the country.

Siege warfare is undoubtedly the battlefield that trains soldiers the most, especially now that hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of troops abound in the game, which can train the ability of soldiers. The combat effectiveness of an army is completely manifested in the siege of the army. In the field, everyone is in the same geographical environment, and the morale of the battle is not too different. In contrast, siege warfare is much more difficult.

The city wall tens of meters high can give the defenders great psychological comfort. Even if there are many enemies, as long as there are high enough walls, it is a natural danger, and it is also a great test for the soldiers of the besieging side. In the face of the city walls dozens of meters high, and hundreds of thousands of enemy defenders, it was a great courage to dare to rush forward.

Training is Xiao Chen's real purpose, in order to meet the future, it is very likely that there will be a decisive battle with the main force of the country where the sun never sets. Similarly, in order to train the troops, even if the Beichen Army suffered heavy casualties, Xiao Chen did not hesitate to do so.

The offensive and defensive battles in Xilong City temporarily fell into a stalemate because of Xiao Chen's training purpose. However, in the rest of the Xilong Territory, the battle continued.

The 70,000 cavalry and 500,000 infantry led by Xue Rengui made Xue Rengui very faceless because Galahad jumped out of the encirclement of the army. As a result, in the early days of the Tang Dynasty, the ability of a generation of famous generals was completely demonstrated.

In just seven or eight days, the troops led by Xue Rengui occupied thirty-two cities. It can be said that the number of cities every day is not a problem. Of course, the main reason for this is because of something captured by the Beichen Army.

Galahad's Banner!

This flag is the main item that Xue Rengui can use to count the cities in the day.

Previously, when Galahad fled at night, in order to confuse Ma Chao's scouts, he specially left the handsome flag in the camp. This also makes Ma Chao's scouts, even if they encounter different and usual enemy reconnaissance troops, without much consideration. After all, the main purpose of the king of his own family to send a large army to pursue Galahad was well understood by everyone. It was not because of the death of General Luo Cheng that his own king was very angry, so he sent 100,000 cavalry to pursue Galahad. In order to take off Galahad's head to pay tribute to General Luo Cheng.

When the scouts saw that Galahad's banner had been in the camp, they thought that Galahad was hiding in the camp. Therefore, there is nothing to care about the more enemy reconnaissance units than usual. And after the Beichen army broke through the camp arranged by Galahad, it was discovered that Galahad had already left, and the handsome banner was just a ploy by Galahad to confuse the Beichen army.

Now Galahad's banner was captured, although Galahad himself was not captured. But Xue Rengui still used this handsome flag to implement a series of plans. For example, using the servant army unit to pretend to be a defeated soldier of Galahad, and holding the banner of Galahad to deceive the city gate, it is simply tried and tested. The second is to use Galahad's banner to demoralize the defenders in the city. After all, Galahad used the Shuai Qi to confuse the Beichen Army, but he himself fled. Even the Beichen army only learned about it after a few days after breaking the camp, let alone the city dozens of miles away.

Many of the defenders of the city did not know that Galahad had fled, and when the Beichen army broke through Galahad's camp, they thought Galahad had been killed. Therefore, when the Beichen army came with the Garahad flag, they simply surrendered directly. Or, in the face of the attack of the Beichen Army, there is not the slightest morale at all.

It's just that after winning nearly forty cities in a row, Xue Rengui finally encountered a problem. That is, on the way north to Xilong City, the defenders of the city where the sun never sets had no reaction when they saw the banner of Galahad. Xue Rengui thought about it in a blink of an eye, and he understood everything. When Galahad fled, he was heading north, so most of the cities on the road knew that Galahad was not killed by the Beichen army, but successfully returned to Xilong City.

Therefore, after learning that the Beichen army had occupied more than 40 cities in the west, the defenders in the more than a dozen cities in the north were all gathered together. A full 150,000 troops hid in a city, completely blocking Xue Rengui's way north. Facing the city garrisoned by more than 100,000 defenders, the 500,000 infantry under Xue Rengui had no choice. It's not that the combat effectiveness of the defenders is strong, they are all new recruits and garrisons, and their combat effectiveness is very poor. But it can't stop people from having a good general, at least after Xue Rengui's plan is implemented, the Beichen army still has no way to take hundreds of thousands of defenders.

Xue Rengui was blocked on the road, but Zhang Han's department was very cool. After receiving the order to capture the city everywhere, Zhang Han led an army of 300,000 as if it were a tour. Many of the defenders of the city knew about Galahad's escape, so after the arrival of Zhanghan's army, 80 percent of the city surrendered. Only a few enemy troops who swore to resist to the death were also completely turned into ashes under the attack of Zhang Han's army.

Winning forty-eight cities in one go is a very glorious achievement. By now, Zhang Han's troops had reduced their army by 100,000, and these troops did not lose much during the siege. The most consuming place is to garrison and occupy the city, more than 40 cities, and Zhang Han only arranged 2,000 people to garrison each city. This number is already very low, you must know that they are stationed in the city, and they have to guard the minimum number of troops who have surrendered more than 5,000, and even some cities can reach more than 10,000 troops, which is definitely not an easy matter.

There were still about 170,000 soldiers and horses left, and Zhang Han led the 170,000 army to continue to collect the city all the way until he met the city taken by Xue Rengui's army. After that, the army went north to prepare to join Xue Rengui, and the army went to Xilong City to participate in the battle.

In just a few days, Xue Rengui and Zhang Han each occupied nearly fifty cities. This number is already most of the cities in the Xilong Territory except for Xilong City. During the occupation, the Beichen army killed more than 400,000 soldiers and captured nearly 500,000 prisoners. They also plundered countless money, goods, and grain and grass materials. And the capture of slaves, that is even more countless!

In general, during this period of time, although the Beichen Army did not take Xilong City, it still achieved very rich results. In particular, the replenishment of money and materials has almost replenished a small half of the consumption since the beginning of the Beichen Army War. Counting the value that those slaves can create in the future, and the value of the land, the Beichen Army finally has dividends in this war.