It's an indication of their lack of experience and leadership. They have never really had a military command structure. What they've had since they're founding has been nepotism and rich elites in command of a bunch of cannon fodder. They would have been shelling these fucking cities from the start to weaken them and then sent their ground forces in to clean up the mess if they had had any idea or learned any lesson from the past. I think they finally learned a little bit or it's just one hell of a coincidence that their anger finally got them the right move.