The news of the fall of Yinfeng Castle spread throughout the land of China even faster than when Hetao was founded. This was undoubtedly a sap for the three major families and the Qingfeng Liu family, and everyone was knocked unconscious immediately.
After learning that Dugu, one of the five generals in Hetao, had brazenly ordered all Qinchuan prisoners of war in Yinfeng Castle and nearly 100,000 people from the three tribes who went north to Qinchuan that day to be escorted to Niantian Holy Capital to build the city.
, even Jinhua Mitsukoshi south of the Xijiang River felt the strong murderous intent emanating from the Hetao.
When Li Tieming heard this, a mouthful of blood suddenly spurted out, and he fainted. The people in the Jingxi Prince's Mansion were in a hurry for a while, and then Li Tieming finally managed to catch his breath.
"Come here, let Xiao Mo come back and take charge of the overall situation immediately!" Li Tieming managed to finish these words and fainted again. The servants did not dare to neglect, and quickly sent two groups of people to go to Hulao Pass to inform Li Tiezhan.
Along the way, he went to inform Li Xiaomo.
Li Xiaomo received the news of the fall of Yinfeng Castle almost at the same time as Li Tieming. Although he did not know exactly how Hetao climbed over the Yinfeng Mountains and captured Yinfeng Castle from both sides, the fact was before his eyes. Yinfeng Castle had fallen.
Li Xiaoran and his entire army of 150,000 soldiers were wiped out, and the Qinchuan Li family was about to be destroyed.
Without any hesitation, Li Xiaomo immediately led more than 30,000 soldiers under his command to cross the Luoshui River and quickly return to Ezhou. Yinfeng Castle had fallen, and Hanzhou had no regular garrison at all, and was completely unable to stop the Hetao army. As for Kang next to him,
In Kangzhou, the Li family's current military strength was already stretched thin. Therefore, when crossing the Luoshui River, Li Xiaomo had already decided to abandon Kangzhou and gather all the troops in Qinchuan to form a defense line in Xiangzhou and Ezhou for a decisive battle with the Hetao army.
"He ordered Li Wucheng to return all his 50,000 soldiers to Xiangzhou. No matter how provocative the Hetao army was outside the city, they were not allowed to step out of Xiangzhou!" Once he returned to Ezhou, he had not had time to talk to Li Tieming who was lying on the hospital bed.
After speaking, Li Xiaomo began to take over this mess.
Qinchuan is not invincible. The death of 150,000 elite soldiers is heartbreaking, but as long as the losses are valuable, Li Xiaomo will not hesitate. However, this defeat was too sudden.
This left the Li family completely unprepared.
According to the Li family's initial prediction, Li Xiaoran took the lead in containing the Hetao offensive at Yinfeng Castle, and then trained 100,000 new soldiers for three months to go north to Hanzhou to fight side by side with Li Xiaoran, achieving the purpose of training troops in battle. As long as they can
Keeping the defense line of Yinfeng Castle, there is no need to worry about Fengjing and Xinke. If the Hetao is diverted to Youyun Sixteen Prefectures, then the navy of Dongbo will definitely station in the river to block the southward movement of Hetao, and the Holy Sect of Paradise will
He Qingfeng and the Liu family will also be under considerable pressure.
As for the road to the Bloody Plateau, that is something the Song family and his son should consider. Yizhou Road is a basin terrain, and there are many places where one man can block it and ten thousand people can't pass it. Except for Dugu Yuming, no one in Hetao has any idea about Yizhou Road.
I don't know that the Song family relied on the favorable geographical location and could at least drag the Hetao to exhaustion.
However, no one expected that Yinfeng Castle would fall in one day, which resulted in a large gap in the Li family's defense area in Qinchuan. The Song and Li families were not prepared at all. Fortunately, Hetao captured Yinfeng Castle.
After that, we rested for three full days, finally giving the two families some time to prepare.
"It seems that the Hetao suffered heavy losses in the battle of Yinfeng Castle. Otherwise, we would never rest and stop moving forward, giving us so much preparation time." A counselor said with some relief.
Li Xiaomo shook his head, with an extremely solemn expression on his handsome and charming face: "No, Hetao is deliberately giving us time to prepare. Yizhou Road and our southwest Qinchuan area are mainly mountains and hills. If we bring an army
If we take the initiative to retreat here, the war will become a protracted war of attrition. Moreover, we have the right location and the right people. If the battle cannot be resolved in half a year, the Hetao army will definitely be overwhelmed by us."
After a pause, Li Xiaomo squinted his eyes and said: "So, Hetao simply gives us time to gather our troops and prepare for a battle to completely wipe us out."
Li Tiezhan was shocked and asked quickly: "In this case, what should we do?" He had just returned from the front line of Hulao Pass and brought back 50,000 cavalry from the Red Eyebrow Army. Obviously Li Tiezhan was also aware of the situation.
The situation was so serious that only 50,000 infantrymen were left in Hulao Pass to monitor the movements of Xin Ke.
"Withdraw all our forces from Hanzhou and Kangzhou, gather all our troops, use Ezhou as a strategic support point, and destroy the Hetao army. For this plan, we can only cut off the strength of the strong men." Li Xiaomo said coldly, thinking about it.
Thinking about it, Li Xiaomo continued: "Second uncle, my military capabilities are average, and there are only 50,000 soldiers under his command, but Xiangzhou is the hub of communication between our Li family and the Song family, and we must not allow any mistakes."
Li Tiezhan nodded: "I will immediately lead the 50,000 soldiers of the Red Eyebrow Army to Xiangzhou to guard it. But it's up to you in Ezhou." The strong man broke his wrist and said it was easy. Those were three million people from Hankang and Kangzhou.
But Li Tiezhan also understood the urgency of the matter, so he didn't refute.
Li Xiaomo looked determined. To be honest, with the current situation in Qinchuan, unless the Song family immediately led a large army to help regardless of the previous suspicion, they would definitely not be able to stop Hetao's troops. But when he thought of being able to kill Dugu and Feng Jingxin with blood and carve these Hetao
The top generals were fighting against each other, and Li Xiaomo couldn't help but feel excited.
On the second day after Li Xiaomo returned to Ezhou, Fengjing's 50,000 cavalry used civilian ships to forcefully cross the Luoshui River. With the army as a unit, five cavalry units galloped across the central Qinchuan, dividing the two states of Hankang and southern Qinchuan in one fell swoop.
At the same time, the Xingke cavalry suddenly went north, passing through Hulao Pass at lightning speed, and met 130,000 soldiers led by Li Xiaomo near Ezhou.
Xin Ke was originally a military madman, and Li Xiaomo also wanted to learn from Xin Ke's skills. If he could defeat Xin Ke by chance, it would also greatly improve the morale of Qinchuan's army. Therefore, the ambitions of both sides
Together, nearly 200,000 troops fought in Guanghua County, near the capital city of Ezhou.
Xinke's attack method was as always, using himself as an arrow to make a frontal breakthrough against Qinchuan's infantry formation. Li Xiaomo also knew Xinke's combat methods quite well, so he specially arranged more than ten lines of defense, preparing to rely on strategic depth to drag
Defeat the Hetao Cavalry.
Although Li Xiaomo had already increased the unparalleled impact of Xin Ke as much as possible, he never expected that Xin Ke would be so powerful. As soon as the two sides came into contact, Xin Ke's double-edged battle ax struck the Li family's
A hole was opened in the defense line, and tens of thousands of Hetao cavalry suddenly swarmed in. While expanding the hole, they drove the defeated Qinchuan soldiers to attack the defense line behind.
After all, Li Xiaomo overestimated the combat effectiveness of his soldiers. If the more than 30,000 soldiers he brought back from the east bank of Luoshui were considered elite, then these 100,000 recruits could really only be reserves.
In fact, the quality of these recruits is not bad. Before this, Qinchuan would conduct military training for a period of time every year, and the main training targets were the able-bodied young people in the territory. Because of this, the Qinchuan Li family eventually became the third
The most powerful one among the big families. However, even the veterans of Qinchuan's battles are still far behind the main army soldiers in Hetao, let alone these new recruits? Fortunately, Li Xiaomo is cautious,
The defense lines were set up in an interlocking manner and the strategic depth was quite high. This prevented the defense line from collapsing under the first round of charge by the Hetao cavalry.
At this time, Li Xiaomo finally understood why Xinke was able to sweep across the Sixteenth Province of Youyun across the Great Wall. With such huge impact and destructive power, even he almost got caught, let alone others?
However, Xinke seemed to have no intention of getting entangled with Li Xiaomo. After a head-on confrontation, Xinke's horse suddenly turned its head. The 50,000 cavalrymen almost turned on the spot, and the attack direction immediately changed from the front of Qinchuan's army to the flank. It was easy.
After crushing the defense line of the Qinchuan soldiers, the Hetao cavalry flew away, leaving Li Xiaomo melancholy and confused for a long time.
"The Xingke cavalry went north, and the Fengjing cavalry cut off the return route of nearly three million people in Hankang and Kangzhou. Is Hetao really prepared to risk the world's indifference to carry out a brutal massacre?" Li Xiaomo only felt that his scalp was in his head.
numb.
Li Tongyang, the prefect of Ezhou, hesitated and said: "It should be impossible. Although Hetao has killed no less than a million people over the years, the largest massacre was only more than 300,000 people, and it was still on the territory of the Holy Sect of Paradise."
Li Xiaomo shook his head: "Hetao is a group of lunatics now and cannot be treated with common sense. However, King Jingbei agreed to Xiao Ran and only killed the three tribes who went north to Qinchuan soldiers. With the nature of King Jingbei, he has always said the same thing.
.”
"However, King Jingbei is still in Yinfeng Castle, killing blood. Dugu Yuming and Xinke are all murderous and daring people. If they think it is too troublesome to distinguish the three tribes of the soldiers who went north at that time, in order to save trouble, who can
Do you know if these lunatics will..." Li Tongyang said worriedly.
Li Xiaomo narrowed his eyes. Haotian promised that as long as he is present, he will never condone such a thing. But if Xue Sha and others really have excuses that are difficult to distinguish, they might as well kill the whole country and turn the country red.
, thinking about their relationship with Haotian, Haotian will not pursue it.
"Fengjing has a very scholarly demeanor and should not do such a thing. But the other three," Li Xiaomo stomped back and forth a few steps. Fengjing must be opposed to such a massacre in his heart, but if Dugu and others
If people insist, then the respect must be neutral. Frankly speaking, Li Xiaomo himself, Xue Sha and others can be regarded as sympathetic to each other, and when the Hetao went south to fight, the two sides had a lot of friendship. However, the death of Qin Tianyi
The occurrence of the Dingzhou massacre seriously stimulated the nerves of these people.
"Li Hao!" Li Xiaomo shouted.
"My subordinates are here!" Li Hao, the commander of the soldiers, stepped forward and said.
"Immediately lead fifty soldiers, bypass the Hetao cavalry blockade, go to Yinfeng Castle to meet King Jingbei, and tell him what is going on here. Remember, this sentence can only be told to His Highness King Jingbei personally. If it is
When other people in Hetao ask, they can only say that I have important matters to discuss with King Jingbei," Li Xiaomo said.
Li Hao was very confused, but out of Li Xiaomo's trust, he finally nodded firmly.
"Remember, you can only make it clear to King Jingbei! If you can't see King Jingbei, then go find Princess Xin Jiao." Li Xiaomo warned again.
Li Xiaomo knew very well what kind of people he was in Hetao. If Li Hao had directly bumped into Luo Xiang's hand, there was a high probability that Luo Xiang's body would be destroyed. As for Jiang Shenzhou, Li Xiao, Zhu Xigao and others, they would also be dead.
It was Luo Xiang and Luo Xiang who reported the mystery first. These soldiers were all virtuous, and they knew very well what kind of person Haotian was, so they would definitely hide it from Haotian.
As for Xian Lianchen and Qiu Mu, I have no friendship with them. Even if Li Hao could see them, who knows whether they would be willing to risk being noticed by Luo Xiang and other senior military officials to tell Haotian.
However, Xin Jiao was an accident. Xin Jiao has no desires and the softest heart. After God left, she has become the first mistress in Hetao. Among the three parties in the Hetao, Xin Jiao is
She also has a high prestige. The most important thing is that Xin Jiao is the only woman who is not afraid of the Hetao military. If she comes forward, Luo Xiang's doting on Haotian will definitely not come forward.
"Has there been any response from the Song family?" Li Xiaomo turned around and asked as he watched Li Hao leave in a hurry.
A counselor quickly replied: "King Dingxi has given a clear answer. In three days at most, he will lead an army of 200,000 into Xiangzhou to fight jointly with our army. King Dingxi said that he absolutely does not want Hetao to set foot south of the Yinfeng Mountains."
When Li Xiaomo returned to Ezhou, he had already sent a letter of request for help to the Song family in Yizhou and the Zhang family in Huaishui. Since Zhang Yuewan married into Hetao, the originally tight alliance between the three aristocratic families began to disintegrate.
The Song family added insult to injury, causing the Song and Li families to turn against each other. However, no one expected that the southward movement of Hetao would unite the three aristocratic families again.
As for the court, Li Xiaomo didn't have any hope at all. Xiang Xing was a soldier, not a politician, and there were spies like An Yongchang in the court, and Emperor Zhongxing was a typical man with little talent and great ambition.
, there is no future at all.
The Zhang family moved the fastest. Zhang Jishi personally led the Yellow Turban Army to the north and had already entered Ezhou. Zhang Keliang also led 50,000 soldiers to the rear. It would take at most three days to reach Ezhou. To this extent, Huaishui has not been able to reach Ezhou since Zhang Cangxiong was captured.
After the assassination, the military suddenly became much stronger. However, the Zhang family had no generals to begin with. Even Zhang Keliang and Zhang Huayang, the current deputy commander of the Yellow Turban Army, were only mediocre talents and could not be used for much purpose. But the Zhang family actually
It is really wishful thinking to think of conquering the Central Plains with such generals.
However, the Li family and the Zhang family are allies after all, and the Li family really needs the help of the Zhang family, so Li Xiaomo did not dare to neglect Zhang Jishi's arrival. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't get away, he might have gone to greet him in person.
.
As for the Song family, their actions were as fast as ever. However, it was a surprise to Li Xiaomo that Song Zhengfeng could personally bring an army of 200,000 to help. It seems that the Song family father and son are not stupid to the extreme. This time they finally did not
Thinking of sitting on a mountain and watching the fight between tigers. If that is really the case, then the three major families will really have to be defeated by each one.
"Two hundred thousand should be the limit of the Li family." Li Xiaomo pondered for a moment. The total strength of the Song family was only about 400,000. However, after the founding of the Hetao Kingdom, the Song family also expanded the number of soldiers by 100,000. Now these 100,000 soldiers
They were stationed in Yingyi Prefecture, north of the South Yunnan Road. In order to guard against the Scarlet Clan, the Song family stationed 100,000 elite troops on the west side of the territory. There were 50,000 troops stationed at the Yinping Ancient Road, and veteran Song Lingyun led 50,000 soldiers to guard Yang Prefecture. It seems that
, the Song family father and son are also quite afraid of the Loop.
Li Hao did not live up to Li Xiaomo's high expectations. In just one day and one night, he passed through the blockade of Fengjing and Xingeng and arrived at the Yinfeng Mountains. Li Hao was lucky. He had just arrived at Yinfeng Castle.
Then he met Haotian, Xin Jiao and others traveling, so after giving a brief report, Xian Lianchen brought him to Haotian.
"You mean, our Hetao army may massacre the three million people in Hankang and Kangzhou?" Haotian is not an idiot. After listening to Li Hao's account, he immediately understood what Li Xiaomo asked him to pass on.
mean.
Li Hao's forehead was covered with sweat. He was half too tired and half afraid. He almost lowered his head and said: "The Crown Prince doesn't understand what the Crown Prince means. But the Crown Prince's original words were to tell the Crown Prince to tell the matter exactly as it was.
Tell the prince."
Haotian pondered for a moment and suddenly said: "Sir, how did you see this?"
Luo Xiang's heart trembled: "My lord, that day in Yinfeng Castle, you made a promise to General Li Xiaoran that as long as nothing unexpected happened, you would only kill the three tribesmen who went north to Qinchuan that day. The blood commander and the independent commander also agreed that day.
How dare they disobey your orders when you are here? Besides, these are people of the same clan and clan as me. If there was no reason to die, Commander Blood and others would not kill innocent people indiscriminately."
Haotian stared at Luo Xiang intently: "Sir, Commander Xue and Commander Du did hear my promise at that time, but Commander Xin did not know about it. Moreover, even if he already knew, he had many reasons to shirk his ignorance."
Luo Xiang smiled bitterly in his heart, Haotian is not a fool, in fact he can control many capable ministers and generals under his command. Haotian is definitely not a fuel-efficient lamp, but he doesn't like to use his scheming on his own people, so he always makes people feel
The misconception is that the counselors in Hetao are like rain and the generals are like clouds, but the master is a bit too pustious. If it were not for his special family background and his wife being a proud son of heaven like Qin Tianyi, Haotian would never be able to secure this position.
However, everyone has forgotten that when the Hetao army was launched in Dingzhou, Haotian was planning it all by himself. Regarding the strategic issues in the Hetao, Haotian looked further than Luo Xiangxuanji and others. However,
What he cares more about is inspiring the wisdom of his counselors and soldiers. It is precisely because of this that the senior military and political leaders of Hetao can truly have their own independent thinking, making Hetao grow rapidly and become the most powerful political power in the entire Eastern Continent.