The defenders in Li City actually knew from the beginning that they would be unable to defend the city under the attack of Da Li's Immortal Army.
And even if they hold on for a while, they won't be able to hold on for long without reinforcements.
Therefore, from the very beginning, the defenders in Licheng were already determined to die and prepared to die for their country.
They gave up the meaningless street fighting, instead put all their forces on the defense of the city, and launched a decisive battle to the death with Dali's expeditionary force.
But no matter what, given the disparity in strength between the two sides, the soldiers defending the city were naturally unable to cause much trouble to Di Xin's immortal army.
It only took less than an hour for Licheng to complete the process of changing hands.
In this process, the soldiers defending the city, without exception, all chose to die on the battlefield.
And Di Xin also fulfilled their last wishes.
After standing on the blood-stained city wall of Licheng, Di Xin looked at the battle report presented. It was obviously less than the normal number of defenders in the city, and he understood in his heart.
Unless they are deliberately trained to die, no matter how strong the faith of an army is, the soldiers under its command cannot all be the kind of "fools" who choose to die even though they know there is no hope.
As expected, the missing defenders in Licheng were those who were unwilling to die.
The destination of those people should be the cities and valleys between Khan City and Licheng. This can also explain why as soon as Mr. Park appeared, they chose to surrender without much resistance.
They were already prepared for this, all they lacked was a reason.
The appearance of Mr. Park gave them just this reason.
And those soldiers who decided to die were gathered in this last Licheng.
Looking across the soldiers who were covered in blood, Di Xin said: "Instruct us to go down and bury those who died regardless of whether they are enemies or friends."
"yes."
The herald surrendered his hands and backed away.
Di Xin withdrew his gaze. Because of his position, he could not be merciful, but after the end, he would not be stingy in giving the defenders the final dignity.
That's the respect they deserve.
…
Not long after the battle ended and the battlefield on the city wall had not been cleaned, someone reported that an army was heading towards Licheng.
That army was none other than the ten thousand soldiers led by Ouyang Xuan.
Perhaps it was a coincidence that Ouyang Xuan arrived with his army just after the battle in Licheng.
In this regard, Ouyang Xuan clearly showed a trace of regret after arriving, but he quickly concealed this regret.
On the city wall, Ouyang Xuan knelt on one knee, and the armors on his body made a sound of clashing with each other.
"I humbly pay my respects to Your Highness."
Di Xin did not look away, but raised his hand casually and said: "No need to be polite, get up!"
"Thank you, Your Highness."
After Ouyang Xuan thanked him, he stood up and stood respectfully behind Di Xin.
He reported: "Your Highness, the grain and grass supplies sent by Mr. An from Yanque Pass have been delivered. Fortunately, I have lived up to my humiliation."
Di Xin nodded slightly, not surprised by this.
In fact, the grain and grass were not important. After the capture of Hu City, the grain and grass captured from the Goguryeo military camp in the city were enough to consume the army for a period of time.
What really matters are the weapons and armor.
After successive battles, although Di Xin's expeditionary force did not suffer much losses, its armor and weapons were constantly wearing out.
Although the weapons and armor captured from Goguryeo are not unusable, the quality is obviously not as good as the equipment made by Dali craftsmen, so the best choice is naturally to replenish it from Yanque Pass.
Along with those grain and grass supplies, there were also three thousand cavalry from northern Xinjiang.
With these three thousand cavalry, plus the two thousand soldiers who had been reduced to zero before, Di Xin's expeditionary army returned to its full strength of thirty thousand men.
The reason why Ouyang Xuan caught up so late was because after receiving the additional troops, he also wanted to escort the food, weapons, armor and other baggage that Anjunshan sent to Hucheng.
As the commander-in-chief, Di Xin naturally received the news long ago.
He looked at the undulating mountains in the distance and ordered: "After cleaning the battlefield, distribute new weapons and armor, rest for the night and set off tomorrow."
Now that Ouyang Xuan has returned, he naturally no longer has to do these trivial matters personally.
"yes."
After Ouyang Xuan accepted the order, he continued: "Your Highness, in addition to this, I have one more thing to report."
Di Xin then retracted his gaze, turned around and asked, "What's the matter?"
Ouyang Xuan said seriously: "After arriving in Hu City, the scouts discovered traces of a group of Rakshasa soldiers."
"Rakshasa soldiers?"
Emperor Xin was stunned for a moment and then said: "If I remember correctly, Rakshasa should be outside the Western Region. Why do you want to take a detour to a place outside the eastern border?"
"have no idea."
Ouyang Xuan shook his head and said: "That team of Rakshasa soldiers was very vigilant. After noticing our scouts, they quickly disappeared. I sent several teams of scouts to search for them, but there was still no clue until they left Hucheng."
" Along the way, I also found no trace of the Rakshasa soldiers."
He expressed his guess.
"I speculate that the Rakshasa soldiers did not enter the territory of Goguryeo, but took a detour from the outside."
They took a detour from outside Goguryeo and covered their tracks. They were obviously afraid of being discovered by Emperor Xin's expeditionary force. Therefore, if their purpose of taking a long detour from outside the Western Region had nothing to do with the Immortal Army, this
If you tell me this, no one will believe it.
But after losing the trace of the group of Rakshasa soldiers, even Di Xin couldn't immediately tell what they wanted to do.
He would not blame Ouyang Xuan for not doing things well.
Ouyang Xuan's most important task is to lead his soldiers to join Emperor Xin to complete the immortal army and transport those extremely important grain and grass supplies.
It was impossible for him to change priorities and delay the real mission for the sake of a group of Rakshasa soldiers whose condition was unknown.
As for now, since the situation is unclear, we can only take more precautions.
Di Xin opened his mouth and gave instructions: "Increase the number of scouts and expand the scope of the investigation by half."
It's easy to dodge an open gun but hard to defend against a hidden arrow.
Only when the formation is formed, the expeditionary force is truly an immortal army, but the soldiers cannot maintain the formation all the time, so it is even more necessary to guard against plots from the dark.
"I humble my duty and obey my orders."
Ouyang Xuan took the lead again.
As a fellow commander of the capital and a divine general, he naturally knew the weaknesses of the expeditionary force, so even if His Highness King Yu did not give orders, he would do so.
Seeing that Ouyang Xuan had nothing more to report, Di Xin waved his hand casually and said, "Okay, let's get down."
"yes."
After Ouyang Xuan handed over his hand, he strode away.
After cleaning up the battlefield, Di Xin left the city wall.
Xizi, on the other hand, had already brought his think tank and the remaining civil servants with the army to discuss the arrangements for the aftermath of Licheng.
