Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2264 Chang Yuchun leads a large army down to Hexi; Wuzhiqi kills a Song general in the first battle.

In just half a month, they lost three cities.

Moreover, during Li Jing's siege of the three cities over the past two weeks, there were serious incidents of chaos caused by powerful families and even commoners within the cities. This made Lian Po realize that Yangdong Road was not defensible!

Given the enemy's overwhelming cavalry advantage, it is untenable to defend.

They are even less compliant because they lack any popular support.

Therefore, before Li Jing's troops had even reached the fourth city, Lian Po decisively launched a feint attack, using 10,000 troops as a disguised main force to sacrifice, while leading the remaining 70,000 troops to withdraw directly from Yangdong Road.

Lian Po's move was clearly intended to preserve his troops, allowing him to utilize the mountainous terrain of Yangxi Road to maneuver against Li Jing's forces.

If his troops suffer too many losses here, even if he retreats to Yangxi Road and gains terrain to limit Guo Ziyi's cavalry, he still won't be able to manage without sufficient troops.

The Zhennan Army's popularity in Yangdong Road was indeed unmatched by the other four garrisons.

Zhennan is known for its martial spirit, and among the eighteen Dao of Dacang, Yangdong Dao is the only one that strongly supports the development of local and Jianghu (martial arts world) forces.

After all, facing immense pressure to defend the border, and unlike the towns of Zhendong and Zhenbei, they did not have natural defenses to rely on, so supporting powerful local figures and Jianghu forces became a way for them to alleviate the pressure.

Li Jing and his men are currently in the northern part of Yangdong Road. If they were to advance to the south, they would discover that the numerous fortresses of all sizes between the cities were built by powerful local lords or martial arts sects.

A fortified bunker often represents a powerful local tyrant or a martial arts sect.

Each of the four towns has a different environment, and therefore, each has its own development model.

It was precisely because of the strong support policies of the Zhennan Army that tens of thousands of powerful clan soldiers and thousands of martial artists spontaneously went to participate in the battle of Zhennan City.

Even major sects like Mingjian Manor lost all their members in battle, from the previous head of the manor, Yi Yun, to the new head, Yi Jifeng.

Unfortunately, without unified command, this force was ultimately defeated piecemeal by Jiang Chaoyu and posed no threat whatsoever.

It was precisely because of this that when the Han dynasty, which was under the control of the Ma clan, attacked with its troops, each of these cities experienced turmoil of varying scales.

Lacking sufficient strength and without any popular support, even if you combined all four of the greatest generals of the Warring States period, let alone Lian Po, you still wouldn't be able to hold out for long.

Even the most skilled general is not omnipotent; it is impossible for one person to overcome the overall situation and change the course of events.

Therefore, on the battlefield against the Song Dynasty, Li Jing once again demonstrated the terrifying speed of his advance on the battlefield against the Yan Dynasty.

In just over a month, they drove the Zhao Song dynasty out of Yangdong Circuit. Furthermore, their own casualties were negligible.

It was precisely because of Li Jing's outstanding performance on the battlefields of the campaigns against Yan and Song that he was soon listed on the list of famous generals of the world, and in the hearts of the people, he was able to gain a status that was comparable to Han Xin.

Li Jing had already driven Lian Po out of Yangdong Road, but the great battle on Chang Yuchun's side had only just begun.

Firstly, Chang Yuchun's route is much farther away.

Secondly, there's the factor of supply transport. An army cannot move until its supplies are in place; even if troops arrive, they cannot immediately begin a major battle without securing the supplies first.

On Li Jing's side, it was because Henan Province itself had several important granaries. During the campaign against Yan, all the grain and provisions were originally transferred from Henan.

While the area east of the river was also rich in grain, the grain there still needed to be transferred to Su Dingfang and to Zhongxingguan in the north.

Moreover, Chang Yuchun's troops are the largest force in the region. If supplies are not transferred from other places and Chang Yuchun's troops also eat the supplies from Hedong Road, not only will they not be able to meet their own needs, but it will also directly affect the other battlefields.

Once the supplies are fully in place, the naval crossing will naturally be the first priority in the campaign to advance from the east bank of the river to the west bank.

At this time, although Li Cunxiao, the general of the Tiger Legion, had been transferred away from Chang Yuchun's command, only Deng Jiugong remained as the Tiger Legion's top-tier general.

However, the Fierce Whale Legion has gained a new expert, Wu Hou, in addition to Zheng Zishan, who has already surrendered.

After all, Crown Prince Xuanyuan Xuanxiao had already surrendered, so his subordinates naturally had no reason to persist. Besides, they still had a large number of old friends and relatives in the Great Han Fierce Whale Legion!
Therefore, Chang Yuchun still possessed the formidable fighting power of five great generals: Deng Jiugong, Wu Hou, Jiu Chong, Zheng Zishan, and Wu Zixu.

On the fifth day of the fifth month of the fifth year of the Yuanshi era, Chang Yuchun, with Fu Youde and Deng Jiugong as the vanguard and the Polang Army as the main force, launched the river crossing operation.

Haseok Province is different from Cheongnam Province, and even more different from Donghae Province. Although it is separated from Hadong Province by a large river, there are not many crossings suitable for large-scale troop landings.

Moreover, Liangguan Pass itself separates Henan Road and Hexi Road, and is located right next to Hexi Road, so the troops from Liangguan Pass can arrive in an instant.

Therefore, the troops at Liang Pass had already been in place by this time.

With the troops transferred from Liangguan Pass, plus the troops already stationed in Hexi Road, a full third of the Song army was stationed here, so there was absolutely no shortage of troops.

Under these circumstances, Zhao Wuji, the general of the Song Dynasty stationed in Hexi Road, would naturally not give up guarding the river.

It was under these circumstances that the Battle of Lingyangdu officially began.

The Song dynasty did not establish a navy, nor did they need to due to their geographical limitations. Therefore, they could only passively guard the ferry crossings and were unable to coordinate land and water operations.

With the cooperation of the Tianhe Navy, Fu Youde's army, apart from spending some time clearing out the hidden spies buried in the river, crossed the river and killed many at the ferry crossing with unstoppable momentum.

Wu Zhiqi, the Marquis of Wu, who had only recently joined the Han army and had yet to achieve any merit, was even more unstoppable when he wielded an iron rod.

It is precisely because he has not yet achieved success and established himself that Wu Zhiqi wants to use the iron rod in his hand to make a name for himself.

Since ancient times, generals have achieved fame and glory on horseback; this is no different!

Relying on his personal courage, Wu Zhiqi advanced with unstoppable momentum, causing the Song army at the ferry crossing to retreat in defeat.

Wu Zhiqi did not use his Blood Fiend technique on these ordinary soldiers, so his performance was considered brave. However, Song generals Gao Huailiang and Zheng Huai did not realize the strength of the enemy.

Therefore, after discussing it, the two of them joined forces to block the attack.

(End of this chapter)