Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2277 The Battle of Yangxi: A Great Victory for the Song Dynasty

In the Battle of Liangguan, Bai Qi's army took the Lianggu Road, which directly led to the defeat of the Song Dynasty.

After this battle, Bai Qi finally became famous.

Of course, Bai Qi, who will be recognized as one of the world's top commanders in the future, will first become famous throughout the world, not because of his military strategies, but because of his boldness and adventurousness.

However, in this world, the winner takes all!

If Bai Qi had not successfully crossed the Yunling Mountains, or had ultimately failed at Liang Pass, then his boldness and adventurousness would have become a negative example, remembered by countless military strategists of later generations.

But he ultimately succeeded, and thus his boldness and risk-taking became a reputation.

The fall of Liangguan was completely unexpected, not only for the Song army but also for the Han army.

Even Li Jing and Chang Yuchun never imagined that Xue Rengui could take Liangguan with just 150,000 troops.

Therefore, when the outcome of the Battle of Liangguan was announced, both the Song and Han dynasties were shaken.

Zhao Changfeng, the former lord of Zhenxi who was already in his fifties, turned completely white overnight after the news from Liangguan arrived.

Conversely, the Han camp on the opposite side was filled with singing and dancing. Chang Yuchun directly ordered his soldiers to cheer in front of the Zhao army soldiers in order to provoke the Zhao army in the city.

With the fortified city of Liangguan blocking their way, the Song Dynasty naturally wouldn't deploy too many troops in the counties behind Liangguan. Instead, they concentrated all their forces in the northern part of Hexi Circuit to counter Chang Yuchun.

Therefore, with his troops depleted, Xue Rengui swiftly captured the three western counties of Liangguan, and in less than a month, he had completely taken over the three southern counties of Hexi Road.

Generals of the Song Dynasty such as Zhong Pu, Jiang Han, and Ning Pan died on the battlefield. A small number of prefects or magistrates, including Yan Jidao, You Mao, Jia Yan, Zhao Anshi, and Zhao Anrong, fought desperately but ultimately could not escape defeat and death.

However, many more are like Wang Guipu, Lin Ruofu, Wang Chonggu, Zeng Conglong, and others who surrendered as soon as they arrived.

At the same time, almost simultaneously with Xue Rengui's capture of the three southern prefectures of Hexi Road, Zhao Kuangyin inflicted a major defeat on the Eight-Nation Alliance in western Yangxi Road, killing 70,000 and capturing 50,000. Of the 200,000 troops that the Eight-Nation Alliance had formed, less than half were ultimately spared.

However, Zhao Kuangyin's victory in this battle was still almost a month late!
If this victory had been achieved a month earlier, Zhao Kuangyin could have immediately returned to Hexi Circuit after the victory. Even if Xue Rengui had breached Hexi Circuit, he would have been able to promptly strengthen the defenses of the three counties west of Hexi Circuit, thus protecting the rear of Zhao Changfeng's forces in Hexi Circuit.

So, even if the fall of Liang Pass inevitably puts the Song Dynasty at a strategic disadvantage, it's impossible for it to collapse to this extent in an instant.

Unfortunately, Zhao Kuangyin's battle was a month too late. He captured Xue Rengui, who controlled the three southern counties of Hexi Road, thus separating Zhao Kuangyin's forces from Zhao Changfeng's.

Even when Zhao Kuangyin led his troops north, he could no longer protect Zhao Changfeng's back.

The defeat of Hexi Road was now completely unavoidable!

When the Han Dynasty decided to launch a war against the Song Dynasty after conquering the Yan, Zhao Kuangyin had already decided that he would personally defeat the eight-nation alliance in the southwest first. Then, he would defeat Li Jing and Chang Yuchun's forces one by one.

Undoubtedly, Zhao Kuangyin himself did not falter. Excluding travel time, he only spent a little over three months to decisively defeat the 200,000-strong army of the Eight-Nation Alliance. However, he faltered at Liang Pass, the place where he was least likely to fail.

The Liang Pass was the foundation of Zhao Kuangyin's entire strategy. Without it, even if he had repelled the Eight-Nation Alliance, he wouldn't have been able to achieve the effect of defeating them one by one.

On the western battlefield of Yangxi Road, Zhao Kuangyin led 120,000 troops against a coalition of 200,000 troops from the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Although Zhao Kuangyin was at a disadvantage in terms of military strength, his 120,000 troops included more than 20,000 cavalrymen, which was already half of the entire Song Dynasty's cavalry force.

Moreover, Zhao Song's strongest elite troops—the Panshan Heavy Infantry, the Divine Archer Battalion, and the Crane Control Battalion, which had been established for two years—were all committed to this battle.

Therefore, although on the surface Zhao Kuangyin's forces were at a disadvantage in terms of troop strength, in reality, Zhao Kuangyin's army was superior to that of the Eight-Nation Alliance.

Not to mention, among the generals Zhao Kuangyin participated in this battle, there were three god-level fierce generals: Zhao Bifang, Gao Yanping, and Jing Si.

In contrast, among the Eight-Nation Alliance, there was only one god-level general, Huangfu Dou.

Moreover, these eight countries each possess eight different wills and eight different ideas.

Therefore, after a brief probing, Zhao Kuangyin directly issued a challenge to the Eight-Nation Alliance, inviting them to a decisive battle.

If the Eight-Nation Alliance is defeated, it will withdraw from Yangxi Road. If Zhao Kuangyin is defeated, he will directly cede Yangxi Road to the Eight-Nation Alliance.

In addition to placing a heavy bet on the Eight-Nation Alliance, Zhao Kuangyin also instructed Sima Chou, who was in charge of delivering the challenge, to follow the example of the Great Yan and Han Xin and send each of the Eight-Nation Alliance's rulers a woman's garment.

Su Qin, or Song Zhengben, Gu Ling, Yuan Shao and their ilk who were hiding in Dali, certainly did not want to fight such a decisive battle.

In this decisive battle, there is a possibility of victory, but there is also a possibility of defeat.

However, as long as this decisive battle is not fought, Zhao Kuangyin will have no way to defeat this army of 200,000 in a short period of time. In that case, his 120,000 troops will naturally be unable to move here.

This situation is the most advantageous for the Han Dynasty.

However, neither Su Qin, nor Song Zhengben, nor Yuan Shao were in charge. In fact, Yuan Shao and Gu Ling did not appear in the public eye, but remained hidden behind the scenes.

Even if Su Qin was very eloquent, his words weren't everything.

After all, when it comes to leagues, their intelligence isn't based on the highest-ranking member, but rather on the lowest-ranking one.

In particular, the emperors of the eight kingdoms were each given a woman's dress by Zhao Kuangyin. In their anger, they didn't give Su Qin a chance to persuade them. Several of the emperors angrily told Sima Chou that they wanted to fight Zhao Kuangyin to the death.

From this point on, the war between Zhao Kuangyin and the eight-nation alliance of Li, Yin, Ye, Feng, Zhao, Xi, Li, and Yang was about to break out.