Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2288 The Zhao brothers, enraged, raise an army; the decisive battle in Yangxi is about to erupt.

The death of his father, Zhao Changfeng, in battle in Hexi Road caused Zhao Kuangyin, who was at the border of Yangxi Road and Hexi Road at the time, to be devastated.

He immediately issued an order that anyone who could kill Lan Yu and avenge Zhao Changfeng would be granted the title of Duke and a reward of ten thousand gold pieces. Whatever Zhao Changfeng asked for, the Great Song Dynasty would grant it.

However, the biggest problem facing Zhao Kuangyin at this time was still the overall war situation.

After losing the Hexi Road, Xue Rengui's army could either join forces with Chang Yuchun and Feng Yi to advance on the two passes, or march south to cooperate with Li Jing in attacking Lian Po from both sides, putting Lian Po's army in a precarious situation.

Therefore, Xue Rengui's side must arrange someone to block him; otherwise, the entire Yangxi Road will be in direct danger.

However, he could not stay here personally. If they lost the Hexi Road, the Guandong and Guanxi Roads would become their base of operations.

In comparison, the Kanto and Kansai regions were more important.

Moreover, with Zhao Changfeng dead, the people of Guandong and Guanxi must be in a state of panic. If he does not return to take charge, how can Guandong and Guanxi stop Chang Yuchun's army given the current situation?
Therefore, he left Shi Shouxin behind, leading 50,000 troops to block Xue Rengui's 70,000 troops and prevent them from advancing south.

As for himself, he led 30,000 troops, including the Divine Archer Battalion and the Iwayama Heavy Infantry, to return to the Kwantung region to take charge of the overall situation.

At the same time, like the butterfly effect, Zhao Changfeng's death indirectly affected the battle situation on Li Jing's side.

The three counties of Yangdong, with their lack of natural defenses, were situated on flat terrain, which allowed the Flying Feather Legion to maximize its advantages.

Therefore, despite having an army of 100,000, Lian Po was forced by Li Jing to retreat to Yangxi Road, and even lost 40,000 soldiers in the process.

Only after Lian Po retreated to Yangxi Road was he able to utilize the terrain advantage to limit the Flying Feather Legion's performance to some extent, thus allowing Lian Po to fully leverage his defensive strengths.

Even with his superior troop strength, Li Jing continued his slow advance, but it was clear that this advance had become incredibly difficult.

Zhao Sheng brought more than 70,000 troops to reinforce the country. Although nearly 50,000 of these troops were prisoners of the Eight-Nation Alliance, they could not be used as the main fighting force and could only be used as auxiliary troops.

However, it at least slightly alleviated Lian Po's numerical disadvantage, allowing him to catch his breath a little.

But not long after the order came that Zhao Changfeng had died in battle, someone on the Zhao Song side finally broke out.

Although Zhao Kuangkai and Zhao Kuangwu were relatively more valiant among the Zhao brothers, they were far less cunning and scheming than Zhao Kuangyin and Zhao Kuangyi.

These two brothers were usually obedient. Even though they were both princes of the imperial clan, they still carried out Lian Po's orders meticulously and did not abuse their status!
But is this a normal time? After hearing that their father had died in battle, how could these two brothers possibly stand up for themselves?

At this point, they had completely forgotten Lian Po's repeated orders not to leave the camp to engage in battle without authorization. They led all 10,000 troops in the camp and, under the cover of night, attempted to launch a surprise attack on Tan Daoji's camp.

What good could come of it for the brothers Zhao Kuangkai and Zhao Kuangwu, who raised an army out of anger?

Not only did they suffer heavy losses of their own troops, but they also managed to break out with only three thousand remnants of their army. However, they were deliberately or unintentionally forced by Tan Daoji to a remote mountain, which was a blatant tactic of besieging the point and attacking the reinforcements.

It was precisely because of the reckless actions of these two brothers that the entire battle situation in Yangxi Road began to change. These two brothers were Zhao Kuangyin's own brothers, princes of the Zhao Song imperial family. If others were trapped, Lian Po could ignore them.

But these two brothers are trapped. Can Lian Po just ignore them?

Not to mention, even if Lian Po didn't want to get involved, there was Zhao Kuangwei in his army who forced him to.

In particular, the defensive system that Lian Po set up in Yangxi Road was directly pierced by Tan Daoji because of the two brothers' rash attack, which indirectly threatened the safety of Zong Ze in the south.

For Li Jing, this was like a windfall. The previously deadlocked battle suddenly broke out.

Li Jing, led by Guo Ziyi, took advantage of the fact that Lian Po's defenses had finally been breached, and launched a large-scale attack from the flank towards Zongze in the south, intending for Guo Ziyi to cooperate with Deng Qiang to eliminate Zongze first.

He and Tan Daoji were preparing to besiege Lian Po and attack his reinforcements.

Lian Po was thus forced into a dilemma, caught between a rock and a hard place, unable to make the right choice no matter what he did.

If he were to send troops to rescue the two brothers, his chances of success would be no more than 20%.

Such a slim chance of victory would normally be considered a sure defeat for a commander like him, and he wouldn't even consider it. Lian Po was not the kind of commander who liked to take risks.

However, ignoring it is equally impossible!

As princes of the imperial family, with Zhao Changfeng already dead, their status in the entire Song Dynasty was second only to Zhao Kuangyin. Even Lian Po's status in the Song Dynasty was not as high as theirs.

If Lian Po doesn't help these two brothers in their current predicament, will he help others in their future predicaments?
In that case, would his generals still trust him?
Even to think a little more disrespectfully, if Zhao Kuangyin himself were ever to be threatened in the future, Lian Po, for his own safety, would not care.

Therefore, for Lian Po, this choice was not only a military one, but also a political one.

In fact, despite being presented as a multiple-choice question, this question didn't offer Lian Po any real options.

After pondering for most of the day, the veteran general Lian Po's hair turned white from thinking, and he finally sent his strategist Han Chongming to Li Jing's camp to deliver the declaration of war.

Zhao Kuangkai and Zhao Kuangwu, these two brothers, had no choice but to be saved!

However, Li Jing and Tan Daoji had clearly laid a trap, just waiting for him to pounce.

If he were to recklessly lead his troops into battle, he would inevitably face certain death.

Therefore, Lian Po's solution was to break free from the trap set by Li Jing and Tan Daoji and opt for a more secure decisive battle instead of directly leading troops to the rescue, thereby increasing his chances of victory.

(End of this chapter)