Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2304 Hammer and Cudgel Meet at Zhongxing Pass, Yuanba and Dragon Fight Under the Lamp

In early December of the fifth year of the Yuan Shi era, as of now, the Han Dynasty had captured almost half of the four provinces of the Song Dynasty on the battlefield against the Song.

They have completely occupied the Hexi region. In fact, the head of the Xu family in Hexi personally went north to Zhongxing Pass to pay a visit to Wang Yu, and the two sides have reached a preliminary consensus.

Not long after, the Xu family, one of the two largest aristocratic families in Hexi Road, began to target the Ximen family in every way.

For Wang Yu, the problems of imperial merchants were more troublesome than those of aristocratic families.

Of course, this was just a minor episode in the middle of the battle. The entire war against Song was not yet over, and even if Wang Yu wanted to do something, he could not possibly resort to any drastic measures under these circumstances.

In fact, if the Xu family hadn't come knocking on his door, he wouldn't have even had such thoughts now.

Meanwhile, in Yangxi Road, Zong Ze, who was trapped on Gushan Mountain, was nearing the end of his rope. He launched several counterattacks, but they were all repelled by Guo Ziyi and Deng Qiang. His complete defeat and death were not far off.

Chang Yuchun, Feng Yi, Li Jing, and Xue Rengui led multiple armies to encircle Guandong Road from various directions.

At this time, after a series of defeats, the Zhao Song dynasty had lost more than half of its peak force of 600,000 troops. If Zong Ze's troops were removed from the remaining resistance, the entire Guandong and Guanxi regions combined would only have 250,000 troops left.

Since the major battles were mostly open field battles, pursuit battles, and encirclement battles, the Han army suffered some casualties, but these were generally within a controllable range.

Moreover, compared to the prisoners they captured, their casualties were negligible. The remaining casualties were largely absorbed by the generals from among the prisoners to replenish their ranks. After all, absorbing only a small portion of the prisoners wouldn't significantly impact the Han army's fighting strength.

Therefore, even without the support of Yue Fei's troops, the Han army already had a complete numerical advantage over the Song dynasty.

Many generals, including Yang Jian, Alcuonius, Zhao Yun, Pei Yuanqing, Wang Feng, Wang Shengzhi, Pallas, and Deng Jiugong, were stationed in various armies, eyeing the Song Dynasty with hostility.

However, due to the arrival of winter and several snowfalls, the generals temporarily halted their offensive against the Song Dynasty, taking this opportunity to allow their soldiers a short rest.

On the Yangdong battlefield, with Yue Fei's 300,000 troops advancing and Li Jing's troops remaining on the west side, Jiang Chaoyu is finding it difficult to break through. The battle here is currently at a stalemate and has also been suspended due to the arrival of winter.

Jiang Chaoyu is now in a difficult position, caught between a rock and a hard place, because Lian Po's side has faltered.

Amidst the constantly changing situation within the Great Qian Dynasty, he has been temporarily dragged into this quagmire, causing him great anxiety.

As for Zhongxing Pass, Tuoba Gui had already been forced to slow down his offensive by the middle of the fifth year of the Yuanshi era.

After all, the garrison at Zhongxing Pass, plus the government troops behind it, totaled 100,000 men. In addition, there were renowned generals like Meng Gong and Wang Jian, who were skilled in defense. With such an impregnable combination, even a high-level god-level commander would be at a loss.

With such a stronghold, even an ordinary general could be driven to despair by stubbornly fighting a stalemate.

From the start of the war with the Great Yan until the fifth year of the Yuan Shi era, nearly a year had passed, and Tuoba Gui could no longer continue his fierce attacks.

However, he did not give up completely. He was also waiting for news from other battlefields of the Han Dynasty. If the situation on other battlefields of the Han Dynasty was tense, it would naturally make things easier for him here.

If they could force the Han Dynasty to transfer some of its troops, or even Li Yuanba, it would be even better. Since Li Yuanba arrived at Zhongxing Pass more than a year ago, he has fought Tuoba Longxiang eight times. In most cases, the two sides were evenly matched and the fighting ended when both sides sounded the retreat.

Of the eight matches, only the third and fourth resulted in one win and one loss for each side.

In the third round, the two fought fiercely at Zhongxing Pass, exchanging hundreds of blows from day to night. Afterward, they even fought through the night by lamplight.

At the middle of the battle, both sides' horses were already exhausted, and the fighting turned from cavalry combat to infantry combat.

If the fight continued like this, even if Tuoba Longxiang's skill could keep up with the consumption of energy, his physical strength would not be able to keep up.

In fact, when the two sides dismounted and fought on foot, Tuoba Longxiang was already in a bad state, but he was just gritting his teeth and persevering.

This battle ended in a crushing defeat for Tuoba Longxiang, who was even severely injured on the spot by Li Yuanba. Even with the resources of the Tuoba tribe and the use of all kinds of precious medicinal herbs, he still needed more than two months to recover, which shows how serious his injuries were.

"Ding! Li Yuanba and Tuoba Longxiang have completed the achievement 'Battle Through the Night,' and both are rewarded..."

Two months later, after Tuoba Longxiang had fully recovered from his injuries, he fought Li Yuanba for the fourth time.

In this battle, Tuoba Longxiang did not hesitate to display his tough and resilient style, immediately resorting to exchanging blows and taking Li Yuanba's attack head-on in order to deliver a blow to his opponent.

Ultimately, the outcome of this battle was completely reversed from the previous one. The two sides decided the winner in just a few dozen rounds, with Tuoba Longxiang exchanging a minor injury for a serious one against Li Yuanba.

After this battle, Li Yuanba rested for about a month and a half before returning to his peak condition.

Of course, this doesn't mean that Li Yuanba's injuries were less severe than Tuoba Longxiang's in the previous battle; it simply means that Li Yuanba's recovery speed was much faster than Tuoba Longxiang's.

With these two battles as a foundation, the two men had a clear understanding of each other.

In the following encounters, Li Yuanba initially adopted a completely passive defensive stance, preferring to turn around and retreat a few steps before turning back to fight, rather than allow his opponent to exchange injuries with him.

On the other hand, if Tuoba Longxiang fails to accumulate enough advantages in the early stages, he will be unable to inflict enough damage on Li Yuanba.

If you get bogged down to the later stages, you might as well just turn around and leave.

Therefore, in the subsequent battles, after both sides became familiar with each other's fighting styles and explored their respective strengths and weaknesses, the battles were almost evenly matched.

It's simply that Tuoba Longxiang had the advantage in the early stages, while Li Yuanba had the advantage in the later stages. Under normal circumstances, neither of them could do anything about the other.

As winter arrived, and while other battlefields began to quiet down and take a short break, only Su Dingfang and Wu Bing'er's place witnessed a tremendous battle that erupted during this winter.

In fact, in this battle, a total of four god-level warriors died on both sides. Among them was Guan Yue, the most senior and fierce general on the Dragon and Tiger Ranking.