Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2305 Su Wu's Decisive Battle, Duel of Generals on the Battlefield

On the Great Wu side, they had already entered a state of recuperation and rest since the beginning of the fourth year of the Yuan Shi era of the Great Han Dynasty.

It is now the end of the fifth year of the Yuan Shi era of the Han Dynasty. After two years, their situation has improved considerably.

Although Da Wu still did not intend to interrupt their policy of recuperation and development, they planned to continue recuperation and development for another year.

However, at this stage, if they see an opportunity, they will naturally not give it up passively, and they have become much more flexible in their policies.

In particular, Zhao Kuangyin's victory in the Eight-Nation Alliance was crucial in this victory. The alliance's defeat was inextricably linked to internal betrayals and divisions, effectively sealing its fate.

Therefore, Emperor Wu ordered that Xu Xiao, the younger brother of Xu Zhen, the Duke of Beiliang, be the commander, with five generals—Tao Quzhong, Wu Xuan, Huang Yue, Chu Yunlong, and Wu Weiguo—accompanying the army.

Moreover, the fact that Wu Weiguo was mobilized for this battle directly indicates that Da Wu had also deployed one of the Five Dragon Riders, the Flying Dragon Riders, for this battle.

Xu Xiao is a representative figure of late bloomers in the Great Wu. Although he suffered many defeats in his early years, he grew from these defeats and has now become a well-known general in the Great Wu.

In order to avoid making a large-scale mobilization, Da Wu mobilized troops from nearby areas, directly drawing troops from their eastern forces.

To this end, he even went so far as to transfer 50,000 troops from Wu Bing'er's side to Xu Xiao's command.

With an army of 200,000, they marched down the border, causing shockwaves in the eight kingdoms including Li, Yin, and Xuan.

Therefore, Wang Yu's orders to Gu Ling and Yuan Shao were to delay as much as possible, create as much difficulty as possible for Da Wu, and then withdraw with their men when the time was right.

Of course, if they could take some of the Dali Dynasty's assets with them when they withdrew, that would not be a bad thing.

After all, the reason why Gu Ling and Yuan Shao's forces went to the Dali Dynasty from the beginning was to tie down a portion of the Song Dynasty's forces in the southwest during their campaigns against the Song and Yan.

So far, they have completed their historical mission, and even exceeded it thanks to Su Qin.

Under these circumstances, it's only natural to come back when it's time; there's no need to stubbornly resist Da Wu over there.

At this stage, it is impossible for the Han Dynasty to open up a new battlefield with the Wu Dynasty there.

In particular, Xu Xiao's battle went remarkably smoothly.

The Eight-Nation Alliance had already lost almost half of its domestic forces to Zhao Kuangyin, and furthermore, a split had occurred within the alliance itself.

Most importantly, Zhang Yi, who had emerged from seclusion alongside Su Qin, also began to engage in feng shui and other unsavory activities. This strategist from the Guigu School ultimately chose to serve under Da Wu.

These two fellow disciples were clearly eyeing the Eight-Nation Alliance territory and were starting to cause trouble.

After Su Qin emerged from seclusion, he specifically worked as an envoy to form an eight-nation alliance, intending to achieve something before entering Han territory. Zhang Yi had the same goal.

Of the three targets Zhang Yi initially chose—Chu, Wei, and Wu—Chu had already fallen out of the ranks of first-rate powers. On the contrary, after winning the war against Yan, the Han Dynasty only needed to digest these regions to enter that ranks.

As for the Great Wei, Zhang Yi had already been there, and given the state of the Great Wei court, he had clearly already ruled it out.

Of course, the Han Dynasty, having won the war against Yan, was now within Zhang Yi's considerations, but Su Qin was already a threat. Ultimately, a victor had to be determined among the various schools of thought vying for supremacy.

So, all that's left is one big weapon.

Zhang Yi's trip involved taking advantage of the existing conflicts between the eight kingdoms to persuade the Da Xi, which had already betrayed the eight-kingdom alliance, to switch allegiance to the Da Wu, as a pledge of loyalty before joining the Da Wu.

Therefore, this directly reduced the difficulty of Xu Xiao's battle.

But it was precisely because of this battle that Xu Xiao transferred 50,000 troops from Wu Bing'er, which allowed Su Dingfang, who was originally on the defensive, to prepare for a counterattack.

In the beginning, the Great Sword was divided into five provinces. Of course, now it has been divided into prefectures by the Great Wu and Great Han. Wu Bing'er only occupies one prefecture, while Su Dingfang occupies four prefectures.

However, with the arrival of Guan Yue and Yue Yunlong, Da Wu's military forces were further deployed. After that major defeat, Su Dingfang, in order to regroup and trade space for time, fought and retreated, abandoning two counties one after another.

It wasn't until Wang Yu transferred four generals—Sun Mei, Jiang Song, Zhang Kui, and Guan Yu—from Zhongxingguan and other places to Su Dingfang's location, and soon after, Li Cunxiao was also transferred there, that Su Dingfang was able to alleviate his decline and truly regain his footing.

Although at this time, with the arrival of Li Cunxiao, Sun Mei, Jiang Song, Zhang Kui, Guan Yu and others, and the fact that Chu Qingtian and Qin Qiong's injuries were gradually recovering.

At this point, Su Dingfang was already a force to be reckoned with, capable of standing against Da Wu, in terms of military leadership.

However, since the two counties he was guarding were stretched into a long strip, one in the south and one in the north, they were extremely disadvantageous in terms of defense and could be easily cut off and defeated one by one by Wu Bing'er.

Therefore, at this time, Su Dingfang decisively gave up the northern prefecture. In fact, since that prefecture was adjacent to the Golden Horde royal court, giving it to them would actually weaken their military advantage.

From then on, the original five counties of Great Sword were reduced to just the last one.

The Sword Yang Path was originally only half the size of a normal path, so it was not worthy of its name. Now, it is even more unworthy of its name.

Wu Bing'er was not too surprised by Su Dingfang's initiative to challenge her to a decisive battle.

Xu Xiao directly transferred 50,000 elite troops from him, while Li Cunxiao brought the Flying Tiger Army with him when he came.

Under these circumstances, it is not surprising that Su Dingfang, who had been passively attacked for so long, wanted to launch a counterattack.

After all, after transferring those 50,000 troops, although he still had a certain advantage in troop strength, it was already very weak.

At this point, Su Dingfang had about 170,000 troops left, while Wu Bing'er had only 230,000 troops left.

However, although Wu Bing'er took over three counties from Su Dingfang, she still had to leave a certain number of troops to defend them.

In particular, one of these three prefectures is now adjacent to the Golden Horde, requiring her to deploy a considerable number of troops to garrison it.

Therefore, the number of troops she could actually mobilize was roughly the same as Su Dingfang's.

Both sides in the decisive battle mobilized exactly 100,000 troops each.

The two families fought on two separate battlefields. On the Great Sword Battlefield, 100,000 troops were the maximum force that both sides could muster.