The gods began by supporting Guo Jing to become emperor

Chapter 321 Kou Zhong's Counterattack, the Clash of Buddhism and Taoism
On the battlefield, even a master seems insignificant. Only a grand master can act with ease and treat everything as nothing.

On the high platform, Li Shimin stood in front of Shi Feixuan, pointing at the ruined city not far away, and his voice was somewhat complacent, "Master Fairy, in two days, Kou Zhong will not be able to stop us. After all, we won the first battle in Shu."

Shi Feixuan nodded lightly, beautiful and charming, without any worldly air, "Kou Zhong possesses the secret of immortality, it is not easy for Master Li to defeat him. When this battle is won, Master Li will definitely be the first to achieve the credit."

At the same time, he secretly despised the city. There were only 5,000 defenders in the city, but it took the Li family's 30,000 troops more than half a month to capture the city.

Seeing the beautiful face of the lady beside him, Li Shimin felt as if all his bones had lightened. He waved his hand and ordered, "Pass on my military order, attack with all your strength."

A few quarters of an hour later, the war broke out in the early morning. The Li clan's army first used stones to cover and attack the walls to reduce the morale of the soldiers defending the city, and then used elite infantry to climb the city walls and fight. After months of training, Li Shimin also trained a vanguard team that could climb the city walls quickly and swiftly.

The siege was extremely intense at the first moment. Dense numbers of soldiers swarmed forward. The Song army defending the city did not flinch. After several months, their comrades suffered heavy casualties, but their commander stood firmly on the front line, and the morale of the army was even stronger.

Soon, the Li clan's army climbed up the city wall, and the battle for a certain section of the wall lasted for several hours.

However, the enemy troops continued to pour onto the city walls. Even Kou Zhong, who was standing on the front line, could not hold on. All the young and strong men in the city were drawn out and sent to the front line, but it was still not enough.

The gap in the city wall gradually widened, and more enemy troops rushed up the wall. A team of several people was extremely ferocious and unstoppable. Kou Zhong's eyes flashed and he rushed over quickly.

Near the city wall, he took a few steps forward and rushed towards the soldiers who had climbed up the city wall first. He kicked a few weapons on the way, but they were all blocked by the opponents.

In the blink of an eye, he was close, and then he gently swung his sword, cutting the enemy's chest and causing blood to gushed out. The other man only had time to swing his sword before the figure had already passed. The blade, with still some force left, turned from the right to the left and instantly cut a bloody wound on the soldier's neck. The simple and condensed sword light, without any energy being wasted, killed all the enemies wherever it passed.

Suddenly, he stopped and his eyes fell on several of the corpses. They were bald men. A trace of disgust flashed in his eyes, and then he killed other places.

Soon, the surrounding enemy troops were cleared out. He turned his wrist, swung his long sword, and a splash of blood appeared, and then he killed somewhere else.

The soldier who fell to the ground in the battle struggled and groaned, but Kou Zhong didn't even look at him. He stepped on his chest with a bang. The soldier's eyes bulged out on his deathbed, and he could not die any more.

"kill!"

He roared and swung his sword, and the personal soldiers beside him formed an unbreakable line with him, filling in the gaps wherever they were. In the process, he didn't know how many times he swung his sword and how many people he killed. His armor had long been covered with blood and it was impossible to recognize its original appearance.

In the evening, the enemy finally retreated. Kou Zhong sat down and leaned against the city wall. His once sharp and fierce eyes were now filled with fatigue. He just sat there quietly, as if he had no strength to move.

After a while, his personal soldiers came to report, "General, more than two hundred brothers were killed in the battle. There are less than a thousand defenders in the city, and the young and strong have been exhausted." As he spoke, he handed over the water bag.

Kou Zhong blinked his eyes, took the water bag and took a few gulps, then said expressionlessly, "Tonight, we break out!"

The guard was stunned for a moment, and asked in confusion, "Young Marshal, we can still hold on for a few more days, why?"

"I want to take my brothers back with me. If they all die here, who will avenge them in the future?" Kou Zhong got up from the ground and looked into the distance with a long and profound gaze. "Pass the order, bury the pots and cook, retreat at midnight, and do the rest as usual."

"As ordered!"

Above Lecheng, the remaining flames in the city gate tower were being extinguished, corpses were being pushed off the city wall, arrows on the ground and on the corpses were pulled out and gathered, and busy soldiers were cleaning the battlefield. The city gate was opened a little, and soldiers sneaked out to bring back battering rams and boulders, as if they were going to continue to defend the city.

In the city, the soldiers cooked and ate until they were half full. Except for the rations for the journey, they distributed the remaining food to the people in the city.

On the street, there were cries of grief in every household. As Kou Zhong walked past the door, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart. The government had required the people to relocate a long time ago, but it was hard to leave their homeland. Many people were unwilling to go, so what could they do?

After several days of fierce siege, although the enemy was not allowed to stand on the top of the city wall, his soldiers suffered heavy losses. Most of the soldiers originally defending the city were also lost, and even the civilians in the city suffered. A large number of houses were demolished, and wooden beams became weapons to defend the city walls. Even at the most dangerous time, he ordered his soldiers to drive the civilians to stand on the city walls to fight the enemy.

He understood very early on that a kind army cannot be commanded.

It was dark, the city gates were opened, and Kou Zhong left Lecheng quietly with hundreds of soldiers, disappearing into the night.

The next day, Li Shimin ordered an attack on the city again, and it took little effort to capture the city.

In the camp outside the city, Li Shimin's eyes widened, "What? Kou Zhong ran away?"

"General, there are only some seriously injured soldiers in the city. They left at midnight last night."

Thinking that he had been blocked by the other party for more than half a month and had successfully escaped, Li Shimin felt a surge of anger rising to his head. He had wanted to catch the other party and show off in front of Shi Feixuan, but he never expected the result to be like this.

He gritted his teeth and said coldly, "Chase them! They can't get far!"

Immediately, three thousand soldiers left the Li family camp and chased towards the place where Kou Zhong and his men fled.

……

"stop!"

On the narrow road, hundreds of soldiers were marching quickly through the woods. Kou Zhong was walking in the front and suddenly stopped.

"Young Marshal, what's wrong?"

"Pass the order, rest on the spot." Kou Zhong glanced across the surrounding dense forest and gave the order.

……

"The Song clan is really good at running!"

In the black night, pairs of shoes made clattering sounds as they walked across the dark fields. The night wind blew over, and a slight rustling sound came from the distant woods. The generals of the Li family suppressed their restlessness and indignation.

"General, we have been chasing for so long, should we continue?"

The general glared at his personal guard in anger, "Nonsense, didn't you see the look on Second Young Master's face? If we don't chase him, what can we take back to report?"

The wind was howling as they walked through the night. Suddenly, they came to a narrow mountain path.

The team continued to pursue and passed through a forest. Then, something seemed to fly into the sky. The soldier walking in the front subconsciously looked up and suddenly recognized that it was a flare.

"call out!"

In the woods, Kou Zhong jumped on his horse, pulled the reins, and said in a low voice: "Brothers, follow me and kill!"

"kill!"

The words roared out, and in the dense forest, many voices shouted at this moment: "Kill!!!" The next second, pairs of footsteps and horse hooves exploded in the night, and dense figures rushed out of the woods, holding swords and weapons, and rushed towards the spreading army in a mad wave, creating a huge wave of blood.

"There's an ambush!"

In an instant, a shrill sound resounded through the night.

The general reined in his horse, his face full of anxiety, "Form a formation, don't panic!"

However, our side was holding torches while the other side was hiding in the dense forest, so we couldn't see how many people there were. The dark forest was like a giant beast that devoured human lives, which was terrifying.

Before the two sides came into close combat, a hail of arrows blasted at them and screams rang out one after another.

In this battle, we had a deliberate plan, the enemy was in the open and we were in the dark, and we took advantage of the situation to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out. No one expected that Kou Zhong, with only a remnant of his soldiers left, would dare to make a surprise attack and set an ambush on the spot.

The three thousand Li clan soldiers were slaughtered like a mountain by less than a thousand ambushes. The Li clan general saw that the entire long dragon-like army was cut in half, and waves of blood swept towards him along with the corpses. More soldiers were killed in the first place and fled in all directions. He was on horseback, shocked by the shock of anything collapsing as he touched it.

Chaos and bloodshed rolled over, and Kou Zhong's hard and cold face was reflected in the firelight. Even though he was far away, he felt a chill in his heart and hurriedly pulled the reins to escape. Kou Zhong seemed to sense something and turned his head to look. He recognized the other party's servant, picked up the spear in the hand of his personal soldier, circulated his true energy and threw it at him fiercely.

"Buzz!"

The gun was like a meteor, it was fired later but arrived first, piercing through the warhorse and disappearing into the pitch-black night.

The man rode his horse for several feet, and the horse under his crotch fell down with a loud bang, and he himself was pinned under it and unable to move.

"help me!"

As soon as the enemy general fled, the other side's morale collapsed instantly. Regardless of the enemy in front of them, the soldiers only wanted to escape. However, how many people could pass through the narrow passage?
They had no choice but to swing their weapons at their comrades in front of them. Thousands of swords were waving on the front line. People were pressed against each other in the fierce fight. Blood and limbs splattered everywhere. The heart-wrenching screams suddenly reached their climax in the entire moment of the confrontation.

The fighting continued until dawn.

Kou Zhong leaned over to look at the captured Li clan general and said calmly, "Go back and tell Li Shimin to clean his neck and wait. Sooner or later, I will charge into Taiyuan and chop that stinky nun to death as well."

"General, this?"

Kou Zhong raised an eyebrow and said, "No, right? Go ahead!"

The man nodded quickly, his face full of fear, "I'll take him, I'll take him."

"Well, cut off one of his ears, give him a horse, and let him go."

Soon, the general of the Li family covered his ears and ran away on his horse, looking very embarrassed.

……

The carts loaded with supplies creaked and swayed as they drove over the bumpy road. From time to time, the sound of galloping war horses passed nearby. The raised dust obscured people's vision. The view rose to the sky and looked down to see the long army marching forward on the plain.

Inside the tent, Song Que received the battle report from the front and his brows relaxed instantly, "Good!"

Song Lu was in high spirits and asked hurriedly, "Brother, did the front win?"

Song Que smiled, "You can see for yourself."

Everyone took the battle report and passed it around, and then the camp was filled with laughter.

Song Zhi took the battle report and said with a smile, "I didn't expect Kou Zhong, a rookie, to cause the Li family to suffer a great loss. He is indeed worthy of being the disciple taught by my elder brother."

Shi Zhixuan's eyes flickered, and he said in a deep voice, "The second young master of the Li family is just a name. Since Shi Feixuan is on the battlefield, there must be a lot of people from the Buddhist sect this time." As he spoke, he glanced at Su Ming again inconspicuously. He was not looking at a part of the battlefield, but the entire battlefield.

Su Ming's attention was not on the battle report. He continued, "Buddhism has always cooperated sincerely when facing foreign enemies. Many people have come, but Louguan Dao and the major sects in the north have made some moves. They dare not send out all of them. Perhaps the ones who came this time were Di Xin Jiaxiang and his men. Cihang Jingzhai has placed a heavy bet on the Li family. Fan Qinghui is probably here too."

"If Lecheng is lost, Hancheng will certainly be lost, and the next Yangping Pass will also be undefendable. We have sent Li Jing to guard this place as bait. This time, we must let in all 150,000 troops of the Guanlong Alliance."

Song Que nodded slightly and said in a deep voice, "This time, I will break the backbone of the Guanlong Alliance!" As his words fell, a sharp aura emerged from his body, stinging everyone's faces.

Shi Zhixuan was secretly surprised, while Song Lu and other people from the Song family looked happy.

The clan leader's martial arts seemed to have improved a lot.

……

Guanzhong, Zhongnan Mountain.

Taoist Qi Hui observed the stars at night and saw an evil star shining in the southwest. The aura of war was rising into the sky, and he was very happy.

The next day, he led a group of elite disciples down the mountain. As soon as they left Huayin County, they met several monks. Seeing them, Taoist Qi Hui suddenly smiled and said, "So, the Buddhist sect is waiting for me here."

Among the monks who blocked the road, there was an old monk with a white beard. He looked at Qi Hui and said in a deep voice, "Amitabha, as long as you return to Zhongnan and stay in seclusion for three months, I will pretend that I have never seen you."

“Haha, old monk, you are about to die and still dare to talk nonsense. The victory of this battle does not depend on us, but this Taoist has tolerated you for a long time.” Taoist Qi Hui flicked the whisk in his hand and took the lead in attacking.

The old monk sighed and had no choice but to fight. The monks behind him also fought with the Taoist priests of Louguandao.

Such scenes appeared one by one in the major northern sects. If the Buddhist sect did not take action, it would be fine. But once it took action, it would cut off the support of the Song clan. It would use all its strength to delay the Taoist sect and wait for victory on the battlefield.

……

In mid-September, Hancheng fell and the Guanlong Allied Forces arrived at Yangping Pass.

Yangping Pass is located on the Jigong Mountain in the south, the Jialing River in the north, and across the Xian River from Zhanglu City on Zoumaling Mountain in the west. It is located at the Jinniu Pass connecting to Bashu in the west and the Chencang Pass connecting to Qinlong in the north. It is a horn-shaped pass with Dingjun Mountain and Tiandang Mountain in the north and south of the Han River. It is the western gateway of the Hanzhong Basin and the northern frontier of Bashu to Guanzhong. It has a very strategic geographical location and can be used for attack or defense.

Inside the camp, Yuwen Chengdu looked at Li Shimin and asked, "Who are the defenders of the city? How many troops are there in the city?" His voice was arrogant and domineering, as if he really regarded the other party as his own subordinate.

Li Shimin's eyes flashed with displeasure, but he was not in a position to get angry. He said in a deep voice, "The man guarding the city is called Li Jing. He has some connection with our Guanlong Alliance. Not long ago, I sent an envoy to persuade him to surrender, but he was driven back. I attacked for a while, but found that the city was heavily guarded and had more than 10,000 soldiers. It was not something that my vanguard could take down."

(End of this chapter)