Traveling the Heavens in Thunderbolt

Chapter 1116: World War
At this time, the Liyang court suddenly realized that there were so few generals who could be trusted and used.

Thinking back to the past, Yang Shenxing, Yan Zhenchun, Zhao Yang and other veteran generals who had made great contributions during the Spring and Autumn Period, which one of them was not a pillar of the army that could stand on its own?

But now, the old generals of the Spring and Autumn Period either died in the Battle of Guangling Road when Western Chu was restoring its country, or died on Xu Fengnian's way south.

Gu Jiantang also had to garrison in the two Liao states to guard against Wang Sui and could not be transferred any further.

In such a big city like Liyang, there is not even one person who can replace Lu Xiangsheng.

It was also at this time that Yao Baifeng, the chief academic officer of the Imperial College, resigned due to illness, but this did not cause any trouble.

The good news for Li Yang is that the war situation in the south has finally improved.

After receiving the appointment from Li Yang, Lu Xiangsheng immediately used his power of control. On the one hand, he gathered the remaining soldiers in Jiangnan and Jing'an, and on the other hand, he gave up most of Jiangnan and gathered in Jiangxin County. He barely blocked the joint offensive of Xie Xichui and Kou Jianghuai. The two sides fought fiercely in Jiangnan.

Chen Zhibao stationed his troops at the West Wall Fortress, leading 80,000 soldiers to confront Zhang Bianguan.

Both sides attacked and defended, each showing their unique abilities.

Although Chen Zhibao had the advantage, he was unable to break through the Western Chu defense line and turn the tide of the battle.

This naturally caused many people in the Liyang Dynasty to question the ability of this white-clothed military immortal.

Many people believed that the reason why this world-famous butcher had not been able to defeat Zhang Bianguan, the rebel from Liyang, was because he had not tried his best.

This kind of talk is still very popular among the officials living in Tai'an City.

Recalling the battle at Xibi Barrier that destroyed Chu, Chen Zhibao was not inferior to the soldier Ye Baikui.

Can Zhang Bianguan be compared with Ye Baikui?
Zhang Bianguan naturally cannot be compared with Ye Baikui.

After several encounters, Chen Zhibao commented that Zhang Bianguan's military skills were a little immature compared to the late military saint of the Great Chu.

But this does not mean that Zhang Bianguan is weak. On the contrary, his way of using troops is superb and combines the real and the fake.

The troops led by Chen Zhibao were not the Northern Liang cavalry that had conquered the various countries during the Spring and Autumn Period.

The fight between Chen Zhibao and Zhang Bianguan was extremely dangerous.

Although Zhang Bianguan suffered two defeats in a row, he was able to use his backup plan to gather the remaining troops and stabilize his position each time.

Afterwards, relying on the support of Western Chu in the rear, Chen Zhibao was unable to expand his victory.

When fighting against such a person, you never know what kind of killer is hidden behind his so-called defeat.

Once, Chen Zhibao fell into a trap set by Zhang Bianguan while chasing him. If it weren't for Dian Xiongchu in the camp who led his troops to defend the camp and Chen Zhibao's realization that something was wrong and rushing back to help, the camp would have been nearly captured by the ambush troops arranged by Zhang Bianguan.

From then on, whenever Chen Zhibao led his troops to fight Zhang Bianguan, he would leave important generals to guard the camp.

As the number of battles between the two sides increased, Chen Zhibao could clearly feel the improvement in Zhang Bianguan's command ability on the opposite side.

Chen Zhibao himself is best at large-scale military battles. He can fully utilize the capabilities of each soldier and truly make the three armies as powerful as his own arms.

This was his advantage, but now this advantage is gradually diminishing as Zhang Bianguan grows.

Chen Zhibao finally understood the meaning of what King Yan said before leaving Beiliang.

Even though Chen Zhibao, whom Li Yang had high hopes for, was unable to turn the tide as he wished, the situation in the south did not continue to deteriorate.

Li Yang, which controlled the capital, Lianghuai, Jing'an and other places, was finally able to take a breath and began to requisition food and fodder, train soldiers and support the southern front.

As long as there is enough time, Zhao Zhuan is confident that he can use his huge size advantage to destroy the now seemingly arrogant Western Chu.

Beiliang, which Li Yang had always been worried about, recently sent back news that Beiliang was preparing to continue using military force against Beimang.

When the news reached Tai'an City, civil and military officials including Zhao Zhuan breathed a sigh of relief.

In the eyes of these bigwigs, there is no difference between Beiliang and Beimang, they are all barbarians. Barbarians kill barbarians, and it is best for both to perish together.

At worst, one person will die and one will be injured.

Beiliang fights Beimang, no matter who wins or loses, it buys time for Liyang.

Li Yang can use this time to concentrate on dealing with Xi Chu.

In order to prevent Beiliang from moving south, Li Yang also made preparations for both scenarios.

Send Xu Gong to temporarily take charge of Jizhou's general and continue to strengthen Jizhou's defense line. Don't let Beiliang cross the defense line as easily as last time.

Because Beiliang had already taken over Xishu, in order to prevent it from breaking out from here, Liyang sent people to train the Qingzhou navy day and night, and at the same time appointed Lu Baijie, the assistant minister of the Ministry of War, to go to Qingcheng Mountain to build a defense line, intending to block it from all sides.

In this situation, time passed the end of the second year of Xiangfu and came to the third year of Xiangfu.

During this nearly one year period, the offensive and defensive situation between Liyang and Xichu reversed.

Lu Xiangsheng, who had been defending for nearly a year, finally began to exert his strength with the full support of Li Yang, and tried his best to push back against Western Chu.

On the Western Chu side, Xie Xichu and Kou Jianghuai blocked Lu Xiangsheng tightly and launched a brutal tug-of-war in the Jiangnan Road.

Chen Zhibao and Zhang Bianguan were still taking turns attacking each other, and their troops had been rotated several times.

Once casualties occur, reinforcements can be immediately received from the rear.

Therefore, both sides maintained an army of about 80,000 each.

During this period, Li Yang had the idea of ​​replacing Chen Zhibao and reopening the situation because of discussions within the court.

Therefore, the famous generals Xu Gong and Qi Shence were temporarily transferred to replace Chen Zhibao to lead the Liyang army in the western fortress.

Qi Shence studied at Shangyin Academy. His skill in diplomacy was second only to Xu Weixiong, his skill in military strategy was second only to Kou Jianghuai, and his skill in swordsmanship was the best in the academy.

Now, Kou Jianghuai has become famous. How could Qi Shence, who is known as one of the Eight Horses of the Academy together with Kou Jianghuai, Zhao Kai and others, be willing to lag behind?

He started as an ordinary soldier, and thanks to his outstanding military achievements in the battle of Jiangnan Road, he was soon promoted to captain on the battlefield.

Li Yang has carefully cultivated Qi Shen Ce, a rising star from Li Yang. This time, he makes him Xu Gong's deputy to help lead the army.

In addition, because Beimang was going to have a decisive battle with Beiliang, it had already transferred back a lot of Beimang troops stationed on the border between the two Liao states.

The pressure on the border troops of the two Liaos was greatly reduced, so Gu Jiantang's son-in-law, Yuan Tingshan, was sent to lead 50,000 elite troops from Liaodong to support the two.

Chen Zhibao did not take any extra action in response to Li Yang's decision except for sneering.

After receiving Li Yang's order, he took Dian Xiongchu, Wei Fucheng and other trusted men, totaling more than a thousand people, away from the West Wall Fortress and handed over all the 80,000 troops to Xu Gong.

He led his troops to station in a small town next to the western fortress.

As soon as Xu Gong took office, he immediately began to implement
Yang's order, during the period of waiting for Yuan Tingshan's arrival, he made several tentative attacks on the Chu army led by Zhang Bianguan.

It was discovered that although Zhang Bianguan was defending it impeccably, his counterattack was fierce.

In order to find the weaknesses of the Chu army, they began to launch frequent attacks.

After repeated attacks, he finally found it.

While lamenting that Zhang Bianguan was not an ordinary person, he also thought that Chen Zhibao was just as the court said, working without putting in any effort. Otherwise, with his abilities as a white-clothed soldier, how could he have blocked the western wall for such a long time.

When Yuan Tingshan leads his troops to arrive...

(End of this chapter)