The Emperor is Above

Chapter 557: Lord Huo Yun's Anger

Border town fortress.

This strategic location is located at the junction of the Yunling and Yuanshan mountain ranges.

Two huge mountain ranges stretching for tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of miles, one from the east and the other from the west, each extending a part, meet here but do not connect.

A canyon one mile wide and several miles long is left here, with steep cliffs on both sides, overlapping peaks and dense forests, which can be said to be a place of natural danger.

The main body of the border town fortress was built at the highest point of the watershed in the canyon, which is also the most dangerous place. The city wall built with huge stones alone is thirty feet high and more than ten feet thick.

Dozens of fortresses of various sizes were built on the tops of the canyons on both sides and in many dangerous locations, so that they could support and echo each other at any time.

This main fortress and many fortresses, as well as a series of buildings in the rear, together constitute a fortress group in the border town defense system, and have become the greatest reliance of the Xing State in resisting the Xianyu tribe for hundreds of years.

In addition, two miles north of the Border Town Fortress, there is a naturally formed rock fissure that is two hundred feet wide and more than one hundred feet deep, extending from east to west and connecting the two ends of the canyon.

After hundreds of years of deliberate artificial repairs, it has become a natural moat for the entire border fortress. There is only a 30-meter-wide natural passage connecting the north near the city gate.

The border town fortress originally had 10,000 garrison troops, who were led by the city lord and the city lieutenant to guard the fortress all year round. Unfortunately, nearly half of them were lost in a fierce battle with 30,000 elite troops some time ago.

Ever since Shangqing Huo Yun led his troops to take over the border fortress, the nearly 10,000 reinforcements and newly mobilized young and strong militiamen he brought, totaling as many as 35,000 people, have filled the entire city with the atmosphere of war.

As autumn deepened, the wind from the wasteland north of the Northern Wilderness became colder and colder, forcing the soldiers on duty on the city walls to change into thicker clothes.

The leaves of the trees in the forests on both sides of the mountains turned yellow and fell, and the peaks of the distant mountains were gradually covered by snow, turning into white snow peaks.

The sky is dark blue in the sky, and the clouds are becoming increasingly sparse. From time to time, large flocks of birds can be seen migrating southward, attracting many ferocious birds of prey.

On the corner towers at both ends of the border town fortress, there were also huge falcons circling and landing continuously. These were the Flying Eagle Guards who accompanied Huo Yun to the north to provide support.

They were responsible for spying on the movements of King Xianyu and the Xianyu army every day. The news they brought made the expressions of the soldiers in the city more and more solemn.

"King Xianyu is leading 150,000 elite troops as the vanguard, and hundreds of thousands of troops are driving tens of millions of cattle and sheep in the rear. They are only three to five days away from us."

"I heard that the Xianyu people, Yuezhi people, and foreign tribes have formed an alliance with a million-strong coalition army. No matter how strategic the terrain of our border fortress is, we can't resist such a strong enemy after all!"

"No, no, no. I heard that the Yuezhi people and the foreign tribes are preparing to attack Gaocheng Fortress from the Dai Kingdom. We just need to defend the border city and repel the Xianyu army."

"Are you stupid? This is exactly what makes the situation more critical. How can Dai State, with its weak strength, defend Gaocheng Fortress? If Gaocheng falls, it will be useless even if we defend the Border Fortress!"

Similar discussions quickly spread among the soldiers in the border fortress, making the soldiers defending the city even more depressed.

If it weren't for the martial spirit of the people of Xing State for 800 years, coupled with the brutal massacre of the city by Xian Yu in previous years, the people would have panicked and suddenly collapsed.

Huo Yun, who had been promoted to Shangqing only two months ago and was the commander of the border fortress, certainly knew the words and concerns of the soldiers in the fortress.

He felt unprecedented heavy pressure at this moment. This time, resisting the invasion of Xianyu's army was completely different from defeating Mochuo last year.

Last spring, the hundreds of thousands of Xianyu troops under the command of Mochu, the younger brother of Xianyu King, seemed to be extremely large in scale, but in fact their combat effectiveness was not that strong.

In addition to the more than 10,000 elite Xianyu cavalry directly commanded by Mo Jue, the remaining 90% were cavalry from the Xianyu clan, and the only elite were dozens of vulture knights serving as scouts.

At that time, Huo Yun relied on the natural barrier of the border fortress to defend himself. While enjoying the geographical advantage, he could also receive constant support from the capital and cities in the northern border. What's more, there was also the first-class grandmaster Shi Laoweng in charge.

However, now, just over a year later, the offensive and defensive positions have changed, and the situation has become completely unfavorable for Huo Yun and the entire Xing State. First, Xing State was plagued by wars last year. Even though it won every battle, it also caused Xing State to lose a large number of vassals and generals.

Soon after, the Winter Festival was attacked by the Ghost King Ningtu, the Cat Ghost God, the Five Gods, and the High Priest of the Black Wind Tribe, and the vassals who participated in the ceremony suffered heavy losses.

This year, King Xing Zhengyang died suddenly, and the new king Xing Zhongkang succeeded him. The internal situation of the Xing Kingdom was in a mess, and there were fierce struggles at all times.

Although the new emperor Xing Zhongkang, with the support of Shi Laoweng, killed the two great ministers Zhonghang Huan and Qi Xi and their followers, and the great master of national defense Qianye Weng fled, he was supported by some noble officials and the people.

However, since the new emperor was not very powerful and was not yet twenty years old, he was still unable to unite the people's hearts. Over the past few months, Xing Zhongkang suffered at least a hundred assassination attempts of various kinds, and the palace servants were almost completely replaced.

In addition, the chaos within Xing also made external forces such as the Black Wind Kingdom and Chong Kingdom eye it covetously, with the intention of sending troops to attack, resulting in the cities in the southeast and south having to defend their cities tightly.

The biggest hidden danger within the State of Xing: the Ghost Witch Tribe and the wild people of Jiming Lake. After their demise, there are still a large number of wild people settlements, and now they are also causing chaos under the instigation of the Black Wind Tribe.

This in turn meant that the three divisions in the capital, the capital region, the Black Armor Cavalry, and the national militia had to defend Xing's most prosperous capital region with all their might, and to be ready to resist the Black Wind Kingdom and Chong Kingdom at any time, and were completely unable to go north to provide support.

In order to protect the safety of the new king Xing Zhongkang at all times, Old Man Shi, the only powerful saint, is not allowed to leave his side.

Under the circumstances of internal and external difficulties, the situation is precarious and the task of supporting the border towns can only rely on the fifteen cities in the north and the twelve cities in the northern border.

However, no one would have expected that the doctors guarding the fifteen northern cities, after seeing the crisis of Xing State, also had their own thoughts that they shouldn't have.

They certainly did not dare to directly betray the monarch who possessed a powerful saint, but they used various reasons to shirk the order to go north to provide support, with the intention of defending the city themselves.

"What a short-sighted person who is blinded by greed!"

Shangqing Huo Yun angrily threw the animal-skin letters written by the city guards on the ground, his dark face full of anger.

"They used the excuse that the barbarians in the territory were causing chaos, and that the cities were busy clearing out the barbarian settlements outside the city, and that they were temporarily unable to go north to support the border cities. These were clearly all excuses.

The cancerous chicken in the heart of the capital, the wild people of Ming Daze had long been destroyed, and the ghost witch tribe of Lishui Daze had also been wiped out by Longcheng Yi Yaqing.

Although there are many wild folk settlements in the country, their strength is extremely limited and not enough to threaten the safety of the cities. How is it possible that they cannot spare troops?
At the moment, they are using this as an excuse to not go north. It is clear that they are trying to preserve their strength and have second thoughts. They have ulterior motives and should be killed now."

"Father, don't be angry. They are not even afraid of the new emperor, so how can they be afraid of you?" Huo Jun, the eldest son of Huo Yun, comforted him.

"Since the city guards in the north are short-sighted and unwilling to come north to support, at least the city guards of the twelve cities in the northern border will understand the threat of the Xianyu people's invasion and will definitely lead their troops to come, not to mention that Longcheng Yi Yaqing is even more powerful."

"Report——"

Before Huo Jun finished speaking, he saw a captain with a happy face, "Reporting to the Lord, Lord Yang Lezi led 15,000 reinforcements to arrive 30 miles south of the border fortress, and there are 200 chariots."

This book was initially written with great enthusiasm, but due to various reasons, it could not be updated frequently when it was first put on the shelves. After writing more than 80 words, there has been no recommendation until now.

After writing nearly 120 million words, the editor told me that there was no hope of getting any recommendations in the future, that the book had no value anymore, and suggested that I switch to writing other genres.

At that moment, my passion and energy for writing suffered a critical blow. I don’t blame the editor or anyone else. After all, writing depends on personal ability. I continued writing with the intention of taking responsibility and having a better ending.

Up to now, there are only more than sixty readers who are following the book, so for the sake of the readers who still like this book, I will continue to work hard to finish it. If for various reasons you are not satisfied with the so-called lack of more, I can't do anything about it. Sometimes it is really difficult to muster up enthusiasm again.



(End of this chapter)