A thousand-year-old family begins with one fighting against ten thousand.

In the past few days, Xia Ping has been risking his life to fill Yumen Pass, leaving behind tens of thousands of corpses every day. He is willing to pay any price in order to break through Yumen Pass as soon as possible.

After learning that the entire Western Regions had been occupied, the Tang Dynasty stockpiled a large number of defensive facilities at Yumen Pass, just in preparation for what happened today.

In the first few days of the siege, these defensive structures played a vital role, inflicting heavy losses on the Xia army.

However, Xia Ping brought a lot of cannon fodder, all of them servants and prisoners from the Western Regions. With the lives of these servants, they managed to consume all the siege supplies in the city.

After the siege supplies were exhausted, fierce hand-to-hand combat ensued. Xia soldiers constantly climbed the city walls, only to be defeated and their bodies thrown down.

Xia Ping watched the horrific scene without blinking. Blood drenched almost every part of Yumen Pass, turning the blue bricks on the city wall red. The broken parts were scraped by the wind, making a whistling sound.

When Li Shimin led his army to Chang'an, the entire Yumen Pass had already been breached, and Xia Ping had forcibly crossed it using corpses.

The entire Yumen Pass was littered with corpses and severed limbs, a scene of carnage far exceeding that of the Battle of Changping.

After breaching Yumen Pass, Liangzhou was left wide open, with almost all of Liangzhou's garrison concentrated at Yumen Pass, leaving the province vulnerable.

But it was only at this moment that Xia Ping witnessed what the true Divine Empire was all about.

After Yumen Pass, none of the cities they passed through surrendered.

Although they did not have a regular army, they had county and prefectural soldiers, and able-bodied men assisted in defending the city.

There were instances of surrender during this period, but they were all feigned surrenders.

Having located the location of their army's supplies, they began launching suicide attacks with the intention of burning them.

Others used all their manpower to dig traps in their path, just to disgust them.

They poisoned food and water; they were so depraved that they even poisoned their own wells.

This level of unity made Xia Ping realize that their attempt to occupy the Central Plains was as difficult as ascending to heaven.

The Divine Land can only be occupied by forces from the northern part of the Divine Land. If any outsiders from other states want to occupy the Divine Land, they should be prepared to have their teeth crushed.

But Xia Ping still gritted his teeth and led his army to Chang'an, as he had to consider his political future.

The conquest of China should be carried out gradually.

Moreover, it takes decades and two generations to maintain a regime by occupying a place and managing it.

Thinking about the long period of time that would take, Xia Ping felt a chill run down his spine.

No dynasty can last forever. Their Great Xia has been established for two hundred years. By the standard of the establishment time of all countries in the Chinese civilization sphere, it is not short. It can even be said to have entered the middle and late stages of a nation's existence.

Even if a country still has several years of life left, a dynasty in its final years is often plagued by internal and external troubles, and its strength for external expansion is almost non-existent.

Under such circumstances, how can we even talk about annexing China?!

Recalling what happened in China, Xia Ping's eyes were filled with gloom.

The emperor with whom he had a very good relationship passed away, leaving behind only a little child in the country.

He held a large army and was in great danger, almost like walking on a tightrope over a precipice.

This was his first and last attack on the Chinese mainland.

If he wins, it will bring him great prestige, but it will also make him feared by those in power in the country, and he will have no hope of taking command of the army.

If he loses, they will use this as leverage to strip him of his military power and devour him whole.

With these thoughts in mind, Xia Ping led his army to the outskirts of Chang'an.

At this time, the imperial army had not yet fully arrived, and the mobilization of a million troops could not be completed in a short period of time.

There are only 300,000 troops in Chang'an City, while the Xia army outside the city has a whopping 1.2 million, a difference of four times.

As early as when Yumen Pass was breached, the garrison commander sent word back that many generals advised Li Shimin to retreat and wait for the imperial army to assemble before launching a counterattack.

This is because the imperial army was not fully assembled, so it's no wonder Li Shimin was not blamed.

Li Shimin resolutely rejected this request. As the crown prince, if he fled without a fight, no matter the reason, he would never be able to stand up straight again.

Moreover, with 300,000 troops fighting against 1.2 million troops, the difference is only three times. Li Shimin has fought countless tough battles, including those with a tenfold difference in combat strength. He only has three times the number of troops, so the advantage is in my hands!

Xia Ping had lost all will to fight. He hadn't expected that simply conquering Liangzhou and arriving at the border of Chang'an would cause such fear among the other forces in the army.

They constantly pressured Xia Ping to seize power, none of them wanting Xia Ping to achieve brilliant results and return to the court with unparalleled military achievements, thus threatening their master's position.

With all parties entangled and intertwined, the army's fighting strength was reduced to less than one-tenth.

Xia Ping's only wish at this time was to extract enough benefits from Chang'an and then retreat to the Western Regions.

So he sent an envoy to Chang'an, saying that if the Tang Dynasty agreed to cede Liangzhou and compensate them with one million taels of gold and one million bolts of silk for military expenses, they would withdraw and not attack Chang'an.

The envoy entered Chang'an in a very arrogant manner, conveying Xia Ping's demands to Li Shimin, and his words were full of disrespect.

Li Shimin was a powerful ruler who had fought his way through war, so why would he be afraid?

He ordered the envoy to be dragged away, ignoring his subordinates' advice not to kill envoys during a battle between two armies. After defeating the army outside the city, he beheaded the envoy.

Cheng Yaojin figured out Li Shimin's intention and pulled Qin Qiong and the others who were about to step forward to advise him.

"Your Highness is doing this to boost morale. If we send the envoy back, it will surely boost the morale of the false Xia and diminish the prestige of our Great Tang."

"Now that Your Highness has detained the envoy and is in high spirits, it will greatly boost our morale."

"The enemy's morale may be affected, or they may become united against the common enemy."

Overall, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.

All the ministers were persuaded by Li Shimin.

The next day, Li Shimin arrived at the Wei River Bridge with only six riders. He was wearing a black-winged gauze hat and a golden chainmail, and he regarded the enemy's million-strong army as nothing.

Many members of the Xia Dynasty army looked at Li Shimin before them. The fact that a mere man could treat a million-strong army as nothing was awe-inspiring to everyone present.

Ignoring his attendants' attempts to stop him, Li Shimin spurred his horse onto the bridge.

Xia Ping was also deeply impressed by Li Shimin's imposing presence. He spurred his horse forward and stood facing Li Shimin at the bridgehead.

"Who goes there?"

Xia Ping asked.

"Crown Prince Li Shimin!"

"I have only just been promoted to Crown Prince, and you have already come to congratulate me. There is no need for so many people."

Li Shimin looked up and said, as if the person opposite him was not a prince of another empire, but a prince of a vassal state of the Tang Dynasty.

"I heard that there was an internal strife in the Divine Empire, so I specially mobilized a large army to help quell the rebellion. I never expected that when I arrived in the Great Sui Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty had already usurped the throne."

Xia Ping smiled faintly and replied.

Li Shimin used the act of paying homage to elevate his own status, treating the other party as a vassal king.

Xia Ping pointed directly at Li Shimin's nose and said, "Not long ago, this world still belonged to the Sui Dynasty. You are nothing but a traitor and a usurper."

Both sides were evenly matched, neither willing to back down.