It doesn't matter what the lord is.

No matter how many crows you have seen in this world, they are all the same color in the end.

20. Declaration of War

July 17, 333.

The third son of Yunyang, Li Neng, raised an army and conquered the devastated Yuxi City.

This incident itself did not cause any waves, because no matter which territory it was, it was an extremely normal thing, especially in a territory like Yunyang that was already ranked low, no one would pay attention to it.

It has been like this for years. No matter how many troubles the lower-ranked territories cause, they will not receive any reports. On the contrary, the territories at the top of the rankings, like Yunhai, will be watched closely by people all over the world at all times for the slightest disturbance. Until now, everyone is still paying close attention to who will become the prince of Yunhai.

However, for the few who paid attention to Yuxicheng's movements, this unexpected attack by Li Neng could be considered a big deal. The reason was simple. This was different from the usual tentative battle. It had completely entered the stage of a well-received death battle. In the past, Li Yi and Li Neng had many opportunities to make mistakes. It didn't matter if they lost once. They could just go back and recuperate and make a comeback. The only one who was truly facing life and death was Yuxicheng himself.

But this time was different. Li Neng spent all his money to build an army and borrowed some elite troops from Li Yi. This was his last trump card. If he lost, it would mean that he, the third son of Yunyang, would completely lose his power. At that time, not to mention that Li De would not let him go, Li Yi might not give him face like he did now. For Li Yi, who had just become the prince of Yunyang, he urgently needed a victory to establish his prestige. If he lost to Li De again and again, the people of Yunyang would doubt his ability.

It is no longer just Reed who is bearing the risk. This time, at least one of the two sides will be beaten so badly that it will be difficult for them to recover.

Regardless of the outside world's views, Yuxi City played a heroic role in the recent demon invasion, blocking the demon attack with its own strength. Hundreds of elite soldiers who fought bloody battles died heroically in this war, and the entire Yuxi City fell into an extremely weak situation. These are no secrets. The Third Master of Yunyang chose to take advantage of your illness at this time, and got the tacit approval of the Yunyang Lord and the Yunyang Prince, which also meant that Yuxi City had completely turned against Yunyang.

There is no way to wash this kind of thing away. If it happens to any two factions, it is an absolute mortal feud.

Although there was some sympathy for Yuxicheng, almost everyone who knew a little about this matter came to the same conclusion -

Yuxi City is finished.

On one side was a giant with strong soldiers and well-equipped equipment, and on the other side was a weak and pitiful unknown person who was trembling in fear. The result of this battle seemed to have been announced at the beginning, and the fate of destruction seemed to be written in the verdict posted on the top of Yuxi City. Even if Li De could hold on to Li Neng's violent attack, he would still be dead when Li Yi took action himself. Not to mention that behind Li Yi stood the Lord of Yunyang. This huge gap in strength even made this hostility more tragic, like an ant trying to shake a tree.

When the war started, Li Neng, with his well-trained army in hand, declared war on Lid with great enthusiasm.

Since it is a war, there must be a reason, and everyone will claim to be the righteous side. In the declaration of war, Lide was listed with all kinds of crimes. His past behavior of slacking off became the best proof of being a dandy, and his extravagance and lack of ambition were all criticized. Liushi's joining gave Lide a new reason to criticize. From Liushi's joining to Qian Teng and Pingzi's joining, Yuxi City has become the base of evil. In Lide's words, Lide is just like a member of the evil cult.

This declaration of war, which even criticized the trivial matter of Lid being disrespectful to his father and brothers when he was a child, was successfully announced to the world, and Yu Xicheng, one of the parties involved, only responded with four big words:

Too long to watch.

Lid, who is really good at disgusting people, knows very well how to win in a war of words. If the other party speaks one sentence at a time, you can integrate them and retort them in one breath. This way, when the other party receives a lot of information in a short period of time, it is difficult for the brain to react and the other party will be speechless; if the other party takes the initiative and directly lists a lot of things, you don't even need to look at them and just treat him as a brain-dead person; if both sides use this trick, then there is nothing you can do, it depends on who cares more about winning or losing. The core idea is that he thinks you are his younger brother, you don't need to refute on the surface, but in your heart you actually know that you are his father.

No matter how he scolds you, you can remain calm and composed. This is the rule to win.

Of course, this was just a minor incident. Li Neng, who was disgusted, became even more motivated and drove his army towards Yuxi City.

Fifteen hundred men marched in silence, their iron armor making clacking sounds. The footsteps were not uniform, but powerful enough. On the silent road, the sound was shocking enough, as if a mountain was slowly moving. Riding on a steed, Li Neng could not help but indulge in it, imagining the day when he would take over Yuxi City.

In Li Neng's opinion, the fact that Li De, who did nothing, could escape danger many times shows that the current team of Yuxi City is already excellent enough. If he is paired with a thoughtful and strategic person like himself, wouldn't it be like a tiger with wings to take off immediately?

This was the main reason why he applied to find a way to take over Yuxi City before Kaia and Noren intervened.

At this time in Yuxi City, Fang Shisan returned to the City Lord's Mansion to meet Li De in person.

The soldiers had already gone through the most grueling training period and were now on standby. The speed of the formation of the army this time was far beyond Fang Shisan's expectations. Perhaps it was because most of them had participated in the tragic defense of Yuxi City. These soldiers seemed to have experienced several life-and-death trials in advance, and they had to do every training item faster and better.

Fang Shisan never doubted the people under his command.

She made four assurances to the soldiers on the first day they entered Yuxi City.

No delay in paying military salaries.

Promotion based on military merit.

Those who died in battle will be given heavy compensation.

and most importantly:

——"I can't guarantee that I will always win the battle, but I promise that none of you will die in vain."

War is cruel, violent, and filled with killing and being killed. Every soldier knows this, and getting such a guarantee from Fang Shisan is enough for them. The most frightening thing in war is to follow a foolish general, sacrifice in vain, and die with resentment.

Therefore, in the army of Yuxi City, Fang Shisan still has absolute leadership. Even though most of the veterans from Tianxing City who followed her have died on the battlefield, the new soldiers are still full of respect for her.

This time, she escaped from the army and returned to Yuxi City because she had an important plan that she had to explain to Lid in person.

The two people seemed to be arguing in the room for a while, and Fang Shisan's voice was a little excited. People outside couldn't hear it clearly, and could only vaguely hear the end of the conversation, when Fang Shisan seemed to say stubbornly:

"We must plan for the future... Only by doing so can we preserve our combat effectiveness to the greatest extent possible to deal with future troubles."

21. As sweet as honey

The first thing Li Neng did after he raised his army was to besiege Tianqi City. This city was once his fiefdom, and he knew it very well. When he was in charge of this city, it was not prosperous, and could only be described as simple and crude. When it came to Li De, it became somewhat more presentable, and even the city walls were renovated.

The reason why they chose Tianqi City was because it was the easiest city to capture. It was not far from Rivet City, and its defense facilities were not perfect. There were only a few archers on the city wall looking down. Li Neng sent his own archers to shoot a few rounds of arrows, and almost no one dared to look down anymore.

This made Li Neng feel comfortable. After a little thought, he adopted the method of surrounding three sides and leaving one behind to launch a violent attack on Tianqi City. He didn't know how many defenders were left in Tianqi City, but he was sure that all the troops in Yuxi City combined were not as many as his own, so he felt very comfortable commanding this battle. He hadn't fought such a comfortable battle for a long time.

Selaginella, who was drawn as the vanguard, fulfilled his due responsibility. On the day of going to the battlefield, he secretly inserted a small white flower on his chest before putting on his heavy armor. He knew that when he died, there would probably be no one to mourn him, so he held a simple funeral for himself while he was still alive.

But unexpectedly, he knew that his own army was weak, but the enemy's was even weaker.

With the help of the formation left by Fang Shisan, the army in Tianqi City still put up a frantic resistance and shot and killed dozens of Li Neng's soldiers, but the vanguard led by Juan Bai also climbed up the city wall. When Juan Bai stood firm, he clenched the long sword in his hand, thinking that he would be greeted by a thrilling close combat, but he didn't expect that there was no one in front of him.

The soldiers who remained in Tianqi City broke through the west gate collectively, abandoned the city and fled.

On July 17, 333, the day the rebellion began, Li was able to recapture Tianqi City.

After this great victory, Lineng opened the treasury of Tianqi City and distributed part of the money to the soldiers. Selaginella also received a small silver coin, which he put in his pocket. Lineng held a banquet in the city to celebrate this beautiful victory. The attendees of the banquet were mainly officers, elite soldiers of the army, and the masters that Li Yi had lent to Lineng. After three rounds of wine and five dishes, Lineng stood up and toasted everyone with a glass of wine. The whole room was full of laughter, but Selaginella was alone. He sat in the corner, as if no one had remembered that he had put his head on his belt today and mustered up the courage to be the first to rush up the city wall. The officers praised each other as if they were the protagonists of today's victory.

Li Neng was a little drunk, but he was still toasting those masters. While toasting, he said:

"Yuxi City is no longer a concern. The army has suffered casualties and injuries, and it has long been unable to make any progress. The only thing to worry about is how many people are still able to fight. That Alaiya is a famous genius swordsman in Yunyang. This time I have to rely on your help..."

The leader of the experts, a bearded man, guzzled the wine and said with disdain:

"What a genius swordsman! This time I must make her kneel on the ground and kowtow and beg for mercy!"

The atmosphere of the banquet reached its peak at this point.

Selaginella left the banquet on the pretext of being drunk, and returned to his barracks with his swollen head covered, only to find that the soldiers were all sitting outside with gloomy faces.

He felt that he had sobered up a lot at once, and went forward to inquire about the situation, only to find out that the reward money given to everyone today had been collected by the army borrowed by Li Yi. The other party also said with confidence that it was useless for them, the poor soldiers, to take the money, and they would have to rely on the elite to fight hard battles, and it was only natural for the rookies to pay money to save their lives.

Selaginella's hand calmly rested on the knife at his waist, hesitated for a moment, and still did not move.

He smiled heartily, took out the silver coin from his pocket, and said:

"Let's go, I'll buy you a drink."

When he left, the white flower pinned on his chest fell to the ground and turned into mud.

The next day, Li Neng announced that because Selaginella had left the barracks yesterday, he would still let him and his men serve as the vanguard.

Juanbai did not refuse, but when he led the soldiers out, he calmly glanced at Li Yi's elite troops, with a hint of coldness in his eyes. None of his soldiers complained, and followed Juanbai out of the line and walked to the front of the army.

On that day, Li Neng led his troops to attack Lieyang City.

This battle was much harder than expected, but there was no big trouble. Li Neng still adopted the strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one side. He did not station a large number of troops in Tianqi City, but only left less than 200 soldiers to stabilize the situation there, and then continued the expedition with most of the troops.

Li Neng knew very well that the number of defenders in Yuxi City was seriously insufficient, and his own number was his biggest advantage. If too many people were assigned to garrison the newly recaptured Tianqi City, the pressure on Lid would be greatly reduced, and it would be possible for him to catch his breath. So Li Neng still attacked Lieyang City with all his might, and this time the resistance was greatly increased. It was obvious that Fang Shisan had already deployed defenders in Lieyang City in advance.

The battle lasted for two days, and more than one-third of Juanbai's men were killed or wounded. This was because Lieyang City's resistance was limited, and they only shot down the attackers on the city walls and had no spare energy to shoot arrows. Li Neng thought about it and felt that this was natural: it takes much longer to train archers than infantry. Most of the archers in Yuxi City died in the war against the demons. The remaining soldiers were only good at hand-to-hand combat. Defending the city was a field they had never touched before.

Two days later, Lieyang City was captured and Li Neng led his army into the city.

After indulging in sensual pleasures for a whole night, Li Neng broke out in a sweat, feeling that he had vented all his grievances. All he could think about was how to torture his former brother after the war and how to bring those capable officials under his command to his side.

Two days later, news came from Yuxi City: After losing two cities in a row, Fang Shisan was so angry that he went out of the city to inspect the army late at night. He was ambushed by assassins on the way and was seriously injured. Lide demoted Fang Shisan and ordered her to rest and recover. The army of Yuxi City was fully under the charge of Deputy Commander Luger.

The source of the information was a nail that Yunyang had planted in Yuxi City a long time ago. Nothing could be more reliable than this.

So Li Neng let out a long breath and couldn't help laughing. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky was cloudless. Thousands of soldiers stood silently in the suburbs in a murderous formation. Li Neng walked in front of them with high spirits, looked at the whistling elite troops, the expressionless ordinary soldiers, and the exhausted Selaginella family. He raised his hand high and gave an order that pointed to the final outcome:

"Let's go and take Yuxi City!"

22. Disaster is always one step ahead of you

The army moved very fast, like a steel torrent that swept away everything in its path. The heavy boots on their feet trampled the fine soil into dust, and even the sun above their heads became a little blurry. The dust could not fall to the ground for a long time under the push of the heat wave, and from a distance it looked like an endless golden ribbon.

On the way, Li Neng saw many large-scale farms, but there was nothing inside. I don't know if they were abandoned long ago or strategically moved to other places. In short, there are only a pile of empty shells. But even so, the grand scale is enough to make people stunned. When Li Neng thought that these were all Lao Si's industries, his eyes turned red with jealousy.

This was once Lineng's territory, and Lineng still looks at these cities in this way.

Then the industries built on the basis of these cities should also be his.

"These untouchables don't work hard when they are under my command, but they are happy to work for others."

Li Neng cursed. These buildings were very troublesome to build. It was impossible for all of them to be built by people sent by Yuxi City. This meant that after the other four cities were incorporated into Lide's group, a considerable number of people in them were willing to work for Lide, which was why these farms were built on such a large scale.

Although Li Neng didn't know what was raised in it, he estimated that he could make a fortune by raising some random animals.

"Speed ​​up the pace, capture Yuxi City, and everyone will be rewarded!"

Li Neng shook the reins suddenly, and the white horse quickened its pace, knocking down a slow-moving soldier. The army still maintained a considerable degree of efficiency, but the atmosphere was like a stagnant pool of water, and Li Neng's big pie did not stir up any waves.

Li Neng wiped the sword in his hand with some boredom, thinking that it seemed that he needed to focus on training on slogans.

The army marched all the way to the outskirts of Yuxi City without encountering any decent resistance. This made Li Neng more certain of his judgment that Yuxi City was probably planning to abandon the chariot to save the king, send back all the four cities that were captured from him, and concentrate all the living forces in Yuxi City to resist stubbornly.

But Lineng just didn't intend to let his brother get his wish!

What's the point of taking back four empty cities with nothing in them? Haven't I plundered these cities enough over the years?

What he needed were powerful subordinates and the attractive industrial chains behind the rise of Yuxi City. So he seized this golden opportunity without hesitation, not only to avenge the robbery of the cover, but also to double the interest from Lid.

When the solid and majestic walls of Yuxi City appeared before his eyes, Li Neng wiped his eyes. He doubted whether he had come to the dilapidated small city in the west. The walls had been raised and thickened to an unknown extent, and the whole city was like a steel fortress.

But Li Neng soon felt relieved.

He heard the clanging sound of the army marching beside him, and saw the archers' quivers filled with arrows. His heart was filled with pride again. The demons had besieged Yuxi City for so long, and the food and grass in Yuxi City had probably run out. He only needed to surround them and starve them to death in the city.

No matter how invincible the defense is, it cannot solve the problem of consumption. Once the people inside collapse, it will be of no use no matter how high the city is built.

……

Unlike the confident Lee Neng, Selaginella is always nervous.

His hand was always on the hilt of the sword, and his brows were deeply furrowed. When he saw the iron-clad defense of Yuxi City, Juanbai's face changed several times, and a very bad premonition surged in his heart. A bad guess emerged in his mind, and at this moment, Juanbai felt that he was standing at the cusp of the storm.

He could go and tell Li Neng that he had a guess and he suspected that this was a trap that had been carefully set from the beginning.

He could also choose to remain silent and calmly await the end of everything.

Soon, Selaginella discovered something. He could only choose the second option, just like many games that seemingly give you different options but lead to the same ending. The first option was a false option from the beginning, and it also led to an eternal hell.

Because Li Neng would never listen to what he said.

Or in other words, no one in the top leadership of this army would listen to what he said.

Because he was an alien who was not welcomed by anyone, and he was the scapegoat who rushed to the front of the team. Any advice at this moment became an excuse for being afraid of death. People who only saw the interests could not see the dangers hidden in front of them. Moreover, in Li Neng's eyes, the current Yuxi City was already a spent force, and there was no other way except to defend it behind closed doors. He was convinced of this judgment.

Selaginella felt his heart beating faster and faster. He quickly turned his head and said to his subordinates beside him:

"If there is any danger, listen to me and I will keep you alive."

Although the soldier did not understand, he nodded hurriedly when he saw the colonel said this, and then quietly passed the news to the people around him. Only then did he feel his heartbeat stabilize a little. No matter what he was going to face next, he had done the only thing he could do as a small colonel.

The field of vision gradually became narrower, and after entering the suburbs, the road was not as wide as before. Fortunately, the road outside Yuxi City was paved with something, and it was very flat, so the army would not be disturbed at all when walking on it.

Yuxi City is getting closer and closer.

There were archers stationed on the city walls, and judging from their momentum, these archers were obviously stronger. But there was still the same problem, their numbers were too small. Li Neng estimated that they would most likely prepare rolling logs and falling rocks for defense, but there would not be many of these things, because most of them were used to deal with the demons.

In addition, since Tianqi City and Lieyang City were occupied by himself, the city defense formation set up by Fang Shisan lost most of its effectiveness. It can be foreseen that this siege will not be very difficult.

If they could be besieged here for ten days or half a month, the people in Yuxi City would be in a panic. If he ordered the people to attack Li De as the third son of Yunyang, there would be chaos in Yuxi City. This war was almost certain to win, and Li Neng silently sentenced the former fourth son of Yunyang to death.

Before I knew it, the wind started to blow.

The leaves in the forest rustled, but there was no bird song to accompany it.

Having simulated the battle to defend the city in his mind, Li Neng raised his sword high and shouted to his troops:

"attack--!!"

As soon as the command was issued, the fan-shaped army began to charge forward. The soldiers in the front row accelerated first, while those in the back began to run, gradually changing to a loose formation in the front and a dense formation in the back.

And at that moment, two sword energies, one red and one white, burst out from the woods, instantly blasting the formation protection into a pile of fragments in mid-air on the right side of the military formation, and at the same time blasting twenty or thirty people directly into the sky.

The siege that Li Neng had anticipated never broke out in the end.

Because he couldn't even reach Yuxi City.

23. It turns out that you are the winning magic weapon of Yuxi City