knife

Chapter 446 The righteous path is one foot high, the evil path is ten feet high

Xiao Chenggong asked Chen Liang the same question, and he also roared at Chen Liang.

Chen Liang merely glanced at him.

There was not a single explanation.

As a high-ranking general, Xiao Chenggong should have known the gravity of the situation; he was merely venting his emotions.

This is just the beginning.

While Xiao Chenggong was preparing for the attack and defense of Qingtongxia City, Chen Liang was also standing in front of the sand table, planning the entire eastern front.

For him, this was a golden opportunity.

Chen Liang was actually like Xiao Changche; their relatives had all died at the hands of the Yuan people, and their purpose in joining the army was to avenge their loved ones.

This is why Chen Liang chose to betray Linghu Ye and join Li Dachui Xiao Changche's group at the last moment when Linghu Ye entered the pass.

The struggle for supremacy within the pass and the quest for the world were far less appealing to Chen Liang than the destruction of the Northern Yuan.

His first dream at that time was to return to Qingtongxia, to light incense and burn paper money at the graves of his deceased relatives, and to tell them in the afterlife that he had led his troops back to avenge them.

And Chen Liang did indeed do it.

Now, he has gone a step further and is about to become one of the people who will completely destroy the Yuan Dynasty.

The two fronts were under the personal command of Deputy Protector-General Xiao Changche on the western front and Chen Liang on the eastern front.

If this battle can be won and all the predetermined objectives can be achieved, then Chen Liang's status will leap to become the number one person in the army, second only to Li Dachui and Xiao Changche.

Even Gu Xiaoman would fall behind him.

Although Gu Xiaoman is currently shouldering the responsibility of a hidden third front, confronting the Linghu Group at Yangguan, whether or not to fight this battle remains uncertain.

According to Xiao Changche's assessment, if the Beiting Protectorate outside the pass fought smoothly and decisively, Linghu Zhishu would inevitably retreat. However, if Beiting suffered a defeat and the Tiele succeeded in one fell swoop, he might take advantage of the situation to plunder.

In this life,
It's true what they say: you may try to plant flowers with care, but they won't grow; you may plant willows without intention, and they will thrive.

Once the Northern Yuan is destroyed, the Northern Protectorate will inevitably set its sights on the interior of the pass.

After absorbing and assimilating the Yuan Dynasty, the Beiting Protectorate will become unprecedentedly powerful.

Linghu Ye's previous plan was to cede the area outside the Great Wall to the Yuan Dynasty in exchange for his smooth advance into the interior.
But now, Li Dachui has destroyed the Yuan Kingdom and is advancing into the interior of China.

The two are truly worlds apart.

The key point is that Li Dachui's war of annihilation did not significantly deplete the strength of the Beiting Protectorate. In other words, this final battle will come at a certain cost.

But it's worth it.

He Chenggong asked him about the border outposts and patrols who died in battle without any warning. In Chen Liang's view, this was all part of the price to pay.

Not only these border outposts, but also the city of Qingtongxia, are among those to be abandoned.

Chen Liang's plan was to lure the Tiele people into Qingtongxia City, and then completely surround them within the several dozen miles between Qingtongxia City and Yuan'an. Who exactly are the Tiele people?
Having guarded Qingtongxia City for many years, he single-handedly built a defensive line that left Linghu Ye helpless at the time. His strategic and tactical abilities were both top-notch. Facing such a person, Chen Liang dared not reveal the slightest flaw.

The Beiting Protectorate wants to completely annihilate the Northern Yuan in this battle. If the Tiele realize something is wrong and withdraw, then there will definitely be changes in Yandu.

If the Tiele, Jebe, and Akdun cannot be eliminated in one fell swoop in this battle, it will be a defeat for Beiting.

Only after eliminating the Yuan Dynasty could the Beiting Protectorate focus its efforts on advancing southward.

This time, the troops commanded by Chen Liang were unprecedented.

Zhenwu City had ten subordinate prefectures with a population of over 30,000.

Xiao Chenggong of Qingtongxia commanded six military garrisons with a total of slightly over 18,000 men.

The troops stationed at Yezhuling, commanded by Chang Xin, numbered over 20,000 men, equivalent to eight Zhechongfu (a military unit).

In addition to these, there were also five thousand cavalrymen led by Ma Liang who were rushing all the way from Yangguan.

If we also include the garrison troops that can be mobilized in places like Yuan'an and Duxian, Chen Liang can mobilize more than 80,000 troops this time.

Tiele ultimately only knew part of the military system of the Beiting Protectorate, and the Beiting Protectorate's formidable mobilization and organizational capabilities far exceeded his expectations. He believed that if his 50,000-strong army were to launch an attack, the Beiting Protectorate would have to exert all its strength to surround him, using itself as bait to lure Xiao Changche into a trap.

However, he could not imagine that after the Beiting Protectorate fully implemented the military system, it could mobilize nearly 100,000 troops to surround him in the eastern region alone.

The Beiting Protectorate didn't even need to use Li Dachui and Xiao Changche's direct standing troops.

Whether it was Xiao Changche's personal guard or Li Dachui's three battalions of Heaven, Earth, and Man, this time, it was Xiao Changche who led them to rush straight to Yandu, because that was where the main force of the Yuan army was.

Jebe's main force is there.

Akton's southern and northern camps, as well as the garrison troops, were there.

The Eastern Camp under the command of Tiele, led by Yeli, was there.

In comparison, Tiele's forces, apart from his personal guard, consisted of only second-line troops.

Chen Liang, with almost twice the number of troops, surrounded this second-line force. In Xiao Changche's view, the battle would not be too difficult. Moreover, Xiao Changche's task for Chen Liang was not to eliminate the Tiele, but simply to trap them. Once the western front ended and the main force returned, the Tiele Miao would naturally perish.

But Chen Liang certainly didn't think so.

Having finally gotten such a rare opportunity to shine, how could I not give it my all?

He hoped to achieve victory on the western front while also sacrificing his own life to the Tiele people.

"Xiao Chenggong must hold out for at least three days before we can withdraw from Qingtongxia City!" Chen Liang said to an officer beside him. "A casual battle will arouse the suspicion of the Tiele. Don't let those soldiers sacrifice themselves in vain, understand? We must make the Tiele believe that we ultimately retreated because we couldn't hold them off. Only in this way will they advance even deeper, and only then can we better encircle them."

The officer nodded gravely; a desperate resistance meant even more casualties.

In the early stages of the war, in order to deceive the Beiting Protectorate, the Tiele would definitely send out its elite troops, while the second-rate troops would only cheer from the sidelines to avoid revealing any flaws.

This time, all the actions on the eastern front, as a whole, were a strategic deception. The purpose was to make the Tiele believe one thing: we don't know that you have a big operation in Yandu, so we will definitely mobilize a large army to surround you. Go deeper and deeper, disperse your forces a little more. Only in this way can we mobilize more troops to encircle and annihilate you!

(End of this chapter)