knife

Chapter 800 was astonishing.

Lin Yunqi was very worried.

The incident happened suddenly, and without any preparation, they hastily led their troops to Zhongli County.

Fortunately, they had already dealt with the Danyang matter beforehand, basically purging Gan Ba, the sorcerer, and their cronies. If Chang Lei had suddenly launched his attack while they were doing this, the impact would have been magnified tenfold or a hundredfold.

From this perspective, they are quite favored by heaven.

If Chang Lei had launched his attack ten days or half a month earlier, the situation in the State of Chu would be completely different now.

Even so, Lin Yunqi now finds the situation extremely troublesome.

Leaving aside the five thousand elite troops that Chang Lei himself assembled, and the thousand or so core followers that Linghu Yong brought, the combat power of these people is beyond doubt.

Even the tens of thousands of local troops that Chang Lei hastily assembled are not easy to defeat.

The core of these troops consisted of private armies from powerful families, the armed forces of the wealthy landlords in Huaiyang, Pengcheng, Donghai, and Langya County.

Several years ago, when Kou Wenhai colluded with the State of Chu, it was Lin Yunqi who led his troops north and dealt with these people. At that time, the Langya Sima clan was targeted by the Black Ice Guard and suffered heavy losses, and its power was greatly reduced. Meanwhile, the main force of the Donghai Qin clan was abroad, and Lin Yunqi had Kou Wenhai as an inside agent. When they went north, they encountered several tough obstacles.

Now that Chang Lei has brought these people together and is using their relatives as hostages to coerce them into sending troops, he's really in big trouble.

These people possess both martial prowess and technical skills. Being natives of Qin, even if they were coerced by Chang Lei, they felt no moral pressure in their hearts about fighting against Chu. Instead, they felt excited about achieving great things.

Zhongli County truly has nothing now.

Apart from the few thousand elite troops he brought with him, the soldiers of Zhongli County were probably not worth mentioning.

Xiong Yi and Zhou Zheng wanted to hold out for ten days to give them enough time to set up the defense of Danyang, which was really asking too much of them!

The only hope now lies with Fang Xiaomao and Han Zheng from Ruyin, but even they are in trouble now!
In order to support Jiang Qian's attack on Liyang County, the main force of Rufang's garrison also went south to threaten Lujiang County. Now they are facing off against the Chu army in Lujiang County. Even if they wanted to send troops to threaten Chang Lei's flank, it would not be something that could be done quickly.

There's no reason to let someone else poke your chrysanthemum just to save Zhongli County.

The State of Chu is in utter chaos right now.

The once-stabilizing southeastern coast was thrown into chaos again by Chang Lei's sudden military intervention. The central part of Chu was in complete disarray, while in the southwest, Shang Rong and his forces also instigated numerous riots.

In any case, Linghu Ye achieved his goal of creating chaos in Southern Chu so as not to affect his final battle with Li Dachui.

Even if Jiang Qian wanted to, she simply didn't have the energy to support the North.

Unless the war in the south can be ended quickly.

However, it seems that neither the Battle of Liyang nor the upcoming Battle of Danyang will end in a short period of time.

Lin Yunqi judged that, given the current situation, the most likely outcome was a stalemate between the two sides. Na Wei, who was originally in a predicament, would also see a glimmer of hope for a comeback because of this stalemate.

In short, Chang Lei's stroke of genius did indeed have the power to change the world order.

I have to admit it.

Standing atop the city wall of Zhongli County, gazing at the endless rows of camps in the distance, and then looking at Qingrun beside him, burning the midnight oil to reinforce the wall, Lin Yunqi shook his head. This battle was difficult to fight, but they could only grit their teeth and bear it.

Thinking about it, I really have a bad life. Back when the Danyang Incident happened, I was ordered to defend Cuiping Mountain to block the route of the Weixi Wolf Army from entering Danyang. They said I only needed to hold out for three days, but I held out for seven or eight days without any news. Then I was beaten half to death by a shaman with a stick. In the end, I barely escaped with my life.

This time, we must hold on to the death again.

"General Lin, someone from Liyang has arrived!" A close attendant rushed over and whispered in his ear.

"Liyang?" Lin Yunqi was taken aback.

He and Jiang Qian naturally had another method of communication that was unknown to outsiders, not even Zhi Qiu Yuan. This method was established when Lin Yunqi was still serving as the commander of Tianluo.

Lin Yunqi hurriedly stepped into the house and, seeing the messenger who looked haggard and travel-worn, asked loudly, "What happened in Liyang County?"

The messenger looked around.

“They’re all on our side!” Lin Yunqi said.

Inside the room, besides himself, there were Guan Shan, He Zheng, and Jiang Yuyan from the Jiang family, all of whom were trustworthy people.

"Liyang County has been captured, and nearly 80,000 men, including Na Wei, have been executed!" the messenger reported.

The people in the room were stunned for a moment; the messenger's short sentence contained a tremendous amount of information.

Eighty thousand people were executed?
All eyes were on the messenger's face.

Winning the Battle of Liyang wouldn't surprise them too much. War is always full of unexpected events. What they thought would be a difficult battle to win might take an unexpected turn due to some unforeseen event.

But 80,000 people died in one battle?
This is too scary.

Guan Shanhe and several others who participated in the war to destroy the Northern Yuan exchanged glances and saw the shock in each other's eyes. In that war to destroy a country, at most this many people died, right?
Moreover, Liyang City was besieged. What caused the enemy's complete annihilation?
This doesn't make sense!

Seeing their expressions, the messenger coughed a few times and said, "General Lin can ask the Empress Dowager directly about the specifics later. The Empress Dowager sent me here to inform General Lin that this matter is currently under extreme secrecy, and all information about the battlefield is locked down!"

Lin Yunqi nodded: "I understand. The Empress Dowager wants to use this incident to get rid of Chang Lei in one fell swoop, doesn't she?"

"That's right!" the messenger said. "Doesn't Chang Lei want to take Danyang City? Then let him besiege Danyang City. We'll trap him there! Once we take down Chang Lei, the entire Chu Kingdom will be basically pacified!"

"I understand. You mean we should abandon Zhongli County and retreat to Danyang City?"

The messenger nodded and said, "Yes!"

Lure the enemy deep into your territory, trick them into your pre-set battlefield, and then concentrate your superior forces to defeat them in one fell swoop.

If you don't seize the opportunity to kill a guy like Chang Lei with one blow, things will get really complicated. As long as he's still alive, he can cause you a lot of trouble.

Jiang Qian didn't want to get entangled with Chang Lei any longer. She wanted to quickly finish off Chang Lei, resolve the chaos in the entire Chu Kingdom, and then turn back north to break the scheme set up by Linghu Ye and respond to Li Dachui's southward march. This was what Jiang Qian really wanted to do, and it was also an important issue for the Jiang Qian Group's position and influence in the future new court.

Otherwise, why would Jiang Qian agree to do those things in Liyang?

(End of this chapter)