Longzang

Chapter 1100 The Fall of the Formidable Pass
Teams of soldiers, covered in dust and dirt, were fleeing over mountains and valleys.

They were originally the garrison of Dingnan Pass, living a peaceful life relying on the formidable pass and high walls. Even though there were many rebel forces outside the pass, they were not alarmed.

Everyone knows that the rebels are nothing but a rabble. Even the main force of the rebels led by Lu Jiande back then was ultimately defeated at the strategic pass.

Dingnan Pass was a first-class fortified pass in the Ji Kingdom. When it was built, it was mainly used to defend against the mountain people in the south, and it has never fallen in hundreds of years.

If even the mountain people couldn't breach Dingnan Pass, the defending army didn't believe anyone else could.

Then today, we were suddenly attacked by an unusually strange weapon. The incoming magical weapon was incredibly fast and powerful. Even the Dharma Generals could not lock onto the strange weapon and could only watch it fall.

Many of the government troops, though lacking in skill, possessed keen eyesight. Many noticed that the moment the generals' spiritual senses touched the incoming magical artifacts, they were immediately repelled, as if touching red-hot iron. This demonstrated that the Dharma Generals were utterly defeated in their confrontation with the spiritual energy attached to the incoming artifacts.

With Wang Hu's terrifying strength as a perfected Dharma Aspect and one of the Twelve Immortal Aspects, he attached his divine sense to the missile and easily defeated all five or six Dharma Aspect generals in the pass, even when fighting against many opponents.

After the first missile landed, the Dharma Generals guarding the pass scattered and fled, with no one left to intercept the remaining missiles. By the time dozens of powerful missiles had fallen, there were no more Dharma Generals or Dao Foundation Perfection cultivators left on the city wall; only one Dao Foundation late-stage cultivator, struck by bad luck, was injured by the first missile and then died for his country.

Not many Daoji remained who died for their country, since the Dharma Generals had all escaped. Although they were a little slower in their escape, many of them still managed to escape beyond the death zone.

The Azure Nether missile is incredibly powerful, but when it comes into contact with a heavily armored Dao Foundation cultivator, the absolute death zone shrinks significantly, to less than thirty feet.

Afterwards, when heavy artillery bombarded the area, most of the city's defenders had already fled, leaving only the residents inside the pass who were unable to escape and were all taken prisoner.

Qingming's artillery fire is now quite measured, with Gao Xiu monitoring from the air and constantly adjusting the shells' landing points. The artillery fire only covers the city wall defense zone and does not target residential areas within the city.

The Ji Kingdom's garrison cooperated perfectly; upon hearing the roar of cannon fire, they scattered and fled, and the formidable pass was easily captured.

After entering the pass, Wang Hu carefully examined the area bombarded by the city walls, analyzing the missile impact points and the damage to the defenses. The Azure Nether missiles were incredibly powerful, equivalent to a full-force attack from a Dharma Aspect cultivator.

The defensive array at Dingnan Pass primarily defends against Taoist magic and spells. A single Taoist spell can have its power largely neutralized, but it becomes virtually ineffective against a missile, which is equivalent to a piece of ordinary iron. The missile, however, is extremely powerful, and a single volley completely destroys the defensive array.

Upon seeing that the great formation had been destroyed, the guarding generals immediately fled.

After easily capturing Dingnan Pass, the main force of the rebel army continued to advance into the heartland. At this time, Li Zhi raised the banner of raising an army to support the emperor and to purge the court of corrupt officials. He also presented Emperor Tang's decree, indicating his position of being ordered to suppress the rebellion, and then led his army into the State of Ji.

Meanwhile, the Southern Qi continued to deploy troops on the border, with famous generals such as Duke Hui'en, Duke Yangwu, and Marquis Huai all taking to the field, and the number of troops had exceeded one million.

Not only is the State of Ji heavily reinforcing its troops, but the neighboring State of Wu is also starting to reinforce its borders. Who knows if the Southern Qi army might suddenly turn southeast and launch a surprise attack on the State of Wu?
At this time, rebel forces rose up in the south of Ji State. Lu Jiande, who had disappeared for many years, reappeared. He raised his voice and many rebel forces responded and gathered under his command, calling themselves the new Eighteen Routes of Chaos.

However, compared to the first uprising ten years ago, the eighteen rebel groups now only have a total of 100,000 troops, with the smallest group having only about 200 people, who were simply brought in to make up the numbers.

Although the southern rebels were few in number, they were quite powerful, defeating the southern army of Ji Kingdom and annihilating them one by one. Daily reports of lost cities and territories flew to the capital like snowflakes.

King Ji was furious and immediately dispatched a second imperial envoy to the south to oversee the war effort. This envoy was still mainly composed of officials of the Qing dynasty, mixed with military officers and palace officials. However, just a few days after leaving the capital, they were attacked without warning and the entire envoy was wiped out, with no one surviving.

Undeterred, Prince Ji dispatched a third supervisory force, this time primarily composed of eunuchs and military officers. However, the force was ambushed and annihilated seven days after leaving the city.

The fourth supervisory group was quickly formed, and this time Sun Chaoen became the imperial envoy. He led the delegation on a winding, nomadic journey, traveling tens of thousands of miles in ten days. However, just as they entered the southern territory, they were ambushed and the entire group was wiped out. Only Sun Chaoen escaped and fled back to the capital alone. As a result, no one in the court could do anything about Sun Chaoen.

Ji's army nearly collapsed at the first contact with the southern rebels. However, the rebels were no match for Li Zhi's Zhenshan Army.

Li Zhi then drove the rebel army northwards like a pack of wolves, while he followed at a leisurely pace, recovering lost territory and resettling relocated farmers.

At this time, the autumn harvest in the south of Ji State had been completed, and winter had arrived, making it the perfect time for military action. While pursuing the rebel army, Li Zhi raised banners in various southern prefectures, taking in large numbers of refugees, and proclaimed: "There are no starving people in Zhenshan Territory."

In a short time, millions of war-torn refugees, along with their families, flocked to Zhenshan Territory. Along the way, Li Zhi indeed set up many soup kitchens to distribute rations to the refugees who arrived and to indicate the direction to the next post station.

There were hundreds of these soup kitchens, consuming enormous amounts of food daily. Initially, some people ridiculed Li Zhi, believing he was merely seeking fame. However, once the facts about the soup kitchens became clear, no one dared to speak ill of him anymore; instead, they praised Li Zhi's benevolence, a sentiment reminiscent of ancient times.

The turnaround in public opinion is partly due to Wei Yuan's efforts. After all, the Qingming Development Bureau now has more than 20,000 people registered to receive writing assignments, and each of them is a skilled writer, adept at both praising achievements and attacking political enemies.

The other half of the blame lies with Li Zhi's father and the Prince of Qi of Southern Qi. To try and smear Li Zhi would undoubtedly offend the Duke of Hui'en, who was currently the most powerful figure in Southern Qi. The Prince of Qi's attitude towards Li Zhi was also quite ambiguous; there were even rumors that the Prince of Qi intended to adopt Li Zhi.

Thus, the State of Ji was like a fish on a chopping board, surrounded by wolves and tigers eyeing it covetously.

As the southern war situation in Ji State collapsed, Wei Yuan secretly arrived in the south and appeared in the southern prefectures. At this time, the two border prefectures had completely fallen into the hands of Li Zhi, and the army was continuously advancing through Dingnan Pass, sweeping through the neighboring prefectures.

At this time, Li Zhi established his capital in a small county town within the territory of the State of Ji, just as Wei Yuan had established a command center in Guantun County.

Upon seeing Wei Yuan's arrival, Li Zhi was extremely pleased and personally led Wei Yuan to inspect several important areas.

The first place they arrived at was the camp where the southern border troops of the Ji Kingdom were incorporated. Here, the original Ji soldiers were reorganized into battalions of five hundred men each, and the Zhenshan Army was systematically taught military discipline and regulations, and retrained.

Li Zhi did not accept all comers; instead, he carefully vetted each soldier, dividing them into groups based on their family background. Those from impoverished backgrounds were given priority, while those from wealthy families, or whose families resided in the heart of Ji State, were placed in a separate register and dispersed into the Zhenshan Army. Even Dao Foundation cultivators could only serve as deputies.

As for those loyal to the State of Ji, they were sent to prisoner-of-war camps to perform hard labor.

Seeing that Li Zhi had done a good job of reorganizing the captured troops, Wei Yuan nodded secretly. Over the years, Li Zhi had grown to be over forty years old, and after governing the country and leading the army for more than twenty years, he was beginning to show his great talent.

At this time, more than 100,000 Southern soldiers from Ji State had been captured. After reorganization and training, all 100,000 would be directly incorporated into the Zhenshan Army. Currently, 90% of the Zhenshan Army's equipment was produced by Qingming, and the equipment for the new army was also supplied by Wei Yuan, so there would be no chaos in equipment.

The second place he inspected was the refugee camp, which was closely related to Wei Yuan. The camp stretched as far as the eye could see, with tents extending into the distance. It was lunchtime, and smoke from cooking fires filled the air, along with the aroma of rice. Refugees emerged from their tents, carrying specially provided tableware, waiting to receive their meals.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Wei Yuan took in the entire camp. The camp was orderly, with ample food and porridge. The amount of food distributed to each refugee was reasonable, enough to at least satisfy their hunger.

This scene naturally cannot compare to Qingming, but compared to the Nine Kingdoms, it is already a rare golden age.

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(End of this chapter)