Records of Mysterious Things in the Southern Dynasties

Chapter 444 Hard Fight
News of the fall of Kaocheng and the annihilation of the 70,000-strong southern army quickly reached Luoyang, causing immediate shock in the capital. However, apart from families whose sons had died in battle, the rest of Luoyang residents were secretly rejoicing.

This is quite normal. Almost every household in Luoyang harbored a blood feud with Erzhu Rong and was eager to see him suffer. As a result, after the Heyin Incident, Erzhu Rong dared not remain in Luoyang for long. He left Yuan Tianmu and Erzhu Zhao to oversee the situation while he returned to his stronghold in Jinyang, remotely controlling the court.

Erzhu Rong was shocked upon receiving the report, never expecting his meticulously constructed southern defense line to be so vulnerable. He was currently leading his main force in Shandong to suppress Xing Gao's uprising and was unable to spare any attention.

He immediately ordered Yuan Tianmu, Erzhu Shilong, Erzhu Zhao, Fei Mu and other loyal troops to rush to Xingyang from Shandong and Hebei. They must not lose this last line of defense before Hulao Pass!
~~
On the other side, after capturing Kaocheng and taking Yuan Huiye prisoner, Yuan Hao's troops advanced triumphantly, pacifying all the prefectures and counties they reached with a single proclamation. Even Chenliu, a major town in Henan, surrendered without resistance. Any who dared to put up a fight were easily defeated by the White-Robed Army.

Since the White Robe Army set out, in less than two months, it has already plundered thousands of miles of land and captured most of Henan!
Yuan Hao was overjoyed and further bestowed upon Chen Qingzhi the titles of "General of the Guards, Governor of Xuzhou, and Duke of Wudu," ordering him to continue leading the army westward to capture Xingyang.

At this time, the garrison commander of Xingyang was no longer Feng Tietou, but Yang Yu, the Left Minister of the Northern Wei, Yuan Qing, the Prince of Xi'a, and Yuan Xiangong, the General of the Army.

At this moment, Yuan Hao and the White-Robed Army had attracted Erzhu Rong's serious attention. Behind Xingyang lay Hulao Pass, the gateway to Luoyang, which absolutely could not be lost...

In addition to the reinforcements from Yuan Tianmu and others, he also dispatched all 70,000 Imperial Guards from the capital to Xingyang to resist the White Robe Army.

The current Imperial Guard of the Northern Wei Dynasty was rebuilt by Erzhu Rong. The officers were all from the Qihu and the Six Garrisons, and the soldiers were paid double wages. As a result, the troops were very sharp and extremely loyal, which was completely different from the previous troops.

Yang Yu and the other two were also loyal to Erzhu Rong, and Yuan Hao wanted to try the same trick to persuade him to surrender. However, the envoy he sent was sent back with his tongue cut out, the meaning of which was clear: he should stop wasting his breath.

Then we'll have to meet on the battlefield...

~~
But as Ren Yuan had seen before, Xingyang City was high and thick-walled, easy to defend and difficult to attack. The defending troops inside the city outnumbered the White Robe Army tenfold.

With blitzkrieg and psychological warfare proving ineffective, even someone as capable as Chen Qingzhi was unable to capture Xingyang in a short time.

The White-Robed Army, which had been invincible all the way, finally met its match. Even more frightening was that reinforcements from all directions of the Northern Wei were rushing to their aid.

According to the scouts, the fastest reinforcements—5,000 Qihu cavalry led by Erzhu Zhao—will arrive in Xingyang in a day at most!
In this extremely unfavorable situation, even the fearless soldiers of the White Robe Army couldn't help but feel panicked. Some even suggested that it would be better to temporarily retreat to Suiyang to avoid being surrounded by Wei troops who outnumbered them several times over.

Chen Qingzhi remained calm and unhurried. He personally unsaddled the horse, fed it with a bag of soybeans, and instructed Chen Zhao, "Call everyone over."

Once all the white-robed soldiers had gathered before him, Chen Qingzhi, having just finished feeding his horse, turned to the worried soldiers and addressed them loudly:
"Since we set out at the end of last year, we have fought across thousands of miles, massacring and seizing countless cities and territories. Every one of us has the blood of the Northern Dynasty on our hands. More importantly, with only seven thousand men, we reached Xingyang. We utterly trampled on the dignity of the Northern Dynasty and made that General Erzhu Rong lose all face!"

These words stirred the soldiers' blood; they had indeed done something truly amazing.

But Chen Qingzhi's next words sent a chill down their spines. He said in a deep voice, "Erzhu Rong's Qihu cavalry is about to arrive. They will definitely not let us go. They will surely use the blood of all the White Robe Army soldiers to wash away Erzhu Rong's shame!" "..." The soldiers nodded silently, knowing that their commander was not exaggerating. Given the cruelty of the Qihu soldiers, if they fell into their hands, they would only be tortured to death.

“Some say that retreating to Suiyang is also a dead end,” Chen Qingzhi continued. “We are deep in enemy territory, and Yuan Hao has not completely won the loyalty of the Wei people. Once the offensive is thwarted, morale will inevitably waver, the Wei army will surrender and then rebel again, and Suiyang will become enemy territory!”

"Therefore, the only path before us is to defeat the enemy; there is no other way!" Chen Qingzhi raised his voice.

"Understood!" the soldiers responded in unison.

"But the enemy outnumbers us ten to one, and they are cavalry. We cannot engage them in open battle. Instead, we must scale the walls of Xingyang before they arrive and capture their camp! Only in this way can we secure our victory!" He spoke, his gaze sweeping across each face, enunciating each word clearly:

"Please discard unrealistic fantasies, lest they ruin your lives."

"Yes!" The soldiers were now completely united in their understanding, realizing that they had to fight to the death!
Therefore, Chen Qingzhi personally beat the drum at the front of the battle to encourage his soldiers to attack the city again!

On the walls of Xingyang, the defending soldiers knew that reinforcements were coming soon, and their morale was naturally high.

Soldiers and supernatural beings from both sides engaged in a thrilling battle on the walls of Xingyang. The walls were ablaze with the glint of swords and the deafening cries of battle and agony.

The defenders, positioned on higher ground, relentlessly pushed down rolling stones and logs, and poured boiling oil, attempting to halt the White-Robed Army's advance. But the White-Robed soldiers, undeterred by death, braved the relentless attacks, struggling to climb the ladders. Some were struck by stones, their heads bleeding, yet they clung desperately to the ladders; others were scalded by hot oil, their skin instantly burned, emitting agonizing screams, yet they gritted their teeth and infiltrated the ladders step by step.

All the supernatural beings on both sides unleashed their most powerful abilities, their magical light illuminating the entire battlefield. The supernatural beings on the Northern Wei side either personally took to the field, destroying the Liang army's siege ladders, or summoned icy blades that rained down like hail upon the climbing white-robed soldiers.

The white-robed army had even more supernatural beings. Ren Yuan's Taoist priests unleashed a torrent of bronze-headed, iron-armed talismans to help the soldiers scaling the city walls fend off rolling stones, logs, and attacks of hot oil.

Generals in white robes, such as Ji Buli and Song Jingxiu, took the lead and used all their supernatural abilities to pave the way for their comrades.

At this moment, it was Chen Baxian's turn to perform. He raised his hands to the sky and sent down a rain of fire that covered the city walls, burning the Wei soldiers so badly that they fled in panic, rolling on the ground. They had no time to throw logs.

Ren Yuan and A Yao were not idle either. The two of them faced off against five Nine-Aperture Guardians and still held their own.

In an instant, magic raged on the city walls, flames soared into the sky, and smoke filled the air...

(End of this chapter)