Metasequoia City's military preparations have not slackened at all because of the victory a few days ago. Similarly, the Western Xinjiang Allied Forces did not choose to cease their activities because of their defeat in the first battle. Alike Jiang commanded Loulan, Che, and Chi troops to continue stationed not far from Metasequoia City, waiting for opportunities.
Li Jiangyao did not dare to underestimate the enemy. On the one hand, he ordered Ma Mu to mobilize the people in the city and seize every moment to continuously strengthen the city's defenses and prepare for the war that might occur at any time. On the other hand, he asked Lin Feng to select a group of loyal and reliable people. Warrior, quietly escort the leaders of the Shenhua family out of the city and back to their own territory.
Xia Lian, along with Hesijia and Efentia, organized medical officers and women to work hard to treat the wounded who were removed from the battlefield.
Although Metasequoia City was rich in supplies and there was no shortage of medicines and gauze for the time being, they were still so busy because there were so many wounded people that they couldn't sleep well for several days.
However, what is gratifying is that the morale of the soldiers and civilians in Metasequoia City is extremely high at this time.
Although the troops of the Western Xinjiang Alliance are pressing down on the border with great momentum. However, the iron-clad record has convinced everyone in the city that the current Metasequoia is fully capable of repelling all invading enemies.
As long as Li Jiangyao is there, as long as the white-robed soldiers are there, there is no need to worry at all.
Inspired by this high morale, Kuliban, the little prince of Shenhua who had just officially succeeded to the throne, refused to leave Metasequoia City with his subordinates no matter what. He made it clear that he was determined to stay and fight alongside Li Jiangyao and the others to defend the city together.
No matter how much good things Li Jiangyao, Xu Youchang and others said, Samor and Heishan kept pleading, they could not sway Kuriban's mind.
In the end, it was Hesijia's intervention that persuaded the stubborn little prince.
"What on earth did you tell him that it worked so well?" Xu Youchang was curious about this and couldn't help but ask Hesijia.
The Turkic princess smiled sweetly and said nonchalantly: "It's nothing. I just told Kuliban that Mr. Li may have important tasks for him to handle in the future. For example, let him lead the tribe's troops to attack Loulan and Chechi, so that It can relieve the defensive pressure on Metasequoia City. So, it is better to leave here early and go outside to make preparations in advance."
Hearing He Sijia's unreasonable reason for persuasion, Li Jiangyao and Xu Youchang couldn't help but their eyes lit up: Yes, such a clever idea, why didn't we think of it before?
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After Duolun was scolded by the big guys of the missing person group, he immediately started a large-scale search work. He used the patrols stationed throughout Western Xinjiang to spread a large number of eyes and carefully explore the traces of Hesijia and Efentia in towns and villages.
Because they were worried that accidentally exposing the true identities of the two girls might arouse the covetousness and harm of some people with ulterior motives, the tracing team did not dare to announce the origins and backgrounds of the two girls in a big way. They only claimed to be the two girls from Prince Goune. The maids were kidnapped by bandits, and now they plan to offer a large reward for their rescue.
At the same time, it also comes with simple shadow graphics of Husky and Eventia.
Such a hidden and cautious search, of course, has greatly reduced its effectiveness. Not only has there been no harvest, but there have also been many false positives that appear to be true or false.
Kunli Mingtai was very dissatisfied with this. He cursed all day long, either complaining about Duolun's stupidity and incompetence, or accusing Duolun of not doing things well.
While enduring the cowardly anger given to him by General Blood Guard, Duolun continued to urge all troops and horses to immediately invest more efforts, even if the entire Western Xinjiang was dug three feet into the ground, he still had to find the person.
At the same time, he was still thinking about the progress of the war in Metasequoia City.
Since he left the coalition camp and returned to the royal court of Chechi, the Western Xinjiang coalition forces commanded by Loulan King Alik Jiang had two more fierce battles with the Metasequoia garrison. These two battles were fought in the plains and wilderness just like before. Mixed armies of infantry and cavalry from both sides came and went, fighting inextricably.
Although the metasequoia soldiers and horses are still extremely brave, after the unified integration, the Loulan, Chechi and allied forces have changed from the previous unfavorable state of fighting on their own, and have begun to fight steadily, and they have become somewhat "the number one force in Western Xinjiang". shelf.
Even if they encounter the ghost-faced white-robed army, the soldiers of Lou Lan and Che Chi are no longer the same as before, they only know how to run around and run for their lives. On the contrary, they relied on the complete military system and the unique ferocity of the Xijiang people to resist the opponent's impact, so they did not allow Li Jiangyao and the others to gain much.
Seeing that the Western Xinjiang coalition forces were gradually getting stronger, and at the same time the leaders of the Shenhua family had left safely, Li Jiangyao decided to change his strategy and retreated to the city with the entire army, relying on the solid defenses to wait for work and consume the Alik River.
As expected, the arrogant King Loulan fell into the trap. After the Metasequoia Army retracted and returned to the city, Alekjiang launched several small-scale, exploratory sieges. As a result, except for the loss of seven to eight hundred troops, the rest achieved little effect.
At this time, it happened to coincide with the arrival of the rainy season in Western Xinjiang. It rained heavily for three consecutive days, and the situation was really disadvantageous for defense.
As a result, Ali Kejiang and Geerhan reached a rare agreement, and the Western Xinjiang coalition forces temporarily stopped to rest, and the offensive and defensive sides returned to the stalemate stage again.
What Duolun was most worried about was that Alek Jiang fell into Li Jiangyao's plan and suffered the annihilation of his entire army. Now it seemed that such a bad situation had not happened, and he finally breathed a sigh of relief. After all, the Western Xinjiang Allied Forces, as the offensive side, have the advantage of taking the initiative. As long as they can calm down and deal with it steadily, even if it continues slowly, it may destroy Metasequoia City.
No matter what, it's better than being reckless and underestimating the enemy.
Since the war situation in the metasequoia area has stabilized, Duolun no longer worries too much, so he plans to personally lead the team to Kucha Kingdom to find the whereabouts of the princess after the rain stops.
However, unexpectedly, just when the rain showed signs of stopping, an accident happened suddenly. Near Chechi Wangting, a large number of unidentified armed troops suddenly appeared in the past few days. Those soldiers and horses traveled through the city, across the county, and around, getting closer and closer to the royal court.
At this time, the King's Court of Chechi, the first and second legions of the main forces, and the Palace Guards had all followed Geerhan to Metasequoia City. The defense force left here was only more than 300 Chechi defenders. Even if you add in the garrison patrol under Duolun and the escort of Prince Guine, the number will not exceed 2,000 troops at most.
But according to the spies' report, that mysterious army numbered five to six thousand people!
Since Prince Gurne and the Persian business delegation were all here at the royal court, Duolun and Kunli Mingtai did not dare to be careless and quickly took people out to investigate the situation in person.
Unexpectedly, after some investigation, both of them looked solemn. The troops with suspicious behavior were all pure cavalry, moving quickly and erratically. But it is clear that they are definitely coming for Chechi Wangting.
What is even more surprising is that although the cavalry have uneven armor and messy clothing, their banner is very clear-the Metasequoia Garrison of the Shengtang Town Protectorate.
"What the hell!" Kunli Mingtai couldn't help but cursed: "Why did the remnant bandits from Metasequoia City come here?! What do Alik Jiang and Geerhan do for food? The Marquis of Durham doesn't Is it over there?”
Hearing what he said, Duolun suddenly felt uneasy. Could it be that something happened to the Western Xinjiang Allied Forces? It shouldn't be. I just received a military report from the front line yesterday, saying that everything is normal at Metasequoia, and the Alik River is preparing to launch another attack on Metasequoia City after the weather clears.
But the problem is that the more than 5,000 cavalrymen in front of them are actually there, and they look like they are going to seize King Chechi's court. How did they escape the close surveillance of the Western Xinjiang coalition forces and come here?
Duolun tried hard but couldn't figure out the problem. However, one thing was very clear to him. If the opponent really wanted to launch an attack, judging from the few troops he currently had, there was no absolute certainty that he could defend the royal court. Prince Guni and the Persian envoy have a distinguished status and cannot tolerate any mistakes.
Duolun discussed with Kunli Mingtai and immediately returned to the city to be on guard. At the same time, he sent a messenger to ask for help from the Western Xinjiang coalition forces closest to Wang Ting, asking them to quickly send reinforcements.
After the messengers set off, for two full days, the mysterious army wandering outside the city never made another half step towards the royal court. They kept a distance of about twenty miles, circling back and forth around Chechi Wangting.
This situation made Doron even more uneasy. He had a flash of inspiration: No! I'm afraid it's Li Jiangyao's trick!
The opponent showed up in a big way, just wandering around but not attacking the city. Could it be that he deliberately lured Geerhan to lead his army back, and then robbed and killed him on the way? From Chechi Wangting to Metasequoia, the distance is only two hundred miles. If the cavalry gallops at full speed, including rest on the way, they can arrive in two days and one night. According to time calculation, Che Chijun should have set off by now and was heading into the ambush circle.
The more Duolun thought about it, the more frightened he became, and he quickly sent out new messengers to inform Geerhan to be careful. But unexpectedly, before the messengers left the city, Che Chi's large army had already returned without stopping.
Looking at the dusty Geerhan, Duolun was slightly puzzled: "Your Highness, are you okay on this journey?"
"No, it went very smoothly." Geerhan said in a relaxed tone: "As soon as I received the news from you the night before yesterday, I immediately gathered my troops and ran back all the way. I didn't encounter any enemies on the way."
Duolun was relieved: "It's okay. But if you come back like this, will Alek Jiang be willing to let him go?"
"Alik Jiang? That bastard left a day earlier than me!" Geerhan muttered dissatisfied.
Duolun was confused and quickly asked what was going on.
Geerhan explained to him that it turned out that Loulan's messenger also arrived at the camp one day earlier than Duolun's messenger, reporting that the Loulan royal court was suddenly besieged by the Metasequoia Army. Alike Jiang did not expect that Li Jiangyao could do tricks and actually sent people to attack his lair. The King of Loulan was worried about the safety of his dozens of concubines, and despite the strong objections of the Marquis of Durham, he hurriedly led his troops back.
Of course, he did not dare to offend the Turkic ministers too much, so he left 10,000 infantrymen, plus Geerhan's Chechi army, to continue attacking Metasequoia.
But unexpectedly, Duolun's messenger arrived not long after Alekjiang left. Durham pouted his beard and asked with a cold snort: "Gerhan, you're not going back to save your wife in a hurry, are you?"
"Master Marquis, I'm not that much of a burden," Geerhan smiled: "However, although I'm not in a hurry, I don't know if His Royal Highness Prince Gune and Lord Emene are in a hurry?"
Upon hearing this, Durham immediately lost his temper.
After some deliberation, Durham decided to stay and contain Metasequoia City, and let Geerhan lead his people back to defend the royal court and Prince Gurne.
