In the spring of 827 in the Holy Tang Calendar, the wind was cold and the sky was full of rain and snow. There was no sign of warming in the Central Plains. People in the precarious situation could not help but feel increasingly desolate inside.
At this time, the complex situation of the world war has quietly undergone new changes.
From the perspective of Emperor Li Bing, he received three pieces of bad news in a row: the Jingxiang Army, the Poison Soldiers, and the King of Huaiyang.
The reason why it is neither good nor bad, or mixed, is because it seems that there has been some progress in these three aspects, but it is not entirely in line with his best expectations.
The first is the Jingxiang army.
The report sent by the imperial envoy Dong Tianxing a few days ago stated that the Jingxiang army had elected Ma Hongjie, who held a neutral position, as its new coach and was willing to obey the emperor's dispatch and go north to fight against the Turks as soon as possible. Of course, this so-called dispatch is only for foreign enemies. The five hundred thousand armored lions do not want to easily get involved in the war related to the struggle for imperial power at the moment.
In other words, they just listen to the tune but not the propaganda: If we fight the Turks, we recognize you as the supreme leader of the Holy Tang; if we fight a civil war, I'm sorry, but we won't participate.
Although this result was the bottom-line countermeasure that Dong Tianxing had discussed before setting off, Li Bing still felt very depressed after reading the memorial.
As the monarch of the Holy Tang Dynasty, he could not get the allegiance of the army in a real sense. When deploying troops and generals, he had to attach additional conditions. It was really a great shame.
However, the situation is stronger than the people. No matter how unhappy he was, he could only accept it rationally.
At the same time, the appearance of Ezhou Zhechong Captain Feng Kun also aroused another concern of Li Bing: the Xuanjia Legion hiding in the Jiangnan area had joined forces with the navy under Bao Yuchun and became ready to make another move. This added a more complicated clue to the chaos in the Central Plains.
As soon as Shen Lie received the news, he immediately rushed to Xiangcheng in person, intending to find a breakthrough for Lao Jianhua and Xuanjia Army from Feng Kun. However, even so, it is certainly not possible to completely eliminate the threat from the southeast in a short period of time.
Li Bing was deeply worried. Jing and Xiang's army had finally gone north to join the battle, but a terrible enemy suddenly appeared beside them. It was difficult to predict what the consequences would be.
The second news is related to the poison soldiers.
After this period of unremitting efforts, Wu Rong and Amenta, the poison masters in Yunnan Miao territory, gradually made some achievements and further learned more about the poison soldiers. According to the two of them, the antidote for suppressing the toxins in monsters is becoming increasingly mature, and the last two small-scale experimental operations have achieved good results.
It is estimated that it won't take too long for the poison soldiers' troubles to be solved.
But it is a pity that Wurong Amonta tried his best, but the enemy was not idle either.
The Turkic madman Brother Shu Xuan seems to have gone completely crazy recently. He worked hard to create an even larger number of poison soldiers and dropped them in batches on the vast area east of Tongguan. Of course, the source of those new poison soldiers can only be the common people of Shengtang near Gyeonggi Province. It is unknown how many innocent lives have been brutally murdered by that devil.
The more poisonous soldiers there are, the greater the losses of Li Bing's army will be, and the panic among the people will become stronger. For a time, all kinds of bizarre rumors were flying all over the sky, and they had even spread to the southern state capital thousands of miles away.
In response to this, Li Bing was so anxious that he could not sleep or eat well every day, but the only thing he could do now was to send more troops and continue to separate the forces to encircle and suppress them.
As for the third news, it came from King Huaiyang.
Before setting off, Dong Tianxing asked Murong Xue to choose an appropriate time to send troops to attack Li Kuang. Doing so can send a signal to the Jingxiang army, causing some people who were originally wavering to choose Li Bing's side. Secondly, a short and powerful attack can also hit the Huaiyang King so that he can't feel at ease. He colluded with the Turks to cause chaos.
Murong Xue did so after asking Li Bing for instructions.
The 20,000 troops of the Liaodong Governor's Mansion, plus the 5,000 troops of the Yinshan Governor's Mansion, jointly raided Bozhou, the northern important town of the Huaiyang King's army.
But what they didn't expect was that the Huaiyang Army, which had always been cowardly, actually became aggressive this time. After the fall of Bozhou, Li Kuang immediately organized his forces and launched a counterattack against the Liaodong Protectorate.
The Huaiyang army of 30,000 infantry and cavalry rushed to the rescue at night and started a battle with Li Bing's army directly outside Bozhou City.
The two sides fought fiercely back and forth for five days, but there was still no winner. However, as more reinforcements from the Huaiyang Army arrived on the battlefield, Chang Tao, the deputy governor of Liaodong, was worried about being held back by the opponent, so he had no choice but to temporarily evacuate Bozhou City and retreat to a safe area before making plans.
Unexpectedly, their initiative to retreat only made the opponent's arrogance even higher. Li Kuang was unyielding when he gained the upper hand, and immediately ordered the entire army to pursue him. His troops were approaching the Bianzhou defense line of the Liaodong Protectorate.
Fortunately, Murong Xue was prepared in advance and arranged a large number of strategic reserves in the direction of Bianzhou, which prevented Li Kuang from succeeding in counterattack and going further.
However, the battle for imperial power between Li Bing and Li Kuang also completely kicked off.
Just as a new war was about to break out in the Central Plains, a serious situation also emerged in the west.
Xu Youchang led an army of 100,000 Zhenjiang soldiers out of Zijin Pass eastward and attacked Liangzhou. Yun Qianxue and Tanli were caught off guard. In just two days, they successfully captured the capital of Liangzhou.
Although Yun Qianxue suffered a sneak attack, he was experienced and maneuvered his troops to the Yongzhou area in time, waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.
After Ashina Zhijin heard the news, he immediately reacted and asked the Temple Prince Ronya, who was originally going to be sent to the eastern battlefield, to quickly lead his troops to the west for reinforcements.
Ronya acted quickly and immediately led his Third Army, Fifth Army and Tenth Army to rush to Yongzhou to join forces with Yun Qianxue and others who had retreated there, then regrouped and launched an attack on Xu Youchang.
The third, fifth, and tenth legions of the Golden Clan are all veteran armies in the Turkic Empire's army. Even after successive battles, the total strength at this time still remains at about 70,000. Their strength must not be underestimated. Together with Yun Qianxue's Blood Guard Cavalry and Prince Tanli's Eleventh Legion, more than 150,000 soldiers and horses surrounded Liangzhou. It was obvious that they planned to devour Xu Youchang.
Facing a powerful enemy, Xu Youchang remained calm in the face of danger.
Relying on the fortifications of the cities in various places, he commanded the troops to fight against the Ronia army inch by inch, slowing down the enemy's advance. Finally, he completely reduced his troops and retreated to the three main towns. With the force of a corner, he was able to hold on. The Turks made five large-scale attacks.
The war once fell into a stalemate.
Li Jiangyao, who was at the rear, was not idle either. While he ordered the Zhenjiang Fifth Army and the Seventh Army to quickly reinforce Xu Youchang to make up for the huge loss of soldiers, he also fully activated the logistics machine and asked Ma Mu and Situ Wushou to mobilize all the forces of the Zhenjiang Military Government, together with the Shenhua family, The Persian business group, as well as the various Western Xinjiang vassal states, did their best to transport war materials to Zijin Pass.
Food, armor, war horses, weapons, medicines, cotton cloth, everything that could be used in the war were piled on the front line. They were piled up like hills, as far as the eye could see.
At the same time, the Second Army stationed at Shengyuguan also received orders from Li Jiangyao to send a larger number of guerrilla light cavalry to specifically intercept and harass the supply lines behind Ronya. They must defeat the opponent's food and grass. Unsustainable.
Large-scale fierce battles broke out in two battlefields, one in the east and one in the west. The Jingxiang army, which had been preparing for a long time, also quickly sent out the first batch of vanguard troops, with a strength of 120,000, and advanced north along the Shangyu Mountains. , approaching Wuguan.
Wuguan is a choke point located south of Tongguan, guarding the southwest gateway to and from Guanzhong. Once it is broken through by the Shengtang army, the army of 500,000 people will not need to attack Tongguan, but directly pass through Shangnan, Danfeng, Shangluo, The Lantian line threatened the imperial capital from the southeast.
The old Turkic marshal He Lianxiong did not dare to be careless and quickly mobilized the third and fourth armies of the Golden Tribe's Polar Army and the Blood Wolf Tribe to rush to Wuguan to assist in defense.
He also specifically issued a death order: Unless everyone is exhausted, they must not take a step back!
At this time, judging from the overall war situation, the general situation is as follows:
Located on the Bianzhou battlefield in the east, King Li Kuang of Huaiyang was the main attacker and Emperor Li Bing was the main defender. The total strength of both sides was about 160,000;
On the Liangzhou battlefield in the west, Prince Roniya of the Turkic Temple was the main attacker and General Xu Youchang of the Zhenjiang Army was the main defender. Both sides invested about 330,000 troops;
As for the Wuguan battlefield in the middle, the Jingxiang Army was the main attacker and the Turkic Army was the main defender, with a total strength of nearly 200,000.
In addition, there are still 10,000 to 20,000 poisonous monsters raging in the Central Plains, directly holding back the nearly 100,000 city garrison troops under Murong Xue's command.
At this point, the first comprehensive struggle between Shengtang and Turks officially begins.
【The real war is about to break out! Dear heroes, shake your little hands, vote, give likes, cheer for the soldiers of the Xinjiang Army, and strengthen your reputation! 】
