NOVGO.NET Chapter 792 - Chapter 792: Chapter 343: Tearing Off the Disguise_3
Chapter 792: Chapter 343: Tearing Off the Disguise_3
As for the hinterland at the rear, connected only to Hanzhong County by a small path, there were not many defenses.
Only at the other end of Yangguan Mountain Road, in a place called Linguan Pass, ten thousand elite soldiers were stationed to guard against the threat from Hanzhong.
But how could these mere ten thousand soldiers and horses possibly be opponents for the sixty thousand elite troops led by Huang Xuan himself?
Within just one day, under Huang Xuan’s personal charge, this military fortress was breached, and thousands of Zhou people were killed in the city, while the rest were captured.
Then, the Chu army used Linguan Pass as a base, leaving ten thousand soldiers to guard it, and the remaining fifty thousand soldiers and horses were divided into five routes, roughly seizing territory in the surrounding prefectures and counties.
Within just a few days, the five routes of soldiers and horses had attacked and captured thirteen county towns and two prefecture cities, occupying the vacuous hinterland of Longxi Prefecture.
With the news spreading, there was an instant shock in the Helong region.
He Basheng, who was commanding the troops at the time to resist the encirclement and annihilation of the invading barbarians, was so shocked that he almost fell from his horse.
At this moment, his hundreds of thousands of troops were pressed at the front line, fighting wits and courage with the barbarians. Countless soldiers and horses were dragged down to the front line hundreds of miles away from the rear. In the urgent situation, he was unable to pull out many soldiers and horses to stabilize the rear.
The key issue was.
If the news of Chu people’s deployment in his rear came to the barbarians.
Those Snow Plains Nomads would definitely be greatly inspired. It wouldn’t be as easy as it was in the past to give an overwhelming counter-attack to the opponents and let the barbarians retreat obediently.
Perhaps the Snow Plains Nomads would continue to increase their troops, hold up their own front-line troops, and cooperate with Chu State’s actions.
After all, the current Chu State has married the spiritual woman of the barbarians, and both parties are allies, so it is only natural for them to cooperate with each other.
Therefore, it was a foregone conclusion that the Chu army would contact the barbarians and coordinate their actions front and back.
As a veteran of the battlefields, He Basheng had no luck in his heart.
So he urgently withdrew fifty thousand troops and ordered his deputy, Grand General Sima Zhengde of the Western Pillar State, to lead the troops to the rear to contain Chu Army’s actions and prevent them from expanding further into Longxi Prefecture.
In addition, he urgently sent more messengers to report the news of Chu people’s invasion to Chang’an by horse, so that the court officials of Monarch and Ministers could make preparations and devise countermeasures as soon as possible.
As for He Basheng himself, he seized the opportunity to lead his troops in quick and fierce attacks, hoping to defeat the barbarians as soon as possible so that they could retreat and repel the Chu State.
However, his intentions were good, but how could everything go as he wished?
Just as He Basheng had guessed, the Snow Plains Nomads, after receiving the Chu people’s messenger and learning that the Chu State had already dispatched troops to Longxi Prefecture, the rear of Zhou State, and invaded Zhou people’s vacant land.
The various tribes of the Snow Plains cheered in unison.
At the same time, they felt a great sense of worth and relief for the decision to marry their spiritual woman.
You see.
The spiritual woman had just married, and the Chu State had immediately responded by sending out a “hundred thousand-strong army” to help them attack Zhou County’s rear land, cutting off their adversary’s retreat route.
How sincere and friendly this was?
There’s no doubt that, faced with the alliance’s proposal to cooperate, the barbarians had no hesitation and agreed in an instant.
In order to respond to their allies and seize this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
On the basis of the original four hundred thousand troops, the various tribes of the Snow Plains united again, gathering another three hundred thousand troops and three Inborn warriors, forming the second wave of invasion troops that surged towards the Helong region.
In this way, including the original troops, the number of invading barbarians in the Helong battlefront had reached a total of seven hundred thousand, with as many as seven Inborn warriors among them.
With such a powerful force, even He Basheng would be unable to claim victory, no matter how much he wished.
Even worse, if he were careless, the entire Helong battle situation could collapse, and the Helong Prefecture, which had been maintained for several years, would be completely lost to the barbarians and the Chu State.
For a time.
Following Huang Xuan’s sudden intervention, Zhou State’s Helong battlefield situation was facing the risk of collapse, and the situation had become extremely critical.
Seeing this situation.
After the news was passed back to Zhou State, the always mysterious Monarch and Ministers could no longer sit still.
On the thirteenth day of the fourth month, Emperor Zhou personally sealed a Daoist Leader who had descended from Jade Hua Mountain as the Grand General of the Southern Pillar State, who would take over the position formerly held by Dongfang Wuyun, who had passed away.
Then, he urgently ordered the former Pillar State Grand General, stationed in Shuofang Prefecture, to lead the fifteen thousand Northern Border elites stationed there to move south to Longxi and repel the Chu invasion.
As for the vacancies left by the withdrawal of these northern elites, the newly-appointed Grand General of the Southern Pillar State would have to lead the newly recruited but barely trained fifteen thousand new soldiers to the north of Shuofang to defend the country and guard the border.
After this series of actions, Zhou State’s bottom line had been thoroughly exposed to everyone.
Everything was just as Mo Li had said: the complex situation in the location of Jade Hua Mountain made Yuchan Tao unable to place their entire bet on Zhou State.
They only provided assistance to Zhou State in the form of a mere Guardian.
A single Inborn could naturally not defeat the combination of Huang Xuan and Qingyunzi and retake Hanzhong with their troops.
They were well aware of this.
So, apart from recruiting a large army and training them in Lantian Camp, they made no more moves.
On the contrary, to conceal their own weakness, they had been resorting to deception and feigning mystery to deceive the eyes of the world, trying to maintain the strong appearance of Zhou State.
Now, Chu State’s sudden attack broke the situation in Helong area at once, tearing apart this veil and revealing Zhou State’s weakness in the eyes of the world.
In terms of the so-called top three dominating countries, it had declined to a point where it could only maintain support for ten Inborns, and its troops under its command were abundant but increasingly fewer due to the constraints of various battlefields.
Zhou State was so distressed that it was not even as good as Ning Country.
After all, under Ziyun Tao’s support, Ning Country had as many as fourteen Inborns and over six hundred thousand troops that could be mobilized at any time.
Looking at just this point, Ning Country was already stronger than Zhou State.