Chapter 386 Exhausting Every Effort
Taiyuan City.
After Li Cunxiao’s defeat, Pinglu Army took the eastern wall, then opened the gates, and rushed into the streets of the city.
Li Cunxiao recognized Li Xian, but he did not surrender. Being able to give Li Xian a military salute on the Military Formation was already showing his greatest admiration. After the salute, Li Cunxiao withdrew into the city, still organizing the remnants to defend in the streets to fight with the Pinglu Army.
“Take Taiyuan City, catch Li Keyong alive today! Kill!” The Pinglu Army’s attack was fierce, generals shouted and rushed to take the lead during the charge. The moment that the city gates was opened, the morale of the three armies reached the apex and tens of thousands soldiers were rushing into the city.
Having spent much time in the expedition of Hedong, and now was the time to reap the rewards, and everyone gave them maximum effort.
“You’re all a bunch of bums!” Seeing more and more Pinglu soldiers rush in from the gates of the Eastern City Wall like sea water, Li Keyong was furious on the tower. His face was red, blue veins on his forehead popped.
Seeing that the streets were being taken one after another, and the Hedong Army suffered countless deaths and injuries, they could only retreat. Li Keyong waved his sleeves and made a terrifying growl at the top of his throat, “Go! Stop them! Whoever dares to step back, I will kill all of his family! ”
The general who was standing by in front of the tower and waiting looked at each other with different expressions. Although they had different expressions, they all had to obey.
Soon, only Li Keyong’s close guards and orderly were left around the tower. Although they did not appear to be weak, they seemed to have no spirit left.
The south wall was the offensive position of the Zhaoyi Army. Kang Chengqian assumed personal command in front of the formation and directed the generals to launch an onslaught. Half a day later, the battle situation got into a stalemate. Seeing that there were several Military Formations on their side had entrenched on the city walls, Kang Chengqian revealed a hint of joy.
At this moment, the tsunami like cheering sound came from the eastern wall, followed by the earth-splitting war cry. Kang Chengqian suddenly realized something, and immediately jumped into the air and looked eastward. He had already reached the half-step cultivation of the Spiritual Master Realm, so floating in the air for a while was not a problem.
When he looked eastward, he found that the Pinglu Army was going over the wall and rushing into the city, and there were only a few soldiers of Hedong Army inside and outside the city wall.
Kang Chengqian was shocked. “How could the Pinglu Army take the city so quickly? It seems that one of generals has been working hard again!”
Then he thought of something, and couldn’t help but change his expression. “D*mn it!” “The Pinglu Army’s attack is so fierce that the Hedong Army cannot withstand it. It won’t take long before they occupy most of the city. By then, all the money and goods in Taiyuan City will fall into their hands, and how much will be left for us?”
Generally speaking, when an army captured a city, they would plunder and pillage and the imperial army was no exception. Soldiers in all states would act together. After breaching a city, they could only plunder property in the territory under their control. They were not allowed to trespass into other jurisdictions.
This meant that the more sites they captured during a fight, the more money they could plunder after the war!
If the Pinglu army captured most of the city, then Zhaoyi and other armies could only take the left-overs.
With this in mind, Kang Chengqian couldn’t sit still anymore, all the power of his cultivation erupted, hitting the crowd of Hedong Army on the head like comets, causing smoke to flare up.
When the dust dispersed, there was not a single standing Hedong soldier around Kang Chengqian. He turned back and ordered the Zhao Yi Army with a stern voice, “In forty-five minutes, you must breach the city! If anyone is scared to advance, kill him!”
Having seen Kang Chengqian personally enter the battle, all the generals of the Zhaoyi Army were ashamed and embarrassed. They roared one after another, and led their soldiers with red eyes. They attacked the Hedong Army in front of them without regard.
Similar scenarios also appeared at the main attacking points of the Tianping Army and the Henghai Army. Xue Wei and Liu Jingsi had personally entered the battle as well.
In a word, after the Pinglu army captured the eastern wall and entered the city, they declared that today’s battle was the Imperial Army last against Taiyuan City.
This was the last moment for Li Keyong in Taiyuan City.
He certainly was unwilling to admit it and couldn’t accept it.
However, objective facts would never be transferred with one’s subjective will.
One general after another retreated in disorder, reporting to Li Keyong the situation on the battlefield. Some of them were covered in blood, some were unkempt, some were seriously injured, and some were trembling with fear.
“Lord, Fortune and Peace Lane is lost!”
“Lord, forgive my incompetence, I couldn’t hold on to Joy Lane!”
“Report, my lord! The Pinglu Army has attacked Comfort Dwelling Lane and is on the way here!”
“Lord! Sixty to seventy percent of my troops have already been killed...”
“Report! The south wall is captured by the Zhaoyi Army, and they have entered the city!”
“Lord, the Imperial Army is closing in on us!”
“Lord the end has come, Taiyuan City... can’t be held!”
“Lord, you must leave now! If you don’t leave now, it’ll be too late!”
“Lord, quick, we’ll cover your retreat!”
”...”
Li Keyong stood up on the tower. Facing the generals who kept coming back and their persuasion, he never said a word, but just looked at the battlefield in front of him.
No one noticed that his hand that was pressing on the blade had long turned white. His teeth were about to shatter from the clenching.
Hedong was his reliance on hegemony, and Taiyuan was the foundation of his foothold. Today, he lost Taiyuan City, which meant he had basically lost Hedong. Even if he could escape to the north and retreat to other prefectures and counties in Hedong, it was basically impossible to counter back.
Taking advantage of the Huang Chao Uprising, he managed to build a foundation, and years of hard work was ruined now. How could Li Keyong accept it?
“The Thirteen Grand Guardian is back!” Someone shouted suddenly.
The generals separated, and Li Cunxiao, who was covered in blood, walked up to the tower laboriously. He slowly clasped his fist in slate, then stopped for a moment, and mournfully added, “Forgive my incompetence; I was unable to hold the city; I am willing to die!”
The generals stared at Li Cunxiao with different expressions. Some were disdain, some were angry and some were sympathetic, but none of them said a word.
Up on the tower, Li Keyong, who had been standing for a long time, suddenly spurted out a large mouthful of blood. His erect posture stumbled and fell from the attic.
Fortunately, his agile personal guard was there to support him, and he did not let him fall off the high tower.
“Lord!”
“Lord!”
The generals panicked and stepped forward quickly, but were afraid to climb up to the tower.
Li Keyong was pale, and with the support of the guard, he firmly grasped the railing with both hands so that he would not fall down. He strove to say a few words and spat more blood, finally he couldn’t bear it anymore and fell down.
“Withdraw to Xinzhou!”
...
At sunset, the Imperial Army converged at the Hedong commissioner government agency.
With the escort of Hedong’s generals, Li Keyong led the remnants of the force to flee north. After layers of resistance from various armies, only thousands of troops had successfully broken through.
There were more than 100,000 Hedong troops in Taiyuan City. After a day of fierce fighting, they were defeated in a big way, where the casualties was anything between thirty and forth percent. The rest were basically captives.
As a result, Li Keyong’s rule over Taiyuan City was declared over.
Because Taiyuan was the center of Hedong, the capture of Taiyuan by the Pinglu army also meant that they began to control Hedong.
From here on out, Li Ye had officially become the master of Hedong, while Li Keyong was nothing but a dreg from the “last dynasty”, a “rebel”.
That night, the Imperial Army controlled the whole city, and the Pinglu army occupied the treasury. They began to count all kinds of armor, ordnance, materials, property, and copper coins.
On the eaves of the eastern tower, sat two men who were dancing under the stars with their robes fluttering in the wind, holding wine jars and drinking.
“Originally, I thought that as long as I could capture Taiyuan City within three days, it would not be a mistake. I did not expect that Taiyuan City would be in my hands after one day’s fight!” said the old Taoist priest, Chu Nanhuai. He changed from a sitting position to a half-lying position, whose lazy posture was like an old lady bathing in the sun.
He glanced at Li Xian. “My brother, I reckon that based on your ability, it would be such a pity for you to hide in the mountains. You belong on the battlefield. After this battle, there’s no need for you to return to Boji Mountain, right?”
Li Xian smiled lightly. “If I don’t return, wouldn’t it be boring for you Senior Brother?”
Chu Nanhuai drank a large sip of wine, and belched joyfully. He patted the wine jar and laughed. “As long as there is wine, then it is better than being an Immortal. How can it be boring?”
Li Xian didn’t hold the wine jar, but just held a flagon and drank half of it. And then he answered Chu Nanhuai’s question, “There are as many unfortunate people whose talents go unrecognized as people in high positions. I am satisfied with that my limited skills have a few chances to show off, so why should I be obsessed with solving everyone’s problems?” “The world is too big and there are too many things in the world. I cannot cope with all of it with just my 2-meter long body.”
Chu Nanhuai silently nodded, but did not say more. Instead, he raised the wine jar to persuade him to drink more. In fact, he was also very clear that Li Xian was destined to no longer appear boldly in the open before the world.
After emptying the wine jar and throwing it away, Chu Nanhuai patted his buttocks, stood up, folded his hands and looked at the night sky. “Taiyuan City is already captured, and I just need to go to the altar to do some preparations, and then wait for the news from the secret region.”
Li Xian also stood up, but he was silent for a moment before adding, “Can’t Senior Brother spy upon the situation in the secret region now?”
Chu Nanhuai shook his head. “How can mortals spy on the secret region of Tao of Heaven? Even the Immortal Emperor could not do it, much less me.”
Listening to Chu Nanhuai mention the Immortal Emperor in a casual tone, Li Xian suddenly asked, “What is your position in the Immortal Court?”
Chu Nanhuai replied with a grin, “Chief of the White Deer Sect.”
Li Xian saw that the other party did not want to reveal everything so he did not force him.
After a short while, Chu Nanhuai sighed. “I can’t peep at the situation in secret region of Tao of Heaven, but I can know a little about the movement of the Immortal Court. If it is within three days ... now it should be two days, Li Ye can’t control the secret region, so the people sent by the Immortal Court to make trouble should have arrived.”
With that said, Chu Nanhuai glanced at Li Xian. “The seventy-two Earth Devils have been completely annihilated, and the Immortal Emperor is angry. The people sent this time are very high in cultivation. Without the Luck of heaven and the protection of the Tao of Heaven, whether it’s you, me or Li Ye, we would only turn to ashes.”
Li Xian nodded in understanding. Seeing Chu Nanhuai’s calm look, he showed a relaxed smile. “Even if Li Ye cannot defeat the Feihong Bodhisattva, which is expected. The worst result is that we all die. There is nothing to be worried about.”
Chu Nanhuai snorted. “Not everyone is like you who can look down on success or failure, life and death. I didn’t exhaust every effort and do all the things I did to end up with a broken spirit and a body in ashes.
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