Chapter 1165 The Decisive Battle Is About to Begin

From Dali to the south is Sichuan. During the Northern Song Dynasty, Dali State Jianchang Prefecture, which is now Xichang City, is nearly 500 kilometers away from Chengdu. In ancient times, this area was sparsely populated, with high mountains and dense forests, and it was impossible to station border troops.

The Nanzhao barbarians have lived in the vast mountains of the southwest since childhood. They are accustomed to fighting in the mountains. They can walk through the mountains and forests as if they were leisurely. After entering the border of the Chinese Empire, they have been marching in the mountains and forests, avoiding the sight of the flying sword scouts and arriving in Chengdu. Under the city, the defenders were caught off guard.

After capturing Chengdu Prefecture, Nanzhao's army was busy arresting people everywhere to refine Gu, and the march gradually slowed down. Otherwise, Yuzhou City, not far from Chengdu Prefecture, might not be able to wait for Chang'an's reinforcements, and might also follow in the footsteps of Chengdu Prefecture.

Nanzhao's troops stationed in Chengdu seemed to be a waste of opportunity, but its commander, the worshiping leader, also had his own reasons.

Youdao is a man who sharpens his sword and chops firewood without missing a beat. There are many martial arts masters in the Central Plains, and there are also several major cultivating sects. If the Nanzhao barbarian army relies on water monsters to charge into battle, their plan to conquer the Central Plains will never succeed.

Although the water monster is powerful, it is extremely difficult to control. Once out of control, it will backfire on its owner. Controlling the monster consumes a lot of money each time, so the time to summon the monster is limited.

Of course, if the leader of the Moon Worshiping Cult quits being a human being and simply sacrifices himself to merge with the water monster, there will no longer be any restrictions. But by then he will also lose his self-awareness, and his intelligence will be annihilated by the ancient monster's violent desire to kill. The water monsters are out of control together, and they will not stop until the flood destroys the world.

The leader of the Moon Worshiping Cult is ambitious, but not a lunatic. He just wants to use the power of the water monster to dominate the world, not to destroy this colorful world with all his heart.

Because of this, the Moon Worshiping Leader cannot rely on water monsters to solve all battles. The Nanzhao Barbarian Army also has to undertake at least more than half of the regular combat tasks.

Only the weird and mysterious Miao Jiang Gu technique was the Nanzhao army's biggest reliance in the war. The power of Gu technique was not inferior to that of the immortal method. It was more vicious and sinister than the immortal method, and its lethality was even greater.

The leader of the Moon Worshiping Cult made a plan to raid Chengdu first, massacre the local people and breed millions of Gu worms, and give the Gu masters accompanying the army an epic level of strengthening, and then continue to march north to confront the main force of the Central Plains.

By then, every Gu master in the army will have countless various types of Gu insects in their Gu cups, and they can throw away vicious spells at will. Only then will the Nanzhao army have the confidence to fight head-on with the Central Plains army.

His plan went very smoothly. Using the souls of living flesh and blood as feed, the Gu insects grew very well. Every day when they were stationed in Chengdu Mansion, the strength of the Gu masters accompanying the Nanzhao army continued to increase.

It is very time-consuming to capture the people to raise and refine the poison. The suddenness of the undeclared surprise attack by the Nanzhao army has disappeared with the passage of time. The spies from the front have returned intelligence. The Chinese Empire's crusade army is traveling through the night and starry, and is rushing from Chang'an City. Come here, there will be a tough battle next.

Regarding this, the leader of the Moon Worshiping Cult did not have too many regrets. Grand strategy is not about the gains and losses of one city or one place. If the Nanzhao army just rushes and attacks, even if they win consecutive battles all the way and reach the city of Chang'an, they will be exhausted from the long battle. , and were pushed back by the Central Plains elite who were waiting for work.

With the Nanzhao army entrenched in Chengdu Mansion cultivating Gu like this, they have become a side waiting for work. The huge amount of Gu they have accumulated can also be a big surprise to the hurriedly arriving crusaders.

…

Led by the recruiting envoy Jing Xiaolou and the supervisor Li Xiaoyao, the 120,000-strong crusade took one month to rush to Chengdu North Road and entered the Chengdu Prefecture.

Chengdu is more than 700 kilometers away from Xi'an. In modern times, it can be reached in two or three hours by high-speed train. However, in ancient times, the road conditions were extremely poor. The marching army had to clear roads through mountains and build bridges over rivers. The Shenji Army also carried a large amount of baggage and ammunition, and just to establish transportation The supply line is a big project, and the marching speed is extremely slow, but there is no need to rush.

The soldiers of the Shenji Army have relatively poor hand-to-hand combat capabilities. If they don't have firearms, artillery, or don't carry enough bullets, they have no combat capability and are no different from a group of civilians.

In addition, the new army had just been formed, and most of the soldiers were new recruits. The amount of training was far from enough, and many people were lost during the forced march.

Jing Xiaolou and Li Xiaoyao were both anxious and helpless, wishing to abandon the army and lead only a group of Shushan Feijian Battalion to kill them from the air. However, due to Luo Guoshi's strict order, they could only follow the fast-moving expeditionary army on their way.

Jing Xiaolou was impatient because after the fall of Chengdu, Yuzhou was exposed to Nanzhao's army. He was worried that the advance would be slow. When the army arrived in Sichuan, he could only watch his hometown being harmed by the black Miao barbarians. a mess.

Yuzhou is the foundation of the Jing family. Outside the city of Yuzhou is Tangjiabao, the hometown of Jing Xiaolou’s mother. If these two places are lost, even if the war is won and all the invading barbarians are killed, the relatives will die. Due to the military disaster, Jing Xiaolou will also have lifelong regrets.

Li Xiaoyao was worried that Shushan would be captured by the Nanzhao army. Although he now served the imperial court, he still recognized his identity as a disciple of Shushan. Under the influence of his master Jiujianxian, he valued the instructions of the founder of Shushan.

In Li Xiaoyao's view, Shushan is the node of the six realms, an important pass connecting the two realms of demons. If it falls into the hands of the Nanzhao barbarian army, and the enemy breaks the Shushan seal formation and leads the demon army to invade the human world, it will trigger a war. An irreversible disaster.

Although the march took a full month, which seemed very slow to the two commanders, the soldiers of the crusade were actually very exhausted and all showed signs of exhaustion.

After all, the two commanders are both masters among masters, and their physical fitness far exceeds that of ordinary people. Moreover, they do not have to carry heavy ammunition like ordinary soldiers. One of them is a knight and the other is a businessman, and they are not familiar with military affairs. , this produced a cognitive bias, ignoring the actual situation that the soldiers needed to be repaired before they could be put into the battlefield, and hurriedly sent envoys to submit a letter of war to the enemy in Chengdu.

As for Li Xiaoyao, a chief internal officer who was in charge of supervising the army, why did he become an important commander of the crusade army, on an equal footing with Jing Xiaolou, the crusade envoy?

This is because the Chinese Empire followed the military system of the Song Dynasty, and the eunuchs had great power to supervise the army. Although Li Xiaoyao was not an eunuch, he was an official of the eunuchs, and accordingly he had the authority of the eunuchs to supervise the army.

When the leader of the Moon Worshiping Cult received the letter of war, he was not worried at all because of the absolute superiority of the conquering army. On the contrary, he was overjoyed. He knew that his opponent, the commander of the Central Plains Army, was a novice in war and had no knowledge of the art of war. He immediately sent someone to reply to the letter and made an appointment. The next day, troops were arranged in the wilderness outside Chengdu, and the two armies faced off for a final decisive battle.

Jing Xiaolou and Li Xiaoyao received the reply from the leader of the Moon Worshiping Cult, but they were not in a hurry to accept the challenge. They summoned the lieutenants of the army to discuss the matter and changed the decisive battle tomorrow to the decisive battle in three days. This was considered to have seen through the little plan of the Moon Worshiping Cult , leaving some rest time for the soldiers.

It would have been impossible for Luo Feng to lead the army like them, and they would have issued a letter of challenge and set up battle formations in accordance with ancient combat etiquette. The military knowledge of Li Xiaoyao and Jing Xiaolou was all improvised from ancient military books. They learned it by mistake, and even the two of them had little actual combat command experience, so mistakes were inevitable.

Of course, when Luo Feng arranged for them to be commander-in-chief, he didn’t expect them to win the battle. He just wanted one person to take the blame and make them bear the blame for the incompetence of an incompetent general and the death of thousands of armies. He wouldn't come to Luo Feng to ask for his life at night.