Chapter 858: The War Is About to Start

"Come here, the city gate will be closed from today on. No one can leave Changcheng without my order." After thinking for a while, Xie An frowned and gave the order.

Afterwards, he looked towards the direction of Bacheng, hoping that reinforcements would arrive soon.

At present, 600,000 troops are stationed in Changcheng, and other cities in Jiangzhou are basically like empty cities.

With the ability of King Yan's army, taking these cities is like picking out something from a bag.

I'm afraid that in less than half a month, all the northern parts of Jiangzhou will fall, and their troops will be directed towards Changcheng.

Furthermore, Changcheng's army also had a big problem with the food and grass.

Although they levied heavy taxes on the people of Jiangzhou after the summer harvest, the grain and grass collected were only enough to feed an army of one million people for half a year.

After all, the populations of Jiangzhou, Xiangzhou, Yuezhou and Guizhou are not large, and there is also not much arable land.

It is really difficult to support an army of millions.

Moreover, this time in order to prevent the food and grass from being looted by King Yan again.

Most of the grain and grass was transported to Bazhou, leaving only two months of grain and grass in Changcheng.

When food is in short supply, food will be shipped from Bazhou.

"If Jiangzhou, Xiangzhou, etc. are lost again, defeat is certain." Thinking of the problem of food and grass, Xie Anru was hit hard.

I'm afraid that this is the reason why his eldest son Xie Bi's will wavered.

Originally, the participating states and counties were able to harvest grain for half a year, but after waiting for the autumn harvest, they could harvest for another half a year, and so on, so that they could sustain themselves.

But once King Yan captured all the prefectures and counties outside Bazhou, even if they had millions of troops, it would be of no avail.

Although Nanliang promised to sell grain and grass to them.

But although Yizhou is a grain-producing land, I'm afraid it will not be easy to support the Wu army and the Nanliang army at the same time.

What's more, King Yan's Qin army is currently outside Jiameng Pass.

Once they capture Jiameng Pass and bring the war to Yizhou, Yizhou's farming will be affected, and the problem of food and grass will become more prominent.

"King Yan really pushed us to a dead end." Xie An slammed his fist on the table.

But even though the current situation was very unfavorable to the powerful clan, he still had no intention of betrayal.

Like his eldest brother Xie Duan, he was unwilling to lose to the Zhao royal family.

Especially losing to an alien like King Yan.

…

Bacheng.

King Yan's army arrived at Xiaobi Changcheng in Anqing one day later.

The arrival of this news cast a dark cloud over the entire city of Bacheng.

The first time King Yan's army marched westward was to cover their actions to rescue the people.

This time, it was a real advance westward.

At the same time, news from Jiameng Pass also arrived with this news.

King Yan's Qin army, Chen Bing, is under Jiameng Pass and may launch an attack at any time.

The territory controlled by their clan was attacked by King Yan's army from both sides.

"Leave Yizhou to Ashur and Nanliang. We will do our best to deal with the royal army and immediately send the 600,000 troops from Xiangzhou to march towards Anqing. If the Yan army attacks Changcheng, they will attack from both sides and try to annihilate it!"

In the study room of the temporary palace, Luther raised his fist fiercely.

Brooke also nodded.

There is no doubt that after King Yan successfully ordered the people to return to the three southeastern states, their strategy of strengthening the walls and clearing the country failed.

At present, the three southeastern states have become the food and grass supply land for King Yan's army.

Having solved his worries, King Yan launched a general attack on them this time.

Now, they were forced into a desperate situation and could only fight with all their strength.

Otherwise, they will be defeated one by one and lose even more miserably.

Liang Kai's face was so gloomy that he could scrape off a layer of frost.

Luther, Brooke and he all hoped to continue to delay with King Yan, waiting for the new muskets to be installed and the Western Kingdoms to dispatch fleets and troops from the mainland.

But King Yan obviously couldn't wait to destroy them.

"Brother Liang, the only plan now is to fight to the bitter end. If we lose, the powerful clan will be destroyed. If we win, the world will return to us. I, Han Zheng, am willing to serve as a vanguard, going up the mountain of swords and into the sea of ​​fire." Han Zheng said.

Wang Zi'an said: "If I can't return to Yuzhou, I, Wang Zi'an, would rather die in battle."

"And I, Xie Duan, except for the traitor Ma family, this time let us seven powerful families tie up in a rope and fight to the end." Xie Duan said loudly.

Liang Kai nodded solemnly. In fact, he had a premonition before the summer harvest that King Yan would attack them after the summer harvest.

Now, as expected.

Standing up slowly, he said: "Okay, let us kill them this time and leave no one behind."

After saying that, he immediately sent people to Yunzhou, asked Fan Xinglun to send troops to support, and at the same time ordered the Xiangzhou army to march towards Jiangzhou.

Then, he ordered Han Zheng, Wang Zi'an and Xie Duan to go to Changcheng.

Among the 600,000 troops in Changcheng, only 200,000 were from the Wu Kingdom, and the rest were from the three armies of the three of them.

The visit of their family leader in person will definitely boost the morale of the powerful generals and soldiers.

After that, he ordered Prince Liang Feng to strengthen the defense and intensify the training of the Wu Imperial Guard equipped with British muskets and artillery.

If the King of Yan's army attacks Bacheng, he will definitely give the King of Yan's army a disgrace.

After agreeing on these matters, everyone left.

…

Anqing City.

The royal army arrived here and rested for two days.

On the third day, 80,000 of the 100,000 royal soldiers were stationed in Anqing. The 20,000 soldiers were divided into two groups and attacked southward along both sides of Chang Lake.

"The six counties on both sides of Changhu Lake have few garrisons, and the most garrisoned county is De County, which has only 5,000 soldiers. With the ability of the royal army, only 500 people are needed to take it down. Therefore, I dare to guarantee that it will take only six days to take down all the counties in Jiangzhou outside Changcheng." At the south gate of Anqing City, Zhao Xu and Chang Wei watched the soldiers go away, and Chang Wei looked confident.

Zhao Xu nodded. He was very confident about the royal army equipped with Qin-style rifles.

The gap between the current powerful tribe army and them is like the first time that the Westerners took flintlock rifles to the New World hundreds of years ago and faced the Indians.

During the Opium War, the Qing Dynasty suffered more than 20,000 casualties due to the huge gap in weapons, while the other side suffered less than 500 casualties.

Facing the powerful tribe army, he believed that the royal army could also achieve great results with minor casualties.

Because in addition to the gap in firearms, the morale of the powerful tribe was also extremely low.

The people of the Fourth Court even sent him such a ridiculous intelligence.

A member of the Fourth Academy was found by Xie An's eldest son Xie Bi when he was trying to get information.

Xie Bi not only did not arrest this member of the Fourth Academy, but negotiated with him through this member of the Fourth Academy.

It can be seen that the unsteady people in the powerful family have already panicked.

After all, even ants try to survive, let alone people.

He did not refuse this, as dividing the enemy is also a means of war.

He promised Xie Bi that as long as he could persuade Xie An to lead his troops to surrender, he could save the lives of his father and son.

As for whether Xie Bi could do it, he had expectations in his heart, but his expectations were not high.

At the same time, he would not delay the rhythm of his attack because of this.