Chapter 1 Aftermath

After receiving news of the capture of Dalun Mountain, Dai Yun didn't wait for the concentrated forces on Dalun Mountain to reorganize. He launched a full-scale attack on the central route. With morale as high as a rainbow and meticulous battle planning, in just three days, the central army drove the Western Route Army back more than forty *li*, capturing several small and medium-sized towns. Although the central army had to divert some energy to deal with the residents in those towns who were hostile to them and resolutely uncooperative in all aspects, the central army at least gained several strongholds. Subsequent developments would be smoother. The Yunzhou army never worried about local cooperation; they didn't collect grain locally, had strict battlefield discipline, and always traveled in groups, ready to deal with battles of all sizes.

A day after the central route's full-scale attack, the Xueqi Army (Blood Kirin Army) began to engage the enemy. At first, it was just small-scale ambushes and harassment. In a road environment much more complex than the central and northern routes, the Xueqi Army needed to be vigilant at all times. In the first two or three days, the Western Route Army actually inflicted more than two hundred casualties on the Xueqi Army. Apart from the thirteen killed and twenty-nine injured in the first battle, all the casualties were caused by the Western Route Army using various non-combat means. Gao Senqi ordered the Flying Tiger Camp's scouts to break up into many small groups and set up various traps on the roads. On the rugged mountain roads, even a small landslide could write off several soldiers of the Xueqi Army. The Xueqi Army's combat power was indeed strong, but apart from light infantry, archers, and cavalry, the most powerful heavy infantry and heavy equipment battalions needed to rely on allied forces for protection during marches, and their combat effectiveness was terrible. And in mountain road marches, when those man-made landslides, rolling logs and rocks, and small-scale harassments were combined, the Xueqi Army was overwhelmed.

In the following days, the Xueqi Army had to greatly reduce its marching speed, relying more on airship reconnaissance and more on counter-harassment operations by the scout troops. This situation lasted for nearly ten days, until the light infantry battalion of the Xueqi Army, as the vanguard, finally emerged from the mountains and brought Wangchuan Town into view. In ten days, the Xueqi Army suffered more than six hundred casualties. Although this was negligible in terms of combat power loss, and the Xueqi Army's belief in its victory remained unchanged, the entire army fell into a state of restlessness. Everyone was thinking about fighting a good battle in Wangchuan to relieve their depressed mood.

However, Gao Senqi seemed to have grasped this mood of the Xueqi Army, and Wangchuan Town was completely undefended. The original six thousand garrison troops in Wangchuan Town had all evacuated the day before. Gao Senqi only left a junior officer, holding a battlefield handover document, waiting for the Xueqi Army. The document specified the population of the entire Wangchuan Town and the current status of grain, medicine, and other daily necessities, stating that the battlefield handover was aimed at reducing civilian casualties, and the local residents of Wangchuan Town would not cooperate with the Xueqi Army's military operations, but would not hinder them either, hoping that the Xueqi Army would not harm the local people.

This move made the Xueqi Army even more depressed. Although Zou Shuangwen had commanded the Xueqi Army for many years, he was, in general, much more of an administrative general than a warrior. After Ye Tao led his guards to station in the Xueqi Army, he had been acting as Ye Tao's deputy, conveying Ye Tao's instructions to the entire Xueqi Army. In this strange situation, Zou Shuangwen relied more on Ye Tao's decisions.

"We must not measure such an opponent with ordinary thinking, in fact... I have no way either. I can't figure out what tricks the Western Route Army is playing now. Now, the opponent facing us is indeed Gao Senqi himself," Ye Tao said.

"Lord, you have no way either?" Zou Shuangwen was a little anxious: "It can't go on like this."

"Don't worry," Ye Tao said calmly: "There are indeed many whimsical ideas on the battlefield, but the trajectory of these whimsical ideas can be traced. There are only a few things that Gao Senqi wants to do. Either disperse our forces, so that he can form a local advantage and defeat us one by one, and he must be able to fight quickly, because he knows that once the Xueqi Army's combat power is unleashed, it will never be easily resolved by the same number of troops or even three times the number. Or, he wants to prevent us from completing our combat objectives normally. This is very possible. If we can't quickly open up the passage to Zhenbei Pass, relying on the supply line through the mountains, it will be difficult for a unit like the Xueqi Army to sustain combat. But he still has confidence in us... he doesn't even play the scorched earth trick. He has accurately judged that we have always been gentlemen on the battlefield, always. Or, he wants to find ways to cut off our supplies and slowly consume our combat power. This is not easy either. In fact, if there is really such a danger, we can ignore everything and directly open up the road to Zhenbei Pass, plus the support of Qiu Haohui and Xue Yuan, it would probably only take three days. Three days of supplies are nothing. But what about the logistics营 (ying, battalion)? The logistics营 are not without the power to protect themselves, but if they face a force like the Flying Tiger Camp, it's another story."

Ye Tao's explanation was also to sort out his own thoughts. He immediately ordered his guard to re-enter the mountains to assist in protecting the several logistics营 and strengthen their defenses, and to clear out small groups of enemies along the way. Although they were in the mountains, there were still many small and medium-sized villages, and the troops stationed along the way strengthened their vigilance and assisted in the transportation of supplies. For a time, although Gao Senqi did hide a part of his soldiers in some secret caves that he had operated for a long time in the mountains, it was not so easy to find an opportunity to strike. Gao Senqi's feigned array in Wangchuan could be said to have achieved its due effect. The Xueqi Army did slow down its advance to the southeast due to the previous harassment and its current increasing caution, but Gao Senqi's idea of ​​finding an opportunity in the mountains to eat a logistics营 and some auxiliary troops also failed. He never expected that after the entire Xueqi Army completed its assembly in Wangchuan, the troops stationed in the mountains would actually withdraw from both flanks, and the logistics营 also completely abandoned the work of transporting materials and withdrew to Yunzhou. Not only that, this logistics营 even moved directly south with its entire force, preparing to return to Dongping at a rapid pace, and then travel all the way to Zhenbei Pass to resume transportation work there. After closing off the two wings of the mountains, Gao Senqi's deployment in the mountains suddenly became a joke.

For Ye Tao, this deployment was just a matter of caution. Maintaining a supply line without full protection for ten days did not conform to Ye Tao's war aesthetics of seeking stability and perfection. When Wangchuan had an airship station and a forward base, and the Xueqi Army had enough rations for about twenty days, it was enough for Ye Tao to complete the initial tactics. Ye Tao then ordered the Xueqi Army to attack, successively capturing Tiemen Town, Daxing Town, and Yongxing City. In five days, the Xueqi Army advanced to a place only two days away from Zhenbei Pass. As long as Xiangning City was captured, the entire road passage would be opened. The Xueqi Army would be able to directly obtain supplies through Zhenbei Pass.

And by then, with the Xueqi Army covering the flanks, the Tianxuan Army, which had not yet fully completed its war preparations, the troops of Zhenbei Pass, and a part of the Imperial Guards, could also gradually put the completed parts into combat.

At this moment, bad news came: Wangchuan had fallen!

After the Xueqi Army left, the troops stationed in Wangchuan consisted of a camp composed of tribes from Benlang Plain, a part of the Veterans' Camp, plus the technical troops who maintained the airship station, and a part of the Xueqi Army's own logistics营. In total, there were more than five thousand people, a little less than six thousand. Their combat power was quite good. However, what was unexpected was that Gao Senqi actually concentrated the 70,000 troops he had retained on the southern line to prepare for the final battle with the Xueqi Army, plus more than 10,000 troops that had just been reorganized from the central route, and invested them in the siege of Wangchuan in one go. A more than tenfold advantage in troops, a large number of divine arm crossbows used to block air power, an overwhelming advantage in ballistae, a desperate attack method, continuous rotation without gaps, plus the cooperation of the "people" in Wangchuan City, in the seventh hour after the attack began, a large number of enemy troops rushed into Wangchuan. The Veterans' Camp fought to the death and did not retreat, finally giving the Grassland Camp a chance to fight a bloody path, leading the logistics soldiers and airship technicians out of Wangchuan and retreating south. And all 1,200 soldiers of the Veterans' Camp were killed in battle... They finally ignited the stockpiled oil bombs, setting half of Wangchuan on fire. Gao Senqi's so-called battlefield handover was ultimately proven to be a trap. If it hadn't been for the hundreds of hidden assassins who had been hiding among the people and had been well-protected, launching a surprise attack that caught them off guard, they would have had a good chance of holding Wangchuan and holding out until reinforcements arrived.

When the attack occurred, there were four airships in the Wangchuan airship station, and two of them broke through the enemy's air defense formation. In this battle, small airships and rockets hanging explosives and other air defense weapons that Ye Tao had "predicted" made their debut, proving that the artisans of Northern Liao were not vegetarians either. One airship flew to Yunzhou to report to Dai Yun, and the other flew south to report to Ye Tao.

The fall of Wangchuan also meant that the Xueqi Army was temporarily cut off from the ground route to Yunzhou, and temporarily, apart from the Zhenbei Pass airship station constantly air-dropping various supplies to them, they had no way to obtain bulk supplies. Gao Senqi seized this opportunity, and after capturing Wangchuan, while the Yunzhou troops had not yet restored this ground passage, Gao Senqi planned to fight the Xueqi Army. He felt that nearly 100,000 troops in his hand were not enough, and at the risk of the central route being completely defeated in a stalemate battle with Dai Yun's army, he actually transferred more than 20,000 elite soldiers from the central route to the south. In addition, he transferred more than 20,000 troops from the Western Route Army's general reserve team. In total, there were nearly 150,000 people, most of whom were well-trained elite soldiers. And Gao Senqi, leading them mightily south, sought a battle with the Xueqi Army...