Chapter 1 What?

"What?" When the news reached Gondor, Ye Tao and the others were incredulous. "Da Nan Pass fell in four days?" Tan Xiaopei had just made the difficult decision to leave Gondor and return to Danyang when the news arrived, but at this time, she had to discuss it with Ye Tao again.

"It's been a few years since we fought. It seems that Xiling's combat power has improved a lot. The Chunnan side, especially the troops organized by the Xiling Ministry of War, are still very powerful," Tan Xiaopei sighed.

Dai Yun said nonchalantly, "There always has to be some improvement. Now we are an integrated air-land force, with professional and well-equipped arms. If they don't come up with something new, will they just surrender in the future?"

Dai Yun's argument was very popular in the Yunzhou army. The Yunzhou armies, along with the tribal armies on Benlang Plain and the regular army being formed on the northern grasslands, were instilled with the concept from the first day of their establishment: never underestimate any enemy. However, when this basic concept was combined with the advanced equipment, strict training, and consistent ideological education of the Yunzhou armies, it gradually evolved into a unique point of view: hoping for a good opponent. And for others' imitation of the Yunzhou armies, they tried every means to widen the gap. Dai Yun's words were a bit exaggerated. Professional and well-equipped arms were indeed the case, but air-land integration was still a long way off. The internal combustion engine had just produced a prototype, and there was still a long way to go before it could be stuffed into an aircraft. Now, even the high-level people in the Ye Clan Workshop Research Institute who specialized in aircraft research were just playing with gliders. And without radio, relying solely on complex lights and flag signals, it was really impossible to achieve air-land integration.

"Xue Jingze's method is too clever. Although he captured Da Nan Pass, he didn't eliminate many enemies, and his own consumption was very heavy. Xiling will naturally have a large army to advance later, but neither Liang Xudao nor Huo Da are the kind of people who can be taken advantage of and left. Moreover, at least for now, Chunnan's troops and material preparations are relatively abundant. And, isn't it said that those two ramps are the key points? It seems they are closer to the Chunnan side. Being able to attack the city walls, I'm afraid Xiling will have some fun later," Tan Xiaopei said with a smile, then, he thought of something and asked, "By the way, when will Chunnan's airship squadron be able to launch an attack?"

Ye Tao was stunned. After imagining it, he frowned and said, "Your Majesty, throwing fire oil bombs into such a small opening from the air? Isn't that a bit too difficult?"

Tan Xiaopei said with a smile, "It's just a matter of whether you're willing to spend the money."

As soon as he said this, even Tan Weixin, who was sitting on the side reading a book, understood what he meant. "Father, do you mean to pour the fire oil directly down?"

"With the short training of those Chunnan pilots, is there any other way?" Tan Xiaopei said frankly. "Perhaps Xue Jingze took advantage of the quick attack and rotating attacks to break through the city pass. But, how could they occupy the entire pass so quickly later? That's too absurd. Xue Jingze is indeed a very organized general, but his opponent is Liang Xudao. Liang Xudao is not a pushover. It's normal to retreat when morale and troop strength are at a disadvantage. After all, without the city walls, street fighting room by room is too disadvantageous. But, it would be too abnormal to say that they didn't leave a backhand. Why send Liang Xudao to Da Nan Pass? The entanglement of two factions is certainly one aspect, but Liang Xudao is best at close combat. This guy used to be a shield soldier."

Tan Xiaopei's prediction was indeed correct. Liang Xudao did fail to hold Da Nan Pass at the first moment, but the gift he left for Xue Jingze forced Xue Jingze to withdraw from Da Nan Pass as well. Liang Xudao's methods were even more ruthless than Tan Xiaopei had imagined. He thought that one side of the city gate had been demolished, so he demolished the other side as well, directly tearing down the gate facing Chunnan. He did not entangle with Xue Jingze in the pass, but directly sent suicide soldiers to set fire to the warehouses under the city walls. Although the construction of these warehouses took into account the need to set fires and the need to store various items separately, and the warehouses were divided into many compartments separated by stone beams, the fact that three of the twelve warehouses were set on fire was a major event. Especially since two of them stored fire oil bombs. The spreading fire quickly affected the surrounding warehouses. Although Xue Jingze immediately mobilized a large number of troops to put out the fire, the fire still quickly swept through the entire pass, turning the city walls into stone barbecues. And two hours after the city gate was blown open, Liang Xudao had already organized a defense line in the auxiliary building complex under the pass and launched ballistae, using stone bullets to bombard Da Nan Pass. They were now facing the relatively weak side of Da Nan Pass. Although the entire structure was renovated after Chunnan captured Da Nan Pass, there were still some problems with this side that could not be easily repaired with bricks and stones, and Liang Xudao knew these places like the back of his hand. In this case, Xue Jingze had to withdraw from Da Nan Pass again. He was quite annoyed, because he understood that this meant the two sides would inevitably form a stalemate here. It depended on who was bolder and willing to sacrifice to enter Da Nan Pass first. And the other side would not give them much time. The most likely scenario was that the two sides would have to repeatedly fight for each room, and the battle that had once made Da Nan Pass a river of blood a few years ago would reappear.

But these things had nothing to do with Dongping. After waiting another day in Gondor, Tan Xiaopei finally received a piece of news from Nie Rui that made him breathe a sigh of relief. After thinking about it, Nie Rui sent the news about Xiling's attack on Da Nan Pass to the Chunnan side in advance. The news arrived in Yu Hang eight days before Xiling launched the attack, which was considered extremely abundant. What was unexpected was that the Chunnan court actually argued for two days about whether this news from Dongping was possible, and barely and reluctantly issued a notice to Huo Da and Liang Xudao, copied the intelligence from Dongping, and added a "reminder" to them to strengthen their vigilance to prevent accidents. But by the time the 600-li express courier arrived at Liang Xudao and Huo Da's side, the attack had just begun. This timeline made Dongping very satisfied, and there was no way to blame it on them. Jiang Yan, who was traveling in Gondor, naturally packed his bags and went south quickly after receiving the news. And at this time, Chunnan's airship squadron had stumbled and arrived in Jinzhou, making a slight rest on the territory of Prince Juxian, Chang Hongquan. It can't be helped. Now, the entire western front of Chunnan only has complete mooring facilities on Chang Hongquan's territory. Chang Hongquan was actually the first private user to purchase airships after Dongping opened airship sales. Chang Hongquan's pilots were all sent by Dongping, and their quality was much better than those guys in Chunnan who had only undergone short-term training.

When the airship squadron was ready and a mooring site was prepared forty miles away from Da Nan Pass, the battle inside Da Nan Pass had been going on for six days. And at this time, the role that the airship squadron could play was very limited. At this time, Huo Da and Liang Xudao discussed it. The two people who did not know much about this kind of technical weapon actually made an extremely bold decision: they ordered the airship squadron to attack in groups to harass Xiling's logistics team, and if they had ammunition left when they returned, they were allowed to attack freely.

How Chunnan made decisions and how they used the airship squadron was not something that Dongping could control. Even those Dongping instructors who came to Da Nan Pass with the pilots only said some principles when these pilots, Huo Da, Liang Xudao and others asked for advice, and never said specific strategies. At most, they would find out the results of each attack afterwards and help with the preparation and maintenance of the airships. The low-key and non-participatory attitude of these instructors left a very good impression on Liang Xudao and Huo Da.

But Xue Jingze on the other side of Da Nan Pass was not so good-tempered. Tong Bingwen had arrived at the front line, but Xue Jingze was still implementing the specific combat command, and the attitude of tempering Xue Jingze was very obvious. However, Xue Jingze had no experience in infantry tactics, especially in the struggle in this narrow space. He used to be a cavalry general. However, Xiling was better prepared and more willing to charge, and both the quality of the soldiers and the logistics were very good. When they could not quickly open up the situation in Da Nan Pass, two carefully selected teams set off silently. It is said that some old men who collected herbs in the mountains knew a small path that could cross the ridge, and there was also a small path marked on an ancient map that had not been mentioned for many years… Tong Bingwen and Xue Jingze had no choice but to start taking risks.

For a while, almost everyone's attention was focused on Da Nan Pass. But at this time, Ye Tao, who had spent the busy time of Gondor's completion and receiving Tan Xiaopei, was relaxing in Gondor in a way that people could not understand. Not only him, but his wives also handed over their work and returned to their new residence in Gondor. This was the most complete gathering of the Ye family in recent years, and it was also the longest time everyone could be together. If anyone would feel dissatisfied in this strong family atmosphere, it might be Ye Wenxuan and Ye Wenji. Originally, the adults in the family were often away, especially Ye Wenji, whose mother, Dai Yun, was running around the world. Although they were very conscious and would not delay their studies, after all, there was no one to supervise them, there was no pressure, and sometimes they were still very flexible. But now it was suddenly different. The adults in the family were all there, and they could not be lazy. And they also heard that their father, Ye Tao, was actually going to teach them in person…