Chapter 1 The Eastern Gate of Yingdu Opens Wide

The eastern gate of Yingdu City opened wide at this moment.

The city king's guards led the way, followed by the young Prince Cheng, Situ Yu, standing on the war chariot that Situ Lei had once ridden, driving out of the city gate.

The guards were still carefully protecting their young prince, in fact, also protecting this country, the last remaining bit of pride that belonged to them.

Under the Marquis of Jingnan's military orders, the remaining troops of Cheng Country were all incorporated into the Yan army. This matter was never discussed with the Cheng Prince's mansion from the beginning.

No notification, no hint, no foreshadowing.

Your army was directly renamed.

The Cheng Prince's mansion didn't dare to make a sound, nor did they dare to object. The civil officials of the former Cheng Country also chose to acquiesce.

Although the Yan Emperor had said in the imperial edict that Situ Lei's line would inherit the title of Cheng Prince for generations to come, guarding the Three Jins.

But everyone knew that official words were just official words; how things were actually done was another matter entirely.

However, the Marquis of Jingnan's coercive methods were a bit too disrespectful to the original officials of Cheng Country.

But they could only bow their heads because the military generals of Cheng Country, after receiving the military orders of the Marquis of Jingnan, basically didn't hesitate and directly brought their troops under his command.

The Situ family and the civil officials had already knelt.

Why should you expect us martial men to be foolishly loyal?

Besides,

Loyalty?

Now the Yan people are our suzerain state,

It's only right that we listen to them.

In the past, when Situ Lei fought to his last breath to strike east against the allied forces of the barbarians and rebels, he had told these military leaders to fight the battle beautifully so that they could secure a place for themselves among the Yan people in the future.

They were merely carrying out the last wishes of the late emperor; there was nothing wrong with that.

Could they continue to surround the Cheng Prince's mansion? Would everyone just stay in the mansion as captain of the guards?

Therefore, there was no grand scene.

When Situ Yu led the officials out of the city first, the people of Yingdu behind them swarmed out immediately.

Previously, Yan army messengers had already returned to report the victory. The hooves of their horses clattered on the streets of Yingdu, shouting:

"Victory! Victory! Victory! Victory!"

And now,

When Situ Yu led the officials and the people out of the city, the new messenger sent to report the victory was a Yan state captain, followed by dozens of cavalrymen.

He didn't dismount and kneel. Instead, he followed the military tradition of remaining on horseback while in armor and bowed to Prince Cheng Situ Yu, who was standing on the war chariot, and shouted:

"The Yan army has won a great victory! The main force of the barbarians has been defeated and suffered countless casualties!"

Afterward,

The captain continued to shout:

"The Marquis of Jingnan has ordered that the Cheng Prince personally go to the Wangjiang River to erect a monument for the Jingguan (a mound of enemy corpses)!"

For a moment,

Situ Yu was somewhat dazed.

The ministers behind him all began to weep with joy, some clenching their fists, others shouting loudly.

Then,

Waves of people cheered loudly or knelt on the ground, weeping.

A barbarian calamity that had lasted for a year,

From outside Xuehai Pass to inside Xuehai Pass, and then to the Wangjiang River,

The rebels and barbarians had even threatened to enter Yingdu City,

They had also lost an emperor in the prime of his life.

The accumulated pressure was like a massive stone pressing on the hearts of the people of Yingdu.

Now,

The Jingguan was about to be built,

Meaning the barbarians had truly been defeated, defeated beyond recovery!

The dark clouds overhead dissipated, and people began to vent their emotions to their hearts' content.

"We congratulate the Marquis of Jingnan, and we congratulate the Prince!"

The ministers began to shout, many already with tears streaming down their faces.

Those who were still in Yingdu City at this time and had not been purged were truly die-hard loyalists.

Many of their families were east of the Wangjiang River. They had heard how terrible their hometowns had become after the barbarians ravaged them. Now, they could finally pay respects to the spirits of their families in heaven.

Situ Yu was still a little confused.

The barbarians

Had been defeated.

They had finally been defeated!

Having been entrusted with a critical mission and succeeding his father as emperor of Cheng Country before being enfeoffed as Prince Cheng by the Yan Emperor, Situ Yu, still a child, had been living in a daze. He always felt that a rope was tied around his neck, strangling him.

Now,

The rope had been untied.

He could breathe deeply,

Causing his brain to instantly "overdose on oxygen" and become dizzy.

At this moment,

The young prince cried, he really cried, crying loudly, even though he knew it was wrong to cry at this time, he couldn't help it.

The Yan army captain who delivered the message didn't say anything. After all, the little prince would probably be scared into tears again when he went to move the heads and erect the monument later.

With the persuasion of several ministers around him, Situ Yu finally recovered, his eyes red, and asked the Yan army captain:

"May I ask where Marquis Jingnan, he, where is his old self?"

……

"Oh my, Marquis of Jingnan, where are you?"

On the Xuehai Pass city tower,

General Zheng said while lying on the ground playing chess with A'Ming.

The situation at Xuehai Pass couldn't be called critical, just a little… boring.

Yes,

Boring.

After losing Gelimu, the tens of thousands of barbarian troops began all sorts of strange operations. In Liang Cheng's words, if he played against this kind of opponent for too long, he felt he would become a bad chess player himself.

First of all,

After using the surrendered Jin troops formerly under Gelimu for several days to attack the city and suffering heavy losses, this army, on a certain night, before Xuehai Pass could even launch a sneak attack, directly mutinied.

That night, the barbarian camp was ablaze with fire. The surrendered Jin troops completely erupted, demonstrating that even the second devils (a derogatory term for collaborators) had their own dignity.

Xuehai Pass naturally wouldn't let this good opportunity pass. After confirming that it wasn't a farce staged by the barbarians, the Xuehai Pass city gates were immediately opened. Liang Cheng personally led two thousand Shengle cavalry to help the Jin second devil brothers, adding fuel to the fire.

Afterward, they killed without burying, ran away after setting enough fires.

The specific losses of the barbarian army that night couldn't be counted, but for the next three days, the barbarians didn't launch any siege offensives.

Then, on the fourth day, the barbarians came to attack the city again. This time, it was the barbarians themselves.

The barbarians, who were used to riding horses and herding, carried ladders for the first time to attack city walls that they had barely seen for most of their lives. The ending, of course, was very miserable.

For four consecutive days of siege, the barbarians hadn't even occupied a corner of the city wall.

Generally speaking, the most important thing in this kind of siege is for the vanguard to be able to gain a foothold on the city wall, allowing subsequent comrades to follow up and break through the surface from a single point. But the barbarians had been attacking hard for several days and still hadn't managed to do this.

Then, it wasn't known which genius in the barbarian army came up with the idea of filling the area under the Xuehai Pass city wall with earth to create a mound, so that everyone wouldn't need ladders and could just go up directly.

In fact, this method wasn't unusable. It might be effective against cities with lower walls, but Xuehai Pass was, after all, a majestic pass built by the ancestors of the Jin people. The barbarians, like idiots, filled the area for two days while risking being shot to death by the Yan army on the city walls. Finally, they realized that their brains were indeed broken and abandoned the idea.

Immediately afterward,

They thought of digging tunnels,

But now it was deep winter, and the area was adjacent to the snowy plains. It was extremely cold. In Xue San's words, the ground was as hard as his own…

And the barbarians couldn't find any slaves. Those nearby had already been looted. They could only have barbarian warriors dig themselves.

They were very patient and persistent, knowing what it meant for them if they couldn't break through Xuehai Pass.

Xue San also expressed great respect for the barbarians' efforts and specially brought water tanks from the city and placed them under the inner city wall, and arranged for dedicated people to pay attention to the movements.

Actually, it would have been fine to let the barbarians dig. By the time they really dug over, it would probably be early spring, and the day lilies would be cold.

But even so, when the barbarians were digging the tunnel, because of poor excavation, they actually collapsed the tunnel, burying many of their own people.

Then,

It was the same cycle of attacking the city,

Seeming to have completely abandoned other thoughts, they just attacked, attacking to the death!

However, dreams are full of expectations, but reality is cruel.

It could be seen that the barbarian general had a strategic vision, knowing what he had to do now, but the barbarian soldiers were lagging behind. The torment of attacking the city was by no means something ordinary people could endure. Moreover, there was a serious food crisis in the barbarian camp.

Gradually,

Every day's siege seemed to become a routine. The barbarians came to attack, the Shengle army defended. When the time came, the barbarians retreated, and the Shengle army had dinner.

Liang Cheng was obviously very dissatisfied with this passive attitude of fighting.

Under his arrangement,

On a certain day,

The barbarians were attacking,

Thinking it would be another day without any progress,

Suddenly, the city gate was actually opened by them!

Oh my god,

The barbarians carrying the siege rams were also stunned.

They hadn't been using much force, after all, they had to worry about hot oil and stones being poured and thrown on them from above, but the city gate was opened. It was real, not fake!

An A'Ge, a barbarian commander of ten thousand who was in charge of the siege that day, immediately burst into tears when he saw this scene, believing that the stars were protecting them. So, without hesitation, he directly led more than two thousand of his most elite and loyal tribal warriors into the battle, leading the attacking barbarians, all of whom rushed in through the gate.

In fact, this place was the upper part of the letter "凸".

Then, after the barbarians "majestically" rushed in, they suddenly discovered that in front of them, there was another iron gate, another city wall, and on the four city walls, the Shengle archers who had been prepared for a long time began to carry out the most brutal slaughter on them.

In this battle,

The barbarian commander of ten thousand, A'Ge, died in battle.

Nearly two thousand barbarian corpses were counted in this gap alone. Moreover, after the barbarians retreated, the Shengle army could leisurely go down to collect the arrows.

After this battle, the barbarians completely lost their will to fight.

They were really helpless and in pain.

And General Zheng in Xuehai Pass was also so bored that he was about to go moldy.

Thanks to the barbarians' many strange operations and Liang Cheng's excessive stability,

General Zheng sometimes didn't even need to go to the city wall. If he had nothing to do, he would just practice his saber to vent his energy.

Hey,

Don't mention it,

He was tormented by Xue San's medicinal bath in Shengle.

After a period of settling down,

General Zheng felt that he had touched the threshold of the seventh-rank martial artist peak.

He could only blame the barbarians outside for being too weak, making General Zheng only able to pass the time by practicing martial arts.

Finally,

Anyway,

Zheng Fan was too lazy to count how many days he had guarded Xuehai Pass.

On a certain day,

Under Xue San's urgent notification,

Zheng Fan hurriedly went to the city wall.

Xue San's notification was that a barbarian army was coming from the west.

After Zheng Fan went to the city wall and observed,

He couldn't help but laugh.

Yes,

A barbarian army was coming,

But looking at their appearance of throwing away their armor and helmets, drooping their heads, and being disorganized,

No matter how you looked at it, it didn't seem like they were deliberately coming from the front line to support the siege,

Instead, it looked like…

A defeated army.

General Zheng raised his hand, wanting to slap the battlement to vent his excitement, but after hesitating, he slapped Fan Li instead.

"Good, the barbarians have been defeated in front, and the Marquis of Jingnan's pursuers are probably coming soon.

Hahaha,

I really want to see what kind of expression Tian Wujing will have when he leads his troops to pursue and sees that I have already occupied Xuehai Pass,

Hehehehe."

——————

Thank you to 土豪德的陨落 for becoming The Descent of Magic's ninety-second alliance master!