Chapter 1 The Onset

Along the Jiang River area of Yupan City, after receiving the memorial from Deng Juru upstream that they had already crossed the river, Li Bao's main force, under the order of the First Prince, began to launch a more violent attack on the opposite bank in order to echo and cooperate with the upstream left-wing army.

Team after team of Northern Garrison soldiers advanced fiercely towards the opposite bank on boats, arrows rained down from both sides, and overturned boats and floating corpses could be seen everywhere on the river.

A natural barrier is indeed a natural barrier. In the face of the great river, the iron cavalry of the Yan people lost its past sharpness, even the Northern Garrison was no exception, so it is no wonder that the Qian Kingdom had to deliberately spend huge costs to artificially dig out a Bian River from the Qian River to protect its capital.

But the Northern Garrison was, after all, a top-notch elite in the world, even without horses, its morale and martial prowess could definitely be called the most valiant soldiers of the era.

Several times, the Northern Garrison had successfully broken through to the opposite bank, and then quickly tried to form a formation to cover the arrival of subsequent troops.

However, the previous few times, the counterattacks of the rebel army were too fierce, resulting in not being able to gain a foothold on the shore, and ultimately fell short.

This is like attacking a city, wave after wave, seeking to break the entire surface by seizing individual points.

However, when several teams of Yan soldiers who had secretly crossed the river a few days ago suddenly launched an attack from another direction on the opposite bank under the order of the First Prince, they successfully disrupted the rebel army's formation on the opposite bank.

Finally, a team of more than five hundred people successfully landed through ferries and stabilized their position. Subsequently, the subsequent Northern Garrison began to continue transporting troops.

On the other hand, the morale of the rebels finally began to falter. They could no longer organize suicide squads to drive away the Yan soldiers on the shore as they had done before.

Firstly, the Yan cavalry that suddenly appeared on their side brought them great psychological pressure, and secondly, the rebel army was still mainly composed of various mobs, with only a small number of true elites.

And that small portion had actually been almost completely consumed in the initial fighting on the shore.

Without the support of a backbone, the other rebels immediately began to weaken.

"Your Highness, it seems that not only the left-wing army, but we are also about to break through here!"

After seeing another team of eight hundred armored soldiers being transported across, Li Bao finally couldn't restrain the excitement in his heart and walked to the First Prince's side to say.

Born in the northern lands, a rough man who had fought across the deserts, this was truly his first time fighting a water battle in his life.

This great river almost suffocated Li Bao, but fortunately, a gap had been torn open, and the main force of the barbarians was not here. Taking the opposite bank was only a matter of time.

Moreover, to a certain extent, taking the opposite bank was equivalent to successfully crossing the river, and successfully crossing the river meant that Yupan City was within reach.

The reason is simple: this place is not far from Yupan City. The rebels, that is, Situ Yi's puppet court supported by the barbarians, would inevitably deploy their troops on the shore to defend, and would not foolishly put their troops on the city walls, waiting for the Yan people to cross the river and attack or besiege the city.

In other words, Yupan City should be an empty city at this time!

The scales of victory had already been pulled down by his side; the Mandate of Heaven belonged to Yan, and they would inevitably be invincible!

The First Prince took a deep breath. After all, he was young, and at this moment, he inevitably felt somewhat excited.

The main force of the left-wing army should have already crossed the river. If his side also broke through, then Wangjiang would be completely torn open.

Once Yupan City was captured, the terrain from then on to the easternmost part of Cheng Kingdom would be mostly flat, and Ji Wujiang could deal with the barbarians more calmly, whether they chose to fight or retreat.

The Yan army was still most majestic on horseback, and it was also more convenient to use.

Most importantly, without the support of Situ Yi's pseudo-court, the barbarian army would lose all support on this land.

However, at this moment, a messenger galloped over:

"Report!!!!!!!!!!! Chu Kingdom warships have appeared upstream, cutting off the river!"

What!

The First Prince and Li Bao exchanged glances, both seeing shock in each other's eyes.

The Chu people, why would the Chu people appear here!

How could the Chu people, who were in the midst of internal strife, appear here!

"Report!!!!!!!!!!! The main force of the barbarians has launched a surprise attack on the left-wing army's camp!"

"Report!!!!!!!!!!! The left-wing army's camp has fallen into a fierce battle!"

"Damn it, what's going on? No wonder I didn't see the barbarians here; it turns out the main force is upstream!"

Li Bao cursed loudly, his chest heaving up and down.

The appearance of the Chu people and their navy directly disrupted the rhythm and layout of the battlefield, becoming a huge unknown factor.

Li Bao was a veteran in the army, and his experience in leading troops in battle was much richer than that of Deng Juru, who was older than him. If it was the Northern Garrison, that would be fine. The Northern Garrison armored soldiers were used to fighting with the barbarians in the desert, and even when they slept at night, they were used to holding the hilt of their swords.

If the Jingnan Army was able to enforce orders and prohibitions because of Marquis Jingnan's strict military discipline, then the Northern Garrison relied on this kind of instinct honed in the desert battles.

When Li Fusheng went south to the Qian Kingdom, he dared to throw himself into the Vanguard Camp to act recklessly because even without his command, the various units under his command knew how to cooperate in battle.

But what were the soldiers of the left-wing army?

Military leaders were everywhere. That family was a general, and this family was a lieutenant. That family was related to this family through marriage, and that family had a feud with this family. If the First Prince hadn't rectified the left-wing army after entering Yingdu, they would have even fought over the distribution of food and supplies!

Without even thinking about it, one could imagine what a chaotic scene it would be for this group of people just after crossing the river, and if they were to encounter a surprise attack by the main force of the barbarians at this time, the outcome would be…

Most importantly, the Chu navy cut off the river, and the main force of the left-wing army that had crossed the river had no way to retreat, and subsequent reinforcements could not go to reinforce them either.

The left-wing army was equivalent to becoming an isolated force!

"Your Highness?"

Li Bao looked at the First Prince.

At this moment, the First Prince still had to make the decision.

It wasn't that Li Bao was shirking responsibility and deliberately pushing the matter to the First Prince, nor was it that Li Bao was afraid of taking responsibility, but now, seemingly chaotic and with various sides singing their own tunes at Wangjiang,

for the Yan army at the moment,

there were only two paths to take.

One,

was to sound the gongs and withdraw the troops.

The left-wing army would have to rely on its own luck, and on Deng Juru's luck.

Because after the Yan army entered the Cheng Kingdom, it had never had a large-scale conflict with the barbarians. The barbarians had always been avoiding battle in the early stages, obviously preserving their strength. In addition, during the Three Families Dividing Jin in the past, both the Situ family and the Helian family could occasionally go out to fight the barbarians and bully them, and Marquis Jingnan could roam the snow plains with only 30,000 cavalry, which undoubtedly made Li Bao and other generals underestimate the fighting power of the barbarians.

As long as Deng Juru defended well, he should be able to hold on, right?

After all, they were the Yan army; they couldn't be completely overwhelmed by the barbarians all at once, could they?

The second option,

was to continue to attack fiercely here, regardless of whether the Chu navy was there or not, whether they came or not, to break through here, take Yupan City, and the situation could immediately be reversed again.

Even, to put it bluntly, when both sides of the river were controlled by the Yan army, no matter when that Chu navy had secretly gone upstream, as long as it was still reluctant to fight and didn't hurry up and slip away, then those ships would eventually belong to the Ji family!

In fact, there was another reason that Li Bao couldn't say.

That was that His Majesty had allowed the First Prince to coordinate the various military leaders in the territory to enter Cheng to fight, and the intention to integrate these military leaders and their troops was very clear.

Even, to speculate a little more presumptuously, if it really didn't work out, it was also possible to consume them…

The First Prince's eyes narrowed as he looked at Li Bao.

Li Bao was also looking at him, and the two faced each other.

The First Prince immediately said to the messenger beside him:

"Detect the movements of the Chu navy!"

"Yes, sir!"

Then, the First Prince drew out his saber and roared:

"I, Ji Wujiang, as the commander of the Eastern Expeditionary Army, will never stand by and watch my comrades die!"

Li Bao lowered his head upon hearing this and saluted with a single fist. He understood.

"Li Bao!"

"Your subordinate is here!"

"Immediately transfer my personal guard battalion up. I want to personally board the ship and take the opposite bank. Our army has not lost yet. As long as we take the opposite bank and take Yupan City, the situation will still be under our control!"

Li Bao immediately said upon hearing this:

"Your Highness, that's too reckless. This subordinate is willing to make a trip personally. Please sit in the army. You are the commander of the army and must not be harmed!"

"I have made up my mind, no need to say more. You and I both know that with the Chu navy crossing the river, if we can't take the opposite bank this time, and wait for the Chu navy to continue down the river and cut off this place, then we will no longer be able to take down Yupan City on the other side.

The left-wing army must be saved!

Whether Deng Juru can hold on or not, even if he does hold on, if our army cannot cross the river to meet them, the left-wing army will not be able to last too long!"

The First Prince raised his saber, directly cut off the cloak on his body, and shouted:

"Guards, follow me to board the ship!"

"We obey!"

"We obey!"

Surrounded by a group of guards, the First Prince came to the shore, boarded the ship, personally rowed the oars, and began to cross the river.

Li Bao "hehe" laughed twice. He didn't try to stop Ji Wujiang's actions again. To put it bluntly, the lives of the Ji family members were slightly more valuable in recent years.

Back in the day, let alone princes, even emperors of the Ji family would have died in battle if they died in battle. Who would say anything?

As a military general, Li Bao said that the First Prince should not take risks, but his heart was actually quite surging.

As a member of the Northern Garrison, when Marquis Jingnan and His Majesty were acting back then, they, the subordinates, had not done a little bit of thinking about breaking into Tiancheng County, capturing Yanjing, and seizing the Emperor's dragon chair to sit on for their own Marquis.

Even later, before the Princess was determined to marry the Crown Prince, their thoughts had not been extinguished.

It was only when Marquis Jingnan took the initiative to cut off the Northern Garrison that everyone understood that the Marquis had completely given up on rebelling and becoming emperor. Only then did everyone settle down.

Now,

looking again,

good,

the blood of the Ji family men still remained, which didn't make people feel too disappointed.

With this thought,

Li Bao immediately shouted:

"Vanguard Camp, follow me to board the ship!"

"General, His Highness has gone, and you are also going. What about this place?"

Sui Yuanyi, Li Bao's lieutenant and beloved general, immediately dissuaded him.

He was Li Bao's son-in-law.

"You can handle it yourself. If Yupan City can't be taken down, there's no need to fight this battle at all!"

The Chu navy was crossing the river, and after this navy appeared, the difficulty for the Yan army to cross the river in the future would increase exponentially, because the Yan army could not conjure up a navy in a short time.

At the same time, the Yan army would likely lose the left-wing army.

This would directly affect and change the strategic situation of the entire Cheng Kingdom war. Even if the left-wing army was not good, it was still a regular army of the Yan Kingdom. Its combat power could not be compared with the Northern Garrison and the Jingnan Army, but if the Eastern Expeditionary Army suddenly lost tens of thousands, how would you manage the next battle?

"Vanguard Camp, board the ship!"

At this time, the second batch of ferries had already arrived. Under Li Bao's command, the Vanguard Camp armored soldiers began to board the ship.

Each of the six garrisons of the Northern Garrison had a Vanguard Camp, which was the essence of a garrison's troops. Whenever there was a fierce battle, the Vanguard Camp would always take the lead and act as the arrowhead of the entire army.

At the moment, Li Bao was also going for broke.

If the opposite bank could not be broken through and Yupan City could not be taken down, everyone would wait to plead guilty to His Majesty together!

Over there,

the First Prince had led the guard battalion ashore, and the Yan army originally stationed on the shore had expanded a large area forward before the First Prince arrived.

When the First Prince came up, the Yan army on the shore not only had a wave of comrades added, but also greatly boosted their morale. Conversely, the Cheng Kingdom rebels on the opposite side instantly saw their morale plummet to the extreme.

In fact, as the commander of an army, bright and shiny armor was very useful. The commander was the courage of the army, and also the soul of the army. To put it in an inappropriate analogy, people's emotions fluctuated greatly when fighting on the battlefield, and when people were confused and lost, seeing the figure of the commander would really give them the feeling of a wanderer seeing their parents.

Therefore, in ancient and modern cold weapon wars, it was almost a tacit rule for commanders to wear special and bright armor.

When Marquis Jingnan led his troops to conquer the snow plains, he didn't need to say anything at all. He directly took himself as the arrowhead and charged forward, and the morale boost to the knights under his command was extremely terrifying.

Of course, Zheng Fan of Sheng Le City had to regretfully give up this special privilege of the commander showing off for the sake of the safety and consideration of the Demon Kings.

The Cheng Kingdom rebels on the shore also saw the figure of the First Prince. It was really impossible not to see him, because both the First Prince himself and his guard battalion wore armor that was too bright.

The commander of the other side, the Yan Kingdom prince who was rumored to lead the troops, had already personally landed on the shore, but their Emperor had not shown his face. Everything was really afraid of comparison.

"Yan army, listen to my command!"

The First Prince raised his long saber and shouted loudly.

"Advance a hundred steps!"

With the addition of the guard battalion, the Yan army began to advance with all its might, and in a nearly barbaric and unreasonable manner, they forcibly counterattacked!

The Cheng Kingdom rebels on the shore were still resisting, but this resistance was becoming more and more weak. They had more people than the Yan army who landed, but they could not compare in morale.

Under the continuous advance, deserters began to appear in the Cheng Kingdom rebel army.

This phenomenon was contagious, and for a time, the number of deserters began to increase.

If reinforcements from the rebels came at this time, they might be able to stabilize the situation again, but it was obvious that there were no more troops from Yupan City to reinforce them.

The First Prince knew in his heart that since the main force of the barbarians was upstream, then this place must be empty. As long as they persevered, fought through, and killed through, they would eventually be able to tear open this defense line!

Originally, they might have been concerned about the cost of casualties and wanted to erode Wangjiang in the most stable and least costly way, but now, they could only fight to the death.

Fortunately,

they succeeded.

After a battle,

the First Prince reached out and pulled out the arrow that had been shot into the gap in his shoulder armor, and at the same time, he reached out and wiped the blood-stained face.

At this time,

the Vanguard Camp led by Li Bao also landed on the shore. The addition of a new wave of reinforcements completely overwhelmed the last bit of persistence of the Cheng army.

From generals to soldiers, the rebels began to flee.

Li Bao was wielding his saber with one arm, killing with great interest, but he still remembered the main thing and quickly came to the First Prince's side.

"Your Highness, are you alright?"

The First Prince shook his head, reached out and supported Li Bao's shoulder, and said:

"Continue forward and take Yupan City!"

The defense line on the shore had already been broken. At this time, they had to take Yupan City in one go, instead of continuing to wait for subsequent troops to cross the river, because if they did not take Yupan City as a stronghold at this time, the Chu navy might continue south to this place and cut off the river here.

With Yupan City as a support, they could echo the left-wing army upstream, and the Chu navy would no longer be able to cut off the river at will. The First Prince even dared to use the left-wing army as a point to counter-encircle the barbarians!

As a prince of the Yan Kingdom, he did not lack this courage!

"Gather the troops, do not pursue the fleeing soldiers, and follow this commander to take Yupan City directly!"

………

On the small river leading to Yupan City, the flower boats were still floating there, but with the continuous appearance of rebel soldiers fleeing back from the shore on both sides of the road, the servants on the flower boats finally appeared and began to row the oars, approaching Yupan City.

On the flower boat, the Eighth Prince of Chu had only urinated once.

The swordsmith sighed and said:

"The Yan people are indeed fierce."

This was something that had to be admitted, and it had already been proven.

However, this time, it was what he had seen with his own eyes.

The Eighth Prince nodded and said:

"Yes, so Fourth Brother decided to join forces with the barbarians. Otherwise, if we wait for the Yan people to annex all of the Three Jins lands, completely dominate the north and look south, and look down from a high position, those Yan people can attack the Qian Kingdom if they want to, and attack the Chu Kingdom if they want to;

With the sharpness of the Yan people's iron cavalry and the supplementation of the Three Jins knights, our Great Chu would only be able to parry and have no ability to fight back."

"I understand the reasoning, it's just that after this time, my friendship with Yu Heping will be completely over, alas."

Everyone knew that

the Sword Saint of Jin and the swordsmith of Chu were close friends.

The swordsmith of Chu had forged a Longyuan sword for the Sword Saint,

and the Sword Saint had even used a flattering sentence to elevate the swordsmith to the throne of the Four Great Swordsmen.

"It's also strange. The Great Xia Dynasty has been destroyed for eight hundred years, but what is the Sword Saint's brain made of? He still thinks he is a descendant of Great Xia instead of a Jin person."

"Holding a sword in this life must have something to hold onto. I think that if there was a choice, Fourth Highness would not want to join forces with the barbarians either."

"What are the barbarians? They are just a pack of wild dogs. After this wave blocks the Yan people at Wangjiang and wins this time for our Great Chu and my Fourth Brother, in the future, this Cheng Kingdom territory will eventually belong to our Great Chu."

"That barbarian king is not an ordinary person. If possible, I really want to kill him while he is still on the ship.

If the Yan people are tigers, then the barbarians may be wolves in the future, Your Highness must not be careless."

"I understand the reasoning. After this battle, I will definitely tell Fourth Brother about this barbarian king."

"Then I can rest assured."

Saying that,

the swordsmith shouted to the people rowing the oars:

"Hurry up, didn't you see the Yan people are chasing after us!"

"Master, do you seem to be very afraid?" The Eighth Prince asked curiously, "Could it be that the master is really as rumored, unable to do martial arts?"

"A sword in its scabbard is the most terrifying sword in the world."

"I don't understand."

"Because it can scare people."

"Oh, I understand a little."

"It doesn't matter whether you understand it now or not."

"Huh?"

"Because if Qu Tiannan doesn't come out again, we will be captured alive by the Yan people."

………

Thousands of Yan troops, led by the First Prince and Li Bao, directly chased after the fleeing soldiers towards Yupan City.

With this wave, taking the city in one go was almost a certainty!

These Yan troops were already exhausted, but their will was still firm. They had crossed the river and fought in a hurry, and there was no time to transport horses, so they were basically all infantry at this time, seeking to take the city in one fell swoop!

However,

just as they saw the walls of Yupan City,

the gates of Yupan City suddenly opened, and from within the gates, a group of soldiers wearing cyan armor began to walk out in orderly formations, as if endlessly.

Axemen, spearmen, crossbowmen, heavily armored soldiers, row after row, after leaving the city, they directly formed their own battle formations.

Their flags were cyan, with a phoenix embroidered on them. The color of the armor and the flags indicated their identity: the Qingluan Army of Great Chu, the elite infantry under the command of the Qu family, a powerful clan in Chu.

At this time,

a middle-aged general riding a white horse with a blue bird standing on his shoulder slowly walked out of the city gate:

"Qu Tiannan of Great Chu is here to welcome the Yan Kingdom's First Prince for a long time!"