Chapter 61: Massacre of the Four Directions

  The county magistrate of Yuanping was riding a horse to command the battle, just saw Taishi Ci throwing out torches and killing his own soldiers, scared him so much that he wanted to turn around and escape.

  But his luck was not good, Taishi Ci saw Yuan Ping's county magistrate at a glance, galloped and jumped on horseback, raised his spear and stabbed.

  Yu Ping County Magistrate Wu Yi's swordsmanship was ordinary, but in his haste, he rashly thought of using his treasured sword to knock aside Taishi Ci's steel spear. After a clear and crisp sound of metal clashing, Taishi Ci's steel spear merely shifted slightly, still piercing towards Yu Ping County Magistrate's ribs. Yu Ping County Magistrate let out a pained cry, about to loudly shout in agony.

  Tai Shi Zi's wrist shook, and the steel spear in his hand also violently trembled. This trembling power extended all the way to the tip of the spear before exploding outwards.

  An explosive force directly shattered the five internal organs of the Yuanping County Magistrate, and the sound that was about to come out of his mouth also stopped abruptly. His head drooped, and he died on horseback.

  Tai Shi Zi did not let go of the corpse of Yuanping County Magistrate, and with a flick of his wrist, he lifted the body into mid-air. He drew out the precious sword from his waist and with one slash, beheaded Yuanping County Magistrate. He still had plans to use Yuanping County Magistrate's head to intimidate the enemy army.

  After a brief delay, the cavalry behind Taishi Ci had caught up, and five hundred elite riders poured in like a steel torrent through the city gate. Taishi Ci charged at the forefront, his steel spear resembling a black giant python, its jaws wide open as it plunged into the enemy ranks, piercing straight through their lines.

  The rumbling hooves almost made the city walls tremble.

  There was no need to mention the knife, hundreds of pounds of war horses galloped by, and all the soldiers who blocked them were knocked flying everywhere. As long as they fell to the ground, they would be trampled into mud by the hard hooves.

  The smarter soldiers all ran to the edge of the city wall, clinging tightly to the cold city wall, hoping to escape the footsteps of death.

  Yu Ping County Magistrate almost dispatched 500 cavalrymen to seize the city gate, about 100 of whom were killed by Jiang Qin. The remaining survivors, only over 200 people, were also frightened and had no intention of resisting after being charged by Taishi Ci's cavalry.

  It has come to this, the trend is already set, five hundred elite cavalrymen made a big circle at the city gate and gradually stopped in their tracks.

  Tai Shi Zi searched around on the ground and saw the head of the original Ping County Magistrate, who had been beheaded by himself, at the edge of the city wall. He picked it up with the tip of his spear and shouted loudly: "The original Ping County Magistrate colluded with the rebels and intended to rebel. Our family received the imperial edict to come and kill the rebels. Originally, those who followed the rebellion should have been implicated in the nine clans, and the whole family would be executed. However, Heaven has a benevolent virtue, as long as you put down your weapons and reform, you can spare your lives."

  Tai Shi Zi's words must not be taken seriously, it's purely a case of "the more you cover up, the more you reveal", making excuses for himself, but still having to say something, otherwise he would be considered a rebel.

  Just like Zhuge Liang and Wang Lang's mutual abuse, both called each other traitors, but neither Liu Bei nor Cao Cao put Emperor Xian of Han in their eyes, yet they all claimed to be following the great court of the Han Dynasty.

  Tai Shi Zi finished speaking, and the soldiers from Yuanping County immediately threw away their swords and knelt down on the ground. In fact, most of those who had swords in their hands had already thrown them away.

  Li Chong and others entered the city of Yuanping, immediately ordered people to extinguish the flames, patrol the city, prevent chaos, and wait until dawn to post a notice to calm the people.

  The next morning, Cheng Yu wrote a notice and posted it everywhere to calm down the panicked citizens.

  Doing things to pacify the people, Cheng Jia father and son were both very skilled. In less than three days, Yuanping County was settled down. Li Chong left 500 soldiers for Jiang Qin and took the main force back to Guangwu.

  Returning to Guangwu, Li Chong recruited another 1,500 soldiers and hastened to train them into an army, preparing to attack Maiyi.

  It must be explained that Li Chong now occupies three counties and wants to provide for nearly 4,000 soldiers. In terms of food and grass, it is indeed difficult to supply them.

  Chen Lin had also personally reminded Li Zhong about this issue before, but Li Zhong was unmoved and insisted on expanding the army.

  However, Li Zhongxin was ruthless and cruel. The 1,500 new recruits in Yuanping County were just cannon fodder for the siege. Who would have thought that there wouldn't be any casualties in a siege? Compared to others, Li Zhongxin would rather let the soldiers from Yuanping go die first, after all, they had provoked him first.

  The dead don't waste food and grass, this idea he can't express clearly.

  Cheng Yu could see it, but this historically famous ruthless official did not comment on Li Chong's approach, and even somewhat agreed with him. In this chaotic world, if one's heart is not hard enough, then they will be eliminated!

  Don't listen to what Zhang Fei says, he led the civilians of Xinye to escape, but when Cao Cao really came after them, those poor people were left behind and abandoned. The elite soldiers and generals were either protecting Zhang Fei himself or his family members.

  In the following days, Li Chong would conduct a siege drill every three days. The props were readily available, and Guangwu County had city walls, so it was easy to build some cloud ladders for real combat drills.

  It just so happened that Taishi Ci and others did not have experience in attacking cities, so the nature of the exercise was extremely high, and occasionally there would be a night raid.

  Liao Hua pretended to be knowledgeable, showing that he had experience in attacking cities. He said several times that he wanted to usurp power, and Taishi Ci couldn't help but ask him: "What was the outcome of your attack on Beihai?"

  As soon as this was said, Liao Hua immediately retreated in defeat.

  February has passed, and if we don't set out now, it's possible that the spring plowing will be delayed. Li Zhong ordered the army to depart and attack Maiyi. This time, Li Zhong brought a total of 2,500 soldiers, including 500 cavalrymen.

  Starting from Guangwu, passing through Shenchi (Loufan), crossing the Great Wall, and arriving in Maiyi County. Since this was a protracted war, the army carried a large amount of supplies, so the marching speed was not fast either. A distance of 100 li took three days to cover.

  Li Chong did not want to launch a surprise attack on Mayi, but after Li Chong succeeded in the original Ping County, the county magistrate of Mayi immediately ordered the whole city to be on high alert, and the guards at the city gate were even more heavily guarded.

  Arriving at the foot of Mayi City, the city walls were already densely packed with defending troops waiting in formation.

  However, Li Chong did not rush to attack the city. Being able to capture Maiyuan was certainly a joyful event, but no one had a guarantee of winning in battle, and Li Chong's rear was unstable, and Yang Ju of Yinguang would not sit idly by.

  As allies, they should support each other. Li Chong launched a surprise attack on Yuanping, and Yang Yu could make an excuse that he was unable to rescue in time. However, since Li Chong is attacking Mayi now, if Yang Yu still doesn't send troops to assist, he will immediately become isolated from his allies.

  So in order to capture Mayi, Li Chong still had to defeat Yang Niu's relief force.

  In the following days, Li Zhong had people build siege engines while paying attention to the movements of the Yin Mansion and secretly praying for Yang Chou to get diarrhea, have a seizure, or die from exhaustion.

  However, Li Chong's curse did not take effect. On the third day, Li Chong received news that Yang Ugly had sent troops to rescue Mai Yi, with a force of about 1,500 men.

  Under helplessness, Li Zhong had no choice but to discuss with his generals to divide their troops and ambush Yang Ugly.

  This is an inevitable choice. According to the estimation of the scouts, there are at least 100,000 troops in Mayi County. If Yang's army is allowed to enter Mayi County again, the strength of both sides will be almost equal. In a situation where the strength of both sides is almost equal, attacking the city is almost a doomed outcome.

  Li Chong frowned and gathered everyone in the tent to discuss, but Cheng Yu listened to the situation and laughed: "Master, Yang Quan coming to reinforce is a good thing!"

  "What did you say?" Li Chong asked in shock.

  Cheng Yu smiled and slowly said, "Your Excellency, Yang Chou's timing for coming to the rescue of Mai Yi is not right. In fact, Yang Chou should have sent troops when the battle was intense. At that time, our forces were all tied up by the defenders of Mai Yi, and it would have been impossible to divide our troops. That would be a case of being unable to take care of both ends."

  "Not bad! What Master Cheng said is true." Li nodded and said.

  Cheng Yu continued, "Yang Jiao's current dispatch of troops is also a reluctant move, and it's to reassure the garrison at Mayi. He fears that Mayi will surrender without a fight, but this is also our opportunity. If we can defeat Yang Jiao's relief army, we can intimidate the garrison at Mayi, dampen their morale, and even force Mayi to surrender."

  Li Chong thought for a moment and asked: "In that case, we should put our main target on Yang Chou's body."

  At this time, Liao Hua suddenly said: "Master, I think it's better to get rid of Yang Chou first. After getting rid of Yang Chou, Mai Yi will be yours sooner or later. You can attack whenever you want, and when autumn harvest comes, taking down Mai Yi won't even require your own troops to farm."

  "This is outrageous!" Li Chong couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time, but after careful consideration, he thought it was indeed the case. It would be better to wait until autumn harvest and collect the grain himself. Now that they had defeated Ma Yi, if a famine were to occur, he would still have to spend money to provide disaster relief.

  It has to be said that sometimes straightforward people see through problems more clearly.

  Li Chong's attack on Mai Yi is nothing more than a matter of troops and food supplies. Now, even if he were given the soldiers he had before, he still couldn't afford to maintain them, so it would be better for him to defeat Yang Ju instead.

  Li Zhong said at once: "Yuan Jiao's words also make sense, so let's discuss how to intercept Yang Chou."

  Tai Shi Zi heard the words and smiled: "Don't worry, my lord. Let me lead 500 elite soldiers to ambush on both sides of the official road. When Yang Chou passes by, we'll kill him before he can react, and we'll definitely defeat Yang Chou."

  "Is this method too simple?" Li Zhong was about to speak when he heard Cheng Yu nodding and saying, "General Zi Yi's words are extremely correct. In this way, we will surely defeat Yang Chou."

  Actually, Li Chong thought war was too complicated, but war is just about who can grasp the enemy's weakness.

  The situation most similar to Li Chong's is Sun Bin's ambush at Maling, where he killed Pang Juan. Pang Juan was also a famous general of his time, who had never lost a battle in his conquests for the state of Wei. He must have known the danger of rushing back with his troops, but he couldn't just stand by and watch as Daliang fell. The blame for that would be too much for him to bear.

  To say that Pang Juan's most correct choice at the time was to ignore Da Liang and launch a fierce attack on Han, but Wei Wang Anli had a small heart and hastily summoned Pang Juan back for reinforcements, which led to the defeat of Ma Ling. Moreover, Crown Prince Shen also failed to provide relief, so it can be said that the main culprits of the defeat at Ma Ling were not Pang Juan, but rather Wei Wang Anli and Crown Prince Shen. It can be said that these two useless people joined forces to bring about Pang Juan's death.

  The current situation is the same, Li Chong attacked Maiyi, Yang Ju must rescue, Maiyi is Yang Ju's must-rescue place, but Yang Ju is not Sun Bin, he did not go to attack Guangwu, but chose to directly rescue Maiyi.

  Moreover, the timing of the rescue was also off, it came a bit too early, this is the difference between a famous general and an ordinary talent.

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