"Your Highness, Grand Commander, we have captured a spy from the direction of Wannian and found a secret letter on him, written by Yang Yan to Yang Chao!"
Shen Qian followed Li Si in quickly and brought up the secret letter.
"Good heavens, Yang Yan really did send Yang Chao back to Jiannan from Dasanguan, intending to establish himself in a strategic location!" Zhao Muyun handed the letter to Yinji after reading it, a cold smile on his face.
"Didn't Master already send General Wu Shangzhi to chase after them?" Yinji asked.
“We did chase after him, but Yang Chao doesn’t know that Yang Yan told him to retreat from Dasanguan. He must still think that Yang Yan is waiting for him in Wannian and wants to return the way he came.” Zhao Muyun stroked his chin.
"What does Master mean?" Yinji seemed to have thought of something, and his eyes lit up.
"This is a good opportunity for us to wipe out Yang Chao's troops. His troops are all elites from Jiannan, suitable for mountain warfare. Taking this force under our control will help us conquer Jiannan in the future."
The confrontation and struggle for supremacy between the Great Yin Dynasty and Li Jingang entered a new period, and Jiannan Road happened to be the granary and rear base of Xijing.
Zhao Muyun's military capabilities are superior, but his forces are too small, currently only around 100,000, and the defensive points are too numerous and scattered across various locations.
The number of troops truly capable of mobile warfare was less than 20,000.
It wasn't that Zhao Muyun didn't want to expand his army, but rather that it was already difficult for Hedong and Longyou to be self-sufficient in food supplies.
Xijing has just been captured, and now winter is turning into spring. The continuous fighting has left no time for rest and recuperation.
However, if they could take Jiannan Road and have sufficient grain supplies, Zhao Muyun would dare to launch a massive military campaign.
Yang Chao was able to raise an army of 50,000 men in Jiannan Road in just one year.
Before being able to confront and fight Li Jingang, if we can resolve the Jiannan Road issue, then the countdown to recovering our lost territories has already begun.
“Master is farsighted. What should we do now?” Yinji immediately understood Zhao Muyun’s strategic intentions and hurriedly asked.
"We must keep Yang Chao's army in Guannei Road!" Zhao Muyun suddenly stood up. "Wu Shangzhi's three thousand cavalry are not enough. All the remaining cavalry in Xijing City, except for the heavy armor battalion, must be mobilized!"
"Go and inform Tang Yanhai that his scout battalion is also conducting special operations. Once Yang Chao is scattered by us, immediately locate him and carry out the decapitation strike."
"......"
......
At the foot of Qishan Mountain, Yang Chao's remnant camp.
The camp's simple fence was crooked, the tents were sparse, and the campfire flickered, reflecting the soldiers' dejected and fearful faces.
The daytime defeat was like a nightmare. The sudden appearance of Wu Shangzhi's reinforcements and the subsequent fierce charge of the heavy cavalry completely shattered their illusions of taking Xijing in one fell swoop.
Now, more than half of the 10,000 elite troops have been lost, the cries of the wounded are incessant, most of the food and supplies have been abandoned, and morale has plummeted to rock bottom.
Inside the central command tent, Yang Chao, still in his armor, sat on a rough wooden stool, staring blankly at the flickering lamplight.
A knife wound on his arm was hastily bandaged, and dark red blood seeped out.
The tiger tally given to him by his uncle Yang Yan lay coldly on the table, yet at this moment it felt as heavy as a thousand pounds.
"General, the inventory is complete."
Lieutenant General Yang Hong entered, his voice hoarse, "Of the able-bodied men, there are 4,127, of whom over 800 are lightly wounded. The seriously wounded... number over 300, lacking medical care and medicine, I'm afraid..."
He paused, "The provisions are only enough for three days, there are less than a thousand arrows, and many horses have died."
Yang Chao nodded blankly, without saying a word.
The bitterness of failure made his chest feel tight and suffocated.
He couldn't understand why elite reinforcements would arrive in time when Xijing should have been empty.
Is Zhao Muyun's main force still on Hedong Road? Could it be that Uncle's judgment was wrong? Or... has Zhao Muyun already set up a trap, waiting for them to fall into it?
"Has the person I sent to contact my uncle returned?" he asked in a hoarse voice.
Yang Hong shook his head: "Not yet. The mountain road to the north is difficult to travel, and the scouts have lost contact with the commander-in-chief. I'm afraid..."
Yang Chao's heart sank.
Could something have happened to my uncle as well?
He dared not think any further.
"Strengthen vigilance and send out more scouts, especially in the east and north."
Yang Chao forced himself to stay alert, "Tell the soldiers to rest as soon as possible, and we'll see how things go tomorrow."
However, the breathing space that Yang Chao had been hoping for did not come.
The next day, just as dawn was breaking, a sharp whistle and the sound of rapid hoofbeats suddenly rang out from the perimeter of the camp!
"Enemy attack—! To the east! Cavalry!"
The sentry's exclamation instantly shattered the morning silence.
Yang Chao rushed out of the tent and saw that on the eastern plains, dust billowed and countless cavalrymen emerged from the morning mist like ghosts, their hooves pounding the earth like muffled thunder!
The leading banner is none other than the "Wu" banner that broke through their ranks yesterday!
"Form the formation! Form the formation now!" Yang Chao roared hoarsely.
The exhausted soldiers frantically grabbed their weapons and tried to regroup.
But the attacking cavalry was extremely fast, giving them no time to form ranks.
The Qiang and Rong cavalry were skilled in archery, and before they even got close, a dense rain of arrows was already hurled into the camp, causing chaos and screams.
The Wuhuan cavalry, brandishing their scimitars, swept across the edge of the camp like a whirlwind, hacking down fences and setting tents ablaze.
The Murong tribe's light cavalry were more agile, dividing into several groups that constantly patrolled the perimeter, shooting arrows and targeting those square formations that were trying to assemble.
Wu Shangzhi did not send his cavalry deep into the camp to charge, but instead made full use of the mobility advantage of his light cavalry.
By the time Yang Chao organized his troops to attempt a counterattack, the cavalry had already gone far away, leaving behind only burning tents, dead horses, and wounded soldiers.
Yang Chao was so angry that his eyes turned red, but there was nothing he could do.
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