The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 216 Being Complacent

Li Ye and Li Keyong joined forces to attack Huang Chao. Naturally, this was a joint action. But who would get these three achievements or who would get the bigger share, Li Ye and Li Keyong had to contend with each other one by one.

However, after Li Ye started the topic, Li Keyong didn’t rush to request the first strike mission. Just now, Huiming spoke with Li Keyong outside the army barracks.

At that time, Huiming said, “If Prince An’s troops request to be the vanguards to attack the city, don’t compete with them. More than that, you have to be modest.”

Li Keyong was puzzled. “Isn’t that giving achievements away?”

Huiming said, “Firstly, it’s easier to defend than to attack Tongguan, so the battle certainly will bring heavy casualties. Secondly, there are two masters in the Spiritual Master Realm in Tongguan, so the one who goes first will have trouble. Prince An has to take action first. If he doesn’t appear in the battle, there will be no top master in the Pinglu Army, so they absolutely can’t conquer Tongguan. But if he does appear in the battle, no one will know if he can live because of the other side’s masters in the Spiritual Master Realm.”

Li Keyong asked, “When will our troops take action?”

Huiming answered, “When Prince An can’t withstand it anymore, he will ask you for help. Then you can go to fight.”

Li Keyong said, “By that time, with the assistance of the masters of the Juexiao Temple, I won’t be afraid of the masters in the Spiritual Master Realm in Tongguan. And because of the defending soldiers’ casualties caused by Li Ye, it will be easy for our elites to attack Tongguan.”

Huiming said, “Exactly.”

Li Keyong’s mind was brought back to the present. Looking at Li Ye, he knew that Li Ye surely would contend against him to attack Tongguan, so Li Ye would definitely propose that the Pinglu Army take the lead in attacking the city. Because of the previous great victories of the Pinglu Army, Li Ye must have thought that they were able to conquer Tongguan.

Li Keyong secretly shook his head and suddenly felt very happy. Although Li Ye was ruthless, he was just at Level 9 of Qi-refining, so he couldn’t feel the existence of the masters in the Spiritual Master Realm. Of course, he couldn’t know there were two masters of Zhongnan Mountain who were in the Spiritual Master Realm in Tongguan.

“Commander-in-chief, I request to be the vanguard and attack Tongguan for our troops!”

Standing up behind the table, Zhao Polu from the Pinglu Army asked for Li Ye’s permission with cupped fists.

“Good! General Zhao, I’m gratified by your high morale. Tomorrow, I will let your troops attack the city!” Li Ye said with a smile and looked at the crowd. “Any objections?”

Yang Fuguang and Zhou Ji looked at each other. They wanted to say something, but they didn’t say it. If the Pinglu Army attacked Tongguan first, what else was the Yanmen Army supposed to do? But since Li Ye agreed to Zhao Polu’s request, it meant that he wanted to take the credit of conquering Tongguan. At this time, Yang Fuguang and Zhou Ji wouldn’t disobey Li Ye’s instruction.

Wang Duo smiled and said, “Your Highness, there are many good generals under your command. I admire General Zhao’s valor very much.”

Li Keyong immediately said, “I have no objection.”

Li Ye was very satisfied that no one objected. The most important problem of the battle was solved as the people who would fight first tomorrow were decided. Then, the Yanmen Army would set up camps and the two troops would negotiate the defending matter. Both of them were less important.

Seeing Wang Duo, Li Keyong, and the others look satisfied, Li Ye sneered in his heart.

When the discussion finished, they all went back to their camps. It was still early, so Li Keyong went back to reorganize the Yanmen Army and set up camps.

Next day, the Pinglu Army set out for Tongguan. Li Ye, Wang Duo, Li Keyong, and the others watched the battle at the frontline. Although Li Keyong didn’t have a combat mission today, he had to pay attention to the progress of the battle because he was the chief general of the 200,000 Yanmen soldiers. Even Li Ye had no right to drive him away.

“Tongguan and Jingu could form a double-pronged attack and cover for each other. If we want to attack Tongguan, we have to attack the 12 linked cities in Jinggu at the same time, or we certainly will be contained,” said Li Ye, pointing at Tongguan. Li Ye was riding on a horse at the frontline. He looked back and said, “Ask Liu Dazheng to lead the troops to attack Jingu.”

The orderly responded and left.

Li Ye asked Zhao Polu next to him, “General Zhao, are you ready?”

Zhao Polu said with cupped fists, “I can attack the city at any time!”

Li Ye nodded with satisfaction and didn’t say anything more. He looked up at Tongguan in the mountain cliff. Tongguan looked small and couldn’t compare with Dengzhou. It was impossible for thousands of Pinglu soldiers to attack the city at the same time.

The passage here was narrow and it could only accommodate a horse and a carriage, so how many soldiers could go through there in a row? Therefore, the ordinary soldiers were supplementary in this battle, while the elite cultivators quickly approached the top of the city wall and fought on it.

Tongguan was wide outside and narrow inside. Zhao Polu led the troops to move forward. There were dozens of soldiers in the back row and only a dozen in the front row. All the soldiers were holding shields. The military formation composed of the elite cultivators was at the head, and they were ready to fight at any time.

In Tongguan, many soldiers in armor stood on top of the city wall, very dense. There were many cultivators there as well. Their breaths came out faintly.

When Liu Dazheng began to fight at the other side, Li Ye ordered Zhao Polu to attack the city.

Zhao Polu unsheathed his knife and ordered the soldiers to fight. The soldiers in armor rushed toward Tongguan, shouting. A short time later, dense arrows rained down from the top of the city wall. When the soldiers in armor approached the top of the city wall, all kinds of techniques fell from the top of the city wall, such as fireballs, Sword Qi, and so on.

Standing behind the formation, Li Ye and the other people saw Zhao Polu lead the troops to attack the city. On such a terrain, it was difficult for soldiers to get close to the city wall because the passage was too narrow. The soldiers in armor rushed again and again, but every time they sustained heavy casualties. They had to retreat and continued to organize the next attack after many of them were killed.

An hour later, the Pinglu Army had many casualties, but they hadn’t even put up the ladders over the city wall. They failed many times.

Li Keyong was expressionless, but there was a smile in his eyes as he saw the scene. He glanced at Huiming. Huiming closed his eyes to rest. Perhaps he wasn’t interested in watching such a war situation. Li Keyong knew that even if Zhao Polu attacked the city like this in a whole day, he wouldn’t make any progress.

The only way was to constantly use up the rolling stones or wood and arrows from the top of the city wall, then send the elite cultivators to fight when these things were used up. But even then, Zhao Polu wasn’t able to conquer the city because the other side had masters in the Spiritual Master Realm.

Li Ye looked at it quietly for a long time. He asked Zhao Polu to continue to attack the city, and then he returned to the army barracks.

The battle continued, but there was no need for Li Ye to command it, so he didn’t have to stay there all the time.

In this way, a day passed. Tongguan remained safe and sound. Zhao Polu was able to put up the ladders over the city wall only a very few times. In the army meeting that night, Zhao Polu was resentful and requested to continue to attack Tongguan tomorrow. Li Ye agreed to his request.

Liu Dazheng’s progress was quite good and he had already captured two linked cities in Jingu. Although the 12 cities in Jingu were linked cities, they weren’t like the cities in Dengzhou but were small square cities. A square city could accommodate only a few hundred people at most, and the small ones could only accommodate dozens of people.

However, it was very difficult to capture them because of the dangerous terrain, such as mountain passes, high points, crossroads, and so on. It was a very good record for Liu Dazheng to have captured two of them in a day.

Li Ye encouraged Liu Dazheng and asked him to continue tomorrow.

The next day, the battle was almost a repetition of the process of the first day. Zhao Polu continued to attack Tongguan. His troops had hundreds of casualties and he also suffered a moderate injury because he fought straight to the top of the city wall aggressively with a group of practitioners of qi techniques, but they were besieged by the other party.

Liu Dazheng’s progress was quite smooth, and he captured two linked cities once again.

But from the third day, Liu Dazheng’s progress slowed down. From two cities in a day to one city in a day, finally, he even couldn’t capture a city in a few days. After he captured seven linked cities, he couldn’t capture the remaining square cities anymore.

“Among the 12 linked cities in Jingu, the terrain of the latter five cities is very dangerous and is similar to that of Tongguan. Our soldiers fought bloody battles every day and suffered heavy casualties, but we were still unable to capture the city,” Liu Dazheng reported, ashamed and resentful, in the army meeting.

Li Ye didn’t say much. He replaced Liu Dazheng with someone else. Zhao Polu had attacked the city for many days, but he didn’t succeed, so Li Ye replaced him with someone else as well.

Li Keyong went to observe the battle situation every day at first, but he didn’t go there again after the fifth day because it was meaningless. It was impossible for the Pinglu Army to conquer Tongguan.

Through the observation of these days, Li Keyong figured out the cultivators’ proportion in Li Ye’s army. Although there were more cultivators than the general army, it was limited and couldn’t compare with the Yanmen Army. The Pinglu Army was indeed valiant and the armor was quite fine, but it was only more powerful than the general Vassal State Army.

“It is impossible for such an army to conquer Tongguan. It’s useless to even give him another month. The current Tongguan is different from the time that Huang Chao entered it. It’s very firm and there are masters of the Taoist sect,” Li Keyong said to Huiming in the camp on the 10th night.

He was quite complacent. After all, after seeing the situation of the Pinglu Army, his Yanmen Army appeared to be more elite by comparison. It meant that later on the battlefield, the Pinglu Army couldn’t steal the military achievements from Li Keyong, so the great achievement of this battle would belong to the Yanmen Army. Li Keyong couldn’t help being happy.

Huiming said faintly, “Prince An has fiercely attacked Tongguan at one go in these days, but after this, he will know that no matter how hard he tries, he cannot conquer Tongguan in a short time. Then he will ask you to fight. You must remember that you have to conquer Tongguan within three days at that time. Otherwise, Li Ye will try his best to drive you away.”

Li Keyong didn’t take it seriously. “Rest assured. I know.”

This day, Li Ye was reading in his camp. Yang Fuguang came to visit, so Li Ye stood up to meet him.

They saluted and sat down. Yang Fuguang said anxiously, “It’s easier to defend than to attack Tongguan, and Huang Chao has deployed a heavy army here, so it will take a long time to conquer it. The Pinglu Army has been fighting for over 10 days and has suffered heavy losses. Should it be the Yanmen Army’s turn next? We can’t keep them watching aside all the time. Let them also attack the city for a few days, and then change it to the Zhongwu Army to attack it for another few days. When it’s about time, the Pinglu Army can take over again. Your Highness, what do you think?”