The Emperor Reigns Them All

Chapter 331 Enemy Troops Have Reached The City Wall

He could recapture Fenzhou.

Even though Liu Dazheng repaired the city’s defense more than a month ago and had 100,000 soldiers, he could break through Fenzhou in three days and reverse the current pitifully unfavorable situation for Taiyuan as long as he was given a strong force.

Otherwise, once Li Ye from Yizhou in the southeast and Liu Dazheng from Fenzhou in the southwest sent troops to Taiyuan at the same time and eventually joined forces there, then Li Keyong would really lose the general trend. He would have no retreat and have no choice but to fight desperately.

But how many ordinary people and soldiers would still support him at that time? If the soldiers had low morale and no fighting spirit, how would they face Li Ye’s elite Pinglu soldiers who had high morale?

Li Cunxiao thought he could recapture Fenzhou and turn the tide of the battle.

But he couldn’t meet with Li Keyong.

Li Keyong wouldn’t see him.

No matter how much he begged, Li Keyong refused to see him.

So all this was a facade.

Li Cunxiao waited a long time. After the officials and generals finished their discussions with Li Keyong at the political hall, after they left one after another, after the sun had set and the moon had risen, Li Keyong never summoned him at all.

He had no choice but to leave.

When he left the Prince’s mansion, the officials and generals he met on the way had a different reaction from the time when he entered the mansion. When he came in earlier, although they suspected him and were dissatisfied with him, they didn’t make it obvious and just glanced at him. Moreover, not everyone suspected him.

But after waiting all this time without being summoned by Li Keyong, things were different now. The officials and generals didn’t restrain themselves anymore. They ridiculed him to his face. Some people were still talking when they passed by him. He heard their discussions clearly.

“If a senior general of Militarism can’t try his best to fight for Hedong, even the most ordinary general is better than him!”

“Trying his best to fight for Hedong? Being unfaithful to Li Ye and attacking Hedong instead! That’s already good enough for us!”

“I originally thought there was a reason for the battle’s stalemate. But now, it seems that there must be something wrong with him, since even the prince of Longxi refuses to see him!”

“Of course, the prince of Longxi is unwilling to see him because he is afraid that he will fight him. Then, there will be no room for him...”

“We lost Yizhou because of him! Why should we make room for him? Even if we don’t put him in jail, we should dismiss him to pay for the defeat of Hedong!”

Enduring all the sarcasm along the way, Li Cunxiao quickly went out of the Prince’s mansion with his head bowed. When he went out the door, his face darkened, and the muscles on his face twitched with suppressed anger and grievance. His cultivation power seemed to be out of control. The cultivation of the senior general of Militarism swayed from side to side like a mountain and was ready to collapse.

After returning to his mansion, Li Cunxiao locked himself up in the room and never stepped out again.

...

After the Black Office reported Li Cunxiao’s current situation to Li Ye, he wasn’t surprised, and smiled instead. Li Ye was sure that Li Keyong would suspect Li Cunxiao. The strategy of sowing discord implemented by Li Ye and the Black Office was enough to estrange them.

Similarly, in the history of the earth, Li Cunxiao finally ended up beheaded because of other generals’ jealousy and Li Keyong’s suspicion.

Li Ye glanced at the crowd in the hall.

The people sitting on both sides belonged to two different factions.

The people on the left were the Pinglu officials and generals, including Shangguan Qingcheng, Li Zhen, Zhao Polu, Song Jiao, and the others. That was the team he brought out from the Prince An’s Manor. And there were also Nangong Diyi and Su Emei. He now had a galaxy of talents.

The people on the right were the cultivators of the demon clan, including the Holy Child, the Son of God, and the nine-tail Demon Fox. The Holy Child also brought a group of Great Cultivators who were in the Immortal Realm to help him. In terms of cultivation and fighting ability, they could completely overwhelm the Pinglu officials and generals.

In a word, the Pinglu officials and generals were the secular forces. They were the backbone, whether in the government office or on the battlefield. The literati would administer state affairs, while the martial artists would protect national security. That was them. Cui Keli and the others, who temporarily commanded the politics in Pinglu and stabilized Li Ye’s reign, were among them.

The cultivators of the demon clan were the cultivation forces. Technically speaking, their opponents were not the secular enemies but the Immortal Court, the Land Buddhism, and various sects of foreign gods. But now, this was not the era of peace and order but a time of chaos when heroes rose and competed for hegemony, so there wasn’t a clear barrier between heaven and the earth.

What was more, now that the Tao of Heaven showed itself, the Immortal Court and the Land Buddhism sent a lot of cultivators who were in the Immortal Realm down to the human world, which made the competitive world even more chaotic.

Li Ye was wondering, since the Immortal Court and the Land Buddhism had sent a lot of Great Cultivators to compete for the Luck of heaven, when would the gods of various foreign sects appear.

In ordinary cases, their strength was indeed inferior to that of the Immortal Court and the Land Buddhism, but nothing was impossible. There were many variables, especially in the competitive world.

They once flourished and nearly destroyed the Taoist sect and Buddhism.

If they didn’t have this ability, the Tang Empire wouldn’t have faced border threats, dozens of states and counties from all sides wouldn’t have been invaded, a vast tract of land wouldn’t have been plundered, and the Taoist Immortal Court wouldn’t have had so many difficulties to cope with.

Of course, these were not the most important things for Li Ye. What he needed to do now was to capture Hedong, to get rid of Li Keyong, the great feudal prince who was destined to dominate the north, and to compete with the Land Buddhism and the Immortal Court for the Luck of heaven which would appear in Taiyuan.

Li Ye looked around the crowd and said slowly, “After the troops were divided into two armies to capture Fenzhou and Yizhou in succession, we have already swept away the Hedong enemies, laying siege to the two counties throughout this period of attack. Secretary-general Li and his colleagues have successfully pacified the people, so order in Fenzhou and Yizhou has been restored. Since the military and political affairs of these two places have been stabilized, I order that the east army and the west army advance together to attack Taiyuan!”

The Pinglu officials and generals and the cultivators of the demon clan stood up together and said with cupped fists, “We will obey your command!”

Li Ye was very satisfied to see them showing sincere excitement and fighting spirit. He nodded slightly.

The Pinglu officials and generals were directly under Li Ye and he had trained them for many difficult years. Even if Li Ye asked them to undergo the most severe trials, they would carry out his orders without hesitation.

The cultivators of the demon clan also had no doubt about Li Ye’s order. Even the arrogant and lawless Holy-child King gradually changed from his proud attitude of wanting to dominate the situation to his full recognition of his subordinate status. Although he didn’t submit to Li Ye, he would obey Li Ye’s orders.

Li Ye succeeded in alienating Li Cunxiao from Li Keyong and forcing Li Cunxiao to leave Yizhou so that the troops captured Yizhou easily without a formidable enemy. It was a logical effect after he controlled the general situation.

But Li Ye knew that the demon clan led by Holy Child just submitted to him temporarily and conditionally. It was hard to gauge what their attitude would be if he suffered a major setback next time. So he had to be careful.

Next, Li Ye set off from Yizhou with the east army, and Liu Dazheng set off from Fenzhou with the west army. The two sides attacked Taiyuan from the east and the west.

Li Keyong dispatched the troops to set up many blockade lines, relying on the favorable geographical position of cities, passes, and important roads. He tried to intercept the two armies and stabilize the situation, shutting Li Ye and Liu Dazheng out of Taiyuan.

However, Li Keyong’s plans were in vain.

The two Imperial Armies were invincible in the battles in the next half month.

Li Keyong dispatched his trusted generals and the Grand Guardians to set up many blockade lines along the way with all the elite forces, but they couldn’t resist the Imperial Army whose core fighting ability was the Pinglu elite soldiers led by Liu Dazheng and Shangguan Qingcheng.

However, several times, under almost impossible circumstances, Li Keyong gathered the elite to strategic places with his military ability. With the absolute superiority of forces, he didn’t achieve the expected results in the big battles against the Imperial Army.

The most fundamental problem was that thought the Hedong Army could defeat the Zhaoyi Army, the Henghai Army, and the Tianping Army, but they couldn’t defeat the Pinglu Army at all. So in spite of their gains, they would still be defeated even before they could enjoy the spoils of victory.

The Hedong Army, especially, was unable to resolve Liu Dazheng and Shangguan Qingcheng, who were the generals of Militarism.

With the absolute superiority of forces, the Hedong Army gathered many military warriors in the big battles several times, but they eventually failed either because Liu Dazheng and Shangguan Qingcheng spared no effort to keep fighting until reinforcements arrived, or because the Pinglu Army was promptly rescued by the two of them with their troops.

These two generals of Militarism had good military talent.

The Hedong Army suffered serious casualties in succession, and many soldiers either surrendered or fled. At present, the Imperial Army had absolute superiority.

After more than twenty days of fighting, the two Imperial Armies finally joined forces at the gate of Taiyuan.

More than 400,000 imperial soldiers went out to fight Hedong. Apart from the small number of troops stationed at key points along the way, and the few soldiers who were killed or wounded in previous battles, more than 350,000 soldiers finally reached Taiyuan.

Although there were 300,000 soldiers in the Hedong Army, the number of soldiers who were mobile were far fewer. After successive defeats, though the casualties among the soldiers didn’t reach 50,000, generally speaking, the soldiers who surrendered or fled were far more than those who died in the battlefield. Especially when Li Keyong intercepted the two Imperial Armies, he suffered defeat most of the time and lost a lot of soldiers.

Now there were less than 100,000 Hedong soldiers in Taiyuan.

After the Imperial Army surrounded Taiyuan, Li Ye didn’t order them to attack the city immediately. The city walls were raised several meters, and there was a lot of defending equipment, such as watchtowers, bed crossbows, rolling stone and wood, iron nail planks, and so on. The defense in Taiyuan was very well set up, but that wasn’t the reason why Li Ye didn’t attack the city immediately.

He was waiting for someone.

The man he was waiting for hadn’t appeared yet.

As long as he didn’t appear, Li Ye wouldn’t attack Taiyuan.

The Luck of heaven might appear at any time. If he attacked the city, he would at least have half a chance of victory.