Chapter 222 – The Four Battles of Northern Liang (IV)

A caravan quietly enters Liangzhou city in the night, and passes through the city gates with strict night ban unhindered, Qingliang Mountain then opens the ceremonial gate, and the Northern Liang Royal Mansion opens its door to welcome guests with this super high specification that should only be used for kings and emperors.

Three horse-drawn carriages, white monk family of three, plus the north and south of the little monk, four people ride in the forefront of a carriage, Longhu Mountain, Mr. White Lotus Bai Yu, and Wudang Mountain, Mount Qingshan view of Han Gui Qingxin masters and disciples with the next one, the last one sits on the Yin Palace of Science Chang Sui Xu Huang and others.

Qingliang mountain side by Xu Weixiong led a large group of people to go out to meet this set of honored guests, Beiliang Road Deputy Secretary Song Dongming stood behind a group of curious bureaucrats and officials, now Song Dongming built in the mid-levels of the residence is known as the Beiliang Dragon Gate, and Xu Fengyin live in the wutong courtyard is known as the Phoenix Pavilion, which is evident that Song Dongming is now the transcendent status of the officialdom in the Beiliang.

Counted on the old place to revisit, only Li things and the north and south of the little monk, Li things sharp eyes, immediately saw the king’s housekeeper Song Yu, a smoke trotted over to ask for warmth, in the Xu family did most of his life as a steward of the Song fisherman to see this little girl, but also heart eyes are happy, this to the Liangzhou officials privately said to become a cold-faced Yama’s stereotypical old man, was actually an unprecedented squeeze out of the smiling face, is probably not really accustomed to people with the Smiling face to welcome, slightly look a little stiff, but the old man is still smiling to illustrate the child personally accompanied Miss Li shopping powder store to go, the little girl to the happy bad. Lu Shengyan and Wang Chudong did not show their faces, after all, to the identity of the two women prospective princess, go out to welcome guests is not etiquette.

Xu Weixiong first greeted the white-robed monk and Mr. White Lotus before walking to the eyes of Chang Sui and the others, Chang Sui raised the empty wine gourd and shook it, laughing, “Green ant wine, no more, no less, one pot a day, senior sister you have a big family, this is always no problem, right?”

Xu Weixiong nodded his head and said, “Drinking is no problem, it’s just that senior brother remember not to run in the middle of the night to listen to the tide of the lake to drink, when the time comes to fall into the water, just wait to feed the fish.”

Jin Baorou shouted senior sister with red eyes, choking a little.

Xu Weixiong softly laughed: “Only a few years have not seen, become a big girl, do you want elder sister to help you do matchmaking? We here in Beiliang men, although they are used to drinking the northwest wind eat more desert sand brown man, not compared to the Chinese scholar’s full of poetry, but dealing with a long time, will know than the pen such as God’s readers, more able to pick up the burden. Especially the Guan men over there, riding the best horses, wearing the best swords, drinking the strongest wine, killing the barbarians of the Northern Mang, I think it will be to the taste of the senior sister.”

Jin Baorou grabbed Xu Weixiong’s hand and hugged it in her arms, as if she was pampering herself and laughed, “Senior sister, you haven’t even married anyone, what’s my hurry!”

Xu Weixiong turned his head to Xu Huang Sima Can and Liu Duanmao and greeted each of the three, and without the slightest extra words, he just shouted senior brother and sister.

The white monk stood next to his own daughter-in-law, watching Bai Yu and Song Dongming, one is deeply respected by the late emperor of the Taoist real person, one was originally expected to be in the temple in the position of a great man of letters, these two put in the eyes of the whole of the Liyang dynasty also belongs to a handful of readers, talk to each other very happily. But Li Dangxin thought back to the previous Wudang Mountain that about Zhao hook head of the secret talks, white monk really feel some heart tired ah, gently sighed, no longer pay attention to Bai Yu and Song Dongming’s talk, walked into the king’s mansion, self-concerned about the surrounding scenery, in the early years of the Liyang dynasty and field there is a “bitter millions of households, rich a family,” that is to say! The Xu family, which is the king of the mountain and owns the Hearing Tide Lake, has been raiding the people’s fat and wealth in Beiliang Road, and is really rich enough to rival the country’s wealth.

Soon there are in the “Dragon Gate” staff line up to Li Dangxin side, probably beforehand, the deputy secretary general has instructed, these white monks have long admired the Beiliang officials, did not dare to open the box to pull the family, are respectfully enrolled in their own home, at most, plus one or two sentences of complimentary words, white monks one by one smiling and nodding As a return gift, the latter people also do not feel that the abbot of the two Zen Temple is on the spectrum. Who does not know that the white monk traveled 10,000 miles west to return to the city of Tai’an, that is, to see the emperor personally for its horse is only hands together salute, and even did not turn down the horse! This group of officials jumped over the Northern Liang Dragon Gate, has been in the public door to cultivate a certain Taoist official, not so cold to fall that the reputation of the Wudang Mountain, the great real Han Gui, very sincere to ask for some Taoist health techniques, not to mention that, there is a great hope that the next Wudang coach Han Gui, can not be counted as a cold stove, the future of the future that is with the six ministers of the same level of the Minister of the FeiYi, who dares to slow down?

In addition to the white monk and his daughter-in-law to the housekeeper Song Yu led to a mansion to stay, something girl and the north and south of the little monk early out of the big team, familiar with the way to wander up, along the way to see the maids, she can rely on memory to accurately call out the name and then add an older sister, and Qingliang Mountain’s eloquent maids of this little girl is of course also fresh in their minds, can make the year when His Royal Highness as a younger sister of the general doting character, little girl! She has a good nature, so it’s hard not to like her. Bai Yu and Chang Sui’s group follow Xu Wei Xiong Song Dong Ming to the unique official residence located halfway up the mountain, said to be the Deputy Secretary’s residence, in fact, it is a piece of continuous short courtyards, a Deputy Secretary plus more than thirty auxiliary officials, dealing with political affairs, food, clothing, housing and transportation are all in this place. Those civil officials of Longmen who were like the big and small Huangmen Langs of Liyang court dispersed wisely and went back to their own homes, continuing to busy themselves with the affairs summarized from the three states of Beiliang Assassin’s Offices.

In the last room, in addition to Xu Weixiong sitting in a wheelchair, Song Dongming, the second-ranking border minister that the Liyang court had to recognize, Bai Yu and Chang Sui, who had temporarily entered Qingliang Mountain as the first-ranking ministers of the royal family, Xu Huang, who was about to take up a post in the Huaiyang Guan Palace of the military law and order department, Sima Chan, the strategist who was already the governor of Tiyou County of Lingzhou, and Liu Duanmao, who was going to enter the Lingzhou governor’s office to be a staff member of Xu Beihao, all wanted to enter Wutong Academy, and also wanted to enter Wutong Academy. Xu Weixiong said, “I’m very happy to see you, but I’m very happy to see you.

Xu Weixiong opened the door and said: “As expected by Mr. White Lotus, the battle situation on the western front is extremely unfavorable to my Northern Liang, His Highness has already gone to Liushu in person, and judging from the latest spies that came in during the day, all of the cavalry troops stationed in Liangzhou have already received the military order to start moving out in an urgent manner, but in addition to the six thousand cavalry of the two troops that were originally in the western part of Liangzhou, which only have to wait in the same place and don’t need to travel long distance, there is currently a large number of troops that have already followed His Highness and his troops in Liangzhou. The current army that has followed the king and the eight hundred white horses, in addition to Luo Hongcai’s 1,000 Horned Eagle Cavalry that was near Wudang Mountain, and the two lieutenants that were on the way afterward totaling 2,300 horses, the rest of the Liangzhou Cavalry, the fastest one, will have to be one day later than the king to arrive at the border of the two states of Liangliu and the slowest will need four days, and that’s still under the premise of completely disregarding the stamina of the horses because of the size of the North Liang Road. Second only to the fibers away from the horse farm Tianjing horse farm, happens to be not far from the gathering place where the king is, able to draw out the first-class war horse 600, the second-class war horse 4,000, this is probably the only good news we have.”

Xu Weixiong paused and said with a grave expression on his face, “Truth be told, Wang Sui has already taken the two cities of Jibei Hengshui with a 50,000 cavalry army with ease, and this most elite cavalry army that is confronting the two Liao in Liyang is precisely heading towards the eastern gate of Youzhou, with the aim of cooperating with Yang Yuanzan’s army inside the Hulukou to try and smash half of Youzhou in one fell swoop.”

Xu Huang slowly opened his mouth and asked, “Even if Great General Yan Wenluan’s Yuzhou infantry army divides one of its troops to go north to support Xiaguang City, on the premise that Yuzhou itself has 30,000 cavalry troops, it would not be difficult to simultaneously hold the last line of defense at Hulukou and the eastern border, would it?”

Xu Weixiong laughed bitterly, “Originally it was like this, but we got two whimsical principals, and under their insistence, not only did they let 30,000 You cavalry troops go north from Hezhou to beyond Hulukou, but even 10,000 Great Xue Dragon Cavalry and two heavy cavalry armies left their respective garrisons and rushed to beyond Hulukou. So now not only is Liangzhou Tiger Head City in a critical situation, in fact, Huai Yang Guan and Willow Buds Poria two major military towns in the rear, and so on is empty. Coupled with the fact that the cavalry in Liangzhou are now rushing to Liuzhou to put out the fire, once Hutou City is lost, my Liangzhou will be in an unimaginable and terrible situation. The two deputy commanders of the cavalry in Liangzhou, He Zhonghu and Zhou Kang, as well as the deputy commander of the infantry, Gu Dazu, all three currently hold insufficient troops to support the situation created by the loss of Hutou City, thus the other deputy commander of the infantry, Chen Yuntui, has already led 30,000 elite foot soldiers to Liangzhou.”

Xu Huang’s expression moved slightly as he began to quickly calculate the gains and losses in his mind.

Chang Sui’s wine gourd was already filled with Green Ant Wine, drinking alone and forgetting about it.

Song Dongming was sitting upright, and Bai Yu was squinting his eyes, not knowing what he was thinking.

Xu Weixiong said in a deep voice: ”Now we can only hope that Liuzhou will not lose, and at the same time, Huaiyangguan can not be lost, so that I can successfully fight a siege war of unprecedented scale within the Hulukou, otherwise even if the Hulukou is a great success, not to mention the fall of Huaiyangguan, even if it is to use the respective strength of the two sides of the Northern Liang Liujiu State and the Northern Mang Hulukou to play a one for one, we can not afford to do so. After all, Bei Liang is only a place of strength to fight a country’s strength, North Mang can afford to spend, we can’t afford to spend.”

Xu Huang said softly, “In that case, whether His Majesty’s Liangzhou reinforcements can change the battle situation in Liuzhou is crucial, whether Chu Dugu can keep the first line of the Northern Liang border formed by Hutou City and the two towns of Willow Buds and Poria at Huaiyang Pass is crucial, and whether Yuan Commander can and the Youzhou cavalry can block and eat up the more than two hundred thousand troops inside the Hulukou is crucial.”

Xu Huang repeated three vital importance.

This meant that if Beiliang wanted to win this shocking gamble, one link after another, each link could not have a big mistake, or else it would be an all-or-nothing scenario.

Chang Sui wiped the corner of his mouth wine, asked with a smile: “Then I only ask a northern Liang most confident battlefield, that gourd mouth, Yuan Zuozong’s great snow dragon rider, plus those two dragon see the head and not see the tail of twenty years of heavy cavalry, plus Tian Heng Yu Luan knife of the Youzhou cavalry, in the end, how many percent sure, urn catch Yang Yuanzan that old turtle?”

Xu Weixiong laughed and stretched out a hand.

Chang Sui rubbed his chin and regretfully said, “Only fifty percent, that’s hanging by a thread. I have to think about finding a way out for myself, or I might be able to hear the hoofbeats of the Northern Mang barbarians before the chair under my ass in Qingliang Mountain is even warm.”

Xu Weixiong slowly flipped his palm again.

The corners of Bai Yu’s mouth curled up.

Chang Sui glared, “Senior Sister Xu, are you teasing me?!”

Xu Weixiong smiles, “Although the number of soldiers and horses blocking the gourd mouth is not large, but at least it’s almost half of my father’s family’s assets that he’s been saving up for most of his life, so if we still can’t win, how can Beiliang have the confidence to face off with the millions of North Mang’s armies?”

Chang Sui suddenly laughed, “Otherwise, I’ll go to Xiaguang City in Youzhou, and you’ll let me lead a heavy cavalry army?”

Xu Weixiong sneered, “I’ll agree if you can quit drinking, senior brother.”

Chang Sui said resentfully, “Forget it then.”

Xu Huang suddenly frowned and said, “I heard that the Northern Mang side has also spared no effort in creating two king’s tent heavy cavalry named after the two surnames of Yelu Murong.”

Xu Weixiong softly said, “It has nothing to do with Hulukou, the border spies we just received said that one of them has already rushed to the border of Liuzhou. This is where Liu Gui’s true backbone lies in wanting the entire thirty thousand Dragon Elephant Riders to be wiped out.”

The entire room fell into silence.

Bai Yu, who hadn’t interjected, smiled bitterly and shook his head gently.

Jin Baorou was staggered for a moment and couldn’t help but ask, “Then even if the reinforcements from the cavalry within Liangzhou were able to arrive at the battlefield in time, but would they still be useful?”

Xu Weixiong said helplessly, “If you ask me, it’s just a matter of doing the best we can.”

The crowd in the room fell silent again.

Xu Weixiong smiled happily for some reason, without any semblance of willful depression, “But if he were to be replaced by a certain fellow, he would definitely not think so, he would only say, ‘It’s better to lose the fight than to admit defeat, okay or not, let’s talk about it after the fight!'”

Tiger’s Head City in Liangzhou, inside the mouth of the gourd, outside Qingcang City in Liuzhou, and on the border of eastern You.

Northern Liang was at war on all four fronts.