Call of the Heroes of Chaos in Another World

Chapter 2591 Xuan Xiao, the No. 1 General, Ping An is in dire straits.

Chapter 2591 Xuanxiao's First General, Ping An is in a Dire Situation

Half a month later, taking advantage of the Zhang family's army's repeated defeats and low morale, Chen Qingzhi launched a surprise attack at night, achieving a great victory with fewer troops, defeating 100,000 enemy soldiers in one battle, and killing Zhang family, the Minister of War of Da Xuan, in the chaos of the night.

Chen Qingzhi led his light cavalry in a three-day pursuit of the fleeing enemy, killing more than 10,000 enemies directly. Many more fell into the river due to the congestion when they were chased to the riverbank. The total number of people who died directly or indirectly exceeded 30,000.

After that, even if a small force was organized to stop Chen Qingzhi, he still defeated them effortlessly.

General Zhang Kui, the Mighty General of the Great Xuan, General Liu Xin, the Dragon and Tiger General, Vice Minister Zuo Zhongxiao, and a host of other civil and military officials were all defeated and killed in this process.

Xiao Ping'an's newly adopted son Xiao Shun, who was only a year old, Xiao Yuesheng's younger brother Xiao Liang, Ling Dingyang's elder brother Ling Feiyang, and others refused to surrender to the Qian dynasty after the defeat and sacrificed their lives for their country.

As August arrived, Chen Qingzhi's army officially approached the capital of Da Xuan, and for a time, the ruling center of Da Xuan was in grave danger.

Even more so, a large number of surrender factions began to emerge under these circumstances. In particular, Zhang Xuelin, the Minister of Justice, and Liu Qianmo, the Minister of Rites, two of the top civil officials of the Great Xuan Dynasty, both stood on the side of surrender.

Under these circumstances, while these surrender faction members gathered at night to discuss surrendering the city, Prime Minister Xiao Yuesheng led the last remaining troops in the city—Xuanxiao's imperial guards—to raid their residences under cover of night, completely wiping out these surrender faction members with absolutely ruthless methods.

Then, he used a feigned defeat. Although he failed to achieve complete success due to Chen Qingzhi's caution, he still won a small victory, which dampened Chen Qingzhi's brilliance and gradually stabilized the morale of the people, thus preventing the capital from collapsing.

Unable to capture the city in one fell swoop, and with Xiao Yuesheng actively organizing the people to assist in the defense, Chen Qingzhi, whose forces were limited, ultimately did not launch a major attack on the city.

His troops are all elite, and he cannot afford to make such meaningless sacrifices and attrition.

On August 11th, Xuanxiao's top general, Tao Zhixing, successfully deceived the Qian army on the western front, and after shaking off the entanglement of the main force at the front, he prepared to lead his troops back to reinforce the capital.

But halfway there, his luck ran out, and he ran into Chang Zaiqiu, who was originally going to cut off his retreat.

After a fierce battle, Tao Zhixing successfully defeated Chang Zaiqiu, but with limited troops, he was unable to turn the victory into a major triumph. He was unable to effectively kill Chang Zaiqiu's forces, and instead, Chang Zaiqiu stabilized his position afterward, firmly blocking his retreat.

At this very moment, the Qian army on the western front, which he had previously deceived, began to advance step by step.

At this time, Tao Zhixing was caught in a pincer movement, and he only had 30,000 troops at his disposal. In contrast, the Qian army had a combined force of 130,000, which was more than four times the size of Tao's forces.

Even under such difficult circumstances, Tao Zhixing still demonstrated the demeanor of the top general of Xuanxiao, winning three consecutive battles and killing more than 20,000 enemies, directly making the generals of Daqian lose their tempers.

Despite having a four-fold numerical advantage and being attacked from both inside and outside, the battle still ended up at this level.

If the outcome of this battle were to spread, every single one of the generals of the Great Qian Dynasty present would be branded as an incompetent leader.

In reality, who among them was incompetent? Which one of them wasn't a famous general of the Great Qian Dynasty before? Their reputations were mostly earned through real battles, one sword and one spear.

For example, Chang Zaiqiu once shot out one of Zhang Dingbian's eyes with an arrow at a crucial moment, and then personally led a counterattack, thus turning the tide of the battle.

In the years that followed, he fought many battles with the rebel forces. The now-dead rebel king Tu Lie was once his defeated opponent, and Li Mi, who had surrendered to Qian, also suffered losses at his hands several times.

Driven to madness, Chang Zaiqiu was forced to personally lead his two sons into battle, launching a fourth full-scale siege with several times the strength of his troops. However, the final result was that he not only lost the fourth battle to Tao Zhixing, but Tao Zhixing also seized the opportunity to break out to the south.

However, although Tao Zhixing won four consecutive battles despite having an absolute advantage in troop strength, the price behind this was that his troops were dwindling with each battle.

Even if one of his soldiers could take down two enemy soldiers in each battle, in the end, it would be him who couldn't keep up, not the Qian army.

Furthermore, when he finally seized the opportunity to break out, he abandoned some troops to cover the rear. By the time he broke out, less than 5,000 of his 30,000 troops remained.

But the Qian army gave him no time to rest. After breaking through the encirclement, he hadn't even caught his breath when the Qian army's cavalry caught up from behind. He could only keep fleeing in a more distant direction, and in the process, he won another small victory, killing three hundred enemy cavalry.

Just as the generals of the Qian Army were completely swayed by Tao Zhixing, Jiang Qianqiu's order arrived in time, stopping these superiors from acting rashly.

While Jiang Qianqiu ordered his men to split into several cavalry units to compress Tao Zhixing's living space, the majority of the remaining troops advanced eastward. One part joined Chen Qingzhi to prepare to attack Xuandu, while the other part blocked Tao Zhixing's route back to Xuandu.

For Jiang Qianqiu, taking over the entire capital of Daqian would have a greater impact on the war situation than completely annihilating Tao Zhixing's small remnant force.

As for Jiang Qianqiu himself at this time, he had successfully led a large army to flank Wolf Ridge from another direction. Together with Jiang Ziya, who had been unable to break through from the front, he plunged the entire Wolf Ridge into a dead end.

On August 23, Jiang Qian's general Shi Ganxiong defeated Xuan Xiao's general Shi Long, broke through another of Xuan Xiao's defenses, and killed Shi Long on the spot, killing more than 10,000 enemies. In this battle, he also killed Xuan Xiao's generals Zhao Pusheng and Nie Tangbiao.

In this battle, only Zhang Dingbian and Shen Gongbao led three thousand remnants of their army in a retreat towards the capital of Da Xuan.

It wasn't that they didn't want to head towards Wild Wolf Ridge and join up with Xiao Ping'an, but rather that there were too many Qian army troops concentrated in the direction where Xiao Ping'an was at that moment.

If they headed in Xiao Ping'an's direction, their small force would be wiped out by the surrounding Daqian troops before they could even reunite with Xiao Ping'an.

A few days later, Shi Ganxiong led 70,000 troops to join Jiang Ziya. By then, the number of Daqian troops gathered in various directions of Wild Wolf Ridge had reached a staggering 200,000.

Although Jiang Ziya failed to strike at the heart of the problem as originally planned, and to capture the leader first, he still managed to completely corner Xuan Xiao in less than three months.