In Tongtianhe City, in a secret room underground of a very ordinary residential building, several people gathered together.
"Sir, I haven't received any news. Those who enter Jiuyuan County are like pebbles dropped into the lake!" said a person on the side. Each of them was covered with black cloth, making it invisible.
, even their voices have been changed.
As spies, although they have superiors and subordinates, their identities are related to their life safety. They don't want to expose their identities, which is what they are like now.
"Is there any news from the princess?" the person called "Sir" asked.
"The people on the princess side just asked us to wait in peace and not to make too many moves!"
"Well, then follow the instructions and don't take too many actions for the time being!" The adult said: "And have someone collect information on the other five legions. Tongtianhe City is a legion of water. There is a huge army in the north.
Go over there and explore, but don’t make too many moves!”
"yes!"
Others said.
The adult said: "Then let's disperse!"
Those people left one after another, and only the adult was left in the secret room. He picked up a letter on the table, and these people collected the information.
On the other side, in the most luxurious house in Tongtianhe City, the eighth princess was half lying on the bed, while the maid placed exquisite pastries beside her.
"Princess, these cakes taste very good!" The maid tasted them first and then brought them to the princess: "The cakes contain a lot of spiritual fruits, and all the ingredients used are spiritual things and contain a lot of spiritual energy.
Even in the palace, only the big shots could eat this. The servant just looked at the kitchen over there. There were a lot of them in the kitchen. I heard from those people that most of these pastries were for the officials in the city to eat.
People call the northwest poor. This poverty may be caused by the suffering of the common people in the northwest! The dignitaries are not suffering!"
The Eighth Princess smiled: "The entire northwest is owned by Prime Minister Li. Do you think he will treat the people who follow him and fight all the way badly?"
"But these pastries are really good!" After taking a bite of the pastries, the eighth princess felt the deliciousness blooming in her mouth. This feeling was only matched by a dozen pastries in the palace.
After taking two bites, the eighth princess took a look around, and a ruby appeared in her hand. The ruby illuminated the surrounding area, with no other colors. The princess said, "Do you have the latest information?"
The maid said: "Yes, but because the guards in Xiliang are very strict, the letter cannot be sent in, so it can only be passed on orally.
Li Xiang, the governor of Liangzhou, captured Zhangye County. Ma Teng, the head of the Fufeng Ma family, was killed in Zhangye County. All the 30,000 soldiers and 80,000 auxiliary soldiers in the city were killed or captured.
More than half of the land in Zhangye County has fallen into the hands of the governor Li Xiang.
In order to prevent the Ma family's army from taking away Zhangye County City again, the governor mobilized the Eighth Army Corps from the northwest, and the Ninth Army Corps marched south, the specific number is still unknown!"
The maid said: "That's all the news that has come out so far!"
The Eighth Princess frowned when she heard this: "The Seventh Army fought in Liangzhou last year, and all the armies were maimed. Less than half a year has passed, and the army has been pulled to the front. Can those soldiers fight?"
The maid said at the side: "Princess, since the Governor dares to let the Seventh Legion army be dragged to the land of Liangzhou, it means that the Governor has great confidence in the soldiers of the Seventh Legion. If he does not have confidence, the Governor will let the Seventh Legion soldiers
Going south?"
The Eighth Princess smiled and said: "That's right. If he didn't have confidence, Prime Minister Li wouldn't let the Seventh Legion go south. You took a walk around the house before, did you get any news?"
The maid said: "There are basically no maids in the city. They are all a bunch of rough guys. There are only some women in the kitchen, and those people don't know much.
The Governor has heard that there is only one woman, Wu Yating. Wu Yating gave birth to two children for the Governor, a boy and a girl. Their names have not been revealed yet, but they have some nicknames.
I asked them why there were no women in the city lord's palace. They said that women serving in the service did not arise in the northwest. They didn't know about those aristocratic families, but among the entire northwest city lord's palace, only Jiuyuan County had some, and they were governors. The master set it up to take care of Wu Yating. Those maids are not women from Daqian, but women who are all over seven feet tall.
Those women are the same as the men of Xiliang headquarters. They are all strong and strong. They probably come from the same place as the soldiers of the headquarters. There is also a women's army over there. I heard that they have very strong combat power, stronger than most of the Seventh Legion. !”
The eighth princess picked up the tea and took a sip: "It seems that Li really likes Wu Yating very much. The reason why I can become the head wife is because of the royal brother's background. Without this background, he might not even look at me." look!"
When the maid heard what the princess said, she said with some dissatisfaction: "Princess, your appearance is no worse than anyone else, and your cultivation talent is even better. You represent not only yourself, but the background behind you, even His Majesty would not dare to Force you.
What the governor lacks most now is external support. With your support, it will not be a problem for him to become the King of Jiuyuan!"
The eighth princess said with some melancholy: "If only it could be this simple!"
Outsiders see the powerful force behind her, which is her advantage. Other princes want her support. It can be said that as long as there is a small force leader in the world, even if there are only tens of thousands of troops, as long as he gets her help, he will immediately It will become one of the few forces in the world that can compete for hegemony.
But this does not include the Xiliang army. The whole of Xiliang was brought by Li Xiang and the Xiliang army. In the northwest, you basically can't see those aristocratic families, and some are just Xiliang giant officials.
Prime Minister Li does not like external forces, and there are no powerful families in the entire northwest army. Those aristocratic families in the Xiliang Army, such as the Cheng family, are now very popular with Prime Minister Li, and the head of the Cheng family is now the commander of the Eighth Army.
His two sons, Cheng Jushu and Cheng Jurong, were Prime Minister Li's guardians and commanded the personal guards for Prime Minister Li.
The Cheng family can be regarded as one of the most powerful families in the entire northwest.
However, the Cheng family basically has no sense of presence in the northwest. The children of the Cheng family have also joined the army. Many children of the Cheng family are in the army. If you don't investigate their identities, you will basically not know that they are from the Cheng family. .
The Cheng family had no land. During the reform in the northwest, the entire family's land had already been donated.
There are many families like the Cheng family in the northwest, and they are extremely low-key. If something happens to one of the family members, it's not a serious matter. If it's more serious, the whole family may be in trouble.
The relationship between Prime Minister Li and these families is different from the relationship between the princes in Daqian and the families under their command.
The relationships between the families in Daqian and the major princes were both prosperous and destructive. They were tied to a chariot.
Which family forces do they need to work for them and provide various supplies, and the relationship between Northwest Prime Minister Li and the aristocratic families under him is different.
These families under Prime Minister Li are not needed by Prime Minister Li. They must try their best to please Prime Minister Li to prevent the entire race from being wiped out by Prime Minister Li.
Li Xiang's territory was conquered bit by bit with his own hands. He could decide one thing with one word. With Xiliang's army in hand, he didn't need to make any compromises. He could do whatever he wanted. .
This allowed the Xiliang policy to be implemented quickly. Reforms in the northwest basically only needed Zhang Qingyun to propose and convince Prime Minister Li that these policies would be implemented.
This is the difference between Li Xiang and other princes. Li Xiang does not need to compromise or worry too much.
Precisely because of this, the power in Li Xiang's hands is very pure.
The forces behind her are very powerful, and they have a lot of supplies, but if they want those people to give supplies and support to Prime Minister Li, Prime Minister Li must make some compromises and do some things he doesn't like to do.
But is Li Xiang that kind of person?
The power in Li Xiang's hands belongs entirely to him. If Li Xiang is asked to give up part of his power to let the very pure Xiliang army have the power of other forces, will Li Xiang be willing?
The Eighth Princess is not very sure.
The maid didn't know this. She only knew that the power behind the princess was very strong. Whoever could marry the princess would get the support of Prime Minister Li behind the princess.
That force is no less than the current Northwest!
"I'm exhausted!"
The maid stood up: "Yes!"
Jiuyuan County
Wu Yating was sitting in the pavilion. Li Xiang had been away from home for nearly half a year. She practiced and sat in the pavilion every day, and developed some of her own things.
Qian Duoduo carried a lot of things to the pavilion and ate and drank every day. Qian Duoduo got better and better, and his height was about the same as Wu Yating.
"Duoduo, these things?" Wu Yating saw a large number of spiritual objects in Qian Duoduo's arms. Wu Yating could feel the huge spiritual power contained in most of these spiritual objects.
Before, she couldn't feel it, she just felt that those things smelled good. Now after practicing, she can feel many things.
Many of these things are not produced in Xiliang!
Qian Duoduo happily put these things on the table: "My father brought these to me. Many of them can only be met, not asked for, Sister Yating!" Qian Duoduo handed a blue flower to me. To Wu Yating: "This blue flower is called Blue Fairy. It can improve people's understanding. Here it is for you!"
"There is also this ten-thousand-year-old red fruit. When Taoist Master Qingsong comes back, I will ask him to refine this red fruit into an elixir. The two of us will eat it. It won't take long before you can become a third-rate master!" "
Qian Duoduo was like a treasure bag, constantly taking out various elixirs for cultivation.
When Wu Yating started practicing, she was already preparing these supplies. Her father was very ordinary, but her status was extraordinary.
Some time ago, people from the Hundred Thousand Mountains in the South came to look for her. Those people felt very friendly to her and also sent her a large amount of elixirs.
Taoist Master Qingsong and Master Ji Mo are not in the city, but there are many experts in the city. There are three extremely powerful men under the palace. They are not much weaker than Taoist Qingsong and Master Ji Mo.
With the three top masters here, she was not worried about what would happen to her. These medicinal materials were only brought to the palace after being investigated by the little Taoist priests next door.
Wu Yating envied Qian Duoduo's character. She only needed to be happy every day and didn't need to think too much.
I originally had something to say to Qian Duoduo, but now it seems I no longer need it!
....
Prime Minister Li mobilized troops and generals, and the Ma family did not lag behind at all. All the troops in Fufeng County were mobilized, a total of 350,000 troops, of which 200,000 were cavalry.
The other two families have also sensed the crisis. Now they are no longer relying on Li Xiang to weaken the Ma family. If they don't take action, the Ma family will most likely be destroyed directly by Li Xiang.
For this reason, the Han family dispatched 150,000 cavalry. Due to the geographical location and population, the Pang family did not have many troops to support them, but because the Pang family was connected to Bingzhou.
The Pang family provided part of the food and grass for the armies of the other two families, and also sold a large amount of weapons to the two families.
After the Ma family and the Han family received weapons and food, they immediately began to recruit troops, as long as they had seen blood.
There is no shortage of soldiers in Liangzhou, but what they lack is weapons, equipment and food.
With grain, grass, weapons and equipment, the Ma family and the Han family frantically formed troops. The number of the two armies soon reached one million. A million troops sounded very scary.
But anyone who knows a little bit about the military knows that the combat effectiveness of an army lies not in the number of soldiers but in the quality of the army. How many troops among a million-strong army can fight in the field?
Field battles are not city defense battles. In city defense battles, high city walls can block enemy cavalry for you, and you can be in a relatively advantageous geographical location.
In the field, you don't have these benefits. You can only be in the army and become one of the countless small groups in the army.
When fighting occurs, each small group needs to complete its own tasks according to the mission or stick to a certain place.
Once something goes wrong, it will affect those around you, and may even cause chaos in the entire area.
For example, in a war, when the fighting has just begun, soldiers in one place suddenly run away, and the space they left behind is captured by the enemy, giving the enemy an opportunity to tear apart the defense formation.
There was also an even fight between the two sides, and a soldier on one side suddenly ran away laughing and shouting. If it could not be dealt with in time, it would affect the entire army, and there would be many defeats caused by running away.
A million-strong army sounds scary, but once there is a problem in a place, a million-strong army is likely to turn around and be annihilated.
The allied forces of the Ma family and the Han family slowly gathered together. This time they were not in a hurry at all, they just wanted to fight steadily. The last time they were in a hurry, they suffered heavy losses.
The Ma family even directly lost the county seat of Zhangye and the two county seats of Heishui and Lingfeng.
Now they are being more careful and purchasing a large amount of food from other places in Daqian. This time the war will not be too short.
A month later, the armies of both sides slowly approached the vicinity of Zhangye County. The Ma family's cavalry was all on the north side of the river, and the Ma family's army was also surrounding the Zhiqiang Fortress. They wanted to surround the entire Zhangye County and then destroy Li Xiang.
Army.
However, they could become a shield in front of them. If they wanted to destroy the Xiliang army, they could not let the Xiliang Navy participate in the war.
Otherwise, the Xiliang army's supplies will still be transported, and the Xiliang army, which has the river as its lifeline, does not have to worry about food and grass problems.
Xiliang Navy can transport hundreds of thousands of troops, but it can't transport food and grass?
They don't have a naval force in their hands, and even if they do have a few fishing boats, they are just a leaf compared to the huge warships like Xiliang.
In the entire north, only Xiliang has such a large number of naval troops.
There was no naval force to resist the Xiliang Navy, so they planned to dig hidden piles on the river to see how the Xiliang Navy would pass through their hidden piles.
Li Xiang had long expected that the other side would do this, and sent a large army to run along the river just to protect the safety of the river. On the other side, the Xiliang Navy also sent a large number of arrow boats to protect the safety of both sides.
The Seventh Army was divided into two parts. The leader of the Five Dragon Army, Heilong, set off from Sanshui City with his army, followed by 20,000 prairie cavalry. The other soldiers of the Seventh Army were led directly to Zhangye County by Zhao Tiezhu.
city.
The Eighth Legion's army also rushed to Sanshui County. Together with the Wulong Army, they formed an army of 350,000 people and rushed straight to the Zhiqiang Fortress.
The plan of the Xiliang army was to first send them to the Qiang Fortress, but when the Ma family discovered that Xiliang had assembled countless armies on the edge of Sanshui Lake, 350,000 troops were divided into seven groups and marched mightily on the grassland.
As they advanced, Fufeng and Ma's family immediately panicked.
They didn't know the specific number of the Xiliang Army, but from the vast military strength, they could know that this Xiliang Army was huge in number. Judging from the opponent's appearance, the target should be Fufeng County.
Most of the troops from Fufeng County have been sent out. There are 60,000 troops at the edge of the Zuqiang Fortress. They were originally used to attack the Zuqiang Fortress, but now it seems that they are no longer able to do so!
Hundreds of thousands of troops from Xiliang are attacking the Qiang Fortress. They need more troops and more men.
The Ma family did not expect Xiliang to mobilize so many troops south, and immediately sent back the troops sent to besiege Zhangye County.
Xiliang's hundreds of thousands of troops have their swords pointed at Fufeng County. If they continue to target Zhangye County City, which is guarded by Xiliang's elite troops, the city wall more than 20 meters high will not last for a while.
Will be able to beat it down.
It will take at least more than a month. After one month, the entire Fufeng County may have fallen into the hands of the Xiliang army.
After discussion, the senior leaders of the Ma family decided to abandon Zhangye County City and hand it over to Xiliang and to Prime Minister Li.
However, when Xiliang mobilizes such a large number of troops, it will consume a lot of food every day, so they have to delay for a while to allow the personnel from the two counties behind Zhangye County to transfer.
The Han family is also very cooperative. The armies of both sides are constantly mobilizing, just to make Xiliang think that the two sides are going to war.
Prime Minister Li didn't know exactly how much combat power the Seventh Army and the Eighth Army had now, but for the sake of Zhangye County, he had to pull these two troops out!
