Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

However, even after dealing with these Turkic rebels, the battle of Hulaoguan Pass, personally commanded by Li Hongyun, was still difficult.

It could even be considered a flamboyant failure.

The first failure occurred when Wang Shichong made a sudden breakout, and the Liang Army's encirclement was unsuccessful, resulting in a defeat and a forced retreat.

Although Li Hongyun quickly regrouped and counterattacked, this laid the groundwork for issues later when trying to defend Hulaoguan Pass against Dou Jiande.

Lord Qin and Prince Qi went together to defend Hulaoguan Pass against Dou Jiande, while historically, a terrified Wang Shichong dared not enter the battle again.

Unexpectedly, perhaps due to the previous defeat of the Liang Army, Wang Shichong did not completely become a scared bird but organized his starving soldiers to launch a surprise attack after Lord Qin and Prince Qi had left, catching the Liang Army off guard.

In this battle, although the losses of the Liang Army were not too severe, Wang Shichong's morale was greatly boosted, and he captured many supplies.

This laid the groundwork for Wang Shichong's next sortie.

While Lord Qin and Prince Qi were confronting Dou Jiande at Hulaoguan Pass, Wang Shichong continually led his troops out, achieving consecutive victories and causing severe losses to the Liang Army besieging Luoyang.

Li Hongyun was furious and decided to try again.

There were two ways to solve this problem, the first was to always stay on high alert while besieging Luoyang, and give Wang Shichong a heavy beating every time he dared to leave the city, crushing his spirit and deterring him from coming out again.

The second method was to simply leave Lord Qin to continue the attack on Luoyang.

After considering, Li Hongyun chose the latter.

Because the first method required him to fight another large battle besieging Luoyang, which would waste too much time.

By leaving Lord Qin there, it would ensure a foolproof plan and keep Lord Qin from snatching his credits at Hulaoguan Pass.

Although it seemed like an overuse of talent, for Li Hongyun, his only goal at that moment was to successfully pass the challenge and win the Xuanwu Gate Incident.

The second failure happened because Dou Jiande mysteriously arrived at Hulaoguan Pass three days early, seizing control of the pass city first.

Li Hongyun was dumbfounded, and all the planned scripts became invalid.

With Dou Jiande's superior forces, although the Liang Army fought bravely, they still couldn't prevent the enemy from reaching the lower reaches of Luoyang City and joining forces with Wang Shichong.

Li Hongyun had no choice but to start all over again.

He reviewed the reasons and realized it wasn't because Dou Jiande arrived early but because he himself was late.

According to historical records, the commander defending Hulaoguan Pass had surrendered to the Liang Dynasty first, so Lord Qin traveled day and night with elite cavalry to take over Hulaoguan Pass.

But this time, for some reason, the commander hesitated and didn't decide to surrender to the Liang Dynasty until three days later.

So by the time Li Hongyun, playing the role of Prince Qi, received the news and rushed over, it was already too late.

Li Hongyun was furious and analyzed the reasons, believing there were two possible explanations.

The first possibility was that his prestige was still not as great as the real Lord Qin's, especially in terms of honoring the virtuous and clear rewards and punishments, not as good as Lord Qin.

Therefore, the commander of the Hulaoguan Pass hesitated, possibly feeling that coming under Prince Qi's command might not guarantee him enough preferential treatment.

The second possibility was that he had not actively sent people to persuade and turn the enemies but was passively waiting.

The historical records documented the surrender of Hulaoguan Pass but didn't detail the commander's mental journey.

Li Hongyun previously subconsciously thought he came to surrender proactively, but now he reckoned that things might not have been that simple. Behind this, it very likely also demonstrated Lord Qin's strong intelligence capabilities.

Thus, this time, he sent people with heavy rewards to persuade the surrender, emphasizing speed, and finally managed to secure Hulaoguan Pass first.

The third time, Li Hongyun as planned confronted Dou Jiande at Hulaoguan Pass.

Unexpectedly, while in a standoff, suddenly a scout reported that Dou Jiande had run away!

Li Hongyun was greatly alarmed and led his troops in pursuit, only to find that Dou Jiande had indeed abandoned Wang Shichong in Luoyang and instead adopted Ling Jing's strategy of "crossing Taihang to enter Shangdu," to attack River East.

Taking advantage of the entanglement between the Liang Army and Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande decided to move first to seize territory.

Li Hongyun was bewildered, this wasn't how the script was supposed to go!

Previously, when he played the role of Dou Jiande, he was very familiar with the situation there.

Logically, weren't all the generals under Dou Jiande bought over by Wang Shichong? Weren't they strongly opposed to this plan?

Did Dou Jiande mistakenly think his subordinates were eager to fight, so he didn't adopt this plan and instead continued to strongly attack Hulaoguan Pass?

Why had the script changed again?

After deep contemplation, Li Hongyun realized that perhaps… those generals who were openly bought by Wang Shichong might have the hand of Lord Qin behind them!

Clearly, relying entirely on others for intelligence and turning efforts was extremely uncontrollable.

To ensure that the opponent always acts according to his plan, the most secure method was to establish a strong intelligence network himself.

Scouting, turning, plotting… Only by taking control of these matters himself could he ensure that every step was within his plan.

So, Li Hongyun started over.

This time he began to focus on setting up an intelligence network, personally inquiring about planting spies in Dou Jiande's army, during the standoff not only focusing on cavalry harassment but also on intelligence work.

The fourth time, everything was going smoothly, but during an assault on Wang Shichong's main formation, both sides fell into fierce combat.