Chapter 656 - 265: Marching Towards Wuman
Chapter 556: Chapter 265: Marching Towards Wuman
Su, Song, and Xichuan’s Three Nations each sent news, expressing their willingness to join the coalition.
This great news arrived, also making Lu Yuan put down his last bit of concern.
There are four countries involved this time, with a total of 270,000 soldiers and four Inborn Grandmasters.
With such strength, compared to the last Northern Expedition before Da Yue’s destruction, the power is not that much weaker.
Attacking the southwestern barbarians with this power, even if the three Great Barbarian States join forces, at most it will only be a fair match.
Both sides have already eliminated their obvious gap in strength.
And on the Chu side, after this period of preparation, all the armies have gathered at the border with Da Changhe Country, and all supplies have also been put together.
All preparations are complete, and a war can be waged at any time.
However, Lu Yuan still did not order an immediate attack.
Because he was waiting, waiting for an answer.
On Li Xiong’s side, Li Shou had been gone for nearly a month, but no news had come back yet.
For this former Emperor of Xi Shu, now stirring up chaos in Da Changhe Country, Lu Yuan still highly regarded him.
If he can truly win over and utilize him, they would gain an Inborn Grandmaster and tens of thousands of soldiers, which would be a great help for this campaign against the southwestern barbarians.
Therefore, Lu Yuan wanted to wait and see if Li Xiong could accept his terms and would give him a response eventually.
Fortunately, this wait didn’t take too long.
Almost a month and a half after returning, Li Shou, who had left before, reappeared in front of Lu Yuan with Li Xiong’s attitude.
“Greetings to the King of Chu.”
When Li Shou met Lu Yuan again after more than a month, he seemed much more haggard and desolate.
“Rise.”
Inside the military tent, Lu Yuan looked down at Li Shou who was saluting and asked, “You are here again, does Li Xiong have an answer?”
Li Shou nodded heavily: “The King of Chu, my elder brother does have an answer. He agrees to everything the King has previously requested. He is willing to be a vassal state of Chu in the future, guarding Nong Dong’s territory for Great Chu for generations.
However, I also ask the King to send troops quickly. The attack from Da Changhe Country is becoming more intense, and my elder brother can no longer withstand it.”
In the end, Li Shou, who had already risen, knelt down again, his old head knocking on the ground, pleading and begging in an extremely humble manner.
No wonder he was like this.
The situation in Wuman Country had been extremely bad in the past two months.
Since Li Shou had left last time, Da Changhe Country, after digesting the gains of their previous great victory and integrating their strength, launched another fierce attack.
The Inborn Grandmaster from Da Changhe Country, Li River, led the attack, while the Great Witch from the Great Temple was in charge of sacrifices. The two of them led a gathered force of 200,000 from their country, starting from Zedong City and continuing their pursuit against Wu Savage Country.
Li Xiong tried to block the attack at Qu Ecanyon and wanted to stop the enemy west of the river where they had defeated the United Army of Da Changhe Country before.
However, before the two sides had even started fighting, the Great Witch Sacrifice of the Divine Palace personally came to the front of the battle, calling on the Chilih people on the other side of the canyon to abandon the darkness and not be deceived by outsiders anymore to fight their own people.
Otherwise, anyone who betrayed Chilih would be cursed by the great god after death, unable to return to the great god’s side.
This spiritual blow had an immediate effect.
The many soldiers of the Wuman Country on the other side of the canyon were not originally so loyal to Li Xiong, and some even hated this outsider for getting Wuman Country into such a situation.
It was only because of his power that they were unwillingly submitting.
Now, with the enemy forces in chaos and the reversal of the situation, the witch was personally persuading them. Their loyalty to Li Xiong wavered in an instant.
Suddenly, several groups of soldiers began to show signs of agitation, and some even declared their reversal and turned against their comrades.
Seeing the army in chaos, Li Xiong, of course, immediately sent people to suppress it.
However, before he could stabilize the army’s morale, Da Changhe Country on the other side of the river seized the opportunity and immediately sent elite troops across the river to launch a strong attack.
Li River and the Great Witch of Divine Palace, taking advantage of this, restrained Li Xiong, leaving him no time to attend to other matters.
The army, without the will to fight and full of internal strife, had no time to resist the strong attack, and Li Xiong’s forces, initially inferior, could no longer hold on.
After only an hour of fighting, they were completely defeated.
Seeing that all was lost, Li Xiong had to flee the battle, escaping from the encirclement of the two enemy powerhouses in a humiliating manner.
Leading a group of defeated soldiers, he retreated.
When he retreated to Chang County City and did a headcount, from the original 90,000 soldiers, only a little more than 50,000 remained.
40,000 people had been lost at Qu ECanyon.
However, the two armies hadn’t fought very fiercely at that time, so of these 40,000, only a few thousand had actually died in battle.
The rest had either surrendered or fled.
Regardless, it was undoubtedly a great defeat for Li Xiong.
What made him even more upset was that after their victory at Qu ECanyon, Da Changhe Country’s forces continued to advance westward, and within just two days, they attacked Chang County City again.
At this point, Li Xiong had just gathered the remnants of his soldiers and had no time to regroup and stabilize the army’s morale.
But now, the enemy was attacking again. How could they possibly defend against this?
After holding on in the city for more than ten days and unable to withstand the enemy’s fierce attack, the army in the city rebelled once again, killing Li Xiong’s trusted generals and opening the gates for the enemy to enter the city.
So, unable to defend the city for even a few more days, Li Xiong had to lead his remaining soldiers to flee again.