choke element

Chapter 1045 Decisive Battle (Part )

Guo Ning's status has risen, and he can easily say encouraging words to others. Sometimes he feels like an actor, who has played a certain role for a long time and the role has become one with himself. Even if he is not on the stage, he can't help singing, acting, reciting and fighting.

Once, he and his soldiers had a drinking party. He was not good at drinking, and in the past two years, he occasionally drank some medicinal wine to suppress the pain caused by old injuries from previous battles. But many of those present that time were old people from the Northern Frontier. Many of them had mediocre talents and mediocre status in the new dynasty. These people only had loyalty, and Guo Ning had to treat them warmly no matter what.

So Guo Ning got drunk that night. The next day, his subordinates said that after Guo Ning got drunk, he danced for the soldiers with a golden sword, pointed out the names of the soldiers one by one, praised their performance in a certain battle, and when he was excited, he took out the jade belt and arm guard he usually used and gave them to a soldier who had retired due to old age, and encouraged him to set an example in the countryside.

Even when he was sober, Guo Ning was not sure that he could remember the deeds of the dozens of soldiers at the banquet. He could still perform like this when drunk, perhaps his acting skills had reached a certain level?
However, these words of praise for Xu Gong don't work well on Li Ting.

As soon as Guo Ning finished speaking, Li Ting curled his lips and said, "Whether it is credit or not, I, Li Erlang, don't miss out on that. I know that I didn't pay enough attention to the north of Jingzhao Prefecture this time, and that was indeed an oversight. But Wanyan Congtan was in Hezhong Prefecture at the time, and he was reaching out to Hexi, so I didn't have to make do with him... Ahem, no matter what, Wanyan Congtan and I are not the same! Just focus on pitting those Jurchens, but don't hurt me."

There are indeed omissions, and they are not small.

Previously, the Mongolian army entered Xixia and colluded with the Southern Song Dynasty to borrow the passage. The momentum was amazing. The Central Plains was unfavorable because of being caught off guard, but it did not mean that the border guards in various places were deaf and blind. So after Li Ting got the news, he immediately ordered the guards in Guanshan and other places to be on high alert, and sent out scouts to closely monitor the border between Song and Xia.

There are thousands of miles of borders, and the places with risks must be kept track of. The Xijing garrison is full of veterans and old soldiers, so they naturally know the numbers. Those who don't know have long become wandering ghosts on the battlefield.

But in the past two years, Xijing Liushousi had many interests with Song and Xia in Qin Gong and other places. After the situation suddenly changed, of course, they had to clean up the situation first. Li Ting even sent out his own cavalry to do a black-eating-black job.

The Fuyan Road area had been neglected in the past two years and should have received special attention this time. However, due to this reason, the attention was delayed for several days. And a few days was enough for the Mongolian army to march leisurely and threaten Hezhong.

If Wanyan Cong had not revealed his true colors, Li Ting probably would not have realized that he had become a flaw, and Guo Ning would not have suddenly arrived while leading his troops south.

Li Ting's flaw is really fatal!

If the Mongolian army headquarters were allowed to enter Hezhong, they could go south to support the war in the Central Plains, go west to cut off the retreat of the Qin and Long defenders, go north to destroy the Dinghai army's Hebei base, and even kill the counter-attack Zhou army in one fell swoop.

By then, the new dynasty would be on the verge of collapse, and all the efforts of Guo Ning and his partners over the years would be in vain. By then, Li Ting would probably commit suicide and sacrifice his life for his country, right?

Even if the Mongols' movements were eventually discovered, Li Ting would still be guilty of a grave crime. If the Great Zhou was a dynasty with a very strong imperial authority, this guy should at least show some deep remorse and apologize.

But it seems that Li Ting has no such intention. Even though Guo Ning has given him enough excuses and praised him for his merits, he did not lower his posture to admit his mistakes. Instead, he asked Guo Ning to make a promise first and never settle accounts later.

Many people say that a military regime like the Great Zhou Dynasty will inevitably be dominated by arrogant and powerful generals. What are arrogant and powerful generals? This is it!

The veins on Guo Ning's forehead jumped slightly, and the hardwood whip in his right hand made a slight click. But he immediately controlled his anger and chuckled a few times.

"You're getting more and more ridiculous... Don't you think it's absurd to compare yourself to Wanyan Congtan?"

Guo Ning shook his head and said slowly: "I didn't deliberately use Wanyan Congtan as a loophole to lure the enemy, not to mention Kaifeng. I didn't expect the officials of the Southern Dynasty to be so bold and stupid. As for Qinlong, you neglected it, and I neglected it too. But the war is coming, and we must say that the movements of the Mongolian army are under control, otherwise how can we boost morale? Could it be that an imperial edict really came, saying that the Xijing garrison was negligent and almost caught by the Mongols, and then..."

Li Ting laughed dryly: "What happens next?"

"Then enforce military law strictly and kill the Xijing garrison commander first as a sacrifice, is that okay?" Guo Ning asked leisurely.

Li Ting's breathing suddenly stagnated. He raised his head sharply, staring at Guo Ning. In the blink of an eye, sweat broke out on the back of his neck.

The two of them didn't stare at each other for long, but Li Ting felt as if a long time had passed. When Guo Ning finally showed a bit of relief in the corner of his eyes, Li Ting could no longer hold on.

"I, I... ahem, Your Majesty, you are right. However, the main force of the Mongolian army is rapidly moving southward through the plateau of Heyang. There may be 40,000 to 50,000 of them, with a high proportion of armored soldiers and heavy cavalry. We are about to have a big battle. How about you watch me fight with all my heart?" he asked.

Guo Ning looked at him for a while, said no more, and reached out to pat him on the shoulder.

Among the generals under Guo Ning, Li Ting's experience is very similar to Guo Ning's. He is also a hero who rose to prominence by gathering people from the midst of a great defeat.

Compared to Guo Ning in his youth, Li Ting was slightly less brave, but more brutal and shrewd. When Guo Ning's pedantic behavior caused his subordinates to scatter, and he could only struggle in the ponds with a few women and children, Li Ting had already stripped off the hypocritical coat of a court officer and turned into a ferocious thief.

Li Ting knew all the tricks of fighting, raiding, betrayal, framing, and eradication. Because the defeated soldiers had no morals at all, most of them were just beasts with swords. It was useless to suppress the beasts with high-sounding words. The leader did not trust the beasts, but just used means to drive them.

At that time, Li Ting was not sure about the loyalty of his subordinates, so after forcing a bandit leader to surrender, he deliberately gave him very few benefits and deliberately ignored his private collusion. Therefore, anyone who wanted to be an enemy of Li Ting would often start with this bandit leader and try to cooperate with him from the inside and outside.

This bandit leader is the flaw that Li Ting sold to the outside world. Anyone who wants to take advantage of this flaw will eventually be bitten back by Li Ting, and will be seriously injured if not killed.

Later, Guo Ning suddenly came to his senses, began to gather people, and made great efforts. Li Ting also joined Guo Ning. Under Guo Ning's command, he often seemed frivolous and aggressive. In fact, he saw a lot of things, not to mention that his younger brother Li Yun was also one of the core powers of the Great Zhou, and his horizons were extremely broad.

In Li Ting's eyes, the new Great Zhou was filled with various interest groups. They included the generals in the northern border who were bent on expanding the military power base, the remnants of the Red Coat Army who tried their best to maintain the old group, the Han tyrants who led their own private troops, and the generals of the northeastern ethnic minorities who completely inherited the military and political system of the Jin Dynasty. Even among the prime ministers in the court, some tried to support the Khitans, while others represented the old ministers of the Jin Dynasty.

Different interest groups have conflicts and collaborations. Li Ting believes that he has enough trust with Guo Ning, but that does not mean he will ignore the political operations after the establishment of the new dynasty. Why did the Han people in Liaodong go to the South China Sea to explore, and why did the Khitan people close to the prime minister go to Goryeo and cannot come back? There are too many hidden secrets.

In the past few days, first the Central Plains, where many former Red Coat Army members were, were massacred by the Mongolian army, and then the few famous generals among the Jurchens who had achieved the position of Jiedushi were eliminated. So Li Ting subconsciously suspected that Guo Ning might be taking advantage of the situation to eliminate dissidents.

Guo Ning's answer was to tell Li Ting half-truthfully that if they really wanted to deal with you, they could just punish you by military law. Can you and your subordinates still withstand the power of the Emperor of the Great Zhou? The fact that you can still lead your troops to join the Emperor now proves that the Emperor has no other intentions, so don't be too clever.

Fortunately, it is normal for people in this world to be selfish and do bad things. Even the unspeakable great man in later generations admitted that there were no factions within the party. This did not affect his leading like-minded people to pull the Chinese nation out of the deep quagmire until it stood tall in the east of the world.

So Guo Ning would not care about these things. He is not a pure idealist and can tolerate a lot. Not only mistakes, not only doubts, and even not only a certain degree of corruption. He only needs those who are tolerated to stand with him and face the most destructive and destructive enemy of this era together.

At this moment, faint rumbling sounds gradually gathered.

In the wilderness of the south, more than a hundred cavalrymen were rushing in continuously. They were elite cavalrymen gathered from Jingzhao and Fengxiang under Li Ting's orders.

In the direction of the great river in the west, not only was the ice field shaking, but the ice on the river was also flickering. It was as if a huge beast was about to burst the long river and leap out. That was the main force of the Great Zhou Imperial Army who followed Guo Ning back from the northern border, constantly adjusting their routes, abandoning baggage, and changing horses along the way.

The Great Zhou Dynasty had been established for several years and had spared no effort in military construction. Various powerful weapons and equipment were continuously distributed, and some weapons that were beyond the times were also rapidly developed under the impetus of interests, gradually reaching the standard of military configuration. However, Guo Ning now had to admit that those weapons had their inevitable weaknesses, such as being overly dependent on logistics and transportation.

When the commander of the army was fighting the enemy in a vast area stretching from the sea in the east to the quicksand in the west and to the desert in the north, and when the army had to follow in the footsteps of the Mongols and launch long-distance maneuvers of hundreds or even thousands of miles; the weaknesses of these latest equipments were easily targeted, resulting in their power being in vain but unable to be used on the battlefield.

What Guo Ning can always rely on is the tenacity and passion of the soldiers, the fast horses and long swords, the determination that civilization will never succumb to barbarism and the Han people will never be slaves.

No one knew what the might of the gathering army had disturbed, but suddenly there was another howling wind. The strong wind from the distant cold north was mixed with countless snow particles. Wherever the wind passed, everything around was gray, and the whistling sound of the wind was like a tsunami, making it impossible to hear the words around you. The snow particles dancing in the wind hit Guo Ning's green fur armor, making a crackling sound, and hitting Guo Ning's face, causing a dull pain.

The snow was everywhere, and the scout team that had rushed over from the northern wilderness had lost track of them. Even if one opened his eyes wide, one could only see a few black dots in the endless white.

Guo Ning waved his hand, and Ni Yi rode out on his horse to give orders.

Many of the imperial guards dismounted. They opened the long package hanging on the side of the horse, and pulled out the huge flag and flagpole from the package, and raised it high in the face of the heavy snow. Three, five, or even more soldiers gathered in groups, working together to support the flagpole, making it motionless in the strong wind, only the red flag fluttered in the wind, like a rising flame that could not be extinguished by the snow and dust.

The cavalry troops galloping in the distance soon responded by raising their flags. One red flag after another appeared and gathered together, like a raging fire. Tens became hundreds, hundreds became thousands, and thousands became tens of thousands. The soldiers under the flags shouted and sang their military songs.