The mysterious world: Start working hard from the beggar camp!

Chapter 536: A great victory that is not a complete victory, Chongzhen decides to strike while the iron is hot
"receive!"

Chongzhen killed Xie Youming in one move, and with a thought, the Qiankuntu that was suppressed and trapped by the Witch God Temple had lost the control of its owner and had no power to resist anymore. It was successfully stored in the artifact space of the Witch God Temple.

"Not bad!"

"Finally, I got a desired innate divine weapon. I will refine it later."

"However, there is still a big fish left. The second son of the Xie family also has a very good innate divine weapon in his hand, and it has a strong innate life breath. It should be of great benefit to alleviate the backlash caused by the witch god's blood on me."

To outsiders, he completed this series of operations in the blink of an eye.

Chongzhen turned his gaze towards the other Xie family team, locked onto the blue innate spirit bead artifact that was protecting the enemy's formation, and with a flash of his body, he flew towards the other side.

"No!"

"Your Majesty! Return my brother's life to me!"

When Xie Liming saw that his elder brother Xie Youming, the new head of the Xie family, was killed by Chongzhen just because of a carelessness, he was shocked and angry. He used all his strength to activate his own life artifact, the Wood Spirit Pearl, which was amplified by the military formation, and transformed it into a giant sphere with a radius of hundreds of feet, which whizzed towards the oncoming Chongzhen.

Although his natal artifact, the gem, is only an innate top-grade artifact, its grade is not as good as his elder brother Xie Youming's innate top-grade artifact, the Qiankuntu.

But for high-level Qi Refining cultivators like them, they are completely unable to unleash the true power of the innate divine weapon. It is already good enough if they can unleash one billionth of its power.

Therefore, for any practitioner in the Qi Refining Realm, the difference in the quality of the innate divine weapon is actually not that important.

Even Li Dingguo and Chongzhen, the reason why they were able to suppress the vast majority of geniuses of the same level was mainly due to their own solid and unparalleled foundation.

In addition, only when all the seals on the natal divine weapon are released can one kill the enemy of the same level in one-on-one situation.

But this still requires careful calculation and proper tactics to achieve this.

Just like Xie Youming who was just killed. If he hadn't been careless and thought he would be safe with the protection of his natal magic weapon, Chongzhen would have taken advantage of the moment when he was a little careless and used the Witch God Temple to trap the Qiankuntu. It would have been impossible for him to be killed so easily.

"boom!"

The two innate divine weapons that were amplified by the killing array's magical power collided with each other, making a deafening roar, and were thrown backwards together.

In this head-on attack, although Chongzhen's own cultivation level was three small realms higher than Xie Liming's, the military formations composed of soldiers led by both sides were not only the same in number, but also had similar combat effectiveness.

So after this attack, Xie Liming was only slightly at a disadvantage.

Xie Liming, who saw his elder brother being killed by Chongzhen, would certainly not underestimate the enemy again, so Chongzhen's all-out attack was in vain.

"Come again!"

Chongzhen glanced at the Witch God Temple that circled back above his head. His eyes were cold and his mind moved. The blood-colored temple, his natal artifact, quickly drew an arc and made a whistling sound again, crushing towards the Wooden Spirit Pearl that was protecting the enemy's army!

"Afraid you won't succeed?"

There was a gleam of divine light in Xie Liming's eyes, he gritted his teeth, and the verdant light of his life-saving artifact, the Wood Spirit Pearl, shot out like a meteor and collided with the incoming Witch God Temple once again!
"Rumble..."

A huge shock wave suddenly swept out from the place where the two innate artifacts collided, spreading in all directions!
Xie Liming's actions at this time were completely different from just now.

When he was blasted high into the sky by the shock wave, he controlled the orb of his natal divine weapon that was thrown backwards in the air, and dropped a green light curtain to protect the white wolf beast that his own army had transformed into. He suddenly turned in the sky and instantly arrived at the area where his third brother Xie Xiangming and the family's thousand Qi Refining Realm secret guards were located.

"Third brother!"

"Brother has already suffered, and this battle has been lost! Since it is impossible to do anything, we should leave first!"

"You all immediately release your Qi and enter the army formation. I will then use the light shield of my own divine weapon to activate the killing array magic to protect everyone. Leave immediately!"

"The tyrant has won this time, but our Xie family will not be destroyed! The world is so big, as long as we don't think about fighting for supremacy, there is no place we can't find a place to stay."

It has to be said that when it comes to decisiveness, Xie Liming is much better than his elder brother Xie Youming.

After the 100,000 White Guards led by his eldest brother were basically wiped out, he realized that the Jiangnan Aristocratic Family Alliance had lost the decisive battle.

Originally, they were at an absolute disadvantage because of the surprise attack from the imperial army and the attacks from both sides.

Now that 100,000 elite White Guards under the command of Xie Youmingyu, the commander-in-chief of the three armies, have been killed, it is not just a matter of adding fuel to the fire.

If he didn't make a decisive move and escape, his brothers and the remaining elite soldiers of the Xie family would most likely all die here.

"Yes, second brother!"

Xie Xiangming was also a strong man in the early stage of level six. With his powerful spiritual sense, he naturally saw that the defeat was inevitable, especially since his eldest brother was killed by Chongzhen himself, which became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

As long as you are not confused and your mind is not blinded by hatred, now is your last chance to escape.

Otherwise, once the enemy army uses military formations to surround and confine this battlefield space, there will be no escape.

He quickly sent a message to the thousand Qi Refining Realm secret guards of the family who were present at the scene. When his second brother Xie Liming arrived with the military formation and his natal divine weapon, everyone released their Qi, and in the blink of an eye they were compatible with the military formation composed of a hundred thousand white-clothed guards.

"My life essence and blood, burn!"

At the critical moment, Xie Liming naturally knew what to do in order to escape successfully.

He immediately burned a drop of his own lifeblood essence and sublimated his spiritual power to the extreme. The light of his own life artifact shone brightly, and a huge dazzling green divine light burst out, covering the 100,000 white-clothed guards of the Xie family and a thousand Qi Refining Realm dark guards.

"go!"

Immediately afterwards, before Emperor Chongzhen activated his killing power and rushed over, he launched a magical attack, forcing back six hundred Qi Refining Realm masters led by the three great eunuchs Wang Chengen, Cao Huachun, and Lu Jiude.

"Whoosh!"

While the power of his burning lifeblood was not exhausted, he manipulated the white wolf beast transformed by the killing array magic power, and under the protection of the shining life artifact Wood Spirit Pearl, he turned into a stream of green light and rushed out of the battlefield in an instant, flying along the Grand Canal towards the southern city of Suzhou, and instantly disappeared at the end of the rolling waves of the Grand Canal in the south...

"damn it!"

"Let those traitors from the Xie family escape successfully!"

Emperor Chongzhen was dumbfounded. After coming to his senses, he was furious and said, "These dogs are more slippery than rats and can run faster than anyone else!"

Chongzhen was very angry that the cooked duck could still fly away.

But he also knew that as long as a level six warrior with his own divine weapon wanted to escape and the battlefield space was not blocked, there was really no way to stop him.

At least in today's world, this is true.

Unless you break through to the Spirit Refining Realm first, you will be able to easily suppress the opponent.

"kill!"

"Kill all these remnants of traitors abandoned by the Xie family!"

The war is not over yet. In this round of decisive battle that started on the river bank, although the enemy has collapsed, there are still more than one million soldiers of the alliance of aristocratic families alive. Chongzhen was furious and issued a kill order to core master generals such as Wang Chengen, Cao Huachun, and Lu Jiude.

"We will obey your order!"...

Wang Chengen and others hurriedly accepted the order solemnly, and then led their soldiers to disperse, and began to kill the remaining treasure ships of the enemy on the river with all their might!
Now, the battle situation near the river bank has become one-sided. The morale of the aristocratic alliance soldiers has been broken by the imperial army. Not to mention launching a counterattack against the government troops, they don't even have the will to fight back desperately.

Most of them were steering the treasure ships they were sitting on, fleeing in all directions like headless flies, covering the sea area within a radius of hundreds of miles.

However, under the relentless pursuit of the imperial fleet and the war army formations, treasure ships of all levels were caught up one after another.

"We surrender!"

"No! You'll kill me even if I surrender?"

"Fight these dog officers and soldiers!"...

Under the pursuit of the imperial court's soldiers, of course many enemy treasure ships chose to raise the white flag and surrender after being caught up, but they were still killed by the enemies who boarded the treasure ships!
This was also Chongzhen's helpless choice.

There was no way. The attacking fleets of the alliance of aristocratic families were all composed of servants, guards and trusted warriors of the world's great families.

These people have been brainwashed by the aristocratic families, wealthy businessmen and tycoons since childhood. They are only loyal to their masters and have no loyalty to the imperial court. Basically, they are all die-hard lackeys of the aristocratic families.

If they were captured but not killed, it would undoubtedly leave huge hidden dangers in the future and would be very detrimental to the future of the Southern Ming court.

However, without large-scale and orderly resistance, how could the enemy stop the fierce and wolf-like elite officers and soldiers of the imperial court from fighting in formation?

The description of the defeat as overwhelming as a landslide is apt.

However, due to the large number of defeated soldiers and the difficulty of fighting on the river, it was much greater than fighting on land.

So it took about two hours before this battle finally ended.

Although it was impossible to completely wipe out the enemy in such a chaotic situation, the number of servants and guards from the aristocratic families, wealthy merchants and tycoons who were able to escape was less than 100,000.

Most of them escaped by jumping into the Grand Canal and diving.

However, under the relentless pursuit of the imperial court, few were able to escape.

Although this battle could not be considered as a complete annihilation of the enemy army, at least more than 90% of the 250,000 enemy soldiers were killed. It was undoubtedly a great victory.

The casualties on the imperial side were less than 100,000, and the casualty ratio on both sides was extremely disparate.

It was natural that some casualties occurred on the court side.

After all, this was a battle on the water. Although the soldiers of the Southern Ming court were very elite, they had very little experience in naval battles.

However, after this battle, the experience gained through life-and-death combat was extremely valuable for the court to conduct similar wars in the future.

The gains were so great that they far outweighed the cost in casualties.

The fact that such a large-scale decisive battle could bring a great victory had already made Emperor Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting, Zhou Yuji and others very satisfied.

Especially the imperial navy, which had just been reorganized, not only gained invaluable practical experience, but also established strong confidence.

For any new army, military morale is extremely important and cannot be simply acquired through the baptism of war.

"His Majesty!"

Zhou Yuji had just finished fighting when he came over with Sun Chuanting to report to Emperor Chongzhen, "Although we lost a group of Xie's elite soldiers and two of the Xie family's geniuses in this battle, it was still a great victory."

"After this battle, the Southern Family Alliance suffered heavy losses, especially the loss of a large number of treasure ships, which was more important to them than the loss of manpower."

"For a long time to come, without enough treasure ships to transport military supplies and manpower, they will inevitably be stretched to the limit and will be severely restricted in all aspects!"

"We lost less than 20 treasure ships of all levels, but we captured more than 200 large treasure ships. Among them, there were nine top-grade treasure ships and more than 20 high-grade treasure ships, which almost doubled the number of treasure ships in our army!"

"With this strength increasing, our chances of winning this round of the battle to unify Jiangnan have increased by at least 30%!"

Zhou Yuji was a military genius and one of the top three generals in the Southern Ming Dynasty. Naturally, he knew what advantages his side had gained after winning this great battle.

This big world is so huge and has so many rivers.

If the enemy does not have enough treasure ships to use, the blow to them will be fatal.

Whether it is the deployment of troops or the transportation of military supplies, a large number of treasure ships are indispensable if you want to be convenient and fast.

This is more important than destroying the millions of troops of the Aristocratic Family Alliance.

After all, with the background of those Jiangnan aristocratic families, they have no shortage of manpower, materials or money.

Even after two consecutive defeats in Changzhou City and this naval battle, and the loss of a large number of manpower, their foundation would not be shaken.

But the treasure ship is different.

This kind of large-scale strategic tool is not something you can get just by wishing for it.

This requires a lot of spiritual materials and time to create it.

Will the imperial court give the other side enough time to recover its strength?

Obviously it is impossible.

The best way is to take advantage of the situation and beat the enemy when he is down.

"Your Majesty, we cannot let the soldiers rest right away. We must immediately reorganize the army and lead the large fleet south to capture Suzhou City in one fell swoop."

Sun Chuanting then proposed, "Now our army has captured enough large treasure ships to transport all the soldiers and cavalry to the outskirts of Suzhou!"

"With the speed of the Great Treasure Ship, we may be able to reach Suzhou City earlier than the defeated troops led by the Xie brothers and capture it easily in one fell swoop."

"As for the soldiers who are now somewhat exhausted, it is a good opportunity for them to rest while sailing south."

With Sun Chuanting's vision, it is impossible that he was not aware of the importance of speed in war.

Now is a rare opportunity, a good chance to capture Suzhou City and even the entire Suzhou Prefecture in one fell swoop.

"it is good!"

Emperor Chongzhen readily accepted their suggestions and immediately issued an order, "Notify the soldiers to complete the aftermath of this battle as quickly as possible!"

"Then hurry up and board the ship. The army will continue to sail south along the Grand Canal to Suzhou City!"

"Humph!"

He snorted coldly and looked up at the rolling waves of the canal to the south. "This time, it's time to lay the foundation for our unification of Jiangnan."

"Only by quickly eliminating the alliance of Jiangnan's aristocratic families and integrating the human and material resources of the entire Jiangnan region will we be able to fight a decisive battle with Li Dingguo in the future!"

"The revival of the Ming Dynasty will be realized in the hands of you and me!"

(End of this chapter)