Start from the thief

Chapter 573 Army

Nong Shouguang is a crazy and shrewd man. He dared to kill people outside the temple separated by a wall when there were many masters gathered in Shengci Temple, but when they were restrained and unable to escape, he would not wait for the gods inside to free up their hands to deal with him. He must have hidden somewhere by now.

Just like Yuezhou, it seemed that they had won after great hardships and dangers, but not only could they not kill the main culprit, they failed to even kill a few of the small fry. Instead, the Liao Kingdom and the Tibetan Tantric Buddhism suffered the most serious damage in the entire Yizhou.

However, the leader's conspiracy, no, it should be said that it was an open conspiracy, ultimately failed. If Zhao Yushu had not succeeded in breaking through the seventh level and breaking Yan Hui's boundless Buddhist Dharma with one sword, even Wu Ziteng might not have been able to withstand it.

If we allow the demonized Yan Hui to suck the blood of six or seven top masters in the Shengci Temple, and then have the leader hold off Dugu Jiansheng, no cultivator in the entire Yizhou will have any hope of survival.

But now, before Yan Hui could cause huge damage, he was forcibly pinned down in Shengci Temple by Zhao Yushu, and then was captured by Shushan, which controlled the disaster within a very small range.

But what may have surprised everyone, even the leader, was that in the end there was a little boy named Nong Shouguang who jumped back and forth between the mountains of swords and the sea of ​​fire and even succeeded.

Zhao Yushu silently raised this matter to a priority second only to the leader. Back then in Nanyang, because he did not take the Zhang brothers seriously, he almost got himself killed in Jiangning. He must not make this mistake again.

Another urgent matter is what Du Wu just said, Tubo has long been preparing to move eastward, and no matter what the outcome of the struggle for Yizhou Yanhui is, it will not affect their national policy.

According to their plan, if Yizhou turned against them and Songzhou's gates were wide open, it would be best for the Tibetan army to march straight in. If Yizhou stood firmly on the side of the Tang Dynasty, they would use force. In any case, there were not many defenders in Yizhou, and they would most likely be able to break into Songzhou directly if they were caught off guard, and threaten Chang'an in the north and suppress Yizhou in the south.

Another question is, where did the Liao army go?

"Li Qi, where are the Liao troops?"

Li Qi was treated by Wu Ziteng and his blood was suppressed, but he was still weak. He was uneasy after hearing Du Wu's words before, and when he heard Zhao Yushu's questions, he showed a rare panic.

"do not know."

"Don't know? That's tens of thousands of troops! Even if they were just tens of thousands of pigs, they would be all over the mountains and plains. As long as the spies are not shit eaters, they can't be out of sight."

Zhao Yushu couldn't understand.

Li Qi's face became more and more embarrassed.

Zhao Yushu calmed down and quickly found the problem: "It's not that Changan lost their trace, it's that Changan couldn't tell you, right?"

Li Qi nodded weakly: "It has been two or three days. I haven't received any news from Chang'an about the Liao army. I wrote to ask, but there was no reply."

Zhao Yushu turned around a few times and said, "The Liao army is here to deal with the Red Lotus Sect, right?"

Li Qi hummed, "Yes, according to the court's initial discussion, the Liao Kingdom's Southern Court King Yelu Rang led 50,000 troops south from Lingzhou, 20,000 of which were stationed north of Lingzhou, and 30,000 cavalrymen passed Jinzhou and went down the Han River, heading straight for Xiangzhou and attacking Jingzhou head-on. There is another route, which is to go along Bazhou to Yuzhou, and then attack Jingzhou directly along the Yangtze River. If they concealed the news from me, they might have taken this route."

Zhao Yushu snorted, "There are many waterways in Jiangnan. Can the cavalry run fast?"

Li Qi looked at him with disdain: "Doesn't the White Horse Academy teach military tactics?"

Zhao Yushu blushed, realizing that he must have misunderstood something, and bowed his head decisively: "I was wrong, please teach me."

Li Qi was shocked by Zhao Yushu's sudden bachelorhood. In his heart, he couldn't help but look up to him again. He was flexible and worthy of being the Sixth Master of the Academy.

"Ahem, it's no big deal. The Liao people are not just cavalry. They have a special army called the Folding Sword Guards, who use two-handed swords and are very good at foot combat. There is also a type called the Shooting Eagles, whose horsemanship may not be top-notch, but their archery is first-rate. The ones coming this time are mainly these two types."

Jackknife Guard? Sounds familiar.

Zhao Yushu touched his chin. Well, when he first entered the academy, the question on military strategy had to deal with this kind of stuff.

But now is not the time to think about that.

“Is there a third way?”

"The third way? There are many ways to defeat the Red Lotus Sect, but these two are the most likely."

Li Qi shook his head.

"No, what I mean is, if we don't attack the Red Lotus Sect, what about attacking Yizhou?"

"It's even more impossible. Yizhou is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Thirty thousand soldiers would spend countless money on food and horses every day. They can't afford it. They are willing to attack Jiangnan because they can get food from the enemy. Yizhou's Jianmen Pass alone can trap them to death."

Zhao Yushu nodded in agreement: "Yes, why don't you say Songzhou?"

"what?"

"Songzhou is clearly the first line of defense against Tubo. Why do you and Lord Du only mention Jianmen Pass? I admit that Jianmen Pass is the most powerful pass in the world, but is Songzhou so vulnerable? Or have you all thought of this possibility?"

Li Qi looked pale and Du Wu lowered his head in silence.

Zhao Yushu looked around at the two of them and said, "You all know that if the Liao people really didn't attack Jiangnan, they would have directly attacked Songzhou. Now they are very likely to have joined forces with Tubo and captured Songzhou, right?"

"Perhaps, if we send troops over now, we can still rescue them."

Du Wu didn't dare to look up.

"Two days ago you said you would send troops, but Cao Zheng secretly cooperated with the underworld to harm me. Did you get the news at that time?"

Li Qi discovered the flaw. The two brothers in Yizhou were always trying to please both sides. They would bow down to you during the day and stab you at night.

"I am a minister of the Tang Dynasty after all. Otherwise, how could my elder brother be the only one with the blood pill today? I really don't know where the Liao army is. I just want to do my best to save them."

"If we send them now, they will just be waiting for us to tire out."

Li Qi sighed. If he didn't send troops, Songzhou, an isolated city, would fall sooner or later. If he sent troops, the Liao army of 30,000 might besieging the city and attacking the reinforcements, and then swallowing it up bit by bit.

"I'll go to Jianmen Pass now."

Li Qi felt a little lonely. He called out Baitiwu and rushed out of Shengci Temple.

"Lord Du, do what you should do as the governor of a town."

Du Wu raised his head with difficulty: "Mr. Liu, isn't the academy in Dongdu? Logically speaking, the more chaotic Chang'an is, the better."

Zhao Yushu glanced at him coldly and said, "If it was a local emperor like you and the emperor of Chang'an who were personally guarding the city wall of Songzhou, I might have applauded. Two bastards are fighting for the throne, and innocent civilians and soldiers are the ones who died. What the hell is this?"

Du Wu was dumbfounded, watching Zhao Yushu help Bujie up, send Zhang Hong away, settle Li Hai, and finally carry King Kong's body.

"Wonderful Sound Sea!"

Miaoyinhai was startled and hurried over.

"Pack up Pandita's body, um, ashes, and follow me."

"Go, where?"

"Songzhou."