After crossing, I was forced to hold on to my thighs and build a kingdom

The days soon entered the twelfth lunar month, and the coldest season in the north arrived.

As expected, the Di people invaded the south two or three times as in previous years, but were each repelled by the northern border troops.

As the saying goes, a thief can steal for a thousand days, but you can't guard against thieves for a thousand days.

No matter how brave and skilled the northern border troops were, they could not withstand the occasional random incursions of the Di people. Therefore, although they had stopped the Di people's invasions in the first two times, the border residents still inevitably suffered varying degrees of property losses.

It didn't cause any serious damage, but it made the soldiers in the North very angry.

It was in this situation that Su Cheng'an came up with an idea.

He asked the soldiers to first select a village on the border that was small in population and easy to defend, and then he pretended to be mysterious and transported a batch of so-called military rations there, which were actually sacks filled with chaff. He only put dozens of bags of military rations in the outermost circle as a pretense.

Then the news of the location of the grain storage was sent to the ears of the Northern Di people without leaving any trace.

The Di people, upon receiving the news, were skeptical and quickly sent people to investigate. Under the deliberate guidance of the northern border soldiers, the Di spies took great pains to confirm the authenticity of the news and excitedly rushed back to the Di base camp that night.

This is several thousand dan of military rations. If they can plunder it back, it will be enough for them to eat comfortably for two or three months.

Late the next night, under the guidance of spies, five thousand Di people took advantage of the darkness to sneak into this inconspicuous village on the border.

When all the Di people entered the place where the food and grass were stored, the 20,000 elite soldiers who had been lurking around the village rushed in with swords and guns in hand, and surrounded the 5,000 Di people. What followed was a process of harvesting lives despite the huge disparity in strength.

In the end, except for a small group of Di people who were fearless and fought hard to break out, the remaining 4,700 Di soldiers were all killed.

Adhering to the principle of not pursuing a desperate enemy, Su Cheng'an stopped the attack cleanly and efficiently. As for what kind of psychological trauma and punishment measures those Di people who escaped in a panic would have when they returned, that was an internal matter of the Di people.

Because the Di people's purpose of going south was to plunder food and grass in the north, they specially selected the best horses when they came so that they could quickly and smoothly transport the thousands of stones of food and grass.

Five thousand men and five thousand horses. Except for the three hundred horses taken by the Di people when they fled, the remaining nearly four thousand seven hundred good horses all fell into the hands of the northern border soldiers.

The officers and soldiers from the Northern Territory were humming little tunes and cleaning the battlefield with smiles on their faces. They couldn't be happier!

The victory of this battle not only boosted the morale of the officers and soldiers in the north, completely venting their frustrations from the two previous incidents, but also brought a brief peace to the border area.

Having lost both their men and their horses and suffered such a heavy blow, the Di people will probably not harass the border residents again for some time.

While the government troops in the northern border were cheering, the morale of Floating Cloud City in the northwest was low.

The Xirong people's unusual inaction in the previous two months had already caused anxiety among the experienced northwestern border troops in Fuyun City.

This situation seems wrong no matter how you look at it. It is obvious that the Western Rong people are ready to make a big move.

After several heavy snowfalls, the Western Rong finally made their move! Their cavalry swept in like a hurricane, carrying with them endless desire and ambition for the Central Plains. They marched southward with great momentum, attacking the Northwestern Army's defenses in wave after wave.

The soldiers of the Northwest Army fought hard, brandishing their weapons and engaging in a desperate struggle with the enemy. However, the bravery and preparedness of the Western Rong people gradually gave them the upper hand.

As time went on, the Northwest Army suffered more and more casualties, and the defense line that had already been broken by the enemy began to crumble.

In the end, under the fierce offensive of the Western Rong people, the Northwestern Army had to retreat step by step, lost Fuyun City, and lost the city and strategic location that they had originally defended.

The iron wall that the Northwestern Army had painstakingly built over decades of hard work, the Floating Cloud City that looked like a helmet and armor, fell into the hands of the Western Rong people.

The people living nearby were like lambs to be slaughtered. They had lost their shelter and were trembling as they waited for the jackals' bloody mouths to devour them bit by bit.

General Chen Tianyao led the Northwestern Army, which suffered heavy losses, and retreated to Lingyun City, another city a hundred miles south of Fuyun City, where he struggled to survive and waited for rescue.

When the news reached the capital, everyone in the court was shocked.

The Western Rong people, who had been suppressed by the former Marquis of Wu'an Ye Shengpei in the desert area outside Fuyun City, had turned the tide of attack and defense in just a few years and seized Fuyun City, which had once been guarded like an iron barrel by the Jin Dynasty.

Floating Cloud City, who could have thought that Floating Cloud City would fall into the hands of the Western Rong people? Even though the former Marquis of Wu'an, Ye Shengpei, was greedy for merit and reckless, colluded with foreign tribes, causing heavy losses to the Northwest Army, he never let the Western Rong bandits set foot in Floating Cloud City.

It is said that this General Chen Tianyao was a capable subordinate of the former Marquis of Wu'an. Even if he only had half the ability of the former lord, he would not have suffered such a defeat.

The public was outraged, and both the government and the opposition were furious.

Whether it was the princes in the capital who were busy fighting for the throne, or the elders who were busy fighting for power, they all pointed their spearheads at the culprit who lost the Northwest Fuyun City - General Chen Tianyao.

Letters of reprimand and imperial edicts were directed at Chen Tianyao.

This defeat was an extremely heavy blow to the entire Dajin, and people fell into panic and anxiety.

For a time, there was an uproar in the court, and everyone was discussing how to deal with the current crisis.

The Northwest Army soldiers who had fought bloody battles now bore the shame of defeat, silently licked their wounds, and waited for the opportunity to regroup and avenge their previous shame.

The constant barrage of reprimands only fueled Chen Tianyao's resentment as he retreated to Lingyun City. Though he'd suffered a defeat, it wasn't intentional. The Western Rong had obtained Fuyun City's defenses, leaving him exhausted and unable to cope. To preserve his remaining strength, he had no choice but to abandon the city.

The old emperor lay unconscious on his throne. How could those treacherous villains, fighting for power like black-eyed chickens, shout at and scold a great general like him? What right did they have to dictate his actions?!

So he drank and cursed every meal, and he wanted to run to the capital to fight with those literati who only knew how to use pens to play dirty tricks.

Under such circumstances, the soldiers became increasingly disappointed with the commander's command ability. As time went on, their dissatisfaction with the commander continued to rise like a tide.

General Chen should have led the troops to fight bravely against the enemy, but he spent his days in self-indulgence and decadence.

Faced with the enemy's fierce attack, he was hesitant and lacked a decisive command strategy; while the soldiers were fighting bloody battles, he hid in the tent drinking and having fun, and turned a blind eye to the battle situation on the front line.

This negative attitude made the soldiers of the Northwest Army extremely angry and disappointed.

They gradually realized that the blood, sweat and lives they had put in did not seem to be valued and respected as they deserved.

So, what started as private complaints gradually gathered into a powerful torrent, and more and more soldiers began to openly express their dissatisfaction with their commander.

As discontent continued to ferment, the soldiers' conversations became more frequent and intense. They shared their inner grievances and discussed countermeasures.

Gradually, a potential crisis quietly spread, the soldiers' emotions were on the verge of exploding, and signs of mutiny began to appear.