The Villain's Counterattack

The Turks invaded the Central Plains, and were defeated by the coalition forces of the Sui Dynasty royal family in Luoyang, Dou Jiande in Jinyang, and Liaodong. Yang Xuyan, Duke of Liao, personally led a large army into the grasslands, traveled thousands of miles and defeated the Turkic national teacher Zhao Deyan. He then confronted the Turkic martial arts master Bi Xuan for three days, and after three days, they fought for five hundred rounds without a clear winner.

Bi Xuan, in the name of Wu Zun, summoned the grassland tribes to expel the Liaodong Army. Khitan, Tiele, Mohe, and Shiwei responded one after another. The Liaodong trade became more and more famous on the grassland. Salt, iron, tea, spices and other daily necessities were exchanged for a large number of cattle, sheep, and horses from the grassland. The huge trade deficit made the high-ranking officials of the grassland tribes somewhat unbearable, so they wanted to take the opportunity to defeat the Liaodong Army in order to open the door to Liaodong.

Before the 200,000-strong grassland coalition army had time to fully gather, the Turkic national teacher Zhao Deyan and martial arts master Bi Xuan suddenly led their troops back in a hurry, saying that there was a civil strife in the main camp because of the position of Khan, leaving the other ethnic coalition forces in disarray and at a loss, looking at each other in bewilderment.

They never imagined that they had already been sold to Yang Xuyan, the Duke of Liao, by Wu Zun Bi Xuan as a bargaining chip for the Liaodong Army to withdraw from the grassland. Based on the principle of "a friend's death is better than my own", Bi Xuan and Zhao Deyan retreated very quickly and neatly.

Just when the various tribes on the grassland were confused and didn't know what to do, the Liaodong army launched a fierce attack. The armored heavy cavalry, coupled with invincible chariots and heavy crossbows, scattered the 200,000-strong grassland army with just one charge. The smart ones fled at the first opportunity, leaving other tribes to take the blame, while the stupid ones could only watch their fellow tribesmen being crushed into mud and left with no complete body.

In this battle, the Duke of Liao defeated a mob of 200,000 scattered soldiers and guerrillas from the grassland with only 60,000 men, losing less than 3,000 soldiers. He annihilated 50,000 enemies and captured 30,000. The rest fled into the grassland and could not be pursued. Countless cattle, sheep and horses were captured. The people on the grassland were frightened by the news of Liaodong, and the trade became more prosperous.

Martial Master Bi Xuan and National Master Zhao Deyan helped Shibi Khan's younger brother to ascend the throne and quickly restored the prestige of the Turks. Although the Turks suffered a great loss of strength, they were still the overlord of the grassland. The reasons were simple: first, as long as Martial Master Bi Xuan was still there, no one on the grassland would dare to offend him, and the morale of the Turks would not fall; second, Bi Xuan and Zhao Deyan's final bold move severely destroyed the other grassland tribes that threatened the rule of the Turks.

If everyone suffered heavy losses, the overall strength comparison would not change much. Regarding the actions of Bi Xuan and Zhao Deyan, other ethnic groups dared not speak out, but the Turkic leaders all gave them a thumbs up. It would have been even better if they could suddenly rush out and take advantage of the Liaodong Army after the battle.

Both Bi Xuan and Zhao Deyan were very dismissive of these so-called high-level people who were only good at talking. How could these strong talkers know how powerful the Duke of Liao was? He and Wu Zun Bi Xuan fought for five hundred rounds, but it was not Bi Xuan who had the upper hand in the end. If keeping the Turks would not help stabilize the order of the grassland, he would never let the Turks go easily.

Just as Yang Xuyan, the Duke of Liao said, the master of Yijian, Fu Cailin, did not take action at all. The so-called army of Goguryeo had less than 5,000 troops and stopped at the Yalu River. This was probably because it was the annual time for Dugu Qiubai to challenge the master of Yijian, Fu Cailin. This time, the person who played Dugu Qiubai was replaced by Dugu Feng, and the people in charge of the battle were not Yang Xuangan, but Shan Meixian, Yang Yi, and Yang Ke.

After the farce in Luoyang ended, before Ba Fenghan left the Central Plains and returned to the grassland, he designed a plan to lure out Bian Bufu, and killed him at the cost of minor injuries. He sent the head to Shan Wanjing, making the little girl cry bitterly, and then she broke through to the Grandmaster realm.

With Bian Bufu's death, Shan Meixian's worries were gone, and his strength was greatly improved, directly stepping into the peak realm of Grandmaster. He even vaguely saw a glimmer of hope for further progress, and took the initiative to propose to lead the Dongming Sect's navy to help defend Liaodong, and even thought about joining the Xiaoyao Sect to obtain more martial arts resources.

Yang Xuyan welcomed this. After all, even Lu Miaozi, who was ugly but had beautiful thoughts, became a guest official of the Xiaoyao Sect. It was natural that Shan Meixian, a great beauty, would not be turned away. What's more, her daughter Shan Wanjing was a true disciple of the Xiaoyao Sect, so they were originally a family.

Speaking of Liaodong during the war, it was obvious that there were more females than males. The three great masters Yang Xuyan, Shi Zhixuan and Yang Xuangan were absent, and the top master Lu Miaozi was also snatched away by Yang Guang. Miaoying Zhenren rarely stayed in one place. The strongest men were actually the brothers Yang Yi and Yang Ke, senior masters.

The female masters are a bit scary. Bi Xiuxin, a half-step grandmaster, is always with her daughter Shi Qingxuan, a senior grandmaster. There is also Dugu Feng, a senior grandmaster who pretends to be Dugu Qiubai to build up confidence and momentum, Shan Meixian, a peak grandmaster, and Shan Wanjing, who has just entered the grandmaster realm. There are a total of five female grandmasters. This is one of the reasons why Yang Xuyan was relieved to go on the expedition.

With Li Mi's defeat and the change of ownership of Tongguan, the situation in the world changed accordingly and became increasingly unclear.

The one with the strongest power and the most aura was actually the Duke of Liao, who had always been flying the banner of the Sui Dynasty but had never proclaimed himself king or emperor. He had always regarded himself as a minister of the Sui Dynasty and was a member of the royal family's branch. Although he occupied Liaodong, Liaoxi, Hebei, Jiaodong and other places, and his military strength and wealth were the best among all the forces in the Sui Dynasty, he never proclaimed himself king or emperor, which seemed a bit old-fashioned.

Although Liaodong is powerful, it is not favored by people, probably because it still represents the Sui Dynasty, which is unacceptable to other forces, including Buddhism and aristocratic families. The Duke of Liao has no intention of giving in. He uses harsh punishments and even implements martial law during the chaos in the territory, making all forces very uncomfortable.

This has created a strange situation where Liaodong is the strongest but still not favored.

The power following closely behind should have been the Li clan, which occupied the advantageous location of Guanzhong, watched the world's situation, and was ready to attack and fight for the world at any time. However, a general with golden armor and mask seized Tongguan, cutting off the connection between Guanzhong and the Heluo Central Plains, leaving the Li Tang clan in Guanzhong in a dilemma with nowhere to exert their strength.

Furthermore, the Tang dynasty also faced the constant threat of invasion from foreign tribes such as the Turks. Internally, due to the manipulations of the Cihang Jingzhai, the conflict between Li Shimin and Li Jiancheng intensified, becoming unconcealed. Without Li Yuan's forceful suppression, the Tang dynasty's collapse under these internal and external pressures would have been a matter of time.

Despite being the victor of the Battle of Luoyang, Wang Shichong was not complacent. He found himself in a rather awkward position. Though the official ruler of Luoyang, he lacked true control over the city. He dared not easily offend even the Dugu clan, let alone the Sui imperial family. Furthermore, his prospects for development were somewhat limited. To the north, he faced difficulties in defeating his ally Dou Jiande or Duke of Liao, Yang Xuyan. To the east, Kou Zhong's territory lay beyond his reach.

Although he cruelly expelled Kou Zhong, Kou Zhong's reputation in the Luoyang army was still very high. If he led an army to attack Kou Zhong, not only would he not be sure of victory, he would also have to worry about his own soldiers turning against him.

After much thought, there is only one direction for expansion, and that is Zhu Can in the south. However, this person seems to have a background in the Demon Sect, and I wonder if this will offend Xiwang Shi Zhixuan.

Shi Zhixuan: Please don't link that cannibal scum with my Holy Sect. I don't know him, so please feel free to kill or chop him up.

Not to mention Xiao Xing and the Song clan in the south, there is another powerful bully in the north, Dou Jiande, who lost Hebei and robbed Jinyang. At this time, he was surrounded by enemies and had no idea where to start. The east and north were all territories of the Liao Kingdom, and the Liang army in the northwest had a Turkic background. He had no advantage in attacking Guanzhong to the west. He was a little confused for a while, feeling trapped here and unable to see any hope of moving forward.

The rising star Kou Zhong called himself the Young Marshal, but he was thriving in Qi and Lu. Starting from Liangdu, he took Rencheng and Xiapi, and his territorial strength continued to increase. In addition, his relationship with Du Fuwei was complicated, so he had more prospects than Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande.