System Blessing: The Young Master of the Dong Family and Diao Chan's Fate

"In the first battle, our army severely defeated the troops of Ma Teng and Han Sui, beheading over 7,000 enemies."

"Originally, after this battle, the allied forces of Han Sui and Ma Teng had already retreated to Long County."

"But it retreated and returned after half a month."

"Generals Duan, Li, and others saw this and raised their troops, but this time, a group of troops came out from the Baoxia Road and attacked our army from the rear together with Han and Ma's rebels."

"This led to our army's defeat, the beheading of General Dong Yue, and the casualties of our army reaching 10,000. It can be said that our losses were devastating."

"After this battle, we recruited over 20,000 men from Chang'an, Hedong, and other places to reinforce our army. However, since they were all new recruits or county soldiers, their combat effectiveness was limited, so our army kept losing."

"The enemy has already entered Mei County. If Mei County is breached, then Meiyang will be the only remaining line of defense."

Li Ru told Dong Yu in detail about the situation of his side since the war began.

"It should have been prepared long ago."

Dong Yu looked serious, his eyes flickering back and forth between Long County and Baoxiadao.

The first failure was to make Dong Jun take it lightly.

This would give the Yizhou soldiers who were encircling them from the rear an opportunity.

Liu Yan invested a huge amount of money this time, otherwise Han Sui and Ma Teng, two people who would not do anything without profit, would not have used such a big chip to play along with him.

The death of 7,000 people was not a small number in Xiliang, a place with an extremely sparse population.

The entire Liangzhou is vast and sparsely populated, with the total number of Han people being no more than 300,000 to 400,000.

Even if the Qiang people are included, there would be at most 700,000 to 800,000 people.

An army of seven or eight thousand people is no longer considered a small warlord in Liangzhou.

"I have some guesses."

"Liu Yan must really want to snatch the little emperor from us this time."

Li Ru nodded, agreeing with Dong Yu's opinion.

"I only brought back a little over 10,000 soldiers this time, plus 2,000 Flying Bear soldiers. This should be all the combat-ready troops Chang'an has, right?"

Dong Yu frowned and spoke.

"Over 10,000... Although it's a little small, if we hold on and wait until the enemy's food and supplies are cut off, we can still hold on."

Li Ru frowned at first, then his brows relaxed.

"No, we can't just sit there and wait for death."

"Yizhou has abundant money and grain. Although transporting grain is difficult, it is still possible to supply tens of thousands of troops."

Dong Yu shook his head, obviously not agreeing with Li Ru's conservative strategy.

Yizhou is a land of abundance, and Liu Yan had not yet fallen out with Zhang Lu at that time.

Dong Yu didn't know whether the food supply from the two fertile lands of Bashu and Hanzhong could starve the enemy to death if the war dragged on, but he would definitely be forced to eat dirt.

The Dong family now has money and grain, but most of it is stored in Luoyang and Jizhou.

Of the 100,000 shi of grain transported to Chang'an from these two places, 80,000 shi would be consumed on the way.

Chang'an doesn't have much food reserves except for the money my father earned from digging graves.

You know, Dong Zhuo and these Xiliang army soldiers were very extravagant.

Since Dong Zhuo failed to establish Meiwu for his own exclusive use, the food and supplies looted from Luoyang had already been squandered, leaving only some valuable items that could not be converted into cash.

It was in these two years that Li Ru made careful plans and achieved a bumper harvest in the Guanzhong Plain, which meant that Chang'an was temporarily not short of food.

But if they were to compete based on their strength, it would be difficult for them to defeat the other side.

"So how are you preparing?"

"Ma Teng and Han Sui commanded as many as 40,000 troops, and Liu Yan commanded over 10,000 soldiers from Yizhou."

Li Ru looked at Dong Yu with concern.

"Ma Teng and Han Sui are nothing but a mob."

"Liu Yan's Yizhou troops have been out of combat for a long time and are not to be feared."

"Ten thousand elite troops are enough."

"What's more, there are two thousand Flying Bear heavy cavalry."

Dong Yu still had confidence in himself and was not overly worried.

He had already defeated Zhu Jun, Cao Cao, and Yuan Shao, so he would not take Ma Teng and Han Sui too seriously.

Although Han Sui was known as the Nine Bends of the Yellow River, he was too afraid of death and would sell out his teammates at the slightest defeat.