Fearing being killed for his overwhelming merits, the empress decided to marry him.

On June 15th, Gao Zang personally led an army of 60,000 men toward Rangzhou City.

He sat with his eyes closed on the tall horse, the words Murong Ke had said to him swirling in his mind.

"My king, I know you must be very proud right now. You burned 80,000 of my Great Yan soldiers to death with one fire, turning the tide of the war in one fell swoop."

This battle was indeed a resounding victory, but don't forget, behind my Great Yan are tens of millions of soldiers and civilians.

Does the king want to see our Great Yan fighting Goguryeo to the death, relentlessly and regardless of the cost?

"Furthermore, I also know that Wang Neng reached some kind of agreement with the other side, otherwise he wouldn't have used the feint attack strategy."

"Of course, Your Majesty, please don't misunderstand. Goguryeo won this battle. At least for now, Great Yan is no longer able to continue its entanglement with you."

"I have come here today only to remind Your Majesty that the situation in Liaodong must be handled internally, and we should not allow another force to break this rule."

"After all, the conflict between my Great Yan and your Goguryeo is merely a tributary relationship. If you want Goguryeo to break away from Great Yan and refuse to pay tribute, then I will grant your request."

"But has Your Majesty considered whether you can handle the sudden changes in Liaodong once you are free from the constraints of Great Yan?"

"Think about it carefully. As long as the relationship between Great Yan and Goguryeo is one of kinship, it's still a matter of mutual dependence."

But the power behind you is aiming to bring the entire Liaodong region under its control.

If Your Majesty doesn't believe me, you can return to Rangzhou and find out the situation, and see if they are willing to return Rangzhou City to Your Majesty intact.

Recalling Murong Ke's words, Gao Zang's heart began to waver again.

At least Murong Ke was right about one thing: Gao Zang had no understanding of the attitude of the State of Chu.

For a hegemonic power that is already familiar with the regional environment, the biggest concern is not whether the known enemies have become stronger, but the sudden emergence of a completely unpredictable third-party force that will disrupt the familiar pattern.

An agreement, a convention—it's nothing more than a trick of compromise between equally powerful individuals.

If the two sides are not evenly matched, the validity of this agreement depends entirely on the attitude of the stronger party.

Perhaps today you are my partner, a hero who safeguards world peace.

But tomorrow, perhaps the so-called partner will turn out to be a monster against humanity, and he must be completely destroyed, both physically and mentally.

Neither Gao Zang nor Murong Ke actually wanted to deal with an unfamiliar third party intervening in this already familiar area.

Goguryeo, in particular, only knew about the Chu Kingdom from what they had learned from the Northern Yan region, and had no further knowledge of it.

While Gao Zang was still on horseback pondering how to face Shen Lang in Rangzhou City...

"Whoosh~"

"Pfft~"

An arrow pierced the air and struck a knight in the throat, throwing him off his horse.

"Enemy attack!"

"Blow the horn!"

Woo~~

Warning horns immediately sounded in the Goguryeo army, and all the infantry and cavalry immediately formed a defensive formation, protecting Gao Zang and his personal guards in the center of the army.

"Xu~"

"Clack-clack—"

The next moment, a mournful neighing of horses, accompanied by the thunderous roar of iron hooves, appeared on the open field, stirring up a cloud of yellow sand.

"They're Soron people?!"

Upon seeing the tattered wolf banner in the distance, Gao Zang let out an angry roar.

"How dare these lowly beggars attack my Goguryeo army?"

Gazing at the warhorses galloping in a circular formation across the open field ahead, Gao Cang's teeth were practically grinding to powder.

"Your Majesty, what should we do now?"

"Deploy heavy cavalry and annihilate them all in one fell swoop!"

Seeing that there were only about two thousand cavalrymen on the other side, Gao Zang felt a little relieved and immediately ordered his heavy cavalry to attack and deal with the Solon harassment.

Upon receiving the order, the two thousand Goguryeo heavy cavalry immediately stepped forward, formed a single battle formation, and slowly attacked the Solon people with their heavy iron spears held level.

Regarding the Soren tribe...

"Brother, it's Goguryeo heavy cavalry!"

"That tyrant Gaozang really thinks highly of our Solon tribe, launching a heavy cavalry charge right from the start."

"Then what should we do?"

"Don't rush, spread out and outflank them, then close the distance to within five steps and take them out!"

After Shen Lang occupied Rangzhou City, he obtained nearly 10,000 warhorses, and without saying a word, he directly distributed 4,000 of them to the Solon tribe.

Currently, the most skilled archers in his army are the Solon tribe, and their warhorses can only unleash their true potential in their hands.

At Hailan's command, the two thousand Solon soldiers immediately split into two, maintaining their flanking formation, and began to employ "kite tactics" against the Goguryeo heavy cavalry.

When the Goguryeo general Ju Chi, who was in charge of commanding the heavy cavalry attack, saw the formation of the Solon troops, he couldn't help but show a look of disdain.

"Trying to use the advantage of light cavalry to wear down the stamina of my heavy cavalry? That's ridiculous."

Ju Chi was very confident. Although the armor of the heavy cavalry was not as good as that of the heavy cavalry, it was absolutely impossible to penetrate it with long-range crossbows.

Moreover, one of the biggest advantages of heavy cavalry over light cavalry is that their speed is not much slower.

Soon, a massive chase between cavalrymen officially began on the open field.

"Five men per team, spread out on both flanks, force them to disperse, and then cut through the encirclement!"

"it is good!"

As the Goguryeo cavalry behind him began to approach as expected, Hylan quickly devised the best tactics.

The two thousand cavalrymen immediately took cover from the dust and smoke caused by the trampling of horses' hooves and dispersed in groups of five.

"Rush over."

Upon seeing this, Ju Chi's eyes turned cold, and he shouted as he launched a full-scale charge.

He wanted to catch up with the Soren soldiers before they completely dispersed, so that he could crush them all in one fell swoop, and he did not want to pursue them separately.

"Drink!"

Upon receiving the order, the heavy cavalry immediately began to charge towards the Solon troops.

The two cavalry forces drew ever closer, now less than twenty paces apart.

"Don't panic, slow down, and zoom in a little closer!"

"No arrows are to be fired from more than five paces away! Do you all hear me?!"

After noticing the enemy approaching, Hailan slowly took down the carved bow from behind her.

A barbed, poisoned arrow coated with horse manure was already nocked on the bowstring.

"Seven, eight, six..."

"shooting!"

After silently counting to five, the four cavalrymen following Hailanyin suddenly turned around on their horses, drew their bows, and fired arrows in one swift motion.

Swoosh swoosh swoosh—

Puff puff--

"Uu——"

At a distance of five steps, even if you are wearing plate armor, you cannot withstand a composite bow shot at such close range.

In an instant, each of the four Sauron cavalrymen fired three arrows, instantly shooting down the heavy cavalrymen who were almost within range.

At the same moment, the sharp whistling of arrows breaking the dawn and the mournful cries of men and horses falling to their deaths echoed from other parts of the battlefield.

The high-frequency close-range volleys taught this well-equipped Goguryeo cavalry a lesson.

In less than a quarter of an hour, the once-fierce heavy cavalry found themselves in a passive situation, being "bloodied and humiliated" by the Sauron soldiers.