But King Xiu Tu suddenly smashed the top of a centaur's head with his right axe. After being blocked, he immediately raised his left axe and chopped the centaur in half from the center of the horse's back! He smashed its upper body into a meat paste with another axe! After two axe strikes, not only did the centaur die, but the ground under his hooves was also shaken to form terrifying spider-web-like cracks.
After a successful strike, King Xiutu didn't care how many long spears and hammers tore his armor and hurt his flesh. He caught the second horse and launched another fierce attack. The two-handed axe fell from the sky like a storm, and chopped the horse into pieces in the blood splattering all over the sky.
Although he had the advantage in close combat, without the sniper attack from King Xiutu, Gao Huan regained his original form in the sky and continued to command his troops with flag signals, trying to encircle the two thousand orcs, and efficiently surrounded King Xiutu who was surrounding the enemy and annihilated him here.
After fighting with Yuwen Tai for a while, King Xiutu also noticed Gao Huan's little move. He suddenly felt his scalp tingling. He waved the blood-stained giant axe with both hands, spinning on the spot like a scarlet storm, forcing back the remaining troops and slowly retreating with the army to join the orc troops that surrounded Ding Yuan, to avoid being encircled and annihilated by He Liuhun.
Yuwen Tai and Gao Huan took the opportunity to hunt him down. King Xiutu had no time to hunt Ding Yuan at this moment. He was afraid that Ding Yuan would rush out and cooperate with the two Xianbei girls to attack him from both sides. So he had to break the encirclement and began to retreat in a coordinated and orderly manner with his army.
Yuwen Tai assessed the situation. Although King Xiutu had lost the battle, he had only retreated. Ding Yuan's troops had been fighting since they were attacked last night, and it was hard to say how much combat power they had left.
However, after a long journey from Zishi and a quick march to here, their troops were exhausted. They immediately ordered to abandon the pursuit. The two armies returned to their camps and formed a standoff in the valley between Zishi and Lishi.
The author says:
Author's words: 2600 monthly tickets plus more~
Chapter 169: The Warlord's Mindset
On March 6, the fifth year of Zhongping, Liu Zhuang arrived at Zishi with two thousand personal soldiers, a battalion of military households, and a battalion of soldiers from aristocratic families, a total of seven thousand people. He began to recruit thousands of troops on the spot, and obtained three thousand troops from Yuwen Tai, Gao Huan, and Tuoba Yun, with a total force of over ten thousand.
If it weren't for the spring plowing, Liuzhuang could have recruited more well-trained military households. Unfortunately, it is March now, and large-scale conscription will seriously affect this year's grain harvest.
Seeing Liu Zhuang arriving at the front battlefield, Ding Yuan breathed a sigh of relief. He looked at this young man who had taken away a large number of his officers and even made Lu Bu powerful, and now became a General of the Central Army like himself. He couldn't help but have mixed feelings and didn't know what to say.
But when he turned his gaze and looked at Lu Bu standing beside him, his mind was filled with a myriad of thoughts and he didn't know where to start. After pondering for a long time, he just smiled and bowed to Liu Zhuang, thanking him for the rescue. "I am an ally of the Bingzhou family, and you are the son-in-law of the Bingzhou family. We are all a family now. Let's not mention the past. Let's not mention it."
Liu Zhuang quickly sorted out the intelligence and found that King Xiutu's number of troops was about 20,000. Xihe County was completely occupied and Xihe prefect Xing Ji died for his country.
Bingzhou Governor Zhang Yi brought 10,000 men with him, but now only 5,000 men from Ding Yuan's two border army camps are left. Moreover, Bingzhou Governor Zhang Yi was also killed in a night attack a few days ago.
What the hell is this a sky-shattering start... I was just trying to wipe out a white wave bandit, but the two highest commanders of the friendly army were killed by orcs? How can I support the Han Dynasty with such a weakling? ? ?
Liu Zhuang was speechless and sent scouts into Xihe County for investigation. Xihe County was isolated to the west of Taiyuan Basin by the majestic Luliang Mountains. There were only a few naturally formed mountain passes that could be crossed. The conventional road into Xihe was the mountain pass connecting the two cities of Zishi and Lishi. It was on this road that Zhang Yi and Ding Yuan were defeated by the orcs in a night raid.
The trouble is that Liu Zhuang's scouts found that Lishi had completely fallen. King Xiu Tu sent orcs to urgently block the gate of Xihe. If he wants to enter Xihe, he must first cross the mountain pass of more than ten miles, and then attack Lishi, the seat of Xihe County, a strong city...
King Xiu Tu did not come to the south to plunder and rob a wave of money and leave, he came to capture cities and territories! He really planned to make Xihe County the second home of the Hu people!
Just when Liu Zhuang and Ding Yuan were urgently discussing how to recapture Xihe County, bad news continued to come in one after another.
Liangzhou was too far away from him, and before he knew the specific situation, the entire Liangzhou fell completely.
Bingzhou, which was so close at hand, was collapsing and disintegrating bit by bit almost right before his eyes.
In the north, King Xiutu bribed the Xianbei troops at the foot of the Yin Mountains, and they launched a large-scale and fierce attack towards the north of Yanmen County. The five remaining Yanmen camps were withdrawn by Zhang Yi, the governor of Bingzhou, and two camps were sent south to fight the Huns. Therefore, due to the lack of troops, they were beaten extremely badly by the Xianbei and suffered heavy losses.
Another large number of troops from the south of the desert poured into Dai County. Now Dai County was almost completely occupied. Yanmen was under nomadic pressure from both Dingxiang in the northwest and Dai County in the northeast. The defense line had completely collapsed due to severe shortage of troops.
In the east, the Black Mountain Army completely controlled Jingxing and began to move south through Jingxing to Shangdang County and west to Taiyuan County to incite the people to rebellion. At one point, the army approached Jinyang, and the fire of the prairie fire burned throughout Bingzhou.
In the west, after King Xiu Tu completely controlled Xihe County, he blocked Lishi and guarded the fortress to prevent Liu Zhuang and Ding Yuan from entering Xihe, while sending troops from the northern mountain pass to advance to Fenyang! This place is a three-way intersection, extremely hub and key.
Fenyang is located in the upper reaches of the Fen River. Going upstream is Yanmen County, and going downstream is Xihe County. Going downstream, you can bypass the mountain fortress of the Zi family and go straight to the seat of Taiyuan County, the heart of the Bingzhou Provincial Government: Jinyang.
In other words, the last three counties of Bingzhou, Yanmen County had its defense line broken by the Xianbei troops, Shangdang County was seriously infiltrated by the Black Mountain Army, and the last Taiyuan County was attacked from both the east and west by King Xiutu and the Black Mountain Army. The entire Bingzhou was already in name only.
Liu Zhuang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Fortunately, he had spent four or five years to change Hedong County. Otherwise, Hedong County would have directly become the base camp of the Baibo Army. After being attacked from three sides by the Xianbei troops in the north, the Xiutu King in the west, and the Black Mountain Army in the east, the south would also be stabbed in the ass by the Baibo Army. It would really collapse.
If I remember correctly, when Ding Yuan became the governor of Bingzhou, he went all the way to Henei to recruit soldiers - Henei County! That was not a county under Bingzhou, but a Sili area on the Yellow River!
But it doesn't matter. Although he was a powerless person in the late Han Dynasty, he had changed Hedong County and made this fertile and strategic land his safe rear base. Now in the south of Bingzhou, there are no Baibo bandits, but himself with strong soldiers and horses. There is still hope, there is still hope.
The Bingzhou Provincial Government's situation, which was bound to be a death situation in history, was at least reduced to the level of hell by itself. From being surrounded on all sides, it became surrounded on three sides, and there was still a glimmer of hope.
Just as Bingzhou was in a corrupt situation that even the dogs would shake their heads at, the Han Emperor's edict arrived, urgently appointing Bingzhou's last armed force: Ding Yuan, the General of the Northern Di, to concurrently serve as Bingzhou's Governor and Cavalry Commandant, to clean up the mess in Bingzhou that no one wanted to deal with.
"Gone?"
Ding Yuan looked up in disbelief and looked at the eunuch who was reading the imperial edict.
"Just give me the seal of a governor, and the central government won't allocate any money or grain? Wasn't what I wrote in the letter clear enough? Bingzhou is finished! Does His Majesty think that with just my five battalions of Yanmen that were beaten down, and Liu Fujun's five battalions of Hedong, we can fight against the Xianbei troops, the Black Mountain rebels, and the Xiu Tu Xiongnu at the same time???"
"Sir Governor, Your Majesty also has his own difficulties."
The eunuch's feminine voice also revealed deep helplessness and sighs.
"The whole country is at war. Your Majesty needs to deal with the bandits in Yanzhou and Yuzhou, which are close to Luoyang, first, and then deal with you. Please be patient for the time being, the two Lieutenants."
Ding Yuan's old face was filled with anger, but he was helpless. What else could he do? Could I lead my troops to Luoyang and put my halberd on the neck of the Han emperor to force him to provide me with troops, money and food?
On that day, Ding Yuan immediately ordered the three battalions that were still fighting hard with troops at the Yanmen border to abandon their already broken defense lines, quickly move south, abandon the entire Yanmen County and join him!
Fuck it! I fought my life off to defend the border, but the imperial court gave me nothing but soldiers, money and food? My people were not fully staffed, and we had to fight the Xianbei people while we were hungry? I won't defend the border anymore!
My soldiers have suffered heavy casualties. I must immediately go south to the wealthy Henei County, regroup my troops there, gather food and fodder, and then wait for an opportunity to return to Bingzhou.
Seeing that Ding Yuan was about to run away, Liu Zhuang could no longer hold back and immediately stopped him.
"Jianyang, why did you abandon your defenses and leave the people of Bingzhou?"
Liu Zhuang called out Ding Yuan's name, trying to stop him. Now Bingzhou is surrounded by powerful enemies on the east, west and north, and they are all attacking us fiercely. At this time, only the two of us can hold on to the situation in Bingzhou. You still want to run???
"Yan Sheng, I had no choice."
Ding Yuan seemed to have aged ten years during this period. He looked even older and his hair had turned white due to worry.
"I won't hide it from you. This is Bingzhou's household registration book. Yanmen County has a population of 25, Taiyuan County has a population of 30, and Shangdang County has a population of 15. The total population is not as large as your Hedong County. Half of them are slaves of the Guo family in Yangqu, the Wang family in Taiyuan, and the Wang family in Qi County. I can only collect taxes from 35 people, but in Yanmen alone, I have to support more than full-time soldiers to deal with the Xianbei invasion."
Ding Yuan said helplessly.
"You have lived in Yanmen before, so you know how rampant the soldiers are. You have also been a governor, so you know how expensive it is to maintain an army. Previously, Jizhou and Sili could supply Yanmen with grain, but now there is not a drop left. We have to hire cheap foreign soldiers and use criminals as soldiers to make up for the deficit.
But now, the Xianbei people have broken through the Yanmen defense line, and their troops are scattered all over the county, frantically looting the villages and people along the way. It can be seen that the people of Yanmen are lucky enough to be able to feed themselves this year, and it is impossible for them to pay taxes. Taiyuan and Shangdang are not much better, and the Black Mountain Army is everywhere!
The money and food in the Bingzhou treasury is running low, and the army I have can only support myself for three months at most. If I can't get more money and food, not to mention the foreigners, this army composed of a large number of foreigners and criminals will mutiny and kill me."
"I can lend you some food."
Liu Zhuang immediately proposed to borrow grain and let Ding Yuan stay. He had been harvesting grain under the military land system for two years and had a stockpile of 26 million shi of grain and fodder, which was enough to support Ding Yuan in a short period of time.
"Food alone is useless."
Ding Yuan continued to complain.
"My two battalions fought two battles with the orcs, and more than one-tenth of them were killed or wounded. The three northern battalions lost more than one-fifth of their troops. I need troops, lots of them! You can lend me food and fodder, but you can't lend me troops, right? Taiyuan and Shangdang are not safe anymore. I must go to Hanoi immediately to recruit troops and food. Hanoi is also a large county with a population of 800,000."
Liu Zhuang was speechless for a moment. He now understood that Ding Yuan's claims about lack of money and food and insufficient troops were all excuses. He was a pure warlord. Like everyone else, he understood that the Han Dynasty was about to collapse, so he wanted to preserve the strength of his troops and reap the most fruitful results at the moment when the world was in chaos.
These soldiers are my personal property and are not the troops of the Han Dynasty.
Therefore, the lack of food and the heavy losses of soldiers were all excuses. All Ding Yuan wanted now was to stay away from the completely collapsed Bingzhou and hide in the safe Henei County to accumulate food and soldiers, waiting for major changes in the world.
Liu Zhuang knew that Ding Yuan was determined to leave, so he stopped trying to dissuade him and began to plan how to retake the lost Bingzhou by himself.
If the ally was someone else, Ding Yuan would definitely leave now, but now the ally happened to be Liu Zhuang. Both of them were in the circle of Bingzhou aristocratic families and were considered the same small faction. They saw each other every day. If he betrayed him here, he would definitely not be able to hold his head up when they met in the Bingzhou aristocratic families in the future... Ding Yuan thought about it carefully, and before leaving, he solemnly selected five rare items and handed them to Liu Zhuang.
"Yan Sheng, I know you're under a lot of pressure now that I'm gone. Here, take it. This is a top-quality item I captured during my battles with the Xianbei over the years. It can enhance the strength of you and your three wives!
Please ask Yan Sheng to hold on in Bingzhou first. When I gather my troops in Hanoi, I will head north as soon as possible to fight alongside you again!"
Chapter 170: Fang Tian Hua Ji
Liu Zhuang took Ding Yuan's apology gift and took a closer look. They were indeed five top-quality rare items.
[Red Dragon Scale Armor]: A flaming armor forged with real dragon scales, protection +10, fire immunity, all enemies within a ten-foot range will suffer 1 point of flame damage every 1 second.
【方天画戟】：3~13点魔法伤害、1~6点烈焰伤害、1~6点寒冰伤害、1~6点闪电伤害、1~6点酸蚀伤害，暴击率15%，暴击伤害300%。
Whenever you cause magic/fire/ice/lightning/acid damage, a [Kill Mark] of the corresponding element type is added to the target. When the marked person is damaged by other attributes, an additional 2 to 12 points of damage will be added. The mark lasts for 60 seconds.
[Advanced Perception Amulet]: +6 Perception.
[Advanced Intelligence Headband]: +6 Intelligence.
[Advanced Constitution Amulet]: +6 Constitution.
After Ding Yuan presented his apology, he immediately left Bingzhou with his troops and went to Henei County to recruit soldiers. Liu Zhuang also immediately took these rare items to enhance the strength of himself and his three wives. The Red Dragon Scale Armor and Fang Tian Painted Halberd were naturally given to Lu Bu.
Five years ago, Lu Bu had to kneel down and call Ding Yuan "dad" before he could take these treasures. After she refused, he naturally had no share of these things.
Five years later, Ding Yuan had to apologize and personally take out these things and give them to Lu Bu and Liu Zhuang for free as compensation.
Liu Zhuang naturally accepted the advanced perception amulet with +6 perception himself, replacing his own low-level perception amulet with +2 perception, raising his perception from 22 to 26. His pupils became brighter and his ears became clearer. When fighting alone, his doubled perception made the battle more terrifying.
An advanced intelligence headband with +6 intelligence was given to Guo Huai, a modern Confucian scholar. Wearing this decorative silver headband can greatly enhance her Confucian power.
The +6 constitution amulet naturally belongs to Tuoba Yun. She does not need to stack strength and agility. She has everything after turning into an animal, but her physical fitness and health bar will not change. It is perfect to use this to increase her constitution and life.
After strengthening the four men, Liu Zhuang began to consider how to solve the Bingzhou problem alone. First of all, the most troublesome one was the Xiongnu's King Xiutu. Only one Xiongnu king appeared in the Southern Xiongnu, and the whole Bingzhou was in chaos. If several Xiongnu kings, or even the Xiongnu Great Khan came in person, Liu Zhuang dared not even think about it.
Before the Southern Xiongnu kings could re-establish themselves as the Great Khan through their fists, they had to quickly get rid of King Xiutu, or at least pin him down in Xihe so that he could not move.
But the problem is that the terrain of Bingzhou is too fragmented by mountains and rivers, with countless basins connected to each other. Each basin has natural barriers.
King Xiutu is in Xihe County. His current strategy is to defend Zishi in the south and attack Fenyang in the north. He can arrive there in one or two days by going straight ahead.
However, Liu Zhuang's troops are currently stationed in Zishi. If he doesn't take the Xihe County route and takes a detour to Fenyang, the distance will increase three times! What if King Xiu Tu suddenly goes south to attack Zishi on my way to Fenyang and breaks through my defense line in one go?
Then, march directly from Zishi to Xihe? What a joke, it's not like I haven't seen the siege and defense technology of the Southern Xiongnu before. Crossing dozens of miles of dangerous mountain roads to attack the mountain fortress of Lishi...
Liu Zhuang thought about it carefully and decided that no, he had to go to save Fenyang. The strategic location of that place was too critical. Fenyang was located in the upper reaches of the Fen River. Going upstream was Yanmen County, and going downstream was Xihe County. Going downstream, he could bypass the mountain fortress of the Zi family and go straight to the seat of Taiyuan County, the heart of the Bingzhou Provincial Government: Jinyang.
In order to save Jinyang, Fenyang must not be lost!
In order to prevent King Xiutu from playing tricks on him and suddenly abandoning Fenyang to counterattack Zishi, Liu Zhuang placed Lu Bu and the White Horse Camp in Zishi to guard it, and also let Lu Ze assist him. He originally wanted to let Zhang He defend here, but considering that Yuwen Tai brought eight brave and combative cavalry generals to besiege King Xiutu, not only did he fail to capture King Xiutu, but even three of them were killed in the counterattack, he did not dare to bet whether Zhang He could stop it. After all, Yuwen Tai was the strongest person under Lu Bu.
To be on the safe side, Liu Zhuang directly placed his most capable general, Lu Bu, in the most critical position, mobilized half of the ten thousand troops, and at the same time recruited a group of corvée laborers and a battalion of peasant soldiers led by Xu Huang.
In the end, he led 2,000 personal guards, 2,500 military households, 2,500 soldiers from aristocratic families, and 5,000 cavalry, a total of 12,000 people, to rescue Fenyang!
On the march, Liu Zhuang was not idle either. He assisted Xu Huang in training all night long, which made Xu Huang flattered. He had just surrendered, and not only was he appointed as Sima of a separate department, but he also let Fu Jun follow him every day to assist him in training and become stronger?
Xu Huang was a good talent, but unfortunately her status was too low. As a result, although she was gifted and had grown all the way to level twelfth, she actually learned the twelve most ordinary warrior professions.
This dragon blood talent called "Severance of Magic Source" is even more powerful. It is the nemesis of all spellcasters. With a little training, it will surely become a powerful general who can march straight into the enemy territory.
Therefore, since the day Xu Huang surrendered, Liu Zhuang has been giving her extra training to improve her character level. The one who is best at Xu Huang is naturally the [Dragon Vein Warlock].
This profession is not very strong among all the professions. For modern and ancient Confucian scholars, the dragon vein sorcerer's spellcasting ability is too weak.
However, for top combat professions like Yulin Cavalry, the combat capability of the Dragon Vein Warlock is not good enough.
However, the Dragon Vein Warlock still has its unique features. After completing the 10 levels of Dragon Vein Warlock, the professional will gain high attribute growth of Strength +8, Constitution +2, Intelligence +2, Charisma +2, and because dragon scales grow on the body, he gains an additional 4 points of natural defense, immunity against a certain element, and develops dragon-like characteristics, gaining additional natural weapons for combat.
These rewards are neither high nor low. You can get these bonuses by casting some magic spells or buying some equipment.
But the problem is, as long as you get close to Xu Huang, all magic, even all magical objects and equipment will lose their magical effects and turn into Muggles.
Xu Huang cannot use any magic equipment at all and cannot cast any magic amplification, so the Dragon Vein Warlock's permanent physical amplification is very suitable for Xu Huang himself.
Apart from this, the only thing that can increase physical strength is the barbarian's rage. Lu Bu also taught Xu Huang all the whirlwind rage techniques of his lion totem barbarian.
Chapter 171: Reborn
Seeing that the Lord and his Lady valued him so much and taught him personally, Xu Huang was deeply moved and honed his fighting skills day and night.
During these few days, Liu Zhuang also personally witnessed how she commanded the troops. Perhaps because he also climbed up from the bottom, Xu Huang was a very honest and simple person. Even after he rose to the top, he still did not change his eating habits as a minor official. He cherished the opportunity given to him by Liu Zhuang. After borrowing a military book from Liu Zhuang and learning how to command the army and fight wars from scratch, he trained the soldiers according to the rules in a rigid manner, without changing a word.
Including himself, anyone who made contributions would be rewarded, and anyone who made mistakes would be punished. As a result, the soldiers both respected and feared this new Sima of the separate department. He managed the army very strictly, much like Zhou Yafu.
Xu Huang practiced martial arts during the day and read at night, studying madly and training his combat skills. When the army arrived in Jinyang, Xu Huang had already initially understood the tricks of the dragon vein sorcerer. On both sides of his very old-fashioned and serious face, probably around the ears, some very gorgeous blue-purple dragon scales grew.
"Gongming, I have another way to increase your strength. It is a method I saw in the collection of Yangqu Guo's books: In ancient times, some Confucian scholars would make a solemn promise to the Great Sage Master, exchanging a lifetime of poverty and integrity for greater power, which is the [Poverty Vow]."
Liu Zhuang took out a scroll of bamboo slips brought by Guo Huai.
"To be specific, this is a specialty. Its abilities and side effects are very powerful. You need to keep a lifelong oath. You can only use ordinary non-magical weapons and wear clothes and armor without magical properties. You cannot use scrolls, potions, strange objects, and other magical props. As long as you follow these rules and vows, you can gain extremely powerful power."
"that's it?"
Xu Huang asked doubtfully.
"That's all. As long as you follow the above oath, you can gain a lot of abilities and benefits brought by the [Oath of Poverty] based on your own level."
"Isn't this just freeloading? I couldn't use these things anyway, so I learned them."
