Chapter 355: Long County gathers troops, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan is uneasy!

Chapter 355: Long County gathers troops, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan is uneasy!

"Two-pronged approach?" When Zhang Liang heard Gao Yao say these four words, he was slightly startled, with a hint of doubt on his face. He was about to ask Gao Yao about the exact meaning of this sentence, but at this moment, Gao Yao suddenly stood up and turned away without hesitation.

Watching Gao Yao's back gradually going away, Zhang Liang hesitated for a moment, and finally gave up the idea of ​​chasing him to ask questions. Because he knew very well that if Gao Yao was really willing to explain this so-called "two-pronged" plan, he would not have left in such a hurry without any explanation. So even if he chased him and asked again and again, it would probably only make the situation awkward, and might even cause Gao Yao's disgust, which would be really boring.

A few days later, on the other side of the battlefield, the situation was developing in a favorable direction for the imperial army. Under the leadership of General Li Xin, the morale of the army was extremely high, and they were unstoppable all the way. Now, most of Xiang County has been successfully occupied by the imperial army.

The mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, as one of the leading generals, followed the victorious pace into the county seat of Xiangjun, Yecheng. Compared with other county towns, the urban planning and construction facilities of Yecheng are obviously more complete and sophisticated. This prosperous city has now become the possession of the imperial army, and the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan is naturally qualified to lead his men to station in it.

At this time, Li Xin was in high spirits and was waiting to welcome Meng Yi at the city gate. When the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan led his troops to arrive, Li Xin did not dismount and take the initiative to greet him. Instead, he continued to sit on his horse.

The reason for this is that the imperial army, under the command of Li Xin, has won many battles and achieved fruitful results. On the other hand, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan took more than half a month and exhausted all his efforts to conquer a small Xia County. However, Li Xin, with his outstanding military talent and decisiveness, almost took the entire Xiang County into his pocket in the same period of time.

What is even more amazing is that when attacking a mere Xia County, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan lost more than 40,000 soldiers; in comparison, in the fierce battle to capture almost the entire Xiang County, the number of casualties of Li Xin's soldiers was just over 5,000. Such a huge gap inevitably made Li Xin feel proud.

Li Xin's action did not mean that he had any disrespect for the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, but simply that he had fully demonstrated his superior strength and was fully worthy of everyone's respect. Therefore, he firmly believed that there was nothing wrong with not getting off his horse to greet him. Whether it was his military experience or his ability to command troops in battle, Li Xin was convinced that there was nothing wrong with not getting off his horse.

"General, please enter the city!" Only when the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan approached did Li Xin clasp his hands together and bow.

"Okay, old general, you are so polite! Fighting is so hard, why bother coming to greet me in person?" The mysterious Yi Xiaochuan said with a smile, without any displeasure on his face, and even gently comforted the respectful old general in front of him.

In fact, all this was a conspiracy carefully planned by the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan. He knew very well that if you want to destroy someone, you must first make him crazy. Therefore, he deliberately showed extra kindness and tolerance to Li Xin, with the purpose of letting Li Xin relax his vigilance and fall into the trap he set step by step.

At this moment, Li Xin was the top general of the imperial court. He had made many outstanding achievements in the battles against the southern border and was well-known. Because of this, if Li Xin died suddenly, people would hardly point the suspicion to the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, but would only think that it was the enemy army in the southern border who secretly murdered him. In this way, Yi Xiaochuan could cleverly avoid everyone's suspicion and successfully achieve his ulterior motives.

At this moment, Yi Xiaochuan and Li Xin walked side by side, slowly walking towards the city. When they stepped into the city gate, the scene in front of them made the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan frown slightly. The streets that should have been bustling and prosperous have now become deserted, with nine out of ten houses empty, and almost no ordinary people can be seen. This unusually deserted atmosphere is as if the entire city is shrouded in a layer of haze.

"Is this the case again?" The mysterious Yi Xiaochuan muttered softly at this time. After arriving in Xia County, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan discovered that quite a few people in the county had escaped. For ordinary people, it was no big deal, but for the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, there was something wrong.

After all, the common people can also help defend the city, and Gao Yao is not dead, and has a very good mass base in the southern border. In this case, Li Xin can still easily capture a large number of cities. This makes the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan a little confused and begins to doubt whether this is Gao Yao's trick. However, this is just a suspicion after all. Now the court army has the advantage. Gao Yao is facing internal and external troubles in the true sense. It is normal to have some special circumstances.

However, this situation still existed in Yecheng, the county seat, and there were even fewer people. This made the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan feel more and more that something was wrong.

"General, what did you just say?" At this moment, Li Xin, who was standing aside, keenly noticed a hint of strangeness on the face of the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan. His heart tightened and he hurriedly asked.

The mysterious Yi Xiaochuan frowned slightly, his eyes revealing a bit of solemnity. After a moment of silence, he slowly replied: "Nothing, old general. I just want to ask, when you successfully captured Yecheng, where did the people in this city go?"

Hearing this, Li Xin was relieved, but still a little confused. He thought for a moment and then responded, "Oh, that's it. The situation is the same as before. Most of the people have fled in the direction of Guilin County. They are just ordinary people who are powerless, so I did not order the troops to stop them."

Mysterious Yi Xiaochuan nodded, indicating that he understood what Li Xin said. However, he seemed to have thought of something important, and his expression became more serious, and he asked again: "So, is there enough food and grass reserves in the city?" Obviously, he seemed to be particularly concerned about this issue and was not very reassured.

Before this, every time they captured a city, they would more or less seize a large amount of food and grass supplies from the city. At first, the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan once suspected that there might be something mysterious in these food and grass, and even worried that someone had poisoned them. But after a careful inspection and verification, he found that this was not the case, and there was nothing unusual about these food and grass.

But even so, a question always lingered in the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan's mind - since the people in the city had already fled in a hurry, why did they leave so much precious food? If this situation only occurred in one or two cities, it might be explainable; but now that similar situations have occurred one after another, it is really incredible.

Although the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan was full of doubts, the fact that he was conquering the city and robbing the land was already a fait accompli, which made him deeply entangled. Indeed, they had successfully captured most of Xiangjun, there was no doubt about that. However, Yi Xiaochuan could not figure out what benefits such an action would bring to Gaoyao.

After successfully capturing Xiang County, the army naturally did not stop, but marched directly to Guilin County without stopping. At the same time, the three armies fought together, forming a three-sided attack, which instantly put Gaoyao into a difficult situation of being attacked from both sides. As a result, Gaoyao's living space was further compressed. If he wanted to turn the tide of the war and fight back, it would be almost impossible unless he could get some unexpected assistance.

At this time, Li Xin came to report the battle situation: "General, although the enemy attempted to burn all the food and grass during the retreat, the fire could not be completely controlled, and a lot of food and grass were preserved. These remaining food and grass are at least enough to sustain our 100,000 troops for two days." When saying this, Li Xin's tone unconsciously revealed a hint of relief.

However, when the same words reached the ears of the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, although it seemed that there was nothing wrong on the surface, the inexplicable feeling of uneasiness in his heart became heavier. This uneasiness was like a dark cloud covering his heart, lingering.

When they finally arrived at the government office, they still saw very few people along the way. This abnormal phenomenon made the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan feel a strong sense of uneasiness. The mysterious Yi Xiaochuan frowned and looked around at the empty streets with a serious look. After a moment, he decisively turned around and ordered his subordinates beside him: "You quickly take people and divide into several teams to conduct a detailed investigation in various places in the city! Be sure to find out the reason for the scarcity of people as soon as possible and whether there are any potential threats."

After receiving the order, the subordinates acted quickly, leading some soldiers to rush in different directions like arrows from a bow. At this time, Li Xin, who came with the mysterious Yi Xiaochuan, also followed him into the mansion. As soon as he entered the door, Li Xin couldn't wait to report the current situation to Yi Xiaochuan.

"General, according to our latest intelligence, the Southern Border Army is now gathering troops on a large scale in Long County. From all indications, it is very likely that Gao Yao, seeing our army's unstoppable and rapid progress, is trying to replicate the situation of the Battle of Xia County in Long County, in an attempt to delay our army's advance by fighting a protracted war of time with us. In my opinion, the current plan should be to concentrate all our superior forces and do our utmost to capture Long County in one fell swoop, so as to completely crush Gao Yao's stubborn resistance. At this moment, Long County has gathered more than 10,000 defenders. If we can take the lead in launching a strong attack while the enemy is not yet fully deployed, we will surely achieve twice the result with half the effort!"