Chapter 47: Under Pingliang City

  Gongsun Ce successfully surrendered the hesitant and undecided enemy general, whose surname was Zhuge and first name Shuang. Before his death, he was the governor of the precursor troops to the Dingnan Army, but after being revived, he became a vague and confused Xiaowei of the Dingnan Army.

  As before, the letter of surrender was used again and then faded away. The two hundred elite soldiers under the command of the surrendered general turned into flying ash and transformed into war souls, throwing themselves into Gong Sun Ce's sea of consciousness. The remaining troops changed their flags and became the new garrison of Huazhen, numbering around seven or eight hundred people. In other words, Xuzhu Shuang, who had just surrendered, was now a commander without an army.

  "Junior General Shu, pay your respects to our lord!" Zhuge Shuang had a long face and narrow eyes, giving people a somewhat gloomy feeling.

  "Tell me about the situation inside Pingliang City!" Gong Sun Ce used his Tiger Tally to summon a symbol horse, indicating for Xun Yu to mount up and speak.

  "My lord, within Pingliang City, there are only over a thousand defending soldiers, extremely empty and weak. However, Li Siguang's younger brother Li Sixiao has mobilized the able-bodied civilians in the city to put on armor and hold weapons, lining up on the city walls to create a false impression of strength. Another younger brother, Li Si Jing, led his personal cavalry out of the north gate, rushing towards Xiazhou to seek help from Li Siguang."

  "Li Si Jian? He is also Li Si Gong's younger brother?" Gong Sun Ce couldn't understand why Li Si Gong's subordinates were so weak, considering that Western Xia had been established for over 200 years.

  Li Siyan was the second younger brother of Li Sigong... Speaking of which, Zhuge Shuang still knew Li Siyan. The original Li Sigong could be considered as one of his subordinates, but at that time Li Sigong was just a small general in Xia State, called Tuoba Sigong, and had not yet changed his surname after rising to prominence. How could he have entered the eyes of Zhuge Shuang, who was a regional military governor?

  Tuoba Sijian followed his elder brother Tuoba Sigong in suppressing the Huang Chao rebellion and was granted the surname Li. After Li Sigong's death, Li Sijian succeeded him as the military governor of Dingnan Circuit and was created Prince of Xia State, with the honorary titles of acting Sikong (Minister of Works) and Tong Zhongshu Menxia Pingzhangshi (a high-ranking advisory position).

  Wang Xingyu rebelled, and the court appointed Li Siyuan as the commander of the northeastern face. In the first year of Kaiping in Later Liang (907), Zhu Wen granted Li Siyuan the title of Taifu and concurrently served as Shizhong. In the second year (908), Li Siyuan died, and the three armies established Li Yichang, the grandson of Li Sigong, as the acting commander.

  It can be said that Li Siguang laid the foundation for the development of the Li family, like Sun Ce; and Li Sizhen was like Sun Quan, who preserved and passed on this foundation, and slightly expanded it. The difference is that the career of the Li family did not fall to the branch of Li Sizhen, but still fell to the branch of Li Siguang. From this point of view, Li Siguang was more fortunate than Sun Ce. Maybe because his younger brother Li Sizhen didn't live as long as Sun Quan, he could have thoroughly cleaned up the internal factions.

  As Li Jia had only four brothers resurrected, Li Si Gong relied on his pre-death prestige and the advantage of being an elder brother to become the King of Xia.

  Li Siyan also received support from some of the Dingnan Army generals, and spent his days in Xiazhou, far more prosperous than Li Sigong who was trapped in Pingliang Commandery. Without any generals, Li Sigong could only be defeated by Gongsun Ce outside the city of Jinghe County.

  As expected, Gong Sun Zan's army arrived outside Pingliang City and saw that Song Xian's troops had just arrived.

  Gongsun Zan retreated his army five miles to prepare for camping, and Song Xian's unit did the same. They stood facing each other, also confronting the defending troops inside the city.

  Gao Shun was left in charge of the camp, while he took Yu Rong and Liu Wei to inspect the surrounding terrain, and incidentally approached the outer reaches of Song Hui's camp. In the distance, inside Song Hui's military camp, apart from the 2,000-strong vanguard, there were more than 4,000 Liang troops transporting supplies and building fences.

  "Song Pei's strength recovered quickly, with a solid foundation of organization that we can't match. In just three days, he has rallied another large army!"

  "But most of them are military souls that have just been revived, we can break through them!" Liu Wei put down his binoculars, he saw that many of the Liang army's movements were stiff, their armor was tattered and disheveled, they looked exactly like military souls who had just awakened.

  Gongsun Ce took the telescope and looked, indeed it was so. He began to weigh the pros and cons in his mind: he had one unit of Chu Bing with 1,000 soldiers, two units of Ge Bing with 400 soldiers each, and one unit of Nu Bing with 200 soldiers; totaling 2,200 people. There were also Gao Shun's Tianbing 200 soldiers, Jiang Peng's 200 gunners, Du Yuanzheng's 200 archers on horseback, and Li Zixu's 200 knife-shield soldiers in the rear logistics.

  "It's done! I know Pingliang City is empty, but Song Pei doesn't! As long as we defeat Song Pei and take advantage of the momentum of our great victory, Pingliang Prefecture will fall in the blink of an eye!" Gong Sun Ce's soldiers were all elite troops from the White Silver Stage, seasoned veterans of many battles. Li Ziqi and Jiang Peng's 400 Heavenly Soldiers were also a blend of the brave and strong remnants left behind by Gao Shun, with impressive combat strength.

  Du Yuanzheng's 200 archers and cavalry have also grown up, and their riding and shooting skills are passable. As for Gao Shun's Trapping Array Heavenly Soldiers, that is a big killer, which can be used as two thousand people! Placed on a narrow battlefield, it is invincible, and no one can match it. For specific combat mode, refer to the 300 Spartans defending Thermopylae.

  "Go back to camp!" Gong Sun Ce spoke and acted immediately, patted his horse and turned around to leave, afraid of wasting time.

  Gongsun Zan could see the Liao army with his telescope, and naturally they could also see him. Seeing him observing their camp, Ma Cheng started to frown, thinking that Gongsun Zan might be up to some trickery again.

  To know that night's raid, he and Gong Sun Ce had a bit of tacit understanding. That is, he did not interfere with Gong Sun Ce's night raid, on the condition that he would rescue Song Pei in the end. He finally led his troops to reinforce, ordering them to charge into the enemy formation, just to give Gong Sun Ce experience.

  He didn't expect Gong Sun Ce to not only gain experience from the miscellaneous soldiers, but also wipe out his half-brother's main force in one breath, which really drove him crazy. Thinking back to three days ago, Ma Cheng's lollipop was crushed directly in his mouth, making a cracking sound, as if he was chewing on someone's bones.

  "He wants to fight!" Seeing Gong Sun Ce's resolute turn and departure, Ma Cheng immediately guessed Gong Sun Ce's mindset. He got up from the hidden grass bush and went straight to report to Song Pei.

  "Marshal Ma is in such a hurry, has something big happened? Give your brother some insight, okay?" A military marquis was on duty, this military marquis was tall and thin, wearing a large suit of armor, looking a bit comical. He held a wooden sword in his hand, reflecting bright light under the sunlight, intentionally shining it on Ma Cheng's face.

  "Hurry up and find something to eat, we might not have time later. Remember to get some for me too, and also send some to Du Zong." Ma Cheng's tone was urgent, he knew Gong Sun Ce's personality, once he made a decision, it would be swift and decisive. So he didn't have much preparation time, after saying that, he walked past Huang Long.

  "Alright, let's go now." Huang Long was a very clever person, blinking his golden fish eyes, and immediately understood that there was another battle. It was just strange why it wasn't the scouts outside who reported, but Ma Cheng who was in charge of the lookout. But thinking about Song Pei and Ma Cheng's relationship, he felt relieved, turned around and ran to the logistics team to grab some quick food.

  "You've decided that the Qin army is going to attack?" Song Pei suddenly stood up, pointing at the map and said with a hint of surprise: "It seems that the area near Jing River has already been stabilized by the Qin army, we can dispatch troops to conquer it! This means his reinforcements will arrive soon, unfortunately all the troops around us have been dispatched, there are no more reinforcements to be sent!"

  "So this battle must be fought, and the Qin army cannot be allowed to develop smoothly! Otherwise, it will be like a snowball, getting bigger and bigger, and harder to resist!" Ma Cheng clenched his fist, he wanted to give Gong Sun a good show, let him taste what it's like to ride alone.

  "Beat the drums! Gather all generals to discuss matters!" Song Pei slammed his hand on the table and shouted loudly. It's more accurate to say that he was directly assigning tasks rather than discussing matters. The night raid the previous night had caused heavy casualties among his subordinates, and now this batch of generals were mostly mediocre and incompetent.

  "Haha, Ma Cheng that guy reacted quickly!" Gong Sun Ce returned to the camp slowly, not having walked far, when he heard the war drum sound of the Liang army.

  "You know, what you understand is the old me, not the current me. But I understand you, and I'm expecting a huge change from you. That way, the game will be more interesting." With that, he turned around and walked back to camp with Si Ma, muttering to himself, feeling bored, and lit up a pack of cigarettes.

  The war drum of Liang Jun, Gong Sun Ce smiled. However, the defending general inside Pingliang, Li Sixiao, was shocked and broke out in a cold sweat. As someone whose zombie body was about to fully revive, being able to sweat was already a rare occurrence.

  The resting Dingnan army still had the civilian strongmen who were urgently summoned to defend the city walls, and Li Sihao just hoped that his elder brother would hurry back; otherwise, if they lost Pingliang Commandery, the Li family could only be trapped in Sha Prefecture, eating away their stores.

  Li Sihao did not know that his elder brother had been beheaded by Gongsun Zan, nor did he know that the two thousand reinforcements he sent were all annihilated. What's more, he didn't know that the true situation of Pingliang Prefecture being strong outside but weak inside had already been seen through by Gongsun Zan.

  "Instant noodles with dried fruit is the way to go, and you'll be full in under 15 minutes!" Gong Sun Ce returned to camp and saw that the whole army was resting. Liu Wei was still eating fruit and praised Gong Sun Ce as he approached. He had gone ahead of schedule to inform Gao Shun that the entire army would stop work and eat before going into battle.

  "Beat the war drum, we'll set off in half an hour!" Gong Sun Ce said and went to eat. He hadn't even picked up his chopsticks when the drumbeat resounded. The drum was still the one they had obtained from Song Pei, and it was being used at this moment.

  The drumbeat of the Qin army camp stirred up the nerves of the two main generals, Li Si and Xiahou. Li Si was on the verge of collapse. The two armies below the city were not something he could resist, and if they joined forces to attack the city, he might not even have a chance to escape. If only he had known this earlier, he should have switched places with Li Si Rong and gone to Xia Zhou for help.

  This made the Liang army miserable. First, they marched to Pingliang City and didn't stop along the way, also having to guard against Xia's surprise attack, which was very tiring. When they arrived at Pingliang City, they found that Qin's army had set up camp, transported building materials, and were very tired. At the same time, they were also very hungry, and when they hastily cooked their meals, they heard the sound of Qin's drums rising, and quickly gathered together.

  After a while, the Qin army did not come to attack, so they went back to cooking. Then they heard the drumbeat again. What should we do? Song Pei looked at Ma Cheng, his eyes making Ma Cheng feel uneasy.

  Before Song could give the order, the Qin army formed a square formation according to the drumbeat and appeared!

  Looking at the Qin army as black as a dark wave, Song Pei felt uneasy in his heart. The Liang army began to assemble and form lines again, amidst the chaos, Ma Cheng looked towards Gong Sun Ce's central army.

  Only Gong Sun Ce's central army had several large flags fluttering, he turned his head to look at his own troops, but there was only one large flag with the words "Colonel Ma Cheng" written on it. The flags were also divided into categories, including the main general flag and the subordinate general flag. What made him unhappy was that he was a subordinate general flag, while Gong Sun Ce's was a main general flag.

  Song's troops were more than twice as many as Gong Sun Zan's, and if they continued to defend, it would be a great blow to the morale of the soldiers. So he led his army to form a square array in front of Qin's army.

  "Song Pei is treacherous!" Chu Mengmeng, wearing light armor, pointed at the rear army of Song Pei and said.

  "Isn't it just that you want the vanguard to hold me back, while the rear army advances and splits into two wings to attack my left and right flanks?" Gong Sun Ce was not worried at all.

  "It's been a few days and that guy has already become a school lieutenant, this official promotion is quite fast! It seems that people need to be stimulated a bit, otherwise they would still be just a small military Marquis Qu! " Ma Bian pointed at Ma Cheng, seeing the "School Lieutenant Ma Cheng" flag behind Ma Cheng, Gong Sun Ce's heart was still a little excited.

  "Ma Chenghui will be the archenemy of our lord. If our lord cannot use him, I think he should be captured and put in a difficult situation!"

  "It's no fun like this, but after a good sleep and some grinding, it's still possible!" He thought Gao Shun's opinion was not bad.

  "It's really hard being friends with Master." Chu Mengmeng sighed.

  "It's even more unbearable, at least I won't kill him." Gong Sun Ce's words left Chu Mengmeng speechless.