Chapter Ten: Siege and Territorial Strategy

  Liao Yun let his subordinates stay aside, and he walked gently towards Lei Meng who was standing alone. Two meters away, looking at Lei Meng who was not tall, slightly immature in shape, holding a treasured "sword" with no blood on his body, Liao Yun couldn't help but ask himself, could it be that the legendary gods really exist? Otherwise, how can this person in front of him be explained?

  Lei Meng felt like someone was watching him, turned around to look, and it was the surrendered general. Liao Yun saw Lei Meng turn around, hurriedly cupped his hands and bowed: "Junior General Huan Tian Liao Yun, specially came to surrender to General."

  Lei Meng was stunned: "You're surrendering to me?" He stretched out his hand and pointed at himself in inquiry.

  "Hmm..." Liao Yun hesitated for a moment, then nodded firmly and said, "Yes." — He thought to himself, someone this formidable should at least be a general in the military.

  Lei Mengding Shen looked at his eyes, his eyes were firm and didn't seem to be pretending or joking. He said lightly: "I'm just a soldier here too, you should find Tong Wen Zheng Da Shuai."

  "No! We surrender only to you. We are your soldiers!" Liao Yun said resolutely and bowed again.

  Lei Meng saw Liao Yun's resolute attitude and felt a bit of a headache. He scratched his head, thought for a moment, and said to Liao Yun, who was still bent over and hadn't gotten up: "In that case, I'll hand you over to my brother Yang Tian, which is also under my command."

  "Hmm..." Liao Yun hesitated.

  "He is my junior!"

  "Oh, okay." Liao Yun wasn't very confident.

  "The soldiers guarding the valley that day were repelled by him alone." Lei Meng dropped another heavy bomb.

  "Wow?" Liao Yun was surprised, then happily said, "That's great, that's great."

  At this time, Tong Dashuai, Mr. Wen and Yang Tian walked over, they wanted to see what was going on here.

  A loud thunderclap turned his head, and he saw that the three people were still thirty meters away from him. He shouted loudly: "Yang Tian, come over!"

  Yang Tian heard Lei Meng's loud shout and felt a bit puzzled, so he quickly arrived in front of Lei Meng and Liao Yun.

  Liao Yun saw that he was also a short and tender young man, who wielded his "sword" with a flick of his eyes and darted to the front, nodding repeatedly.

  "Yang Tian, this is Liao Yun. He and his troops will be yours from now on." Lei Meng said with a slightly evil smile.

  "My man?"

  "Yes."

  Yang Tian's face turned dark as he said to Liao Yun: "Tell those who are willing to surrender to come over, and let the others disperse."

  Liao Yun turned around and went to the front of the soldiers, he shouted: "Brothers, Liao Yun has no home to return to, defeat means death! Now I'm going to rely on Lei Meng, uh, follow Yang Tian's command, hoping to learn better martial arts, establish myself. Those who are willing to follow without any worries can stay, those who don't want to can disperse, won't make it difficult for everyone."

  Soon, Liao Yun brought the soldiers who were willing to follow him over. The others all dispersed and went their separate ways. When they formed up in ranks again, a count showed that there were still 960 men left. It seemed that these people all had reasons for not going back.

  Yang Tian loudly asked: "My name is Yang Tian, you tell me, why should you surrender to me?"

  The soldiers were stunned, "Huh? Didn't we surrender to Lei Hong?" The soldiers discussed it in an uproar.

  Yang Tian heard this and became enraged, this was too disorderly! He shouted: "Silence!"

  The soldier heard the deafening sound and immediately shut his mouth.

  Yang Tian took a step forward, pointing at one of the soldiers: "You come out and answer!" The soldier was slightly thin, heard and hesitated for a moment, then stepped out and said: "Report, we were defeated by Lei Meng because he was too powerful, and we also want to become stronger; besides, we have nowhere else to go." After finishing speaking, he lowered his head.

  Yang Tianqi shouted loudly: "I'm also very powerful!......"

  The soldier was shocked to hear this.

  At this time, Lei Meng took a step forward and said to Yang Tian, "He is my junior brother and is as powerful as I am." He was afraid that these soldiers did not know about the battle in the mountain valley, so he shouted again, "Liao Yun, come over and explain!"

  Liao Yun hurried over, loudly explaining to the soldiers that it was Yang Tian who defeated Hao Tian in the battle of ambush in the valley of the Hao Tian Army.

  The soldiers all pricked up their ears, while Yang Tian listened with great satisfaction.

  Liao Yun saw the opportunity was ripe and shouted: "Let's meet Commander Yang!"

  "We've seen Commander Yang!" The soldiers all bowed in unison.

  "We have seen General Lei!" The soldiers bowed again.

  Yang Tianyi stopped immediately and questioned Lei Meng in a loud voice: "How can you be the Grand Marshal?"

  "Hmm, I'll leave these people to you, I'm off." With that, Lei Meng leapt over to Tong Da Shuai and Mr. Wen's side, ten meters away.

  Yang Tian hummed and ordered Liao Yun: "Liao Yun! From now on, you are the deputy commander. Now I'm assigning a task to you, set up a squad leader for every hundred men and a team leader for every ten men, arrange them properly and report back to me!"

  "Yes!" Liao Yun replied, and then said somewhat hesitantly: "Commander Yang, I have another matter to report."

  "This guy is too wordy and not direct enough, Yang Tian couldn't help but say: 'What's going on, speak quickly!'"

  "Our dry rations have run out."

  "Ah! What...?" Yang Tian was startled.

  Liao Yun didn't dare make a sound and hummed softly.

  "You wait here, I'll go consult with Lei Meng." Yang Tian instructed and quickly ran to Lei Meng's side, facing the three people with a dark face.

  Tong Da Shuai was surprised, this kid is rarely like this, could something be wrong?

  Tong Dashuai smiled and asked: "Yang Tian, you're really leading troops now, congratulations!"

  "Congratulations on what? You're all just a bunch of soldiers without food..." Yang Tianyu said gloomily.

  Mr. Wen smiled and said, "No problem, the grain in the city has been ordered to be rescued, so much, it shouldn't burn out that quickly."

  Tong Dashuai heard that and slightly furrowed his brow, saying: "A large number of people is a big problem, eating, drinking, going to the bathroom, all need to be figured out."

  At this time, Lei Meng was also surprised and asked in a hurry: "How long can the remaining grain be eaten? Where does the general plan to station troops?"

  Tong Dashuai let out a wry smile and said, "Where else can we go? The tents are all gone, we can only stay in Wujiji. Moreover, there's only food here. But after that fire, not much will be left either."

  The rumble of thunder, after a moment, raised the doubts in his mind: "General, why didn't I see any food at our original camp?"

  Tong Dashuai let out a deep sigh and gazed into the distance, towards the east. Mr. Wen sighed lightly and said: "Originally, we should have transported the grain over some time ago, but for some reason, the grain has yet to arrive. We sent people to hurry them up, but even those who were sent haven't returned. So, although we know we're no match for them, we still have thoughts of launching a surprise attack on Chu Fei."

  "Is it another treacherous official?!" Yang Tian angrily exclaimed.

  "Traitor?" Mr. Wen didn't understand what this meant, but in connection with the previous conversation, he roughly knew what it meant. He continued to say, "The commander and I were guessing about the possibilities, one is that the war situation is critical, or someone is deliberately delaying."

  "Which one is more likely?" Yang Tian asked.

  Tong Dashuai took a deep breath and said, "It should be someone who intentionally delayed."

  "What?! Are you saying the troops are going to starve to death?!" Yang Tian angrily exclaimed.

  Lei Meng calmly faced Tong Da Shuai and asked: "General, what are your plans now?"

  "Just now, when I was burning the grain outside the city, I expected the whole army to die in battle. Unexpectedly, you gave us hope again. Leiming, do you have any ideas?" Tong Dashuai seemed to have thought of something after calming down.

  "General!......" Mr. Wen opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by General Tong's outstretched hand.

  Lei Meng stared at Tong Da Shuai for a moment before saying, "Lei Meng is young and inexperienced, he can't come up with any good suggestions."

  "I want to hand over the army to you!......"

  "Absolutely not!" Lei Meng firmly denied.

  Tong Da Shuai let out a bitter laugh: "Only you and Yang Tian can give these people a way to survive! I, am not capable."

  "Let's drop it! Commander Qin is here." Lei Meng saw Qin Hao frowning as he walked over and quickly changed the subject.

  Qin Hao saw that the atmosphere here seemed heavy, his furrowed brow forced open a bit, and he walked over to stand beside Mr. Wen without speaking.

  Tong Dashuai knew he had something to report, so he asked directly: "Qin Hao, just say it straight out, no one here is an outsider."

  Qin Hao glanced at Lei Meng and said, "We'll enter the city to rescue those grains. The fire is too big, so we won't be able to save much. Probably enough for 7,000 people to eat three meals..."

  Dead silence... All five of them were silent.

  "It seems we still have to go for a walk inside the vast sky realm. But I don't know where to go," said Lei Meng, breaking the silence.

  Upon hearing this, Tong Da Shuai nodded his head, Yang Tian's eyes lit up, while Mr. Wen and Qin Hao looked disheartened.

  "First tidy up the city! Qin Hao, have someone bury these corpses outside, they're all poor people." Commander Tong looked at the sun in the middle of the sky and arranged.

  Yang Tian turned around and shouted to Liao Yun, who was still busy with the selection of squad leaders in the distance: "Liao Yun, take the brothers into the city, get some food and have them eat first."

  Then Qin Hao organized three thousand soldiers to move the corpses outside the city to a nearby mountain forest for burial, causing the whole army to mourn. It wasn't until after noon that all the bodies were buried.

  After lunch, after arranging for the soldiers to rest, Commander Tong called over Qin Hao, Mr. Wen, Lei Ming and Yang Tian, sat in the hall of the city government to discuss, Commander Tong sat in the main seat, Lei Ming and Yang Tian on the left, Mr. Wen and Qin Hao on the right.

  Mr. Tong thought of the corpse he had just buried and asked with a hint of sadness, "I wonder what you all think about entering the Huatian Realm?"

  "Since there's nowhere else to go, we can only enter the border. I'm afraid this will lead to endless war." Qin Hao expressed his opinion first.

  Yang Tianmu's eyes gleamed with anticipation as he said, "Where shall we start? My arm is almost healed."

  Mr. Wen stroked his beard and said, "In that case, we can start with the nearby Baihe, Baishan, and Hexi three cities. These three cities are rich in products and can provide us with a lot of supplies. Moreover, this Wujicheng has never been lost before, so those three cities will not have any defensive preparations."

  "Alright, let's set off soon, we can arrive before dinner?" Yang Tian was excited, thinking about how he would lead his troops to fight.

  Lei Meng heard it and couldn't help but frown and mutter: I didn't expect Lei Meng to be a warmonger.

  "Hmm..." Mr. Wen didn't expect Yang Tian to be so excited and added: "This place is forty-five kilometers away from the nearest Baihe River."

  "Let's prepare tomorrow's meal tonight and leave early tomorrow morning when the sky brightens up. Once we arrive there, we can have our meal and then take a break." Yang Tian immediately added.

  Lei Meng rolled his eyes and said, "It's better to go there and finish the fight before eating. Without defense, another sudden attack will break the city in one go."

  "Ah, okay. Whatever, I've made up my mind." Yang Tian completely ignored everyone else's opinions and made his own decision.

  Yang Tian felt that Lei Meng had pulled him, and he quickly turned around to see Lei Meng pointing at Tong Da Shuai, who was sitting in the middle with a frown on his face. He smiled and asked: "I wonder what the general thinks?"

  Tong Da Shuai smiled and said, "No problem, maybe we can even get a lot of credit for it."

  Qin Hao smiled wryly and didn't speak. He admired the abilities of Lei Meng and Yang Tian, but he didn't dare to have too high expectations for their military strategy, after all they were just half-grown children. Moreover, General Tong was still there, and Qin Hao had great respect for him as he was promoted by General Tong himself. However, since General Tong also agreed, Qin Hao could only remain silent.

  The crowd dispersed, and the soldiers who had been laboring for several days could also take a rest.

  The next morning, Lei Meng did not dare to take the lead, and Tong Dashi led more than 6,000 troops to advance towards Bairen River. At noon, they rested on the road for a while, ate the dry rations they brought with them, and then rushed to Bairen River, which was around three o'clock in the afternoon.

  A white river flowed rapidly at the edge of the city, and outside the city was a vast expanse of lush green crops. The fatigue and sultriness of the soldiers were dispelled by more than half.

  "This is really a good place!" Tong Dashuai stood on the six-meter-wide dirt road and sighed.

  "Ah, what a fine piece of land!" Mr. Wen sighed.

  When the army rushed into Bái Hé City, Bái Hé City was in an uproar. Although yesterday there were scattered soldiers who ran to this side and told the people of Bái Hé City that Wū Jī had fallen, most people who heard it thought it was a joke - it was like telling someone that the moon in the sky had been blown up, unbelievable. So when they saw troops entering the city, they immediately remembered yesterday's rumor and panicked. But by then it was already too late, and they were only able to hastily close their doors and shut down their shops.

  It's okay, before entering the city, General Tong gave a military order to the soldiers not to disturb the civilians. The Jin Yuan soldiers were all moderate and orderly; the surrendered Liao Yun and other soldiers followed at the end of the army and did not dare to show their heads randomly.

  Tong Dashuai looked at the stone slab street, both sides of which were lined with shops, and couldn't help but feel delighted. This trip was worth it! Later, the Jin Yuan army rushed to the official grain under Liao Yun's guidance.

  Outside the granary, there were over a hundred heavenly soldiers guarding it. When they first saw someone approaching with a sword, they couldn't help but shout: "Who are you! This is a forbidden place, leave quickly!"

  Just after shouting, I saw a large number of people coming from behind, and my legs started trembling uncontrollably. The more alert ones threw down their swords and ran, while the stupid types actually drew their swords and charged forward, getting stabbed into hedgehogs by the chaotic swords. There were also those who were incompetent, and they shat and urinated at the same time, collapsing on the spot...

  After resting for a night, on the second day at dawn, Lei Ming let Yang Tian lead Liao Yun and Lin Chong's troops to stay behind, leading two thousand Jin soldiers to advance towards Baima Mountain thirty kilometers away. Similarly, without much effort, they took down Baima Mountain - near Baima Mountain there is a high mountain with snow accumulated at the top all year round, Lei Ming saw this mountain and suddenly realized something.

  Tong Dashuai led two or three thousand Jin troops to advance towards the west of the river, forty kilometers away. They arrived in the afternoon and easily took it down.

  It's so easy to take down, Tong Da Shuai is surprised, it seems there's still hope, and they've even expanded their territory.

  He then found two rare horses in the city and had Liu Yi return to report the good news, and also sent a large number of soldiers to come...