Chapter 1081: Ambush

Ogedei’s status was not unshakable. After all, his enemies were not only Great Jin, but also West Xia, and even his brothers and subordinates.

Li Zhang and Xue Ji looked at each other and thought to themselves, ‘There’s also us two strategists.’

When Qi Haoran arrived at Dengzhou with 5,000 elite soldiers, he received a secret letter from Li Zhang. His expression was cold as he said to Mu Yangling, “The foreign races are indeed untrustworthy. Fortunately, we didn’t place our hopes on him. Otherwise, we would have missed a good opportunity by the time he pacified Great Jin.”

Mu Yangling took the secret letter and read it. Frowning, she said, “If Li Zhang can think of sowing discord between West Xia and Ogedei, Great Jin and Ogedei can naturally think of sowing discord between us and West Xia. West Xia’s borders…”

“General Yuan’s eldest son, Yuan Zhao, is in Chengdu Prefecture. With him around, it’s impossible for West Xia to attack. Besides, it’s not peaceful within West Xia at the moment,” Qi Haoran said. “Even if they want to sow discord, it’s impossible for it to take effect immediately, which means it’s in our interest to end the battle quickly. We’ll have a good rest today before the army sets off tomorrow.”

Although they only brought 5,000 elite soldiers, the large armies from various regions had already arrived in three separate groups ahead of schedule. He led the central army, which numbered 100,000.

The western route was led by Mu Shi, starting from Jingzhao towards Qingyang, Taiyuan, and other places. He himself led the central route, starting from Dengzhou towards Henan, Kaifeng, Pingyang, Daming, and straight towards Zhending. The eastern route was led by General Yuan, starting from Xuzhou and advancing rightwards through Xuzhou, Dongping, Yidu, and other areas.

The three routes supported each other, with the central route being the most crucial: if the central route advanced, the eastern and western routes would have no concerns about their rear; if the central route stalled, the eastern and western routes could only wait, otherwise they risked the danger of being cut off deep in enemy territory.

It was also because of this that Qi Xiuyuan let Qi Haoran be the vanguard of the central route and even handed him the 5,000 elite soldiers in the capital.

Qi Haoran summoned the generals of the three armies overnight and divided the 100,000-strong army into three paths for reinforcement: Henan Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, and Zhengzhou.

Qi Haoran brought Mu Yangling and Qi Wenjin to Zhengzhou and asked General Shang to take the left path to Henan Prefecture. General Qin took the right path to Kaifeng Prefecture, while Qin Ming followed his big brother, General Qin.

“Zhengzhou, situated between Henan Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture, has always been a battleground for military strategists. With both the left and right routes attacking Henan and Kaifeng Prefectures simultaneously, reinforcements are bound to arrive. Ah Ling, I want you to take Little Bear and 3,000 troops to ambush the forces headed to support Henan Prefecture. Make sure not a single one escapes.”

“Yes!”

Qi Haoran also allocated 5,000 soldiers to General Shao, instructing him to ambush the reinforcements headed to support Kaifeng Prefecture.

Meanwhile, Qi Haoran brought the remaining men to take down Zhengzhou City.

Considering Mu Yangling did not have a military position, logically speaking, she should not be able to order the soldiers around. However, Qi Haoran had put in a lot of effort and distributed 3,000 people to her. Among them, the lieutenant and platoon commander were all from the north. Having been trained by Mu Yangling back then, they did not have any objections to her leading them.

General Shang and General Qin felt that Qi Haoran was fooling around, but before they could protest, Mu Yangling had already left with her troops.

As the lieutenants and platoon commanders obeyed Mu Yangling’s command, even if the soldiers had any objections, they had to listen to orders. Besides, they had long heard from the lieutenants and platoon commanders that half of their skills were taught by Prince Rong and the other half by Princess Consort Rong. Incredibly curious about it, the soldiers did not make a fuss.

When the Princess Consort announced that they were leaving, they simply packed their things and set off.

In charge of Henan Prefecture, General Shang couldn’t help but worry. After some thought, he couldn’t help but look for Prince Rong. “Your Highness, Henan Prefecture claims to have 50,000 soldiers, while we have only 30,000 men. With the discrepancy in numbers, it’s already difficult for us to attack the city. If they send more reinforcements…”

Qi Haoran glanced at him and said, “General Shang, do you think I’ll joke about the war? Letting the Princess Consort ambush the forces headed to support Henan Prefecture is already my greatest support for you. It’s an honor that others can’t even dream of.”

Someone who knew better pulled General Shang and said in a low voice, “Don’t underestimate Her Highness. It’s said that one-third of the northern army was trained by her.”

General Shang’s eyebrows twitched, and that person said in a low voice, “General Shang, one of my lieutenants who came from the northern army vouched for that. Otherwise, why do you think His Majesty would allow Prince Rong to bring Her Highness along, even letting her command the troops.”

Upon hearing that, General Shang did not raise further objections despite still feeling uneasy.

The three armies moved quickly. Three days later, Henan Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture were attacked by the Great Qi army at the same time. The two armies both deployed a deceptive strategy and got the soldiers to carry many flags out. Looking down from the city wall, it appeared there were about 100,000 soldiers.

The generals guarding the city of Great Jin did not expect the war to happen so quickly. Wasn’t it said that Great Qi’s Emperor wanted to lead the army personally?

Had the Emperor already reached the frontier fortress?

Alas, there was no time for pondering. The general guarding the city hurriedly sent someone to Zhengzhou to seek reinforcement.

There were 80,000 guards in Zhengzhou, so it would be better to seek reinforcement from them. At this moment, the generals of the two cities did not know that other than themselves, there were other cities that had also been attacked. Otherwise, they would definitely suspect the other party’s numbers.

The Great General of Zhengzhou first received a distress letter from Henan Prefecture and sent 10,000 people to provide support. As soon as the reinforcements set off, they received a distress letter from Kaifeng Prefecture. He guessed that Great Qi had split their troops into two groups to attack, so he hurriedly sent out another 10,000 soldiers to lend reinforcement. He said, “Order all the prefectures and counties to guard their city gate well. Make sure not to let the Great Qi army take a step beyond the gate. Since Great Qi split up their troops in this attack, there must not be many of them. Don’t be deceived by them.”

At this moment, Mu Yangling had already led her men around some county towns and laid an ambush.

Mu Yangling pointed at the arrangements in the camp and said to Little Bear, “We only have 3,000 people, and I’m afraid the enemy has sent no less than 5,000 soldiers as reinforcement. Hence, it’s impossible for us to take them down in one go. But if we attack in groups, the effect will be much better.”

“Mother, can we take down the enemy’s reinforcements?”

With a smile, Mu Yangling said, “As long as we act quickly and plan carefully, even if we can’t take them all down, we can still make them panic and lose their fighting spirit. Soldiers without fighting spirit will not bring aid to the Henan Prefecture, but disaster.”

It took five days of forced march from Zhengzhou to Henan Prefecture. On the third day, the army reached the area around Green Dragon Mountain, where the woods were lush and thick. With high mountains on the left and dense forests on the right, and the path being quite narrow, stretching the troops out over a long line, Commander Shu, worried about an ambush, ordered the soldiers to speed up and quickly pass through this section. As two-thirds of the troops had already run through, and the front of the column was about to clear this mountainous area, suddenly, huge boulders started rolling down from the mountain…

Behind the huge rock, arrows flew about, causing many of their men to die from stray arrows. But considering the high mountain road was dangerous, it was impossible for them to go up and resist the enemy. As such, their only option was to leave this dangerous place as soon as possible.

Commander Shu rushed out with his guards, but there were still thousands of soldiers behind him. Just as he was about to get someone to take a detour up the mountain, a huge rock rolled down the mountain and landed at the exit, cutting off the soldiers’ way out.

Stunned, Commander Shu immediately shouted, “Order our men to exit the forest!”

“Sir, the trees on the right are too dense, and with the fog, I’m afraid the soldiers will get lost. Why don’t we order our men to push away the huge rock…”