Infinite war begins with Cao thief.

Chapter 428 Pressing forward step by step

After absorbing the resources of Chaoge, Jia Xu became more interested in digging tombs.

However, Jia Xu did not rush south to join Cheng Yu and others to attack the Heluo area. Instead, he began to organize a dragnet investigation of the northern occupied areas. This time, he targeted not only the wealthy families, but also the war agents.

Jia Xu’s goal is to not leave behind a single city that is an agent of war.

Jia Xu knew very well that the indigenous people's spirit of resistance was not strong. If he could deal with the powerful families, the people would be able to have just enough food to eat and would not be hungry or full. If they were appropriately busy during the non-farm season, there would be no strong rebellion.

But war agents are different.

War agents will seize every opportunity to cause trouble.

For war agents who sell war, even if it is not for strategic purposes and they are just making troubles on a small scale, they can still get war points. What's more, making troubles for other war agents is their original purpose.

Jia Xu didn't want to wait until the main force of the army marched westward, only to have a mess of troubles pop up in his old nest again.

Therefore, all war agents who refuse to surrender or sign harsh agreements must be cleared out!

The lowest standard was that even if the people had escaped, their cities had to be occupied and digested. Because the war agents who had lost their bases had basically lost the ability to stir up trouble in the rear.

There was another important reason why Jia Xu was not in a hurry to attack, and that was that he wanted to wait until all the resistance forces gathered in Heluo so that he could wipe them out in one fell swoop.

Dayu's current actions actually have a bit of the flavor of making a warning to others and alerting others, which is to deliberately allow other war agents and resistance forces to emerge.

With this period of time, Dayu can also calmly improve the strength of its core troops and train more indigenous forces.

Most of the areas occupied by Dayu now are areas with tough folks and strong soldiers.

Whether used as cannon fodder or absorbed as the main force, these strong soldiers are a good choice.

Jia Xu's strategy was very successful.

The fact that Dayu was a war agent's power could not be hidden from other war agents. Under the high pressure of Dayu, a large number of war agents realized that they were like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, so they could only abandon the city in tears, disguise themselves as a loyal army, and gather in the territory of the Sui Dynasty.

Up to now, they can only defeat Dayu first and then think of other ways.

The emergence of a large number of rebel forces also made the Sui Dynasty's military strength no longer so stretched, thus stabilizing the core ruling area.

In fact, there were also a large number of war agent volunteers in the armies of Qu Tutong and Pei Renji.

These war agent rebels did fight very hard.

But, trying hard does not necessarily lead to victory.

Qu Tutong ordered the army to march into Huoyi to support Song Laosheng, the defender of Huoyi (southwest of Huozhou City, Shanxi Province).

However, Song Laosheng was a man of courage but no strategy. Before Fa Zheng's main force made a move, Song Laosheng had already been defeated by Liu Wuzhou, Yuchi Jingde, Song Jingang and others who were eager to show off.

The Dayu army took advantage of the situation and captured Huoyi.

Qu Tutong's idea of ​​relying on Huoyi for a decisive battle failed.

Qu Tutong's troops could only reorganize their forces in Linfen and prepare for a decisive battle with Fa Zheng's troops.

Before the decisive battle officially began, a group of cavalrymen from Qu Tutong's army fled in an orderly manner.

Qu Tutong was completely stunned.

The other war agents were also confused.

They couldn't figure out what was going on.

But Pan Feng, who had escaped, naturally couldn't explain to them.

"Dirty things, dirty things, I have handed Qu Tutong over to you, so please stop chasing me!"

Pan Feng muttered to himself as he ran.

Pan Feng had encountered Dayu twice in the Three Kingdoms period and the Song, Liao, Jin and Xia periods, and was frightened by them.

If it weren't for the fact that his territory was too close to Taiyuan and it was difficult to escape independently, he would not have pretended to surrender to Qu Tutong. Now that he had Qu Tutong to protect him, he could escape without any worries.

He, Pan, would never fight with a dirty thing!
Mr. Pan has made up his mind that this time he will cross the Western Regions and attack India.

In his impression, the Indians are all a bunch of soft persimmons.

Historically, it was almost completely destroyed by Wang Xuance of the Tang Dynasty alone.

Mr. Pan feels that the chances of winning this time are quite high.

Some people fled before the battle. Qu Tutong could only record this and said calmly to his subordinates: "This unit is acting under my orders. The purpose is to show the enemy weakness and attack the enemy from behind. Don't panic, just follow my orders!"

"As ordered!"

No matter whether others believe it or not, they can only fight hard at this time.

However, what they didn't expect was that Fa Zheng didn't play by the rules at all.

At the very beginning, the coalition forces of Dayu's indigenous army, Goryeo army, and Yingzhou army were evenly matched with Qu Tutong's troops. When the two sides were fighting fiercely, the soldiers in Fa Zheng's pirated death shadow suddenly rushed out and went straight to Qu Tutong's flag.

The appearance of a large number of ghosts once again greatly reduced the morale of the Sui army. More importantly, the main general was surrounded, which inevitably made the Sui army waver.

The attacks of ghosts are not very strong, but they can launch attacks that ignore armor defense and directly damage the soul. At the same time, they also have a certain chance of physical damage immunity.

Their appearance caused great trouble to Qu Tutong's army. After all, even though the strength of these ghosts varied, their numbers were there, and Fa Zheng was not like Jia Xu who would empty out his inventory for sacrifice at every turn. As a result, the ghosts under his command truly numbered in the hundreds of millions, filling the mountains and plains and directly blocking the sight of the Sui army.

Although Qu Tutong unleashed the power of the military formation, and many war agents and their generals also activated their abilities, causing considerable trouble to the ghost and the Dayu army, Fa Zheng's trump card was not the ghost.

The elite troops of Dayu under Fa Zheng seized the opportunity and attacked decisively. The heavy cavalry aimed at the troops of the war agents with an unstoppable attitude and launched a thunderous and violent attack.

War agents have always been mindful of their own business. After the attack, a large number of war agents chose to retreat in order to preserve their strength.

The Sui army suddenly became more confused.

The Dayu army easily defeated the war agent's troops.

At this point, what could Qu Tutong say?

The only option is to retreat.

If we don't retreat, our army will be surrounded and defeated.

This retreat was irreversible. (Map of the Fazheng Army's march route)
Fa Zheng's troops pursued them all the way from Linfen to Jiang (Jiang County, Yuncheng), and then to Longmen Mountain.

This is the gateway to Luoyang.

However, Fa Zheng's pursuit could only stop here.

Because Dayu's navy did not come here, but the Sui army, especially those war agents who escaped first, prepared the navy, and the remnants of Qu Tutong were able to be assisted to cross the river. Fa Zheng could only collect ships while attacking other territories of Bingzhou.

The Bingzhou area north and east of the Yellow River soon fell into the hands of Dayu.

(Map of the Dayu occupied area and parts of Asia and Europe)

There is more good news waiting for Dayu.

After Yue Fei and his army won a great victory, the troops they sent to report the victory arrived. They cooperated with Fa Zheng's detachment to attack from both inside and outside, and recaptured all the territory north of Yanmen.

So far, in the north, Dayu's actual control/controlled area has reached the North Sea. Further north are some demon areas, but due to climate and environmental issues, they are not very suitable for attack.

Huo Qubing suggested that either they should develop armor with the function of keeping warm and regulating temperature, or they should let the ninjas of the Snow Clan have more children, and form a ninja army of the Snow Clan before marching north.

Climate, this great enemy, is actually even more terrifying in this world where gods and demons exist.

Yue Fei, Huo Qubing and others also suggested that they first control the Dongtu people, form an indigenous grassland army, establish a certain ruling foundation, and then march westward after the logistics and other preparations are more adequate next year.

These are all wise words of statecraft, but also helpless moves.

The Dayu army is highly dependent on logistics. The regeneration core requires a special nutrient solution, which needs to be transported from Dayu's cities. However, due to the area of ​​this world and other reasons, Dayu's ten cities are mainly concentrated in the east, and the transportation distance is somewhat remote.

In addition to the regeneration core, the armor also requires special maintenance, and repairing it after damage is not as simple as finding a blacksmith to do it.

Then there is the issue of food and fodder, which is also a huge pressure.

Although Dayu has the summoning technique and space ninjutsu from the previous world, due to the suppression of the world level and the distance, it may be okay to transmit military intelligence, but it cannot transmit supplies on a large scale.

In fact, it is precisely because of the suppression of space that the immortals and gods in heaven cannot go up or down to the mortal world at will, and the Buddhas in the Western Paradise have to travel a long way if they want to come here.

All the above reasons resulted in Dayu being able to only complete a blitzkrieg against the Dongtujue, but unable to expand the results of the victory.

Next, Dayu must establish a stable logistics base on the grassland to facilitate the continuation of the westward expedition.

Before this, Dayu could focus its main energy on the Mohe and other ethnic minorities, and let the vassal armies of Goryeo and Japan launch a sweeping attack on the mountainous areas of these ethnic minorities.

All in all, in the last few months of this year, Dayu does not plan to launch a large-scale offensive in the north, and its main energy is still focused on digestion.

However, the fact that the Dayu army north of the Yellow River did not launch an attack did not mean that the Dayu army south of the Yellow River had stopped taking action.

Cheng Yu was waiting for the outcome of the battle between Zhai Rang, Li Mi and Pei Renji with evil intentions.

The result of this battle was that Zhai Rang and Li Mi were greatly defeated.

This is actually reasonable.

First of all, Zhai Rang and Li Mi were hastily pushed out by some war agents. Not only were they in appearance but also their subordinates were not particularly strong. Although they had 100,000 troops, only a few of them had reached the third and fourth levels of the myth.

On the other hand, Pei Renji not only has a large number of elite soldiers from Dongdu, but also has the support of a large number of war agents.

In this situation, all the conspiracies and tricks of both sides did not have much effect, and the war eventually turned into a decisive battle of hard power between the two sides.

The war agent corps of both sides can be said to be equally matched, or it can be said that Pei Renji's side has some advantages; as for the other forces of both sides, Pei Renji has 50,000 elite soldiers of the Sui Dynasty under his command, while the non-war agent soldiers of Zhai Rang and Li Mi add up to only more than 30,000 people, and their eliteness is simply incomparable.

After a fierce battle, Zhai Rang and Li Mi's armies were defeated.

Cheng Yu then executed the two men and their confidants on the grounds of delaying military affairs and losing soldiers and generals, and then mobilized elite troops to launch a fierce attack on Pei Renji.

Pei Renji and his son were no match for Han Xin, the vanguard general under Cheng Yu, and were eventually besieged in Hulao by Han Xin.

The Hulao Fort of this era was located at the confluence of the Sishui River and the Yellow River. It was not easy to attack, but it was not particularly difficult either.

Besides, Dayu would not be so foolish as to attack Hulao Pass by force.

The Dayu army had already prepared a surprise attack.

After the troops led by Chen Ping, Peng Yue and Fan Kuai captured Dengfeng by surprise, they went around Songshan and launched a surprise attack on Luokou Warehouse.

(Han Xin and Chen Ping's march route map)

The route taken by Chen Ping, Peng Yue and Fan Kuai was actually the same route that Li Mi took in his surprise attack on Luokou Warehouse in history.

Luokou Warehouse of this era was located between Gongxian and Hulao County. It was located in a hilly area with a dangerous terrain. The soil was hard and dry, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Not far from Luokou Cang, there are Yi and Luo rivers, the Yellow River, and the Grand Canal. Going upstream from the Luo River, you can reach Luoyang, the eastern capital; going upstream from the Yellow River, you can reach Tongguan and Chang'an, the western capital; going downstream, you can reach Shandong and Haikou; through the Grand Canal, you can also reach Hebei and Jiangnan. It is a strategic location.

However, facing the surprise attack by Dayu, Luokou Warehouse was not adequately prepared, nor did it have the courage to set fire to the warehouse and die together, so it surrendered.

In fact, it's not that there weren't war agents who had their eyes on the Luokoucang location, and there were war agents who suggested increasing the troops, but no matter what they suggested, it was impossible for such an important military location to undergo major transfers casually, or for the war agents' troops and generals to be appointed to manage it, so the war agents actually made no suggestions in the end.

Luokou Warehouse was captured, and Pei Renji and his son Pei Xingyan, whose retreat had been cut off, had no choice but to surrender.

To show their sincerity, they also killed the military inspector Xiao Huaijing.

In history, Xiao Huaijing once framed Pei Renji and his son. Pei Renji was framed by Xiao Huaijing and was eventually killed and surrendered to Li Mi. In this time and space, Xiao Huaijing also became their token of surrender.

After an easy victory, the Dayu army continued to advance westward.

Chen Ping's troops encountered Liu Changgong's army in Gong County, which came from Dongdu to support Luokou Cang.

Liu Changgong's army was composed of four groups of troops, namely, Liu Changgong's own troops with 45,000 troops, Henan Magistrate Da Xi Shanyi's elite troops with more than 10,000 troops; the General of Works and Henan Assistant Governor Pei Hongce's troops with nearly 20,000 troops, and the eunuch Wei Fusi's troops with 25,000 troops, totaling a total of 100,000 troops.

The two sides fought a decisive battle in the area near Gongxian and Heishi. Pei Xingyan, Pei Renji, Luo Shixin, Qin Qiong, who were surrendered generals, and Xu Shiji, Shan Xiongxin and other brave generals who were eager to make achievements, led the troops and launched a fierce attack on the Sui army.

The Sui army was defeated in every of the five battles.

Da Xi Shanyi, Wei Fusi and others died in the battle. The remaining troops of Liu Changgong and Pei Hongce retreated to Yanshi. The Dayu army took the opportunity to capture Heyang Warehouse. On the one hand, they sent people to besiege Yanshi, Baiguyu and other places, and on the other hand, they fiercely attacked Heyang Warehouse and Huiluo Warehouse.

With the personal participation of Dayu's elite armored troops, several key points were captured one after another, and Dayu was able to march into Jinyong City.

Jinyong City originated from Cao Pi. In the early years of the Northern Wei Dynasty, it was one of the "Four Towns of Henan". After the Luoyang City of the Sui Dynasty moved westward, Jinyong was located to the east of Luoyang, only 25 miles away from Luoyang.

Historically, Wang Shichong proclaimed himself emperor in Luoyang, and Li Mi proclaimed himself Duke of Wei in Jianwei, thus leaving behind the saying of two emperors in twenty-five miles.
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I'm going on a business trip on the 29th, so I'll update first.

(End of this chapter)