Datang: What's wrong with my fief being a billion points larger?

Three days passed in a flash. On this day, Li Yuanji's troops left the camp one after another and began to advance towards Li Er's camp.

In order to respond, Li Er also sent out a luxurious lineup of generals to deal with each of Li Yuanji's armies.

Led by Li Ji, they faced off against Xie Shufang and Su Dingfang of Li Yuanji.

Led by Duan Zhixuan, they faced Feng Ang's army.

Led by Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong, they faced Feng Li and Liu Rengui.

Led by Zhang Gongjin and Zhang Liang, they faced Xi Junmai and Xue Wanche.

Led by Yuchi Gong and Zhang Shigui, they faced off against Wei Ting and Li Xiang.

Just as Li Yuanji's army was moving out, Li Er's army also left the camp one after another.

This time, neither of them seemed to have any shady tricks, but instead they both came as upright troops, wanting to defeat the other side head-on.

Li Er and Li Yuanji were stationed in the central army and commanded all the troops.

However, on Li Yuanji's side, Li Yuanji did not stay in the central army at all, but came to the army command headquarters where Su Dingfang, Xie Shufang and Wei Shishi were.

"My lord, why are you here? It's dangerous here, please go back to the rear and take command.

As long as you give the order, we will obey it. Please go back."

Xie Shufang and his companions were shocked. This place could potentially become a battlefield, and there was a certain degree of danger. None of them wanted Li Yuanji to take any risks.

Li Yuanji looked at the nervous people and smiled.

"I am not afraid, so what are you afraid of? Besides, this time we are mainly here to set off fireworks for Li Er. The Shenwu Army has light mortars in the front and back, so Li Ji's army can't break through at all.

As for their artillery, they can't even reach our army, so how can they hit the back of our army?

Okay, stop talking, have you completed the deployment now?"

Li Yuanji came to the front battlefield just to see the scene of Li Er's army being bombed.

He was at the back, and even with a telescope, he couldn't see anything at all. Only by coming to the front line could he see it directly through the telescope.

Now that Li Er has assembled a large army for him to use cannons, there are not many opportunities left, and he cannot miss it. If he misses this opportunity, he will almost never see him again.

Xie Shufang and his companions were helpless. Now that Li Yuanji only wanted to stay here, what else could they do?

"My lord, everything has been deployed. The heavy artillery has been aimed at the enemy's position, and the artillery with a caliber less than 100 mm has been placed in a forward position to target the enemy's attack."

"Okay, this is a good arrangement. It will be interesting only if we use heavy artillery to attack. Very good."

While Li Yuanji was communicating with Xie Shufang, Su Dingfang came to the back with Wei Shishi.

"Go and redeploy your forces and call up all the reserve personnel from the rear. We will not leave any reserve this time. We must not let the enemy rush over.

You notify everyone that no one is allowed to retreat even a single step behind their respective positions. Anyone who retreats will be killed!
Also, don't rush down yet. Prepare the horses and some cavalry in the back. If the enemy really rushes over, you can evacuate immediately with the king!"

Su Dingfang was also helpless. Li Yuanji's safety was too important. Now that it had come to this, he had to be more cautious. Even though he knew that it would be difficult for Li Ji to rush over even if he sent out cavalry, Su Dingfang had to make these preparations.

Li Yuanji didn't care about Su Dingfang's actions. As long as he stayed here, these people could arrange whatever they wanted.

"Send a telegram to each department immediately to inquire about the status of preparations."

The person in charge of operating the telegraph machine immediately began sending messages, and soon, replies came from various departments.

"Your Majesty, all the troops are ready."

Li Yuanji put down the telescope in his hand and turned to look at Xie Shufang.

"Inform all units, after receiving the telegram, launch the artillery attack ten breaths later!"

"Yes!"

As the telegram was passed on, in a few blinks of an eye, the flag bearer waved the flag and conveyed the order to the artillery position.

The artillery positions were all ready at this moment, and when they saw the flag bearer's flag, they no longer hesitated.

"All guns fire!"

With a roar, the shells fell directly into Li Ji's army on the opposite side, and explosions were heard in a moment.

Li Yuanji kept observing through the telescope. Seeing Li Ji's army being bombarded by cannons one after another, the corners of his mouth naturally began to curl up.

Opposite Li Yuanji, Li Ji was in the army, watching the entire army being bombarded, his eyes widened.

He had already seen the news about this matter from all sides before. In order to deal with it, he deliberately deployed the army, increased the distance between them, and reorganized the military formation to deal with it.

But he did not expect that Li Yuanji's artillery was so powerful. Even though he deployed his army, every part was still bombarded, causing many casualties.

Looking at the opposing army, which clearly did not make any movement, Li Ji had never experienced such a war where he was attacked by the enemy without even meeting them. Even the previous contact with Li Yuanji's army was not like this.

"How far do our artillery need to advance before we can hit the other side?"

Li Ji did not panic. Even though his army suffered heavy casualties, he still tried hard to maintain his formation.

"General, we need to advance at least a thousand meters before our artillery can reach the opposite side.

But our artillery had already suffered a lot of damage. Once the enemy fired a shell, as long as it hit our artillery, it would be directly destroyed.

We now have twelve guns."

Li Ji gave the order without hesitation.

"The cavalry will move out immediately! The army will charge forward immediately, and the artillery will follow behind, advancing a thousand meters!"

At Li Ji's command, the army had no choice but to charge forward even though they were already a little frightened.

The cavalry immediately went out into the battle, spread out and rushed towards Li Yuanji's army.

Li Yuanji saw Li Ji's arrangements clearly through the telescope. Although he could not see the detailed people, he could still distinguish the movements of this scale.

"Order the heavy artillery to allocate half of their firepower and focus on attacking those behind the infantry. Li Ji's artillery is definitely behind them!"

"Send a message to all units on the front line, be sure to pay attention to the cavalry charging over, and all artillery fire!"

Li Yuanji's military orders began to be conveyed, and all artillery began to adjust. As artillery of other calibers opened fire, they began to directly destroy the charging cavalry. Even if they were separated, the casualties were still extremely heavy.

The infantry in the rear became complete sitting ducks, and the heavy artillery continued to bombard them without stopping.

Some of the adjusted heavy artillery also began to bombard Li Ji's artillery army. Li Ji watched his artillery army being bombarded continuously and almost all the artillery was lost, and his eyes turned red.

Especially for the charging army, casualties were rising with every blink of an eye.

Even behind him, he was hit by cannons from time to time.

Suddenly, a shell exploded more than 20 meters away from Li Ji. Fortunately, it was quite far away and Li Ji was not affected, but there were still casualties around him.

"General, please retreat some distance!"

"Retreat? The army is charging, how can I retreat? No way!"

Li Ji's eyes were red. He knew very well that if he retreated, the army would collapse immediately.

Now that they were being bombarded like this, he was extremely aware of the psychological pressure that every soldier was under. By now, some of them might have already wanted to escape, but because he was still there, those people were gritting their teeth and not retreating.

Li Ji stared at the cavalry. Now his only hope was the cavalry.

However, under the bombardment of various artillery shells, the cavalry also suffered heavy casualties.

With great difficulty, a part of the cavalry managed to withstand the bombardment and rush forward, but the three-stage shooting formed by the Shenwu Army formed a continuous firepower network, which hit the cavalry hard again and made it impossible to rush forward.

Li Ji clenched his hands, his face was gloomy, and his heart was very uneasy.

At this time, a soldier came running over and said, "General, the enemy's firepower is too strong. The charging army suffered heavy casualties. Now the remaining troops are starting to retreat. Should we kill them?"

However, as soon as he finished speaking, another person came running over: "Report! General, the cavalry can't break through the enemy's firepower, and the cavalry are almost killed or wounded!"

Li Ji closed his eyes tightly, tears welling up in them. When he opened his eyes, they were bloodshot, and he could only look forward with hatred.

"Order, all troops retreat!"

Li Ji had no choice but to stay here, where he would just continue to be bombarded with shells and would be unable to do anything. It would be meaningless.

However, even during the retreat, the heavy artillery bombardment continued. Even around Li Ji, many people had been killed or injured, and the army had suffered more than half of its casualties. They were constantly bombarded on the way of retreat.

The injured person fell to the ground, wailing, and struggling to crawl backwards, but the people who retreated behind him stepped on him and crushed him to death.

In Li Ji's army, all those who were still able to move were scrambling to flee backwards, and no one wanted to stay here for even a second longer.

If it was a head-on fight, they would not have been beaten like this. It was because they hadn't even come into contact with the enemy, but people around them kept dying. They couldn't accept this kind of fear.

Li Yuanji watched Li Ji lead his troops away and shook his head.

"Li Ji, why couldn't he hold on a little longer? It's only been a short while, less than two hours, and he's already withdrawn."

Xie Shufang looked at Li Yuanji's unsatisfied look and didn't know what to say for a moment. With their firepower, Li Ji not only managed to hold on for two hours without collapsing, but also led the army to launch a charge. This was already amazing.

Xie Shufang was already thinking about changing himself into the powerless person like Li Ji. This was really like having power but nowhere to use it. He could only passively take a beating and couldn't fight back at all. It was really infuriating.

"My Lord, do you want to move the artillery forward and directly bombard Li Er?"

Upon hearing this, Li Yuanji looked at the sky and immediately looked at Xie Shufang.

"Go, just do as you say, all the troops will move their positions forward, and throw firecrackers at Li Er for me!"

Xie Shufang excitedly went down to start making arrangements, while the signalman began sending messages to various units.

Li Ji's experience happened at the same time in different places.

Here, Cheng Yaojin and Qin Qiong were feeling the baptism of artillery shells, cursing all the time, while Qin Qiong also had a gloomy face. This battle made them extremely frustrated, but they had no way to deal with it.

"Yaojin, we have to retreat. If we continue like this, there will be no effect at all, and the casualties of the army will only increase.

If we don't take the initiative to retreat, the army will flee directly. We can't delay any longer!"

Cheng Yaojin had no choice but to order an evacuation, and began the evacuation under the gunfire.

Duan Zhixuan also began to evacuate in great anger and helplessness. In this battle, he had lost more than half of his men without any contact. How could he continue to fight?
Here between Yuchi Gong and Zhang Shigui, Yuchi Gong still wanted to launch further charges, Zhang Shigui tried to persuade him but it was of no use. Finally the army could not bear it and fled, Yuchi Gong's eyes were bloodshot and he began to evacuate with helplessness on his face.

As for Zhang Gongjin and Zhang Liang, their luck was even worse. Not only did the army suffer heavy losses, but Zhang Liang was also hit by a cannon that exploded within two meters of Zhang Liang. Now Zhang Liang was taking in less air than he was giving out.

Li Er was sitting in the center of the army, listening to the artillery fire outside. Although the sound was not loud due to the distance, Li Er was still filled with uneasiness.

It was not until news from various departments continued to arrive that Li Er's heart finally settled down.

Li Er looked a little confused. He sat on the chair without moving at all, and his eyes even looked a little empty.

Li Er couldn't understand how Li Yuanji could be so powerful.

Li Yuanji wasn't this powerful before, not so powerful that it made people despair. How come he suddenly changed after such a long time?

"If you have this ability, why did you leave Chang'an City in the first place? If you just show it to others, who would dare to compete with you for that position?"

"Or do you want to wait until I kill my elder brother before you kill me?

Li Yuanji, you are so scheming, waiting for me to kill my brother and imprison my father. I have already taken the blame, and then you come and kill me with justification, right?"

Li Er suddenly laughed, and his laugh was extremely miserable. He felt that he had figured out why Li Yuanji left Chang'an. In his eyes, it was exactly what he thought.

Otherwise, why would Li Yuanji leave Chang'an, and why did his strength grow so rapidly after leaving Chang'an?

Li Yuanji's going to Lingnan must have been planned long ago. He was just waiting for the conflict between him and Li Jiancheng to intensify and for him to leave and fight with Li Jiancheng.

"Haha, haha! Li Yuanji, Li Yuanji, why didn't I see through you at the beginning? It turns out you disguised yourself so well!

Not only did you deceive me, you deceived the whole world!"

No one had ever thought that everything Li Yuanji had done in the past was just a disguise by Li Yuanji, and it was not revealed until now. Li Er was extremely angry.

If he had killed Li Yuanji earlier, would all these things have not happened?
Even all that Li Yuanji possesses now will belong to him, Li Er, and will he use it to strengthen the Tang Dynasty?
Li Er was a little crazy at this moment, because he was completely defeated in this battle, and it was so easy to lose. After losing this battle, he had no chance of winning at all. His fate was doomed from this battle.

Even if he still had a large army, even if he recruited 200,000 young and strong men in the rear for training and could add them to the army, it would be of no use. The gap between him and Li Yuanji was too big.

Li Er was in depression for a long time, and he did not even see Li Ji and others when they returned in defeat.

It was not until two hours later when his place was suddenly bombarded and Yuchi Gong and others broke in and tried to take him away for evacuation that Li Er came to his senses.

"Your Majesty, Li Yuanji's cannons have begun to bombard this place, Your Majesty, please evacuate immediately!"

Li Er did not hesitate at all and began to retreat immediately. However, just as he agreed, a shell fell. Although Li Er was fine, Zhang Shigui was killed in the explosion, and Yuchi Gong, Qin Qiong and others were injured.

The surviving Li Ji and Cheng Yaojin did not hesitate at all, and took Li Er and the injured Yuchi Gong and others, even Zhang Shigui who was killed in the explosion, away with them. (End of this chapter)