Chapter 128: Damn it! The Lord of Arms’ mount, the Iron-eating Beast, has appeared!
When the Li family noticed the unusual movements of the Turks, the Qin Dynasty in Chang'an also received news of the Turkic invasion.
The Turks of this era were very powerful.
Although the Turks were split into two parts, east and west, after a series of divisive operations by the Sui Dynasty, the Eastern Turkic Khanate in the north of the Central Plains remained extremely powerful.
Its sphere of influence stretches from the Altai Mountains in the west to the Greater Khingan Range in the east, covering the entire Mongolian Plateau and Lake Baikal region.
The Turks of this era had a million soldiers and were like a huge mountain pressing down on the Central Plains, making it almost impossible for the princes from all sides to breathe.
During the struggle for hegemony at the end of the Sui Dynasty, almost all the northern princes were forced to pay tribute to the Turks, including the Li family.
The great Tang Dynasty was also driven to the banks of the Wei River outside the city of Chang'an by the Turks at the beginning of its founding.
Now the Central Plains is still in chaos, and the Turks want to invade. On the long northern border, the Turks can come and go as they please, as if they were in an uninhabited area...
Speaking of which, in the original world line of The Twin Dragons of the Tang Dynasty, Shi Feixuan used the strong pressure from the Turks to ask Xu Ziling to persuade Kou Zhong to give up the fight for hegemony, which was not completely unreasonable.
With the army of Marshal Kou Zhong, the Lingnan Song clan, and the strong support of Du Fuwei's Jianghuai army, fighting against the powerful Li clan, the war is bound to be protracted, and the Turks may really benefit from it.
As for why Kou Zhong was asked to submit to the Li family, rather than the Li family submitting to Kou Zhong, it can only be said that the economic and population advantages of the north were too great in this era. In this era, the north ruled the south, which was a natural principle in the minds of almost all people.
Now, in the east of the north, Mayi County, which was not far from the influence of the Li family, was attacked and conquered by the Turks. Liu Wuzhou, who had pledged loyalty to the Turks, was killed by the Turks, and his cities and territories were robbed.
west.
There were also 100,000 Turkic cavalrymen who invaded from Wuyuan and Lingwu. After they broke through the pass and captured Lingwu County, they led cattle and sheep, carried the elderly and children across the Great Wall, and intended to take root south of the Great Wall.
How could we tolerate the violent temper of the First Emperor?
Wuyuan was the territory he had won after he sent Meng Tian to lead an army of 300,000 to the north to attack the Xiongnu and forced the Xiongnu to retreat 700 miles north. How could he allow the Turks to invade and occupy it?
Lingwu County is a famous Jiangnan on the Great Wall and a rare rice-producing area. If the Turks take root here, their cavalry can threaten Chang'an at any time.
The First Emperor was not talking nonsense. The Turkish cavalry was indeed powerful, and no one dared to look down on it in this era. But the First Emperor also had the Terracotta Warriors, and he dared to confront them head-on with infantry against cavalry.
He immediately sent a general holding a tiger talisman, leading an army of 10,000 Qin warriors and 50,000 elite soldiers from Guanzhong to attack the Turks in the north.
The general's surname is Li, his given name is Jing, and his courtesy name is Yaoshi...
Well, when the Qin army broke into Chang'an, Li Jing happened to be in Chang'an and was unfortunately captured.
He saw that the First Emperor was a man of great talent and strategy, and he trusted his subordinates. The Qin army had strict military discipline, clear rewards and punishments, and its policies for governing the people were not as harsh as recorded in history books. It seemed that he had learned from historical lessons, so he reluctantly followed the Qin army.
Later, when the Qin army attacked Guanzhong and recovered the old Qin territory, he made many military achievements, stood out, and was received by the First Emperor. He was favored by the First Emperor for his vision and military strategy, and he became a high-ranking general of the Qin army.
During the northern attack on the Turks, the First Emperor was even more determined to overcome all objections. Well, the old ministers who had followed the First Emperor, such as Ouyang Feng, Shi Guanyin, Zhao Min, etc., all knew Li Jing's ability and did not dare to raise any objections. Instead, the ministers who had defected from the Sui court had many objections, believing that Li Jing was promoted too quickly, lacked experience, and did not have the prestige to command the army.
But the First Emperor was a true dictator. Although he was good at accepting advice, once he made a decision, he would never allow anyone to disobey him.
So the First Emperor ignored the objections, went on stage to appoint the general, granted Li Jing the general's seal and military command, and handed over 10,000 of the Qin Terracotta Army, the foundation of the Qin Dynasty, to Li Jing. He also selected the most elite 50,000 soldiers from Guanzhong and gave them to Li Jing as the commander.
In this way, Li Jing stepped onto the historical stage ahead of time, commanded the army, and went to fight against the Turks.
When the north was in turmoil due to the Turks.
Central Plains, Xingyang.
Pushan Gong Li Mi has been in a bad mood recently.
Originally his career was progressing very smoothly. He killed Zhang Xutuo in battle and became famous. He captured Xingluo Granary, opened the granary to release grain, won the hearts of the people, and gained an army of 200,000, which shocked the Sui court .
Then he took Hulao Pass in one go and brought the Sui court generals Pei Renji and his son Pei Xingyan under his command.
In just one or two years, he went from being a fugitive wanted by the Sui court and on the run to becoming the most promising prince to conquer the world.
Although he was only the second in command of Wagangzhai, Li Mi was confident that both the military and the people had their support.
Zhai Rang, who had no ambition to make progress, could no longer pose any obstacle to him.
As long as he wanted, he could kill Zhai Rang at any time and become the leader of Wagang.
Li Mi had even made a plan to find an opportunity to fight with Zhai Rang, and then integrate the Wagang forces to attack Luoyang.
On the one hand, he could use the prestige of a great victory to minimize the negative impact of the fight with Zhai Rang. On the other hand, Luoyang was the eastern capital of the Sui Dynasty and the base of the emperor. Only by taking Luoyang could he truly have the capital to dominate the world.
However, the plan to fight with Zhai Rang was still being prepared in secret, and the efforts to win over neutral Wagang generals such as Xu Shiji were also in progress, when very bad news suddenly came.
The foolish emperor Yang Guang used the assassin sent by Yu Wenzhi to transform his corpse into a flying celestial being, wield thousands of swords, and take Empress Xiao with him, chanting poems while flying into the sky and roaming the starry sky.
The mutiny instigated by Yu Wenzhi started off well but ended badly and was put down overnight.
Sima Dekan was defeated and killed, and Yu Wenzhi fled in panic and his whereabouts are unknown.
The Xiaoguo Imperial Guards were back under the control of the Sui court. After a purge, the army's morale was stabilized and boosted. They were preparing to return to Luoyang under the leadership of the Jiangdu court.
Wang Shichong, the governor of Luoyang, had ulterior motives. He was trying to exclude dissidents, suppress the small court in Luoyang, and place his confidants in the army and the court in an attempt to replace the Sui Dynasty and establish his own regime.
But after hearing the news, Wang Shichong immediately retracted his claws, honestly trained his troops, reorganized the city defenses, and sent troops to attack the Wagang Army several times, showing his loyalty to the Sui Dynasty.
In short, Yang Guang's transformation into an immortal triggered a series of extremely subtle chain reactions throughout the world.
Many local officials, generals, and martial arts sects, who should have been disloyal or even secretly preparing to rebel, became law-abiding and submitted tributes to the court to express their loyalty.
The Sui Dynasty, which should have been on its last legs and breathing its last gasp, suddenly had some signs of a last hurricane, and even of a revival.
This series of unexpected events left Li Mi dumbfounded and at a loss.
The emergence of a "First Emperor" in the west who swept across Guanzhong was already a headache.
How could Yang Guang, that incompetent emperor, inexplicably transform his corpse into an immortal and give life to the dying Sui Dynasty?
As soon as this incident happened, Li Mi's plan to fight against Zhai Rang immediately failed.
Not only could they no longer prepare for a fight with Zhai Rang, but they had to keep Zhai Rang alive and use him as the leader of Wagang to attract the Sui court's firepower.
As for Luoyang...
Under Wang Shichong's strict defense, Li Mi felt that he might have no chance to capture Luoyang.
Fortunately, he still has a way out.
Now Zhai Rang is still alive, and Li Mi is only the second leader of Wagang, and he has always regarded himself as the "Duke of Pushan", a hereditary title, and has never claimed to be a king or an emperor. Some time ago, Zhai Rang, with evil intentions, actually advised him to set up an altar to worship the heaven and call himself "Duke of Wei". He was quite tempted at the time, but fortunately he did not do it, otherwise he would be in trouble.
If he were to be defeated in the future, "Duke of Pushan" Li Mi could also surrender to powerful forces outside the Sui court.
Even with his talent and military achievements, and if he had not committed the crime of "killing his master", he might have been given an important position.
Unlike the fool Lin Shihong, who is so impatient to become king or emperor, he will surely die if he fails to conquer the world.
However, although he secretly laughed at Lin Shihong for being a big fool, Li Mi still felt a little unwilling in his heart.
He also wanted to pacify the world, become emperor, and leave his name in history as the "Gaozu" and "Taizu" of the new dynasty.
But he had clearly seen the opportunity to seize the world, but when this opportunity was almost within his reach, it was snuffed out by a series of inexplicable and incredible accidents.
Li Mi really wanted to look up to the sky and sigh: Oh, God, how cruel you are to me!
The only thing that made Li Mi feel a little better was that the Jianghuai overlord Du Fuwei was even more unlucky than him.
Because of Du Fuwei's blockade of Jiangdu, his forces were blocking the way for the Xiaoguo Army to return to Luoyang.
Whether by water or by land, if the Xiaoguo Army wanted to return to Luoyang, they would have to fight with Du Fuwei.
I heard that Du Fuwei inexplicably lost a large batch of military equipment a few days ago.
As a result, Du Fuwei had to gather all the remaining weapons and hand them over to the elite "Shangmu" army in Jianghuai for use.
Many other miscellaneous troops had already fallen into the ridiculous situation of cutting wood and bamboo to make weapons before the hastily produced weapons were delivered to the army.
After hearing the good news about Du Fuwei's misfortune, Li Mi's gloomy mood finally eased for a few days.
But Li Mi's good mood ended there.
The military advisor of Pushan Gongying, the talented Zu Junyan, had just brought him some shocking bad news:
Nearly 10,000 pieces of Pushan Public Camp's military equipment, including swords, spears and other close-combat weapons, were lost overnight.
Many soldiers woke up to find that the weapons racks were empty and they had to go out for training with empty hands.
Even in the warehouse, all the old weapons in stock had disappeared.
However, there were a few brand new weapons that had not yet been distributed to the army and were still kept in the warehouse.
Now in the huge Pushan Public Camp, except for a few soldiers who patrol at night and never leave their weapons, most of the soldiers have to learn from Du Fuwei's troops and cut wood and bamboo to make weapons!
This news shocked Li Mi again and he was at a loss as to what to do.
After being stunned for a long time, he smashed the objects in the study furiously and roared:
"Who did it? Who is so wicked?"
Li Mi was originally a man of deep thoughts and never showed his emotions, but the bad news that came one after another almost made him lose his mind.
Zu Junyan, a talented scholar who created the idiom "穷竹难书" for later generations, advised Li Mi to calm down and made a rational analysis:
"The soldiers said that before the weapons disappeared, they vaguely saw the 'Chiyou Banner' appear in the sky, so they suspected that Chiyou's mount, the 'Iron-eating Beast', had appeared and swallowed up all the weapons..."
“Nonsense!”
Li Mi was furious:
"It's not like I haven't seen the iron-eating beasts that Chi You rode before! Those stupid creatures with black and white fur, fat and fat, can only roll around and act cute. How can they look like the fierce beasts of ancient times? Nowadays, the iron-eating beasts only eat bamboo!"
Zu Junyan said: "The soldiers said that it was the mount of Chi You, the Lord of Arms. It must be different from ordinary iron-eating beasts..."
Li Mi glared and shouted: "What nonsense!"
Zu Junyan said seriously:
“But it’s always a possibility.
"I have specifically inquired with merchants from the south. In addition to the large number of weapons lost by Du Fuwei's army, the Xiaoguo Army in Jiangdu and Li Zitong in Hailing also lost a large number of weapons.
"Now it is our army's turn. It can be seen that the loss of weapons is not targeted at any one force, but is a matter of equal treatment for all.
"So, maybe it was because of the chaos in the world and the outbreak of war that the Iron-eating Beast, the mount of the Lord of Arms, was alarmed, causing it to manifest its divine power and devour the world's weapons...
"In my opinion, all the princes in the world, including Dou Jiande, Wang Shichong, Li Yuan, and even the Qin Emperor's army, will probably be no exception and will have to throw down a wave of weapons..."
Well, people are very superstitious these days, and great talents like Zu Junyan are no exception.
But people can’t be blamed for being superstitious—
Flying swords, sword immortals, demons, and corpse ghosts appeared frequently. Even the First Emperor was reborn and summoned an immortal Qin Terracotta Army at the foot of Mount Li. Even the "unspeakably infamous" tyrant Yang Guang was reborn and became an immortal...
Then what else in the world is impossible to happen?
If one day when the army was offering sacrifices, Chi You suddenly came down to earth riding on an iron-eating beast to bless people, no one would be too surprised.
"Secret Master, the weapon has already been lost. There is nothing we can do about it if we get angry. Let's think about how to solve the problem...
"By the way, speaking of having no weapons... a martial arts school called the Duanshuiliu National Martial Arts School recently opened in Xingyang City, specializing in teaching various bare-handed martial arts .
"This Duanshuiliu National Martial Arts School is a pure external martial arts. The requirements for the practitioner's posture are not too high. It is not as picky as the advanced internal martial arts. As long as the body is strong and the bones are strong, anyone can learn the art...
"I also went to see the master of that martial arts school when he was teaching. The young man was indeed quite capable. Although he had no internal strength, his moves were as fast as lightning. He could break rocks with his bare hands and even break through armor...
“So why not invite the master from the Duanshuiliu Martial Arts School to teach bare-handed skills to the army?
"So that the soldiers can hold out even without weapons?"
Li Mi looked at Zu Junyan in silence, suspecting that this clever and intelligent talent might have been so overwhelmed by a series of sudden and even bizarre events recently that he was even mentally disturbed.
Otherwise, with Zu Junyan's knowledge of military affairs, how could he come up with such a bizarre idea?
Are martial arts skills useful on the battlefield?
On a battlefield, an inch longer means an inch stronger.
If you can use a bow and crossbow to kill the enemy at a distance, try not to engage in close combat.
In close combat, if you can use a gun, never use a knife; if you can use a knife, never use a dagger; if you can use a dagger, never use your bare hands.
Li Mi's boxing skills are so powerful and his martial arts are no less than that of Du Fuwei, the overlord of Jianghuai. When he goes to the battlefield, doesn't he have to carry a spear and a sword?
Even Du Fuwei had to hide two iron arm guards in his big sleeves, didn't he?
When Wu Zun Bi Xuan charged into battle on horseback, he also used a spear.
On the battlefield, an expert can hold out for a while with his bare hands, and can also seize weapons at any time.
If ordinary soldiers really fall into the situation where they have to fight the enemy with their bare hands, they will be almost dead.
unarmed……
It’s a good thing that Zu Junyan could think of this!
Li Mi took a deep breath, suppressed his anger, and waved his hand wearily:
"Go and gather all the military advisors and generals to come to the palace to discuss matters..."
Just when Zu Junyan, under the order of Li Mi, summoned the military strategists and generals of Pushan Public Camp to resolve the military equipment crisis.
In Xingyang city.
In a restaurant, Ni Kun was sitting by the window on the third floor, looking at a martial arts school diagonally opposite with a very strange expression.
On the plaque of that martial arts school, there were six big characters inscribed: "Duan Shui Liu Martial Arts School".
There is also a couplet on the left and right:
A hero's true qualities come from his bare hands.
Brandishing swords and guns is cowardly rubbish.
Horizontal banner: Iron fist is invincible.
"Sir, this martial arts gym is crazy!"
Sitting opposite Ni Kun, Qianqian looked at the martial arts hall and said with a smile:
“Everyone here is skilled in the use of weapons, so don’t you become what the martial arts school calls ‘cowardly trash’?
"Sir, why don't we just go pick that martial arts gym!"
