It is no wonder that Vultures and the others were shocked, Li Tianhao's actions were indeed beyond their military common sense. Generally speaking, the first line of defense of the Yaqui Army, centered on Aftans, is a defensive zone consisting of a series of towns around Aftans, and although the forces deployed here are not particularly strong, they rely on the fortress as a stronghold to hold the enemy's way forward.

If the Dils wanted to pass through this area, they had to conquer each of these strongholds, and although these towns could not withstand the attack of the Dils army, they could effectively stop the advance of the Dils. If the Dils army tried to bypass these towns and continue northward, their supply lines would be disrupted by these towns, which would be fatal for a large army deep into enemy territory.

The only weakness of this defensive position is that the opponent uses diplomacy and offensive tactics to counter the defenders of these towns, so as to achieve the goal of surrendering the army without a fight. On this point, the Vultures have also been on guard. Long before the attack on Epsmidon, Vulture's priestly army began a propaganda offensive to demonize the other party through the will of the god Ra, so that both the inhabitants and the garrison believed that surrendering to the enemy army was equivalent to betraying the god Ra, so as to effectively avoid the situation of abandoning and surrendering. Of course, Vultures didn't really believe that this would prevent the surrender, as long as it could create enough resistance for the other side, it would be enough to delay the enemy's advance. That's why Vultures deduced that he could hold off the Dils army for three months in Epfutans.

This time, however, he miscalculated. Li Tianhao completely ignored these defensive lines and went straight to Aswanda.

The reason why Li Tianhao was able to make such an unbelievable move. Of course, it comes from a good reason. Of course, he was not stupid enough to ignore his supply lines, and the method he used was simple, in fact, it was to attack from the water. This method of warfare was very familiar to him as a merchant at sea. But it is very rare for the Yaji Army. Due to the existence of several waterfalls on the Naura River, Yaqui's waterway transportation was concentrated in the area north of Aswanda, and the scale in the south was very limited, and its transportation capacity was simply not enough to meet the needs of large armies.

In fact, Li Tianhao's method is not new, four years ago, Yaji Prime Minister Usubu spent a lot of manpower and material resources to move the Yaji fleet led by Ramedir to the upper reaches of the Nanra River, completing a large-scale attack. Although this offensive ultimately failed. But he told the world that this kind of attack was not impossible, and now Li Tianhao just used Wusubu's method in reverse. However, what Vultures did not expect was that the Dils were building sailors faster than they had expected - in the eyes of the Yaquies, it would be a waste of manpower to build ships on a large scale on a waterway that was not suitable for navigation. It's even more crazy behavior. However, Li Tianhao and Wei Song are not Yaji people, and they do not have this inherent thinking constraint in their minds. In contrast, Wei Song went on a massive water development campaign on both sides of the Nanra River, digging channels to divert water to irrigate newly developed fields. At the same time, water transport can also be used to increase the speed of material exchange.

It is precisely because of the accumulation of internal affairs that this method of warfare has been created. Li Tianhao's main force broke through the Yaqui border area and advanced along both sides of the Nanra River, while Li Tianhao himself led a small number of elite troops to wait for the ships to take up their positions and then went down the waterway and went directly behind the Aftans line. After Li Tianhao landed, he divided his troops into two routes, one turned back and began to attack the rear of the Efortans defensive line, and the other road rushed straight towards Aswanda, using the water supply line composed of ships, Li Tianhao led the cavalry troops to drive straight into the east bank of the Nanluo River, and arrived at the city of Aswanda in only four days.

Faced with this situation. The Yaki Army fell into a panic:

The defenders of the Aswanda defense line did not expect that they would encounter the enemy so quickly, and the Yaji army in the section where the garrison work had not yet been completed did not wait for Li Tianhao to attack. directly abandoned the position and withdrew to the rear; Some weakly defended areas have also fallen one after another, the entire Aswanda defense line has become fragmented, the perimeter of the main city of Aswanda has been exposed, the gates of Aswanda City are closed, and the soldiers are tense and waiting for the upcoming battle.

On the other hand, the defenders of Aftans, who were suddenly attacked from the front and rear, can imagine the psychological impact. Gernas and Weysson led their armies to break through from the front, while Hector, Brooks, and Xenas attacked from behind. The big talk king Senas continued to spread rumors that Aswanda had fallen, shaking the psychology of the Yaki army; Brooks let out a word, guaranteeing the honor of the nobility, as long as he surrendered, he would be given preferential treatment; Gernas used his prestige in the Yaki Army to try his best to win over his old acquaintances; Wei Song used his excellent diplomatic skills to persuade the other side to surrender; Hector used his effective troops to steadily break down the recalcitrant cities one by one. Under the combined strength and strength of these five generals, the cities of the Aftans defense line fell one after another, and soon only the isolated city of Aftans on the west bank of the Nanra River remained.

In just twelve days, the Aftans line was almost equivalent to a complete collapse. Seeing that the overall situation here had been decided, Wei Song was not in a hurry to attack the city of Aifutans, which had the strongest defensive force, but left part of the troops to surround but not attack, and the main force quickly went north to support Li Tianhao.

During this period, the situation in Aswanda also underwent significant changes. Li Tianhao, who had taken the lead, failed to conquer Aswanda in time, because Vultures' reinforcements arrived here in the starry night, and stabilized the hearts of those who were about to collapse in time. Seeing that the strong attack was unfavorable, Li Tianhao turned to clear the Yaji Army's defenses in the area around Aswanda City. Relying on the mobility advantage of the cavalry, Li Tianhao basically cleared the Yaji Army on the east bank of the Nanluo River during this time. However, this also led to the defeat of Yaqui on the east bank almost all converging in the city of Aswanda, and the number of troops in the city increased greatly, making it more difficult to conquer Aswanda.

As the situation on the east bank changed, Vulture's follow-up forces continued to arrive and began to strengthen their defenses on the west bank - and Vulture had to adjust their original plans. Due to the speed of Li Tianhao's advance, Vulture must hold the enemy army on the Aswan front line for at least four months, which is a full double the original plan, so it is no longer possible to complete the goal by relying on the previously deployed troops alone, so he can only fill in the follow-up forces first, and before Debans is ready to defend against the enemy, he must stop the enemy on this front, otherwise Debans will not be able to stop the enemy's attack at all. If the enemy's advance cannot be effectively stopped here, the hearts of the people will become panicked, and the losses will become out of control.

In this way, the Dils Army and the Yaki Army completed their respective forces in Aswanda, and the Battle of Aswanda began. (To be continued......)