By the time Li Tianhao found out that the situation was not good, it was already the fifth day that he had led his army across the Nanluo River.

If the enemy's main force successfully breaks through its own border fortress, it is reasonable to extend the victory inward as quickly as possible, after all, there is no main force of the Diels army in this area, but there are a large number of Dirs troops who have fled south from the border, and if these stragglers are allowed to regroup, it will undoubtedly be detrimental to Yaqui. However, expanding the results of the battle will also make the troops disperse accordingly, and Li Tianhao's original intention was to use this opportunity to break through each and destroy the enemy army one by one. However, the actions of the priest army were completely different from the usual Yaji army, and intelligence showed that they did not continue to advance vigorously to the south except for the rapid advance at the beginning, but instead adopted a very slow pace of advance for several days in a row, and as soon as they reached the east bank, Li Tianhao encountered several Diers' troops that had regrouped after the defeat. The ratio of the priest army was also very unclear, so much so that Li Tianhao couldn't grasp the specific number of these scattered troops.

It wasn't until the vanguard Muller brought back the first battle report that Li Tianhao saw the clue - the original estimate of the priest army was about 50,000 people, so in addition to the troops besieging Dara and Lorencis, there were at least 40,000 people, how many results could be expanded with these forces these days Li Tianhao knew best in his heart, even if the priest army was very serious and slow, it would not just advance such a distance, unless they had other purposes. The priestly army that Mueller had defeated numbered only a thousand men, but what they were doing was driving the inhabitants northward!

This is really an unexpected move, the goal of the priest army this time is to plunder the population! Originally, the population of the Dils Mountains was not very high in the Yaqui country, and the total population was only a little over a million. After several years of war by Li Tianhao, the actual population is less than one million. It was not easy to recruit soldiers while ensuring production and logistical supply. With the addition of Palci. The total population does not exceed 1.7 million, but the labor force of Palchi cannot be used by Li Tianhao, and the population of the newly captured Napatis and Epsmilton regions is about 1.3 million, which is almost equivalent to the entire population of the Dils Mountains and Palchi. The chief commander of the Priest Army, Vulture, apparently saw through this, given that the attack was not well armed. It was impossible to defeat the Dils army completely, so his goal from the beginning was to plunder as many people as possible from the Epsommiton area, which would not only destroy Li Tianhao's national capital, but also reserve key forces for a long-term war of attrition between the two countries.

Even more worryingly, the Mueller report states that the priestly army is not only driving the people north, but is also sending a message to the people that the god Ra has issued an oracle to wage jihad against the different faiths in the south. Encourage the people to dedicate themselves to the holy war for the sake of pulling the gods and fight the Dilc army to the end. Compared with the loss of the plundering population, the decline of the human heart is more frightening, and the Vultures not only want to reduce the actual population of the Dils army. It is also necessary to make these two newly occupied lands the front line of the Yaqui State, and let the people attack the Dilcs army as the first echelon. In this way, there will be no peace in the Napatis and Epsommilton areas. Whether it is suppressed or not, there will be endless consequences, and the priest army can stand on the sidelines unscathed. Watching Li Tianhao continue to consume the human resources in the territory. This is really a vicious strategy.

Li Tianhao, of course, could not tolerate such a thing, and he ordered the remnants of the regrouped Dils army to build fortifications on the spot. In order to prevent anyone who tried to go south, he instructed Jamo to take control of the spies lurking in the priesthood and lead his troops to the north to recapture the stolen population.

The division of the troops into several units and the return of the plundered population one by one proceeded very smoothly, and in a few days three thousand caravans of the priestly army were completely annihilated, six thousand caravans were routed, and a large number of people were recaptured. But on the fifth day, Li Tianhao suddenly realized one thing, that is, the number of priest troops annihilated along the way was insufficient, if it was extrapolated according to this ratio, the priest army that invaded the south did not exceed 20,000 at most. The arrival of two pieces of news confirmed Li Tianhao's inference, one was that Hector and Mueller had discovered that a considerable part of the captured priest army had been disguised by the regular army of Yaki, and the other was that Jamo had discovered that about two days earlier, nearly 20,000 priest troops had quietly crossed the Naura River!

It's been calculated! Li Tianhao only felt dizzy, it turned out that he had unknowingly stepped into the trap set by Vultures! Vulture's goal wasn't just to plunder the population and incite jihad, he even intended to swallow the city of Epsommiton!

Since the first two items are directly aimed at the weakness of Li Tianhao's group, Li naturally cannot sit idly by, so he will definitely take action to stop it, so that Li's behavior will become predictable by Vulture, and Vulture took advantage of this, and turned across the river to the west to invade Epsmirton City, even if he can't capture Epsmirton City, he can turn the western region upside down, and at the same time, he can't stop his behavior of inciting the people and plundering the population, which can be said to be a surefire move!

At this time, Li realized how terrible this enemy general named Vulture was, although he had heard of his performance in the battle against Arubania before, but after all, he did not have an intuitive feeling, Li regarded him as another Yaki general or too underestimated the enemy, this person's style of acting is different from the Yaji army's previous combat style, and it seems that he knows himself very well, and from the beginning he has added his own psychological factors when constructing strategic thinking, so that his actions are within his expectations.

Since you have made a mistake, you must correct it in time. Li Tianhao immediately changed his strategy and ordered Muller, Brooks, Jamo, Wodd, and Zukar to lead 10,000 infantry to stay on the east bank, exterminate the priest army as much as possible, recover the plundered population, and at the same time try to rescue the trapped Dara and Lorencis, and he himself took Hector, Aram and Agobar to lead the cavalry troops back to the west bank.

At this time, the flood season of the Nanra River began, and the first wave of the flood peak reached the Epsommilton area, and the rapidly rising water level and turbulent water made it completely impossible to carry out the rapid crossing of the river, for which Li Tianhao wasted three days.

In these three days, the tide of the battle has changed dramatically. (To be continued......)