No. 543 Zhao Di Fengyun (2)

The number of immortals is the shortcoming of the Absolute Holy Gate.

Youzhou and Pingzhou are less developed, and their population density is far less than that of the fertile soil of the Central Plains. Even if some of the more immortal seeds were distributed because of the vast area, they were all born in the barren mountains and mountains, and became the welfare of non-human immortals.

Secondly, the entry threshold of the Absolute Holy Gate is high, and it is not that you are lucky enough to fuse the Immortal Seed to be admitted to the Absolute Holy Gate.

If the advanced immortals rely on supernatural powers to commit evil after that, the Demon Hall of the Absolute Holy Gate will immediately imprison them as criminals, and those who are serious will be killed immediately. And for the immortals in the neutral order camp, the treatment of the Absolute Holy Gate is very poor. The Absolute Holy Gate pursues a system of distribution of more work and more reward, and both the immortal and the non-immortal must be paid for their labor. Despite the flaws in the implementation of this policy, Wei Dongsheng did his best to uphold these basic norms.

On the other hand, the benefits of the immortals were all superior to those of Shi Le, the Zhao Kingdom under Shi Hu, and the Jin family under Sima Yi, not only with rewards such as titles, fields, gold and silver, jewelry, male servants, and maidservants, but also a small mistake that could be forgiven for occasionally killing several non-immortal untouchables. The immortals lived like the middle class under the rule of the Absolute Holy Gate, but they could live like a small aristocratic class under the rule of the Immortal Sect, and many of the lucky and advanced immortals often returned to it with profit-driven.

With all this, the Absolute Holy Gate now has a total of 256 immortal disciples, and its background is not even as good as that of Xiangguo.

If you deduct the staff of the logistics and civil affairs departments, there are less than 100 immortals in the full-time military of the Absolute Holy Gate. The army besieging Xiangguo only had more than fifty Immortal warriors in total, which was obviously in a weak position compared to the 300 Immortals gathered by Shi Hu. If Shi Hu defended Xiangguo City, supplemented by the logistics and transportation of the elite of the immortals who frequently attacked the Pingyou army, it was indeed possible to turn defeat into victory.

However, Wei Dongsheng felt that Shi Hu might not have such determination.

The reason is simple, Shi Hu's dragon qi favor is coming to an end. Once Shi Hu lost the protection of the purple dragon qi, Wei Dongsheng would be able to use the level 10 immortal cultivation to launch a sharp knife stab and tear apart the united array of 300 immortals. Just as a level 5 immortal can use mobility to defeat a group of non-immortal soldiers, Wei Dongsheng can also use the mobility of a level 10 immortal to defeat a group of level 5 immortals. You must know that the gap between level 10 immortals and level 5 immortals is even greater than the gap between level 5 immortals and non-immortals.

Wei Dongsheng guessed Shi Hu wrong, Shi Hu really chose to defend Xiangguo City.

Of course, the Absolute Holy Gate was not afraid of Shi Hu's death. Wei Dongsheng restrained Shi Hu, Wu Wu's phalanx calmly bombarded the city wall of Xiangguo, the camp turned into flying ash, and the city wall collapsed into mud. However, it was not easy for the Absolute Holy Gate to capture Xiangguo City. It must be known that each level 5 immortal is a super master in the martial arts worldview who can crush the undefeated Dongfang, and the three hundred immortals gathered by Shi Hu, including eighty or ninety level 5 immortals, and nearly a hundred fourth-level immortals, can not only launch a local counteroffensive when they fight together, but even have the spare strength to go out of the city at night and attack the logistics supply of the Pingyou army from a distance.

In order to protect the logistics material channel, Wei Dongsheng did not dare to gather more immortal warriors in Xiangguo City; Because he was afraid that Zhuhoumen or Shile would ambush Xiangguo City, Wei Dongsheng did not dare to recklessly break into the city fortress in person, and the siege of Xiangguo gradually became a stalemate. Considering that Shi Hu's dragon qi favor was about to end, Wei Dongsheng was also inclined to a stalemate: Since you want to delay time, I will delay until you lose your dragon qi favor.

In order to curb Shi Hu's numerical and qualitative superiority of the 300 immortals, Wei Dongsheng decisively eliminated strategies such as bayonet charging and street fighting and grinding meat, and tried his best to give full play to the advantages of artillery to bombard Xiangguo City from a long distance.

The purpose of Wei Dongsheng's southern expedition to the state of Hu and Zhao was not to conquer the city, and the Pingyou army was able to consume Shi Hu in Xiangguo City, which was a strategic success.

Before I knew it, it had been half a year.

At a time when level 5 immortals are the mainstream, the power of artillery is considerable. Wu Wu's phalanx methodically bombarded the city walls, and after seizing the city gates, he continued to bombard all obstacles with artillery from a long distance. Shi Hu's three hundred immortals wanted to play melee combat, but they couldn't break through the immortal guards led by Wei Dongsheng; If you want to play long-range combat, their long-range attacks are not as reliable as artillery, and over time, morale is getting lower and lower.

In September 348, Shi Hu saw that Xiangguo was bombarded into ruins by artillery, so he had to withdraw from Xiangguo with more than 200 immortals and retreat to Yecheng, the capital of the country.

Shi Hu still had the dragon's qi to favor him, and it was difficult for Wei Dongsheng to catch up, so he simply let him retreat to Yecheng.

After conquering Xiangguo, Governor Wei Dongsheng led the main force to continue to slowly advance Yecheng, and only appointed more than 20 immortals to tour other counties and counties to assist the local rebels in knocking out those villains loyal to Shihu. Shi Hu's dragon qi luck was only one year left at most, and now he was besieged by Wei Dongsheng in Yecheng, and the people of the prefecture and county clans responded to the Absolute Holy Gate one after another. Ran Min's work in Qingzhou and Yanzhou was also very smooth, after he joined more than 20 immortals, the four states of Qing, Yan, Henan, and Hebei instantly changed color, and the three states of Si, Yong, and He also ended the chaos one after another because of the leaderless dragons.

Wei Dongsheng's original goal of curbing Shi Hu's frenzied killing has been completely achieved so far.

In December 348, there was a sudden change in the state. However, it was Shi Hu's descendants and some of the immortals' cronies who quietly gathered in Taiyuan County, suspected of launching a counterattack from the direction of Bingzhou.

It is said that when Shi Hu frantically slaughtered the people of his own country, the six states of Qing, Yan, Henan, Hebei, Si, and Yong all suffered from it, but the order of the annexed states remained unchanged. Although there was a period of chaos in the state, it was Shi Hu who purposefully eliminated dissidents and replaced the officials of the state with his reliable cronies.

When Shi Hu retreated to Yecheng, at least half of his relatives were transferred to the state and stood by. The higher-ups of the Absolute Holy Gate once thought that Shi Hu might retreat and merge the state, and use the Mandate of Heaven mechanism to survive the massive attack of the Absolute Holy Gate. Everyone never expected that Shi Hu had been guarding Yecheng for several months, and Bingzhou had only made a move for a long time.

It just so happened that the thistle had good news.

Murong Hao's dragon qi transfer experiment has been on the road for several years, and Lu Xun has never been able to officially break through the level 5 barrier. Until October 349, the dragon qi of the Xianbei Yan Kingdom of the Murong Department was transferred from Murong Hao to the second son Murong Jun, and the dragon qi transfer experiment was still in an embarrassing situation. Just when the project members were discouraged, Murong Hao was suddenly robbed and died. At the moment of Murong Hao's death, Lu Xun immediately shattered the level 5 shackles and advanced to the third level 6 immortal in the history of the Absolute Holy Gate.

Murong Hao's death after the dragon qi escaped should be a necessary condition for the transfer of dragon qi.

In any case, Lu Xun finally advanced to the level 6 immortal.

Wei Dongsheng was short of manpower, so he decisively sent Lu Xun to Bingzhou to monitor the movements of Shi Hu's personal soldiers. Lu Xun soon sent a report, saying that Shi Hu's cronies continued to gather in Taiyuan County, and the elite cavalry did not dare to relax for a day, and it was suspected that he was preparing to raid the Monan grassland.

But unexpectedly, for several months, Shi Hu's cronies have been preparing for the war in Taiyuan County.

Shi Hu didn't seem to know that there was still a reliable army in Bingzhou, and continued to defend Yecheng in a daze.

Wei Dongsheng became more and more puzzled about Shi Hu's purpose.

After thinking about it, Wei Dongsheng simply responded to all changes with no change, and ordered Wu Wu's phalanx to continue to bombard Yecheng.

The siege of Yecheng was stalemate until the end of May 349, and the dragon qi of the state of Zhao was suddenly transferred to Shi Shi, the son of Shi Hu. Shi Shicai was only ten years old, and he had barely fused the Immortal Seed by Shi Hu's Protector two years ago, and now he was only a Level 1 Immortal. A level 1 immortal controls purple dragon energy, and even if it has the ability to reduce the enemy by four levels, it can only withstand the attack of a level 5 immortal at most.

The purple dragon qi is in the hands of Shi Shi, and it has already existed in name only.

Without the protection of the purple dragon qi, the Qihu Zhao Kingdom only had one level 7 immortal Shi Hu and four level 6 immortal generals.

The moment Shi Hu lost his dragon energy, Wei Dongsheng suddenly launched a general attack.

After a chaotic battle, the Absolute Holy Gate worked hard to catch Shi Shi.

It's a pity that Shi Hu ran away!

Shi Hu really had other ideas, since the siege of Xiangguo, Shi Hu had secretly moved outside the city with Xiangguo and Yecheng as the center, testing whether Wei Dongsheng could accurately detect his hiding place through dragon qi induction. Carefully verifying Wei Dongsheng's limitations, Shi Hu then defended Yecheng openly, but in fact, he had already quietly transferred the nest outside the city.

For Shi Hu, the loss of dragon qi also lost the shackles, and outsiders no longer wanted to find his hiding place by watching the dragon qi.

The siege of Xiangguo and the siege of Yecheng were both Shihu's taboo dragon qi that soared into the sky, and deliberately confused the holy gate with "immobility". Losing his dragon qi in an instant, Shi Hu decisively abandoned his lair outside the city and fled to the real lair where no one knew where it was.

It turned out that Shi Hu had no idea of defending Yecheng at all.

In addition to his own escape route had already been arranged, Shi Hu also arranged a back road for Shi Zun, Shi Jian, Shi Yi and other sons with the atmosphere of a hidden dragon. Shi Shi is the true dragon of Zhao Guo after Shi Hu, and the dragon qi soars into the sky, unable to hide, and can only regretfully stay in Yecheng to attract the Absolute Holy Gate. Shi Zun, Shi Jian, Shi Yi and others, the favor of the dragon qi has not yet turned into light, so they fled to Yongzhou and Bingzhou in March and April respectively. Shi Hu even instructed Liu Xian, Fu Hong, Zhang Ju, Wang Wu and other four level 6 immortals that once he lost his dragon qi, the four of them would immediately surrender to Shi Zun, Shi Jian, and Shi Yi respectively.

Shi Hu did have the idea of relying on the Mandate of Heaven mechanism to resist the Absolute Holy Gate, which was the task he left to Shi Shi, Shi Zun, Shi Jian, and Shi Yi.

Wait and see the dragon qi luck of the stone world, the longest is less than a year.

Only those who favor the dragon qi can "hold the prince in their hands and have the heavenly constitution in their mouths", and only Shi Shi is alone, and the Absolute Holy Gate cannot be a puppet of the Zhao Kingdom for a long time. When the dragon qi of the Zhao Kingdom of Qianhu is transferred to Shi Zun, Shi Jian, Shi Yi and other sons, the three sons can control the dragon qi to desperately curse the Absolute Holy Gate and buy buffer time for Shi Hu.

A few days later, news came from Bingzhou: Shi Hu absconded to Taiyuan County, and his descendants were divided into two, and the infantry and a small number of cavalry were left to Shi Zun to guard Taiyuan County; The rest of the elite cavalry, led by Shi Hu himself, moved to the west.

More than ten days later, the news was more accurate: Shi Hu commanded 5,000 elite cavalry and crossed the Yellow River on five horses. After a short rest in Shuofang County, Shi Hu continued to migrate westward by water and grass, and it is suspected that he has completely abandoned the foundation of the Central Plains.