The Northern Union had somehow lasted for fifteen days, during which the escorts of the various countries, fearing for the safety of the lord or the emissary, had already advanced the collective garrison upwards for fifteen miles three times, and by the fifteenth day the more than 40,000 guards were not enough to leave the upper house.

If it weren't for the lords and envoys of various countries who personally went out of the city to pacify, the guards and the garrison of Shangdu would have fought a long time ago.

How could such a large-scale alliance that was blatantly aimed at a certain goal not attract the attention of the Four Holy Leagues.

The Four Holy Alliances used almost all the inside lines of Shangdu, hoping to find out some inside information of the Alliance, but unfortunately, the security of this League was extremely strict, and the Four Holy Alliances had been operating in Shangdu for decades, and more than 900 people were buried in more than ten days, and they were almost wiped out.

And none of the useful information about the Alliance was sent, which made the Four Holy Alliances panic even more.

Just when the world thought that this covenant was about to be concluded, the form took a sharp turn, starting with the departure of Shangdu in the early morning of the sixteenth day with the lord of Western Tibet, who was full of anger and haste.

Immediately afterwards, the monarchs of Jin and Liao also led their teams to leave, and with the friendship between the three kingdoms of Meng, Jin and Liao, Tuumba did not see him off in person, which was quite surprising.

Immediately afterwards, the envoys of the Western Regions also said goodbye and left, and there were many displeasures when they left.

Some people speculated before the meeting that if the alliance was successfully formed, the foreign countries would even have the strength to resist the three kingdoms of China, and the situation of the four holy countries would be very difficult.

However, when everything went well, the alliance suddenly collapsed, and the foreign countries left one after another, leaving the outside world puzzled.

When the news was sent back to the Four Holy Kingdoms, the kings of the four kingdoms (the Pope) celebrated for several days, and sent messengers to the other three countries to ask which of the secret agents had accomplished the feat of dividing the relations between the countries and breaking the alliance under such difficult conditions.

After the messengers arrived, the Four Holy Monarchs discovered that it was not the work of any of the Four Kingdoms! Who did it? The Four Kingdoms had a certain amount of speculation among themselves, until a month later the news came out that before the dissolution of the Huimeng, Dean Yun of the Taiyi Academy of the Song Kingdom had visited the scene of the Huimeng and made a speech.

This has led to more speculation from the outside world, and some well-known commentators suspect that Dean Yun's trip seems to express the sincerity of the Three Kingdoms of China, but in fact it is to sabotage the alliance of the foreign countries, because compared to the Four Holy Alliances, the united foreign countries are the real threat of the Three Kingdoms of China.

As soon as this remark came out, it was immediately recognized by the vast majority of people, especially within the Four Holy Alliance.

However, the Four Holy Alliances still made sufficient preparations for war, in order to prevent the Three Kingdoms of China and other countries outside the region from using the strategy of "hiding from the sky and crossing the sea", pretending to talk about the collapse to confuse them, and then secretly attack.

On the surface, the relations between the countries are still the same, but they have deployed a large number of troops near the borders of other countries, and ninety percent of them are placed on the borders adjacent to the three countries of China, putting on a posture of vigilance.

At the same time, countries have stepped up the pace of conscription training at home and have begun to conduct special drills for winter raids.

At this time, the Four Holy Alliances fully confirmed the defeat of the Saibei Alliance, and Qi Qi breathed a sigh of relief.

In the past few years, the Four Holy Alliances have not taken much advantage in the wars with the Three Kingdoms of China and foreign countries, after all, they were established in a hurry, how can they compare their strength and heritage with these empires that have been established for a long time.

Since the countries have no intention of raising swords for the time being in order to ensure the autumn harvest, the Four Holy Alliances also seized the time to harvest grain and prepare for the winter raid on the surrounding countries.

Although the purpose of the Four Holy Alliances is to cause a large number of deaths through war, they cannot destroy the country before the mission is completed, otherwise where will they get a steady stream of dead corpses and wandering spirits.

Dongshengzhou seems to have suddenly entered a period of peace, and there have been no conflicts and wars for several months, which has also given the people a chance to breathe.

At the end of October, a cold snap swept through the entire northern and northwest regions of Dongshengzhou, and the cold level exceeded that of last year, and the foreign countries and the Four Holy Alliances were greatly traumatized, and the death of livestock was about 30%.

This cold snap immediately broke the calm in the north and northwest regions, and all countries needed to save themselves, and the most convenient and direct way was to plunder the three kingdoms of China, where there was enough food and warm clothing for the warriors of the grassland.

The nomads compare themselves to wolves, and regard the farming peoples of the Central Plains as sheep, and in such weather, it is the time for wolves to come out to feed.

However, there are more wolves this year, in addition to the normal extraterritorial countries, there is also the newly grown jackal of the Four Holy Alliance, they are more vicious and cruel, when the steppe wolves went south a few years ago, they will indiscriminately attack the cities and tribes of the three foreign countries of China and the extraterritorial countries.

In this way, they saved the journey to the Huaxia Kingdom, and although the money and food they harvested were not much, the corpses of the herdsmen and women and children left behind were equally useful to them.

Therefore, this year, when the foreign countries were preparing to go south and east to plunder, they had to form an alliance, because they still had to leave a lot of troops to guard against the Four Holy Alliances and defend their homeland from sneak attacks.

The Three Kingdoms of China are naturally not a fish belly country to be slaughtered, as early as the summer began to strengthen the city defenses, and immediately after the autumn harvest, the people outside the city moved into the nearby city to settle down.

At the same time, the training and selection of reserve troops were strengthened, and the garrison troops were replenished in order to deal with the attacks on border towns by foreign countries and the Four Holy Alliances.

In these years, there have been repeated wars of raiding and defense every winter, and in bad weather like this year, bloodshed is inevitable.

The Extraterritorial Kingdoms and the Three Kingdoms of China are like a pair of wrestling fighters, while the Four Holy Alliances are like a jackal waiting for a sneak attack, and when the two are exhausted, they will immediately appear on the scene to devour flesh and blood.

For the Four Holy Alliances, there are no words for morality and sympathy, profit maximization and bloodlust are the foundation of their statehood, and as long as they continue to create wars and increase deaths, their high-level can get the benefits they want from their friends in the north.

On November 3, the prelude to the plundering war began from the border cities of Tang and Mengyuan, and Dunhuang Mansion became the front line again, at this time the city lord of Dunhuang Mansion had been replaced by Fan Yunchao, the former city lord Li Chengliang died of illness three years ago, and Fan Yunchao was able to take over.

In just three years, Fan Yunchao, who is fierce and good at fighting, has gray hair.

Nowadays, unlike in the past, the siege of Dunhuang, which only existed once in the past few decades, has become the norm in winter, and every year there will be coalition troops from Mengyuan, Western Regions, and Western Tibet besieging Dunhuang City.

The siege lasted for five months, from November to March, as if the army would not withdraw without shedding blood under the city.

Fan Yunchao has always had an illusion in the past few years that the enemy besieging Dunhuang Mansion is not to capture this city, but to consume the troops under the city, so as to reduce the pressure on the survival of the tribe in the second year.

And Dunhuang City is like that guillotine, helping the cold-blooded and cruel monarchs of foreign countries to kill all the surplus young and middle-aged people in their countries.

In recent years, the resident population of Dunhuang City has been declining at a rate of one percent per year, the market has become depressed, the people have become dull, and the city has become dilapidated.

If this protracted war continues, Dunhuang City will be destroyed, Fan Yunchao has been here for more than 20 years, and he has a deep affection for this place, but he can't change this status quo.

Because the resident population of Dunhuang City is decreasing year by year, and the difficulty of conscription is becoming more and more difficult, the Tang Dynasty has to use Dunhuang City as a place of exile for domestic criminals.

However, this method could not reverse the downsizing of the army and citizens of Dunhuang City in the short term.

The most painful thing for Fan Yunchao every winter is to see many fresh lives die under the head of Dunhuang City, but there is nothing he can do.

A few years ago, according to the regulations of the imperial court, the corpses of those who died in the war had to be burned on the spot, regardless of whether they were enemies or friends, and they could not be buried.

But this year, it is stipulated that the corpses of ordinary people must also be cremated, which makes many Dunhuang people who believe in the soil unacceptable, although the city lord's mansion has done everything possible to guide and persuade in every way, and even give subsidies to the families of the people who choose to be cremated, but there are still people who secretly bury the corpses.

At first, Fan Yunchao and the officials in the city also felt that the imperial court was doing something extraordinary, but with the soaring number of corpse theft cases, Fan Yuanchao and others felt that there must be something strange in it, and after careful investigation, there was no result, so Fan Yunchao linked the corpse theft with the new rules of the imperial court.

The theft of corpses became more and more rampant, triggering a short-term conflict between the people and the government, and the people believed that the government officials or the army secretly stole the corpses, and the officials tried their best to refute the rumors.

Soon after, the legend of zombies and rotting corpses in Dunhuang began to spread among the people.

There are a few people who rob the tomb for a living and swear that the corpses of Dunhuang City have changed, regardless of the new corpses, ancient corpses, white bones and flesh, they can move on their own, jump off the city wall and leave by themselves through the streets and alleys, which is very terrifying, and the tomb robbers are also frightened crazy.

Some brave people did not believe it and organized their own arrest team, but after seeing it with their own eyes, they finally believed it, and soon the whole process of the people accepted the cremation ceremony.

Today, Fan Yunchao took his generals and important civilian officials to observe the enemy's situation in the city, and the scale of the coalition army this year is much smaller than in previous years, and the combined forces of Mengyuan, Western Regions, and Western Fan are stationed in the north of Dunhuang City.

Fan Yunchao held the city wall and looked at the barbarian coalition camp ten miles away, the company camp was dozens of miles, waving flags and waving people, the scale was much smaller than in previous years, but he was extremely uneasy in his heart.

Fan Yunchao frowned, and muttered: "No! There must be a conspiracy, how can there be such a small number of people? Where is Vice General Huang?"

Huang Qianzong had become Vice General Huang back then, and when he heard the sound, he immediately took a step forward and hugged his fists and said, "The end will be!"

"What special discoveries have you made in the past few days?"

Vice General Huang thought for a while and said: "There is nothing special, the barbarian coalition army has set up camp and is waiting for the baggage and grain and grass to arrive, and when they are all ready, they will attack." ”

Fan Yunchao shook his head and asked, "How close are the scouts to the camp?"

"Back to the general, two miles away, if you get closer, you may be shot directly by the opponent's marksman. ”

Although Fan Yunchao had changed from a garrison general to a city lord three years ago, his old subordinates still liked to call him a general.

"It's not too far, I can't find out the truth at all, I must go into the camp to find out, otherwise I'm uneasy!"

Vice General Huang couldn't bear to say in his heart: "General, what did you find, if you enter the camp to scout brothers, you will definitely die for life, is it worth it?"

Fan Yunchao glared at Vice General Huang, and his eyes seemed to be lit with flames: "It's worth it! The legendary 450,000 troops on the opposite side have less than 50,000 people in the battalion! I want to know where the other 400,000 people have gone!"