Chapter Ninety-Seven: Recovering the Lost Ground

When Xuan Qi returned to the city of Yuanzhou, it was already dark. The stench in the city www.biquge.info still exists, and the army can only be stationed outside the city. More than 700,000 troops formed a field of lights outside Wonju City, like stars twinkling in the night sky.

Early the next morning, Xuan Qi took 200,000 cavalry and Shanxi heroes all the way to the east. The rest of the army, led by Gao Yao, went straight to Lanzhou, preparing to recover the Hexi Corridor and the lost territories of the Western Regions.

The news of the annihilation of Helian Yinshan's army spread, and the whole country of the Xiongnu mourned. The Xiongnu defenders in Shanxi also began to retreat, retreating straight to Yanmen Pass. And the combined forces of Bohai and Silla also began to retreat, because once the Xuanqi army advanced eastward, it was possible that they would not be able to leave if they wanted to. After all, the murderous reputation of Xuanqi butcher has long been spread far and wide, and the style of slaughtering the whole army at every turn, and the style of not leaving chickens and dogs behind, makes people have to face up to the results once they face off with Xuanqi. With the retreat of the Silla army, there was also Li Chengye. Li Chengye actually led the army directly to the Silla army and slowly retreated towards the outside of the pass.

At this time, Xuanqi had already crossed the Yellow River eastward, went north along Luliang Mountain, and the army approached Suzhou. Murong Yan, the defender of Suzhou, only had 10,000 defenders, and in the face of the attack of Xuanqi's army and Fan Qi's army, he had to abandon Suzhou and go north. Xuanqi seized Suzhou without much effort, and suddenly made Yanmen Pass a unique pass. After being occupied by the Xiongnu for forty years, Suzhou finally returned to the embrace of the Celestial Empire. The defenders of Yanmen Pass had to escape from the pass in a hurry, along Shanyin, and fled east to Datong.

Xuanqi marched all the way east, but was resisted in Shanyin, and the defenders of Shanyin, who only had more than 1,000 people left, relied on the thick walls of the city to block the Xuanqi army for three hours. After Xuanqi captured Shanyin, the Datong defender had already ordered the entire army to withdraw from Datong City.

Almost all of the 500,000 Xiongnu soldiers have been buried in the Heavenly Empire, and it has become difficult for the entire Xiongnu to organize another 200,000 troops, and the disappointment of the tribes for the Xiongnu court is beyond words. The Huns are now in a situation where they are talking about "butchers" and changing their colors, as long as the Xuanqi army arrives, almost all of them abandon the city and flee, and for the first time in a hundred years, the Huns have a fear of a Celestial Empire.

Fortunately, it was the end of September at this time, and the north was about to enter winter, and Xuanqi did not plan to move his army north to attack the Xiongnu after taking Datong.

Gao Yao's army marched all the way west, except for the original northwest rebels, the rest basically surrendered to Gao Yao's army. Before winter, Gao Yao recovered the entire Hexi Corridor. The Bohai and Silla coalition forces also retreated all the way to Liaodong, and Li Chengye led the army and followed closely to Liaodong. After Li Xing's army entered Yingzhou, it also temporarily stopped advancing.

Li Zhe was welcomed into the capital, looked at the familiar dragon chair, and couldn't help but sigh with emotion. Li Zhe, who is only in his early thirties, has a few strands of gray hair on his sideburns. Now that he has returned to the Golden Palace and sat on the long-lost dragon chair, Li Zhe is no longer the original Li Zhe. Although the throne is still there, it has only become a puppet of the kings.

When Li Xing and Xuanqi entered the city, they were welcomed and cheered by the people of the capital, Li Zhe could only stand in the middle of the long street, as if he was an irrelevant person. Xiongtu hegemony is already yesterday's yellow flower, and the feeling of being dead can only be experienced by Li Zhe himself.

After Li Xing and Xuan Qi returned to the capital, the first official early dynasty finally began. Things really did not surprise Li Zhe, under the insistence of the princes, although the fief was not expanded, it was the limited number of guards who broke through and obtained the autonomy to recruit troops. At the same time, the tax revenue of the king's fiefdom was reduced from 70% to 40%. Such a breakthrough is undoubtedly basically the same as that of each side.

And Li Zhe also restored the fief of Li Hao, the king of Jin, and he could be regarded as having a self-atoning for his mistake of recovering the throne of King Jin in the first place. It's just that Li Zhe has never been able to truly atone for the people who were displaced and even lost their lives in the war.

And Li Xing restored the identity of the prince of Zhenbei, and also served as the generalissimo of the Celestial Dynasty. Regarding Li Xing's choice, Xuan Qi, who had long been disappointed in Li Zhe, was not easy to say. Regarding the holy decree of making himself king, Xuan Qi simply refused, and even the rest of the rewards were also refused. Li Zhe and the kings were a little surprised, after all, after the holy decree was announced, although refusing on the spot in the court was not considered a protest, it was also extremely rare. Li Zhe and the kings looked at Xuan Qi with an indifferent face, but they didn't dare to say more, after all, Xuan Qi was the one who even dared to kill his cousin. And the scholars, who have always spoken sharply, could only keep their mouths shut and say nothing.

Li Zhe, who was already feeling a little depressed, hastily ended the early dynasty. The day after Li Xing and Xuan Qi, who returned to the palace, talked in detail, Xuan Qi left the capital alone. Because just a few days ago, Chu Lin sent the news that Kunzan's request for help had been sent to Tianzhu's army of 300,000 people who had completely occupied the southern part of Tubo, and it was only less than a hundred miles away from Luoqicheng.

Xuanqi was not obligated to rescue Kunzan, but after all, he still had some friendship with Kunzan and Sanchi. At the same time, the Tianzhu army also attacked South Vietnam, which still made Xuan Qi a little unhappy, after all, South Vietnam was defeated by Xuan Qi. At present, although South Vietnam is still under the control of the Celestial Empire, as long as Xuan Qi says a word, the 500,000 South Vietnamese army will probably defect at any time.

And because South Vietnam was not long after it entered the territory, Li Rui only asked South Vietnam to pay 10% of the annual tax out of the idea of rebuilding South Vietnam. In the past few years, South Vietnam has simply not handed it over, and now although it has recovered, it is still only one percent, but Li Zhe does not dare to say anything.

After receiving the news from Chu Lin, Xuan Qi had no intention of discussing with Li Zhe at all, and directly bypassed Li Zhe and gave an order to Zhuge Yunzhi and Qian Chaoxian, so that the South Vietnamese army could start attacking Zhenla, which was occupied by Tianzhu, hoping to encircle Wei and save Zhao's strategy, which could relieve some pressure on Kunzan. Sure enough, when the Tianzhu army received the news that the South Vietnamese army had begun to attack Chenla, they immediately dispatched 200,000 troops to the south to support. At the same time, Tianzhu itself also began to gather a large army and prepare to advance eastward. Kunzan's pressure suddenly decreased, and he finally began to fight back sporadically.

Xuan Qi, who left the capital, was not in a hurry. Along the way, the war-torn Central Plains began to have some vitality, and countless people who fled the war and left their hometowns began to return one after another. It's just that these people don't know that this person riding a white horse and wearing white clothes is Xuanqi who has recovered the land of the Central Plains.

When Xuan Qi entered South Vietnam from Liangguang, it was already February. At this time, the north is still frozen for thousands of miles, but the land of South Vietnam is full of spring. At this time, the South Vietnamese army was divided into two routes, and Zhuge Yunzhi of the South Road had already crossed the Mekong River and taken the area of the Tonle Sap Lake. Qian Chaoxian of the North Road had already won Vang Vieng.