...

On August 24th, Zhuozhou...

"Boom~~"

"Bang~~"

The offensive of the Far East Army's iron artillery still bombarded Pei Qing's army day and night, just like a meteor's fireball exploded when it landed on the ground. The broken iron pieces overturned countless soldiers, screaming and screaming endlessly, as if they would never stop...

From August 19th to now, for five days, Pei Qing led 250,000 Shangling Army to attack left and right, trying to break out of the Far East Army, but every time he was forced by the defenders of Lu Su, Zhang Zhaotong, and Wu Zhenying, and could only run back and forth in the imprisoned circle.

He also tried to break through to the border county, contact the rear army, and temporarily withdraw to the border county before making plans.

But Chen Qing, Chu Zijun and Mu Feng's iron cavalry combination firmly controlled Pei Qing's retreat and launched several attacks on the cavalry, but they all returned with great defeat under the attack of the iron cavalry and had to continue attacking in the direction guarded by Lu Su.

However, Lu Su's 20,000 infantry, combined with 10,000 auxiliary soldiers, not only did not gain any advantage under the attack of iron cannons, crossbows and crossbows, but instead suffered heavy damage and had to turn to attack Zhang Zhaotong's troops.

However, Zhang Zhaotong's troops were also difficult to fight. The number of iron cannons equipped by his nearly 40,000 people was twice as many as that of Lu Su's troops. Before the army could start a close contact, it was bombarded with fireballs again, and the attempt to break through ended in failure again.

In the end, the exhausted Shangling Army had to retreat to the center and defend their actions. Their actions were always controlled by the Far East Army in a plain area within 80 miles and could not break through.

The food and grass in the Shangling Army have long been cut off. Since August 18, all the Shangling Army have not eaten a grain of food. In addition, the long journey has been going back and forth, and the morale in the army has fallen to freezing point...

When Wu Zhenying was sure that Pei Qing's troops had lost their aura and could no longer launch an offensive, he immediately ordered Lu Su, Zhang Zhaotong and his headquarters to start shrinking the defense line and approaching Pei Qing's army step by step.

At this moment, Pei Qing, who learned about the Far East Army's intention, could no longer command the Shangling Army, who had been hungry for several days, to break through, and could only set up a formation on the spot to start defending.

But obviously, Wu Zhenying, Lu Su, and Zhang Zhaotong had no intention of letting Pei Qing rest. When approaching Pei Qing's military camp, the three armies kept raiding them from the east, south and north.

Late at night, watching thousands of fireballs in the air fall into the inside and outside the military camp one after another, the roaring explosions slowly swallowed up the last trace of blood and courage of the group of Shangling Army...

Listening to the noise outside the tent and the thunderous sound of iron fireballs, Pei Qing had no time to stabilize the morale of the army, so he simply shrank into his tent, gnawed the roasted horse meat, and carefully thought about his next plan.

"General..."

At this moment, a guard stumbled into the tent, with a pale face and said to Pei Qing extremely weakly: "Yang, Mr. Yang was hit by a fireball, hurry, it's almost impossible..."

"Um?"

Upon hearing this, Pei Qing immediately stood up and rushed out of the tent...

When he saw Yang Guotai, he saw that his waist was covered in blood and was lying dullly at the entrance of a camp, surrounded by Shangling soldiers who were killed by iron cannons.

"Mr. Yang... hold on..." Looking at the dying Yang Guotai, Pei Qing stepped forward and held his hand, and said excitedly, "When I break through the siege, I will definitely find a doctor to cure you..."

Yang Guotai was so angry that he heard Pei Qing's words that he shook his head with difficulty and said to him: "General, I have harmed you... Now... please bring a small group of confidants with you, maybe you have a chance to break through...

But... I can't help the general to achieve his hegemony... I'm really... unwilling to accept it... Liu Ce's strength is much more terrifying than I thought..."

Pei Qing hurriedly stopped Yang Guotai and continued: "Mr. Yang, don't say anything more. Take a break. This general will definitely escort you out..."

Yang Guotai used all his last strength to hold Pei Qing's palm tightly, as if there were signs of a flash of light. He shouted: "General, the situation is over. Don't hold on anymore. While the Far East army has not yet surrounded it, quickly lead the confidants to break through. Liu Ce will not let it go...you..."

Before he finished speaking, Yang Guotai held Pei Qing's palm tightly and loosened his head, then tilted his head, cutting off his vitality.

Pei Qing's eyes on Yang Guotai clenched his teeth and punched him hard on the hard land. Then he stood up proudly and returned to the tent to grab the winged gold-boring gun, calling out the only thirty-five remaining confidants.

"You will break out with me and break out. As long as you break out of the enemy's siege, you will definitely make a comeback with your bravery!"

When the only remaining eight tiger generals around Pei Qing heard this, Lu Zirang immediately took the lead and bowed and said, "The last general is swearing to follow the general to the death and break through the siege!"

"See the general to the death!"

The remaining thirty-four people also shouted in unison.

Pei Qing nodded vigorously: "Okay! Get on the horse! Come with this general and break through the siege."

Under Pei Qing's leadership, the Thirty-Six Cavalry left the remaining 200,000 troops and galloped towards Lu Su.

"Boom~"

"Well~~"

However, as soon as the thirty-six cavalry rushed out of the barracks, an iron cannon exploded in front of them. The scattered iron sheets hit two war horses, making them unable to help but neigh, overturning the cavalry on the horse's back to the ground, breaking their legs alive.

The other horses were also frightened by the huge roar and the burning flames, and they stepped on their four hooves and kept turning back and forth.

"Driving~~"

After finally controlling the horse's body, when the fireballs in the air hit again, Pei Qing and Lu Zirang continued to lead the cavalry forward and rushed forward...

"cavalry?"

When he heard the sound of horse hooves approaching, and more than three or five horses, Lu Su, who had always heard keenly, opened his eyes and stood up and looked at the light of the fat torch.

When he saw that there were only thirty riders on the cyclist, Lu Su snorted disdainfully: "The fight of trapped beasts, moths to the flames..."

Then with a wave of his hand, six crossbow chariots that had already been on the crossbow spear were pushed to the front of the formation, lined up and aimed at the cavalry of Pei Qing's troops.

As he approached eighty steps in front of his formation, Lu Su waved his arm high and fiercely.

"call……"

Thirty crossbow spears were in a shape, and with the twist of tearing air, they roared towards Pei Qing's troops opposite...

"General, be careful..."

Death approached, and the keen Lv Zi let instinctively push Pei Qing beside him, and the moment he fell off the horse...

"puff……"

The thick crossbow spear ruthlessly penetrated Lu Zirang's chest, and the powerful inertia directly lifted him back from the horse's back.

"Well……"

Feeling the howling wind in his ears, Lu Zirang grabbed the spear that penetrated his back with his hands tightly while flying backwards. Finally, when he landed on the ground, he became one with the night.

"Well~~"

“Ah~~”

The remaining crossbow spears overturned the trusted cavalry leading by Pei Qing, who broke through one by one. Amid the roar of the wretched people and horses, all except Pei Qing were killed.

Poor that this so-called hard breakthrough became a complete joke in front of Lu Su's army. Before melee contact was started, it was declared a failure in a very short time.

Pei Qing tried hard to get up from the ground, looking at the situation where the riders were cracked in their armor around him and he was the only one left. He was furious and looked at the solemn Lu Su formation opposite with extreme resentment.

"I, Pei Qing, are invincible in the world!"

At this moment, Pei Qing collapsed. He disheveled his hair, waved his heavy winged gold trunk, stepped on his legs, and rushed towards Lu Su's formation like crazy.

Seeing this, Lu Su took the crossbow from his deputy general Wang Rui, calmly stuffed a crossbow into the arrow groove, then pulled the crossbow string and fixed it on the machine expansion, aiming at Pei Qing.

"The enemy's chief general dares to fight me Pei Qing for 300 rounds!" Pei Qing didn't realize that the crisis was coming, and kept dancing to the gun in his hand, quickly forcing him into the distance of 30 steps from Lu Su's military formation.

"Another one-on-one challenge?" Lu Su was slightly surprised when he heard Pei Qing's crazy words, and sneered and shook his head, "It seems that a few years ago, a man named Xiang Xian was also saying the same thing in this situation..."

Then, Lu Su aimed his arm and crossbow at Pei Qing...

"It's a pity that the era of personal martial arts in the army is destined to be outdated. If you can be brave enough to be the best in the world, in the face of absolute strength..."

Speaking of this, Lu Su pulled the trigger pressed on his index finger heavily...

"puff……"

Twenty steps away, the crossbow arrows roared through Pei Qing's throat and penetrated the back of his neck...

Pei Qing's crazy expression froze, and he stumbled forward and ran a few more steps. Finally, he knelt in front of Lu Su's formation powerlessly. The breath of life in his eyes passed like a tide, and finally became extremely empty...

"Clang..."

"Bang……"

Pei Qing's body fell heavily to the ground with the winged gold-boiling gun. A generation of Shangling generals died before he showed his bravery for the last time, which also means that the Shangling Pei family, a famous family who has been operating in the north for more than a hundred years, has been completely uprooted...

"Destined to be eliminated!"

After shooting Pei Qing, Lu Su threw the crossbow in his arm back into Wang Rui's hand and said the sentence he had not finished before.

"People can persuade the surrender if you take off Pei Qing's head. Send someone to notify Commander Wu, Zhang Zhaotong and Commander Chen. Pei Qing is dead and can launch a general attack..."

...

In the early morning of August 25, the command was lost, and the 180,000 remaining Shangling Army, which was like a pile of loose sand, officially surrendered to the Far Eastern Army. Together with the surrendered soldiers of the Later Army, there were 290,000.

Since then, the Far East Army won a great victory in the offensive against Shangling, but the losses investigated after the war were also quite large.

From the early stage of the confrontation with the Shangling Army to the end of the war, the Far East Army suffered more than 15,000 casualties, of which 6,000 were killed in battle, and more than 1,000 died of illness in the middle, and the rest were injured.

Fortunately, nearly 70% of the wounded were able to return to the army to continue fighting in all directions after a period of treatment and rest. After this battle, many new soldiers participating in this battle became qualified veterans and their combat power was greatly improved.

In addition to the losses of soldiers, the greater losses are the military's supplies, food, grass and medicinal materials.

According to preliminary statistics, in the nearly four months of confrontation with the Shangling Army, more than 200,000 troops in the army spent nearly 1.4 million stones in food and grass alone, which were transported from the Far East in several times.

Secondly, the iron cannons were used in Wu Zhenying, Zhang Zhaotong and Lu Su, a group of prodigal sons, as if they were not worth money. When they launched a siege on Pei Qing's army, they almost wiped out all the iron cannons they carried this time.

Needless to say, there are medicinal materials, weapons and armor losses, etc., after Liu Ce counts, this battle in the eight provinces in the northern region cost 23 million silver dollars. If it is equivalent to market silver, it will be 500 to 60 million taels of silver. He was so shocked that he did not come back to his senses for several days.

However, after the Battle of Shangling, Jingtai and Heyuan responded and surrendered. By early October, the entire eight northern provinces had basically been firmly controlled by Liu Ce, and the first battle of the Central Plains came to an end.

From then on, from the Far East to the North, Liu Ce owned a vast land of fourteen provinces in the Central Plains and a population of nearly 300 million, becoming the most powerful warlord in the north, shocking the government and the country.

In the next step, Liu Ce set his sights on the remaining provinces north of the Wei River (Yuzhou, Hengyang, Su Ning), and planned to wait for a while to rest. After the people's livelihood in the eight northern provinces stabilized, he would lead his troops south to bring them all into his territory, and then achieve a strategic attempt to plan outside the border with Xu Wenjing.
Chapter completed!