Gao Aocao, who was covered in blood, returned to the command of Emperor Shenwu of Northern Qi, and the Northern Qi army retreated like a tide.

"You mean there is a swordsman in the city to stop you from seizing the city gate?"

Gao Huan's face turned pale and still couldn't believe it. Gao Aocao, the most powerful general under his command, was held back by a swordsman of unknown origin for a long time. As a result, the Northern Qi army was killed by the defenders. Gao Aocao was outnumbered and forced to escape from Ruzhou.

This is different from the information Gao Huan learned before.

If Gao Aocao had not had his extraordinary force, he might have been exhausted by the defenders using the sea of ​​people.

"Did Zhang Hua arrange a peerless master in Ruzhou in advance to compete with Gao Aocao? Zhang Hua is indeed a complete plan."

Gao Huan thought it was Zhang Hua who arranged for Li Bai to help defend the city and block Gao Aocao.

However, Gao Huan overestimated Zhang Hua. Even Zhang Hua never thought that Li Bai would travel to Ruzhou and become friends with Du Mu.

Gao Huan's eldest son Gao Cheng suggested: "Your Majesty, Ruzhou has been unable to capture for a long time, the soldiers are exhausted, and the army's morale is shaken. Gao Aocao was also injured. It is better to rest for three days and then attack the city."

"It's reasonable. If you pass the order, the army will rest for three days and add additional siege equipment."

Gao Huan temporarily stopped his troops, the Northern Qi army stopped siege and continued to build siege weapons.

In Ruzhou Town, Yu Qian led his troops to clean up the battlefield. The place where Gao Aocao and Li Bai fought was in a mess. Hundreds of houses collapsed and hundreds of soldiers died in battle.

Li Bai was panting and his sword was sheathed.

Gao Aocao was extremely fierce. Under the siege of Li Bai and hundreds of Xia soldiers, he could still break out of the siege and return to the Northern Qi army.

"This person's martial spirit is probably no less than that of the Five Tiger Generals. If Li Taibai had not used his sword skills, the city gate would have been lost. We should be more careful about this person in the future."

Yu Qian roughly judged Gao Aocao's force based on the movements caused by Gao Aocao's single-handed fight.

It is already quite rare for Li Bai to beat the five tiger generals at the level of powerful generals.

"Gao Aocao was compared to Xiang Yu, but there was still a big gap between Xiang Yu. Otherwise, I would have been wrapped in a horse."

After the battle, Li Bai was also in a cold sweat.

Gao Aocao was the most powerful general in the Northern Qi Dynasty and deserved it.

Du Mu realized the hidden information in Li Bai's words, so he asked: "Has you seen Xiang Yu's martial arts with your own eyes?"

Unexpectedly, Li Bai nodded: "In the past, when I was traveling around, I had seen Xiang Yu. I had no power to fight back in front of him."

"hiss……"

Yu Qian and Du Mu looked at each other.

In their opinion, Li Bai's swordsmanship was already superb, but he had no power to fight back against Xiang Yu, the king of Western Chu.

Du Mu was curious about the legendary King Xiang Yu of Western Chu: "Where is he?"

In the Nanyang Basin, a village outside Wancheng, villagers farmed in the hot summer days, facing the loess and facing the sky.

Many young and strong villagers were arrested by officials from the Northern Qi forces established by Gao Huan to join the army and went to attack Heluo. Most of the people in the village were old, weak, sick and disabled.

One of the young men in their twenties waved their hoe to remove weeds growing in the fields.

A woman had prepared tea under the tree on the edge of the field, hugging her knees with both hands, staring at her husband who was busy in the field with affectionate feelings.

The breeze caresses the black hair, and the years are quiet.

It was noon that the young man stopped farm work, returned to his wife, took off his hat, picked up the tea, and drank it all in one go.

"Husband, I heard that the government has captured many strong men. Fortunately, you have a clever plan. We entered the mountains early and escaped the disaster."

The woman leaned on the young man's shoulder and looked at the crops turning from green to yellow.

"Human life is like grass in troubled times. Once he goes to war, he will find it difficult to return. Furthermore, although Gao Huan is a Han Chinese, he is no different from the Xianbei people. No matter what, I will not serve Gao Huan, even if I am a groom who transports grain. I would rather be a rural villager in this village."

A breeze strodes, the leaves rustle and the shadows sway. The young man is happy and contented with a beautiful woman.

The enthronement of the wolf and the residence of the emperor and the generals are naturally the pursuit of the vast majority of people, but some people have seen through the cruelty of troubled times and politics.

"I wish to live in seclusion here with my husband and grow old together."

"It's just that, I really feel wronged you."

"No, I heard a teacher say a poem - suddenly seeing the willows on the street, I regretted asking my husband to find a title. In the midst of great struggle, Xiang Yu, Han Xin, Wu Qi, Bai Qi, Sun Wu and others may be born. Even with the talent of their husbands, there is danger. I would rather stay here and live a commoner's life..."

“That’s good.”

The young man took out a ragged book with the words "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" written on the cover, and flipped it over and over again.

Suddenly, the young man sighed: "It would be great if he could meet the author of this book."

While the couple was chatting, several villagers from the village also gathered together to chat.

"The couple was really lucky. Every time the government came to recruit soldiers, they went to the forest to collect herbs in advance."

"It can be said to be coincidental once or twice, but they can avoid the opportunity of the government coming to recruit soldiers every time, and avoid several chaos without any damage. This cannot be explained by coincidence. Otherwise, even if they experience a war, the man's wife's beauty will definitely not be able to escape."

"Elder, what do you mean?"

"They are definitely experts! It may also be the widows, who can predict the good and bad luck!"

"If they are really warlocks, then we will take care of them more in the future. We will also expect him to help us tell fortunes in the future."

“Yes, yes.”

These villagers also discovered the mysterious and profound aspects of the young couple and were respectful.

In ancient villages, although fortune-telling widows were not in high status, they must not offend them. They had to give them benefits so that the other party would "reveal their secrets" and help them calculate their birth dates.

No outsiders noticed the second-level village in this mountain forest, nor did they notice a couple who were regarded as a parable who lived in seclusion in this village to farm.

Daliang City, this sturdy city was soaked in floods for three months and was destroyed. After the Xia army blocked the dam of Xingkou and Honggou, the accumulated water in the city gradually receded.

But this city has almost become a ruin.

Zhang Hua led the Xia army to Daliang City to check the situation of the city in Daliang City.

【Territory】: Daliang City

【Level】: Level 2 Town (downgraded from a small city)

【Lord】: Zhang Hua

【Number of households】: 41255

【Population】: 154034

[People's Heart]: 53 (Residents are dissatisfied with the occupier's behavior of flooding the beam)

[Public Security]: 51 (Dalian City, which has experienced war and flooded, is being tortured by famine and plague)

[Prosperity]: 6872 (because of long-term siege, flooding, prosperity has dropped significantly)

【Future Evaluation】: Suitable for farming, but it is a place where four battles are concerned, and it is prone to military disasters and floods.

[Farmland Area]: 750,000 mu (of which 260,000 mu were destroyed due to war and floods)

[City Defense Fortifications]: City wall (collapsed), city gate (collapsed), corner tower (collapsed), stone arrow tower (damaged), wooden arrow tower (damaged).

[Total number of households in the actual controlled territory]: 95,000 households

【Total population of actual controlled territory】: 400,000 people

...

"Although flooding Daliang avoids the price paid to attack Daliang City, the people's hearts and public security in Daliang City are difficult to increase in a short period of time. Farmland and markets have been destroyed, and their prosperity has also dropped significantly."

Zhang Hua saw that after conquering Daliang City, the rating of Daliang City dropped directly from a small city to a second-level town, which shows the damage caused by flooding Daliang to this city.

No wonder the civilians in Daliang City have no good impression of the Xia army.

But this is the price that expansion must pay.

Therefore, after the princes conquered a territory, they often needed to spend a lot of time and energy to comfort and digest.

The Qin State wiped out the six countries, and it was unstoppable, but it was difficult for Qin Shihuang to completely digest the territories of the six countries.

So much so that when Qin Shihuang died, rebellions in the six countries broke out one after another.

The same is true for the Former Qin Emperor Fu Jian.

Fu Jian quickly unified the north and digested it for several years, but was defeated by Xie Xuan's Northern Prefecture Army in the Battle of Feishui, and generals from all over the country jumped back.

The Han Dynasty also experienced the early rule of inaction, the rule of Wen and Jing, and the prosperous Han and Wu period, which completely consolidated the concept of great unification.

The people in Daliang City are unavailable, and Zhang Hua only hopes that Daliang City will not have a rebellion.

The Xia army has successively annexed Xingyang and Daliang two important towns, further compressing Nurhaci's sphere of influence.

Nurhaci stationed troops in Zhongmu Town and confronted the Xia army.

Behind Nurhaci are several cities in Xinzheng, Yangdi and Bianjing that provide Nurhaci with troops, horses, food and supplies.

Several cities occupied by Nurhaci's Later Jin Kingdom were located in the heart of the Central Plains with fertile soil, which made Zhang Hua extremely covetous.

It was precisely because of the prosperous Central Plains that Nurhaci supported the eight flags of troops. Including the minion army, the force reached more than 300,000.

Of course, Nurhaci only occupied part of the Central Plains and could not be compared with princes like Liu Xiu, who occupied most of Hebei territory.

If Liu Xiu wants to explode his troops, he will probably explode a million troops.
To be continued...