After leading his troops on a rapid march from Shuozhou to Chang'an, Wang Zhongyi was travel-worn, with a tired look on his face.

Tired, he was really too tired.

In fact, not only was he tired, but the entire Shuozhou army felt exhausted.

It is impossible for such a tired army to have strong fighting spirit.

Even if Wang Zhongyi forced the soldiers to fight with a sword, it would be of no avail.

Of course Wang Zhongyi would not do this.

He is a veteran with extensive experience in commanding troops and knows what to do when.

At the moment, Wang Zhongyi's best choice is to lead his troops into the city and rest for a while before making plans.

But Emperor Xianlong obviously didn't think so.

Emperor Xianlong, who was still angry, did not allow Wang Zhongyi and his Shuozhou army to enter the city at all, but ordered Wang Zhongyi to camp outside Chang'an City.

Wang Zhongyi couldn't express his pain, after all, he was wrong first.

If it weren't for his disadvantageous marking, which allowed the northern barbarians to bypass the Shuozhou defense area, Chang'an would not be facing such great pressure now.

Since he was right in the first place, he had no reason to complain.

What's more, this is an imperial edict issued by Emperor Xianlong.

If he disobeys it, it is tantamount to rebellion.

In desperation, Wang Zhongyi could only order to camp outside the city.

With my back against the city wall of Chang'an City, I hugged back to back with the old soldiers from Gyeonggi Province to keep warm.

But they also face a problem, that is food.

It is said that there is a food shortage in the city of Chang'an now, and the price of food has skyrocketed, but it keeps changing day by day.

There is a shortage of food in the city, and life outside the city is naturally even more difficult.

Judging from the current situation, Wang Zhongyi's Shuozhou Army has enough food to last for a month at most.

What to do after one month?

It would be okay if the barbarians in the northern grasslands withdraw their troops, otherwise the consequences of food shortage would be disastrous.

Naturally, it is impossible for the barbarians in the northern grasslands to withdraw on their own, so they can only be driven back.

In other words, Wang Zhongyi must first let the Shuozhou army regain its strength, and then fight with real swords and guns against the barbarians in the northern grasslands.

If he can win, he can be considered guilty and meritorious.

If not, I'm afraid he will inevitably be severely punished by Emperor Xianlong.

Nowadays, countless pairs of eyes in the imperial court are staring at Wang Zhongyi. None of the Gonggun princes has a fuel-efficient lamp. They are all responsible for what is served.

If Wang Zhongyi wants to survive this crisis safely, he needs to be extremely cautious and must not be careless in the slightest.

As the saying goes, know yourself and the enemy and you will be victorious in any battle.

Wang Zhongyi lives next to the barbarians in the northern grasslands, so he naturally knows this old opponent very well.

But he was still not careless, and instead sent out scouts to investigate and bring back as much information as possible about the prairie barbarians.

I didn’t know this until I checked, but I was shocked when I checked.

It turns out that the northern grassland barbarians mobilized a full 200,000 troops to go south this time.

This is quite a scary number.

You must know that the grassland population is sparse, which is completely incomparable with the Central Plains Dynasty.

The Zhou Dynasty had a population of tens of millions, so if you wanted to raise an army of one million people, you would have to recruit soldiers.

The total number of people in the grassland is so small. If we gather an army of 200,000, does this mean that all the people are soldiers?

However, the prairie barbarians also benefited from the wild nature in their bones.

The boy on the grassland has been riding horses since he was a child. It can be said that he grew up on a horse.

Their cavalry and shooting skills are first-rate, and they are indeed more capable than the soldiers of the Central Plains Dynasty in individual combat.

However, in large-scale positional battles, the execution and discipline of the soldiers of the Central Plains Dynasty was obviously higher than that of the soldiers of the steppe barbarians.

In other words, the more large-scale and wide-scale the battle is, the more advantage the Central Plains Dynasty will have.

In fact, there is a very important point in this, that is, the Central Plains Dynasty can rely on wheel warfare to consume.

If one army can't defeat it, well, I'll use two or three of them to take turns.

After such consumption, the army of the grassland barbarians will naturally not be able to withstand it.

Of course, the premise of all this is that the combat power of the two sides cannot be too far apart.

Otherwise, it will collapse at the first touch, morale will be low, and everything you say will be in vain.

After fighting against the prairie barbarians for such a long time, Wang Zhongyi actually summed up a set of experiences of his own.

Prairie barbarians generally engage in guerrilla raids and rarely engage in large-scale charges.

Because they are generally light cavalry, and light cavalry have almost no armor protection. If a large-scale charge is launched, they are likely to face huge losses.

In addition, the grassland barbarians are sparsely populated, so if the losses are really heavy, it will be difficult to recover in a short period of time.

The grassland never pities the weak.

If the population of a tribe drops and its combat effectiveness weakens significantly, it will be replaced by a new tribe that rises.

Natural selection and survival of the fittest are the rules of the prairie people.

Therefore, the prairie barbarians will not launch a general attack rashly unless absolutely necessary.

They will constantly harass you and annoy you beyond measure.

After confirming that they are sure to win, they will really attack with all their strength.

You only have one chance to strike with all your strength, and it may take several years before you can recharge your batteries.

Naturally the same is true this time.

The difference is that this time the grassland barbarians have the support of the Demon Sect.

The Demon Sect arose and thrived in the grasslands, advocating darkness and death.

In the teachings of the Demon Sect, darkness and death are the paths and processes towards rebirth.

Only by experiencing darkness and death can one finally be reborn in Nirvana.

This is somewhat similar to some parts of Buddhism.

But Wang Zhongyi knew that the two were actually completely different.

Because the Demon Sect is more inclined to darkness.

The reason why the Demon Sect has been boycotted by the Central Plains and the spiritual practice community for so many years is probably because the things it digs are too dark.

Under such circumstances, human nature begins to become distorted, the practitioner becomes demonized, and his personality changes so much that he can no longer be called a human being.

The essence of spiritual practice is to make people do good, but if all practitioners become evil, it will run counter to the original meaning of spiritual practice.

Therefore, practitioners in the Central Plains talk about demons, and practitioners of the Demon Sect have almost become public enemies of the Central Plains cultivation sects.

"I heard that the Demon Sect has a high priest this time?"

Wang Zhongyi confirmed again and again.

"Reporting to Jiedu Envoy, this is indeed the case. The High Priest of the Demon Sect came to Chang'an in person this time, and it should be a big move."

"Um."

Wang Zhongyi nodded heavily.

The arrival of the high priest in Chang'an is definitely not good news.

It is said that the high priest's cultivation level is super grade. If this is the case, Wang Zhongyi is no match at all.

Wang Zhongyi's current cultivation level is the third level of martial arts.

He has recently launched an attack on the second level. Even if he succeeds in advancing, it is still a huge difference compared to the super level.

If all the super strong men in the world could be counted on two hands, there would not be more than ten.

But there are too many first-grade and second-grade ones. It is estimated that there are hundreds of them.

Therefore, Wang Zhongyi would not think about taking the general's head from among the thousands of troops.

If he really rashly goes deep alone, he probably won't be able to get out of the barbarian camp alive.

Today's Wang Zhongyi is no longer the strong general who was more than brave but insufficient in resourcefulness.

Wang Zhongyi is now the governor of Shuozhou.

What he bears is the honor and future of the Shuozhou Army.

One of his decisions may directly determine the future and direction of the Shuozhou Army, and it must not be too casual.
To be continued...