Chapter 483: Stealing a chicken but losing the rice, Liu Zeqing who was awakened gave up Xuzhou
“Still want your life-defining artifact back?”

“Liu Zeqing, are you a three-year-old baby? How can you say such naive words?”

Zhao Hong had just taken away Liu Zeqing’s natal artifact to suppress him when she heard him wailing at the top of his lungs. She was immediately amused and said, “You are definitely dreaming if you want to take back the artifact bell. Why don’t I use my natal artifact to send you to death?”

“kill!”

The number of soldiers in this attacking enemy was far less than Zhao Hong’s. Now Liu Zeqing, the leader of the main formation, had lost his life-saving artifact and could no longer protect the giant wolf beast. This was the best time to kill the enemy, so Zhao Hong would naturally not let him go.

“Suzaku Burns the Sky!”

Because his own natal artifacts, the Treasure Bowl and the Money Tree, were currently suppressing the enemy’s artifact, the Big Bell, and could not be used for the time being, but the military killing formation formed by his own 200,000 soldiers was enough to crush the 50,000 enemy troops that had lost the protection of the artifacts.

“Chirp…”

Then I saw the Vermilion Bird, which was about seven hundred feet in size, flapped its huge fiery red wings and flew in front of the white wolf beast that was transformed from the enemy formation. It opened its big mouth, and a huge beam of fire spurted out of its mouth, sweeping towards the giant wolf beast!

“not good!”

Liu Zeqing finally came to his senses from his rage at this time. Seeing the enemy’s powerful killing move coming at him, which was far beyond his own ability to withstand, he was frightened and screamed. His cowardly nature was revealed. He controlled the giant wolf beast to turn in the air and fled for his life in the direction it came from!
“Oh!”

However, how could it be so easy to avoid the killing power presided over by Zhao Hong?
What’s more, the distance between the enemy and us was not far to begin with, and the speed of the Nanming Lihuo emitted by the Suzaku divine beast was extremely fast. Even if the giant wolf divine beast transformed by the enemy army completed the action of turning around and fleeing, it was still enveloped by the flames!
“what……”

Without any surprise, the military killing formation presided over by Liu Zeqing was blown up on the spot by the enemy’s killing power that far exceeded their own endurance. Countless Blood-Clothed Guards soldiers turned into ashes and died. Naturally, the military formation could no longer be maintained. As the figure of the giant wolf beast dissipated, one Blood-Clothed Guards soldier after another appeared on the scene, staggering to the ground.

In the killing array’s magical power attack just now, more than ten thousand of the fifty thousand Blood-Clothed Guards died, and the remaining less than forty thousand soldiers were all injured to varying degrees.

The two armies’ killing formations clashed head-on. Once one side was defeated and the formation was destroyed, the outcome was so tragic that the casualties ratio far exceeded that of a normal battle between two armies.

“escape!”

“Otherwise I will die here today!”

Liu Zeqing’s face was pale, with a trickle of blood oozing from the corner of his mouth. He had obviously suffered internal injuries and was terrified.

At this moment, where was he, still having any of his previous high spirits?

He was now focused on escaping, knowing that his life-defining artifact, the Soul-Falling Bell, no longer belonged to him. He gritted his teeth and said, “Burn a drop of my life-definition blood essence!”

“If you keep the green hills, you won’t have to worry about running out of firewood.”

He was so afraid of death that he realized that the enemy’s killing power continued to attack, so he used his last means of saving his life.

Although he himself is an early stage sixth level warrior, so is his enemy, and the opponent’s innate artifact is extremely powerful. Not to mention that now he has lost the protection of his innate artifact, how can he be a match for the enemy?
As a drop of his own blood burned, Liu Zeqing turned into a stream of blood-red light and soared into the sky. He instantly left the battlefield and rushed towards Xuzhou City in the south without looking back.

As for the tens of thousands of Blood-Clothed Guards left here, I’m sorry, but it would be most appropriate to sacrifice them to buy time for your escape.

“Want to run!”

“Chase!”

Xiao Shitou, who was riding a level six early stage goshawk and patrolling over the big dock, shouted angrily when he saw this, and controlled the spirit bird he was sitting on to transform into a stream of light, chasing in the direction Liu Zeqing left!
As Xuzhou city was only thirty miles to the south, Liu Zeqing, who had burned his lifeblood to escape, flew into the city in just a few flashes. However, Xiao Shitou and the big goshawk under him were blocked by the city defense formation and had to stop outside the city unwillingly.

When Xiao Shitou returned to the rear battlefield cursing, the battle here had just ended.

Without the protection of military formations and divine weapons, tens of thousands of Blood Robe Guards were crushed and swiftly killed by the 200,000 soldiers led by Zhao Hong himself using their killing formations and magical powers.

“What a pity that Liu Zeqing ran away!”

After the battle, Zhao Hong disbanded the army and ordered the soldiers to meditate as soon as possible to recover their fighting power. After reuniting with Liang Liping and Xiao Shitou, she said with some regret, “But the gains from this battle are not small. Not only did we kill 50,000 elite soldiers of the enemy, but we also captured a good artifact, the Great Bell.”

“Once we hand it over to the commander-in-chief, we will burn it to purify it, and refine it after removing the hidden dangers. Then we will know what kind of innate divine weapon it is.”

“Ha ha……”

Zhao Hong thought of Liu Zeqing who had come with such a fierce momentum but fled in a panic, and couldn’t help but sneer, “That bastard Liu Zeqing, after losing his life artifact this time, I think he will cry, it’s far more than just regret.”

She was right. Anyone whose life-saving artifact was snatched away by the enemy would not remain indifferent and would inevitably feel regret.

What’s more, Liu Zeqing, this villain, probably only has this one natal artifact.

The other party seems to be here to give you a treasure. If you tell others about it, I guess many people won’t believe it.

Isn’t Liu Zeqing just a fool who wants to stop a chariot with his bare hands?
Or it would be more appropriate to say that he is mentally retarded.

Not to mention the restraint of Zhao Hong’s natal magic weapon, the fact that he dared to lead 50,000 soldiers to attack the million-strong army of the Fuxing Army was not something a normal person could do.

How arrogant and conceited does one have to be to pull off such a magical operation?

You have to know that the reputation of the Fusion Army is not boasted, but it is earned through real fighting, having fought thousands of wars without ever being defeated.

Even someone as powerful as Huang Taiji would never dare to do this.

“Ha ha……”

“This Liu Zeqing is too weird. Does he think that he is invincible after breaking through to the early stage of level six and obtaining a life-defining divine weapon?”

“He’s lost his mind. He’s too proud of himself after achieving success.”…

Liang Liping and her sister, as well as generals such as Pan Jinghua, all laughed so hard that they didn’t know what to say about such a weirdo like Liu Zeqing.

“All right.”

Liang Liping saw that nearly one million Fuxing Army soldiers who were going to participate in the siege had already landed and lined up to prepare. She waved her hand and ordered everyone, “Liu Zeqing, who just suffered a great loss, should have lost his nerve and will most likely choose to abandon the city and flee.”

“The faster we attack the city, the better. We must firmly establish ourselves as the first step in this southward offensive!”

“Pass on my military order. The army will approach Xuzhou City as quickly as possible and try to capture it in one go!”

“Xiao Shitou, Sister Zhao Hong, the two of you will each lead an army of 200,000 and go around the left and right sides of Xuzhou City to block the enemy’s evacuation and maximize the results of the battle.” “If Liu Zeqing chooses to fight to the death and decides to defend Xuzhou City, it will be even better. We will have enough time to besiege this vital military town and destroy the so-called main force of the Liu family army. The Huai River and Huai River areas will be within our grasp.”

According to the Military Intelligence Department, most of the aristocratic families and officials in the Xuzhou area have basically moved to the south of the Yangtze River to buy property.

As long as Liu Zeqing’s army is destroyed, it will not be difficult for the Fuxing Army to capture the Lianghuai area.

It makes sense for the military to use Xuzhou City as a gap to open the battle to the south.

“Yes, Commander-in-Chief!”…

Zhao Hong, Xiao Shitou, Pan Jinghua, Wu Xilin, Huang Lan and others gladly accepted the order.

A moment later, except for the remaining fleet treasure ship and the 200,000 naval soldiers guarding the large dock, the remaining 500,000 ground forces and 400,000 naval soldiers, led by three level six strong men Zhao Hong, Liang Liping and Xiao Shitou, formed three large military killing formations and quickly approached the Xuzhou city ahead.

For the army advancing at full speed, thirty miles was covered in a moment.

“Chirp!”

A level 5 peak spirit bird descended from the sky and landed in front of the army that had just stopped. Mo Xiaoyong leaped from the bird’s back and hurriedly reported to Liang Liping, “Commander-in-chief, after Liu Zeqing returned to Xuzhou City, he immediately led a large convoy of about 200,000 soldiers and 100,000 warriors to form a large military killing formation and is evacuating towards the south gate. It seems that he wants to abandon Xuzhou City and run away!”

In order to obtain timely and accurate military intelligence and ensure a successful start for the Fuxing Army’s southward expedition, Mo Xiaoyong has been personally keeping an eye on the enemy’s movements.

Just now, he was patrolling over Xuzhou City on his natal spirit bird and found that something was wrong in the city, so he immediately came to report the latest military intelligence.

“Sure enough, after Liu Zeqing suffered a great loss, his cowardly nature returned. Now he wants to abandon Xuzhou City and flee southward to escape for his life.”

Liang Liping looked calm, then looked at the generals on her left and right and ordered, “Inform the two continental war weapons battalions to take their positions as soon as possible and launch a concentrated fire attack on the city defense formation of Xuzhou City. Break through the enemy’s city defense formation as quickly as possible!”

“Notify Zhao Hong and Liang Dingming again to speed up the encirclement from the left and right directions of Xuzhou City!”

“Even if we can’t block Liu Zeqing and his men’s escape route to the south, we must make the enemy lose a layer of skin!”

Following Liang Liping’s order, 900,000 soldiers of the Fuxing Army immediately took action separately.

The soldiers of the two firearms battalions that were in position first, under the command of several front-line commanders, opened fire at full power and launched a concentrated fire attack on the city defense formation ahead!

“Rumble…”

Hundreds of psychic cannons fired at the same time. The psychic shells that covered the sky and the earth instantly bombarded the enemy city’s protective formation light shield, making the light flickering and quickly consuming the energy of the city defense formation.

Liang Liping, who had rich war experience, knew very well that with Liu Zeqing leading the core soldiers in the city to evacuate, the remaining more than one million enemy troops in the city were all a mob, and their morale would soon collapse. The fall of Xuzhou City was inevitable.

Therefore, the focus of the subsequent war was not on this important military town, but on the pursuit of Liu Zeqing’s defeated army.

As expected, after the Fusion Army’s firearms battalion launched a concentrated fire attack for a while, the noise in the city was deafening. More than one million defenders, who had no intention of resisting at all, raised white flags, disbanded the city defense formation, and chose to surrender to the Fusion Army.

As for some generals who had committed many evil deeds and knew that they could not escape the reckoning of the Fuxing Army, as well as some officials and gentry, due to their small numbers, they could not stop the millions of soldiers who were determined to surrender, so they could only choose to leave Xuzhou and flee out of the south gate towards Yangzhou.

Liang Liping felt overwhelmed with these people and only sent a group of elite troops to pursue them.

As for whether they can catch up with the other party, it depends on the luck of these officials and gentry.

There is no way. Xuzhou City is a super big city, and even compared with Chang’an City, it is not much different.

In this important military town, not only do we have to receive and accommodate more than one million surrendered soldiers as quickly as possible, but we also have to appease the tens of millions of people in the city, stabilize their hearts, and restore order.

The workload involved is enormous and cannot be completed in three to five days.

Fortunately, the military has already selected and trained a large number of government officials within its jurisdiction, as well as a sufficient number of new recruits to garrison the area.

A routine pattern has been formed for the routine operation of conquering and managing an area.

The army only needs to stay in Xuzhou City for a few days to complete the handover with the personnel who will arrive later, and then continue the battle southward.

While Liang Liping was leading her soldiers in a busy schedule, Zhao Hong and Xiao Shitou, who were responsible for pursuing Liu Zeqing’s remnants, stopped pursuing the enemy after the two armies joined forces at the foot of Yunlong Mountain, 5,000 miles southeast of Xuzhou City.

“Liu Zeqing actually led more than 100,000 defeated soldiers and hid in Yunlong Mountain in a panic. It’s unbelievable!”

Little Stone looked at the towering Yunlong Mountain in front of him and cursed unwillingly, “We don’t have time to waste with Liu Zeqing now, so we can only let this guy take advantage of us.”

“But he is also lucky. In a previous battle during the pursuit, I used the Leigu Urn Golden Hammer to knock him away twice. Even though he was seriously injured, he was still able to escape into this huge mountain range. He is really lucky.”

Although he wanted to kill this powerful enemy very much, the other party was as tough as a cockroach, which made Xiao Shitou feel helpless.

“That’s perfectly normal.”

Zhao Hong said, “None of the level six warriors are simple. If they are determined to escape, it is difficult to stop them under normal circumstances.”

“After our army sweeps across the Huai River and Huai River regions, we’ll march into Yangzhou and see where Liu Zeqing can escape to.”

“The commander-in-chief might come here in person by then, and that will undoubtedly be the day Liu Zeqing dies.”

She was right.

Li Dingguo is now stationed in the capital and did not participate in the war southwards at the first time, mainly because he was too busy to do anything else.

The Fuxing Army’s new round of comprehensive equipment replacement has kept Li Dingguo busy even though he has the most precious refining weapon, the Human Emperor Cauldron.

The replacement of weapons, which is related to the overall upgrading of the Fuxing Army’s combat effectiveness, must be done by Li Dingguo personally, and no one else can replace his work.

When he finishes his work in a few months, he will naturally go south to the front line to ensure that no accidents occur in this round of war to capture Jiangbei, Central Plains and other places.

Since Liu Zeqing had successfully escaped, Zhao Hong and Xiao Shitou had a brief discussion together, and then led the soldiers back to Xuzhou City.

The next attack on Huai’an Prefecture and Fengyang Prefecture is the top priority. Their time is extremely precious and must not be wasted.

(End of this chapter)