Chapter 319 The Chain Reaction Caused by Blitzkrieg

Xiao Heng was completely terrified; he had never seen anyone so insane. His dozen or so personal guards had gone up against him, and in less than a quarter of an hour, half of them were already incapacitated. Moreover, it looked like Gao Yuan was only getting crazier the longer he fought.

In the brief moment he was stunned, Gao Yuan knocked down another person with his mace and arrived right in front of Xiao Heng.

Seeing Gao Yuan swinging his mace toward him, Xiao Heng hurriedly raised his ring-pommel saber to block it.

"Clang!"

With a loud crash, the immense force of the blow sent Xiao Heng crashing down onto his backside. The saber in his hand was jarred loose and fell to the ground, and blood was already seeping from the web between his thumb and index finger.

Seeing this, the remaining personal guards, acting as if they didn't value their own lives, shouted for Xiao Heng to run and charged forward.

Seeing that the mission was within reach, Gao Yuan unleashed all his strength, and in less than a moment, he had knocked everyone to the ground.

Looking up again, he saw that Xiao Heng had already scrambled twenty or so paces away. Estimating the distance, Gao Yuan unslung the lingbao bow from his back, drew it, and notched an arrow.

"Swish..."

"Ah!"

As the arrow pierced Xiao Heng's calf, he let out a shrill, miserable scream and collapsed to the ground.

Only then did Gao Yuan pull his Tiger-Head Gold-Inlaid Spear from the ground and walk over slowly. His phoenix eyes narrowed slightly, staring coldly at Xiao Heng, who was lying on the ground.

At this moment, Gao Yuan was wearing an iron mask and covered in blood, looking like a Yama from hell, chilling to the bone.

Seeing Gao Yuan approaching step by step, Xiao Heng lay on the ground, frantically retreating while shouting,

"You... don't come over! I... I'm telling you, I am from the Xiao Family. If you dare to kill me, the Xiao Family will not let you off!"

Seeing his outwardly tough but inwardly cowardly appearance, Gao Yuan couldn't help but find it amusing, and he thrust his Tiger-Head Gold-Inlaid Spear toward Xiao Heng.

"Ah! Don't!"

The spearhead stopped less than an inch from Xiao Heng's throat. To Gao Yuan, a captive was far more valuable than a corpse, so he had no intention of killing Xiao Heng.

But Xiao Heng didn't know that. He closed his eyes in despair, and suddenly felt a wave of warmth in his lower body.

He had urinated. He had been scared into wetting himself.

Seeing him in this state, Gao Yuan couldn't even be bothered to kill him; such a coward wouldn't pose any threat to him even if he were released.

A while later, Mu Qing arrived with the Female Soldiers of the Imperial Guard Battalion. Seeing Gao Yuan covered in blood, the woman was terrified and rushed over, frantically feeling over Gao Yuan's body.

"Where are you hurt? Where are you hurt? Let me see, let me see!"

Gao Yuan smiled, pulled the woman into his embrace, and comforted her softly,

"It's fine, it's fine. It's all their blood; I'm fine!"

Hearing her man's robust voice, Mu Qing finally felt a little relieved. Ignoring everything else, she helped Gao Yuan walk away, leaving the Female Soldiers to clean up the aftermath.

When he saw the group of heroic and spirited Female Soldiers, Xiao Heng was first stunned by their beauty, and then a thick sense of frustration washed over him.

He couldn't believe that he, a dignified young talent of the Xiao Family, had actually been tied up like a dumpling by a group of women and was being carried around like a little chick.

The battle continued until dusk before it finally ended. Apart from a small portion who escaped, the rest of the tens of thousands of troops led by Xiao Heng—over sixty thousand people, including Xiao Heng himself—were captured.

They seized over two thousand sets of iron armor, over thirty thousand sets of leather armor, tens of thousands of various weapons, and piles of other provisions and arrows.

Most importantly, this battle eliminated all the mobile forces of the entire Jiangnan West Circuit, meaning the path ahead was basically smooth sailing.

Sure enough, the next day, the magistrate of Changsha chose to open the gates and surrender. Following that, Gao Yuan stationed himself in Changsha and ordered the army to split into three routes, with one advancing toward Hongzhou, sweeping everything in its path.

Ezhou, Hongzhou, Jiangzhou, and other places surrendered upon hearing the news, and the entire Jiangnan West Circuit was suddenly gripped by fear, with every rustle of the wind or cry of a crane sounding like an enemy attack.

The news of Xiao Heng's defeat and capture struck the Capital City like a bolt from the blue, catching Xiao Yu and the others, who were busy dreaming of a bright future, completely off guard.

The entire Capital City was in chaos. Even at such a time, there were still people who didn't forget to mock and ridicule,

"Heh, so much for the 'Kirin Son' and 'young talent' of the Xiao Family. It's only been a few days and his entire army has been wiped out."

"Exactly. Tens of thousands of troops wiped out in a single day. If it were tens of thousands of chickens, the Yue Army wouldn't even be able to catch them all in three or five days."

"I wonder when the Duke of Yue will march to the Capital City."

"Judging by the command ability of these people from the Powerful Families, I reckon the royal flags on the city walls will be changed in less than a month."

However, everyone had truly underestimated the thickness of the skin of those from the Powerful Families. Seeing that their in-house geniuses were useless, they came up with a good idea: re-employing old generals.

The claim of being disheartened was only valid on the premise that there was no opportunity. When the Imperial Court suddenly issued an imperial decree, promising high positions, generous rewards, and discretionary power, Jiang Huaizhen and the others were truly tempted.

To show their sincerity, Xiao Yu and the others not only offered official positions and promises but also pledged to recall all the disbanded soldiers of the Sixteen Guards.

In the end, their terms moved Jiang Huaizhen, Song Ren, and Mao Biao.

Subsequently, order after order was issued, recalling those disbanded Sixteen Guards soldiers and quite a few garrison troops. In just over a month, they had assembled a powerful army of over eighty thousand men.

Although their equipment was no longer as refined as it used to be, the combat effectiveness of this army was still formidable.

With this army stationed along the line from Shuzhou to Xuanzhou, Gao Yuan's offensive plan could only be declared at an end.

In this battle, Gao Yuan led the Central Corps deep into enemy territory, taking twelve prefectures in one go, including Tan, Yue, Fu, E, Hong, and Xing, occupying more than half of the Jiangnan West Circuit.

If not for Jiang Huaizhen and the others acting quickly enough to appear on Gao Yuan's flank and rear, it is estimated that in another month or so, Gao Yuan could have dominated the entire Jiangnan West Circuit, which would have been equivalent to holding a knife to the throats of Xiao Yu and the others.

As the saying goes, blessings do not come in pairs, but misfortunes never come singly. Just as the smoke of war in the Jiangnan West Circuit had not yet dissipated, the beacon fires were lit once again in the north.

Gao Yuan's surprise attack on the Jiangnan West Circuit was not a secret. The two northern powers had also spread their spies throughout the Jiangnan region over these years. Ever since he learned of Xiao Heng's defeat, Gao Hu could no longer restrain himself.

Following Gao Hu's order, the eighty-thousand-strong Northern Liang army marched south from Yanzhou, charging toward Xu Prefecture.

General Ma Zhiyuan, who was stationed in Xu Prefecture, immediately contracted his defensive lines and concentrated his troops to resist the Northern Liang offensive.

As the saying goes, pulling one hair affects the whole body. With Gao Hu leading his army south, Lu Heng, who had been secretly assembling in Shenzhou, also moved, setting his first target on Zhao Prefecture.

Gao Yuan's initial intention was purely to find a reason for a Northern Expedition and prepare to make a big profit; he hadn't expected it to cause such a huge chain reaction.

It was just a pity that after several months of continuous fighting, the Central Corps was exhausted, and its fighting edge had dulled. Continuing to fight would only increase casualties in vain, so even though he knew it was a good opportunity, Gao Yuan had to stop and rest.

As for that precious treasure, Xiao Heng, the Xiao Family was surprisingly straightforward this time, sending a letter directly:

"One hundred catties of gold, one thousand catties of silver. Take it or leave it; if you don't want it, just keep him."

Seeing this price, Gao Yuan estimated that the Great Qian Imperial Court was now at its wit's end and could only offer this much.

Something was better than nothing. Gao Yuan happily accepted the ransom and sent Xiao Heng, this son of a wealthy family, off with gongs and drums as a polite farewell.

This time, Gao Yuan had actually guessed wrong. The Xiao Family, the Cui Family, and other Powerful Families that had been passed down for hundreds of years had plenty of money and grain; it was just that it was their own family's, and it had nothing to do with the national treasury.