Or besiege the point and attack the reinforcements?

Because of Yang Bangyou's orders, the Bozhou Army had absolutely no intention of turning back to rescue them.

They watched helplessly as the Second Division surrounded the more than one thousand troops and over three thousand laborers at the rear of the formation.

Just when Yang Bangyou felt that the losses were barely acceptable and had just breathed a sigh of relief, Gao Yuan appeared.

Appearing alongside him were five brigades of the City Defense Forces under Liu Rengui's command.

They did not choose to intercept but instead cut off another chunk from the rear of the Bozhou Army to surround it.

However, the losses this time were a bit heavy, with over three thousand men completely surrounded.

Among them were two of Yang Bangyou's trusted deputy generals.

"General, should we..."

Yang Bangyou looked at the divided and surrounded troops and gritted his teeth.

"Do not rescue them. When we return, I will take good care of their wives and daughters. Retreat!"

Just like that, having abandoned over four thousand troops and more than three thousand laborers, Yang Bangyou finally retreated into Guchang County.

Being Yang Bangyou's trusted aides, the two deputy generals fought until the very end.

With over one thousand killed and more than six thousand captured, today's battle could be called a complete victory.

Most importantly, they had successfully surrounded Yang Bangyou; now, the three prefectures were completely without reinforcements.

Inside the commanders tent, the fragrance of roasted meat wafted through the air.

Liu Rengui raised a cup of herbal tea toward Gao Yuan.

"For this great victory, I believe our lord deserves the primary credit. This humble general uses tea in place of wine today to congratulate our lord."

"That's right, that's right. We congratulate our lord."

"Not at all, not at all, it was merely a small stratagem."

Although Gao Yuan said this, his face was practically beaming with joy. He took the teacup handed to him by Mu Qing and raised it.

"Gentlemen, cheers!"

"Cheers!"

"The great war has not yet ended, so everyone please bear with it today and drink some herbal tea first. When we welcome Her Highness the Princess to reside in Guchang, I will hold a grand banquet."

"Very well, This humble general awaits that day."

The high-spirited Gao Yuan completely overlapped with the husband Mu Qing had imagined in her heart.

At this moment, she felt that the person before her was radiating a dazzling light from head to toe.

The brief banquet ended in less than an hour; after all, the fighting was not over yet.

After finishing the meal and tidying up briefly, Gao Yuan began to assign the next tasks.

"Now that the first phase of the war has basically ended, Yang Bangyou has suffered a major blow to his vitality and will not have much combat capability without a period of rest. Zhengze, next you will lead the City Defense Forces to continue the attack on Wumeng. Remember, do not be greedy; just advance steadily. Bang Jie, you will follow me and lead the First Division and Second Division to monitor Guchang County and prevent the enemy forces from escaping."

"Yes!"

The two stood up, cupped their hands in salute, and accepted the token.

As Liu Rengui left with the City Defense Forces, Yang Bangyou seemed to see an opportunity.

After hesitating for two or three days, he led six thousand troops out of the city, wanting to engage in a decisive battle with Gao Yuan.

However, facts told him that even with only four thousand-plus troops, the Nanzhou Army was not something he could defeat at will.

Moreover, what he was facing was the most elite unit within the Nanzhou Army.

Xia Luqi beheaded two enemy generals in formation, and Gao Yuan personally killed a centurion.

A mere half-day attempt caused the Bozhou Army to lose three generals and over one thousand men.

Fleeing back to Guchang County in a sorry state, Yang Bangyou completely lost his spirit.

Besides sending people to Qian Prefecture and Bo Prefecture to ask for reinforcements, all he did was hide in his room all day, drinking and making merry while holding two courtesans.

At this time in Bo Prefecture, the war situation had entered a white-hot stage.

Tongzi County and Zunyi County had already been divided and surrounded by the Qian Army, and contact between them had long been cut off.

Yang Zhao himself was already overwhelmed and had no time to rescue Yang Bangyou.

Hearing that his nephew had suffered such losses, Yang Zhao was completely enraged. He swept everything on his desk onto the floor and cursed angrily,

"Useless, useless! And they called him the Qilin Son of the Yang Family; he is simply the biggest piece of trash."

Everyone looked at each other, wanting to remind Yang Zhao,

"But you were the one who personally called him the Qilin Son."

"Local Chieftain, as for the Young General..."

"Let him hold it. If he really cannot hold it, then abandon Dian Prefecture and retreat back to Bo Prefecture."

Yang Zhao now clearly saw the situation: it was a raging inferno, and his efforts were like trying to put it out with a cup of water.

He no longer harbored hopes for those territories; he only sought to hold Bo Prefecture, his main base.

Yang Zhao refused to send reinforcements, but the garrison commander of Qian Prefecture dared not ignore this Young General of the Yang Family.

The day after receiving the request for reinforcements, he personally led five thousand troops to provide aid.

Gao Yuan had originally only wanted to prevent Yang Bangyou from escaping, never expecting such an unexpected joy.

"How far away are the Qian Prefecture troops?"

"Over fifty li. According to their marching speed, they can arrive in two days at the earliest."

"Good, very good!"

Gao Yuan excitedly walked to the map, looked at it again and again, and finally circled a location.

"Pass the order: tonight the main army will move south to this location to set an ambush. I want to first devour this wave of reinforcements and completely destroy the last bit of Yang Bangyou's confidence."

He was too lazy to do thankless tasks like sieging cities, but he was very interested in striking reinforcements.

Regardless of whether it was the era of cold weapons or firearms, ambushes were always one of the simplest and most effective tactics.

And "besieging a point to strike reinforcements" was one of the essences of this.

It was just that Gao Yuan did not besiege a point this time, purely because the defenders had already been scared out of their wits and dared not come out to fight.

With the First Division and Second Division, and without a disadvantage in numbers, facing the local soldiers was purely a crushing victory.

The Qian Prefecture troops were caught off guard by the ambush, and only less than one thousand men remained to flee into Guchang County.

Originally, upon hearing that the Qian Prefecture troops had arrived, Yang Bangyou had perked up a bit.

As a result, seeing the few hundred remnants, the fighting spirit he had just mustered completely vanished, and it was even lower than before.

With several hundred more mouths to feed and combat capability not having recovered much, the atmosphere inside the city became even more depressed and heavy.

With its main force lost, Qian Prefecture was now virtually empty.

Only a fool would pass up an advantage; Gao Yuan immediately ordered someone to send a message to Huo Jun to send troops to occupy Qian Prefecture.

Upon receiving the news, Yang Zhao was so angry that he vomited blood.

"That idiot! Why doesn't he just hurry up and die? Even on the verge of death, he still wants to sabotage me! If he weren't my eldest brother's only bloodline, I would definitely have someone chop him into pieces and feed him to the dogs! Listen to me, no one is allowed to send any more troops to save that idiot!"

Everyone looked at each other, not daring to advise anything else, fearing they would get burned.

Just like that, Yang Bangyou was completely abandoned.

"Oh, I see!"

Upon learning this news, Yang Bangyou was not surprised at all and waved his hand to let his subordinate leave.

The Personal Guard saluted and retreated, completely failing to notice the increasingly cold and sinister look in his general's eyes.

"Yang Zhao, you took my Father's position and also usurped my Mother. Now you even want to use someone else's sword to kill me; it won't be that easy! Since you are unjust and unrighteous, and do not care about family ties, do not blame me for being heartless."

Having made up his mind, Yang Bangyou swept away his previous decadence.

"Someone, come here!"

"General, what are your orders?"

"Go and summon everyone to come here. Tell them we are going to discuss matters regarding breaking out of the siege."

"Yes!"

That night, at what was originally the Dian Prefecture Pacification Commissioners Office and was now Yang Bangyou's temporary residence,

the unsuspecting crowd entered the main hall. One by one, they drank water with furrowed brows, and no one spoke.

After a while, Yang Bangyou walked into the hall with a dozen fully armed Personal Guards.

"I presume you all do not know yet that Yang Zhao has already ordered to abandon rescuing us."

"Ah!"

"What? The Local Chieftain is not going to save us?"

"This, this, this, what should we do now!"

"What do we do? What do we do!"

Everyone looked toward Yang Bangyou, hoping he could come up with an idea.

"Since he is unjust, do not blame us for being unrighteous. I am prepared to surrender to that Gao Yuan."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone was stunned. They just looked at Yang Bangyou quietly, seemingly unable to believe that this beloved nephew of Yang Zhao would say such things.