20demayo Chapter 457: Put on armor and start fighting!
Chapter 457: Put on armor and start fighting!
Gu Jingzhi's last worry finally came true.
Nangong Shouyi is worthy of being Nangong Shouyi. After two failures, he had a sudden realization, completely faced up to his mistakes, and found the weaknesses of Daxia in the war.
Even though Gu Jingzhi asked Zhou Quan to leave him aside, he never ignored Gu Jingzhi.
Tingzhou's defense was of no use at all. He ostensibly started from the northwest, which even confirmed what Gu Jingzhi was thinking. He only sent out a few cavalry units to cut off the 300,000-strong army of Daxia into several parts.
Even Zhou Quan was besieged.
The Northwest Army went south to rescue, but because of the muddy roads, even though Xue Ruhai tried to save them in many ways, they were defeated one by one by Nangong Shou's plan.
The 450,000-strong army of Daxia was annihilated before it could even break out of the country.
Almost all the generals and officials who followed the army were killed or wounded. Afterwards, he did not go to Tingzhou as Gu Jingzhi had planned. Instead, he separated a part of his troops to delay Gu Jingzhi's troops in Tingzhou, then took a detour north to meet up with the suddenly appeared Li Yue army, and then headed south again, killing his way to the capital.
During this period, he mobilized troops to block the main passage to the south of the capital of Daxia. The entire capital of Daxia was like a ripe fruit, exposed to the eyes of hundreds of thousands of enemy troops.
When Gu Jingzhi got the news, he leaned weakly on the chair.
After all, Daxia had an emperor similar to Baozong. All the foundation he had accumulated over the years since he came to the court was exhausted after this battle.
The northwest is completely exposed.
When Qiao Shuwan received the battle report, she went straight to Gu Jingzhi without caring about her etiquette.
Looking at the woman with red eyes, Gu Jingzhi was in no mood to say anything to comfort her. His two cousins also went to the army and their lives or deaths were still unknown.
Thinking of his grandparents, uncles and aunts... as well as Lin Chong and Lin Feng's wives and children, Gu Jingzhi found it hard to imagine what attitude he should adopt to face them.
"Jingzhi..."
Qiao Shuwan cried out mournfully.
Gu Jingzhi slowly shook his head and said, "The troops in the northern border cannot be moved. On the eastern and southern frontiers, I have already ordered another 200,000 troops to rescue the capital!"
"Don't even mention moving the capital. Otherwise, hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses in the northern border will fall into the hands of the enemy, and Daxia will lose all the land north of the Yangtze River!"
"If we don't defend the capital, Great Xia will never be able to recover. Do you understand?"
Gu Jingzhi raised his head and looked at Qiao Shuwan with bloodshot eyes.
Qiao Shuwan felt a pang in her heart and said, "But what about Quan'er..."
"Queen Mother..."
Gu Jingzhi's tone became more serious, almost gritting his teeth as he said, "A king who has been captured and humiliated, do you think he can still sit firmly on the throne of the emperor?"
"Even if you agree, the Zhou clan agrees, and all the civil and military officials agree, the people of the world will never agree!"
"You all say that the Son of Heaven is the Son of Heaven, who patrols the world on behalf of Heaven. How shameful is it for the people to see a Son of Heaven captured by the enemy?"
"A ruler who acts solely on his own whims and is obsessed with grandiose achievements, is such an emperor worthy of the people's support? If he has no heart for the people, no regard for the people of the world, how can the people of the world support him?"
"I……"
Qiao Shuwan was stunned by the question.
Gu Jingzhi sighed softly and said, "Your Majesty, please go back first. I will summon the civil and military officials to resolve the current predicament in the next few days. However, I must warn your Majesty that moving the capital is absolutely impossible!"
"If anyone is afraid of death, we can allow them to cross the river southward before the enemy completes the siege! If the Zhou royal family remaining in the capital is destroyed, we will allow them to rebuild Daxia in the south!"
After hearing this, Qiao Shuwan just stood there in a daze without moving. Seeing this, Gu Jingzhi sighed softly, then stood up and left the study.
The Ministry of War still had a lot of things waiting for him to deal with, and he was not in the mood to comfort the beautiful empress dowager.
……
Half a month has passed since I received the military report.
Gu Jingzhi heard the bad news again: Lin Feng returned with Lin Chong's body.
At this time, Gu Jingzhi was still inspecting the various deployment points outside the city. Another 10,000 soldiers from the Shenji Camp also joined forces with the City Defense Camp to officially take over the defense of the capital.
By the time Gu Jingzhi returned to the capital, it was seven days later.
The troops of Beili, Liyue and the foreign tribes outside the Northwest Pass totaled 700,000 troops. In addition to the troops to be dispatched to block the royal army, 400,000 people appeared at the foot of the capital of Daxia.
Gu Jingzhi came to the Lin family and walked into the mourning hall with an expressionless face.
When Lin Feng saw him, the thirty-year-old man cried like a child, and kept saying that he had failed to protect his elder brother.
My grandparents looked even older, and my uncle, aunt and others were wiping away their tears.
Gu Jingzhi stood in front of the mourning hall. Lin Chong had already been buried. After all, so much time had passed, and he was probably completely dead by now.
He stood there silently, without saying a word.
Events of the past came to his mind. He and his eldest cousin... Strictly speaking, they were together more than apart, but this cousin, who had just turned forty, was the one he had trained... to be the future commander of Daxia.
Lin Chong's military talent is really strong. If he had not been born in a peaceful era, he would have been a military god by now.
"Jingzhi... accept my condolences!"
After a long silence, the eldest uncle of the Lin family suppressed his grief and said something to Gu Jingzhi.
Gu Jingzhi raised his eyes to look at his uncle and saw that he himself could hardly bear it, but he still wanted to comfort his nephew.
Lin's uncle is almost sixty years old. Gu Jingzhi looked at the new white hair on his uncle's head and finally spoke.
"Uncle, do you blame me?"
The voice was indescribably hoarse.
Upon hearing this, my uncle and aunt burst into tears again. How could the pain of losing a son in old age be expressed so simply?
However, the two still shook their heads and said firmly, "The eldest brother is a general. As parents, we hope that he will live a peaceful and happy life. However, dying on the battlefield is his fate and his honor. We can't blame anyone!"
No wonder...
Gu Jingzhi reached out and patted the tears that were sliding down his face.
"Brother Chong is indeed the pride of our Great Xia, the pride of the Lin family, and a hero of our Great Xia. He died on the battlefield, and as his cousin, I am proud of him!"
"but……"
Gu Jingzhi gnashed his teeth and said, "This cannot be caused by the Lord's stupidity!"
"Excuse me, that's just bullshit. Asking others to express their condolences is the style of our Gu and Lin families. If I, Gu Jingzhi, cannot give my cousin an explanation today, then I am unworthy of being Lin Chong's brother and a minister of the Great Xia!"
As he spoke, Gu Jingzhi grabbed the spear in front of the mourning hall, glanced at Lin Feng, and shouted, "Crying is useless, put on armor!"
What?
Everyone in the mourning hall was shocked.
Grandma lost her voice and said, "Jingzhi..."
Lin Feng stood up, wiped the tears from his face, then held up a suit of armor and helped Gu Jingzhi put it on.
Gu Jingzhi walked out of the mourning hall holding a spear.
"Gu, Lin...all men over eighteen, listen up!"
"Wear armor!"
"Start the war!"