Unifying the South (Part 2)

Hulao Pass, Luoyang.

When Shen Luoyan and the Twin Dragons arrived, Yang Gongqing had already been waiting with his men for quite some time. After exchanging a few pleasantries, both sides immediately went to a room in the General's Manor containing a sand table map of the terrain around Hulao Pass and began discussing their campaign against Li Mi.

"Li Mi's army is currently stationed here, around sixty thousand men. However, we have not found the other forty thousand."

Yang Gongqing immediately laid out the intelligence he had gathered. Li Mi had brought more than a hundred thousand troops to attack Luoyang this time, and the scouts on both sides had been fiercely clashing. Yang Gongqing's scouts had paid a considerable price just to determine the approximate size of Li Mi's forces.

Unfortunately, that was only what was visible. Another forty thousand of Li Mi's men were nowhere to be found, and according to their assessment, those forty thousand were Li Mi's true main force. Since Yang Gongqing did not know where they were hidden, he had not taken advantage of Li Mi's unstable foothold while setting up camp to launch a surprise attack.

Hulao Pass had never had many troops to begin with, only ten thousand. It was only when Li Mi's army arrived that Shen Fei sent another ten thousand men over. Even so, their numbers remained far below Li Mi's.

Li Mi himself was suspicious by nature and fond of taking shortcuts, but that did not mean his military talent was poor. In fact, while his strategic ability was inferior to Li Jing and Li Shiji's, he was far superior to Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande. His plan for attacking Luoyang this time, for instance, had been arranged quite well.

One force in the open and another