♂,
"Mm, Brother Ruizé had such sterling character, so of course plenty of people answered his call. This was only natural. It's a good thing, too—with their help, we'll be able to overthrow the tyrant emperor's brutal rule one day sooner and bring true peace to the Central Plains." I was still very happy. After all, I hadn't heard from Xia Ruize or Yu Xiaoxue in a long time. The fact that they had managed to gather such a powerful force was an enormous help to me.
Brother Ruizé's forces had also been taking cities and territory all along the way, drawing in quite a few of the Central Plains' regular troops. This had caused the tyrant emperor to shift the focus of his forces, while Ruan Qiushui's side had sent Zhao Yu over to launch a feint, making the tyrant emperor even more restless. After all, Xia Wu had kept him sitting on pins and needles back then, and Xia Ruize, as his successor, certainly wasn't someone to be trifled with. As the saying went, once bitten by a snake, one remained wary of ropes for ten years.
With Brother Ruizé drawing fire in the west, things had improved considerably on my end, allowing me to advance my strategy of massing troops. Of course, the tyrant emperor had also responded to my troop buildup by sending forces into the central region to harass Ruan Qiushui's army directly.
But the defenses there were actually the strongest, and the flanks could return to reinforce them at any time. So even if the tyrant emperor took one or two prefectures, he didn't dare push too far into the territory.
After more than a month of torment, Ruan Qiushui finally arrived with Han Shanshan and the others. The vanguard brought a Zhuxian Cannon,