Three Houses Return to Xia, Great Ming Unified

The Three Kingdoms were in a state of tripartite division, and no unification had been achieved. Although the Great Xia had a high chance of winning, if the Ming Dynasty of the Great Tang Dynasty operated properly, it was not impossible for them to turn the tide.

Even though the overall situation is still uncertain, people have already placed bets in droves.

Many Aristocratic Clan even wanted to send gifts directly to Yang Ning's palace. Fortunately, the Great Xia Dynasty had a department specifically for handling diplomatic affairs, and it was only then that many people realized Yang Ning's foresight.

Back when the Ministry of Foreign Affairs was established, Xia Hua Nation a small and weak country with no diplomatic affairs whatsoever.

However, over the years since the department was established, it has already developed into a mature, steady, and magnanimous diplomatic team. They are humble and open-minded internally and neither servile nor arrogant externally, which has truly shown the feudal dynasty and the long-established sects and clans of Taiheng what diplomacy is.

Compared to the Great Xia, the Great Tang and Great Ming were somewhat inferior.

The Ming Dynasty was located at a low latitude, so its winters were not cold. In addition, the crops had already been planted at this time and had a long growing season.

Since it wouldn't harm agriculture, it was naturally a very good window of opportunity for war.

The Great Xia Dynasty contacted Meng Tian in the Northern Plains, and did not pursue his crimes.

If he can return, he will not only be reinstated to his original position, but will also be granted a title and appointed general based on Meng Tian's achievements in the Northern Plains!

Meng Tian was not a man of strong desires, and most of his soldiers were Qin people. Although they were doing well in the Northern Plains, they had no relatives or friends there, and after hearing that the Great Qin had been destroyed in their rear, they all longed to go home to see their parents, wives and children.

Seeing that Da Xia was sincere, and recalling Da Xia's good reputation in the past: Yue Fei was still able to lead troops into battle, Liu Bei was able to attend court to discuss politics, and Fusu was able to serve as a scholar of classics without being purged.

Meng Tian contacted his family again and confirmed that his wife and children were safe and sound. His younger brother had even been sent to a military academy, indicating that his future was limitless. In the end, he agreed to return to Xia.

The Great Xia dispatched 400,000 infantry to relieve Meng Tian of his garrison duties; otherwise, they couldn't let Meng Tian lose the territory he had worked so hard to conquer.

Meng Yi brought back an army of 1.6 million, the surplus of which he had conscripted during his campaigns and brought along with it.

With this back and forth, the military strength of the Great Xia increased by another 1.2 million.

With the addition of Zhuge Liang's 2.2 million and Yue Fei's 1.1 million, the Xia Dynasty had a total of 4.5 million soldiers at its disposal!

This was just the old army from the feudal era!

As the territory of the Great Xia expands, new troops are constantly being drawn from it, and the number of armies has now reached 36!

Each army has nearly 50,000 men, and the First Army to the Thirty-Sixth Army together have a total of 1.8 million men!

Don't underestimate this small number; their combat power is actually very strong. If they were to fight the other 4.5 million, they might only need to send 2,000 people!

Previously, this unit had only deployed two tank brigades and one transport battalion.

"The war for unification should be fought sooner rather than later, and faster rather than slower!" In January of the 28th year of the Great Xia Calendar, Chen Ke, as the Prime Minister of the Great Xia Cabinet, delivered a speech on television and ordered Zhuge Liang to launch an attack from the north and Yue Fei to launch an attack from the south, advancing on two fronts to attack the Great Tang and the Ming Dynasty respectively!

Zhuge Liang was a formidable figure who could conquer nine mines from a single mine, let alone now that he owns nine mines.

In addition to leading his own 700,000 troops and 800,000 selected from the surrendered soldiers of the Great Wei, Great Chu, and Great Han, he also took 800,000 of Meng Tian's troops from Great Qin, for a total of 2.3 million people.

They have no shortage of resources and troops, and with Zhuge Liang as their commander, anyone would tremble at the sight of this combination!

Needless to say, Yue Fei's army was even more formidable. It was said that "it is easier to shake a mountain than to shake Yue Fei's army." They would rather freeze to death than dismantle houses or starve to death than steal grain. Although Yue Fei's army was still a feudal army, it already possessed the military spirit of the modern People's Liberation Army. Just thinking about such an army is terrifying.

Moreover, Li Shimin knew the story of Zhuge Liang, and Zhu Yuanzhang knew the story of Yue Fei, so naturally they would not underestimate him.

This war also attracted the attention of the whole world.

There are hundreds of cultivators who don't practice cultivation but just fly high in the sky and broadcast live. These live broadcast rooms have billions of viewers year-round, including people from the Great Xia, Great Tang, and Zhu Ming dynasties, but even more ordinary people from outside. From morning till night, the number of people not only doesn't decrease, but actually increases.

These cultivators don't just stream; they've been streaming since the war against the Ming Dynasty. If they didn't understand war, they wouldn't be able to retain viewers.

Therefore, they not only understand, but also need to learn a lot of military strategy on their own in order to understand even more than the audience.

If we don't do this, we won't be able to beat our competitors.

"Host, why don't they fly when they march? Is it because they can't?" someone asked in the live stream.

"Many people have asked this question before!" a cultivator named Wang Bai replied. "Let me explain again. In these armies, there is a profession called sniper. If you are walking on the ground, the army can defend itself by forming formations. But if you are flying alone in the sky, you will easily become a target for snipers!"

"Those snipers are amazing. They can kill people from dozens of kilometers away, and they won't even know how they died!"

Why can the streamer fly?

Wang Bai explained, "We've already applied for live streaming permissions from various countries. You see this sign? It's an IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) marker. With this, you won't become a target for snipers!"

"What? You mean wearing this sign while fighting? Do you think they're stupid? We have regulations on the altitude we fly at. If you dare to fly recklessly, we'll shoot you down!"

"What? Will my live stream leak secrets? Of course it will! But how do you know that what I'm leaking from my live stream isn't something my subordinates deliberately leaked? You know, if an army doesn't want to be discovered by us or their phones, it's very easy!"

Zhuge Liang did indeed take advantage of the streamer.

After learning that his opponent was Li Shimin, he went to investigate Li Shimin's life and then sighed deeply.

If my boss were this person, how could the Northern Expedition have been so exhausting?

However, the current Great Xia is not bad either. It has ample logistics, sufficient manpower, and strong obedience. Soldiers coming out of the recruit camp can obey orders and are no worse than the soldiers he trained for more than half a year.

When has Zhuge Liang ever fought such a costly battle?

According to his intelligence, Li Shimin was a powerful individual with exceptional military leadership skills, especially adept at cavalry charges.

By using cavalry to charge, and then herding the scattered infantry like sheep towards the remaining infantry, the already broken infantry will also break up the well-organized infantry formation, thus causing a complete collapse of the battlefield.

If used properly, this tactic can easily generate a huge advantage, or even reverse the course of the battle, with a very small force.

His dozens of cavalrymen defeated 100,000, Li Jing's 3,000 cavalrymen destroyed the Turkic, and Zhang Liao's 800 cavalrymen broke through Sun Quan's 100,000 infantrymen. These were basically all achieved through such battles.

Chen Qingzhi, during the Northern and Southern Dynasties period, was also skilled in this method, and thus led his 7,000 White Robe Army to victory in every battle.

However, although this method is simple to describe, very few people throughout history have been able to use it, because it requires a general to have exceptional adaptability, the ability to grasp the situation, and leadership skills.

Coincidentally, Li Shimin possessed all of these abilities.

Since this was Li Shimin's signature method, he would naturally use it on the battlefield.

Moreover, in the world of cultivation, horses with Demon Race bloodlines, when paired with cultivators at the seventh, eighth, or even tenth level of physical strength, charge forward like human tanks, making them even more formidable and difficult to deal with.

There weren't many ways to deal with cavalry charges in ancient times. During the Three Kingdoms period, there were Trap Camp, Great Halberd Warriors, Yue Fei had Hook Scythe Spear specifically designed to break through the iron-clawed horse, and Li Ling used a bow and crossbow to withstand the attack for many days.

In modern times, there are even more ways to deal with this.

For example, the Maxim Gun that inspired the Mongol to sing and dance, and the Gatling that spewed blue flames, were both the fathers of cavalry.

The Gatling, equipped with Tungsten Core Armor-Piercing Round, could even kill a demon horse. If the bullets were replaced with Spirit Artifact bullets, even Qi Refining cultivator would have to flee.

If Rune Chip are added to bullets and then the Lawful Nightmare Power exceed limits, their power will be so great that even Spiritual Law Realm cultivator would suffer greatly from trying to withstand it.

There's no such thing as firearms being unsuitable for high-level matches; you just need to upgrade them to magical Law Artifact, Spirit Artifact, treasure artifacts, Daoist artifacts, or Nightmare Artifact.

Zhuge Liang's method this time was also very simple: Caltrop Pit!

The reason for not using firearms, landmines, or grenades was that Zhuge Liang knew that the Great Xia had passed a resolution that this war would be the last war for the Great Xia to unify the country, and also the last glorious moment for the old army of the cold weapon era.

After that, all soldiers from the Three Kingdoms, Song Dynasty, Ming Dynasty, and even Great Tang would retire and marry and have children in Daxia as ordinary people.

Future wars will be dominated by firearms.

Of course, there are also considerations regarding not using firearms, such as concealing strategies, and also taking into account the feelings of generals and even opponents.

After all, with the advent of firearms, the role of military generals has been greatly diminished, and even now, it is rare to see two armies facing off.

More often than not, they would arrive at the battlefield, and then a deafening bombardment would begin from the sky, and the war would be over.

Through the live stream footage, Li Shimin confirmed that the Xia army was mainly composed of infantry, and specifically swordsmen and shieldmen who were not very effective against cavalry.

Of course, he knew how formidable Zhuge Liang was, but they had never actually faced each other in battle.

Moreover, he looked down on Sima Yi and other rivals of Zhuge Liang from the bottom of his heart. He thought that Zhuge Liang was indeed invincible in his time, but that was because he hadn't met him yet.

So, let's go for it?

His civil officials were all capable of governing the country, and because he himself was so skilled in strategy, no one else could offer any advice.

Li Shimin felt confident in their ability to fight, so Wei Zheng spoke up, "Your Majesty, as the saying goes, 'A wise man does not stand under a dangerous wall.' Our Great Tang now has many soldiers and generals. Since the strategy is sound, it is not unreasonable to find another capable general to execute it!"

After all, this isn't the startup phase. With so many subordinates, you could easily pick one to go out and fight. I think Li Jing would be a good choice!

Sensing Wei Zheng's gaze, Li Jing clasped his hands in a fist salute. "This humble general requests to fight!"

"Zhuge Liang was very disciplined in his military affairs. Although his infantry was numerous, their formation was tight and well-organized." Li Shimin shook his head. "I know you are very capable, but I still have more faith in myself."

Of course, the most important thing is that the opponent is Zhuge Liang!

But even after 1,800 years, countless netizens still feel aggrieved, trying to make him win by using all sorts of random things like college students, Paimon, instant noodles, and Longjiang Pig Trotter Rice!

The thought of fighting against Zhuge Liang and showing off his skills in front of Zhuge Liang filled Li Shimin with excitement.

If Er Feng doesn't pull off this move brilliantly, she'll feel that even if she wins against the Great Xia and becomes the emperor, she'll still be unhappy when she thinks back on today!

Of course, charging forward is fine, but it should be done strategically; charging forward blindly is just reckless.

Er Feng led eight hundred elite cavalry out of Luoyang, marching more than 1,200 li, and finally arrived at Zhuge Liang's front line.

Zhuge Liang was also watching the live broadcast and naturally knew that the Er Feng had been mobilized. So he had already set up shields and formations to prevent the Er Feng from charging into the enemy lines.

The Er Feng lingered without charging, only hovering on the perimeter and shooting arrows. After half an hour, when all the arrows in their bodies were gone, they rode away.

That's right, he used a tactic from later Mongol warfare: pulling and sparring!

The Xia army suffered minor losses, but their morale was severely damaged. Zhuge Liang could only appease the soldiers before continuing the march.

But Er Feng returned to the city, changed her horses, replenished her arrows, and came back!

The journey of 1,200 li, which should have been completed in a day by soldiers at the Body Refinement Realm, took them two and a half days due to Er Feng's harassment.

Moreover, Li Shimin was unharmed throughout the entire journey, while Liang's army suffered more than 2,400 deaths and 3,000 injuries.

With so many casualties before the battle even began, the morale of the Liang army plummeted drastically.

Zhuge Liang tried to appease them, but the effect was not very good. The reason for this was that most of his troops came from the Great Qin, Great Wei, Great Chu, and Great Han.

They were all soldiers from his previous dynasty, and they had never heard of the legend of Zhuge Liang.

Even among the 700,000 soldiers of Shu Han, only 200,000 had fought alongside him, while the remaining 500,000 were recruited in Taiheng and were unaware of his departure.

If soldiers in later generations knew that their leader was Zhuge Liang, they would be able to maintain their fighting strength even if there were 24,000 or 2,400 deaths!

However, Zhuge Liang also understood this: if morale is lacking, technology can make up for it.

During the day, he ordered his soldiers to set up camp and rest appropriately, while at night he dispatched his personal guards to dig Caltrop Pit in key locations, keeping it a secret from everyone.

They also dispatched a small number of cavalry to drive away Tang scouts, killing anyone who approached.

For three days, nothing happened.

After observing the live broadcast for a long time and seeing the Despairing Qi look on the soldiers' faces in the camp, Li Shimin concluded that although Zhuge Liang was capable, the largest number of soldiers he commanded at one time was less than 100,000, which was during the Six Expeditions to Qishan.

He might not be able to handle these two million-plus soldiers!

These days, he's been staying in the camp, mostly to calm the soldiers down.

If given time, the soldiers' morale would fully recover, and the Tang army would be facing an invincible force, united in purpose!

Therefore, the day to charge into battle is today!

That night, Li Shimin led three thousand Qi Refining cavalrymen, all gagged and with their bells removed, and used concealment Cultivation Method to leave Luoyang. After accelerating for several miles, they reached their maximum speed at the entrance of Zhuge Liang's camp.

"Boom!" Several spear shadows blasted open the gate of the stronghold, and three thousand elite cavalrymen filed in!

Li Shimin walked at the very front, dressed in black armor, exuding confidence and high spirits!

Then he felt the horse's hooves tremble, and the whole horse fell to the ground!

"Caltrop Pit? How is that possible!" Li Shimin immediately leaped to his feet, trying to avoid falling and being trampled by the cavalry behind him, his face turning ashen.

You must know that the horse he was riding was no ordinary horse; it was a demonic horse. Not only was it incredibly powerful, but it also had exceptional hearing and sight. It could see the ground clearly even at night and could sense the emptiness of the ground through the vibrations of its hooves!

There's no way you could possibly step into a typical Caltrop Pit!

And

Accompanied by the sounds of people and horses falling over, screams, cries of pain, wails, and clattering footsteps.

That's the sound of an incandescent light bulb turning on.

The camp, which was just pitch black a moment ago, is now as bright as day!

Li Shimin felt a warm sensation in his temples, his face as black as ink.

Warmth doesn't necessarily mean affection; it could also be murderous intent that has materialized.

He had no doubt that if he tried to escape, he would be met with a thunderous attack.

This is the essence of raiding a camp; a victory means one man can take on a thousand men, bringing fame and fortune.

Defeat means losing everything, with no hope of recovery.

Sensing something, Li Shimin turned to the side and saw a four-wheeled vehicle floating in the air, flying steadily and swiftly to his front.

"You've lost!" Zhuge Liang laughed.

"You knew I would raid the camp?" Li Shimin asked curiously.

"I can't predict the future, so how could I possibly foresee what will happen?" Zhuge Liang shook his head. "I've just thought about it a bit too much."

"Moreover, a wise man does not stand under a crumbling wall, let alone a monarch whose safety rests entirely on his shoulders. What are your thoughts?"

They actually led their own troops to raid the camp!

Li Shimin blushed, too embarrassed to reveal his true thoughts, and could only shake his head. "Zhuge Zhuge, your reputation is well-deserved! But if I am not convinced by your words, could you please let me go back?"

He wanted to emulate Meng Huo, but he was careless this time. He wouldn't lose so easily next time.

Zhuge Liang shook his head. "You are not Meng Huo, and the Great Tang is not the Southern Barbarians. If you are not careful, this war will probably take three to five years to finish!"

Thinking of this, Zhuge Liang suddenly paused, wondering if there was some esteemed person behind it all.

He thought about it for a moment, then shook his head. Why bother making such a clear distinction?

With the Great Tang emperor captured and the court leaderless, defeat was inevitable.

This defeat drew a lot of criticism, especially considering that their own forces were not small and their strength was not weak.

If we force the soldiers out and have them fight a real battle, the outcome is still uncertain!

So you actually resorted to a risky tactic, attempting a raid on the camp?

Perhaps winning too many times in the mortal realm has created a ingrained mindset?

But this time your opponent is Zhuge Liang, not Xue Rengao, Wang Shichong, Liu Heita.

Furthermore, Zhuge Liang himself was an expert at raiding enemy camps; how could you possibly have raided his camp?

Li Shimin's actions taught countless monarchs, clan leaders, and sect masters a lesson.

From then on, no matter how fierce the battle, few sect leaders or patriarchs went to the battlefield, for fear that their sect leader would be captured, leading to the direct defeat of their sect.

Not only was the Great Tang defeated, but the Tang army and Bai Qi's Qin army were almost completely inherited by the Xia Dynasty.

Zhu Yuanzhang and Yue Fei were locked in a fierce battle when they suddenly heard this devastating news. Enraged, Zhu Yuanzhang stood on the city wall and cursed Li Shimin for a long time.

Yue Fei was also a highly skilled fighter. Zhu Yuanzhang deployed all his elite civil and military officials, and with superior troop strength, they only managed a 70-30 split against him.

However, all his troops were at the front lines, and now that the Great Tang has fallen, his rear has been left vulnerable.

Zhu Yuanzhang racked his brains but couldn't find a way to break the deadlock with Yue Fei and Zhuge Liang. Moreover, these two were known to later generations for their loyalty, so the strategy of sowing discord was useless.

These two were already difficult to deal with, and now there's Li Shimin, who wants to prove he's not as incompetent as he seems, and Bai Qi, who commands a large army but hasn't fought a single battle, constantly having his headquarters stolen, infuriating him.

Zhu Yuanzhang held out on the front lines for another week, but his rear was constantly being attacked and territories were being seized. Even his trusted Wang Shouren could not withstand the combined forces of Zhuge Liang, Li Shimin, and Bai Qi, and he was defeated and captured.

In the end, Zhu Yuanzhang could only lament that his Divine Ability were no match for destiny.

If he were all alone, he might have committed suicide.

But in this world, Empress Ma lives, and so do Zhu Biao Zhu Xiong Ying.

At a time when he was enjoying the company of his children and grandchildren, Zhu Yuanzhang had no intention of dying.

Li Shimin was similar; he also had a white moonlight Guanyin Bi named Guanyin.

Therefore, on March 15th of the 28th year of the Great Xia Calendar, Zhu Yuanzhang relinquished his official seal and surrendered.

From then on, the last separatist force within the territory of the Ming Dynasty was destroyed, and the Ming Dynasty was unified and renamed the Great Xia Dynasty!