Once Luo Xiao's will was set, the entire stretch of land centered on Xingyang began operating at full capacity.
The able-bodied men previously sent toward Luoyang as a diversion began making camp where they stood. The first thing Luo Xiao needed to establish was a secure supply route from Luoyang to Xingyang.
The previous battle against Yuan Shao's Army had been an ambush. They had needed to conceal their movements and catch the enemy unprepared, so he had used an elite-force strategy, shattering Yuan Shao's Army completely with a single charge.
But doing the same this time would be difficult. They would have to fight a pitched battle head-on.
Hundreds of thousands of Taiping Army soldiers were dispatched by Luo Xiao in batches to separate encampments east of Xingyang.
The finest among them were the twenty thousand troops of the central army Luo Xiao commanded: ten thousand armoured cavalry, invincible in the charge, and ten thousand light cavalry, with two horses per man.
Troop movements on such a massive scale naturally drew Luoyang's attention. Luo Xiao's actions always caught them by surprise.
Last time, they had thought he intended to attack Luoyang, only for him to launch a surprise attack on Yuan Shao's Army.
This time, they had thought he would certainly attack the armies of the feudal lords from East of the Passes, yet his great army had descended upon Luoyang instead.
But after Yuan Shao and the other feudal lords fled to the armies of Luo Kong and Huangfu Song and gave firsthand accounts of that crushing defeat, all the feudal lords rallying to the emperor fell silent.
Naturally, some did not believe them, but Luo Kong did.
Jia Wenhe could read men's hearts, and his calculations left nothing out. If he said these men were not lying,