As the Provincial Governor of Yan Province, he might have been forced back to Puyang City by Yang Rui and Qiao Chi, but he still had some influence in Yan Province. Most of Peaceful Eastern Country was still under his control.
Fuyang County was located at the border between Peaceful Eastern Country and Taishan County. It was also the region closest to Taishan County within Liu Dai's territory, not far from Yang Rui's Mountain City. After Yang Rui, Zhang Ning, and Guo Jia led their army through Taishan County, they chose to start a fight in Fuyang County.
On the eastern front, Yang Rui's army consisted of ten thousand Fifth Grade sword-shield soldiers, six thousand five hundred Fifth Grade vanguards, one thousand five hundred Fifth Grade Yellow Scarf Strongmen, fifty thousand Fifth Grade Green Province soldiers, and eighty thousand Fourth Grade Yellow Scarf Soldiers. In total, there were close to one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers.
The soldiers defending Fuyang County had never imagined that so many soldiers would arrive at the gates of Fuyang County. Moreover, when the fight started, Fuyang County hadn't even had the time to close its gates before the soldiers swarmed in from all directions.
In a situation where Yang Rui's army was caught off guard, and there were only a few thousand guards in Fuyang County, Yang Rui's army of over a hundred thousand only faced a slight resistance before they successfully took control of the entire city.
Yang Rui's army suffered very few casualties in the process. In fact, they didn't even kill many enemies. Most of the soldiers defending the city were captured and put under their control. Yang Rui's army's ambushes and sneak attacks had ended the battle without any suspense. The entire battle lasted no more than an hour.
At the same time, Yang Rui also strictly enforced military discipline. Anyone who abused civilians, stole from others, killed the innocent, raped women, or disobeyed orders would be severely punished.
As a result, Yang Rui's army that invaded Fuyang County treated the NPC civilians and their belongings with impunity. After leaving the city, Yang Rui once again appeared to pacify the civilians. Fuyang City had changed hands because of this. Apart from the unexpected appearance of Yang Rui's large number of soldiers inside and outside the county, the entire process seemed to be more like a normal official transfer.
When Yang Rui attacked Fuyang County on the eastern front, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo on the western front received the news immediately. They immediately acted according to Yang Rui's instructions.
On the western front, the soldiers led by Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo included forty thousand Fifth Grade Iron Guards, two thousand Fifth Grade cavalry, one hundred thousand Fifth Grade soldiers of Green Province, and two thousand Fourth Grade archers. Similarly, there were close to one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers.
These soldiers had been stationed in the cities of Plain County to guard against the threat of Yuan Shao in the north. As such, they included all the Iron Guards, Fifth Grade knights, and plenty of archers. In fact, their combat power was much higher than that of Yang Rui's army on the eastern front.
Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo were all very powerful themselves. They also had a large number of powerful soldiers under their command. After some discussion, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo decided to split the soldiers equally among themselves. They would attack from three different directions!
When Yang Rui gave the order to the three of them, he had told them that Gao Shun would be the main commander, while Zhang Liao and Wu Anguo would support him from the side. If necessary, the three of them could discuss and act as they saw fit. That was why Gao Shun and the others had decided to split up their forces.
Even so, the decision of Gao Shun and the others to split up their forces was still beyond Yang Rui's expectations. Moreover, it wasn't until later that Yang Rui learned about the three of them splitting up their forces.
The reason why Yang Rui had told the three of them to act as they saw fit was because Gao Shun and Zhang Liao both had exceptional talent as commanders. He didn't want to restrict them. However, if the three of them split up their forces, it was inevitable that some unexpected situations would occur.
Splitting up their forces was undoubtedly a bit risky, but it was very efficient. Yang Rui had just taken down Fuyang County in the southeast. A day later, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo had swiftly taken down Liaocheng, Chiping, and Linyi Counties in the northwest!
Gao Shun attacked Chiping from the middle, Zhang Liao attacked Liaocheng from the left, and Wu Anguo attacked Linyi from the right. Because they had all been scouted by the cavalry, the number of soldiers in the three counties should only be a few thousand.
The three of them each led around 50,000 elite soldiers. Moreover, they all had the support of their main commander. Their combat power was already very strong, and all of them launched a sudden attack. Liaocheng, Chiping, and Linyi were almost completely unprepared. They didn't put up much of an effective resistance before falling one after another.
Out of the three counties, only the County Magistrate of Liaocheng had a stronger will to resist. After Zhang Liao led his troops into the city, the County Magistrate still organized some resistance against Zhang Liao's troops.
However, against Zhang Liao's powerful forces, this kind of temporary resistance wasn't of much use. It only caused some light damage to Zhang Liao's troops before it was extinguished.
As for Jiaping and Linyi, almost as soon as Gao Shun and Wu An Guo's troops entered the city gates, the guards in the city gave up resisting and were all captured by the two men's troops. The two county magistrates were also captured alive.
In fact, this was all thanks to the strategy that Yang Rui had told them beforehand. When the enemy soldiers gave up resistance, they didn't raise their weapons against them. Instead, they were all captured. After this action spread out, no one dared to fight with their lives on the line.
At the same time, in terms of military discipline, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo's troops followed Yang Rui's instructions very well. They didn't do anything to the NPC civilians in the three cities, so it didn't cause much panic.
Because Yang Rui had a lot of troops on the east and west, he couldn't be as flexible as before. Instead, he had to ensure the supply of supplies and slowly push forward. This was also the first time that Yang Rui experienced the restriction of supplies in a large-scale battle.
Yang Rui, Zhang Ning, and Guo Jia's side in the southeast was a bit better. From the start, Yang Rui had chosen to attack from a place very close to Big Mountain City. In terms of supplies, they could directly transport from Big Mountain City, which was many times closer than Qingzhou.
Moreover, Yang Rui had already cooperated with Taishan Prefecture's Governor Ding Yuan and East Prefecture's Governor Qiao Mao. If the supplies couldn't keep up, he could think of a solution from these two people's territories. With Yang Rui's relationship with these two people, Yang Rui was confident that there wouldn't be any problems with this.
However, on the west, Gao Shun, Zhang Liao, and Wu Anguo's troops had to rely on Qingzhou's own supplies.
Fortunately, Pingyuan Prefecture was directly connected to Liu Dai's territory in the East Prefecture. Currently, Pingyuan Prefecture had Cheng Yu, Du Yang, and Han Dai, so it wasn't very troublesome to resupply.
However, Gao Shun, Du Yang, and Du Yang's advance was too fast. Later on, the supply line couldn't keep up, and the supply line was stretched too long. Han Dai had no choice but to lead the troops in escorting the supplies and transporting the captives back to Pingyuan Prefecture.
In fact, there were also 1500 Fourth Grade navy soldiers, 10000 Fourth Grade Green Province soldiers, over two hundred battleships, over five hundred small transport ships, and over a hundred fast ships. They were led by Sun Bao and fifty beginner and intermediate generals. They cruised on the Yellow River, specifically attacking Liu Dai's various warships, transport ships, and other water forces.
Sun Bao was one of the first generals that Yang Rui had obtained. Even though he was only at the peak of intermediate general, Yang Rui didn't have any decent water generals under his command. As such, he was the most suitable person to lead the navy.
Although the 50 generals in charge of this road were all at the same level as Sun Bao, the mission that Yang Rui gave them was very simple. It was to patrol the Yellow River's surface and randomly eliminate any Liu Dai's water forces that they encountered. Their main purpose was to harass Liu Dai. Since they had the advantage on the water, there would not be any accidents.
Moreover, while ensuring their safety, Yang Rui also gave Sun Bao and the others enough freedom, allowing them to act on their own. This even led Sun Bao and the others to directly attack the enemy from the very beginning. They led the navy soldiers and ships straight to the Yellow River near Puyang, waiting for an opportunity to strike Liu Dai! This fully demonstrated Sun Bao's adventurous spirit as a pirate.
At the same time, Qiao Mao and Ding Yuan also moved out!
After Qiao Mao was chased to Changyi by Yang Rui, he had been holding back his anger. Now that Yang Rui had moved, Qiao Mao received the news and followed his troops out of Changyi, all the way to the west. Ding Yuan led his troops to the south of Dong Ping Country, complementing Yang Rui in the north!
Yang Rui even sent people to Ji Province's Provincial Governor Han Fu, hoping that he could send troops to threaten Liu Dai in the north. However, there was no news yet.
Even so, under the current situation, with so many troops heading towards Puyang in the East County, Liu Dai had already fallen into a passive situation where he was being attacked from all sides!
Yang Rui, Guo Jia, and Zhang Ning's troops didn't stop after swiftly taking over Fuyang County. They only stopped for half a day to calm the people down before once again heading towards Wuyan County in the southwest.
Of course, there were also the 3000 Liu Dai soldiers that Yang Rui had captured, including the County Magistrate, Deputy County Magistrate, and County Lieutenant of Fuyang County.
The reason why Yang Rui had captured these soldiers was because he wanted to reduce their resistance and also because he wanted to subdue them.
According to Yang Rui's thoughts, the soldiers captured by the warlords weren't from the opposing camp, so they shouldn't be as difficult to subdue as the Yellow Turban captives and Dong Zhuo captives. If they could really be subdued in large numbers, it would save a lot of time to train the troops, and perhaps even reduce the cost of recruiting soldiers.
If not for this plan, perhaps Yang Rui would have just gotten rid of these captives. At the very least, he would be able to get some plot merit points and points, right?
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