Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

On the city walls, Li Hongyun's arrows never missed their mark.

Below the city walls, the army of Liu Wuzhou was strewn with corpses.

Inspired by Li Hongyun's masterful display of archery, the entire Liang Army fought bravely and decisively repelled the attacks of Liu Wuzhou's forces.

Enraged, Liu Wuzhou briefly regrouped before continuing to fiercely order his soldiers to attack the city.

As a result, Jinyang remained impregnable; it simply could not be conquered.

Liu Wuzhou was left in seclusion.

In his view, his strategy was flawless. First, he would cut off all the surrounding states and counties of Jinyang, making it an isolated city. By then, Prince Qi would naturally panic, and the morale inside the city would surely collapse.

Then, with a prolonged siege, Jinyang would naturally fall in one fell swoop.

Unexpectedly, the intelligence was inaccurate; Prince Qi was not one to be underestimated, and his archery skills were exceptional. Moreover, he was not the rumored profligate scion stirring public resentment and a lack of fighting spirit among the soldiers. Instead, he seemed to be as beloved by the people as his second brother.

But having reached this point, Liu Wuzhou had no other choice.

"Allying with the Turkic, plotting against Jinyang, and advancing south to contend for the realm" was Liu Wuzhou's strategy at this time. Now that the surrounding counties of Jinyang had been swept clean and the Liang reinforcements had been defeated by him, Prime Minister Pei Ji had even been beaten to the brink of his life.

With only the solitary city of Jinyang left, he could not just give up, could he?

He couldn't bypass it and not attack; otherwise, when he led his troops south, Jinyang would be a thorn in his back, capable of endlessly harassing his logistics and supply lines.

Nor could he surround the city without attacking, as the large army consumed a lot of food and fodder daily. Moreover, if the army stayed here for a long time and the Liang reinforcements arrived again, the situation would become very troublesome.

Thus, Liu Wuzhou gritted his teeth and ordered a continued fierce assault!

But after all, Jinyang was a strong city, housing tens of thousands of soldiers left by Emperor Gaozu of Liang and ample food supplies to last several years.

Li Hongyun was no longer the reckless Prince Qi; he did his best to compensate the civilians, distributed rewards to the soldiers from both the public treasury and his personal wealth, and personally fought on the city walls, doing everything possible to mend the damaged public sentiment.

Thus, the image of the Liang Dynasty gradually improved in this area.

As an invader, Liu Wuzhou found no favor with the local populace.

The two sides thus confronted each other for three months.

Initially, Li Hongyun was somewhat nervous; every battle was fought with all his might, but he soon realized that Liu Wuzhou's forces were simply insufficient to take down Jinyang.

His defending army was, in fact, larger than Liu Wuzhou's attacking forces.

However, Li Hongyun still restrained himself from the urge to launch a sortie against Liu Wuzhou. After all, he was also aware that his field combat abilities were still weak, and caution was advisable.

After three months, in November, the situation finally took a turn.

Lord Qin arrived!

Indeed, just as in the original course of history, after the repeated defeats of the dispatched Liang Army, even Emperor Gaozu of Liang could not sit idly by.

Originally, if Prince Qi had lost Jinyang, Emperor Gaozu might have considered abandoning the entire River East and retreating to Guanzhong. It was Lord Qin's strong insistence on campaigning that finally defeated Liu Wuzhou.

And this time, since Jinyang had not been lost and Prince Qi was still resolutely defending, Emperor Gaozu naturally had no thoughts of giving up River East.

Instead, he urgently dispatched Lord Qin, the powerful weapon, to rescue Prince Qi.

If one looks at history, although Prince Qi was abandoned by Empress Dou at birth due to his ugliness, Emperor Gaozu particularly cherished this youngest son, even more dearly than the Crown Prince and Lord Qin.

Otherwise, Prince Qi might not have developed such a haughty and imperious personality.

In any case, Lord Qin had arrived.

Liu Wuzhou was forced to divide his forces to confront Lord Qin, and without the stronghold of Jinyang, he would lose even faster.

After holding off Liu Wuzhou in Bai Bi for a while, Lord Qin quickly realized that Liu Wuzhou was weaker than expected, especially due to the significant losses from the fierce attacks on Jinyang.

Thus, Lord Qin decisively launched an attack, first defeating Yuchi Jingde at Meiliang State, then defeating Song Jingang in Queshu Valley, forcing Liu Wuzhou to flee northward with only five hundred cavalry, escaping to the Turkic lands.

Meanwhile, Li Hongyun also took advantage of the fierce battle between the two sides in Queshu Valley to launch a sortie, achieving some military gains.

The entire area around Jinyang was completely liberated.

The gates of Jinyang City were thrown open to welcome Lord Qin.

"Little brother!"

At that moment, Lord Qin, though weather-beaten and haggard, was spirited.

In the battle with Song Jingang at Queshu Valley, Lord Qin, wielding a sword, marched two hundred li in a single day and night, engaging in dozens of battles with Song Jingang's forces, all of which he won decisively.

Afterward, he continued the relentless pursuit.

His subordinates advised that the weary soldiers might risk their lives if the pursuit continued, but Lord Qin exclaimed, "To serve my country with loyalty, how can I care for my own safety?"

So he continued the chase.

Two days without food, three days without removing his armor, eight battles in one day, all decisively won, capturing and slaying tens of thousands of enemy soldiers, and incidentally accepting the surrender of Yuchi Jingde.

The two brothers warmly embraced each other.

Strictly speaking, Prince Qi was Lord Qin's younger brother by three, with another younger brother who had died young, the very same character in folklore known for slaying a million enemies with a pair of golden hammers.

At this moment, the three brothers shared a good relationship.

After all, the Liang Dynasty was still in its infancy, with everyone busy expanding the territory and not yet entangled in complex interests.

Lord Qin looked around Jinyang City and nodded with satisfaction.

Actually, he had also heard about his brother's actions. Wanting to advise him, but with Emperor Gaozu indulging him so much, his words as an elder brother naturally carried little weight.