West in the city.

News of the arrival of an army of mercenaries out of the city has reached here. King Le Li, who had regained power, convened an urgent meeting and summoned all his courtiers to discuss a strategy for retreating from the enemy.

"About 25,000 people? They have increased their troops again? After hearing the scout general report the number of enemy troops coming, the crown prince Li Yuanlong was the first to lose color at the court meeting, and asked reflexively.

No wonder he was so surprised. The previous news said that the mercenaries were only more than 10,000, but now that there are suddenly nearly half more people, it is reasonable to be surprised. To say that's the disadvantage of intelligence lag. Since he took the initiative to abandon Hanoi City, the news about it has not been spread, many spies who originally stayed in the city have been turned out, and some lucky ones have been sent out of Hanoi City, gone to the seaside and went straight to Xiaoliuqiu Island, becoming miserable spies who call the sky and the earth.

Without internal information, they would naturally not know that Hong Jin had formed a 30,000-strong mercenary army of Jiaozhi.

In fact, not only the crown prince Li Yuanlong's face was shocked, but the other civil and military courtiers were all discolored. The more than 10,000 mercenaries before gave them a headache, and even the country was lost, and now the mercenaries who have doubled their strength, so how can they deal with it?

However, although King Li Li was also surprised in his heart, his face was not too exposed, how to say that he is also the king of a country, if he is in chaos, then wouldn't it be chaotic below?

"What are you panicking about?" Seeing the panic on the faces of the Wenchen generals below, even the crown prince Li Yuanlong could not be as calm as he was at the beginning, Li Li said with a dark face. When everyone's eyes turned to him, he said without hurrying: "In this case, immediately send someone to inform General Lat, and let them move closer to us, and if possible, bite the mercenary's tail, and when the time is right, we will strike on both sides." By the way, tell him to be careful and not be targeted. ”

"The king is wise." As soon as the ministers heard that they were going to unite with General Latty, there were more relaxed expressions on their faces. yes, don't they still have reinforcements? There are 350,000 people in total, compared to the mercenaries who only have more than 20,000 people, they have a nearly twenty times advantage in numbers, and they are on the defensive, so it seems that there is no possibility of defeat no matter how you look at it.

Some of the civil and military ministers felt a lot more at ease because of the king's words. But there are also some people who are still scared in their hearts. Among them is the crown prince Li Yuanlong.

In the past, he could be calm, or even unhurried, because he had Jiuzhen County as his foundation, as long as there was no chaos there, he would have a way out and a helping hand. But now, even the place has been occupied by mercenaries, and he has lost his foundation, a prince without a foundation, it is conceivable that he will lack self-confidence in everything he does.

The mercenaries suddenly left Hanoi City in the north and headed straight to the west of Yucheng, and the news naturally reached the ears of General Lati of the Lancang Kingdom in a very short time.

Immediately after arriving in the country of Cochin, Lati was ready to fight the mercenaries. Seeing that everything had happened as he had expected, he began to mobilize and gather troops before the battle.

It was only less than four hundred miles from Xiyu City to Yinglou City, where Lati was located, and soon scouts sent by King Lili arrived. After receiving the signal for the rescue of the King of Cochin, Lati led 95,000 men out of Yinglou City and rushed behind the mercenaries.

Leaving 5,000 people to guard Yinglou City, plus the existence of 2,000 Jiaozhi troops in the original city, there will be no problem in guarding the city. Even Lati wished that someone would come to attack the city? In this way, he can quickly return, and then attack the mercenaries from both sides inside and outside the city, giving the mercenaries a good look.

But what he didn't expect was that the mercenaries had no intention of attacking the city at all. Yang Chendong has said more than once that if people lose land, people and land will be gained; The land is lost, and the land is empty.

According to Yang Chendong's meaning, the main thing is to destroy the living forces of the other party, as long as the main army of the Jiaozhi country is wiped out, those cities can't be moved, can't be moved, isn't it that they can occupy whatever they want?

Lati led the army out of the city, but the speed of the march along the way was not very fast, it was twenty miles a day, so that the discipline of the team could be better maintained, and once any army was attacked, it could be guaranteed to rush to the aid as quickly as possible. And the 5,000 cavalry in his hands was regarded as the existence of a rapid reaction force.

Of course, the reason why the speed is so slow is also because of the news from the front, more than 20,000 mercenaries did not immediately rush to attack after coming to Xiyu City, but stopped ten miles outside the city, looking like a confrontation.

Although he couldn't figure out why the mercenaries didn't attack the city immediately, Rati didn't think about it so much, in his opinion, this was his chance, once he could successfully move behind the mercenaries, that was the time for him to cooperate with the Cochin army to fight on both sides.

I don't believe that if the more than 300,000 troops are pressed down, or under the joint attack from the end to the end, what kind of climate can the more than 20,000 people on the other side become.

It can be said that until this time, neither King Le Li nor General Lati had the slightest suspicion about the division of mercenaries. They did not know that among the more than 20,000 troops, the number of mercenaries alone accounted for 18,000.

At the same time, Nie Tong, the commander of the Second Navy Regiment who had received the order, had already commanded two battalions of soldiers to advance towards the Changshan Mountain Range under the banner of the Ming Dynasty.

Although the number of this army is not very large, in order to create enough momentum, a squad holds a bright sun and moon flag, and from a distance, it is full of morale.

The existence of mercenaries was discovered in the eastern part of the Lancang Kingdom, which frightened the king of the Lancang Kingdom, Payasai.

Paya Sai inherited the throne of his father Banya and became the new king of Lancang. Under his governance, the country is stable, but because the territory is too small, it has never been able to find too good opportunities for outward development.

When the mercenaries suddenly appeared in Cochin, they paid attention. After all, Cochin is their neighbor, and its territory is not small. It has always been one of the goals of the Lancang Kingdom to expand externally.

Originally, I wanted to wait for the Jiaozhi army and the mercenaries to fight a defeat and lose both, and they were taking advantage of it. But unexpectedly, the mercenary army with few people was full of momentum, and even won consecutive battles, and finally lost the Jiaozhi army and even the country.

If two people are evenly matched, the third person may have a chance. But when one party can only be beaten, the opportunity to pick up the bargain will naturally not exist. Just when the king of Payasai was still having a headache and how could this mercenary who suddenly appeared so powerful, the envoy of the king of Cochin Lili arrived, and brought a letter from the king of Cochin asking for help.

In the letter, King Li Li first expressed his sincere greetings to King Payasa, and then pointed out the unfavorable situation in Jiaozhi, asked the Lancang Kingdom to send troops to help for the sake of generations of friendly neighbors, and promised that after the war, it would divide the three states of Ninan and send them to the Lancang Kingdom. At the same time, he also said that the mercenaries are powerful, and if they are not contained, how can they deal with the Jiaozhi Kingdom today, and how they may deal with the Lancang Kingdom tomorrow.

This is the so-called death of cold lips and teeth.

King Lili's words have some truth, and the benefits of the three states can be given to him, which is an excellent thing for the development of the Lancang Kingdom. Of course, the most important thing is that there is no clear understanding of the strength of mercenaries.

Muskets? This thing sounds very powerful, and it is not that the king of Payasai who has not seen it has a contempt in his heart, in his opinion, after all, Cochin is the power of a country, and it is impossible to conquer it with only more than 10,000 mercenaries. Even after a long time, they may solve the problem themselves, in that case, I am afraid that the benefits of the land of the three states will be gone.

Completely ignoring the word advanced in the advanced musket, Payasai made a decision that he would regret for the rest of his life, that is, with a wave of his hand, he agreed to support Jiaozhi and send 100,000 troops.

In the past, the war once took place in the territory of Cochin, and even if the battle was fierce, the king of Payasai would not have any intuitive understanding. Until he suddenly received news that the mercenaries had entered the country from the Changshan Mountains and came straight to Vientiane City, the national capital. And the news came from the front, saying that a border patrol force of 500 people had encountered this mercenary force that had suddenly entered the country, but it was only a face, and it threw down more than 300 corpses and was defeated.

All this is naturally what Nie Tong meant, if he wants to make the Lancang Kingdom afraid, not only must he move forward with great fanfare, but he will also have to fight two battles to some extent. Although the navy is more capable of exerting its strength at sea, this does not prevent them from dealing with small groups of enemies on land.

It's like this 500-strong Lancang Kingdom patrol team, which was a little unlucky to become the target of the two cold front battalions of the navy. Under the 95-style round-robin shooting, where could 500 people be opponents?

The mercenary force that broke through caused panic among the high-ranking people of the Lancang Kingdom. In line with the idea that the friends of the dead will not die in the poor way, the king of Payasai sent an order for General Lati to lead his troops back home.

...... The 95,000-strong Lancang army had advanced for five days.

From the earliest fear of mercenary volleys, to the fact that he had walked a hundred miles without seeing a single enemy, General Lathi's alertness was declining, and he had even begun to consider whether he could speed up his march and reach the situation of flanking the mercenaries with the Cochin army earlier, when suddenly the king's order arrived.