Dark Sand: My Players Are All Actors

If it had been any other commander, Hulaoguan Pass would have been breached at the first opportunity following the field battle.

In this battle, Li Hongyun had indeed won against Lord Qin.

From the current situation, the next move was actually quite predictable.

With the fall of Hulaoguan Pass, Dou Jiande's massive army could march towards Luoyang City.

And no matter how capable Lord Qin was at fighting, his only option then was to retreat.

For Luoyang City had not yet been conquered, and the Liang Army could hardly afford to split its forces to engage in open field combat with Dou Jiande's mighty army.

If they did so, although Wang Shichong inside the city was already a frightened bird, he would definitely launch an attack from the city, pincering them from both sides.

Under those circumstances, the Liang Army, being at an absolute disadvantage in troop strength and without a defensible position, would undoubtedly lose the battle.

However, once the Liang Army retreated, Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong would find it difficult to take advantage of their victory to expand their gains.

The situation that followed would be most advantageous for Dou Jiande.

Dou Jiande could continue commanding Liu Heita to seize the entirety of River East, while he himself could attempt to swallow Wang Shichong, occupy Luoyang, and then continue pushing westward to confront the Liang Army in front of Tong Pass.

Using the pressure from River East and Luoyang, he could try to pin down the Liang Army in Guanzhong, hindering their ability to advance eastward.

Of course, this was the most ideal situation.

River East was effectively the Liang Army's stronghold; once Lord Qin withdrew his forces, he would certainly rescue River East as a priority. At that point, it was very possible that both sides would engage in a prolonged stand-off in River East.

The overall combat power of the Liang Army was indeed higher than that of the Huaxia forces, so the subsequent situation was still far from optimistic.

Moreover, Dou Jiande, being an upstart from the Hebei countryside with hardly any noble support, was at a disadvantage compared to the Liang Army which was quite the opposite.

Overall, even after winning the battle of Hulaoguan Pass, Dou Jiande's chances of victory were still not very big.

Unless he could maintain the same level of preternatural future-insight as Li Hongyun managed today in every subsequent battle, which was obviously impossible.

However, if such a future were to become reality, it would be a great tragedy for the entire Huaxia.

Because the Turkic to the north were waiting eagerly for their chance. If Lord Qin could not unify the region quickly and divert his strength to deal with the Turkic, but instead kept exhausting himself fighting Dou Jiande...

Then once the opportune moment to exploit the Turkic weakness passed, eliminating the Turkic threat in the future would become much more difficult.

...

Li Hongyun briefly analyzed the potential future situations and decided not to dwell on it any further.

With the script unfolding in such a way, there were far too many variables, and thinking about it was futile.

Perhaps a few months after Lord Qin fell back to Guanzhong, he would fight another miraculous battle, wiping out both Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande at once.

In any case, after getting through this phase, Li Hongyun didn't have much information about defeating Lord Qin.

Logically, winning the battle of Hulaoguan Pass should have been a matter of great pride, but what left the deepest impression on Li Hongyun was the form Lord Qin took on the battlefield, appearing almost cheat-like.

To be fair, Li Hongyun's victory was somewhat lacking in martial virtue.

To win against Lord Qin, several criteria had to be met simultaneously.

First, one had to foresee that his own hundred-thousand-man army would be pierced through by Lord Qin's mere few thousand cavalry, necessitating a division of troops to fight in River East;

Second, one had to have the sharp insight to unearth skilled generals from among the many incompetent leaders, such as Liu Heita and Su Dingfang;

Third, one had to grasp many details on the battlefield, like securing the supply lines in advance, blocking the Liang Army's horses on the north bank of the Yellow River, and forming wagon forts within the main camp to fend off Lord Qin's cavalry.

In real history, all this information was shrouded in fog.

Without these, Li Hongyun had no doubt that he most likely would end up like Dou Jiande, suddenly collapsing due to an oversight he wasn't even aware of.

"I'd like to see who would dare call me a cheater after this. Compared to the real cheaters in history, I'm nothing…"

When it came to the profound impact, nothing compared to clashing with Lord Qin - it was completely different from fighting anyone else.

With other famous generals, Li Hongyun simply felt that his opponent's formations were solid and impregnable.

But facing Lord Qin, Li Hongyun always had this prickling sensation on his back. He couldn't articulate exactly where the opponent's strength lay, just that a single unexpected negligence could be instantly exploited by the enemy.

This suffocating sense of oppression might just be the true measure of Lord Qin's might...

...

After calming his emotions slightly, Li Hongyun touched the second layer of dark qi once more.

The scene before him shifted rapidly, and in front of Li Hongyun, a line of text appeared.

"The ninth year of Wude, August."