A month later, the Liang Dynasty was unified.

Wherever the Liang Army pointed its blades, the remaining separatist forces either surrendered upon seeing their approach or were quickly defeated after brief resistance.

The performance of Liang during this great war was shrouded in so many mysteries that it became celebrated as something mythical.

Not to mention the likes of Dou Jiande and Wang Shichong, who were caught up in the situation, even many who tried to post-analyze the events could not understand how it all happened.

In hindsight, Liang's military was very strong, and its soldiers were of high quality with the most abundant logistical support, but Liang had never fought any significant hard battles before, nor had it any famous generals.

Many unconsciously assumed it was a paper tiger, with ample territory but little combat power.

But the subsequent battle stunned everyone.

First in the north, under the defense of Pingyang Princess stationed in Jinyang, steadfastly held out initially. When reinforcements arrived, a brutally simple and direct confrontation with Liu Wuzhou ensued.

Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, on the other hand, dispatched Yuchi Jingde with the main cavalry force to encircle from behind.

Had it succeeded, the Liang Army's situation would have been very dangerous.

But the astounding part was that Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang fought bravely, persisting from afternoon to evening, repelling several attacks by Liang's superior forces.

However… until their forces were annihilated and both commanders captured, Yuchi Jingde's cavalry never appeared.

Afterward, when the Liang Army surrounded the valley where Yuchi Jingde's forces were lying in ambush, his cavalry, seeing the situation was lost, surrendered without resistance.

If the betrayal of Yuchi Jingde had been known earlier, Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang would have fled and not been captured.

They continued to fight on thinking that Yuchi Jingde's cavalry would join the battle at any moment and turn the tide, which is why they kept fighting until they were captured, still looking toward the direction from which Yuchi Jingde might come.

What a tragedy!

As for the battle where the Liang Army captured both Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande, it too was riddled with mysteries.

During the siege on Luoyang, Luo Shixin defected, opening the city gates, allowing the Liang Army to easily conquer the city.

Wang Shichong, originally ambushing Dou Jiande, was thrown into disarray upon hearing of Luoyang's fall and was decisively defeated by Dou Jiande's counterattack.

Dou Jiande appeared to have the upper hand but was struck hard head-on by the rapidly advancing Liang Army.

The battle could have gone either way, but the defection of Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie caused an instant reversal on the battlefield.

Dou Jiande aimed to lead his elite cavalry to change the course of the battle, only to be subdued by a group of infantry armed with long blades, and was captured on the spot.

There were two particularly baffling things about these series of battles.

The first was: why did high-level generals act as moles for the Liang wherever the Liang Army struck?

And these traitors all seemed to be individuals who had no apparent connection to Liang and would never betray their side.

Yuchi Jingde under the command of Liu Wuzhou and Song Jingang, Luo Shixin under Wang Shichong, and Cheng Zhijie and Qin Shubao under Dou Jiande, among others.

Some even suspected Wei Zhen, who had strategized for Wang Shichong, enabling his extreme turnaround against Li Mi and their struggle for supremacy, was a mole planted by Liang a long time ago.

After the battle, Wei Zhen was immediately entrusted with an important role by Liang, tasked with pacifying the Hebei region alongside the pardoned Dou Jiande.

Such an impeccably seamless transition led many to doubt the absence of prior collusion.

The second baffling aspect was: how did these individuals from Liang manage to foresee events with such divine accuracy, making the most critical moves at just the right moments?

Take, for example, the battle to capture both kings; while it seemed easy in hindsight, it was in fact a risky attack hidden under the fog of war.

During this period, the Liang Army marched from Chang'an to Luoyang, and then immediately pressed northeastward towards the battleground of Wang Shichong and Dou Jiande without a moment's rest.

This meant the Liang Army had virtually no opportunity to rest.

Though imperative, arriving early was unlikely; had they arrived late, Wang Shichong would have already been defeated and Dou Jiande, triumphant, would be well-prepared to face the Liang Army. The outcome would then have been hard to predict.

Indeed, Liang had placed high-level moles like Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie within Dou Jiande's forces, but messages had to be delivered by horseback in ancient times, which was slow.

Moreover, how could those high-ranking Liang officials be so sure that Qin Shubao and Cheng Zhijie would cooperate fully?

What if either of them turned out to be a double agent?

If they leaked the plans to Dou Jiande, the entire battle strategy might have collapsed.

It was one thing for Liang to turn a general, but to turn so many high-ranking officers at once, without any of them betraying Liang for wealth or honor, was nothing short of astonishing.

Faced with such miraculous victories, myriad mythical tales quickly spread among the public.

One of the less fantastical tales credited the entire event to the scheming of Wei Zhen, deemed a master strategist who had been planted as an undercover agent by Liang from the start at Li Mi's camp.

Whether it was Li Mi's defeat to Wang Shichong or Wang Shichong's attack on Dou Jiande, all the major power struggles in the eastern Central Plains seemed to have Wei Zhen's shadow behind them.

Yet this version of events was so sensational it depicted Wei Zhen almost as a demonic figure of extreme cunning, therefore, most considered it a mere conspiracy theory or apocryphal.

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