At dawn on the twelfth day of the first month, the three Jin armies, the Henan Army, the Yingchuan Army, and the Taiyuan Army, cleaned up the mess and withdrew to Liangcheng.

During this period, Tong Yan, the governor of Liang County, heard the news and personally led people out of the city to greet him, but Xue Ao couldn't get used to him, and now that he had lost the battle, he was becoming more and more unhappy in his heart, and he didn't want to see Tong Yan, but Zhao Yu chatted with Tong Yan with ulterior motives.

"I didn't expect that the rebels could frustrate General Xue." In front of Zhao Yu, Tong Yan let out such an emotion, saying that Zhao Yu was inexplicably empty-hearted.

After all, his Jin army suffered a defeat last night, which is inseparable from his deliberate passive slackness.

After entering the city, Xue Ao ignored Tong Yan's invitation, and insisted on setting up his place of stay and the handsome place in the city gate tower of the south city gate, and he summoned Zhao Yu and Li Meng to go to the city gate tower immediately to report him on yesterday's battle situation.

It can be seen that this General Xue also has some doubts about last night's battle.

Fortunately, Li Meng, the governor of Henan, fulfilled his previous promise and took the fault of last night in front of Xue Ao.

He said to Xue Ao: "It was the last general's dereliction of duty and his failure to perceive the rebels' intentions in time, which affected the three armies. …… Willing to be punished. ”

Hearing such words, Xue Ao, who was sitting on the main seat, said nothing with a calm face.

It is undeniable that Li Meng will bear at least half of the responsibility for the defeat of the Jin army last night, after all, the three armies in the Jin camp at that time, Yingchuan County only had more than 12,000 people, and the Taiyuan army only had 5,000 people, but the Henan army had a full 30,000 people, and this means that once the Henan army fell into chaos, it would be difficult for the tens of thousands of Jin troops to gain an advantage.

After staring at Li Meng for a long time, Xue Ao said in a deep voice: "The rebels pretended to be your Henan Army and created chaos in the camp, I can forgive you for failing to predict in advance, but your reaction to this ...... Li Meng, I'm not satisfied. You know, how many of those fake rebels can there be? You have 30,000 soldiers, but you have been turned upside down by a rebel army of 1,000 or 2,000 or less......"

“…… Guilty of consecration. Li Meng clenched his fists and bowed his head.

"Uh...... And you, Zhou Hu. ”

After exhaling a long breath, Xue Ao turned his head to look at Zhao Yu and said in a deep voice, "You actually left an empty camp last night?!" …… Where did you get the courage to leave an empty camp? Do you think that the rebels will show mercy to your battalion men while attacking Li Meng? ”

“…… Guilty of consecration. ”

Zhao Yu also clenched his fists and bowed his head, making a willingness to accept the punishment without any excuse.

After all, once you dig deeper, the fact that his camp was 'burned down by the rebels' last night will reveal many flaws.

From the side, Li Meng, out of gratitude to Zhao Yu for supporting him last night, clenched his fists and interjected: "Captain Zhou was affected by his humble position last night, if the general wants to blame it, he will blame it......

Hearing this, Zhao Yu secretly praised Li Meng, and at the same time, he deepened his idea of befriending Li Meng.

As he expected, Xue Ao laughed anxiously when he heard this: "What? What do you think I won't punish you? ”

may have felt that Xue Ao's emotions were too excited, and the adjutant general Wei Bi, who had been standing next to him from beginning to end and did not speak, finally spoke at this time: "The matter has come to this point, and it will be useless for the general to pursue it again. Second, some of the rebels saw through our strategy of 'ambushing troops in the camp'......"

His remarks were to the point, and the Henan army failed to play its due level last night because the rebels regarded Li Meng's strategy as dead, and with a fake army of about one or two thousand people, they would disrupt the Henan army with more than 10,000 troops in the camp at that time, so that the Henan army, which was supposed to play a role, had almost no effect.

“……”

Seeing Wei Bi frequently signaling to himself, Xue Ao finally suppressed the anger in his heart, and his sharp gaze swept over Zhao Yu and Li Meng.

In all fairness, Xue Ao was very unconvinced by the battle last night, or to put it simply, he never thought that his side would lose.

After all, in his opinion, his side has a wide range of soldiers, especially the two captains in front of him, which have been verified in the battle against the rebels, and they are by no means ignorant straw bales, plus him Xue Ao, he has no doubt that they can withstand the rebels' offensive yesterday, and he never thought that they would lose.

But as Wei Bi said, the matter has come to this point, and it will be useless to pursue it further.

After exhaling a long breath, Xue Ao said in a deep voice: "That's it, you two have worked hard all night after all, so let's take a break for the time being." …… After you go back, remember to count the casualties, and before sunset today, I want to know the specific casualties of your second army. ”

"Yes."

Zhao Yu and Li Meng retreated with their fists clenched.

Looking at the backs of the two leaving, Xue Ao frowned and asked Wei Bi, "Wei Bi, what do you think?" ”

"It's hard to say."

Wei Bi crossed his arms, frowned and said, "Li Meng and Zhou Hu were both at fault last night. …… Li Meng was so confident in his 'ambush' strategy that he did not consider whether the rebels would do their bidding, and in fact, his ambush strategy was not too elaborate. As for Zhou Hu, although I can understand that he wants to rescue Li Meng, he leaves an empty camp...... It's really inappropriate. ”

"Hmm."

Xue Ao nodded thoughtfully.

I have to say that his dissatisfaction with Zhao Yu and Li Meng this time stems from his expectations for the two, to put it bluntly, he can't accept that Zhao Yu and Li Meng played like that last night.

Li Meng's problem was the biggest last night, but Zhao Yu-Zhou Hu's problem was not small, you must know that at that time, the baggage and grain and grass of the Henan Army and the Yingchuan Army were all in their camps, even if it was to reinforce Li Meng, how dare Zhou Hu leave an empty camp this time?

As a result, it was burned by the rebels.

If it weren't for the fact that this Zhou Hu had blocked the 80,000 rebels in Kunyang at the beginning, and even inflicted heavy losses on them later, there would have been no possibility of colluding with the rebels, and Xue Ao even had some doubts about whether Zhou Hu had deliberately helped the rebels last night.

Just when Xue Ao was secretly suspicious, Zhao Yu and Li Meng had already walked out of the city gate tower.

After walking out of the city gate tower, Li Meng breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately turned his head and said to Zhao Yu with a wry smile: "This time it has affected Captain Zhou, if it wasn't for the rescue of my Henan Army, how could Captain Zhou be implicated in this......"

"Captain Li is serious." Zhao Yu said with a little humility: "If you change to Li Duwei, I believe that Li Duwei will not stand idly by." ”

"Hmm." Li Meng nodded solemnly: "If the Yingchuan army is in danger, I, Li Meng, will also do my best to help!" ”

His statement was of course out of gratitude to Zhao Yu, but Zhao Yu listened to it more and more unpleasantly.

Fortunately, at this time, the generals under the command of the two were waiting in the open space outside the city gate tower, and when they saw the two captains coming out, they stepped forward one after another, and they also relieved Zhao Yu of the siege in disguise.

After a few casual words, Li Meng left with several generals under his command, leaving Zhao Yu and Wang Qing, Qin Yu, Jia Shu, Le Gui, and Liu Tu.

"What did the general say?" Wang Qing asked in a frivolous tone.

"Naturally, it is inevitable to ask together." Zhao Yu pretended to sigh, and immediately ordered Qin Yu, Jia Shu, and Le Gui: "General Xue wants to know the casualties of our army last night, and the three of you will immediately go to count the casualties, and report the specific casualties to me before sunset." ”

"Yes!"

Qin Yu, Jia Shu, Le Gui, and Liu Tu hugged their fists to lead their lives.

After the order was completed, Zhao Yu led Niu Heng, He Shun and several black tigers to the post house in the city.

Looking at the back of Zhao Yu and the others leaving, Qin Yu frowned and asked, "I still don't understand, why did the rebels attack my military camp last night?" …… Jia Shu, did any rebels slip through at that time? ”

"This ......" Jia Shu also looked confused, shook his head and said, "It seems to be ...... Should...... I don't know. ”

From the side, Liu Tu coughed, clenched his fists and said, "Several, go first." ”

After that, he took the lead in leaving under the nods of Wang Qing, Qin Yu, and Jia Shu, but Le Gui didn't say a word, and looked thoughtfully at Liu Tu's departing back.

After a while, after Qin Yu and Jia Shu also said goodbye and left, Le Gui pulled Wang Qing to a corner of the city, and after looking around to make sure that there was no one around, he whispered to Wang Qing: "Boss, there is something I think I should tell you......"

As he spoke, he told Wang Qing about Zhao Yu's order to lead the army to rescue the Henan Army last night, and immediately lowered his voice and asked, "Boss, do you say there is anything about this matter...... The inside story? ”

『……』

Wang Qing frowned and thought for a moment, and then told Le Gui in a rare solemn tone: "Don't speculate, it is precisely because of Liu Tu's courage that he was told to stay in the camp!" As for the unfortunate attack on the camp by the rebels, it can only be said that it was accidentally succeeded by the rebels...... Don't talk nonsense everywhere, you know? ”

Le Gui hurriedly promised: "How dare I talk nonsense about this matter? I'll just talk to the boss. ”

"Hmm." Wang Qing nodded.

He knew that their great leader had a lot of secrets.

For example, when he planted it in a village in Luyang, the local leader of the Diao people, a guy named Ding Lu, obviously recognized him, but as soon as he saw their big leader, he immediately released him.

Considering this kind of thing, it is difficult to guarantee that their big leader really has any entanglement with the rebels.

But what does this have to do with him?

"That kid said that the rebels would definitely lose this battle. Show it a little bit, let's get an upper captain, although it is a little later than Chu Yan's kid, but at least it is earlier than Chen Mo...... Well, you can laugh at him when you look back, but it's a pity that this guy is very thick-skinned, and I'm afraid he won't give up the position of the Grand Commander......

With his hands behind his back, Wang Qing pondered while pacing on the walls of Liangcheng.

The Liangcheng soldiers he met along the way didn't dare to step forward to stop him when they saw his armor that was obviously different from that of ordinary soldiers.

Before the evening of the same day, Zhao Yu and Li Meng successively reported to Xue Ao the casualties of the army under their command.

In last night's battle, the Henan army under Li Meng's command suffered heavy casualties; in last night's battle, more than 5,000 people were killed or missing, and nearly 5,000 people were wounded; in comparison, the casualties of the Yingchuan army were lighter, with only more than 1,000 people killed or missing in battle, and more than 3,000 wounded.

This loss is not insignificant, but considering that Kaifeng is still in the hands of the Jin army, Xue Ao's side still has a huge advantage.