In the darkness before dawn, the two sides were silent, and no one made a sound.

Approaching the middle of the road, there were occasional and incessant screams, and the surviving enemy soldiers tried to escape by taking advantage of the darkness to get into the woods, but they fell into a trap set by the elite soldiers.

In the darkness, after a few screams, no new traps were triggered, and the enemy soldiers who had dodged the previous rain of arrows no longer dared to act rashly in the dark.

While waiting, dawn came, and there was little light in the forest.

But the elite army still stood still, the sun did not rise, the forest was not transparent, and they would not easily get out of the ambush.

After a long and torturous wait, the sun shines in the forest, and the surroundings are translucent, and as far as the eye can see, you can see it at a glance.

At the sound of an order and a trumpet, the soldiers of the Jingwu Army, armed with bows, crossbows, knives and guns, got up from the ambush and approached the remaining roads of the enemy army step by step.

On the way to approach, the enemy soldiers who fell into the trap and had only a few breaths left were killed, and those who hid in the forest in a vain attempt to escape their lives, and were unwilling to lay down their arms and surrender, also fell under the siege and immediately lost their lives.

When the elite army searched from the woods on both sides to the middle of the road, the final battle began, and the opponent was only a few enemy soldiers who were the first to hide.

Faced with the encirclement of the elite army several times their size, there was only one way to surrender except to be killed.

The battle ended quickly, a few stubborn enemy soldiers were shot on the spot, and the rest, all laid down their arms and came to the edge of the forest from the road under the cover of war horses to surrender the elite army.

Among the surrendered enemy soldiers were Jin people, and there were also many Han Chinese.

When Yang Congyi found the Han captives and asked who the enemy commander who led the troops to attack the camp in Guazhou this time was, and whether he had entered the soaphorn forest, in order to grab the merit, there was a report from the captives immediately, and the commander was Gao Jingshan, among the enemy soldiers who surrendered!

Who Gao Jingshan is, others don't know, Yang Congyi is clear, he has already heard the arrogant and provocative words of the golden envoy Gao Jingshan in Lin'an, and he doesn't want him to be the one who commands the troops to attack the Guazhou camp again!

Upon hearing the news, Yang Congyi immediately took the prisoner who had seen Gao Jingshan's face, went to guard the place where the enemy soldiers surrendered, looked for Gao Jingshan, pulled him out, and kept him closely guarded, lest he hide his identity and wait for an opportunity to escape.

When they came to the prisoner concentration, the Han captive stretched out his hand and pointed at a middle-aged soldier dressed as an ordinary soldier among the dozens of captives, and shouted: "My lord, he is Gao Jingshan!" ”

Yang Congyi raised his eyes and saw that the man's hair was scattered, his beard was cut off in half, he was wearing the coarse cloth clothes worn by Han soldiers, and his face was also covered with plaster.

"Gao Jingshan, not long ago, you provoked the people of the Great Song Dynasty in Lin'an, and now you dare to lead the troops to attack the Guazhou camp, it seems that you don't know that the soldiers and people of the Great Song Dynasty have long hated you. Come on, take down Gao Jingshan, and send it back to the Guazhou camp immediately! ”

Yang Congyi gave an order, and the soldiers of the Jingwu Army who were surrounding immediately raised their guns and stepped forward, about to untie the reins of the war horse and tie him up.

Who knew that Gao Jingshan saw that his identity was recognized, roared, and threw himself at Yang Congyi, and in an instant, he was five feet away.

And I don't know when, Gao Jingshan, who was seized of the weapon, had a half-foot-long dagger in his hand, the cold light was shining, and he stabbed straight at Yang Congyi with the dagger in his hand.

The soldiers around the captives were all armed with knives and guns, and they were also a foot away from the captives, and before they could react to the sudden situation, Gao Jingshan had already arrived in front of Yang Congyi.

I saw that Yang Congyi was not in a hurry, and the spear in his hand probed, and a shot stabbed Gao Jingshan in the thigh, and the other party immediately pounced on the ground.

The Jingwu army beside him reacted instantly, and rushed up with knives and guns, and before Yang Congyi could order to stop it, Gao Jingshan was killed in chaos.

Yang Congyi secretly said that it was a pity, if he could catch a live mouth and go back, maybe it would be a great achievement.

After confirming Gao Jingshan's death, he instructed the soldiers to untie the coarse cloth clothes he was wearing and saw that they were wearing exquisite satin, although the elite army, including Yang Congyi himself, had never seen Gao Jingshan himself, but with this luxurious silk clothes, he was not an ordinary person.

In order not to let go of any possible enemy generals, Yang Congyi ordered to immediately find ropes, tie up all the prisoners, search them thoroughly, and find out their identities one by one, focusing on the generals inside, including the dead who had died under the arrows.

An hour later, after the Yangwu Army, the Jingwu Army, and the Zhen Enemy Army cleaned up the battlefield, and after each left a sentry, they walked out of the bloody soaphorn forest with more than 400 prisoners, living war horses, the corpses of Gao Jingshan and the corpses of other dead enemy generals.

Less than noon, the three armies returned to the Guazhou camp with great results, and Liu Kuang, who had already received the battle report, led a group of commanders to personally greet the "broken enemy army" at the gate of the camp.

"The Jingwu Army, the Yangwu Army, and the Zhen Enemy Army annihilated 5,468 enemy troops in the Soaphorn Forest this time, captured 453 enemy troops, killed 29 enemy generals such as Gao Jingshan, the commander of the army, captured 3,698 war horses, and countless other weapons and materials! This great victory over the enemy army has long the morale of our Song army, and when the whole army is ordered, the general order is rewarded! Ben Shuai immediately reported the results of the battle to the imperial court, and won rewards and meritorious deeds for the elite army, the Yangwu army, and the enemy army! It is hoped that the officers and men of all armies will take the three armies of the enemy as a model, dare to fight, be brave in fighting, and be good at fighting, and strive to block the enemy army under the city of Yangzhou, so that they will not be able to advance an inch! ”

Liu Jian stood in the middle of the commanders, hoarsely throated, and after saying this, he couldn't say anything more, and began to cough incessantly.

Yang Congyi, Chen Min, and Yuan Hua immediately raised their hands and clenched their fists, and thanked them in unison: "Thank you, Dashuai!" ”

Liu Jian was seriously ill and could not say much, and next, it was Liu Yan who presided over the delivery of prisoners, the capture of war horses, materials and other affairs in his place.

This time in the soaphorn forest, the enemy army sneak attack, naturally to celebrate, share the combat experience.

After arranging the three armies, in the evening in the council hall of the Shuaiying camp, more than 20 commanders, together with Liu Jian and Liu Yan, listened to Yang Congyi, Chen Min, and Yuan Hua explain the battle of the soaphorn forest.

After hearing this, they found that the battle was uneventful, saying that it was the annihilation and capture of nearly 6,000 enemy troops, but it was not at all as fierce and tragic as they imagined, and they couldn't help but start to be unconvinced.

In their opinion, this so-called victory is entirely because the enemy stupidly walked through the dark soaphorn forest at night, and as a result, Yang Congyi and others hid in the dark and sneak attacked, if it was a head-on confrontation, or the enemy army was not so stupid and did not pass through the woods at night, they would definitely not win so easily, or even at all!

When Liu Yan, on behalf of Liu Kuan, praised Yang Congyi, Chen Min and others for their bravery and fearlessness, and when they were a model for the army when the war changed, unconvincing mockery appeared in the conference hall.

"Hiding in the shadows and sneaking up, what is it to win once in a while, if you really have the ability, you should take Yangzhou City, so that you can win by resisting the enemy so head-on, so that you can boost morale and strengthen the prestige of my Great Song Army!"

"This is true, the ambush in the forest can be achieved once, but it can't be succeeded a second time, this is an accident, there is no reference at all!"

"Huang Tongzhi is right, this time the enemy army suffered a loss in the soaphorn forest, because they are too stupid, wearing the forest at night is a taboo for marching, and they don't even understand this art of war. I see that the thousands of people who died in the soaphorn forest are probably the ones who accompanied the soldiers and civilians, and the Jin people in Yangzhou City asked them to come out to test the camp in Guazhou, otherwise how could they be so stupid, they got into the dark forest, knowing that they were ambushed, and they didn't know how to retreat, just such a small forest, and they could actually kill five or six thousand people, it's really a miracle! It's stupid! They must be a bunch of people who have never held knives or guns! ”

"The enemy in the soaphorn forest is indeed very different from what we encountered in Xuyi and Huaiyin, five or six thousand people actually did not resist and were obediently annihilated, from this point of view, they really do not look like the enemy's regular army, maybe the ordinary people captured from Xuyi, Huaiyin, and Yangzhou, and gave them a way ahead? Maybe there are a lot of Song people in it! ”

"Yes, yes, I think this speculation is reasonable, these five or six thousand people should be the ordinary people they captured, and they are probably the people in Yangzhou City. Yangzhou City is close to the soaphorn forest, there are so many people in the city, they all have to eat, the enemy more than 30,000 people, come from afar, the rations are limited, so the people in the city are driven out of the city. At the same time, in order to make trouble for us, he organized them to storm the camp of Guazhou, but he didn't want to be treated as enemies by the three armies lying in ambush in the soaphorn forest, and they were all killed. Therefore, whether this battle in the soaphorn forest is a merit or a fault, I am afraid it has to be carefully considered! ”

The direction of the wind in the conference hall changed rapidly, from reciting gong to a discussion with the meaning of questioning, Yang Congyi, Chen Min, and Yuan Hua had ugly faces, filled with righteous indignation, and wanted to quarrel with them, but they didn't know where to speak, and once they opened their mouths to fight, it became a show off of their merits, and in front of the old fritters, they couldn't get any disadvantage.

"Shut up!" Because of a big victory, Liu Kuang, who had a slightly better complexion, saw that the commanders were really not talking, so he had to stop it.

"More than 400 enemy prisoners are locked up in the camp, and you won't inquire about it? If you really think that the enemy is stupid and easy to fight, you should also go and try to fight? ”

As soon as Liu Kuang's words fell, two spies rushed into the conference hall to report: "Marshal, there is a military situation!" ”

"Say!"

"The enemy army in Zhenzhou went out of the city for ten miles, and I heard that the enemy army in Yangzhou was defeated in the soaphorn forest, and retreated to Zhenzhou City, closed the door!"

"The four gates of Yangzhou City are closed, and only the north gate occasionally has sentry in and out!"

After hearing about the military situation, Liu Jian waved his hand, and the sentry agent withdrew from the conference hall.

Then the order was announced: "The imperial court has an order, Hezhou and Yangzhou are lost, Jiangbei has no danger to defend, and the Jiangbei army is specially ordered to withdraw to Zhenjiang to organize defense, relying on the Yangtze River natural danger, to block the enemy army in the south of the Yangtze River!" ”