The civil and military ministers in the big tent did not dare to make a sound.

After half a ring, Liu Yikang's anger calmed down slightly.

Minister Zang Zhen stood up and said: "Your Majesty, the current situation is unfavorable for our country, in the opinion of the minister, it is better to withdraw the army as soon as possible and make peace with the Qianguo, and free up your hands to deal with Qiu Chiguo!" ”

"Righteousness? You can say it! Minister Shen Wenxiu stood up and reprimanded angrily, "Zang Qian, what kind of heart are you comfortable with, and you actually bewitch Your Majesty Yihe?" Do you think that the Qianguo will easily make peace with us? Even if they have the same meaning and harmony, I am afraid that the lion will open his mouth and make great conditions! ”

"What can be done about unrighteousness and can? We are now being held back by the cadres and continue to fight, not only will Hanzhong not be protected, but I am afraid that Bashu will also be in danger, the situation is not conducive to our country, and I am afraid that there will be people in the south of the Yangtze River who will be restless! ”

Zang Zhen angrily scolded Shen Wenxiu: "Now our army does not have an advantage, and Zhao Junsheng personally led tens of thousands of troops to help, the morale of the cadres will definitely be greatly boosted, if they cut off the way to retreat, the consequences will be unimaginable!" ”

Liu Yikang was dizzy by these people's noise, and slapped the table angrily: "Enough, stop arguing!" I have made up my mind, the whole army will withdraw to Pengcheng first, and then we will withdraw tomorrow! ”

The generals looked at each other, and had to clench their fists and agree: "Obey!" ”

At the foot of Mengshan Mountain, the camp of the Qianguo Southern Expeditionary Army.

A fast horse ran into the camp, and its knight jumped off his horse at the door of the tent and ran into the tent to report: "Marshal Qiqi, the king's army has arrived in Xingyang and is advancing in the direction of Xuzhou!" ”

Hua Mulan immediately took the military newspaper and opened it to look at it, with a smile on her face, and she was slightly relieved.

Since she led the army to the south, the pressure in her heart is actually very great, counting the soldiers and horses brought by Wang Huilong and Lu Rail, the whole army has a total of more than 60,000 people, and the emperor of the Southern Dynasty joined Xiao Sihua of the Eastern Route Army after retreating south, and collected a lot of county soldiers, county soldiers, and state soldiers along the way, with a total strength of 80,000 people.

She had never commanded so many soldiers and horses, and these soldiers and horses numbered dozens of armies, and it was very cumbersome to command, and she had always been careful not to cause irreparable losses due to wrong decisions.

Now that she heard that Zhao Junsheng had arrived with troops, she was also relieved.

Hua Mulan put away the battle report and asked, "Liang Yi, is there any movement on the part of the Southern Dynasty army?" ”

Liang Yi stood up and clenched his fists and said: "For the time being, I haven't found that they have made big moves, most of the troops are still deployed in Kaiyang, and the other two are deployed in Lanling and Jiqiu, these three cities are each other's horns, no matter which city our army attacks, the other two cities can send troops to reinforce!" If our army divides its forces to attack, the troops of all roads are a little thin and cannot break the city, and the Southern Dynasties can even concentrate their forces to counterattack our way! ”

Hua Mulan had to admit that Liu Yikang, the emperor of the Southern Dynasty, still had some strategic vision, and the location of Kaiyang was a north-south transportation hub.

"Send spies to keep an eye on every move of the Southern Korean army, and don't let up!"

"Yes, Marshal!"

Early the next morning, Liang Yi came to report: "Marshal, the spies have just come to report that the Southern Korean army is retreating in the direction of Xuzhou!" They must have been pulled out last night! ”

"Oh?" Hua Mulan was taken aback, "The Southern Dynasty received the news so quickly, the army led by the king had just set off from Xingyang to Suiyang, and they deduced that the king's soldiers and horses were heading in the direction of Pengcheng!" ”

After speaking, Mulan shouted, "Hua Xiong! ”

His younger brother Hua Xiong is now working as a dental officer under the Mulan tent, and the so-called dental officer is driven in front of the tooth, he walked in from outside the tent and hugged his fist and promised: "In!" ”

"You go and inform Guo Sheng, Wang Huilong, Yuan He, Lu Rail, Bai Jinguang and several ministers of the army to come to discuss matters!"

"Yes!"

Soon, some of the generals and ministers who had been notified arrived.

Hua Mulan looked at everyone and said, "Just now, the spies came to report that last night, the army of the Southern Dynasty left the Kaiyang line and was retreating in the direction of Pengcheng!" ”

Several generals looked at each other, and the minister Xu Yan stood up and said: "It seems that the Southern Dynasty should have received the news that the king's troops were marching in the direction of Xuzhou, and they were worried that the king would lead the troops to cut off the way back, so Liu Yikang led the army to retreat to Pengcheng first!" Marshal, I thought that our army should pull out its camp and go south to press on the Southern Korean army step by step, but we should not be in a hurry, march in a bright and bright way along the way, march quickly in the plains, and march carefully when we reach the land of mountains and rivers, so as not to give the Southern Korean army a chance to ambush and sneak attack, so that their intrigues and tricks cannot be carried out, forcing them to face our army head-on! ”

Hua Mulan nodded secretly, although Xu Yan is not famous, he has a strong sense of the overall situation, and he often sees problems to the point.

"The order went down, and an hour later, the army set off for the south, pressing on the army of the Southern Dynasty! Liang Yi, order you to be the vanguard, take 3,000 cavalry in front to open the road and build a bridge for the army in the mountains and water, and be responsible for the investigation of the enemy's situation! ”

"Yes!"

Hua Mulan thought for a moment and shouted outside the tent, "Hua Xiong, come in!" ”

Hua Xiong heard the voice and came in and clenched his fists: "Here!" ”

"The commander has ordered Liang Yi to take three thousand men and horses to set off first, this commander will give you a thousand cavalry, follow behind Liang Yi's vanguard army, the two armies keep a distance of ten miles, keep in touch at any time, once you find that Liang Yi's vanguard encounters the enemy, you receive the news to rush to reinforcements quickly, and at the same time send a messenger to report to this commander!"

"Yes!"

A day later, Mulan led the army to Kaiyang, which was already an empty city, and the Southern Dynasty army left nothing. The flowers and trees did not stop at Kaiyang for long, and turned the road to the southwest.

In the afternoon of the same day, the army arrived at Lanling, which was also an empty city, and the officials sent here by the Qianguo had already been killed, and some county soldiers had also been killed.

The weather was too hot, and some people kept suffering from heat stroke, and the combat effectiveness and mental state of the soldiers were greatly affected, so Mulan had to order to slow down the march, changing the marching time to midnight in the morning, and the midnight to unitary hour, and the two hottest hours at noon.

Even so, the speed of the march was greatly affected, because the cadre army was a chasing army, and they had to worry about being ambushed by the Song army of the Southern Dynasty, so they did not dare to march at night, while the Southern Korean army did not have this concern, they marched at night and rested during the day, and the speed and efficiency of the march were much higher than that of the cadre army.

The vanguard general Liang Yi was inexperienced after all, and in order to increase the efficiency and speed of the march, he extended the evening march time to the end of the day.

Although it was only extended for an hour, the situation was discovered by the reconnaissance and detective post of the Southern Dynasty Army, and reported to Xiao Sihua, the general of the Southern Dynasty Army behind the palace.

After hearing the report, Xiao Siyan immediately decided to set up an ambush, and he chose the ambush site in Erlao Mountain, which was actually not a mountain, but a higher hill with dense forests on it.

In the evening of that day, Liang Yi led the army to the vicinity of Erlao Mountain, and according to the normal marching situation, he should have set up camp at this time, but Liang Yi wanted to take advantage of the dark temperature to drop for an extra hour, so he continued to march.

At the foot of Erlao Mountain, it was already halfway through the hour, and it was completely dark at this time, but Liang Yi did not order to stop, but continued to march and ordered all the soldiers to light torches.

Of course, for the sake of safety, Liang Yi still arranged a detective sentry in front.

"General, the scouts haven't been back for an hour to report their safety!" The lieutenant reminded Liang Yi.

Liang Yi frowned and asked, "Where are you now?" ”

"Erlao Mountain!"

Liang Yi turned his head to look to the side, the hills in the distance were pitch black, he couldn't see anything clearly, he felt that something was wrong, the scout team had never exceeded the time and did not report safety in the past two days, something must have happened.

Thinking of this, he immediately ordered: "Order the whole army to stop advancing and send people to the right hill to investigate!" ”

Before the adjutant could answer, he heard countless torches appear on the hills, a large number of shouts of killing rang out, and arrows kept flying.

The soldiers and soldiers of the cadres were shocked, and after being hit by arrows, people were shot down one after another, and the horses fell to the ground and neighed.

Liang Yi immediately shouted: "Don't panic, listen to my orders, throw all the torches, the team is separated from the middle, the front is forward, the rear is turned back, and then turn around when it is out of the enemy's attack range!" ”

The order was conveyed a little late, and as soon as the various units of the vanguard army reacted and threw out the torches, a large number of Southern Korean troops rushed down from the mountains and forests, but this round of torch throwing frightened the horses of many cavalry of the Southern Korean army, and the momentum of the charge was slowed down for a while.

The cadres lost more than 300 cavalry, so they hurriedly followed Liang Yi's order to divide into two steps before and after and quickly broke out of the attack range of the Southern Korean army, but the Southern Korean army obviously did not want to just forget it, and divided into two steps to pursue.

The cadres were fast, and the rear team could have escaped, but they thought that the front was still in front, and if the rear withdrew first, then the front would be blocked and annihilated, and the rear turned around under the leadership of the deputy general and fought with the Southern Korean army, and the front of the cadre army quickly turned around and fought with the pursuing Southern Korean army after running a certain distance.

Xiao Siyan, who was sitting on horseback on the hillside in the distance, frowned, "It is said that the cadres are well-trained, the military discipline is strict, and the cooperation is seamless. ”

"General, our ambush has become a strong attack, even if we annihilate the vanguard of this cadre army, I am afraid that the casualties of our army will not be small!"

Xiao Siyan felt quite helpless, and felt bitter in his heart, he is now difficult to ride a tiger, and now that the two sides have fought together, where is it so easy to get out of the battle and get rid of the cavalry?

After thinking for a while, Xiao Siyan immediately ordered: "Xiao Chengzhi, take a thousand people to outflank from the left flank!" ”

"Yes!" Xiao Chengzhi hugged his fists and agreed, and quickly led a thousand people to outflank the cadres from the left flank, he was Xiao Siyan's military Sima.

Xiao Chengzhi with 1,000 men quickly outflanked from the left flank and launched an attack, and the deputy general and his subordinates were caught off guard, and there was chaos for a while.

After the adjutant general killed several cavalrymen of the Southern Korean Army one after another, he had to order: "Follow me to break through and join the general, kill-"

"Kill—"

Xiao Chengzhi's speed was also very fast, and when the rear of the cadre army was about to break out of the encirclement, he closed the opening, and more than 1,000 cadres and cavalry were surrounded in the middle.

Before Xiao Siyan had time to be happy, he saw a cavalry of the cadre army in the rear rushing over with torches at a very fast speed, and killed through the encirclement of the Southern Dynasty army with one face, and took the back of the surrounded cadre army to kill out and complete the convergence with the front.

"Hey, it's really a failure, why is there still a cadre army to kill at this time?" Xiao Siyan was quite unwilling.

The marching army next to him asked: "General, they have completed the convergence, although our troops are more than them, but the combat effectiveness is not as good, if we continue to fight, I am afraid that ······"

Xiao Siyan weighed it, gritted his teeth and said, "Order, withdraw!" ”

After a trumpet sounded, the soldiers of the Southern Dynasty dropped their torches and withdrew, without the lighting of the torches, the soldiers and generals of the Southern Grass quickly disappeared into the night one by one.

Liang Yi suffered a secret loss, did not dare to pursue again, ordered to collect troops, clean up the battlefield, through the inventory found that more than 800 people had been lost, and he was distressed to death for a while, but he could only send someone to report to Mulan and ask for guilt.