Linying County, the county governs Shaolingxi, Lekou at the intersection of Rushui and Lishui, the camp stretches for several miles, the tents come and go, the imperial army that was ordered to go south to quell the chaos is stationed here, the military camp in the twilight rises countless cooking smoke, and the camps are lit with bonfires like stars reflecting the ground in the sky.

In the big tent, the commander and the head of the march, Pan Zihuang, was talking with people, and the other party was Liu Ziang, the assassin of Yingzhou who had just returned from defeat.

The opportunity has been lost, Liu Ziang can only retreat, and the casualties are nearly thirty percent, which is actually defeated.

Victory or defeat is a common thing in soldiers, although the casualties are close to breaking the muscles and bones, but Pan Zihuang did not blame Liu Ziang too much, at this moment, he is asking the other party about the situation around the hanging gourd, to determine how to face the battle next.

More than 20 days ago, the news of the loss of the Hanging Gourd reached Yecheng, and the Prime Minister Lieutenant Chi Dian immediately appointed Pan Zihuang as the head of the march, and led 20,000 men to cross the Yellow River south with 20,000 horsemen, and went straight to the Hanging Gourd, which was captured by the enemy.

The infantry marched slowly, Pan Zihuang led the cavalry to set off first, he was supposed to join the Yuzhou army that retreated from Fangcheng, but the officers and soldiers of the Yuzhou army were eager to fight, and the governor of Yuzhou, He Bavoen, could only go south in advance.

As a result, the Yuzhou army was defeated outside the city of Xuanlu, and Heba Fuen was killed.

In this way, Pan Zihuang's department has become the only main force of the official army in the territory of the Yuzhou Governor's Office, and there is no room for loss before the next batch of reinforcements arrives.

The place of Pan Zihuang's garrison is the boundary of Linying County under the rule of Yuzhou, and one hundred and thirty miles west of Shaoling is Yecheng, guarding the east end of Yewan Road, which is an important place to block the eastward advance of the Jingzhou army, and Shaoling and Yecheng are just one east and one west are each other's horns, echoing each other.

The officers and troops stationed in Shaoling just pinned down the enemy army in Hanging Gourd, so that they did not dare to move easily, and when the surrounding states and counties mobilized their troops, they could march together and enter outside the Hanging Gourd City.

This is Pan Zihuang's arrangement, but now that Liu Ziang has to reveal the truth, he feels that he has to re-examine the strength of the enemy army.

When Liu Ziang returned from defeat, he claimed that he had encountered 2,000 enemy troops so he was defeated, and as for whether there were really 2,000 enemy troops, no one would delve into it, but Liu Ziang still told Pan Zihuang the truth in private.

He was ambushed by less than 100 people, but later reinforcements came from the city, and Liu Ziang led his troops back to the north, of course, the truth was too ugly, so he said that he encountered 2,000 enemy troops.

Liu Ziang and Pan Zihuang have a friendship, and it is a friendship for decades, they were both generals of Qi back then, Zhou attacked Qi and broke Jinyang, and saw that the general trend had gone, so they surrendered one after another.

Later, in the second year of the elephant of the Zhou State, the governor of Xiangzhou and the public lieutenant of Shu State Chi Hui supported the new monarch to raise troops against Yang, and the old generals of Qi under his jurisdiction responded one after another, and Pan and Liu were among them.

In just over ten years, the situation was unpredictable, and the Qi State and the Zhou State, which were fighting between the East and the West, embarked on the road of defeat one after another, so most of the old Qi generals sighed, and then firmly stood on the side of the Wei Chi clan.

The Yuwen clan saw that it was about to decline, and no one was willing to follow the burial, just as everyone was unwilling to die with the Gao clan more than ten years ago.

"The prime minister means that if it is late, there will be changes, and our army cannot be here for too long, otherwise the enemy army will have more time to strengthen the city defenses, and the situation in Xizhou and Guangzhou is not good, and if it continues like this, the situation in Yuzhou will be erosive, which will affect the Huainan army."

"Brother Pan, since the enemy army can steal the city and succeed, there are not a few cavalry, and the terrain in Yuzhou is flat, so we must beware of the enemy's sneak attack."

"You mean the other side may send troops here to sneak attack?"

"I have to guard against it." Liu Ziang swept away the previous decadence of self-restraint and pleaded guilty, and offered advice to his old friend: "The soldiers and horses of the Yuwen clan, even if they are lucky enough to occupy the hanging gourd, but there are Tongbai Mountain and Dabie Mountain in the south of the mountain, and they can't stay in Yuzhou..."

"If they want to stay in Xuanlu for a little longer, they have to defeat our army, so that they can lure officials and heroes from all over the country to join them, and disrupt Yuzhou as much as possible, so that Shannan Jingzhou can breathe."

"And our army is stationed in Shaoling, Yecheng in the west, Ruyang County in the east to govern Ruyang, and then to the east is the boundary of the Bozhou Governor's Office.

"Not to mention the Yangzhou Governor's Mansion in the southeast of Gwangju, thinking that it is already gathering troops and horses, and when the three parties march at the same time, it is wishful thinking for the Yuwen clan to want to defend the hanging gourd."

"If they want to break the situation, they have to strike first, defeat our army before the arrival of the Bozhou army and the Yangzhou army, and plan for the Jingzhou army to attack Yecheng in the east, which is the way to turn the tide of the war."

"Therefore, our army must beware of the other party's sneak attack, it is only one hundred and thirty miles to Shaoling, and it is not impossible for the enemy cavalry to sneak attack."

Liu Ziang said the truth, but Pan Zihuang has already become a bamboo in his chest, he is old in the army, naturally knows that he can't be careless when setting up camp, this time the southward has a lot to do, even if he didn't plan to stay in Shaoling for a long time at the beginning, but the defense facilities of the military camp are readily available.

The barracks are located on the north and south banks of Lishui, connected by pontoon bridges in the middle, and the camp on the south bank is the main village, and the infantry going south has arrived at the camp, and Pan Zihuang's Chinese army tent is also located here.

The camp on the south bank is bordered by Lishui in the north, Shaoling in the east, Rushui flowing in the south in the west, and wilderness in the south, which is easy to defend and difficult to attack.

The camp is lined with arrow towers, the camp fence is set up outside, and it is also covered with antlers, digging ditches and diverting water as a camp ditch, not to mention that there are rangers guarding more than ten miles away, even if the enemy army attacks head-on, it may not be easy to succeed, if it is a small group of elites to sneak attack, it is a moth to fight the fire.

Although such an arrangement was made, Pan Zihuang was not careless, what Liu Ziang said was indeed reasonable, and he must beware of the other party's desperate bets and dogs jumping over the wall in a hurry, even if he ordered to strengthen the troops on duty at night.

Liu Ziang retired, and Pan Zihuang paced back and forth in the tent, thinking about what to do next.

When he set out from Yecheng, Wei Chi Dan's order was for him to assist the Yuzhou army in recovering Xuanguo, and then to recover Shenzhou or Gwangju depending on the situation, and the defeat of Hebavoen's Yuzhou army was so rapid that everyone did not expect.

So the task of recovering the hanging gourd fell on Pan Zihuang's shoulders, and if he was defeated, the situation would become more and more erosive, so it was best to be on the safe side.

However, when he thinks so, he doesn't know what the prime minister will think, Pan Zihuang, as a front-line general, has to consider how to win the battle without defeat, while Wei Chidun, as the prime minister, has to consider the overall situation.

Yuwen's sneak attack on Hanging Gourd this time is a successful siege of Wei to save Zhao, not to mention the siege of Fangcheng, but also to burn the war to the territory of Yuzhou, once the Jingzhou army breaks through Yecheng, not to mention that Luoyang is shaken, even the army of Wei Chi Youqi who is still stationed in Huainan and Jiangbei must return to the division immediately.

So even if Pan Zihuang wants to fight steadily, the time given by Wei Chi will not be too long, but Pan Zihuang has a plan to delay the army, that is, to send an envoy to Yecheng to ask for instructions.

All fighters, with the right combination, with the odd victory, Pan Zihuang sent a surprise soldier to attack the hanging gourd, but unfortunately failed, then next, to attack head-on, he wants to see the legendary Xiyang Wang Yuwenwen, who is good at fighting, how is the quality.

When our three-way army approaches, even if you can fight again, you have to abandon the hanging gourd and flee!