The next day, the elite army patrolling the river reported that the enemy army had moved, and it seemed that they were withdrawing from the camp, and they did not know where they were going.

This news is not surprising to Yang Congyi, Taipingzhou failed to cross the river, Wan Yanliang must go east to Yangzhou, find another way to cross the river, it is impossible to lead the 500,000 army back like this.

The news was not accurate, so he ordered the patrol soldiers in the river to investigate and report again.

At the same time, Yang Congyi immediately sent someone to send the news to Taiping City to confirm his previous inference to Yu Yunwen.

For three days in a row, the military situation brought back by the Jingwu army sentry patrolling in the river became clearer and clearer, and the large army of the enemy army was leaving the camp in Hezhou day and night, advancing eastward along the river, and the enemy troops who had already moved may exceed 200,000 people.

In order to further confirm the accuracy of the message, the spies entered the enemy camp in confusion, as well as the city of Hezhou.

A day later, accurate news was brought back, the enemy army was indeed rapidly withdrawing from Hezhou, and judging from the marching instructions that were heard, the destination was Yangzhou!

The enemy army left, and Yang Congyi also left the Taipingdu military camp for the first time, personally entered Taiping City, and sent the exact enemy news to Yu Yunwen.

"General Yang, most of the enemy troops have withdrawn from Hezhou, what do you think we should do next? Will you cross the river and regain Hezhou, or will you continue to defend on the spot? Yu Yunwen asked.

"My lord, the enemy army of 500,000 people, even if they want to go to Yangzhou, they will not lose Hezhou, leaving 20,000 or 30,000 troops to garrison, it is still no problem, with our current strength to cross the river to recover Hezhou, it will inevitably be in vain, and may even suffer a big defeat, if we can hold the Taipingdu, it is already a victory." Yang Congyi replied.

"General Yang means that we will continue to garrison Taipingdu without moving?" Yu Yunwen was a little disappointed.

"The enemy can no longer cross the river from Hezhou, and the defensive pressure of Taipingdu will be reduced, but the enemy army is advancing eastward, and there are hundreds of miles of river defense from Hezhou to Yangzhou, and there are not many places that can be the same as Taiping. When the enemy forces leave Hezhou, they may be able to cross the river from any place. If we want to prevent the enemy from crossing the river, we must divide our troops into two routes, continue to defend the Taiping Crossing all the way, and march all the way east along the river, and keep an eye on the enemy army at all times! The Jingwu Army and the Yangwu Army have experience in fighting with the enemy, and they were all ordered to support from Zhenjiang, and now that the enemy army is advancing eastward into Yangzhou, we should also rush back to Zhenjiang to consolidate the river defense and prevent the enemy from crossing the river from Zhenjiang! Yang Congyi quickly said what he was thinking.

"Traveling east?" Yu Yunwen was slightly stunned, then nodded and said: "Yes, we should go to Zhenjiang immediately, and if the enemy army goes to Yangzhou, we should go to Zhenjiang!" ”

After speaking, he immediately summoned the guards of the forbidden army and asked, "Where is Li Xianzhong now?" ”

The guard replied: "I came to report at noon that General Li had arrived in the south of Dangtu County, was crossing the river, and was expected to enter the city in the evening." ”

"Go and urge again, you must arrive before the sun sets!" Yu Yunwen said.

The guards responded and quickly went out of the city to give the order.

"General Yang, you go and prepare quickly, and after the handover of the Taiping Defense, I will go to Zhenjiang with you."

"The last general obeys!" Yang Congyi raised his hand to receive the order.

Back at the Taipingdu military camp, the spies who went deep into Hezhou sent back the news again, all the surviving ships of the enemy were destroyed, and Wan Yanliang and many ministers of the army had left Hezhou City under the escort of the pro-army.

The battalion gathered generals and convened many generals and schools of the elite army and the Yangwu army to discuss matters.

Yang Congyi first analyzed the current situation against the enemy and told everyone that although there will be no more major battles in Hezhou, the war is far from over, and the enemy army is advancing eastward, and the Zhenjiang area, which is closer to Lin'an, will be a more tragic battlefield. In addition, although the enemy occupies Yangzhou and Zhenzhou, but Zhenjiang has Liu Qi in charge, the river defense should be stronger than the Taiping area, even so, the gap between the military strength of the two sides is still very disparity, now there is nothing to do in Taipingzhou, the elite army, the Yangwu army is useless here, if you want to defend the homeland, expel the enemy, and establish meritorious service, you should immediately rush back to Zhenjiang, and then fight with the enemy!

In the recent victory, the generals were more confident, the enemy was not good at water warfare, and they were confident that they would defeat the enemy again in the Yangtze River, so no one disagreed with Yang Congyi's proposal to return to Zhenjiang.

But then some people questioned whether they could have the opportunity to play after returning to Zhenjiang and whether they had autonomy.

At the beginning of the Guazhou Crossing Defense, the Jingwu Army was nothing in the eyes of the forbidden army and the garrison troops from all walks of life, and whether they had status or not, they were clear, and the inherent impression could not be reversed in a battle, and now if they go back, I am afraid that they will fall into the embarrassing situation before.

Yang Congyi was also a little worried about this issue, but fortunately, Yu Yunwen was with him.

The cooperation between the two sides in Taipingdu is quite tacit, the supply of logistics materials and the recruitment of Minzhuang are very timely, and the defense of Taipingdu and the forced enemy army to fight the battlefield will bring Yu Yunwen immeasurable fame. After arriving in Zhenjiang, as his military staff officer, he will definitely say a few words for the Jingwu Army, so that they can have a battlefield to show their strengths, so as to further prove his ability and vision to others.

Regarding the general's questions, Yang Congyi didn't explain too much, and only told them two news.

First, Li Xianzhong, the commander of the Chizhou capital, is about to take office, and he will enter Taiping City before the sun sets, take over the post of the commander of the Taiping Prefecture, take over the defense of Taiping Prefecture, and the army in the entire Taiping region will be under his control.

Another piece of news is that Yu Yunwen, a member of the imperial court, left Taiping Prefecture together and returned to Zhenjiang Mansion.

As soon as the two news were released, the doubts disappeared, no matter how you look at it, it is better to return to Zhenjiang than to continue to stay in Taipingdu, of course, the premise is that they want to fight and establish meritorious deeds!

With the unity of thought, the whole army immediately began to prepare for the return of Zhenjiang to aid, and all ships replenished supplies and water, and immediately withdrew after waiting for an order.

That night, Li Xianzhong rushed to Taiping City and met Yu Yunwen.

On the morning of the next day, Yang Congyi and Ma Hong entered the city, and under the auspices of Yu Yunwen, handed over the defense of Taiping Prefecture, and handed over the military power of Taipingdu and Zhou County to Li Xianzhong.

At noon on the same day, the Jingwu Army and the Yangwu Army pulled out the camp, divided into two batches, half an hour apart, left Taipingdu, went down the river, and went straight to Zhenjiang.

The warships went down the river, monitoring all the way, and did not see the enemy's intention to garrison the troops to cross the river halfway.

A few days later, the Jingwu army fleet reached the vicinity of Zhenjiang, and the enemy's large forces also reached Zhenzhou and Yangzhou.

After landing in Zhenjiang, the Jingwu Army and the Yangwu Army found an open space on the river bank and camped on their own.

Yang Congyi accompanied Yu Yunwen into the city to meet Liu Qi and Ye Yiwen.

As soon as they entered Zhenjiang Mansion, they heard a shocking news.

Commander Liu Qi was seriously ill and unable to handle military affairs, and the imperial court asked the old marshal Zhang Jun twenty years ago to replace him in command of Zhenjiang Mansion, but more than half a month has passed, and there is no news of Zhang Jun so far, that is to say, in the past half a month, Zhenjiang Mansion has also been in a situation where there is no commander!

Yu Yunwen's anger can be imagined.

"Lord Ye, the imperial court asked us to supervise the Jianghuai soldiers and horses, now the cities in Jiangbei have all been lost, and the enemy army is pressing the border, first Jiankang Mansion and Taiping Prefecture have no commander, there is no river defense, and I don't want Zhenjiang Mansion to be the same! The 500,000 enemy troops in Hezhou have all advanced eastward and headed straight for Yangzhou, and the vanguard troops have entered Yangzhou City, how is Zhenjiang going to defend? ”

"What? Jin people came to Yangzhou? Ye Yi was shocked, with a look of disbelief.

"Yes, they all came to Yangzhou, a full 500,000! It stretches for dozens of miles before and after, and most of them have arrived in Zhenzhou, and in a few days, they will rush to Yangzhou! Yu Yunwen's face was ugly, and he didn't give his boss a good face at all.

"Is the golden man really here? Now Liu Qi is seriously ill, Zhang Jun has just left from his hometown, and he has walked less than fifty miles in half a month, and he doesn't know when he will be able to reach Zhenjiang Mansion, what should we do? As soon as the Jin people arrived, Zhenjiang couldn't hold it. Ye Yiwen was frightened.

"Who is in charge of Zhenjiang military affairs now?" Yu Yunwen forcibly suppressed the anger in his heart, his eyebrows twisted into pimples, and he was very dissatisfied with this boss.

For this question, Ye Yiwen couldn't answer immediately, thought for a while, and then replied: "After Liu Qi was seriously ill, he recommended Zhang Jun to me, and the imperial court immediately ordered Zhang Jun to re-enable the whole army of Zhenjiang Mansion, but I didn't expect the Jin people in Yangzhou City to suddenly attack the camp of Guazhou Town, and Li Heng, the commander of Zhenjiang, took the lead in escaping, and the Zhenjiang Chinese army commanded Liu Yan was invincible, and he also abandoned the camp and fled in a hurry, so that the defenders of Guazhou Du had no time to make any preparations, and almost all the troops were wiped out under the iron cavalry of the Jin people, Guazhoudu fell into the hands of the Jin people, and Jiangbei was lost. Li Heng and Liu Yan escaped from the Guazhou camp without authorization and have been sent to the camp to be punished, and the various armies in Zhenjiang are currently organizing their own defense. ”

"The commander is bedridden, the new commander is delayed, the deputy marshal is guilty, the Chinese army commander is guilty, and the Zhenjiang defenders are scattered, each with its own battalion? Lord Ye, you are in charge of the Privy Council, and you have the heavy responsibility of the imperial court, can't you be responsible in Zhenjiang? If the enemy suddenly crosses the river, how can we resist? ”

After talking for a long time, the huge Zhenjiang Mansion didn't even have a person in charge of military affairs, how did he, a dignified chief of the Privy Council, supervise Jiangfang? Yu Yunwen couldn't hold back the anger in his heart anymore, regardless of his official position, and asked bluntly.

Ye Yiwen's face was blue and white, his face couldn't hold back, and he said in a deep voice: "Fighting a war is a matter for military generals and soldiers, and this official is a civilian official, how can he meddle in military affairs?" Those who can't hold the city and flee from the battle are all military generals, what's the matter with Guan Benguan! The court is raising them, and the official still has to fight for them? ”

"Lord Ye, you have a duty and an imperial order, and now you are still in Zhenjiang, this place is in chaos, although you can't fight, is it difficult to find a few people who are in charge of military affairs? Isn't the enemy on the other side of the river? ”

As he spoke, Yu Yunwen remembered that the enemy army was going to cross the river from Taiping, and Ye Yiwen heard the news that the enemy army had crossed the river and landed, so he fled and went straight to Zhenjiang, the more he thought about it, the more angry he became, and the more he thought about it, the more angry he became.