After the meeting with Sima Chuzhi, Zhao Junsheng arranged for Mulan's mother and son to live in a house in the city at the request of Sima Chuzhi, and left enough guards to protect them, no matter what, the city was still much warmer than the outside.

There were also some military officers and staff members who stayed in the city together, and their bodies were relatively weak, so there was no need to blow cold wind in the camp outside the city.

Zhao Junsheng returned to the camp outside the city, and he had to be with the soldiers, eat and live together.

Just got up early in the morning, Zhao Junsheng walked out of the tent and looked up at the sky, the snow stopped, the wind also stopped, but the temperature was lower.

He threw a few sets of punches in front of the tent, moved his muscles and bones, sweated, and felt transparent.

Li Bao came over and said, "King, the cook has prepared breakfast!" ”

Zhao Junsheng changed into clean clothes and said, "I'll go to the city to eat, and leave breakfast for the brothers!" ”

"Yes!"

As soon as they changed their clothes, the generals and officers accompanying the army came to report on various matters.

The quartermaster stepped forward and reported: "Your Majesty, the minister has been ordered to hand over two thousand stones of grain and grass to the lord of the king of Langya, this is a receipt!" ”

Zhao Junsheng took the receipt and glanced at it and handed it to Pei Jin, and asked, "Is the baggage supply line unblocked?" ”

"Back to the king, there is no report of invasion of the supply channel for the time being!"

Chang Kun stepped forward and hugged his fists and reported: "King, the scout team has news that Tan Daoji's army camped in Zhengjiapu, forty miles away in the southeast last night, and this morning they have left Zhengjiapu, turned the road and retreated south, the detectives are staring, there will be news later!" ”

Zhao Junsheng walked to the map and looked at it, frowned and said, "Tan Daoji didn't retreat in the direction of Yidu, but to the south, why is this?" ”

Chang Kun asked: "King, to chase or not to chase?" They have 70,000 or 80,000 horses, most of them are infantry, and there are many baggage, such as today's heavy snowfall, the snow is deep, they can't go fast, and the last 5,000 light cavalry can catch up with them in half a day! ”

Zhao Junsheng thought about it for a while, waved his hand and said, "No hurry!" This battle is not something that can be fought in a day or two! Gao Xu, this king will give you 10,000 horses, and you go and take down the counties under Qizhou as quickly as possible! After taking the counties and counties of Qizhou, he waved his army east to fight Qingzhou and Gwangju, and first snatched back Qingzhou and Gwangju that were taken away by the army of the Southern Dynasties. ”

"After the soldiers have breakfast, the last general will lead the troops to set off!" Gao Xu agreed.

Guo Yi stood up and arched his hand and said: "King, this morning the black-clothed guard came to the news, it has been found out that Du Chao's father and son have colluded with the Southern Dynasty, according to the internal investigation, the Southern Dynasty has secretly promised to canonize Du Chao as the king of Jeju and Du Gui as the king of Yecheng when Qizhou is captured!" ”

The generals in the tent were indignant for a while, "I'll just say that Du Chao's father and son are not good things!" ”

"King, why don't we go back to the division and kill Du Chao and Du Gui and his son first, and then deal with the Southern Dynasty!"

Zhao Junsheng raised his hand to stop the crowd from continuing to make noise: "Okay, just say a few whining words, don't miss the big thing!" By the way, is there any news from Cao Jiao and Bai Jinguang? ”

Li Bao stood up and said: "King, there is news from Bai Jinguang's side that Du Chao's 10,000 horses deployed in Lu County suddenly pulled out of the camp and retreated quickly in the direction of Jeju City around midnight yesterday afternoon, presumably because he received the news that Cao Jiao's army rushed to Jeju City, and Bai Jingguang has followed with 3,000 cavalry. Du Chao should have been scared, and the 10,000 Jeju troops immediately abandoned all their baggage and retreated to Jeju City at full speed after discovering Bai Jinguang's 3,000 cavalry! ”

"In the early hours of this morning, Bai Jinguang led his troops to raid the camp of the Jeju army, the Jeju army was in chaos, with heavy casualties, Du Chao fled to Jeju City with more than 4,000 people with the remnants of the army, and further news has not yet arrived!"

Zhao Junsheng stared at the map and thought about it for a while, and ordered: "Send an order to Bai Jinguang, let him take the three thousand cavalry to block Du Chao in Jeju City, and if he can't block it, he will also drag Du Chao's troops; The order was sent to Cao Jiao, ordering him to lead the army to turn to the north and cooperate with Zhang Xing to attack Xiangzhou! This Xiangzhou, this king is decided! In addition, he sent a message to Youzhou, asking Li Ji to lead a delegation to Pingcheng again to report to the imperial court the fact that Du Chao and Du Gui's father and son colluded with Liu Song of the Southern Dynasty! Let's let everyone in the world know that this king's attack on Du Chao's father and son was not intentional, nor did he covet their territory, but because they collaborated with the enemy and treason! ”

"Yes!"

Subsequently, Zhao Junsheng ordered that in addition to the 10,000 soldiers and horses brought by Gao Xu, the main force of the army did not understand the soldiers, stood by in place, and continued to practice in the battalion every day, in order to maintain combat effectiveness, the training intensity could be appropriately reduced.

After sending away the generals, Zhao Junsheng entered the city and came to the place where Mulan's mother and son lived.

"Father!" When Zhao Dong saw Zhao Junsheng enter the door, he immediately shouted, ran over with his calves, Zhao Junsheng squatted down and hugged him, and then got up and took his hand and walked to the dining table.

Hua Mulan sat at the table, the food on the table was covered with plates to keep warm, she saw Zhao Junsheng come and got up and asked, "Why is it so late?" The meals were almost cold."

"The situation has changed a little!" Zhao Junsheng said that under the table, he took off all the plates covering the food, and spooned the gruel with a spoon and filled a bowl for Mulan's mother and son.

"Eat it quickly, it'll be cold if you don't eat it again!" Hua Mulan said and put the spoon in her son Zhao Dong's bowl and asked, "Is something wrong?" ”

Zhao Junsheng took a bite of bread and drank a mouthful of gruel, and said: "The people in the black guard reported that they had found out about the collusion between Du Chao's father and son and the Southern Dynasty; After Tan Daoji withdrew with 80,000 troops last night, he turned south this morning, I think he doesn't want Qingzhou anymore, so it's just right, I let Gao Xu lead the troops to subdue Qizhou and Qingzhou counties one by one, steady and steady, this cold winter wax moon, our soldiers are cold-resistant, and the Southern Dynasty soldiers will not be cold-resistant, just take this opportunity to recapture Qingzhou and Xuzhou, if Tan Daoji is not reconciled, he can only raise troops to fight with me! ”

Hua Mulan was surprised: "He didn't retreat in the direction of Qingzhou, but retreated directly to the south?" ”

"yes!"

"This is not normal, he has 80,000 horses, and he lost more than 2,000 cavalry and some baggage in order to block the pursuit of our army yesterday evening, and there are no other losses at all, why did he retreat south without fighting, and he didn't even want Qingzhou and Guangzhou? Is there some conspiracy here? Tan Daoji has fought all his life, and he is cunning, you have to be careful! ”

Zhao Junsheng smiled and said, "What about his cunning and cunning? He hits his, I hit mine, now it's our offense, he's the defender, I play according to my intentions, if he doesn't want to suffer, he can only follow my steps! ”

At the foot of the eastern foothills of Taishan, the army of the Southern Dynasties was marching south.

Tan Yi galloped towards the front of the team, he slowed down beside Tan Daoji and clenched his fists and said, "Great commander, General Xue sent someone to report that the cadres were not chasing!" ”

"Didn't chase you?" Tan Daoji frowned, "Are they still outside Licheng City?" Not even a single cavalry was sent to follow us? ”

"Nope! However, our spies came to report that the cadres had sent 10,000 soldiers and horses to recover all the counties and counties of Qizhou one by one, and our men and horses left in Qizhou must be all over! ”

Tan Dao Ji Lerma stopped, "This Zhao Junsheng is not simple, under such weather and ice and snow cover, he has an absolute advantage with a large number of cavalry, he actually endured not to lead troops to pursue our army, but sent troops to recover the counties and counties of Qizhou, the old man's plan is invalid again!" ”

Tan Yi said: "Yes, Dashuai, Zhao Junsheng is not fooled, what should we do now?" You can't keep retreating south, you finally took Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou, Gwangju and other places, and just gave up? In order to conquer these territories and cities, we have killed thousands of people, but are these brothers all dead in vain? ”

Tan Daoji pondered for a while, and ordered: "The herald army turned east, let's go to Qingzhou!" In addition, we have sent orders to the men and horses left in the counties and counties of Qizhou, so that they can all withdraw from Qizhou and go to Qingzhou to join the main force of our army! ”

"Father, you can't give up all the counties and counties of Qizhou, that is the brothers who fought with their lives, how can you say that you will give up if you give up?"

Tan Daoji scolded: "What can you do if you don't give up? Let them stay there and die? ”

Tan Yi retorted: "How can it be said that it is waiting for death? If the defense is done properly, a county town can consume a lot of troops, and the northerners are good at cavalry, not good at attacking cities, this sentence is not just talking! ”

"Hey!" Tan Daoji sighed, "I have received the news this morning, it only took half an hour for the Qianjun to capture Linyi, and Zhu'a City in only one round, how long can other cities last?" If you don't withdraw the defenders, they will be annihilated one by one! ”

Tan Yi was shocked: "Impossible, this is absolutely impossible?" When did the Northern Dynasty have such a strong siege ability? Maybe it's just a coincidence! ”

Tan Daoji said: "I hope that my father is just an accident, but this is a fact, the soldiers who fled back from Linyi City reported it, and there will be no falsehood!" ”

Tan Daoji had 80,000 troops when he first sent troops, but after defeating Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Qingzhou and Gwangzhou, he lost a lot of people and captured a lot of people, but the above areas need troops to garrison, and his current army is actually less than 70,000 people.

This news was known by Zhao Junsheng in just one day, and he laughed after hearing Guo Yi's report: "Tan Daoji, this old thing, wants to play tricks on me, when I don't know what he wants to do!" Most of his soldiers and horses are infantry, the snow on the ground is deep, if the terrain is flat, our cavalry has an absolute advantage, he can't beat it at all, he wants to resist our army head-on, he must find a piece of rugged terrain or a narrow place to limit the mobility of our cavalry, he lured me to lead the troops to pursue, and then according to his preset battlefield with our army duel! Hey, this old man is so funny, am I such a stupid person? ”

Dongfang Chen said with a smile: "No one is stupid, Tan Daoji just wants to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses, after all, in such weather, his disadvantages are obvious,"