The order was given, and the Wu army also began to move with extreme speed.

The first to be dispatched was the main cavalry led by Chai Kehong, who was dispatched in the morning as the vanguard; Then, by noon, the rest of the army also went out, mainly with 20,000 troops under Zhu Qianyou.

The core of the 20,000 troops is the old soldiers who were used by Li Chengding to fight abroad, even in the relatively stable years before the Northern Expedition, they have experienced many wars, and their comprehensive combat power is a very strong one.

In addition to the 20,000 troops, there are 15,000 troops under the command of Li Decheng and 5,000 infantry troops under the command of Zhu Siqing, which are also troops that can be dispatched in a short period of time; As for the other armies, Yang Wu ordered Li Jian to be the commander and stay in Pingyin to be in charge.

Yang Wu ordered Zhu Siqing to lead the troops in the front, and Li Decheng to lead the troops behind, and he led the 3,000 Yulin army to follow Zhu Qianyou to act together.

"Father, can we win this battle?" The one who opened the question was Yang Yan, Yang Wu's second son.

Originally, when he encountered such a major battle, Yang Wu planned to let him stay in Pingyin, but he didn't expect him to take the initiative to act with the army.

Yang Wu felt that there would be no danger in following him, at most it would be a little harder, so he agreed after some advice.

This made Yang Yan feel very excited, he rode on a small white horse, followed Yang Wu, and asked this and that all the way.

Although Yang Wu has something on his mind and asks from time to time if there is any new news, he still tries his best to answer his son's questions.

"Win? Absolutely. Yang Wu said with a smile, his face full of ease: "Even if the rumors are true, the enemy's strength is at most about 30,000 people, and our army has nearly 50,000 people even if we only count the army in front of us, in addition to the 40,000 army led by General Zhou, and the army led by Li Jian in the follow-up, how can we not win?" ”

Having said that, he was a little dignified in his heart.

After all, the outcome of a war is never determined solely by the strength of the army, there are too many examples of winning more with less in history, and the difference in strength between the two sides in this battle is not too big, plus the Jin army has many cavalry, and the attack power is super strong.

If you are not careful, I am afraid that you may not be able to win this battle.

Of course, these worries should be kept in mind, and there is no need to say them, so as not to scare the children.

Yang Yan's thinking was beyond Yang Wu's expectations, he was silent for a while, and suddenly said: "Father, the child thinks that we shouldn't send troops so early. ”

"Oh, why is that?" Yang Wu glanced at him with interest.

On the side, Zhu Qianyou also asked with a smile: "I don't know what the second prince has?" ”

Yang Yan saw that both of them had smiles on their faces, and suddenly said with some surprise: "Father, General Zhu, the kid just thinks that when the enemy situation is unknown, he should not rush to send troops, and he should first inquire about the news before making a decision." Moreover, General Zhou is a famous general in our country, and he has commanded the army for many years, so he should not be easily defeated. There was no need for my father to rush to send troops to support. ”

Yang Wu and the others were silent for a while.

Yang Yan thought he was making a joke when he saw it, so he said with some trepidation: "Father, General Zhu, the kid is just talking nonsense, please don't take it to heart." ”

Yang Wu sighed and said, "No, what you said also has some truth. From the dispatch of troops to the present, we have not even figured out how many enemy troops there are, which is indeed a bit hasty. ”

In fact, the best way is really to leave the main force in Pingyin to watch the situation first, as Yang Yan said, Zhou Ben has an army of 40,000, which is enough to support a period of time.

After the situation became clear, the army on the Pingyin side also completed the assembly, and then it was able to defeat the Jin army with absolute superiority, like Mount Tai pressing the egg.

Not only does this minimize risk, but you can also deal with accidents calmly.

However, in the face of a master like Li Cunmiao, who can guarantee that Zhou Ben will be able to withstand the opponent's attack?

You must know that in history, Zhou Ben led the army to besiege Suzhou, and it was also a siege of eight months, and the people were sleepy and lacking horses, and finally the enemy reinforcements arrived, and they attacked inside and outside, resulting in Zhou Ben's defeat and return.

The enemy he faced that time was only Qian Hao's army, but now he was facing the elite soldiers led by Li Cunqing, the king of Jin, whose combat power was several times stronger than Qian Hao's army.

If Yang Wu did not hurry up and lead his army to support, once Zhou Ben suffered a crushing defeat like the defeat in Suzhou, not only would he lose his troops and affect morale, but more importantly, the previous eight-month siege of Yang Liu Nancheng would have completely failed, and the Jin army would also gain a strong stronghold south of the Yellow River.

Such a consequence was something that Yang Wu couldn't bear, so he knew that he would have to take some risks by sending troops now, but he still sent troops.

He glanced at Zhu Qianyou and asked in a deep voice, "Is there any latest news, has the situation of the enemy army been clarified now?" ”

"Back to the King, there is no new news from the scouts."

Yang Wu frowned, it has been more than an hour since the troops were dispatched, and the cavalry led by Chai Kehong had been dispatched for nearly two hours as the vanguard, but until now he had not figured out the enemy's situation, only knowing that the enemy army was currently rapidly moving south, and its cavalry was wantonly killing the scouts of the Wu army, making it difficult for the Wu army to get accurate enemy information.

This kind of battle situation made Yang Wu instinctively feel uneasy.

He pondered for a moment, and finally made up his mind: "Send an order to General Chai Kehong, and ask him to send a cavalry to find out the news and grab a few mouthpieces." Even if it is a tough one, even if it is a heavy price, we must find out the situation of the enemy army as soon as possible, and we must not continue to be blind. ”

Immediately, he added: "Tell him that within an hour, Lone must get accurate information, otherwise Lone will ask him!" ”

Yang Wu also initiated a ruthless attack and gave a mandatory order.

For him, since the era of the Huainan Army, every time there was a battle, the Huainan Army and the subsequent Wu Army were firmly in control of the battle, and their cavalry was far superior to the enemy's cavalry, so they could cover the battlefield.

For example, the earliest enemy, Qian Hao, the king of Yue who was entrenched in Liangzhejiang, Tian Bao, An Renyi and Zhu Yanshou who rebelled, Ma Yin in Hunan, etc., they basically had no cavalry.

And the enemy encountered later, although the Later Liang army had cavalry, they basically stayed in the north to fight against the Jin state, so the Wu army rarely encountered it on the battlefield.

It is precisely because of the superiority of the cavalry of the Wu army that Yang Wu can grasp the battlefield at any time during every major battle, so as to respond to the battle situation in time.

Fortunately, now the cavalry of the Jin army has the advantage, and the battlefield is covered by the enemy, and the scouts of the Wu army can't find out useful information, and they can't even figure out the size of the Jin army's troops, which makes Yang Wu feel very uncomfortable, as if he suddenly became a blind man.

His order was quickly relayed, and several heralds sped forward.

Then, he looked at Zhu Qianyou and said, "You also go and prepare, send orders to the soldiers, let them all be vigilant, bows and crossbows must be wound, armor must be hung up, and there can be no slackness." ”

"The last general commands." Zhu Qianyou hurriedly responded.

Yang Wu nodded, and continued to order: "Order the whole army, slow down the pace of advance, and all departments try to maintain a formation and not be confused." Sent an order to Zhu Siqing in the front, asking him to reduce the speed of his advance and shorten the distance with the Chinese army; Tell Li Decheng again and let him be vigilant. ”

After giving several orders in a row, the surrounding guards also looked solemn, as if a big battle was about to come.

Yang Yan looked at his father's serious face, then at the expressions of the people around him, and asked carefully, "Father, are we in danger now?" ”

Yang Wu smiled and comforted: "It's not very dangerous, it's just to take some precautions." ”

The terrain in this vicinity was extremely flat, which not only facilitated the movement of the Jin cavalry, but at the same time, it also allowed the Wu army to give full play to their strength.

Otherwise, if it is in a rugged place, limited by the terrain, it is difficult for the army to deploy, and the superiority of the army cannot be brought into play, then it can only compete with the quality of the army.

After going on for more than a quarter of an hour, messengers came from afar.

"King Qiqi, the little one is the guard under the command of the commander of the navy Sima Commander, and the commander of Sima asked the small one to tell the king that the enemy army had crossed the river very quickly, and they had stopped crossing the river long before sunrise this morning. And our naval forces did not break through the enemy naval blockade until the morning, but by that time the main forces of the enemy had already left the crossing point. ”

The messenger jumped off his horse and reported to Yang Wu out of breath; I don't know how much effort he wasted in order to hurry, but before the words fell, he was a little unsteady on his feet, obviously extremely tired.

One of the guards beside Yang Wu hurriedly stepped forward and brought him some water.

"Did you stop crossing the river before sunrise?" Yang Wu's face sank.

Before the Wu army's navy arrived, the main force of the Jin army had already set off, what does this mean? It shows that Li Cunmiao thought that his army was enough to fight a decisive battle with the Wu army, otherwise there is no way to explain why he stopped crossing the river before the Wu army's naval army broke through their defenses.

And to fight a decisive battle with the Wu army, Yang Wu believed that no matter how arrogant Li Cunqiao was, he would not think that he could defeat the nearly 200,000 troops of the Wu army with just 10,000 cavalry under his command.

In this way, the previous rumors may be true, Li Cunqiao really transported at least 30,000 troops across the Yellow River in one day. That's an amazing speed! He thought to himself.

At this time, the messenger drank some water, breathed a sigh of relief, and continued: "Great King, we took a prisoner in the battle with the enemy, according to the man's account, the enemy army had gathered in Hebei before a total of more than 50,000 troops, of which 35,000 were the most elite troops in the Jin army, including the Congmazhi, the Turcha and the Silver Spear Army, which were basically here. ”

Yang Wu's face sank when he heard this, the Jin army was really dominated by elite soldiers, from horse straight, assault cavalry and silver spears to the army, which almost concentrated all the elites in the entire Jin army.

It can be said that Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin, has been used to conquer the east and the west in recent years, and the biggest reliance is on these three armies, and now it seems that they should all cross the river, otherwise Li Cunmiao will not stop crossing the river in advance.

After getting the news, Yang Wu became even more uneasy in his heart.

Since the Jin army's army crossing the river is an elite army, and there are a large number of infantry troops among them, its threat will be further increased, and even the army he is leading now may not be safe.

Because he now suddenly realized that if the enemy army concentrated so many elites, it would not only pose a huge threat to the besieging army led by Zhou Ben, but also the main force of the Wu army in Pingyin might not be without the strength to fight.

Considering that Li Cunmiao was originally an adventurous person, who can guarantee that he will not be bold enough to attack Pingyin directly?

Thinking of this, he immediately made a decision and ordered loudly: "Order the whole army, immediately stop the advance, and increase vigilance." Command the front and rear armies, let them immediately move closer to the Chinese army! ”

At this time, his expression was even more solemn than before, and he didn't even care about covering up in front of Yang Yan, so he directly ordered: "Tell Zhu Qianyou to prepare to defend against the impact of the enemy's cavalry!" ”

At this time, he had already sensed a great danger, so he began to take precautions, even if he found out that he was too cautious afterwards, it would not matter, it was better than being attacked unprepared.

The order was given, and the army suddenly got busy.

Previously, the entire army was in a marching formation, with a relatively long front and rear stretch, lacking depth in the face of enemy attacks, and it was easy to be truncated from the front and rear; This situation is very dangerous, and many armies are attacked by surprise while marching, resulting in a defeat that leaves them behind.

What we need to do now is to gather the army as soon as possible and form a large formation with a certain depth to deal with the enemy's attack.

The army led by Zhu Qianyou originally belonged to Li Chengding, and it had experienced a lot of wars, so it could be regarded as a well-trained elite soldier; By the time Zhu Qianyou was in command, although Zhu Qianyou's ability to command the army was relatively poor, his training of the army did not fall behind at all.

So soon, under the dispatch of the officers, the army slowly made adjustments, and a large defensive array was gradually taking shape.

At this moment, messengers rushed from the rear, and while running, they shouted: "The rear army is under attack by the enemy!" The rear army was attacked by enemy troops! ”

The generals were in an uproar, and the army that was being mobilized suddenly became chaotic.

Yang Wu was furious when he saw it, and he didn't care about asking for details, so he scolded loudly: "All departments must not make noise, form a defensive formation as soon as possible, and those who do not listen to the dispatch will not be forgiven!" ”

After listening to his orders, the troops quieted down, regained their composure, and continued to change formations according to the officers' orders.

At this time, Yang Wu had time to ask the visitor.

His face was full of anxiety, and he asked with an unkind face: "You just said that the rear army was attacked by the enemy, what is the situation, tell me quickly!" ”

No wonder he was so anxious, the army was advancing, but suddenly he heard the news that the rear army had been raided, and anyone else would be alarmed.

"My lord, our army is marching, and at this time I heard a messenger sent by the king, so that the rear army moved closer to the Chinese army. General Lee then ordered the march to be accelerated. But at this moment, an enemy army suddenly came over and attacked our army, and the rear army ......"

Yang Wu's face sank, and he asked anxiously, "How is the rear army?" ”

The messenger wanted to cry without tears, "The rear army is in chaos!" ”

"What? You repeat! Yang Wu was shocked.

If he was a little lucky just now, he thought that even if the rear army was raided, it would not be too much of a problem, but the news at this time made him fall into an ice cave.