West of Songzhou, Wujia Village, Wu Military Camp Village.

The rain poured down and fell to the ground, splashing one after another.

Wang Yan walked back and forth in the Chinese army camp with his hands behind his back; At the beginning of the hand, the staff member Wang Zhou looked at him with a worried face.

"When General Liu Xin attacked Huizhou before, he sent the general to Songzhou; Now that he has arrived in Songzhou, General Li ordered Ben to come to Ningling to guard against Wang Yanzhang. Mr. Wang, do you think these two people are doing this on purpose? After a long time, Wang Yan asked out loud.

It's not that he is too careful, but the experience during this period of time makes him feel that Li Chengding and Liu Xin seem to be deliberately squeezing him out and letting him take on the "secondary" task of guarding against Wang Yanzhang, while the task of attacking Huizhou or attacking Songzhou, which is easy to make meritorious contributions, is not allowed to come.

He was originally just a pro-army general of Wang Cun of the Caizhou Assassin History, and he became the Caizhou Assassin by means of mutiny, but then he was defeated by the Liang army and was forced to surrender to Wu.

After surrendering to Wu, he knew that his experience of instigating a mutiny was easy to taboo, especially because it was a little incompatible with the atmosphere of the Wu court, so after that, he has been conscientious, loyal to his duties, and trying to integrate into the Wu military.

His efforts over the years have obviously yielded great results, such as after Kang Huaizhen's death, he succeeded him as the new governor of the Righteous Army.

Although the strength of the Xiaoyi Army is not large, and its importance in the Wu Dynasty is far less than that of the Forbidden Army, it is a single force. The army is directly under the command of the Privy Council.

What's more, this army was mainly composed of Liang troops, and now with the Northern Expedition of Wu, it can be expected that more and more Liang troops will surrender, and the size of the Xiaoyi army may also expand rapidly.

In this way, his position in the army will definitely rise.

But now, neither Liu Xin nor Li Chengding let him take on the most important task, which makes him can't help but think more.

On the side, Wang Zhou hurriedly persuaded: "General, don't think too much, to capture Songzhou, in addition to attacking the city, how to prevent the reinforcement of the Liang army is also an important task." General Li gave this task to the general, which should be said to be a trust in the general, why did the general feel unhappy? ”

"Trust? If he really trusted Ben General, then why didn't General Li let Ben General's army participate in the siege? When the time comes, Song Zhou will fight down, and the first credit will definitely be his, so what credit will Ben have? Wang Yanyan shook his head and said.

Wu Jun attaches great importance to military merits, whether it is promoted or knighted, it needs real military merits; If you don't have military merit, no matter how high your qualifications are, it will be difficult to get promoted.

Judging from the current battle situation, as long as Songzhou is captured, this is a great achievement, and the troops participating in the siege can get a lot of credit; And Wang Yanyan is responsible for blocking the enemy's reinforcements, which is naturally a lot inferior.

What's more, according to the news he got these days, Wang Yanzhang seems to be planning to wait for reinforcements to arrive before launching an attack, and at that time, maybe Songzhou has already been defeated; And he stayed on the periphery, not even fighting, naturally without any credit.

Thinking of this, Wang Yanyan couldn't help but be a little irritable.

Wang Zhou hurriedly persuaded: "General, don't just see yourself, is General Liu Renzhen not the same as General Li who was arranged here?" If General Li deliberately excludes you, will he deliberately exclude General Liu? ”

At the beginning, Li Chengding ordered Liu Renzhen and Chai Kehong to be responsible for containing Wang Yanzhang and Huo Yanwei outside Ningling City, but later Liu Xin sent 10,000 righteous troops led by Wang Yanyan, so Li Chengding ordered Wang Yanyan and Liu Renzhen to be responsible for containing the Liang army, and transferred Chai Kehong's cavalry to attack and harass the enemy's rear.

In terms of rank, Liu Renzhen's level is naturally inferior to Wang Yanyan, so the Wu army on Ningling's side is led by Wang Yanyan, and Liu Renzhen assists in command as his deputy general.

However, in terms of his status in the Wu army, I am afraid that Wang Yanyan is not as good as Liu Rengan.

Liu Renzhen's father Liu Jin was an old minister in the Huainan era of Wu State, and his brother Liu Rengui was Yang Wu's brother-in-law, and he himself grew up in the palace of King Wu, so he could be regarded as Yang Wu's closest general.

With so many connections, coupled with his outstanding ability to command troops and his military exploits, he is known as the most outstanding general of the younger generation of the Wu army.

If Li Chengding deliberately squeezed out Wang Yanyan and let him take on the secondary task of containing Liang Jun, but he left Liu Renzhen here, it would be impossible to exclude him.

Thinking of this, the irritability in Wang Yanyan's heart finally alleviated a little.

Wang Zhou continued: "General, although Wang Yanzhang does not have many troops at present, this person is extremely brave, and the general must be guarded against. If something goes wrong, the general will not be able to explain it in the future. ”

Wang Yanyan waved his hand when he heard this: "Don't worry, there will be no chaos, it will take at least five or six days for the reinforcements of the Liang army to arrive, and the people in the Long Sword Capital will not make a mistake." ”

As soon as the words fell, he saw the guards outside suddenly break in, and said with a panicked face: "General, it's not good, the Liang army is coming!" ”

"What? How could Liang Jun call now? Did Wang Yanzhang expect to use his remnants to relieve the siege of Songzhou? Wang Yanyan's face was full of incredulity.

The guard hurriedly said: "General, I just got the news that the Liujiapo camp in the north has been broken by the Liang army, and the camp in Xujia Village is about to be breached, I heard that there is still a Liang army rushing towards our army's camp!" ”

"What about the other camps, but they were attacked by the Liang army?" Wang Yanyan hurriedly asked.

"There is no news from the other camps yet."

Wang Yanyan didn't care about panicking at this time, and hurriedly ordered: "Quickly send orders to the generals of all departments, so that they can be prepared!" Send someone to the south to rule General Liu Renzhen, and let him be prepared! ”

The terrain on this side of Songzhou is extremely flat, and there is no area suitable for defense.

In order to prevent the Liang army from making a detour to Songzhou, Wang Yanyan built five camps from north to south, and detachments were stationed in them, of which the Xiaoyi army was responsible for garrisoning three camps in the north, and Liu Rengan's army was responsible for two camps in the south.

The various camps supported each other to cut off the connection between Ningling and Songzhou.

Now the Liang army suddenly launched an attack, which was really beyond Wang Yanyan's expectations.

According to the information inquired, the Liang army in Ningling City had less than 15,000 people, of which 10,000 were under Huo Yanwei. Only the 5,000 people led by Wang Yanzhang have a higher popularity, and there are more elites among them, so they need to be guarded against.

However, the strength of the Wu army is also 15,000 people, including 10,000 Xiaoyi army, and 5,000 elites led by Liu Renzhen, in terms of strength, it should still be above the Liang army, plus they only need to contain the Liang army, this task should not be difficult to complete.

According to the information obtained, Wang Yanzhang's plan should be to wait until the Liang army reinforcements arrive before launching an attack, at that time the size of the Liang army will reach more than 60,000 people, and the certainty of relieving the siege of Songzhou will be greater, so Wang Yanyan never thought that the Liang army would launch an attack now.

Wang Yanyan, who was caught off guard, naturally knew that he had fallen for Wang Yanzhang, and in a hurry, he hurriedly ordered all departments to organize defense.

However, Wang Yanzhang prepared for many days before he suddenly attacked, so he naturally launched a fierce offensive at the beginning, in order to break through the Wu army's camp as quickly as possible.

It happened that it was another rainy day today, and the continuous rain made his raid more smooth, and the Wu army in the Liujiapo camp that was broken by the Liang army did not find out until the Liang army was more than 30 steps close to the camp, and the result was quickly rushed to the battle, and it didn't take long to be breached.

Then, the camp in Xujia Village was also breached, and the defeated soldiers in the two camps fled to Wang Yanyan's Chinese camp.

Affected by this victory, the morale of the Liang army was greatly boosted, and the offensive was like a rainbow, and under the personal leadership of Wang Yanzhang, the troops launched an attack on Wang Yanyan's Chinese camp.

It didn't take long for the Chinese camp to be crumbling and the situation was precarious.

"General, we can't hold on, the enemy army is attacking too quickly, our people are difficult to parry in the panic, we must abandon the camp and avoid the edge of the Liang army first!" Wang Zhou's face was pale, and he persuaded loudly.

In the heavy rain, Wang Yanyan let the rain drip down his forehead.

He raised his eyes and looked around, and saw that many soldiers had panic on their faces, and his heart immediately sank.

"Retreat first to avoid the edge of the Liang army?" This thought flashed in his heart, and then he was fiercely suppressed: "No, if the general really retreats, then the morale of our army will inevitably be greatly reduced, and the morale of the enemy army will be even stronger, so take the opportunity to launch a pursuit of our army, and then our army will definitely be defeated." ”

"Once our army is defeated, the Liang army will inevitably reach the city of Songzhou, and even if our army repels it at that time, the defenders in Songzhou City will inevitably be demoralized after seeing the reinforcements, and it will be even more difficult to take Songzhou."

Wang Yan is not an expert in using soldiers, let alone a brave general, but he is a smart person who knows how to judge the situation.

In the current situation, if he retreated and let the Liang army arrive at the city of Songzhou, then his hard work for so many years would be over, and even his life would be over, and Yang Wu would not be able to reuse him as a defeated general.

After thinking about the situation, Wang Yanyu said loudly: "Brothers, the enemy's strength must not be much, and now it is just a surprise to our army; Everyone insist, General Liu Renzhen will definitely lead the army to help. When the time comes, the internal and external attacks will inevitably be able to win a big victory. This is a good opportunity to make a difference, so don't miss it. ”

"Brothers, go up with Ben!" Wang Yanyan shouted loudly, and led his guards to kill the place where the Liang army was the most.

Encouraged by him, the Wu army, which was originally a little demoralized, suddenly shook up and launched a counterattack one after another.

Wang Yanyan's Chinese army originally deployed the largest number of troops, plus the troops withdrawn from the two camps of Liujiapo and Xujiacun arrived at this time and joined the counterattack, for a while, the Liang army was resisted to the death and could not break through the defense of the Wu army.

Seeing this situation, Wang Yanzhang, who personally led the troops to fight, couldn't help but feel anxious.

He made a lot of preparations for this raid on the Wu army, not only trying to confuse the Wu army, but also successfully convincing the Wu army that he would wait for reinforcements to arrive before launching an attack, and at the same time he also used various methods to boost the morale of the Liang army and let them see the hope of victory.

In terms of specific deployment, Wang Yanzhang believed that although the northern Xiaoyi Army had many troops, its combat power and morale were relatively low, so he decided to only lead his 5,000 men to raid; Although the troops of Liu Ren's troops in the south were small, their combat power and morale were very high, so Wang Yanzhang ordered Huo Yanwei to lead nearly 10,000 people under his command to attack the two camps of Liu Ren's army.

Now that it was launched, the northern side was really successful, and the two camps of the Xiaoyi army were broken one after another, which greatly boosted the morale of the Liang army.

It's just that he didn't expect that the attack on the camp of the Wu army was now deadlocked, and he could only hope that Huo Yanwei in the south would be able to rush to support after the victory if it went well, and the overall situation would be determined at that time.

But if Huo Yanwei's side is also in a stalemate, then this battle will not be easy to fight.

If Huo Yanwei is defeated, then today's battle will be completely lost: this is the last thing Wang Yanzhang wants to see.

What he didn't know was that the battle situation in the south was developing precisely in this direction at this time.

……

Unlike Wang Yanyan's army, Liu Rengan's command is all elite, and his combat power, military discipline and morale are far stronger than Wang Yanyan's righteous army, and his will to fight is far beyond it.

Although he did not expect Wang Yanzhang to launch a surprise attack at this time before the battle, the two camps where his subordinates were stationed were not breached by the Liang army, but were evenly matched with the Liang army who came to raid.

Not only that, but as time went by, Liu Renzhen found that his subordinates began to gradually gain the upper hand and constantly launched counterattacks against the enemy; However, it will take some time to completely defeat the Liang army on the opposite side.

Seeing this situation, Liu Renzhen immediately ordered: "Xu Qian, Zhou Sheng, this general ordered the two of you to immediately lead your troops to the Chinese army to reinforce the army, and be sure to help General Wang repel the enemy army!" ”

Xu Qian and Zhou Sheng were both heads, each commanding a thousand troops.

After hearing Liu Renzhen's order, the two were taken aback: "General, the enemy army has a large number of troops, and our army can barely gain the upper hand by counterattacking with all its might, if we reduce the two thousand troops at once, wouldn't the camp be dangerous?" ”

Of the two camps to the south, 3,000 people were deployed in the camp guarded by Liu Renzhen himself, and 2,000 people were deployed in the camp further south.

Although the Liang army that came to raid cannot figure out the specific strength for the time being, it must be much more than the Wu army; If 2,000 people are transferred at one time, only 1,000 people will remain, which is obviously too small a number of troops.

Liu Renzhen shook his head and said, "It is enough to leave a thousand people on the general's side, but the battle situation on the Chinese army's camp makes the general worried." The morale of the rebels is far from being comparable to ours, and if they are defeated, it will be difficult for us to survive alone. As long as the two of you can relieve the siege of the Chinese army, our army will win this battle. Well, without further ado, let's do it! ”

Liu Renzhen saw the situation very clearly, and now the Liang army had taken the Wu army by surprise, and the various camps were attacked, and they lost contact with each other, which gave the enemy an opportunity to take advantage of.

If it is according to the current style of play, maybe his side will be able to defeat the Liang army after a long time, but Liu Renzhen doesn't know if the Chinese army can hold out until that time, so he doesn't dare to gamble.

And if he sends troops to support the Chinese army now, the Liang army on the Chinese side will definitely think that the Wu army in the south has won the victory, and their morale will inevitably be greatly reduced at that time, while the morale of the Yiyi army will be greatly boosted, and the siege of the Chinese army will naturally be lifted.

Once the siege of the Chinese army is lifted, the outcome of today's battle will be doomed, and this is the key to this battle.

Xu Qian and Zhou Sheng didn't dare to slack off, and hurriedly obeyed orders.