"The grain convoy has arrived?" Wen Tao's heart moved slightly, and he suddenly felt that something seemed wrong, but after thinking about it carefully, he couldn't figure out what was wrong.

In fact, if there is something wrong, it is that the grain transport team came a little too fast.

According to Wen Tao's understanding of his nephew, it usually takes at least two or three days for a response to an order like this, and it is impossible to do it so quickly; And in order to ensure that the raid was completed before the news leaked, Chai Kehong naturally made this operation much more efficient, so Wen Tao felt that something was wrong.

But firstly, he has drunk too much wine now, and his mind is not very clear, and secondly, in his opinion, there is no foreign enemy near Bozhou now, what kind of chaos can happen?

So he thought it might be that he was suspicious.

"I didn't expect my nephew to be so fast this time, but it surprised Ben Shuai! Let's go and see what we've delivered. Wen Tao said with a smile to the generals below.

At this time, there was a sudden shouting of killing outside, and the wine glasses in Wen Tao's hands fell to the ground.

"What's going on? What's going on? Could it be that the rebels are coming? Many people asked in a panic.

"Ridiculous, the rebels have been routed, where can they still come and attack us? And they are at least hundreds of miles away from our army, it cannot be rebels. Could it be Yingxiao? It's impossible, it's still daytime. It can't be a mutiny, right? Wen Tao scolded angrily as he hurried out of the tent to see what was going on.

At this glance, he was shocked to find that the entire camp was already in chaos, and there were shouts of killing everywhere.

"Enemy attack on the camp?" At this time, Wen Tao realized that this was not a battalion roar, let alone a mutiny, this was an enemy attack!

It was the 1,000 people who carried the grain and grass who launched the raid, and although their numbers were small, they took the initiative and caught the unsuspecting Liang army by surprise.

In the panic, the Liang army in the camp didn't know how many enemy troops were coming, and they couldn't even figure out who the enemy was, so they could only scatter and flee for their lives in this situation.

If the discipline of this army is good, now that Wen Tao has ordered it to be rectified, there may still be a slight chance to block the enemy's attack; However, this army was originally disciplined, and its core generals were a group of bandits who started with Wen Tao's tomb robbery, where did they have any literacy.

So in this case they are simply not able to organize a counterattack, let alone repel the enemy.

"Run for your life! You must run for your life as soon as possible! Wen Tao felt that something was wrong, and although he still hadn't figured out what was going on, it didn't stop him from running away immediately.

As a bandit who started by robbing tombs, his sense of escape and ability to escape are still very strong, and he made the decision to escape at the first time.

However, before fleeing for his life, he still ordered an old brother: "Wang Zixuan, this commander orders you to immediately lead people to block the enemy army, and you must not let the enemy army fight over." Regardless of whether the prince Xuan obeyed the order or not, he hurriedly took a few guards to escape over the wall of the camp.

Even Wen Tao, the coach, fled, where do the remaining Liang troops still have any fighting spirit? Especially after the arrival of a thousand cavalry led by Chai Kehong himself, these remnants realized that it was the Wu people who came over, and suddenly their morale was even lower, and they quickly surrendered to the Wu army.

"General, our operation went very well, killing more than 700 enemy soldiers, capturing 5,000 people, and the rest of the enemy troops scattered and fled. General, should we send someone to pursue those routs? Wang Shibin, who was in charge of leading his troops to carry out the raid, reported to Chai Kehong with excitement on his face.

"Okay, you've taken credit for this time. As for those routs, let them go, you first take five hundred cavalry and quickly rush to Zhenyuan, take Zhenyuan and garrison it on the spot. Chai Kehong nodded and ordered at the same time.

"The last general obeys!" Wang Shibin hurriedly replied.

Zhenyuan County is located less than ten miles west of the Taiqing Palace, which is the main road connecting Bozhou and Chenzhou, and as long as it is occupied, it can support Chenzhou in the west at any time.

According to the information obtained, the defenses in Zhenyuan County were extremely empty, and the defenders in the city were only one or two hundred, and they suddenly attacked with five hundred cavalry, presumably the local defenders would surrender soon.

Having occupied Bozhou and eliminated Wen Tao's main force, it can be said that the first step of his plan to lead the troops to raid this time has been successfully completed; Next, he had to stay in Bozhou, resting and recuperating, while waiting for Li Chengding's follow-up army.

When he escorted the captives back to Bozhou, it was already completely dark, and Li Chengding also led his troops to Bozhou, and at the same time, the progress of the various armies was quickly reported to Bozhou.

"So far, our army has progressed very smoothly, the defenders of Juxian County have surrendered directly, and the Xiayi garrison Wang Dewei's troops have resisted, but he has surrendered out of the city after only half a day. Now that the northern front of our army is already marching towards Gushu County, General Zhou Ye sent people to ask the general to send troops to support immediately. ”

Listening to the news of the northern front brought by the messenger, Li Chengding couldn't help frowning.

Although the march everywhere was smooth, except for the Bozhou side, which eliminated more than 8,000 Liang troops, the Liang troops eliminated in other places added up to more than 10,000 people.

In other words, the main force of the Liang Army on the southern front is still there, and it is led by Huo Yanwei.

According to the information obtained so far, Huo Yanwei sent troops relatively late, almost at the same time as the Wu army, and it has only taken two days so far, and he has traveled fifty or sixty miles at most.

If Huo Yanwei received the news of Wu's Northern Expedition and immediately returned to Songzhou, with his ability and the forces in his hands, it would be difficult to capture Songzhou.

Of course, Li Chengding also knew that Songzhou was not Bozhou, and Huo Yanwei was not Wen Tao, so it was not easy to attack Songzhou; So from the beginning, he set his goal at Bozhou, first seize Bozhou, connect with Chenzhou in the west, Suzhou and Xuzhou in the east, ensure the safety of the flanks, and then march north to seize Songzhou.

Songzhou was the core of the Liang army on the southern front, where a lot of ordnance, grain and grass and other baggage were stored, and if it could be captured, it would inevitably cause a great shock to the Liang army, which would greatly demoralize the Liang army, which would create conditions for further defeating Huo Yanwei.

At the same time, as long as Songzhou was captured, Li Chengding would be able to garrison it here with a small number of troops, contain the main force of the Liang army, and buy time for the Wu army to attack all parts of the Liang state.

It's just that he didn't expect that the operation on Bozhou's side would be so smooth, and Wen Tao was defeated almost without any resistance.

What he didn't expect was that Huo Yanwei sent troops late, so that the distance between the Liang army and Songzhou was not far away, and they would soon be able to return to help, which brought trouble to the capture of Songzhou.

After Li Chengding lowered his head and groaned, he immediately ordered: "It has been two days since our army started, and it can be expected that Huo Yanwei must have received the news at this time, and he will definitely lead the army back to aid Songzhou."

Originally, our plan was to seize Bozhou and Songzhou first, and then try to eliminate Huo Yanwei, but now it seems that our plan needs to be adjusted, and we must first destroy Huo Yanwei's main force, and then capture Songzhou. ”

"Eliminate Huo Yanwei first, and then capture Songzhou?" All the generals looked a little dignified, although Huo Yanwei was not a famous general of Yang Shihou's level, his ability was not bad, and it was not so easy to defeat him.

In particular, the Chongde army on the Dangshan side and the garrison on the Huizhou side were not far from Songzhou, and the Liang army in this quelling of the Huiwang rebellion in addition to mobilizing the Liang army on the southern front, also mobilized 10,000 troops from Luoyang, which was led by Zhang Hanjie and Wang Yanzhang.

Although the current task of this Liang army is to pursue Zhu Youneng's rebels, once they hear the news of the Wu army's troops, they will definitely go south to support, which will further strengthen the strength of the Liang army.

Diao Yanneng immediately asked, "I don't know how the general plans to eliminate Huo Yanwei?" What if Huo Yanwei insists on not fighting and waits for reinforcements? And the Liang army in Huizhou and Dangshan, how should we deal with it? ”

"It's very simple, although Huo Yanwei knows the news that our army has sent troops, they definitely don't know the strength of our army, which will make them hesitate and fear; If our army can launch a surprise attack on them while they are frightened because they do not understand the strength of our army, we will definitely be able to defeat them. Li Chengding said in a deep voice.

"Launch a surprise attack on them while they don't know the strength of our army?" Diao Yanneng's face changed, and he hurriedly stood up and retorted: "General, isn't it too risky to do this?" At present, the distance between our army and Huo Yanwei is at least more than 100 miles, and if we want to seize the opportunity to attack them, this means that our army needs to march at a speed of 100 miles a day before it is possible to catch up with them and launch an attack. ”

The other generals also persuaded: "General, we don't need to take risks now, why don't we order General Zhou Ye to attack Songzhou directly, maybe we can take it?" Even if we can't take it, our armies from all walks of life will gather under Songzhou City and we will always be able to defeat it. ”

"A hundred miles and a hundred miles of fun, the general." This is the common sense of the art of war, and now that the battle situation is favorable to the Wu side, Diao Yanneng and many other generals certainly do not want to take risks.

Only the commander Liu Renzhen said: "General, the last general agrees with the plan to raid Huo Yanwei. Huo Yanwei's Liang army has 20,000 people, and if he is allowed to return to Songzhou, the war will inevitably drag on for a long time, which will not be conducive to the next war of our army. Since the main purpose of our army this time is to raid, then we must give full play to the advantages of the raid, how can we be afraid of taking risks halfway? The last general is willing to lead 5,000 soldiers under his command to open the way. ”

Li Chengding said happily: "Okay, General Liu said it well. The reason why His Majesty let Ben fight the first battle of the Northern Expedition was that he hoped that Ben would be able to weaken the Liang army as much as possible through the initial surprise attack and reduce the burden on the Northern Expedition in the future. If the opportunity is missed now, it will inevitably affect the progress of the Northern Expedition in the future. The general's plan has been decided, and the generals have nothing to say! ”