"Big brother, no matter what King Jin plans, this matter has nothing to do with us, right? Now that the Liang State itself is difficult to protect, the only thing that can be counted on now is the Dingzhou side and the Khitans. Big brother, why don't you send someone to break through to Dingzhou for help? Zhang Chuqi said.

"Yes, Dingzhou and our Zhenzhou is a cold relationship, although the two families have occasional disputes over the past few hundred years, but they still support each other in general, so they have been able to stick to it for so many years, this ideal must be very clear to the king of Beiping. If we send someone for help, maybe he will send troops. Staff Qi Jian persuaded.

At this time, they didn't know that there was also a mutiny in Dingzhou, and the current ruler had become Wang Chuzhi's righteous son Wang Du.

Wang Du has just grasped power, and the control of the Yiwu Army is not enough, at this time, it is necessary to rely on the strength of the Jin State, and the Jin State has recognized his status, so it is impossible for the Wang Du to send people to rescue Zhenzhou.

Zhang Chujin groaned: "It is necessary to ask for help from Dingzhou, but Dingzhou's strength is weak, even if the king of Beiping has the intention to send troops, I am afraid that it will not have much effect." The key is when the Khitans will be able to do it. ”

"Khitans?" Qi Jian shook his head and said: "In the past, the time for the Khitans to enter the army was generally around December, but I am afraid that even if they want to send troops, they will have to wait for a month or two later." ”

Although the Khitans have established an empire and imitated the Central Plains Dynasty, fundamentally speaking, the Khitan are still mainly nomadic today, and the time of their invasion of the Central Plains is often related to the climate, and November and December are the best seasons for them to invade and plunder.

Zhang Chujin showed a worried look on his face, and said: "No matter how we say Zhenzhou, it's okay to hold on for a month or two, what I'm worried about is whether the Khitans can solve our crisis, you must know that every time the Khitan invasion has been repelled by the Jin army over the years, and they have suffered a lot, and this time they may not be able to win." ”

"What does big brother mean?"

"In addition to sending people to Dingzhou for help, we also have to send people to cross the river to the south and ask for help from Wu State!" Zhang Chujin said in a deep voice.

"Asking for help from the State of Wu? Is this too late? ”

"The Yellow River has long been blocked, can our people still cross the river and spread the news?"

As soon as the words fell, Qi Jian and Zhang Chuqi exclaimed in surprise.

"The King of Jin will definitely not let the Wu State monopolize the Central Plains, and the King of Wu will definitely regard the Jin State as a great enemy, as long as they get the news of our request for help, they will definitely try to come to the rescue, at least they will try to contain the Jin army and reduce our pressure!" Zhang Chujin's eyes flickered and said slowly.

He had the idea of asking Wu for help, but at that time, Wu was still far away in the south of the Yangtze River, and the distance between him and the Chengde army in Hebei was too far; And now the Northern Expedition of Wu State is like a bamboo, and the army has even reached the edge of the Yellow River, which means that the Wu army will soon come into contact with the Jin army.

Whether it was with a glimmer of hope, or out of the idea of rushing to the doctor out of illness, Zhang Chujin would not let go of the opportunity to ask Wu Guo for help.

"As for the question of how to cross the river, this can only be one step at a time, let's first send people to break through to Dingzhou for help, and let some people secretly go south halfway and cross the river for help. Let General Han Zhengshi lead a thousand cavalry to do this task. General Han is brave and good at fighting, and he will definitely be able to break out of the encirclement! ”

Zhang Chujin immediately made a decision, and now the news that Zhang Wenli has died is still hidden by him, and most of the generals in Zhenzhou City do not know; However, Zhang Chujin had been giving orders on behalf of his father for a long time before, so the generals did not doubt it.

Soon, taking advantage of an opportunity to repel the Jin army, Han Zhengshi led a thousand cavalry to suddenly kill out of the city and bravely break through to the north; The Jin army was caught off guard and failed to intercept it.

Han Zhengshi rushed all the way to Dingzhou, while at the same time, several messengers carrying Zhang Chujin's handwritten letter left the team halfway, quietly hiding, and rushed south.

After learning the news of the breakthrough of the defenders in the city, Li Cunqiao ordered his cavalry to pursue quickly, chasing after Han Zhengshi all the way, and finally caught up in Xingtang and annihilated them all.

However, the few messengers who secretly left managed to evade the Jin army's search and began to rush south.

……

In the imperial garden behind the Luoyang Palace, Zhu Youzhen walked forward and talked to the two cronies beside him.

The war against Wu has not been going well recently, except for a few cities along the Yellow River that are heavily defended and are still under the control of Liang, and a large number of other cities have fallen to the enemy.

On the Shandong side, except for Qingzhou, Yunzhou and Qizhou, which were still resisting, all other states had been captured by the Wu army.

On the Henan side, except for Xuzhou, which was garrisoned by Gao Jichang, and Ruzhou, which was near Luoyang and defended by more troops, the other states also fell into the hands of Wu.

On the Songzhou side, after receiving the news of the fall of Songzhou, Wang Yanzhang led the Liang army to try to counterattack Songzhou, but did not achieve any results, but lost a lot of troops.

Faced with such a situation, Zhu Youzhen felt exhausted, if it weren't for the fact that he still had more than 100,000 Liang troops in his hands and let him still hold on to the last hope, I am afraid that he would have given up resistance at this time.

"Recently, Dai Siyuan came to report that the Jin army took the initiative to give up Desheng Nancheng and transferred the main force to Zhenzhou to deal with Zhang Wenli, do you think this is a trap? Or does the King of Jin want me to transfer troops to deal with Wu and let him reap the benefits? After pacing a few steps slowly, Zhu Youzhen asked.

Although the Jin army abandoned the southern city of Desheng as early as the end of October, and cut off the pontoon bridges and iron locks connecting the two banks of the Yellow River, at the beginning, Dai Siyuan thought that the Jin army had some intention to deliberately confuse the Liang army, so he did not rush to send the news to Luoyang, but carefully strengthened the garrison to prevent the Jin army from sneaking attack.

After waiting for so many days, Dai Siyuan saw that the Jin army had not moved, and the scouts he sent to Hebei came back to report that the main force of the Jin army had been transferred to Zhenzhou, so Dai Siyuan hurriedly reported the news to Zhu Youzhen.

After getting the news, Zhu Youzhen and Dai Siyuan reacted the same, they didn't expect that the Jin army would take the initiative to give up Desheng Nancheng.

In their opinion, the Jin State and the Liang State have been fighting for so many years, and the depth of hatred has long been difficult to resolve; In the past, the Liang army relied on the natural danger of the Yellow River to firmly block the Jin army north of the Yellow River, but now it is difficult to wait for the opportunity of the Northern Expedition of the Wu State, and the Jin army does not take advantage of the fire to rob, and it is strange to take the opportunity to cross the river to the south, how can it be possible to deliberately give up the southern city of Desheng?

Therefore, many people think that Jin Guo's actions may have hidden some traps.

Of course, there are also many people who think that the purpose of the Jin State is actually very simple, that is, to let the Liang State and the Wu State fight to lose both, so that they can sit and reap the benefits.

At the beginning, the Jin State and the Liang State had been at war for many years, and the Wu State adopted the strategy of sitting on the mountain and watching the tiger fight, secretly accumulating strength; Now the Jin State's plan is just the same as that of the Wu State.

Zhu Youzhen naturally hoped that the purpose of the Jin State would be like this, so that the Liang army would be able to concentrate its forces to engage the Wu army first; If it can achieve victory, it will be able to rely on the Yellow River defense line to block the Jin army again, which is equivalent to breaking the Wu army and the Jin army.

Zhang Hanjie muttered: "Your Majesty, the minister thinks that in fact, no matter what the plans of the Jin army are at this time, we have to transfer the main force of General Dai Siyuan to the south to deal with the Wu State." ”

"Huh? Why is that? ”

Zhang Hanjie said: "Your Majesty, the strategy of Wu now is to divide the army into three ways to attack, of which the west and east roads are responsible for attacking various places, and the middle road is responsible for containing the main force of our army. Now that they have captured a large territory, after a while, after the Western Route Army and the Eastern Route Army have completed their tasks, their three-way army will be able to concentrate on Kaifeng and even Luoyang to launch an attack. ”

By now, the overall deployment of Wu's Northern Expedition has also been clear, not only the deployment of its troops and the generals of various ministries have been roughly clarified, but also the overall strategic policy of the Wu army has also been seen through.

Of course, being able to see through the strategic policy of the Wu army does not mean that it is easy to deal with, this is just like when the Wu State stood still and sat and watched the Jin and Liang fight for hegemony, even if they knew the purpose of the Wu State, they could only obediently fight with the Jin State, and finally let the Wu State benefit.

Now the situation is similar, although the overall strategy of the Wu army is known, but limited by the strength of troops, now the Liang army can only concentrate on defending a few cities such as Kaifeng, Huazhou, and Ruzhou.

It was Gao Jichang, who had been surrounded by the Wu army, who sent people to ask for help one after another, but because of the lack of troops, the Liang army was now unable to send troops to rescue Xuzhou, so he could only sit back and watch the Wu army on the west road gradually capture the surrounding cities of Xuzhou and isolate Xuzhou.

Of course, if the main force of Dai Si's distant troops can be transferred south, the troops to rescue Xuzhou will be enough.

On the side, Zhao Yan continued Zhang Hanjie's words and said: "Instead of waiting for the Wu army to converge on the three roads and then hastily transfer troops to resist, it is better to concentrate forces now to deal with one of the Wu armies first, as long as it can achieve victory, it may be able to thwart the intention of the Wu army's northern expedition." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded: "Then your opinions are all in favor of transferring troops south?" ”

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Zhang Hanjie and the two humane.

Zhu Youzhen stopped, and asked, "Then how many troops do you think should be transferred south, and who will lead the troops?" ”

Wang Yanzhang's performance did not satisfy Zhu Youzhen, and he failed to relieve the siege of Songzhou at first, although this was mainly a defeat caused by the sudden surrender of the Songzhou defenders, but it still left a bad impression on Zhu Youzhen.

Later, Wang Yanzhang led his troops to counterattack Songzhou, but not only failed to achieve results, but lost his troops, which made Zhu Youzhen even more dissatisfied.

In addition, Zhang Hanjie and Zhao Yan fanned the flames on the side, as long as Wang Yanzhang had any outstanding performance, the two would give the credit to someone else, and if Wang Yanzhang lost the battle, the two immediately added fuel and vinegar and framed them in every possible way.

With the unanimous "efforts" of these two people, Zhu Youzhen is now not only dissatisfied with Wang Yanzhang, but also dissatisfied with those old ministers.

Jing Xiang and Li Zhen, the two old ministers who strongly recommended Wang Yanzhang before, are now being snubbed, and veterans such as Huo Yanwei are not treated well like Wang Yanzhang.

Even Dai Siyuan, the envoy from the north, is now dissatisfied with Zhu Youzhen, and he has the intention to remove him, but he has not yet found an excuse.

As for the other courtiers, Zhu Youzhen also doesn't trust him much, it can be said that the current Zhu Youzhen is extremely suspicious, except for Zhang Hanjie and Zhao Yan, two cronies, he doesn't trust anyone at all.

"Your Majesty, since the Jin army has abandoned the southern city of Desheng, and even demolished the pontoon bridge and iron locks, even if the Jin army plans to go south, they will not be able to cross the river in a short time. Therefore, the minister thought that it was enough to leave 10,000 troops to defend Huazhou, and the other troops could go south. Zhang Hanjie said.

Now there are 60,000 Liang troops in Yangcun, if only 10,000 troops are left, 50,000 troops can be dispatched, plus the Liang army in Puzhou, Caozhou, Kaifeng and other places, the total can roughly concentrate about 70,000 troops.

Of course, there are still some troops in Luoyang, but these armies are already the last strength of the Liang army, and Luoyang also needs to keep troops to defend, so these armies can be used.

In this way, with the 50,000 troops now in Ningling, the total strength of the Liang army can reach 120,000.

Although it is still incomparable with the Wu army of more than 200,000, the Liang army has an advantage against one of the three Wu armies.

Zhu Youzhen calculated the strength of the troops in her heart, and felt that this plan was feasible, so she nodded and said, "Then what about the candidates for the leader?" Do you have any suggestions? ”

Zhang Hanjie and the others glanced at each other, and replied in unison: "The ministers think that General Duan Ning can be in this position!" ”

"Duan Ning? Well, this is the person! I hope he can live up to my trust and deliver good news as soon as possible! Zhu Youzhen made up her mind.

During this period, Duan Ning, as Wang Yanzhang's deputy general, led the troops south, and counterattacked Songzhou with Wang Yanzhang.

Although Duan Ning's performance was mediocre during this period, the problem was that he had a close relationship with Zhang Hanjie, and these two people said good things for him, which naturally made Zhu Youzhen have an illusion that Duan Ning had the talent to command the army.

"What about the two of them, the king and the Dai? How does Your Majesty plan to arrange it? Zhao Yan was overjoyed and hurriedly asked.

In any case, now Dai Siyuan and Wang Yanzhang are the envoys from the north and the envoys from the south, respectively, even if they are dismissed, they must be arranged.

Zhu Youzhen replied after pondering: "Let Dai Siyuan serve as the queen of the Xuanyi Festival and the history of the Huazhou Assassin; ordered Wang Yanzhang to stay for Xuanhua and return to Luoyang to listen to the tune. ”

"Your Majesty is wise!" Zhang Hanjie and the others were overjoyed.

Dai Siyuan's relationship with them is not close, but it is not estranged either, and it is nothing for him to serve as the assassin of Huazhou; However, Wang Yanzhang is regarded by them as a thorn in the eye and a thorn in the flesh, and now he has been demoted to the queen of Xuanhua Festival, which is equivalent to being directly idle.

The town guard of the Xuanhua Jiedu envoy was in Dengzhou, which was originally the first line against the Wu army in Xiangzhou, but now Dengzhou and other places have long been occupied by the Wu army.

Without the army, no matter how brave Wang Yanzhang is, he is just an ordinary person, and he will not be at the mercy of the two of them when the time comes.

Thinking of this, the two couldn't help but laugh in their hearts.