At the same time, outside Ningling City, Li Chengding and others were also making arrangements for the pursuit of the enemy.

In the past few months, the Wu army has been holding on to Songzhou, Bozhou, Chenzhou and other cities, and in the face of the continuous attack of the Liang army, it has been passively defending and accumulating strength.

Long before Yang Wu's army occupied Caozhou, when Zhu Youwen sent an edict to order Duan Ning to withdraw his troops and return to Kaifeng, the relevant news was passed on by those who secretly defected to Wu.

Therefore, two days ago, Yang Wu sent an edict, requiring Li Chengding to monitor the movements of the Liang army at all times, and once the Liang army showed signs of withdrawing, he would immediately pursue it, and even if it could not be defeated, it must be contained.

So at that time, Li Chengding led the army to Ningling, and the garrison was twenty miles south of Ningling City.

On the 21st, when Duan Ning made a decision and ordered Huo Yanwei to lead an army of 10,000 people to stay behind, and when the Liang army was ready to retreat to Kaifeng, the news was also reported to Li Chengding by Kang Yanxiao that night.

After getting the news, Li Chengding did not dare to slack off, and even ordered all departments to prepare for sending troops.

Therefore, when the main force of the Liang army retreated the next day, Li Chengding also ordered the army to leave the camp and march towards Ningling, and it was the 3,000 cavalry led by Chai Kehong who opened the way first, and the 40,000 infantry army led by him followed behind.

Since ancient times, it is easy to send troops and difficult to retreat, and there are too many examples of being attacked by the enemy when retreating, resulting in great defeats and losses.

Although Duan Ning knew that he would leave the powerful general in charge of the rear when he retreated, the problem was that he was too hasty in his retreat this time, and many things were too late to be arranged.

For example, before the Liang army retreated, because Duan Ning's strategy of using troops was wrong, the Liang army's forces were scattered, so that it was difficult to concentrate troops when retreating now, and only 60,000 troops could be withdrawn with Duan Ning, and the rest of the army was scattered everywhere and had no time to retract.

In addition, it was also because of the hasty withdrawal of troops, not to mention that Huo Yanwei, under the persuasion of his staff Chun Yuyan, had already made up his mind to concentrate his forces to hold Ningling, and let the Wu army make a detour to pursue the main force led by Duan Ning, even if Huo Yanwei wanted to divide his troops to hold the nearby roads, it would be difficult to do so in a hurry.

So when the Wu army arrived at the city of Ningling, Chai Kehong, as the vanguard, quickly discovered Huo Yanwei's problems in deployment.

"The Liang army is holding on to the city and not leaving, all the nearby roads and bridges are out of the way, and there is not a single soldier to defend it, can it be said that Huo Yanwei does not want to stop our army at all?" Chai Kehong was a little surprised.

The news from Kang Yanxiao's side not only clearly stated the strength of the Liang army led by Huo Yanwei, but also pointed out that Huo Yanwei was not forced by Duan Ning to stay behind the Broken Queen, but he himself took the initiative to put it forward.

It stands to reason that since Huo Yanwei took the initiative to break the rear, then he must be determined to fight with Wu Jun; If nothing else, at least the main roads and bridges leading to Kaifeng must be guarded by troops, right?

Huo Yanwei has an army of 10,000 in his hands, if he leaves three or five thousand people to defend the city, and the rest of the army is used to guard the main road, if he really does this, although Chai Kehong is confident that he will break through the Liang army and open the road, but this will definitely waste a lot of time and energy, and the main force of the Liang army may have fled far away at that time.

Now that Huo Yanwei has directly retreated the army into the city, it is difficult to guess his intentions.

Chai Kehong lowered his head and pondered for a moment, but he never guessed Huo Yanwei's thoughts, and immediately stopped thinking about it.

"No matter what, since Huo Yanwei has let go of the road, then the main force of our army to directly pursue Duan Ning is to make a detour, there is no need to entangle with him here!"

He immediately ordered all parts of the troops to occupy the main road, and at the same time ordered people to go to Ningling City to block the gate to prevent the Liang army from suddenly killing out; At the same time, Chai Kehong hurriedly sent a messenger to tell Li Chengding, who was rushing from the rear, and asked him to immediately send the infantry army to reinforce him.

When the army led by Li Chengding arrived, he immediately ordered that 5,000 troops should be left to contain Huo Yanwei, and he himself led the army to bypass Ningling City and continue to pursue northward.

At this time, the main force of the Liang army led by Duan Ning retreated to the north and only walked more than thirty miles!

……

Eighty miles north of Ningling, outside the city of Kaocheng, a cavalry of four or five thousand people was dismounting on both sides of the road to rest, and not far away, a cavalry of more than 500 people was solemnly lined up outside the city.

These people were the 5,000 cavalry led by Yang Wu himself, who arrived here after a morning of forced march.

After learning that the Liang army planned to retreat to Kaifeng, Yang Wu quickly judged that it would be difficult to catch up with the enemy army if he pursued it with infantry, and only the cavalry could catch up with the enemy army as quickly as possible.

Therefore, after capturing Caozhou, Yang Wu did not hesitate to abandon the infantry again and led the cavalry to the south alone.

Although this time he only brought 5,000 elite cavalry, while Duan Ning's army had 60,000 or 70,000 people, and there were almost all of the 3,000 cavalry of the Liang army, which could be described as a strong force, Yang Wu was not worried at all.

First, the enemy army has been fighting for a long time, the soldiers are tired and demoralized, and now they are retreating in a hurry, and it is inevitable that flaws will be exposed in the process, and it is easy to be taken advantage of by the Wu army.

Second, Yang Wu's 5,000 cavalry was not alone, the army led by Li Chengding followed behind the Liang army in pursuit, and with the cooperation of tens of thousands of troops under his command, it was not difficult to break the Liang army.

"Is that county order still refusing to surrender?" At this time, after waiting for a while, Yang Wu, who was a little impatient, frowned and asked.

After arriving here, it was already afternoon, and the soldiers were a little tired, so Yang Wu ordered all the troops to stop and rest for a while, and sent people to the city to persuade them to surrender, hoping that the city could provide some hot food and hot water.

It was the first month of the year, the coldest time of the year, and the wind was bitterly cold, and it happened to be snowing again the first day, and a thin layer of snow had accumulated on the ground; The plants and trees are frosty, wet and cold, and it is difficult to ignite, so it is difficult to boil some hot water to make some hot food and drink.

At this time, the soldiers were hungry and cold, although they carried some dry food with them to satisfy their hunger, but in such a cold weather, if they could eat some hot food, drink some hot water, and warm their bodies, it would naturally be better.

"King, although the county order is willing to surrender, it seems that the people in the city have some concerns." Shi Hongyi, who was responsible for sending people to persuade him to surrender, replied.

"What are the concerns? Are you worried that our army will slaughter the city? Yang Wu said with some displeasure.

The military discipline of the Wu army has always been very good, and there has been almost no massacre of the city, which stands to reason that the people in the city also know.

"King, the ministers heard from them that some time ago, when the Liang army crossed the border, they had plundered on a large scale, and now that we are leading the army to arrive, it is inevitable that they will be a little worried in their hearts."

"Is the Liang army taking captives here?" Yang Wu frowned.

He knew that the military discipline of the Liang army had never been very good, and he didn't even do anything less to slaughter the city, let alone the "trivial matter" of plundering.

However, in the past, when the Liang army slaughtered cities or plundered places, it was all in enemy-occupied areas, and it was rarely done on their own territory; Not long ago, Kaocheng was still the territory of the Liang army, and the Liang army even plundered its own territory, which shows how corrupt its military discipline has become.

"So what about having them provide hot food and hot water? Don't you say yes? Yang Wu then asked.

If he didn't even agree to this request, Yang Wu would have to punish some people after he broke through the test city in the future.

"Don't worry, the king said that hot water and hot food are being prepared, and it won't be long before they are ready." Shi Hongyi hurriedly replied.

Yang Wu's face was a little better, as long as he could provide hot water and hot food, at this time, the military situation was urgent, and they had to continue to rush south after a little rest, and there was no time to stay.

After a quarter of an hour, the city sent someone to bring the prepared hot food and hot water, etc., of course, the defenders did not dare to open the city gate, but only hung it down with ropes.

After trying the poison, Yang Wu asked the soldiers to eat some hot food and drink some hot water to replenish their calories, and he himself was no exception.

After eating something, I felt a lot more comfortable.

After resting, just as Yang Wu was about to give the order for the army to mount, a messenger galloped from the south.

"King, the latest news was sent by General Li!" Before the messenger arrived, his voice was heard in the distance.

Yang Wu hurriedly ordered someone to let the messenger over and ask.

"The king, General Li ordered the little one to tell the king that Duan Ning asked Huo Yanwei to lead 10,000 troops to stay in Ningling to be responsible for the break, but Huo Yanwei's army was concentrated in the city and did not hold the surrounding roads, so General Li left 5,000 troops to contain Huo Yanwei, and he had already led the main force to continue to pursue the enemy." The messenger said hurriedly.

"Huo Yanwei directly let our army pursue?" Yang Wu was overjoyed when he heard this.

He was originally worried that Li Chengding would be blocked by Huo Yanwei and it would be difficult to catch up with the enemy's main force in a short period of time; Now that Huo Yanwei has not blocked it at all, it will not be long before Li Chengding can catch up with Liang Jun.

I only heard the messenger continue: "My lord, General Li also said that because of the snow on the road, the speed of the march of the army was not fast, and in order to preserve the strength of the soldiers, he estimated that it would be difficult to catch up with the enemy army today, and he would catch up with the enemy army tomorrow morning, and the location was about ten to twenty miles west of Xiangling City. ”

"Okay, after you drink some hot water and rest, go back immediately and tell General Li, just say that Lone will rush to Xiangling before tomorrow morning, and then he will take the lead in attacking the enemy, and Lone will take the opportunity to launch a surprise attack on the enemy army and win the game in one fell swoop!" Yang Wu said with a happy face.

"Do as the king commands!" The messenger replied hurriedly.

For Li Chengding's judgment, Yang Wu is still confident; Since he said that he could catch up with the enemy ten to twenty miles west of Xiangling City, then Yang Wu could rush there one step ahead and wait for the fighters.

At that time, Li Chengding took the lead in launching an attack to attract the attention of the enemy, while Yang Wu led the cavalry to hide on the side and launch a surprise attack at any time.

After sending the messenger back, Yang Wu ordered the army to mount and continue southward.

There are nearly 100 miles from Kaocheng to Xiangling, although the speed of the cavalry march has been affected somewhat because of the snow on the road, but in the afternoon of the same day, Yang Wu still managed to reach the place more than ten miles north of Xiangling, and set up a simple camp before dark, so that the soldiers have a relatively warm place to escape the cold.

Early the next morning, Yang Wu sent a large group of scouts to the south to inquire for information, and it didn't take long for him to make a discovery.

As Li Chengding expected, the enemy army is currently marching rapidly, and has just passed Xiangling, and has not entered the city to stay, but is heading directly to the west; The main force of the Wu army led by Li Chengding was still more than ten miles away from Xiangling.

More than ten miles away, it won't take long for the Wu army to catch up, especially the cavalry of the Wu army, which can catch up at any time to entangle the Liang army.

By this time, although Duan Ning was still withdrawing his troops to the west, he also knew that he would not be able to reach the next city before the pursuers caught up with them.

But even so, he did not stop in Xiangling, after all, once he was entangled by the Wu army, and the Wu army led by Yang Wu in the north caught up, the Liang army would have no hope of victory, and the only way to Kaifeng was to rush as much as possible.

Therefore, Duan Ning continued to withdraw his troops to the west, and on the other hand, he was secretly preparing for a big battle, especially the three thousand elite cavalry in the Liang army, and he was always vigilant to prevent the Wu army from raiding.

Yang Wu immediately ordered the army to move southward, more than ten miles to the west of the Liang army, and try to hide its tracks so that the Liang army would not find out; At the same time, he secretly sent someone to inform Li Chengding, telling him his current location and the arrangements he had made.

At this time, it can be said that everything is ready, just waiting for Li Chengding to take the lead in attacking.

After passing Xiangling and continuing to march westward for more than ten miles, the Wu army had been fully pressed, and at this time, even those officers at the bottom who did not know the art of war understood that they could no longer escape, and a big battle was about to happen.

Without Duan Ning's order, the generals of all the departments stopped one after another and began to reorganize the array and prepare for the big battle.

At the same time, the generals began to rush to the Chinese army to make a final discussion with Duan Ning.

"Although I don't know how Huo Yanwei did it, but now that the enemy army has caught up, they are biting very tightly, and we have to fight." Duan Ning knew that time was urgent, and after he said a few words briefly, he began to make arrangements.

At present, the Liang army has more than 60,000 people, of which 58,000 are infantry, and the rest are 3,000 cavalry; As for the Wu army, although I don't know what the specific strength of the Wu army is, it should not exceed 40,000 people.

Therefore, in terms of troops, the Liang army has an absolute advantage.

However, the outcome of a war is never only based on troops, but also on morale, fighting spirit, and many other factors.

Although the Liang army had many troops, it was tired and demoralized for a long time; Second, the army is on the way to withdraw, and the soldiers are right-hearted and have little fighting spirit; Thirdly, the enemy army came prepared and advanced and retreated freely, but the Liang army needed to quickly get rid of the containment of the Wu army and rush back to Kaifeng as soon as possible, otherwise it might be caught up by the main force of the Wu army led by Yang Wu in the north.

These problems are very fatal problems for the Liang army, so even though the Liang army's strength is far more than the enemy army, Duan Ning and other generals have no chance of winning in their hearts, but their faces are shocked and uncertain.