Chun Yuyan said with a smile: "If there is no Jin army to contain it, the more than 100,000 troops in the north of our army will go south, and it will naturally be able to block the Wu army." But in the current situation, does the general think that our army will still be able to keep the Central Plains? ”

"This ......" Huo Yanwei muttered for a long time.

In the current situation, although the Jin army sent a part of the army to attack Zhenzhou, there were still many troops left; Restrained by it, it was impossible for the Liang army to move all south, and at most 30,000 or 40,000 people would be sent south to support.

In this case, even if some more troops are dispatched from Luoyang, the total strength of the Liang army that can be used on the southern front will not exceed 100,000.

And the Wu army is menacing, who knows how many troops they have dispatched, 150,000? Two hundred thousand? Two hundred and fifty thousand? These are all possible.

Of course, the rumors that the total strength of the Wu army reached 500,000 mentioned in some rumors are too fake, at least a discerning person like Huo Yanwei laughed after hearing it, and he would not take it seriously.

But in any case, the Wu army must have a lot of troops, and it is difficult to repel the other party with only about 100,000 Liang troops; In particular, the southern states, which are empty of troops, are likely to fall quickly.

Therefore, Huo Yanwei replied after groaning: "Most of the southern regions are difficult to hold, and Shandong and other places will also fall, but Kaifeng and other areas close to Luoyang are likely to be defended." However, if the war is unfavorable, or if the Jin army moves south, these places may also be captured by the enemy. ”

Chun Yuyan said with a smile: "What the general said is right, so I estimate that it won't be long before the entire Central Plains may fall into the hands of Wu State." At that time, the power of Liang will inevitably decline, and it is inevitable to surrender Luoyang and Guanzhong. Even these areas are difficult to hold. ”

"What do you mean, sir?"

"General, please forgive me for saying that the Liang State has declined, even if it can keep the Guanzhong Land in the end, it will only be a remnant of the breath, and the only two countries that can compete for dominance in the world are the Wu State and the Jin State. Therefore, the opinion below is that the general will take the initiative to surrender to Wu when he currently has soldiers and generals in his hands, and he will inevitably be reused by the king of Wu. ”

"What? Surrender? Huo Yanwei was stunned, obviously he didn't expect Chun Yuyan to persuade him to surrender to Wu.

"Yes, the policy of Wu has been carefully studied, although there is a certain rejection of the generals, but this is not absolute, there are still many generals who are reused in the Wu State. The key is to look at the individual, if the ability is strong and there is no ambition, this kind of general can still be reused. Only those who are ambitious or incompetent will be ostracized when they arrive in the state of Wu. Chun Yuyan persuaded him.

Seeing Huo Yanwei's expression change, he was obviously still hesitating, and immediately continued: "The general has no ambitions, and his reputation in the past is also very good, in terms of ability, the general's ability is also good, even if he arrives in Wu State, why worry about not being reused?" ”

Huo Yanwei was silent, he was now excluded from the core of the imperial court, Zhu Youzhen didn't trust him very much, Zhang Hanjie, Zhao Yan and others didn't have a good impression of him, it can be said that he was extremely disappointed in the Liang court.

In addition, Liang Guo's current situation is indeed as Chun Yuyan said, when the building is about to collapse, so he also knows that it is not a wise choice to continue to stay on Liang Guo's broken ship.

However, for so many years, he has been loyal to Liang Guo, and he still has a certain amount of feelings, plus he has tens of thousands of troops in his hands, if he surrenders without fighting, he will not be willing in his heart, and he will be looked down upon.

So after pondering for a long time, he still shook his head and said, "What Mr. said Ben will understand, but please forgive Ben for not being able to do what Mr. suggests." Your Majesty asked Ben General to defend the southern front and defend the Wu State, and if he surrendered before the Wu State was at war, it would be against my original intention. ”

Seeing this, Chun Yuqiong had no choice but to say: "Since this is the case, then the general can only have a good battle with the Wu army." ”

He knew that once Huo Yanwei made up his mind, it would be difficult to change things, so he did not continue to persuade him.

"But before fighting this battle, the first thing the general needs to do is how to boost the morale of the generals, I don't know what the general plans to do."

Huo Yanwei suddenly had a headache, as early as two days ago, he received the news of the Wu army's northern expedition, and at the same time learned that Xiayi, Juxian and other places had fallen, and the Wu army was currently marching towards Gushu.

Judging from the news received, the scale of the Wu army is not large, only 10,000 people, but everyone knows that it is just the vanguard of the Wu army, and it is not clear how many people there are in the follow-up Wu army.

Judging from the situation that the Wu army has been preparing for so many years before suddenly launching the Northern Expedition, the Wu army must have a large number of troops, menacing, and irresistible; Therefore, after learning the news, many generals advocated avoiding the edge of the Wu army, retreating to Kaifeng and other places first, and then concentrating their forces to launch a counterattack after the arrival of other reinforcements.

Of course, Huo Yanwei also knew that what these generals said was good, but in fact, he was just timid in his heart.

In fact, not only those generals were timid, but he himself was also very bottomless.

No matter what, he only has 20,000 troops in his hands now, and no one knows how many people Wu has dispatched, if he returns to Songzhou now, it is likely to run into the main force of the Wu army, and it is possible that the whole army will be wiped out in the end.

Therefore, he also has a plan to retreat from Wu Jun's edge in his heart, but it is not easy for him as the main general to say this kind of thought.

Of course, the generals in the army did not advocate immediately retreating to defend Songzhou, and it was under the resolute advocacy of these people that it was difficult for Huo Yanwei to make up his mind, and as a result, the Liang army had stayed in Huajiazhuang for the past two days without any movement.

At this moment, a guard came in and reported: "General, I just got the news that Gushu County has been captured by the enemy, and the Wu army is currently heading towards Songzhou. General Jeonhiko sent someone to ask the general for reinforcements. ”

Huo Yanwei's body was shocked, and then he waved his hand and said, "Ben will know, you should retreat first." ”

Quan Yan was his confidant general, extremely loyal to him, and was left by him to defend Songzhou; Now that Quan Yan has sent people to ask for reinforcements one after another, it seems that the situation on the Songzhou side is very bad.

At present, there are two choices in front of Huo Yanwei, the first is to immediately lead the army back to aid Songzhou, with the distance between them and Songzhou now, if they march with all their strength, they can reach it in one day; Even at a normal marching pace, it would only take two days to arrive.

In two days, with the ability of Quan Yan and the strength of the defenders in the city, I believe that there is no problem in holding the city.

But if the Wu army dispatched a large number of troops, he rashly led the army to rescue Songzhou now, and it was likely that he would run headlong into the main force of the Wu army, not to mention that Songzhou would be difficult to keep at that time, or he himself would suffer heavy losses.

In addition, the morale of the generals is also a problem, everyone is panicking now, no one is willing to lead the army back to help, with such morale and state, it is strange to be able to defeat the Wu army.

In addition to returning reinforcements, another option is to retreat, as many generals suggested, to ensure their own safety, and wait for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements before counterattacking.

But the disadvantage of this choice is also obvious, that is, Songzhou is likely to fall into the hands of the enemy without reinforcements.

Huo Yanwei pondered for a long time, still not knowing how to choose, and at this moment, another guard came in and reported: "General, General Wang Yanzhang sent someone to say that he has led the army south to support, please lead the army to rescue Songzhou first." ”

"General Wang Yanzhang led the army to help?" Huo Yanwei was suddenly pleasantly surprised.

He originally thought that with Zhang Hanjie's temperament, it would be impossible to lead the army immediately, so he didn't expect to get reinforcements so quickly, but he didn't expect Wang Yanzhang to lead the army to help.

He hurriedly asked, "Do you know how many troops General Wang Yanzhang has brought?" ”

"This ...... I heard that there are only 5,000 troops of the Right Dragon Army under his command. The guard replied.

Huo Yanwei was suddenly a little disappointed, what can five thousand troops do? It's just a drop in the bucket.

Just now he thought that Zhang Hanjie would also lead the army to come, so the situation would naturally be different.

After all, Zhang Hanjie, as Zhu Youzhen's henchman, once he personally led the army to help, under his influence, follow-up reinforcements would inevitably come soon; But now it is only Wang Yanzhang's 5,000 troops who have come to the rescue, and it is obvious that Zhang Hanjie has no intention of going south to rescue Songzhou.

In this way, it will be difficult for Songzhou's side to wait for reinforcements.

Thinking of this, Huo Yanwei was extremely disappointed in his heart, and he hated Zhang Hanjie and others deeply.

As Zhu Youzhen's cronies, these two people have always controlled the government and government, and even the appointment of generals from all walks of life has to be decided by them many times.

On this point, he and Wang Yanzhang can be said to have the same opinion.

It's a pity that no matter how disappointed he is in his heart, the current situation is like this, and he needs to make a choice, whether to retreat or return to Songzhou immediately.

After a long time, Huo Yanwei finally made up his mind: "Well, since General Wang Yanzhang dared to come to the aid with 5,000 people, how could he be afraid of war with 20,000 troops?" And Quan Yan guards Songzhou, he is the henchman of the general, how can the general sit idly by? ”

He stood up and said to Chun Yuyan: "Sir, the general has already made up his mind to return to Songzhou immediately. Now I also ask the gentleman to send an order, so that the generals of the various ministries can immediately come to the general's tent to discuss the matter. ”

Chun Yuyan hurriedly said: "Yes, I'll do it here." ”

Although he is Huo Yanwei's cronies, he has always only done what he should do, providing his own advice to Huo Yanwei, and if the other party does not listen, he will not force it.

After a while, the generals came to the Chinese army's big tent to discuss according to the military order, and in the military discussion, although many generals still opposed the return of reinforcements, but at Huo Yanwei's insistence, everyone finally agreed.

On 20 August, Huo Yanwei, who had been in Huajiazhuang for two days, finally sent troops and marched to Songzhou.

At the same time, Li Chengding's troops who had arrived from Bozhou were also rushing in the direction of Songzhou, and the distance between the two armies was getting closer and closer, and an encounter was about to begin.