Li Cunmiao concentrated cavalry to cover the retreat of the Jin army, which did not induce the Wu army to take the initiative to attack, at this time the Wu army has not yet been fully assembled, rash attack, the Jin army will fight back, may be able to win in one fell swoop.

It's a pity that his attempt failed after all, and Yang Wu was very cautious to maintain a defensive posture and sit back and watch the Jin army retreat.

For such a result, Li Cunqiao did not feel too much disappointment in his heart, because this was originally expected by him.

Since the Wu army refused to attack rashly, the Jin army could only continue to retreat.

At this time, there was still about fifty miles away from the ferry port of Liujia Village, and if the march was fast, the army would only need a day to arrive.

However, after all, it was the enemy's army withdrawing in front of it, and of course the Jin army could not march at such a fast speed, otherwise once it was raided, the whole army would collapse.

In addition, the rapid march and fierce fighting of the previous day had also exhausted the Jin soldiers, and now even if they wanted to speed up the march, it was difficult to do so, so they could only advance slowly.

On the Wu side, it was even more unhurried, and it was not until the Jin army retreated for nearly twenty miles that Yang Wu ordered the whole army to pursue, with the cavalry as the lead, and the infantry army followed behind, but always maintained a distance of twenty miles, neither close nor farther.

If the pursuit distance is too close, it may be attacked by the enemy, and if you keep a distance of twenty miles, and have the cavalry under the command of Chai Kehong to protect you, you naturally don't have to worry about the enemy's cavalry raid.

In addition, the army is moving slowly, and you can wait for follow-up reinforcements by the way, and let the tired soldiers rest a little, why not?

As for the question of whether the Jin army will slip away, there is no need to worry.

Because no matter how powerful the Jin army is, they will not be able to fly, and when they retreat to the edge of the Yellow River, in the face of such a moat, the Jin army can only slowly cross the river.

That's why the Wu army will appear unhurried, following the Jin army along the way, the Jin army advances, and they also advance; The Jin army stopped to rest, and they also rested, in short, they always maintained a distance of twenty miles.

By the evening of the same day, the Jin army had only marched more than 30 miles, but it was already completely dark, and the soldiers of the Jin army were really tired.

In order to have enough physical strength for the army to fight when crossing the river, Li Cunqiao also had to order the whole army to stop and camp for rest.

After getting the news, the Wu army also ordered to camp.

However, in order to prevent the Jin army from escaping, Yang Wu ordered Chai Kehong to send a large number of cavalry to act as scouts and monitor the movements of the enemy army at any time.

Of course, the Jin army refused to be peeped at by the Wu army scouts at will, so it also sent a large number of rangers to attack everywhere to encircle and suppress the Wu army's scouts.

It is conceivable that there will be countless battles in the darkness of the night tonight, and I don't know how many people will eventually fall silently.

But all this is not what Yang Wu should pay attention to.

After a whole day of fierce fighting, he was also very tired at this time, and just after dinner, he handed over the major affairs of the military to Li Jian to deal with, and he returned to the camp early to rest.

Early the next morning, when the sky was bright again, Yang Wu woke up again.

At this time, after a whole night's march, more than 20,000 reinforcements arrived to converge, and the strength of the Wu army had completely overwhelmed the other side.

But even so, Yang Wu didn't plan to fight the Jin army now.

While drinking the freshly cooked breakfast porridge, he asked, "Did the Jin army make any movement last night?" ”

"Back to the king, except for the cavalry last night when the Jin army was encircling and suppressing our army scouts, its main force was resting in the camp, and there was no movement." Chai Kehong hurriedly replied.

Yang Wu nodded, and asked again, "So how did the soldiers of our army rest last night?" ”

"Your Majesty, the soldiers are well rested, and their faces are full of energy. King, when are we going to attack the enemy camp? A lot of soldiers are asking. ”

The person who opened his mouth to answer was Wu Bo, although Zhu Qianyou had woken up, but his injuries were too serious, and he was sent back to Pingyin to recuperate at this time, and his generals were killed and wounded, and Li Zhang, the oldest in seniority, had already died in battle, so Wu Bo was in charge of command at this time.

Hearing that the soldiers were eager to fight, Yang Wu immediately smiled with satisfaction.

"Very good, it seems that the soldiers have been pressed and beaten all day, and now it's time to fight back, and everyone can't wait."

In this battle, the most difficult thing to fight was the Chinese army officers and soldiers under the personal command of Yang Wu, who not only suffered heavy casualties and lost more than half of their troops, but also was extremely exhausted.

Now even the soldiers of this department have high morale and are eager to fight, not to mention the situation of the soldiers of other departments.

However, it was impossible for Yang Wu to agree to the soldiers' requests.

He said in a deep voice: "Although the enemy army is retreating now, its strength is still there. As the so-called trapped beasts are still fighting, let alone people? If we attack now, the enemy will inevitably resist desperately, so this proposal is not advisable. ”

Li Jian and other generals are also veterans who have been on the battlefield for a long time, and they all said: "What the king said is very true, although our army has an advantage at this time, it is not advisable to attack rashly. It is better to wait for the enemy to cross the river and then attack halfway, and you will be able to win a great victory! ”

Zhu Siqing said cautiously: "King, it is naturally best if you can attack halfway, but what the last general is worried about is that Li Cunqing, the king of Jin, is not very human, this person is brave and good at fighting, brave and strategic, I am afraid that he will not give us the opportunity to attack halfway." ”

Yang Wu sneered: "Don't give a chance? That's not up to him! Does he still want to die and then live? In that case, Lone will wake up smiling even if he sleeps. ”

The generals were stunned for a moment when they heard this, but they immediately reacted and immediately burst into laughter.

Yes, what can the Jin army do if they don't cross the river? Last stand? But that also depends on whether Wu Jun gives him the opportunity to fight against the water.

If he stayed on the edge of the Yellow River and was not in a hurry to cross the river, but thought about a decisive battle with the Wu army, then the Wu army could completely ignore him, hold the defense line with a deep ditch barrier, and then slowly wait for the arrival of follow-up reinforcements.

With the current strength of the Wu army near Yunzhou, if there is enough time, it will not be a problem to even gather nearly 200,000 troops, and even if the Jin army fights against the water, can he still defeat the 200,000 Wu army in one fell swoop? That's simply not realistic.

In addition, the original plan of the Jin army to cross the river this time was to win by a quick surprise attack, so the grain and grass they carried were not much, which was only enough for the army for a few days.

If they stayed on the edge of the Yellow River for too long, the Wu army would not need to attack at all, and they would be trapped to death as long as they were slowly besieged.

Therefore, the Jin army now has no choice but to cross the river quickly; And if you cross the river quickly, you will inevitably give the Wu army a chance to attack halfway.

After thinking about this, the general's mood suddenly became relaxed.

Yang Wu's face sank, and he said solemnly: "But all generals should also be careful, although the situation is favorable to us, if you are careless, you may still be defeated." In today's situation, all generals must remain vigilant and not slack off! ”

The generals hurriedly restrained their smiles and said solemnly: "The last general is waiting for Meng Lang, please forgive the king!" ”

Yang Wu waved his hand and said, "No need, everyone go back separately, do your own accusations, as long as everyone is dutiful, our army will win this battle!" ”

……

After sending the generals down, Yang Wu immediately took the guards, as well as Yang Yan and others, to patrol the camp together.

As Wu Bo said, after a night's rest, the soldiers recovered well, and at this time they were in good spirits, and their morale was obviously very high.

Soon, news came from the scouts that the Jin army had begun to march.

After getting the news, Yang Wu also passed down the order, letting the army follow and set off, still maintaining a distance of twenty miles and moving forward slowly.

By noon, the Jin army had finally arrived on the banks of the Yellow River.

The king of the Jin Dynasty, Li Cunmiao, personally climbed the heights and overlooked, only to see the river in front of him, rolling from west to east, under the illumination of the noon sun, the starting point was dazzling.

Looking at the demoralized army behind him, Li Cunmiao's face was full of gloom.

Three days earlier, he had led his army across the river here, and at that time the 35,000 elite army was all in good spirits, their faces full of confidence, and their eyes full of desire for battle.

And now, in three days, only three days, he was back here, leading an army that had just lost the battle and was panicking, their faces full of confusion, and their eyes were full of fear, making it difficult to imagine that this was the invincible army of three days ago.

At this moment, Li Cunmiao misses a veteran very much, if that veteran is still there at this time, maybe he will persuade himself not to let himself take risks and fall into such a tragic situation, right?

It's a pity that as early as more than three years ago, that loyal and brave veteran was killed in the battle of Huliupi, and a large number of Jin army elites were killed with him.

And that battle was also triggered because Li Cunmiao ventured across the river and wanted to raid the Liang army.

Now the same adventure has led to the same fiasco.

However, in the battle more than three years ago, although the Jin army was defeated, he still led the cavalry to counterattack at the last moment and finally defeated the Liang army, so strictly speaking, it should be a crushing victory.

So does he still have a chance to win this battle now?

Li Cunmiao glanced at the army behind him, and then turned his gaze into the distance, where the army led by Yang Wu, the king of Wu, had already followed, but kept his distance unhurriedly.

When the Jin army stopped, the Wu army continued to advance slowly for nearly ten miles, and only stopped when the distance between the two armies was reduced to about fifteen miles, and then began to dig trenches and lay out defensive lines.

Seeing this situation, Li Cunmiao had to sigh in his heart: "Sure enough, I didn't give a chance at all!" ”

As Yang Wu expected, Li Cunmiao at this time had no choice at all, so he could only cross the river immediately, otherwise when the Wu army reinforcements were assembled, the situation they faced would be even more difficult.

Of course, even if it is decided to cross the river immediately, it is necessary to make all kinds of preparations, especially if it is necessary to leave part of the troops behind to fight for a glimmer of life for the army.

Moreover, the broken army must not only be strong enough, but also be able to block the enemy army, and it is best to do it voluntarily, otherwise the army has not yet crossed the river, but the broken army has been defeated by the Wu army, and that scene will undoubtedly be a disaster.

"Generals, there is no need to say anything about the situation at this time, everyone knows it very well. Lone needs someone to stay behind to lead the troops, I wonder which general is willing to take on this heavy responsibility? After summoning the generals, Li Cunqiao asked in a deep voice.

The generals were silent, and not a single one of them came forward.

Everyone is not stupid, and now in this situation, staying and breaking off is almost the same as sending them to death.

There was silence in the field, and Li Cunqiao's face suddenly became very difficult to look at.

He also knew that if he directly ordered a general to be responsible for the break, he would not dare to disobey that person.

But in that case, the other party may not be willing to fight to the death, so it is better to follow the principle of voluntariness in this kind of thing.

Seeing that no one was willing to stand up, Li Cunqiao said in a deep voice: "Since all the generals are unwilling to break the queen, then only Lone himself will come to break the queen!" ”

"What?"

"No!"

The generals were shocked, and hurriedly persuaded: "How can the king's golden body stay and break the queen?" If this is the case, even if the last general and others escape back to Hebei alive, what face will they have to survive in the world? ”

Li Cunmiao said coldly: "If there is no one to stop the enemy army, the army crossing the river is like walking into the abyss; If you don't want to stay and break the queen, why do you stop the lonely queen? ”

The generals didn't dare to shirk anymore, so they had to stand up one by one and said: "The king, after the last general is willing to lead the troops to break off, he also asks the king to lead his troops to cross the river first." ”

Especially Li Shaorong and Shi Jingjiao, at this time, they said loudly: "Please lead the king to cross the river, the last general is willing to lead his troops to block the enemy, unless the last general is killed, otherwise the enemy will not break through the defense line of the last general!" ”

Li Cunmiao nodded with satisfaction after hearing this.

He didn't mean to say that just now, but he really had the idea of personally leading his subordinates to break off, but since the generals were willing to stay behind the break, of course he would not refuse.

He pondered for a moment and said, "Since this is the case, then General Lao Shi and General Zhao are broken. ”

After hearing this, Shi Jingjiao and Zhao Zaili hurriedly responded: "The last general obeys the order and swears to block the enemy army to the death!" ”

Li Cunmiao looked at Li Shaorong again and said, "As for you, I have another important task entrusted to you." ”

He pointed to the river in the distance, where a large number of Wu ships were blockading.

Therefore, if the Jin army wants to cross the river, it must not only face the pursuit of the enemy in the rear, but also break through the interception of the Wu army in front, and the task is not heavy.

Fortunately, the ships of the Wu army were all small boats, and the troops were not too many; And the boats that crossed the river on the Jin side three days ago are still there, and there are still remnants of the naval army, and it will not be too difficult to break through the enemy's blockade by concentrating these forces.

"The task that Lone wants to give you is to lead the officers and soldiers of our army, block the enemy's army, and you must not let the enemy interfere with the army's crossing of the river, at least for a day!" Li Cunmiao looked solemn and said solemnly.

"The last general commands! Die to complete the mission! Li Shaorong replied loudly.

Li Cunmiao nodded, he slowly glanced at the generals, then took a long breath and said loudly: "Order all departments, prepare immediately; Half an hour later, the army began to cross the river! ”