Guo Jingxiang and Li Zhen were worried about the future situation of Liang State, and the days of Niu Cunjie, who were on the front line of Xiao County, were also not very good.

After several years of continuous defeats, today's Liang State is not only almost lost by the veterans of a hundred battles, but more importantly, the soul of the army has been knocked out.

At the beginning, the Liang army, because of the victory in all battles in all directions, naturally established a strong sense of self-confidence and glory, which could invisibly improve the combat effectiveness of the army.

In addition, at that time, everyone was fighting for the establishment of the Liang State, and the cohesion of the army was also very strong.

And now? The north has been defeated against the Jin State every year, and even at the beginning of last year, Zhu Wen was so frightened by a false news that he fled for more than 150 miles overnight, which can be imagined as a great blow to the morale of the Liang army.

The southern war against Wu was similarly not good, and last year's defeat at the Battle of Jiangling also severely damaged the morale of the Liang army.

By now, Liang Jun has long lost the mentality of looking down on other forces back then, and some are only afraid and uneasy.

At this time, Niu Cunjie walked in the barracks with his deputy general Liu Yan and others, and what he saw was a panicked and uneasy situation, the faces of the soldiers were full of confusion, and their eyes were a little uneasy, obviously everyone did not have the slightest confidence in defeating the strong enemy.

Even the performance of those officers was not much better than that of ordinary soldiers, especially after learning that Yang Wu, the king of Wu, personally led the troops, their mood was much lower.

After a big defeat last year, the current King of Wu, Yang Wu, is the last enemy that the Liang army is willing to encounter, just like Li Cunmiao, the king of Jin.

"It is too difficult to expect such an army to defeat the Wu army, but it is still led by the king of Wu himself, with more troops and a more powerful army than our army!" After the inspection, when he returned to the big tent of the Chinese army, Niu Cunjie couldn't help but sigh to Liu Jun.

"General, if even you, as a commander, think like this, then we really have no hope of winning!" Liu Yan frowned.

"What? Do you still think that we can defeat the Wu army and then take advantage of the victory to break through Xuzhou? ”

"General, it is naturally difficult to defeat the Wu army head-on, but we may not have no chance." Liu said.

"Huh? Then you can tell me, what are the ways to defeat Wu Jun? If it's too risky, don't talk about it, in today's situation, we really can't take any more risks! Niu Cunjie asked with interest.

However, he was still a little worried about whether Liu Yan would come up with any risky strategies, so he specially reminded him.

Although he didn't have much time to deal with Liu Jun, Niu Cunjie also knew that this person had a title of one step at a time, but Niu Cunjie was a little dissatisfied with this title.

Through the contact in the past few days, Niu Cunjie also found that Liu Jun's style of using troops is indeed varied, but many of the strategies he came up with are too risky, which makes Niu Cunjie, who has always used soldiers to seek stability, not very satisfied.

"General Niu rest assured, the current situation is that the last general wants to take risks, but he is afraid that there is no chance. There are several ways to end the general, and the general may wish to refer to one or two. Liu Yan smiled bitterly.

"The first way is to take advantage of the fact that the main force of the Wu army has not arrived, especially the time when the king of Wu, Yang Wu, has not arrived, and try to defeat Zhou Ben and Wang Juan first, so as to weaken the morale of the Wu army. As long as Zhou Ben and the two are defeated, the morale of the follow-up Wu army will inevitably drop greatly, and the morale of our army will increase greatly, and then there will be a chance to defeat the Wu army. ”

Niu Cunjie immediately replied: "This strategy sounds good, but it is too difficult. That week, Ben was also a famous general of Wu State, who was not surprised in the world in the first battle of Ivory Pond in the past? Now that this man has led the troops here, we cannot be underestimated. ”

Of course, he had thought about defeating Zhou Ben first, but the confrontation during this period of time made him realize that Zhou Ben was not as brave as he thought, and he did have his superiority in the use of troops, and he was not sure of defeating the other party.

Liu Yan was not surprised when he heard this, and he continued: "The second way, that is, drag!" ”

"Drag? Are you talking about a long confrontation to wear down the enemy's forces? I'm afraid it's hard. Originally, Ben Jiang also thought about this, after all, Wu State had just suffered a major drought, and then there was a locust plague, so it stands to reason that the grain in Wu Guo's treasury should be almost consumed. If it is a protracted war, the other side will definitely not be able to afford to drag it out. ”

"But later, the general felt that it was enough to rescue Xuzhou with only twenty or thirty thousand people to defend the city, and there was no need to use too many troops."

"But since Yang Wu, the king of Wu, dared to use so many soldiers and horses to come, he also considered the money and grain reserves in his treasury, so it was not feasible to use the method of delaying time to consume them." Niu Cunjie shook his head.

Liu Yan nodded and said, "Yes, King Wu shouldn't make such an obvious mistake, but if we don't have any other way, then we can only give it a try." ”

Niu Cunjie then asked, "What about the other way?" You're not going to settle for either of these two options, are you? ”

Liu Yan said in a deep voice: "The third way, that is, to raid Suzhou!" ”

"Raid on Suzhou? Are you saying that we will leave a part of our forces here to confront the Wu army, attract the attention of the enemy, and then secretly lead the main force to attack Suzhou? Niu Cunjie's eyes lit up and he hurriedly asked.

He hadn't thought of this method before, after all, the task given to him by Zhu Youzhen was to attack Xuzhou, and Suzhou was originally garrisoned by a large number of Wu troops, and recently Li Jian led more than 10,000 troops to reinforce it, and it was almost impossible to defeat it.

"Yes, Suzhou City is small, and there are a lot of original garrisons, Li Jian's army is only afraid that it will be stationed outside Suzhou City, so let's defeat Li Jian first. If it can be successful, it will also be a credit, and it will also boost the morale of the soldiers. Liu Jun encouraged.

Niu Cunjie nodded, the current situation, the more than 30,000 Wu troops led by Zhou Ben and Wang Xuan, because of the relatively close distance, have arrived in Xuzhou City one step ahead of the Liang army; The 13,000 Wu army led by Li Jian also arrived in Suzhou not long ago; As for the Jinling army led by Yang Wu himself, because of the distance, it is still on the way.

If Li Jian could be defeated before Yang Wu arrived, it would not only severely damage the morale of the enemy army, but also boost the morale of the Liang army.

In addition, he had no confidence in attacking Xuzhou Niu Cunjie this time, if he couldn't break through Xuzhou, but he could defeat Li Jian, then he would be able to give an explanation to Zhu Youzhen when he went back.

Of course, if the Wu army in Suzhou was not prepared and let him break through Suzhou, it would be a big victory; However, this possibility is still extremely small, at least there is no hope for Niu Cunjie.

"Well, since this idea is yours, it's up to you to implement it." After Niu Cunjie made up his mind, he immediately gave an order: "This general will personally lead 20,000 troops to contain Zhou Ben in Xiao County, and you will lead 50,000 troops to raid Suzhou." ”

"This ......" Liu Yan hurriedly said: "As the main general, can the general really stay here and take on the task of containment?" It's better for the last general to stay here, and the general will go to Suzhou. ”

"No need, it is precisely because Ben will be the main general, so staying here can better confuse Wu Jun. And this kind of sneak attack is really not the general's strength. Niu Cunjie waved his hand and refused.

"Well, well, the last general will follow the general's arrangement."

"Anyway, you have to try first, and if it doesn't work, you can withdraw it. Our army is already the last mobile army, and we would rather return in vain than lose here! Niu Cunjie finally instructed.

"The general can rest assured, the last general knows it." Liu Yan nodded, and after speaking, he took his leave and went back to prepare.

……

When Liu Jun was preparing to lead his army to raid Suzhou, Yang Wu, who was on the ship, was also busy reminding his troops to be careful of the raid of the Liang army.

"Send people to various states to remind you to pay attention to the secret raids of the Liang army, not only from Zhou Ben's side, but also from Suzhou, Haozhou, Haizhou and even Shouzhou." Lying on the chair, Yang Wu lazily instructed Zhu Jin.

"Is it necessary to send someone to remind you of this? You must know that the guards of each state are all stable people, and they should not give the enemy a chance to sneak attack. Zhu Jin hesitated.

"It is necessary, of course it is necessary. This time, we have an advantage in terms of strength and morale, plus our purpose is to hold Xuzhou, but the enemy army wants to capture Xuzhou, how big is the difference in difficulty, how can Niu Cunjie and the two not know? Guo Chongtao interjected with a smile.

"Yes, if the enemy doesn't come up with a plan, they don't have any chance. But when it comes to intrigue, what could be simpler and more effective than a sneak attack? Yang Wu squinted his eyes and said.

At the same time, he secretly added in his heart: "The most important point is that the deputy commander of the Liang army this time is Liu Jun, who likes sneak attacks the most." ”

In history, Liu Jun's sneak attack can be described as earth-shattering, and he actually directly threw down Li Cunqing's main army, and led 70,000 Liang troops to sneak attack Jinyang, which was empty.

If this makes him successful, maybe the final outcome of Jin Liang's hegemony will be reversed.

It's a pity that his plan is still a little taken for granted, the Liang army, with infantry as the main force, wants to run more than a thousand miles away from Jinyang for a long distance, and there are more cities occupied by the Jin State in the middle, as well as the rugged mountain roads of the Taihang Mountains, plus Li Cunmiao's cavalry still occupies an absolute advantage, in this case, the possibility of success is too small.

And in the end, Liu Jun was almost surrounded by the Jin army because of his intentions exposed, although he escaped after several tosses, but he couldn't escape the fifteenth day of the first month, and finally Liu Jun was surrounded and annihilated by the Jin army under the city of Weizhou, and the 70,000 army was annihilated.

Of course, the responsibility for this defeat is not all on Liu Cheng alone, and Zhu Youzhen, who is in the rear, also needs to bear a lot of responsibility.

After Zhu Jin sent someone to pass the order according to Yang Wu's request, Yang Wu then asked Fan Yu beside him: "Is there any news from Jinling recently?" There is also the Yan Kingdom in the north, I heard that Liu Shouguang can't hold on now, and he has plans to surrender, is there any new news now? ”

"King Qiqi, the situation in Jinling is fine, and nothing important has happened. As for the Northern Yan Kingdom, according to our secret agent's report, Liu Shouguang has asked Zhou Dewei to surrender many times, but Zhou Dewei was worried that he would be cheating, so he refused all of them. ”

Yang Wu's heart moved, and he hurriedly asked, "Can our secret agent even hear this kind of news?" ”

Fan Yu said with a smile on his face: "The minister also arranged in advance in accordance with the king's orders, and he finally lived up to the king's expectations in the past few years." ”

Guo Chongtao and Zhu Jin glanced at each other after hearing this, and their eyes showed the meaning of "sure enough".

"The king really began to secretly send Xizuo to the Jin Kingdom a few years ago, but he didn't know what position he held in the Jin Kingdom."

It's a pity that the affairs of the secret agent are all taken care of by Fan Yu alone, and no one else can interfere, so Zhu Jin and the others know it, but they won't take the initiative to ask.

Yang Wu shook his head with a smile, and said with some disapproval: "Although it is said that Lone asked you to arrange it in advance, but the specific things are done by you, so this is your credit, Lone knows it." ”

Then, he said: "Although Zhou Dewei was out of prudence, he refused Liu Shouguang's surrender. However, Gu felt that Liu Shouguang's surrender this time should be out of sincerity. It seems that the destruction of the Yan Kingdom is just around the corner! After that, Yang Wu frowned and pondered.

Now the state of Wu has been conquered except for Lingnan, and the rest of the south has been conquered; But at the same time, the Jin state will also unify the north, and after sweeping away the threat from the flanks, the Jin army can then move south with all its might.

Of course, another important significance of taking the Yan State for the Jin State is that although the previous Jin State was strong, it was not rich, and it lacked sufficient experience foundation and soldier foundation.

Therefore, every time the Jin army attacked the Liang State, it could often only launch an offensive for a period of time, and then it would be forced to stop the offensive because the logistics and supplies could not keep up.

But now, with Youzhou being included in the Jin State, the last short board of the Jin army has also been filled, with the population and savings of Youzhou as the backing, coupled with the strong strength of the Jin army, it can be said that the current Jin State really has the strength to suppress the Liang State.

Of course, Yang Wu was not worried, first, the Liang State was not so easy to deal with, although the strength of the Liang army was not as strong as the Jin army, it was still easy to contain the Jin army's attack.

As for the second reason, the capture of Youzhou does not mean that Li Cunqing's troubles are over, and Li Cunqiao has several other enemies.

First of all, the two enemies are naturally King Zhao and King Wang Chuzhi, who are still regarded as allies by Li Cunmiao.

The fundamental purpose of these two people is to divide one side, even if they are now under Li Cunqing, but this is only a temporary means of self-preservation.

And Li Cunmiao may not have no ambitions for Zhao and Beiping, although he can still hold back now, but if there is turmoil in these two countries in the future, Li Cunmiao will definitely take the opportunity to start.

As for another big enemy that Li Cunmiao needs to pay attention to, that is, the Khitan king who is now rising rapidly outside the Saiwai, Yelu Abaoji.