In the face of the raging fire blocking the pursuit, Wang Yuan behaved very calmly, which made Song Jiangong very puzzled.

"Vice Marshal Wang, do you want to order the fire to extinguish the fire, and then continue to chase and kill?"

Wang Yuan frowned at the restless black horse and said, "No need, order the whole army to retreat, rest in place, and wait for the fire to go out." ”

Song Jiangong was extremely puzzled, but he did not dare to disobey Wang Yuan's orders, and the current orders were frequent, and the cavalry retreated away from the burning streets, drinking water and eating dry food in place and sitting around to rest. After a night of trekking, there was another big battle, and everyone was tired to death, and many people even snored in the street.

Song Jiangong couldn't see this kind of laxity, the enemy was at present, tens of thousands of barbarian soldiers were in the south of the city, just a few blocks away from the fire, and Deputy Marshal Wang was too careless. Song Jiangong was angry and found a courtyard where Wang Yuan was temporarily resting, and saw that Wang Yuan and several of his subordinates had also taken off their armor and sat together eating and chatting, and suddenly became angry.

"Vice Marshal Wang, the humble position is not to turn up, we don't fight the fire and attack, but at least we must actively do a good job of defense, some people have already taken off their armor and slept, this is too lax, if the brute turns around to attack, how is it good?

Wang Yuan smiled and said, "General Song, please take a seat, you just said that it is, aren't we the ones who have taken off their armor?" Soldiers, I'm sure they didn't take off their armor. I know you have some questions in your mind, you sit down and take a sip of water, and I'll answer your questions. ”

Song Jiangong sat down reluctantly, and asked in a displeased tone: "Just ask, why didn't Vice Marshal Wang give the order to put out the fire, and then continue to chase and kill the enemy?" ”

Wang Yuan smiled and said, "Sima Song, haven't you noticed how many soldiers and horses I brought here?" ”

Song Jiangong was stunned and said, "I didn't pay attention to this." How many soldiers and horses did Vice Marshal Wang bring? ”

Wang Yuan said: "I only brought more than 3,000 cavalry to the rescue in advance. The 20,000 infantry behind were still on the way, and it would take at least time to arrive. In order to rescue in time, I took these more than 3,000 cavalry to cross the Lushui River to reinforce first. Just now, the barbarians didn't know the details, thinking that our brigade of reinforcements had arrived, so they were caught off guard by our killing. If they only knew that we only had 3,000 cavalry, do you think they would still escape? ”

Song Jiangong was dumbfounded: "Humble duty should be damned, I didn't know that the deputy marshal only brought thousands of cavalry to the rescue." In this way, it is not possible to hunt down. The sky is about to dawn, and after dawn the brutes will know our details. When the time comes, it will be troublesome. ”

Wang Yuan nodded and said, "Yes, it's good if you understand, I can't ask for them to set fire to prevent us from attacking." Otherwise, if I order to stop the pursuit, they will be suspicious. Now they will think that we are blocked by fire, and they will not dare to put out the fire, for fear that they will attack with feathered arrows. So it's time for us to rest. ”

Song Jiangong said with a smile: "In this way, the barbarian soldiers have done us a favor, and the deputy marshal is calculating." ”

Wang Yuan shook his head and said, "I didn't calculate so much. It's just that they have calculated themselves. ”

Song Jiangong reached out and grabbed a piece of bread and took a bite and said: "Even so, we can't be so relaxed, if they understand that they come and fight back, it won't be a trouble?" ”

Wang Yuan thought for a while and said, "General Song, if my guess is correct, the barbarian soldiers are evacuating Quzhou, and they won't be entangled with us here." ”

Song Jiangong swallowed the cake and said in surprise: "How is it possible?" ”

Wang Yuan got up and said, "Let's go to the high place of the city wall and take a look." ”

Song Jiangong followed Wang Yuan and others to the high east city wall, and after climbing the city wall, he looked into the south city. Seeing the torches in the southern city, the barbarians seemed to be evacuating outside the city in an orderly manner, and the torches were also lit on the hillside outside the city, and the barbarian army was entering the mountains and forests of Wumeng Mountain.

"This ...... What's going on? They're just running away? Song Jiangong was stunned.

Wang Yuan said: "They didn't run, but evacuated. Don't you see that they don't have the slightest panic? If we go after them, they will set up fortifications in the main streets, and they will inflict great wounds on us with their bows and arrows, so we will have to watch them retreat. ”

Song Jiangong smacked his lips and said, "But why did they withdraw their troops?" What makes sense? Are we afraid that we can't do it? ”

Wang Yuan smiled and shook his head: "Afraid? I'm afraid that why do they dare to attack Quzhou? When did Nanzhao dare to take the initiative to attack my Tang City? Haven't you thought about it? ”

Song Jiangong frowned and said: "I have thought about it, I think that the barbarians have taken our Yaozhou and defeated our army, maybe they think we are vulnerable, so they want to take my Quzhou and put pressure on my court." ”

Wang Yuan said: "What you said is not unreasonable. But that's not the point. I was thinking about a problem all the way forward, with the power of the Southern Zhao Kingdom, I might be able to barely protect myself, but taking the initiative to attack my Tang City is beyond my power. And attacking Quzhou is even more stupid. They know that the main force of my Jiannan Jiedu soldiers and horses is in Quzhou, but they are still attacking Quzhou hard, isn't this stupid? How many soldiers and horses did Ge Luofeng have? But about 40,000. How many defenders were there in Quzhou before, more than 30,000 and nearly 40,000 troops, if it were you, would you attack the city with equal forces? ”

Song Jiangong frowned and said: "It doesn't seem to make sense, they attacked Yaozhou because there were only a few thousand defenders in Yaozhou, and they wanted to kill Zhang Qiantuo, so they dared to attack the city." Attacking my Quzhou seems to be an unreasonable random attack. Before attacking Quzhou, there was no warning, the brute soldiers have been stationed in Yaozhou, we have been safe for nearly a month, suddenly they poured out of the mountains and forests to feint Ludian County, Sun Youneng ran to the rescue and was ambushed by them and lost thousands of soldiers and horses, and then they bit Quzhou and did not let go. ”

Wang Yuan nodded and said: "It is conceivable that there must be an inside story, and there has been nothing to do for more than a month, which shows that Ge Luofeng is actually very conflicted and worried in his heart, if he has ambitions, he can attack Wangzhou or Quzhou in one go after the Battle of Lushui, but he did not do so." There is only one reason why a person who is usually hesitant and cowardly suddenly becomes tough and decisive, and that is that he has a backer. I think Ge Luofeng must have a backer. If my Tang Dynasty and Nanzhao go to war, the Tubo people will not stand idly by, and I suspect that the Tubo State must have given Ge Luofeng some kind of support. Just like in the past, when I was blessed by the Tang Dynasty, the Nanzhao State was tough on the Tubo State, which is a reason. ”

"It must be so! I also thought about this matter, and I once mentioned it to Xian Yu Dashuai, I don't know if Xian Yu Dashuai is concerned and whether he will send someone to collect information about this. ”

Wang Yuan smiled bitterly, and said in his heart: I don't worry about these things in Dashuai, he didn't tell me much about the battle situation, and he was not the material for the war at all, so he hurried to the capital and counted on him, it was a vain.

"But even so, what does this have to do with the evacuation of the barbarians? Now that they have a backer, they should fight to the death with us today, and it is easy to capture Quzhou, so do they want to give it up? Song Jiangong frowned.

Wang Yuan said: "I understand it this way, a Ge Luofeng is unwilling to fight with us, his number of soldiers and horses is not large, and it is also very precious, there is no favorable combat conditions, he will never fight with me." Do you think that in the street fight in Quzhou City, he will be our opponent. But what if you go out of the city? Full of mountains, canyons, mountains and forests, that is his geographical advantage, our cavalry is useless, that is the battlefield he wants, so this evacuation is a wise move, he does not want to have a big battle with us in Quzhou City after dawn. ”

"But if he didn't want to fight head-on, why did he attack Quzhou City? And the attack is so fierce? ”

Wang Yuan nodded and said: "This is the second point I want to say, just now we analyzed that if Luo Feng and Tubo reach an agreement, then Tubo will definitely make some moves." Is it a kind of cooperative action for Tubo that Ge Luofeng brazenly attacked Quzhou, the purpose is to restrain the main force of my Jiannan soldiers and horses from rescue, is this a possibility? And because of Sun Youneng's unauthorized evacuation, Quzhou fell unexpectedly, Ge Luofeng may not have expected to take Quzhou, which was an accident for him. So when the reinforcements arrived, Ge Luofeng withdrew without hesitation. Do you think that makes sense? ”

Song Jiangong nodded slowly and said: "It does make sense, before Sun Youneng withdrew, they seemed to be really weak in attacking, and there was no further onslaught when they attacked the city several times, but Sun Youneng was scared." But according to Deputy Marshal Wang's analysis, they are attacking here in order to make it impossible for the main force of our Quzhou to leave and cooperate with the actions of Tubo. So which city will be attacked? Why don't we have any news yet? ”

Wang Yuan said: "No news is not good news, and it must be a big surprise when the news comes." The city most likely to be attacked at the moment is ......"

"Wangzhou." Liu Jun said loudly.

Wang Yuan nodded approvingly and said: "Yes, Wangzhou, there are only 12,000 soldiers and horses guarding the palace, and it was originally the Nanzhao soldiers and horses to prevent the occupation of Huichuan, which is naturally more than enough." But if the Tibetans want to wade through this troubled water, the fastest way is to send troops from the city of Luqi, and within a few days they can reach Huichuan along the Jinsha River, and then they can directly attack Wangzhou. Therefore, my name Zhao Qing has led people to Wangzhou to find out the situation, no accident, there will be news tonight. ”

Song Jiangong sweated on his forehead and said: "Vice Marshal Wang, your analysis, I think things are very tricky. ”

Wang Yuan nodded and said, "If Nanzhao really unites with Tubo, how can things be so tricky?" ”