Huang Jinman and Su Ziyuan led the army north, causing a commotion in Guancheng. None of the soldiers dared to ask openly, but there was a hint of trepidation in the eyes of the private exchange for this.

Han Gang sighed secretly, he said that the raid on Penn by the Jiaozhi Army would not affect the morale of the army, but in fact, his subordinates would inevitably be shaken when they saw the Golden Manchurian army heading north.

"Li Xin, Huang Quan." Han Gang named the main general, "You will pass on the news of the Jiaozhi Army's sneak attack on Pennsylvania, so that the soldiers don't have to panic." "What cannot be concealed must be made public, and only by being above board can there be no place for rumors to breed.

Originally, there were 600 actual soldiers in Penn City, plus Huang Quan's 1,000 people, it was 1,060. In addition, there are also armor that has just been recruited, but they do not have weapons yet, so they can only be used as a supplementary source of troops when defending the city. With so many people defending the city, even if it broke through the defense of Pennsylvania, it was impossible to occupy the city immediately. It's just that since you are in a situation of being raided, you still have to be prepared for the worst. So Han Gang sent two thousand soldiers in one go, hoping that they could solve the enemy behind him as soon as possible.

And Han Gang is now waiting for Li Changjie to attack. He still has 3,000 soldiers in his hands, and the strength is about the same as when he was in Quy Nhon a few days ago.

Compared with the humble camp of Quy Nhon Pu, Kunlun Pass is much stronger. The location of the gate is not dangerous, and the wall that extends to the mountains on both sides is not too high, and it is far from the famous passes in the north. However, the entire fortress was also carefully built, and it was impossible to attack it directly with the siege methods of the Jiaozhi people alone. But even if Li Changjie's military rations are enough, it is difficult to transport them, and there are morale problems, so it won't last many days, and the time is on his side of Han Gang.

Walk out of the tower. I don't know when the rain has lightened, and the clouds in the sky look much thinner, no longer heavy leaden gray, but white and shiny. A crack opened in the clouds, and a ray of sunlight fell and shone on the city of Kunlun Pass. The tiles of the castle tower, which still bear traces of water, are shining, and are gilded with a dazzling golden glow by the long-lost sunlight.

"This is a good omen!"

A shout sounded behind him, and Han Gang looked back in surprise, but saw that it was He Yi.

He Yi had been following Han Gang for a long time, and now he finally had a chance to speak, he pointed to the golden tower: "This is an auspicious omen." Riyao City Tower, it can be seen that our officers and soldiers have the blessing of God, but the thieves have been drenched in the rain for many days. This battle will be won by our officers and troops! ”

By his voice, the defenders in the city all looked towards the city tower, and saw a dark world, only the sun reflected on the top of the city tower, shining, as if there was really a blessing from heaven. The enemy troops running horses under the city are no longer in their eyes.

Li Xin nodded with satisfaction at He Yi, his voice was just right at the right time. Turning around, he pointed to the cavalry under the city: "As soon as Jiaozhi's partial division attacked Binzhou City, Li Changjie began to attack. Separated by dozens of miles of mountains and forests, how did they get in touch? Li Xin threw his doubts at Han Gang.

Han Gang's body was shocked, this question had been ignored by him before, and now that he thought about it, it was indeed full of questions, what was going on?

Frowning and thinking for a moment, he had to shake his head, he really couldn't figure it out, instant contact was impossible, if you wanted to talk about the agreement in advance, it would be even more impossible, who could guarantee that Penn would definitely be able to win it? said earlier that Li Changjie was crazy, saying that he was desperate, but he didn't say that he was stupid.

"And wait for the news from Pennsylvania, when there will be a reasonable answer."

…………………………

For a few days, the sound of rain that had been in my ears gradually stopped.

Li Changjie has finished neatly, and his helmet and armor are all on his body. Walking out of the tent, the 2,000 soldiers and horses guarding the commander were ready to go, waiting for him to give the order to advance. And the front army and the rear army have also been waiting for his order for a long time.

Li Changjie had done his best, if it wasn't for confirming the true combat effectiveness of the Song army, he would never have forced himself into a dangerous situation where he had to fight a decisive battle.

Due to the geographical topography, Jiaozhi knew the Song army on the two roads of Guangnan well, and even knew more about the Son of Heaven and the prime minister in the city of Tokyo. The consistently clumsy performance of the Guangxi Song Army allowed him to see the future of a big victory. But when Li Changjie fought with the real elite of the Song army, he found that his previous judgment was completely based on a wrong basis.

This is only the army from Jingnan, and the northern army that once stepped on Nong Zhigao has not yet appeared. If they do, I don't know how terrifying it will be.

Jiaozhi has always looked down on Guangyuanzhou, and Li Changjie also looks down on Nong Zhigao. Nong Zhigao's father still died in the country of Jiaozhi, but how many times did Nong Zhigao plan to avenge his father? He only dared to bully the Song people. Although Nong Zhigao was destroyed by Di Qing after that, it was not a good thing to defeat Nong Zhigao, Di Qing sat in the position of privy envoy with this merit, and asked how to make Jiaozhi look up to the Song army.

But Li Changjie now knows that he is very wrong-no, in fact, he already knows that he is wrong under the city of Yongzhou-fortunately, there is still a chance to redeem it, his army is still strong, and after he dispersed the gains in Qinzhou Lianzhou, his morale has also been boosted a lot. As long as this strategy can succeed, the stubborn enemy who is blocked by the stone in front of him will be like a porcelain shattered into thousands of pieces.

Stepping on the horse and pulling the sword in the box, Li Changjie pointed to the north, and at the same time the drum and trumpet sounded to convey his order: "Forward!" ”

…………………………

In the afternoon, the news from the fast horses in the rear made everyone in Kunlun Pass breathe a sigh of relief.

The Jiaozhi army, which attacked Pennsylvania, failed to capture the city, and after receiving a counterattack from the city, it bypassed Pennsylvania to the east and continued to the southeast. Now there is a group of cavalry with Huang Jinman staring at it, and this group of Jiaozhi soldiers, numbering about seven or eight hundred, cannot escape the tracking of the official army.

Han Gang immediately let Li Xin and Huang Quan pass on the news, and there was no need to worry about the rear being attacked while facing the enemy army in front, and the cheers suddenly resounded throughout the city.

Stepping out of the tower, he looked at the cochin cavalry that had approached a mile away. The mountain road they were on was quite wide—most of the road behind Kunlun Pass was actually as wide as the official road outside the mountain—but dozens of riders were crowded on a short stretch of road, and at a distance of fifty or sixty paces, the Song cavalry confronting them was only a dozen or so, but the Jiaozhi cavalry did not dare to cross the line even a single step.

"Aren't they afraid of falling in the mud?" Han Gang shook his head at the Jiaozhi cavalry, turned to Li Xin, and said, "Now it can finally be determined." ”

"What?" Li Xin asked suspiciously, "What happened to those cavalry?" ”

"It's not cavalry, it's the matter of the Jiaozhi soldiers who raided Pennsylvania. It was impossible for Li Changjie to get in touch with this army and horses, and he had no intention of contacting him, they gave up attacking Pennsylvania and gave up too easily. If it is an appointment to defeat Pennsylvania, and Li Changjie will not be so stupid. "As long as he has seen the mountains and forests of Kunlun Pass with his own eyes, Han Gang can be completely sure that there is no means of information exchange in later generations, relying on manpower to transmit news, it is impossible to pinch the time of the attack on both sides," Their purpose is not to take Penn City, but only to disturb the rear of Kunlun Pass, so that we must divide our troops to encircle and suppress." ”

"But ...... in time"

"Whether or not we can capture Penn City, no one can say for sure, but the time to cross the mountains can be roughly determined. There is no need to contact, there is no need to agree, as long as we avoid the real and the false all the way, as long as we do not give siege, as long as we appear outside the city of Pennsylvania, we will send troops to encircle and suppress, at least leave a part of the troops to guard. ”

"But this part of the Jiaozhi soldiers came around, not to siege the city, but to harass. It's not for the sake of death, but to flee to the southeast......" Li Xin seemed to have a flash of inspiration in his mind, "Is it preparing to flee to Hengzhou!" ”

As he spoke, he turned around and walked into the city tower, unfolding a map of Guangxi Road in the hall.

Han Gang followed, and saw Li Xin pointing to a rough map like children's graffiti, "Hengzhou is in the southeast of Pennsylvania, Qinzhou in the south, and Yongzhou in the southwest. As long as they go to Hengzhou, it will be easy for them to go back to Yongzhou or simply to Qinzhou. ”

"This is a hard meal, we don't have enough troops." Han Gang sighed deeply, this is no way, attacking the enemy's shortcomings with his own strengths, Li Changjie acted in line with the right way of war: "As long as we divide our troops, many things will be ...... Just ......" he stared at the map, his eyes changed suddenly, "After Zuojiang left Yongzhou, he happened to pass through Hengzhou!" ”

"Take a boat back to Yongzhou...... Wrong! Li Xin immediately shook his head and exclaimed, "It's a boat to go down to Hengzhou!" ”

Han Gang nodded solemnly: "The Jiaozhi army has a ship." The officers and troops have retreated to Kunlun Pass, and the possibility of Liu Ji and the three defecting is already very small. If the Guangyuan barbarian army had already crossed the Zuojiang River at this time and returned to the south, Li Changjie would not need to divide a large number of troops to keep an eye on them. There are at least 10,000 people in the idle team, and as long as they get on the boat in Yongzhou, they can take a boat along the Zuojiang River and go straight down to Hengzhou. In the north of Yongding County, you can go straight to the southeast of Pennsylvania and reach the back of Kunlun Pass. There were not many ships on the Zuojiang River, and it took three or four days to send five thousand soldiers and horses to Hengzhou. From Hengzhou to Pennsylvania, there are no military walls and cities along the way, and there will be no one to defend them. ”

As the speculation and map corroborated it, Han Gang became more and more sure of his judgment. I was blinded by Li Changjie before. First, he saw that he had 20,000 soldiers with him, thinking that he had to keep an eye on the Guangyuan barbarian army, and it was impossible to have many more troops to mobilize. Today, I saw that he sent a partial division over the mountains and mountains to attack Pennsylvania, and the attention of himself and the generals below was all taken away by his action.

Han Gang regretted a little that he had gone south too hastily and led an unfamiliar team to fight repeatedly, and did not implement the staff system that was originally effective in the Western Army. It's true that I'm too negligent. In fact, if there is a desire to build, there is still time to establish a staff system that can be brainstormed, although it is inevitably crude and primitive. But many questions can be left to the officers below to think about and deduce, even if most of what they say is nonsense, at least they can pick up the gaps and give themselves a reference. This is far more effective than the power of one person.

Li Xin didn't know that Han Gang was regretting it, "But what about their grain and grass problems?" They can still use miscellaneous soldiers and mules and horses to transport grain here, but when they arrive in Hengzhou, they have to rush north, and they don't have time to attack the city and grab grain, right? ”

"Su Boxu told me a few days ago that in the military states of Guangxi's interior, except for the state capital, there are very few city walls in the counties below." Han Gang shook his head and sighed, "Yongding County's grain storage is enough for them to eat and take." ”

"What about time?" Li Xin looked solemn, "When will they arrive?!" ”

"Maybe in a day or two," Han Gang and Li Xin glanced at each other and nodded at the same time, "I'm going to fight!" ”

Li Changjie put so much thought into his plan to attack in front and back, could he have imagined that the defenders in Guancheng would fight first, not to mention, it was obvious that he had no confidence in the army under his command. Although the plan is exquisite, once you see through it, it is nothing.

Although the Kunlun Pass side has divided the troops, the situation of Li Changjie's division of troops is more serious, and he still has the dream of hitting the Kunlun Pass behind the partial division.