Wang Shichong's army in Jingzhou was 50,000 people, and after they took Xiangyang County and Jingling County, they only stationed 5,000 troops in each of the two counties, and the remaining 40,000 troops were led by the general Wang Renze and the deputy general Tian Zan to fight into Nanjun and besiege Jiangling City. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Only by taking Jiangling City can we occupy Nanjun, and only then can we have the opportunity to implement Wang Shichong's national policy of expanding south, so Wang Shichong issued a strict order to take Jiangling City at all costs.

At this time, Li Xiaogong and his 20,000 descendant troops who had just withdrawn from Jiangxia were stationed in Jiangling City, and Li Xiaogong was eager to make meritorious service to redeem his defeat in Jiangxia, he personally went to the city to participate in the defense, and the battle of nearly ten days was extremely tragic, the Zheng army suffered more than 10,000 casualties, and the Tang army also had a loss of nearly 5,000 people, but the tall and strong Jiangling City was still majestic, almost making Wang Ren despair.

At this moment, the urgent edict of Wang Shichong, the Son of Heaven, came, ordering him to immediately withdraw north to Nanyang, and Wang Ren knew that the Tang army had entered Xiyang County, all the way like a bamboo, and the Zheng army was defeated and retreated, which made Wang Shichong shocked, and immediately led the army to retreat north, ending the battle of besieging Jiangling City.

The Zheng army has retreated north for nearly a day, but the Tang army in Jiangling City still does not dare to relax, and is ready for battle, Li Xiaogong stands at the head of the city, looking at the north from afar, his eyes are very complicated, just last night he received a report from Jiangxia, it was sent by Chen Shuda, the content of the express report really made him unacceptable, the imperial court has decided to give up Jingzhou, Chen Shuda asked him to lead the army back to Bashu as soon as possible to rest.

He fought fiercely against the enemy for ten days, paying a heavy price of 5,000 soldiers' casualties, but in exchange for such a result, Li Xiaogong was very angry, but his anger could not be vented, he knew that this was the decision of the Son of Heaven, not that he could resist, and his anger turned into frustration, which made Li Xiaogong sleepless all night.

At this time, the adjutant general Lu Zushang stepped forward and said in a low voice: "It seems that the Zheng army has really retreated north." ”

Li Xiaogong nodded silently, Chen Shuda's letter had already told him that the Tang army was attacking Xiyang County and Hongnong County, and the Zheng army had to retreat north, but ..... How bitter is the news of this victory.

"Your Highness, what should we do? Withdraw to Yiling? ”

Li Xiaogong's lips bit tighter and tighter, and he slowly ordered: "We will also go north and participate in the encirclement and annihilation of the Zheng army in the north!" ”

After speaking, Li Xiaogong turned around and walked towards the city, but Xiangguo Chen Shuda asked him to withdraw to Bashu, this is not an order of the Son of Heaven, he does not have to obey it.

An hour later, Li Xiaogong led 15,000 troops to leave Jiangling City and march north, following the trajectory of Zheng's retreat in the direction of Xiangyang County.

........

There are two roads from Nanjun to Xiangyang County, one is the western line, take Dangyang and directly enter Xiangyang County, which is also the road for Liu Bei to withdraw from Jiangling in the south of Fancheng, and the other is the eastern route, first from Nanjun to Jingling County, and then along the Han River to the north, directly into Xiangyang, only from the distance of the western line to nearly 300 miles, the road is not completely mountainous, most of them are still gentle wilderness, and not like the eastern line of the river network vertical and horizontal.

However, the Zheng army still chose the eastern front for its northward retreat, and the fundamental reason was that the grain supply point of the Zheng army was located on the eastern front, and in Fengxiang County, in the middle of Jingling County and on the west bank of the Han River, the Zheng army actually had to take the eastern front.

Wang Renze's retreat to the north this time was also full of anger, the army trekked through mountains and rivers to the south, consuming strength and food, and besieging Jiangling City for ten days was more than 13,000 casualties, and now because the Tang army attacked Xiyang County and Hongnong County, all plans to go south were abandoned, and nothing was gained, which made Wang Renze how could he not be angry and rush to the crown, how could he not be depressed?

Wang Ren led the army north with a gloomy face, and all the generals knew that he was in a bad mood, and no one dared to provoke him, but at the same time, the evil consequences of not being able to capture Jiangling City in ten days were constantly highlighted, and the morale was very low, and thousands of wounded soldiers who went north with the army could not be treated and continued to die, and various rumors of the fall of Luoyang spread in the army, so that the army's morale was on the verge of collapse.

But no general dared to report to Wang Renze, everyone knows Wang Renze, everyone says that Wang Renze is most like his uncle Wang Shichong, not only refers to his decisive killing, but also refers to his ruthless heart, regards human life as a mustard, and Wang Shichong is the same, the icing on the cake can be rewarded, but if he is in a bad mood to add fuel to the fire, he will definitely die.

No one dared to report it, but the situation in the army deteriorated, and deserters began to appear.

After four days of marching, the army was still fifty miles away from Fengxiang County that night, but it was too late to go to the county seat and station, so the army had to be temporarily stationed in a wilderness on the west bank of the Han River.

Wang Renze also felt the abnormality of the army, and the speed of the army's march was significantly accelerated today, which meant that there was no drag from the wounded, although Wang Renze did not care about the life or death of the wounded soldiers, but the attrition of a large number of wounded soldiers still made Wang Renze feel a little worried.

Wang Ren did not believe the general's report, and the so-called wounded soldiers could not stand the forced march of the army and voluntarily stayed, and he needed to find out the truth himself.

In the night, more than 20,000 Zheng soldiers had no tents, lying in the wilderness, most of the soldiers were exhausted, wrapped in blankets and sleeping on the ground, Wang Ren rode horses and led dozens of people to patrol everywhere, but walked around and did not see the wounded soldiers, which really made Wang Ren confused, did the wounded soldiers really leave by themselves?

At this time, a little fire flashed from a forest in the distance, which was particularly dazzling in the dark night, Wang Ren was stunned, reached out and took his broadsword from the soldier's hand, and rode his horse towards the woods, followed by dozens of personal soldiers.

After a while, Wang Ren entered the woods, and he waved his hand back, and the soldiers immediately slowed down, and followed the general into the woods, and through a bush, Wang Ren saw that in a clearing, fifteen or sixteen soldiers were gathering together to discuss something, and one of the soldiers held a fire sickle in his hand, and lit it to look at the map.

"Don't light the fire, it's easy to be discovered, and no one will survive if they are chased back by Wang Renze!" A man who looked like a general rebuked.

Wang Ren immediately recognized this general, who was a partial general of his former army, named Zhou Tiecheng, and Wang Ren was immediately furious, hoping that these soldiers wanted to be deserters.

"You all die!"

Wang Ren roared and urged the horse to rush out, more than a dozen soldiers were frightened and stunned, motionless, the blade slashed, two human heads flew up, and the blood mist was filled, and the soldiers reacted and fled in all directions shouting.

Zhou Tiecheng turned around and ran wildly into the woods, but only ran a few steps, an arrow hit his thigh, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground, before he could get up, Wang Renze's big knife had already come from behind, Zhou Tiecheng sighed, closed his eyes and waited for death.

But Wang Ren stopped the big knife at the last moment and shouted: "I treat you well, why should you be a deserter and mess with my army's heart!" ”

"Military heart?"

Zhou Tiecheng sneered, "Where is the army's military heart?" If it weren't for the fact that there was still some food in the army and rushed back to Luoyang, the army would have dispersed a long time ago. ”

Wang Ren heard a hint of clues, and the big knife in his hand loosened slightly, and asked, "What do you mean by this?" ”

"Do you think I'm the first deserter?"

Zhou Tiecheng's tone was full of contempt, "You go to check, how many soldiers have escaped?" The wounded soldiers are all dead, who is willing to die for you, I just hate this, I chose to leave, if you want to kill, you will kill, I will never go back! ”

Wang Ren was so angry that he trembled, he cut off Zhou Tiecheng with a knife, and shouted angrily: "Go back to the camp!" ”

Wang Ren returned to the camp angrily and immediately ordered: "Order all the Hu Benlang generals to come to my big tent!" ”

Wang Shichong's military system imitates that of the Northern Sui, but their Tiger Benlang General is not valuable, and there are generals and generals above the Tiger Benlang General, and the Tiger Benlang General is actually only equivalent to the Eagle Yang Lang General of the Northern Sui.

Not long after, more than 20 Zheng army generals rushed to the big tent, and Wang Ren scolded them so much that they scolded for nearly half an hour, and finally ordered: "Give me the accurate number of people in each battalion within one hour, and whoever dares to falsely report one person will be immediately beheaded!" (To be continued.) )