Du Fuwei was woken up by his own soldiers in his sleep, "King, General Wang has 100,000 urgent military information to report!" ”

Du Fuwei sat up suddenly, put on a piece of clothing and strode out of the inner tent, "Where is the person?" ”

"My lord, here's the lowly position!"

Wang Xiongtan strode into the tent, he was in charge of the perimeter defense, just half an hour ago, they accidentally intercepted a Sui scout cavalry, and captured two wounded Sui scouts, Wang Xiongtan got a very shocking information.

"What happened?" Du Fuwei saw that Wang Xiongdan's face was wrong.

"Great King, the main force of the Sui army is less than fifty miles away from us, and it is camped in Baoan Town in the northeast."

"What!"

Du Fuwei cried out, the news shocked him, for a while, he turned around and rushed to the map, and found the Baoan Town on the map, which happened to be located between Gaoyou County and Yongfu County, and was indeed only fifty or sixty miles away from them, Du Fuwei suddenly gasped.

"Is the information accurate?"

"Returning to the king, the two scouts who were caught were interrogated separately, and the confessions of the two were consistent, Zhang Xuan personally led the main force of the 12,000 Sui army to kill at two o'clock last night, and he is currently stationed in Baoan Town."

Du Fuwei was in a state of confusion, at this time he didn't care how many Sui troops there were, but how could the Sui army suddenly appear in Baoan Town, didn't Zhang Xuan lead the army north to Xuzhou? Jiangdu County should be empty, why is the information wrong? Could it be that Meng Haigong deceived himself, or

Du Fuwei and Zhang Xuan have dealt with him a few times, and he has already learned how powerful Zhang Xuan is virtual and real, and a thought arose in his heart, maybe Zhang Xuan's going north to Xuzhou is fake, and it is true to lure himself to the east, thinking of this. He suddenly broke out in a cold sweat.

"Hurry up and invite the left army division!"

Du Fuwei hurriedly added: "There are also several generals invited!" ”

Not long after, the military advisor Zuo Caixiang, the former general Fu Gongyi, the right general Ximen Junyi, and the new rear general Kan Ling, who had just replaced Miao Haichao, hurried to the handsome tent together.

"General Wang has just discovered an urgent military situation, Zhang Xuan's main force of about 12,000 troops is probably less than fifty miles away from us."

Du Fuwei said to everyone with a heavy heart: "Let's discuss, what should we do?" ”

The news was really shocking, and everyone looked at each other. Fu Gongqian asked: "Zhang Xuan should at least garrison the Huai River, why did he suddenly go south?" ”

Du Fuwei smiled bitterly, turned back to the military advisor Zuo Caixiang and said, "Tell me about the military advisor!" ”

Everyone's eyes focused on Zuo Caixiang, Zuo Caixiang groaned, and said slowly: "If my expectations are not bad, Zhang Xuan expected that we would sneak attack Jiangdu, he clearly attacked Xuzhou is false, luring us to come is true, and luring us to Jiangdu will be annihilated in one fell swoop." I'm afraid that's what he really meant. ”

Zuo Caixiang's analysis talked about Du Fuwei's heart, and he said to everyone: "Let's discuss, how should we deal with it?" ”

The later general Kan Ling said in a loud voice: "King, we have 35,000 troops, and the Sui army is only more than 10,000. And I am secret, we can ambush the Sui army. ”

Kan Ling was only twenty years old. He is the adopted son of Du Fuwei, and the newborn calf is not afraid of tigers. He hadn't dealt with Zhang Xuan, and he didn't know how powerful Zhang Xuan was, Du Fuwei glared at him fiercely and scolded: "I don't know what is alive or dead, don't I know the comparison of military power?" Want you to talk this kind of nonsense! ”

Ximen Junyi also wanted to agree with the First World War, but Kan Ling was reprimanded. He was too frightened to say anything.

At this time, Fu Gong said in a deep voice: "Although we have the advantage of troops, Zhang Xuan may not be able to fight a decisive battle with us, he only needs to seize the weakness of our lone army and the difficulty of food supply." If you drag it out without a fight, it will drag us to death. ”

Next to Zuo Caixiang also said: "The auxiliary general is very right, the sneak attack is a sneak attack tactics, the decisive battle has a decisive battle method, and the ambush tactics are used to deal with the decisive battle between the two armies, we have no chance of winning, I suggest that the troops be withdrawn back to Huainan immediately." ”

Wang Xiongdan, the left general who has not been silent, also said: "I agree with the opinion of the military division, the opportunity for a decisive battle is that we are not in a hurry at this time, we must first make full preparations, and then it is not too late to fight a decisive battle with the Sui army, and the nine scouts of the Sui army broke through and left, Zhang Xuan already knew that we existed, the ambush was impossible, our morale was not high, and it was not suitable for the decisive battle between the two armies." ”

Du Fuwei was really afraid of Zhang Xuan in his heart, and he didn't dare to fight with Zhang Xuan, and everyone's suggestions made him find the steps, he nodded and said: "Since everyone thinks so, then our first army retreats to Huainan!" ”

He immediately ordered: "Pass my order, and the army will immediately withdraw from camp!" ”

Du Fuwei's army quickly packed up its camp and retreated, and half an hour later, the 35,000-strong army turned around and quickly withdrew westward, giving up the plan to attack Jiangdu County

At the same time that Du Fuwei's army began to retreat westward, Zhang Xuan led 12,000 troops to rush along the abandoned official road in the direction of Yongfu County.

The cavalry scouts of the Sui army were attacked by the thief army and lost more than half, which not only exposed the position of the main force of the Sui army, but also exposed the position of the thief army.

Although Meng Haigong's army was extremely provocative on the north bank of the Huai River, Zhang Xuan still did not accept the invitation, and he ordered Wei Chi Gong to lead 3,000 troops to hold Shanyang, while he secretly led 12,000 troops south to prepare to ambush Du Fuwei's army that was preparing to attack Jiangdu.

It's just that people are not as good as heaven, and an unexpected encounter made both sides suddenly realize that they were so close to each other.

To the west of Gaoyou County is a depression that stretches for dozens of miles, and later this depression formed Gaoyou Lake, but in the Sui Dynasty, the depression is covered with dense forests, and the terrain is very complicated.

However, Zhang Xuan still felt lucky, if it wasn't for his scouts who accidentally encountered the thief army, I am afraid that he would have passed by Du Fuwei's army, and Du Fuwei's army would kill Jiangdu, and the consequences would be unimaginable.

At this time, the sky was already bright, the official road was crowded with lightly armed Sui soldiers going south, the army of 12,000 stretched for three miles, ten cavalry scouts in front to explore the road, due to the rain in the middle of the night, the road was very muddy, the march was also extremely difficult, the speed was not fast, fifty miles away, the army walked for two hours before arriving at Yongfu County.

Almost half of the tents had not been removed, the fire in the stove had not been completely extinguished, and the grain carts with wheels, broken grain bags, various weapons, gongs and drums, battle flags, and so on were piled up like a hill.

At this time, the county magistrate of Yongfu County was led to Zhang Xuan, and he hurriedly bowed down and saluted, "The lower officials see the general of the envoy!" ”

"How many troops are there in the thief army?"

Jang Hyun asked, "How long have they been retreating?" ”

"General Hui, there are about thirty or forty thousand troops, and they just evacuated more than an hour ago."

"How much baggage did you bring?" Zhang Xuan asked again.

"They walked in a very hurry, we could see clearly from the top of the city, they had brought almost no baggage, and the tent vehicles were all abandoned."

At this time, Pei Xingyan said on the side: "General, I am willing to lead the army to pursue, and I should be able to catch up." ”

Zhang Xuan shook his head, "The other party has more than 30,000 troops, several times more than us, they retreated in a hurry just out of fear, but also because they are short of food, you take thousands of troops to pursue it to no avail, but will be swallowed by the other party in one bite, he will turn around and gradually eat us." ”

"Are you going to let them leave?" Luo Shixin also said urgently.

Zhang Xuan pondered for a moment and said to the generals: "Everyone is following behind, not allowed to pursue, and must keep a distance of thirty miles from the thief army." ”

After a pause, he explained to the generals: "The biggest weakness of the thief army is the lack of food, they expect to get supplies from the capture of Jiangdu, so we keep an eye on the thief army, but do not fight the thief army head-on, deplete their food, weaken their morale, and then is our chance." ”

"But what if the thief army refuses to confront us and retreats to Huainan all the way? And we don't have enough food. Su Dingfang said on the side.

Zhang Xuan smiled slightly: "Our pursuit must have an end, once the thief army leaves Jiangdu County, then with the grain in his hands can no longer return to Jiangdu, can only withdraw to Huainan County or Lujiang County, so as long as the thief army leaves Jiangdu County, we will stop the pursuit, continue to go north to the Huai River, and then find an opportunity to clean up Du Fuwei in the future." ”

Zhang Xuan made a deployment, and the Sui army did not stop, and continued to march westward, following the thief army thirty miles away, and the army followed the thief army out of Jiangdu County before finally stopping the pursuit.

At this time, the food of Du Fuwei's army could only last for three days, and it was no longer realistic to return to Jiangdu, so Du Fuwei had to die to attack Jiangdu and honestly returned to Huainan County.

Zhang Xuan led the Sui army to the north of Huaming County, and at this time, sixty large cargo ships loaded with grain had been waiting for the Sui army for a long time in Huaming County, eighty miles away. (To be continued.) )