"What? Negotiate with Zhou Jun? - Your Royal Highness, have you been too tired and confused these days? ”

In the tent of the Xiakou Taiping Army Barracks, the general Xu Le stared at [Heavenly Ji] Liu Qing with wide eyes, and his face was incredulous.

"Xu Le, how do you speak?!" Liu Qing's personal army commander and the commander of the Tianfu Army, Yang Yu, frowned and glared at Xu Le.

It can be seen that Yang Yu's mood is not very good, it should be said that since he met Mo Fei that day and was injured by him, Yang Yu has not been in a good mood in the past few days.

In this regard, Wei Xuan gloated and secretly laughed.

This monster, who was not inferior to Chen Bei, was actually injured......

The sharp-eyed Wei Crepe clearly saw the bandage wrapped around Yang Yu's left wrist, which was faintly bleeding, just looking at Yang Yu's left hand hanging down, Wei Crepe knew that he was not lightly injured, it was very likely to hurt the muscles and bones, and even the left hand was scrapped.

For this reason, Wei Xuan was not surprised at all, after all, Yang Yu had faced the strongest assassin under Xie An's command today, one of the four heavenly kings of Dongling, the murderer [sickle] Mo Fei, who was the night three days ago, and it was already quite a great thing to be able to repel Mo Fei alive.

Even Wei Xuan secretly felt regretful that Mo Fei met the commander of this [Heavenly Ji] Liu Qing's personal army, if he had been replaced by other generals in the tent at this moment, he would have been killed by Mo Fei.

It's a pity, Captain Modu......

Wei Xuan secretly felt sorry for Mo Fei in his heart.

Just when Wei Xuan secretly cursed Yang Yu for why this guy didn't die in Mo Fei's hands, Xu Le, who was drunk by Yang Yu, waved his hand again and again, and explained in a bit of a panic, "I'm not...... It's not that it's disrespectful to Her Royal Highness the Princess, the last general really can't figure it out, why would Her Royal Highness the Princess think of negotiating with Zhou Jun? ”

"General Xu Le, don't be impatient, wait for me to talk about it in detail." Raised his hand to signal Xu Lemo to be restrained. Liu Qing Zhengse said, "This morning, the scouts came to report that Xie An's more than 60,000 Liang troops had arrived in Xiakou yesterday and set up camp ten miles away from this port...... It's only ten miles away! Do you know what this means, generals? ”

"The Zhou army is ready to storm our army?" General Feng Xi frowned and asked.

"Not bad, but not quite." Glancing approvingly at Feng Xi, Liu Qing said in a deep voice, "Then Xie An has a habit, I don't know if he notices it himself." -- That is. The location where he set up camp and the village will basically be thirty miles away from our army. ”

"This is quite similar to Her Royal Highness the Princess...... "General Chu Qi said with a chuckle.

"That's right!" With a bitter smile, Liu Qing shook her head and continued, "As far as I know. The army of the Great Zhou, and even many generals under the command of our army, were accustomed to camping twenty or even ten miles away from the enemy, which was quite dangerous. The distance of ten miles is only one and a half to two hours, and the rapid march can even reach it in an hour. What does this mean? It means that once one of them launches a surprise attack, the other side will not have time to deal with it! -- Therefore. I am accustomed to camp thirty miles away from the enemy, so that even if the enemy attacks, our scouts will have enough time to return to the camp to pay their respects. Tell the whole army to be on guard. In this regard, Xie An is indeed quite similar to me.

But this time, Xie An chose to camp ten miles away from our army, he was putting pressure on our army! ”

The princess meant it. So Xie An, is this what he means to our army? ――[Surprise attack at any time!] The Six Divine Generals [Yuheng Divine General] Qi Zhi said solemnly.

"Not bad!" Liu Qing nodded and said in a deep voice. "Then Xie An is indeed very smart and witty! -- Two days ago, I wrote a letter and sent it to him, with only four words written on it, [Do you really want to fight?] I meant to warn him that if he pushes our army too hard, our army will also have the consciousness that it would rather be broken than destroyed! ”

The generals in the tent tightened their hearts when they heard this, as if Liu Qing's resolute words ignited the excitement in their hearts and made them feel a kind of blood boiling.

"I was going to force Xie An to make a choice: either he pressed forward step by step, and our army was trapped in Xiakou, and fought to the death with him here, rather than be broken than destroyed; Or, he postponed the march and allowed our army to cross the river. ”

"Then Xie An will let our army cross the river safely?" General Yan Shao asked with a suspicious expression.

"Of course he won't let our army go easily!" Liu Qing chuckled lightly and said lightly, "However, he also knows that if he pushes our army too hard, it will also be extremely disadvantageous to him." - Although he is a little unwilling, he has to admit that with the current strength of our army, it may be difficult to defeat the Great Liang Army, but he also has to admit that our army still has the strength to inflict heavy losses on him! -- Xie An didn't dare to gamble, it had been more than a month since the 100,000 Jizhou soldiers under the command of [King of the Eight Sages] Li Xian were trapped in Jiangling in Nan County, and now he was eager to go to Jiangling to support Li Xian, so he would definitely not take risks easily when he was already able to defeat our army, so as not to lose his troops and be unable to support Li Xian. ”

"Compared to our army, [the three kings] are heavier, right?" General Feng Xi asked in surprise.

"That's not what I mean," Liu Qing waved his hand and corrected, "The rebellion of the Three Kings belongs to the internal strife of Zhou, and in terms of the degree of bad influence, it is still far inferior to our army. But don't ignore it, there are 100,000 Jizhou soldiers under the command of [Eight Sages King] Li Xian. In other words, as long as Xie An successfully led the 60,000 Great Liang troops to Jiangling, helped Li Xian get out of trouble, and joined forces with him, then the strength of the Great Zhou in Jingzhou would be as high as 150,000, which is the [strategy of vitality] referred to in the Art of War. -- Rescue a trapped force so that it can use its original strength to change the tide of the war.

To put it simply, at present, 100,000 Jizhou soldiers under the command of [Eight Sages King] Li Xian are being attacked by the enemy in the belly of Jiangling in Nanjun, and they are besieged by [King of Qin] Li Shen, [King of Chu] Li Yan and 31 princes and vassal kings surnamed King Zhou. In other words, the 100,000 Jizhou soldiers under Li Xian's command did not have the effect originally expected.

But if Xie An had led his army to Gangneung, the situation would have been very different. First of all, Xie An led 60,000 Liang troops to Jiangling, which was undoubtedly the best morale-boosting good news for Li Xian's 100,000 Jizhou soldiers; Secondly, if Xie An had resisted Li Xian's soldiers and horses from Nanjun [King of Chu] Li Yan's troops and horses, then Li Xian would no longer need to worry about his back, and he would be able to concentrate his forces against the [King of Qin] Li Shen and the thirty-one rebel army of the vassal king in front of him. ”

"Is the impact that severe? The last general refers to Xie An after leading the army to Gangneung...... According to the information from Jingzhou earlier, Li Shen [of Qin] was joined together with the rebels of the thirty-one Zhou vassal kings. There are also more than 100,000 troops, plus the 40,000 soldiers and horses of Li Yan in Jiangling City [King of Chu], even if Xie An leads 60,000 Liang troops to support Li Xian, the strength of the two sides is only roughly equal, and even, even so, I am afraid that there are still more troops on the side of the three kings. General Feng Xi said in surprise.

"That's not how I see it!" Liu Qing shook his head and corrected, "To be clear, the forces of the three kings are not together. Li Shen, the king of Qin, and the thirty-one rebels of the Zhou vassal kings were northwest of Li Xian, while the 40,000 troops of Li Yan, the king of Chu, were ...... southeast of Li Xian."

"Does it make a difference?"

"Of course! This means that in front of Xie An, there are only 40,000 troops of [Chu King] Li Yan. And Xie An has 60,000 Liang troops, in other words, [King of Chu] Li Yan can't stop Xie An! Therefore, Xie An is bound to be able to join Li Xian, and when the time comes, the situation on the battlefield of Gangneung will be completely changed. If my prediction is correct, Li Xian and Xie An will definitely join forces to get rid of [King of Chu] Li Yan first. One is to weaken the forces of the Three Kings, and the other is to discourage the rebels of the Three Kings. Unfortunately, due to the position, [King of Qin] Li Shen was unable to support [King of Chu] Li Yan at all. ”

"Li Yan can avoid the battle. Jiangling City is also a fortified city with strong walls, so it may not be easy for Xie An to take it, right? ”

"It's true that Li Yan can indeed avoid the battle, but. If he did this, it would mean that the 40,000 troops under his command would no longer be able to play any role in the Gangneung battlefield. After Xie An and Li Xian joined forces to defeat [King of Qin] Li Shen, the next one to suffer was him Li Yan! -- If you fight, you will definitely lose to Xie An, and if you don't fight, it will be tantamount to the 40,000 soldiers under your command who will completely disappear on the battlefield of Jiangling, which is the biggest change in the battle situation at that time after Xie An led the Liang army to Jiangling! Clenching his fists heavily, Liu Qing took a breath and continued, "However, this is fast, if Xie An can't reach Jiangling before Li Xian's defeat, then his 60,000 Liang army will only be sent to death in the past." -- And at present, the 100,000 soldiers of our Taiping Army, Deputy Marshal Wu Heng, have gone to Jiangdong, and many counties have already been conquered in the calculation of days. And the 40,000 soldiers on our side, to be honest, can no longer continue to compete with the Great Liang army, therefore, if Xie An is smart enough, seeing that our army is putting on a posture of fighting against the water, he should give up encircling and suppressing our army and throw his troops into Jiangling. -- Our Army...... It's no longer the center of this encounter! ”

Yang Yu was silent when he heard this, he heard the meaning of sighing and self-deprecation from Liu Qing's last sentence, and the reason for all this was that Wu Heng took away 100,000 soldiers, which made Liu Qing fall into a disadvantageous situation from the beginning when he was opposite Xie An, and what is even worse is that Xie An is far from being as rumored to be, greedy for money and lustful and has no ability, that guy is very capable.

It's not easy to do that......

Yang Yu glanced at Liu Qing quietly, secretly hoping that she wouldn't blame herself for this.

After thinking about it, Yang Yu said in a deep voice, "But Her Royal Highness the Princess, since Xie An is desperate to go to Jiangling, why did he go down to camp ten miles away from our army's barracks in Xiakou?" ”

"Two o'clock!" Stretching out two white and slender fingers, Liu Qing said in a deep voice, "First, I transferred Jiangxia's warships in advance, so that the Great Liang Army lost the tools to cross the river. Speaking of which, it seems that the Zhou army was not aware of this matter at first, because the night three days ago, Xie An had sent Mo Fei of the Dongling people to attack our camp at night, intending to scuttle the warship, but the night before and yesterday night, no Dongling assassins came to scuttle the ship...... It's not that our army has stepped up the night guard, but Xie An has learned that all the warships in Jiangxia have been transferred here in advance by me, and if all the warships are scuttled, our army will certainly not be spared, but he will no longer be able to cross the river to support Li Xian as soon as possible! - Of course, this is not the main reason, after all, even if Xie An destroys all the warships on the Xiakou side, he can still get enough ships from Shiyang, Hanyang and other places to allow his Daliang army to cross the river, although it will take some time. The main reason is that the letter I gave him had the desired effect, so that he did not dare to rush to the desperate situation of death and lifelessness. lest our army fight back on the verge of death and cause great losses to his troops. - Generally speaking, he still wants to get the warships on Xiakou's side. ”

"And what about the second one?"

"Second, that guy doesn't give up!" Licking his slightly dry lips, Liu Qing snorted coldly and said, "In his opinion." He had finally forced our army into such a desperate situation, and if he had spared us so easily, how could he be worthy of the fierce battle that had lasted for more than a month? How can you be worthy of the more than 20,000 Liang generals who died in this battle? -- He was hesitating, he was still calculating the pros and cons, whether to completely annihilate our army at the cost of heavy casualties, or whether both sides would take a step back and we would withdraw to Jingzhou, while he went to Jiangling to support Li Xian, and the two armies would not offend each other! ”

"No wonder Xie An didn't attack immediately after arriving in Xiakou yesterday...... General Yan Shao said with a sudden realization.

"Hmm!" Liu Qing nodded. added, "Then Xie An is hesitating, there is nothing wrong with this matter, but his response is quite witty...... I wrote to him earlier. It's to put pressure on him to make a choice, to attack or not to attack. -- If you attack, you will lose both, and if you don't attack, you will be safe. Sure enough, he did not dare to attack our army easily, but he set up a camp only ten miles away from our army. In turn, there was a problem for our army. ”

"Puzzle?"

"Hmm!" Liu Qing nodded, and said with a straight face, "Retreat, or don't retreat!" -- This is the problem that Xie An gave to our army in turn. If our army chooses to cross the river by warship and retreat. Then, the will to die that my sergeant has finally had in his heart will disappear completely, and since he has a chance to survive, who chooses to die? -- This is Xie An's strategy to crack our army's [last battle]. Give our troops a chance to withdraw, but don't give us time to withdraw! ”

"Then what if our army chooses not to retreat?" Qi Zhi asked tentatively.

"No return? Then our army will have to worry every day whether the Zhou army, which is only ten miles away, will send troops to attack us in the next moment. This endless worry will seriously damage the will of our soldiers, once the will of our soldiers is exhausted, then Xie An can still easily annihilate our army. ”

"Hiss......" The generals in the tent gasped when they heard this, if it wasn't for Liu Qing breaking Xie An's scheme, they really didn't expect that Xie An's seemingly unmoving measures would still have such a trap hidden.

"No wonder that guy chose to go to the camp for ten miles......" Licking his lips, Chu Qi muttered, "In this case, even if our army sees that Zhou Jun is not paying attention and sneaks across the river, he can reach the ...... in a very short time."

"Not bad! Our army had 40,000 men, and it took almost a day to cross the river, but it only took an hour for Xie An to send troops from his barracks to attack this side. - Fortunately, there are not many cavalry under Xie An's command, otherwise, our army would not even have time to board the ship, and the cavalry under his command would have been able to kill! ”

"What a clever method...... muttered, Yan Shao said in astonishment, "After Her Royal Highness the princess said this, then Xie An is indeed not simple...... In this way, isn't our army in a dilemma? ”

"That's exactly what I'm worried about!" Sighing slightly, Liu Qing said softly, "Fortunately, then Xie An probably wanted to go to Jiangling as soon as possible to support Li Xian, otherwise...... It's unimaginable! -- This is the only advantage of our army at the moment, and it is also the only chance to survive! ”

"Negotiate with Zhou Jun...... Is it? Yang Yu frowned slightly, as the first generation of Taiping soldiers, he was reluctant to compromise with the army of Zhou, but looking at Liu Qing's haggard face, he sighed secretly, and pretended to smile easily, "It's really the only way to survive!" ――Exactly? ”

The generals in the tent looked at Yang Yu in surprise, after all, Yang Yu's tone seemed to support Liu Qing's decision.

Glancing at Yang Yu who spoke out in support of her, Liu Qing hurriedly said, "For specific things, I'm afraid that after meeting that Xie An, I can only confirm it through face-to-face negotiations with him, roughly like this, our army gave up a part of the ships and crossed the river at the same time as the Great Liang army, and asked Xie An to promise not to attack our army during the crossing of the river......"

"In other words, Her Royal Highness the princess is not very sure......" Yang Yu shook his head and smiled bitterly, just when Liu Qing mistakenly thought that he was disappointed and showed a depressed look, he saw Yang Yu take a deep breath, and said with a smile, "Okay! So do it! -- The most unfortunate thing, Yang led the brothers of the Tianfu Army to capture Xie An's family alive and forced him to promise to let our army cross the river safely! ”

Seeing that Yang Yu supported him, Liu Qing's eyes lit up, and he looked back at the generals in the tent and asked, "What do the generals think?" ”

"Negotiate with Zhou Jun...... Except for Xu Le, who was angry, and Wei Xuan, who was quiet, the rest of the generals looked at each other, and after glancing at Yang Yu, they nodded slowly.

"Let's give it a try!" Feng Xi said the thoughts of the generals in the tent.

Liu Qing secretly breathed a sigh of relief when she heard this, after all, she was not a dictator like Wu Heng and Changsun Xiangyu, she still hoped that her decision could be supported by her subordinates.

"Princess. In that case, when does the princess plan to negotiate with Zhou Jun? General Feng Xi asked hesitantly.

To everyone's surprise, Liu Qing chuckled when she heard this, and said, "This matter is not in a hurry!" ――Now that I am negotiating with the Zhou army, I am afraid that Xie Anduo will probably immediately lead the army to attack our battalion! Fight with him first, so that he will deeply realize that our army will not sit still and push our army to a dead end. It's not a good thing for him, either. Only in this way will he be completely selfish and calmly sit down to negotiate with our army! ”

The generals in the tent secretly connected their heads, and even Wei Xuan had to admit that although Liu Qing was young. But he is quite sophisticated.

And at this moment, suddenly a soldier hurriedly rushed into the tent and knocked on the ground, "Princess Qiqi, Qiqi generals, the Great Liang Army has sent troops to attack our army!" -- The army has only been four ...... so far No, the land of three miles! ”

Didn't you say that Xie An wouldn't attack right away?

The generals were shocked. Subconsciously looked at Liu Qing.

As if he had seen through the thoughts of the generals, Liu Qing smiled and said, "Don't panic, that's just a move used by Xie An to test whether our army should really have the will to die...... Words of unbelief. Come with me and see what you are doing. It's just a feint. ”

As he spoke, Liu Qing stood up, took a deep breath, and said in a deep voice. "Let's go! I'll meet that Xie Ann again! ”

The generals looked at each other and followed with suspicion.

A moment later. The 40,000 Taiping Army and the 40,000 Liang Army set up a formation in the open space southeast of Xiakou Port.

"With so many soldiers and horses, it'......s not like a feint," the general Feng Xun said uneasily.

Liu Qing smiled faintly when he heard this, looked at the Great Liang Army in the distance, and said softly, "It's only about 40,000 people, then Xie An has nearly 60,000 Great Liang Army, not to mention that after he controlled Jiangxia, the strength was far more than 60,000, but he only dispatched 40,000 people, what does this mean?" ”

"It means that he left many soldiers and horses to guard the camp?" Feng Xi was stunned for a moment, and then suddenly said, "That's right! If Xie An really wanted to completely annihilate our army, he would definitely come out of the nest and reduce casualties by taking advantage of the overwhelming superiority in the number of soldiers, and it would be impossible to leave one or two teams of troops to guard the camp. -- There is no other threat to him in this vicinity except us...... Right! ”

"That's not all!" Liu Qing chuckled, lowered his voice and said, "That's Xie An's deliberate, he deliberately only dispatched 40,000 soldiers, just to let me see through this matter, so as not to cause a misunderstanding, so that our army really thinks that he intends to completely annihilate our army, which will lead to a feint attack that will turn into a vicious battle between the two sides, and it will be out of control." - By the way, don't leak this matter to the officers and soldiers of our army, just fight with the Zhou army as usual, lest the soldiers under his command learn that this is a feint attack by the Zhou army, and they will be slack, so that Xie An will feel that he can easily destroy our army! ”

"Yes! The end will understand! ”

I have to say that Liu Qing is indeed very smart, Xie An's thoughts, intentions, intentions, she guessed everything.

But there is one thing Liu Qing guessed wrong, in this battle, Xie An did not plan to make a feint, he did try to annihilate the Taiping army. However, due to Liu Qing's warning and threat, Xie Anxin was more or less at the bottom, for fear that the casualties of the Great Liang Army would be too serious, so he only brought 40,000 people, the purpose was to let Liu Qing understand that the two armies still had room to recover before.

And Liu Qing gradually realized this.

"This is ......" Seeing the formation of the Great Liang Army, Liu Qing frowned slightly.

The formation of the Taiping army under her command is a conical formation, which is the most suitable formation for the Taiping soldiers who are determined to die at the moment, and this formation focuses on the morale of the whole army and the combat effectiveness of breaking through the enemy army.

On the Zhou side, however, it was a square gate formation, a formation that weakened the center, strengthened the two wings, and lured the enemy's central forces to go deeper, so that the two wings could be flanked from both sides.

To put it bluntly, the square gate formation is a military formation that can restrain the cone-shaped formation.

"How cunning...... Xie An! Liu Qing, who guessed Xie An's intentions, muttered to herself.

"Your Royal Highness Princess, do you want to change the formation?" Feng Xi asked in a low voice, "Before the war starts, even if our army changes its formation, it will be difficult for the Zhou army to bargain like those few times!" - As long as the front line does not move, the rear army can change the formation! ”

Liu Qing frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly shook his head and said, "No need, just use the cone array!" ”

"This ......" Feng Xi looked stunned and said in surprise, "This is very disadvantageous to our army!" ”

"On a normal day, this is really disadvantageous, but today...... Not necessarily! - Listen to orders! ”

“…… Be! ”

At the same time, in the main formation of the Zhou army, Xie An stood in the commander's chariot and looked at the conical formation of the Taiping army in surprise.

He originally planned to take advantage of the Taiping Army's change of formation, but unexpectedly, Liu Qing didn't seem to have any intention of changing the formation.

"You didn't even change the formation...... So confident? Xie An frowned slightly, looked back at the drummer and said, "Drumming!" ”

"Knock knock!"

The drums beat and the drums beat as if it were a signal, and the 40,000 Liang army slowly moved towards the Taiping army, and at this time, Liu Qing also raised his hand and pointed at the Zhou army, and immediately, the 40,000 Taiping army roared towards the Zhou army and killed the past, as if an indestructible blade, a face to defeat the forward army in the center of the Zhou army.

It's no wonder, after all, the Zhou army is in a square gate formation, and the garrison in the middle is already weak, far inferior to the fish scale array, how can it block the charge of the Taiping army?

However, under the attack of the two wings of the Zhou army, the casualties of the Taiping soldiers were also quite heavy, and the casualties of a few rounds of arrows had exceeded 1,000.

However, to Xie An's secret horror, even though the casualties had gradually appeared, the momentum of the Taiping army's charge did not slow down at all, and in just a moment, it broke through the central hinterland of the Zhou army and killed Xie An's main formation.

The Taiping Army on weekdays has absolutely no such lethality......

Is it really driven to a dead end and fighting against the odds?

Xie An frowned and glanced at the formation where Liu Qing was in the distance.

No wonder she didn't change the formation, and insisted on using the cone-shaped formation to deal with the square gate formation she posed, it turned out that she wanted to let herself clearly see the combat ability of the current Taiping army......

What a scheming woman!

Secretly praised in his heart, Xie An did not love war, and immediately ordered the left and right to order the withdrawal of troops, after all, the biggest purpose of this trip was to test whether the Taiping Army should be sincere in its will to die after being forced to a dead end, as for the total annihilation of Liu Qing's 40,000 people, it was just an incidental idea.

As Liu Qing predicted, the Liang army, which seemed to be attacking with great momentum, withdrew before the first drum was beaten.

The battlefield seems to be tragic, but in fact, the casualties are very small, far less than the previous battles between Xie An and Liu Qing, and the losses of the troops on both sides are only about 3,000 people.

"Win...... Win? ”

I thought there would be a fierce battle, but I didn't expect the Zhou army to withdraw so easily, and the 40,000 Taiping troops who were determined to die and desperately fought with the Zhou army were rejoicing, and they were very surprised.

Seeing that the imposing Zhou army chose to withdraw after just one trial, to be honest, Liu Qing was a little moved, she thought about whether she could use this small victory to reverse the unfavorable situation, but in the end he still gave up.

After all, when Xie An withdrew his troops, the Great Liang Army was still clearly bannered and neatly organized, and its morale was obviously not affected by this small defeat. If Liu Qing chooses to pursue, not to mention that he can't get a bargain, it will anger Xie An, so that there is no room for maneuver between the two armies.

"No need to chase, collect the troops and return to the camp!" With a wave of her hand, she gave the order to withdraw her troops, and Liu Qing handed the letter she had prepared earlier to a confidant guard beside her.

"Go, take this letter to the Zhou army camp and hand it over to Xie An in person!"

"Yes!"