In these days, after a series of battles with the rebels, Hua'an has learned a lot of combat knowledge, and also felt that it is not easy to exterminate the rebels, and the officers and men of the Northern Expeditionary Army have also gained a lot of combat experience, and at the same time, several big victories have dealt a powerful blow to the arrogance of the rebels.

After a battle under the city of Jiaozhi, the rebels suffered heavy losses, and when they regrouped, only 5,000 men and horses remained, except for the 8,000 soldiers who were killed, and all the remaining soldiers fled.

Naturally, the only 5,000 soldiers could not fight against the powerful Northern Expeditionary Army, so the only remaining men and horses of the rebel army, led by their main general, retreated in the direction of their rebellion, and a few soldiers went north to the camp where the main force of the rebels was.

The southernmost Xianglin City in Rinan County is more than 1,000 miles away from Jiaozhi City, and the road of more than 1,000 miles is all jungle dense paths, it is extremely difficult for the army to march, and it is difficult to maintain logistics supplies, if the Northern Expeditionary Army wants to attack Xianglin City with the whole army, the materials required along the way are extremely huge, even if they are lucky enough to advance to the vicinity of Xianglin City and break through Xianglin City, but the rebel soldiers can hide in the nearby woods and deal with the Northern Expeditionary Army, and after the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army withdraws, the rebels will lead the army to capture Xianglin City again, The main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army cannot always be stationed in Xianglin City, and the Zhao State in the north may go south at any time.

Just when Hua'an was thinking about how to march south, the main force of 60,000 rebels who invaded Guilin County had already killed in the direction of Jiaozhi City, and the reason why the rebels would retreat was naturally because the Northern Expeditionary Army intercepted a large number of military rations from the rebels.

The rebels retreated, and the generals of the Guangzhou Army who held Tanzhong City first thought of the successful capture of Jiaozhi City by Hua'an's Northern Expeditionary Army, cutting off the retreat of the rebels, so the morale of the soldiers was greatly boosted, and the main force of the 30,000 Guangzhou Army and the 3,000 officers and men of the Jiaozhou Army joined forces to pursue the rebels who retreated from Queen Cang.

When the rebels retreated, they naturally considered that the Jin army would pursue from behind, so they set up an ambush on the retreating road and completely annihilated a battalion of the Guangzhou Army that took the lead in pursuit, so that the pursuing Jin army slowed down.

After the small victory of the rebels, they did not dare to stay, abandoned a lot of heavy equipment, and rushed in the direction of Jiaozhi City with light equipment, while the main force of the Guangzhou Army and the 3,000 Jiaozhou Army followed closely all the way, not giving the rebels a chance to breathe.

Deng Yue, the assassin of Guangzhou, who was sitting in Panyu City, learned that the Northern Expeditionary Army had broken through Jiaozhi City, defeated the rebels several times, intercepted the rebels' grain and grass, and forced the main force of the rebels to retreat.

Deng Yue's plan was obviously to concentrate as many troops and horses as possible, make every effort to exterminate the rebels who were already at a disadvantage, and completely extinguish the rebellion of the South Vietnamese people.

The rebels withdrew quickly, reaching a position thirty miles outside the north gate of Jiaozhi City in only a few days, and at this time the rebels only had one day left for food and grass, and the situation was extremely unfavorable for the rebels.

In order to raise enough food and grass, the rebels looted everything they could from the villages and towns they encountered along the way of their withdrawal, otherwise they would have run out of food a few days ago.

At present, the front of the rebels is the Jiaozhi City guarded by the Northern Expeditionary Army, and the back is the pursuit of the Jiaozhi Erzhou army, there are three roads in front of the rebels, one is to attack Jiaozhi City, the grain and grass hoarded in the city are enough to tens of thousands of deniers, as long as the Jiaozhi City can be captured, the crisis of the rebels can be completely lifted. The second is to break the army into pieces, quietly cross Jiaozhi City from the east and west directions step by step, and after returning to the base camp of Ninan County, you can regroup and launch a rebellion again. The third is to lead the army westward into Xinggu County of Shu, which is the territory of Shu, and the reason why the rebels rebelled was also instigated by the monarchs and ministers of Shu.

In order to choose a suitable path, the main generals of the rebel army got together for a discussion, focusing on the pros and cons of the three scenarios.

First of all, the first way is to rely on the advantage of troops, lead the army to attack Jiaozhi City, recapture the strategic place of Jiaozhi City, and at the same time you can also get tens of thousands of Dan military rations in the city to solve the worry of the army's lack of food. But the feasibility of this strategy is really not high, from the Northern Expeditionary Army's easy breakthrough of Jiaozhi City, and several successive defeats of the rebels, the Northern Expeditionary Army is a very brave force, and the defense of the city itself has an advantage, the rebel generals feel that it is impossible to break through Jiaozhi City in a short period of time, and it is even possible to be defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army, and the narrative of a few generals who were defeated by the Northern Expeditionary Army and fled to the army added to this inexplicable fear.

Secondly, the second way is to break the whole into zero, the 60,000 main force as a team of 1,000 people, step by step from the east and west of Jiaozhi City two roads quietly sneak back to the base camp, the advantage of this is that you don't have to fight with the Northern Expeditionary Army, you can preserve your own strength well, but the disadvantage is that the scattered march virtually reduces the strength of the main army, once discovered by the Northern Expeditionary Army, it is easy to be broken by each one, and the shortage of military food is extremely urgent, even if you cross the Jiaozhi City, 60,000 soldiers and horses are difficult to raise enough food and grass, However, there are tens of thousands of denier military rations in Jiaozhi City.

Finally, the third way is to lead the army to the west, into the Xinggu County of Shu, which has been supported by many generals, because Shu supported their rebellion, and also promised to lead the army to support them, now, they have lost the battle, naturally there is a reason to go to take refuge, but there are also some generals worried about the sincerity of the monarchs and ministers of Shu, after all, they and the court of the Great Jin Dynasty have been fighting for several months, and the 30,000 troops of Shu have been standing still, and there is no intention to reinforce themIt was a long way west from the vicinity of Jiaozhi City to Xinggu County, and the little rations left by the army were simply not enough to support them to reach Xinggu County, which seemed to be the most unfeasible.

The rebel generals finally decided to take the second road after an hour of repeated deliberations, and finally decided to take the second road, break the army into pieces, and use the cover of night to quietly cross the city of Jiaozhi, so as to avoid the two sides of the Northern Expeditionary Army and the Guangzhou Army, and secretly return to the base camp, as for the attack of the Northern Expeditionary Army on the way, the rebels are not too worried, because the surrounding is dense woods, once the army is attacked, retreat to the depths of the dense forest to hide, and the loss should not be too great.

As for the problem of military rations, they had no choice but to let the army continue to disperse after crossing Jiaozhi City, looking for wild fruits in the dense forest to satisfy their hunger, until Shun Lì returned to the base camp.