Song Jingang hurriedly walked into Liu Wuzhou's Dingyang Palace, which is a palace built by Liu Wuzhou in imitation of Fenyang Palace, although it occupies a large area, it is not descript, there are no excellent craftsmen, there is no magnificent momentum, there is no strong financial resources, and the palace can not see the magnificence it should have, and only half of the construction was stopped, giving people the feeling that this palace is like a monkey wearing human clothes, which has always been Song Jingang's private evaluation of Liu Wuzhou.

Walking into the palace, he heard the woman's miserable cry from afar, Song Jingang shook his head secretly, he knew that this was Liu Wuzhou's irritability, beating women to vent his inner annoyance, although Liu Wuzhou was always a good person, he was reluctant to listen to suggestions, and he was generous to take action for people, but he was short-tempered, and he used palace people to vent his anger if he was a little unsatisfactory.

But today, it is no wonder that Liu Wuzhou was angry, Liu Wuzhou gathered a large army to prepare for a decisive battle with Yang Yuanqing in Mayi, but Yang Yuanqing sent troops to take away Fenyang Palace, and Lishi County was also lost, which made Song Jingang secretly frightened.

In fact, in the eyes of Liu Wuzhou or Song Jingang, the military value of Fenyang Palace is not high, although it has a certain military value, such as harassing the rear, destroying logistics and transportation, etc., but Taiyuan is not Liu Wuzhou's rear, and Fenyang Palace did not cut off the Chidao, it is still a few miles away from the Chidao, and it is precisely because of this that Liu Wuzhou did not send a heavy army to guard, and Song Jingang did not pay too much attention to it.

But Fenyang Palace was really taken away, Liu Wuzhou and Song Jin suddenly realized its impact just now, and the impact on the entire army's heart was huge, just like the enemy army had broken into the backyard, which shook the army's heart, and the loss of Fenyang Palace gave people an illusion that their retreat had been cut off.

There have been many deserters in the army, which makes Song Jingang really worried, and he has understood Yang Yuanqing's strategy, first destroying the morale of Liu Wuzhou's army from the army's heart, so as to achieve the goal of surrendering the army without a fight.

I have to say that Yang Yuanqing stabbed Liu Wuzhou's weakest part with a sword, most of Liu Wuzhou's army was formed in less than two or three months, and they all forced men to serve as soldiers, and their equipment and training were extremely backward, not to mention low morale.

Yang Yuanqing's strategy made Song Jingang extremely worried, he had already realized that they were not Yang Yuanqing's opponents, the initiative was already in Yang Yuanqing's hands, and they would be defeated sooner or later.

Hanging from the trees in the courtyard were three palace maids who had been stripped naked, and they were furious because they were privately discussing the affairs of Fenyang Palace, and they personally whipped them with leather whips.

The delicate bodies of the three palace maids were covered with shocking whip marks, almost completely skinless, and they were beaten to death, and the sound of screams was gone.

Liu Wuzhou held an oil-soaked leather whip in his hand, his bare body, his chest and arms were covered with coarse hair, and his eyes were red, like a mad beast, and he vented his anger on these three innocent palace maids.

"His Royal Highness King Song has come down!"

As soon as the guards reported, Song Jingang hurriedly walked into the courtyard, and he got Liu Wuzhou's permission to enter and leave the palace at will without a report.

Song Jingang looked at the three palace maids who were hanging on the tree, and couldn't help shaking his head, Liu Wuzhou is the dignified emperor of Dingyang State, but he gives people the feeling that he has no momentum of the emperor at all, and he even has to punish a few palace maids himself, and he is still naked, he sighed secretly in his heart, bowed down and said: "See Your Majesty!" ”

Liu Wuzhou's anger was half vented, he threw away the leather whip and walked towards the inner hall, "Come in and talk about it!" ”

Song Jingang ordered the guards to release the palace maid and send her back to the palace, and he followed Liu Wuzhou into the inner hall.

Liu Wuzhou was already wearing a comfortable fine linen robe, and he had obtained a large number of emperor's robes from Fenyang Palace, as well as countless various luxury goods, including a golden ivory couch inlaid with precious stones in front of him.

Liu Wuzhou used to be a strong and brave warrior, but the poor and extravagant imperial life for nearly half a year made his physical strength decline rapidly, and he also felt a little tired after beating the palace maid.

"You're here for the matter of Fenyang Palace!" Liu Wuzhou asked impatiently, he didn't want to hear about it now.

Song Jingang shook his head, "Let me tell you another thing, there have been more than 4,000 deserters since last night. ”

"How so?" Liu Wuzhou stood up suddenly, his eyes widening in shock.

"It's just that you don't want to hear about it, the loss of Fenyang Palace has too much impact on the morale of the army." Song Jingang sighed.

Liu Wuzhou sat down dejectedly, he drank all the wine in the bottle, threw the wine bottle aside, and grabbed his hands deeply into his hair, "How can this be!" He cried out in pain.

Song Jingang stared at him for a long time, and said slowly: "We are really not his opponents, let's retreat south!" ”

"Retreat south?"

Liu Wuzhou slowly raised his head and looked at Song Jingang in surprise, "What do you mean by this?" ”

Song Jingang smiled bitterly, "I thought that Yang Yuanqing really only had 30,000 troops, I thought, maybe we can concentrate our forces and fight with him, but I didn't expect that his army actually crossed the river from Lishi County, more than 30,000 troops, his intention is obvious, that is, to block us in Mayi County, all annihilated, Your Majesty, Mayi County will definitely not be able to keep it, it is better to give up Mayi County, preserve strength, withdraw to the south of Taiyuan, and let Yang Yuanqing attack Taiyuan." ”

"No!"

Liu Wuzhou roared like a beast, "Flee without a fight, and spread it out to make the world laugh at me Liu Wuzhou, no!" I don't withdraw. ”

"But Your Majesty, the first battle has been fought, we lost, Yang Yuanqing occupied Fenyang Palace and captured Lishi County, which seriously shook the morale of the army, and we have been defeated without a fight."

"I don't care!"

Liu Wuzhou was full of anger, "If I don't fight, let me run away with my tail between my legs, I Liu Wuzhou can't do it, I have an army of 200,000, and the other party only has 30,000, why be afraid?" ”

"But we can't afford to drag it out, the soldiers are constantly fleeing, more and more, there will be more than 10,000 tonight, Yang Yuanqing doesn't know, he won't fight with us, his strategy is obvious, that is, he wants to surrender without a fight, Your Majesty, now we are very passive!"

Liu Wuzhou paced back and forth in the room with his hands behind his back, he knew his situation very well, he lost the support of the Turks, and Taiyuan City could not be captured, and the wealthy families of Mayi, Yanmen, and Loufu counties did not support him, and fled to Taiyuan City, he was already difficult to support the supply of more than 200,000 troops, but Mayi County was his lair, his hometown, so he gave up, he was unwilling, in any case, he had more than 200,000 troops, seven times that of Yang Yuanqing, if he didn't fight a battle, how could he know that he couldn't? If he can defeat Yang Yuanqing, then he will be stable.

Thinking of this, Liu Wuzhou finally made up his mind and said coldly: "Yang Yuanqing doesn't want to fight me, play yin with me behind my back, I'll go to find him." ”

Shanyang City itself is not big, the circumference is less than 20 miles, and the permanent population has more than 4,000 households, nearly 30,000 people, but Liu Wuzhou in order to create the prosperity of the capital, ordered all the households above the middle household in Mayi County, Yanmen County and Loufu County to move into Shanyang City, Shanyang City's population increased sharply, from more than 30,000 people to more than 100,000, plus there are tens of thousands of garrisons in the city, making the city extremely crowded and chaotic, and Liu Wuzhou's expansion of Shanyang City failed, unable to solve this crowded and chaotic situation, all the houses are full, Many families had to live in tents, and the city became stinky, disheveled, and full of complaints.

However, starting from today, there has been a large-scale army movement in Shanyang City, and tens of thousands of elite troops stationed in the city have all left the city and assembled on a large scale outside the northern city, and troops from all over the city have also come in a steady stream, and many ordinary people have realized that a big war is about to break out.

In a long alley is also full of tents, a middle-aged traveling doctor who runs the rivers and lakes hurriedly walks between the narrow tents with a medicine box on his back, until he reaches the end of the alley, at the end of which is a courtyard, he knocked on the door, the door opened, it was a young man, this Shanyang County and even Mayi County can still see young men, this is a rare situation.

"We came back so late, we thought you had been arrested as a military doctor!" The young man joked quietly.

"Hmm!" The middle-aged traveling doctor vaguely agreed, walked into the courtyard, and closed the door at any time.

"What, do you get the exact information?" The young man asked.

"Let's go into the house and talk about it!"

The middle-aged traveling doctor walked into the room, and the room was full of people, there were thirty or forty people, all of them sturdy young men.

This is an intelligence point set up by the Fengzhou army in Shanyang City, originally there were only three or four people, but ten days ago, there were constantly scouts of the Fengzhou army infiltrating the city in various ways, so that the number of scouts hidden in this courtyard reached forty-two, led by a scout captain, named Luo.

Everyone was gathering for dinner, by the way to discuss the military situation, Liu Wuzhou's large-scale mobilization of the army made everyone vigilant, at this time, the middle-aged doctor entered the room, the middle-aged doctor surnamed Wu, is a military doctor of the Fengzhou army, he is in the name of practicing medicine to obtain a lot of information.

Doctor Wu found a seat and sat down, put down the medicine box, and smiled at the lieutenant: "I got accurate information, I saw Liu Wuzhou's military squire today, he told me that this time Liu Wuzhou mobilized the army to go north to fight a decisive battle with the Fengzhou army, and their desertion was too serious, and Liu Wuzhou could only make a desperate bet." ”

Captain Luo nodded, the other two also got the same information, the information obtained from the three channels is the same, that means that this information is credible, he immediately took out a thin silk, dipped the ink in sharpened goose feathers and wrote the information on the thin silk, dried the ink, and took out a thin red bamboo tube from his arms, folded the thin silk and stuffed it in, he handed the information to the eagle slave, and ordered: "Send it back to Yulin City immediately!" ”

A quarter of an hour later, a goshawk flapped its wings and flew into the sky, flying to the northwest of Yulin City, at the same time, Liu Wuzhou's army was rapidly assembled, three days later, Liu Wuzhou gathered 200,000 troops, self-proclaimed as the general of Pofeng, appointed Song Jingang as the deputy marshal, ordered the general Huang Ziying to lead 10,000 people to guard Shanyang City, he personally led the army to Yulin City to kill, Liu Wuzhou desperately, to defeat Yang Yuanqing in a battle.