After dark, the rebels divided the army into pieces according to the strategy agreed in advance, and each soldier brought a day's worth of dry food and quietly marched south from the roads on both sides of Cochin.

The rebels moved in a very low-key manner, and all the soldiers did not raise torches, but walked slowly in the faint moonlight, and the scattered teams successfully crossed the city and entered the main road south of the city.

Although the rebels' actions were concealed and low-key, they did not escape the eyes of the Northern Expeditionary Army scouts, and by the time the Northern Expeditionary Army scouts reported the news of the rebels' sneaking over to Jiaozhi City to Hua'an's ears, more than half of the rebels' men and horses had successfully crossed the city.

The Jiaoguang Erzhou Regiment, which was chasing the rebels, was apprehensive about the rebels' ambush, so they were careful everywhere in the process of pursuit, and did not dare to act rashly.

At this time, Hua An was thinking about how to deal with the rebels who were good at jungle warfare in the big tent, and suddenly learned that the rebels were going to cross all the Jiaozhi City, he was really taken aback, he didn't expect the rebels to move so quickly, and they were still thirty miles north of Jiaozhi City during the day, only half a day, half of the men and horses had already crossed the Jiaozhi City, and the rebels' action efficiency far exceeded Hua'an's imagination.

However, Hua An guessed half correctly about the rebels would use the strategy of sneaking over Cochin City, he had already expected that the rebels would cross from the east and west directions, but Hua An did not expect that the rebels would disperse the team, because with the strength advantage of the rebels, even if they were ambushed on the way, they could open a bloody road, and after the troops were dispersed, the strength was much weaker, and no single team could fight against the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army.

After a short period of thought, Hua An gradually understood the rebels' intentions, first, the large corps was too large, and the reason why the rebels would divide their troops was not to be discovered by the Northern Expeditionary Army, so as to avoid engaging the Northern Expeditionary Army on the way, which can be seen from their use of night operations.

Second, there are too many people in the large corps, and the roads near Jiaozhi City are not very wide, and a large number of men and horses are crowded together, so the speed of the march will be greatly restricted, and if you move slowly, you can't sneak across Jiaozhi City overnight, and it will be easy to be targeted by the Northern Expeditionary Army during the day, so it will be blocked.

After analyzing the rebels' intentions, Hua An made a quick decision and ordered Zhao Wu and Tie Niu to lead 10,000 infantry out of the city and go to two roads to block the last few waves of the rebels.

Zhao Wu and Tie Niu took the order, hurriedly assembled the team and set off in a hurry, and half an hour later, the two armies arrived at the predetermined area almost at the same time.

Most of the rebels' men and horses have crossed Jiaozhi City, Zhao Wu is responsible for the east road intercepted the rebels' two groups of men and horses a total of 2,000 people, and the west road responsible for Tie Niu only intercepted the last 1,000 men and horses of the rebels, a short fight, the rebels can not resist the attack of the Northern Expeditionary Army, the soldiers scattered and fled.

Zhao Wu and Tie Niu kept in mind Hua'an's order, and in the process of pursuit, as long as the rebels took the initiative to throw away their weapons and surrender, they would let them go, and let the soldiers shout to surrender and avoid death, and the battle was fought, and the rebels were captured nearly 1,000 people.

Zhao Wu and Tie Niu took the thousand captives and returned to Jiaozhi City in triumph, and Hua An personally went out to greet them.

"Big brother, we're late, the rebels have run out, and we only met a small wave of people, it's too enjoyable." As soon as he returned to Cochin City, Tie Niu complained a little.

Wang San pointed to the nearly 1,000 captives behind him and said, "Big brother, our two groups of men and horses have intercepted a total of 3,000 rebels, and behind us are captured rebel soldiers. ”

Hua An looked at the nearly 1,000 rebel prisoners behind the two, and said happily: "Okay, great, you have done a good job, and the eldest brother will give you credit." With that, he walked towards the rebel soldiers.

Under the light of the moon and the torches in the city, the faces of the rebel soldiers were clearly visible, Hua'an carefully observed, and found that a large proportion of these rebel soldiers were teenagers with baby faces, at most fifteen or sixteen years old, and they looked very immature.

"Big brother, what to do with these captives." Wang San beside him asked in a low voice.

Hua An smiled and said, "Wang San, you see, many of these soldiers are still children?" I remember that when we entered the camp of the Northern Expeditionary Army, we were also at this age! ”

Wang San was stunned for a moment, and replied: "That's right, when we first entered the camp, we were indeed at this age, and now, seven or eight years have passed unconsciously, and the eldest brother has also gone from a small team to a general who can take charge of the Great Jin alone." ”

After Wang San finished speaking, a trace of vicissitudes actually appeared on his face.

Hua An nodded, pointed to the rebel prisoners in front of him, and said: "Most of these rebel soldiers are still children, and they were bewitched by a few people to embark on the road of rebellion, and now, they have fallen into our hands, we have to take good care of them!" ”

"Big brother, these are rebels, when the two armies were fighting, they didn't show mercy to our subordinates, it's not bad if you don't kill them, why take care of them." Thunderstorms are the first to indicate that they can't figure it out.

"Big brother, last time we let go of a group of rebel soldiers, but the rebels still attacked the city, taking care of them is not good for our army at all, it is a complete waste of food." Iron Bull chimed in.

When Zhao Wu and the other generals heard this, they were also full of dissatisfaction.

These reactions of the generals were completely expected by Hua An, which is also human nature, Hua An did not want to explain too much for the time being, but just asked his subordinates to settle the rebel captured soldiers and serve them three meals a day, and arrange relevant personnel to educate them as they did last time, so that they can follow Wang Hua and not have the idea of rebelling against the imperial court.

As for the dissatisfaction in the hearts of the generals, Hua'an gradually explained to them that the terrain of Jiaozhou is complex and the jungle is dense, and it is almost impossible to completely exterminate the rebels by force, and it is impossible for the Northern Expeditionary Army to be stationed in Jiaozhou all the time, and the only way is to appease the rebels, and treating the rebel captives well is the beginning of appeasing the Nanyue people.

After Hua An's explanation, the generals of the Northern Expeditionary Army understood the benefits of treating the rebel prisoners well, and the dissatisfaction gradually disappeared.

On the second day, the Jiaoguang Erzhou army that came after the tail entered Jiaozhi City, and the main force of the Northern Expeditionary Army converged, and after the generals of the Jiaozhou Army entered the city, they immediately marched south to Hua'an to destroy the rebels and asked to be the vanguard of the army.