Later Zhou, Guo Chongwei began to lead his troops across the river on July 6.

Since there were only three warships left, Guo Chongwei ordered a long plank to be dragged behind each warship, ready to build a pontoon bridge to cross to the opposite side. When the boat reached the middle of the river, two more boats were scuttled by the desperate Northern Han dead soldiers and sank to the bottom of the river.

Guo Chongwei was afraid that his brothers who had crossed the river would be raided, so he ordered his elite to swim across the river with a wooden bridge. At first, everyone was afraid of being attacked halfway, and the speed of crossing the river was very slow, but who knew that the attack on the road did not appear again, and more and more soldiers crossed the river. At this time, the boats requisitioned by the Later Zhou army from nearby villages also arrived, and the Zhou army crossed the river at a faster speed. In the evening of the same day, all the 100,000 Houzhou soldiers crossed the Fen River.

Except for a little obstruction on the Fen River, the subsequent battle went smoothly - the 50,000 elite soldiers who arrived on the opposite bank in advance rushed directly to Xizhou in the north, preparing to encircle the land of Sanzhou first, and Guo Chongwei personally led the remaining 50,000 troops south to attack Jiangzhou. There were only a few hundred Northern Han soldiers defending the city in Jiangzhou, and the soldiers of the Later Zhou rushed down, Guo Chongwei left 5,000 soldiers to defend the city, and turned his head to Cizhou in the northwest. Before the army could go north to support Xizhou again, soldiers from the north had already reported that they had also easily taken the city and captured nearly 1,000 enemies.

In less than two days, the Hou Zhou army successfully swept the Fen River valley and wiped out the enemies in three cities. Guo Chongwei immediately sent good news to Kaifeng City, Tokyo, and then ordered each city to leave 5,000 soldiers to defend the city, and another 5,000 soldiers to garrison the border with the Northern Han Dynasty, and the other soldiers all gathered opposite Jinzhou City and withdrew to the original camp one after another.

On the evening of 10 July, Guo Chongwei held a dinner at the Jinju Assassin's Mansion, which had become a ruin, to thank and bid farewell to the generals of the forbidden army and the generals from all over the country who led the team.

The dilapidated silence of the hall of the former Jinzhou Thorn History Mansion was broken up by a burst of laughter, and in the noise, only Wang Yan, the former Jinzhou Thorn Shi Wang Yan and Han Lingkun, the deputy general of the Cizhou Army, who had arrived urgently, frowned tightly, and stood there with a wine glass and was speechless.

Someone found these two people strange and came to persuade them to drink, Wang Yan woke up in shock, and suddenly shouted: "Guo Envoy, the war in the three places is too smooth, there must be fraud in this!" ”

This roar made the hustle and bustle in the hall suddenly cool down, and the generals turned their heads to look here.

Guo Chongwei frowned, and asked in a cold voice, "How do you say this?" ”

Wang Yan raised his head and replied: "The soldiers of the Northern Han Dynasty swore to fight to the death in Jinzhou City before, not giving up an inch of land, but in the battle of Sanzhou, they actually competed to surrender, and the matter was too strange to have to be guarded against. ”

A drunken voice in the crowd muttered, "Isn't this the level of the leading generals!" The meaning of the words is to imply that Wang Yan lost the city and captured the city before, and it was purely incompetent.

Wang Yan lowered his head when he heard this, but then he raised his head high.

Han Lingkun took two steps forward and bowed his hand: "Lord Minister, his subordinates participated in the Xizhou War with General Wang, and nearly a thousand soldiers surrendered without resistance, which is really not like the previous style of stubborn resistance, it is very likely to be a fraudulent surrender!" ”

"Those who know the times are Junjie!" Guo Chongwei drank the wine in the cup and said loudly, "I have 100,000 elites besieging the city, how dare Liu Chengjun block the car with his mantis arm and kill himself?!" ”

"Minister Guo, the original Jinzhou defenders are estimated to be 13,000 people, even if they have gone through several fierce battles, at most more than half of them have been lost, but the total number of defenders who surrendered in these three states is less than 2,000, where are the remaining 4,000 people?" Wang Yan argued loudly.

"Where else can I go? It is estimated that he fled from the wind! One of the lieutenants raised his red face and said loudly.

"War is a major matter related to the existence of the country, how can it be speculated?" Wang Yan sharply questioned the lieutenant general.

The adjutant general's face turned even redder, and he replied unconvinced: "In front of our 100,000 elite soldiers, where else can they go?" What else can you do? Isn't it just a few defeats? As for constantly exaggerating the combat effectiveness of the enemy? ”

"My Wang Yan has been defeated in a row, and he is indeed incompetent! But I am not a reckless, reckless person who denies it! Wang Yan was so angry that his white beard trembled, and he pointed at the deputy general and shouted, then took a deep breath, turned to Guo Chongwei, and his tone became extremely sincere, "Guo Envoy, my subordinates do feel that there are a lot of strange things, we only captured three state cities, but the subordinate counties, villages and towns have not searched carefully, and the subordinates are afraid that the enemy will hide in the countryside, and when our army retreats, they will attack and harass again!" ”

Han Lingkun also interjected beside him: "Things really don't make sense! If the enemy saw that we were outwhelmed, he would have given up a long time ago, and he would not be stupid enough to fight us to the death in Jinju City, killing and wounding so many people! In addition, although our attack was fast, it was not so fast that the defenders did not have time to call for help from the Northern Han. But until now, not a single reinforcement from the Northern Han has been seen, and there is no movement in the north, so it is impossible for them to give up the four states, which is also unreasonable. ”

Hearing the persuasion of an old man and a young man, Guo Chongwei, who was originally angry, softened his complexion, and muttered for a long time before shaking his head and sighing:

"Guo has been fighting with the saint for many years, and naturally knows that such a tiger-like war is unreasonable, but a quick battle is required by the saint himself, and at the same time, the grain and grass of our army of more than 100,000 are by no means a small amount, and the war must not be delayed for a long time. Besides, more than 100,000 people in Sizhou are still waiting for their return in various places nearby, it is summer now, and it is good to eat and live, but it will be very difficult to do it as soon as the weather turns cold!

In this way, General Wang will work hard and lead another 5,000 men to stay in Jinju City temporarily. We are limited to 10 days, if there is a change in the three states within 10 days, General Wang can cross the river at any time to support, if there is no change, then General Wang will return to Beijing to reply to the decree is not too late! ”

Wang Yan saluted and thanked Guo Chongwei for his trust. Han Lingkun walked out and saluted Guo Chongwei: "Guo Envoy, I also want to stay in the future." ”

Guo Chongwei was very surprised and asked: "Before leaving, Han Envoy specially found Guo and asked me to take you back?" ”

Han Lingkun's father, Han Duan, was originally the deputy festival envoy of Cizhou, and a group of their old gang dishes were in the limelight in Tokyo under the leadership of Chai Rong's father Chai Shouli, and they were known as the "Ten Fathers". During this time, Han Duan had already done the upper work, and was ready to transfer Han Lingkun, who was temporarily emerging under Jinju City, to serve in the forbidden army.

Han Lingkun shook his head vigorously and resolutely refused: "No, I won't go back!" There is no war anywhere else in the Great Zhou, only there is war here! In the past two months, his subordinates have learned a lot from the war, and they don't want to leave, so they ask Guo to make Xiangcheng all his subordinates. ”

Guo Chongwei shook his head slightly and said, "Let the two of you say this, I am also a little apprehensive in my heart. Leaving you here, I can rest assured! It is according to what you have said. Come, everybody, keep drinking! ”

Wang Yan and Han Lingkun glanced at each other, and at the same time bowed their hands and said goodbye.

After the two of them made such a peace, the atmosphere of drinking on the spot was gone! Guo Chongwei waved his hand helplessly, motioning for the two of them to leave on their own.

Three days later, in the middle of the night, just after all the Later Zhou troops had withdrawn, some unusual events occurred in Xi, Ci, and Jiangzhou.