On the 22nd, the sunset paved the Yangtze River.

At this time, it was less than four days before the fall of Fancheng; It was less than three days before Lishan Luowen Tiger surrendered to Huaidong; Luo Xianyi led his troops to aid Lishan and was defeated in Luodian Zhangjiawan in the early morning of yesterday; Tang Fuguan led his troops to chase down the troops in the afternoon of yesterday before the troops came to Suizhou City and captured the outer city, Luo Xianyi and Ma Zhen led the remnants of the army to retreat to Changle Palace City and stubbornly resisted; Azig's headquarters and the reinforcements gathered in the east of Fancheng were also completely annihilated by Sun Zhuang and Huang Zuyu at Baihe Beach at dusk yesterday......

Ye Ji Luorong rode on top of the war horse, like a solidified statue, listening to the incoherent report of the rout of Eastern Hubei in the incoherent language of the letter horseman.

Although Ye Ji Luorong's vigilance against Huaidong is not as high as that of Hao Wenzhuang and Chen Zhihu, and he is good at fighting in battle formations, but not good at scheming, but after fighting for half a life, Ye Ji Luorong also has a keen intuition about danger - Chen Zhihu's secret letter and the news of the Baihetan fiasco only reached Jingzhou early this morning, and Ye Ji Luorong was already able to completely guess Huaidong's entire plan to lure the enemy into depth, but it was too late.

The rout of eastern Hubei has become a predestined thing, and it will come sooner or later.

Ye Ji Luo Rong raised his head and made a gesture to kill his mouth, and the messenger was also puzzled, and two soldiers rushed over one left and one right, stabbing two sharp knives into his body, and he stopped struggling before dragging the bloody corpse away from Ye Ji Luo Rong's eyes.

Xinqi has caused the rout of Edong to collapse in fright, and such a person cannot stay. Fear is like a plague, if you don't pay attention to it, it will spread out quickly - Yeji Luorong has been fighting on the battlefield for more than thirty years, and he knows that a little carelessness at this moment will induce the collapse of the whole army.

Once the hearts of the whole army are filled with fear, the road to the north is destined to be paved with corpses.

"Chuan Zhou Fan and Tian Chang came to see me," Ye Ji Luorong's face turned pale, and he ordered in a hoarse but firm voice like iron, "Send Hu Guards to all the roads from Jingmen, Changlin, and Shicheng, and those who discuss in the army will not be pardoned immediately, and there is no need to ask for additional ......instructions."

The Yandong tribes established their clans and countries by war, and the servants around Ye Ji Luorong didn't know how many dangerous and bloody battles Ye Ji Luo Rong had experienced, even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of them, it was difficult for them to blink their eyes.

It's just that the iron-blooded brave soldiers who can really stand tall in front of them without changing color, after all, there are too few, and the vast majority of soldiers are unable to calmly face the news of the rout on the Eastern Front, and before the senior generals have digested this bad news, Yeji Luorong must do everything possible to prevent the fear from spreading to the whole army.

Compared with eastern Hubei, Yeji Luorong has an advantage on the west bank of the Han River, that is, the news on the east bank is about to reach Jingzhou, and there are only a few limited passages; It is much easier to control the spread of news than in eastern Hubei.

Again, the main force of the Huaidong Army is still in the eastern Hubei region, even if they want to go deep into Shicheng, cross the Han River from Shicheng to intercept them or directly go deep into Xiangyang and Nanyang, it is not possible to do it in two or three days - this means that no matter how dangerous Ye Ji Luorong's situation on the west bank is, they will not immediately face the catastrophe, and there is still some valuable buffer time to deal with the current crisis.

****************

Zhou Fan and Tian Chang, surrounded by Hu Qi, beat their horses to the riverbank to meet Ye Ji Luorong.

On the riverbank, except for Hu Zongguo standing beside Ye Ji Luorong, there was no one else, and the guards were scattered a hundred steps away.

This matter is a matter of life and death, and Zhou Fan and Tian Chang also withdrew their horses aside and walked to the riverbank on foot.

The sunset spreads on the river, in the south of Jingzhou City, there are more than a dozen warships, it is the Jinghu Navy trying to approach Jingzhou City, although Jingzhou is crumbling in the sunset, but it did not fall after all.

Ye Ji Luorong stood by the knife, turned around slowly, looked at Zhou Fan and Tian Chang coming over, and said, "Huangpi, Hanjin, and Tiemen Mountain have all fallen......"

From Chen Zhihu's secret letter and the news of the Baihetan fiasco, Zhou Fan and Tian Chang could guess this ending, and they really had to face this situation, although there was a chill that penetrated the bones and went straight to the vertebrae, but they would not immediately panic and be at a loss.

"Su Tingzhan fled from Shicheng first, taking the navy with him, and I'm afraid that there is no possibility for the soldiers and horses of Eastern Hubei to come over to join us or flee north," Ye Ji Luorong said, "Although the king of Ruzhou should be able to lead his troops into Nanyang today, the time left for us is very limited, and you two must have an understanding of this......"

Chen Zhihu and Tu An, with 60,000 soldiers and horses in their hands, can occupy the line of Xinye, Nanyang, and Xichuan at this time, and can also threaten the Huaidong Army that entered Fancheng not to deploy, and can also protect the flanks of Wuguanhe and Danjiang from being directly threatened by the Huaidong Army, and can also leave a passage for them to retreat north.

Once the main force of the Huaidong Army was called north and more than 100,000 elites were gathered in the south of Xinye, Chen Zhihu could only be forced to abandon Nanyang and shrink his forces to Xichuan and Wuguan if he did not want to divide and encircle the Huaidong Army.

At that time, after the Huaidong Army in Fancheng was relieved of the flank threat, and with the Shuiying warships heading north from downstream, they would have the ability to cross the Han River directly from Xiangyang and cut off the passage for their northward retreat.

"After this battle, swear to kill Su Tingzhan!" Tian Chang spat viciously.

Ye Ji Luorong looked at Tian Chang and felt that he was just saying this to clear up his relationship with Su Tingzhan.

If Su Tingzhan didn't flee first, the defeated troops from eastern Hubei would still be able to gather in Shicheng, and they would be able to attract the main force of the Huaidong Army to Shicheng for a period of time. It is undoubtedly a fool's dream to think that the Eastern Hubei rout army will cross the river from Shicheng to the west bank before the main force of the Huaidong Army surrounds it, but at least it can make Meng Anchan's department, who was the first to retreat to Shicheng, escape a few thousand more cavalry.

If the naval forces of Shicheng and Hanjin could still obey the order, it would greatly delay the timing of the Huaidong water camp to enter the Hanshui and win more time for the troops and horses on the west bank to retreat north......

It's a pity that no one is stupid, and no one wants to stay behind the east bank palace to be surrounded and annihilated by the main force of the Huaidong Army......

Su Tingzhan was decisive and treacherous, he escaped so completely, even bringing his family and relatives in Shicheng, it can be seen that he should have sensed the signs of the rout on the Eastern Front earlier, but he could not help but say nothing.

Zhou Fan wondered that Su Tingzhan fled first, cutting off the last passage for the soldiers and horses of eastern Hubei to escape to the west bank, and this crime was not enough to be forgiven; And the grandson of Haowenzhuang, Haoyuan, was able to withdraw from Huangpi first, and led the people with the eight surnames in Shicheng to flee north with Su Tingzhan, which shows that Haowenzhuang should have been alert to the conspiracy of Huaidong when he transferred his grandson to the north, why did Prince Mu still leave Hu Zongguo, an important figure in the Zhejiang and Fujian families, by his side?

Ye Ji Luorong also had bitterness and couldn't say it, in fact, when he went south, Haowenzhuang was wary of Huaidong many times, but he didn't arouse enough vigilance; At this time, the life and death of Haowenzhuang in Eastern Hubei was unknown, and all the armies in Eastern Hubei had fled, how could Ye Ji Luorong be too harsh to investigate the responsibility of Su Tingzhan and Haoyuan's escape?

Again, if they want to cross the Han River and retreat north from the Wuguan River and the Danjiang Estuary, they can't do without the cooperation of the naval warships, and at this time, the naval warships are mainly in the hands of Su Tingzhan and Yang Xiong, Ye Ji Luorong can only appease Su Tingzhan and Yang Xiong at this time, instead of stimulating them to flee westward desperately.

Moreover, Tian Chang said that he would swear to kill Su Tingzhan, but what he thought in his heart, Ye Ji Luorong was not sure to guess it at this time.

Ye Ji Luorong exhaled lightly and said: "Su Tingzhan stays in Shicheng, and he can't reverse the situation on the eastern front, he retreats north first, and he can rush to strengthen Danjiangkou, which is also my liking," and said to Hu Zongguo, "Zongguo, you will prepare an order for me, and Su Tingzhan will go north first to take over the post of Baiyang Guan's guard, and strengthen the defense of the Danjiangkou to the Wuguan River, so as to take over the northward withdrawal of our army's main force ......"

"Yes." Hu Zongguo replied quietly, Ye Ji Luorong gently exposed Su Tingzhan's crime of fleeing north and did not pursue it, indicating that the situation on the Western Front still has room to be saved, if Ye Ji Luorong loses his mind, then he and Tian Chang will mainly consider a way out for themselves.

A cold wind blew, Ye Ji Luorong only felt the chill through his body, and he realized more and more the power of Huaidong's plan at this time, in fact, the moment he decided to lead his troops from Nanyang south to fight Jingzhou, he was completely defeated.

In addition to the haste of going south to attack Jingzhou, what is more important is that after 300,000 soldiers and horses went south, they actually cut Hanshui into two pieces, east and west, and the Shicheng pontoon bridge was not built for half a month, relying only on one or two hundred boats, and finally ferrying thousands of people back and forth every day.

Even if he was alerted to the existence of the Chai Mountain ambush in advance, how could the 167,000 soldiers and horses on the east bank of the Han River be hastily dealt with, and the elite of the Huaidong Army, which was likely to reach a total of 200,000, would add an additional 30,000 Chizhou troops?

The main force of the Huaidong Army pursued from Huangpi to Shicheng, and it only took two or three days, even if Su Tingzhan did not escape, how many soldiers and horses could be picked up from the east coast?

Starting from Nanyang, everything is a big conspiracy of the Huaidong Brigade to go deep into Jingxiang, Jingzhou is just the bait released by Huaidong, but he didn't even notice it!

Ye Ji Luorong screamed in his heart that remorse hit the pain - but no matter how painful his heart was, he had to endure it and restrain it, he had not completely lost: the main force of the soldiers and horses on the Western Front had not dispersed, including his own cavalry and the three newly attached Han armies of Zhou Fan, Chen Zhihu, and Tian Chang, which were the essence of the soldiers and horses of the Western Front. As long as the troops and horses can be kept retreating north, they will have a chance to turn the book in the future.

It was precisely because Chen Zhihu led his troops to enter Nanyang decisively, although he could not recapture Fancheng, but he kept the northward retreat channel in the area of Wuguan River and Danjiangkou west of Xiangfan, which made Zhou Fan and Tian Chang less panicked.

"When the Duke of Wenzhuang was there, he once said that Dong Yuan was not a descendant of the female, at this time, he evacuated the soldiers and horses in Xinyang, and let the king of Ruzhou lead his troops into Nanyang, which shows that his mind is unwilling to succumb to the forest," Hu Zongguo said, "It is imperative to immediately send someone to infiltrate Lishan and secretly order Luo Xiancheng to surrender Dong Yuan......"

"One mountain can't tolerate two tigers, how can Dong Yuan leave Luo Xiancheng?" Ye Ji Luorong asked.

Luo Xiancheng surrendered to Dong Yuan, and there were still fifty or sixty thousand soldiers and horses under his command - even if Lin Jian could not hold Dong Yuan accountable for the crime of arsoning with the enemy for the time being, but Dong Yuan could be so stupid as to allow Luo Xiancheng to lead fifty or sixty thousand soldiers and horses to recuperate beside the couch?

"Since one mountain can't accommodate two tigers, then send an envoy to assassinate Luo Xiancheng, so that Zhong Rong and others will descend to Dong Yuan's ......," Hu Zongguo said word by word.

Zhou Fan's heart jumped, and he secretly said that Hu Zongguo's strategy was poisonous! I didn't expect that under such circumstances, Hu Zongguo could still think of such a poisonous plan, and he was decisive and worthy of being the most important adviser around Luwenzhuang.

Luo Xiancheng would not guard against the fact that the envoy sent by Ye Ji Luo Rong would assassinate him, and the possibility of success was extremely high.

At this time, Luo Xiancheng was entangled with Dong Yuan at the northern foot of Huai Mountain, and there was no threat to the main force of the Huaidong Army in the hinterland of Jingxiang, but at this time, the most taboo in Huaidong was Dong Yuan in Huaixi - in fact, the situation reached this point, Luo Xiancheng's troops stopped the Huai River, and there were no soldiers and horses north of the Huai River, so there was no possibility of escape.

Who is cheaper than Dong Yuan, who is determined to work against Huaidong.

Dong Yuan naturally would not be rare Luo Xiancheng to surrender him, what he was rare was the fifty or sixty thousand soldiers and horses under Luo Xiancheng.

Ye Ji Luo Rong sent someone to kill Luo Xiancheng at this time, and sent Dong Yuan to remove the main obstacle to the integration of the Suizhou army, so that Zhong Rong and other generals would immediately surrender Dong Yuan, and Dong Yuan's troops in Huaixi could suddenly increase dramatically.

The surrender of Dong Yuan with the Zhou army will also enable Dong Yuan to control the passage from the northern foot of Huaishan Mountain into Jingxiang, and when Lin Lianzhen dares to lead the Huaidong Army to the north, he will completely expose the back road to the Huaixi Army's troops?

As long as Lin Jian stayed in Suizhou to guard against Dong Yuan, even if only 350,000 soldiers and horses were left, it would greatly reduce the pressure on them to retreat north.

This plan made Ye Ji Luorong feel moved when he heard it, and said, "Good plan." ”

"Duke Wenzhuang sent someone to send a private letter to the lower officials yesterday," Hu Zongguo saw that Ye Ji Luo Rong agreed to remove Luo Xiancheng, so he continued the topic just now, "It's just that what Wenzhuang Gongxin said was too shocking, and the lower officials didn't think about it, and if I think about it at this time, there may be merit......

Ye Ji Luorong raised his eyebrows, looked at Hu Zongguo, and said secretly: If he held Su Tingzhan accountable for escaping, Hu Zongguo probably wouldn't mention this letter, right?

"What did King Min say in his letter?" Ye Ji Luorong asked. The fate of Luwenzhuang in Eastern Hubei at this time is unknown, and Ye Ji Luorong also wants to know what other plans Luwenzhuang has to tell Hu Zongguo to tell him, thinking that sending someone to assassinate Luo Xiancheng should also be Luwenzhuang's will......

"Duke Wenzhuang said in his letter that after this battle, Huaidong will have the upper hand," Hu Zongguo didn't seem to see the suspicion in Ye Ji Luorong's eyes, "Duke Wenzhuang thought that the imperial court should adjust its strategy against South Vietnam, and should immediately change the war to peace, and immediately send people to the Southern Dynasty to ask for peace, even if the land of Henan was ceded back to the Southern Dynasty, in exchange for a chance to recuperate." At the same time, it is also necessary to immediately secretly win over the officials of the Cao family, Dong Yuan, and the imperial party of the Southern Dynasty, so that the Cao family, Dong Yuan, and the imperial hall of the Southern Dynasty can consume the power of Huaidong...... The assassination of Luo Xiancheng and the surrender of the Suizhou army to Dong Yuan is only the first step, otherwise Huaidong will be uncontrollable. ”

Zhou Fan was secretly frightened when he heard this, and at the same time wondered in his heart: Since Luwenzhuang saw the signs first, why didn't he escape?

Tian Chang said: "No matter what, we must capture Jingzhou City now." The last general asked Prince Mu to open the passage for the remnants of Jingzhou to flee south into the river, and the last general led his troops to attack it from the north side, vowing to take Jingzhou City before tomorrow......"

Ye Ji Luorong looked at the ruined Jingzhou City, but he didn't expect Hu Wenmu to stop them for more than half a month.

At present, Hu Wenmu is still leading the remnants of the army to hold the inner city of Jingzhou without surrendering, but if they do not completely defeat Jingzhou City, the Huaidong Army will be able to send an elite combat force to land quickly from Jingzhou in three or five days. After the elite of the Huaidong Army and the Jinghu Army converge in Jingzhou, should they send their troops to the queen? Who wants to stay in the palace?

Only by taking Jingzhou City can the northern retreat become more calm; Even if the passage to the north was completely blocked by the Huaidong Army, they would be able to confront the Huaidong Army according to the entire territory of Jingzhou.

Of course, the defenders of Jingzhou already knew Huaidong's overall plan, and they were very determined to be trapped in the inner city of Jingzhou, and they fought very tenaciously, and no one wanted to give up at the last moment.

The Northern Yan rout is imminent, for the defenders of Jingzhou, even if they surrender, they will not live for a few more days, and it is impossible to escape the purge of Huaidong after the war, but they will be charged with defeat and surrender to the enemy, and their families will be affected, so it is better to die heroically in Jingzhou City.

But let go of the passage into the river in the south of Jingzhou City, so that Hu Wenmu has the opportunity to lead the remnants to retreat to the Yangtze River, and Hu Wenmu and the defenders of Jingzhou may not have the decision to fight the last soldier-

Hu Wenmu has stuck to Jingzhou until now, and he has been able to explain all aspects, and at the last moment he died in Jingzhou, and what good did it do him to fight the last bit of elite in Jingzhou? Anyway, after the Northern Yan soldiers and horses retreated north, he could quickly recover Jingzhou.