In Yuncheng, Jeju, Sanyang Lake and other places, the war continues.

The southern part of Jining Road is full of Yan soldiers, and every remnant of the Yuan army and every local green army have encountered overwhelming encirclement and suppression in just a few days.

This action is very big, and it is impossible for Wang Baobao of the garrison in Shanzhou not to know.

On the day that Pan and Fu You left the city, another meticulous secret report came to his case.

"The red thief Monk Li, Yang Wanhu and the red thief Hu Zhong joined forces and attacked the city, and they have conquered Jiaxiang."

Gahsang is on the west side of Jeju and on the east side of Juye. Like Yuncheng, the city is not very large. Before, when Zhao crossed the canal at the beginning and went deep into Jining, he had assigned two teams of men and horses as two wings. One is Gao Yanshi, who went to Yuncheng; One is Hu Zhong, who went to Jiaxiang. Gao Yanshi captured Yuncheng, and Hu Zhong also captured Jiaxiang, but later failed to hold it and recaptured it for the Yuan army.

Now, Monk Li and Yang Wanhu have forcibly crossed Shanyang Lake, and with their cooperation, Hu Zhong has conquered Jiaxiang again. ——, this is also the reason why when Kyeong Qianxing occupied Jeju, Lee, Yang, and Hu did not come to help. The difference in time between their two battlefields was only two days.

Wang Baobao read the secret letter alone in his private room.

After seeing it, he was furious, crumpled it into a ball, slammed it against the wall, raised his foot, and kicked it over. Still feeling restless in his chest, he walked back and forth in the room a few steps, lifted the porcelain vase again, and fell to the ground. With a "bang", the sword was unsheathed and slashed five or six times on the overturned table.

"How unreasonable! A bunch of wine bags and rice bags. ”

Juye lost, and he retreated to Shanzhou and Chengwu. In the northern part of Jinyeong Road, there are only a few strongholds such as Jeju and Jiaxiang. The news came yesterday that it was the fall of Jeju; Today, Jiaxiang is lost again. Since then, even if Yidu, Tai'an, and Juye have become a front line, the supply of grain and straw and the rush of reinforcements can no longer be smooth. The more beneficial it is to the Yan army, the more unfavorable it is to the Yuan army.

How could Wang Baobao not be annoyed?

Especially before he withdrew into Shanzhou, he also specially assigned hundreds of people to assist in the defense of Jiaxiang.

"All stupid, none of them are of great use!"

Although he was praised by Chakhan Timur as "my family's thousand-mile horse", Wang Baobao is still young after all, and he has never been a handsome man before, nor has he suffered any setbacks, so even though he is talented, he still has not honed enough in his heart.

Think about it, when he first came to Jining, how majestic was he?

On the orders of the army of Chakhan Timur, under the command of several roads, several states of the male army. Strong soldiers and strong generals, full of camps. The tiger is in the giant wilderness and competes for the dominance of Shandong. How many fierce generals in the army prostrate at his feet to listen to orders, and it is better to dare to speak out in fear; How many Jinji men are brave for his words, and they regard death as home.

was originally here to save the danger, and he was known as a young and handsome man. Everyone says: "Tiger father has no dog son". Therefore, Deng She regarded it as a great calamity, and Chahan relied on it as a cover.

At the height of the military might, the north and south side eyes. Every move, the heroes look at it.

Who knows, before the battle reached Erhe, he was actually taken by Zhao Guo into danger and conquered the city in one fell swoop. Therefore, he had to flee to Shanzhou in a hurry. This defeat of Juye has had a great negative impact on him, and it is also thanks to the indomitable side of his nature that he was not completely defeated because of this, but after all, the shadow of "fiasco and escape" is not so easy to be eliminated.

His anger at this time, in fact, is completely understandable.

The room was "crackling" into a ball, and the soldiers waiting outside were all frightened and frightened. At this time, there was a person who came to the hospital, in his forties, immortal wind bones, who was Zhao Heng, one of the strategists under Chahan, and now the mastermind of Wang Baobao's army.

As soon as he entered the hospital, he heard the movement in the room, frowned slightly, squeezed his eyes, and asked his own soldiers: "What's the matter?" - He has developed a problem since childhood, and likes to squeeze his eyes when he speaks.

"A secret letter has been sent from the north. The general probably just saw it, so he was angry. ”

"MeSign? What is written? ”

"The villain doesn't know. Before the general read the letter, he drove us out. ”

Zhao Heng lowered his head and thought for a while, no longer paid attention to his own soldiers, came to the door, and lightly buckled twice.

Maybe Wang Baobao's anger hadn't gone down yet, so he didn't pay attention to it, and after waiting for a while, he didn't get an answer, but he couldn't stop hearing the "crackling" sound in the room. He took two steps back, cleared his throat, and said loudly, "General, Zhao Heng asks to see." ”

Before the words fell, the room was suddenly quiet.

After another moment, a phrase came out: "Sir, please come in." ”

Zhao Heng bundled his clothes and pushed the door in proudly.

When he entered the room, he looked in.

At first glance, there doesn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary. Cases, chairs, documents and other things are all in their place. But if you look closely, you can see the difference. First, there is a pile of broken porcelain tiles piled up in the corner; Secondly, there are traces of movement on the case, and there are several sword marks on the legs and desk.

Zhao Heng knew it in his heart, and thought: "It's hard for him, he actually put everything back in place in such a short period of time." After a salute, he pretended not to know, squeezed his eyes and said, "I am outside the door, and I heard a sound in the room, I don't know what's wrong?" ”

Wang Baobao sat behind the desk, pressed his hand on the hilt of the sword, and said with a forced smile: "But I accidentally broke a porcelain bottle." He got up and asked, "Sir, here, but is there anything wrong?" He instructed the soldiers outside to serve tea and politely give up their seats.

Zhao Heng squeezed his eyes and smiled, and did not debunk his lies, sat down on the situation, and said: "I heard that there is a secret report from the north, so I came to ask to see the general because I want to hear what is in the secret report." ”

There was a secret report from the north, and Wang Baobao hadn't told anyone about it, except for the soldiers in the courtyard, only he knew about it. Listening to Zhao Heng's words, he understood that the lie had been seen through by Zhao Heng, in the end, he was young and his face was not thick enough, so he smiled embarrassedly, and simply stopped hiding it, and said frankly: "Since Mr. knows, I won't hide it from you, I am angry because of this secret report." ”

"Angry at the tip? ......, can the general show me the secret report? ”

Wang Baobao took out the secret report from his sleeve, which had been crumpled into a ball by him, unfolded it, and handed it to Zhao Heng. Zhao Heng took a closer look, handed it back, smiled brightly, and said, "It's just that Jiaxiang City has fallen." It's a trivial matter, why is General Zu angry at the crown? In my opinion, it is really unnecessary. ”

Wang Baobao was stunned and said: "Jeju and Jiaxiang are the only two remaining cities of our army in the north. Yesterday Jeju fell, and Mr. knew about it. Today, Jiaxing has fallen again, and our army no longer has a single soldier, a battalion, or a base in the north. However, the Yidu Red Thieves can thus penetrate the east and west, and become one, forming a coercive trend against our Danzhou and Chengwu, which is very unfavorable to our army. ......, why did the gentleman say, 'It's a trivial matter'? ”

"Now, although our army has defeated Juye, this is only a small defeat, and it has not damaged its strength too much. When the minister heard that 'victory and defeat are commonplace', it is not enough to care. Moreover, the general is stationed in Shanzhou and Chengwu, and within a few days, Linfen reinforcements will come, and at that time, the prestige will be restored. Now, although Jiaxiang and Jeju have fallen into the hands of the enemy, they are like moonlight in the water, and they are only temporarily handed over to the thief army for safekeeping. When the general regains his prestige, why is it difficult to use my elite new army to defeat his tired army, such as a strong man's fighting baby? The one who lifts the queen of heaven wins. Therefore, the minister thinks that this is a trivial matter, and it is not enough for the general to be angry. ”

Yidu Red Scarf went to Jeju and Jiaxiang, very good, very good, let them go. The more battles fought, the more tired the soldiers became. When Linfen's reinforcements arrived, Wang Baobao's two armies would join forces and use the "elite army" to oppose his "tired division", which would be better? It can be seen at a glance, and there is no need to say much.

"What the gentleman said is very true."

That being said, Wang Baobao's anxiety and anger did not lessen. How could he not hear it? The greater usefulness of Zhao Heng's words was just to comfort him. In other words, when the decisive battle is fought, whether it can be so or not is still between the two.

He turned his head and pretended to look at the map on the wall.

——, Zhao Heng is not only used to squeezing his eyes when he speaks, but also squeezing his eyes more and more when thinking about problems, he doesn't know how many times he squeezed when he said those words just now. Seeing that he was really upset, the more he looked at it, the more annoying he became, especially with Zhao Heng's smile, it always made him feel that this guy was laughing at him. So simply stop looking, out of sight, out of mind. Instead, he asked, "Speaking of Linfen reinforcements." Sir, how many days are there for reinforcements? ”

"Calculate the distance, at most five days, at least three days. Reinforcements will arrive. ”

Wang Baobao came to the map, calculated the distance from Linfen to Shanzhou, sighed, and said with self-reproach: "Father is enough to stay in Linfen, hoping to hear the good news of our army's victory. But in the first battle of Juye, he was defeated by the red thief Zhao stammered, which really made me extremely ashamed and embarrassed. ”

Zhao Heng was silent.

Both he and Wang Baobao knew that although Chakhan Timur had only forced peace with Polo, the situation in Linfen was not optimistic.

Polo's father replied that Badulu had always been the official of Chahan; And since Polo took over his father's troops, his position has always been above Chahan. Defeated by a person who has been under him for a long time, the feeling of shame is not much different from the feeling Wang Baobao felt after being defeated by Yidu Red Turban.

It can be predicted that Polo must be unconvinced, deeply resentful, and always waiting for an opportunity to fight back. Under such circumstances, Wang Baobao was defeated in Juye, causing Chahan to have to draw troops from the already insufficient army to help, and the pressure that Linfen needed to face can be imagined.

"Two days ago, the Henan military sent a telegram, saying that Zhu Yuanzhang of Jinling finally couldn't hold back, and a few days ago he brazenly sent out the army, and he had pulled out Haozhou, and he wanted to enter Henan. And divided into an army, led by its fierce general Chang Yuchun, drove north, and came to my Jining Road. Sir, 'the mountain rain is coming, the wind is full of buildings'! ”

"Often in spring, galloping between the Jianghuai River, self-proclaimed 100,000. I have heard that he is a fierce opponent, and that he has a reputation for being a fierce opponent. However, if he goes north from Jinling, he must pass through Xuzhou and other places, and now, these places are in the hands of Zhang Shicheng; Shi Cheng and Zhu Yuanzhang are enemies again. Come to think of it, it will not be easy for Chang Yuchun to cross. Looking at yesterday's military report, he has not yet arrived in Suzhou, and he is still hundreds of miles away from Jining. General, don't worry too much about this. ”

Suzhou, in the northwest of Haozhou, is more than 200 miles away. It is now occupied by a red scarf, and the guard's name is Liang Mianzhu.

Chang Yuchun and Xu Da set off from Jinling at the same time, and it was not a few days before they arrived in Suzhou, and the speed of the march was not fast.

When I arrived in Suzhou, I went further on, about 200 miles, and entered the territory of the belly; A hundred miles up and down is Shanxian. In other words, Chang Yuchun is now only about 300 miles away from Shanzhou in a straight line.

If he proceeded at full speed at his current marching speed, he would be able to appear under Shanzhou City in three or four days at most. This is not much different from the date when the Linfen reinforcements will be able to arrive. It's just that after he arrives in Suzhou, there must be a checkpoint to pass, that is, the "Xuzhou" mentioned by Zhao Heng. Xuzhou is more than 100 miles northeast of Suzhou, located on the main road, and the Yellow River flows through here, it is difficult to bypass.

Therefore, if Chang Yuchun wants to cross Xuzhou and continue to cross the river to the north, there must be a vicious battle to be fought.

Therefore, although Zhao Heng attaches great importance to this enemy army, he still advises Wang Baobao to "don't worry too much about this". After persuasion, he also got up and walked to the map, looked at it for a while, and suddenly shook his head.

"Why is the gentleman shaking his head?"

"That Jinling Zhu Yuanzhang originally bowed down to the lord and often came to pay money, but at this time, he suddenly divided his troops into two ways, one to take Henan, and the other to Jining, and dared to fight with me, nine times out of ten he was instigated by the Deng thief. Both of them were thieves and generals of the pseudo-Song Dynasty, and they should make peace with each other, which is okay. It's just that I often hear people say that Zhu Yuanzhang is good at fighting, but this time, why did he faint like this? ”

"What fainting?"

"He pulled out Haozhou and took Henan, which is understandable. Haozhou is his hometown; However, some of our army in Henan is now under the command of the general, and Henan is relatively empty. He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to get millet from the fire, although he was suspected of not being able to do it, but it was not a mistake. But why did he have to split his army? ”

"Sir, do you mean that you often meet this road in spring?"

"yes."

"Zhu Yuanzhang sent Chang Yuchun to Jining, it should be to echo Deng Thief and strengthen his momentum, right?"

"I don't think Zhu Yuanzhang will be so good. Send a brave general, lead his elite soldiers, travel thousands of miles, and work tirelessly, just to give Deng Thief a stronger momentum? If he really has such a good day, when the lord takes Bianliang, why didn't he risk his death to help? It must be known that Bianliang is the pseudo-capital of the pseudo-Song Dynasty! King Xiao Ming, but the pseudo-master of the pseudo-Song! He didn't even save the pseudo-capital and the pseudo-master, and would he run to help the Deng thief? ”

When Zhao Heng said this, Wang Baobao also felt a little strange, pondered for a moment, and asked: "In the opinion of Mr., why did he divide his troops into two ways and send Chang Yuchun to commit Jining?" ”