The rout of Xihe City had already gone to the left flank of the army in an orderly manner, and under the guidance of Chen Yi and others, the chaotic scene finally calmed down.

Then a bloody, lame and slumped general staggered to the earthen bag, and when he saw Zhao Ning, he knelt on the ground with a puff.

He shouted in a hoarse voice: "General Zhao! He Ping, the defense envoy of Xihe City, meet General Zhao...... Thank you General Zhao for saving me, and I will never forget my humble duties......"

When He Ping met Chen Yi, he knew that it was Zhao Ning, and he stumbled to the earthen bag, and in the first shout, he was full of pain and grief, but when he spoke later, he wanted to speak several times and stopped.

At the end, He Ping, whose facial features were distorted and his face was flushed, grabbed the ground with his head: "I am willing to be a pawn of the horse, and I ask General Zhao to go to Xihe City with a humble position!"

Zhao Ning glanced at the injuries on He Ping's body, and found that the other party's situation was not optimistic, and with the degree of weakness of the other party's qi, it was already unexpected that he could still move freely and not fall.

Zhao Ning didn't think that He Ping would be able to continue fighting: "General He should go down first, and it is General He's top priority to restrain his troops to retreat to Yunzhou to recuperate." ”

This is a very reasonable arrangement, and He Ping should do it, but after Zhao Ning's words, He Ping couldn't stand on his knees, his hands were caught in the dirt, and his whole body was tense like a beast:

"General Zhao! I have been guarding Xihe City for half a year, and I have been vigilant day and night, and I have never slackened off for a moment. Now he has lost his city and land, and he is humble...... What a degrade wrong!

"Humble ...... I know that my sin is unforgivable, and I don't dare to make meritorious contributions, so I can only ask General Zhao to fulfill it, let him be a pawn again, and fight with the thief again!"

Looking at He Ping, whose armor was torn and scarred, Zhao Ning was silent for a short time.

Of course, he understood the other party's feelings, and from the fact that the other party didn't even have the confidence to call himself the "last general", but kept saying "despicable", he knew how much the fall of Xihe City hit him and how much he blamed himself.

But no matter why Xihe City fell, as the main general of the city, he had to bear the greatest responsibility, and Gao Furui's judgment of the battle situation was not enough to be a reason for the imperial court not to punish him.

Not only will the imperial court not, but neither will Zhao Ning himself.

Zhao Ning withdrew his gaze from He Ping and looked at the routed troops assembled on the left flank of the army.

After He Ping came over, in the dark night, only the meteor rout ran out, which shows that even in the process of retreating, He Ping was running behind the soldiers.

With his cultivation in the late stage of the Yuan Shen Realm, if he wants to anoint the soles of his feet, he can run at the front.

At this moment, the group of defeated troops gathered on the left flank of the 40,000 horse army is already extremely large, and at a cursory glance, there should be 10,000 or 20,000. And among these routs who were pursued for at least twenty miles, there were still some people who were fully armored and swords, and there was quite a formation between the actions, and they did not become rout soldiers in the full sense.

You must know that once the army begins to break and flee, in a panic, they can't care about anything, and the armor weighing dozens of catties is often the first object that the soldiers want to abandon.

Only by lightening the load can they run faster and have more chances to survive.

The rest of the blades, such as spears and shields, are also difficult to carry and can easily affect the footsteps, so they will be thrown away. Throwing away armor is the first word used to describe a rout.

Zhao Ning said expressionlessly: "If you can gather three thousand brave soldiers who are willing to fight back with you in the rout, Ben will give you another chance to fight." ”

"Obey your orders! Thank you General Zhao!" He Ping, who was overjoyed, kowtowed three times in a row before getting up and leaving.

When He Ping left, Wei Wuxian said twice, "This guy is not a mediocre general without ability, and he also has some ethics, in today's world, there are not many such poor generals." ”

"The further you go, the more you will not be less. After Zhao Ning said this, he did not continue the topic, seeing that Chen Yi had returned, he gathered the generals and arranged the next strategy to face the Beihu army.

40,000 horse troops, no more or less, but there are more than twenty generals.

This is because cavalry is a precious military branch in the Central Plains Dynasty, and there are not many horse troops under the command of many righteous soldiers, like Geng Anguo, who can come out with 2,000 horse troops, which is extremely rare.

Some of the leaders of the reckless rebels only have a few hundred cavalry under their command.

In addition to Xihe City, Yunzhou was able to gather 40,000 cavalry, one is because the defense makes the army more horses, and the other is because of local powerhouses such as the Yun family and the Changhe Boat Company, which provide many war horses and cultivators.

And the latter is what Zhao Ning really has to rely on in this battle.

The effect of his early layout in Yunzhou is also reflected here.

Looking around at a group of generals who were nervous or excited, calm or apprehensive, Zhao Ning's eyes finally fell on Yun Yong, Chen Yi, Fang Moyuan, etc., the local heroes of Yunzhou and the leaders of the Jianghu forces under his command.

"Yun Yong, Chen Yi, Fang Moyuan, Zhang Jia, Ding Yi, your troops are in front of the army and assume the vanguard position of the army; Li Kui and Wang Xingcheng are the defense envoys, your troops are in the middle, and the rest of the rebel army is in the rear. ”

Zhao Ning's military order was very stable: "Although there are more than 40,000 troops in Beihu, this time they crossed the river to attack the fortified positions and capture Xihe City, so there are not many cavalry. The account of the rout of Xihe City and the news of Wei Shilang also confirmed one point: the opponent's cavalry totaled only more than 10,000.

"When the two armies are fighting, all the troops don't need to think too much, there is only one tactic, just rush forward to kill, break up the opponent's formation, and go to the bottom of Xihe City!"

For a group of miscellaneous soldiers, the simpler the tactics, the better, and what flanks detour, break through in the middle, and what cruising flanks and divide and encircle, are all self-defeating.

Zhao Ning continued: "When we arrived at Xihe City, the army was divided into two parts, one part surrounded the city to prepare for the follow-up siege, and the other part was separated to the two wings to recapture the large and small military forts and river warships, so that the Beihu soldiers in Xihe City became a lone army.

"How to act at that time, just listen to the general's orders. ”

After the military order was finished, Zhao Ning looked around at the generals again, "Who has doubts?"

The generals of the rebel army present, whether they are heroes in the green forest or local clans, have no experience in large-scale combat or not, and naturally only Zhao Ning is the head of the horse, and what he says is what he says.

Li Kui and Wang Xingcheng are two defense envoys, but they have their own thoughts about Zhao Ning's military order, among which Wang Xingcheng did not speak, although his eyes changed several times, Li Kui, who was full of beard, was a straight man, and immediately said:

"If General Zhao doesn't ask, the major affairs in the army will naturally be decided by the commander, and we will never dare to have any objections, but since General Zhao asked, the last general will have something to say.

"General Zhao, the soldiers under the command of the last general and the Wang Defense Envoy are all well-trained and well-equipped imperial divisions, and they are stronger than the righteous army, so they should assume the vanguard position!"

After he said this, Wang Xingcheng's face changed slightly.

Geng Anguo was originally quite unwilling to stay at the back of the army, and wanted to ask for orders to be the vanguard, in all fairness, he felt that the Liangshan battalion, which had twice defeated the attack of the official army, was only stronger than the army of the defense envoy.

But after listening to what Li Kui said, "Major matters in the army are naturally decided by the commander's words", he couldn't help but say that he was not a general of the regular army of the imperial dynasty, he did not know the rules of the army, and he was very afraid of violating military law, so he could only be cautious in his words and deeds.

Wei Wuxian, Song Ming and other Wang Extreme Realm cultivators also looked at Zhao Ning, with a look of incomprehension in their eyes, waiting for Zhao Ning to answer their doubts. The regular army of the imperial court should indeed be stronger in combat power, and it should assume an important position at this time.

Zhao Ning knew what everyone thought, and he also knew that there should be a reasonable explanation, but as a courtier of the Great Qi Dynasty, some of the things he had done before could not be said in the open.

After a little silence, Zhao Ning already had an idea in his heart, and said:

"From ancient times to the present, whenever the dynasty is founded, the heroes of the world are either in the army or in the court, and it is precisely because of their concerted efforts and their ability that Taizu can calm the troubled times, make meritorious contributions, and look at all directions.

"But in the peaceful season, especially when the world has been peaceful for a long time, the real heroes are often in the people, not in the officialdom. So in troubled times, heroes are always reckless. ”

As soon as these words came out, everyone was stunned for a while, obviously the truth in Zhao Ning's words, they had not thought about it before.

Wei Wuxian fell into deep thought, Geng Anguo and other generals of the rebel army unconsciously straightened their chests, while Song Ming, Li Kui, Wang Xingcheng and others were quite annoyed and angry.

Zhao Ning belittled them.

Zhao Ning didn't say much, and answering the reason behind this assertion at this time would only anger Song Ming, Li Kui, Wang Xingcheng and other court personnel, because the truth would indeed hurt their feelings.

No matter what dynasty, once the peace has been maintained for a long time, those who are in high positions are all good at drilling, and those who are really operational, bloody and talented are often not reused-or in order to increase the number of officials and knights, and give up their principles.

In a relatively closed environment, such as in a unified imperial dynasty, if there is no intervention from outside forces, this closed environment will only become more and more chaotic and decaying.

From the perspective of the rule of state officials, there will be more and more corrupt officials and corrupt officials, and the situation of the people will become more and more unbearable.

No matter how eloquent the king is, how the officials and generals are fair and courageous, and how the people with lofty ideals serve the country and the people, as long as the world is peaceful, everything will return to reality.

Everyone's profit-seeking nature will drive everyone to put aside justice, morality, etiquette and righteousness, and become profit-oriented. Interests, personal interests, are always the most tangible things in the world.

In this case, the children of the family are slack and complacent, the officials of the poor family are deceived and concealed, one is addicted to pleasure and drunken money, and the other is unscrupulous in order to climb up, where will there be many real heroes?

If everyone is like the founding of the dynasty, with faith, pursuit, morality and ideals, willing to shed blood for the future of the country, regardless of personal wealth, honor and disgrace, how can the strategy of the emperors of the Great Qi Dynasty, including the Song Dynasty, provoke civil and military disputes, divide the power of the family, and do not hesitate to condone land annexation, so that countless ordinary people's families are ruined and displaced, and the strategy of supporting the rise of the poor family, how can it succeed?

The national war has begun, the troubled times are coming, and the world needs heroes and heroes.

The country is in danger, the society is dying, and the people are suffering, and only then can heroes and heroes show their strength and ambitions on the stage in this world.

Facing everyone's confused and ignorant and annoyed eyes, Zhao Ning just sighed meaningfully:

"This is the stake of victory and defeat, and I will bear it all by myself. I believe that the outcome of the war will answer the confusion in your hearts. Now, all the ministries act according to the order, and whoever dares to slack off for half a point will not be allowed by this general's law!"

When everyone heard this, their faces became solemn, and they all clenched their fists in agreement.

This is not only the deterrent result of the coach's authority, but also the past record of Zhao Ning and Zhao, so that everyone has trust in Zhao Ning.

Only Chen Yi, the big boss of the Changhe Boat Company, Yun Yong, the head of the Yun family, Fang Moxuan, the third master of the Yipinlou, the Zhang family, and Ding Yi, the owner of Dingjiazhuang, were full of confidence and high spirits when they hugged their fists.

The generals retreated, each returned to the headquarters, and in accordance with Zhao Ning's military order, the soldiers were deployed to act. Zhao Ning stood on the dirt bag with his hands in his hands, and continued to look west in the dark night.

Although it was pitch black ahead, in Zhao Ning's eyes, it was already a battlefield full of lights and people.

Since the seventh year of Qianfu, Yunzhou's Yipinlou and Changhe Boat Company, with the growth of wealth, have not only absorbed more Jianghu cultivators, but also organized these people to secretly conduct battle array drills.

Today, they and their peripheral forces, such as Ding Yi, are the backbone of the rebel army.

As for the Yun family, the Zhang family and other local heroes, although Zhao Ning couldn't let them also carry out battle formation drills in concealment—after all, they were not completely their own people, and it was difficult to explain the reason for this behavior—but at least they kept analyzing the national situation, and lobbied them to cultivate the art of war and combat skills of the children of the family on the grounds of making meritorious contributions on the battlefield and seeking the position of the family, and expanding the strength of the cultivators.

Yunzhou has been preparing for the war for a long time, whether it is Chen Yi, Fang Moyuan, or Yun Yong, Zhang Jia, etc., the method of recruiting young people to train the battle formation has been close to half a year, and with the foundation laid before, it is impossible not to achieve remarkable results in this half year.

They are not like Geng Anguo, a wild rebel army, whose armaments are not complete and people's hearts are fluctuating.

has a background and a background, armor weapons and elixirs, and there is basically no shortage of subordinates under their command.

Among the 70,000 rebels in Yunzhou, they accounted for nearly 50,000, and the number of cultivators among them was unimaginable to the two defense envoys, Li Kui and Wang Xingcheng.

The Yunzhou battlefield is so important, Zhao Ning's requirements for them are in line with the standards of the Yanmen Army and the Zhao private army.

The only problem is that tonight is their first battle.

If they can withstand the baptism of this war and win this war, or at least they will not suffer heavy losses, they will be able to complete the qualitative transformation like the Yanmen army that has been in Qianfu for seven years;

In any case, Zhao Ning has done everything he can.

At this moment, he chooses to believe in the hard work and dedication of the past.

"General Zhao, I have summoned three thousand three hundred and twenty-eight people, and they are all willing to follow General Zhao to fight the enemy in a bloody battle, and they will not turn their heels!" He Ping came to Tubao, although his injuries did not improve, his face was flushed, and he looked excited.

Zhao Ning threw out a medicine bottle and treated the other party's injuries: "Your department is behind the side of the army." ”

"Humble duty!" He Ping took the pill gratefully, and clenched his fists and promised loudly.

Suddenly, a military envoy came to report: "General, the time is up." ”

"Let's go. ”

......

An hour later, in the vast wilderness by the Yellow River, the two armies met.