The fierce battle between the two sides is still continuing, but the Caizhou army has begun to take a defensive position and gradually turn to the west, and the Xuzhou army is also aware of this and continues to launch small charges, but the Caizhou army's momentum is not reckless, and it still maintains a counterattack posture, so the battle between the two sides is still at the right time.

The situation on the entire battlefield is basically like this, occasionally the Xuzhou army is in a hurry, but it is counterattacked several times by the Caizhou army, and the two sides have losses to each other, but the overall situation has been decided.

Even if the Caizhou army is tenacious and tenacious, it is impossible to completely break away in this situation, and the strong man's broken wrist is also frequent, and there are several battles close to a thousand people that cannot be separated, so in the end they can only become an outcast and disappear in more and more Xuzhou troops.

In the middle of the night, the Caizhou army finally withdrew from Songcheng after countless battles of various sizes and encamped on the canal.

Of the 30,000 troops, less than 15,000 were able to withdraw, and there were also three or four thousand who retreated to the edge of the canal, all of whom fled from all over the place, and almost all of them were wounded.

This also means that the Caizhou army suffered a complete defeat in the battle for Songcheng, and half of the elite was lost in this battle.

The situation in Songzhou suddenly became confusing, although the four counties of Xiangyi, Ningling, Gushu and Zhecheng were still in the hands of Caizhou, but Songcheng, which was located in the geographical center, was lost, and Gushu and Ningling were quite dangerous.

Gu Shu is in the southeast of Song City, only separated by a canal, less than fifty miles away, and Ningling is in the west of Song City, although the distance is slightly far, but it has to be on the north bank of the canal with Song City, that is to say, relying on the advantage of the water army, the Xuzhou army can advance by land and water, and easily seize these two cities, and even farther Xiangyi will also suffer from this threat.

Only Zhecheng is located in the southwest corner, and there is a water in the middle, only Bozhou and Chenzhou are relatively safe, but only one Zhecheng is undoubtedly an unacceptable defeat for the Yuan family, who has always wanted to win the entire Song Prefecture.

How should we deal with this dilemma? This is a painful reality for the entire Yuan family.

The atmosphere inside the tent was frighteningly low.

It can be said that it is the first time in so many years that the Caizhou Army has suffered such a serious setback.

It was not without defeat before, but it was not possible to invest so many troops like this time, and to send so many generals and strong men, as well as a large number of magicians and equipment, and it was almost on the verge of victory and was reversed by the enemy, this kind of blow can be said to be painful to the bone.

After the First World War, there were more than 30,000 elite soldiers, and there were less than 15,000 left, and there were many defeated and wounded soldiers, so it can be said that the number of soldiers who could really fight in a war was probably in the tens of thousands.

"What now?" Yuan Huaifang's body with a pale face was still a little subconsciously trembling, this defeat was so miserable that he was still sleepwalking, watching the victory slip away from under his nose, and then it was a one-sided defeat, this kind of stimulation was too great for him, and he hadn't eased his breath until now.

Zhao Yonghui was seriously injured by the enemy general Hong Kui in the counterattack, and he was not able to support himself after returning to the camp for less than an hour, this is the first general to lose in this battle, Xue Mingshou died in the war before, and He Zhihao died in battle, but although these two are masters at the level of commanders, they are only deputy commanders after all, but their status in the two families is very important, but now the significance of Zhao Yonghui's death is different.

Zhao Yonghui is a role that the Zhao family can call a pillar of the beam, and it was also damaged in this battle, I am afraid that the resentment of the Zhao family will not be small, like appeasing the Zhao family, the Yuan family is afraid that the concessions in Yingbo and the two states will be even greater, otherwise it will be difficult to calm the dissatisfaction of the Zhao family.

Someone should always take responsibility for this battle, the battle was fought to such an extent, the losses were so big, and Song Cheng was lost, this is not to give an explanation, whether it is the Yuan family or the entire Caizhou system, it is difficult to convince the public.

"When the situation stabilizes, I will resign from the position of regimental training envoy to the envoy of Jiedu, but before that, I will still fulfill my duties. At this time, Yuan Huaiqing seemed very decisive, the gloom between his eyebrows was much less than before, and he seemed to have made a decision, "Tomorrow we will evacuate step by step, Gu Shu will give up, and now our troops will mainly transfer to Ningling and Xiangyi, Zhecheng I estimate that the Xuzhou army will not go, and this situation can only be like this, as for how to solve it in the next step, the festival will make them have a conclusion." ”

"General!"

"Needless to say, we did lose this battle, but it wasn't the worst yet, and we still had half of our troops saved. Yuan Huaiqing waved his hand to stop the generals around him who wanted to speak, "We still underestimated Jiang Feng's means, I didn't expect that in such a short period of time, he would be able to integrate the Pinglu Army and the Reform Army so well, I always thought that even if these two armies were attached to him, I am afraid that the internal situation may not be able to stabilize, maybe the ordinary war cannot be seen, but there should be exposure at the critical moment of love, I didn't expect ......"

Yuan Huaiqing's words were full of emotion.

"General, it's not just that. Yuan Wuwei said in a deep voice: "The strength of the Xuzhou army's equipment troops and magicians has far surpassed our Caizhou, which we have been reluctant to admit before, but this battle has taught us a profound lesson, their equipment troops, magician troops and infantry, cavalry have formed tactical cooperation, especially the tactical cooperation between the first two and the infantry has been very proficient, and we didn't know anything about it before, and we are still using the old ideas to benchmark, and the result is a big loss,......

"The integration and formation speed of the Xuzhou army is extraordinary, Jiang Feng's means are far beyond our guesses, and Xuzhou's strength is also stronger than our previous predictions. The advantages in armor and weapons are becoming more and more obvious, which is related to the large number of war horses sold to them by the Tuyuhun people in the north, and it is also related to the smelting center that Xuzhou is said to be building on a large scale, it is said that the amount of iron produced in Xuzhou greatly exceeds the previous heyday, and even several times the amount of iron produced in the heyday, I thought it was impossible before, but now it seems that Xuzhou has really done this. Although I still can't figure out how they did it, but look at their equipment and heavy cavalry equipment, this is not something that ordinary people can afford at all, Shatuo people can't do it, Nanyang can't do it, Daliang used to have it, but it's also pitiful, but now the Xuzhou army is equipping, which is quite dangerous!"

"Okay, now is not the time to discuss the reasons for the strength of the Xuzhou army, we did underestimate the opponent, but it will not be like this next time. Yuan Huaiqing shook his head, "We need to solve our evacuation problem now, Qilang, you go to Songcheng to negotiate with Liu Yansi and Wang Shouxin, we are willing to negotiate peace with them, but it will take time, whether they accept it or delay the army, we need a truce." ”

"Obey. Yuan Wuxing nodded and went out to receive the order.

"All departments must be prepared tonight, especially to strengthen the prevention of night attacks, although I judge that they will not attack at night, but it is not ruled out that the opponent will not follow the routine. Yuan Huaiqing now has no previous calm and confidence, this series of vicious battles and defeats has hit him hard, at this time he just wants to bring these 15,000 people back safely.

"General, then we ......"

"Let's wait until the decree of the Lord is coming. Yuan Huaiqing shook his head with a gloomy attitude, "Since we haven't been able to defeat Song Cheng, then I'm afraid the next negotiations won't go according to our wishes, but we've done our best,......"

The flames of war had been extinguished, and a group of Caizhou sergeants who had surrendered were escorted to the specially vacated battle ground in the city.

There are still sporadic battles going on in hundreds of houses and lanes in the city, and groups of Wuning Army or Ziqing Army are still cleaning up the battlefield, and there are small-scale fighting breaks out from time to time, showing that there are still quite a few remnants of the Caizhou Army resisting stubbornly, but this is meaningless.

The Xuzhou army also organized many people to carry out propaganda along the streets and alleys, demanding that the Caizhou soldiers hiding in the houses and alleys come out and surrender, and the Xuzhou army would guarantee their lives.

Of course, if there is a blood debt, that's another story.

The situation in the city has been basically controlled, and the gentry of the wang clan have begun to take the initiative to contact the Xuzhou army and obtain permission to start maintaining order in the city, after all, this kind of tragic street fighting can easily make the situation get out of control, whether it is the soldiers or the lumpenproletarians in the city.

For Liu Yansi and Wang Shouxin, the overall situation has been decided, but there are still many follow-up things.

It is obviously out of place for more than 50,000 soldiers to be stationed here, and they do not think that the Caizhou army still has the ability to fight back, and now the only way to solve the problem of Songzhou is obviously political negotiations.

The imperial court's envoy was still staying in Xuzhou, and it was obvious that he wanted to settle the matter completely, and Liu Yansi and Wang Shouxin both knew that the county king did not want this battle to continue endlessly, which was not in the interests of Xuzhou.

Whether Song Cheng will remain in the hands of Xuzhou, Liu Yansi and Wang Shouxin don't know, and they don't have the right to put their beaks, but they know very well that fighting down and occupying this city will be of great benefit to future negotiations, otherwise Jiang Feng would not be vague in his letter to them.

Xicheng was badly destroyed, but it didn't matter to Liu Yansi and Wang Shouxin, the war itself was a means of destruction, and when he was not sure whether Song Cheng would stay in his hands, he would naturally not keep his hands.

Of course, now that Song Cheng is in control, it is also necessary to maintain the necessary stable situation, which will help win the hearts of the people, and the next step will be the verbal competition and the exchange of interests, as for how to achieve it, it is not the responsibility of Liu Yansi and Wang Shouxin.

Regan said

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