"How could this be?" was obviously arranged quite hidden, and made all preparations for support, and even detected Ning Zejun's plan for a night attack in time, but he didn't expect that the granary still didn't hold on, and let the other party burn it clean. The most frustrating thing is that there are so many checkpoints along the way, and the other party doesn't know where to bypass and easily return to the city. Sima Fa had a headache, and he couldn't understand where Ning Ze got the information, and he actually found his own granary accurately. And how to avoid your own reinforcements and interceptors, is it another spell?

Wang Shuang was very embarrassed, and chased desperately all night, but was played around by the other party, and knelt down in front of Sima Fa at this moment and waited for surrender.

Sima Fa didn't blame, after all, everything went according to his own layout, and Wang Shuang did his best.

The most troublesome thing at the moment is that the granary has been burned, and hundreds of thousands of soldiers have eaten horses and chewed a lot of money, and only a small amount of military rations carried by the army are left, which cannot last for a few days at all.

The burning of the granary caused the morale of the whole army to plummet, and all the soldiers did not expect this situation.

The soldiers have no fighting spirit, there is not enough food and grass, and the situation is extremely poor.

If you ignore it, the morale of the army will continue to decline, and when the time comes, how can the soldiers fight hungry after eating the remaining food?

But he can't withdraw his troops in a panic, Ning Ze will definitely wait for this opportunity. Once his own troops and horses are in chaos and appear in a hurry, he will definitely lead his troops to pursue.

Sima Fa is not simple, in the face of this crisis situation, he can still stabilize, and issued a military order to let Lu Yuan, Zhou Hao, and Lei He maintain their formation, and slowly retreat with their main force.

Seeing Sima Fa's army evacuating, Ning Ze really led his troops to pursue, but the other party was on guard all the way, slowly withdrawing in a fighting posture, like a hedgehog.

After the battle, the two sides suffered mutual damage, but Ning Ze's side reduced the losses to the extreme through the magic doctor tactics.

At the minimum cost of 1,000 dead and wounded and 2,000 captured, Sima Fa's army successfully retreated to Yanzhou.

Sima Fa's army retreated, and the news reached Jiangzhou, causing great pressure on Ma Jian.

The Triple Alliance attacked Huaguo, and now it has retreated two ways, leaving only itself still struggling.

Feng Qiao was worried that Ning Ze's main force would go south, and Bashan County would be attacked by the Jiangzhou soldiers and horses led by Chen Tai, plus the Liangzhou troops who came to support, so he said to Ma Jian: "Bashan County is afraid that it will not be able to hold it, so it is better to take the initiative to abandon it and return to China temporarily." ”

Ma Jian was a little depressed: "Losing these soldiers and horses, it is not easy to take Bashan County, if you abandon it, why did you come to the previous hard battle?"

"The allies are all retreating, what is the use of receiving it? If you are greedy here, our army will be in danger!" Feng Qiao proposed, "When the troops are withdrawn, they can order the farmland to be burned." The destruction of the grain of a county can weaken Ning Ze's power a little!"

Although Ma Jian was reluctant to give up Bashan County, which was finally chopped down, he believed Feng Qiao, so he reluctantly ordered the whole army to retreat.

During the retreat, all the farmland was burned.

Chen Tai recaptured Bashan County, and when he saw that most of the farmland in the county had been destroyed, the people wailed and hurriedly reported to Ning Ze.

Ning Ze was quite angry at Feng Qiao's vicious strategy, so he could only order the distribution of food to appease the people of Bashan.

The battle lasted for several months, and Hua successfully held the offensive and even counterattacked to capture several cities.

Tang Niu, Lu Cong, and Ma Jian suffered a major defeat, and found that Huaguo had become a behemoth and was even more difficult to deal with. So it was decided to keep the covenant for the time being and continue to unite.

Hua must be defeated before the three forces can put down the pressure. Otherwise, if any country is destroyed, it may not be able to stop the offensive of China.

Tang Niu returned to Bian Zhou to recuperate from his injuries, and learned that Lu Cong and Ma Jian were also defeated and withdrew to China, so he was a little worried: "Unexpectedly, Ning Ze is powerful, if I take advantage of my injury to attack Puzhou, how can I be good?"

Mei Xu suggested: "The general has a very close personal relationship with Ning Ze, so it is better to ask him to send a letter to Huajun, saying that this battle was forced by Lu Cong and Ma Jian, and he had to go to the army." Lower your posture a little now, wait for Your Majesty to recover from his injuries, regroup his troops and horses, and then make plans!"

So Tang Niu ordered Zhou Yuan to write a letter to ease the atmosphere between the two countries.

Sima Fa returned to Miliang and told Lu Cong the reason for the defeat in this battle, and informed Ning Ze's "spell" in detail.

Lu Cong was shocked, how could he resist the method so powerful?

Sima Fa was not worried, and replied respectfully: "Although Ning Ze is strong, he is a mortal in the flesh after all. You can recruit assassins with a lot of money and assassinate them in turn. No matter how strong the tiger is, there will be times when it will take a nap, and once it succeeds, China has nothing to worry about! The soldiers and horses did not move the grain and grass first, and this battle started because of the hybrid crops, and in the final analysis, it was still a matter of military rations. In the short term, we should not fight again, and we should increase the number of people stationed in China for detailed work; one should try to steal the secrets of the hybrid crops, and the other should look for opportunities to sabotage the experiments on the hybrid crops, or secretly burn the farmland of the hybrid crops! In addition, the minister has a little grasp of the secret of Ning Zejun's 'explosion of thunder,' but he still does not understand the key points. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen capital investment and order to conduct in-depth investigations! If we can get the 'explosive thunder', we will definitely be able to deal with Ning Ze himself!"

Lu Cong nodded when he heard this, and accepted Sima Fa's suggestion in its entirety.

Sima Fa immediately began to prepare to deal with Ning Ze in a non-war situation.

Ning Zejun won a great victory, successfully repelled the soldiers and horses of the three parties, and solved the dilemma.

Although he felt that the possibility was not very great, in order to prevent the enemy from attacking again, Ouyang Chun was temporarily ordered to sit in Yuanzhou, and Dewey left to assist; Chu Wenxiu and Huang Shao to sit in Chizhou; Chen Tai and Zhong Jizhao to sit in Jiangzhou, and the troops continued to be deployed.

Arrange the defense forces in various places, and lead the army back to Jinzhou.

When they arrived in Huajun, the officials and people in the city were warmly welcomed and congratulated on the victory under the leadership of Liu Yuanxiang.

returned to the court to discuss meritorious deeds, and all the meritorious soldiers were promoted and rewarded.

Liao Jun Taishou Fukun was captured, and it was more troublesome for Hua Guo to lose a Taishou official. After all, unlike the other three forces, Liu Yuanxiang is the empress, although the situation has improved now, talent is still a big problem.

Huaguo has opened schools everywhere to cultivate talents by itself. The problem is that the cultivation of talents does not happen overnight, and it will take years or even longer.

Because of the inherent concept, most of the capable literati and military generals are unwilling to serve women, which is also the reason why most of the generals of Ning Ze's army have to surrender through captives.

The tripartite forces like Tang Niu, Lu Cong, and Ma Jian were relatively better, and when the Dacheng forces were completely destroyed, the situation of taking refuge in these three parties improved, as long as they were not captured by heavyweight officials, they paid less attention to it.

Tang Niu's army has been defeated repeatedly, and its morale is already very low, and the "emperor" who drove the expedition was injured, so he will definitely not fight again in a short time.

Lu Cong's army grain and grass were burned, and I am afraid that it will be difficult to support another big war this year, so it must be a temporary peace.

As for Ma Jian's side, it is impossible for a single force to confront Huaguo, and of course it will choose temporary peace.

Therefore, as a victorious country, he proposed to Lu Cong the conditions for exchanging hostages, and there was a good chance of success.

Anyway, in this battle, Lu Cong's army was captured by many generals, and many refused to surrender.

On Ning Zejun's side, in addition to Fu Kun, there were also some low-level generals who were captured.

Simply have a prisoner exchange and exchange some of the captured generals and soldiers on both sides.

Liu Yuanxiang accepted Ning Ze's suggestion and sent an envoy to Miliang to propose an exchange of prisoners in person.

Lu Cong is short of domestic grain and grass, of course, I hope that everyone will be honest this year, and if there are any grievances, we will talk about it next year.

Therefore, they agreed to Huaguo's proposal, and the two sides agreed to exchange in the middle of Longshou and Shishan counties.

Lu Cong did not take Fu Kun in his eyes, and sent him and some of the soldiers who did not surrender to Shishan.

The Huaguo side also sent some of the military generals who were unwilling to surrender and had poor attributes to Longshou County, and Ouyang Chun was the executive official to exchange with the other party.

Lu Cong's side sent Yan Ping, and the two sides exchanged peacefully at the border, each taking prisoners.

Fu Kun returned to Hwasan and was grateful.

Unexpectedly, for his own sake, Liu Yuanxiang actually listened to Ning Ze's suggestion to propose to Lu Cong to exchange prisoners, and his loyalty suddenly reached its peak and became a state of die-hard loyalty.

Liao County was occupied by the enemy, and Ning Ze suggested that Fu Kun be transferred to Duosi County as the Taishou.

Fu Kun, who was captured in this battle and finally came back, didn't think about it, thinking that he would definitely be demoted. Unexpectedly, he was transferred to the more important Duosi County, and he was suddenly so excited that he couldn't speak.

The other low-level generals who came back from the exchange were also grateful to Dade, and their loyalty increased greatly, and Ning Ze rearranged them to return to their posts quickly.

This is well arranged, and the letter from Zhou Yuan is delivered.

In the letter, as Mei Xu suggested, he played the emotional card, only saying that this war was due to the slope of Lu Cong and Ma Jian, and he had to participate in the war, hoping to ease the relationship.

Along with the letters, there were some treasures of gold and silver.

Of course, Ning Ze knew what the other party was thinking, but for Zhou Yuan's forces, he felt that there was a possibility of submission. When the time comes, he will be promoted to become a righteous brother and persuade the other party to join his own forces, and the opportunity is still quite big.

Therefore, he wrote a letter to Zhou Yuan, expressing his understanding of their "hardship", and also wanted Tang Niu to offer condolences and send good medicine for his injuries, hoping that he could recover as soon as possible.

Zhou Yuan received the letter, and his favorability towards Ning Ze increased a lot.

Tang Niu was also a little relieved and recuperated seriously.

The forces of the four countries all fell silent, maintaining a peaceful posture for the time being, as if this battle had never happened before.

Taking advantage of the fact that everyone did not want to fight, Ning Ze continued to promote internal affairs, especially in the aspect of hybrid crops, and devoted all his energy to achieving the goal of a bumper harvest in Huaguo as soon as possible.

In the 3rd year of Xihua, Liu Yuanxiang and Chu Meiren were pregnant with their second children one after another, although Mi Yan was envious, she got nothing.

Fortunately, she has already given birth to a son, and she is not so urgent about the second child.

Liu Yuanxiang has the first son surnamed Liu, who is the future successor of the royal family, this is an agreement. After that, the surname was Ning, although it didn't matter what the surname was to Ning Ze, the concept of the ancient people was different.

Chu Meiren's first child was a daughter, not only herself, including Chu Xun, who has always been looking forward to a boy. This is an inherent concept, even if Huaguo now advocates that men and women are the same, basically most people, including several wives of Ning Ze, still value men over girls.